Krystal woke up with ringing in her ears and the cloudiness of blurred vision over her eyes. The lights were strong and displaced a brightness that overpowered her already clouded eyes. She tried to move her arms be couldn't due to the thick steel straps that held her wrist bounded to the chair she was in. The same caliber of straps was on her ankles and around her neck as well. Krystal suddenly became nervous and scared. She didn't know what was going on, and only could remember bits and pieces of what had thrown the whole Yutari Industries building into a mass of chaos. "Krystal, do you hear me? If you can hear me, nod your head." The sound of Daniel's familiar voice was an unexpectedly calming sound. Hearing Daniel's voice told Krystal that she was safe, or at least as safe as she could be. Krystal nodded her head to signal Daniel that she understood him.
"Why…why can't I move?" Krystal asked as her sight became clearer.
"Let's call it a safety measure for now." Daniel began fiddling with an IV drop that was in Krystal's arm. "You are just hours removed from a partial transformation into a Xenomorph. You caused a lot of damage here, in the lab, including this floor of the building. I won't even go on about the men you killed."
Krystal began sobbing about the news. "I'm sorry, that wasn't me. Please, I couldn't control what was happening."
"It's ok Krystal; we know the monster that did this wasn't you. We just need to figure out either how to control your transformations, or destroy the Predalien DNA in you. We're kind of hoping for the first outcome before resulting towards the latter."
Krystal began looking around, as much as the neck vice would let her, franticly. "Where's my father?"
"Kevin…is current in the medical department of the building. He's hurt pretty bad. He may be in the ward for quite a while."
"Was it because of me? Did I do anything to my father?"
"You don't remember anything?"
"I remember…a bit…fragments…nothing complete."
Daniel thinks to himself for a few seconds and believes that Krystal has already gone through enough, and telling her that she's the reason her father is laying in a hospital would only make that worse. "Kevin was buried under some rubble that was caused by an explosion while the security teams were trying to take you down. He should be fine." Daniel walked back to his desk and grabbed a syringe. He walked back to Krystal and knelt down in front of her. "I'm going to give you a sedative to try to calm your mind to a point where we're able to find out what triggers your transformations. We believe that there's a certain trigger that goes off when you transform. Even though you try as hard as you can to keep to a point where it won't happen, it does. We're trying to find out what the trigger is, and if it's not a trigger, what's the set off in your brain that physically makes it happen."
"I guess that makes sense." Krystal was just as lost as she was when she woke up.
"We're going to try to help you Krystal. When you're out, you'll be in a dream state. Other people who have been under the influence of this drug have said that they've experience a type of out of body experience. You may experience the very same thing."
"Is it safe?"
"In the right dose it is. I may have to give you a little more than the "right dose" because of your…unique traits, but I think you understand that."
Krystal nodded her head in agreement. Daniel started feeding the contents of the syringe into the IV drop that was already in Krystal's arm. Daniel and Krystal stared at each other as the fast acting properties of the drug was quickly setting in. Krystal's vision, which was finally coming back into view, started to blur again as she faded away and slipped into a sleep.
Daren sat on the hood of his car as it was parked on the edge of a cliff that over saw the beach. The sky was overcast and forcefully sprinkling drops of rain onto the grains of sand. The ice cold water of the Atlantic Ocean was viciously beating against the beach. Daren's MP3 player was playing through the speakers of his car. The beats of the Trance music were calming and somewhat surreal, as he stared out into the grey horizon that was a backdrop to the ocean. The wind blew the raindrops sideways as they fell faster towards the ground. This cold, rainy, windy, autumn day was not the normal type of day to be at the beach, but for Daren, that's why he was there. No one else could be seen, he was alone, and he was happy that he was.
Daren closed his eyes and leaned back on the windshield of the car. The ice cold drops of rain that were scraping his face like razor blades were now calming his senses in almost a Trance like state. Along with this music that was still playing, Daren was now at the peak of being relaxed and calm. Before he even knew it, he was completely out and asleep. Daren began to dream, he began to fantasize, and seemingly, bring his subconscious desires to the forefront of his mind. His dream felt as real as the raindrops falling on his face.
In his dream, Daren was at a club, performing no less, totally immersed in the music and atmosphere. With his mask on and shirt off, Daren was a complete showman. Feeding off the electricity that was being generated by the hundreds of bodies panting, sweating and dancing with one another on the dance floor, Daren was entertaining the crowd. From his perspective, time was playing along with the beat of the song that was playing. He would pump his fist as he floated in the air, he would rise into the air slowly with the beat, but come back down in real-time, but still along with the beat of the music. "I remember…" were the lyrics of the song vibrating through the speakers and subwoofers on the stage and along the walls. Hearing the lyrics, Daren would begin to remember things of his past.
The one moment that kept jumping into his head was the first day of school, the first impression he put upon all the other students on the parking lot, the first time he saw Krystal. He reflected back to the cliché moment he had as he watched Krystal walk across the lot in slow motion. The strobe lights of the club, momentarily, brought Daren back to reality as he started straight into the crowd of people that lay before him. He was fading in and out of his dream and daydream within his dream. As he saw Krystal walking through the parking lot, he saw her walking though the crowded dance floor. One second, she's huddled to herself in a pair of blue jeans and black sweater, her hair is straight but messily over her face, and with her head down, just like in the parking lot. Daren rubbed his eyes, and the next second, Krystal was seductively walking towards him on the dance floor, wearing a tight, black, micro-mini dress that sparkled in the strobe lights, black suede boots that went over her knees, as if they came with kneepads. Her hair was flattened straight with her bangs completely over her eyes. All that could be seen of her face was the brightness of her blood red lips that contrasted her milky white skin. She was alluring as she gently pushed people aside to get closer to Daren. Daren couldn't make any sense of what was going on. One second, she as the outcast nerd that no one wanted to talk to. The other second, she was the insatiable succubus-like feminine creature that drew Daren's eyes to her. Daren's hand slipped off the turntables as he began walking towards her, at the edge of the stage. The music was still going, the people were still dancing, and Daren was still locked into Krystal's body that moved perfectly with the rhythm of the music. Daren played Trance music, but now, he was in a trance. Slowly, seductively, ever-so subtly, Daren inched closer to Krystal, and she did the same. Daren closed his eyes, and the sudden electric charge of their lips meeting for the first time instantly snapped him out of the actual dream he was having. For a mere second, he was back in the rain, but he was pulled back into the dream by the same exact kiss that knocked him out of it.
