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That night, I had a horrible nightmare. I was standing in the middle of a raging inferno, stretching up for as far as I could see. It was infinity hot, seeming as though it were growing hotter with the second. Though they stretched forever in each direction, I could see through the flames quite easily. On the other side, was pure, black. Just nothing, nothing at all, as if I were floating in the vacuum of space.

"Help us.", a voice cried from beyond the flames.

"Where are you!?", I shouted back.

"Help us", the voice said again.

"Where are you!?", I shouted again, the voice seemed to be coming from only a few feet in front of me.

"Help us", the voice screamed again.

Without thinking another second, I dove into the white hot flames. It took less than a second for the scales and flesh to start dripping from my body like water. What was even more terrifying...was that I wasn't feeling it. There were blisters swelling up on my face and bursting, sending boiling puss into my eyes and blurring my vision, but I wasn't hurting even the slightest bit. The heat was a different story. The heat was so intense I could feel my blood boiling inside my veins and my chest. My sprint was sun reduced to a quick trot, then a walk and it continued until I was driven to the ground, so little muscle remained on my bones I was rendered immobile. Soon the voice's screams began to die down.

"Where are you!?", I croaked.

"We are already gone", they answered, "tainted by the death you could not save us from."

Several seconds passed, then Siazach was floating over me, his bones were pure white, as opposed to the bloody red they were when I first met him. His cloak was no longer torn and the chains around his wrists where chrome, looking brand new.

"Be honest", he asked, his voice seemed sincere, "did I clean up okay?"

I was at the point now where I could see the bone in my forelegs and the bony remnants of my wing arms were just barely in my line of sight. The stink of my own burning flesh filled the superheated air, depriving me of a good breath, which rendered me unable to answer.

"I'll take your silence as a yes", he snickered, "are you enjoying your little view into the future?"

I once again did not answer me. Siazach scoffed at me, "what's the matter Emelia? Fire got your tongue? Oh sorry", the tone of his voice darkened, the sarcasm leaving, "take a good look. When I'm done with you, I'll kill every last Asian Dragon left, burn their little sanctuary to the ground and then do the same with the Earth. Enjoy your last few weeks of life. Soon, you'll be my slave."

That was when I clicked back and woke up. I glanced around, I was still in the hut, John was standing over me, his neon blue eyes glowing in the dark.

"Hey", he said stroking the back of my neck, "what's wrong?"

"Nightmare", I said through my pants.

"You wanna talk about it?", he asked.

All I could do was nod to him.

"Let me get dressed and we can go outside", John said.

I nodded again and turned around. I heard him pull on his combat shirt and boots before hearing him pick something up out of a pile. I turned back around, he had that damn rifle in his hand again.

"Do you really need a gun?", I asked/

"Middle of Vietnam", he shrugged, I could tell that his past experience in war made him somewhat agitated at my comment, which probably sounded like arrogance to him, "but you can never be too safe. I hope I don't need it but you never know."

I sighed as he and I stepped out the door. We walked down a barely lit path to the banks of the river, sitting down at a small clearing. I could hear monkeys and wild pigs howling and snorting at each other in the thick trees and thunder cracked and boomed in the distance, there was a storm coming. What little light there was shined of my chrome blue scales, making me glow slightly. John and I sat for several minutes, listening to the sound of the rushing water before he spoke up.

"So what's on your mind?", He asked.

"I...I", I stuttered, "I had a horrible nightmare. I was standing in this black void, all round me there was this wall of infintly hot fire, growing larger and hotter by the second. Past it, in the void, there were voices. They were begging me to come and save them, so I did. The fire burned the flesh and scales from my bones, but for some reason...I didn't care. I asked them where they were and they said in an eerie echo, "we are already gone, tainted by the death you can not save us from."

I lay my head in his lap and he began petting me.

"That's not what's bothering you is it?", he asked.

In truth, there was a lot of shit bothering me. I wanted to spill everything right there, tell him the twisted truth. About his friend, Siazach, the cards, show him and prove it, and in all honesty, what came next surprised me.

"No",I replied sniffling,"it isn't."

"Then tell me", he said softly.

"He killed my little sister", I said.

"Who did?", John asked.

"Antony",I said,"...and I killed him...I deserve the same fate as the Russian."

"No you don't", John replied stroking the back of my neck and hugging me tightly,"For killing a man that robbed you of a family member, you don't deserve to die."

"Yes I do!", I cried,"it makes me no better than him!"

"Let me tell you something Emelia", John said,"my father told me this long ago...and it's only know I realize what he meant. He used to say to me that killing is something that you can't take lightly. He would tell me the story of the first time he'd killed someone. He was in Vietnam. He and his team were ambushed and all but him and his buddy were killed outright. My Dad and his friend fought for hours before they were eventually captured."

"He told me a VC Bookie tortured and killed his friend right in front of him. My Dad broke,he managed to get free

and kill two of the three men,but missed the one who killed his friend. My Dad tracked that man through the

jungle for a week without sleeping till he found him hiding in an old hut. My Dad got into a knife fight with the man

and killed him. He then told me hat he regretted it so badly he considered suicide. Then his CO told him."

"If you had let him go you would have regretted it for the rest of your life."

"What are you trying to tell me John?", I sniffled.

"If you had let that man live",John said stroking her scaled neck, "you would regret it for the rest of your life,with a

regret even worse than what your feeling now. You have a kind,soft heart,the world needs many more people

like you,but even for people like you,the time will come when you'll have to make a choice you'd rather not."

I sniffled.

"Listen to me Emelia", John said looking into my eyes,"I would happily die to protect you,just like I would

Hudson,Issac and Frank. I didn't get the chance to do it for Jack,and I regret it with a regret stronger than any I've ever felt. It would only be worse if I'd let that man in the bunker get away with Jack's murder. The time will come when you'll realize the meaning of what I'm telling you."

He kissed my forehead. I found it comforting. I had never had a human being care about me the way John did. If I had to become a Marine if it meant they wouldn't become Siazach's next victims. So be it.

"Thank you John", I said.

"That's what friends are for sister", he smiled, "your apart of the family now."

Maybe it was something in my dragon brain, but I was smacked with the temptation to lick him like I was a dog. I fought it at first, but then said, to hell with it and gave him a big slobbery lick.

"Oh so now your a dog?", John joked.

I smiled and barked at him.

He smiled as we stood, "let's get back to the hut, fucking mosquitoes are eating my ass alive."

We walked back to the hut. John re barred the door, tossed off his shirt and rolled into the hammock. I pretended that I was asleep until I was sure that he was and then reached into his pack, feeling around until I found his wallet. It was an old leather thing with beautiful designs pressed into it. When I opened it, the smell of aged paper met my nose. Out of curiosity, I pulled out an folded, folded up piece of paper. On it was a picture of John, who was dressed in a US Marine Corps shirt, a man and a woman, his parents I assumed, Issac and another man who seemed to be the middle child. I smiled at the picture, it reminded me of our family before my Dad had his first beer as a bet and found out he was an alcoholic. I pulled the Emperor card out of the the box.

"John has to be the Emperor", I whispered sliding the card into his wallet. It turned into a sheet of bright light and vanished, leaving a faint twinkling sound in it's wake. I smiled at myself, John was safe and Siazach's control over me had weakened just a little more, not a lot, but enough for me to notice. I would have placed the cards of the others, but I couldn't get into their things without waking them up.

"Another time", I sighed laying down and closing my eyes, "another place."