AN: Hello, friends!

I hope you all have been well! What has it been? Two years now? Goodness. Where does the time even go?

Okay, let's just get into it. This Deleted Scene is another AU story that starts right around the beginning of chapter two of Vampire Academy. Rose and Lissa have been apprehended by the guardians and are on a plane taking them back to the academy, but in this AU, the two are a little bit more prepared than they were in the books for this eventuality. Aaaaand I'll just leave it at that:)

Disclaimer: Richelle Mead owns the world and the characters and whatnot.

Into the Woods, Part 1: Rose POV

I opened my eyes slowly only to screw them shut against the bright lights of our room. I groaned. My head was pounding like I had the worst hangover in the history of ever, which was odd. I hadn't touched a drop of alcohol for the past two years.

What did Lissa and I do last night?

Last night. Lissa. Nightmare. Guardians. Deep brown eyes. Nothing.

"Get your hands off me!"

A pinching sensation in my upper arm.

"Calm down," a voice with a Russian accent tried to soothe. "It's just a mild sedative."

"No…I need…protect Lissa…please."

Lights out.

I growled out a curse as I remembered my last few moments of consciousness. They'd drugged me!

Someone chuckled beside me. A deep, male laugh. Not Lissa.

I braved the bright lights and squinted up at the guardian next to me. Dirty blonde hair, square jaw, and an outrageous nose. I vaguely recognized him. I think he'd been a senior when I was in 8th grade. Pretty sure his name was Marcus…maybe. I'd never liked him.

He looked down at me, amused and at ease. Not threatened or concerned about my consciousness at all. "Do you always wake up swearing?"

I glared at him. "How should I wake up after being drugged by a bunch of kidnapping cheaters?"

He snorted and probably said something in defense of the drugging or the kidnapping or both, but I tuned him out. I needed to find Lissa. I closed my eyes and reached out through the bond for her, but my connection was muted thanks to the lingering effects of the drugs. I could only feel that she was close. Somewhere ahead of me.

I opened my eyes and finally managed to look at my surroundings.

Close quarters. Rows of seats. A long, skinny aisle. Small, rounded windows. A droning hum in the air.

We were on a plane. I cursed. And it was already in the air. I cursed again.

Marcus tsked in mock-disapproval. "You get that mouth from those human–"

"Where's Lissa?" I interrupted as I tried to peer over the tall seats. I only saw more guardians, no sign of Lissa's angelic blonde hair. "Did you guys drug her too?"

The amusement left Marcus' face, and a no-nonsense guardian mask slammed into place. "The princess is safe." He faced forward and didn't say more.

"You didn't answer my questions."

No response.

"Can you at least tell me if she's been drugged? She doesn't react well to some narcotics."

His mouth tightened briefly. "We didn't sedate the princess," he finally said.

Relieved, I slumped back in my seat, only to tense up again as we hit a rough patch of turbulence. Normally, turbulence didn't bother me, but this time the shaking didn't seem to stop even after the plane started to fly smoothly again.

When the dizziness continued, I was reminded that I'd been knocked out on an empty stomach. Jerks. I was pretty sure it was common drugging etiquette to make sure your drugee was properly hydrated and fed beforehand.

I leaned forward, elbows to my knees, and squeezed my eyes shut, breathing deeply, really playing up the whole I-might-keel-over-any-second thing.

"Any chance they're serving food on this flight? And maybe some water?"

I felt Marcus move beside me, heard crinkling, then felt the press of something cold against my forearm. I opened my eyes to find him holding out a bottle of water and two protein bars.

"Thanks," I mumbled, loathe to show any gratitude toward the people dragging Lissa and I back to the academy. Though, I supposed he could've ignored me and let me suffer for the remainder of the flight.

Not that I was staying for much longer.

I chugged the water and practically inhaled the protein bars. Only a few minutes after finishing them off, I had a clearer head and was feeling leagues better. I reached out for Lissa again, and this time I was actually able to feel her and pinpoint her location.

