-=The Legacy of Lament=-

How dose one truly recover from a broken heart? What is there left of a person who no longer wishes to be? Is there a place for such an existence? Perhaps not, perhaps at times like these the saying darkest before dawn dose not apply … perhaps there is no dawn, no light, just the darkness and heartache that love will inevitably leave us with in the end. It is the matters of the heart that truly test a person's resolve to it's limits because it is the matters of the heart that cut the deepest of all … how we choose to handle these matters is a measure of who we really are.

September 30th

5:14am

Sauria, Cape Claw

The sun barely peeks over the horizon of the bay, making the pristine waters of Cape Claw seem to set fire as Sol's rays drench the beach in warmth illuminating the darkness of the entire area. A familiar old ship sits berthed just off of the old stone dock that leads to the old Ocean Force Point Temple. Since back then, the place had changed somewhat, a small wooden hut with a thatched roof had been build off to the temple's side near where he, the cape's only resident, had once saved the life of the Queen of the Cloudrunner tribe. It is a small place, but, to the fox that lives there it is a welcome change from sleeping on board the Great Fox, which he'd recently renamed The Raven because of it's dark pain job.

The light reddish-brown furred fox goes about his daily routine out in front of the the old stone Krazoa head shaped temple, a large piece of driftwood from the beach resting on his shoulders as he swings it from side to side readying himself for another day of training. The months of endless drinking had done it's worst in means of damage to his once great physical prowess … his body slowly began to build up once again however. Fox McCloud could not even be seen in his eyes anymore, his past not forgotten, but pushed aside by his constant exercise and job after endless job. Now no longer tethered to his past, Lament had rediscovered his oldest love…flying. He managed to practice flying daily, as his new arwing was unmanned by any other than himself in Lylat. The ship was stolen from a research facility by the vulpine's predecessor and was faster, and more maneuverable than any other vehicle he'd ever flown. As he readied himself for a long, strenuous bout of exercise, the log toting vulpine rushed off in a light jog toward the old well, up the steep inclining hill that led there. His exercises had become once again second nature to him.

As he finally burst into the open scenery of Thorntail Hollow, he stops to take a short breath setting the heavy log on the ground next to the stream that cut through the oddly beautiful land. The SharpClaw that he once fought against had begun to traverse the lands once again, now that they were no longer under the control of their old leader General Scales. Lament found it a bit odd, he hadn't killed the reptile and yet, he was no longer seen on Sauria. The old hag that owned the shop in the center of the Hollow now had several helpers, that would bring her whatever they found that may be of some use. After a bit of time he lifted the large log onto his shoulders and continued his run. His entire path led him up and around the Warp Stone's small grotto, before winding back around and down through the LightFoot tribe's small forest, and back out into the cape. After leaving the cave and heading back toward his place Lament tossed the log aside as he noticed something . A small ship was berthed near his large black ship. Even from his relative far distance from the ships Lament could make out the black furred canine that stood near it, for a moment he thought about what he should do…there had been quite a number of people that were after his head since becoming Lament. The suspicious animal looked over The Raven several times, before taking a seat on a large stone off on the shore, it only took the canine a moment to notice the vulpine on the bridge between the temple and the hill that led to the cave and well…

"HELLO! I'M LOOKING FOR SOMEONE THAT CALLS HIMSELF LAMENT!" The man called from the beach.

Almost as if to ignore the animal Lament made his way along the path to his small hut, where he took a seat in a simple lounge chair. Next to the chair propped up against a small log was a long curved sword in a black scabbard another of the many things left to the vulpine by the former Lament…

"This is quite a place you've got out here." The canine said approaching the fox.

"I like my privacy." Lament replied coldly pulling the blade from it's sheath and pressing it's tip lightly against the underside of the canine's chin, "You know who I am … now who the fuck are you?"

The canine chuckled as if not to believe the threat, before placing his index finger on the tip of the blade moving it from it's place, "I represent someone of greater importance, my place with him and his firm … is … unimportant so, killing me would get you little to nothing in return."

Lament suddenly swiped the sword back to it's old position, "How about the quiet?"

"Hmmm..." The canine hummed not thinking of moving it again, "Indeed. Very well then … I represent a man that would like you to retrieve something for him. It is an object of little importance..."

Lament narrowed his eyes at the canine, "Unimportant, huh?" Lament asked sheathing his weapon, "Well…you can tell your boss that I only deal with clients directly. So if he has any balls whatsoever, he can come find me himself."

"Perhaps you don't understand …" The dark furred canine replied, "Nobody says no to my boss."

Without so much as a warning the vulpine lunged form his seat with the blade of his sword at the canine's throat, "No! Maybe you don't understand…I say "No" to however-the-fuck I want, and your boss is no different. Tell him to come back and see me when he decides to grow a set."

