A/N: Goodness. Chapter 11 already? I JUST published this on 9/28/05 and it's one month later… wow. 11 chapters in less time than it took to write Reflections of Krystal… neat. I hate to break it to you guys, but this story is close to the end… So anyhow, the point of it is, I wanna get things lined up for the new StarFox that's due out in like…well, looking at SF1:A and SF:64, it's looking like a short time after the release of the Nintendo Revolution…

It's become their tradition to release bunches of their own franchise titles on the birth of the latest console... So, ya know... I'll stretch it out to 12 or 13 chapters if I can. :)

Enjoy…


C H A P T E R: eleven

Tubes. Glass. Wires. Artificial respiration units connected to each of Fox and Krystal's snout. Fox managed to pry one eye open, seeing the blurry blob through the liquid and glass in which he was entombed. Surely it was Andrew Oikonni. His ability to remain conscious in the liquid filled case of glass was next to impossible.

He could feel a presence at the back of his mind. Its calm and soothing demeanor almost begged for him to join it. His eye fluttered shut once more and he simply allowed his sense of touch to tell him what was happening. Every strand of fur was standing on end, while he lay, floating in the middle of the glass capsule. Every so often, he could feel the brush of glass against his leg, shoulder, back, arm or chest.

There was some sort of fist-sized apparatus around his nose so that the water was kept away from his snout, allowing him to breathe normally. There was something round on his chest above his heart with a wire that ran down his torso, across his tummy, down his left leg and off to wherever. He could feel the wire brushing against his fur all the way down his body and realized he was most likely undressed.

He wanted to blush but really, he was a bit disturbed at the sensation of nudity in the clutches of the enemy. He wondered where his gear was located. He wondered where Krystal's staff was located. He wondered where his communications gauntlet was located. Things weren't adding up.

"Fox… please, relax," Came a feminine voice. He knew it belonged to Krystal; there was no doubt in the matter. He wanted to answer it but knew he wasn't telepathic. The thing is, he'd never actually heard her voice in his head, before. It was always her reading his thoughts, not the other way around. As logic returned to his mind, he realized that anything he thought, she'd be able to hear because she had that ability. For him to hear her voice was odd.

There was either one of two things happening. Either she was able to project her voice into the head of her target or he was delusional. He was sort of hoping for the former over the latter. But either way, it was a comforting voice. He then began to wonder if it was simply the voice of his inner strength or something metaphorical like that.

"Fox? You're not relaxing, you're over analyzing," came the delicate voice once more. McCloud stiffened, causing a muddled beeping to be heard outside the tube. One of the research monitoring indicators, obviously. McCloud finally made an attempt to think a statement in his mind. This was the only way to test his theory.

"Krystal? I can hear you in my mind?" It was a booming voice even though it remained unspoken. In fact, he almost startled himself.

"Yes, angel. I am here," she promised. They were in the same tube together, he'd not known it until now. Their ears nearly touched, their feet at opposite ends of the tube, which was resting horizontally in the laboratory. Both rest on their back, facing upwards. Both of them were in such proximity and their heads were so very close.

Fox made a mental reply to her, in a less booming, voiceless thought. "We need to attempt some sort of mechanical malfunction to give Andrew a reason to open the capsule. I was thinking, I could try and tug on some of these wires that are running along my body, you just tell me when he's not looking and I'll do it. When he opens the tube, we break his jaw in two places."

"Oh, Fox. Such a fearless leader at all times. He's doing an experiment to see if he can understand my abilities more. He thinks placing suction cups with wires attached to them, against my forehead … will actually help him understand my frontal lobe better," she replied with something akin to a chuckle.

There was no physical laughter. Laughing was a bodily reaction to amusement. No, the sensation of laughter was transferred into Fox's mind as a wave of thought that simply showered him with amusement and joy as an almost tangible emotion that warmed his heart and mind. It was a fantastic sensation to experience another person's laughter through telepathy. Whatever it was that caused it, had Andrew walking away from the tube to gawk at the strange numbers and symbols on a computer screen at the left end of his workstation.

