Crystal Legacy - Generation 5 (Part 20)

 

Abandoned by her mother at an early age, Citrine has always been loved by her family and she loves them all the more in return. But even that love can't fill the hole inside of her, and chasing after her past only leads to more heartbreak.

*door closes*

Sanguine: Well. I do not like this one bit.

Nightshade: Mistress?

Sanguine: Hunters sniffing at my affairs and now newsrags from some end of the world little city in the desert? Pah! There is no such thing as coincidence. And that girl…

Nightshade: A daughter of the line, yes.

Sanguine: *scoff* Falling right into our laps. How fitting. Perhaps a kidnapping is in order…

Nightshade: It can be arranged.

Sanguine: Then do so. We are no closer to cracking the Well’s secrets, and if we do not find an appropriate host soon…

Nightshade: I understand, Mistress.

Sanguine: Good. Do not fail me, Nightshade. None of us can afford failure now.

That evening…

Fern: I don’t like this.

Citrine: What, you don’t like my dress?

Fern: No, the dress is fine and you look great, but the idea of you going in there alone…

Citrine: I’m not alone! Spangle’s coming with me, of course.

Fern: Yeah, well, he’s not trained either. It may as well be alone in the monster’s den.

Citrine: Fern, she’s perfectly civil at work. I don’t think–

Fern: She got my dad and three other Hunters killed, sunshine. There’s nothing people like that wouldn’t do for power. And remember what Ori said?

Citrine: ….yeah.

Fern: If her people were watching us when we found the well, they may know who you are. That means…

Fern: They may know your line is Watcher-blessed, and if they know that then–

Citrine: They know my line can get the door open, I know! but, Fern…

Citrine: We can’e just live our lives scared and hiding because of that. End the line now? That’s not–*sigh* That’s not fair.

Fern: Obscuro doesn’t care about fair, and neither do people like Sanguine.

Citrine: …it’s too late to back out of it now.

Fern: I know, I just…

Fern: ….I wish I was going with you.

Citrine: You can, you know. The tickets have a plus one availability…?

Fern: Yeah, but I don’t think they account for a Huntress being the plus one. …you’re gorgeous, d’you know that?

Citrine: Well, you have said it a few times…

*both laugh*

Fern: …Watcher, you know…sometimes I wish I’d just been a normal girl, and we’d been nothing more than a couple of school friends being more. No Occults, no danger, just…us.

Citrine: We are just us, babe. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Fern: …yeah…me either.

Citrine: …but what I would what?

Fern: Yeah?

Citrine: Is for you to take me dancing.

Fern: Dancing, huh? I think we can manage that right here!

Citrine: *laughs* Fern! You know what I mean.

Fern: I do. And when this is over, when we’re home again…we’ll go dancing. I promise.

Citrine: I’ll hold you to that.

Citrine: I gotta go. Don’t wait up, okay?

Fern: Okay. Love you.

Citrine: Love you, too.

*door closes*

Fern: …be safe.

Spangle: I feel like a mannequin.

Citrine: You clean up as well as one!

Spangle: Hah, I haven’t worn something this fancy since my first date with Volcano.

Citrine: Oh? What kind of date was that?

Spangle: A complicated one. Hey–

Spangle: Miss Crystal, may I have the honor of escorting you to the Gala?

Citrine: Why, Mr. Firework, you most certainly may!

*both laugh*

Spangle: So, your girlfriend?

Citrine: It’s…

Citrine: Complicated. I’ll tell you if you tell me about your first date?

Spangle: Deal. So, the first time I ever saw Volcano, I was down in Selva looking for a golden man…

♫

Citrine: Well, they sure do enjoy that style of dress…

Citrine: Now, everyone smile….clean shots should do it…

*chattering continues*

*soft arguing commences*

Citrine: That’s beautiful music, Mr. Nightshade. Have you been playing long?

Nightshade: Ah, all my life. I find it…soothing.

Citrine: I can hear why…

Citrine: Now…where is…

Citrine: Uh-oh. Where’s–

Sanguine: All work and no play makes for a very boring life, Miss Crystal.

Citrine: Ah–well, I am on the clock. And Spangle’s busy so dancing’s kind of out of the question.

Sanguine: Oh? Your social media says you enjoy the company of women, so perhaps…

Citrine: Business before pleasure, ma’am.

Sanguine: Fair enough! …may I ask you something?

Citrine: I may not answer, but sure.

Sanguine: Do you believe in the supernatural, the occult?

Citrine: Ah–ma’am, I’m in a penthouse full of vampire art dealers. If that wasn’t proof of your existence, if I still didn’t believe the occult exist, I’d wonder about my mental state.

Sangine: *laugh* A fair point!

Citrine: Why do you ask?

Sanguine: Well, you seem to have a ghost attached to you. Quite stubbornly, I might add. She slipped past all my wards!

