Yeah, I have admittedly been busy with The Tempered One. Here's your requested chapter, TheFanficCritic1227. It was about halfway done when you asked, so I just went with it and started working.

Response to the review on chapter 10 of Hardly Human: Yes, there are a lot of things created in labs. In our modern day. This doesn't exactly have the same technology as we do. Krystal and Ty were the first successful viable genetically engineered life forms. That kinda makes them important. Especially to the gods, because before the two hybrids, they were the only ones who could create life like that. I believe I've explained this before.

Can't remember if I said it in the last chapter, and I'm too lazy to check, but my friend Skyler asked me to share her story on Wattpad and she shared mine on her story. I posted the link to her Wattpad story on chapter six of The Tempered One, so please go check it out. It has a trigger warning because it has some dark themes like cutting, so I figured I should say that. Go check it out!

I also have a wattpad account, find it on my profile. I posted a story called "Tale of Wings" because it doesn't have a fanfiction category, it's just random. Believe me, that story is about a feeling I've had for a long time. I don't understand it, it just Is.

I am also proud to say that I have applied for my first job! At the same place that Skyler works! That was on Tuesday, so I have no idea if I will get the job or not, but I am still proud that I applied! (unlike my brother who didn't apply for a job until two years after he could!)

Anyways, have a good day/night!

-Laurel

I didn't sleep at all that night. I couldn't trust my own brother.

I lay awake, listening to his breathing and the mobs moving around outside.

His breathing was quiet, too even and regular. Like me, Ty often suffered nightmares about the compound and all that had happened there, both recently and in our young lives. In any dream in general, his breathing changed at some point, in a way it hadn't tonight.

No one ever had a dreamless sleep, especially Ty.

In the morning, I got up early and flew as soon as the sun came up. Ty hadn't yet woken.

At one point, he had gotten up in the middle of the night. I had feigned sleep but he'd been watching me every moment. He'd only gone to get a drink of water, but I was vigilant.

For one thing, his thoughts were guarded by a mental barrier, letting nothing escape to those with telepathy. Seto was the only person I'd ever met who was able to do that, and I knew for a fact that he'd refused to tell anyone else how to do it. Even and especially me, though I was his friend.

Because once someone learns the secret to your safety, there is a chance they'll figure out a way to break through it.

I was the only telepath I knew of, and I never used my powers to intrude on someone's personal thoughts unless I had to. But even so, Seto had refused to teach me. I had the suspicion that the mental barrier would confuse a brainwave machine, and that was why I'd wanted to learn, just in case.

But here was an application none of us had ever thought of, and I didn't know the trick.

Much as I was fond of Seto, I cursed him for making me unable to help my brother.

I didn't fly far, only a few islands away. I didn't want to go out looking for Notch again until I was sure that Ty was safe, and this time, I wanted him by my side.

Whatever was possessing him probably knew that I'd lied, that I'd found and spoken to Notch. But it didn't know was that my brother would have known that I was lying. If it had, it would have pressed me for the truth, like Ty would.

I was sitting on the edge of an island, staring at the clouds below, when he found me again.

"Hey, Krystal! What's up? What'cha doing out here?" He asked, landing beside me.

But as I turned and was about to respond, I noticed something strange.

The smile that had been on his face when he'd spoken had vanished, replaced with a look that was half surprised and fear, and half… fighting… That was the only way I could describe the war that seemed to be taking place between the possessor and my brother. He was stumbling around, seeming pulled in two directions.

Before I could comment, the warring voice took most control, his violet eyes changing to a look I recognized, that the possessor would never have had.

Scrambling to my feet, I called his name, "Enderlox!"
It was him, the voice was taking, or fighting for, control with the possessor.

"Sister… Not much, ugh, time! Something… valkyrie… controlling Ty! He's locked up in our mind with me…! When you were gone! Save…" He gasped out, but was cut off when the possessor regained control, shoving Enderlox's consciousness back down.

I slipped into DreamSight for only a moment, half a heartbeat, and saw all that I needed to know.

Besides its usual purple ender glow, my brother's DreamSight form was lit with another glow, somewhere between light and dark. Something that was bad that was meant to be good? Valkyries were meant to be good...

But as soon as I came out out of it, back to my body with that in mind, the possessor spoke.

It stood like Ty, it looked like him, it even spoke with his voice.

