Chapter 25: Epinephrine

Fox raced through the Cerinian jungle, hoping to distance himself from the rapidly-approaching Cerinian troops who had picked up on his mental signature after Hyacinth stopped shielding his thoughts. Not knowing how close behind his adversaries were, he willed himself to sprint as quickly as he possibly could. His lack of telepathy prevented him from learning anything about his pursuers; and unlike Scarlet, he had no way of naturally blocking the constantly-seeking mind waves emanating from the Demiurge's Cerinian troops. Techniques that allowed a non-telepath to shield his thoughts from a curious Cerinian existed, but neither Hyacinth nor Scarlet had instructed him on how to use them. With his pursuers hot on his trail, he wished that they had.

A deep stream ran across his path as it descended into a heavily wooded glen, its peaceful waters betraying a tranquil air that belied the intensity of Fox's situation. The vulpine prepared to sprint through it and continue running after crossing, but something in his mind prompted him to stop at the riverbank and look downstream. The peaceful creek appeared to be flowing at a good rate of speed; and to Fox's surprise, very few noticeable rocks broke the surface of the water. An idea came to his mind, but before he could deliberate on it, he heard several branches snap in the woods behind him.

"Oh shit."

Knowing that his pursuers had already closed the gap, Fox dove into the stream, which he found to be far deeper than he had first thought. The current grabbed him immediately, pulling him downstream and twisting his body underwater. He lost his bearings in his liquid surroundings and began to panic, but in a brief moment, his muzzle broke the surface of the water and allowed him to catch a quick breath of life-giving air before the current pushed him under again. The stream bed was too deep for him to touch the bottom, but Fox retained the presence of mind to allow his natural buoyancy to push him to the surface. For the second time, his head broke through to the surface; but this time, he remained afloat as the water carried him downstream. He took a quick glance behind him to ascertain that the Cerinians were not still on his tail; and to his delight, it appeared that he had lost them for the time being—physically, at least. Due to their telepathic abilities, the Demiurge's troops were still able to continue their hunt for the rogue interloper even though their quarry had temporarily eluded them.

Spotting a large, rounded rock protruding from the water, Fox swam towards it and gripped the stone with his hands before pulling himself out of the water and standing up. The water dripped off of his bare chest fur and his pants and forced him to carry an extra amount of unnecessary weight. That is, until he shook out his fur and leaped off the rock to the nearby shore, where a large number of ferns grew. As he scanned his surroundings for the best possible path, he heard the rustling of bushes behind him and drew his machete without thinking. The blade sliced through the thick ferns in front of him, precluding a quick dive into cover on Fox's part. The vulpine turned his blade away from his body before he landed in a roll and used the centrifugal force from his jump to propel himself back into a running position.

Slashing tree boughs and vines out of his way, he began to regret agreeing to Scarlet's plan. In his mind, she and Hyacinth had taken the easy parts of the operation, while he was left to flee for his life as the awkward third man. Out of seemingly nowhere, a flash of blue raced past his head and struck a tree less than ten feet ahead of him, setting the trunk and foliage ablaze. Fox glanced over his shoulder; and to his horror, one of the pursuing Cerinians had caught up with him and was in the process of readying another shot. Acting on reflex alone, Fox slashed at a large, gnarly vine that blocked his path. The green growth separated from the two trees that it hung from and swung down on an arc that collided with the pursuing Cerinian and knocked him off his feet with a solid thump. The blue vulpine lost his footing and stumbled towards the tree that he had unwittingly set on fire in his attempt to shoot Fox. He fell on his face, dropped into the raging flames, and screamed in tortured agony as the searing fire claimed his life.

"Well, that was lucky," Fox mused, leaping over a three-foot gap that a rivulet flowed through. Twenty feet ahead of him, the makeshift path in the forest sloped downward at a sharp angle and ended abruptly in an enormous tree with a knotted, unsightly trunk. Alternate paths positioned at ninety-degree angles branched off on both sides of the monolithic plant growth; and in hopes of causing his pursuers greater confusion, Fox took the path to his right and began to double back, running parallel to the trail that he had followed to this point. A twenty-foot wall of loam and moss-covered vines occupied the right side of the path that he had decided to take. Large numbers of shrubs dotted the top of the wall, preventing Fox from accurately viewing anything above the brink.

