DPOV

I hung in my chains in my human form. My legs gave out a few hours ago, but my hands were numb, and I didn't feel the chains digging into my skin, so that worked out fine. I was going in and out of consciousness. Galina never let me sleep for long. She always had ways to wake me up.

But right now I was in the glorious in between, just between conscious and unconscious. It was my only safe place. Reality was too harsh, and my dreams were filled with nightmares, but in that limbo, I could pretend I was somewhere else. I imagined my Roza. Her smile, her hair, her hands running down my body, twisting into my hair, her lips gently pressed against mine.

But today my images were so real. It was like she was here with me. I felt her fingers brush the hair from my face. She traced the contours of my jaw and put a few strands behind my ear. It felt so real; I almost believed she was there.

"Roza."

Her gentle fingers grew sharp talons and scratched my chest drawing blood.

"So that is what you are holding on too."

Galina's voice broke the spell of Rose, and I returned to a more lucid state. Of all the things she took away from me, my power, my freedom, my sanity, her taking Rose from me, even if it was an imaginary version, nearly destroyed me there and then. I had been able to hold on, just barely for these last few months, but my resolve was wavering.

"I knew there was something keeping you sane, keeping you from complying with my wishes, now I know. This Roza, she is your girl, right. I can see it on your face… Maybe I was doing this all wrong. Maybe I shouldn't be going after you. Maybe I should be going after her."

My eyes widened as I saw Galina was serious. Then with renewed strength, I stood up in my restraints and thrashed against them screaming at her to leave her alone. The agony was clear in my voice, and I knew I sounded more pained then I had in a long time. She stepped back amused at my reaction.

I knew it probably was the stupidest reaction I could have had, but I had lost all reason about a month ago. My mind wasn't able to think strategically anymore. It was barely able to think. All there was left was instinct. Don't give up, stay alive, keep Rose safe.

Galina leaned to my screaming face. She stayed just out of range of my spit and the reach of my arms. The smile on her face was unnerving, but I didn't care. I couldn't see it through the cloud of rage I was currently in.

"Where would that precious girl of you be? Maybe I'll send one of the boys after her. They will obey orders to keep her alive, but I can't guarantee she will arrive here… whole."

I thrashed and thrashed until Galina hit me on the head and I went limp in the shackles, and the darkness took me once more, giving me a small reprieve from my reality. Just before I passed out, I thought I heard a voice say 'here I am', but I couldn't hold to consciousness long enough to be sure.

I woke up to a bright light and a gentle touch. The light was almost too bright for me to open my eyes. I hadn't seen the sun in months, and the only light my eyes had seen was the small light from the torches. But this was like looking at the sun. The sun touched me and immediately filled me with warmth just like the real sun did. I tried to focus but I couldn't. I leaned into the touch until I the thought hit me that this was another one of Galina's trick.

"No, get away from me. Stay away."

I pulled on my chains, and for the first time in months, they gave way. I ripped the collar off; somehow it had gotten loose as well. This was another one of her games. She was giving me something again so she could take it away. Like she took Rose away. Like she was giving me the sun back.

But I wouldn't allow it anymore. I transformed into my Dragon form and lashed out at anything or anyone in the vicinity. I flew when I could, and the parts I couldn't, I crawled on my talons and legs, moving towards the exit. It took me a few times to find the blasted thing, but eventually, I moved into the darkness of the night. Or what was supposed to be the night sky littered with stars. But Galina didn't fool me. I knew this was a trick, no matter how much effort she had put into making this sky look real.

But none of this was real. The only thing I felt was real was my flame returning to me. She had wanted to break me by taking it away again, but I wasn't going to let her. I would make sure she remembered that it was a mistake threatening my Roza, and giving me my flame back.

I felt people pursuing me, and I flew as fast as I could, but I noticed I could barely keep my wings straight. They felt strangely, unwrapped and spread like that. I hadn't been able to do that in over four months. But as more red eyes were pursuing me I knew I had to make a stand. I needed to end them now. Because if I didn't escape now, I never would. I dropped a little towards what looked like a town. No doubt it was a ruse from Galina to make me believe there were people in the vicinity. But I could see their true nature. I could see the redness in their eyes. They were all Snow Dragons in disguise. I took a deep breath and gathered as much of my flame as I could. I would only get one chance. I let it out towards the white ghosts pursuing me in the darkness of the night, their almost translucent white scales making them almost light up.

It felt so good to use my flame and it was eager to burn after months of disuse. The Snow Dragons were nothing but ash as I moved my flame past them and onto the monsters below audacious enough to appear human. Not even their screams could convince me that their fear was real, that their pain was real, because I knew these monsters didn't feel. Nothing besides cruelty.

