chapter 5


The air was light, but cold as the grave, through its eyes all it saw was crashing of desks, glass vials, chairs, the fall of rubble, and the continued feeling that the whole room was spinning,
Its ears heard sirens, doors opening, gasps and cries of terror, but all the time its heartbeat boomed in its ears like a drum was being played within him,
Liquid poured around its fur, its eye burned as for the first time air swept across its body, its mouth agape, its body rigid with shock and rage.
Through all this images passed through walls and to his eyes, people running, some away from it, some towards it. The only difference was the way they were armed

The pain soothed, pulled by a vision through the misted gaze of the water, a face, a mind and with it thoughts of something it couldn’t comprehend. A plan….
Another noise, a twang of a laxer shot, and a pain as a pinpoint place on his body
More followed and finally raywolths eyes opened.

..........................................................................................

And so … countless miles away, krystal lay, wired to the bone,
Dreams were weirdly something new to krystal. For as far back as she could remember she had always closed her eyes, waited and when she opened them again it was morning,
It was only what happened to that time that had slipped by that intrigued her about sleep, but now it had shaken her, within the warmest most safest place in our minds sleep was a place where for once you truly felt no pressure, no strain, no invasion of your thoughts or memories,
But for the first time ever someone was staring back, green glowing eyes that bore into her mind, her dreams,
Ever blink she did a vision of something taking place, either in her one mind or in the mind of someone, something….
She had always known that truly whist she fumbled with her powers she was a ghost, never truly part of what was going on nor was it her right to… but to suddenly have someone else staring at her…. As if suddenly she had become visible,
But how and why?... and who was that who stared as if through someone’s thoughts back at her,

She stared blankly at the wall closest to her bed.. Her breathing shallow and quick, her arms wrapped around her as if she had been stabbed…
She blinked and again another image of a corridor, the floor shaking so savagely the walls cracked, another while passed and again krystal fought the urge to let her eyelids close.
When they did though a completely different view formed, people running from a shadow she could only say was blurred to say the least, this time watching a slim figure look up from the floor. Krystal’s reaction was to shut her eyes, but the visions only came when she did that, suddenly her escape route was taken
She let her eyes water as she stared at nothing, not daring to close her eyes,
But when she did she once again saw a far different sight, as if through walls the eyes of the figure looked to see a girl no older than fifthteen being yanked by what looked like a scientist, his overalls though were almost what you call casual,
Rocks fell from above as krystal opened her eyes again half expecting to find herself in the same corridor as that person…  that thing
This had never happened before ever… in her life, she had always controlled when and how she used her powers, but now it was as if they were obeying themselves,
The subconscious was a far deeper pool of thought than she had ever seen, almost all she knew from people came from there, but beyond the three planes of thought was a void that she had found nothing she understood, not like images or sound, nor memories or feelings, just…… static,
She still hung on that time after waking… when you could still remember dreams, the only difference was it came to her at the flicker of an eyelid.
She couldn’t help it, another flicker and suddenly a spark of the recognisable came to view….
Her eyes were now wide, but the image still rattled through her mind, the one connection that she could see clearly,

……………………………………………..

The greatfox hung like the moon above venom. The cornerian fleet had descended, and other than the lone communications satellites,
left alone the greatfox filled the space and soon made it way out of orbit, as it did the light from the venom haze became dim,  fox watched as once again for the third time he watched venom become but another speck in the sky, another memory in his mind,

