-Chapter XIX-

"The next morning"

The only thing aware to Fox when he woke up was the fact that he didn't want to be awake, his head was pounding like a tribal drum, his entire body hurt, and worse of all he could swear that he had cracked ribs because the act of breathing alone put him in immense pain. He groaned from the fire in his sides as he finally managed to sit up only to find himself in bed, he tried to look around only to find that his left eye had swollen shut and refused to open. He managed to get to his feet, used the bathroom, then headed out toward the kitchen, there was a stagger to his steps as he seemed to be suffering the side effects of a pretty nasty concussion. Fox staggered through the halls until he finally reached the kitchen; despite the fact that almost everyone was there nobody said a word as he made himself breakfast and, very painfully sat down. After Fox was a ways into his meal Creed sat down at the opposite end of his table...

"You do'n alright?"

Fox swallowed his food with a bit of difficulty, "I'll be okay...how's Krys?"

"She's no worse off than you..." Creed chuckled, "She's by no means any better off but...she'll live."

"Where are we now?" Fox asked.

"Sauria...we landed a few hours ago. You two have been out for nearly two days...you laid into each other pretty fucking bad."

Silver approached the two, "S--scar? Are you gonna be okay? Why were you fighting the blue one?"

Fox called over Roxy, "I downloaded a text from an old high school archive it's on the laptop in my room...make him read it."

"Okay but why?"

"Because he'll learn a lot faster without having to ask me a question every ten seconds..."

Roxy chuckled, "Alright...come on Silver..." She said taking the silver furred fox by the arm and leading him out of the room.

After a few more minutes of talking Fox could hear the door behind him slide open, followed by limping footsteps. Creed instantly jumped from his seat and headed into the cooking area, and soon the chair to Fox's left was occupied by a battered blue vixen; her right eye was in the same shape as Fox's left, he figured it was most likely from that last kick they gave each other, like him she was favoring her ribs and seemed to have a substantial headache, her limping was a bit worse than his as she seemed to have trouble with her right ankle...she let out a slight yelp as she sat down. Apparently her back was still quite a bit sore as well...

"You alright?" Fox managed to ask. He was a bit happy to see her smile at him.

"Mmm-hmm..." She hummed hissing a bit from the pain in her side, "More or less anyway."

Creed set a plate of food in front of his captain, "I'm going to get some fresh air...I've never been to this planet so, it should prove interesting."

His sister quickly joined him at the door, "I wanna come too. The only planet I've seen was that piece of crap Xenass..."

The two vulpine were left alone; for the longest time they said nothing they just sat there and ate, Fox thinking of something to say. What could he say? They'd beaten the hell out of each other...and worst of all he wasn't sure why. Krystal simply sat there trying to remember the last time she'd been in so much pain, it was quite a few times worse than being shot. Finally however they both finished eating, and though it hurt him to stand Fox gathered together their plates and limped toward the kitchen...

Krystal laughed a bit but recoiled as her ribs stabbed at her, "I--remember when we used to spar like that all the time." This time Fox laughed.

"Well...not quite like that..." He said sliding her one of the blue bottled drinks from the fridge before sitting and opening one for himself, "Still...you wanna run this by me one more time? Why did you attack me?"

Krystal had a bit of trouble pulling the top off of her bottle before taking a drink, "It--it's stupid really, just something I remembered. Something I never should've forgotten..."

"Go on..." Fox coaxed her taking a sip from his own drink.

"Back on Cerinia...mother and father used to have these arguments, you know like mates often do..." She started, "...but, instead of staying mad at each other...one time they got into a fight, like the one we had. When it was over and they were in the state we are right now...they realized that, they weren't angry with one another anymore. SO that became their routine...when they got angry enough to hurt one another they would find a private place away from prying eyes and...fight..." She smiled at a reminiscent memory, "I remember this one time, they wandered into the woods for a place to settle one of their spats...and they had beaten each other so badly that Arlex had to carry them both back to the house on his back..."

"Who?"

