Trigger Warning: Description of physical abuse. Please do not read past the third page break if descriptions of physical abuse could potentially upset you. You can skip this section without missing a detrimental amount of the story.
StarFox: A Vixen's Departure
Chapter 4: An Altercation
Location: Sargasso Space Station
Time: 1200 hours
"The Wolfen is equipped with more gravity blades than the Arwing or CloudRunner, so you'll have less trouble piloting when entering the atmosphere or flying in close-range of an orbit."
Krystal listens intently as Panther describes the key structural differences between her new Wolfen and the ships that she is used to piloting. She had come down to the hangar bay in the morning and found a ship other than the CloudRunner awaiting her. The Wolfen was larger and sleeker than anything she had piloted before with its crimson and silver exterior. As Krystal had walked around it, running a hand over the smooth metal body, she had noticed the glint of the lights off the surface. It'd been freshly waxed. The ship was literally brand new. She'd wondered if she was the first person to touch it since it'd come away from the manufacturers.
"Of course, Sargasso doesn't have an orbit. The thrusters below us keep the station static, so you won't need to rely on the blades for much of anything." Panther explains as he perches on the wing, looking in on Krystal as she adjusts to the cockpit.
The inside of the Wolfen has a dark interior. The seat is black leather, the floor covered in black carpeting, and the control panel is littered with a variety of different gauges, buttons, and switches, all outlined in black. Everything about it screams luxury.
"It's nice," Krystal says as she runs a hand over the dashboard in front of her. She tenses as Panther drops into the extra seat behind her.
"Of course," he purrs into her ear. "Nothing but the finest for the heroes of Lylat. Wolf made sure of that when he invested in a new design for the Wolfens." His every word drips with the smugness of his self-centered ego. "The Arwing used to be the most powerful craft in Lylat, but these ships outrank it by far."
Krystal flattens her ears at his mention of the Arwing. It is a poorly concealed jab at StarFox, and while Krystal loathed the vulpine who acted as their leader, she still had the deepest respect for the other pilots. She hurries to change the subject.
"Do all the wings have ailerons?"
"Yes." Panther leans forward and points to a series of switches to her left. "You have to be careful with these. You have more power, and so you're going to turn faster and sharper than you're used to. You're going to roll harder, as well, so don't put yourself into a spin that you can't handle the force of. Passing out in the middle of space is just as bad as passing out in the atmosphere of some planet. Except, here, you'll hit the station or an asteroid before anyone can revive you."
"Lovely". Krystal imagines that Wolf would shoot her down himself before he let her damage Sargasso by flying an aircraft into it.
The next few hours see her and Panther going over the different instruments and controls. Although she comes to find that the layout of the control panel is vastly different from that of the Arwing of her own CloudRunner, seeing everything in front of her, seeing that it is material and able to be mastered makes the idea of learning it less daunting. Still, she knows that she is going to have to hunker down and study if she is going to have the ship mastered by the end of the week.
She is just beginning to study the flight manual laid out in her lap when she feels the ghost of Panther's fingertip drawing soft circles into the fur of her shoulder.
"What is it?" she asks as she turns in her chair, deliberately removing herself from his touch.
He has the same hungry look in his eyes that he did yesterday in the market. "I think we've done enough work for today. You don't want to burn yourself out. We could grab a bite to eat, and then, maybe something else?"
She ignores the vagueness of his question, and instead says, "Food sounds delicious."
Panther doesn't seem satisfied. "I could cook us something if you wanted to come back to my room."
But, I don't want to.
Krystal bites her tongue before the words can slip out of her mouth. As tired as she is of combating Panther's numerous advances on her, she doesn't want to risk upsetting him. He is the only one who can help her prepare for her alleged initiation.
She forces a smile onto her maw. "I was thinking of getting something from the market. They're always making something exciting," she says as innocently as she can.
"Sure." Panther says. His hopeful expression falters, but he follows her willingly out of the cockpit.
The market is not as crowded as before, but Krystal and Panther still have to weave their way through countless animals to find a stall that is selling food. Krystal works her way toward a vendor who is waving something intriguing on a stick, but Panther takes one look at it and sneers.
"I could use a first class meal," he says, "not this unsavory street food. I'm used to dining in the finest restaurants on Corneria. Even my favorite cafe that was totaled in the Aparoid Invasion reopened, and now they treat me like royalty. Surely we can find something better than this."
Krystal shakes her head, but steers away from the food, anyway. Before Panther gets any ideas, she says, "It's much too late to head to the ground for a meal, and we'd have to go through the trouble of telling Ruffian to tell Wolf that we're leaving. It's just more convenient to get something here." She continues to look around, and even pulls Panther further into the marketplace to find something better suited to his taste. They are struggling through a heavily crowded area when she happens to look to her right, and exclaims, "Pukpuk eggs!"
"What?" Panther eyes her discovery with uncertainty.
