Something struck the dome again, sending strong tremors throughout the structure. For a moment, the shaking was so violent that Ailysia stopped breathing, certain that the building was going to collapse. But the tremors passed, and the dome stood. For now.

Heart thumping, she followed the guards out of the transporter room, and into the great hall. The guards all had their weapons out, a silver, metallic firearm with a triangular body, a wing-shaped cover, and a pulsing ruby crystal embedded in the barrel. It looked more like an ornament than a weapon, and Ailysia wasn't sure what good it could do against whatever terror was outside.

They ran all the way to the gate, until the ice wall abruptly cut off their exit. The guard who had escorted Ailysia issued a string of curses, her jaws snapping with anger. "Where is the Lady?" She barked at another guard. "Find her!"

The second guard ran off to find Ashermoran, but until the dragon-woman could get here, there was nothing they could do. Meanwhile, Ailysia could hear constant banging and screaming from the other side of the wall. The sound was faint, dampened by the ice, but the desperation it carried was unmistakable. She remembered the tens of thousands of aliens stranded outside. They were probably trying to break the wall down, desperate for shelter.

Once again, she was furious with the dragon-woman. How could Ashermoran do this, abandoning her own people? And how many of those people would be left by the time she finally returned?

I must be able to do something! Ailysia thought. She had conjured ice before, twice. She must be able to control it as well. She stared up at the ice wall, focused all her attention on it, and willed it to move, to lift. Sweat broke out on her forehead from the intense concentration, and for a split second, hope sparked as she felt something shift. But the ice was heavy, all thirty tons bearing down on her will. She struggled mightily against it, but couldn't keep going. Her concentration broke with a shudder, leaving her gasping for breath.

The wall remained standing, not budging an inch. And beyond the wall, the cries for help were growing weaker.

Frustrated, Ailysia pounded her fists on the wall. She hated feeling so useless!

However, as the icy coldness stung her hands, an idea occurred to her. When she conjured ice those two times, she didn't exactly make them out of nothing, did she?

Phase transition—she remembered from her chemistry class. Ice was the solid phase of water, which was also present in the air as vapors. When she "conjured" ice, she had probably pulled the vapors from the air and solidified them. She had done it unknowingly—but now that she knew, she could reverse the process.

As soon as she thought of it, cracks began appearing on the surface of the ice. With every second, the cracks spread, blooming out until they were all over the wall. And then, with a forceful tug of her mind, the wall shattered, vanishing into a shower of water.

The first alien came splashing into the hall, followed by a dozen others, wailing in pain. Ailysia saw scorch marks on their body, entire patches of skin burned away. She wanted to ask what attacked them, but there was no time for questions. She guided the wounded further inside, to the safety of the corridors, and rushed back to the gate.

Just then, a giant porpoise-like creature staggered through the gate, her long neck straining in desperation, and her spiky back engulfed in fire. Making it through seemed to drain the last bit of her willpower, and the creature collapsed to her knees, uttering a piercing cry. Ailysia hurried to pour cold water onto the alien, drawing water from the air as fast as her mind could spin. However, even as the fire died out, the alien choked out a last shaky breath, and fell motionless, glassy eyes staring out into nothing.

Tears stung Ailysia's eyes. She had no connection to these aliens, didn't even know their name, but watching one die right in front of her still shook her to the core. She choked back a sob and looked again at the gate. No one else was coming through. The guards, on the other hand, were preparing to storm out.

"Go to the basement. It should be safer there," said Ailysia's guard, with a business-like serenity, as if her squad wasn't going off to face certain death. She rallied her compatriots with a wave of her fearsome claw, and together, they uttered a war cry like the sound of a thousand blaring horns. Then they charged out of the gate, their red robes disappearing from Ailysia's sight.

Wait! Ailysia wanted to cry out. I don't even know your name! But she knew she couldn't stop them. In the short of amount of time they had been together, she had come to refer to the guard who escorted her as "her guard". And now, that's the only name she could remember her by.

Briefly, she wavered at the gate, fists clenching, as explosions boomed outside. She wanted badly to go out, to join the battle, but for a lingering doubt in her mind. What would happen to her if she were to die in this world? This was no ordinary dream. It had granted her powers in real life, and would it also be able to kill her?

The hesitation vanished, however, when she remembered the porpoise alien's lifeless eyes. It was one life she couldn't save, and she would hate to fail again. Her powers were meant for a reason, she was sure, and this had to be it.

She ventured outside, down the white stone stairs, and to the square. Everywhere she looked, there were upturned carts and spilled luggage, most of them charred and smoking. The previously pristine white stone ground was carved with hideous smoldering streaks, where the stone itself seemed to have melted. Lying on top of the burning ground, contorted and almost indistinguishable, were thousands of dead bodies.

She couldn't take her eyes off them, but eventually, she had to. She cast her eyes up the sky, which glowed an unnatural shade of yellow from the constant radiation burst. And there, amidst the dense cloud of smoke, she finally saw the enemy.

Hundreds of ships dotted the sky, each probably the size of a whole city block. They looked like perfect polyhedrons, made up of enormous triangular facets, and plated in solid gold. They glowed radiantly in the sunlight, and would have looked breathtakingly beautiful, if not for the black cannons protruding from the undersides.

Her heart sank at the sight of them. How could she hope to do anything against something like that? But even as she watched, a group of guards flew up in a tiny, egg-shaped flyer, and engaged the enemy. Ailysia heard blasters going off, the guards firing at the enemy ship with everything in their arsenal. She saw the top side of the enemy ship beginning to spin, the cannons charging in a whirl of electrical storm.

