here it finally is ! I'm sorry for the delay, life has been complicatedj lately, and I'm on my own to solve my problems^^

Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy this last chapter =3

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“Not… your fault. My… fault.”
“Then I don’t care about it,” she screamed, incapable of hearing it anymore. “You hear me?! I don’t care!”
She was desperate… Now, she knew everything. He had stepped in this machine, erasing his birth because he considered himself the source of her tragedy, and responsible for all she had done ever since.
“Past is past, human.” She said, holding her sobbing. “You once told me this was how people in this city kept living with hope. And you had given me hope; hope for a better future… I could have gotten past it; we could have found a way. You decided to help me despite what I had done to you, and I wanted to do the same.”
Fred came close to her, and put a hand on her shoulder. Before, in another life, she would have killed him for that. But now, she simply didn’t care…
“I’m sorry, Kalnera… I, too, have hated you to death… But now that I know everything, all is left are regrets…”
“How long does he have?” she asked with difficult.
“I don’t know… not much… I also wish he had never done that… but there’s nothing we can do…”
Wish he had never done that. This sentence tickled her, like an instinctive reflex. She always had good intuitions… What if… What if it was… possible?
“You told me this machine could hold one paradox…” She remembered with a spark of hope. “Could it… handle two?”
“I… don’t understand…”
“Was it specified that only humans could enter this machine? Was it specified only one being could use it? What was told about it?”
“It was… only specified that the machine would only open for the purest and truest wishes…” He stopped himself, suddenly uncertain of her thoughts. “Kalnera, what do you have in mind?”
She didn’t reply, and stepped in front of the machine, putting a paw on the invisible wall. She smiled hesitatingly at this crazy hope… simply because this was all she had left. Maybe she could save him after all…
What had the white shadow said? That she wouldn’t exist anymore after a disruption in time? What if this strange being had seen her… entering in this machine as well, getting out of reach? It was silly, stupid, and dangerous, but it was worth the try… For him…
“I wish to cancel his cancellation.” She spoke clearly.
For a few seconds, nothing happened. Pressure held against her paw, but then she felt the invisible contact faint. The wall had just disappeared.
“Kalnera… stop…” The human tried to speak through his memories.
“You can’t stop me, human. This is something you barely ever got.” She laughed in a voice shaking from her emotions. “You think you’re saving me, but what will I become without you in this new world? I know for sure you’re the only one who will make me able to be happy and stop me from becoming a monster. It wasn’t my tragedy that changed me. It was up to me to forget and move on back then like you did, to break the cycle of violence, but I chose to carry it on... What I will need is a guide, a keeper… Someone who will show me the world isn’t only about violence. I need you… And I will try all I can to bring you back, no matter the cost.”
She stepped forward, but Fred held her back by the shoulder.
“Wait, please…”
“You’re not going to stop me either.” She replied calmly to the old human.
“I know, it’s just… I wanted to tell you things before it’s too late…” He spoke in discomfort. “Because I don’t remember if I ever told you, my wife and newborn son perished because of you too.”
“And I’m sorry for that. I really am.” She apologized. “But I’ll do my best to correct my mistakes…”
“I know you want to, but what you’re about to do, Kalnera… How to say… we don’t know what will be the result… If you cancel his cancelation, the world might start over, but it could also just carry on the way it is…”
She understood his worries… She kept in mind that he had lost people he cared for too, and that she might be erasing his last hopes to see them again.
“I promise I’ll do my best to save them if I get the opportunity.”
“It’s not about that… My wife had a too weak heart to handle giving birth anyway. She would have died without you as well. And for my son… well, I moved on a long time ago. But working on this machine, speculating about the wonders that could be brought with it… It made me think about myself…”
He stared at her right in the eyes, but this time, she couldn’t understand. If he wasn’t worried for the people he had lost, what was he worried about? She decided it would be better to let him tell it by himself.
“When I was younger, I was ambitious, and I would have never stepped back until I would reach my goals, whatever the cost… even if I had to step on others to do so… But my own tragedy changed it. Having you to blame for my misery changed my state of mind. Sharing misfortune brings people closer to each other. This is why I started to show compassion, wanting to be a fair and caring ruler instead of a tyrant who would have imposed his way. I… I’m just afraid of who I’d become, if my story is rewritten…”
She stayed surprised, but not astonished. After all, despite all the anger she had shown to him, this human was a good soul… He always cared about others, probably more than himself. He had been like a father to her guide, even in his darkest moment. She remembered like yesterday how threatening he was to her when he thought she was a torment for the young man…
“You’re a good man, Fred Guien. I think this is why I remembered your name so easily. I’ve always felt it.” She tried to reassure him. “I’m sure that whatever happens, whoever you become, you’ll always act for the greatest good.”
