Prologue

Russia, 1916

Our story begins as we fade to a small, but beautiful music box, playing a tune, and set on a brocaded pillow. There were two figures dancing together while a little melody played and then, the music box's lid closed as the figurines disappeared.

A hand then picked up the music box and placed it in a purse. The hand belonged to an elderly woman who was dressed in an elegant red court gown with black trimming. The old woman, who was the Dowager Empress Marie Fordorovna Romanov of Russia, walked down a staircase to meet a carriage. Two footmen then helped the old woman into her carriage, and closed the door as the carriage began to ride off in the night.

Some time later, the carriage traveled through the streets upon arriving in St. Petersburg, Russia.

"There was a time, not very long ago, when we lived in an enchanted world of elegant palaces and grand parties. The year was nineteen hundred and sixteen and my son, Nicholas, was the Tsar of Imperial Russia."

The Dowager Empress's carriage had just arrived at the royal palace of the Russian royal family, the Romanovs, to attend her son's celebration with the family.

The palace was lit up, with opulently dressed partygoers streaming inside. Gards all bowed before the Dowager Empress, as her carriage pulled to the front door.

As Marie stepped out with the help of her footmen, two of the guards opened the doors for her, and she thanked them before entering the palace.

The vast intro of the palace was filled by the highest of the highest of Russian aristocracy. Elegant royalists, dressed in 17th century costumes, waltzing the main hall as the orchestra played. As was the imperial family, consisting of Czar Nicholas II Romanov, his beautiful wife Czarina Alexandra Feodorovna and their five children Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei, joyfully mingling on the dance floor.

As Marie sat on one of the thrones, she waved over to one of her granddaughters. "Hello, darling!"

"We were celebrating the three-hundredth anniversary of our family's rule. And that night, no star burned brighter than that of our Anastasia, my closet granddaughter."

The Czar was dancing with one of his younger daughters, eight year old Anastasia. The youngest princess had red hair, blue eyes, and wore a turquoise blue ball gown with golden trimming and a matching kokoshnik. She was a graceful and spirited young girl.

"Oh, Papa!" Anastasia said with a beam, as her father lifted her up and spun her around.

Marie smiled as she watched her granddaughter dancing with her father. Anastasia was very special to her. Her favorite grandchild out of them all.

When they finished dancing, the royal family took their seats in their thrones. Anastasia sat in the front of her parents, along with her four siblings.

Anastasia lit up upon the sight of her grandmother, and ran over to her. While running over to her, she carried a drawing she did of the royal chef and a tutor she didn't care for. When she got to her grandmother, Anastasia showed her the picture and Marie laughed.

Meanwhile, a young boy around nine years old came out from another room. He took a bite out of an apple and looked around to see some of the fun at the palace.

"She begged me not to return to Paris. So, I had a very special gift for her to make the separation easier for both of us."

Marie took the music box out from her purse and showed it to her granddaughter.

Anastasia gasped. "For me? Is it a jewelry box?"

Just then, a kitchen servant came out from the kitchen and caught the young boy spying on the two. "Dimitri! You belong in the kitchen," He berated the young boy, and grabbed him to drag him back in the kitchen.

The boy, Dimitri, dropped his apple, and struggled to get out of the servant's grip on him.

Meanwhile, Marie demonstrated how the music box worked.

"Look," Marie took out a key, which was a small silver flower on a neck chain. She put it in the back of the music box, and winded it.

Anastasia watched as the music box opened up as the figures, who resembled Nicholas and Alexandra, danced with each other as the music played.

Anastasia's blue eyes widened as the song played. "It plays our lullaby!" She happily whispered.

"You can play it at night before you go to sleep, and pretend that it's me singing," Marie smiled before beginning to sing:

On the wind,

Cross the sea,

Hear this song and remember,

Anastasia then began to sing as well as they both danced around a bit.

Soon you'll be,

Home with me,

Once upon a December,

As the music box closed, the empress and granddaughter both giggled, and Marie then gave Anastasia a key. "Read what it says."

