CHAPTER TWELVE

Bailey turned the page of her book though she couldn't concentrate on any of the words. Lying alone on her bed in her quarters—as it was called—she was doing her best to keep herself busy. The others had gone to the infirmary to be checked out while she had quietly retreated to her room. Otherwise she wouldn't be able to get Uriel's haunting voice out of her head, the sheer horror she felt when his eyes appeared out of thin air without a body.

And what he had done to that scientist…

Hands shaking, Bailey briefly placed her book down on the mattress before running them over her face. She continued to quiver; fingers placidly brushing over a tear that cautiously nestled itself in the crook of her eye, threatening to spill over and leave a salty river down her cheek. Each breath was more difficult to draw in than the last, invisible fingers reaching out and closing off her airway.

What if Uriel was in the room with me right now? Would I know? Would I see what was coming right before my death?

"You've seen him before haven't you? I know you have."

Bailey looked up from the book she had been reading—one of the few ones the base supplied for them—and blinked blankly at Crystal, as she leaned against the doorway. When the blue eyed girl didn't continue even further, Bailey made a show of marking her spot in the book and sitting up, swinging her legs to the ground. "Look…I don't know anything more than you guys—"

"Bullshit," Crystal interrupted, her eyes flashing.

She walked further into Bailey's room and sat down on the empty bed across from her. The bed that would have been Max's if she had still been alive. Bailey noted that while Tapeworm had gotten better about talking about his deceased girlfriend, the others continued to act as if it hadn't happened. Whenever her name was mentioned, everyone else seemed to clam up, though for entirely different reasons.

Leaning forward, the raven haired girl placed her hands on the edge of the bed lowering her voice. Instinctively, Bailey took on the same stance; who knew the sort of listening devices the government had put into each of the rooms without their knowledge. "You've been around long enough to know things are revealed to us at even the weirdest times," Crystal said. "And to know we have a habit of keeping secrets from each other until things get to the point where we have to say something." She shrugged. "My cousins and I are basically the ones that wrote the rules on keeping secrets."

Bailey noticed an amused look flash over Crystal's face before she became serious once more. "Did that ever help you? It's basically like you're cutting yourself off form everyone else."

"In a way it does," Crystal said. "It gives us time to figure out what to do, the best course of action. On the other hand it's something that can be a real disadvantage." A glint moved through Crystal's eyes and Bailey was sure she had seen her pupils shift slightly; much like a cat's eye would narrow when focused on something. "And I can tell you now, keeping what you know a secret is just going to get us killed."

Bailey sighed loudly, turning away from the ice powered teenage girl. What was she supposed to say? Would the information she know really help them when there really wasn't much to say in the first place? She was starting to learn things along with the others. She hadn't known much about Geneva and Gattaca until they had basically become a part of them, she didn't know about Mother Nature more than what the bearers of light and darkness could tell them as she was, indeed, their mother. Even Tapeworm had managed to learn more about Element World and what Mother Nature did to rule her kingdom and that had been through a dream.

But then again, they do say that dreams are what you subconscious are trying to tell you, Bailey thought. It's probably not a mistake that our dreams are portals to another world. Even if we're only getting there mentally. She ran a hand through her hair. "Uriel…just like the guardians were saying…was considered a myth before," she said under her breath. "An urban legend. Something no one expected to be real." She waved a hand. "It's like…the ghost stories we tell at a campfire."

Crystal tilted her head to the side. "Yeah, but these are based off truths as opposed to wanting to scare little kids half to death." Her lips stretched into a ghost of a smile. "Though I have to admit freaking Cody out with them is something the rest of us find to be highly entertaining."

Bailey laughed. "I don't blame you," she said. "He's smart, can find a solution to practically anything, isn't afraid to face whatever enemy comes his way…and yet /he still hates ghost stories."