She pulls the unwilling feline over to a stall that is headed by a Sharpclaw. She has never seen one of the muscled reptiles so far from Sauria before. Asking for permission in Saurian, Krystal picks up one of the eggs to show to Panther, who regards it as if it were something debased.
"Oh, please, Panther," she says as she notes his hesitation, "They're delicious, and good for you. They come from Sauria, the planet I told you about. They're a delicacy. You must try one."
He looks at her with his ears flattened to either side, obviously trying to decide what to do. When he speaks, his voice is dripping with distrust. "You're certain we can't just have a nice filet? Some wine, maybe? A dessert?"
She shakes her head. "Come on. You'll love it once you've tried it." She turns to the Sharpclaw and asks for two of the eggs. However, when she asks how much it'll cost, he shakes his head and tells her in a heavy accent, "No, no, no, no. For you, free! I remember the purple vixen. She comes to free us from evil Scales. For you, free! As many as you like! Free!"
Krystal smiles and thanks him, before turning to Panther with her widest grin, as if to say, Look! It's a bargain. Who needs your dumb first-class food?
Panther merely huffs in discontent. It is half-hearted, however, and when they find a place to sit, he digs into the Pukpuk egg with more certainty than before.
She watches him take his first few bites. "It's good, isn't it?"
"It's decent, I guess." He concedes.
She stifles a victorious giggle and turns her head to watch the crowds of the market. It is only a few minutes later that her eyes fall on the small group of animals gathered around a ragged looking rodent standing on a crate. He is speaking and gesturing wildly to the crowd. She watches as a few of the animals below him nod in agreement. However, most of the bystanders stay silent, while some seem to be listening only in passing. Some have nervous looks on their faces, as if what the rodent is preaching is something blasphemous or forbidden.
She watches them a little longer before her curiosity grows too much for her to contain. "Panther," she asks, "what's going on over there?" She raises her hand to point at the small gathering of animals, which has now grown to a decent size, but the feline catches her arm before she can fully extend it.
"It's nothing," he says, rather too quickly.
"It's not nothing. What is it?"
Panther gives her a look that clearly translates to, Shut up about it.
She won't be satisfied, though. She lays down the remains of her Pukpuk egg, and starts to rise out of her chair.
Panther makes a discontent, almost pleading, noise in the back of his throat.
"Krystal! Sit back down," he hisses. He grabs her hand before she can rise any further and clings to her, preventing her from investigating the matter on her own. When the vixen struggles, his grasp on her tightens.
"Let go!"
"Sit back down, now."
"Panther, seriously. What is your problem?"
He nearly pulls her over the table as he struggles to get her to regain her seat.
Krystal quickly realizes that she will not win the tug of war between them, and so she resorts to other measures. She fixes the black feline with a hard gaze, her eyes narrowed. "Tell me what's going on and I'll sit down, yeah?"
"Fine!" He whispers heatedly. "Come with me."
Finally allowing her to rise, but keeping a firm grip on her arm, he steers them far enough away from the crowd that they can remain inconspicuous to its participants and still hear the rodent's voice as it carries across the marketplace. Whatever he is touting, he is unashamed of it.
Panther leans down and hisses into her ear, "Don't draw attention to yourself. You'll only make things worse."
"Make what worse?" She questions angrily.
The rodent pays not attention to them as he continues speaking to his audience. His beady eyes search the faces below as he bellows, "This so called Lord O'Donnell is a scoundrel! He capitalizes off Andross's rebellions, and helps the great Andross's enemies stomp out what's left of the resistance. He pretends to be a hardened criminal, but we all know Corneria has him in his pocket. He's a traitor to our kind. He needs to be removed, permanently!"
"What?" Krystal whispers incredulously to herself.
"Just yesterday," the rodent continues, "the great and respected Urso was arrested for smuggling war machines to the remainder of Andrew Oikonny's resistance. Urso was a famous smuggler in these parts. He had a reputation, a lucrative business. He was careful, too! But, someone tipped the Cornerian forces off to his whereabouts."
At this proclamation, the crowd stirs angrily with scattered shouts of outrage.
"Who could it have been, but that cur O'Donnell? The one who dares to call himself Lord, and yet turns on his own kind so easily!"
"How do you know?" A voice from somewhere shouts at the speaker. "How do you know it was Lord O'Donnell?"
"How do I know?" The rodent says, as if the inquirer has just offered him a challenge. "Urso was here at Sargasso just days before the Cornerian forces ambushed him out of nowhere on an anonymous tip. A tip that led to his exact location. Who could've known where he was, what his cargo was, where he was headed to except the two-faced mongrel who runs this joint! He would've known! He would've recognized Urso. His guards would have been able to access Urso's ship, his flight records, his logs while Urso was lodging here.
"Wolf O'Donnell is a stain on this system that must be removed! Look what he's done in the past few years. He thwarted Andross's last great rebellion when he razed the Anglarian Empire with none other than the so-called "Princess of Lylat" by his side. Yes! He allows such a defector into his ranks. Fox McCloud's vixen! A foreign bitch who knows no loyalties."