Anastasia looked at the necklace as she read the small words written on the music box key. "'Together in Paris'. Really?!" She cried.

Marie smiled and nodded.

"Oh, Grandmamma!" Anastasia then threw her arms around her grandmother, and the two lovingly embraced each other.

"But, we would never be together in Paris, for a dark shadow had descended upon the house of the Romanovs."

Suddenly, the ballroom went dark, and the room went silent. Gasps came from the crowd, as they parted before a dark figure. One guest even dropped their glass of champagne. The dark figure revealed to be a man with an evil grin on his face. He stalked through the crowd, stepping on the broken glass and crushing it underfoot as if nothing happened.

He was accompanied by his bat sidekick, Bartok, and some ghostly demons that glowed green trailing behind as well.

"His name was Grigori Rasputin. We thought he was a holy man, but he was a fraud, power-mad, and dangerous."

Rasputin reached the Czar, who stood alone firmly.

"How dare you return to the place!" Nicholas confronted him.

The holy man removed his hood off his head. "But I am your confidante," He bitterly said.

"Confidante?" Nicholas scoffed. "HA! You are a traitor! GET OUT!"

But Rasputin refused. "You think you can banish the great Rasputin?" He then held up his prized possession, which was a demonic green and black reliquary. "By the unholy powers vested in me, I banish you with a curse!"

Anastasia stood beside Empress Marie and gasped in horror along with the rest of the royal family.

Even Dimitri gasped, who stood aside the two.

"Mark my words…" Rasputin warned the Czar. "Youand your family will die within the fortnight! I WILL NOT REST UNTIL I SEE THE END OF THE ROMANOV'S LINE FOREVER!"

With the power of the reliquary, it sent out a bolt of lightning to the chandelier, shooting it down to fall to the ground, and making it explode!

The guests all screamed and panicked and then, Rasputin was gone.

"Consumed by his hatred for Nicholas and his family, Rasputin sold his soul for the power to destroy them."

Flashback:

In a flashback, Rasputin was in another part of Russia in his lair, where he knelt down before an oracle to sell his soul for dark magic. He cowered down as a huge, shadowy figure appeared above him, and raised his arms in supplication.

A shadow like smoke in a windstorm left Rasputin sucking towards the terrible figure. He morphed into a skeleton as his soul left him. The magic device restored Rasputin, giving him full control of dark magic.

Back in the present:

Rasputin was hiding inside the palace as he summoned some green demons from the reliquary. "Go," he evilly whispered to the demons. "Fulfill your dark purpose, steal the fate of Czar and his family once and for all!"

The demons growled as they left the reliquary, making their way to the palace gates.

"From the moment on, the spark of unhappiness in our country was fanned into a flame that would soon destroy our lives forever."

Outside the palace, a crowd of revolutionists guards were being held back by the locked gates, shouting and demanding to get in. The demons attacked the chain holding the gates shut, until it broke, allowing the guards to pour into the palace grounds with rifles, and execute the royal family.

They tied some rope around a statue of Nicholas, and then pulled it down to the ground, breaking it into several pieces.

Inside the palace, the Romanov family ran down a hallway, wearing coats over their nightclothes, and running as fast as they could to escape the palace!

"Papa!" Alexi cried after someone from outside threw a rock at the window, breaking it in the process.

"Hurry, children!" Nicholas warned his children with urgency and fright.

It was at that moment when Anastasia noticed she didn't have her special gift from her grandmother, and stopped in her tracks. "My music box!"

She then ran back down the hallway to retrieve her grandmother's gift.

"Anastasia!" Empress Marie cried, trying to stop her, but she was too late. "Come back! Come back!"

Anastasia then ran back to her bedroom to get her music box. But Marie then rushed into the room, shutting the door behind her. "Anastasia!"

But suddenly, the sound of rifle shots came out of nowhere, and it frightened Marie and Anastasia.

"Please, hurry!" Marie tried to lead her granddaughter to safety.