"Yeah, well, everyone has their vices." Crystal ran her hand through her hair. "And mine's my Dad." Her face softened a little. "As long as it's been just me and him, I've taken care of him just as much as he's taken care of me. Everything that's been going on recently, while we've been to all of the conventions and conferences, it's been taking a toll on him." Her hands tightened into fists and they shook slightly. "Especially considering it's getting close to the anniversary…having that guy come back..." she shook her head. "And hearing what Father Time had to say…I'm worried about him."

Bailey slowly nodded, looked directly into Crystal's eyes. If there was anything that she didn't know about her family and someone else knew how to help them, she would want to know everything. Great. As soon as the thought entered her head she felt nothing but the cold wave of guilt spread through her body like pinpricks from ice water. In fact, she even found herself starting to shiver even though the room had been warm a couple of minutes ago. It wasn't until she saw her breath starting to fog in front of her face that she realized what was going on.

Eyes narrowing slightly, she turned her gaze back to Crystal, who sat calmly in front of her. Bailey's eyes lowered and she noticed that her hands were glowing blue. "I'd hope that you can understand how important it is that I get an answer from you," She said calmly.

Bailey made a face, brining her hands up and starting to blow on them. "All you had to do was ask."

Crystal smiled and her hands lost their glow; Bailey immediately felt her body temperature start to rise once more. "Just hoping to get my point across." She stood up and grabbed onto the blanket behind her. Picking it up, she opened it and carefully wrapped it around Bailey's shoulders, tucking the fabric around her hands. Her movements were gentle and soothing as she made sure the red-head teenage girl was completely covered.

Watching her with surprise, Bailey hunched up in the blanket. She had seen the two sides of Crystal so many times before; being a sort of mother figure in their group of friends as she told the young boys to stay out of trouble and the older boys to stop doing something stupid, then ruthlessly turn around and viciously attack anyone that got in her way when the time came.

"You don't like me do you?" Bailey suddenly blurted. She had felt nothing but tension from the ice bearer since she had been introduced to the Canadian girl. Part of her knew it was because she didn't want to be held responsible for the danger Bailey could put herself in as she didn't have any powers herself, the other part of her knew it more than likely had to do with the fact that both of them had dated Cody and that he and Crystal hadn't broken up on good terms.

Crystal's right eyebrow rose. "Whether or not I like you has nothing to do with what's going on." She took a step back and sat down on the edge of her bed once more, crossing her leg at the knee. "Make sure you keep rubbing your hands together; your hands and feet are where your body loses heat the quickest."

Bailey did as she was told. The two sat in silence for a while, but this time, the silence wasn't uncomfortable or tense in the slightest. Bailey had to remember that not only had the girl lost her mother, but she had, in a way, lost her father too. He clearly wasn't the same sort of man he had been before he lost his wife. He put a lot of his time into his work, much like her own father did.

If Daddy ever lost Mom…Bailey refused to think about it. "OK," she said finally, bowing her head. "Uriel…he was supposed to have been sealed away in the Element World. I don't know where, but he was sealed away by Mother Nature and Father Time."

Crystal's eyebrows twitched for a moment. "By both of them?"

"Yes. Father Time opened up a portal that would throw Uriel into a pocket of item that couldn't be reached and Mother Nature used her powers to make sure he couldn't open the door from the other side. Unfortunately, it didn't work the way they wanted it to."

"Because he was sent off to our world," Crystal said with realization. "And that's what caused the collapse."

"Right. I don't know the kids of powers Uriel has, but he made it so that the portal they put him in was reversed. He could go wherever he wanted, but they couldn't open it up to get to him. And because of him being loose…that's when everything happened with your parents and everything." Bailey bowed her head. "Things had been in a good placement with Uriel just existing in the human world and when they found out about his existence…"

"I get it." Crystal held up her hand, cutting her off. Her eyes narrowed. "Why didn't you mention any of this before?"

"I wasn't sure…" Bailey suddenly realized how little she knew about Elementals and everything that went along with it. All she knew was what Geneva and Gattaca would tell her at a moment's notice. Even then, they did their best not to scare her or bog her down with the information they already knew. They lent their powers to her when she needed it, but she was still the one that had stumbled upon the existence of them in the first place. Determined, Bailey looked up at her. "I know I shouldn't have kept it quiet while I tried to figure things out. I'm not going to get in the way of beating this thing. I promise."