She was being kept on the opposite side of the aisle, ten rows ahead. I could tell that she was unharmed and that she'd eaten a bit, too, but anxiety—for me, for herself, for our impending return to a place she hated and feared—was rolling off of her in waves.

Anger boiled in my stomach and burned red-hot in my chest. How could they do this? How could they force her to go back there?

I took a slow and controlled deep breath. They could try to take her back, but I wasn't about to let it happen.

I squeezed my legs together and squirmed in my seat, then I turned to Marcus with a regretful look. "Um, I really need to–"

"Hold it."

"Marcus–"

"Guardian Rushe."

I gritted my teeth. "Guardian Rushe, I'm not sure when you last had the opportunity to…relieve yourself, but for me, personally, it's been a while, what with my being drugged and kidnapped and all."

He continued to stare straight ahead.

"Not to mention the whole UTI thing."

I watched him close his eyes in a pained blink, and the corner of my mouth tipped up in victory.

He stood and gestured for me to do the same. "Make it quick. But if you make one wrong move, it's back to the seat, and you can use your pants for all I care."

I nodded meekly and walked toward the bathroom, which was conveniently located near Lissa. Marcus followed closely behind me, and the guardians sitting in strategic intervals down the aisle watched me carefully. I counted six. Which made eight with Marcus and the guardian sitting next to Lissa. Nine if you included the pilot.

The odds weren't great, but Lissa and I could still pull this off. We didn't have a choice.

When I finally passed her, I stopped and turned, examining her from head to toe. She looked fine—I knew she would thanks to my assessment through the bond, but I still needed to see her, to verify with my own eyes.

When she saw me, she sat up straight. "Rose," she whispered, wide eyed, questioning.

"I'm fine, Liss," I reassured her. "Are you–"

"Hathaway," Marcus warned.

I scowled back at him. "I'm just making sure she's okay."

"Princess Vasilisa is unharmed and safe now," said the guardian sitting next to Lissa. His voice was deep, and he spoke with the recognizable starts and stops of a Russian accent.

The implication that she wasn't safe before had my hackles rising, and I was about to tell him where he could shove his not-remotely-subtle jabs when he finally looked up. Oh, dang. The anger in me died for a moment as I looked at possibly one of the hottest men I'd ever seen. My pulse, while it didn't skip or speed, pounded harder in my chest and wrists, and a slight flush rose on my neck and cheeks.

The moment passed, however, and my anger returned, this time with the added irritation at my body's completely uncontrollable, biological reactions to the guardian's attractiveness. Well, I wasn't going to let a chiseled jaw and deep brown eyes distract me.

Deep brown eyes.

A pinching sensation. "It's just a mild sedative." Lights out.

"You," I spat.

The guardian just raised an eyebrow at the hatred in my glare, which, of course, just made me hate him more.

"You're the one who stuck me." I gestured sharply to my recently punctured upper arm.

"Needed to be done," he said calmly, then returned his attention to the book in his lap. A book. Like this was all some vacation for him, and he hadn't just ruined mine and Lissa's lives.

I was going to enjoy phase two of my plan.

"You've got thirty seconds, Hathaway," Marcus said with a hard edge in his voice.

"I'm not–"

"Twenty-eight seconds."

I held up my hands. "I'm going! No need to turn into Oscar the Grouch."

To Lissa's credit, she didn't outwardly react to our code word, but I felt her jolt of recognition through the bond. Oscar was the name of our housemate's cat (ex-housemate now, I supposed), and I'd drilled it into Lissa that anytime I used that mangy feline's name when he wasn't present, it meant something was up. It meant she needed to be ready to follow my lead.

I stepped into the tiny bathroom and used my twenty-eight seconds to breathe deeply and mentally prepare for what was going to come next. Once my time was up, I went through the motions of flushing and letting the water run from the faucet before I opened the door to Marcus' blank face.

