Chapter 8 : Crystal

"Is she awake now?" "She's supposed to-" "Oh there..."

She woke up with a gasp, her heart racing in her chest. A bright light shone into her eyes, blinding her for a moment. The voices stopped, everyone seemed to be silent, intently watching her. She rubbed her eyes and looked around. She could once again remember everything in her dream. Another memory. She thought to herself.

"Welcome back," Hayden said with a smile. Crystal looked at Hayden as her eyes adjusted to the room's lighting. They were inside a hospital wing, which means they had reached their headquarters. She was glad they made it safely without her help. "Hey, you, okay?" Hayden asked, "You seem like you've woken up from a nightmare."

Crystal shook her head slightly and got off the bed. She instantly regretted doing so and would've fallen if not for Hayden catching her. "What are you doing?" He asked. Just as he asked that the world glitched again and his head was cut off in front of her.

Her eyes went wide as she screamed and dodged an energy blast. She rolled to the other side of the bed and pointed her arm towards the invisible attacker. However, she couldn't fire a blast at them. She then remembered what happened, her abilities were no more. She rolled under the bed and hid there, hoping the others would kill off the Hydes that attacked them. Her heart raced again at the shock of Hayden's death. It happened so quick she couldn't process it.

Her bed was blasted away leaving Crystal vulnerable to attacks.

A blast came towards and she closed her eyes for impact. Was this how it was going to end? She would never be able to solve the mysteries, find Specimen Crimson and possibly fix the dimensions back into place. She would never be able to go back to her real home. Was this all going to end?

The blast never hit her.

Her arms covered her face, bracing for an attack that never came. She slowly peaked and saw everything was completely normal again. There was no bloodshed, the beds were in place. "Are you okay now? Talk to me." Hayden said calmly, he was holding her. "Hayden? How?" She asked, this time she let him hold her. Her face streamed with tears, she thought she'd lost him.

Ray and Lucien, stood not so far away looking at them with the same concerned looks Hayden wore. "You suddenly started screaming and fighting an imaginary attacker. Then if not for Hayden catching you on time, you'd have been out the window." Lucien explained after seeing how confused she was. She turned around to see how close she was to the window, they were fifty stories up, if she had jumped, she would have died. After all, she didn't have her abilities anymore.

"Are you okay now?" Hayden repeated. She shook her head to clear things off. "Yes." She replied and slipped out of his grasp. She stood up and leaned against the wall, then slowly slid down to the ground again. The others slowly closed in on her.

"Ann and Trixy would be coming in soon. Hopefully, Ann gets here sooner, a mind mage would be helpful now." Lucien informed. Ray still hasn't said anything, which was concerning. "Why is Trixy coming?" Crystal asked. Lucien was shocked at her question but didn't reply. "Take a look at the mirror," Hayden said slowly.

Confused, Crystal slowly limped to the mirror in the room and that's when she saw it. Her face was covered in ugly scars and her arm didn't look any better. "How...?"

"Well, they started appearing when you first attacked Amadh. And then became worse when you hallucinated again." Hayden answered with a grimace. "Why is this happening to me?" Crystal asked, her voice tinged with fear and anger. "I'm not sure. Which is why a herbalist would be useful too." Hayden replied and sat on the bed. His blonde hair was a mess and he tried fixing it after getting a look on the mirror too.

A few minutes there was a knock on the door before Ann the Mind Mage entered. She had long red hair and blue eyes and was only two years older than Crystal, who was turning nineteen in a few months. She looked at Crystal and gasped, "What happened to you? What are all those scars?" She asked, her voice doing nothing to hide how concerned she was.

"Things happened and now she's like this. We would like you to see what's happening to her. She's having memories of another person and also hallucinating after waking up. These scars start to appear every time she hallucinates, which is bad... Really Bad..." Hayden explained and got up.

"Memories of another person? How is that possible?" Ann asked as she closed in on Crystal. "I'm not sure. It all started when she opened a box labelled Lincoln Blaze. The box disappeared soon after that. We're not sure where it went." He replied. "I see..." Ann said and ran her hand around the scars on Crystal's face.

She shivered upon the touch; it didn't hurt but Ann's touch was cool yet comforting in a way.