I hadn't seen Galina, but I knew I hadn't gotten to her. She wouldn't die so easily. She must be hiding in this makeshift town. Or maybe she was back at the cave. I didn't care anymore. All I cared about was staying away from her. I burned everything in a mile radius around me, making sure the trees caught on fire and the ground burned, creating a sort of ring around me.

I couldn't move anymore. I couldn't fly anymore. I couldn't even maintain my Dragon form, and I shifted back to human. I laid down in the smoldering embers that used to be a barn. I was just too tired to move, too tired to fight. If Galina wanted me, she could have me. That is if I was still alive in the morning. That was if I was still alive now and not trapped in my own version of the hellish afterlife.

After months of fighting, after months or holding on, I felt the last of my strength leave me. I prayed to the night sky to end my misery and take me this night. I took comfort in knowing at least I was lying down after four months of being hoisted on chains. It wasn't long before this elaborate illusion that Galina had created to mess with me faded into a world I at least knew wasn't real.

The sun eventually woke me up. Strange, because there was no sunlight in the cave. I was hesitant to open my eyes; I didn't want to see reality. Also, I wanted to believe those soft, gentle fingers stroking my hair and holding my face were of my Roza, and if I opened my eyes, I would see the cruel smile of Galina instead.

But I knew she knew I was awake now. Besides, Galina's cruel nature always came to the surface, and she never portrayed the gentle angel for long. But these hands were still lovingly soothing me and caressing me.

"Comrade?"

Even her voice sounded like Rose. What kind of new torture had she come up with? Had Galina actually succeeded in capturing Rose? If I opened my eyes would Rose be hanging next to me in chains? I whimpered and grabbed hold of the person calling me Comrade. As if holding on to her would keep her from dissolving like the illusion she was.

"Comrade, please open your eyes."

I ducked deeper into her lap. I did find it strange that I was in her lap. Although Galina had been a cruel mistress, alternating between violent strokes of abuse and small gentle caresses, she never came so close to me.

"Comrade please?"

I noticed there wasn't a demanding tone in her voice, just concern, and love. Something that Galina was devoid of.

I finally opened my eyes and saw the wasteland we were in. The sun was in the sky, and I felt the bright rays warm my skin.

I turned around slightly and saw my Roza. The sun illuminated her head like a halo, and she looked every bit the angel I had imagined the past few months. She placed her hand on my chest as I groggily sat up. Tears were escaping her eyes and flooding her face. I gently brushed one away, and she grabbed my hand and leaned into it. The look in her eyes didn't portray any cruelty, no violence, and no pain. There was only love. And at that moment I knew Rose was really here. No Snow Dragon could fake that. I grabbed her arms to steady myself, to never let her go and I began to cry. I began to wail and scream and let all the pain I had been feeling over the last few months that I couldn't show to Galina come out. All the times I had to be strong, but wanted to beg her to end me. All those feelings unleashed themselves from me after months of imprisonment. And I knew that Galina had succeeded, because, I broke.

After most of my sobbing had stopped, I took a good look at Rose. She seemed fine, but I could see cuts and bruises on all the parts of her that were visible to me, and I could only assume that the flesh underneath her clothes was just as marred. There was also a good amount of blood on her. But by the lack of a giant gaping hole in her, I assumed it wasn't hers.

"What happened?" I asked hesitantly. I had no idea what she had done the last couple of months.

"We saved you."

I reluctantly let my eyes leave Rose and focus on the person sitting beside her and saw Christian. I looked around to see if there were others, but I didn't find a single soul alive around here.

"The two of you?"

She nodded.

"Christian and I tracked you here and saved you. Well you saved yourself once we had gotten rid of most of the Snow Dragons, I unchained you, but you took off. You killed the last of the Snow Dragons that followed you from the sand cave."

She hesitantly looked at the scorched earth. I couldn't quite understand the emotion reflected in her eyes. She seemed sad? Sad I killed Snow Dragons?

"What about Galina?" I asked, dreading the answer. Rose was still alive and relatively unharmed, probably meaning she hadn't crossed paths with Galina. But the small smile on Rose's face told a different story.

"I killed her. She might have expected a Dragon to come for you, but she didn't expect me. It was hard taking her down. I got most of these from fighting her. You didn't wake up until after I had taken her down. But you seemed a little out of it. I don't think you recognized me back then. So you took off and flew out of the cave."

"You did look a bit different back then." I heard Christian comment on Rose's explanation.

She looked different? She unchained me? All I could remember was a sun. A warm and gentle sun. Had that been Rose?

Wait.