"Wow," Fox mused in thought. "That… was incredible. What just happened?"

"Mm, I shared a sensation with you," She explained. "It warms my heart to know that you enjoyed it, Fox. I feel it every time you're happy in my presence. But you need to get use to the feelings. A compassionate person consumed by despair and hurt can literally take your breath away."

"So just laughing at your own joke made me feel that way?" Fox thought in his mind. She heard it and replied, placing her voice back into his head.

"Yes," She answered. "Laughter is a physical thing. The mental reaction that causes laughter is an emotion that I transferred into your brain. Even the simplest emotion can be a powerful thing, my love. Laughter can cure powerful ailments. But your mind is not used to multitasking two different emotions at once. It's difficult to do, as it is… Being surrounded by emotional people can even affect my own mood."

"So," Fox tried to understand, "Because you put a simple sensation of joy, inspired by the simple act of laughing at your own joke, this laughter is transferred into the emotion of joy, however small that joy is, and the joy was put into my mind. But because I'm simultaneously feeling relief at the fact that we're together, it's added with the emotion of your simple joy, creating a flood, or rather, a sensation of pure and positive emotions… which caused that incredible feeling to come over me?"

"Yes," came her reply. "Anything as simple as laughing at one's own joke can cause slight joy to be experienced. But to give you that sensation, to share it with you, causes you to experience the joy, however small, in your frontal lobe. You're not used to feeling emotions in any part of your frontal lobe. It's quite a wonderful feeling. I can sense, now, that you're enjoying this lesson in telepathy."

"I am," Fox admitted freely. "But how is it possible?"

"Through Andrew's attempt at studying me, he has these wires running from my mind to your mind," She explained in wordless detail, informing Fox in a way that allowed him to garnish more information than just the unspoken words. He could understand her entire intent and all the intended thoughts, regardless of the words placed into his head.

Fox remained silent in thought, clear of mind, to let her continue her explanation. And so, she did. After reading Andrew's thought patterns, she already knew what he was up to, and explained her findings to Fox. "I believe he has wired our heads together in an attempt to see if he can answer one question: Can we talk to each other mentally. He saw me heading through the base, towards you. He somehow thought you were telepathically telling me where you were. Then he questioned himself, wondering if that's how you were able to defeat his uncle, him and the rest of StarWolf back during the war. He thinks you might be telepathic as well and wants to know before he tries to face you again, let alone his Uncle. He's very protective of his Uncle."

"I can't hear Andrew's thoughts, you can?" Fox inquired with his inner, unspoken voice.

Krystal gave him the sensation of a warm smile, telling him, "Of course, Fox. You can hear mine because of the way he ran wires from my head to yours. It was inadvertently, coincidentally, mistakenly and quite ironic that he gave us this temporary ability over something he wanted to see if we were able to do previously."

"So now he'll see us holding a telepathic conversation and assume it's true?" Fox asked.

"The most amusing part," She told her mate, "is the fact that he's filled with confusion right now. I could never hear his thoughts or feelings before but somehow, I'm able to, now. I've come to the conclusion that with our heads put together, you're an extension of my mental antenna and I'm able to get better reception. Understand my meaning?"

"Clearly," Fox replied with his own voice, straight into her mind. Her wording was the best way to explain it and even that theory was untested. Up to this point, she really couldn't sense Andrew Oikonni's mind but now that she could, she actually pitied the ape. He'd had a hard child hood, an overly demanding youth and general life. He had wired them up in a way that they now had an ability he was trying to find out if they had to begin with, and yet all the data he was looking at in the laboratory was worthless. Fox's frontal lobe wasn't developed enough to show a physical reading of response to each time a reading showed data on her own frontal lobe.

She finally offered another warm smiling sensation in the form of a wave of emotional pleasure, then said to him, "join me in my dreams. They will pass the time until Andrew grows frustrated or decides to wake up his Uncle. I want to conduct my own test… I want to be able to touch you in my dreams and know that you're able to respond."

She willed her mind to relax, pushing the depths of unconsciousness over his mind. It was a powerful sensation and had she some sort of amplifier the way Andross did, back during the war, she'd be able to will the entire room into a mental state of complete unconsciousness.