"I tried reading your mind, but it seems to be a big mess right now. Can you tell me everything?" She asked, pointing to the bed. Crystal nodded and slowly sat on it. Ann sat next to her shortly after. "Go on..." She told her. Crystal nodded again and started wording what she wanted to say.

"I think I'm reliving the memories of Lincoln Blaze. I'm not sure how I know this, but something deep down is making me sure of it. My memories start from when he finds a gemstone on a hiking trip, which is said to be the last piece of ModCytron, Specimen Crimson. I also keep switching from the past to the present, the present being when Lincoln was an adult and the past being sometime around when he was seventeen. I'm not sure why I keep switching, maybe it's because I don't have control over the memories I'm reliving or because I'm only supposed to have these memories. Moments before I woke up, Lincoln had met Aytrex, this was after the battle of One-Six. He also did not know about Alvanian." Crystal said while trying to remember more.

"I can confirm what you remembered is somewhat relatable to what happened to Lincoln, only we haven't learnt much of Lincoln's past other than him finding Specimen Crimson. The rest starts from when he meets Aytrex, so the past is something I'm not able to confirm. You switching from the past to that present is something we have to test more; we would need to ask you to do things before we put you to sleep. If this is true that you are reliving the memories of the first human wielder, then this will indeed help us very much, and if it requires you to be asleep, then we have no choice. We finally have hope in restoring our lost planet and the people we lost with them. Hope... We were running short on it until now..." Ann said, she did indeed look hopeful, tears slowly fell from her eyes as she smiled.

Ann then got up and moved to the door.

"We will need a capsule big enough for Crystal to fit it. It should be the ones that have pipes connected to it, we don't know how long we'll be putting her in there but if this is all true, we need her to finish reliving the memories completely and strategize from there." She said and noticed Crystal's expression. "I saw through your mind and I know there ain't just dreams of yours. I know what you're thinking, and dreams can't be recalled as easily as what you are getting. So, I believe you, let's hope this works." Ann assured Crystal and moved out of the room, Hayden and Lucien followed her leaving Ray and Crystal alone in the room.

She wore her usual blank expression, but inside was nothing but gratitude for the words Ann had given out. It meant so much to be believed in. Ever since her visions had come to her, almost everyone had trust issues with her. Except for Hayden, and now even Ann.

"Hmm. I guess we should be prepared to wait a while." Ray said, and Crystal nodded, not quite getting what he meant. "I meant, if you are going through the life of someone, it's going to take a while before you're done. And don't forget the other person, you may have to relive Calvin too. I'll get some people to research on people named Calvin, and see if anyone would have something related to this. Till then you would need to finish up with Lincoln." Ray told her.

"It may take months-" she said. "And we are prepared to wait much longer, you've given us hope, we were hopeless not long ago." Ray cut her off. Another one, Crystal smiled a little, another one believes in her. Did she have to get scarred to make them believe? She sighed, at least they do.

Moments later, everything was set up and the capsule open. It was empty now, but when Crystal enters it, it would be filled with stasis liquid. Stasis liquid is one of the only liquids humans can breathe under and specializes in putting people in a long sleep. Crystal got into her stasis suit, and slowly stepped into the capsule. The monitors then recognized this and started closing up when Crystal was in the right position. "Commencing Liquification..." A female robot voice said before Crystal's capsule was filled with liquid.

Another voice then came into the capsule, "In a few minutes you will be put to sleep. Now what I need you to do before that is to keep thinking of Lincoln's past. And if this works then you should be reliving his past instead of continuing what you were reliving in the present. We will constantly wake you up every few days and give out different commands like to switch between timelines, so be ready for that. If this works then keep thinking 'It worked' if you're able to, and I will get the message. Is that clear?" Ann instructed.

Yeah. Crystal thought to her, as the liquid made it hard to see outside of the capsule. "Alright then. I will see you after you have done reliving Lincoln Blaze. Be careful, while this liquid may heal your scars, there's no telling if they would come back. So please Crystal, be careful." Ann said and the capsule then went silent. All Crystal could hear were the motors that filled the capsule, it was almost full.

Crystal then gradually started to lose consciousness, all the while thinking about where she stopped in Lincoln's past. When he found the stone, he named it something... What name did he give it?