Chapter 5 : Crystal

She awoke in a daze, feeling disoriented and disconnected from herself. As she slowly opened her eyes, she was met by unfamiliar voices that were muffled and distant. She felt inexplicably weak and her body felt heavy as if held down by an invisible force. With a tremendous effort, she forced herself to look around and take in her surroundings, only to realize that she had no recollection of how she had gotten there. Her memory seemed to be completely blank as if her mind had been wiped clean. Despite her confusion, she saw flashes of memories and images, so vivid and powerful that she could not ignore them. However, no matter how hard she tried, she could not make out what they meant or where they had come from. She was left feeling even more lost and disoriented.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, shaking her gently but it startled her. She didn't have time to dwell on it as her strength returned in waves. And then she remembered who she was.

"Crystal? Crystal?!" A familiar voice asked, sounding concerned. She knew that voice, it felt comforting and welcoming as if it was reaching out to her, inviting her to take hold and be pulled to safety. She slowly opened her eyes, shielding them with her arm as they adjusted to the bright light in the room.

After a moment, she lowered her arm and sat up, looking around. She appeared to be sitting on a bed in a familiar room. The same people who were with her before she dove, stood there all looking at her with concern. She saw her capsule a few meters to her left, completely unbroken.

This brought back a memory of feeling helplessly drowned. "Thank god..." another familiar voice said, sighing in relief. Crystal turned to her right to see Ann, who was the only one sitting on a stool, staring at her with an expression of both relief and confusion. Everyone else looked at her in the same way, which made Crystal feel uneasy. She noticed an additional person in the room and deduced that they were the healer who had restored her strength. "What happened?" Crystal whispered in a raspy voice.

"Your energy suddenly overloaded and caused your capsule to shatter. It looked like you were drowning before that happened. The stasis liquid can sometimes cause skin burns when it comes into contact with air, but thankfully it's not immediate," Ann explained. "Hayden rushed over to you and fixed the capsule right away."

Another memory came flooding back to her. She remembered floating helplessly next to her shattered capsule before a silhouette appeared beside her and all the liquid disappeared. That's where the memory ended and where Crystal probably lost consciousness.

She turned towards Hayden and looked into his emerald eyes. Something about them made her feel at ease, but Crystal always told herself that it was just the colour of his eyes that comforted her.

"You're lucky Hayden was there, you could have been hurt badly," Lucien said worriedly."It was our responsibility to protect her while Ann was occupied anyway," Amadh acknowledged."But you could've failed and she could've died if it was your and Ray's turn," Lucien pointed out."No, we have our methods of saving her," Amadh said firmly."Right, sure," Lucian said skeptically."In the end, it was all thanks to Hayden's actions, not yours," Amadh added.Lucien shot back with a reply.

Crystal's attention was drawn away from the two by a sigh from Ann. She looked at Crystal and gasped, "So that's what happened..."

Crystal sounded confused, "Huh?"

Ann explained, "You thought you were drowning in stasis and overloaded your energy so you could burst out." Crystal remembered the difference between mind mages and telepaths, "Oh...," she said, "Mind mages can't just read minds but also access things that even the mind cannot remember or process." Ann explained, "Not sure why you suddenly believed you were drowning though..."

"Good news," Amadh announced as he finished his argument with Lucien. Everyone's attention turned to him. "You didn't lose your ability," he said, addressing Crystal. "You were at least able to use it for a bit." With this news, Crystal focused on gathering energy in her palm, and before she knew it, dark pink energy began to spark and envelop it. "Seems like it," she announced, and everyone except Ann and Hayden sighed in relief. "What the hell..." Hayden muttered, sounding annoyed.

The problem at hand, however, was evident to all present, and Ann spoke up with frustration, "There's one issue though. A big issue," she said, her words capturing the attention of everyone in the room.

The mind-mage's eyes lowered, "We're at a loss as to the cause of these events," Ann said. "We have no idea what was in that container, or what caused the sudden flash of light. And now, the box is nowhere to be found. All we have left is this other box, but we're unsure of when, or even if, we should open it," she declared. Ray queried, "What do you mean by that?"

"Just look at Crystal. See the physical and emotional toll opening that box has taken on her. And now, there are even more scars on her body, and we can't explain why. We don't understand why Crystal lost her powers, or why they returned. We don't know why she felt like she was drowning in the stasis liquid when it was specifically designed to prevent that sensation. The memory she was reliving was of Lincoln entering a portal, if that can somehow trigger this sensation, then are we supposed to pull her out before he does that? Let the memory flow on its own without Crystal reliving it? Is that even possible to control remotely? It doesn't make sense. We don't know what, how or why this is happening!" Ann exclaimed, her frustration clear in her voice.

