Chapter 9

Kursed

Duty. Honor. Obedience. Those were the words that Adalius lived by. The words that every Venomian soldier lived by. He viewed the third as the most important however. He believed in the power of authority, and he believed that it should be obeyed at all times. He followed his orders, he followed them to the letter, and he never looked back. Or at least not for long.

Some days though Adalius wondered if Andross had really been a genius like he claimed, or if, perhaps, he might have simply been insane. There seemed a fine line between the two. A line so thin that it could easily get lost and forgotten about in a rapid chain of events. Lately Adalius found himself spending his private moments trying to find it again.

The test had been successful, a brilliant example of the power of this new weapon. With a single warhead he annihilated an entire city. Wiped the area so clean it was as if creation never touched it. Those were his orders, wipe Cerinia clean so that it would be like it never existed. He didn't question those orders. Not for long anyway. Andross had clearly considered the Cerinians a threat, and that meant so did Adalius.

But something nagged at him as he sat in his quarters, the glass of brown liquor next to him shaking from the sound of opera, Nightshade's In Service of the Cabal, a story of a conflict fought on a desert planet by a people who knew nothing but conquest and war. The opera centered around the honor to be found on both sides, even as war raged they followed rules, they followed laws set down by their ancestors. They didn't kill innocents. Adalius thought to himself.

The opera itself would have seemed unintelligible to most, written and performed in a little known Macbethan dialect. Few people outside of Macbeth bothered to learn the languages that had formed their since the first colonization some three centuries ago. Very few people bothered to learn anything about Macbeth, few people bothered to wonder what the people there, the people who struggled to eke out a living in the mining and manufacturing industries, really went through. But this dialect, characterized by short, almost abrupt words that could be drawn out for emphasis, was Adalius's first language. His father had taught him, he called it Ha Sa Nya, a warrior's language. To hear it sung by some of the finest performers in Lylat made Adalius feel a bit closer to home, a bit closer to his father, dead for years.

It troubled him though. Reading the initial report written and sent to him by Dr. Carson made him question his orders, something he never did. They'd killed thousands, at least. Scans of the blast area indicated that virtually nothing still existed. A simulated image based on scans of the area showed destruction more complete than even a nuclear device might achieve. And to think this was but a taste of what the final weapon would be. Dr. Carson reported that, eventually, and eventually meant a few weeks at most, she would have perfected a high yield version that would incinerate a hemisphere. One warhead, half a world. Adalius could only think of one type of person who would order the creation of such a weapon, and it happened to be the only type that would ever use it. A madman.

Adalius took a sip of his drink, savoring the burn. Burn. I sit here savoring it, for all those thousands it's the last thing they might have felt. The thought repulsed him. He flung the glass away from him, it hit the wall and shattered. The music increased in tempo, the climax of the movement approached. In the background a chorus began to sing, the Chorus of the Dead. They sang only one word, dragged out to emphasize the pain and anguish behind it, to the untrained ear it sounded like CAHSSSBAAAAAA! Adalius knew the word though, cahsba, meaningless. The dead do not approve of war.

Adalius felt a hand on his shoulder. He didn't jump, he simply looked beside him and saw a she-wolf standing there. Anna, his tactical officer, and his confidant, the only person other than him with a key to his room. They had known each other before coming here, he'd picked her personally for the job. The years spent here in what amounted to a very large group of exiles meant they'd become close, intimate even. "Computer. Pause music." She said. The music stopped. Adalius looked at her, his expression curious. "Talk to me." She told him.

He looked away. "Computer, resume music, one third volume." The music resumed.

Anna sighed and kneeled down next to him, resting her head in his lap. She made the gesture only to comfort him, she had no other intent. "You only listen to this when you're in pain. What's happening?"

Idly he began to stroke between her ears, she whined softly in approval. "I...I wish we didn't have to do what we're doing."
She looked up at him. "Why?"

Adalius tipped his head back, letting it rest against the chair's back. He focused on the music, letting it control him, tell him what he felt. He kept his emotions out of his mind throughout the day, he rarely spared them much attention. He wondered if that habit might be a mistake. "It doesn't matter." He said finally. "We have our orders."

"It doesn't make them right you know." Anna answered softly, barely heard over the music.

Adalius grunted. "Maybe. But I have never disobeyed an order. Not once. I won't disobey one now. Not after spending so much effort."

"Even if you'll hate yourself for the rest of your life?" Anna asked.