After a short while the canine decided against the pursuit of their talk any longer, as the Lament he'd heard of had a rather short fuse and was prone to acts of some intense violence when angered. The angry vulpine watched the canine's small ship fly out of sight, he let out a small snort of anger before thrusting his weapon back into it's sheath. He only dealt with clients themselves and wanted nothing to do with someone that who refused a face to face confrontation.

As he finally began to finish his training a slight storm began to rear it's head over the horizon, the dark clouds told him that it would be an acceptionally bad one, as most of the storms that made landfall near Cape Claw could be rather merciless...

"Fuckin' tropical storms." Lament growled before making his way to his hut.

His nights, regardless of his days, were full of visions that often robbed the creature of any kind of sleep. Every night he dwelt in his own personal hell, what had drove him to becoming Lament. It wasn't fair, his predecessor had told him that everything would come to him in time, but the voices in his head as he slept all spouted the same accusing comments; Your fault, Coward, low-life, Drunk, heart breaker…murderer, every night was the same. He finally jolted upright breathing heavily as the visions finally pulled him from his sleep, the vulpine slid out of bed covering his eyes with his paws for a moment before putting on his boots, and even though he wore no shirt, he walked out into the still pouring rain.

The haunted vulpine walked up the incline that led to the well, and slowly climbed down the system of ladders until he found himself in a large flower bed that mounded up near it's center, where there sat a single gravestone. Walking carefully to the stone the vulpine dropped to his knees before looking to the opening, so far away from him. The only thing that could hide the tears in his eyes were the drops of rain that gathered on his face. As he ran a paw over the surface of the stone a thought came to his mind. How could he possibly forget hat he'd caused the death of his only love?

The lonely vulpine woke to the serenity of the morning light on his face. He slowly crawled to his feet using the gravestone before him to lift himself to his feet. He slowly made his way back to his hut where he tied his sword to his belt and put on a rather tight sleeveless tee shirt, he had no intention of sitting around any longer, he'd go out in search of work himself.

It'd been some time since he'd spent any time on his ship. The halls of the once well known Great Fox were as hollow as the space his heart once occupied. Other than the lonesome vulpine's footsteps the place seemed to be a silent as death---there was no life to anything about the area. He'd at one point thought about painting the insides of the ship along with the outsides but, what was the point? This way the ship was just like himself, colorless and lifeless.

The bridge of the ship was just as he'd always remembered it; a small set of angled stairs that led down toward his captain's seat, a small swiveled chair, comfortably padded, with it's own laptop stationed on a small robotic arm. A tall protocol Droid stood near the far end of the room going back and forth over different terminals and calculations making sure the ship was in order, the new droid was only programmed to tell Lament when something was wrong with the ship, when he was receiving a transmission, or several other occasions that rarely came up while he was on board the ship…

"MEL…" The vulpine said sitting in his chair and sniffling a bit, his night out in the rain had given him a terrible cold, "Take us to Kew. Need to find some work---maybe I shoulda just took the asshole's offer yesterday."

Regardless of his thoughts, Lament punched in the ship's launch codes, and the ship pulled slowly off the ground and steadily made it's way out into the planet's atmosphere…the captain of the vassal not even aware of what would await him on Kew…

--Kew City, that morning--

The city is known for it's violent night life, it's dark underbelly, and it's uncharacteristically high crime rate, the place has always seemed to be covered in a dark veil of shadows. In a small apartment on the 10th floor of the small building a scream of agony tears through the air, inside the small apartment a cerulean furred vixen lays on a large sofa that has been covered with towels to keep her heavily bleeding shoulder from staining the furniture. The pink feline kneeling at her side held up a pair of forceps which grasped a small blood soaked bullet from the vixen's shoulder. She had no idea why the wound had bled so much, the bullet hadn't struck an artery, and yet her left side was covered in blood. The pink feline was forced to pull away the vixen's uniform. By the time the pink feline had gotten the suit rolled down past the blue fox's breasts she was half unconscious from the blood loss, unfortunately, she was forced to keep the vulpine awake so that she didn't go into shock. With one last scream the final chunk of metal was pulled from it's place and after sterilizing the wound, the home brew surgeon began to stitch up her patient…

"God, Krystal." The cat grimaced, "Did they even manage to miss you?"

The cerulean vixen winced in pain at the needle's penetration into her flesh, "I couldn't help it … fuckers came out of nowhere. How was I supposed to know that Garex had back up?"

"Well you are a Telepath …" The feline smiled tapping Krystal on the head, "One would assume you'd have seen that coming … especially from that rat, Garex."

"I'm just glad you're a nurse now … I never would have been able to heal these with all that metal in my arm."

