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There was no time to react as shards of crystal came at them in every direction possible. It was a nightmare come true. Everything they touched stilled and crystallized, trapping them. He didn't want to be one of them!

Reverting back to his human form, afraid to catch one of these in his mouth, the black dog slashed and clawed his way through them. Though just as he thought he could fend them off, he winced as shard slashed across his leg.

It stung, more than he thought it would. But that wasn't what scared him. Normal cuts he could handle, but this---this was not a normal cut! His blood... it was crystallizing!

"s**t! ******** no!"

Congratulations Riyo! You've won the grand prize! All of the fruits of your labor have lead up to this one moment! Tell me, how does it feel?

"Shitty..." The ghoul mumbled, coughing up a spurt of blood. Was she talking to herself? Oh yes she was.

Well would you like to know what you've won? The voice called back from the crevices of her mind. Oh, damn her sarcasm.

Weakly, Riyo nodded.

Nothing! You get NOTHING! Good day sir!

Yes. Nothing. She had nothing now. No friends by her side pleading for her to hold on. No comfort in knowing she had completed everything she'd wanted to.

As the wretched crystal began to engulf her torso, the immobile feline tried to gasp for air. It was like being eaten by a hungry snake.

Riyo had no desire to think about her friends. To think about Titus in her last moments of life. In the end, none of them were here. Just like they hadn't been in that cylinder with her at the end of the trials. In the end, all she had was herself. Her loneliness. Her hands didn't move from her face in her last moments. They stayed there. Frozen up in the crystal, she almost looked like one of those faceless weeping statues.

Her last thoughts focused on the desire to find solace in the empty, and beauty in the lonely.

She had nothing.

Therefore, nothing was what she regretted.

DED.

No matter how hard he struggled, everything he did was in vain. The crystal had him frozen in place, allowing it to crawl up and around his body like snake. A snake which continued to grow and consume his body, slowly and painfully draining him of all will to fight. Not even his ability to phase granted him ability to escape. The crystal was draining his Fear at a rapid pace, far too fast for him to even form it into something usable.

He was losing.

Afraid, he shuddered, but continued to fight. His struggles however, smaller now, weaker, more out of reflex than will. He knew he wasn't getting out of this one. He knew he was caught in a trap and unable to escape it.

Despair was setting in.

Though as the crystal encased him, concealed within the white, he could see something.

Christof's feet were dragging as he hurried towards where he remembered the portal home would be. The ground was quaking. Something was happening. His grip tightened on Amrita on his back.

The crystals crept upward, lining one of his arms and with a whine, he shook the free limb, trying to pluck the shards free with pained yelps.

Another piece of crystal fell on her as she tried to dodge the ones floating around her, adding to the number of bruises on her shoulders and arms.

He was tired now. Too tired now to fight and pry the crystals off. Locke was still shouting at him in his head, but there was nothing he could do. The crystal wasn't coming off and before long, even his hands were coated in crystal from where he had touched the shards.

"Its no use, I can't..." His voice broke. "I can't get it off." Was he really this helpless? This useless? Was he so terrible a trainee that he couldn't even get him and his partner free of a little crystal?

:You can't give up now! Don't give into despair! Fight!: Ryan's shouts became louder now as the crystal continued to grow. But it was useless, he was useless. He couldn't beat it.

There was someone, or something was calling about revenge. Who's revenge, he didn't know. What he did know, was that they had been caught up in it.

He growled as the hunter hit him again, his strange veneer of calm finally beginning to crack. Screw this human. Screw this damned island. Screw these people's petty excuses for dreams and hopes. They'd started this. All he had ever envisioned in his future was fighting, maybe a little scaring if someone took the time to teach him how. Not killing. Now he would watch these hunters die without any reaction at all. They had done that. Not normal humans, not horsemen, these... creatures. Didn't they have anything better to do? His fists clenched, knuckles white, stubby nails digging into his palms. If there had been one thing he'd learned after bouncing around in Oinqa's empty head for a while it was that he had no beef with real humans. They were as harmless as a pile of foxfires. But these assholes and their traitor weapons could stick it...

West looked up as the ground began to shake, completely forgetting about his opponent in favor of the rumbling earth. Had he done that?

Excellent.

The boil watched as some of those around him panicked and some simply ran. Be cool, he wanted to tell them. It's just a little wrath injection. West bent his knees, bracing himself as the ground continued to roll. It took all of thirty seconds before he realized this spectacle probably hadn't been caused by him. Especially when the crystals began to sprout. Okay, this wasn't good.

West scanned the crowd for those familiar white ears, pushing his way through the writhing mass of chaos once he found them. Halfway to his destination, a thick column of crystal shot out of the dirt to his left, dragging through his shoe and across his arm on its way toward the sky. He frowned, more over his ruined shoe than his injuries, but his irritation turned to confusion as his cut scabbed over with the same material that had cut it. Fine crystal shards spiraled out of his arm, quickly encasing the limb in a stiff, shimmering glove. He lifted his foot and found it similarly encumbered, but he continued forward anyway, his steps slow but determined. When he reached Levi's side, he looked her over quickly then said, "We're still winnin'. We jus' need t'get outta 'ere."