The vulpine slowed his pace to avoid tripping on a series of overgrown roots belonging to some of the nearby trees; and as he maneuvered through the wooded glen, he felt the tips of his ears perk up. It was not common for him to pick up on sensations such as this one, but he had experienced them enough to know that his life was about to be in greater danger than it already was.

A second mental prodding stabbed at his reflexes. With adrenaline sluicing through his blood, he ripped his blaster pistol out of its holster and swung his body to the right in time to see one of the Cerinians leaping off the mossy cliff towards him with a small, rapidly-growing ball of blue fire on the tip of his staff. Fox pulled back on the trigger in rapid succession, launching five rounds in the time it normally would have taken him to fire off three. One of the plasma rounds struck the leaping Cerinian in the chest, while another caught him on the bridge of his muzzle between his eyes. The ball of fire on the end of his combat staff dissipated immediately as his life ended without warning. The blue fox's body crashed to the ground at Fox's feet with a dull thud, while the Cerinian's staff rolled out of his hand and stopped two feet from where Fox stood.

Taking a quick look around him to make sure that he was not about to be ambushed, Fox glanced at the staff and holstered his pistol before he reached down and picked up the weapon. He ran his eyes over the strange implement, which gave off a faintly luminescent aura and seemed to have a life of its own. He had the suspicion that he would be unable to use it due to his lack of Cerinian DNA, so he took several seconds to analyze the weapon and to line it up for a test fire. Holding the staff the way he would hold a gun felt awkward to him, so he lowered it to waist level and held it at his side instead. Sliding his finger over the black trigger button near the middle of the staff, he pressed down on the trigger, causing a blue ball of fire to build up on the weapon's tip before the staff jerked backwards in his hands with an earsplitting blast that rocked the jungle around him. A fully-charged orb of fire rocketed off the tip of the staff and struck Fox's intended target—a large tree to his left—with such ferocity that the tree split in two and burst into flames.

Astounded by the power of his newly-acquired weapon, Fox took a deep breath and grinned before he broke into a run once again. As he turned left at a fork in the mossy path, a series of automatic plasma rounds sliced through the underbrush around him and raced past his shoulder, colliding with a large rock that stood to the right of the tree that streaked past him as he ran. Despite being armed with an overpowered combat staff, Fox knew that he was still at a strong disadvantage. He had to admit that the demises of the first two pursuers had been extraordinarily lucky. Without a conveniently-placed vine or a fortunate sensation in his ear, he would have been eliminated by this point. The reality reaffirmed itself to him as more plasma fire laced its way through the tree canopy above him and set several leaves on fire.

"I've got to do something about this. They're getting closer, and I don't think they're going to be taking prisoners after what I did to their friends. But I don't know what I'm supposed to do after this! Damn you, Scarlet! This is all your fault!"

More plasma raced through the jungle air; and this time, Fox felt a searing pain rip through the left side of his abdomen as a stray round struck him and burned away his fur and his flesh at the sight of the impact. No amount of physical fortitude could prevent him from crying out in pain as he tripped and fell to the ground. Tears of pain flooded out of his eyes as the crushing agony of his wound entered his brain. He rolled over and felt himself growing faint as he stared at the burning, smoldering hole that had been burned into his side. Had he been wearing a combat vest, the injury would likely not have been anywhere near as serious as it was now, but because he was wearing nothing above the waist, the plasma round accomplished the maximum amount of damage that it was capable of causing. The heat of the plasma overheated the rest of his body after making contact with his bloodstream and gave him the feeling of having an intolerably high fever.

The superheated liquid cooled in seconds, but by that point, the damage was done. The wound on Fox's left side oozed with scorched fur, melted skin, and hot blood. Unable to continue looking at his injury, he collapsed and looked up at the forest canopy above him before trying in vain to turn himself over and push himself off the ground. As he struggled to move, the sound of the underbrush crashing behind him reached his ears.

This was it—the end.

