Chapter 10

Bonding

Krystal regarded Fox as he turned away from the controls of the transport vessel. "We'll be at the Kathari Moon in about four hours."

"Good." She replied, turning and gazing out the forward viewport, arms wrapped around herself. She didn't like the way her mind sounded now. So quiet. She knew that other species placed a great deal of emphasis on the benefits, the value, of a quiet mind. She didn't understand it when she first heard it, and she definitely didn't understand it now. She missed hearing the thoughts of her family, her friends. Missed sensing their ambient emotions, their stray thoughts. Some might call her state of mind at the moment peaceful, free of distractions, but to Krystal it felt desolate. As if her path had taken her out of the beautiful rainforests of her home, filled with flyers crying out mating calls, shastas stalking through the branches, reptiles scurrying in the underbrush, and dumped her right in the middle of a bland, lifeless desert.

"Krystal?"

Fox broke her from her reverie. She glanced back his way before returning her gaze to the stars outside. "My name isn't Krystal anymore. It's Kursed."

He paused for a moment. Krystal felt a hand on her shoulder as he slowly turned her chair so she would have to look at him. "I'm not calling you that. Even Fiora didn't call you that."

"She's lucky only Decius and you heard. She could be lashed for that according to our ancient laws." Krystal responded bitterly. Her sister never obeyed the rules, even when she should. Krystal supposed she loved her for it, she couldn't bear the idea of her sister calling her that, and she didn't want to hear Fox call her that either. But she knew the rest of her people would.

"You know something?" Fox said.

"What?"

"I'm not Cerinian."

Krystal stared at him, wondering what he meant by that. She felt in a foul mood at the moment. Frustrated, angry, depressed, even a little afraid. All of those emotions were warring with each other, and they were making her miserable. "What does that even mean?"

"It means," Fox began, "That I don't have to follow your laws if I don't want to. So, like I said, I'm not calling you Kursed. And there's nothing you can do about it."

"I could pin you down and make you say it." Krystal replied.

"How do you know I wouldn't like that?" Fox said, a glimmer in his eye as he crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.

Her eyes widened. She could see the blush of his ears, but he didn't seem to be apologizing. How odd. "Would you?"

"Well you could always find out." Fox said, grinning at her.

Krystal just stared at him, completely dumbfounded. "Fox? Are you alright?"

"Just trying to lighten the mood." He answered, turning back to the controls. "I don't get it though."

"Don't get what?"

"The Council. Why would they do this to you? The information you got from the prisoner, the information you shared with all of them before your trial, it could save your whole world. Why banish you?" Fox said, cocking his head to the side in curiousity, though his ears folded back in apparent frustration. She could hear the tension in his voice when he asked, something told her he didn't like the idea of her being banished and forced to leave her family.

"I suspect Arethusa is more to blame than anyone. Even if my father is the one who did it." Krystal drew her feet up onto the seat, wrapping her arms around her legs as she did.

Fox looked over at her. "What do you mean?"

"She's been waiting for something like this. My indiscretion means she has everything she needs to convince the other Houses that my father is no longer fit to be our leader. That's why I would be surprised if Fiora is right to say that my father will be War Chief and not Arethusa." Krystal explained.

Fox gave her a stunned look. "So, you mean to tell me that this, all of this, is because of politics?" Krystal nodded. Fox's shoulders drooped and he looked down at the floor. "Politics. Tell me this though, if your father knew that banishing you would play into Arethusa's hands, why did he do it?"

A bitter laugh escaped Krystal's lips. "And not banishing me wouldn't? Think about if Fox. If he does banish me it hardly erases my crime, the whole family will be shamed for it. If he didn't then he's breaking tradition and showing favoritism, which Arethusa will say he's been doing all along, that he's just a self-interested merchant who should never have been allowed to lead Cerinia in the first place. She couldn't lose. No matter what my father did she would gain some sort of an advantage. So, he banished me as tradition demands, because that way he at least looks as if he's doing right by tradition, and that gives Arethusa just a bit less advantage than she would have had if he didn't banish me."

Fox remained silent for a few moments, he seemed to absorbing what she had just told him. Finally he just shook his head and said, "That's messed up."

Krystal snorted. "Yes, it is indeed very, very messed up."

They stayed quiet for a few minutes, each of them alone with their thoughts until Krystal decided to ask him a question. "Fox, why did you offer to link with me?"

"I told you. I won't watch you go insane." Fox answered, his eyes directed straight ahead.

"No. There's more than that. If you'd rather not say that's fine. But, if you really do mean what you said, then we have to start trusting each other." Krystal pressed. She wanted an answer from him.

He sighed and let his head tip back against the seat. He closed his eyes and said, "When I was eight years old I lost my mother to a car bomb. A car bomb." He opened his eyes and looked at her, the pain he felt evident. "Do you know how uncommon that is on Corneria? When it appeared in the newsfeeds they had to explain what a car bomb was. But Andross, the man responsible for the weapon that's being built to annihilate your people, he wanted to kill my father. So he put a bomb, a fucking bomb, in his car, and then ended up killing my mother by accident."

