Introduction

"Mommy! Daddy! Come see or you'll miss it!" said the young vixen as she pointed out the window towards the vast cosmos.

"Heh heh, alright, alright. We're coming," said Jake Starwind as he walked up behind the excited kit and rubbed her shoulders. The older fox was wearing a tan space jacket with a light green shirt underneath and dark green pants with a black belt around them. He had almost bright red fur with a white muzzle, and his green eyes were now focused on his little girl. "What is it you want us to see, Vixie?"

"A comet! It's hard to see at first, but just look over there. I could see a real pretty blue tail at the end of it!"

Jake blinked for a moment and looked out into space, squinting his eyes so he could try to find it. Sure enough, he spotted the same thing- a soft blue dot blazing in the distance. "Well I'll be…that's some eyesight you got there, Vix. Even I had trouble finding it at first, and I'm supposed to be one of the best sharp-shooters in Lylat! Maybe I'm just getting old," Jake said and then chuckled lightly, ruffling the small vixen's brown air gently. "Strange though. I didn't think that there were any comets out here."

"Well, that's because you're not very good at astronomy, dear," came a soft voice from the console. "Otherwise you'd know that that's the Serenity Comet. It passes through the Lylat System once every eleven years." The voice belonged to Jake's mate and wife, Victoria Starwind. Instead of wearing her normal uniform, she was wearing a long blue skirt with a matching light-blue shirt top. Like her daughter, her fur was a golden yellow shade and her hair was brown, though it was much longer and had grown all the way down to her waist. But her most noticeable feature was her deep blue eyes, which seemed as deep and mysterious as the ocean itself.

"Heh, well excuse me for getting a 'C' in the course back at the Academy," Jake replied while grinning. "You know all that stuff bores me to death. Especially the math part."

"Well, I'm surprised that they even let you fly anymore if you can't identify basic things such as comets and constellations," Victoria replied as she crossed her arms and gave him a teasing grin.

"And that's why I'm paired with you, sweetheart," he said while giving her a wink, and Victoria just shook her head and smiled back at him.

"Hmph…you and mommy aren't gonna start getting all mushy again, are you?" Vixie asked as she gave her parents a disgusted look. Little Vixen Starwind was as all little kits were when it came to seeing her parents kiss; it made her cringe and stick her tongue out in disgust.

"Maybe," Jake said as he picked her up and started kissing her cheek playfully. "But I think I'll get all 'mushy and kissy' with you since you're closer."

"Nooo! Lemme go!" Vixie giggled and tried to squirm out of his arms, pushing and kicking at him as he grinned at her and kept kissing along her face. Then he started tickling her stomach, which made Vixie burst into laughter. Jake always loved playing around with his daughter, especially since she was a little tomboyish and loved to horseplay with him.

Victoria just smiled at this as Jake cuddled and played with her. She was just about to join in when suddenly she felt a tremendous chill go down her spine. She knew that something was wrong.

And no sooner had she sensed the danger when three ships suddenly came onto the

radar screen. A little warming noise had gone off, warning them of the ships' sudden appearance within the small cruiser ship's vicinity. Before Jake or Victoria could react, the ship was rocked by a sudden blow to the main engine and the area around the deck of the ship. The vibrations made Victoria lurch forward and fall onto the console as Jake fell to the ground and clutched Vixie to his breast, instinctively protecting her.

"What the hell was that!?" Jake said once he got to his feet, still holding Vixie to his chest.

"We just got hit by something hard," Victoria replied as she looked at the ships computer, trying to see just what was going on as the ship continued to be bombarded with laser fire. "But I don't understand. This radar should have picked them up much sooner. And I would have sensed them nearby as well."

Jake looked out the window and saw two Venomian fighters zoom by the windows, their frames seeming to appear from no where. "Damn, they're using stealth." He also knew that although his wife was a superb psychic, she would not have been able to detect these ships earlier unless she was alert and fully aware of the area around her. And since they were supposed to be on vacation, she was easily taken off guard.

Victoria looked on the main monitor and saw the third fighter appear, only it was quite bigger than the two other smaller ships. Its hull was black with crimson wings, and there was only one person that that ship belonged to. "Xena…"

"What? What's Xena doing here?" Jake snapped as he looked to the monitor and watched as Xena's ship suddenly zip out of view. "No one was supposed to know where we were…especially her!"

