The cold concrete floor gave no comfort to Crystal as her body screamed in agony. Groggy from the abrupt sleep forced upon her, confusion clouded her mind. The memory of how she got here, scattered into pieces: walking out onto the garden, the mansion chaotic with movement, Peter's smile. Then, other memories, distant and confusing: being thrown onto a hard surface, blinding lights moving rapidly above her. A cry for help. In took her a minute to get the events in order as she came to.

'Rise and shine Sleeping Beauty.' The voice that haunted her nightmares was above her. Fear flooded Crystal, she knew she needed to open her eyes, but that would confirm where she was. Not ready for that harsh reality, she forced herself to keep her eyes closed despite Stryker's protests. 'Crystal, you do not want to ignore me. Open your eyes'. He waited for her to comply, but Crystal resisted. 'Very well'.

Pain shot through her entire body, forcing her to convulse as she let out a primal scream of agony. It was in this moment she realised her hands were encased by something heavy, preventing her from using her powers. 'Now, I don't want to hurt you but, if you can't follow orders, I will. Now get up.' Stryker had crouched down to pull her up, but she resisted as much as she could. 'Again'. Pain shot through her lower back, as every part of her body being electrocuted. A result of her disobedience. Her screams echoed across the lower floor of the compound as the relentless pain grew.

'Stryker that's enough'. Clarity hit Crystal as the sound of her father's broken voice reached her ears. He was there, probably in a similar container to her. Her eyes shot open in search of his face. She was right. The professor had his own container, but that wasn't what was all. Stryker had clearly prepared for their arrival and had a helmet similar to Erik's designed. It must have been stopping her father reach out to anyone, the same way Erik's stops Charles getting in. Crystal pulled herself up, as best she could. Her hands were no use to her in their casing, which had a chain connecting them to the floor. Her father was on her right, and she while she feared looking to her left, she knew she had to. A sharp gasp escaped her lips when she caught sight of Peter in the container beside hers. His body was suspended by tight bungee ropes preventing him from gaining any momentum. But that wasn't why she had gasped. His head was hung to one side, clearly unconscious, with a drip forcing an unknown substance into his body.

'Yes. He was quite problematic on the trip here'. Stryker clearly enjoyed the pain on Crystal's face and started gloating. 'We gave you all enough tranquilizer to keep you down for 48 hours. So imagine my surprise when this one started coming round after two. The only way to keep him from causing trouble was a constant drip feed of sedatives. But, I think we can wake Romeo up now'. He gave a sharp nod to one of the scientists outside the container and they went about removing the IV from Peter's hand. It only took a few minutes for Peter to start stirring, which caused not only Stryker but his lead scientist, to gain gleeful looks. 'Why don't we help him a little?'

Crystal watched in horror as a metal rod was charged up and was thrust against Peter's legs. His face grimaced from the shock. Tears rolled down her cheeks, feeling his pain. 'Stop it! Stop it!'. The rod clanged to the ground almost instantaneously as she pleaded for them to stop.

The entire room cast their eyes on her. She could hear her heart beating in panic as Stryker's scold turned into a sinister grin. 'Well, well, well. You've been practicing. I must say that was impressive'. His eyes locked on Crystal's as the reality dawned on her. In a fit of emotion and despair, she'd played her cards too early. 'Don't worry Crystal, soon you won't feel remorse or pain. You'll feel nothing. All you will know is what I tell you to do'.

'When I get out of here. I'm going to boil you alive from the inside. I'll take the water in your body, and I'll heat it up until it's gone and you shrivel away, dying in agony.' The venom in her voice was undeniable. Stryker had finally pushed her too far, she would not stand for it any longer.

'See Professor Xavier. All your talks of peace and the first thing your daughter says is a threat. How can you be so deluded in your hopes for the future, when your own family demonstrate just how evil mutants are?' With that Stryker and his team left.

The four mutants stayed quiet as they listened to the sound of footsteps become more distant. Once she was sure no one was in earshot, Crystal moved to the end of her cell. 'Peter, are you ok?'

'Yeah, just feel really foggy. Give me a minute, I'll be fine'. His voice was a rasp, trying to hide the discomfort he felt.

'Now what Charles. This hasn't gone exactly to plan and now we each have a perfect prison to keep us contained'. This was the first time Crystal had noticed Erik. He was to the right of her father, but the plastic surrounding his cell was so thick, she could barely see him.

'They'll have to move us eventually. I'm sure that will be our opportunity to react, we just need to be very precise in our next moves. I don't know how much time we have and I have no idea where Kurt and the others are. At the present state, I am completely useless to you all'. The defeat in her father's voice shook Crystal to her core. She wasn't sure how they could break out of their containers and capture the Terrigen Crystals if her own father couldn't believe it.

They sat in their cells for what seemed like an entire day. Three of them sat still as statues waiting for their captor to return. Peter continued to resist against his restraints in the hope they would snap, to no avail.

'Peter, stop. They won't break. Stryker knew what he was doing. He made a mistake with the sedative. There's no way he'd had made a second one'. Crystal had her back rested against their communal wall, unable to look at him while she gathered her thoughts. Their entire plan had rested on Stryker taking them straight to the lab. It was hard enough knowing what needed to be done, but sitting waiting for it to happen was unbearable. As she sat in dismay, she felt a familiar presence pushing its way into her mind. She felt the room get darker as it spiraled into one of her nightmares. The last words she heard were a menacing voice command 'move them quickly, we won't have a lot of time.'