"Fox..." Krystal wanted to comfort him. All of a sudden her own problems faded, all she wanted to do was help him.

"There's more." He said, cutting her off. "Years later, when I was a teenager my father went on a mission to the planet Venom. He went there and he never came back. Andross killed him too. So I know what it's like to lose family. I know what it's like to not have them in your life. But for you it's worse. They aren't dead. You can't make peace with that. They're alive, but you can't see them. You can't be with them. For me...for me that would be the worst thing I can imagine. And I never want to have to watch someone suffer like that. Suffer alone."

"Fox I...I don't know what to say." Krystal looked at him differently, as if she finally knew just what drove him. Just what drove him to be so compassionate, to care so much even about a people like hers that he didn't even know. She reached out and took his hand in hers. "But I want you to know, so long as I'm with you I won't let you suffer. Not alone."

Fox squeezed her hand, putting his other hand over hers. "I won't let you suffer alone either."

"I know." She said, and she did.

The Kathari Moon loomed large in the viewport of the small transport vessel. Krystal looked at it with a strange sense of betrayal. There may not have been all that much love lost between her people and the inhabitants of the moon, they'd been frequently at odds ever since their first contact, but it still boggled her that they would have allowed the creation of a secret base to build a weapon to destroy her people. "It doesn't make sense."

Fox glanced at her. "What?"

"The Kathari. Why would they allow this?"

"You tell me. I've only been shot at it by them. I don't even know what they look like." Fox responded.

"I've only seen holograms." Krystal admitted.

Fox gave her a disbelieving look. "What? They live right next door. You really haven't seen them?"

Krystal shrugged at him. "They rarely ever leave their moon. They don't really trust outsiders. They have a few trading ports that you can get into, my family has done some business with them, but for the most part they prefer to be left as alone as possible."

A beeping noise came from Fox's console. "Proximity alarm. Two fighters incoming."

"Are they hailing?" The communications console next to Krystal began to flash. "Answers my question. They must know we're Cerinian. Let me do the talking."

"Be my guest."

Krystal shifted over to the communications console and opened the channel. Speaking in Cerinian she said, "This is Krystal of Clan Zonoc. We would like to request permission to land at one of your polar trading posts."

"Krystal of Clan Zonoc, state your need for a landing." Came a steely female voice. The voice replied in Cerinian, though Krystal noticed that the dialect was a bit old. She could still understand it, though it might have come across as rather stilted on the home world.

"Myself and my companion are investigating a possible military installation in your northern polar region that is being used to attack my people."

The comm remained silent for a minute, Krystal guessed the pilot was either stunned at what she'd told her or checking with someone higher up the pay scale. "Krystal of Clan Zonoc, follow the incoming transmitted flight plan, do not deviate or you will be fired upon. All active sensors and scanners must be shut down, do not attempt to take scans of our moon or you will be fired upon. Is this clear?"

"Understood." She glanced at Fox.

"I just got a flight plan." He looked at her curiously, obviously not comprehending the Cerinian being spoken. He knew a few words, but he remained very far from fluent. She would have to do something about that.

"Follow it." She told him in his own language. Returning to Cerinian she said, "We are following said flight plan."

"My wingmate and I will escort you in. Again, do not deviate from the flight plan or attempt to take any active scans. Such action will be considered an act of aggression and will garner an appropriate response."

"Understood. Krystal out."

"So, where exactly are we going?" Fox asked, glancing at her as he put the transport on the flight path given to it by the Kathari fighter.

"No idea." Krystal answered honestly. "Turn off the active scanners."

"Why?" Fox inquired, though he reached over and shut them down despite the question.

"They don't want us taking any active scans. They're a very private people." Krystal explained.

"Is that what they were telling you?"

Krystal frowned and watched as one of the Kathari fighters took a position in front of them. It seemed they were being kind enough to guide them on the chance that Fox wouldn't be able to fly with just line of sight, a flight plan, and passive scans. She doubted they needed to worry, but it did strike her as a courtesy. "Not entirely. I get the feeling that they were a bit shocked when I told them what we were doing."

Fox's eyes widened and his head whipped around. "You told them what we're doing?"

Krystal shifted backwards in her seat. "Yes. I had to be honest with them. Trust me, we wouldn't have gotten down there if I told them anything else."

Fox groaned and ran a hand through the hair between his ears. "Krystal, has it occurred to you that the Kathari might be working with the Venomians?"

"Has it occurred to you that I might know them a bit better than you do?" Krystal responded, a note of challenge in her voice.

"Yes, it has occurred to me. But you may have just blown this mission. If the Venomians find out we're coming..."

"They won't." Krystal insisted. "Fox, look, if there is one thing I know about the Kathari it is that they would never willingly allow an alien base to be built anywhere on their moon. It couldn't have been done, not if more than a handful of them knew. I certainly know that their Queen wouldn't have allowed it."

Fox turned back to the viewport. "I hope you're right. Because if you aren't this mission could end a lot sooner than either of us were planning on."

The flight path they were taken on kept the transport and its escorts above the cloud layer for most of the trip. Krystal and Fox sat in silence for the hour the flight took, Fox obviously still angry at her for revealing their intentions, Krystal wondering if there might have been a better way, and if her first instinct, to trust, might have been the wrong one. "Fox?"