"I don't know," Victoria said. "But it doesn't change the fact that she's here now. Jake, you take control of the ship's guns. I'll try and steer us out of here-ugh!" The ship shuddered with a violent tremor as the sound of an explosion rattled their ears. Jake lurched forward with Vixie still clinging to him as she let out a yelp in fear. Victoria saw her daughter trying so hard to be brave and not cry. As she reached over and rubbed the top of her head, her attention was brought to sound of the blaring alert siren. An image of the ship appeared on the monitor and showed the entire engine area and the wings the ship covered in red and orange. There as also large red text that appeared below the ship's schematic, which read: WARNING- SHIELD GENERATOR DESTROYED.

"They're going all out, aren't they?" Jake said as he recovered, quickly looking over the damage of the ship. He knew that they had been stricken by a Nova bomb since such a violent tremor could have been nothing else. His eyes widened and he felt his gut tighten up; this ship would only take about a few more hits and they would be done for. Victoria saw this as well and felt her heart sink. When they looked at each other and then to Vixie, they knew what had to be done.

Vixie saw the grim looks on their faces and knew that something was terribly wrong. "Mommy? Daddy?"

"Come on!" Jake said and ran for the door with Victoria following right behind him. He knew that they only had another minute or so before Xena and her wingmen came in for the final kill.

"Daddy! What's going on?" Vixie demanded from her father as they raced through the narrow halls. "Are we leaving? Mommy!" She looked to her mother and expected her to smile and tell her everything would be okay. Yet she was not smiling this time.

Before Vixie could raise any protest, she was suddenly tossed onto a small narrow space with a cushioned seat. She then felt her father lean forward and kiss her brow. She looked up at him and saw that he was trying to give her a grin, but it only came out as a sad smile. She felt her mother embrace her, too, and felt her wrapping something around her neck- her own blue scarf which she wore whenever she flew. And that's when Vixie knew what was going on. She was going to escape, and her parents were not.

"No!" she cried and instantly sprung from the seat, but was pushed back hard by Victoria.

"Sorry, Vixie, but you can't stay with us. You've got to keep living," Jake said before pressing a button and closing up the pod, setting it on a course for Corneria.

"No! Don't send me away! I don't wanna be alone!" Vixie yelled and began pounding on the pod door. Hot tears were pouring down her cheeks as her heart felt like it was about to explode from fear and heartbreak.

You will never be alone, my Vixen, echoed her mother's voice in her head. We will watch over you from the heavens…now be strong and never give up. Victoria was smiling to her then and watching her with those loving eyes and for a moment, Vixie's heart was peace. Suddenly, the air lock closed Vixie felt a sudden jerk as the escape pod launched out into space. Vixie stumbled backwards from the force of it, but quickly jumped back to the window and watched helplessly as their cruiser was becoming smaller and smaller.

Vixie yelled and screamed for her mother and father and saw the crimson-winged ship fly over head, heading right for the front of the ship. Then she saw a glowing red dot fly from the ship and into the deck of their cruiser. And in that instant, the entire ship exploded in a large, violent fireball.

And all Vixie could do was scream.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Vixie!"

Vixie sprung up from her bed in a cold sweat. She felt as though her wildly beating heart had jumped up into her throat to escape the fire building up in her lungs. At first, all she saw were blurs as her eyes tried to adjust to the dim light given off by the table lamp. She was shivering madly and hugging her stomach now, lurched over and feeling a couple of hot tears slide down her cheek. A dream…that same damn dream…she thought to herself as she felt her throat tighten up. She thought that she was going to throw up until her friend rubbed her back and took a hold of her hand. She heard her say her name once again.

"Vixie? Hey, Vix," said the reddish orange furred Siberian husky, who now moved onto the bed with her and gripped her hand tightly. "Come on, snap out of it…"

Vixie's ears twitched at the sound of her friend's voice. She turned her head slowly and looked right into her eyes. At first, she did not even recognize her, but after focusing in, she finally spoke. "Janet…"

"Oh, thank goodness," Janet said as she hugged her, trying to comfort her. She had never seen that look on Vixie's face before…that look of horror and sadness.

Vixie slowly reached her hand up and patted her shoulder reassuringly. Leave it to Janet to always be there whenever you were in trouble. She saw that she had Janet worried and sought to comfort her in turn. "It's…it's okay, Janet. I'm feeling a little better now," Vixie said gently and started to take in slow and deep breaths. She still felt nauseous, but she could feel her heart beat slow down as her breaths became less shallow and much calmer.

