Leave Out All The Rest pt.27

Leave Out All The Rest
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Blinding
"What are you doing here?" Crystal breathed as she backed up against the nearest object behind her, "What do you think?" Terra chuckled, grinning wickedly as she started to saunter forward, dressed all in black, like a funeral gown from the long bell sleeves to the lace dripping across every inch of the garment, her eyes had turned the deepest blue and black bags hung under them, adding to the sickliness of her pale complextion, she moved her hands in front of her, looking like a queen in the outdated, hoop-skirt, floor-length ball gown, "I live here," she grinned, Crystal shook her head viciously, "No... no I live in the light! You live in the darkness!" she shouted, "Look around Darling! Where do you think you are?" she turned, screaming when she saw she had been pressed against a tombstone this entire time, in fact, taking a second glance, this entire place was a graveyard, crows cawed as they perched themselves on headstones and angel statues, cobwebs collected on mosolium doors and the night hung heavy with clouds threatening to smother the moon at every moment, "No more Crystal, I've let this fantasy of your's live on long enough," "No!" she shouted, moving back more, the bottom of her white dress, in simaler fashion to Terra's but with short, caplet sleeves and sporting a more elegant design than the other's, matching well with her clear and healthy looking face, "No more dreaming of the dead as if death it's self were undone, you KNOW what happened Crystal!" "No no no!" "YES! No more cawing like a crow in this cemetairy, begging for a way out, screaming to the sky that you want to escape... no more Crystal, not for this, not for me, not for a boy, not for a body in the garden, no more! That garden you've been curled in all these months has turned into your tomb and you'll soon be burried in it!" "I don't believe you! The Titans won't let that happen, they won't let you take me away!" "Wake up Crystal! No more dreaming like a girl so in love with the wrong world, those people don't care about you, sure maybe they would if you could keep up the illusion, but once you reveal who you really are? HA! It's all downhill from there!" "Stop talking!" she screamed, "Admit it! Admit to who you are!" "Stop it! Stop! I don't care what you say! The Titans love me! Beastboy loves me! Raven loves me!" she screamed, "There you go again with those lies! You lie and you lie and you think it makes you an angel but it all it does is just twist you further!" "STOP IT!!" she shouted, screaming her lungs out in a constant ear peircing scream, she watched as Terra placed her hands over her ears, cringing as the scream echoed, through her skull, through her spine, and down through her ribs, it shook her to her very core, the ground began to split, shaking Crystal as well, she felt in her fists, in her feet, in the hollows of her eyelids, the power of it made her gasp and jerk forward as the ground below swallowed Terra entirely before closing up around her again, Crystal panted, falling backwards and huddling herself into a ball, a scared, shaking ball, she could hear the thunder and see the lightening crack in the distance but she didn't care, it could rain on her, flood her, drown her, but she wouldn't care, she sniffed, looking down and seeing that her pure white dress was starting to turn to a misty, muddled grey, feeling her heart jump in her throat, she jerked up and screamed, trying desperately to peel the grey off of her dress, "No... no no no no no!!" she shouted miserably, backing up and again landing against a headstone, with a shaking breath she turned, wiping the dust off of the grave and reading the name, "Tara Markov", she felt her world begin to shake around her and let out a horrendous scream as a hand plunged straight out of the grave and wrapped it's self around her ankle, tugging her underneath deeper and deeper until the earth filled in around her again

Crystal sat up with a gasp, her eyes flew open and her chest heaved as she reflected on her dream, except... it wasn't quite a dream.... "It was you who held me under..." she breathed, realization dawning on her as she quivered, biting her lip miserably and struggling to hold back tears, "All this time..... I've been a tourist in the waking world.... never quite awake... perpetually in this cursed sleep... held in this sleeping state.... and... now the spell is broken ..." she groaned, shaking her head and getting up quickly, her emotions were too out of control, Raven would sense them soon, all around her the world was waking, beginning to start the day, she cringed, grabbing her backpack and packing her most important things, she looked down at Miranda, biting her lip and giving the puppy a hug and a kiss, "I am so.... so sorry.... but you're better off here than with me... I can't keep dreaming like a little girl... so in love with the wrong world..." she wispered, placing her backpack on and opening the window, she shook, her eyes glowing yellow as a peice of rock slid up to the side, she shut the window and climbed on it, using her recently rediscovered geokinetic abilities to get away, "I never could go back to this place even if I wanted to now..."

