Chapter 10

"When was the last time you've ever felt something special about someone?" the voice rang in her head. She was on a building. What seemed to be like thousands of feet up? The voice just got closer and closer. It seemed so near. But there was no one around.

"Last time I've ever loved someone, it caused me to become the thing I swore I'd never become." The Black clad figure stood on the edge. Krystal stood there; she was desperate to get away. The lightning struck in the dark sky and the dark figure disappeared. The lightning struck once again. This time, the figure appeared behind her. "I know who you once loved." It grew dark, as the strike of lightning faded away. Krystal turned around. Heart racing, she desperately looked around, trying to use he sixth sense to find him. It was as if he didn't exist.

As the third flash of lighting dashed across the sky, the black robed man pushed her, sending her flying down the spires of the building, falling parallel to the large tower until she hit the hard, painful concrete. She awoke with anxiety of her terrifying dream. Except, she had this feeling, that something was there, her body hurt, as if she had been struck with something twice her size. She felt like she fell from something high.

Fox sat in a chair or the cockpit. The new ship they had captured, floated through space. The vulpine sat in the chair, legs spread out completely, eyes closed. Krystal walked in. She saw him sitting there.

She walked towards him, quietly, and naturally, soft, blue, elegant feet, sliding across the floor of the ship. Why was he sitting in here? Why wasn't he in a bed? She crept closer, and peeked over his shoulder. At first she was looking down at the controls, and then, she noticed something more. They were pictures. Pictures of the Star Fox team.

She knew that what Kiera said was true now; Craig was trying to get them back together. But what she wondered as, would he succeed?

"So, the princess takes the bate?" Craig stepped out of a corner of a ship. She didn't know how he got there. She could have sworn she hadn't sensed him. But then again, this was Craig; he brought them to the future. There was no telling what he could do. He could know anything he wanted to. And that was his advantage over everything.

"What do you mean?" Krystal didn't look at him. She kept looking at the pictures, the things that brought back all the memories. All the good times that were once there, and now seemed just out of reach. "How do you hide from my powers?"

"Those are some interesting questions, aren't they? The first one is that, someone who knows every single one of your moves is hunting you all guys, he stalks you, and he will eventually find you. And, now I know what you desire the most. Your past. And this is what will slow us down the most."

"How do you know all these things?" she stared deeply at him, trying to break through his concentration, trying to see his mind. But to no prevail.

"You wont be able to read my mind, not yet. You're not strong enough, you're not Kiera. She's the strongest of the few telepaths recorded in history. Even all the Cerinians, she's the strongest."

"That still doesn't answer why I can't read your mind" She rose a fist to him. She knew she couldn't come close to threatening him, but it reassured her. Her pink nightgown didn't add to her threat either.

"I'm to strong, I've trained with Kiera for over ten years, she struggles with getting into my mind, and if she struggles, you wont come close." The wolf stepped over to the fox, and picked up the pictures. And looked at them for some time. Krystal sat there quietly, waiting for an answer. When nothing came. She pouted. She tried, but she wasn't good enough to get under the wolfs mind. She wasn't used to not having and advantage. She angrily walked back out the door and down the hall.

"Did you get all that Fox?" the vulpine smirked, and opened his eyes, "Yea, I know exactly what I need to do now." He sat up, " anyway, what were you talking about when you said, someone was chasing us, and knows all our moves?"

"Its nothing to worry about, at the moment anyway. Nice job blocking her telepathic powers, Kiera." The young blue vixen stepped out from a corner. "Yea, but don't expect me to lie to my mom like that. And before I forget, I struggle getting into your mind? I get in your mind without a problem." She stepped towards the other two.

"Yea," Craig began, "But you haven't been in my mind for almost two years." Keira walked passed him, and rubbed her index and middle finger across his chest. "That's what I want you to think," she winked at him, and shook her lower body seductively as she walked out the door. Fox gave a long, high-pitched whistle, just when she was out of hearing range. Craig slapped him over the head, and scowled him. The wolf walked out to the hallway, and went to sleep, in his long waiting bed.