Citrine: She–oh. Oh, I think I know who that might be…

Sanguine: Oh?

Citrine: I think it may be my mother.

Citrine: Ma died before I was born, and Dad said she was…quite attached to looking after us as a family. I’m not surprised if she’s here.

Sanguine: Ah, yes…a mother’s love can overpower many, many protections. Well, I suppose she means no harm.

Citrine: Not unless you mean harm, first. …Are you a mother, ma’am?

Sanguine: Ah, yes. A daughter of my own. Scarlet. A tiny thing, just born this past autumn.

Citrine: Well, I’m sure she’ll be as beautiful as her mother someday. If she isn’t already, of course.

Sanguine: *chuckle* Thank you. Excuse me a moment?

Citrine: Of course.

Amber: be careful, kiddo…I don’t like this one one bit.

Citrine: …where are you hiding it…

???, on phone: I cannot believe you called me!

Fern: Favilla–

Favilla, on phone: No! No no no and no! Do you have any idea how much trouble I’d be in if the Council knew I was talking to an exiled?!

Citrine: You could have hung up…

Favilla, on phone: Maybe I should!

Fern: We know you’re not going to. Are you done whining?

Favilla , on phone: No I am not done whining! How did you even know I’d answer?!

Fern: Because there was a new fashion launch from your favorite designer and you wouldn’t miss it for nothing.

Favila, on phone: You–ugh, fine. Fine!

Favila , on phone: What do you want, Fern?

Fern: Check your email. I just sent you photos and I need names.

Favila , on phone: How should I know…oh. Oh, flames.

Fern: You recognize them?

Favila , on phone: Uh, yes?! These are all bad news bears, Fern! How did you get these photos?!

Citrine: yeah, hi, photographer here?

Favila , on phone: …oh, do not tell me–

Fern: Favila!

Favila , on phone: Watcher I hate you–they’re all known associates of Sanguine Shadow, and every last one of them’s attached to missing or wounded squads. I’m talking grievously wounded squads.

Fern: So Dad and the others weren’t the first?

Favila , on phone: Not the first, not the last. They’ve been hunting down artifacts from the Sealing just as much as we have.

Citrine: Sealing?

Favila , on phone: Real short version of a real long story: Obscuro got sealed away with some pretty hefty magic, stuff from that time might free him if it’s broken, etc. etc. 

Citrine: Ah, so they need it to break him out.

Fern: Yep. Meaning if we find where these guys are taking their stuff…

Citrine: We find the Well.

Favila , on phone: ARE YOU CRAZY!?

Citrine: ….was that an actual question?

Favila , on phone: *scream of frustration*

Favila , on phone: Listen, Crystal–you do not, absolutely under any circumstances, go looking for that Well or whatever’s left of it!! You’re bait for so much more of a problem!

Citrine: I’m not gonna let Fern do it alone either!

Favila , on phone:UGH YOU TWO–

Favila , on phone: FIne! On your heads be it. I sent the names back to that email address. Are we done here?

Fern: …yeah. Thanks, Fav.

Favila , on phone: Yeah, yeah, buy me a purse. *hangs up*

Citrine: She’s….friendly. 

Fern: *snort* She means well. And better her than Ardere–he’d rat us out and then where would we be?

Citrine: In trouble.

Citrine: ….are we sure about this?

Fern: Like you said. We need intel, and I…I need to make up for this. For my mistakes.

Citrine: Fern–

Fern: I know. I know you said it’s not my fault, but.

Citrine: It still feels like it. Like you….*sigh* I get it. …do you want to try and call Vita? You said he’d help…

Fern: He would, but…I need to do this myself.

Citrine: Not completely by yourself, remember.

Fern: Citrine–

Citrine: Nope. I’m coming with you, and don’t try to stop me or I’ll just follow you anyway.

Fern: ….*sigh* Follow me where?

Citrine: The old cemetery at the edge of the city. Some of the dealers mentioned a deal on social media. *snort* The wonders of messed up privacy settings.

Fern: …okay. Go, get changed. It’s gonna be a late night.

Citrine: I still can’–wrap my head around it! A cemetery?!

Fern: *breathless laugh* Yeah! Vampires are fond of the drama!

Citrine: There’s drama and then there’s playing to stereotypes! Man…Moony would laugh at this story…

Fern: Ha, she would…up there, top of the hill!

Fern: Down! …now, if I were a clandestine vampire meeting, where would I be…

Citrine: In a crypt, probably…look, down there.

Citrine: Nightshade and…yep, Aconite.

Fern: Of course it’s her. *snort* Okay…two of them, two of us. Tough odds…

Citrine: We’ll have to take ‘em one at a time. Or one each?

