C H A P T E R ten:

Revenga

Krystal didn't know where Fox was, exactly, all she knew was that he was coming. She had heard it from his own mind. Or was that simply another hallucination brought on by her current confines? She didn't know. She couldn't see or touch the outside world through the thick fluid that surrounded her. She simply felt herself floating gently, air and nutrients provided by a series of tubes and IVs trailing down from above her. She tried to brush the thoughts of her situation out of her mind, instead focusing on the future. The future she wished for.

She imagined living with Fox on Corneria. Settling into the apartment they had previously shared in Corneria city. She imagined being able to share sunsets and the sun's warmth once again. She imagined their wedding. She imagined having kits one day, watching them grow up on Corneria. She smiled internally thinking about it. If our kit is too much like Fox, I'm stopping at one. She would have chuckled had she been able.

She felt a presence walk into the room where she was being held. She recognized the mind as that of Ben Marius, her captor. She felt anger build up inside of her, but she could do nothing to express it. She simply sat in wait, probing his mind and hoping to uncover his next move. In his mind, she found a mix of emotions. There was a great sadness, but it sat in the background. In the foreground, she found conflict. Confusion. His thoughts were scattered. She could only pick up small pieces.

What does he mean, "He's here,"? Or, "End it,"? She pondered on these thoughts, finding no meaning until she was granted a more in depth view of his mind. As he calmed down, images formed. She saw herself, incapacitated and pathetic in this vat of liquid. Friends of Marius surrounded her, looks of anticipation on their faces. She was able to reach into Marius' mind, finding the source of his worries. Had she been able to, she would have smiled.

Fox… She thought. She didn't know how, but he had found her. He was onboard Marius' ship, and Marius was furious about it. Furious, she noted. But also afraid. He knows what Fox is capable of. The thought of Marius' discomfort gave her a small grain of joy. She had worked for much of the past year to either kill people like him or put them behind bars. Another mind came closer. A mind she recognized. A mind she had bonded with time and time again. She knew exactly what was happening.

Fox…

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Fox stood side by side with Falco outside the door to the laboratory. He could feel blood rushing through his body, filling him with venom and fire. He gritted his teeth and reached toward the grenades on his belt. His hand was stopped by the hand of his friend, whose blue feathers surrounded his fist and prevented him from grabbing the explosive. Fox turned to the avian and narrowed his eyes, growling gently. Falco simply shook his head.

"Fox," he whispered. "For all we know, she's right on the other side of this door. The grenade could kill her." Fox stopped to consider that, the anger dissipating slightly. He frowned at his friend, mulling over the situation in his mind.

"Falco, am I sensing a major case of role reversal here?" a weak smile spread itself across his muzzle. "Seriously, it's not like you to suggest we do something the safe way." The avian grinned back at him before turning serious again.

"Fox, he's screwing with you and Krystal. No one f*cks with my friends." Fox simply nodded somberly in response. The two set out to examine the door before them, seeking an ulterior mode of entry. After a precious few minutes of frantic searching, Fox stumbled across a small latch on the face of the door. Flipping it over, he found a small keypad.

"Falco," he hissed. The avian turned his attention toward Fox, who was already hard at work in attempting to determine the combination. Falco shook his head slowly.

"Foxie, that's not how you do that." He pushed the vulpine aside, earning him an agitated stare. Falco leaned down to breath on the keypad. As his breath met the metal of the buttons, condensation revealed which buttons had been pressed previously. Hmm. Two, four, eight, nine, zero. How many digits in the combo? Nonchalantly, Falco pressed down on the pound key. Fox yelped quietly in his ear.

"What the hell are you doing Falco?" Fox's voice was panicked. Falco simply shook his head slowly again. The small LED display above the keypad blinked off briefly before coming back online and displaying six stars.

"Crap," whispered Falco. Fox continued to panic quietly.

"What?!" he strained. Falco sighed and started explaining.

"We have five different numbers in the combo, but six digits. That means one number is used twice. Now how the hell do we figure out which one?" Fox stared at his friend.

"Name the digits," demanded Fox in hushed tones.

"Two, four, eight, nine, zero," responded Falco. It was Fox's turn to shake his head, as a grin began widening on his face. "What's so funny, Fox?"

"Enter in the digits 'two-four-zero-eight-nine-zero'," stated Fox. Falco shrugged and plugged in the digits. To his surprise, the LED screen flashed the phrase, "Code Accepted," and began to slide open. Fox and Falco nodded at each other and rolled into the room, guns armed and ready.

