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Disclaimer: Star Fox belongs to Nintendo, not me. All characters taken from the games belong to them, while original characters are my own creations. The story itself is mine as well, but it takes place in a universe that I do not own. That, my friends, is why it is called fanfiction.
5 months after Command
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Krystal and Fox both stood at opposite ends of the island in the center of their home's kitchen area. They could hear baby Marcus in the living room, sitting in front of his blocks and bouncing up and down happily. He existed in his own little world, a world of nothing but the noises he found that he could make with his mouth, the blocks with the colorful shapes on them, and the moving picture on the big box in front of him. A small kitten was spinning in circles on the TV as an upbeat melody played in the background, one that was very inviting to the cub. He pushed himself up onto his legs and started to wobble back and forth before collapsing onto his rear. He stood again, determined, his arms stretched to the sides for balance. For a second, he remained upright, and it amazed him. He fell again a mere second later, but the amazement never left him.
The adult foxes stared into each other's eyes, unblinking and unmoving. Finally, Krystal shifted, which is when Fox started to argue again.
"Krystal, just answer the question, why are you so uptight? It's not even a hard one, but you're dodging all around it and making me think something's going on!" he shouted, the vixen crossing her arms and breaking their eye contact. She felt his aura explode with anger inside of him, and heard the thoughts running through his mind that would normally just be the result of paranoia. The thoughts were more than that now, though, and had been since that day she had spent in the park with Marcus, the day she saw him again.
"Nothing is going on, Fox, I don't know why you've become so apprehensive lately! Did it ever occur to you that it might not have been me that changed? I did notice a change in your brainwaves," she lied.
"Cut the telepath bullshit, Krys, I want to know who it is!" Fox screamed at her, the bottled up feelings deep in his heart boiling over violently. Everything seemed to move in slow motion for a moment after that. Krystal put her hand over her mouth, mortified that he had used a curse word with her. He could see her eyes becoming teary, and the guilt hit him like a swift punch to the gut. Marcus had even stopped his walking attempts to look over at them, though he could not understand the words they said. He only knew two: Mama and Dada. Right now, Mama and Dada didn't feel good to think about. He looked back at the kitten on TV.
"Fox…" Krystal trailed off, her angry eyes watering and spilling onto her blue fur, the streams darkening their path along her cheeks. Fox stood aghast at what he had just said, but it was what he truly felt. Though he tried and tried again to think of something else that might have happened, some other reason she would be hiding something from him, he could think of nothing else. He wanted to take back his angry outburst, but he knew that he had just ripped what was left of their relationship in two, and it would take much more than an apology to sew together the remaining threads.
"No, Krys, I'm-"
"It's okay, Fox. It's fine. I'm…I'm going to go for a drive. Just…please, just forgive me…"
She turned and rushed for the door, narrowly beating Fox. It slammed shut behind her, making Marcus look up at his dad, who stood on the wrong side of the door. He let his forehead fall forward and sit against the wood for a moment, absorbing everything that had just happened. It was too much, but he wouldn't let himself cry. He couldn't. He had to be strong, for both of them. He rubbed his red eyes and turned around, seeing Marcus on the floor. The baby looked up at him confusedly, his head cocked to the side.
"Mama?" he said, and Fox shed a single tear.
"Mama will be home soon, buddy. She'll be home," Fox said, kneeling down in front of Marcus and lifting the boy up. He took him over to the rocking chair and sat down.
"She'll be home, buddy," he said again, sniffling. They sat there in silence, the daylight fading around them, as the kitten danced on TV.
Krystal opened the door of the family SUV and climbed into the driver's seat, fumbling in her purse for the keys. She found them and stabbed at the ignition for the small hole, frustrating herself even further. She couldn't look at it; she couldn't look at anything that even remotely showed her reflection. Her red, puffy eyes were visible in her rearview mirror, which she turned away. When the key finally went in, she turned it and started the car. As both hands touched the steering wheel, she slammed her forehead into them.
No…no…he's always been there, always faithful, always perfect…why am I so stupid? Why am I so stupid?
The phrase looped in her head as her tears began to pour harder, but all she could do was sit and cry. Why had he come back? Why had he just shown up in her life again? Marcus had brought her and Fox together again, and they were happy, so happy…but that stupid cat had to come back, had to run into her, had to start talking to her. She cursed herself in between her looping thoughts for giving in, for falling in her moment of weakness.
And I didn't even tell him, didn't even think to tell him. Why am I so stupid? Fox is more deserving; I'm not worth his love. I'm just a dirty whore, a fly on his windshield, holding him down, making him love me, oh, why am I so stupid?
By the time she stopped crying long enough to look outside the car, night had fallen. She could not go back into the house, though. She felt too dirty to go back into the house. Her eyes fell on the glove box. A memory played in her head.