She was far from being that powerful of a telepath. But it didn't matter. All that mattered now was that they were together in dream. Fox's eyes fluttered in his state of sudden sleep. Rapid eye movement allowed his mind to be in a state where every image was shared with the images she saw in her own head, to be projected before his eyes as if he and her were in the same place at the same time, together.

In this dream, he touched her paws and she leaned forward, brushing her nose against his own. He could feel the actual mental impression as if they really touched. Her nose was cool and moist against his ear and his own muzzle was against her softly furred neck. Unlike their physical bodies, her fur felt dry to the touch, as did his own.

"We're dreaming?" He asked. The boomy voice effect was gone. It wasn't necessarily muddled, but every image and mentally stimulated sensory that was imagined caused all these sensations to feel… simply real. It was as real as a dream could make it. "I can try to imagine there's water in my dream and there will be water?"

"Look for yourself," She mused. Fox lowered his head, pulling back from her neck and blinked in surprise. They were surrounded by the warm, relaxing heat of a hot springs pool, but without the tangibly real sensation of being enveloped by water.

"If we're… really in liquid, our physical bodies are sodden and our fur is saturated with fluid; doesn't that mean I should feel wet in this water?" He asked.

Krystal smiled brightly. "Fox, don't think so much. We're shut away from physical sensation. This is in our mind. All sensory is imagined."

Fox touched his right index finger into the water and lifted it to look at the droplet of water at the edge of his padded digit. He reached his paw forward and placed it against her forehead. It ran down her cheek, along the side and bottom of her muzzle, then down her neck, glistening on the top of her fur. Because it was a dream, the drop of water never succumbed to the thousands of fur strands on her face.

"I wish I was that drop of water," He whispered softly.

"Why is that?" Krystal asked; an innocent look in her eyes.

"Because that's the only way I can possibly imagine being able to know your body more intimately. By clinging to it and sliding down it and caressing it with every part of myself," He told her. It was far more romantic than he'd ever been before. They were, however, in a dream together. And without fully conscious thought, there were no inhibitions. And without his reticence, he was free to open up to her as the man he truly was, locked away within his naïve, nervous heart.

With the nervousness aside, she realized that Fox had the potential to be quite the Casanova. She was getting goosebumps from his explanation of those desires to be as lucky as a simple drop of water. It continued over her collar bone, continuing down over the swell of her bosom. "I bet you'd really like to be the water drop now, wouldn't you?" she teased playfully.

"By all means," Fox replied. "I'd be directly above your heart. With every beat, it would consume all of me. Every molecule that made up my being would be consumed by each heart beat. Each pulse would bring me to a better, more total understanding of you." McCloud's words shocked him. This wasn't like him. He didn't understand where this came from. Because they were in a dream state, their active mind was now dormant and they had absolutely no inhibitions.

He leaned close to her once more, breathing in her scent from memory. "I love you and I can't help by want you in a way that would only be worth of the word, 'dream'," Fox told her.

"Mm," Krystal grinned in reply then whispered into his ear, "In your wildest dreams, Fox McCloud." A hint perhaps?

"I think I can manage that," replied the pilot, beaming a tender and adoring expression. "All my nervousness is gone. Is this real?"

"It's as real as you want it to be, Fox. We may not be ready to make love in body, but I'll always be ready for you to make love to my mind and heart," She replied. The two lovers' embraced and sensual bliss had them intertwined in superlative rapture. The droll, lifeless bodies in the tube both showed monitored signs of mental action. All Andrew could ascertain was that they were dreaming and there was a great deal of mental activity from each vulpine pilot's reverie.

Within the shared dream, Fox ran his fingers through her cobalt fur, drawing her close to him. They were joined; they were one. One writhing entity, in an age old rhythm of love and pure devotion. His paw raced up her back, skimming her spine, only to delve through cerulean strands of the softest hair he'd ever touched. Their hearts sang. And yet they slept in the glass tank that held their bodies motionless.