They came face to face with none other than Ben Marius. He stood before them, grinning insidiously. His gaze shifted from one to the other calmly. Fox noted a peculiar smell coming from the walrus. No matter how much he tried to hide it, Fox knew that he was afraid. His pheromones gave him up. Fox grinned harshly at the heavy marine mammal, feeling confident. Marius' grin transformed, hardening into a horrid smirk.

"So, Fox McCloud and friend," he sneered. "I trust you're here for the vixen. While I cannot give her to you, at the present, I can let you see her if you so wish." Fox felt taken aback. What is he planning? Without lowering their weapons, Fox and Falco consented. They followed closely behind the walrus as he moved toward the back of the room. He pressed a small, camouflaged button on the wall, which began to drag itself open. Fox couldn't see Krystal. All he could see was a myriad of people crowded around a large test-tube in the center of the room. He turned back to Marius.

"What are you playing at?" he snarled. "Where's Krystal?" He could feel his eyes shoot daggers at his corpulent foe. The walrus, however, sighed comfortably, further irritating the enraged vulpine. He grunted softly and started to speak.

"Krystal… Hm. Is that what you call her?" he mused. Fox felt his anger rise as Marius danced around his question. "That's an interesting name. I used to call her Kursed, though I call her something else now. How did you get around my guards, if I might ask?" Fox was fuming at this point. He removed a ring of dog tags from his belt and hurled them at the obenidae. Marius side stepped casually, letting the ring fly by his head. "And what," he smirked. "Was that?"

"That," Fox growled. "Was a ring of dog tags, each one taken from a guard who got in our way." Fox's comment hit a mark, and Marius' expression faltered briefly. The two men stood staring at each other, each refusing to let the other win. Falco stood in the background, shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other. After a few seconds, Fox regained his composure enough to think. "What do you mean, 'used to' call her Krystal?" he asked softly.

"Oh, about that," said Marius. His cruel sneer widened. "She killed someone very near to me, so I felt the need to reciprocate." Fox felt his temper rising again, but Marius was oblivious, caught up in the euphoria of his own victory. "So I brought her to my humble abode and ran some very interesting tests. For instance, did you know that your girlfriend is pregnant, Fox? She's carrying your child." Fox lowered his gun without thinking, his eyes growing wide. Marius simply nodded enthusiastically. "Truth be told, I've been waiting for you to arrive, so I could show you this."

From his pocket, Marius withdrew a small chromed cylinder with a black tip. Sitting on top was a button, illuminated and glowing red. "I now call your precious little girlfriend," he spat the word out, his voice dripping with acidic hatred. "You see, I now call her 'Bleeder', and here's why. Your girlfriend is in that wonderful tube at the end of the room. All my friends are anxious to see what happens to her after I press this." Fox turned toward the test-tube he had ignored earlier and caught a flash of blue. He ran to it, unthinkingly.

"Krystal!" he shouted. The men who had previously stood silently, enjoying the show Marius had been kind enough to put on, now became worried. Fox barreled through them. Shooting several as he pushed his way through the crowd. They began to dissipate, leaving the room in droves. Fox was ignorant to this. He pressed his hand up against the tube. "Krystal…" he whispered. Marius laughed heartily in the background.

"Fox!" he shouted through his laughter. "You didn't let me finish!" he allowed himself to settle, his eyes focused on his vulpine nemesis. "Here's why I call her 'Bleeder'," Fox whipped his head around and stared hard at the man across the room. "In my hand is a detonator of sorts. As soon as I press the button, you will bear witness to a robotic arm entering the test-tube with your precious girlfriend. This is not unlike the robotic arms of surgery droids. It will simply give her a small cut above her abdomen, roughly six inches long and a half an inch deep. Such cuts are generally survivable, are they not?"

Fox's mind was swimming. He could hear what Marius was saying, but he lacked the ability to comprehend or understand it. Marius chuckled and continued. "You see, she will not survive this cut because of a different function of the button. Upon pressing the button, while the robot prepares to apply the delicate little wound, another device will pump coumadin into her body. Do you know what coumadin is, Fox?" Fox simply nodded dumbly, his brain fogged over with emotion. Marius began to laugh again; the same malevolent laugh he had used before. "Coumadin is an anticoagulant. Your girlfriend and you child will bleed out into the tube." Fox felt the fog lift, and he felt rage swallow him up. He began towards the walrus, anger pulsating throughout his body. "Oh Fox, you're so far away. Even if you run across the room, you couldn't stop me from—"

It happened quickly, so quickly in fact that the last thing to go through the mind of Ben Marius' mind before he died was the plasma bolt that killed him. Falco had stood inert, watching the whole situation play out in front of him. He waited silently until Marius forgot he was there. Then, he had killed him, ending the conflict quickly.

