A/N: Well, I'm trying to write more now, but I'm also writing another story at the same time so I'm not sure how fast I'll be working on this. Hopefully I'll just keep plugging away until it's done. Enjoy.

Blaze rushed through the halls toward the bridge. Krystal was lying limp in his arms and the weight was slowing him down. Fox turned as Blaze burst through the bridge doors. Blaze placed Krystal gently on the floor and Fox ran over to her, and knelt beside her. "What happened?" Fox asked, his voice clearly communicating his fear.

Blaze maintained a calm but urgent tone. "I'll explain later, right now she's unconscious and might die if she doesn't get medical attention immediately."

R.O.B walked over to Krystal and placed a cold metallic hand on her arm. Fox and Blaze watched as if in a trance as R.O.B pulled out a syringe and without hesitation injected Krystal with the unknown liquid. "I have injected her with an adrenaline boost that should get her heart going at normal speed again. She seems to have no other medical conditions. She is in a stable condition but I have nothing to do for her unconsciousness."

Fox looked down at Krystal and stared; he couldn't help but wonder what might happen. It was as if there was someone else controlling his mind that had some perverse joy in making him think about the worst possible scenario.

Blaze walked away from Krystal and let himself collapse into a nearby chair. After a few moments Fox looked up at Blaze and asked again, "What happened?"

Blaze sighed and stared into space, avoiding Fox's eyes. "I really don't know how to explain this simply but I think there may be someone else inside Krystal's mind."

Fox looked up at Blaze with obvious disbelief. "There's no way that's true that's not even possible!"

"I bet that's exactly what you thought about telepathy, before you met Krystal."

Fox sighed and turned away.

"I thought so. Anyway the way it seems is that Krystal is fighting this other entity inside her mind. If she loses the other presence will be able to take control, or partial control."

Fox shook his head. "I don't understand how can you know this?"

"Well after Krystal called me down here, she ran into me in the hallway, when she bumped into me I got a small glimpse of what was going on inside her head. It was complete chaos, so of course I was worried. I followed after her and she attacked me. She was about to kill me too, but then she threw away her staff and fell unconscious. I know about stuff like this happening before. It happens when someone has a mental connection with someone else and the connection is broken… incorrectly."

Fox tilted his head, curious. "What exactly do you mean incorrectly?"

Blaze scratched his head thoughtfully. "Well the only way I've ever heard of it being done is when someone dies while the connection is still active. The body dies and there soul takes refuge in the other persons mind."

Fox gaped widely at Blaze, what he was thinking was so out there he couldn't accept it; and Fox could only think of one incident that Blaze could be referring to.

R.O.B suddenly interrupted their conversation. "Incoming fighter's, three ships all wolfens."

Fox cursed Wolf's timing. "R.O.B send them a line, I'm going to need to talk my way through this."

Wolf, Panther, and Leon appeared on the screen in front of him. Wolf smirked at Fox. "Been a while eh Fox?" Fox didn't respond. "I think you know why we're here, I was wondering if Team Starfox could come out and play."

Wolf's wing mates chuckled at their leaders teasing. Fox crossed his arms and looked at Wolf as if he was just a small burden. "So, how much are they paying you Wolf?"

Wolf scowled at Fox. "What's it to you Pup? There's no way you could even get close to matching the kind of money you're head is worth."

Fox pulled an idea from thin air and decided to run with it. "Oh no I wasn't even thinking that I was just wondering how much it cost you to give away you're life."

Wolf laughed. "Are you kidding me, are you making threats? You're in no position to be threatening me; I know that half your team is gone. What do you think you're gonna be able to drop us all by yourself?"

Fox smirked. "No I don't think I could, but I think it's in your best interest as well if you don't take me in. You see I have an informant on the inside that says once you bring me in you will have outlived your usefulness, making you more of a threat then a beneficiary. The new government doesn't have complete control over you and that scares them, once you bring me in they plan on killing you as well, killing two birds with one stone."

Wolf glared at Fox. Fox stood there stoic, with his arms crossed staring right back at Wolf. Wolf finally looked away and spoke quietly to his wing mates. "Let's go I've got to think this over for awhile."

Wolf and Leon disappeared from the screen but Panther remained. He winked at Fox. "When next you see Krystal tell her she has Panther's love." With that the last Starwolf member disappeared from the screen. Outside the GreatFox the three wolfens sped away leaving an uneasy silence on the bridge.

Blaze swallowed hard and spoke to Fox who was still staring at the screen. "I already don't like them; I don't need to telepathic to know how much you hate them."

Fox sighed. "Team Starwolf, mercenaries just like us, but they're also Starfox's bitter rivals. They seem to always be on the opposite side of our objectives; Speaking of which I need to tell you what happened before Krystal ran off the bridge. Corneria, the planet we've always worked for just went under a change of power. The new leader sees our team as a threat to his government. I inferred that that's who they were working for, and seeing how that conversation went I must have been right."

Blaze smiled. "You made all that stuff about the government wanting them dead up, didn't you?"