"Let's go, Hathaway."

He turned to head back to our seats, and in that one sloppy moment I met Lissa's gaze.

"Seven," I said.

"What?" Marcus demanded, spinning back to me.

But it was already too late.

Because here's the thing: two years is a long time to be on the run. And everyone—Marcus, all of these guardians, and the academy as a whole—was foolish to assume that we hadn't created back-up plans and back-up back-up plans and back-up back-up back-up plans (and so on and so forth) during our time away. Escape Plan number seven happened to be Lissa compelling the closest person into defending us while we made a getaway. Fortunately, the closest person at that moment was a ridiculously tall and strong Russian dude.

Lissa turned to him, looked into his eyes deeply, and said, "You will fight the other guardians and protect Rose while we're on this plane."

And with those words, all hell broke loose.

Punches were thrown. Exclamations were thrown. Marcus was thrown. It was all very exciting.

If I didn't need to, you know, continue orchestrating our escape right then, I would've stopped to watch as that Russian guardian fell opponent after opponent. He was so graceful and fluid as he fought, it was practically a dance. A very lethal and painful dance you most definitely wouldn't want to be partner to, but a dance none-the-less.

I turned from the chaotic scene and made my way to Lissa, grabbing her arm and doing my best to center and reassure her.

"You okay?" I asked even though I could feel how afraid she was. I wished I could comfort the fear away, but my plan of escape was only going to get crazier from here. And I still had a job for her.

"I'm fine," she said, doing her best to mask a slight shake in her voice.

I gave her arm a squeeze then started pulling her to the front of the plane.

"Alright, Liss, I need you to–"

I was cut off by a strong, meaty hand on my shoulder yanking me backward. Without missing a beat, I grabbed the offending hand and spun, twisting the guardian's arm and pinning it behind his back.

The Russian guardian was beyond impressive, but he couldn't hold off the entire detail sent to capture the Dragomir Princess and me. I was honestly surprised it took this long for one of them to slip past him.

In some crazy twisting maneuver that looked painful, yet was ultimately effective, the guardian broke from my hold. Dang. I probably would've learned a move like that at the academy had I been there the past two years. And double dang. I probably also would've learned a counter move for it.

Meat Hands didn't waste time squaring off against me. Rather, he transitioned seamlessly from his escape move into a relentless attack of fists and kicks.

I shouted to Lissa as I struggled to defend myself. "Go"—block a punch here—"go compel the pilot"—absorb and move on from a painful kick there—"compel him to drop us below 10,000 feet. Go. Now!"

I couldn't watch to see if she listened to me or not. I had to dedicate all of my attention to Meat Hands; though, I would probably have to amend the impulsive nickname with something more accurate, like Holy-Cow-These-Hands-Are-Fast Hands.

Case in point, one of those hands snaked past my defenses and landed a disorienting blow to my temple. The two seconds it took for me to recover was ample time for him to grab me and put me in a hold that I had no fancy move for.

One of my arms was twisted behind my back, and the other was crushed between myself and the door to the bathroom. Fast Meaty Hands' other arm was around my neck, not completely cutting off my air, but holding me securely enough to make me crave an impossible deep breath.

"Come on, Rose," he said in my ear, taking infuriatingly full and not-even-out-of-breath breaths while I took quick, shallow sips of air to feed my pounding heart. "Enough of this. It's time for you and the princess to stop running around like children and come home."

I wanted to laugh at the "home" comment. I hardly considered the academy my home. But the sad thing was, it was probably the closest thing I had to one…at least it used to be.

"You know, we really would," I gasped out, "but this homecoming party doesn't have any cake or balloons, and that's just tacky and cheap. So, I think we're gonna head out."

It was at that moment that the plane started descending somewhat dramatically, and my captor was forced to adjust his stance a bit. I made a jerking move that I hoped would give me enough room to make use of my trapped arm, but he was ready for me, so the jerking motion just helped him tighten his hold.