But from the wall panel, a secret door opened up, revealing Dimitri. He bursted out towards Anastasia and her grandmother. "Come this way! Out the servants quarters!" He gestured them towards the secret doorway, and unintentionally caused Anastasia to drop her music box.

"Hurry, Anastasia!" Marie pleaded to her granddaughter.

Unbeknownst to them, Bartok was outside the bedroom window, alarmed that Anastasia was escaping. "Master! She's getting away!"

"My music box!" Anastasia cried. She tried to run back to fetch her music box, but Dimitri stopped her, and forced her through the doorway.

"Go! Go!" He demanded, before slamming the panel shut.

At the same moment, voices came from outside the door. "Comrades in here!"

Dimitri put his body in front of the panel to give Anastasia and Marie time to get away.

The doors then bursted open, revealing the angry revolutionaries. "Where are they, boy?" One of them demanded to know.

But in response, Dimitri tried to fight back.

In return, the guard smacked the young boy with the end of his rifle, and knocked him out completely! His left hand now reaches unnoticed for Anastasia's music box.

Once they escaped the palace, Marie ran with Anastasia across the ice. It was freezing cold outside. The two shivered, not being dressed appropriately for the temperature outside.

"Grandmamma!" Anastasia cried.

"Keep up with me, darling!" Marie assured her.

The two passed under a bridge, unaware that Rasputin was standing atop. The unholy man lept down upon them, landing hard on the ice, and grabbed a tight hold of Anastasia's ankle.

Anastasia screamed as she tripped forward.

Marie turned around in horror upon seeing the evil holy man. "Rasputin!" She struggled with him, trying to free her granddaughter.

"Let me go, please!" Anastasia begged, but Rasputin wouldn't let go of her.

"You'll never escape me, child! Never!" He grinned maniacally, and snicked evilly.

But suddenly, the ice beneath the man began to break apart. Rasputin noticed as he began to fall through the cold river.

This gave Anastasia time to wench herself free. "Let me go!" She watched as Rasputin thrashed about in the water. As he was going down, the man and young girl locked eyes for a moment. Rasputin's eyes were glowing full of rage and fury.

"Bartok!" The man cried out to his sidekick, who had just arrived at the scene.

"Master!" He responded.

Rasputin's fingers dug into the ice, unknowingly releasing the reliquary he had with him. But he couldn't stop himself, as he kept getting slowly dragged under. He took one last desperate reach out of the water and then, Rasputin was sucked under by the current, drowning and freezing to death.

This broke Anastasia's gaze with the evil man, and she continued to run with her grandmother into the cold night.

Bartok stared in shock at what just happened. With his master gone, all that was left of him was the reliquary.

After a while of running, Marie and Anastasia made it to a crowded train station. They fought their way past the other people, trying to catch up to the train that was leaving.

"Anastasia, hurry! Hurry!" Marie informed her.

When they caught up to the train, some passengers managed to pull Marie aboard. But the empress looked in horror to see Anastasia still running in order to catch up.

"Grandmamma!" She cried.

"Here! Take my hand!" Marie then reached her hand out to her granddaughter. Anastasia reached out, and grabbed her grandmother's hand, desperate and frightened.

"Hold on to my hand!"

"Don't let go!" Anastasia begged.

The two tried to keep a hold of each other's hands, but then, Anastasia's hand suddenly slipped away from Marie's grasp, and she screamed as she fell!

"Anastasia!" Marie watched as the young girl stumbled down.

Anastasia then hit the ground, and was left unconscious.

"ANASTASIA!" Marie cried.

She tried to jump off the train, but the other passengers held her back to protect her. Marie could do nothing but watch as the view of her granddaughter was obscured by a sea of other people, and disappeared in the distance.

"So many lives were destroyed that night. What had always been was now gone forever. And my Anastasia, my beloved grandchild…I never saw her again."

Hey guys! For those reading this, this is my first Anastasia fanfic and I'd like to note that my OC Katya will be introduced in the next chapter since this was only the prologue. I wanted to start with Anastasia's story first because that's how the movie started and I wanted the first chapter to be focused on Katya's story. So stay tuned, please review, or give me feedback!