Hey guys! It's chloe, here. Well obviously. Okay so this is the last chapter to this three part story. And okay its long. Longer than the first two chapters anyway. I know. And I was thinking about dividing it to another chapter but I didn't really want to. So okay. Warnings: There is a slight mention of rape down there. Nothing bad. I mean THAT bad. But still, you have been warned. And another thing. I think whoever reads this would understand it but just in case I'm recommending reading my story 'Sydrian Reunions' first. This is because that as the summary says that this is connected to SR. Especially this chapter. Okay? ;-P XOXO-chloe

Disclaimer: Bloodlines is not mine. Sadly. I mean who wouldn't wanna own Adrian Ivashkov? Lucky you, Miss Mead!

Laughter echoed through the distance. The sun shone brightly, the sky was clear. The meadow was filled with flowers and the grass seemed so much more green than it normally did. It was obviously a beautiful day. Sydney thought as much, a big goofy grin spread across her face. The grin that only he could bring out of her.

"Come on, Sage. You know you can't stay away from me forever. My charm is too much to resist."

"Oh well you already know, Adrian. I put up a good fight." She replied cheekily.

They were currently in the middle of a game of Blind man's bluff and Adrian was "it".

She very carefully kept luring him towards her direction only to get away at the last second when he was about to grasp her in his arms. She knew it frustrated him to no end.

"Oh and we both know how that ended, don't we?" Came his snarky response.

Sydney smiled and moved sneakily moved behind him. Or tried to anyway. And that was because the second she came up behind his back he turned and caught her, both of them tumbling to the ground, Adrian tickling her mercilessly.

"Aa…..Adr...Adrian!... Stop it!" Sydney told him between her laughter.

"Told you, I'd catch you. This is a big moment for me. Pulling one over the Great Sydney Sage." And Sydney could tell his customary smirk was in place.

"Okay! Okay! You win!" She conceded. Sydney was laughing so much she had tears in her eyes.

He stopped and looked down at her. She saw that his blindfold was off and could see into his emerald globes that were twinkling with mischief. She felt so happy and content in that moment, lying there in his arms, him stroking her blonde hair like it was silk. Eventually she drifted off to sleep, knowing she was safe and secure with Adrian right beside her. And it felt, oh so, familiar.

Some time later Sydney stirred from her sleep. It took a few seconds for her to come into focus and wipe the sleep from her eyes. She instinctively knew Adrian was not beside her anymore as the ground behind her was cold.

She got up and took in her surroundings. She was no longer at the sunny, beautiful meadow. It was dark and instead she found herself in an unrecognizable room where everything was wrecked. The furniture was broken and it's pieces scattered across the room. Windows were shattered and glass was everywhere. The wall had a hole in it as if someone had punched right in to the plaster. In fact the whole place looked as if someone had thrown a wild tantrum in it. The bed and mattress were overturned. Picture frames and books lay in pieces on the ground instead of on the shelves where they were clearly kept before.

Sydney found herself becoming alert, a bad feeling clenching her gut. And for some reason it just felt so familiar.

Adrian! Where was Adrian?! She suddenly realized.

She stood up, careful of the glass, and gasped as she noticed a trail of blood leading out of the smashed up door. Please let that not be Adrian's. She prayed silently, fear filling her up like a fluid in a container.

She carefully followed the wake of blood, making sure to be as quiet as possible for she didn't know what to expect but she did know she was in danger. She made her way down an indistinct, gloomy hallway that was just as wrecked as the room she was previously in. She was obviously in a house that was once some stranger's home. She could see many rooms, a library , a master bedroom, a nursery. All of which were destroyed.

It made her wonder what had happened here and made her feel remorse and grief for the people that had once lived in this place. They were clearly innocents, a family that consisted of a lively father, who played with his children even after returning home, tired, from a day's work, a mother who loved her children as dearly as Sydney's loved her sisters and her, and two guileless children whose only worries were playtime and who ate the last of the Oreos.

She made her way down a staircase but not before equipping herself with a shard of glass, should she need a weapon. She needed to find Adrian and had no time to dwell on the suffering of the people who had lived here, no matter how unfair and atrocious it was.

The downstairs of the house was just as dismantled as the upstairs but it was not all dark. She could see a light in one of the rooms and made her way there, as inaudible as possible.

She peaked in and learned that this was the living room. The television was hanging off the wall, the sofa cushions had been ripped into and feathers were all over the place.

Sydney could feel her anxiety grow as she skimmed the room and found more blood covered surfaces, but it vanished as she saw the person she was looking for.

He was standing on the far end side of the room, his back to her. Relief washed over her seeing that he was okay.

"Adrian!" She said in a loud whisper, not wanting to draw attention to them if whatever had killed those people was still around.

She entered the room and quickly walked over to him.

"Adrian, come on. What are you doing? We have to get out of here." She whispered to him, her hand reaching his shoulder. But as he turned around, she found herself gasping and staggering back.

His eyes were red and he was deathly pale. His smirky smile was drenched in blood and so were his hands. His shirt was torn at the front revealing the well defined muscles underneath. Even his clothes were stained with the red substance.

Meanwhile her eyes were wide and horrified at the sight before her. And yet, it still seemed so familiar.

"What's the matter, Sage? Come to join the party?" He said in a cold, completely non-Adrian way.

"Adr..ian, ww..what hap..pened?" She stammered, tears forming in her eyes. But a voice was saying something in the back of her mind. Something she couldn't make out quite as yet.

"What do you mean, Sage?" He asked her nonchalantly.

"What did you do?!" She cried. "Did you kill those people, Adrian?!"

"Well, yes." Came his answer.

" Why?! They didn't do anything wrong!" She was sobbing hysterically now. Adrian. Her Adrian as a strigoi. But the was voice still there. Whispering something she still couldn't understand.