"Oh...Arlex? I guess on Corneria you would have called him a Nanny, and a bodyguard...he was like the brother I never had. My parents intended for him to be my mate when I grew up but, it kinda backfired and we developed a sort of a sibling bond instead..." Krystal laughed, but stopped as she clutched her ribs, "...father was so angry when he found out that I thought of Arlex as a brother that he accidentally destroyed the side of the house...he was a very powerful Telekinetic, but he let his emotions run away with his head sometimes..."

"Huh..." Fox laughed, "Sounds like my mom...she was a hell of a pilot...military brat too. My grandfather on her side was some sort of general or something I don't know, she said she'd never go back to her home planet so, I never met the real guy. Her adopted dad however was a real hard ass; you had to make your bed just right, brush your teeth a certain way, fold your clothes a certain way, wear your hair a certain way...he was strict. Mom, she always seemed to know what I was doing at all times, it got sort of annoying at times. See when her and dad got into an argument..."

"What did they fight too?..."

Fox laughed, "What?! Hell no! Mom would've fucking killed him...dad's hand to hand skills weren't exactly flawless. They thought up a different way of doing things...They'd leave me with Peppy, and take a vacation somewhere, every now and again they took me along but, they were never gone any longer than a week...when they got back they were as right as rain. Mom was the one that taught me how to fight...apparently where she came from women were always taught how to fight at an early age, apparently her people had a love for martial arts...at first she didn't even consider teaching me how to fight...but, being the son of the Great James McCloud, I got roughed up a bit in school. She was so pissed when I came home all bloodied up and bruised that she nearly headed to the school to have words with the kids themselves...but instead she decided to make me a fighter. A few years later nobody really tried to fight me anymore...accept this one guy on my first year of high school..."

"Really? What did he do to deserve getting himself beaten?" Krystal asked.

A tear trailed down Fox's face, "That was the year mom died...I tried to make him stop but, he wouldn't let up on mom. Finally I snapped...it took Bill, Slippy, Katt, and Fara to get me off of him, by that time his arm, leg, jaw, and three ribs were broken..."

"I'm sorry...how did it happen?"

Fox wiped the tears from his eyes, "You mean mom? She was headed to pick me up from the school's local powerball game...dad had taken a cab to work. Mom never showed up. They said the bomb that was planted in dad's car was meant to kill him...they suspected that it had something to do with Andross, but they were never sure..."

"So he took both of your parents from you..."

Fox wiped the end of his nose on the back of his paw, "Yeah. You know it was always funny...I didn't really cry when dad died...but, when it happened to mom, I didn't think I'd ever stop..." Fox chuckled, "Wow...talk about flying off subject..."

"Anyhow..." He said with a smile, "Thanks for kicking my ass...I kind of needed it..." He finished extending his paw towards her, "...friends?"

He'd never actually shaken her paw before, it actually made her feel...well like he respected her, "Yeah..." She replied shaking his paw, "...friends. Can we get off the ship now? I haven't seen Sauria's surface in years..."

Fox struggled to stand then helped her to her feet, "Yeah I think I could used some fresh air too...but I'll meet you guys out there I need to go get something."

(000)

Krystal blinked her eyes shut as she stepped into the summer Saurian sun, reveling in the feel of the warmth on her fur...they were in Thorntail Hollow; she feel the spirit of summer through the very wind that blew through the tall green grass, the land was as beautiful as she remembered, the mountains in the distance were perfectly visible, the water in the stream that separated the Hollow, by which Creed and Lia stood was perfectly clear, the trees had shed their leaves to prepare for the summer's harsh droughts, several of the large Thorntails in the near foreground studied their new visitors from a distance, she could see the Warpstone in the near distance from where the ship was...his head always did stick up above that wall, she even saw the old Sharpclaw in her store's doorway for a moment glowering at the intruders before disappearing back inside. As she stood there on the hard soil Fox approached her from behind...

"Wow...summer's treated this place pretty well...last year wasn't so great." He said cringing in pain from a sudden movement that agitated his sore ribs.

"So what dose that mean? You been living here?" Krystal asked as she stepped into the still cool grass.