"Good." Crystal stood up, flexing her fingers. "Because you need to learn how to fight." She gently shook her head. "Relying on the powers that Geneva and Gattaca give you will only inhibit your own abilities later."

Bailey looked away from her once more. What was going on here? She was a person that preferred to have things done peacefully, not fight. She would get in trouble even for slapping one of her sister on the arm or saying something that would have her mother gasp and admonish her with a quick, "Hush your mouth".

Now here she was, willingly going to learn how to fight.

She had come a long way from being the country girl from Kettlecorn, Kansas that had a naïve view of the world. She could feel the seriousness of the situation take her over and slowly push the 'innocent Bailey' out of the way, leaving behind a hardened girl who was starting to become more accustomed to strange things going on.

She wondered what would've happened if she hadn't followed Zack and Cody that day a few years before. Duh, Bailey, you would've been left on the SS Tipton which was then attacked, you may not even be alive right now. She frowned. But what about London and Mr. Moseby being back?

She shook her head.

"Is that your way of saying 'no' or…?" Crystal trailed off.

"No." Bailey stood up. "It's my way of saying 'yes'."

Crystal waited for the girl to pull off her blanket and the two girls left her quarters. Running her hands over each other, Crystal moved into the head space she got into when she was about to start sparring. She couldn't allow outside thoughts to get into her head when she needed to concentrate on her breathing and the way her body moved through the techniques she learned to defend herself.

Having grown up learning Chinese kenpo she learned that it wasn't about attacking, more basing it's fighting style on defense. The main criteria for the practice was to learn how to end a fight as quickly and efficiently as she could, mostly focusing on her foot position, weight distribution, and body alignment. She preferred it over other areas of martial arts due to the mediation aspect that developed focus and mental clarity, especially during tai chi chuan.

Crystal waited for Bailey to leave the room before she went out as well. She paused for a moment before rolling her head to the side to face Cody as he had leaned against the doorway. "Please don't ask me to do that again," she said to him, eyes narrowing.

Cody grimaced, shifting uncomfortably. At least he had the grace to realize the difficulty of the task he had asked her. His baby blues shifted over to her. "I didn't think she'd do it if it came from me."

"Gee, I wonder why." Crystal started forward and Cody fell into step beside her. "Look, I know it's something we've talked about since we left and everything, but I think you should at least try and talk to her about what happened between the two of you." At the sound of Cody's scoff, she twisted around on her heel and held a hand out, pressing it against his chest so he stopped in his tracks. "Putting it off and acting like the other person doesn't exist isn't going to help anyone."

"Really?" Cody tilted his head to the side. "Cause I was thinking at some point Plato's and Empedocles's theorys on attraction would have actually helped me at some point," he said derisively. "But why start now?"

"Scary, huh?" At Crystal's smirk, Cody chuckled. She pushed her blue strand of hair out of her face. "Seriously, though. What happened with Mother Nature…you didn't have a choice. It may have been against what she believed, but we were all fighting a losing battle at that point." She shrugged. "Though I understand why Bailey was so upset."

Cody's face darkened slightly. "I thought you were on my side."

Now it was Crystal's turn to scoff. "I'm not on anyone's side, Cody. I'm just helping you see what she was thinking and how she felt." Cody bobbed his head back and forth as he thought about what she had said. "You know I'm right."

"In some ways, you always seem to be right, Tally," Cody replied, his right eyebrow twitching upwards.

Crystal grinned showing off her teeth and unusually long canines. "Must get on your nerves. I, for one, enjoy it."

"I'm sure you do." Cody took a step forward and placed is hands on her neck, gently running his thumb back and forth over the smooth skin. "Just go easy on her. I'd hate for her to think that you're getting back at her for when we were dating or something."

Now it was Crystal's turn to raise an eyebrow. "You know, you just reminded me of why we broke up in the first place and I'm really starting to question—"

"—forget it."

"I thought so."

