AN: This is a heavily edited version of the original chapter. There's definitely parts I took out straight from Last Sacrifice but I wanted to make it clear that in Burned, Dimitri had no part in her escape and remained behind at Court. There will be a time skip next chapter, and just to make my life easier, everything that happened in Last Sacrifice will remain true, minus Dimitri and Rose rekindling their relationship. Originally, Dimitri wasn't even going to show up in this chapter because he's still difficult for me to write but it felt wrong leaving him completely out.

That being said, I do not own Vampire Academy or its characters, and please review and enjoy!

If she looked too closely, she'd start seeing the cell walls closing in on her again. The cold in the cells was seeping into her bones, her hands shaking as they sought out the thin sheets on the cot she laid on. They execute traitors… the words slipped into an endless repetition in Rose's mind as her pulse thrummed in her wrists, her heart beating a fast tempo into her ribcage. Tonight wasn't shaping out to be one of her best; she couldn't seem to rein any of her thoughts into order. She was a slave to her own mind it seemed. It was the silence more than anything that drove her up the wall. The guards never spoke a word to her, she couldn't get any news from the outside unless she slipped into Lissa's mind and even that was growing more and more unbearable by the day. She was being imprisoned for a crime she didn't commit. Sure she was wild and impulsive, but cold blooded murder? Of the Queen no less? She wasn't suicidal, she didn't want to die but she had boarded the fast track straight to it.

No… these days, being Lissa's mind only made her feel bitter and desperate and she couldn't afford to be either. She had to think on the last clue given to her, had to think on how she could prove her own innocence. It wasn't coming easy.

A commotion shook Rose out of her thoughts, and she straightened out of the cot as footsteps came down towards her direction, their occupant out of her line of sight.

You will not go to trial. You will not go to prison… A wry twist of her lips came as Abe rounded the corner, two guards shadowing him as he stepped close to her bars.

"You're definitely not winning Daddy of the Year Award for this one," she taunted, taking in the trademark flashy suit, a brilliant purple silk tie and matching scarf adding color to the sea of gray he wore.

"You're not exactly up for Daughter of the Year either with this stunt under your belt," he replied in a flippant tone, "but remind me why I'm out of the running again?"

"What happened to 'You will not go to prison'? Last I checked," Rose paused, flicking a metal bar between them for emphasis, "this was prison."

"Don't get huffy on me now, there's only so much I can do," he retorted. "Down to business though, I'm here as your lawyer."

"A pretty lousy one if I'm stuck here then, is it too late to fire you?" She snapped, wincing internally at her own words. The time alone here at least gave her the hindsight to realize how hopeless her case was- and how no one, no matter how good or even Abe, could have saved her at the hearing.

"You wouldn't want to after hearing the news I have to deliver. Your trial's been moved up."

"Moved up? That's great isn't it?"

"Considering the much shorter time frame we're dealing with, and the fact that it'll be nearly identical to your hearing- no, it really isn't," he deadpanned.

"How much time are we talking here?"

"They're going to want to do it after the new king or queen is crowned… and the funeral is this week."

"With the elections happening right after, so two weeks? That's all I have?" she trailed off, not being able to voice the to live that hung at the end of the question…

Abe nodded.

Rose threw herself against the bars, tears threatening to spill as they pooled into her eyes. "Two weeks? Are you serious?"

Time. Time was her enemy. Two weeks wasn't enough to do anything with, not enough time to find more evidence, not enough time to pass on this daunting task of finding an illegitimate heir out of nowhere, not enough time to live. They execute traitors…

"If they give the guilty verdict," she opened her eyes, struggling to continue, "how long until... they carry out the sentence?"

At this, Abe met my eyes unflinchingly and that was enough to make my blood run cold in my veins.

"Probably immediately."

The air was sucked out of the small room, her world shrunk down into that moment when the walls were closing in on her again, and her pulse roared in her ears and somewhere she could hear a clock was ticking…

"No! That's not right!" Adrenaline kicked in as she slammed herself against the bars again, feeling herself shake even as she tried to stand firm. "It's not right and you know it!"

Moroi… Moroi tried to be more civilized in their justice, tried to prove beyond anything else how much better they were than their bloodthirsty counterparts, the Strigoi but even they had crimes they deemed unforgivable. Even they had crimes punishable by death… And someone had planted enough evidence to frame me. They execute traitors…

"I'm just the messenger, Rose," he said coolly, "Don't kill me now."

"Then give me something other than bad news! Isn't there anything you've found? You're outside, you can do plenty more than I can from in here!"

"It's not as easy as you'd think, everyone's tied up with the funeral and the elections. Everything's disorderly-which is good and bad."