He nodded in silence and smiled sadly. He had never looked like a weak human before, but she had the feeling he was a crying boy in the inside as well. Just like her guide…
“Fred Guien…” He repeated in a single breath. “When I came to be the head of this city, I told everyone to forget about my last name. Back then, it was only to appear friendly to the council that was watching over me in my command. I might have been the ruler in appearance, but they were those who pulled the strings in the shadow… And then, you appeared. And given their age, none of them survived the rude conditions of the city, and I was alone to rule… with no one to restrain me. This is when I really started to change. I was wondering if I could finally be called by my last name, to inspire respect to people. But it came to me that what they needed wasn’t a ruler… They needed a fatherly pattern, or a familiar guardian angel to not feel alone with their misery. So for the first time, I took a decision exclusively for others…”
He approached the machine, and looked at the young man inside.
“I decided I’d be a father to them all, just like I tried to be for him… Children have to be able to call their father by their name, so I let them forget my last name for good, so they would never feel intimidated to come and talk to me…”
He then turned toward her, and looked at her with a pitiful look.
“I know it sounds silly, but who knows if in another world, with other choices, I wouldn’t become a fat tyrant demanding to be called by his last name to put distance between him and the people he rules over… I’d like, for once, to be called by my family name now… Because I know this would be done in respect, and not in fear or despise.”
She nodded. He was definitely a scared child on the inside. A child afraid of becoming evil, which was another proof of his good soul… Since she was probably ruining his last chances to be reunited with his beloved ones, and since he was letting her do so while he had no personal interest in it, it didn’t seem like a hard request to fulfill…
“I understand, Mr. Guien… And I hope you’ll still be the good man you are in the new world…” She said in sincere respect.
But he chuckled awkwardly.
“As I said, everyone forgot it. Guien is actually my middle name…”
“And what is your family name?”
He hesitated, as if he was uncomfortable about pronouncing his own name, but still replied.
“It’s… Mr. Devon. Fred Guien Devon.”
She came and put her forepaw on his shoulder, smiling benevolently.
“Everything will be fine, Mr. Devon. I will bring back peace on your land, and to your people. I’m going to repair my mistakes, and I promise I’ll never harm anyone again. You have my words.”
He closed his eyes and smiled as he nodded. He didn’t seem sad, or happy… He just looked… calm and peaceful. She could tell for sure she had erased all the regrets he had in this world, and that he was finally accepting. Without any word, she removed her paw, and stepped toward the machine, ready to enter it and leaving her own regrets behind her.
“You’re better than I always assumed of you, Kalnera.” She heard him speak. “In the next life, I hope to get to know you better…”
She smiled, but didn’t reply and looked at the face of the young man who stared at her with obvious worries. Yes… She would rewrite it all, with his help. She would create a new world where no injustice, no pain would haunt the heart of any living creature.
She came in with this unique certitude as a bright light invaded her eyes.
Everything would be fine…


Where was she?
It was weird… She didn’t feel bad or good, there was just this calm… All around her, everything was immaculate white. Yet, she didn’t feel alone… She felt a presence… his presence…
She looked at her paw, but there wasn’t any paw anymore. It was like her body had disappeared, yet she was still there. She was nothing physical, like she had turned into a pure sentient energy.
“Don’t be scared.” a soft familiar voice spoke to her. “It’s temporary. If you concentrate, you can recreate your body. Anything imagination can conceive is possible here.”
As if he wanted to show the example, her guide appeared in front of her, showing her the most heartwarming smile she ever saw. Anything, huh? In that case, she knew how she wanted to look like. She focused on her memories of the human form the amulet gave her back then, and felt the envelop materializing around her.
“Strange choice.” he laughed slightly.
“Fred told me you never saw this, because the amulet effects were not there for you. Just for this time, I wanted to show you how well you had done your work…”
“It’s a delicate attention, but you know, I’ve never been stopped by appearances. I knew since the first day we met that you only needed some kindness to reveal the real you.”
Even here, even now, he managed to tickle her pride. It was still a bit hard to take that he was the one who had changed her. But she couldn’t protest, since it was the pure truth. Instead, she tried to get to a more important subject:
“Where are we? What’s happening?”
“I’m afraid the contradiction you imposed to the machine has provoked a bug. It doesn’t know what to do, and it’s collapsing.”
“With us inside?”
