I do not own inheritance cycle but I do own Alanna along with themes in this. Well I own most of the themes in this though some of them do bear some resemblance to the events that take place in Eragon.

Yay, not so depressing!

This starts off in Alanna's POV, I simply felt I ought to make the point that if I don't say who's POV it is then it will be Alanna's POV.

The power of love: Chapter 20

"What the hell do you think your doing?" Eragon's words cut at me.

"Getting rid of a loose end from the battle."

I raised the dagger in my hand again, I pushed it with all my strength at my chest.

"Letta." Eragon's voice rebuked me. Closing my eyes I said goodbye to him again silently.

…........Why was I not dead? Opening my eyes I saw to my surprise that the dagger had stopped, an inch for killing me. A hand entered my view, it grabbed the dagger and threw it across the room.

"No. you will not take yourself away from me. I won't let you." I could tell he meant every single word of it.

"I just can't go on living. I just can't."

"Too bad. I need you. You are the air that I breath."

Eragon knelt down in front of me. "Don't you see? Our lives, our wryda are entwined. You cannot escape your fate.

"My fate is to die here, now."

"It's not."

"Then why do I feel like it should be?"

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Alanna, people don't fight for fun, they fight to protect something they care about. I fight to protect people and things I love, things that are important to me. The freedom of Alagaesia for one, Saphira, and...... You. I do not take pleasure in war, nor should I, nor should you. But I do recognize the necessity of it."

"The way I killed the red rider was horrible though. He died begging for release. He had to listen to his dragon die. No one should have to do that, die without that which they love most."

Eragon raised an eyebrow making me look down in shame.

"I cannot pretend that what you did was okay. However I can forgive you for it, you saved my life. Besides, you had no choice, if you hadn't killed him he would have been forced by the oaths laid on him by Galbatorix to try and kill you. He would have also been bound to kill many others. You saved them from death too."

"The Varden are afraid of me. I see it in their eyes, I hear it in their voices when they talk to me."

"Fear will turn to gratitude and awe when they realize what you did on a larger scale."

"And I did what? Kill a man to save myself? How does that make them want to thank me?"

"You saved their freedom. When you were captured by the shade you would rather have given up your life than your freedom, wouldn't you?"

"Yes." I muttered barely audible.

"So would they. You saved their lives so they could continue to live free."

I tried to think of an argument Eragon hadn't shouted down to prove I was right to kill myself. "But......"

"You have the ability to save hundreds of thousands of lives from the oppression of Galbatorix. I can't defeat him on my own, I need your help. Please, stay with me."

He had effectively taken away every argument I had put before him. Desperate now I said, "I killed a man in cold blood, as far as I'm concerned I have done nothing for the Varden that helps them, my own father betrayed you to the Empire."

"His faults are not yours. And if you were not here this would have happened anyway. We would have had no advance warning so we would have been overcome. The Empire would have been trapped under the cruel rule of Galbatorix for a very long time."

I struggled to stop Eragon's words from washing away my guilt. I failed, miserably.

"Whatever would I do without you?"

"Good things that helped many people I hope."

I smiled, my first true smile in a while. "Thank you."

I felt a cold draft swirl around my back. Glancing behind me I noticed the missing door.

"Um, can we go somewhere else or would you help me repair my door."

I picked up a shard of the door, it was one of the larger ones and it was no longer than my finger.

"I don't think the dwarves will be too happy about that. Lets go somewhere else, I don't know what I could say to fix it."

Helping me up off the floor he saw the cuts on my legs from where the shards of mirror had hit me. Kneeling he held his hand over then saying "Waise hail."

We went outside where Saphira joined us.

"It is good to see you back to your usual self, all the moping was getting a little boring."

"Now wait just a minute I was not moping!" I so was not.

A silence met me as Eragon and Saphira looked at me incredulously,

"Much." My voice was very quiet.

Saphira showed her teeth, and made a coughing sound in the back of her throat. It wasn't until Eragon began laughing that I realized that was what Saphira was doing.

Thinking about it I realized that I had actually been moping, badly. Joining in with the laughter I reflected on the difference between my bearing now and three hours early, I felt like a new person.

"Nausada wants us to attend the commemoration of the dead tomorrow."

"Okay, I'll try not to kill myself before then." Though I'd intended it as a joke no one laughed. "A joke."

"It wasn't very funny."

"Well it's the best I can do."

"I can do better."

"Prove it."

"No."

"Then I win by default."

Eragon's expression became crafty, "Do you want to know what you win?"

"I took one look at his expression. "No."

"Too bad."

"What? Why?"

"Because you'll like it." he murmured, his face coming close to my face.

"Hmmm, well that's okay then."

He kissed my nose, "Are you sure, I wouldn't want you to do anything you didn't want to."

"I'm sure."

"Okay."

He kissed me again, this time on the lips. It went on for a while.

When we eventually broke away my breathing was ragged. "Wow, some prize I won."

Eragon and Saphira joined in with my laughter this time.

The ceremony was dull, many people talked that I'd never seen, there were many little things I didn't know about. Eragon had to coach me on them under his breath.

I thought it was silly, why would sitting or kneeling at a certain time help honor the dead? And why would they care if I got it right?

Two quotes that were said stuck with me though, they were, "Remember their smile and all the best times you had with them, that is what is important, do not dwell on the sad, it serves no purpose." And, "The highest honor you can pay to the dead is upholding what they believed and aiming for what they aimed for. That way you will still hold them in your hearts for helping you to achieve something."

Most of the time I didn't pay much attention, too busy trying to think of something I could aim for that would help me remember the sacrifice of the dead.

As the ceremony came to it's conclusion I came to a decision, I would kill Galbatorix, that would help stop many other families from losing members.

This was how I would redeem myself in the eyes of those I scared. Though I would have to kill someone I could easily justify it, with the reasons given to me last night by Eragon. I refused to be a monster, but I would be more of a monster if I didn't do this. Galbatorix was not innocent, bound by oaths or ignorant, he was a monster, not like me because I didn't want to be, he was a monster because he enjoyed it.

"Goodbye Galbatorix, I hope you like it in the void of the dead."

Ha ha, this is quite a change, from the deepest pit on earth to nice fluffy clouds.

I do NOT agree with Eragon's views of war but I needed something to bring Alanna back to reality after trying to kill herself. Now she won't even try again. But lets not have me ranting on about war again, you've already heard it.

Please review because I would like to know what needs to be fixed/changed/improved.