Chapter 3: Invitation

"Jade?" Krystal squeaked

"Krystal, I can't believe it's you!"

Krystal's head was spinning, this was impossible. Ceneria had blown up; she had seen it herself. And yet, here Jade was alive and well; he was just as she remembered him. Her heart beat faster in amazement; than she could feel it tear apart in her chest. On the one hand, it was like a dream come true to find another one of her kind, another Cenarian. But than if it was true, it would mean that eventually she'd have to tell the rest of the team about her heritage, something she was thoroughly dreading. Her resolve was to first find out how Jade had survived.

"Jade, how'd you survive? Cenaria blew up, I saw the explosion! What happened?" Krystal cried

The male Cenarian grinned, "Cenaria didn't blow up."

"What! Than what happened?"

"It was pushed." he stated simply. "You are right in thinking you saw an explosion, you did. What happened was after your ship was launched, the Rainbow Guard launched a craft to follow you when you made the journey to Cauria. After launching though, the ship malfunctioned and exploded. Because the Guardsmen ship was fueled by Cenarian power stones, the explosion was massive, causing the force to be strong enough to move Ceneria to where it is today."

"You mean to tell me that all this time when I thought I was the sole survivor and the only Cenarian alive, everyone else, all of our friends and family were still actually alive?" Krystal slowly whispered. She could feel her voice starting to crack and tears threatened to turn her cerulean eyes into lakes that would support a roaring waterfall of emotions let loose.

Fox wasn't a telepath of any kind, nor did he have psychic abilities. Still, he could sense her distraught and without hesitating, he put his arms around her and drew her into a consoling embrace. A minute or two passed before he even realized what he was doing. He looked down startled to find that he had brought her so close, and even more surprised that she was not making any effort to release herself from his grasp. Blushing, he loosened his hold on her, but not without regrets did he let go of her all together. He turned to the green fox angrily.

'How dare he upset her like this?' he thought to himself. Out loud, his only response was to question his honesty.

"How do we know for sure that what you are saying is the truth? Why should we trust you?" Fox asked

Krystal snapped out of her day dreamish state at Fox's words, reassuring him that Jade was if not telling the truth, at least a Cenarian. Right then though, she didn't care whether Jade was being truthful or not; she was still in too much of a shock to care. First, she meets Jade again in what had to be at least eight years, maybe more, and secondly, Fox had hugged her! He had cared enough to show emotion in front of the rest of the team. Sure he had shown care in front of Peppy before; he was like a second father to Fox though. Rarely did he show care in front of Slippy, and he never showed that he cared in front of Falco or strangers, yet he had just hugged her in front of Jade! While Jade was no stranger to Krystal, Fox didn't even know the green Cenarian at all. This filled her with hope and despair; hope that he liked her and despair that even if he liked her now, after a few Cenarian history lessons, those feelings would be non-existent.

'Enjoy his love however small it may be while you can.' Krystal advised herself

"Well than, if everything is alright between parties, I say that we all land and get to know each other a bit more." Jade suggested. Unaware that the crew of Star Fox knew nothing about Krystal's heritage he made another suggestion,

"I'm sure Krystal will want to have you stay for a bit. Why, you're just in luck, too. You're just in time for Carinosiva! The festivities begin tomorrow!" Jade claimed excitedly.

"Cari-what?" Falco asked

Jade looked confused, "Krystal, you did tell them about Cenaria, right?"

"Yes, but not that much." she admitted.

"Well than all the more reason to spend the next week or so here." Jade said. "I'll meet you down on the planet."

The link broke and Krystal watched Jade's ship show them the way. All she could think about was how much the team would hate her after a week was over.