Finally.... Here it is. This is unfortunately the last chapter in this story. :-( Sad, I know... I'm going to miss writing
it. But I'm still writing Alternate Universe, so it's not all bad! hehehe If there's anything that you want to know
that I didn't cover in this chapter, just let me know and I'll get back to you.

I may end up doing a story to follow on from this, but it won't be for a little while as I'm trying to finish
off my own original story. But I may work on it at the same time and have it
all ready to put online in one foul swoop! hehehe You never know!!!

Anyway, thank you all so very, very much for all of your support while writing these two stories. I never thought
I'd have it in me to write anything and you've all given me so much inspiration and advice. So thank you all
from the bottom of my heart.
Enjoy! Sandy.

Chapter Fifty Two

A New Light Shines.

Yeva's Point of View

"Roza NOW!" I could see Dimka standing behind a male strigoi and holding onto him for dear life, my heart thumped as I saw him try to stay out of the reach of its teeth. I did not understand what was going on, why would he endanger himself like that, why would he not just kill it and stay alive. Then I saw Rose, she was helping to hold the strigoi too. It still made no sense to me and then someone I did not recognise walked over and looked into the strigoi's eyes...

"Stand still." The young stranger said calmly. The strigoi's struggles died down and he just stood there looking at the young man. Dimka and Rose both relaxed and stepped back, I could not believe that they would do that, it was very obvious to me that the young man who had spoken to the strigoi was a Moroi and I could not understand why they would do such a reckless thing, but to my amazement, the strigoi made no attempt to attack. The young Moroi slowly walked around the strigoi looking him up and down... "How long have you been this way?" he asked.

"Thirty years." The strigoi hissed. When the Moroi nodded and looked to Rose and Dimitri and I could not help but think how much he looked like my grandson, maybe he was related in some way to Dimka's father. Then the young Moroi reached out and put his hand over where the strigoi's heart once beat but now sat dormant.

The Moroi tilted his head to one side and smiled for a few seconds and then what happened next had me gasping. "Welcome back." The Moroi said... I started breathing rapidly as I saw the skin of the strigoi darken and the red in his eyes disappear to reveal deep green eyes. With a deep draw of breath the man that had spent the last thirty years killing innocent lives, breathed his first breath of air into his lungs. A tear fell onto his now alive cheeks and he let out a sob. I could see Rose and Dimitri smiling behind the now restored Dhampir and they reached out to hold his arms, but not in a restraining way, they were helping to steady him as the young Moroi spoke to him. "I can help you come to terms with your memories or I can wipe them and replace them with something else. Your life is yours again." The Dhampir looked at him confused...

"How did you...?"

"There is plenty of time for explanations; but for now just know that your life is restored, but there are a few changes that you need to be aware of and we will tell you about them soon."

"Thank you." Whispered the guardian weakly. "I don't know how...I'm ever going to repay you."

"You can repay me by helping us rid this world of strigoi."

"Anything." The dhampir said with conviction.

"First you need to rest, then we'll talk about you helping us. A lot has happened to you tonight." The dhampir nodded.

"Aleksandr..." said Dimitri. "Yelena and Robert can talk to him some more if you'd like to get to the next one."

"Yes Dad, I know... How many did we capture tonight?" Dad! ...no wonder he looked so much like Dimka.

"Fifteen."

"Fifteen.... were you feeling energetic tonight?" My grandson smiled and wrapped an arm around his son's shoulders.

"Just a little..."

"Are you sure you're not getting tired Aleks?" asked Rose.

"Mom I'm fine, are you ever going to stop asking me that question?"

"No....never. It's my job to worry about you." I knew from a previous dream that Rose and Dimitri's son was going to change the world we lived in, but I did not know how...now I do.

I woke up breathing fast, the dream was so vivid. The dream I'd had before Aleksandr was born showed me glimpses of him as a leader amongst our people, that his abilities would outshine the abilities of other Moroi, but I had no idea that he would be able to accomplish this. I looked over to my clock and realised that it had only been about three hours since Dimka rang to say that Rose had given birth to their child, he had also told us that he was a spirit user, but I already knew this. Because of how he came to be, their child was always going to be special; he was not dhampir nor was he a normal Moroi. The young French girl, Yelena was the closest in kind to him, but he was born from a shadowkissed mother and a restored strigoi and that made him unique. I learnt a bit from Yelena about how they differed from normal Moroi, the last time I was with my grandson, but now I had more information about Dimka's son from the dream. I had to think if I was going to let others know of this revelation. Just then I felt a slight tingle in my mind. I knew this feeling, it was what one felt when Oksana reached into your mind, but I knew that she would not do that to me without asking first, so it had to be someone else. Images of my dream flicked through my mind in fast forward; whoever it was, was very powerful.

Who is here? I asked silently.

