Cassia awoke slowly, confusion clouding her mind. The last thing she remembered was... The crystal.
As the clouds cleared from her mind, she frowned and sat up, noticing she wasn't where she had passed out. Instead, she was in a large bedroom.

     She herself was in a queen sized bed, under a silky purple sheet. The walls were a solid black, with seemingly random splotches of gold, but the overall look was rather aesthetic.
     Cassia looked over the side of the bed, and noticed projects strewn everywhere. The whole floor was covered in such, except for small paths to different things.

     Cassia slid her legs off the bed, placing her feet in one of the cleared paths. Scanning the room slowly, she noticed it seemed more like the room of a teenage girl than the Ender Dragon herself. "Where am I?" she muttered quietly.

     Out of the shadows came a voice, one of a teenage girl. "My pocket dimension hidden within the End, of course." The owner of the voice appeared from a shadowy corner of the ceiling, floating down silently.

     She looked up sharpy, her eyes following the girl down as she descended from her perch where she had been spying. The girl looked to be about 15, with long hair and purple eyes. Her dark brown hair, tied into a ponytail, draped neatly over her shoulder, resting on her purple hoodie. The black shorts she wore was a drastic contrast to her very pale skin. "Who are you?" Cassia asked sharply, her eyes blazing.

     "Rather rude way to treat your rescuer, don't you think?" she replied, the teasing tone in her voice underlaid with rebuke.

     Cassia glared at her, trying to determine if she was lying or not. "I didn't need rescuing, thanks." she said sharply, already not liking this girl.

     The girl raised an eyebrow at Cassia's blatant lack of respect. "Would you rather have me leave you to the Ender Dragon? She would have torn you apart for destroying one of her crystals. Those aren't exactly ease to replace, if you know what I mean." came the sarcastic reply.

     Cassia paled slightly, then cleared her throat. "Whatever." she said loudly. "Thank you, I guess." she muttered quietly.

     The girl grinned. "What was that, brine? I didn't quite catch that last part." she replied, amused at this girl's attempts to be grateful.

     "I'm not repeating myself for a girl I don't even know the name of." Cassia replied bluntly, folding her arms across her chest crossly. "Who the nether are you anyway?" she demanded, a scowl on her face.

     Kit grinned, a feral smile upon her face. "Me? Why, I'm the stuff of nightmares. The things you pitiful brines fear. The very essence of darkness itself." she turned and leered at the girl still sitting on the bed. "I am a living nightmare."

There was a long pause.

  "But you can call me Kit." she finished cheerfully.

     Cassia gave the girl a strange look. "Uh huh. Well, if you don't mind, Kit, if that is your real name, I have places to be that don't include here." she said waspishly. Standing up from the bed suddenly, Cassia managed to stand upright for about 3 seconds before her legs gave out and she collapsed, narrowly missing on of Kit's projects.

     Kit started forward, only to be halted by Cassia putting her hand up in the universal STOP motion. "I... don't...need... help..." Cassia half gasped ,half growled, furious that her legs gave way as if she was a newly made brine.

     Kit stood there, not retreating but not moving forward either. Instead, she cautiously watched Cassia, ready to catch her if she collapsed on top of one of her projects.

     Cursing under her breath, Cassia tried to get the her feet again, this time using the bed to haul herself up. "Notch dammit." she muttered, finally hauling herself back up on the bed. Panting slightly, she glared at Kit from where she sat. "Thanks a lot for nothing, Kit." she snarled, shaking where she sat.

     Kit put her hands up in mock surrender. "Hey, you told me to back the fuck down, so I did. You can't blame that on me." she replied, an edge creeping into her voice.

     Cassia growled unhappily, then faced away from Kit, pointedly ignoring her.

     Kit shrugged, then turned to leave the room. Pausing once at the door, she turned to look back at Cassia. "Don't break anything while I go get my mum." she said, right before vanishing out the door. And by vanishing, it literally meant she passed through the doorway and disappeared into another dimension, the End.

     Once back in the End, Kit spread her ender wings and took off, heading for the center sky isle, where she knew the Ender Dragon would be holding daily court in there right now.

     She alighted on the perch outside the large obsidian building, landing lightly with the grace of a cat. Quietly walking into the room, she waited at the edge for the large group of Endermen to disperse from around Queen Endress. Luckily she was in human form today, so the Endermen weren't being trampled.

     Once they were gone, she approached Queen Endress, and bowed. Even if she was the daughter of the queen, that didn't mean she could ignore the rules. When her mother gave a slight nod, indicating she could speak, Kit burst out with the news.