“You have no worries to have about that. Adam certainly didn’t predict this contradiction, but quantum magic follows the wishes of the one who uses it. This is why the machine let you enter despite the risk it represented to itself. Because what Adam qualified as truest and purest wish, was the will to protect others. To him it was the most valuable thing in the world.”
He came closer, and put his hand on her waist, looking at her eyes benevolently.
“And your will to protect me was pure. The machine sensed it. You wanted to protect me more than your own life.”
His smile was comforting, but she still worried about this collapsing thing.
“And aren’t we going to be… I don’t know… crushed when the machine collapses?”
“It will still fulfill its purpose before. We have a story to rewrite, remember?”
“Let’s talk about it then… What is supposed to happen? You erased your birth, and I cancelled it… So… What is going to happen?”
“That’s why I find your contradiction so amusing.” He giggled like a small child. “It confused the machine, so… I think it will be up to us to tell it what to do.”
“Really? Like… We could write our own story?”
“In the big lines, at least. Tell me, Kalnera… what kind of story would you like for yourself?”
“Actually, I don’t want any story for myself… I want it for the both of us.”
He chuckled amusingly.
“And what would you like for us then?”
She gave it a thought. Everyone always had in mind something they wanted to correct, but given her lifestyle, she had never taken a minute to think about it.
“Mmh… First, of course, I want to find you back. I know for sure that I will need you by my side. But if that’s possible, I’d like to hatch later… When you’ll be grown up enough to show me all you’ve shown me. To be my guide once again. And this way, I wouldn’t have time to do any harm before you find me.”
He looked at her with thoughtful eyes, like he considered her request.
“Mmmh… In that case, it means I’ll still need a tragedy to be able to show compassion and open mind… But it will have to be something that will make me feel closer to you instead of making me holding grief against dragons.”
“Unfortunately, I think we’ll both need a tragedy to find each other… Because otherwise, we wouldn’t have anything to brings us back to each other. We’ll have to be a support to each other.”
“Like a couple, you mean?”
She didn’t know if she was able to blush in this place, but she looked away. This was an idea that had crossed her mind; she couldn’t help but linking her needs to have him, to some concepts of relationship but… She wasn’t sure about it yet… Again, she chose to deviate the conversation.
“And I’ll want you to be strong.”
“Because you want me to protect you,” he mocked her.
But this time, she had something to reply on her own:
“Also this. But mainly because muscled prey are the best.” She said, licking her lips. “More meat to savor.”
He laughed.
“Haha, you sure will never change. So I’ll have to be ready to accept your strange way of showing affection!”
She came to his mouth and put a kiss on his lips, just to make him shut up. But strangely, it didn’t feel weird… It was… enjoyable.
“I hope you don’t change either…” She whispered between her kiss. “I want you to stay the optimistic dreamer you are… So it will motivate me to be a nice dragoness to you.”
Without any warning, he put his hand on the back of her head, and maintained her while she felt his tongue gently pressing on her lips. Curiously, she didn’t feel like resisting… She just… spread, to let him enter her mouth. His tongue came meeting hers, caressing it. And it felt like the most wonderful feeling she ever experienced…
She let herself go, and her tongue started twisting with his, dancing softly. It was like time stopped… But was time even existing here? She didn’t care… She felt close to him, and only wanted one thing… To always stay with him.
“We will find each other again, Kalnera,” he spoke softly as he finally ended his love kiss, like he could read her mind. “And once it happens, I’ll never let you go again.”
She took his words at heart, but she wasn’t ready yet to feel comfortable showing her love as well. She just smiled, secretly enjoying it.
“Oh, there are two more things I’d want in the new world. I’d want Fred to have his son, because even if he denies it, it’s always been a hole in his heart. He deserves to be a father, and I’m sure he’ll be a good one.”
“Who knew you could be so thoughtful?” He spoke softly with a tenderized smile. “And what will be your second wish?”
“I’d like to drop this name… Kalnera… It’s only been synonym of chaos, death and destruction. I want to start over, with a new name, leaving Kalnera to what she was.”
“That’s up to you then, how would you like to be called?”
“I don’t know yet. But I’ll figure it out in time. I’d like my new name to be somehow associated to something else than hatred.”
He laughed as the white around them became brighter and shining.
“Oh? Seems like it’s time to go.” He noticed as well. “The machine got enough information to do its purpose. What can I say… I look forward to meeting you again, whatever your name will be. For now, this is another good bye, Kalnera…”
“It’s okay to say it this time.” She smiled. “Because I know this is simply until the next time. Good bye, my human. I hope I won’t have to wait for too long.”