He looked down at her. She looked back at him, her gaze knowing. She knew him. She knew him in every way. She knew his thoughts, his feelings, his heart. She knew his lusts, his passions, his pains. She knew his soul. She knew the answer. "Yes. Even then."


One day. That was all the time it took for them to find out. Well, she hadn't really hidden it. When she linked back into the minds of her family there had been no way of hiding it. The guilt and shame she felt were a red flag. The words were not been spoken, but the memories were exchanged. She remembered her father looking at her with a stunned expression. She remembered her mother slapping her. And she remembered her sister crying. Just a little. The fact that she had gained information they needed, information that could help to save their world, tempered their anger only in the slightest. Her actions were unforgivable in the eyes of her people. And, more importantly, Krystal found them unforgivable in her own.

Krystal stood before the council, and she felt small. Very small. Here, along with her father and mother, were all the highest ranking, most honored Cerinians alive. And all of them sat in, for the moment, silent judgement of her. She saw her father, his seat at the center of the semicircle. Her mother sat next to him. Both of them looked at her, eyes filled with resignation. Her actions warranted only one thing. Ancient laws that Krystal knew would be followed to the letter.

The questions began. Everyone in the room seemed to want their say. They wanted to know every detail. They wanted to know why, and Krystal told them. She told them she did it out of anger. Anger at the fact that if she did nothing they would all have sat their arguing until they were incinerated. She did her best to remain calm, but it soon began to wear on her. Did none of them see that she had every reason to do what she did? Did none of them see that she didn't have a choice? Did none of them see that even they didn't have a choice?

Krystal glanced at the clock in the room. Two hours. Two hours of talking. Questioning. Posturing. She glanced at Arethusa, the golden vixen hid it well, but not well enough. She felt delighted. Of course she did. Her greatest rival's daughter had just admitted to committing one of the worst crimes a Cerinian could commit. A violation of the mind. If she played her cards right she could shift the balance of power, use the shame of this action to unseat Jade from his position of dominance. Krystal couldn't care less. Let Arethusa have her victory, it wouldn't be long before she burned in her meticulously groomed golden fur.

The clock struck three hours. Something broke in Krystal then. Arethusa, halfway through a question, stopped dead when Krystal screamed in frustration. "What are you all thinking? What do you think this will accomplish?" She yelled at them. "You sit here questioning me about what I did when you all know exactly what I did. I violated a person's mind. I ripped his memories from him. I tortured him. And I am at least indirectly responsible for his death. I have done something that no Cerinian should ever do. And I hate myself for it!" Tears began to stream down her face. "So go on! Just punish me already! Banish me! Banish me like it says to do in our laws! Declare me Kursed! Send me away so I can either find a way to live without other Cerinians, or go slowly mad! But I will not remain here one more INSTANT while our world is about to burned down. NOW GET ON WITH IT!"

The room remained silent in the wake of her tirade. Krystal took in the shocked expressions on everyone's faces. She looked at her mother and father, and she saw her mother softly crying. Her father's eyes glistened. He stood up from his chair and said, voice shaking just a slightly, "I move...I move we declare our punishment. Does the council agree?"

"Yes." Arethusa said instantly. She seemed to have recovered.

Krystal saw her mother look at Arethusa, the strong dislike that had bordered on hatred changed, now she looked at the other vixen with a hatred so pure Krystal didn't even realize her mother capable of it.

"Then with this council's agreement..." Jade trailed off, took a breath, and then continued, "I declare my daughter, Krystal Zonoc, blood of my blood, Kursed."

The sentiments were echoed throughout the chamber. The last voice left to be heard was Sapphire's. Krystal met her mother's eyes and she felt the vixen enter her mind to say, I am angry Krystal. But I will not be able to say this to you for a long while once I say what must be said. I love you. I always will. And one day...one day I promise you will come home. And I will forgive you.

Krystal watched as her mother stood up next to her father. Her mind left Krystal's. And she said, even through her tears, "I declare my daughter, Krystal Zonoc, blood of my blood, Kursed."


Fox got up from where he sat on the bench outside the council chamber as soon as he saw Krystal emerge. "Krystal, how did it go?"

She looked at him and he found himself resisting an urge to cringe. The look in her eyes, she looked more anguished than when she had been trying to deal with the memories of the dead. But, she also looked...empty. Her eyes, her expression looked a bit dull, as if she'd lost something that used to make her look more energetic, more alive. "I'm not Krystal anymore Fox."

That through him for a loop. "What? What do you mean? Krystal what happened in there?"

"I'm not KRYSTAL!" She yelled.