But this abomination was not my brother, either part of him.

"Ah, I figured this might happen. Dear little Enderlox broke free and relinquished my identity to you. Krystal, the one our lord is truly interested in" It was grinning, devious.

"Your lord? You mean Notch, of course"
It hissed, "You dare to speak his name? Such an unworthy character"

"Oh, shut up. What is it you want with me and my brother?" I wasn't in the mood to stand around arguing with this Thing.

It shook its head, tsking at me, "So straight to the point. I really do hate you and your brother. He's truly messed up, isn't he? With that voice in his head and all"
"Enderlox is my brother, just as much as Ty is! You're the intruder here!"
It was using my strategy with the priest, angering me. Unfortunately for it, I was a lot more knowledgeable than that stupid priest.

"Release my brother" I demanded, keeping my voice strong even though I really wanted to yell at it.

"No. In order to do that, you'll have to hurt him"

I had a moment before it leapt at me, claws reaching out to attack.

Jumping to the side, I managed to dodge the attack. "I'm not going to fight you. I'm not going to hurt Ty and Enderlox"

"Very well then, I'll just get this over with and kill you, now shall I?" It was laughing.

Nothing is more disorienting than having your brother possessed and seeing him like this. But… would my plan work…?

I kept dodging, attack after attack. Ignoring the possessor, I just kept talking to my brother.

"Ty, please. I know you're in there. Get up on your feet and fight back against this jerk!"
"You broke through once, Enderlox. Try again, you never know what you can do"

"I love you, Ty and Enderlox, please come back to me"

The possessor, a valkyrie or something somehow, laughed at my attempts, continuing to try to hit me, "You won't get through to him! He's buried too deep"
"Then you don't know what bonds can be forged through suffering. I'd do anything for my brother, even if that means letting you attack me. I won't hurt him" I spat back.

Suddenly, it looked like something was happening. I momentarily felt a familiar sensation, but it wasn't mine. I'd gained control over this.

A moment later, violet flames with green tips spat out of my brother's mouth.

Staring in surprise, I really shouldn't have been so amazed. While he'd never shown the same power as me, I did half expect that he had it. He'd just never discovered it before now, when he was possessed.

The possessor looked just as surprised, if not even more so. It hadn't yet discovered my brother's powers. I sincerely hoped it didn't find that one attack power with the glowing claws. That would probably spell my doom.

As much as I'd told the possessor, I wasn't about to let him kill me. I would free Ty, I just wasn't sure how.

I was lucky that the one power it had found was the one I was immune to. I couldn't be burned by fire, that was something I'd figured out a while ago.

The possessor laughed, "It seems none of us knew of this. Very interesting. Do you have the same powers, dear Krystal?"

I did, except my fire was tinged with black instead of green like Ty's. But I wasn't about to say that.

It continued talking, like I'd said yes, "It truly is amazing, isn't it? The devotion you have to each other. No matter what I do, you refuse to fight back. Meanwhile, inside of this body, I can hear your lovely brothers fighting to get out. But they can't. It is amusing"
I gritted my teeth, "Who are you anyways? Are you here to keep me from finding Notch again?"

"Well, thanks to dear Enderlox, you already know I am a valkyrie. But you're wrong. I'm not here to keep you away. I'm here to bring you to him"

"But not under our own power. Notch is too afraid of us. So you're here to take control of us and our knowledge. That's right, isn't it?"
The possessor didn't look too happy at that, which told me I was exactly on point with my guess.

"Ah, I see... So what threw the stick into the spokes? Me being more powerful than you expected? Enderlox breaking free? Or maybe the fact that I figured you out the moment I returned?" I brazenly questioned, trying to get it off balance.

It growled, fingers flexing in mimic of Ty's habit when he was annoyed. It was unconsciously doing too, not even realizing it. "I will complete my mission. It was simply in your good luck that you figured me out, but that luck will not last"

I finally understood what it was trying to do. The possessor, the valkyrie, was thinking that it could fight and probably beat me so that I would be weak enough for it to enter my mind and control me as well.

Ty knew full well that I was the better fighter of the two of us, stronger and faster. That meant that the valkyrie still didn't have enough control over him to hear his thoughts.

That or it was taking a gamble and hoping that I wouldn't fight back so that I wouldn't hurt my brother.