"He's very handsome. Surely his looks come from you, Krys," Panther purred, tracing one of his claws along the boy's forehead. Marcus enjoyed the feeling, enjoyed having someone other than his parents focus on him. Krystal looked up at Panther and felt all of her old feelings flicker to life inside of her, that flame between them rekindled. She smiled and Panther's heart melted.
"Thank you, Panther. He's the spitting image of Fox, everyone says, with my fur," she said, remembering that she was still in love, that whatever had come up between her and Panther could not be.
"And you and Fox are happy being together," Panther said, more of a statement than a question. Krystal nodded.
"I'm happy if you're happy," he said, looking up at the clock tower in the middle of the park. The digital readout said that it was almost noon.
"Oh, dear. I've got an interview at one with Corneria News, about Star Wolf's role with the Anglars. It's been a couple of months since General Hare had our bounties removed. Forgive me for not visiting sooner, it took me a while to get used to what freedom feels like," Panther told her, standing up. Krystal picked up Marcus and did the same.
"I should be going, too. It was good to see you, Panther," she said, a hint of longing in her voice. He stared deeply into her eyes and she felt it all again, felt her love for him burning. Before she knew it, she was leaning in, locking lips with the slightly taller feline. He returned her affection in the same way, for but a split-second, leaving her wanting more. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small card.
"If you ever want to see me again," he said, writing his number down on the card and handing it to her. She took it and looked up at him.
"Goodbye, Krystal," he said, and he walked away. The drive home had her feeling anxious. What if Fox could see it on her face? What if she smelled like him? What if he found a black hair on her? Had Marcus seen? Did he understand? What was happening to her? She took the number and shoved it deep into the glove box, where Fox would never bother to look.
She was torn. She had nowhere else to go. She pushed the button on the front and dug for the number, pulling out of the driveway when she grabbed the card. As she drove, she dialed Panther.
"Hello?" she heard after the third ring. It was him.
"Panther?" she asked, and he responded with a yes.
"Panther, I don't know what to do. I…I need someone to talk to. Please," she begged.
Fox picked up the wireless receiver at the house. Marcus wouldn't stop saying it, wouldn't stop asking for Mama. Fox tried to choke back the flow, but Marcus' baby talk was pushing him closer and closer to his limits. He dialed the only number he could think of that wasn't Krystal's.
"Hello?" he heard on the other end.
"Falco? Hey, it's Fox," he said, wiping his nose with his arm.
"Fox? Is that you? Are you crying?" the bird asked, but Fox only nodded.
"Falco, can you put Katt on the line? I need to talk to her," he asked. Falco looked across his living room to the dark-furred cat, who saw him look at her and gave him a questioning glance.
"It's for you," he said. Katt didn't live with Falco, so she found it odd that she was receiving a call while at his house. She eyed the phone suspiciously and put the receiver to her ear. "This is Katt,"
"Katt? Please, I need to ask you a question," Fox said. Marcus fell onto his side and started to sleep.
"Fox? Are you okay?"
He had to think about it. Was he okay? Was he blowing it all out of proportion? No, he had considered all of this earlier.
"Katt, have you ever cheated on someone?" he asked. She got a shocked look on her face and looked up at Falco, who could not hear the other end of the conversation. The answer was yes, she had, but she didn't want to say it. She still felt filthy about it, though she had been forgiven long ago.
"Why do you ask?" she responded. Fox knew that he was about to finally say it, to admit that Krystal had someone else. But he couldn't. He couldn't say it, not to one of Krystal's good friends. He couldn't admit it.
"How do you know someone's been cheating on you? What signs do you see?"
The cat finally realized what he was trying to say.
"No…"
Fox was tired. He needed to take a nap, to wallow in his misery for a little while longer.
"I'm sorry I bothered you, Katt," he said, and he hung up the phone. He sat down on the couch and watched Marcus sleep.
Mama will be home soon, he kept thinking.
A few hours later, a sleek black motorcycle sped down the street the McCloud family called home. Two helmeted figures sat in the seat, the smaller one sitting in back, her arms wrapped around the larger's waist. They slowed to a crawl and pulled up in the McCloud driveway, followed closely by a white SUV. The smaller rider stepped off of the motorcycle, her blue tail brushing the rose painted on the side of the vehicle. She took off her helmet and set it down on Panther's seat.
"Thank you," she said, one of the only things she had been able to say all night. She was now clad in leather, looking much like her black-furred friend. The SUV pulled into the driveway alongside Panther's motorcycle and the headlights turned off. The door swung open and a tall figure stepped out, shutting it behind him. He was just above Fox in height, Krystal noticed, and his dark gray fur looked black in the night, though the difference was obvious when he stood by Panther. Over one eye, he wore a very futuristic-looking eyepatch.