He let out a frantic yell and leaped to his feet, grabbing his staff and preparing to lash out at his quickly approaching attacker. He took a quick glance behind him; and to his surprise, he saw no one. A mere second later, two hoarse screams reverberated through the forest; and a moment after that, an accompanying groan reached his ears. Struggling to stay on his feet, he turned around and breathed a tense sigh of relief as Scarlet stepped out of the bushes to his right. The vixen noticed his wound and gritted her teeth, but she shed no tears for him due to her mechanical limitations. Wanting to express her sympathy for the vulpine, she approached him, placed her hands on his shoulders, and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek.

"What took you so long?" Fox snapped, brushing aside Scarlet's kind gesture while trying to ignore the raging inferno of pain in his side.

"We came as quickly as we could, Fox," the vixen replied.

Ignoring her response, Fox growled, "Some plan you came up with—putting me at the mercy of five armed Cerinians while you and Hyacinth did all the easy work. What made you think that was a good idea?"

"I thought you said that you could protect yourself," Scarlet shot back.

"I…well…dammit. You're right, but it doesn't mean that I appreciate your plan," Fox mumbled.

Taking a closer look at Fox's wound, Scarlet cringed and exclaimed, "Dang—that happened to me once. It was the most painful thing I've ever experienced. It left a scar on my skin, too. Luckily, my fur grew back over it."

"Sympathy's not going to make it hurt any less, you know," Fox retorted.

Scarlet placed her hands on her hips and replied, "Well, what do you want me to do about it, then?"

"Oh, I don't know," Fox admitted, grimacing in pain before he collected himself and suggested, "Maybe Hyacinth has a remedy for it. It seems like there's a cure for everything here on Cerinia."

Almost on cue, Hyacinth stepped out from behind a nearby tree and walked towards Fox and Scarlet while trying to clean a particularly gruesome blood stain off the tip of her staff. Giving her weapon a quick wipe with a large tree leaf, she sheathed the staff and turned her attention to Fox. A concerned frown crossed her face as she analyzed his wound and took note of the damage that had been done to his skin.

"Yikes…that's really bad," she whispered, trying to avoid frightening or angering Fox with her analysis. "I've got something that might help your wound heal a bit, but it would hurt so badly that I'd need to put you to sleep before attempting it.

"Do whatever you need to," Fox replied. "Anything to make it better. Right now, it feels like I'm being burned alive."

Acting on a combination of suspicion and intuition, Hyacinth placed her hand on Fox's forehead and gasped, "Oh my word—you need help now. Quick—follow me! We need to get you back to my place as quickly as possible."

Hyacinth scanned the immediate area to get her bearings before she glanced over her shoulder at Fox and said, "This is the way. Try to move as quickly as you can. We can use one of the dropships to fly back to Tivuri, where I can treat your injury more effectively."

"Wait," Fox interjected. "I thought that you were supposed to take one of the ships and slip into the Demiurge's main base to find out more about Gematria."

Before Hyacinth could respond, Scarlet spoke up and explained, "That was the plan, but after Hyacinth and I managed to 'subdue' the guards around the dropships, I managed to convince one of them to spill everything he knew about Gematria. Let me tell you, it's not pretty."

"What is it?" Fox demanded, his ears perking up in nervous anticipation.

Solemnly, Scarlet answered, "Gematria is a bioweapon—more specifically, a lethal, genetically engineered virus. According to what that soldier told me, it's being kept inside a large number of missiles that the Demiurge intends to launch from his shield world on the edge of this system. They're supposed to explode in the atmosphere of every nearby planet that contains intelligent life. Then, they'll release the virus, killing everything that moves in less than ten minutes. As I said—not pretty."

A pale expression of ghastly horror worked its way onto Fox's face. "That's…that's even worse than I thought it would be. It's unthinkable—even Andross wouldn't try something like that!"

"It gets even worse," Scarlet added. "In the event that the Demiurge feels like he's about to be defeated, he has an armed SRD that he'll use to blow up this planet."

Fox's eyes widened in shock. "A Seismic Rupture Device? Oh no...you can't be serious. I know a little bit about those. They were originally designed on Macbeth for mining tough-to-reach minerals deep in a planet's crust, but the first planet that used one ended up being blasted to pieces. And you're telling me that the Demiurge has one for the sole purpose of destroying Cerinia if it looks like his plan is about to fail?"

