Ever since everyone had recovered from their mission, the entire group had been taking turns helping train Terra to control the black crystal. Well, at first it was legitimate training where she’d be handed the crystal and then she’d fight in the simulator and then have to give up the crystal voluntarily. Two days in and there were already improvements, but Terra wanted to be sure she would never succumb to the crystal’s will again, so she urged her friends to keep training her. That’s when they started passing it amongst each other and poking her with it during random times of the day, to the extent of creating a point-system game based on her reaction.

If her eyes turned black, no points were awarded. If she got annoyed with them, it was one point. If she didn’t even notice them poking her, it was three points. The rules were that there had to be crystal-on-skin contact and it had to be announced immediately after she got jabbed, otherwise it didn’t count. Initially, Terra had been glad they were so adamant about helping her, but after she had gotten surprised in the shower she was less amused by their tactics. She had to admit that it was an effective method and by the end of the week, she had barely felt the calmness the crystal offered, feeling more agitation than anything. By the end of the second week, she had perfect control over the crystal and carried around a chopstick to stab at anyone who dared try to poke her.

Despite the new danger she posed with her thin weapon, the group kept playing the game since whoever won for that week got to be ‘ruler’ for a full twelve hours. Podinal had won the first week and ordered everyone to wear their costumes and reenact the movie “Lost in Space.” Even Terra had been submitted to the punishment even though she was unable to gain any points. When she mentioned she had never seen the movie before, they all had to watch the three hours of bad jokes, cheesy lines, awful visual effects, and a subpar plot that made up “Lost in Space.” Then they spent the next six recreating it line by line. Terra vowed to run away whenever Podinal had the crystal in his hand so he wouldn’t get points.

Although everyone had dropped their questions regarding Terra’s fighting, a rift had appeared between her and Vazerio. At first, she thought she was imagining it, but whenever they made eye contact he would shift his gaze away. A heavy pit formed in her stomach whenever this happened, and it only seemed to grow. She knew she needed to apologize to him for turning on him when she had been under the crystal’s influence. Terra saw her chance to have a one-on-one conversation with him when the group was busy arguing about whose turn it was to wash the dishes and Vazerio wasn’t present.

Slinking out, she walked down the stairs and found Vazerio planted at his desk staring intently at his computer screen. When he saw her walking down, he got up with the intention to leave.

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“Wait,” Terra said when she reached the bottom. “I need to talk to you.”

Vazerio sheepishly sat down and stared at the ground.

“Sorry for doubting you about that rock, I should have listened to you and just avoided it altogether. I could have killed you and that man and I’m sorry. Thank you for stopping me.”

Vazerio had a puzzled expression on his face and Terra wondered if she had said something wrong.

“What are you talking about? I’m the one who was wrong.” He started. “I should have let you practice with it first so you wouldn’t be consumed. I shot you with a gun fully intending to stop you, which is unforgivable. My job is to protect the crew, but I could have killed you!”

Silence sat between them until Terra burst out laughing. What that what he had been worried about? That he could have killed her? Vazerio looked hurt, so she stopped. Figuring it was easiest to show him rather than try an explain her situation, she grabbed the prototype gun lying on the table near her and aimed it at her arm.

“Stop!” He screamed as she pulled the trigger.

The gun practically exploded in her hand as a burst of light traveled from the muzzle to her arm. Vazerio jumped forward in alarm to come to her aide but stood with his jaw hanging when he saw the smiling Terra holding up a crystallized arm. The hand that held the gun had a light powdering of black on it but it faded quickly. Vazerio gingerly touched the arm that had received the brunt of the force and watched in awe as the peaks receded back, revealing flawless skin.

A thundering of footsteps was heard coming down the stairs.

“Are we under attack?” Podinal asked, gun already in hand.

Vazerio was at a loss for words and simply pointed at Terra’s arm that had already recovered. Everyone looked confused at what they were seeing, so Terra pulled the trigger again on the same arm to save time, and the whole process repeated again, this time resulting in four more shocked faces rather than just the one.

“I don’t think that’s even fair!” Podinal finally said after he had regained his wits.

“We should just take the Capitol head-on with her running point,” Unter commented.

“Hey, the gun works!” Roip and Beiwot said in unison, then punched each other in the arm playfully.

Dexai was still speechless and just opened and closed his mouth like a fish.

Vazerio looked lost in thought and walked to his computer. After typing rapidly for a few moments, he stood up and faced the group.

“I’ve just contacted the other squads.” He turned to Terra with a smile on his face. “I think you may have just turned the tides.”