Cody smiled and leaned in, giving her a kiss. He only pulled back when he heard Aaron say, "If I'm interrupting something, I can come back later." With a disgruntled sigh, Cody turned to the blonde boy. "How were you able to tell what we were doing?"

Aaron's features twisted in amusement. "I can hear the sound of your breathing, Cody. Do you and Zack not understand what the term being 'blind' means? If you want, I can explain it to you."

Crystal laughed and turned to her brother. "Did you just get checked out of the infirmary?"

"Mhm." Aaron nodded. "They said I'm the bill of health."

"Still doesn't explain that burst of energy though," Crystal pointed out.

She gave her brother a worried look and he must've sensed her change in demeanor for he reached out a hand and took hers in his, squeezing it gently. The last thing she wanted was to find that he, somehow, had some sort of power he hadn't been able to tap into before. He was already at a sort of disadvantage because of his blindness, but for his smarts as well. Anyone they were facing would be smart to knock out him and Sydney, like what had happened at the State House a few months before.

"And now it managed to be the one thing that hurt Uriel? I know what you mean." Cody agreed. He rubbed his chin, eyes shifting back and forth as he thought. "Actually, that might be something that Syd and I should look into." He turned back to Crystal. "Diamond is going on a patrol around the compound and is reachable by walkie-talkie in case Uriel comes back. The others are still in the infirmary."

"Keep an eye on my Dad for me, would ya?" Crystal said.

"Sure thing." Cody hesitated, as if he wanted to say something else, and then decided not to. Instead, he gave Crystal a quick kiss on the cheek and headed off down the hallway in the opposite direction.

Crystal gave her brother a hug and then let go before he scurried after Cody as well.

She watched them leave then turned and headed in the direction Bailey had gone, to the fitness room. As she went, she thought about the reasons everyone were always putting their lives on the line when things may have been easier if they rolled over and allowed things to happen; a sense of responsibility, a way to change things, to fix the inevitable future, to save themselves…

Her only thought was to get vengeance for her father.

In a dark space, blocked off by his own emission, Uriel growled, holding onto his arm. "Blast that boy," he spat. "How did he manage to hurt me so?" He reached out and waved a hand, opening a glowing white area in the complete darkness that surrounded him.

It took a couple seconds for the white to create a distorted picture and another long moment before the picture revealed itself to be of Earth. As he watched a dull green glow started to pinprick around different areas of the world, mostly gathering n the US, but having instances in Africa, China, Europe, South America…all over the world.

And as more and more lights popped up, Uriel's malicious, shark like smile increased.

"Your time has come…now I'm going to turn you to the life you've deserved forevermore."

A/N: If anyone can guess what I'm going to do pretty soon in the story based off this chapter, I'll write or draw something for them. Promise.

I know the shifting of POVs from Bailey to Crystal in this chapter may have been a bit confusing, but I thought it worked considering the basis behind it directly affected the two of them. Bailey is really starting to have everything sink in for her with Uriel, and Uriel is the one behind her mother's death and how it affected her father afterwards. So even though the two may not get along, they're connected in some way.

Oh and now you've found out about Crystal's fighting style with Chinese kenpo karate. I got the idea after looking up some Street Fighter stuff (one of my favorite video games) and asked Crys and she said that Chun-Li was one of her inspirations for the character of Crystal. I think it really fits.

So now you know how Bailey knew who Uriel was and you'll soon enough figure out how Zack recognized him.

After the next chapter (the next one being another look into the past segment) the pacing of the story will move faster. I feel the recent ones have been a bit slow, but then again, I've needed to explain some things before their adventure really starts.

Now it's gotten a bit more into Crystal's and Cody's relationship, especially considering I've left it so mysterious with the past two stories (considering Crystal had kissed him before). Hopefully what I do with it everyone likes since I still have a lot to reveal about what happened during the final battle and the time the group had been apart before going back to Boston.

Quick warning, it's getting closer to the point where this story will more than likely be shifted to an 'M' rating. Just so you all know. Also, chapters will get longer.

Cheers,

-Riles