Fox turned his eyes to his friend, his eyes watering. Falco simply nodded, and motioned towards the test tube. Fox began to seek out some way to remove Krystal from her prison.

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Krystal had seen the whole thing play out through Falco's eyes. His mind was the only one with enough clarity to provide her with a stable picture. Now she watched them both as they sought to free her from her prison. She thought quietly to herself as Fox and Falco bustled around her. Is it true? she wondered. Am I… Pregnant? She hadn't experienced any sexual activity in all of the time she had been away from Fox, and she had only reunited with Fox the past week. There is no way he could know, she decided. Still part of her felt oddly disappointed at the realization. One day, though. She felt the liquid begin to drain away from around her.

The fluid pulled her body with it, setting her down softly on the bottom of the test-tube. She was left immobile, staring foreword with half-closed eyes. Her breath came slow and slightly labored. She could feel Fox close to her, his sadness and fear palpable. How she wished she could reach inside of his mind and alleviate his fears. How she wished she could save him from his fears as she had done so many times before.

She noticed the walls of the test-tube slip away from her field of vision, and she collapsed into Fox's arms. She felt herself blush, despite herself. Here she was, completely exposed. Paralyzed. In the middle of a large room on her enemy's ship. In front of her fiance and their friend. Still, the contact with Fox allowed her to communicate with him. She pushed herself into his mind, and felt him calm down. The tears that had been falling on her slowed as she spoke to Fox's heart directly.

It's okay, she thought to him. I'm okay. It will all be okay. Krystal heard Fox think to her shortly thereafter.

But you're not okay, he thought. Look what he did to you. Krystal sought to reassure Fox, so she continued.

Look what he wanted to do to me Fox, she soothed. You saved me. You saved my life. She felt Fox's arms tighten around her. She once again used Falco as a medium and examined the situation. Krystal saw Fox, and she saw herself in his arms. Her head was resting on his shoulder while his arms circled her waist. They were both kneeling, though it was Fox who was supported them. She saw her arms hanging limply by her sides. Fox's thoughts once again broke into her mind.

What about- What about it? His thoughts were swimming. Our, our, our…

Krystal knew exactly what he meant. Fox, if I am pregnant, then there's no way Marius could possibly know, she felt Fox move one of his arms and run his fingers through her hair. The only physical relations I've had since you left me a year ago were the ones we had on the Great Fox. At earliest, that would be two or three days ago There's no way anyone could know, not even me.

She sifted through Fox's emotions. There was confusion, and joy at her being okay, but there was also a sadness. A sadness and a disappointment she could relate to. He had wanted a family with her as much as she desired a family with him. The thought comforted her.

I know, she cooed. I wish it was true, too. Krystal blinked her eyes, movement gradually returning to her body. Fox nuzzled her gently and she felt warmth and love spread through her.

At least, started Fox. We still have a wedding to look forward to. You did agree to that, did you not? She felt Fox's chest move slightly as he chuckled.

I do, thought Krystal. Finally having enough control, she wrapped her arms around his neck weakly. She felt him sigh against her chest as he lifted her up, her feet gently touching the floor. She shuddered, the steel floor feeling cold on her feet. She felt one of Fox's arms leave her as he started blindly groping at his belt. He pulled from a small pocket a collapsed emergency blanket. Opening it with one hand, he started unfolding it. Without ever exposing her, Krystal felt the blanket cover her entire body, forming a warm cocoon.

Fox shifted his arms and pulled her up into the same position he had used to carry her so many times, with one arm beneath her knees and the other supporting her neck and back. She nuzzled into his chest. A voice broke through the air.

"Hey guys," said Falco, his impatience becoming audible. "As much as I appreciate the lovey-dovey, silent reunion thingy ya got goin' on, I suggest we, uh, leave." With that, Krystal felt the cool breeze of movement as Fox spirited her away from her nightmare.

Author's Note:

Not the greatest chapter ever, not the worst. Still, it's pretty okay. Sorry the updates have slowed down...

-][nquerius