Hey! Sorry about the wait between these chapters. Like I've said, very little Internet access lately, since I no longer have a mobile device to type on. I have the next chapter of this and the next two of TTO already written, but I'm not sure how long it will be before I can get those typed up.

Anyways, school has started! Oh, joy! I've pretty much got three college courses this year: one experimental, one AP, and one CIS. Joy.

Basically, I'm just glad I've now gotten this out, and I'm too tired right now to write out a bunch for this AN.

Have a good day/night!

-LaurelPrincess

I stole one last glance at the valkyries behind us as Ty and I walked towards the castle. The queen and Reika were nodding in encouragement, while the rest looked like they were mentally taking bets on how long we would last.

Not very encouraging.

'Krystal, if she takes control of me again...' Ty thought to me, 'Please, don't hold back… Don't get hurt trying to keep me safe' He pleaded.

-I won't get hurt. Not by you- I replied, keeping my telepathic tone even.

As we stepped up to the gate, a grand door made of gold and quartz, it slowly opened. An ominous occurrence that meant Notch naturally knew we were here.

Without hesitating, I stepped through the gate, Ty close behind me.

We were met by the sight of a grand hall, with intricate gold inlays on patterns of chiseled quartz. The roof was high enough for us, or a valkyrie, to fly. The floor was plain quartz with a patterned red carpet running down the center of the hall.

At the end of the hall was a golden archway, through which I could see a golden throne. Notch sure liked his gold and quartz.

Two figures stood side by side in front of the throne. As my brother and I made our way towards them, I was easily able to make out their features.

One was tall and bald, with black eyes. He wore a brown shirt with black pants, and wore a golden crown inlaid with gemstones atop his head. Clearly, this was what Notch looked like in his natural habitat.

The other was female, with light brown hair and blue eyes. Her white wings were tinted a light gold, and she wore a flowing white dress with a sword sheath belted around her waist. She was definitely the valkyrie, Taro, who had possessed Ty.

"Welcome, my dear hybrids. I…" Notch started as we got close.

I cut him off, "Can it. We all know this isn't how you expected to have us here, Notch. You wanted us mind-controlled and unable to fight back or argue"

The god was silent for a moment, then said, "I see…"

"Not like I could have controlled you, could I, Krystal? You could do so much more with your gifts, child" Taro purred, setting me on edge.

What? How could she possibly…?

"I saw you, for a fleeting moment, the same as I. Your spirit, unnaturally born as it was, can somehow see into the Dream Realm. You are becoming increasingly curious to me" The valkyrie elaborated, an evil grin on her face.

'Krystal, what is she talking about?' Ty telepathically asked, looking confused.

-Not now- I replied, -I'll explain later, since I'm not sure if she can overhear telepathy-

It was a true statement. I'd never met anyone else who was telepathic, so I'd never learned if I could hear others' telepathy in DreamSight, which I assumed was the same as what Taro called the Dream Realm.

"What other gifts do you have, I wonder? Taro has told me of what she has seen, but I wonder if you have more…" Notch wondered aloud.

"And where are these gifts from? Strange side effects of the unnatural way you were created?" Taro added.

We only knew a partial answer to that question.

Our fire abilities and Ty's glowing claws thing came from our being half dragon and able to at least partially manipulate magic. I wasn't sure where my ability to access DreamSight came from, or my telepathic powers. Neither was I sure about our extended senses, my sight and Ty's hearing.

Enderlox was the only thing I thought of when I heard of strange side effects of our unnatural creation. He was the result of the separation of my brother's human and ender consciousnesses. Taro obviously knew about him, since she'd been in my brother's mind to control him.

"Actually, I'm fairly sure they have nothing to do with how we were created and stem more from the fact that we're part dragon" I said explained my thoughts.

"Yeah, my sorcerer friend told us that because we're half dragon, we can use at least some magic" Ty added, though it was probably common knowledge to them.

"I'll explain it to you quickly. My brother and I don't know much of anything about how we were created other than they used some machine to combine human and enderdragon DNA. After making us, some sensitive part of the machine broke and they couldn't replace it, so they couldn't make any other hybrids that way. I'll assume you don't want to hear about the others. They only know as much as or less than we do" I explained, knowing Notch wouldn't be satisfied by our lack of knowledge. He wouldn't really care about the other three as much, since they had been alive before being made hybrids. Only Ty and I had been created in a lab, born as hybrids.

There was a moment of silence as Notch and Taro processed the information I had given them. My brother and I exchanged a worried glance. We had agreed beforehand to tell just the facts. It was all true, to say the least.

"Ah…" Notch's voice was dry and disappointed, "I suppose I could not have expected you to have known much…"
"My lord?" Taro sounded surprised by his tone.

I wasn't fooled. Due to my lack of faith, the priest's attack on Shade, and most of all, Mother's warning, I certainly did not trust the "benevolent" god.

"You don't believe that we're telling all we know" I stated, frowning slightly.

"You hybrids are an odd thing to try to figure out" He commented, not reacting in the slightest to my challenge.

"I don't know… Maybe it's because you're not exactly being honest yourself? Maybe because you've attacked two members of my family, and we aren't about to take that lightly?" I pushed further, snapping back at him.

"Oh, truly? When I can wipe you out of existence in the blink of an eye? Oh, but you aren't afraid of dying, are you, Krystal? No… It's your family that you're worried about, isn't that right?"

My blood froze, and I spared a glance over at Ty to see the same shock on his face."What…?" He whispered, almost too quietly to hear.