It is me, Yelena. I am sorry if I worried you Ms Belikova, Dimitri just told Rose about your dream and my mind instantly came to you. I've seen your dream...he really is the brightest gift to ever come into our world isn't he.

Yes, he is. One that must be protected at all costs.

Definitely, I have to go but I'll see you soon. She said. I smiled as I realised that she had also seen the fact that Rose's parents would be bringing my whole family back to the US next week. Ibrahim would be calling me in the next two hours to tell me of his plans.

Yes, I will see you next week. Then I felt her leave my head. I wondered if she would tell the others what she saw in my memories, but I am fairly sure that she knows of the dangers of knowing too much before it actually happens. I was confident that she would not say anything to the others.

Within a few days my family was boarding the private jet which belonged to Rose's father. I would soon be meeting the child who I now knew was the key to the survival of both the Moroi and Dhampir races. I never thought that I would see an end to the strigoi in my lifetime, maybe I will not be around for the final battle, but I knew that it was coming...with my great grandson at the helm. The trip back to the states was a tedious one, and as tired as I was when we got there, I was as excited as a child on Christmas morning once we landed. We arrived at JFK first and then once processed, we flew to the Royal Court.

"Mama." Dimitri said as he embraced his mother.

"Pozdravleniya Dimka, I cannot wait to meet your son."

"He is beautiful Mama." He said proudly. "Thank you for doing this Abe. It means a lot to have my family here with me."

"You're welcome Dimitri." Abe was a very different man to the one I'd always known. He still held a feared reputation in our world, but to those who were closest to him saw a completely different man. I knew he would do anything for those he loved, even if it meant his life.

After we said our hellos we were driven back to the apartment building where we had stayed before. Apparently, Lord Ivashkov was able to secure the whole wing for our family's arrival so that we would all be together. Our bags were taken to our suites and Olena and I were once again sharing with Viktoria, she would be going back to St Vladimir's in week's time so we would be more comfortable after that. We made plans with Dimitri to meet them all at their apartment after we had freshened up from the flight, so I made sure I did not take too long.

We knocked on the door and we were all greeted with kisses from Dimitri.

"Come in Babushka, Mama."

"Where is my new grandchild?" I asked him.

"Rose has him out on the balcony."

"I won't take too long." I said letting everyone know that I wanted time alone with them. I walked outside into the setting sunlight and looked at Rose and her son. She was looking at him in absolute awe, and looking at his eyes in person; I could see why. I sat down beside her and smiled.

"You're glowing Rose. Dimka told me that he told you of my dream."

"Yeah, he did. What does it mean?" She asked after she hugged me.

"I do not want to say too much Rose. Things need to play out the way they are meant to and if you know something now, then the future could change. And that is one thing that cannot happen under any circumstances." She looked at me like she really wanted to know more, but she was a smart girl and she knew me well enough now not to ask more about it as I would not say any more.

"Babushka, would you like to hold your great grandson?" I smiled and nodded to her. She lifted the child into my arms and I placed him on my lap so that I could look directly into his eyes. They were the exact same color as his fathers, but they were so bright, so aware for a child so young.

"Privet malysh." I said as I smiled to him. "You are a very special little boy Aleksandr; I cannot wait to see you grow and fulfil your destiny." Just then I could have sworn I heard him say hello, but he was only a week old and it was impossible.

"Did he just speak to you Babushka?" Rose said to me.

"What?"

"By the look on your face, I'd say you're trying to work out if you really did hear correctly." I must have had a blank look on my face as she let out a slight giggle before continuing. "Aleksandr is a very forward child Babushka; he has his own special way of communicating. He doesn't speak to you as such; he just puts his thoughts into your head. If you think he spoke to you, then he did." I looked back to this little baby in my arms and I suddenly realised why Rose was looking at him in awe when I arrived. I would challenge anyone to meet him and not be totally captivated.

"I will tell you one thing Rose." I said as I looked at her. "This ability of his is just the tip of the iceberg." She was about to ask me what I meant by that but Dimitri came up behind us and kissed Rose on the top of her head.

"Roza, the others are chomping at the bit to meet Aleksandr."

"Babushka is having a chat with him at the moment, but we'll be there soon."

"No, no... We have our whole lives to get to know each other; I know Olena is just as excited to meet him as I am." When we walked back into the apartment I noticed that everyone was here including Robert and Yelena. I wanted to talk to them so I handed Aleksandr over to my daughter and kissed him goodbye and then went over to them.

"Ms Belikova." They both said in greeting.

"Mr Doru, Ms Zahkov." I said nodding my head. Some guardian habits were hard to break.

"Please, call me Robert."

"And Yelena... I hope your flight wasn't too tiring." She said.

"No, I was very excited to meet this incredible young man, so I had plenty to occupy my mind."

