This is the last chapter in this story, so I hope you and have enjoyed it. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

"Shh!"

"Quit moving, you're stepping on my foot!"

"Do you think it can hear us?"

"Quit!" The chatter subsided. "Let me see if the coast is clear." A sliver, not of light, but of brighter darkness. Searching for movement, scanning the shadows.

"All clear."

They crept out like mice, eying every stretch of darkness. Tsunami cursed as she ran into one of the many desks in the room. By memory she groped for the door and opened it a crack.

No dragon was hiding against the white walls. The same lights still flickered every few paces. But there was still no Clay.

"Does anyone remember the way back?" Tsunami whispered. They had followed Clay's suggestion and had ran down the nearest hallway, and by the time Tsunami realized that Clay was missing they had taken so many turns that they were thoroughly lost.

Starflight, holding Sunny's hand, said, "Left. We should go left."

"Why?"

He licked his finger and held it up. His dark skin blended in with the shadows. "The air from the left has the faint tinge of blood. Unless the dragon has moved to another part of the building…"

"Then it should lead us back into that main room." Glory finished. "Let's go."

They navigated slowly, too slowly for Tsunami's taste. Once they thought they heard the sound of footsteps, and such was their fear that it was a full five minutes before they dared continue.

At once intersection a voice interrupted the pressing silence.

"-leaving you to this!" Clay's angry, tear-filled voice caught Tsunami off-guard. For several seconds the only sound was their footsteps as they followed the sound of his voice. "I don't care!" She jumped, and urged the group to greater speed.

She broke into a run as a familiar growl reached her ears. They burst into the main room; the tail of the dragon almost took of her head, swiping away the clutter of its rampage.

"Clay!" Glory shouted, and Tsunami followed her eyes to Clay, frozen with fear. She met his gaze, and the raw pain in them made her take a step back.

The dragon spun, attracted to the new noise, and a potential food source. Tsunami's muscles tightened, ready to run, but it simply looked at them. A strange gurgling ran up its throat, but by the time she realized what it was doing a ball of fire was all she could see.

Time seemed to slow down. Her body kicked into survival mode, screaming at her to run. But her brain supplied her with the logical truth, that even if she ran as fast as she could she would never get out of the way in time. She had heard tell that in the face of death one can see one's life flash before their eyes. But she only saw the intertwined colors of flame and smoke, frozen in rapture. She didn't move even as she watched Clay, in slow motion, run and stood in front of her. And she didn't move as Clay held up Darkstalker's ring, the cause of so much trouble. As she closed her eyes she did not fail to see the bright bands of light erupt from the ring's contact with the burning death, did not fail to feel the warmth of its embrace, but no sensation of pain of burning. Her feet left the floor and she knew no more.

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"Awaken, young one."

Clay groaned as he pried his eyes open. A dark figure loomed above him, and only when he had scrambled to his feet on the fresh grass did he realize that he had four legs. He had no time to celebrate as he flared his wings in defense.

"No need to be afraid. I will not harm you."

"Who are you?"

Instead of answering, the stranger held up the ring in the sun, bright rays glinting off its surface. "I see you found my ring." He inspected it closely. "And not even a scratch on it."

Clay's blood ran cold. He voiced his disbelief. "Darkstalker?"

The Nightwing bowed. "The one and only."

For several moments Clay couldn't find the words, much to Darkstalker's amusement. Finally he managed to squeak, "Where are we? How is this possible?"

Darkstalker motioned to their surroundings. "This place has formal name, though some might call it the Netherworld. It is the place between life and death, where sould such as I linger until we want to pass on."

Clay choked. "I'm dead."

"Don't be stupid! You're lucky that your little trick with the dragon fire worked, or we would already be fast friends."

Clay shivered and Darkstalker laughed.

"No. You are simply unconscious, and will soon return to the world of the living.I called you here because you must do something for me."

Clay narrowed his eyes. "And if I refuse?"

