XXI. A Bad Night

Fox woke up in the middle of the night, obviously uncomfortable sleeping in the chair, and got up leaving for his bed, looking at the clock on his way. As he stepped into the hallway he could hear the usual nightly sound of Peppy's snoring loudly. Everyone got used to his after a while and whenever the hare hadn't snored they had to check if he was still alive. The vulpine smiled thinking of his memories of the way the day went as he got into his bed, he was happier ever since he told Krystal what he felt.

Suddenly his mind raced on how good the team would be the next time the Lylat System faced destruction now that they had a telepath, new ships and a new member they would be unstoppable, atleast he thought. He suddenly heard a weird noise that broke his thoughts and it was not one he had heard before. He got up and raced out in the hall to see who or what made the noise and suddenly heard whimpering from Krystal. His mind raced he thought the worst, Noone had ever gotten into the ship undetected before but that was his first thought, he grabbed his blaster and ran towards the whimpering noise.

He ran up to the bridge and saw Krystal on the floor, but nothing else. "Krystal?" the vulpine said hoping that she would answer him but she didn't she only whimpered laying down motionless. He looked around a little more making sure nobody would pop out on him then he approached her slowly, he had no idea what was wrong with her.

"Krys?.."He said gently rolling her over to face him, he jumped back as soon as he did, her eyes had turned blue and were glowing. There was no way the vulpine could've expected this and had no idea what was going on, he had never heard of anyone's eyes glowing except when they held a Krazoa Spirit, but this was not the case, it was an entirely different color. "Krystal say something! Anything." He begged for her to respond shaking her gently scared to hurt her, he noticed that she was burning hot with atleast a 100 degree temperature. He was on the verge of getting someone to help him when she grabbed his arm moaning slightly and he noticed the glowing of her eyes dimming. He smiled slightly at her hoping the situation was over but noticed her temperature was still very high.

He picked her up and carried her into the main room, laying her on the couch and sitting there trying to help her in any way possible. Moments later her eyes went back to normal bringing a smile of relief to his face, but her temperature remained. "F-Fox?" She said barely able to talk, it was the first thing she had said to him in this whole ordeal. "Yeah?" He smiled at her glad to see that she was getting better,"Thanks..I'm sorry for being a hassle" She said quietly to him making him slightly blush, "It's okay, I'll always be there for you." Fox said, making Krystal smile even though she obviously had a right not to. The two were silent for a while, Fox constantly checked Krystal's temperature by feeling her forehead, he wanted to ask what happened but decided that he should wait.

Krystal quickly drifted off to sleep while Fox checked on her constantly, fighting off sleep the best he could until he couldn't resist it any longer. He picked up Krystal and took her to her room, walking in he suddenly noticed it was extremely warm in there, he sighed knowing it wouldn't be good for her in there with a temperature. The vulpine carried her to his room and put her on the bed, he knew it would be better, he had a personal air conditioner in his room. He then made his way back out into the main room and slept on the couch while Krystal slept in his bed, he would do anything for her and didn't hesitate to do so. The vulpine smiled and quickly drifted into a deep sleep.

The next morning the vulpine was awakened earlier than he had wanted by everyone flooding into the room. He took a beating from his teammates' jokes about him letting Krystal take his bed for the night but he shrugged it off as usual. Fox got into his Arwing and flew around for a little while, trying to pass time, he was curious about what was wrong with Krystal.

Hours passed before Krystal finally woke up, by the time the vulpine finally saw her she looked pathetic almost like she was still sick at the time. He decided to hold his questions for another time, hoping that she would be okay. The vulpine sat in boredom wishing there was something to do at this point, he hated watching TV by this point and needed something else to do.

Suddenly he heard a faint noise before R.O.B went on the intercom "Enemy ships in area!" Which made Fox slightly smile, it would be some fun for him. The team rushed to their leader awaiting their orders for the situation, Krystal was the last one there and Fox knew she should sit this one out. "Slippy Falco go to your Arwings, Krystal wait here a minute. I'll be with you two shortly." He said almost like a teacher would, Falco and Slippy laughed slightly at the fact that the vulpine pulled Krystal aside like any time they said anything about being with each other.

"Krystal I don't think you're in any condition to fight today" He said putting his hand on her shoulder, feeling that she was still hot from a temperature immediately. She smiled slightly "I'll be okay. I do--" She was interrupted by the vulpine who wouldn't have her go out into battle like this. "Just wait here Krystal, get some rest, you need it." This made her sigh, she seemed angry and was about to leave when the vulpine grabbed her and pulled her back. Wanting to let her know that he was doing this out of love. "I just don't want you getting any worse, you'll only miss this one battle that's all." She slightly smiled at him and said "Please be careful" he couldn't help but blush at her and he rushed down to the Arwings to meet up with the rest of the crew.

The team was met as soon as they launched by two familiar faces, Leon and Wolf. "We figured we'd have some fun when we saw your ship" Was the lizard's excuse, his cold voice still sent slight chills down everyone's spine. As Leon talked Wolf took his chance and delivered the first blow shooting Slippy's Arwing and already severely damaging it, "We've upgraded our fire power since last time." Wolf laughed as he chased Slippy, Leon chased Falco, his favorite target and the vulpine tried to save the two. Flying almost as fast as possible, the Arwings had a slight advantage on speed but the Wolfens made up for that in firepower. It only took 1 more shot to Slippy's ship to put him out of action, "I can't take any more or I'm toast!" Was the last thing he said before leaving back to The Great Fox, barely making it.

