The Last Romanov (Under Editing)

Judgment Day, pt 5

       

"Stop!"

    Sasha opened his eyes, confused.

    Anastasia had given him that order: she was standing in front of her soldiers, a sword in one hand, hand pressed against her freshest bullet wound. They still kept their guns trained on Sasha, waiting for her to give the orders to proceed.

    Something told him that she wasn't going to give those orders, though. She wanted him alive: she wanted him alive so she could have him tortured and publicly executed. A lesson to all other would-be assassins.

    Well, he wasn't going to let that happen. Either he would die, or she would die. Likely, it would be both.

    "You planning on killing me with that sword?" Sasha asked.

    "Only if you force me to," Anastasia growled. "I'd much rather put you on trial and have you strung up on the walls of the Kremlin, but killing you is a close second. I think you'd much prefer the results to the first option."

    "And why is that?"

    Anastasia's grip on her sword tightened. "Because it'll be less painful for you."

    "I don't care," Sasha said. "You've taken everything from me: if you want to keep me from killing you, you're going to have to kill me first!"

    For a few seconds, there was silence between them.

    Finally, she held her sword up. "So be it!"

    With a yell, she rushed forward, slashing her sword down at Sasha's head.

***

    Zelenko's alive, Nadezhda thought over and over again as she ran through the alleys of St. Petersburg. Zelenko's alive, and he killed Nadya!

    She knew what that would mean: it meant that she either had to kill Zelenko herself, or they would have to face the consequences of him stepping up to the Russian throne.

    But first, she had to escape his men with her life.

    She slammed her back against a wall and prepped her rifle. Three men had chased after her, not including Zelenko. That meant that she would have to take care of three men before going up against Zelenko.

    Three men, she thought to herself as she listened for the footsteps coming towards her. Three men and Zelenko: you've had worse odds.

    You were also a lot younger when you faced those worse odds, though.

    She ducked behind a trash can and took aim at the entrance of the alley. All three of them would have to come that way if they wanted to get to her: if she just stayed right there, she should be able to snipe all of them.

    Just seconds later, the three men came out of the alleyway, just seconds apart from each other.

    Bang! Bang! Bang! She popped off those first three shots with ease, each of them going down in quick succession. Before they even realized what was going on-

    She yelped as a flash of pain attacked her face.

    She put a hand to the fresh graze, stunned. Just an inch to the right, and she would be dead-

    The next thing she knew, she was on the ground, her other cheek throbbing from being pistol whipped, Zelenko standing over her.

    This is how Nadya died. That was the thought that came to her mind as she rolled over onto her back to look Zelenko in the eye.

    "Let me guess," Zelenko said, as if bored, "You're here for me because of what I did to Lenin?"

    "Vladimir and the rest of Russia," Nadezhda spat. "And that poor girl back at the park."

    "Ah, yes," Zelenko said with a nod. "She said something about a boy named Nikola. Her cousin, she told me before I put her out of her misery-"

    Nadezhda smacked him against the face with her gun.

    His head whipped to the side. And then, he grabbed it and ripped it out of her hands, tossing it to the side. It clanged against the wall.

    "Any last words?" He asked, pointing his own gun at her head.

    Without thinking, Nadezhda kicked his knee in as hard as she could.

    He gasped, stumbling.

    She launched herself at him and tackled him to the ground.

    Before he could recover, she ripped the pistol out of his hands, aimed, and fired. Again. And again. And again. Until the gun finally stopped firing.

    For a few moments, Nadezhda just sat there, stared at what she'd done. His face was... gone. It was a bloody, pulped mess, now. His blood covered her, splattered on her face and all over her clothes.

    She started shaking. It was over.

    Commander Zelenko was dead.

***

    Sasha cursed, using his rifle to defend himself from Anastasia's sword. It was hard: she swung wildly, ferociously. It was as if she hadn't been shot, at all.

    Finally, she managed to hit him: she sliced him across the face.

    He cursed, stumbling back, blood and pain blinding him.

    Anastasia took that as her opportunity: she pinned him against the wall, her mechanical hand wrapped around his throat.

    He gasped as all the air left his lungs.

    "This is how it ends, Sasha," Anastasia growled. "My hand at your throat."

    He didn't have a smart-ass response for her: he was trying to pry the metal fingers away from his throat, but to no avail.

    And then, he got an idea.

    "Goodbye, bastard-"

    Anastasia's eyes grew wide, her mouth wide open in an empty gasp.

    She had Sasha's knife in her throat.

    She finally let go and stumbled back. Sasha dropped to the ground, gasping, one hand at his own throat.

    Anastasia's mouth opened and closed, as if she were trying to say something. She had a hand at her throat, trying to stop the bleeding, but both of them knew it wouldn't work: he'd struck an artery, based on how much she was bleeding. She wouldn't have much longer, now.

***

    Snow fell on Anastasia as she took her last breaths.

    She didn't know what to expect from death. She supposed she expected to have her family show up, all dressed in white, ready to take her home. Maybe even to feel light as a feather as she shed her earthly bonds. But, that's not what happened. She felt as if she were sinking into the earth, everything around her turning dark and cold.

    See, Nastya? Rasputin's voice echoed in her mind. See? I told you.

    I told you. I told you...

    Everything around her turned black.

    Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanov, the last of the Romanov line, was dead.
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Alright, guys: we've got one last chapter. I hope you guys enjoyed this one.
Be sure to vote and comment, and I'll see you in a little bit with the FINAL CHAPTER !!