Author's Notes:

Be gentle with me; this is my first time. (Please forgive the double entendre there.) I'm starting this off from the section at the end of chapter 21 of Shadow Kiss where Jesse and Ralf are asking Lissa about joining Mână. I've added a small bit from Mead's original text so you can (hopefully) tell where she leaves off and this starts, and also where the story just wouldn't entirely diverge that much from the original (mostly, this will only happen in the first few chapters), but I've tried to vary anything that isn't actual words out of a character's mouth.
It's possibly worth mentioning that I don't own the characters, relationships, traits, or settings in the Vampire Academy world, but hopefully you all know that. After all, it's called 'fan fiction' for a reason. Those are all the goddess/genius that is Richelle Mead. The plot and words of this storyline (most of it) is the only thing that is my own.

For the first few chapters, I originally had a couple of author notes in the middle where I just couldn't find a good way to articulate a similar enough situation to Mead's original storyline that would still transpire in this AU - because they're still the same characters who act and think the same ways and things haven't (yet) changed enough about the circumstances to have them behave any differently. I loathe entirely when people take the people's behaviors grossly out of context because of one little event, as long as the original author's scenarios weren't too 'off'. I've tried to remove the mid-chapter author notes, replacing them with ellipses (...), so hopefully it still makes sense without them. For now, the content rating as stated may be closer to MA than M, but there are warnings on the chapters with more graphic content (starting at my chapter 3).

THIS CHAPTER WAS UPDATED TO REMOVE THE MID-CHAPTER AUTHOR NOTE ON NOVEMBER 18, 2019.

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"Fine? With your Strigoi boyfriend and slutty wannabe guardian?" Ralf said, loud enough for Eddie to hear. Eddie looked pissed.

"Be quiet," said Jesse, anger coloring his voice. Then, to Lissa, he said, "He shouldn't have said that…but he's kind of right. Your family's reputation is all on you, and the way you're going, no one's taking you seriously. The queen's already trying to keep you in line and get you away from Ozera. You're going to crash and burn."

At that, Lissa had had enough. I could feel the spirit-driven anger bubbling up inside her. She looked into Jesse's eyes and I could feel her working her compulsion on him, "I've never used compulsion," she said, "I'm completely clueless about it. Now, tell me what this Mână thing is and why you think I'd want to be in it." I could see the glazed-over look on Jesse's face and I knew that this battle was over better than if a guardian had defended her against a physical attack.

"We're using magic on people ... over by that jenky pond on the northwest edge of campus ... if they can compel us to stop, they're in ... We got the impression you were excellent at compulsion ... we thought you'd want to make a difference in the way the legal system works ... get us royals more protection ..." His words were almost like they were being dragged out of him and his responses were jerky and stilted, but he couldn't hold back.

"I don't want any part of any of that. And you and your friends aren't going to bother me about joining anymore." Jesse nodded, mouth gaping open and still dazed, as Lissa continued her compulsion on him.

Ralf was still staring at Lissa, "What?" he practically hissed, "You just used compulsion on him - didn't you?" At that, Lissa turned her gaze on Ralf, still using that same compulsion stare. "Ralf," she said, "You know I didn't use compulsion. I couldn't possibly have that kind of ability," Lissa turned back to Jesse, "Now, tell me what you know about the queen's plans for me."

"She wants you to marry Adrian Ivashkov." Jesse muttered, in a daze. Lissa nearly laughed at the idea.

"We're done here," Lissa snapped, as she walked towards Eddie.

"Are you okay?" Eddie asked.

"Yeah. Thanks, Eddie," said Lissa.

"What was that about?" asked Eddie

"They're obsessed with this royal society of something and want me to join so they can have every royal family in it. They were kind of fanatic about it."

"Well, they can annoy you all they want, but they can't make you join something you don't want to," said Eddie.

"Don't worry - they won't be bothering me anymore," Lissa replied.

I slipped back into my own body and opened the door to my own dorm and headed upstairs to bed.

-=o0/&\0o=-

…

…

...

-=o0/&\0o=-

Back in my room, I saw how truly filthy I was from all of the mud and dirt of the practice attack. I was flushed from the field experience fight with Dimitri - both from the fighting itself and from the position I was in at the end -, so a cool shower would do me good. After I took off my grungy clothes, I saw that I needed to take a thorough shower to get rid of the filth before I could be out in front of other people again. After I finished, almost an entire hour had gone by and dinner was nearly done being served. As I ran back over to the commons, I heard Lissa in my mind: Dinner's almost over.