Andrew shook his head. He couldn't understand why there was nothing between them but a general activity in the woman's frontal lobe. His attention was shattered when a timer went off across the work bench from him. It was finally time to wake Andross. Fox and the vixen were forgotten and a grin tugged at the corner of his maw.

Andrew passed the tube where Fox and his girlfriend were unconscious. He turned to the tube so that his face was hovering directly above McCloud's face. "And now we'll SEE who gets the last laugh!" Shouted the half-breed gorilla. Beneath the glass and water, Fox's left ear flickered, but it was a motion that was absorbed by the water, not allowing Andrew to notice it.

The younger Oikonni walked across the Laboratory and stopped before his Uncle's recovery chamber. The status readout on the screen was just clicking over to exactly 100 of health recovery as the nephew approached. "Excellent! And now you will see, Fox McCloud! The Oikonni Empire will CRUSH you!" His words were terse and angry and yet his voice cracked each time he attempted to accent a word with volume.

Over in the other tube, McCloud opened one eye to the blurry, watery world in which he was imprisoned. He couldn't see where Andrew's bubbly image was, but Krystal was awakening as well and played out the actions of the living within the room outside their prison.

Andrew pressed in on the release button, pulling the top off the chamber. Water gushed out of the bottom of the tube, splashing onto the floor, where there were floor drains to catch it. He placed both his large hands upon the metallic release handle on the top of the cryo-stasis tube and began to pull it, using all his weight against it. Slowly but surely, Andy drew it aside, releasing his grip from it and turning his attention to his Uncle.

Andross' eyes slowly opened and everything slid into focus. His eyes clinched shut again only to blink open once more, gazing up at Andrew. His massive, calloused hands lifted up and he gazed upon them in silence. His eyes lifted, focusing on Andrew.

"It worked; no problems?"

Andrew nodded emphatically, "Yes, Uncle Andross, it worked! There are no side effects or known issues according to the computer reports," The younger ape replied, clapping his palms together then crossing the Lab to fetch the Emperor's bathrobe and returning with it.

Helping his Uncle from the chamber and into the robe, Andrew then lifted his hand pointing over at the tube where Fox and Krystal slumbered. "I didn't mess up this time… I brought you a wake up gift, Sir. I know I did good this time…!"

"Yes Andy," Andross told his nephew, "You did well. I feel a bit sore and my muscles ache… It's the first time I've used them without bionic assistance in nearly a decade. It seems that the tissue regenerating disease did the trick; your zombies weren't a waste after all, m'boy."

The younger gorilla tilted his head and couldn't help but admit that his Uncle was still better in the Lab. "It was you who showed me how to make the changes necessary to engineer the repairs, or you'd be a zombie too," Andrew noted.

"Agreed," Andross mused, turning to the bubbling tube where Fox McCloud and the little blue Senator's daughter from Cerinia were slumbering within its glass confines. "How did the Senator's daughter live through Cerinia, let alone from the destruction of my machine over Sauria, I wonder," The Emperor thought out loud.

"They're mates now," Andy said of the two vulpine creatures.

"Fitting. After the inadvertent destruction of Vixy, it was only appropriate for James to join her; they were married after all. A man and his spouse should never be apart. It would only be proper for the son of James McCloud to come to an end."

"He's his own hero now," Andrew said. "He's made a name and a reputation for himself. He's twice the man James McCloud was."

"He's half the hero James McCloud was," Andross chuckled in reply. "It took a great deal to bring that man down. It finally came to luck. I happened to find someone close to him that could break his loyalty for his own gain. What happened to that one, Andy?"

"Pigma is dead. And," Andrew shrugged, trailing off for a moment before continuing on. He cleared his throat and noted, "James could never defeat you. I'm not trying to say Fox has, but he's certainly pushed your plans back multiple times, Uncle Andross."

"I've had equal problems with James McCloud and on that note, Jim was quite an opponent." Andross tied the sash shut over the bathrobe, placing his palms upon the glass tube, glaring down at Fox. "And he died for it. It was difficult but Fox was never challenged the way his father was challenged. Jim McCloud was twice the combatant as this pathetic whelp."