Katt looked over the small pan full of bloody metal, "Well three bullets, and 10---15 pieces of shrapnel, you're lucky that didn't get any worse."

"And how's that?" Krystal asked in a pained voice.

"Some of that shrapnel got pretty close to the ladies." Katt replied with a light laugh pointing out a small number of cuts near the vixen's left breast, "Maybe you should at least think about some sort of body armor…your shields can only hold back so much fire, you're not unstoppable, Krys, nobody is. We already lost Fox---don't make us loose you too. You're the best friend I've got."

Krystal always found the felines sentiment touching, "Thanks Katt. I'm glad I've still got at least one friend who doesn't blame everything on me."

"Hey, you know Falco doesn't blame you for anything either, neither does Slippy." Katt said patting the vixen on the shoulder, "I wish there was a hospital I could get you to…but after the thing with that senator, I wouldn't risk it."

Krystal sighed at her misfortune before the feline left the room for a moment, "If I'd have known he was a public official ahead of the time I never would have killed him."

"Like I said … " Katt retorted returning with a suit of clothes in her paws, "You need to start using that ability of yours again, might even help you find that piece of shit you've been looking for, you found any leads on him yet?" The feline asked tossing her the clothes.

Krystal sat the clothing aside for the time, "No…" She replied with a frustrated sigh, "Just rumors…It's like Lament doesn't even exist. No birth records, no files, no background, nothing. It's like the fucker's some kind of ghost." She said shedding her bloody jumpsuit before heading toward the bathroom.

The little apartment was only a temporary home for Katt…her and Falco had gotten engaged and her current small apartment was just until they could find a decent place to live, though she did like the place a bit, it was small, but, it didn't really matter to her. There was a small living room that was sort of rounded off with an entire semi-circular wall covered by a large window, the kitchen to the place was rather well in itself, with polished steel appliances and a nicely tiled floor, her room was also nicely decorated with a large bed and the single bathroom was also slightly nicer than most of the ones she was used to on her home planet of Zoness.

Krystal was happy to be in the bathroom, where there was a squared tub full of hot water waiting for her as she disrobed casting the bloody mess of a jumpsuit to the side. She withdrew her foot a bit as she dipped her toe in to find it was hotter than she'd expected, but as her body grew used to the heat she slowly let out a sight of relief lowering herself into the tub, yet hissing through her teeth as the hot water touched the wounds across her chest and shoulder. It was the most relaxed she'd been in weeks. Almost an hour later she finally found it in herself to climb out of the tub, after of course scrubbing days of work out of her fur, as well as the blood that had dried to her blue fur. After climbing out of her bath the blue vixen slid into the jeans that Katt had brought to her, and though it hurt like hell she managed to get herself into the pink shirt that her old friend had brought to her …

"Pink. … what is it with you and this color Katt?" She thought to herself stopping to look into the mirror.

Her hair was quite a bit longer than it used to be, her pony tail being the only thing that kept her locks of blue hair from roaming wildly about her face it now reached just above her lower back, her physical form as well had changed, whereas she was once athletic, she was now much more tone, while managing to keep her more feminine qualities perfectly ample. She grimaced again as she pulled her shirt over her freshly mended wounds. As she walked out into the living room she found that Katt had made them both something to eat and drink and after a rather well made meal, Krystal decided that it wasn't too bad of an idea to go for a walk…injured or not she needed her exercise.

As the blue vixen stood at the door Katt looked to her, "Where are you going?" She asked.

Krystal sighed, "Injured or not, I'm not used to being cooped up in a small space like this."

"Well … in that case while you're out." Katt said handing Krystal a small scrap of paper, "I could use a few things from the market, if you don't mind."

Krystal smiled at the thought, "Don't you usually save these things for Falco to do?" Krystal laughed while stuffing the note into her pocket.

"Yeah, I do." Katt replied with a laugh, "But, he's off doing some field work for Slippy and Beltino … collecting some samples of those crystals that you used to power your staff, they recently found 'em on another planet you know?"

"Well that's interesting … " Krystal replied feigning interest, "I'll be back in a few minutes---I really only need to stretch my legs, so I'll bring back your things after I check on some new work, hopefully I can pick up a lead or two on Lament … or Garex at the least."

--Space Port 15-E, Northern Kew City--

As his ship pulled into the permitted hanger, a practical fleet of freelance mechanics rushed the large ship in the hopes of some sort of employment for a ship so large. Lament made certain that he was fully equipped for anything, he'd been attacked in broad daylight while in town before, the incident had encouraged him to carry his sword practically everywhere he went as well as a set of archaic pistols just in case. He'd begun to prefer bullets over lasers, as bullets were nowhere near as easily stopped by a simple photon shield…not only that but, a bullet had to be pulled out, whereas a blaster cauterized wounds making death from the wound itself a bit less common.