As I rushed down the hallway that led to the cafeteria, I noticed a big group of people had gathered around something, and I recognized there was a fight. Since I knew that the group of royals tended to keep their beatings private, I guess that this wasn't them. I squeezed in through the crowd and looked over the taller people to see what had brought so many people together.

I was astonished to see Adrian and Christian there.

Eddie was there, clearly in a referee role, stepped in between them. Lissa was inside the cafeteria, but I checked into the bond and she was on her way out. The time for niceties had passed, so I shoved in past the rest of the masses that had gathered in front of me and went to stand beside Eddie.

"What the hell's going on?" I asked.

Eddie seemed glad I was there. Even if he was doing fine in keeping the combat instructors from 'attacking' his charge during our field experience, he didn't have any idea how to handle this.

"No idea."

It didn't look like anyone had hit the other person - yet. Christian appeared to be the one who had started it, though.

"How long did you think you could get away with it?" he asked, with an angry gleam in his eyes, "Did you seriously think everyone would keep buying your act?" Adrian appeared to be his usual pithy self, except for some hints of worry under his charming grin. It seemed clear that he didn't want this fight.

"Honestly," Adrian said, ready to be done with this, "I have no idea what you're talking about. Can we please just go sit down and discuss this reasonably?"

"Sure. Of course you'd want that. You're afraid I might do this." said Christian, holding up an orange fireball with a core the color of his ice-blue eyes. A few of the people around us gasped, but I was getting accustomed to seeing Moroi - especially Christian - fighting with magic. For many of them, it was still pretty off-limits, though. Christian only gave a smug grin. "What have you got to fight back with? Plants?"

Lissa walked up and stepped between the two. "What is going on here?" she asked.

"Your boyfriend there thinks I'm planning to marry you and carry you off into the sunset," said Adrian. He spoke to Lissa, but his eyes never left Christian.

"Don't act like it's not true," Christian raged. "I know it is. It's been part of your plan—yours and the queen's. She's been backing you the whole time. Coming back here…the whole studying thing … it was a scam to get Lissa away from me and tied to your family instead."

Adrian said, "Do you have any idea how paranoid you sound? My great-aunt has to manage the entire Moroi government! Do you think she really cares about who's dating who in high school—especially with the state of affairs lately? Look, I'm sorry about all the time Lissa and I've spent together. I really wasn't trying to get between you. There's no conspiracy going on here."

Christian was adamant, though. "Yes, there is."

He glanced over at me with a scowl, but it was Lissa who replied. "I just heard about it last night from Ralf Sarcozy and Jesse Zeklos," Lissa replied, "It was the first I'd known, but honestly, I thought it sounded hilarious. I think it's just some crazy rumor some royal made up. I'd forgotten all about it until this minute. I don't think there's really any plan the two of them have put in place, just some silly story a couple of high school guys made up."

"Isn't there?" Christian asked, "Rose knows. Rose has known for a while about this. She even talked to the queen about it."

"That's ridiculous," Adrian replied, looking over at me for a denial that wouldn't come. "Right?"

Oh, Shit. "Well …" I started to say, "Yes and no."

Christian eyed Adrian with a look that could practically spew venom at him, but he wasn't about to take action with Lissa right there.

"It doesn't matter," said Lissa, as she turned to Christian, "You're the one that I love and I'm not walking away from you."

"Something's wrong here," I said, shooting a meaningful look at Christian, "and we all need to figure it out before Christian does something stupid." The crowd had started to break up and disperse.

"What's wrong," said Christian, eyes pleading with Lissa after glancing angrily at Adrian, "is that they're trying to break us up, Lissa, and Rose knew about it."

"Did you really?" Adrian had directed his question at me.

"Yeah, long story." I stopped looking at Adrian and then told Lissa and Christian, "Look, Adrian didn't have anything to do with this. Not intentionally. It was Tatiana's idea—and she hasn't even actually done anything yet. It's just her long-term plan—hers alone, not his."

Christian asked, "Then how did you know about it?"

"Because she told me—she was afraid that I was moving in on Adrian." I could feel Lissa's shock coming through the bond.

Adrian asked me, "Really? Did you defend our love?"

I scoffed, "Adrian, for the last time, there is nothing between you and I."

