For a moment, only a moment, Ty felt an overwhelming sense of dread once more as it really sunk in that he had just talked to an ancient reptile woman in the land of nothingness. Had he scared her off with his thoughts? Why was he such a pervert, he wished he hadn't-
"Hey! Dickhead!" Dustin growled suddenly, breaking Ty's train of thought. "Come on, bro! Change me the fuck back! Do whatever you did before!"
"Oh... right." Ty stepped out of his head and shook it once or twice. "Sorry, Dustin."
"Sorry, Dustin?" His step brother said, fighting back pure rage. "Sorry, Dustin? Like this shit is fucking something you just shrug off?"
"All right, easy..." Ty reassured. "You won't even feel a thing." He offered, and instantly willed Dustin's body and history to restore to normal. It did, of course, and suddenly his step brother was back to a big jock douchebag in a flash.
"All right." Dustin said, looking himself over in relief. "Don't you ever fucking do that to me again, you fucking hear me? Whatever weird fucking voodoo shit you got going on, go do it to somebody else."
"You know what I can do to you, too, now." Ty said sternly, for the first time in his life uttering the words with the confidence and malice of a threat. "You leave me the fuck alone or I'll shrink you so small that you'll slip through the bonds of matter."
At that, Dustin visibly cringed. Whether or not Ty meant it, it was clear he could do it. Even though he was an egotistical teenager, even Dustin knew better than to question it, since it had just happened to him. "Dude..." Dustin said cautiously. "Just... chill, all right? We good?"
"That's up to you." Ty grinned. "In fact, I think you should know..."
"Whoa...!" Dustin said in alarm, his entire body tingling strangely. His face contorted into recognition and then terror as he began to transform into a new body. Barely able to make a feeble cry for help, Dustin had already shrunken to half his normal size and was halfway between a human and an insect as he collapsed and shrank into a pile of his own oversized clothing. As he shrank, naked and inhuman, his insect features morphed away his human ones at terrible speed, six arms trembling as he became a big humanoid cockroach at two feet tall, before shrinking further and losing the humanoid part all together. Dustin visibly cringed as he realized he had become a complete roach.
His panic increased as he tried to scitter away from Ty's lowering hand, which easily scooped him up in a thumb and index finger, rendering him squirming and helpless in his step brother's grip. He held the roach up for inspection and smiled. "Remember this." He said, gently squeezing Dustin between his fingertips and watching him desperately kick and flail. "Remember this helplessness. Because this is what you are to me."
Ty carefully set Dustin down on the ground, watching the bug tremble in absolute and total fear, and urged him to change back halfway. Swiftly returning to a half human half roach, Dustin fell to his knees and pleaded with four hands held together. "N-No!" He squeaked, drooling and lisping in a grotesque high pitched voice. "Dusssstin sorry! He be good! Change back! Pleaseee! Chaaaange bacccck! Not hurt Ty! Pllleeeeaaasssse!!!"
Ty lorded over the terrified abomination and smiled, snapping his fingers for effect and grinning as Dustin sputtered and choked on mucus as he returned to a trembling naked human.
Dustin simply stared at Ty wordlessly, pale and sick, and began to redress frantically. He barely made eye contact as he fled the house without a word.
"Where are you going?" Ty asked simply, having not moved.
"G-Going to Krissy's..." Dustin whispered. "My girlfriend."
"I know who she is." Ty nodded. "You should definitely keep this to yourself, though. Would be a shame if she wound up having to be silenced."
"N-No! Nobody will know!" Dustin said in terror, breaking into a sweat. "N-Nobody will ever know! I swear to fucking God!"
"Go." Ty said.
As the door slammed Ty broke into a fit of laughter as he saw Dustin jump into his Camaro and scream off the driveway in a trail of burning rubber.
{ Not bad. } Narissa chimed in. { Almost poetic. }
"Not bad at all." Ty agreed, relaxing as he felt the lizard's presense and exhaling deeply in calm. "So... I didn't freak you out. With my... thoughts."
{ Scary. But interesting. } Ty could feel the lizard's feeling of appreciation. { I haven't had anybody think I'm sexy in a very long time. }
"Um." Ty blushed, walking aimlessly through the house. "So... what do we do about this?"
{ Oh, there's a 'we' now, is there? } Narissa asked sarcastically. { You'll let me through but I have to be your girlfriend? }
"No, no!" Ty slapped his forehead. "I didn't mean that."
Ty heard a distinct chuckle. { I know what you meant. Just teasing. }
"Okay. So tell me what happens if I let you over here. Why would I do it?" He sat down on his bed and tried to ignore the weird discomfort with having something else share his mind.
{ All right! } Narissa said in relief. Ty could almost feel her exhale. { What happens is this giant lizard creature becomes physically real in your dimension. It means I can't go back to mine anymore. It means I'm subject to your universe's rules, I age, I become matter. That whole thing. It also means that you suddenly have a giant lizard creature in your dimension. And she'd rather stay hidden while she gets on her feet. You see? }
"Yeah, but why." Ty insisted.