"Abrinecameheretotalktoyoubutgotmadwhenyoudidn'tcomeanddestroyedanendcrystalandnowshesinmyroomunabletowalkandshe'sbeingreallystubborncan youpleasecomehelpher?" Kit burst out, the words tumbling out in a rush.

     Queen Endress raised an eyebrow. "I can't understand a word you're saying when you rush your words like that, daughter. Would you please back up, take a breath, and say it a little bit slower for me?" she calmly replied.

     Kit rolled her eyes, but did as she was asked. "Earlier today a brine came to visit the End, and demanded to speak to you. When you didn't heed her summons, she got really angry and smashed one of the healing crystals, the one on top of the tower near my pocket dimension entrance. Now she's in my room, unable to walk for some reason and pissed as hell because of it." she looked anxiously at Endress. "Is there anything you can do to help her?"

     The queen raised an eyebrow. "You want to help someone who destroyed something that keeps us alive, was rude to you, AND is a brine?" Her tone, while not hostile, still held an edge of disbelief that her daughter would want to do that.
     Kit shook her head yes. "She's hurt, and even if she's not very nice, that doesn't give us reason to leave her like this." she insisted, half wanting to actually help her, and half curious if her mom would actually help one of her most hated enemies.

     Endress frowned, obviously deep in thought. There was silence for a few minutes, broken only by the ziiiiip of the occasional Enderman teleporting outside the castle walls.

     "I'll help her." she said, breaking the silence. "But, I won't let her leave until she tells me why she came here, and what her purpose was in destroying one of the precious life crystals." came the firm response.

     Kit nodded, and the two of them left the room, and headed back towards the pocket dimension.

-meanwhile, back with the others-

     All the fight seemed to drain out of Clancy between one breath and the next after Sky's statement. She was silent for a few minutes, remembering what had happened that day...

~Clancy's Flashback~

   The day was bright, the world was warm. Flowers bloomed alongside the stone pathway up to a small playhouse in the woods, which, from behind it, giggling was heard.
   Clancy, at age 8, was sword fighting with James, but it was obvious from the latter's stance that he was merely playing along, not even using his strength. "Don't be a meanie!" shrieked Clancy, bashing James' shield with her wooden sword.
   "Meanie, eh?" James, who was 10, repeated, chuckling. "All I'm doing is fighting my dear friend with a wooden sword and shield, it's not my fault you can't land a blow on me." he playfully taunted.
   Clancy smirked playfully. "Wanna make a bet on that?" she struck again, nearly landing a blow on his waist.
However, because she was so short, she merely hit his knees, but that was far more effective that her original plan.
   James crumpled, his knees giving way underneath him at the blow. He rolled out of the way quickly, narrowly missing being 'killed' by the next blow that Clancy swung at him.
   She crowed with laughter. "I beat you, I beat you!" she said ecstatically, waving her sword around happily.
   "Oh, did you?" he said craftily, jumping to his feet again. "Cheater!" Clancy yelled, and attacked again.

The two of them fought for hours, the slow passage of the sun overhead the only indication of passing time.
When they both grew too tired to fight any longer, they flopped down on the soft forest grass, panting.

   "Toldja I'd win." Clancy said with a tired laugh. Her face was flushed pink, and she looked like she could take a nap right there, she was so tired.
James grinned, and leaned back in the grass next to Clancy. "Sure you did." he teased.

They both sat in silence for a while, just enjoying the sun and breeze on their tired faces.

Without warning or reason, a man with a crazed look exploded out of the nearby forest, his eyes gleaming white. His light blue shirt was torn nearly to shreds, and his darker blue pants were coated in splattered blood. His feet were bare, and coated in mud. The gleaming black sword in his hand was aimed at Clancy's head, his teeth bared in a snarl.

   James scrambled to his feet quickly, grabbing his wooden sword and aiming it at the man. "B-back o-off!" he stammered, his voice shaking.
   Clancy had been frozen in fear, but the sound of James' voice shook her out of it, and she stood shakily as well, brandishing her wooden sword. The tip was shaking wildly.
   The man's face lit up with a feral smile, and he swiped at James with the flat of his blade. When it connected, the boy went flying across the clearing, coming to a stop at the edge. A trickle of blood came from his temple, but he wasn't moving.
   "JAMES!" Clancy screeched, completely forgetting she was in danger. She dropped her wooden sword and scrambled across the clearing until she reached him.
Dropping to the ground, she shook his shoulder. "James!" she shrieked again. "Wake up!"
   The man grinned and started toward her again, only to be interrupted by the arrival of a golden eyed man slamming into him.