"They'd call it an accident, bad luck. You would be surprised by the amount of bad luck I could cause" The god continued. A sort of magical viewscreen floated in front of us. "And who will it be? Which of your friends shall suffer at my hand? Sweet little Hector? Strong Sky? Your dear Elijah?"

As Notch spoke their names, our friends appeared on the screen. My heart clenched when I saw Eli and Hector, I couldn't bear imagining something bad happen to them. That was what I always tried to keep them safe from.

"Sky's one of your most devoted followers. Because of you, he tried to turn me against my sister, one of his generals. And she's saved his whole city not once, but twice. Would you really even consider harming him?" Ty suddenly asked, his eyes lit with a dark anger. After all he had done, Sky was still my brother's best friend.

"Your puny little human friends… Any human life is insignificant compared to me!" The god yelled in return, the screen turning to a blank silver. "Their devotion is nothing! Meaningless! They are naught but pawns!"

Taro spoke from his side, "And here you two stand, on the precipice of greatness. Neither human nor true immortal… It is your choice where your path goes.

"A choice that you want to heavily influence in your favor" I muttered, "And already having given us an impression of what terribleness you are capable of"

"I would be careful if I were you" Notch said darkly, and the screen lit again, "You'd be surprised by how easily acts of fate can occur"

It took me a moment to process what I was seeing.

I recognized the church back in Rikilyn, the stained glass portrayal of an angel or valkyrie. There was a group of priests speaking, and I saw Mist was among them.

My mind filled in the blanks, mere heartbeats before I watched what I imagined happening actually going on the magical screen.

An unnaturally strong wind blew through the church, causing robes and book pages to flutter about. Mist's hood blew off, exposing her fluffy gray ears. A priest caught sight of her before she could put it back on, and he called out to the others, all of them shouting angrily at her strangeness.

"And so, the final testing begins" Notch was grinning calmly, taking pleasure in my friend's misery.

Mist was always afraid of others disliking her, so this would affect her the most. She'd never been harshly exposed as a hybrid like this.

"Testing!? More like torturing!" I snarled, feeling my hands tensing, claws itching to sink into his throat.

Raw protective instinct was swelling up inside me, as it always did when a member of my family was in danger.

I was reminded of what had happened back in Budder City, when had had vanished… The priest had mentioned that he was one of two untested ones in our group, not counting Hector. Mist was the other…

"We've told you what we know. Now, leave us alone!" Ty shouted, half growling. "Leave her alone!"

"We're going, Ty!" I announced, heading for the door. As much as I wanted to stay and yell at them, it wouldn't let them treat Mist like that. Not when she'd already suffered from her brother's treatment at their hands.

"No, you aren't…" I heard Taro's voice, and was somewhat only dimly aware of what happened over the next few moments.

Despite her mental shielding, I could somehow sense Taro's intent. I subconsciously slipped into DreamSight and projected some kind of bubble, a shield, around myself and my brother.

Everything was motionless for a couple of heartbeats, and then Taro's spirit form crashed into the bubble.

The force of her impact knocked my own spirit back a few feet, but I gritted my teeth and held out my arms, keeping the forcefield surrounding us. No matter what she tried, Taro couldn't breach it.

"Why are you fighting us, valkyrie? We told you what you wanted!" I shouted, pushing her back.

Meanwhile, my brother was looking at my physical form, clearly confused as to why I had stopped moving. Notch was watching us, probably able to see into this place. His form in DreamSight was light, but there was darkness in his heart. It was hard to see through the brightness, hidden by the light, but it was clearly there.

"Impressive, a shield made of pure protective desire… You're stronger than I gave you credit for" Taro's snake-like voice came from where her spirit form hovered just outside the bubble shield. "Maybe you're right. I'll give you the chance to leave. Notch and I will consider what you have told us"
I didn't want to take her offer and put down my guard. Telepathically reaching out to my brother, splitting my attention between that and the shield, I reached for contact.

I found Enderlox, he was easier to sense than Ty when my consciousness was in DreamSight.

-Brother, you have to get Ty to carry me out of here, get us far away. Taro was trying to attack us, but I'm keeping her back, and she says she'll let us go. I'm not sure what she'll do if I let down my guard, but I'm not taking the risk. Go!- I gave him no chance to complain.

I returned my full energy to the shield, fueling it with my instinct to keep my friends and family safe, to rescue Mist.

A normal person would assume it was a bluff, showing Mist in danger to manipulate my feelings. But I was no normal person. At the same moment Notch had shown Mist's hybrid identity being discovered, I had felt my friend's terror spike. It was definitely true. Of that, I was certain.

I was watching Taro, refusing to allow her close to Ty again. She had controlled him once and tried to kill me, I would never give her that chance again. I was aware that my physical body was being moved, that Ty was following my instructions. I moved my consciousness and the shield along with it, protecting us.

Slowly, Taro's form faded into the distance, staying back in the castle with Notch. Only when we were long gone did I let myself relax and slip back into my body.

I was being carried by the familiar rhythm of wingbeats. We were high in the sky, about to descend into the clouds.

"Hello, sister. I am glad to see you awake" But that wasn't Ty's voice…

"Enderlox?" I asked, feeling as though I had woken from a deep sleep.

'He took control, said you told him to get you out of there. Could've at least warned me' I imagined Ty looking annoyed as he said that.

"I did as you asked, sister. Minus the part about it being Ty" The dark half of my brother grinned as he let me fly on my own.

"Well, we've got to get back to Rikilyn fast. We have a wolf hybrid, and probably a cat and wither skeleton, to save" I said, letting myself drop down below the cloud layer.