"Crystal?" Raven asked softly, tapping on the blonde's door and tilting from side to side on the balls of her feet, "Crystal breakfast is ready... are you still sick?" she asked, narrowing her eyes as she started noticing that the familiar energy clouding the room was no longer there, it was just an imprint, an impression, a ghost of the girl that usually resided there, flinching in worry, she flung the door open with her magic and frowned wen she saw Miranda sitting on the bed wimpering and crying ... and Crystal no where to be found, she walked forward, following the trail of energy to the window and placing her hand there, taking a breath, she tried using her powers to sense were she had gone, but it felt like she had leaned on this window and then dissapeared.... looking down, she noticed the disturbed ground beneath the tower, directly under the window, disturbed.... as if it had been broken apart by geokenisis, she cursed and snatched the dog, gesturing for the puppy to follow her as she ran towards the main room, "This isn't good.... this isn't good at all..."

"Crystal is gone," as soon as Raven announced her pressence everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at her, "Rae... w-" "She's missing," she added suddenly, causing everyone to become visably more bothered by the news than they had only moments before, "How do you know? I mean maybe she just want for a walk or something," "Because I know, I can tell these things remember?" she pointed, causing everyone to look down with slight fault, "We HAVE to find her... I need you to understand that we have to find her," Beastboy was the first to agree and nodded along, standing and joining her in front of the door, "Whatever Rae says about this stuff Guys, I think we should listen to it, she knows it way better than we do after all," he noted, Robin nodded slowly, "Right, Titans, GO!" he shouted instantly as he rushed for the elevator

~+~

"Stop... please... please stop..." Crystal wispered, curling deeper into the cave she had formed just on the edge of town, "I'll never stop and you know it, not until you completely give into me," Terra breathed against her, Crystal bit her lip and clutched her hair tightly as she rocked back and forth, trying to ease the immense anxiety that had been building up for so long now, "I ... won't.... I may have been a monster before... but I refuse to become one again," she breathed, "Oh Sweetie you don't see it do you? You weren't a monster, you were a hero," she growled out and turned, glaring holes into the walls, "Only after destroying lives! The people I care about were crushed beneath me!" "And maybe they deserved that!" Crystal shook her head, "No..." she breathed, "I will never hurt anyone.... ever again," she wispered, the cave entrance sealing shut moments later

~+~

"My scanners aren't picking her up anywhere in the city, were could she have gone?" Cyborg frowned, "That's because she obviously isn't in the city anymore," Raven said quietly as she adjusted the hood over her head, Beastboy glanced at her worriedly, "I'm gonna get an arial veiw, see if I can spot her," he said, quickly shifting into an eagle and taking off, Raven hugged herself, bouncing back on the heels of her feet, "Starfire, why don't you go with him? Raven, Cyborg and I will take the T-Car and see if we can pick up anything going towards Gotham," Robin instructed, Starfire gave a small nod and quickly joined Beastboy in the air as the remaining three Titans started into the car, "Raven," the empath jerked slightly and glanced over her shoulder at him, "I know you and Crystal were close, do you kno-" "No," she said quickly, "I know nothing about her, as much time as I spent trying to get to know her, the fact is that there are components of every person's mind that absolutely no one knows, not even that person themselves, until it's time to use them, it's entirely possible that she's done something far darker than she could ever lead me to believe,"

"Oh.... I feel so uncertain and full of the worry... we have not yet found a trace of freind Crystal... what if Terra has done something horrible?" Starfire asked worriedly, "She didn't... I didn't catch her scent near where Crys left and Raven didn't pick up it either... she left willingly," Beastboy said quietly, leaning back against the balcony that he had landed on for a quick break, "But.... why in the galaxies would she do that?" Starfire asked in confusion, Beastboy shrugged, "I dunno Star... sometimes ... sometimes people do that... they just do that," he explained quietly, Starfire bit her lip, "Well I do not like it.... to leave your freinds... your family... it is... it is simply terrible.... it makes me feel most glorbkarinas!" "I uh... don't know what that means but I get the gist.... whatever it is, Crystal must have had a reason for it, I can't imagine she'd leave just out of the blue without a good reason," Starfire's frown only deepened, "But what reason could possibly be 'good' enough that would cause this kind of situation?" Beastboy sighed and frowned, "That's what I don't know.... but what we need to find out,"

~+~

'My eyes.... are heavy....' Crystal thought, struggling with all her might to stay awake, "Sleep then, sleep.... and be at peace," Terra hummed in her head, "No..... no you'll take over.... you'll .... no..." she mumbled, "But dear you're so tired.... surely just ONE little break isn't going to do any harm.... right?" "You're lying.... you're a liar Terra...." "And so are you, my other half, but you can't keep this up forever, your body can only run on so much steam before it's blown out, now sleep, and let me do all the work," no matter how hard she tried, no matter how hard she tried to resist and how badly she wanted to resist... her eyes closed and Crystal slipped into a deep sleep, allowing Terra to awaken as the same set of clear blue eyes fluttered open moments later, the girl stood, using her geokenisis to lift a few stones from the ground beneath her and smirking, "Now then, let's have some fun shall we?"