Ann continues, her voice growing increasingly frantic. "How do we know when Crystal will lose her powers again? How do we anticipate it and prepare for it? We started with no information, nothing! What are we supposed to do?!" She yelled, her voice rising in frustration before she buries her face in her arms. "Nothing makes sense," she murmurs before falling silent.

Crystal's vision abruptly turns red, but nothing happens.

Hayden stood up and walked towards the window that was next to Crystal's capsule and looked out as it began to rain. "We don't know that, sure. But there's one thing we can fix." He spoke, catching everyone's attention. "We're doing it in stasis because we have no way of manually getting Crystal into the memory. All we could do was control which memory she dives into. Now even that seems random. That's not the point I'm trying to make though. You realize we left one key aspect of stasis synchronization, right? We've been so busy identifying her memories, it just slipped our minds didn't it?" Hayden asked, to Ann's surprise. "Oh no..." She exclaimed as she realized. "Exercise," Ray answers.

"Exactly. Almost all the work was being done by her brain as she relived the memories. When it remains in stasis, it won't be possible to transfer the strain to the rest of the body. To achieve full synchronization..." Hayden explains, and Ann continues for him. "Her body has to be in the same state as the body of Lincoln's! I can't believe such an obvious detail slipped my mind!" Ann yelled in frustration, this time angry at herself. "I'm surprised you know this much about memory diving, considering that it's the first time we have done this," Ray said.

"I've read many books about this in my childhood. Some were fiction. But it was a topic I was very interested in." Hayden explained. "Hmm..." Ray replied, sounding thoughtful.

"So what do we do?" Amadh asks.

Everyone turns to him in surprise. "What?" Amadh asks nervously, suddenly feeling cornered. "No, I'm just surprised you were silent all this time. For a moment there, I thought you weren't in the room." Lucien said with a chuckle. Suddenly Crystal started to see more people in the room, but she couldn't recognize them. "We go Hyde hunting." Hayden declared.

"That sounds like a solid plan," Ann said, nodding in agreement. "But we need to be careful. We don't know what the effects of hunting Hydes will have on Crystal's body and her powers. We need to monitor her closely and act accordingly." "Agreed," Ray added. "We'll have to adjust her training regimen as well. We can't have her pushing herself too hard and risking injury."

"We'll also need to prepare for any eventualities," Amadh said, finally joining in the conversation. "We don't know what to expect out there and we need to be ready for anything."

"Right," Lucien said, joining in as well. "We'll need to gather supplies and make sure our equipment is up to date."

"It's settled," Hayden confirmed, his face twisting into an unfamiliar and unsettling appearance. Crystal felt uneasy as she looked at the person before her, who no longer resembled Hayden. Her emotions of hatred and desire for revenge consumed her, overwhelming her thoughts and causing her to forget why she was there in the first place. Her anger boiled within her, fueling her need for revenge as her vision grew dark and her field of view narrowed. She struggled to understand what he was saying anymore.

"We'll have Crystal take on some of the Hydes. She and Lincoln have the same abilities, so coordination will be seamless. We just need to get her in top condition-" Hayden began to explain, but was abruptly interrupted as a blast of dark pink energy was fired at his face.

However, the blast dissipated before it reached him. "Whoa there. What's the matter?" Hayden asked, trying to calm himself despite the sudden attack. Crystal remained silent and fired another blast at him, this time aimed at his chest. The blast halted in mid-air, inches from him before flying back to Crystal.

However, she vanished before it could come in contact with her. "She's doing it again, be careful." Hayden announced and kept his guard up.

She suddenly appeared before him and struck his chest with a mighty kick, her energy bolstering the force. He was sent tumbling out of the window and the room was filled with a cloud of dust from the shattered glass. Just then, a hand grabbed her shirt from behind and threw her onto the bed. "Put her to sleep, Ray!" Hayden shouted as she hit the mattress. Her body started to go limp as she felt herself losing consciousness.

"She's fighting back..." Ray declared, struggling to render her unconscious.

"Her hair is turning purple!" Ann exclaimed in alarm, "Amadh, grab her capsule quickly! We need to put her to sleep now!"

Hayden raced towards Crystal to prevent further harm. Amadh charged his legs with lightning and bolted over Hayden towards the capsule. Hayden slid beneath Amadh to dodge the lightning. Crystal's body began to emit a darker pink energy. "Oh shit!" Hayden shouted, "Lucien, shield the others!" He ordered and made a desperate attempt to reach her.

The energy surrounding her intensified and then burst out in all directions. Lucien immediately conjured a force field to shield Ann, Ray, and the healer, Karta, from the energy explosion. Unbeknownst to Crystal, Hayden had already grabbed onto her arm. Despite being badly burned from the explosion, his wounds were already beginning to heal. "Instant reverse," he whispered softly.

In a split second, they were outside, on a platform next to the entrance of their headquarters.