Fox decided he should be silent. She just needed a moment. Finally she took a long, deep breath, and looked at him. "From now on, to my people, I am Kursed."

"What...what does that mean?" Fox found himself growing more confused by the second.

Krystal sat down on the bench by the wall outside of the chamber. Fox sat down next to her. "It means I am dead to them. I will not be allowed to use my telepathy with them. I can no longer link to anyone. Not friends, not family. And it also means I cannot return here. Not until they lift the Kurse."

"How long will that be?" Fox asked, reaching out a hand and placing it on her shoulder.

"Long enough for me to go mad." Krystal replied softly.

"What?" Fox suddenly felt very ignorant. He didn't understand any of this. He wasn't sure he wanted to. "Go mad?"

She sighed and took his hand in hers. "If I cannot share my thoughts, if I cannot hear the thoughts of another through a link, I will quite literally go insane. It happens occasionally. Cerinians who are trapped alone, trapped without fellow Cerinians, if they're trapped long enough...well, when they're found they aren't the people they once were. At best they become bitter, evil, vindictive types. At worst they go feral. They become little more than animals."

"That's horrifying." Fox felt anger welling up inside him. "Why would they do this to you?"

Krystal snorted. "Because I deserve it. Don't worry, I should be fine for a few years."

She said it with a sort of bitter humor. The bitter, dark humor of a person resigned to their fate. Resigned to a fate that they did in fact feel they deserved. Then something occurred to Fox. "Does the link have to be with another telepath?"

She looked up at him, curious. "No. Cerinians have sometimes been known to bond with non-telepaths."

Fox didn't hesitate. "Link with me."

Krystal looked at him in shock. "What?"

"You heard. Link with me. I won't watch you go insane Krystal. I..." He trailed off, feeling embarrassed. He didn't really know what his feelings were for her, but he knew one thing, they were what made him suggest that.

"Fox." Krystal smiled, a true, radiant smile. She kissed him lightly on the cheek. "I'm grateful for the offer. But, think about it first. We have time. I don't want you to rush into it."

"Ok." Fox nodded, squeezing her hand. "It's just...It's just I don't want you to feel alone. I know that you do right now, but I...I want to be here for you."

"Oh Fox." And with that she threw her arms around him.

Fox wrapped his arms around her, hugging her the way he had on the balcony. He didn't need telepathy to know just how much pain Krystal was in, and he made a resolution right then that he would do whatever it took to either keep her from feeling pain, or to help her through it when she did.


"What a piece of junk." Fox said as he looked at the ship. "Will this thing even make it to where we're going?"

Krystal glanced at him, looking amused. "What did you expect? They don't exactly give exiles their own luxury starliner."

"I guess not." Fox said dryly.

The sun had begun to set and the two of them were preparing to leave Cerinia. With the conclusion of Krystal's trial, brief as it was, the two now found themselves at a spaceport not far from Tenked, having been granted the gift of one of her father's smaller vessels to help her proceed with her exile. The ship, a small, somewhat beat up, and totally innocuous transport that had once served as a shuttle craft on one of the larger vessels of the Zonoc trade fleet, possessed the simple benefit of coming equipped with an interstellar warp drive. Nothing as fast as an actual starship, but more than sufficient to get herself and Fox away from Cerinia and, presumably, to Lylat. Though the trip to Lylat would commence only if she and Fox managed to be successful in his mission to destroy the Venomian super weapon, something Fox refused to leave without doing, and something Krystal wouldn't have let him leave without attempting. Now that they knew where to look, the polar regions of the Kathari moon, the two of them intended to set out and attempt to stop the completion of the weapon.

Of course, her people knew where to go now as well. Krystal sensed it wouldn't be long before her father became War Chief, and soon after that warriors would be sent out. But, in her opinion, it would be too long to wait. Neither she or Fox wanted to risk waiting for the rest of Cerinia to call up its warriors, a process that could take days or even weeks. Days or weeks that could find Cerinia burned to a cinder. So, they would go, and they would go alone, and hopefully they would be able to, at the very least, buy her people some time.

Technically Krystal had a week to put her affairs in order before being forced to abandon her home, but she trusted her parents to look after all of that, and she didn't have time to waste. Besides, she didn't like seeing her family and not being able to reach out to them with her mind. She didn't like the way she couldn't know their thoughts, their hearts. It felt unnatural, and it felt painful. "Look at this way Fox, I doubt the Venomians will be expecting the hero of the Lylat Wars to come galloping to the rescue in..." She paused and swept a hand in front of her. "...this."