Fern: Or none of the above. We’re not here for a fight….honestly I don’t know if we could take them. No weapons, no supplies…

Fern: And I don’t like how exposed we are, either…

Citrine: Okay, so…we double back, find a crypt to hide in, wait for them to leave?

Fern: Yeah. Yeah, that’d work. Then when they’ve left–

Aconite: Or you could do the polite thing and say hello.

Fern: What–

Fern: Ack!

Aconite: Oh, little mouse…crawling among the giants…

Citrine: Let her go!

Aconite: I think not.

Citrine: You–ah!

Fern: Cit–

Aconite: That’s enough out of you, I think.

Fern: Oof!

Nightshade: Hmph. Do all berries batter so easily?

Sanguine: Easily enough, I would think. Well, this was not the…graceful kidnapping I had hoped for, but I suppose it will do.

Sanguine: Take them to the manor. We have work to do.

Sanguine: I take it your new accommodations are to your liking, ladies?

Fern: Bed could be softer.

Sanguine: *chuckle* Clever mouth on you, isn’t there. Now, do you know why you are here?

Fern: Sure. It’s because you’re a bad person doing bad things, and you don’t want anyone to stop you.

Sanguine: Goodness! Such an imagination! What are they teaching you in that Academy, hm?

Sanguine: Do they teach you that Obscuro was the Watcher’s firstborn, and that she abandoned him rather than help when he encountered the Darkness? That she sealed him away?

Fern: Oh, sure. After he wiped out half a country first, though.

Sanguine: Wiped out, cleansed…oh, what is that saying…ah, yes! To-may-to, to-mah-to.

Fern: You–they were people! Like my Dad, and those Hunters you had killed for your stupid well!!

Sanguine: Stupid? Was it stupid when it healed the old woman you two took there? Tell me, who was she? A grandmother, an auntie?

Fern: None of your business!

Sanguine: Well considering she left on her own feet rather than carried I daresay her line is my business, girl.

Fern: You leave them alone!

Fern: Or I’ll–ah!

Citrine: Fern–please, don’t hurt her!

Sanguine: We are hardly so uncivilized, child! I simply ask a question.

Sanguine: And I suspect you have the answers. Now, I know that your last name is Crystal, but that hospital was far too close-lipped with its records. The old woman’s first name. What is it?

Citrine: I…

Citrine: I…she’s an old woman, you wouldn’t–

Sanguine: Oh, hardly. I only ask who she is to you. She is far too old for our purposes, so tell me. Grandmother or Auntie?

Fern: Citrine don’t–gah! Get off me!

Citrine: Grandmother! My mother’s mother!

Sanguine: See? That was hardly so difficult, was it? Take them to their cells.

Aconite: Up, you.

Nightshade: March.

*whispering through the halls*

Noble: Oh, kids. Be better if she did finish you both off…

Melody: Ah, one more round we go, eh?

Caramel: No no no, not again, not again! Watcher please I don’t want to hear it–

Aconite: Quiet, you!

Sunshine: When I get my hands on you–

Nightshade: Yes, yes, We have heard all that before.

Fern: It’s not him you have to worry about, Nightshade. Others know where we are! They will find us!

Nightshade: *scoff* Keep believing that.

Nightshade: It’s done none of these poor sods any good.

Aconite: Not even the Watcher herself could find this place. The Master saw to that.

Citrine: The master, huh? You’re working for something like that?

Aconite: Hold your tongue, girl. You have no idea who you slander.

Fern: I swear, NIghtshade, when I get my hands on you–

Nightshade: You’ll what? Throttle the life out of me? Carve out my eyes? *scoff* Worse than you have tried and failed, girl.

Aconite: Best get comfortable. This is going to be home for quite some time.

-

Nightshade: No, I daresay you won’t lay a finger on me. Not unless you wish something to happen to your fair maiden there.

Fern: You–

Nightshade: Rest well, ladies.

-

Starlight: Nightshade! Coward!

Nightshade: *scoff* Useless lot.

*door creaks open, slams shut*

Fern: So, what’s a nice girl like you doing in a place like this?

Citrine: Fern.

Fern: …sorry. You okay?

Citrine: …No. No, I am not okay. They know about…about Gram, and we’re stuck here and–and…

Fern: Hey…

Fern: Hey, I’m gonna get us out of here, okay? We’ve just gotta hang on until I can, that’s all!

Citrine: Oh, that’s all?

Citrine: When they’re going to–going to torture us to get what they want? Or–or we end up like that skeleton back there?

Fern: We’re not going to die down here, Cit! We’re gonna get out, and we’re gonna be okay, and–

Citrine: …you don’t know that.

Fern: No, but–I have to believe it! You have to believe it! If we give up hope now, then…then we may as well be dead already!

Citrine: …

Fern: …Citrine, come on. Look at me? Please?

Citrine: …