"I'd like to apologize for what happened the other day. I've never been pulled into someone's mind before like that, it was very weird." Yelena said.

"Thank you, I had only been awake from the dream a few minutes when you came to me, I did not realise it was an older version of Aleksandr until they addressed each other."

"Yes, when I saw your dream, I showed Robert immediately and we are both astounded to see what is in his future. We have not said anything to them about it as we do not wish to alter what is to come."

"Thank you, I too think it is wise to let it all play out the way it is meant to. The strigoi will not know what hit them when Aleksandr comes out to play." They nodded and smiled as we all watched Olena become aware of what her new grandson was capable of doing.

Five Years Later

Rose's Point of View

"Aleksandr! Get your ass down here now..." I yelled. Between him and me, it was a wonder that we ever got somewhere on time. Dimitri would just stand there shaking his head as he watched us running around like chooks with their heads cut off. Aleks may look like his father but there was an awful lot of me in him too, far too much for his own good according to my mother.

"Alright, I'm coming... gees..." He yelled from upstairs somewhere.

"Watch your mouth boy." I yelled back. Amazingly I was ready and was standing beside the love of my life at the front door. Liss had the girls in the car ready for their first day at school, they had got so big and they were as stunningly beautiful as their mother but with Christian's sapphire blue eyes. Andrea was a typical princess and loved dressing up in fairy costumes all the time whereas Rozalina or Lina as we called her, was a little rougher. She came with Christian to all of his practises and pronounced that when she was old enough, she too was going to learn how to fight. She had a lot of spine that girl...I liked her a lot! Aleks was off to his private lessons for the day, but it was hard to watch him grow up so quickly...he was going to miss out on so much because of it, but he said not to worry because he loved his life... this was where he most resembled his father. Because of his abilities, special classes had been set up for him. He was now at the developmental size and age of roughly ten years old, he was exceptionally intelligent...genius level apparently and his fighting ability was off the charts for a child of his age.

"What?" I asked Dimitri. He was looking up at the stairs and laughing quietly to himself.

"Just something Christian said the other day..." Oh, now I really did have to know...

"What did he say?"

"Ah... let me see if I can remember the exact words..." He looked up trying to retrieve the conversation from his mind. ".... 'I've never known two people who could be so consistently late as Rose and Aleks, and you get to spend the rest of your life with them...how lucky are you.'.... personally, I think I'm the luckiest man on this earth."

"Nice save hot stuff... I think you're pretty lucky too!" I said with a wink. "Just imagine how utterly boring your life would have been without me to spice things up."

"Mmm... That you do maya krasaveetsa... 'spicy' is one word that suits you very well." He wrapped his arms around me and gave me one of those kisses that makes me go all weak at the knees.

"Oh, come on you two... there's a kid present! Are you trying to give me nightmares?" I gave him a playful whack around the back of the head for his troubles as he ran past us to get into the car. Luckily he got his quick wit from me...much to everyone else's chagrin.

"Little toad! He gets that smart mouth from you, you know..." I said to Dimitri.

"The only thing he got from me was his good looks my love. Everything else is you to a tee... and I wouldn't have it any other way!" We all got into the car and drove over to the education block. Liss had it built as soon as she became queen. She didn't want her girls going away for their schooling and she knew that Aleksandr would have special needs so this was the 'perfect solution' as she called it. After getting the girls settled in and saying our goodbyes to Aleks we drove to the medical centre. I was so excited I could hardly contain myself as I pushed the door open.

"Let me see..." Lissa squealed... Vikki sat on the bed holding her beautiful little boy in her arms; Adrian sat on the edge of the bed beside her with a grin that stretched from one side of his face to the other. "Oh.... He's so beautiful. Gees, you Belikov's certainly make stunning babies hey!"

"That they do Liss, although I may be a little biased myself...." I said.

"Congratulations Sestrenka, you too Adrian... I couldn't be happier for both of you." Dimitri shook Adrian's hand and then wrapped both him and Vikki up in his arms for a hug. I look back on the tension that was once between Dimitri and Adrian and it seems like a million years ago, they are like brothers now and it couldn't make me happier.

"Wanna hold Uncle Dimitri?" Vikki asked. He loved being an uncle, he just loved kids. Even Lissa's girls called him Uncle.

"So what's his name?"

"This is Nikolai Dmitri Ivashkov." Vikki said proudly.

"Thank you..." he whispered. "You didn't have to do that, but it means so much to me."

"I couldn't think of anyone that I would want to name him after more than you brother." Adrian said. Dimitri very rarely showed vulnerable emotions to anyone other than me, but when he did, everyone could see how deep his feelings went. Adrian and Vikki were married just over a year ago to much pomp and ceremony thanks to Lissa. I don't think Tatiana was very happy about it though. She'd tried to set Vikki up a couple of years ago to make it seem like she was after his money and to cash in on the Ivashkov name, but it didn't work. I don't know how she expected to hide something like that from a man who could make anyone tell him the truth... Adrian went berserk, to the point where even his father had to come and tell him to stop and apologise. Personally, I enjoyed the show... Tatiana learned the hard way not to piss of a spirit user!