Once back in the dream, he realized the nature of the kiss he was sharing with Krystal. His hand was on her cheek, while her arms were wrapped around his neck. He was in the moment, until she broke the kiss and whispered in his ear, "It's my turn to take control of you." She grabbed his hand and began leading him through the crowd. Daren didn't know what was going on, but at that moment, he didn't really care. But if Daren truly knew what was going on, he wouldn't be so down for it.
Three questions kept running through Krystal's head: "Where am I, what am I wearing, and did I just kiss the DJ?" She replayed everything that just happened in her head that she couldn't explain. She was fairly certain she was dreaming, since the last thing she could remember was Daniel giving her the sedative to knock her out, but everything felt too real to be a dream. Why did she start in the back of this club, looking at the DJ behind the booth, but seeing flashes of when she first really noticed and began to take interest in Daren's qualities, while they were in biology class? She would see a flash of DJK behind the booth, scratching the turntables, then another flash of Daren behind the work tables in the biology room. Krystal didn't know that Daren was DJK, but in her dream, she kept wondering why she was making a correlation between a celebrity she didn't know, and a classmate she hardly knew. Granted, Krystal did realize the similarities between the two, but it was nothing big enough to make a connection to the two.
Krystal stopped dwelling on what had just happened and snapped back to the moment that was currently happening. Krystal had DJK's hand and she was leading him somewhere towards the back of the club, and she didn't know why. Every step she took in the knee high, heeled boots she was wearing sent more flashes of moments in her mind. One step, she saw a beach in the rain. Next step, she saw a man lying on the hood of his car. Next step she realized that it was Daren lying on the car. Her last step, she noticed that she and DJK weren't in the club anymore; they were outside, just in front of the club, by the entrance. Krystal's back was against the brick wall as DJK was up against her. They were close, in Krystal's eyes, uncomfortably close.
She felt like she had transformed into a Xeno again, and Zara had control. She couldn't help but just watch her body do things that she really didn't want to do, but she was in complete control of her body and she knew it.
DJK leaned into her with his hands on her waist. Krystal placed her hands on DJK's face, as to remove the mask. She stared at his lips; they were the only thing on his face that was visible. But now she couldn't take control of this situation anymore. It was like she had to wait for DJK to do something first. "What the heck is happening?" she asked herself.
At the same time she asked herself that question; Daren was asking himself "What should I do next?" His hands were on her waist and he was inches away from her lips. The woman that he saw as Krystal wasn't the girl he met in school, but a sex crazed, tempting freak of insane possibilities that he didn't mind having pinned up against the wall. He decided that he needed to just enjoy the moment. Daren moved in to kiss Krystal, and they began to make-out. He was shocked to see that Krystal didn't hesitate at all to reciprocate the kiss back. Feverously, they both enjoyed the passionate kissing. Daren threw caution to the wind and began moving his hand up Krystal's extremely short dress. Just as he was doing that, Krystal felt like she was allowed to continue to push the flow of events. She felt Daren's hand going up her skirt, so she began to slide DJK's mask off in the same slow, sensual way Daren was creeping up her skirt. Daren stop when he realized that Krystal was taking off his mask. He finally spoke as he said, "I'm not sure if…don't take it off." Krystal stared at him for a moment before she licked her lips and replied back with, "Well, no mask, no skirt." After hearing Krystal's ultimatum, Daren's man urges kicked in and he quickly moved his hands all the way up Krystal dress as he kissed her harder. The feeling of the thin, lacy, thong underwear Krystal was wearing sent Daren into a frenzy. Feeling Daren's hands getting closer and closer to her most intimate of parts, she ripped DJK's mask off and stared straight into his eyes. "Daren!" She said out loud in shock. Daren was taken back, and at the mentioning of his name in the tone that Krystal did, Daren fully snapped out of his dream.
He was back on the beach, on the hood of his car, covered in rain water. "What the hell just happened?" He asked himself as he looked down and noticed the considerable bulge in his own pants. "Oh…a wet dream happened." He laughs as he slides off the hood and into his car. "That was one hell of a dream." He says as he pulls away from the beach.
"Daren?" Krystal yells as she wakes up from the drug induced sleep. Daniel is standing above her. "Are you ok?" He asks. Krystal begins to mumble but nothing coherent comes through. Daniel's assistant comes up to him and tells him that they should stop working on her for today and let her go home and relax. Daniel agrees since Kevin told him earlier to make sure that Krystal goes back to school in the morning. Daniel undid the steel bindings that held Krystal to the chair. "Your clothes are on the table, you can change in my office, and I'll wait here. There's a car outside the building ready to take you home. Are you ok?" Daniel awaits a response, but all Krystal does is nod her head. She grabs her clothes, changes, and heads out of the building without saying a word. Once in the car all she can keep saying to herself was, "Daren, why Daren?"