Fox grunted, slapping the control to open the pressure sealed door. It opened and he stepped in. Krystal was about to follow him when she heard a familiar voice call out, "Sister!"

Turning she saw Fiora running up to her, hair whipping in the breeze, Decius following behind her. A pair of shastas lounged in the background. When she caught up Krystal did her best to smile even as she resisted the urge to link with her. "Fiora. Decius. What are you doing here?"

"Mother wanted me to give you this before you left." Fiora said. She reached into a small bag slung on her shoulder and pulled out a head piece like the one Krystal wore. Only this one seemed much simpler. Instead of the four gold circles and the red ruby this one appeared solid silver with a single turquoise colored gem. "She wanted to be here to see you off. I promise. And so did father. But the council is still in session. They do send their love."

Krystal took the piece of jewelry from her sister and gazed down at it. "But I already have an Uwo Zonoc." She said, referring to the name for the piece of jewelry, Age Jewel, that all female Cerinians wore upon reaching the age of eighteen.

"This one is different. Put it on and you'll see." Fiora urged.

Lifting her Uwo Zonoc off her head Krystal handed the piece of jewelry to her sister and then put the new one in its place. Her eyes widened as she felt the difference. Not in weight or style, but in memories. "Goddesses." She felt the imprints, impressions, and memories of her family, her mother, her father, and her sister. She saw images of her parents doting over her as a baby. Memories of her and Fiora's first dance lessons. Her father teaching her how to use her staff. So many happy memories. Krystal eyes began to water, she really needed to stop crying. She knew she would eventually, for now though she let the tears fall, she knew it would only help her heal. "Fiora."

Her sister wrapped her arms around Krystal in a hug. "I know. We love you Krystal. No matter what. And we want you to always remember the happy memories. One day when you can come back I promise we'll make even more."

"I know." Krystal squeezed her sister tightly. She didn't want to let go. "Tell mother and father I love them. And tell them...tell them I'm sorry."

Fiora pulled back and kissed her sister on the cheek. "I will. I take it you'll be stopping by the Kathari moon on your way out."

"Yes." She replied.

"Good." Fiora answered. "Father's likely to be declared War Chief now, but it will take time to get everything ready. Who knows, maybe we'll see each other up there?"

"Maybe." Krystal said. "But if we don't," She pressed her Uwo Zonoc into her sister's hand, the one she'd worn for only a single year. "Keep it."

"I will." Fiora said. "I'll put it right by my bed."

Krystal looked over at Decius, the tod having remained silent throughout the exchange, letting the sisters say what they needed to say to each other. "Take care of her for me."

"I will." Decius replied. "And we'll see each other again. I know it."

Krystal smiled. "I know it too. Now, you two better get back."

Fiora hugged her sister again before she and Decius turned to leave. Krystal watched them go for a moment, smiling as they took each other's hand, before entering the ship that would take her away from her home. She found Fox in cockpit. He looked at her and she found that his gaze gave her strength. "Ready?"

Sitting down in the copilot's chair Krystal nodded. "Yes."

The hatch shut and the engines kicked on. Krystal closed her eyes and let the memories in her new Uwo Zonoc fill her mind. They reminded her of why she wouldn't just abandon her home, of why even if her people had now banished her she would never leave them to die. She would fight with her last ounce of strength if it meant saving them, saving her family. And, one day, she knew she would make many more happy memories with them. And that would give her the strength to face whatever the future held in store for her.


A/N: New chapter! Woohoo! You made it all the way to the end! Of this chapter...story isn't done yet. Not yet.

The first scene of this chapter, the one with the opera, was partially inspired by a track from Bungie's game Destiny. If you want to hear what the music sounds (sorta) like for that scene go ahead and look up the Destiny soundtrack called "Clearing Out the Cabal." It's epic.

As always I'd like to thank my beta readers Nail Strafer and Xengo for helping out on this one, thanks guys! And, as a shameless plug I'm going to tell you if you are in a Valentines day spirit or you just want to read some Fox/Krystal fluff after this go read my one shot "Orange and Blue Valentines." It's short but fluffy. And keep an eye on Xengo who is planning his own holiday one shot for V-Day, and he's better at fluff than I am! So off you go!

Hopefully I'll have another chapter out this month, assuming school and, of course Total War: Attila don't totally conspire and sabotage me. But until then I hope you all have a wonderful time and an even better Valentines day, even if you're single! Cheerio!

-general whitefur