Krystal opens her mouth to shout out, but Panther is already dragging her away. The jeers and taunts from the speaker and his crowd fade away.
When they have cleared the marketplace and Panther releases her, she turns on him. "Someone should say something! We should tell Wolf. That animal is dangerous. He's turning people against him."
Panther merely shakes his head, unmoved by Krystal's indignation.
"What?" She huffs. She was clearly missing something.
"Wolf is already aware that half the station hates his guts for choosing Corneria's side in the war," he explains. "But, it doesn't matter-"
"It does too matter!"
"-it doesn't matter because no one has the nerve or the power to challenge him, and no one will if he's backed by Corneria. Trust me, this is Wolf's territory. No one's stupid enough to challenge him on his turf." Panther grips her arm again before she can say anything. "And don't go getting yourself into trouble by trying to defend his honor or some bullshit like that. They'll tear you apart. Like I said, you'll only make things worse."
Krystal is still quivering in anger, but she compels herself to remain compliant. "Fine," she says, mainly to satisfy Panther so he will release his vice grip on her upper arm.
"Training again tomorrow morning," he tells her before she can escape.
"Yes, fine."
The next few days follow the same routine as the first. Krystal meets Panther for training in the morning, and they spend hours going through the different controls of the Wolfen. Panther quizzes her on the different instruments, and finds that she is rapidly improving, and seems to be mastering the new ship relatively quickly.
While Krystal is overjoyed that she is showing great aptitude, her success means that Panther keeps trying to reward her with different displays of affection each time she gets something right. He caresses her shoulders, her cheeks, her hair. He squeezes her thigh and kisses her cheeks, and all the while Krystal does what she can to avoid his increasingly bold advances without upsetting him.
It is only Wednesday when he finally snaps.
She has docked from a mock dogfight with some drones, which she has successfully, though arduously, shot down. She knows that she is going to have to be quicker in order to satisfy Wolf on Friday, but Panther is more than elated with her performance. As she jumps down from her cockpit, he overwhelms her in a bear hug that is so intense that it lifts her off the ground. When he puts her down, he kisses her.
Krystal seizes in surprise before coming to her senses and pushing him away. "Panther!" she exclaims.
"What's wrong, my darling space rose?" He reaches for her waist.
She steps back, and everything that she had held in all week pours from her mouth, "I'm tired of this. I don't like you like that! Please, just stop. I don't want you to kiss me. I don't want you to touch me, please!"
Panther frowns at her, obviously hurt. "I don't understand. You haven't said anything all week. I thought you liked it."
"No!" She says. "I thought you could tell."
"Then, why did you ask me to help you train?"
"Because you're the only one that would! Wolf is too busy, and I didn't know if he would agree to help me, and Leon definitely wouldn't. You were my last option, and Wolf suggested that-" She can see that Panther is still frustrated because his expression hasn't changed.
"I'm sorry," she offers, though it doesn't come out as generous as she'd hoped for.
Panther's frown softens just a bit, though his ears are still pinned against his head. He says, "Can I at least walk you back to your room?"
Krystal opens her mouth to object, but she feels as though she has truly hurt him. "Sure. Fine."
The pair walk together in silence. Panther looks straight ahead, while Krystal stares at the floor. She sneaks glances up at him every once in a while. His expression doesn't change for much of the duration of their journey. They have only just reached the third floor when Krystal looks up at him and says, "Panther, I'm sorry. I thought you could tell that I didn't like it, and-"
"You used me," He says. His voice is deep, and threatening.
"No," she says. "I didn't meant to. It's just a misunderstanding."
She barely gets the words out before he seizes her by the shoulders and slams her into the wall. Hard. She crumples to the ground, numb with surprise and adrenaline.
"You used me!" Panther cries out. He backhands her, sending her crashing to the floor on her side. Before she can recover, he picks her up again, shaking her violently, "I got you your spot on the team! I made sure Wolf took you in."
Krystal beats futilely against the feline's grasp. "Stop!"
He slams her against the wall, again, driving the air from her lungs. "I helped you learn the controls to the ship so you wouldn't get kicked out!"
He throws her to the ground, and she feels the back of her head bounce against the metal floor. Her ears are ringing, drowning out the frantic beating of her heart.
"No one uses Panther! No one!"
She tries to fight him, but her limbs won't move fast enough. He grasps her arms. She squirms as his weight settles onto her hips.
He leans down and suddenly smiles cruelly at her. "I think I like you better on your back."
Author's Note: A bit of a longer chapter, but hopefully satisfactory. I know absolutely nothing when it comes to planes or flying, so please excuse my blunders if I got anything wrong. I also know next to nothing about space or how a fighter-jet-like aircraft, or any aircraft for that matter, would behave under those conditions. But, StarFox is fictional, so I did a little research about planes, and then made stuff up. As I said in my note for the previous chapter, Ch.5 is going to be delayed, so please enjoy this frustrating cliffhanger.