"I only grew up with the recollection of losing a battle, twice, to Fox McCloud, Uncle," Andrew noted, coming to stand besides the elderly doctor.

"I once faced hand to hand combat with James McCloud over his then-Fiancé." Andross shut his eyes for a moment, then continued. "He was the most powerful adversary I'd ever faced. He had the passion and ability to destroy men greater than Wolf O'Donnell with his bare paws. It was the only time I'd felt fear for my life."

"He could take on a Gorilla?" Andrew exclaimed in surprise.

"I think we both lost that fist fight," Andross mused, then shook his head, clearing the memory. "I wish to redeem myself against Jim's son. He will not live, he's not his father. No man was his father. I actually had respect for James McCloud. This whelp was merely lucky and angry. Fetch a blanket for the female," Andross instructed, turning to grip the handle on the end of the tube. Andrew left the room, momentarily.

He gave two hard twists of the round handle wheel, until it came free of the tube's end and water began to flush from the glass cylinder. Fox's body rushed forward in the direction of the water, feet first. Andross went to reach for the pilot's throat but Fox was already awake, alert and had been preparing for this. He snatched the breathing wires and apparatus and quickly coiled the cables around Andross' wrist, then head butted his arch nemesis so hard that it instantly shattered the dictator's nose.

Doctor Oikonni reeled backwards, trying not to slip on the water that was pouring out over the floor. Krystal slid out of the glass pipe, head first, taking the edge of the glass in her paws and sitting up, pulling herself free, then placing her feet upon the floor.

Fox delivered the most intense combination punch he could muster, allowing the adrenaline beast to take over his body. He slammed his knuckles into the iniquitous Emperor's face with every fiber of weight, muscle and anger he could put behind it. He hit Andross square in his face so hard that the gorilla actually groaned aloud.

"Don't you never," Fox executed a well placed punch in Andross' face with every accented word, "ever," he continued, placing a second punch, "Talk" he added with yet another punch, "about", followed by a third, "my father," he sustained, "again!" with a fifth and final punch. The unrelenting pilot pounded away at the face of his arch enemy. Unremitting, persistent blow after blow was delivered, promising the greatest surprise attack of Andross' life.

The Doctor lost his footing, stumbling backwards into some equipment, which came crashing to the floor. Fox turned the door just in time for Andrew's return, burying a paw into his face as well, using his other to grip the boyish man's lab coat. Fox pulled him forward, off balance, and then there was a massive push, which knocked Andrew back into the hallway.

McCloud dashed back to Krystal and enshrouded her in a towel that was on the hook next to the older ape's previously used Cryo-machine, then turned back to Andross Oikonni. He was soaked. Water dripped from ever strand of fur on his body. His ears were laid back and his tail was flat and lifeless. He was ready to avenge his father for the third and final time, this very instant.

Andross picked himself up, chucking a full sized computer monitor at McCloud. The pilot's natural instincts were reflexively quick, ducking the passing monitor before leaping forward to attempt a tackle. Andross thrust his hand outwards, taking McCloud by the back of his neck before he could follow through with the offensive dash.

The dictator brought his knee up into McCloud's muzzle, then distributed a furious punch upon the backside of McCloud's head, knocking him flat to the floor. The pilot stood up, slightly dazed but ready to fight again. He went for another round of punches.

This time, Andross showed the charging McCloud what fighting a full breed Gorilla would bring. The doctor executed his own double punch, followed by a jab to the stomach. As soon as Fox doubled over, Andross implemented an uppercut that sent the fox spiraling across the room. McCloud crashed down through the tube he and Krystal shared only moments prior, causing the object to shatter. Glass cut into his back, arms and shoulders as he collapsed to the floor upon the broken shards.

Out of nowhere, Andross felt a thunderous wallop of intense pain. His head was thrown to the side and he paused for a moment to get his wit about himself then turned to face the blue vixen in the bathrobe who was holding the staff that had come off the wall from only a few feet away. While never having been hit so hard with a blunt object before, he gave a menacing glare, to make it seem like it didn't even faze him.