Darkstalker shrugged. "Feel free to make yourself at home. I get quite lonely sometimes." Clay looked around at the towering trees, the gently rolling brook, all bathed in unnatural light. Finally he sighed in defeat.

"What do you want?"

Darkstalker leaned in close, and Clay fought the urge to back away from his putrid breath. "When you regain consciousness, I want you to hide the ring in the cave where you found it and destroy any entrance there could be. It must never be found again."

Clay protested. "But think of what all we could learn! We could go back in time, shape history the way we want, and-"

"You fool!" Darkstalker's tail whipped dangerously close to his head. "Have you learned nothing? In the wrong claws, this ring could bring the world you know to an past could be rewritten into something it was never meant to be."

"Then why make it in the first place?"

Darkstalker smirked. "I admit that I was curious; the mysteries of the past constantly haunt and torment me. If I could create something that could travel backward, I could solve the questions that weave through every one of our kind. What happened before the Scorch? How did it start? How did we come to be? So, naturally, I planned to build this ring. I worked in secret, and after several long months I was finally able to test it out." Here he paused, and for the first time Darkstalker looked...rattled. "What I discovered, the truth about how our world was born… I hid the ring, hoping that never again would never make the same mistake I did The past is not to be meddled with. But a few days ago I felt a twinge in my power, and I knew that someone had found the ring and used it, but I prayed that you would not be sent back as far as I did." He gave Clay a searching look. "I prayed in vain. Now you are like me, haunted by the memories of the past."

Clay was still confused. "But I don't understand. I wasn't at the Scorch. Did I go farther than that?"

Darkstalker clawed the ground. "Don't you see? You were there when Jason created the first dragon. You left before you could see the damage it caused, how the younger prototypes escaped and evolved, breed like rabbits, and took over everything. Your involvement just quickened the process."

Something in Clay's brain clicked. "So if we hadn't been there, Jewel would still be alive."

"It's possible. In another timeline Jason did not use his daughter as his test subject, taking the longer route of combining body parts and blood of other animals until he got what he was after. But the outcome was always the same: near annihilation for the scavengers, or the humans, as they called themselves."

Clay's heart crumpled. If they hadn't been stupid enough to look for a dangerous artifact, stupid enough to get caught by Jason...Jewel could still be alive. Before he could stop himself he lifted his head to the sky and roared. Nearby birds took flight, but still he minutes passed, but Clay only stopped when his throat was in ribbons. But the hole in his chest was still empty.

He expected Darkstalker to laugh but the Nightwing only looked thoughtful. "You loved her, didn't you?"

Clay was too busy getting his breath back to answer, but it must have been plain. "Look, I'd love for you to stay here and take your pain out on the sky, but you're fading. Literally." Darkstalker was right; he could begin to see the ground through his body.

"Clay, one more thing." Darkstalker's voice became distant. "I've taken the liberty of erasing your friends memories. Try not to tell them about this, will you?"

And then darkness.

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"Clay, are you okay?"

Sunny's concerned voice brought Clay into the waking world. He was lying near the entrance of a cave, under a sky full of bright stars. Phyyriahan stars.

"What happened?" he asked Sunny as he stood and shook his wings.

"We were getting ready to go inside the cave when you suddenly passed out. We drug you over hear, and the others went to look for some food. They'd figured you would be hungry when you woke up."

At the thought of food Clay's stomach rumbled, and he grinned sheepishly.

Sunny giggled. "I figured. Let's go find the others." With a last look at the cave Clay followed her into the sky and flew into the darkness.

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The others were overjoyed to see Clay awake, but as they feasted on fresh venison the failed to see the tears at the corners of his eyes. They failed to hear him fly away when they went to sleep. And when they went back to the cave the next morning they found the entrance caved in, the rubble too deep to dig through. They failed to notice the cave dirt that clung to Clay's scaled, or the little cuts on his body.

So they went on with their lives, and soon the cave and Darkstalker's ring were forgotten for all but one. And the ring lay buried forevermore.