"Get away from there!" She screamed at the tiny flyer. But even before she could finish the sentence, the cannons fired, spewing a beam of supercharged plasma that shredded the flyer instantly. The beam kept going, passing over Ailysia and striking the dome behind her in an explosive flash.

The remains of the flyer crashed to the ground. Weeping, Ailysia ran toward it. She knew no one could have survived that, but she still had to see, just in case. And then, when she got close enough to see the smoldering wreckage, even that last bit of hope vanished.

Fury welled up inside her, stronger even than her grief. She stared up at the enemy ship, eyes blazing with hatred, and she forgot that she was but one girl against an entire fleet. She conjured a ball of ice and pitched it at the nearest ship. The ice splattered on the hull, causing no damage whatsoever, but the ship immediately turned its attention on her.

The topside of the ship spun into a frenzy, accompanied by the sparks of cannons charging. Ailysia knew that she should run and hide somewhere, that this was madness. But even though every muscle in her body was shaking in fear, she didn't move. She stared defiantly into the dark pits of the cannons, while her mind raced to pull all the water vapors in the air toward them. She waited three seconds, until the cannons' whirling reached a fever pitch, and froze them in twenty tons of solid ice.

The cannons fired almost an instant later, the plasma melting most of the ice on contact. But the beam didn't get through. Instead, it backfired, and the underside of the ship exploded in a spectacular firestorm.

Ailysia almost couldn't believe it—her plan had worked! The victory brought a rush of pure joy, and she cried out in celebration. She felt power coursing through her veins – real power, greater than ever before. She could do this, she thought. She could take them on!

However, the victory proved to be short-lived, because a dozen more ships turned on her, firing relentlessly, faster than she could take out their cannons. She was forced to go on the defensive, raising ice shields to block the plasma beams. It took a great toll on her, and each successive shield she made seemed to be weaker, leaving her more perilously exposed.

Soon, she was out of breath, and the task of drawing water vapors together, so easy before, seemed like moving a mountain. And then the enemy changed tactics, combining their plasma beams to forge a much stronger one. It blasted her shield to pieces, and she barely scrambled out of the way before it could vaporize her.

Reluctantly, she accepted that this was a losing battle, and she could not turn the tide by herself alone. There was one person who could help, who should be fighting to begin with—Ashermoran. She was going to find the dragon-woman and drag her out here no matter what, Ailysia decided.

She spared a glance at the dome, planning her retreat. It was going to be tricky. The ships were charging their cannons again, and their next shot could very well take her out. She had to act now! Drawing up every last bit of her power, she made three ice spheres, each ten feet across, and shot them out in a high speed volley at the ships. That drew the artillery fire away, and she seized the chance to sprint all the way into the dome.

Once inside, her adrenaline drained out like sand through a sieve, and she almost collapsed. Only the thought that she could still be targeted, standing exposed in open doorway, compelled her to move on. Briefly, she wondered if she should bar the gate with another ice wall, but the mere thought of using her power again was so exhausting, that she abandoned the idea and only forced herself to walk faster, hoping to find Ashermoran in time.

She turned to the side corridor, passed the few surviving aliens cowering by the walls, and asked if anyone had seen the dragon-woman. Most were too traumatized to say anything, but one pointed to the basement, and so that's where she went next.

The basement door was barred by another ice wall. Seeing this, Ailysia almost laughed at the absurdity. The enemy was at the gate, her people were dead or dying, and the mighty dragon was hiding in the basement!

But remembering the guards who died in vain, she could not laugh. Ashermoran's action was not only cowardice, but betrayal—and this, Ailysia could not forgive. Her power flared back, great and terrible, and she dashed the wall into a storm of vapors. Then she charged into the room.

Ashermoran was standing in front of another transporter, smaller than the one under the dome. Next to her stood another woman in red robe. She had a wild mane of red hair, a pale, lizard-like tail that trailed to the floor, and a ring of spiky horns that rose from her forehead, forming what looked like a coronet. Both were working on a small capsule that lay on a launching pad, when Ailysia's sudden entrance startled them to look up.

"Get out! You can't be in here." There was affronted outrage in Ashermoran's voice, which seemed almost comical given the circumstance.

Ailysia ignored her, and instead cast her attention on the capsule. The cover was open, exposing the content inside. There were four crystal eggs packed snugly on a plush bed. Dragon eggs, she guessed.

"What are you doing here, Ashermoran?" Ailysia made no effort to conceal her contempt. "Ensuring your own survival?"

"You have no idea how important this is." The dragon-woman took a step forward, her voice low and dangerous. "I will say this again: get out!"

Ailysia stepped forward too, and for once, she was glad that her tall stature made it easier to intimidate. "I don't think so. You are coming with me to fight the enemy." She looked meaningfully at the capsule again, and as though sensing her intention, the red-robed woman immediately moved to block her view.

The dragon eggs. Were they what Ashermoran meant when she told Ailysia, back in the first dream, that she sent her "only hope" into space? If so, were they the ones that would reach Earth and eventually "become" Ailysia, two million years later?

Ashermoran was wrong—Ailysia knew exactly how important those eggs were. But she also knew the value of a good bluff. She turned her attention back to Ashermoran, and restated her demand.

"You are coming with me. Or I swear to you I will smash those eggs."

A/N: What do you think of Ashermoran's actions? Was she being selfish? There will be more of Ashermoran's motivations revealed in the next chapter. Plus: more battles, loyalty tested, and a shocking ending to the second dream. The update will be posted next Friday. And if you've enjoyed the story, please give it a vote :)