I couldn't stop the pained yelp that escaped. Embarrassed, I opened my mouth to make a snarky comment about abuse to minors, but before I could utter a word, I was yanked backward, again. But this time it wasn't by Fast Meaty Hands. Well, it was technically by Fast Meaty Hands, but really it was by the Russian guardian. He'd pulled the guardian holding me, and I was apparently just along for the ride.

Not for long, though. With a few lightning-fast jabs to some pressure points, Russian guardian had Fast Meat releasing me. Once free, I wasted no time rushing to the cockpit.

Or I would've if the Russian guardian hadn't caught my wrist and deposited me behind him, putting himself between me and an angry looking Fast Meat.

"I will protect you," he said.

"Snap out of it, Belikov," Fast Meat growled, clearly hesitant to hit a colleague.

Belikov ignored him. "I will protect you," he informed me again over his shoulder as he took the initiative and punched Fast Meat. Hard.

I prickled a little bit at the words, irritated by the thought of someone protecting me, and then doubly irritated that I really did need his protection at that moment.

"Mmmkay, buddy. Keep it up. Go, fight, win."

While the two of them duked it out in the aisle, I climbed over the plane's seats to make it to Lissa. I could feel the cabin's pressure changing as we lost altitude, and my ears popped a few times as I raced to reach her.

The door to the cockpit opened as soon as I grasped the handle, and Lissa let out a squeak that morphed into an exhale when she recognized it was me.

She pressed a trembling hand to her chest. "The pilot said we'll be below 10,000 feet in three minutes."

I nodded. "Good. Is he stable? Will he be able to land this plane?"

Lissa looked offended. "Of course. I told him to drop us to 10,000 feet and ignore everything going on outside of the cockpit. He'll still land in Montana safely. The people I compel don't become zombies."

"Right. Tell that to our Russian savior out here."

"What?"

"Nevermind. We've gotta go."

I started to turn but she stopped me. "Go? Go where? What's the next move?"

I could feel her alarm but also her complete trust in me and whatever I had planned. It made me feel a little guilty, so I grimaced and said, "You aren't going to like it."

Exactly two minutes later, I was finishing up the buckles on Lissa's parachute.

"I think I'm going to be sick," she told me.

I tightened the final strap and held her face between my hands. "We're going to be fine, Lissa. I would never let anything bad happen to you. Deep breaths. Sit down and put your head between your knees while I get my chute on, okay?"

She nodded and did as I said. I could feel that my words had helped a little, but her stomach was still a tangle of anxiety, which, in turn, was making my own stomach a little sour.

Suck it up, Hathaway.

While Lissa tried to calm down, I slung my own parachute on and repeated the whole strapping-in process. I had just secured the last of the buckles when I was spun around by a massive pair of hands on my shoulders. I shoved the hands away and got ready to take a swing at my attacker, but stopped when I saw it was our Russian protector. For a moment, I panicked, thinking the compulsion had somehow worn off, but I could still see the almost glazed look of happy obedience on his face. So, if he wasn't here to hurt me or stop me, what was he doing?

That was when I noticed the chuteless harness he was wearing.

"Oh, no. Not happening, buddy."

But he was already connecting his harness to mine with some heavy-duty carabiners, the kind that screwed shut and everything. We really, really didn't have time for this.

"What are you doing?" I yelled as I tried to unscrew and unclick the carabiners as fast as possible. "You're staying here."

"I will protect you," he answered. His deft hands followed after mine, redoing all of the clasps.

"Oh, for the love–stop! Um, mission complete! You can stop protecting me."

"I will protect you."

My powers of persuasion were obviously less effective than Lissa's.

"Lissa, I need your help compelling him aga–"

"Rose!" she yelled, pointing over my shoulder, her eyes wide and terrified.