"And thank you, Wolf. You're too kind. I would've never been able to drive it home myself," she said. He smiled.
"It was a pleasure. Nice place you got here," he said, and she looked up at her house. Not once in her entire time living her had she ever appreciated its full glory, not until now. Thinking about the memories it housed almost made her wish…
She pushed the thought out of her mind and sucked in a breath, preparing herself to enter the house after her fight with Fox. She put her hand on the doorknob and turned it slowly, starting to wonder where Fox was. Was he still in the living room, and would he see her come in? Or had he retreated to his bedroom? She hoped for the latter. She pushed the door open, seeing no light shining out at her. The room was pitch black. Fox had gone to sleep upstairs.
She pushed the door back into the frame and started to tiptoe across the carpet, though she made little noise either way. In the dark, it seemed that everything was incredibly loud. Her own breaths were all she could hear, that and her loud steps, and she had to stop breathing if she wanted complete peace. Still, though, the ringing of silence echoed in her large canine ears.
The hallway was just ahead, and her vision was becoming clearer in the pitch dark. She could make out only the white walls around her, not any of the furniture that may have blocked her way. From the hallway, she would turn the corner and find the stairs, and just up the stairs was the room.
The creaking was the loudest noise she had heard all night, and it continued endlessly as she climbed the incline to the second floor. When her covered feet touched the top step, she wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but she feared her breath would wake him.
She opened the door and saw the dim orange glow of Marcus' nightlight, shining on his nearby crib and casting the baby's shadow on the wall. She could see his chest rising and falling and heard him snoring lightly. It was too much. Her tears began to flow again and she walked over to his crib, rubbing his head gently. He woke up and looked up at her, wide-eyed.
"Mama?" he asked, and she nodded, sobbing. She lifted the child out of the crib and held him closely, and he started to play with her hair. She sensed his happiness, and in a way, it made her regret what she was going to do, made her want to give up what she had planned for the night. But, no, she couldn't. It was set in stone.
"Marcus…" she cried, putting his head on her shoulder, "A'cc doloh ro u weet odeiwx mekxoh veh oei,"
He looked up at her quizzically and looked into her reddened eyes, though it was hard to see them in the dim light. He felt something coming from her, some kind of emotion, something he never saw before. He didn't like it. He started to cry.
"No, Marcus, please, no, don't cry, please, don't cry," she begged him, and she stood there for a moment, cradling the child, before she saw a light come on in the hallway. She stopped and stared for a second, putting Marcus down in the crib. She had to leave, and she had to do it now.
She pulled the door open and stepped into the hallway, nearly running into the fully clothed Fox. He stopped and stared disbelievingly, but she could see nothing other than the stairs close by. She tried to push by him and get to them without him saying anything, maybe without him even believing she had really been there.
"Krys!" he said, turning around and grabbing her by the shoulder. She knocked his arm away and kept running, but Fox was faster. He caught her halfway down the stairs and grabbed her arm again.
"Krystal, wait, stop!" he commanded as her twisted her around, causing her to swing violently into the wall and nearly trip.
"Let go of me, Fox!" she yelled, and she heard Marcus start calling for his parents. Fox turned his head to face the baby's bedroom, and then back to facing Krystal. Marcus could wait.
"Krys, just talk to me!" he yelled at her, but she would not. Her eyes started to tear up.
"No, Fox. I can't. I'm sorry," she said. Fox's ears flattened out, and he looked at her as if he had just been slapped.
"I'm sorry, Fox! I can't do this anymore. I'm going back to be with Panther and the rest of Star Wolf,"
The next few moments were filled with silence. Marcus sat up in his crib and crawled over to the rails, putting his hands on them, trying to break them down. He could feel their emotions from where he was, and he knew that something bad was happening. He cried for them more loudly.
"No, Krystal, please," Fox said, now much more quiet. He looked weakened, like he would drop to his knees at any second. No other words came to his mind, just angry thoughts. He had tried so hard to fix things between them, and it had worked so well. The McCloud family was happy. Now, none of them were happy.
"Fox," Krystal said, wiping away her tears. Her voice had suddenly changed, now strong and serious. "If you love me, you'll want what's best for me. And right now, what's best for me is Panther." The coldness in her voice shocked Fox even further into speechlessness. He fell to one knee on the steps and looked into her eyes.
"Krystal," he said, and she turned away.
"Goodbye, Fox,"
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Author Notes: In case you were wondering what Krystal said to Marcus, it was, "I'll never be a good enough mother for you," in Saurian. Got questions or comments? Leave me a review, I accept anonymous comments. I'll be waiting to update this story until I have another chapter up of my other fanfic, The Only Way Out, which should only take me a day or two (it's halfway done). The next chapter will take place 15 months after the end of Command, or 10 months after this chapter.
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