A/N: This is an alternate universe to Rewrite Us. If Nano found her way back instead of Lalna.

"You know nothing about the future, Lalna, and this is the only way to make sure you never see what I've done." She had said to me, animosity and fear ruling her mind. A knife shoved deep in the chest of the girl I had only just become acquaintances with. I had only been gone long enough to lose sight of the castle, only to come running back to the aid of violent screams; a strange, but familiar girl, killing my only reason for finding some kind of light in my life.

All I could feel was confusion, and maybe a hint of fear. I hadn't known her for very long, admittedly. Only days before, she had fallen from the sky after surviving a lethal prank by Sipsco. Everything had already been rough on her, but I tried my best to make things easier by taking her in and sharing my home. It wasn't much. I've…never had much to give. But seeing her bleeding on the floor, I realized there really wasn't anything I could have ever done for her.

Nothing. Not a single thing.

I looked at the killer and she looked at me. For the first time, I truly saw the insanity swirling in her eyes. Also sadness. So much sadness, and though I was afraid, my voice would still be found underneath my own crushing feeling that everything was over. There would be no going back. "Why? I don't understand this. Why did you do this? Why did you have to ki- "

"Because it's her fault. It's our fault." pulling the knife out, she stands up as I seem to lose all will and fall to my knees, "From the beginning, this world has corrupted us. Rejected us. All we do is bring calamity. I know you don't understand. Right now, you're ignorant about the broken future that you could only suffer by being with me, but I'm happy with that. I don't want you to know. You'll never know."

I was putting the pieces together. Everything was there, but I was refusing to acknowledge it. The concept of a future that I couldn't see puzzled me to no end, but being forced to confront it, it couldn't be ignored. "You do look so much like her, but you're so different too."

"You're alluding to these ugly markings across my body. Yeah, I know. Time has not been kind to me. Honestly, I don't even know how I'm standing here with a sound mind. I don't know why I've been allowed to see you again with this disgraceful appearance."

She walked towards me, but I was much too distressed to move. "You really are from the future, aren't you?"

Coming down onto her knees to wrap her arms around my neck, she clung to me tightly, "I really missed you, Lalna."

The scent of blood really made the hug less than desirable, but I still couldn't bring myself to move away from her. She was starting to shake too. Laying my hand on her back to comfort her, I realized that I was becoming just as wrong as her. "What happened to me, Nano?"

Gripping tighter and tighter, her strong ruse was falling apart, but she was still holding, "I really don't want you to know. I didn't come back here to tell you things that no longer matter. "

"You keep saying that over and over, but it's obvious to me. I died in the future and you were the one who killed me, weren't you? I've already realized what you've done."

She didn't loosen up at all, and even though I had just thrown her under and called her out, there was no sign she ever would. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry, Lalna. All I remember is losing myself, waking up to see you gone, and finding myself here just so angry at myself. The knife was practically already buried in her chest before I even realized it, but even though I've lost everything, I don't regret what I've done here. Being able to remove myself from your life is the only thing I could have ever wanted."

"But how can you say that when you're holding on so tightly to me?" I asked, still so confused and shaken by everything.

"Because I want to be with you more than anything. I really do, but I couldn't trust myself to give you a better future." She had answered quickly, her voice wavering in between her attempts to keep herself from crying. "I know that I was important to you and that hurts. It really hurts. But as long as I live. As long as I exist, I know you can never be happy. If the world where I'm a monster and you no longer live is our future together, I'd rather you be alone for the rest of your life. Being with me is not worth throwing away any shred of happiness you could have had."

I knew she was crying now, but I couldn't see it. I knew crying wouldn't fix anything, but I couldn't stop it. Tears ran freely down my face too. "There had to have been some other way."

"There was no other way, and even if there was, I couldn't let myself do this to you again. Just look at what it's done to me. You're free from it. I couldn't save you in the future, but I've saved you now. Everything is over. You don't have to worry anymore."

"But how about you? You've gone so far to help me, but you're still here. We can change it together, right? We can build that better future." I stammered trying to keep it together.

"No. You're wrong." she finally let go, pulling away to look me in the eye for the last time. "I'm gonna disappear. The emotional stress of seeing your lifeless body lying on the ground caused the Flux to bring me back here. I don't know how it happened, but I got a second chance to say goodbye. I got another chance even though I never deserved it. I'm so sorry, but I belong to that dead and dying world and you belong here. I'm really going to miss you."

I was going to protest. Throw a tantrum like a child to somehow make her stay. Tell the universe that I needed her beside me still. I didn't want to be alone again, but before I could even open my mouth to say a single thing, her lips kissed mine as her body seemed to turn to dust and float away. The lingering softness as the last proof she ever existed in this world at all.