"For a year or two..." He answered.

"Where were you staying?"

Fox didn't bother telling her the truth, "Oh...here and there." He said walking up beside her, "Here..." He lay her old staff in her paws...

She pushed it back to him shaking her head, "No...I gave that to you for a reason Fox..."

"He stole it right out from under me...It isn't safe with me anymore...I—I should have told you earlier..."

Krystal's face went blank, "Fox...Did you find it?"

"No the thief did..."

"So all that time I though I was searching for nothing?"

Fox did as she said and slid the staff into his belt, "Yeah I think you were right...the blade is out there someplace. I'll show you what I took from Danzig tonight. For right now however, I believe we've both earned the right to some R and R. Lets get Silver and Roxy out here...I want to go soak in that cold stream for a while, but I want Silver to see this place."

-Xenass Space Colony-

"Nex's bar"

The bar looked nothing like it had previously...it was abandoned, completely snuffed out when Sydney walked in. The half of the swinging door that was left crumbled to the ground as he tried to push it open; the place was covered in black, the stairs and tables had been scorched and shot full of holes, a large amount of bodies covered the floor...most had been shot some others were missing body parts from the large explosion that had caused the fire...there was a massive hole in one of the walls, some of the rubble crumbled causing the Argonite to snap to attention toward the sound...huh, a falling ceiling fan...

"What a state..." He voiced kicking an unknown object away from his foot, "...these blokes've seen betta days. Might take a bit longer than I thought...ain't gotta clue 'ho did this but...fucka's gotta nasty streak. Fucka's out o' his mind, use'n bombs in this small place."

Taking due note that the place was empty, and half destroyed, the crocodile made his way outside...where he studied the area. Being raise on his home planet Argon, Sydney was strictly trained as a tracker since his entire planet was mainly swamplands there was a lot of call for the profession, he was also a well honed fighter and a ruthless bounty hunter. They headed north through the suburbs. He followed what tracks he could find through the place that the different sectors of the colony...he stopped at the building that Fox had used to outrun Krystal and Creed...

"They split up right 'ere...one o' these fucka's is pretty big." That was when the reptile noticed an impression in a nearby wall, it was a large handprint with strange patterns on it's fingers and palm, "Hmmm...bionics. Might wanna watch out fer this one..."

He went on to study the warehouse where Fox had killed Taniks and mentally took note of what he saw; bikes and cars...destroyed, wolves shot in the head, Venomian...no head. It was as he neared the building that he noticed a small rig on the ground, a small string holding the pin to a grenade... "Rigged the lot before hand, he's a smart one." He then made his way inside to the rancid smell of rotting flesh, a smell he simply shrugged aside. Then he found the two Fox had killed silently. He studied the raccoon nudging his limp neck which caused his head to slink from side to side on his chest. "Hmmm...like a fuck'n twig." He said turning toward the dead wolf at his feet, "Did these two all quite like...hmmm, wonda why. Nut'n else ta learn 'ere. See 'ere..." He said pulling out a piece of paper, "Next place he was located...Zentarii..."

-Undisclosed Location-

The shady figure still sat in his office, he hadn't heard any good news from Sydney yet...his plans were falling behind schedule, he still didn't have the weapon, and now it seemed his assassination attempt on Corneria had failed...but maybe there was an easier way...He depressed the intercom button on his desk...

"Lanley..."

"Yes sir." A voice came back through the small speaker next to the button.

"Get Sydney on the line..."

"Right away sir..."

Several moments later the familiar voice came through, "This betta be good..." The reptile's voice said.

"Yes...it is. I have a job much more suited to you talents. Seems my lead hitman got himself killed on his mission...I want you to take his place. It's just a slight detour for one such as you really..."

"What's it pay?" Sydney asked.

"Two million...and all you have to do is kill someone...the acting Cornerian General Peppy Hare..."

"Let the heat cool down from your boy's fuck up...and it's done."

AN: Abut a normal sized chapter...poses more questions than it answer's huh...Well it's one of those. Remember to R&R and I'll try to make the next chapter a bit longer...till next time y'all...