"My fondest wishǂ, little dhampir," Adrian replied, giving me a wink.

"Really, Adrian?" I asked.

"Rose, when did she tell you this?" asked Lissa.

"When we were at Court. Just before the spa."

"You've been hiding this from me for that long, and you didn't think it was worth telling me? I thought we were best friends, Rose." anger flashed through the bond. "Why didn't you tell me all this?"

"Because I didn't want you to worry. With all that you've been going through from spirit, and with Victor's trial, you deserved some peace."

The feelings coming through the bond changed from anger to compassion. Lissa replied, "Rose, what about what you've been going through? I just don't understand why you didn't feel like you could confide in me."

Lissa stared at me and I could feel through the bond that she was noticing something hadn't been right with me in a while. It hit me that I've been doing the same thing with what I know about Anna - and doing the same thing with everything that had happened with Dimitri. I wanted to tell her - badly -, but I wasn't sure I was ready. "Liss ... I just wasn't sure I could yet. I don't want to put this all on you. Could you give me some time and we'll talk? Maybe tomorrow?"

Lissa walked over to me and looked me in the eye. "Take all the time you need. Just promise me you'll tell me when you're ready."

"I promise," I told her and she hugged me. Feeling like a weight was beginning to lift off of my shoulders, I couldn't help but smile.

-=o0/&\0o=-

The cafeteria was closing up shop by the time I actually settled in to get some food. After I scrounged together what food I could still find, which turned out to be a couple bags of potato chips and a bottle of chocolate milk, I headed back towards my dorm. As I was walking, I spotted Dimitri going across campus.

"Hey," I called to him, as I walked up to him, "Are you on duty right now?"

"No," he replied, "I was just on my way to the gym." He began walking again, and I followed in the direction he was going.

"Can we talk for a minute?" I asked, almost running to keep up with his long strides, "About what happened earlier during the attack?"

"Nothing happened," he said.

"I saw that look in your eyes," I said, "when I pinned you. You know something did."

"It doesn't matter, Rose," he replied flatly.

I moved in front of Dimitri and faced him. "Why not?" I asked.

"Because it can't be," he replied.

"Because I'm underage? Because you're my mentor? Those things won't last forever. I'll be eighteen in less than two weeks, and I'll be graduating soon. They won't last."

Dimitri said, "It's not just that. Roza, all I can give you is disgrace. I can't give you the life you deserve. Or the one you want."

That did it. I was angry now. "Dimitri, who are you to tell me what I want? Shouldn't that decision be left up to me? I - " I suddenly stopped. Dimitri stopped immediately and gave me a puzzled look. There, in front of my eyes, Mason appeared. He looked the same as he had since I started seeing him again, almost. The despair I had seen was still present, but there was something else that I couldn't figure out. It might've been anxiety or annoyance, but it almost seemed like terror. That didn't make sense, though - how could a ghost be afraid?

Dimitri asked me, "What's wrong?"

"Do you see him?" I pointed to Mason's pearly, glowing, transparent form.

"See who?" Dimitri looked, but it was clear he saw nothing.

"Mason," I replied. Mason was getting more agitated. I still couldn't determine what was wrong, but I knew that this was serious. I could also tell Dimitri still wasn't on board with me seeing ghosts. Mason's lips were moving - almost like he was trying to talk to me. There was something important he needed to tell me, but he didn't have a way to do it.

"What? What is it?" I asked him. He was getting frustrated. He pointed towards the northwest.

I was getting frustrated, too, but I didn't know what to do about it. I said, "Tell me." Dimitri kept glancing between me and the space where Mason was standing, though I was pretty sure he couldn't actually see Mason standing there. I didn't know what was going on, but I knew it was important.

Mason was moving his mouth, opening and closing. I could tell that he really wanted to speak to me, but there weren't any words coming out. It felt excruciating watching him keep trying, but then, the impossible happened. The words were so quiet I almost didn't hear him: "They're … coming…."

"Who? Who are coming?" I could tell from the time between his words and the time it took him to reply that it was taking him some effort. He made some strange hand gestures where he put each index finger on one side of his mouth pointed down, but I was clueless and just shook my head.

Finally, he moved his mouth again and no words came out. He tried a second time and said, "Strigoi."

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Author's Notes:

ǂ = Borrowed this line-usage from Kresley Cole's Poison Princess