You killed the last of the Snow Dragons that followed you from the sand cave.

You didn't wake up until after I had taken her down.

So you took off and flew out of the cave.

Galina was dead before I took off and was unchained, meaning it wasn't a trick. I flew out of the cave. And killed the last Snow Dragons that had followed me? I got up from the ground and looked around at the devastation I had caused. I am no longer in the cave. And all Snow Dragons that were in the vicinity followed me from the cave and I killed them. Then what had I seen in the village? Who did I kill?

I came to the horrible conclusion that this village had in fact been a village but was now reduced to ashes. Ashes of the houses they lived in, ashes of the trees that surrounded it, and ashes of bones of the people who lived here. I had massacred an entire village. That was why Rose was looking around in sadness. She was mourning the humans who had made this their home, whose lives had been destroyed by a monster like me.

I fell to the ground, and Rose was beside me in an instant. She tried to hug me, but I pushed her away.

"Don't come near me," I growled, and I saw her back up a little startled.

"Dimitri?"

"Stay away. You should stay away from a monster like me."

She slowly approached me again, she tried to put her hand on my shoulder, but I pulled it out of her reach. She withdrew her hand again.

"You are not a monster Dimitri, why would you think that?"

I got up a little agitated. How could she still look at me like she was seeing Dimitri the Honorable? I was anything but. Galina may not have won, but she did succeed in killing the revered General.

I gestured around as if Rose was crazy or blind.

"Look at this Rose, I did this. I destroyed this village. I killed all those people. They had spent months in close proximity with Galina, yet survived only to be brutally murdered by me."

Rose got up as well. She stayed where she was, not wanting to spook me.

"This isn't your fault. You were confused after months of being tortured by her. Nobody is blaming you for not being a hundred percent aware of what was going on. I can only image what you went through."

The worst thing Rose could imagine couldn't possibly come even close to the truth, and it shouldn't. Only someone as cruel as Galina could imagine the things she did to me. She looked down my body, and I knew it wasn't to check out my naked body. Maybe I would have preferred that. She was looking at me with pity. I knew I was covered in scars from Galina's sadistic games. Cuts and burns and bite marks littered my body.

She came a little closer. She still wasn't touching me, but I let her near me without recoiling.

"What happened here was tragic, but it wasn't your fault Dimitri. You weren't yourself. If you want to blame anyone, blame the ashes of Galina currently scattered across the desert. You weren't you, you were exhausted and in pain and honestly, you don't look much better now. Let's get out of here and go home so you can heal."

Heal? I didn't deserve to heal. I didn't deserve to live. Galina had taken everything from me, my strength, my name, and my sanity. Now she had taken my virtue and made me a monster. I wondered if there was enough left of me even to carry on. I felt so empty; I was just a shell that had vaguely resembled a person once.

Rose closed the distance between us and placed her soft hand on my chest. It was so light I could barely feel it. But it stirred something in me. Somewhere in my heart, there was something Galina hadn't taken from me. She hadn't taken Rose. I wanted to selfishly hold on to her, to the last remaining piece of me. But I pulled back. How long would it take Rose to figure out that Galina really killed her Comrade? How long would it take her to leave?

I cast my eyes to the ground and looked away. She withdrew her hand in disappointment, and I tried very hard not to desperately take it back and cling to it.

"We should move out. I don't know how many Snow Dragons knew about this place, but there could be more coming this way. Also, we need to report to Stan or command."

I saw Rose nod at Christian's level-headed remark.

"I want to take him back to the cave. Let him heal a bit before we subject him to any questioning from the military or court. Maybe we can contact Lee with information about Galina. They will need to strike now and eliminate the threat once and for all."

Rose sounded so commanding and sure of herself. She had really grown these last few months. She and Christian seemed to have come to some understanding as well. Rose would be a fine warrior in our troops. She had blossomed where I had withered and died.

Rose and Christian spoke about some particulars I didn't care about. I sat down again, too tired to do anything else. I heard Christian groan once or twice, but eventually, they had come to some sort of consensus about what to do next.

"Here are some clothes. They are a little short for you, but that is all we got right now." Christian handed me a set of clothes from a backpack. Obviously, they had been meant for him.

Of course, there wouldn't be any other clothes around. I had destroyed the one place in the vicinity that might have provided them.

Christian transformed into his Dragon form and bowed down to let Rose climb his back. When Rose gestured to me to get on, I understood what Christian had been whining about. I tried to say no. It was ridiculous for one Dragon to ride another, but I knew if I wanted to get out of here, I would have to. There was no way I had enough strength to transform, and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to fly a reasonable distance. So I got on, and we took off. Back to a life I didn't think was meant for me any longer.