~+~

A sharp inahle of breath echoed from Beastboy's lungs as he jerked his head up, "Hm? What is the matter Frei-" "Crystal!" he shouted, "You sense our freind nearby!?" Starfire asked hopefully, Beastboy nodded his answer and swiftly turned into a raven, taking off from the edge of the building without a single word being spoken, he swept through the city, eyes carefully scanning everyone, everywhere, trying to pinpoint the exact location of Crystal's scent that had just moments ago been so very evident, it was strong, but it smelled like she was hurt, this worried him to no end and the second he saw her he descended to the ground, shapeshifting back into his human form as quickly as possible, "Crystal!" he shouted, running towards her and trying to ignore the agony of her pained scent, "Beast...boy..." he muttered out as he picked her up, holding her close, "Don't you worry Crystal, everything is gonna be ok, I promise," he swore, not noticing that as her head laid on his shoulder, eyes still closed, a wicked grin could at some angels be spreading across her face

~+~

"Is she alright?" "What happened?" "Did she tell you anything?" Slowly, blue eyes cracked open and a groan echoed out of her throat as the girl stared up at the faces looking down at her, "Crystal!" Beastboy chirped excitedly, "How are you feeling now that you're awake? Still in pain?" she frowned, about to snap something at the empath but regaining her senses, Crystal was so close to this woman, if she made a wrong move it would be the end of her disguise, "N-Not really, just a little bit," "I'll get you some medicine," Raven offered instantly as she stalked away to the medicine cabinets in the infirmery, "Crystal, can you tell us exactly what happened?" Robin asked softly, "Exactly?" she repeated, shaking her head slowly, "N-No... I just... I woke up... and Terra was in my room, I remember fighting with her... and then... I don't remember... but then I woke up in this cave... and I knew she'd be back soon so I ran and I just... I fell I guess..." the boy wonder nodded slowly and stood up, "I see, we'll let you rest now Crystal, I know you've had a rough day," "Y-Yeah...thanks," she muttered, Raven watched her for a moment as she slowly handed her the medicine, she gave a weak smile and took the pills without question, laying down again and rubbing her eyes drowsily, "We should go," Raven said immediately, rather surprising the Titans, "But-" "She needs to rest," she interrupted, ushering them out of the infirmery as quickly as she could, the moment everyone was out of the room the questions began, "What was that about?" Robin frowned, following Raven towards the elevator, she stayed quiet until they were in, making sure they were well out of hearing range before speaking, "I'm not sure that's Crystal," she said, making everyone fall into a stunned silence for a moment, "What... are you talking about?" Beastboy asked quietly, "Don't tell me no one noticed," she said with a frown, "Well she was quiet... but she had alot of trau-" "Not that," she interrupted quickly, "I felt her energy.... it feels... different, not as sweet, like something is suddenly wrong, to make matters worse the way she looked at me when I first spoke is unnerving, she looked like she was ready to kill me and I think we know Crystal well enough to know that isn't normal, plus her story seems off, I didn't feel anything in the tower earlier that was unusual, not another energy, not a disruption in her energy, nothing, and how did Terra get in? This morning the window was wide open but it was locked last night and there was absolutely no damage to her room to indicate a scuffle, but the worst fact of all..." she reached down as soon as they were in the main room, picking up the puppy at her feet, "Crystal loves this dog, but she didn't act like she even knew Miranda existed, she had absolutely nothing to say about her, this dog is always Crystal's priority, you really think that under any circumstance she would have been gone all day, thought Terra abducted her, and not bother to even ask if Randy is ok? That's not right.... that just... it isn't right," everyone was quiet for a long, tense moment, "So... you just think we're dealing with Terra?" Robin asked, Raven shook her head, "We've never been JUST dealing with Terra, there's a very good reason Terra is impersonating Crystal and I don't think it's just as an easy-in to the Tower, something deeper is going on here, and in order to find out wat it is, I'm going to need everyone's help.... and alot of trust that I know what I'm doing...."

~+~

A gasp jerked out of her body and shakes and tremors ran across her body as her blue eyes flew open, swallowing and looking around anxiously as sweat dripped from her body, "No..." she breathed, she was back, she was back to her old self with Terra gone for now... but Terra had taken over, and had interacted with the Titans.... said and done who knows what.... now here she was in the infirmery and in pain and she had no idea what happened.... with a grimmace she tucked her head against her legs and groaned, a quiet cry starting to escape her as her body rocked and racked it's self with greif, greif, over the fact that the life she once knew and loved was over now, and greif, over the fact that she may very well be about to lose everyone she has ever loved...