Four days. 

That's how long the Princess and her Dhampir had been at the Academy before the usual happened, before Kate came to at Lissa's bedroom door, with her grey fluffy blanket and a warm thermo jar in hand, two knocked out Guardians on the ground and four other Guardians making a circle behind her along with a clearly annoyed Headmistress.

She blinked thrice before frowning and looking down at the guards, confusion clear on her face, making some of the Guardians look quite conflicted. No one could blame them for their confusion as it wasn't every day that they were summoned to the Moroi dorms because one of their Novices knocked out two of their Guardians, only to then display confusion.

"I ASKED YOU WHAT YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE DOING?!" Headmistress Kirova's shrill and loud voice inquired, scaring Kate into dropping the thermo and the blanket before whirling around looking like a deer caught in headlights.

A stuttered and confusion filled queery had Kirova exhale through her nose and narrow her eyes, clearly not amused with the situation. Although, one could argue that Kirova was acting on old habits and instincts, having been so used to Lissa's late Dhampir causing havoc in the Moroi dorms.

"Why did you knock out those Guardians?" Kirova pressed making Kate glance at the knocked out Guardians quickly before shrugging hesitantly, almost as if she was afraid of answer, which no one could fault her for given that Kirova held the power to seperate her from Lissa. "You can't just proclaim you don't know, you were the one who knocked them out." The headmistress spat as she saw Kate shrug.

"I swear on my mother's grave that I have no idea. One minute I'm in the lounge room of the Dhampir section, making some tea, and  the next I'm standing here." Kate replied, raising her arms in a surrender motion.

The mention of the tea brought everyone's eyes to the thermos on the ground. While it wasn't a common occurence, some Dhampirs did use the thermos available and make tea to help with the bodily aches from their brutal trainings, and given the fact that Kate seemed to be wearing an old and tattered Beatles shirt and a pair of worn out leggings, and that her feet were bare, it showed that Kate didn't seem to be trying to break Lissa out of the Academy.

"What did you remember before you woke up here?" a guardian, Dennis, one of Natalie Dashkov's Guardians, inquired, making it seem like he knows something that he shouldn't know.

"Fear, it poured into me like cold ice and that when everything went black." Kate confessed. Then as if by St. Vladimir's holy intervention, Kirova's features soften, not completely but enough to let Kate be able to understand that she now believed that she was telling the truth.

Kirova was the only one present who knew, even if vaguely, of Kate's bond with Lissa, which meant that whatever Kate was feeling, wasn't only feelings, but also from Lissa.

"Smoke...." Kate started again, her eyes slowly turning a shade of golden orange, as she once again pulled into Lissa's head. Her voice trailing off as she subconsciously kneeled down to grab the blanket and thermos before turning around and entering Lissa's bedroom, leaving the Guardians behind her along with Kirova outside.

Inside, Lissa's pained whimpers could be heard loudly and the dazed Kate could only walk to Lissa's bed and lay beside her, placing the fluffy blanket next to Lissa's face and the thermos on the bedside table as she fought against the invisible pull.

A fight that she was losing terribly. 

From a fixed spot, Kate could see into a crowded car, a couple in the front seats and three teens in the back, by the door, closest to her was a tall bored looking guy, who Kate knew to be Andre, Lissa's older and only brother.

Next to him was a dark brown haired girl, a rebellious aura around her as she nodded her head at the song inside the car, Rose, Lissa's oldest and bestest friend in the whole wide world until her demise.

And finally on the other side of the car, furthest away from where Kate was standing was Lissa, innocent and young, oblivious to the events that were about to happen, a happy and honest smile on her face. 

At least that's what it looked like.

Then headlights shun on the car that Lissa was in, a car drove towards Lissa's car, a car that would never reach or touch the blonde as it was swaying between the two lanes. Lissa's dad's right hand moved from the steering wheel to the volume wheel button on the stereo as the car swerved straight into them, making a white light blind everything.

The scenery quickly changed, before her now were two cars upside down, glass blood and gasoline on the ground everywhere along with the body of a blonde girl, Lissa.

Breathy gasps came from her as she tried to crawl forward, towards the car where Rose's limp arm was hanging out but Kate walked forward, stopping Lissa from grabbing Rose's arm and turning her around, one of her knees on the ground while the other used as support for Lissa's bruised body.

Lissa's face had small cuts in it, a bit of gravel in some cuts but nothing too much, her pale jade green eyes, however, struck Kate so deeply, the pain and horror in them piercing through her.

"I-I...I hav-I have to save Ro-Rose..." Lissa gasped, salty tears falling down her cheeks as she looked at Kate, desperation and need clear in each letter she spoke.

"You can't save her Liss." Kate whispered in reply, brushing Lissa's pale gold hair from the side of her face it was starting to dry on. Lissa's previously immaculate clothes were now torn and covered with patches of blood, blood so real it was staining Kate's baggy Beatles shirt.

"I have to...." Lissa sobbed, her wounded hand raising and reaching for Kate's hand that rested on her cheek, "Please..." Kate smiled softly and sadly at the girl as her pained plea filled her ears. There was nothing she or Lissa could do, Rose was gone as were the rest of her family, the only survivor being Lissa.

"You have to wake up." Kate countered, leaning down to press a lingering kiss on Lissa's head as the familiar glow began to bloom inside Lissa's jade eyes before they were gone and back in Lissa's bed.

The two were laying in Lissa's bed, Lissa curled into Kate's chest while the brunette young Dhampir held her in a cradle-like position, her hair was falling from the messy bun gently as Kate pulled back from Lissa's forehead, allowing the blonde girl to gasp into conscious.

