[Kystal]

We sped behind Nial, our footsteps echoing off of empty courtyards. All around us we heard the pop, pop of the sniffer riffles. Leastways, that's what I remember that they were called. We heard Nat scream, and immediately I splintered off to my right side, Sage to his left. Nial kept running through in a straight line. I picked up another orb in my left hand and drew my sword in my right. I braked to a sudden stop when I saw a wall of enemies . . . with Nat in their midst, fighting for her life.

"What---" I shouted. "Idiots! Your target is a boy! They turned and stared at me for a half second; I waited for them to raise their riffles, and threw the orb into them. It exploded into white hot light as it arced in the air, and exploded. Sage yanked Nat back away from the explosion . . . and the ammunition exploded in a mass fireball. I saw Nial bending over Nat, as Sage walked forward into the next room, where we heard more fighting. I followed behind him, to find Linnea in hand-to-hand battle with Andusk.

[sageofmyoubokuzan]

We hid on either side of the gateway into the courtyard where Andusk and Linnea were fighting. We stepped through the gate and drew our swords. "Be careful Kys." I said. "We still don't know what she is capable of."

"Alright, Sage." She replied as we attempted to sneak up on Linnea and catch her by surprise. As we were about to strike her from behind my sword was somehow knocked out of my grip. We looked around and spotted Ceres standing on a nearby rooftop. "He's got a sniffer riffle!" Kys cried out. "You two!" Linnea shouted. "What do you think you're doing here?!"

"We came here to stop you." Kys responded. Maralen, the other former emperor official walked into the courtyard. "You two are outnumbered we need to get out of here." Andusk said to us through telepathy. "What do you have in mind?" Kys asked.

"Oh I never thought I would ever see you two again." Maralen said. "I need you to find some way to distract them while I call for Artemis and Heru." Andusk said continuing to ignore the others.

"Hey we're talking to you!" Ceres shouted from the rooftop. "Okay I'll see what I can do." Kys said. "Why are you attacking our friends?" I asked. "We're just following orders." Linnea responded.

"Orders? I thought you worked for my father?" Kys asked. "You already know to much." Maralen said. "Kill them now Ceres!"

"Why me? You do it you're closer." He said. "Hey I was put in charge, and you will do what I say." Maralen said.

We closed our eyes expecting that death was near. Ceres squeezed the trigger of the gun, the sound echoed throughout the courtyard and then there was silence. "Are we dead?" I asked without opening my eyes. "No, Sage." Kys said. "You can open your eyes now." I opened my eyes to find Heru and Artemis standing before us.

"You owe me one again, Kystal." said Heru.

[Kystal]

All right I got it now, I responded, and then out loud, "Ceres, Maralen . . . it's too late. My mother is in charge now."

"Your mother," snickered Ceres. "Right, if anyone had overthrown, you would have been in charge . . ."

"You stupid piece of--" Sage cut me off. "Not really, don't you think for a minute, do you? Riders! We RIDE!" as he shouted he brought grabbed is sword and pointed at Ceres, who fell off the roof and onto the ground in a heap. Sage wheeled quickly and brought the tip of sword onto Maralen's neck. "No more, go back where you came from."

"We can't," said Maralen. "We are trapped in this time, in this dimension. We can't go back, not yet."

[sageofmyoubokuzan]

"They're outnumbered, Sage." Kys said. "I think you can sheath your sword now, and if either one of them try anything we have three dragons here to protect us." I looked at her hesitantly. "Uhm... Alright Kys." I said as I sheathed my sword. "So, what is keeping you here trapped in our time?"

"Tch... Like we would tell you anything." Linnea said. "Look around you." Kys said. "You're in no position to tell us what we need to to know and what we don't need to know."

"Maybe they're right, Linnea..." Maralen said. "Think about it, what has he ever done for us?"

"Ugh... You're right, Maralen." She said as she shuffled her feet on the ground. "What's wrong with you two?" Kys asked. "Well... Back in our own time we were completely different then the way we are now. Then one day all of our family was brutally murdered, yes all three of us are brothers and sisters, then that exact same day the emperor came looking for us. Telling us that he had the power to bring our family back..."

"Of course he was lying to us..." Linnea said as she lifted the now conscious Ceres off of the ground. "Now he is captured by you guys, and we have now way to get back to our time. Unless you are able to force him into opening up the time portal and letting us go."

