Vida

'Show yourself, fiend!' Vida yelled into the whispering mists around the ruins.
The distant booming of the thunder farms was the only answer to her taunts. Yet she was sure she has seen the velvety green wings sweep through the haze a second ago. She could even make out the once pristine antlers, marred by the Emperor taint.
She took a few more unsteady steps into the fog, never letting down her guard.
This place reeked of their unholy essence... So where was the vile creature?
It was not that she was afraid of an ambush, she feared the possibility if coming here in vain a lot more. It could be decades before she finds traces of another Emperor - they were a popular boogeyman story in Sornieth, but years of hunt has shown Vida the truth.

The one she met before had three heads. She though that would be enough - she was ready. Ready to embrace the charging flood of scales, leather and tormented magical energy. Ready to light up with a final flare and then-
Meet her maker.
Yet it was not the monster that she was helpless against, it was her own coding. The algorithm of survival, which she was damned to be a servant of. She was made to vanquish evil, to protect the weak. But was this her only purpose? Whoever made her was no longer around to give her reassurance.

As Vida delved deeper into the remnants of the lair, she heard someone call out.
'Who goes there?'
Quick as the lightning, the pearlcatcher dashed to the source of the voice.
'My name is Vida, you should be careful there's an Emperor around here,' she said, her voice deep and calm as she shielded the red coatl.
'Well, pleased to meet you!' The dragon with the glasses chirped back, not at all troubled by Vida's warning. 'The name is Rysear and the Emperor's been dead for a couple centuries now. But you must have been on the road for a while. So come on in - wipe you feet, don't mind the ghosts!' She gestured and trotted away towards a terrace overlooking the canyon.
'I cannot stay,' Vida hung her head.
So she was late. There was no fight for her here, no glorious death to end her story. Kind as the coatl might have been, she did not feel like chatting. She just had to keep going to numb the aching disappointment within her.
'But I have something to show you,' Rysear turned back to her. 'It won't take long, I promise.'
As Vida looked up she saw a strange understanding in those pale blue eye.

The flashes of passing lightning reflected from a myriad of metallic surfaces. All around them cogs, pistons, steel plates and fragments of intricate electronics marked where the workshop once stood. Generators leaned against what little was left of the walls, providing shelter from the elements.
It was like a theatre, set up for its last great play and abandoned right after the performance. All materials prepared for one final experiment, their barely legible labels piercing Vida's very being. She finally stopped in front of a container tower above them, her paws gently touching the words etched into the metal - and her chest:
Version 1 - Derivation 4
'You're home Vida,' said Rysear on a low voice.