-Chapter XXIV-

-11:48am... Cannah's orbit-

Fox had somehow...against the advice of his crew and friends made it out of bed and to the bridge, Krystal was a bit shocked to find him there when she woke up. She had been sleeping in his captain's seat for the last few days since he was injured which helped since he had already set up a sleeping area before he was injured, she simply wondered how long it had taken him to limp from his room to the kitchen to get the cup of coffee he was drinking, and then to the bridge where he was now standing before the bridge's massive viewing window looking at the small blue moon below them. She slowly got up and walked over to his side where she rubbed the sleep from her eyes...

"You really shouldn't be up like this..." She said.

Fox didn't reply he just stood there looking out at Cannah, "Beautiful isn't it? You know technically it shouldn't even be called a moon; healthy air, atmosphere, all the essentials for life...but unlike Corneria completely untouched and unharmed."

"Why hasn't such a beautiful place been colonized?"

"The local wildlife is a bit harsh...but as long as we stay on the ship we'll be fine." Fox replied, "MIA find a clearing and land this thing."

"Yes captain..." The computer's voice called back.

Fox began to make his way off the bridge slowly...making sure not to aggravate his injuries, "I'm going back to bed...do me a favor and take command until I'm back to working order again."

"Sure...whatever you say Fox."

She didn't fully understand, he never gave up command of his own ships not even to Falco. Maybe it was just some sort of trick to try and win her back. Or maybe he had finally come to terms with his injuries accepting them as the serious wounds they were. He didn't seem to have any recollection of the events that had taken place in the Beta Complex's docking bay...or even most of the time they had spent there...whatever power it was she knew he had, he was blissfully unaware of them. Yet Krystal was no fool, she knew a Cerinian's power nearly by smell alone and at that one moment he reeked of it...but, how could it be possible that he could harness powers that only the Cerinians possessed? She was certain that Fox had mentioned something when they had first become teammates that he was born on Papetoon. As he walked out of the room...well limped, Fox picked up the staff and small golden cylinder that they had been puzzling over for the last week or so.

(000)

Fox found his entire situation aggravating on an astounding level, his injuries gave him far too much alone time...he did enjoy his time by himself but, there can be too much of a good thing; it left him to his thoughts far more than he cared for...especially since most of them were of Krystal...and all the things he'd gone through to get to this point. Then again that was what the staff puzzle was for once his thoughts got to him he reached for the small cylinder...something was different however...the top and bottom cap of the small thing were both gone. As he examined the small thing he noticed on one end that there was a small impression that looked similar to the headpiece of the staff...he of course slid the staff into place, and as soon as it locked the outer skin of the cylinder fell to four sides like it had before when Krystal was in the vents of the Beta Complex. The burst of incredible light caused the injured vulpine to cover his eyes until the light subsided...

"The fuck was that?"

As he slowly opened his eyes, Fox was awe stricken...all around him was a wall of light, dark like a night sky littered with small white dots who's patterns looked incredibly familiar. He then noticed that there were larger colored ones...he knew this strange hologram...it was a star map that seemed to envelope the entire room...

"It's a complete star map of Lylat." As he looked on he noticed something else, "Why is Fichina pulsating red?"

Fox forced the four sides of the cylinder to close back up making the hologram vanish, "Could this be what Syler was after? He seemed pretty damned adamant about this staff. I'm gonna have to talk to Krys about this...if there are any answers at all to this I'm betting we'll find 'em on Fichina."

-4 days later-

-10:06am-

Fox was happy enough that his ribs no longer caused him such pain that standing made life miserable...unfortunately he was still rather badly injured from his fight with Syler...his head felt like a constant migraine , and he still couldn't help but wonder about that damn star map in the cylinder as he took a warm shower. Why a star map? Why was Fachina on that map the only thing with a bright red pulse? Why would a map have been so important to that moron Syler? Did he even know about the map? The thoughts pulverized his already injured brain into submission until he finally stopped thinking about it. He exited the room and headed to his dresser. He picked out a gray pair of cargo jeans and a matching tee shirt that turned out to be a bit tight around the chest...he had a bit of trouble getting it on though as his ribs seemed to disagree with him raising his arms too high, he didn't even bother to put his boots on before heading out of the room and making his way slowly toward the kitchen...As it had been recently everyone was already there. Creed had already made breakfast Krystal was in loner mode sitting off by herself most likely thinking, Silver sat at one table eating, and as they usually did the two friends Roxy and Lia were chatting lowly to themselves at another table while eating their own food...Fox took a seat across from Krystal whom seemed to ignore him altogether as she sat there mutilating a fried egg with her fork rolling it over on her plate again and again...