Fox got up, and began walking. Then he remembered the pictures. He turned and looked at them. They were all the times that they were on vacation. The smiles they had. The first time Krystal stepped onto Corneria, and all the sites that Fox had shown her. In every picture, Fox and Krystal were next to one another/ they always stood close by, and always smiling, not because it was a photo, but because they were truly happy.

He gave a soft smile. And then nothing. His face went expressionless. He shoved the photographs into his pocket. How could she just leave him like that! Why would she! For the first time. He was truly mad. He was so angry he almost broke into tears. Tears of pain. He walked down the halls, stomping his bare feet. He wasn't very loud, but he was definitely angry. There was only silence the rest of that night. That night in dark, empty space.

Planet Katina came into view. The planets miles of green forests spread out over the planet cut off half way by sandy shores and beaches that spun around the planet in random patterns.. The ship dropped its landing gears onto the soft sand. The boarding ramp dropped, pushing itself to the ground. The smooth hiss from the hydraulics sounded off.

Fox was the first one out of the ship, followed by Falco, Slippy, and Kiera. Craig and Krystal followed slowly behind. Craig was eating a bowl of oatmeal. He loved oatmeal. He hadn't had a chance to eat any before, but Kiera, knowing how much he loved it, brought him several crates.

"We ran out of apple and cinnamon, so, we need to pick some more up from Jeremy." Craig took another spoonful of oatmeal to his mouth. "Yea, well, you should eat less oatmeal, besides, how can you eat it, its horrible." Slippy's remark hurt Craig. Craig loved oatmeal, it was his favorite meal, and that comment put him down. Slippy turned his head to his friends for some support, but the all shook their heads, even Fox. Slippy turned around, and there he was.

Craig stood right there, faces apart by barley two centimeters. Craig stared deeply into the frog's eyes, as did the frog into the Craig's. Neither afraid of the other. Craig wasn't afraid because he knew that the frog wouldn't be able to kill him, even with the help of the rest of his x-team. Slippy wasn't afraid of anything anymore. He was ready to die; at least he would see his family.

Keira walked over, and slapped them both in the face. She began walking out into the green forests. She wagged her tail delicately as she took step after step on her small feet. As Krystal followed, it was extremely hard to tell which one was which.

The steel base had many walls in its corroded wall. The outpost was clearly abandoned, and most likely because of all the destroyed structures.

"How did this happen?" Krystal ran a smooth hand over the rusting, and tarnished plates of the wall. She didn't seem too happy. What used to be a beautiful shinning base, no laid, destroyed. It was covered in ashes, the structures were all damaged, missing walls, roves, or just plainly collapsed.

Fox took several steps closer, "Last time we were here, everything was…" he wanted to say fine. He wanted to say that nothing was destroyed, that it couldn't have been better.

Falco was the one who finished Fox's thoughts. "Last time we were here, the place was a wreck. But not this bad, the aparoids only captured the base, they didn't destroy it." Falco didn't have an expression on his face. He never did anymore. There was barely anything he could do anyway. So what was the point? He could just cheer people up, and he wouldn't even if he had the chance. What he knew about the base was something special to Fox, this was where he began his mercenary days.

Craig clapped his metallic hands together. "Yea, but we gotta go inside. And if someone points a gun at you, don't react to harshly. In other words, put your hands up. Its basic protocol."

"So, when you said basic protocol, how does having two dozen, well armed men, taking us hostage, basic protocol?" Falco wasn't to happy about it. The large group of soldiers escorted them to another building. What they all noticed that most of the soldiers were either missing limbs, or had low tech metallic ones. When they were finally escorted across the base, they came to the main building. The large structure's tower was knocked over, but it didn't seem that bad over all. They walked inside, the entire inside of the building was covered in screens and key boards. For a destroyed base, there was a lot of technology. There were computers, glowing buttons. Several dozen monitors.

There was one person, sitting in a chair at a desk. He was short, small, and didn't look too strong. He wore a pair of geek-glasses, and worked by himself at the computer. When he finally noticed someone had walked through the doors, he looked up from what he was doing. "God damn it, why the hell did you have to come back?"

Kiera gave an exaggerated yelp, and ran over the small dog, and gave him a big hug. "Jeremy!"

yep, thought it went pretty well, Krystal dream seems odly familiar 0-o, and i introduced jeremy. youll find more about him in the next chapter or so.

please R&R