Well I'm not Paralyzed, but I seem to be struck by you. I wanna make you move, BECAUSE YOU'RE STANDING STILL OH MY GOD ROSE DO SOMETHING ALREADY.

As Dimitri had pounded into my head so very often, Don't Hesitate. It was why I was here in the first place.

And right now, there were quite a few Strigoi waiting for me to do something. Anything. Breathe, even. Dimitri touched my arm softly and glared into my eyes. He sent the same message everyone was.

But I didn't know what to do.

There stood my best friend…forever. There stood what had kept me from my lover, my soul mate for so long. In that cage contained the source of most if not all of my mortal suffering, but in that cage contained what I had spent my mortal life trying to save.

I was torn between hatred and relief - Vasilisa Dragomir was delivered alive and well, just as ordered. Was that good? Was that bad? I didn't know. I. Didn't. Know.

But I had to say something. Anything.

I chose to take the cold Strigoi she and all the rest would be expecting. "Vasilisa Dragomir…," I began.

She was paralyzed as I had been, but not with confusion. With fear. She, following my lead, decided to turn angry at me.

"Rose! You…you…I don't even know what to say to you! You-AAARGH!" She was interrupted by a Strigoi shocking her through the cage controls. Her scream pierced the heavens.

"No," I ordered. "Let her fight back with words. It is the only way she can fight back."

The minion grumbled and went off to the side, clearly disappointed in not being able to shock her more.

It was odd. I felt no sympathy for her. In fact, I thought she was being an amusing brat. But mortal habits stayed with you into the undead. I still wanted to protect her. It was almost like a reflex. Could I train myself out of it?

Back to the real matter at hand though. She had been sent here on a decision we made while weak. While mortal. She was my key to getting my soul back - and Dimitri's. But did we really want our souls back? The sides without a soul didn't, the side with a soul did. Both sides wanted their side to be the permanent one.

Of course, right now I saw nothing good in going back to weak, dhampir Rose, and I found my fanged Dimitri much sexier than the fangless one.

Still, I wasn't going to kill her. I couldn't. And I couldn't order anyone else to do it nearby me, or even out of sight, because I would stop them. I would order Dimitri to do it, but he would have to keep it a secret from me. I didn't want him to keep any secrets from me.

Something else I was forgetting though…was that there were not just two choices. It wasn't just turning us back or killing her. There was always a third option.

But Dimitri would have to be okay with it…

I didn't know which method to take with persuading him. Submissive or dominant. Perhaps I would just stay neutral until his opinion on the matter was clear.

Thankfully for me, everyone could see my long reflection on the matter. It wasn't as if Lissa scared me. I was carefully planning how I would kill her…so they thought.

I took Dimitri to the side and began to whisper in his ear.

"I propose that we awaken her. Opinions?"

He pushed me away and began to roar. "No! Absolutely…" His eyes trailed over Lissa as his speech trailed off.

"Hmm." Dimitri scratched his chin softly, then continued our conversation in a barely audible whisper. "It could, perhaps, work. Why do you want to do that?"Well, I sure as hell wasn't going to tell him it was because I just couldn't kill her. That would make me weak. But I couldn't come up with any other good reason.

If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.

"She would make a very valuable asset, don't you think? What with her Spirit abilities and all."

He furrowed his brow. "They'd be gone the instant she awakened."

Well that didn't work. "Um…" I couldn't come up with anything.

He gave me a dark smirk. "Are old habits hard for you to break, Roza?" Dimitri softly stroked my hair, caressed my cheek, and leaned in for the kiss.

I took it. It would make him much easier to persuade. It was relatively short, although I picked up one saying, "Oh, get a room…" He'd be dead later when I found out who he was.

Dimka couldn't help but smile. "Ah, Roza…I accept." My face lit up. "With two conditions." It dropped, along with his smile.

"She is weak. She will be our minion. You will treat her like one. She is not your friend anymore."

I felt like it should hit me harder than it did, but I didn't really feel anything. Awakening was the best route for her. And as long as I didn't have to kill her, I would be fine bossing her around. It would get out some of my resentment for her. I could order her instead of the other way around.

I didn't know why Dimitri wanted it this way until he clung tighter to me. "You are mine! No one will take my place in your heart!" His voice boomed off the walls. He stared straight into Lissa's eyes. "No one."

After a long stare, he turned back to me. "Condition number two." Oh shit. I had forgotten there were two.

There was a long pause.

"You will be the one to awaken her."

((Sorry about the short chapter. I knew I had to write something. I just felt it. But unfortunately my brain's too fried from all of the school I do to write something long and interesting. So here, have a crappy chapter. Read, Review, beg me to write more, I'm getting a Darth Vader lamp on Friday.))