As soon as the fox stepped off of his ship, several animals rushed him most begging for the chance to work on his ship, "I only need one person who can fix a faulty Reflux Modem and do some work on my Com system!" Lament shouted over them, several of them raised their paws into the air. For a moment Lament looked at the animals left as the crowd dissipated, of all of them however one stood out, "You'll do." He said pointing to a middle aged looking golden furred feline.

The cat was covered in oil, his overalls were torn here at there, and he was wearing a large belt covered with multiple tools of his trade, he was the only out of any of them that Lament was certain would have the ship in full working order by the time he got back. He was the quietest one, and he looked like he was more than prepared for any type of job he needed to do, the old cat was clearly a veteran at his craft.

Lament made his way off into town slowly walking into the streets, that were darkened by the shadows of the ridiculously tall buildings, after so much time living on Sauria the vulpine realized as he walked through the large city that he had tired of the constant sight of the large buildings and paved streets, with oddly busy people on every street and corner.

His main place to look for any sort of job was at a local bar, one would be surprised how often someone went there looking for any kind of mercenary work, mainly because most mercs were in some way or other fond of the drink. The first and only real place he was about to look turned out to be a place aptly named The Hole. The place was located behind an old market that no longer seemed to be in business. The first offense to his sense was found outside of the little bar, the familiar sent of vomit and urine, a smell that was expected with most places of the sort; for a dive the insides of the place were slightly homely, the small bar was tended by a red feathered avian girl that was very easy on the eyes, and aside form the five tables, two of which were full, there was only a small line of stools lining the bar. Lament waved the smell of cigar smoke away from his face before walking over and taking a seat at one of the stools …

"What can I get'cha?" The red feathered bartender asked.

"Meh … surprise me." Lament replied, "I was really hoping to find some sort of work."

The avian started to mix a small drink, "Oh, you some sort'a freelancer?"

"Sort of, I do a bit of everything really." Lament replied.

"Oh … a Jack-of-all-trades then?" She replied, "Let me think for a moment here." The avian said passing Lament an odd green colored drink, the sheer smell of which burned his eyes, "I believe someone came in here a few days ago and left a card of some kind. Just in case … " After saying this she removed a small note from under her bar passing it to Lament, "Whatever it was he said to send as many mercenaries as I could his way so … "

"Ever say what the job was for?" Lament asked quickly downing his drink, it hit hard, "Wow … and I'll have another one of these."

"He didn't really say … just said it was important business, and that it could lead to a Civil war in Dan'jas."

As Lament sat by another patron entered the bar, who slumped into the seat two or so seats to his left. Lament of course paid no attention to this new body as he was really just happy to be where he could relax for a moment. As he sat there he thought over the note of paper that sat in front of him. Did he really want to be caught up in another war? The last one had cost him more than he'd hoped for.

As he sat there he could barely hear it but he could tell the other person that sat just a seat or two from his left was there for the same reason he was, it was the only reason anyone would really talk to the bartender for that long. As he finished his drink he let out a heavy sigh tossing the scrap of paper to the table …

"Now that I think about it…" Lament said standing up, "This job doesn't sound all that promising, think I'll check Katina."

The blue vixen seated two seats to his left was stricken by the voice she'd just heard., Krystal had only caught a small glimpse of the side of his face for a moment, but that didn't stop her mind from screaming at her to stop him…

"Kya! Who was that guy?!" She quickly shouted standing up.

"I dunno he never left his name … I don't really get names too often." The bird replied, "I mean he was cute and all but--"

"That's not what I mean!" Krystal half yelled leaping from her seat and rushing out the door, her motions causing her to wince in pain.

Krystal made it outside just in time to watch the fox she'd seen disappear into a large crowd, she tried her hardest to find him with her telepathy…but, there were just too many animals. She thought she'd found him several times but, unfortunately nothing. As she headed back toward Katt's apartment with the things on her friend's list, something bumped into her shoulder. "Hey! Watch it!" A familiar voice warned her.

Again she was stunned by the voice as Lament refused to acknowledge the person he'd run into keeping his eyes on his destination far off on the other end of the city, where he needed to get to his ship. For a moment Krystal's mind told her that she was simply hearing things … ghosts. That's all they were…as she turned to find who had stumbled into her only to see an empty alleyway. Her mind was giving out, it was the only explanation to what she'd heard and seen. She didn't even hear Katt's voice as she entered the apartment again, she simply lay down the things she'd picked up and headed toward the sofa where she sat down …

"Krys?" The feline asked leaning over the vixen's shoulder, "Hey, what's wrong?"

Krystal thought over everything that had just happened, "I think I'm loosing my mind."