"This room will kill me before anything else does. I can't think, I can't breathe."

"Well, then you should be happy I brought you something to take up your time," he tossed something through the bars at her that she barely caught. She glanced down at a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo, wrapped up with a couple of magazines.

"I'm not much of a reader," Rose grunted distastefully, the visit suddenly leaving a sour taste in her mouth. Abe must have sensed it because he smirked at her, and it wasn't until then that she noticed his eyes never strayed from hers. His eyes had always been scanning her room, the hall… but they had never strayed from hers for too long…

"Give it a shot, I'd like to see what a literary discussion with you might be like next time we meet," he started to turn away.

"Wait!" she stopped him, tossing the reading material onto the cot. "You do believe I didn't do it, right?" Something glinted in his eyes as the silence hung between us for a few minutes.

"I believe my sweet daughter is capable of murder," he said at last. "But not this one."

"Then how do we fix this? We have no time!"

"Just remember what I said in the courtroom," he called over his shoulder.

As much as Rose joked about how he broke his promise to her earlier, she had a feeling that his promise to her back then wasn't exactly over yet.

As surreal as having her death announced to her earlier was, tonight was turning into one of her more popular ones in a while.

Forever now conscious of the time, it must have been well into the graveyard shift when Mikhail appeared in front of her cell and she couldn't help but to be weary of more bad news being brought to her.

He took one look at her and sighed. "You know already."

"About my trial being moved up? Yeah, a little birdie came by not too long ago. Didn't stick around long enough for me to sing it into tying up some escape ropes though."

"Unbelievable how you can joke, but that's not all I came to tell you. Belikov isn't being punished for what happened at the cafeteria; they've decided not to take action," he shook his head at her.

Dimitri.

Yeah, time in this cell had given her a lot to think about all right, him being one of them. That day, when every guardian conceivable had come to arrest her, she had been trying to reason with him into at least talking to her. Not even into continuing their relationship, the one Rose had gone so far to bring back but to just talk to her and he'd remain stubborn the way he always was. The pain washed over her again, and Rose remembered deciding then and there that she was done with it all. After everything she had done for him out of love, that love was over and it was unhealthy for her to keep letting it rip her apart from the inside out. This time apart from visitors, from the outside world had been enough to help her get started. Until tonight that was.

"Don't," Rose snapped, noticing how frigid her words seemed even to herself. "I don't want to hear anymore about it or about him."

Rose turned her back to the bars, and she felt Mikhail's burning stare once before he swept away as her father had done hours before.

Sleep did not come easily, and it seemed too soon when my eyes opened blearily in the morning. Almost immediately, I slipped into the bond, Lissa's mind whirling as the funeral processions started.

Lissa had just slipped into the foyer holding Tatiana's coffin, and all at once, she felt overwhelmed, as if forgetting what she was doing there. Tatiana laid in all her glory in a coffin of gleaming black wood, its polished surface shining brightly under the lights. Elaborate garden murals decorated each side of the coffin, adorned with gold that glittered everywhere, even the poles that the pallbearers would hold. Inside, the queen was dressed in a silk gown of deep purple, the long sleeves decorated with an elaborate design of small pearls. While red was the color associated with the Ivashkov family, purple was the traditional color for royal burial. Strings of gemstones and pearls hung around her slim neck, and a gold crown of diamonds and amethysts was set upon her graying hair. It was hard for me to look at her though Lissa's eyes, if I stared too long, flashes of her bloody corpse I had seen at my hearing would dance before my eyes and it was too soon for me to dwell on it still.

My mind swimming, I was hardly paying attention as the funeral procession moved along, barely noticing the nervous energy humming through Lissa. Despite whatever was running through her own mind that she was hiding from me, outwardly she was managing the slow, steady pace with the grace and confidence of royalty. Paying more attention now, I could see the people surrounding her giving her looks of awe and wonder- and it occurred to me now that Tatiana might not have been the only reason for their attendance. What Lissa had done for Dimitri- healing him from being Strigoi, bringing him back-was unheard of. There were many people who didn't believe it possible, but at the same time, there were many who did. Even thinking about this stung me too much, so I shirked away from the train of thought and focused once more on the funeral.

The cathedral was almost looming over the procession now, and standing in front of it was the priest dressed in blindingly bright robes. Made of heavy, glittering gold with an even heavier gold cross that sat atop the hat he was wearing, I wondered idly if he had consciously tried to outdo the queen on her own funeral day but figured I should be the last person to worry over that. As he lifted his arms in welcome, catching the crowd's attention with more of his full robes, the strangest thing happened.

The statues blew up.