Andross reached his behemoth mauling mitt and snatched her by the throat then shifted his weight and threw her across the laboratory. She crashed through several large machines, which broke her fall. She sat up, stunned and astonished. Flabbergasted and astounded by his immense physical power, Krystal sat there for a moment, trying to come to her physical senses. She struggled to stay in a sitting position for a moment longer than leaned back, trying to catch her breath.

Fox, who witnessed this atrocity, dashed back to his feet and leapt for the Emperor of Venom, instinctively wrapping his muzzle around Andross' throat in the threat to bite through him like a hot knife through warm butter. The injury that the older Oikonni sustained caused him to panic, flailing his arms. Fox was thrown across the Laboratory as well, landing across a rack of mounted square devices that served a purpose little more than to break McCloud's fall.

Andross clutched at his throat and made a dash for the door. Blood ran down his wrist, from between his fingers where he was clasping his neck, trying to seize the gory lesion. Oikonni shouldered the metallic door off its sliding track, bashing it down. Andrew was only just sitting up when his Uncle passed through.

The young nephew couldn't help but notice the scarlet-drenched abrasion and moved to his feet. "Your neck has been lacerated!" Andy exclaimed.

"We need to find reliable medical help; he's strong," Andross explained, "But he's not done anything fatal," he told his nephew, then shouted over his shoulder, into the laboratory from which he fled, "THIS is NOT over, son of James McCloud! It has only just begun and we ARE fated to see one another again!" And with that, Fox sat up, blinking rapidly.

"Krystal, are you all right?" He cried, picking himself up and hobbled over to where she was, wincing at the pain of the glass remains that jutted from his back, arms and shoulders.

"I'm all right, Fox…; I can't believe you bit him!" She whimpered in worry. "Didn't you hear what happened? Andrew regenerated Andross' organs and tissue with the rapidly mutating disease that has been used to turn some of those soldiers into bio weapons! We need to get you out of here, incase it causes you to change. Let's hurry," she said, trying to sit up followed by an attempt at coming to her feet.

Once she stood, she placed the end of her staff on the ground, helping to take the weight off of her ankle. "Let's hurry, I don't know how much time we have, if you do manage to catch it," She told him.

"Can't we use one of these machines to find out?" Fox inquired.

"We cannot ascertain your health if we don't know how to work them. Let's head to the medical ship," She said, hobbling towards the door. "We've got to hurry," she muttered, expressing a sense of urgency. "It's hard to tell if it will affect you at all, since Andrew changed it, but there's no use taking our time. Come on, let's try and find that blue bike again, we'll use that to get out of here, quickly."

"Blue bike?" Fox asked, blinking twice. He didn't know about the wheels she'd secured earlier. All he knew is that he was willing to follow her. All she had to do is find out where they placed the motorcycle or if it was still in that sticky net a few corridors away from their current location.

The door swished open and Krystal narrowed her eyes in concern, shaking her head. "What is it?" Fox asked her but she couldn't reply. He simply shook her head in frustration. Fox peered out into the hallway and groaned, "Great! They set fire to the hallway! Goddess in heaven; let's find another way out!" He grabbed her paw and the two of them hurried through the Laboratory, now trashed from fighting.

Fox winced in pain from the glass in his body and Krystal's hobbling was growing better now that her ankle wasn't hurting as much as it was when she was first thrown. There was one back door that led towards the emergency exit of the base. Krystal readied her staff while Fox forced the door open with a shoulder attack.

Both of them stood in the doorway with gaping jaws. Behind them was a consuming fire but before them was a corridor blocked by dozens of undead, ghoulish soldier guards. Their macabre, garnet stained fangs were dripping with bloodlust."

"This is it, Krystal," Fox told his mate. "This is the big one. If we survive this, I'm tacking on some serious fees to Pepper's bill. But we're never going to survive this."

"We have to survive this, Fox," bemoaned the exasperated vixen, "we must!" After all, Andrew had plans to attack the Capitol Building, the Prime Minister's office, with these freakish beings if they didn't put a stop to them. There was no alternative; they had to survive or all would be lost.