"We are going to call off the attack since you have already captured the emperor there, and we have nothing else to fight for."

"Alright, we'll go and tell the other two about your decision to surrender. Then we'll take you to see the my mother, and then we'll take you to where we are holding my father." said Kys. "Are you sure about this, Kys? They could be bluffing just to get closer to your mother, and maybe so they could have a chance at freeing your father." I said.

"I doubt it, Sage." She said. "After hearing their story I think they are just victims of an unfortunate situation that has lead to the point they are at now. Here this is a map from here to where we are going." Kys said as she handed Maralen a small roll of parchment. "Just follow us in your coor to the castle." she said. "Don't you mean car?" I asked jokingly. "Oh shaddup Sage you know what I meant. At least I didn't fall off my dragon way back when. Do you remember that?" She said while laughing.

"Oh yeah good times, good times." I said. Linnea, Maralen, and Ceres had a perplexed look on their faces. "Okay, I think we confused them enough." Kys said while mounting Heru. "

Just follow the directions on the map and it will lead you straight there." She looked over at me and smiled. "Be sure to keep up this time, Sage. Wouldn't want you to get into trouble, and then I have to come back and bail you out again." She said as she took to the skies.

[Kystal]

Heru hesitated and whickered, his powerful wings struggling to keep him hovering above theh spot. "Far be it from me," he said in his calm voice, "to over-rule a Rider, but this does not make sense to me."

"Does anything?" I asked pertly. He rolled his eyes. "I mean that, if anything should be done, everyone should accompany each other. I do not deem it wise at this point for us to splinter."

"What's going to happen?" asked Sage, craning his neck to see Heru's face. The family stood still, waiting for the decision.

Heru snorted. "If I knew, rest assured I would tell you. No . . . a union of forces is best."

"So . . . we all go to the palace. All right." I jumped and landed on the ground, Heru flew away, calling over his shoulder, "I will get Nat and Nial to join us. Wait here, of your courtesy."

"Now that sounds more like the Heru I know," said Sage to me in a sotto voice.

"I heard that," echoed back Heru's voice off the stone walls. We giggled. I kicked around a stone, waiting for their return.

"I don't suppose I hurt Nat with the explosion," I shrugged. "I kind of acted on instinct."

"Meh, I doubt it," Sage said thoughtfully. He kicked the stone too. "Nat's a lot stronger than you give her credit for, I think . . ."

"True enough." Ceres sat on the ground, holding his head. I noticed him again, as the rock skidded back to Sage.

"Say, Sage, how'd you do that?"

"Do what?" Kick, kick. Skitter, skitter.

"You just pointed your sword at him, and he fell like a nine-pin." Skitter. I kicked to Ceres.

"What do you know about nine-pins?" asked Ceres irately. He threw the stone into the wall. Squish.

"Well I told you before that we-" Sage stopped, I continued on without noticing.

"We know a great deal more than you give us credit for. In fact--" I stopped speaking, noticing the sudden silence. They were staring at the rock . . . I looked more closely.

The rock had embedded itself into solid rock wall . . . I ran forward, Sage at my heels, and touched the wall: it was spongy, my hand could make a faltering way through. I touched it again with my other hand; it rippled as if it had been made of water.

"What the he---" Heru came flying back, Nat and Nial riding.

"Quick!" cried Heru. "Run! It's a time paradox!"

[sageofmyoubokuzan]

"A paradox, here?!" Kys asked frantically. "How is that even possible?"

"Whatever is causing the paradox is somewhere in this castle." said Artemis. We all looked at Linnea and the others. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Sage?" Kys asked as she turned to face me. "I think so... Maybe it could be their presence in our time that is causing a rift in the time line somewhere."

"Exactly!" She exclaimed. "That rift, wherever it may be, is causing a paradox here." The three of them had a look of perplexed look on their faces. "Could you please explain that in terms that we would understand?" Ceres asked.

"Basically, you being in our time is causing there to be a rift somewhere between your time and ours." Artemis answered. "Right, and that rift will eventually be brought to the attention of The Three Fates." Kys continued.

"The Three Fates?" They asked in unison. I replied, "Yes, whenever something is amiss in the time line it is brought to their attention, and they will begin hunting down whatever is causing the problem."

"This paradox serves as the only warning that we need to get you back to your own time and fast." Kys said. "I think I have a plan to get you three out of here..."

