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Chapter 9 â€" Your Sins Follow You

"You must forgive yourself before others can forgive you" - Unknown

Location: Alta-Vista Forest â€" North Terra

Diamond sat and watched the flames rise from the camp-fire. He was deep in a wood on Terra that the Asgard had obviously not touched. He watched Anna and Silver deeply cuddle each other, snuggling for the warmth of the fire and also to control their grief.

Eclypse had died and the Terra Nova was damaged beyond repair. The ship had crashed into some trees, most of the ship was burned up in the atmosphere however enough landed to ensure the survival of the crew. Anna, Silver and Hy had been coming to terms with Eclypse's sudden deaths. Slightly hopeful however that he was going to miraculously escape the destruction of the Tigris.

Diamond could offer no words of comfort. He owed Eclypse his life, he had been poisoned by the Asgard for so long and to finally have his free will back was an extraordinary feeling. But once he had awoken from his long slumber, he was confronted by Blackfire revealing who he was and what he was responsible for.

He was spared death... for now.

However he wished that he had died. He had to live with the pain of the many Terrans that he had sacrificed to serve the Asgard. He had willingly allowed Loki to inhabit his body after he could not cope with sacrificing Lance for the Asgard cause. He had intense feelings about sacrificing someone that he could honestly say, he loved. He had never loved Obsidian as much as Lance.

He had used the Asgard as an excuse for running away from his pain.

"So..." said Blackfire, who was cooking some rations recovered from the Nova on the camp-fire. "What are we supposed to do now?" He stared, his eyes blazing at Diamond.

Diamond hung his long, white muzzle low. Avoiding eye contact.

"Oi! HORSE! I'm talking to you!" he said, leaning forward with a cold glare. "Don't you wanna kill another million Terrans!?"

Diamond just ignored what the Dragon was saying and held his head down low, avoiding eye contact again with him. He did not like the crews hatred of him but he could understand it.

"DON'T YOU IGNORE ME!" Yelled Blackfire after a few seconds of silence, swinging his fist across at Diamond from the other end of the camp-fire. Diamond instantly fell back, allowing the Dragon to hit him straight in the face. He sat back up and stared at Blackfire, his green eyes soft and fragile, almost as if somebody could break them.

"Oi!" shouted Silver at Blackfire. Diamond looked up surprised that he would stand up for him. "We have a high-ranking Asgard prisoner here. It's better if we don't hurt 'im"

"Too hopeful" thought Diamond.

"Yeah but he's responsible for a lot of deaths!" shouted Blackfire, he got up and looked ready to have a fight with Silver over this.

"Yeah but we have an advantage...If he's alive and uninjured"

"He" is sat right here" cut in Diamond at that point, looking up at Silver and Blackfire standing toe to toe and ready to fight.

"We know... fucktard" said Blackfire, his blazing eyes staring down at Diamond as he drew his hand back to slap him again. Diamond flinched but nothing came down on him. Anna had caught Blackfire's long, green arm in mid flight and was holding it tight.

"Enough! Guys, we need to plan our next move..." said Anna, letting go of Blackfire's arm instantly.

"Maybe we kill this horse and leave him in the forest to rot!" shouted Blackfire, his face was very red, a little smoke coming from his mouth.

"And what would that accomplish?" asked Hy, looking at Blackfire with distrust. Hy was not completely sure of Blackfire's intentions or if he was even in the resistance as he claimed. He seemed a little young to be a resistance leader.

"Well..." started Blackfire, picking up his rifle. Diamond felt a sharp pain on his neck as Blackfire put his heavy black boot on Diamond's neck, pushing it down to the mossy ground. He pointed the rifle, which was a black and elegant weapon straight at Diamond's face.

Diamond looked up at Blackfire in silence, part of him of begging him to do it and put him out of his misery once and for all...

Blackfire cocked the gun... He so wanted to kill Diamond, he had the motive and the shot and he was going to take it.

Location: Alta-Vista Forest â€" North Terra

Diamond lay amongst the trees and bushes, watching them slowly entwine round his soul as he lay in the brush. He had been there for what seemed like days when in actuality it had only been a few hours. He lay in the clearing, looking upwards at a small gap in the dense trees where he could see the blue tint of twilight.

"What am I doing here?" he thought to himself as he tried to shuffle himself away from the razor-sharp leaves that were embedding themselves into his back. It was like laying on a bed of hypodermic needles. "Am I going to die...?"

Diamond flinched as he tried to move. Searing, burning pain seemed to lace its way up his legs. He looked down at his legs, being completely naked in the middle of a dark forest.

His legs were bloody and had begun to go a little more numb with each passing second. Blackfire had not been joking about shooting him, he had shot him in both legs as the rest of the crew had walked off. A fitting end for a traitor.

All Diamond had to do was wait.

Wait for a cold and lonely death.

"My, my, my" said a voice in Diamond's head as he lay there silently. "You betrayed your people and look what that has got you!"

"Shut up!" shouted Diamond, breaking the silence so loudly that a flock of birds burst out of the trees behind him. Making him jump and sit bolt upright.

"You can try to shut me out... but it won't work" said the voice that was inside his mind. It sounded like him but only a little more ominous. "You're a murderer... you killed Lance but that was not enough for you. Was It!? You gave yourself up to a murderous god and have EVEN more blood on your hands!"

Diamond flinched, he was on the verge of loosing all reason. He could feel death creeping up on him, ready to pounce him and ensure that he never saw the light of day again. His hands shot up onto his head as he cried;

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

The voice in his mind began to laugh out in a melodious manner, it seemed to taunt him. Goading him to attack it. But then it was just in his head. Tears rolled down his cheek, he was going to die here.

"Die like the murderer that you are"

"Oh my poor little pegasus". Diamond looked up as a green light seemed to envelop around him carefully. The green energy slowly lifted him off the floor, he felt a warmth in the presence of such energy. Diamond looked up at the green energy that had turned him over so that he was no standing up, only not over his own power. There was a woman.

The woman was perfectly beautiful, her hair flowing in the wind that echoed through the woods behind her. "What have my people done to you?" she asked in a compassionate term, bending forwards to look at Diamond who was still encased in the green energy.

"...You're a god!?" asked Diamond, trying to find the words to explain how he felt at that very moment. She had been a comforting force, an angel from the heavens that had saved him from a cold and lonely death. Maybe she had come to console him in the last few moments of his life?

The young woman chuckled and stared at Diamond, almost looking cynical about what he had just said. "I... or my race, are not Gods" she compounded. "In my confinement, I have watched Odin, and my people interfere with many civilisations claiming to be "gods"... But I assure you that we are not."

Diamond felt almost like he would cry at that very moment, his whole imagery of the "Gods" being all powerful and doing no wrong was shattered by that very statement. His whole life he had been taught to believe that the Asgard would lead him as a servant to their divine will.

He looked down at the floor. "B...But... that means..." he said, almost about to burst into tears over his guilt. He collapsed to his knees, feeling the weight of the countless evils he had committed in the name of the Asgard.

"You should not carry the burden" said the woman, lightly tapping Diamond's shoulder as he knelt at his feet. "It is not your fault that you have been deceived... we all need things that we can believe in."

"Yes Diamond, we do"

Diamond looked up, his wide eyes filled with a disbelief at what stood before him. He stared for ages before he would even let his eyes accept it.

A wolf was standing before him, the one that meant so much to him, the one that he had betrayed in order to protect the interests of the Asgard.

Lance...