No sooner than I had registered what was happening out there, was I back in my own body trying to figure out what was happening down her with me. MY cell only gave me a view of the wall in a hallway and nothing else but I could hear scuffling going down the hall. I had no idea what to expect and nothing to defend myself with, though the thought of trying to wrench a metal bar from the cot did cross my mind. Cursing, I settled for backing myself deeper into the cell and as out of sight as possible, raising my fists to eye level. If someone was coming for me, I wasn't going to make it easy for anyone.

'Anyone' turned out to be Eddie Castile and Mikhail Tanner. And two things registered all at once. The first was that Eddie's face had met someone's fist recently and the second that Mikhail literally held my salvation in his hands: the keycard and mechanical key to open my cell.

In seconds, Mikhail had the cell door opened and I rushed out, trying not to let the relief flow through me just yet.

"Leaving like this," Eddie placed a hand on my arm, pausing me. "It confirms your guilt. The guardians will hunt you down and they'll never stop. You'll be a fugitive. They won't need a sentence to kill you."

"Time to get you to the getaway car," Mikhail grunted, and we rushed out of the building heading to the garage.

"But the two of you-"

"Adrian gave us these," Eddie held up a hand with a gleaming ring on it. "To anyone who looks, we'll be nondescript and hard to remember as long as no one stares."

"Everyone's too worried about themselves, and trying to escape Court," Mikhail added, "it'll work in our favor."

It was hard running into guardians and having to take them down, a part of me felt guilty as I pummeled myself into a group that was heading straight toward us; my only hope was that they paid more attention to me than to the ones behind me. As a female guardian went for me and tried to pin me down through weight alone, I twisted to the side and aimed a punch at her jaw, when she started to slip downwards, I caught her in a chokehold and waited for her eyes to close. The guilt must have shown on my face but there was no time for comments as we made our way to the farthest side of the garage where a man was just stepping out of a drab Honda civic. I blinked when the man turned around, shocked at what I was seeing.

"Abe?" I gasped, and he winked as he gave me one of those charming smiles. "You shouldn't be here, you can be linked to the escape."

"And not say goodbye to my only daughter? I think not," he shrugged. "I told you didn't I? You'd never face a trial- or an execution."

My heart warmed at his words, but I couldn't help but to glance around wearily.

"If I run'"

"Everyone thinks you're already guilty. Where you are isn't going to change that," he cut her off. "We're running out of time. I need you gone and safe. We'll remain at Court and prove you innocent the only way there is-by finding your killer."

"That's if I make it through security trying to leave."

"Why, I have it on good authority there's a new gate opening up on the south side."

"You're the one that's been exploding things?!"

"Don't make it sound so easy," he frowned. "C4 isn't the easiest thing to find you know."

A large booming noise interrupted us, followed by screams.

"We're running out of time," Mikhail hurried. I spun to give Abe a reluctant hug that he returned.

"Eighteen and accused of murder and treason," he paused. "Couldn't be any prouder."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes as he pressed the car keys and a road map into my hand. "Thanks but... after this I'm done. This'll be my last adventure. Is eighteen to early for retirement?"

"I guess you'll tell me."

And just like that, I jumped into the driver's seat and I was gone like the wind.

Dimitri can count on one hand the moments he felt his heart literally stop… and hearing that Rose Hathaway had blown half the Court to pieces to escape certainly made one of them.

"They'll kill her on sight," he spoke the words quietly, eyes trained on Lissa. "No questions asked, this has proven her beyond guilty."

"That's why we have to prove her innocence here," she replied firmly. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you, but we couldn't afford more people knowing."

"Who's gone with her? Who's going to keep her safe?" he demanded, anger and worry flowing through him, the intensity foreign to him still.

"It's Rose," Lissa said incredulously. "She doesn't need anyone to keep her safe."

"She's reckless and impulsive," he fidgeted, the Western novels lying scatted on the table between them falling to the floor as he rose. "She'll make a mistake."

"Her wild plans have never failed us before," Christian snapped alongside her, is eyes glaring. "It has you here now, alive."

"Abe has it all planned out. A safe house, an Alchemist, everything," Lissa soothed. "But we don't have much time here to find evidence. I can't focus on anything else right now except that. "

Dimitri nodded stiffly, waiting for them to walk out of his room to rage. Rose… she was in danger but this was the better option for her. Here, she was sure to die. At least out there, she could fight this. He felt uneasy still, torn even. He had resigned himself to staying away from her but at least he'd have the knowledge she was safe. Where was she now? What was she up to? He suddenly felt suffocated; guilt and self hate consuming him. He didn't deserve her love or her faith but he desperately needed to know… would he ever see her again?

She couldn't come back until her name was cleared. He knew what he needed to do.

Please point out any mistakes you've seen, and if anyone is super OOC. I'd really appreciate it!