From what we can tell, Yelena doesn't appear to be aging; she still looked the same as when I first met her. This is good in a way, at least I know that Aleks will lead a long life, but sad too knowing that he is going to have to watch everyone he loves die around him. We are exceptionally close to Yelena; and she is an integral part of our very extensive family. She has helped teach Aleks how to control his powers which continue to astound us every day. He is like Yelena in the fact that he has an equal ability to control all four elements, he's not quite as strong as Yelena yet, but I don't think it will take him very long. He still communicates silently to us, although now it's more in words...like how I speak to Liss. This makes Christian happy too because he's finally able to speak to someone silently now. But Aleks is able to extend his ability so that others can talk together too, like me and Dimitri. Liss is teaching him how to heal, Adrian is teaching him how to dream walk and Robert and Yelena have also taught him a few things.

I would probably have stopped these teaching sessions before they even began if it hadn't been for Yeva's dream a few years ago, the one she's never elaborated on. I know that Yelena and Robert know what she saw but they were all adamant that they didn't want to jeopardise the future by saying something about it, so I thought it must be some pretty special future, so Aleks probably needs to know all of this stuff. In the last five years, more spirit users have been found from around the world and they have all been brought here from time to time. Some have stayed, some have gone back to set up special classes at Academies around the world so that they can find young spirit users early and teach them how to handle their gifts from a young age.

Liss also made a law that allows any Moroi who wishes to learn self defence or defensive magic can do so without prejudice. At first there wasn't many stepping forward and we thought that we were fighting a losing battle, but after a major strigoi attack at an academy in Russia where many Moroi children and adults were killed or turned, they finally started coming to us. They were mainly fire users but we've become quite creative with the water, air and earth users. Mia and Tyler Mitchell ended up getting married and they teach some of the defence classes here at Court. Mia is very committed to ensuring the survival of both Moroi and Dhampirs and the eradication of Strigoi. My mother and father visit regularly and I'm glad to say that they are very happy together; my mother actually smiles now...a lot! It was quite freaky at first, but we've all become more used to the look... Oksana and Mark make yearly visits too, but they're busy at the academy that Dimitri graduated from, so it's great to see them when they get here.

Alberta is still at St Vlad's; along with Kirova and Alto, they said that if they could survive me all the way up to graduation, then they could get anyone through! Although I can think of a few that have tested that theory in the last couple of years.

Tasha has been a God send and I now count her as one of my close friends, who would have ever thought that we would get this close! She, along with Mia, teach the defensive magic classes and Tyler, Mclean and Bishop are full time fighting instructors. A lot has happened in the last five years in the Moroi world and there is a positive feeling amongst us all that more will be accomplished in the years to come, especially after the battle here at the Royal Court just over a year ago. Strigoi had humans stake the wards like they did at the Badica house all those years ago and we had a major infiltration happen, but we had a large number of Moroi already trained and rearing to go and it made all the difference. We think that there was approximately 80 to 90 Strigoi who came in but only a handful got away, and out of the nearly 4000 Moroi and Dhampir who call the Royal Court home, only eight Moroi and five Dhampir were killed. After word of our success in this battle, the numbers of Moroi willing to fight increased tenfold. Classes here at Court are held seven days a week for both races and for the first time in a long time, I can see a happy future for our kind.

After kissing Vikki and Adrian goodbye and one last hug for my new nephew, Liss, Christian, Dimitri and I all went to the cafe before having to go pick up the kids from school. Dimitri and I had our regular hot chocolates and donuts, well I had the donuts... and Liss and Christian had their regular coffee's.

Rose... How have you been feeling lately? Liss asked me.

Fine...why?

Not a little bit queasy at all? I looked at her confused, and then saw in her mind why she was asking me that and I gasped in shock.

"No!" I said under my breath with my eyes nearly bugging out of their sockets...

"What's wrong?" asked Dimitri and Christian at the same time...

Are you sure Liss?

Yes Rose... I can feel its presence... Lissa's ability with spirit had grown a lot in the last five years, too much to talk about now, but one of the things she could do now was being able to sense life forms.

"Nothing's wrong. I think we're pregnant again." I said. A huge grin spread across Dimitri's face and before I knew what was happening, he'd scooped me up into his arms and kissed me in the middle of the cafe... Very UN-Dimitri!

The End.

Some Translations....

Pozdravleniya Dimka, means "Congratulations Dimka."

Privet malysh means "Hello little one."

Sestrenka means "Little sister."