Chapter 18

Coco slowly opened her eyes and looked around to see purple crystal around her in a dark cave. A familiar sight that she has grown accustomed to, but she noticed something...off...about the crystals. They seem to look darker and grainier like one touch could break them into little pieces, then her memory flashed to Nadia who is trapped in the crystal right now. She immediately ran through the hall and turn every corner as fast as she can until she got to an open area where it's strangely empty. She could have sworn Nadia was held captive in a giant crystal here. Coco grows concerned and a little scared of the change in her dream cave. She looked to the left and see one of the crystal shards flickering, like a light bulb losing it's power. Coco doesn't know why but but she feels a little unsettled by it. She stares at it until it goes off, complete void of any light from it, getting an eery feeling from the darkness and one by one, each crystal turns themselves off until the cave succumbs into complete darkness. Coco can hear her own heartbeat when a subtle purple light coming up behind her, slowly walking towards her and a little, frail hand lightly touches her shoulder. Coco turns around and sees Nadia, who is surrounded in light purple aura with her dress and hair flowing making her look angelic. She can feel the touch on her shoulder getting warmer and warmer as she looks up in wonderment to see Nadia smirking down at her.

"Shall we?" she asked as as the purple light grows brighter and brighter when they hear a familiar scream.

The crystal zombie's trying to get into the MechaBandicoot by climbing up Nina's leg. She couldn't help but scream as she can't shake it off. She tries to push it off but it's persistent to get in when some sort of bullet shot hitting at the side of the grotesque monster, causing it to screech as the hole where a beam shot it grew bigger and bigger until it's nothing but ashes. Nina looks up to see Coco looking angry, fuelled by some purple energy surrounds her and in her eyes, standing there with her hand out with smoke coming out of it.

"Stay away from my daughter!" Nadia's voice speak out from Coco. Nina processes what she just heard,

'Did she say daughter?' Nina thought as she watches Coco shoot more purple bullets at the zombies so they'll be nothing but ash. N. Gin and Tawna were just as shocked as Nina when Coco/Nadia turns to them.

"Get everything ready and protect Nina. I'll go help the others." Nadia said to Tawna and N. Gin as they stay silent and just nod their heads and watch Coco/Nadia run off to the direction of the village.

As N. Gin turns, they see the ashes and decided to take a closer look at them. They had notice that the ashes doesn't contain any tiny shards of crystals nor seeing any more zombies spawning from out of the ground. They got up and slowly walk back to the MechaBandicoot, thinking about the zombies when they notice Nina looking upset.

"Uncle Neo and Aunt Nadia are my parents, aren't they?" N. Gin looks shock that she figured it out and has no idea how to respond but nod their head. Nina's eyes are filling with tears,

"And you knew?" N. Gin was about to answer when they hear the battle getting louder from the village.

"Now is not the time. Let's go!" they said as they pick up Nina and took her inside, getting ready to start up the mech.

Coco/Nadia run as fast as they can, they can still feel the energy souring through them ready to fight. When they got to the village it was like a bloodbath. Many tribesmen were lying dead and the amount of zombies have doubled and they can see there friends growing tired, one being Crash who is clearly exhausted from the fight and collapsed as the monsters tackles him to the ground. Nadia can feel Coco's anger as her hands and eyes is fired up with purple energy.

"NO!" Coco shouts as she formed a huge ball of energy around her as it grew bigger and bigger as it expands over the village and destroyed every single zombie, screeching to the heavens as they burn under the powerful energy. As all the zombies disintegrates, the energy slowly fades away, causing Coco to pass out from exhaustion who Crunch caught before she could hit the ground. Everyone look around in shock wondering what just happened while Papu papu and the surviving tribesmen slowly appear from their hiding places. Dingodile saw Crash on the ground and brought his hand out to him. Crash saw this and took it, still shaking from what happened.

"You're alright mate?" Dingo asked, patting him on the back as Crash slowly nods his head. Aku aku flew to Coco and Crunch in high speed with a panic look on his face. We need to get together and stop Dr Tropy now. I feel like he was behind all this along with my brother. We must hurry." Crunch hold his hand out,

"Hang on Aku aku, what about Coco? You did see what just happened right? This whole thing has been taken a toll on her and each day she is getting more distant and more ill." Pinstripe, Crash and Dingodile came to see the commotion. All of them looking at Coco with a worried look on her face. Closely they can see her looking paler than usual, dark rings round her eyes and her breathing getting shallower. They also noticed purple veins shining bright from both her arms.

"Mate, what happened to her?" Dingodile sighed, Crash's ears dropped who doesn't like seeing his sister like this.

"It appears her body is absorbing the crystal energy from Nadia, that she can't handle. At some point I am going to need to go into her mind again and see if I can talk to Nadia and figure out what's going on, but for now we should get back to MechaBandicoot and continue our journey." Aku aku turns to Papu papu, "Thank you ever so much for the hospitality and apologies for the confusion."

"No. Papu papu should thank you heroes. You saved Papu papu's village and for that we like to give you gifts. Blankets, food and medicine for bossy, blond bandicoot to take with her." Pinstripe's eyes sparkle,

"Tawna can come with us?" Papu papu gets down on his knees, clasping Pinstripe's hands,

"Yes please take her with you! Papu papu begs you!" Papu papu cried as Pinstripe cheered when Aku aku flew over to them.

"We would happily take Tawna with us as she can take care of Nina until she can walk and thank you for the gifts." Papu papu stands up,

"and we also like to name you as honorary heroes of our village and bless you on your journey." Dingodile, Crash and Pinstripe takes the gifts, and make there way down the path towards the mech.

"We appreciate everything and once we come back hopefully we can celebrate properly. Do take care Chief Papu papu." Aku aku said with a smile as he turns when Papu papu calls,

"Wait. Papu papu advise to keep an eye on the small, blond bandicoot as the village doctor said she can sense very dark energy from her, so please be careful." Aku aku looks at Coco who is still asleep, looking very frail. The purple veins bothers him immensely and nods towards the Chief.

"Thank you for the warning, we will keep an eye on her." Aku aku said as he goes down the path with Crunch following him down with Coco in his arms.