AN: I know, shame on me for such a short update ;o

Again, thanks to all the reviews, alerts and favorites. It really keeps me going and happy and it gives fuel to write more. So really, thank you everyone that put their time to write and click things ;)

And, I just wanted to give a shout out to Soulmates, by Erynnar. It's a very good story and with a unique plot. If you haven't read it yet, go and do so. You won't regret it :)

On with the story then...

When they had sprinted down the hill, Diana was the fastest one to slice her daggers through a genlock. She pushed him off her, and remained while the rest of the group hurried past her to attack the darkspawns. Zevran stood next to Diana, "GO! Kill things!" She said to him and he hurried of to help the others, while she was set upon the ogre. She smiled while the two of them ran towards each other. The moment she was going to jump it, she stopped dead in her tracks. She could not explain it. Her heart pounded three times faster the normal speed. She tried jumping it but her body held her back. The ogre had stopped to, and that scared her the most, that should not happen. It bended down and stared her in the eyes. Those black little things for eyes seem to register her. Diana had lost all track of her surrounding, all the noise and the environment was gone. The ogre had taken a step towards her, and was but a few inches away from her. It could probably kill her in a blink of an eye, seeming that she was only standing there, unable to do anything. The ogre breathed heavily and foam from it nostrils emerged. Diana tried to take out her dagger and slice of its throat, but couldn't. Instead she took out her hand, stiffened some centimeters from it. It didn't move and she touched the ogre on the cheek. It can't be a mindless creature, she thought, when it was just standing there, obviously knowing what she did and what it is supposed to do. The skin felt so dry and evil, and Diana was stroking it gently, smoothly throughout the rough skin. She heard singing, from where, she could not say, but it was beautiful and soothing.

Her trance got broken when a certain commander grabbed her by the waist form behind away from the creature, and that Zevran used the opportunity to jump the ogre. It was furious though and in it's spite, its armored arm shoved him away like a person brushing of a fly. Zevran flew and landed hard against a tree. Diana screamed, and tried to get out from David's grasp. He let her, while he yelled out "Kill the ogre!" to the men close to it. There was not many darkspawns left, but there were fewer of them.

Get up, get up, get up, get up! You can't die! She ran towards the elf, whom was not moving. She crashed down beside him, and turned him, so she could see his face. He was pale like a ghost and his armor was bended. She leaned in to see if he was still breathing.

Thank the Maker, he's alive.

"Warden!!" She turned and saw the Commander yelling at her, while he got his longsword out from the dead ogre's throat. He and Gareth were the only ones alive and they were surrounded by the remaining darkspawns. Diana looked back at Zevran to reassure she would be back and hurried towards her brothers. She sliced of the head of the genlock whom was standing with its back towards her and went to the side of the Wardens. They stood, formed like a little triangle while the monsters kept circling around them.

How, she wondered. They are supposed to be scattered and stupid. Not organized! Diana tried her best to ignore the song in her head. It was powerful, and while she did kill the darkspawns, she felt remorse for doing so. Remorse....she just realized how sick her fighting had been in this battle. And it was not the good kind of sick. At least though, she could still hold a sword and fight. She had now really woken up, and felt disgusted with herself. Remorse....

She ignored it and the fellow wardens, and hurried back to Zevran. She hated the fact that they did not bring a healer with them. How could they have been so stupid? She detached the healing poultices and poured them down the unconscious assassin.
You can't die on me! I won't let you!

Diana gently started to unbuckle his armor so he could breathe properly. She only took away the chest piece, lifted up his tunic to scan for more wounds. He had bruised stomach, and she gently felt the side for broken bones. And one broken rib. Damn it! She wondered if the dalish are still close by or if they had moved their clan now since the archdemon.

She held him in her arms, and looked up. All the guards were dead, but Gareth seemed to search for survivors. The commander was gone, so she assumed he was in the hut with the females. The village was burnt down and the stench was foul.

"Gareth!" She cried out his name. The blond man looked and hurried to her side. They had never actually talked, but he was the one that had treated her like a sister.

"I need help!" She said, her voice cracking.

Gareth took of Zevran's gauntlets and his boots. And gently he took him in his arms and put him away from the battle under one of the trees.

"This is the best we can do for now." he said neutrally. Diana could understand. He just lost a fellow brother.
"Will he make it?" She asked, hoping that he had any knowledge about this. And dreaded the answer to be something she didn't want to hear.