I turned and saw the guardians that our personal, foreign mini hulk had incapacitated were slowly becoming capacitated again.

Shoot. Time to go.

"Hold on to something!" I directed and then groaned as I pulled bodily on the lever to release the door's intimidating latch.

"Are we at 10,000 feet yet?" Lissa asked.

"Probably."

"Probably?!"

Any protests she may or may not have given were drowned out by the deafening rushing sound that followed the release of the latch. Guardian Beli-whatever had finally helped a girl out by adding his weight and strength to my fight against the pressure holding the door in place.

The smallest crack was enough to even out the pressure within and without the cabin, and the door flew wide open with a metallic snap. I gasped as cold air tried to suck me out into the night. But I was attached to a giant Russian man, so I managed to stay upright inside the plane.

"Come on, Liss," I yelled, holding out my hand to her in case she couldn't hear me.

She got up and came to me as quickly as she dared, her heart pounding erratically and creating a distracting off beat with my own wild pulse. I took a moment to try to shut her out of my mind and body. I needed to focus.

I pulled Lissa close till I was shouting directly into her ear. "Compel him to unhook himself and get buckled into a seat until this thing lands."

Lissa nodded and tried to meet the guardian's gaze, but he had eyes only for me thanks to Lissa's earlier command.

I scowled back at him and said to her, "You shouldn't need eye contact. Just get close enough to his ear to–"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement and quickly pulled Lissa out of the way just as one of the guardians reached for her. I was an idiot! I hadn't been paying attention to them, and now a few of the sturdier-looking ones, though a bit battered and bruised, were on their feet and creating a cautious semicircle around us.

Holding Lissa's wrist tightly, I slowly (and awkwardly, no thanks to Mr. Overprotective) shuffled us toward the open door.

"Stay back!" I shouted. "Or we're jumping, and you'll never see the princess again!"

They either didn't hear my threat, or it didn't land as it should have, because one of the guardians lunged for Lissa, and that movement set off a chain reaction that I was helpless to stop.

The guardian latched onto Lissa's arm, and she screamed. Which made me, of course, attempt to fight him off. Another guardian took advantage of my distraction and moved to grab ahold of me. My protector didn't like that. But instead of using his fists or a well-placed kick to the solar plexus, he must've decided that the best way to protect me in that situation was to remove me from it entirely.

Strong arms wrapped around me and started to pull me to the roaring opening.

"No, no no no!" I pounded on his chest, but he didn't even flinch. I frantically twisted my head to my best friend. "Lissa!"

"Rose!" she yelled back.

We desperately clung to each others' hands, determined to remain together for better or worse. Inside the plane and captured. Or outside the plane and free. But in the end, she was no match for her guardian, and I was no match for mine. The Russian guardian jumped, Lissa's hand was ripped from mine, and then I was falling.

AN: Thank you much for reading this new chapter of Deleted Scenes! You all fill me with all the good feelings:) If you feel so compelled, let me know what you thought in a helpful critique or an encouraging comment. Don't be shy. I like to know all the things!

Alright, so if you didn't catch the whole "Part 1" thing at the beginning, then I hope the ending of the chapter clued you in that this AU Deleted Scene is going to be a multi-parter. *Cheers. Screams. Confetti. Armageddon.* Though, if I'm being real with y'all, I probably could've made this it's own story. However, there is a really big reason for why I'm not doing that and it's because I don't want to. This story originally came to my brain as a Deleted Scene, and it's certainly not my fault that it decided to go and grow into a 20,000 word document, now is it? Besides, we've already established via previous chapters that I have no qualms breaking my own rules and parameters. *strikes a pose in Rebel*

Ocean-sized shout out to my wonderful, encouraging, probably-better-than-yours-if-you-have-one beta: gymnast1150. She rocks, and she is my rock. You guys should totally read the Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter and then go check out her fics. You're welcome.

Can't wait to see you all next week for part 2! Much love, Rachel