There was a definite unnatural calm about the way fox stared, so much had happened that could easily bring fox to the brink of sanity,
Falco had left, again….but this time and for the very first he was on the run,
The news had been greeted sharply by peppy, even as the ship passed there defences they had no true idea as to how or why they had used falcos codename,
Krystal said she would look into it, but as for now, the teams spirit was dead…
slippy still lying in the medical quarters had suffered burns that would scar him for life, his skin had changed from the normal bright green to a strange orange…. His eyes bloodshot as he even looked back at fox…
His best friend… and even the blame of his injuries could only lead to one thing.
As for the rest of starwolth not a single trace had been seen of them, Leon who had been watched on the flagship of the cornerian fleet had despite being put under temporary guard had managed to use an escape pod release as a distraction before flying his wolthen out of the hangar and clean into another illegal warp jump. Causing even the giant flagships hull to shudder, wolth on the other hand had vanished, and even after watching every inch of the atmosphere for any signs of his ship there had still been nothing, no sign of him even being there.
But only one had managed to be fully contained,
Panther was still under custody, peppy’s orders were to deliver him to the temporary base on Macbeth… and with that honest and trusting job he let onto fox’s hands to leave the questioning till the mess on venom could be sorted,
For hours the two had sat with nothing but a glowing barrier setting them apart, panthers eyes staring back at fox’s with the lazy cat expression that fox had grown used to with felines, his eyes stared back blankly.
There were many voices that told him to do things, must driven by feelings that pulled at his heart, but the memory of him sitting in the cell… with nothing to look at but caimans eyes drew him to simply do nothing but wait.
Krystal said she would interrogate him, and after she had captured him once already it seemed fox was willing to trust her …”confidence”
But so many questions bubbled in his mind and bringing sleeplessness with it,
Only he and krystal were the only members of starfox that remained without scars on there body or there loyalty,
But somehow they had said not a word since they had found each other again, left with just a conversation with peppy to break there silence,
Fox was due to report they were leaving, or at least he had been, but not even his most basic of duties seemed worth it,
His friend had abandoned, betrayed and done what even he could never had thought possible, slippy was wounded and with little hope of surviving in a week, his girlfriend had no idea because of the secrecy of the fleets operations, not even fox could imagine how panther managed to be held in slippys land master, or in fact what had managed to do all of that damage,
Fox still stared at where venom had been, so far as fox’s eyes had seen the planet was no longer toxic, but the proof of slippys burns seemed to say otherwise,
The bridge held a quiet that only came from the presence of one thing
‘what is it rob’ fox said finally,
rob had never truly been noticed without him speaking, his presence was as known to the team as simply background mechanics, never really known unless he was standing right behind you,
a whirring came and then a voice cracked through an echoed voice box
‘I have prepared the transmission ready for Mrs Amanda toad…shall I continue and send?’
Fox’s eyes fixed for a while on the ever staring eyes of the droid,
‘Yes’
‘As you wish’
Fox turned back to the window, but for some reason rob did not move from behind him,
Fox sighed and turned his head to rob again
‘What is it rob?.....is there something else you need to bug me with’
the droid kept a silence that could have been for any reason, his voice box moved as the voice spoke again
‘There is nothing you require?’
‘Why would you think I need anything….’
‘Sensors recognise impulsive patterns in your voice….’
Fox turned back but then slowly chewed on what rob said
‘Recognised?’
‘Yes I have seen such anomalies before,’
‘Where?’
‘You’re farther’
fox blinked, he had known others talk of his farther, usually through many conversations of battles, but never had he heard a single word from rob, and what was even weird was rob had came to him, for what could have been known as conversation, which for a droid with no social network other than following commands was out of the question.
The voice rattled back into life
‘my only conclusion is that your predicaments are as the same as James…’
‘……such as?’
‘You stand alone’
Fox blinked again, there was not even a trace of feeling in robs voice, no reason whatsoever for fox to turn round and raise in anger,
But the robot had an uncanny cool that seemed to sink into the ships atmosphere like a wet blanket over a fire, fox had known the anger that seemed to have sparked at  his capture, but here staring back into those hollow artificial eyes he saw nothing but reality.
‘So what would my dad have done?’
‘……….’
The silence went on as suddenly rob hummed in computing, the obvious sign of thinking or “analysing”
Finally the voice came again in that flat simple tone
‘He’d make plans….’

The door opened and a blue figure in simple white bed cloths stood in the gap
Rob didn’t move, fox on the other hand began to smile at Krystal’s presence, and then slackened when he heard the tone of her voice
A flustered voice reached there ears
‘…..I know where Falco is….’
Fox simply blinked and walked to where krystal stood shivering, leaving rob with nothing but an empty space that was the greatfox’s bridge, but now nothing more than the refuge of an ongoing silence
If rob had had known more of feelings he would have missed the commotion of the old craft, the jukebox blaring slippys tracks, the repairs that seemed to plague the greatfox’s hull.
If there was any attempt of a feeling it was an impulsive feeling of uselessness, though this brought neither annoyance or anger, it did bring a sudden impulse to do something… robs circuits whirred as his programming fought with a part of him he had yet to understand, but it wasn’t feelings that had been brought through some curiosity,
As rob stood, as still as spare parts he processed the same instructions over and over, a single sentence that he had yet to erase from his memory

………………………………………………………….


‘Where?’
‘……’
‘Krystal I …’
‘It’s not what you think fox…’
She still stood in her nighty and though fox stood outside her room she left the door open, he leaned against the wall outside and spoke gently,
The new greatfox was always a hollow place compared to the old one, yes more room, more space to move in and no more break downs, but the more he got comfortable with the large hallways and echoing voices he missed the old rustic vessel he fought on in the past….
Krystal had known not so much of the past wars and battles that fox had seen in that ship, to her this new one was just a size up and in her eyes just what she needed… but even she felt cold, even if fox was barely a dorm away she could still have sleepless nights through the metal walls of her room
‘Fox….’
‘Hmm?’
No answer and slowly fox edged round the doorway and looked into her room,
it was far darker than the rest of the greatfox, she had deliberately chosen a room that had but a single window, a single bed, but allot of room to move in, he watched as she paced, still forgetting that she still wore bed clothes, her mind could almost be heard buzzing, her footsteps faint and her movements absent minded,
fox reached out and grasped her hand as she passed him for the third ring of her room,
‘Tell me….i thought we talked about theses things now,’
‘Its just…………’
‘…..’
He could feel her pulse racing in his palm
‘Krystal what is it?…’
He turned her to face him,
She looked up at him, but she spoke barely above a whisper,
‘It’s just something I saw,’
‘In falco’s eyes?....is it something to do where he is?’
‘No, but fox….. Something was staring back……’
She let her hand lift to her mouth as she unconsciously let her eyes drop.
‘……has this happened before?’
‘……only once…… but that was when we were on sauria,’
‘With the aparoids?....’
‘No…..with him….’
Fox didn’t blink….and for a while even his breathing ceased,
But when he did finally break free his only question was this…
‘…….what exactly did you see?….’