The Beginning

Authors Notes:

Hey everyone, I know this hasn't been mentioned in my upcoming stories, but I seem to be suffering a mild bout of writers block after a two week hiatus from writing so I thought this would be a good way to get back into the swing of things. Not to mention I thought this up in five minutes. I just needed to write something. Just a one shot here that takes place between Deception and Ordo. Tell me what you think, as usual. It is suggested that you read Fox McCloud: Ordo right afterward since this ties in with it (obviously).

Minor Warning: This might not be for the faint of heart, but I don't think it's worthy of an M rating.

Face down in the bottom of a river
Swimming with the dead makes me wanna shiver
If you really wanna know, I'd rather just drown alone

Clay fingers reaching for the ceiling
Once numb, now tingling with feeling
You'll see in the end that nothing really gets away.

Black Light Burns - "Mesopotamia"

Fox bolted awake from his peaceful slumber. On one side of him, lay Krystal, nestled gently in a small niche that she had made with his own curvature. While the room itself was actually fairly empty, containing only a bed, two black nightstands with lamps and a clock, a collage of photo's covering one of the dark red walls, and of course themselves, the vulpine couldn't help but feel as though he was not alone…

This wasn't the first time this had happened. Since his scuffle with Bill, he had noticed something different about himself. Now that he had been back with Krystal for about a month now, the feeling he had was beginning to amplify. While trying to be as careful as possible, as not to wake Krystal, Fox got out of bed, put on some slacks, and went into the bathroom. After shutting the door, he splashed a little water on his face, hoping whatever he felt would go away, unfortunately it did not.

"Agh, what the hell is going on?" He thought aloud.

"Maybe you should look closer…"

"Jesus!" The vulpine jumped in fright, looking in all directions to find the source of the sound. While there was nobody else inside the room with him, he noticed something of concern when he saw his reflection in the mirror. Most people wouldn't find anything wrong with him, but to the trained eye, one would notice that his pupils had dilated, leaving nothing but what appeared to be pitch black eye sockets. Fox rubbed them violently, hoping it would go away, but to no avail.

"What the fuck?" Without warning, he suddenly began to twitch violently. He felt as though he was no longer in control of himself. Suddenly, it stopped.

"Aha! Finally, I'm free!" A maniacal voice from Fox's muzzle exclaimed. Whatever it was clearly wasn't his own.

"Who the hell are you?!"

"That's not important. What is though, is how you're going to snuff that bitch in your room!" Fox couldn't believe what he was "saying". It had to be a dream, but it felt too real to be one.

"I wouldn't lay a finger on Krystal, ever!" He sharply responded back.

"Oh, I beg to differ. Soon enough, you won't be able to stop me from doing whatever I want!" The vulpine suddenly fell to his knee's and began to convulse again. Inside his mind came images of him digging a carving knife deep into Krystal's gut, laughing in a manner that sounded extremely similar to how the voice he was speaking to would.

The images stopped as abruptly as they began, the traumatized vulpine laid on the floor in tears. What he had just seen was just unbearable, he could feel a violent rumble in his stomach. Fox clumsily dragged himself over to the toilet and allowed himself to empty the contents of his stomach into it. When it was all said and done, he was left gasping for air.

"Who are you!?" He demanded to a now absent figure. Behind him, the door opened. On the other end was Krystal in a soft-white nightgown staring worryingly at both her colleague and lover.

"Fox, what happened in here?" She asked in a light tone. He couldn't bring himself to tell her what had happened. It was all too much for him at the moment. She slowly walked over to him while searching his head for any sliver of information on what had transpired.

"I can see you…"

The vixen wasn't sure how to react to what she had found. Inside, she was screaming to run away, but whatever had just happened was clearly significant enough to practically regress Fox down to the state he was in, so she helped him up from the floor and onto his knees.

"Please Fox, I need you to tell me what happened."

"I-" He sniffled. "I don't know…I woke up, and this…thing took me over."

"What thing?"

"Something really, really bad…" He swiftly embraced Krystal, allowing the tears to flow once again. "I don't know what you heard Krys' , but I promise that I won't let anything hurt you." He let her go for a moment and quickly pecked her cheek lightly. "You trust me right?"

"Of course I do." She said reassuringly. For their sake, she hoped that he was right. For now though, she warmly embraced him again. But as they did, the voice continued to torment the vulpine in his mind.

Oh yes, hide from it all. You think you've suffered enough? Well Fox McCloud, this is only the beginning…

END