"Krystal?"

Fox's voice seemed to snap her out of whatever trance she was int...

"Hmm...What?"

"You feeling alright?

The blue vixen sat down her fork, "Yeah I'm fine just a little lost in thought."

"You're the one that unlocked the cylinder right?" He asked.

"Yeah the light off that thing damn near got me killed."

Fox leaned in a bit, "Yeah that cylinder...It's some kind of star map of Lylat. It only seems to work when it's fixed to the top of your staff. I looked at it for a while and...I think it's telling us to go to Fichina for some reason."

"Why would a star map my people made point you to a frozen waste like Fichina? It doesn't make any sense."

"I don't know...but. Why do you think Syler was so obsessed with that staff? I think he knew about the staff...hell I think he may have known why it's pointing to Fichina...he was Cerinian after all."

"Okay...say you're right..." Krystal said, "You haven't fully recovered yet."

"True enough but...think about how hard it was to open that cylinder...why would the Cerinians make it so hard to find something as simple as a map?"

Krystal leaned back in her seat for a moment, "Three days."

"What?" Fox asked not catching her point.

"Give yourself three days more to heal up and we'll leave..."

"One day..." Fox came back, "It'll take two to get there."

"Fine then..." Krystal replied, "Two days here...two on the way there...plenty of time for you to get healed up some more."

"Well I made you captain until I feel ready to take charge again so fine two days..." Fox finally agreed before Creed sat a plate of food in front of him, "You hear about Silver and Roxy yet?"

"Yeah..." Krystal said leaning back in her seat, "I give it a week."

"You know not every relationship is bound to end like ours..."

"It was your fault that ours ended in the first place..." She snapped at him.

Fox sighed and pushed his plate away, "And I'm willing too admit that. Do you really take so much pleasure in ripping that wound open whenever you get a chance? What's with you today? We were getting along just fine until now what the fuck?"

"You wouldn't understand..."

"I could if you'd just tell me..."

Krystal looked like she was on the verge of tears, "Fine...my problem is the same thing it's been for the last years of my life. Almost 10 years ago this very day, some idealistic son of a bitch took out an entire planet of people...MY PEOPLE..."

With those words she stormed out of the room, "Don't take it the wrong way Fox..." Creed said taking her seat, "She gets like that every year around this time...She blames herself you know? For everything that happened to Cerinia...I don't know why but...she dose. I've tried to help her get rid of that misplaced guilt but, I think that's why she misses you so much really..."

"Yeah sure..." Fox replied sceptically.

"I'm serious...she told me that when she was a member of that team...especially around you, she didn't think about it so much anymore. I think that's why kicking her off the team hurt her so much...she just didn't want to feel like this again."

"She sure as hell doesn't act like it.."

Creed took a sip from the mug of coffee he'd sat down with, "Well in all fairness you did break her heart...and when you've been though as much as she has you start to put up walls..."

"Those are some big fucking walls..."

"Yeah she doesn't do anything half assed...she goes all-out. Unfortunately I've never been close enough to her to actually help her through any of this...but, maybe if you tried hard enough you could."

Fox looked a bit unsure, "How's that?"

"Beats the fuck outta me." Creed said standing before leaving the room, "You're smart I think you can figure it out."

As they tend to the day rolled by uneventfully, to everyone's surprise Fox had confined himself to the bridge, either thinking or something, he wouldn't tell anyone what he was doing. He spent his time combing through the computer for god only knows what...he had been endlessly studying whatever it was he was studying for two days before Krystal sauntered in keeping her eyes on the metal floor. She really didn't want to be there but she did promise Creed...

"Hey..." She said lightly, "Creed needs you in the docking bay."

She started out the door but Fox caught her by the wrist, "Wait just a sec...when did you say Cerinia was destroyed?"

Krystal was a bit stunned but gave him a cold glare, "It was about 10 years ago...why?"

"No particular reason...was there anything unusual happening before the planet died?"

What's this sudden obsession with Cerinia? She asked herself, "Not really initially I was just trying to get off the ship my parents forced me onto." She said, "Are you done?"

"Yeah...just let Creed know that I'll be there in a few..." Fox replied going back to his work.

"Look we're taking off today..." Krystal said half way out the door, "I'm sorry I blew up in your face like that."