"It's two days trip back to Denerim, and we aren't done here. But hopefully he should be...fine." Diana didn't like how Gareth said fine with such insecurity.
"You might want to find a blanket." He added and left.

She ran back to where they had put down their supplies for the battle, and hurriedly searched for a blanket. When she found one she sprinted back to Zevran and gently covered his body with it. She kissed him on the forehead. "I will be back shortly. My silly silly assassin." She whispered.

She went to the hut where the Commander was. She entered and couldn't believe what she saw.

The women, ten of them she counted, were in chains, and been badly mistreated. Some of them were way worse then others and looked...deformed in some way. Diana had to cover her nose and mouth from the odor of stool, blood and vomit. What have the fiends been doing to these people?

She then had a sudden flashback when she was in chains the last time...She staggered and David caught her.
"Step up, sister!" This was the first time he called her sister and had true compassionate voice when speaking to her. She nodded and stepped carefully to one of the women, the one closest to her. The woman's hair was dark red and stiff thanks to the dried blood. She was sitting against the wall of the hut, having both feet and hands cuffed. She had a dirty damaged, torn, dress. Diana sat down close, and the girl flinched terribly. "I'm sorry." Diana whispered. This was a bit like a deja vu for her, this was just the even more horrible version. She heard David behind her, and he found the key to the chains.

Since when did the darkspawn use keys?

He was talking to the other women on his side, trying to calm them down. After a moment, he grabbed Diana fiercely by her shoulders and dragged her outside the tent.

"We need to help them-" She tried saying while he swung her like a doll.
"Did you not feel it?" He hissed under his breath. She frowned.

"Feel what?"

"Some of them, didn't you notice it?" He said again.

He was getting on her nerves, and she wanted to help these women and her lover, not standing here talking cryptically.

"What?"
"Some of them are changing." His voice wailed off.

Diana yanked her arm back and shook her head. She didn't want to believe it.

"That can't be possible."
"Not possible?" He almost shouted

"Did you not see them?! Half of them are already dead!" He growled. Diana looked down on the ground.

"We need to help them!" She stubbornly stated, keeping her eyes on the ground.
"Free them."
"Did you not hear me? Half of them are dead. They would accept their death now. We can't let them live." He was livid, waving his arms around him.
Diana now looked at him. She just did not believe what had escaped his lips.

"If you are saying what I think you are saying the-" She tried saying, with her voice steadily raising.

"Don't!" He said, putting his finger roughly on her lips.

"You know as well as I do." He ended it. She turned from him. She could not kill them, no matter how weak, how changing they were. She just couldn't.

"You want to get to Denerim as fast as possible, don't you? For your elf1 That will not be possible if we need to take these women with us."
She slowly faced him.
"You mean killing them?"
"It has to be done!" He yelled at her. She stood there numb-struck by his desire to kill defense less humans. Not desire, but feeling the need to kill them. Would they be better then the darkspawns if she stood by seeing him killing the women. And then it was her, she was selfish as she wanted to get Zevran back as soon as possible to the capital.

"There has to be an another way!"
"Fine, Fine! I'm your Commander. You are a weak, Warden, it still amazes me how you survived the Blight." He spat out, and stared at her with his red bloody eyes.

"Stay out of this or I will kill you." He turned and went inside. Diana could hear him draw his sword, and the high pitched screams, that one by one got silenced by the blade. She let him...she let him do that, because back in her mind she wanted Zevran to be safe, and that was to a cost of ten innocent women...she let him, how could she? Her parents not to mention Alistair would be deeply disappointed, that's a understatement. She remained stuck in her spot, trembling, realizing what she let come to past. Feeling the grass under her as she collapsed onto the ground.

It might as well had been she that killed them, in cold blood, as she just stood there and let it happen. This was not her, she concluded, she as she knew herself would have fought harder, and not let that come to past. He said some of them were changing, maybe it would have been a release for them, but what about the rest? No matter how she put it, she was a crucial part of this onslaught. And also the ogre, what the hell is wrong her? Something deeply is. She clutched her belly.
Diana wanted to go home, away from this place, not mention this to anyone. She saw David stepping out of the hut, blood all over his armor and blade, as he wiped it off with the nearest clot piece. He looked at her, his expression unreadable and just left to find Gareth.