I wasn't fighting back, not in the conventional way. But that didn't mean I wasn't at all.

We were in a long standoff. I couldn't harm my brother, the valkyrie couldn't hit or control me.

Standing five or six blocks away, I got the feeling there was something I could do.

I leapt forward, crossing the distance in a heartbeat. I set my hands firmly on my brother's shoulders, holding him so that the possessor couldn't move his arms. "I will not allow you to do this. Ty's not quite as weak as you seem to think he is. In fact, he's ready right now to start fighting!"
As though on cue, the metal barrier shattered. Ty's thoughts and Enderlox's voice broke through. Both of them were screaming my name.

"No!" The possessor yelled, only in control of my brother's body now, no longer his mind.

The features of his face gained that warring look again, my brother's voices fighting for control with the possessor.

While he was fighting it, I prepared to finish it.

His body was twitching from the internal war, I could feel it beneath my hands, which were holding him still.

The moment one of the two good presences within my brother took control, I sent a pulse of some kind of energy through him. I wasn't sure what it was, but it seemed to work.

In DreamSight, I saw a ghostly form rise from him, the same I'd seen earlier, the valkyrie's presence. It seemed startled, lingering there for a moment, then suddenly zipped away, through the sky. To the East.

Meanwhile, Ty, who was the one who'd gained control, was panting, violet eyes wide. He stared at me, eyes softening, "You got rid of it…"

"Thank you for freeing us, sister" Enderlox seemed to be in a similar state of exhaustion as his other half.

"That wasn't like the valkyrie I saw, it seemed like maybe some kind of spirit sent here from far away, far away from her body" I said, thinking about what I alone had seen.

Even though the voice I'd heard had been Ty's, all valkyries were female. That was why I called her a she now that I was thinking about it.

"What do you mean?" The human part of my brother asked, recovering quickly.

"Believe me, I'm glad we managed to get out of that without actually fighting. I told you, that's how I got this. From fighting a valkyrie before"

I explained to him what I had found, talking to Notch, and he explained to me what had happened to him.

"I was mining, and I didn't notice it, Enderlox did. This weird presence over our mind. The only thing I could remember from that moment was feeling like I'd been thrown back, and was falling. We could hear what that thing was saying, we could see what it was doing, but we couldn't talk to you, you couldn't hear us" He said.
"The mental barrier, like Seto's. You wouldn't know because you're not telepathic. That's part of the reason I managed to figure out so quickly"

Ty nodded, "We were trapped down there. I never realized how dark it seems if you're down there for a long time… I've only been down there for a little while at longest… But we could hear you. We knew what the valkyrie was doing to you, Krystal" It had never felt like a long time before, that was what he meant. He'd been in his mind overnight before, in the End with Mother. But it hadn't seemed like a long time because he was surrounded by family and Enderlox was probably doing just what he would have.

"I suspected, but wasn't sure if you'd noticed that we weren't there" Enderlox added.

"So when she found you here, Enderlox started fighting again. He broke free to tell you, and you know what happened there. But when you were holding my body in place, we started fighting again, and just when Enderlox broke free, you got rid of the her and Enderlox pulled back and let me through. Thanks for that, Enderlox"

"You're welcome, Ty. I thought that Krystal wished to speak with you face-to-face, since she is most used to that. Besides, if I took control, it would only be temporary"

I smiled, Enderlox was being nice and humble. He wasn't about to admit to being nice to Ty, so he'd made the excuse involving me.

"But Krystal, how in Minecraftia did you get rid of her? She was really nasty, and I thought she'd be stuck here forever!" The human half of my brother asked.

"I'm not really sure… Something that let me separate her spirit from yours. Some new power? You seem to have one of your own too, Ty" I replied, a grin on my face.

He flushed pink, embarrassed because I was always the one with the powers, "Hey, I didn't know about that!"

I rolled my eyes, "Ty! I know you didn't know! Not like it was hard to expect. When we get some time, I'll show you how to control it like I do"
"What do you mean? We don't have time now?"
"No. We're going back after Notch. I have a good feeling as to where his castle is now, we've got to go after it before it changes again!"
"Whatever you say, Krystal. You're the boss"
"No, I'm not, you idiot! We work together, just like always!"

"Just like always, sister…" I heard Enderlox whisper as we took off into the pale blue sky, our violet wings a brash color against the pale landscape.