Fox sat down, "Are you saying that or did Creed talk you into it?"

"Actually you're wrong on both counts..." She said leaving the room, "It was Roxy."

Fox was at his studies for another hour before he pulled his head out of a mass of files and the computer terminals. He was a bit groggy when walking out into the open hall. The ship was eerily silent...he hated a dead silence they always made him feel uncomfortable. Fox's footsteps didn't even carry it was as if the entire ship was void of sound altogether it was actually making his head ache. He stopped for a moment and caught himself against the nearest wall as he lost his balance. Maybe it was just his wounds from his fight with Syler...maybe some of them had become infected or something. He took a moment to catch his breath and get his head on straight. It was the gruff voice of Creed that snapped him out of whatever state he was in...

"Hey are you alright?" Creed asked helping the winded vulpine to his feet, "I was just headed to see what the fuck was taking you so long when I saw you collapse."

Fox shook the cobwebs from his head, "Y--yeah...I...I'm fine...I think." He said as he found his legs again, "You needed me for something?"

"Yeah...actually. There was something weird coming through on one of the com channels while I was going over the systems on your arwing like you asked me. Funny fucking thing though...I went back through the systems and all of your console's drives and memories...according to your arwing you never received the message."

"Did you get a clear image of the person's face?" Fox asked as they walked into the docking bay.

Fox climbed into his arwing's cockpit, "No...well...a few flashes of a white face and green eyes but that was about it."

"Did you catch any of the message?"

"Not much all I caught was this gorgeous voice and a name..."

"What name?"

Creed looked back for a moment, "Vixy."

"WHAT!? ARE YOU SURE!?"

"Yeah why...?"

"That was my mom's name...Hang on." Fox suffled around inside his arwing's cockpit for a minute or so, then reached out handing Creed a photo, "She's the one on the far right."

Creed examined the photo, parts of it were worn and weathered with long while crease lines in it...a family of three foxes; one looked like Fox but was wearing a pair of black shades, there was a kit that only stood up to this foxes knees...the kit was smiling brightly...then he moved his sights to the vixen that whom was held close to the one wearing the shades, she had pale white fur that looked absolutely flawless, but most of all it was her hypnotic deep green eyes that caught his attention...

"This is the same vixen from the transmission...I could never forget a face like that."

"That's my mom...she died when I was a kit...not much older than I am in the photo." Fox said taking the photo back.

"Then how do you explain her being on that com channel?" Creed asked.

Fox sighed and looked to the photo in his paw, "I...I don't know--hell I don't even know who I am anymore...or at the least what I am?"

"Well...think about it...if I saw her on this com channel then that can only mean one thing right?" Creed asked.

"Yeah..." Fox said looking toward the docking bay ceiling, "She's...still alive."

-Undisclosed Location-

Cornelius was furious at the guard that was on the monitor mounted on his desk...the canine stood still with his eyes clenched shut tightly, simply listening...

"YOU FUCKING MORON!!" The doctor screamed, "YOUR DUTY IS TO WATCH THAT CELL AT ALL TIMES!! WE HAVE SAFETY MEASURES FOR A FUCKING REASON...YOU SHIT BRAINED SON OF A BITCH!!"

The president took a moment to think and calm down, "Where did the prisoner go?"

"Th-th—the d-docking bay S-sir. We believe a distress call was sent out." The guard replied.

"Fine...that doesn't mean anything. Have any of them at least talked?"

The guard sighed, "No sir...unfortunately there have been no more words about the key or what it dose."

"That's fine by me let them rot in that hell hole. What other news have you got for me?"

"Your replacement for the assassinated senator is working flawlessly sir...and there is already confrontation between Corneria and Katina...but I am sure that with the Cornerian military behind us we can take over Katina in a bit more than a week maybe less."

"Well then increase the guard around your station...we don't want that little accident happening all over again...the last thing we need is someone trying to be a hero." Cornelius said, "Just keep and ear out for anything reguarding the key or it's purpose...Strider is on his way to retrieve it as we speak."

"Yes sir."

"And KEEP that prisoner in her cell...she's stronger than you're giving her credit for."

"Yes sir I'll get right back to work sir."

The frustrated president leaned back in his seat rubbing his temples, "Ugh...I'm surrounded by useless morons."

AN/ Okay after this chapter it's time for the action to pick back up again...though this time the action is going to last quite a bit longer as Fox and the crew are about to hit some seriously turbulent waters. R&R...and thnx for reading. Till next time y'all...Cya