"Good," Janet replied and moved away from her while keeping her hand on her shoulder. She was relieved to see that Vixie was calming down, but she knew that she was not completely okay. "It was that dream, wasn't it? With your parents…"

"…yeah," Vixie replied in a weary voice and buried her face in her hands before gently rubbing her cheeks and her neck, trying to take a moment to put her turbulent mind at ease. But the peace was ruined just as she detected something flying at her head. She looked up and reached out her hand, catching a pillow that would have hit her right in the head had she not caught it.

"Ugh…would you two shaddup?" grumbled a low voice as Gina, their avian friend in the top bunk, rolled onto her side and tried to go back to sleep. "I'm trying to sleep here…"

Both of the girls gave their roommate a look before looking back to each other, exchanging small smiles. Best not to provoke the hawk who could easily reach into the holster on her bed and send a few "warning shots" of blaster fire right at their heads. Janet gave Vixie's shoulder a pat before moving to the lower bunk under Gina and sliding back into her bed. Vixie watched her and held the spot on her shoulder where she was touched before staring at the foot of her bed and at the electronic clock on the desk ahead of them. 3:00 AM. The darkest hour of the night, and, ironically enough, the same time that she had crash landed on Corneria after being hurtled through space for half an hour. How appropriate, Vixie thought bitterly and hugged her knees to her chest.

….Vixie? Yet another worried voice, only this time it was male.

Allen…She recognized her cousin's voice and knew that he was probably worried sick about her. Like her, Allen was also a telepath, having inherited the gift from his mother, Victoria's younger sister, Kalia.

Vixie, what's going on? he asked more insistently now, threatening to probe her mind if she refused to answer. Since Vixie did not want him combing through her memories, she quickly responded.

It was the dream, Allen, Vixie replied, staring out of the window to the building that was right across from them, the men's barracks. Soon she saw a white figure appear in one of the windows, peering out at the curtain and staring right at her. Even if they could not quite see each other, they still knew where the other was at all times. It was one of consequences of sharing a mind-link.

Are you okay? Allen asked, though his voice was softer, more caring now.

Yes, I'll be fine…I just need sleep. Sorry if I woke you up, too.

Alright…in that case, I'll see you in the morning. She could hear the uncertainty in his voice, but was glad that he decided to leave her be for now.

Vixie sat up in her bed for at least fifteen minutes before slowly lying back down. She felt tired, yet was afraid of falling asleep again. After going a little more than a year without having that dream, she thought that she was getting better. Then again, how can anyone really recover after seeing their own parents die in an explosion like that? Especially when the image of such serene, accepting expressions on both of their faces had implanted itself into her mind?

All of the doctors and psychiatrists that she had seen had said that she suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. As a result, they tried to make her take every anti-depressant known to anthrokind. But they didn't do squat. They just dulled her senses and made her slow. So, instead of following the doctor's orders like a good little girl, she just made herself live with it and move on. It was not easy, and had it not been for Allen coming to her aid and forging a telepathic link between their minds, she knew that she probably would not be where she was now.

Even though she eventually reverted back to her more friendly and lively self, this nightmare still plagued her subconscious. And every time it ended the same way, with her crying out for her parents before waking up in a panic-stricken state. It always scared the pants off of her poor cousin, who would always come rushing to her side as Janet did. This was the first time that this had ever happened with anyone besides Allen and she felt quite embarrassed, even though Janet did not mind it and Gina could have honestly cared less.

She stared up at the ceiling blankly, waiting for sleep to come and take her. Her body begging for sleep but her mind was still racing, denying the body its most basic need to rest. Scenes from the dream kept playing over and over again- the feel of her father tickling her, her mother's last smile, that crimson ship….Xena. One of the most feared and deadliest outlaws in the Lylat System, who disappeared from the public view right after she had killed Jake and Victoria Starwind. Hearing that name made Vixie's blood boil…why did she do it? For money? Revenge? To settle some petty score? In the end, none of those reasons mattered. Vixie swore that if she ever found her, she would make her suffer for taking away the two most important people in her life.

Her thoughts of vengeance began to drift into nothingness as sleep was finally overcoming her. She glanced towards the window for a moment, staring into the gentle night sky. She feel lost in the brilliant sea of stars. She could almost see the small orange blur in the distance, which she recognized as the infamous Sector Z. Her eyelids became too heavy to keep open any longer. So she closed them and let herself fall into an uneasy sleep as a held back tear ran down her cheek.