Fox smiled as well. "Well not all of it, I do have an informant inside their government, but he never told me any of that. I'm just lucky that Wolf isn't too bright, otherwise he would have done his research before coming to us."

Blaze nodded. "So how are we going to get Slippy out of danger?"

Fox rolled his eyes. "Well jeez why don't you just read my mind to find out, you've been doing it enough already. Anyway what I'm planning to do is get Falco and hopefully a few other rebellious pilots to join up to take out the government."

Blaze smiled. "So that guy had good reason to be afraid of you. Needless to say I'm helping out, it's not like I could be doing anything else. Any problem of yours is a problem of mine."

Fox sighed. "I'm sorry that I had to bring you into this."

Blaze shrugged his shoulders. "You've got to remember that when I came into this dimension I was expecting it to be ruled by Andross, seeing how you already took care of that for me the least I could do is help you out with this. Besides you also said you would help me try to save the others from the other dimension; that means a lot to me."

Fox put a hand on Blaze's shoulder. "Well then make sure that I get you some flying lessons. I'm glad to call someone as courageous as you my ally. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to bring Krystal to the infirmary. I won't be long." Fox lifted Krystal up into his arms and walked to the bridge doors, making sure to be as careful as possible with his precious cargo.

Blaze looked back to the front of the bridge and then started to stare off into space. His mind began to wander back to an old memory of when he was a young child.

His Mother stood over him and looked down at him severely. "Blaze what have I told you about going into the labs?"

Blaze was about eight years old at the time of the memory. The young Cerinian cast his eyes downward, trying to look interested in a piece of dirt clinging to his sandal. Cerinians wore sandals year round, since the average temperature was much higher than on Corneria. "I'm sorry Ma but I just really want to see what's going on in there. The stuff you guys bring out is just so cool."

The mother smiled, she couldn't be angry at the curious child for long. "Would you like to see what it is we were making?"

Blaze's eyes lit up. "Of course I do!"

Blaze's mother reached into a pouch on her hip and pulled out a beautiful golden necklace. The necklace was made of short golden strips so that it would bend and in the front of it was a deep blue gem surrounded by golden casing. Blaze stared at the necklace in wonder. "What does it do?"

His Mother let out a short chuckle. "To be honest I have no idea. It just came to me in a dream that I should make this. It also happens that in my dream I gave this to you, so here you go. Although I don't know what it does, the least it will do is be a good luck charm for you."

Blaze took the necklace and immediately put it on. His mother nodded approvingly. Blaze wondered if he had ever smiled so hard in his entire life.

Blaze shook himself from his memory and pulled the same necklace from his pants pocket. He looked into the strange blue gem and wondered of its significance, other than reminding him of his mother. He kissed the gem for good luck and put the necklace around his neck, clasping it at the back.

R.O.B broke Blaze's reverent silence with a string of facts. "Falco's arwing is no longer located on Fortuna; it is now on route to the GreatFox. It is now within communication range, and will be in direct contact in approximately 15 minutes. I am receiving a communications link."

Blaze looked around to see if Fox had come back without him noticing. Seeing no one but himself on the bridge he decided to reply. "Err… send it through." Blaze said in more of a question than a statement.

Falco appeared on the screen in front of him. "Yo Fo- wait, who the hell are you?!"

Blaze really didn't want to get into the details. "I'm a friend of Fox and Krystal's."

Falco shrugged. "Alright whatever, whenever you see Fox next tell him I'm coming and for him to give me a ring."

Just as Falco was about to end the conversation, Fox walked through the door and onto the bridge. Fox was very surprised to see Falco on the screen right as he walked in. "Whoa hey Falco you've come at a really great time."

Falco sighed. "I'm guessing you heard about what happened on Corneria then."

Fox nodded. "Not only that, but Krystal's also out of it and Starwolf may be hunting after us."

Falco groaned. "Okay well I've got some bad news for you too buddy, just before all that crap on Corneria went down, Katt decided to fly there. I'm guessing you know that Slippy is there as well. Oh yeah but I do have some good news, there is an outpost of people that oppose the new government stationed on Katina, and you're gonna love this, the leader of that group is Bill Grey."

Fox smiled. "Well that is great but I'm afraid team Starfox may not hold much sway when we only have two able bodied pilots to work with."

Falco smirked. "When those pilots are you and me, I think we'll be good. By the way care to tell me the story of the Krystal gender-bender over there?"

Fox sighed. "It's long and complicated. How about you just wait till you get on board to hear this, I'm not sure if you'll believe me anyway."

Falco shrugged "Alright then I'll see ya soon." Falco's image disappeared from the screen.

Blaze looked at Fox with a very serious look on his face. "What is a gender-bender?"

Fox couldn't help but smile. "Don't worry about it, it's no big deal."

A/N: lol gender-bender. That chapter was faster than a lot of my others recently, although I really wish it wasn't taking me so long to get to some hardcore action. And totally off topic, if you know any good metal bands that aren't too well known please tell me I need some new stuff to listen to. Check out my profile to see the kind of bands I like for reference. Hoping this story will go to 20 chapters. Although at this rate I would never finish that. SUMMER HERE I COME!!