Save me

Seconds

The first thing Crystal notices is the silence. Not the kind of silence that comes from peace. The kind that comes before something breaks. The compound groans around them. Metal bends. The lights flicker. The alarms that once controlled every movement inside the building are now nothing more than distant echoes. Peter leans against her, still struggling to stand.

"We should probably leave before the evil science prison decides to become a collapsing evil science prison." Normally, she would laugh. Normally, she would tell him he was being ridiculous. But she can feel it. The building. Every piece of it. The metal beams. The stone beneath their feet. The water running through the pipes. The electricity behind the walls. The entire compound is connected. And for the first time, she understands. She wasn't just controlling the building. The building had always been part of her. "Crystal?" She looks up. Peter is watching her. "You're doing the thing."

"What thing?"

"The scary silent thing where you look like you've figured something out that I'm definitely not going to like."

A small smile appears. "The compound is unstable." She's finally free.

"Yeah, I noticed the whole shaking walls thing."

"No." She looks around. "The entire structure is failing. How long till you're healed enough to get us out of here."

Peter's expression changes. "Maybe 30 minutes. How long till we're buried?"

Crystal closes her eyes. She feels everything. Every crack. Every movement. Every second.

"Three minutes."

Peter immediately looks toward the exit.

"Okay. Three minutes. Easy. We can do that." He takes a pained step forward.

Her arms catch him again. "Peter." Something in her voice makes him stop. "You always told me I needed to act faster," she whispers.

Peter smiles slightly. "Yeah. I did."

"You said hesitation could get someone killed."

"I was mostly talking about training."

She looks around the collapsing compound. "I think you were right." A strange calm settles over her. Not panic. Not fear. Control.

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Outside, the team watches helplessly.

They finally make it to the compound entrance, but the security systems have locked everything down. Hank tries to override the doors. "No response."

Raven looks through the reinforced glass. "We can't get back in."

Storm's eyes turn white as she feels the pressure building. "The structure is collapsing."

Jubilee looks terrified. "Peter and Crystal are still in there."

Jean closes her eyes. She reaches out. Nothing. Then...Her eyes snap open. "She's doing something."

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Inside, Crystal lets go of Peter's hand. Her eyes, an iced out blue.

"What are you doing?"

"Buying time." Crystal holds onto the structure tight within her. Keeping it together as best she can so Peter can heal.

Peter stares at her. Knowing it hurts.

"What do you mean?"

"I failed the test."

"What test?"

"The ball." She remembers the day she failed.
Hank dropping the ball.
Her not moving quickly enough.
Everyone believing she could do more. "I couldn't slow it down."

Peter smiles. "Yeah, you did."

She shakes her head.

"Not enough."

"Crystal." She looks at him.

"You saw me running." The Danger Room. The moment where everyone else stopped. Except him. "You thought you were imagining it."
"But you weren't."

Peter squeezes her hand.

"You were already doing it. The professor knew you could. I knew you could. How many people do you think I've ever made eye contact with while going at super speed huh? None. No one. Zilch. Apart from you, on that day. Time slowed down"

A breath. A realisation. She wasn't learning something new. She was finally trusting something she already had.

Crystal closes her eyes and reaches.Not for the building. Not for the destruction. For everything. The Earth beneath them. The air around them. The energy moving through every living thing. Her power expands. The alarms slow. The falling debris slows. The dust hanging in the air stops. A piece of metal breaks away from the ceiling but freezes inches above them.

Peter looks around.

"Okay." A pause. "That is officially the coolest thing you've ever done." Crystal opens her eyes.

The world is moving just slowly. Almost peacefully. The collapsing compound has become a painting. A frozen moment. They walk forward moving through the slow frame. Crystal lifts fallen beams. Redirects collapsing walls. Creates paths where there were none. She finds doors that would have crushed them. Moves debris before it falls.

Not fighting the destruction. Guiding it.

Outside, Jean gasps.

"She's slowing everything."

Hank stares.

"Not everything."

Raven looks at him.

"What?"

"She's choosing what moves."

Crystal reaches the exit. The doors are frozen halfway shut. She places her hand against them. The metal responds. They open.

Peter steps through. Then turns back. "Crystal?"
She looks at the compound. At everything that took her. Everything that hurt her.
For years, she thought her power existed because they made her into something dangerous.
But maybe it existed because she was always meant to protect. She releases her hold. Time returns. The compound collapses behind them.

The team runs toward them. Jubilee is the first to reach her. "Oh my God." She hugs Crystal tightly. "You are never allowed to disappear again. Ever."

Storm joins them. Then Kurt. Then Scott. Even Raven. Crystal stands there, overwhelmed. Because for the first time...Her power did not take something from her. It brought her home.

Peter watches her smile. The same smile from the first day under the tree. The one he thought he might never see again.