As a soft liquid-like light enveloped them, they stared at each other’s eyes until the last second. Then everything became blank again…


“But moooooom I want to go and playyyyyyy…” The young boy complained as his mother insisted to teach him one of her endless and boring lessons.
“Listen to your mother, son,” his father spoke calmly but still authoritatively. “Knowledge is the most valuable treasure in this world, and our family always had responsibilities toward this world.”
The seven years old child crossed his arms and pouted.
“You always say that. That we have to advise people, that we always have to learn more… But what you talk to me about is always about how the world should be, how we should accept others and preserve life… Why do I have to know about a world long extinguished?”
“Because we are the only living who own the legacy of this past.” His father spoke wisely. “And this is our duty to not let the mistakes of this world repeat. It was violent, always craving for more power, and it led to its destruction. This is why we also talk to you about dragons. As far as we know, they are the only other intelligent beings, and Adam always thought they have a role to play in our lives. Everyone else sees them as threats, especially Mr. Devon who doesn’t approve our interests about them. But if nature taught us one lesson, it’s that cooperation and bounds between the livings is always a benefit. This is why you have to learn all this, son. The day might come when you’ll be the one acting to make this world a better place, and you’ll be grateful for this knowledge.”
“Then Mr. Devon is an idiot, like everyone else,” he replied grumpily.
“This is another lesson you’ll have to keep in mind. Never judge people. Because you don’t know what their life or past has been. Mr. Devon is just worried because to him, it looks like we’re playing with fire. Deep inside him, he’s like us, a parent who wants a better world for his son.”
The child thought about it, but he still struggled to understand… People… knowledge… all of this was so complicated… He sometimes wished he was alone, without parents or anyone else to tell him what to do…
“Still, why do we have to do this? Why couldn’t you simply teach that to others, instead of making me the one who will have to do all the work?”
“First, because as parents, you’re our responsibility. And we have no right to force people to accept what affects their conviction. Plus, even if individuals are smart, crowds are dumb. You’ll discover that only the acts of a wise and good being can change minds.”
“But still I’m the one who will be supposed to protect everyone…” He mumbled, a bit frustrated.
His mother came to him and gave him a motherly hug to comfort him.
“Don’t worry sweetie.” She spoke softly. “We are here to protect you.”
“Yes, but what will happen when you won’t be there anymore?”
His father winked at him.
“Then I’m sure you’ll find someone to protect and care for you, son. We always find someone, when we’re good people. Just like your mother found me.”
The woman let go her child, and came to her husband to give him a love kiss, while the kid looked away in disgust.
“Ewwww… I hope I’ll never have to do that!”


In the dark, she felt an irresistible need… She didn’t know why, but even if she was rather comfortable in there, she wanted to get out. In her sleep, she could hear a voice sometimes, whispering nice and comforting words.
She nudged at the wall. It was tough. She tried poking it with her muzzle, and heard a small cracking sound. It was a good sign… She tried hitting it with her little claws, and soon made a hole.
Shy light came from outside, but given the darkness she had always been into, her eyes were blinded. But she heard the familiar voice encouraging her.
“Go on… You can do it.”
She felt like her strength had come back from these words. She tried to push hard, and in a huge crack, she went through the wall and fell on a tough surface. Immediately, something big and soft rubbed her back, covering her in a warm and comforting liquid.
“Welcome to the world, cutie.”
She raised her head, and saw a big scaly head with huge tender eyes watching her. She didn’t feel scared… She loved this vision for some reasons. It was a protecting being… And even if she understood its words, she didn’t know how to produce the same. She tried, but all that came out of her little maw was a little squeak.
Instantly, a huge pink and soft thing came out of the maw of the big being and slid over her head.
“Save your forces, sweetie. Hatching requires a lot of efforts, you have to take it easy…” The being spoke in its sweet voice. “Now, how about finding you a name? I was thinking of Kalnera.”
Kalnera… It was a nice name, but for mysterious reasons, she didn’t like it… No, she wanted something else. She shook her head and squeaked again.
“Mmmh… you’re right, sounds too much like ‘caldeira’, I don’t think it’s good to give you a name that sounds like a volcano crater, I don’t want you to have an explosive and raging temper.” The being said in a strange sound that seemed like amusement. “Let’s think of something softer, something more cheerful, like love… Mmmh… Love… in an ancient human language, loving was spoken amare… Mmmh… Why not Amaria?”
It instantly filled her in warmth; this word was so cheerful to her ears. It made her squeak happily. The being seemed amused again, and came caressing over her body with its pink and warm muscle.
“Then so be it!” It spoke softly. “You have so much lovely things yet to discover, Amaria.”