| Der smiled, flicking his tongue. "Your powers are demon in origin and you draw your power from the darkness. The Universe was born out of Darkness and it will end in Darkness and therefore, you are slightly more powerful than Will. Inside each of us is the capacity for good and for evil and they hold equal until the heart decides..." He stopped and regaurded me seriously. "Your love for life, for Will, allows you to use your powers for good. Unless you decide to change." "'I am the Alpha and the Omega'*...So how do I know what choices are the right one?" "Only your heart can tell you." I turned my ears forward and tilted my head. "Does that mean Taka is from the Underworld too?" I asked and Der nodded slightly. "She was concieved in the Dead Zone which allows for her black coloration. I was concieved in the sky and therefore, I'm white." "And your choice is clear?" I inquired. "Because you and Will were born angels...ok, the angel equivilent, your decission is easier?" The white dragon looked off into the distance, ice blue eyes turning indigo. "No, my warrior friend. It makes the decission harder. You can exact revenge. We cannot. Our nature will not allow it. Will cannot retaliate for the death of his brother, nor I for the death of my clan. We instinctivly 'turn the other cheek' if you will and that is more painful than commiting the sin of killing." "But you're a dragon, you do kill." "I kill for food and to defend Taka, Will, yourself, Sleeping Panther, and the TriWorld Sphere, Earth, Nivta, and the Underworld, but not for vengence or hatred." Nodding, I began to understand that Will and Der had it worse off than Taka and I had. "But if I commit the sin of killing, don't I get damned to Hell?" I wondered and Der shook his head. "You kill only to protect those you love, don't you realize that? You have never and will never harm an innocent. It is not in you or in Taka's nature." "But I'm Satan--" Der cut me off with a laugh, ice crystals forming in the air. "You are not Satan and Will is not God..." he thought for a moment. "Will is the Micheal equivilant and you are Death. One cannot exsist without the other. Your nature is Death and therefore you cannot be punished for it. However, Will and I's nature is Life and we can be." "So as long as you kill to protect, you're safe in the loophole, right?" I inquired and Der nodded. "Right. The basic difference is that you can kill those that have wronged you and we can't." I laughed, stretching my wings. "So you spent 5 minutes telling me what you could have said in 5 seconds?" Chuckling in turn, Der shrugged. "I am a teacher," he said and placed his head on his paws, his eyes shutting. "But I grow weary, tiny warrior." "I'll leave you to your beauty sleep," I said, smiling and standing, swinging my tail to get rid of the dirt. "But I have one last question." "Yes?" "Do you love Taka?" StevDer opened one eye that showed something before he quickly masked it with his typical cool exterior. "It isn't meant to be," he said simply, shutting his eye and snoring softly. I knew that he was actually asleep; dragons could trigger a hibernation response when they were injured or food was scarce or they just had insomnia. Walking over, I touched the dragon in between the horns and smiled before taking off to find Will, not noticing that Der smiled in his sleep as well. *Melfina, from 'Outlaw Star' *Revelations in the New Testiment. I have no clue what verse but it's towards the beginning. |