This time there was a pang of genuine sadness. { I don't like it here anymore. This place was supposed to be paradise. The next step in evolution. I just want to go back to what makes sense. I want to live and breathe and feel again. And... you can keep us safe. I don't think you know what you're capable of yet. }
Ty tried to detect any lying behind it. It *felt* like truth. But was this an act?
"I'm really not sure I should do this, Narissa." Ty admitted.
{ All right. All right. } The reptile said agreeably. { I know it's a lot to put on you right now. Can I at least explain what your 'power' is? }
"Can you?" Ty blinked, putting his head into his hands and sighing heavily.
{ The short version is this. } The disembodied lizard said calmly. { You have been so mistreated and so abused that your brain actually changed itself to tune in to the energy of creation itself. As in, you literally have a godlike power now. From being slapped around and tormented. }
"Really?" Ty looked up in shock. To nothing in particular.
{ Yeah. Really. } Narissa nodded somewhere in another dimension. Ty could feel the movement. { Like I said, there's only a couple people who have tapped into that. Mostly religious men who didn't *quite* understand what they had. So there's that mystery solved. }
"Makes sense." Ty nodded, rose from the bed, and began walking out to the yard. "Actually. What did you mean I could protect us?"
{ Nothing. } Narissa waved it off mentally. { I don't want to make you do something you don't want to do. Even if I want to break some rules, I'm not going to force you into something that's not what you want. That's what my other kin do. }
Ty thought about this for a moment as he grabbed the rusty old push mower from Mark's garage, on an auto-pilot state, and suddenly he understood.
"So..." Ty blinked. "You're... in heaven?"
{ It's the real version of what you guys think heaven is. It's just another place you go to. There's no time here, there's no aging, there's no death. Because you're energy, you see. That's the soul. It just goes back where it came from. }
"Can't you... possess somebody?" Ty suggested darkly.
{ Do you want to drink the blood of a child and pledge your vessel to the dark master Moloch? } Narissa said snidely in response.
"No." Ty said in sudden horror.
{ Yeah, didn't think so. That's what reptillian possession is all about. And as an added horrific bonus, you stop being Ty. Your soul is ejected as the lizard takes control of you and cast into a screaming void until your physical body dies. I want you to think about being alive, but unable to sense anything, trapped in waking death until the reptile controlling your body finally leaves when your body dies. }
This scared Ty so deeply that he had to sit for a moment and get his breathing under control. "So you want to come over legitimately. Just to be back here in this reality. Is that it?"
{ Yes! Exactly! } Narissa insisted. { All I want to do is just fucking live again! I want a physical body back! You're the only one who can do that for me. }
"Will you teach me?" Ty whispered, looking over the yard and sighing. "Let me do something with this?"
{ Yeah. Yeah, I can do that! } Narissa audibly gulped in Ty's mind. { I'm not much of a teacher, Ty, but I can try! }
Ty laughed slightly, and he felt Narissa probe the thought.
{ I didn't say I was against the idea. } The lizard said sweetly. { I just don't know you. And you don't know me. }
At this, Ty blinked once or twice and blushed.
{ I haven't been somebody's lover for a thousand years of your time. A thousand years! } The lizard laughed at herself. { I don't think I'd be a very good lover for a human. And you're so young and innocent. }
Ty thought of something awkwardly, just to see is Narissa could answer it. It embarassed him to say it out loud.
{ It's not the age OR the species. I mean, love is love. } The reptile said honestly. { It's about me. I'm a lizard. Think cold. Emotionally distant. Hard to show affection. Or the kind of love a human needs. I don't think I could give you, a warm human being, what you'd want. I'm still flattered you think I'm hot. I don't see myself like that, hence my shock. }
"Uhhh, okay." Ty nodded.
{ There. See. A lizard girlfriend doesn't sound so nice now, does it? I felt the... hesitation. } She snorted in his mind. { It's okay. Don't feel bad. That's reasonable. }
"Maybe I could teach you to be more human." Ty smiled, pushing the mower over the grass and grunting as he hit resistance.
{ Oh, now that's interesting. } Narissa admitted with excitement. { Maybe we have something to offer each other. What do you think? I could teach you all the secrets of the universe and you could teach me to feel like a human being does. }
"I'm still not sure I want to do this." Ty gulped. "Please don't hate me."
{ I don't. } He felt her shrug. { Honestly, I'm just hanging around for the conversation now. }
"Oh, yeah?" Ty giggled. "Cutting the grass and talking out loud to myself? I'm sooo interesting."
{ You know I can read your mind, right? } The lizard said sarcastically. { Like... I can hear your thoughts before you think them. So... }
"No need to talk." Ty blushed.
{ Eh. If it helps you out, sure. I won't be held responsible if somebody thinks you're crazy. }
"I see." Ty carried on cutting the grass.
{ Why don't you just use your thing? } Narissa suggested.
Ty stopped pushing the mower and blinked several times. "Because... I forgot."