Wolf soon dropped off the frog and went straight for Fox, leaving Falco to defend himself. "Man Krystal helps alot.."Fox thought remembering how easy it was when he had a telepath helping him, but they'd have to go without her help for this round. Falco soon used his expert flying skills to shake Leon off for a split second leaving him with enough time to slow Wolf down slightly. Wolf was startled when his ship started beeping that he was locked on but by then it was too late his left wing had been clipped off, making his Wolfen spin for a second before he regained control. By the time Falco had gotten off his shot he had taken one from Leon and his engine started smoking, "Fox! My engines smoking! After only one hit!" Falco yelled making the lizard chuckle. Fox had almost gotten a shot off on Wolf when he saw Falco's ship severely damaged, he pulled off and went chasing after Leon.

Falco's engine looked like it would blow any minute from the pressure Falco was putting it in while damaged but he had no choice, Leon was still hot on his tail. Soon Fox finally caught up and locked onto Leon quickly and got off a charged shot before firing as fast as possible at the lizard. In the vulpine's recklessness he took Leon down and also shot Falco a few times accidentally putting Falco out of action too. It was down to Wolf and Fox now, Fox had a slight advantage in shields but he couldn't slack any in this situation.

It seemed like it had been hours as the two flew trying to get a shot off on one another while trying to avoid each others' fire. Fox's mind slipped for a brief second and he was hit by the Wolfen's powerful laser almost destroying his ship in one hit and putting it in critical condition. Normally when your shields went this low you fled from battle, if you took one more hit at this point you were dead. The vulpine had never fled from battle and he wasn't planning on fleeing from this one, his cockpit flashed a red warning light, warning him that his shields were almost gone any hit now would be fatal.

The vulpine fought his fear of dying and pulled off a tight somersault putting him right behind Wolf, He fired a shot on the Wolfen and put Wolf's shields down as far as his were. The team inside The Great Fox were watching the shield gauges and shaking although Falco would never admit it, they had never been through anything this close before. Wolf suddenly did a somersault putting him right behind Fox and then he shot at him, thankfully the vulpine deflected the shot by rolling at the last second.

Soon Fox could hear Krystal's voice "Fox, please just come back. This isn't worth dying for." She begged him but he shrugged it off knowing he would never live it down if he fled from Wolf especially one on one.

Another hour passed and they still were avoiding each other's fire, Fox knew he could win if he just held out now, the Wolfen was almost out of fuel thankfully Fox had just launched versus Wolf who had been flying across the Lylat System. Fox heard Krystal's voice again in his head begging him to come back, she sounded even more worried than before. The vulpine wondered if she could talk to him why she couldn't help him out in this situation, trapped in thought his ship jolted he looked up and his wing was clipped off from small debris floating out in space. Thankfully it hit the wing, if it hit the nose he would've been destroyed. He couldn't make another mistake at this point, even a slight one would be tragic. Suddenly he looked back and the Wolfen's engine was sputtering, he smiled in victory as the Wolfen came to a sudden halt followed by Wolf's cursing. The team cheered in victory on the ship, even though he had a poor performance Fox would come back the hero of the day. He flew back to The Great Fox smiling even though it wasn't a true victory, when you're that close to death all you want to do is come back home.

As soon as the vulpine landed Krystal was waiting for him and quickly embraced him in a hug, one that seemed like she would never let go of him. She either felt better or being trapped in his cockpit for hours made him used to warm temperatures as she didn't feel like she was running a temperature anymore. Falco and Slippy laughed at the two for hugging for a good minute. Fox hadn't realized they were there and quickly jumped away from Krystal blushing, Falco and Slippy left the two alone feeling they had annoyed them enough for now. The two sat out in the docking bay peacefully, Fox couldn't help but smile each time he looked down at the Arwing he was sitting on knowing that he shouldn't even be there after such a close battle.

Atleast a half and hour passed before Fox decided he should ask her. "Krystal, what happened to you last night?" He didn't even hide it he wanted to know why the vixen's eyes were glowing and why she was in the bridge of the ship. "I don't know, I was having a weird dream and i woke up with the worst headache." He sighed at her, it wasn't the answer he was hoping for. "I'll be okay though, I feel fine now so no need to worry." She went onto finish but he knew this was much more severe than a simple headache. "Krystal... Your eyes were glowing, this isn't something simple.." He said obviously worried, trying to word it out the best way possible to her, it even scared her too but she wouldn't admit it and make it worse for him. "Krystal, I'm sorry I have to do something" He stated before jumping off the Arwing he was sitting on and heading back into the ship to try and look up what caused her issue the previous night.

-Author's Note: Longer chapter, was fun to write but took me a couple days to build it up perfectly, sorry about my couple days of inactivity, hope this was worth the wait. Thanks for reading and your reviews etc. You all make the work all worth it!-