"Yeah?"

"Is it...Is it wrong to trust?" She asked.

He sat in silence for a moment, seeming to mull over his answer. "Yes and no."

She arched an eyebrow. "That's not exactly an answer."

Setting the ship on autopilot Fox swiveled his chair to look at her. "Look, I wish knowing when to trust and who to trust were easy things to know. And I don't know, it might be easier for you since you have telepathic and empathic abilities. But for those of us who don't, jeez, you really never know. I assume you're worried about the fact that you told the Kathari pilot what we're doing here."

Krystal nodded. "Was it wrong to trust her?" She felt terrifyingly naive the moment the words escaped her muzzle.

"Yes." Fox replied instantly. "Have you ever done covert operations before?" Krystal shook her head no. "Well, basic rule of thumb for those sorts of things is called 'need to know'. What that means is you barely trust anyone. You only tell people exactly what they need to know to get a job done. Even the people you do trust you only trust to a limited extent. That means you lie. A lot. You lie to family, you lie to friends, you lie to comrades. Personally I never had the stomach for it. Things are a lot less complicated in the seat of an Arwing. But even then secrecy can be important. What you tell to who can be the difference between getting out alive, and getting out with a bullet in the back."

"I see." Krystal replied, feeling positively dejected, and a little frightened. She realized that her instinct to trust could be a weakness. And she realized that she had made a decision that any Cerinian would make. "I suppose having grown up on a world where thoughts, knowledge, all of that sort of thing could and always were freely exchanged means I'm going to be terrible at keeping secrets. Fox, have I just gotten us killed?"

Fox chuckled. "Krystal, you know how many times I've been in a situation where the odds, the intel, and, yes, even my teammates all say I should be dead on arrival?"

"No. I don't." Krystal responded, making sure to be honest.

"Well," Fox said, the look of grim amusement never leaving his face. "Let's just say I should have been dead a long, long time ago. So, no, I don't think you've gotten us killed. If the Kathari were working with the Venomians they'd probably have shot us down the moment you told them why we're here. And if you have, well, being a mercenary means I was on borrowed time to begin with. You know what helps though? You know what I think is a surefire way to always get home?"

"What?" Krystal asked, looking at him hopefully. She needed to hear something positive.

"Make promises."

"Promises?" She cocked her head. "What sort of promises?"

Fox smiled. "Doesn't matter. Just promise to do something once you've gotten through the mission. It could be as simple as eat a big bowl of ice cream and nap for six hours. Just as long as it's something you want to do, something you don't want to die without doing, you'll make it."

Krystal thought for a moment. Then, looking at him she said, "I want to live long enough to see my family again. And I want to go on an adventure with you. And..."

"And what?" Fox asked, a smile on his muzzle at her answer.

Krystal got her own smile. A big, mischievous smile. The kind of smile that, for a moment, she'd wondered if she would ever smile again. "And once this mission is over I want to give you the biggest, sloppiest kiss you've ever had."

Fox blushed like mad but his smile never wavered. He must have been getting comfortable around her, or he wanted to be strong for her, he didn't seem to be quite as bashful as when they first met. "That's a good promise."

"What are you going to promise though?" Krystal asked, curious.

The console began to blink and Fox retook the controls. "Me? I think I'm just going to promise to kiss back. And, I want to show you Lylat. Now you better strap in, we're about to dive."

Krystal smiled and nodded, activating the seat's restraints. A moment later and Fox moved the ship into a steep, rapid descent following their escort. As they broke through the cloud cover Krystal gasped. Stretching out before them was a massive, glittering cityscape. She could see skyscrapers linked together by massive glass tubes, ships were flying to and fro, and all around the city stretched a ring of massive, white capped mountains. "Goddesses. It's lovely. I wasn't expecting that."

The comm panel next to her began to flash. Turning to it she answered the hail from their escort. "Krystal Zonoc, follow me and do not deviate from my flight path. Do not take any scans of our city. Violate these conditions and you will be fired upon. And we do not shoot to disable."

Krystal frowned, the Kathari really did value their privacy. Switching to Cerinian she asked, "May I ask where we are being taken?"

"You are being taken for an audience with the Queen. Once again do not deviate from our flight path or take any scans. Escort out."

The channel closed and Krystal shook her head in wonderment. "Fox?"

"What?"

"I think I've either just gotten us killed, or saved the world."

"What do you mean?" Fox asked.

"Follow the lead escort. We're being taken to see the Queen."

A/N: It begins, we have reached the beginning of the end. After this chapter there are only two more until Cerinia's fate is decided. As both of these chapters are (for the most part) done, you can expect updates every week, likely on Sundays, so keep an eye out!

As always I would like to thank my beta readers, Nail Strafer and Xengo for their work in helping make sure these chapters, and the story in general is making sense and of a much higher quality than it would be without them. Thanks guys!

Other than that there isn't too much to say except I hope you guys are excited to see how it all ends, and, of course, I'd love it if you could throw a review my way and tell me what you thought of the chapter! Until the next update...

-general whitefur