   The newcomer wore a long sleeved black and gray shirt, with matching pants. A purple amulet swung at his neck as he cleaved his golden sword at the first man.

The two of them faced off, and a terrible battle ensured.

   Clancy was frozen at the edge of the clearing, still clutching James tightly. She watched as the two men clashed again and again, the one with the amulet seeming to gain more ground with every swing.

   With a final swing, the first man went crashing to ground, knocked unconscious by the man with the amulet. When the second man turned to face Clancy, he didn't look happy.
   Clancy cowered further back in fear, reluctant to speak, even though this man had just saved her.
   "Foolish girl." he growled. "It's not safe to be out in the woods these days, no matter the time of day." he kicked the unconscious form of the fallen man. "He's one of the reasons why."
     Clancy huddled closer to James, utterly terrified. "W-who are you?" she whispered, fearful of angering him, but wanting to know.
     The man sighed, and walked over to Clancy and the fallen James. Squatting down so he was eye level with her, he spoke. "My name is Sky, and I need you to promise me something."

~Flashback end~

     Clancy shuddered slightly, remembering that day. Taking a shallow breath, she looked Sky in the face. "I may not like you, or want you around Yoi, but you're right." she chose her next words carefully, hoping he wouldn't be mad for her choice. "If... If it comes to a fight, I want to be the one to take on Cassia. Yoi needs you in her life, she won't need me anymore."

     Sky gazed grimly back at her, searching her gaze for any sign of hesitation. After a few minutes, he replied. "Very well." he was the first to break the gaze. "But... It shouldn't come to that."
     "What?" Clancy demanded. "She's going to be a full fledged brine by the time she comes back most likely, your kind can't avoid fighting that instinct to hurt others that easily!"

     "No, we can't..." Sky replied regretfully. "But... I've invented something that's rather efficient on brines and beings of high power." He pulled a small test tube full of glowing blue liquid from seemly thin air, but in actuality just pulled it from the void.
     Clancy eyed the vial with uncertainty. "And what is that supposed to do? It doesn't look like something special."

     Sky gave her a small grin. "It's called Solution Serum*, and its something I made. It's a little complicated to explain, but I assure you it does work."
     "Work?" she asked skeptically. "You haven't even told me what it does yet, so excuse me for not having complete faith in this."
     "Hm..." Sky thought about it for a moment. "Think of it as a cross between a sedative and a truth serum. Someone under the influence of it can't lie, and is in a much calmer state than they would normally be. There's a few other aspects to the serum, but that's the basics." he explained.

     Clancy frowned, thinking about it. "What if Yoi objects? She's already rather attached to Cassia, Notch knows why. She's insufferable!"
     Sky grimaced. He knew why, but no one else could know the reason yet. "I'll talk to Yoi, okay? We'll set up something where you and her are out doin-"
     Clancy cut him off. "Excuse me, why aren't YOU going to be the distraction? It hardly seems fair that you get to pick." she sniped.

     Sky glared at her. "You don't have a fucking clue how the serum works, that's why, and if you screw something up you could leave Cassia dead or worse!" he snapped back.

     Clancy narrowed his eyes at him. "You'd better watch your tone, Sky. You don't want to cross me."
     He scoffed. "Sure." Taking a deep breath, he tried to calm down. "Look, Cassia is important to this world, like it or not, as is Yoi. We can't afford to lose either of them, so, much as I hate it, we'll have to work together for the time being, okay?"

     Clancy eyes him down suspiciously. "How do I know you're telling me the truth about their importance to this notch forsaken world?" she spat. 
     He ran a hand through his short brown hair, letting out a small sigh. "You can't. I could provide all the facts I have about them and you still wouldn't believe me. Why? Because you hate me for letting Herobrine take away your lover. I don't control my creator, you of all people should understand that."

     Clancy, for once, didn't have anything to say. She turned away from Sky quickly, wiping away the tears that had formed in her eyes. She knew he was right though. 'He... He was my everything.' she thought.

There was a long silence, stretching the minutes until it seemed like an eternity.

     Finally, she spoke again, her voice nearly cracking. "Yes, I hated you. But... " she paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts. "I'm... I'm willing to help this one time. For Yoi, and for... For..." she wasn't able to say his name yet, it was to painful.

     Thankfully, Sky understood. "I know." he said quietly. "I'll bring him back someday, I promise."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Okay... So, what's the plan?"

"The plan? First step, find Cassia."

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Hellu freakazoids
Been a while since I updated, hasn't it?

Anyway, kawaiiKiya29
A promise is a promise, I updated when I came back ;)

Let me know what y'all think of it down in the comments!

Cya later Readers

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