Crystal heard Medea screaming as they flew away, over Chicago. The department store exploded a moment after.
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Crystal was still on edge as they flew away from Media's department. From the back, she noticed Leo talking to Festus. He frowned for a reason Crystal did not know. Piper patted his shoulder and started a conversation with him. A few minutes later Leo informed everyone that they would be landing soon.

"How do we find Aelous?" Crystal asked after a few moments of silence.

"You don't see it?" Jason asked.

"What?" Leo furrowed his brows.

"It's like a vapor trail. We've been following it since Chicago, I though you knew it was there."

"I don't see anything." Piper said.

Crystal looked ahead. Just as Jason said, there was a vapor trail. However, it was very faint for Crystal, flickering out of appearance and then back.

Soon Piper fell asleep against Jason. A few moments later, Leo fell asleep too. Crystal didn't exactly want to go back to sleep, in case anyone was following them, but the gentle sounds of the flapping wings of Festus lulled her to sleep.

____

It felt like only a few seconds before Crystal snapped awake to the screaming of her friends. Still in a daze, Crystal could hear Leo yelling at Jason to get Piper and fly away.

"Leo!" Crystal yelled.

Leo whipped around. "Crystal get out of here!"

"What happened?" She could barely hang on.

Her voice was lost in the wind and Leo was trying to glide Festus to a place to land. Crystal tried to get up but her foot was stuck in the plating.

"Crystal, go!" Leo looked over his shoulder.

She tried to pry her foot out but it wouldn't budge. "My foot's stuck!"

Once again, her words didn't reach Leo's ears and he continued to aim for a mansion's backyard.

Just as she removed her foot, she was blinded by a bright light and felt a searing hot pain in her side. She was thrown off the dragon and landed on the mud hard, her breath knocked out. She lay there for a while, her vision fuzzy. Her ears were ringing and she could barely catch her breath. She brought her hand to her side and drew back, flinching at the pain. Her hand was covered in her own blood.

Before Crystal could even react, a face appeared above her.

"Crystal? Crystal!" Leo's face was covered in semi dried tears.

Crystal reached her hand towards him. Her vision started to fade to black.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry I couldn't help you. You're bleeding! Piper! Piper, help!"

~~~

Crystal soon woke up feeling a lot better. She noticed that her side was wrapped in gauze. Slowly, Crystal sat up and rubbed her head.

"You're okay!" Leo hugged her tightly. "I thought I lost you too! This is my fault, its all my fault."

"Too?"

Leo looked down. "Yeah, Festus didn't make it. He was... disintegrated."

Crystal slowly stood up. "Where are we?"

"Omaha, Nebraska." Piper replied. "I saw a sign. Leo, we were right behind you as you landed, but I could swear it looked like-"

"Lasers." Leo said.

He threw a piece of Festus into the air and immediately it was shot down by a red hot laser.

"How did we even survive?" Jason asked.

"He took the hit for us. Except one must've nicked Crystal in the side. I led him to his death." Leo looked down, nearly at tears.

"Leo, there is no way you could have known. It's not your fault." Crystal said.

"I nearly killed you, mi amor." Leo mumbled.

"What?" Crystal didn't completely hear him.

"Nothing," Leo blushed. "Anyway, there's no way we can get out, so I guess we have to go in."