The Last Romanov (Under Editing)

Judgment Day, pt 2

Nadezhda looked down at her watch one last time.

She was almost there: thirty seconds left, though she supposed the could probably go ahead and shoot.

She turned her attention to her mark and began to take aim. It would be an easy shot, she thought: she wasn't that far away, and he wasn't exactly a moving target.

She took a few deep breaths and forced herself to relax, a trick Sasha had taught her before he headed off to Yekaterinburg. It worked: she was a little less nervous. Just enough that she was able to aim at Novak without thinking about it.

There wasn't time to dwell on it: dwelling would get her killed. The second the gun sites were lined up, she took the shot.

Just miliseconds before she did, though, he turned back towards the house, as if responding to someone inside.

The shot didn't take him where she wanted it to: it got him to the side of his chest. It would probably be fatal, but she couldn't take chances. Not that day, when it was so important to make sure that every target they'd thought of was dead by the end.

She took aim again, though God knows it wasn't nearly as careful as before, and fired.

Novak's body recoiled as another bullet went into him. That time, it hit where she needed it to be: she had no doubt that he was dead, now.

Nadezhda turned the gun's safety on and slung the rifle over her shoulder. Even from there, she could hear Novak's wife wailing as she knelt beside the body of her husband.

Her heart hurt. Nadezhda knew that she needed to do that, but that screaming from Novak's wife was just... it was awful. It was the sort of gutteral scream like from a wounded animal that needed to be put out of its misery.

She climbed out of the tree and began to run towards St. Petersburg, praying that everybody else's assassination attempts were going better than hers.

***

Shit! Shit! Shit!

Sasha hurried to reload the gun as screaming erupted from below him in the crowd and Anastasia put a hand to her chest were Sasha had shot her.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

He gave up on it, turning the safety back on and slinging it over his shoulder. SHIT!

He had to get down there, of course: judging by the fact that Anastasia's guards were coming towards that apartment building and Anastasia was looking right up at him, they knew exactly where he was. He had to get away from them before he killed him and the person that they really needed to kill that day for their plan to work ended up surviving, yet again.

He slid down the fire escape, heart pounding as he heard the storming of boots coming from down the street. As Sasha saw it, he had two choice: he could either fight, or he could surrender. Either way, he probably wasn't going to make it out of Yekaterinburg alive.

Suddenly, a calm descended onto Sasha. Fight! His mind ordered him. It doesn't matter if you live or die, so long as you fight.

Other people might fight the courage to take up the cause if you just go down kicking and screaming.

And so, before he could think about it, Sasha ran forward, gun at the ready. He was going to give them hell!

***

Anastasia squeezed her injured shoulder tightly, pistol in her other hand. This was the second time someone had tried to kill her while she was in Yekaterinburg. Damn it: it was even right in front of the first place someone had tried to kill her! And if she had anything to say about it, it wouldn't be the last time.

"Your grace?" One of her guards said carefully, with a forced calm that was all too familiar to Anastasia: that was the voice of someone who was on the verge of losing it. Who had only not lost it because they were trying to stay calm for her sake. "Your grace, we need to get you to a doctor-"

"I'm going after that sniper," Anastasia said, walking off the stage.

"Your grace, I-"

"Don't you dare ask me if that's a good idea, soldier," Anastasia ordered sternly. "I'm going to kill that man myself, nobody - including yourself - is going to stop me. Do I make myself clear?"

The soldier hesitated before he responded.

She turned around to face him, her anger boiling up more and more by the second. "I said: do I make myself clear?"

The soldier finally nodded. "Yes, your grace."

"Good." She turned back around and started to head in the direction of that sniper, again. "Keep this crowd under control until I get back. And make it clear that there will be an execution when I step back onto that stage."

***

There he is, Nadya thought to herself as she watched the man who'd killed her cousin walk out from the gates of Peter and Paul. That's the man who killed Nikola.

The pistol immediately grew more heavy in her coat. Time almost seemed to slow down for her. Commander Zelenko was right here, just a few feet away from her. And, he didn't even seem to notice that she was there, her hand tucked into her coat. Either that, or he didn't care.

She guessed that it was that he didn't care. He never cared. He didn't care about Nikola, and he didn't care about her while he was having her tortured. He was a monster of the worst sort, and he needed to be dealt with.

And she was going to be the one to deal with him.

The second his back was towards her, she stood up and pulled out her pistol.

"For Nikola!" She shouted.

She pulled the trigger as he turned around to look at her.

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Another cliffhanger for you guys, this week. Sorry not sorry (looking at you, Aventadoodlez) :P

So, I actually have a little bit of housekeeping for you guys. I'm proud to announce that "The Last Romanov" hit two major milestones: we're at 5k reads and 500 votes! I'm really excited about that, because that tells me that this story's doing really well. So, big thanks to all of you. I'll be doing the extra chapters next week, and since we only have four chapters left and I was going to post two next week, anyway, next week will be the last week of updates for this story. Crazy, right? My next steampunk story, "Meiji Steam" will have the first two chapters posted this Saturday, so I guess you can consider it as this story's replacement. I might also start up a steampunk retelling of (parts of) "War and Peace", so those of you who are Russia nuts might want to keep an eye out for that.

Now, on to the dedication. This one's going out to my newest follower, Hazel_Skye! Thank you for your support, mate :D

As always, be sure to vote and comment, and we'll see you next week with the final chapters of "The Last Romanov" :D