"I was hungry." He smirked at her, his bloodied fangs were emphasized as he did so.

"You were…." She trailed off as it suddenly became clear and it was like a bucket of ice pouring over her. The voice in her head was screaming that this wasn't real. That she was in a hallucination. That this wasn't Adrian. That this was just the alchemists trying to break her. Trying to make her believe that vampires were evil beings that harm and kill for their own fun. That they should be feared and never loved.

Images flashed through her mind. Of laying down on the table. Deborah injecting her. Drifting off into the unknown.

A part of her was relieved that this wasn't real but the other part of her was scared. Scared that she was completely conscious now but still hadn't woken up. And now the worst was to come.

"You're not real." She told him regaining her composure somewhat.

"Wanna bet?" He answered back in an almost amused voice. "Let me show you how real I am."

With a speed only a strigoi could possess , he slammed her into the nearest wall roughly and with a death grip upon her waist and hands, started placing forceful kisses down her neck.

"Nnno! No! Adrian! Get off me!" She screamed and struggled. She tried reaching for the shard of glass that she had stuck at the back of jeans but she knew it was no use. He was too strong and he had a hold of her.

'What's the matter, Sage? I know you want it." He hissed menacingly.

"No! No, Adrian! Please! Stop! You don't want to do this." He was tearing her shirt now and his grip on her waist was bruising her flesh.

"Oh but I do. And I know you do too, Sage. But keep on resisting. It's fun." He replied in that same cold, strigoi voice.

"No! NO!" She did not want this. She didn't want it! She was crying and struggling and she didn't want it!

And just when his fangs were about to connect with her neck, she felt herself fade. It was strange. The alchemists wouldn't have taken mercy on her. They would have let it continue until he was done with her, leaving her completely broken and anguished.

But this was a different sensation. Almost like an out of body experience. But then she felt it.

Her magic. It was strong enough now. She guessed her strong emotions had brought it out.

As she went back into reality, she opened her eyes expecting to find herself back in the re-education room, with the three alchemists staring back at her. But instead she found a large, luxurious room. It was covered in shiny, off white colored marble and a crystal chandelier hung right in the middle lit up the room like a Christmas tree,

There were long shelves and tables made of fine wood, that after further observation she decided was teak. She was surprised to see that the place she was in was none other than the moroi palace.

She turned around towards two large doors that lead towards the balcony, she assumed. They were open, so someone was already there. She walked towards them, and found her assumptions had been correct.

This was a balcony.

And there was someone there.

"Adrian." She whispers.

His back is to her, much like before but somehow she knows that this is not a hallucination.

It seemed too real.

He turns around and his eyes, his beautiful green eyes, go wide.

"Sage." He says, his voice cracking as he speaks.

Sydney feels tears forming in her eyes again. But not because of pain, fear or anything. For the first time in months she feels happy.

He looks away from her, confusing her. She walks towards him, not being able to bear the distance any longer.

"Adrian." She says again."Look at me" It's a plea and she realizes how much she needs to see the warmth in his eyes. The love. The tenderness.

He does as she asks and she feels tears well up again. It's him. It's really him. And he's not evil. He's not cruel. He's not unholy. He's the same Adrian she loves and will always love.

And she sees the warmth in his eyes, the love and the tenderness. But he seems..…..wary of her somehow.

"Sage, what are you doing here?" He asks in a cautious tone.

"Ww..what do you mean? Oh God, Adrian! I missed you so much." She cries, about to thrust herself into his arms and never coming out, but he, to her surprise, stops her.

"What's wrong?" She asks him, feeling more confused than ever.

"You're not fooling me this time, Sage. I'm not going to fall for it. You're not real. And nothing will change that." He says, his voice sad.

"You think I'm not real?" She says, finding out it was possible to feel even more perplexed.

"No, I know you're not real. So you see, there's no use trying to fool me." He replies in that same weary voice.

Things now start to fall into place. Had Adrian been having hallucinations as well? It must be a side effect of spirit. But how? He'd started taking medication. But of course! Sydney mentally smacked her forehead. He would have stopped taking them to help find her. All this time she spent focusing on keeping sane, on her own sufferings, she didn't even stop to think how their separation was affecting Adrian. It gave her a new zeal to fight the alchemists and get back to him.

That and her new found magical abilities.

"Adrian, it's me. I promise." She says.

"No, it's not." He says stubbornly.

She reaches out and cups his cheek in one hand, her fingers moving ever so slightly over his warm skin that is rough with his stubble.

"Yes, it is." She replies firmly. " Get a grip, Adrian. Centrum Permanibet, remember?"

"Sage?" He says, his voice breaking. "It's really you, isn't it?"

"Yeah." She whispers back.

It's almost as if a spell breaks and he's picking her up from the ground , in his arms, and pressing her up against his chest and lowering his lips on to hers.

But all too soon, she feels the fading sensation rising again and the next thing she knows, she's back in the re-education centre, Deborah looking at her with cold eyes.

"Well, Sydney? Did you learn something today?" She asks.

"Yeahh...a lot of things, actually." She replies softly, lost in thought.

She was going to survive.

She told Adrian Centrum Permanibet but in truth she had forgotten it too.

The centre would hold. Because they were the centre. Adrian and her. They would find their way back to each other. No matter what. They always would.

Because that's what forevers do.

Reviews? Liked it? Hated it? Let me know please. Also for anyone who doesn't know. Blind man's bluff (orginally known as Blind man's buff) is a game mostly played by children in which one person is tagged as 'it' and is blindfolded and has to catch the others. It is generally played in safe environments such as the above mentioned meadow. Ughh meadow. I'm sort of regretting that now. Too twilight for my taste. :-D