[Kystal]

"Why?" asked Ceres. "So what if--"

"The Fates find you, they will kill you," I said, quietly. "You are the cause of the paradox, your are the problem. They live to eliminate problems. In fact, they don't even exist until the problem does, then . . ."

"Enough, Kystal," cried Heru. "There is a time and a place for you to attempt to sound well-informed. We need to go, now!

Nat and Nial leaped to their own dragons when they arrived, and Heru caught me up in his hands and threw me onto his back. I grasped Cere's hair and lifted him onto the end of Heru's tail, making him straddle the spikes, as Andusk and Artemis snatched up the other two. We streaked away from the castle as fast as we could, in time to hear a rattling explosion coming from the direction we were headed. Heru backtracked quickly, whirling around the other dragons as he went.

"What was that?" cried Artemis. Heru said, "They have arrived. We might be too late."

"All right!" I said. "We have the necessary number of dragons, and two mages . . ."

"Three mages," corrected Nial. "I do have my power too, you know."

"All right, I know what you have in mind now, Kys," said Sage. "We send them back?"

"Send us back?" cried Linnea. "How could you? We had to open a worm--"

"You are the primitive species here, not us," said Heru. "We need to start the spell. Begin."

Our collective energies streamed down as we fled, forming a levitating mass of encircling magic that wrapped around us, glowing bright blue-white. The field kept growing until finally the hole in Time was complete.

"Now!" cried Heru.

[sageofmyoubokuzan]

The first one to pass through the portal was Linnea followed by Ceres. "Thank you for everything that you all have done." Maralen said as the fates were catching up to us.

"It's fine... Now hurry up and go!" Kys said. "Sorry for giving you so much trouble." She said as she passed through the portal back into their own time.

The fates had just about caught up to us when they stopped their pursuit. They stood still and searched for whoever had been causing the paradox. When they were finally convinced that it was gone, they dissolved into dust and a strange wind came and carried them back to the North.

The hole in time that we had created shut after a while. "Well, I guess everything is as it should be in the time line now." I said after a drawn out silence. "What do you suppose we do now?" asked Nat.

"We're going to report back to my mom," Kys said. "Then we'll continue looking for the remaining former officers that worked for my father."

"Why don't you come along with us?" I asked as I mounted Artemis. "It'll be just like the old times... What do you say?"

[Kystal]

Nial didn't hesitate. "I think that running rogue a few more decades won't hurt much, will it, Nat?" She nodded, and looked at Andusk. "But what about our country?" she asked.

"Rune!" Sage and I cried. She rolled her eyes at us. "Well, we can at least bring it up," said Nial. "Not to mention, I don't think these two are quite strong enough to hunt by themselves."

"I agree," said Heru and Artemis together. Sage made a face and kicked at Artemis' flanks, and they floated into the air. We four joined in the air, and, chatting happily, headed to the Empire.

[sageofmyoubokuzan]

When we landed in the courtyard of the palace Marianna was waiting for us. "How were the results of your first hunt?" She asked as we dismounted our dragons. "Well, the first hunt went... Good.

"It turns the particular group we were chasing after were ones that we had a run in with before, and blackmailed and forced to work for the emperor." I said. "They were also from another time, and they ended up staying longer then they thought they would 'cause of the emperor's defeat."

"Right, they were causing a paradox in the time line which got the attention of the fates. So we opened opened up a portal back to their time, and they passed through so now the paradox is gone." said Kys.

"Alright, so they weren't a problem then?" asked Marianna. "No," Nial replied. "Their family was killed when the emperor sent his minions to their time and killed their family. He convinced them that he would be able to bring them all back if they served under him."

"Okay that's fine then," Marianna said as she pulled out a small notebook. "Maralen, Linnea, and Ceres." Kys responded as Marianna crossed off each of their names. "Alright then," said Marianna as she flipped to the next page of the book. "The next three people I need you to go after are some of the more high ranking officials your father had working for him, two of them to be exact."

"Any idea where we should begin searching for them?" I asked. "Yes," replied Marianna. "A couple seen matching their description was spotted terrorizing a small village down south of here. So I'd say your best bet is to go there and ask questions around the village."

"You're welcome to rest here for a few days." she said after short pause. "I have already set up quarters for you all to rest in."

"This way, please." said a young servant. We followed him up a few flights of stairs and we finally arrived at our quarters. "This is where you all shall be staying.." He said as he opened the door and led us in.