The redness in her eyes giving away to the usual pale jade eyes, that belonged to the blonde Moroi, locking on Kate's forest green ones, unshed tears clouding them, her pale chin quivered as she was about to break down again.

Kate hated seeing her blonde best friend like this, she hated it more than anything in the world, she knew that she coming back to this school wouldn't do Lissa any good but she let the blonde's words and emotions elude her.

Space and time were essential for recovery, Kate knew that better than anyone, and this school gave Lissa neither of those things, between gossip in class, gossip during breaks, the glances, the whispers and a few pity looks, Kate knew that Lissa had no time to adapt, even if they had just been there one day, it was too overwhelming.

"Kate..." the blonde started shaky and breathlessly, allowing the hot salty tears to start dripping down her cheeks as her hands gripped the fluffy grey blanket, her voice held so much pain, pain that Kate couldn't take away, no matter how hard she tried.

"I know. I know Lissa." the brunette whispered in reply sympathetically. Silence surrounded the two comfortably as Kate rubbed soothing circles on Lissa's back as the blonde buried her face in the fluffy blanket, trying to push the nightmare out of her mind.

"Can we take a walk?" Lissa's muffled voice questioned after a few moments of silence.

"Of course we can." the brunette replied, giving a small smile to the blonde as she slowly uncovered her face.

"I mean a walk..." Lissa mumbled, tapping her temple with her slender pointer finger, allowing the brunette to nod. Few were the times in which Lissa asked for a mental walk, an alternate world of sorts, a mental virtual reality in which she could escape to, with or without Kate, mostly with.

It was another gift of Kate's, one that required touch, if it was for someone other than herself, a gift that she used to not lose her memories completely, a gift she used to relive her happy memories and run through every route of the bad ones until she was sure there was nothing she could've done. Lissa had theorized that Kate's gift could work with a reality she wished for, but Kate was always too scared to lose control and shut the idea down.

"Where do you want to go?" Kate questioned lowly, just enough for the blonde to hear, her slender finger reaching for the blonde's hair, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

"Home..." Home, a place that Kate had never seen but knew every inch to due to Lissa's memories, a place that Lissa dreamt about sometimes, a place in which she was surrounded by people that she had lost and loved, a place of happy times.

At Lissa's words, Kate's fingers began to brush against the blonde's temple, as a soft hum began to vibrate from Kate's throat, a hum to a tune that Lissa would find Kate singing when she was deep in thought or concentrated on something. A hum that Lissa had found helped her relax more than anything else in the world.

Soon enough, forest green eyes became vibrant and bright red as did jade green eyes, and before the Princess expected it, her eyelids grew too heavy for her to stop them from closing, leaving Kate to wait until she felt Lissa relax in her arms to reach over to the bedside table and pick up one of the cheesy romance novels that Lissa loves to read.

A plethora of sounds graced Lissa's ears, all to painfully familiar, sounds that made Lissa's heart clench with longing and anger, feelings that faded as soon as the blonde opened her eyes and looked around.

She stood in the foyer of her old home, her pj's long gone and instead a cute top, faded jeans and flats covered her body, her hair was tamed and in it's normal soft curls, her father and bother's voices originated from her right, through the open double doors that Lissa knew led to the living room, as did her mother's laughter.

But before she could join her family, the familiar slightly smaller but fuller figure of a bouncing Rose Hathaway descending down the staircase nearly sent Lissa into in tears. Rose descended in her entire glory, joggers and shirt, dark hair in a bun and a wide smile as she jumped off the third step.

"Rose..." Lissa whispered breathlessly, happiness and longing filling her, Rose walked to Lissa and threw her arms around the blonde, hugging her tightly, warmth radiating off her, almost as if she was alive. This was one of the last good memories that Lissa had with her family, it was a memory she often chose to relive.

"Hey." Rose whispered before pulling away, "I told you that that top showed off your cleavage wonderfully." 

In her memories, everyone looked the same, everyone sounded the same, except for Rose. She had this look in her eyes that was both dead and alive, both knowing and oblivious, but it was a look that the Rose that Lissa remembered didn't possess.

Lissa's cheeks warmed at her once friend's compliment, before she felt Rose push her hair out of her face, much in the same manner that Lissa caught Kate doing to her. "You look tired, haven't you been sleeping well?" Rose questioned, so unlike how Lissa remembered this memory to happen.

But it had happened so many times that Lissa had chalked it up to her memory being faulted and clouded by grief.

"I've been sleeping alright." Lissa replied, reaching up to Rose's hand on her cheek and holding it tightly.

A look that Lissa had never seen before on Rose's face flashed across her face, a mixture of grief and sorrow. A look that before her death Rose had never expressed on her features, a look that said so much but so little at the same time. A look that made her look all knowing of the reason behind why Lissa hadn't been sleeping well.

A look that didn't last long because, as soon as Lissa prepared herself to question the deaceased Dhampir, said brunette began to drag her in the direction of the living room claiming loudly to make their presence known "Look who I found sneaking in." 

Rhea Dragomir stood up in all her elegance and walked to her daughter, wrapping her arms around her, just like she usually did, showering her only biological daughter in affection.

"Did you sneak out to the church again?" Eric Dragomir inquired his daughter teasingly.

"What do you think father? Of course she did." Andre chuckled from his seat next to their father on the couch.

"Andre, be nice to your sister." Rhea chastised as she pulled away from the Princess.

"It's alright mother, Andre doesn't get to me." Lissa replied, sticking her tongue out at her older brother while Rose shook her head at him, muttering something under her breath, the expression on her face that of sorrow and longing.