"That's right, Fox," Scarlet deadpanned.

Fox muttered, "I have no idea how Krystal ended up agreeing to help that guy. I don't think I've ever dealt with anyone more insane than him."

"He is her father, though," Hyacinth opined.

"Still, even if my father had been working for Andross, I wouldn't have followed after him," Fox retorted.

"Are you sure about that, Fox? If you looked up to him and admired him, I don't see why you wouldn't have taken after him the same way that Krystal has taken after her father," Hyacinth suggested.

Fox clenched his teeth in anger and prepared an angst-filled response, but no words came out of his mouth when he attempted to speak. He knew that Hyacinth was right, even though he still found it difficult to believe that his friend would take up arms for the Demiurge so quickly, regardless of whether he was her father or not.

Pushing the current topic aside, he took a deep breath and responded with a hushed voice, "Never mind, then. We need to get going. Which way is the dropship?"

"This way," Hyacinth replied, pointing towards group of trees ahead of her. "Scarlet, if you could carry Fox again, I'm sure he'd appreciate it."

"Certainly," Scarlet replied, placing one hand under Fox's legs and the other on his back before lifting him off the ground and throwing him onto her shoulder. Following Hyacinth into the cluster of trees that lay ahead, she muttered to herself, "I hate to say it, but I'm starting to see the upsides of being a machine. Never having to worry about fatigue or losing energy is quite a plus, although I'm feeling hungry for some reason. That doesn't make sense. Is it safe for me to eat something?"

While trailing Hyacinth through the jungle, Scarlet spotted a nearby cluster of spherical, orange-sized, yellow fruits dangling from a tropical fruit tree with rich, purple leaves and reached out with her right hand to pick one. Deciding that peeling the citrusy morsel was not worth the trouble, she opened her mouth and dropped the yellow fruit in. She found herself unable to taste any part of it, but she had expected this due to her inability to breathe or to smell anything. Swallowing her food proved to be a mental struggle for her, but she eventually forced herself to down it. Only seconds after devouring the snack, a tingling sensation broke out in her chest. To her, it felt like hundreds of small creatures were crawling around inside of her. Hundreds of small creatures, most likely insects…

"Oh no…"

Her mind traced its way back to her reanimation in the lupine doctor's rented space at the Technology and Engineering Expo on Skallis. She recalled spotting a lone Aparoid beetle on the floor near the window that overlooked the ground below the building before she smashed the insect out of hatred for its species and their corrupting influence on both flesh and machinery. The mechanized vixen quickly connected the dots; and upon realizing the truth about her reconstruction, she froze in fear and nearly dropped Fox, who nervously asked her, "What's wrong, Scarlet?"

"I…I don't want to talk about it right now," the vixen stammered, almost shaking in trepidation. "I'll discuss it after we get back to Hyacinth's place."

Resuming her pursuit of Hyacinth, she followed the native Cerinian through the lush forest in the heart of Cerinia until the three of them reached the clearing where the two dropships idled, completely motionless without their crews to man them. Stepping into the open area, Hyacinth turned and addressed Scarlet. "I'll take Fox and head back to my house with the ship on the left. You take the other one and try to find a solid place to keep it hidden. I have a feeling that it could be useful for later. Don't worry—I'll pick you after you land."

"Sounds like a good plan," Scarlet agreed, setting Fox down and helping him to stand upright in spite of his injury. "I'll try not to take too long."

"Don't rush yourself, Scarlet. We want to make sure that thing is well hidden. At this point in time, we really don't want the Demiurge's men to figure out what happened here. It'll take a little while before anyone realizes that the soldiers in this area have gone dark; and by the then, I'd like for both of these ships to be well and truly gone."

"Understood," the red vixen affirmed before she approached the dropship on the right and entered through the opened side panel on the left portion of the left side of the craft, where a manually-operated Gatling turret was bolted to the ship's frame. Sitting down in the pilot's seat, she set to work closing the side panels and the opened cargo ramp before raising the engines' thrust and lifting off into the late afternoon sky.

While Scarlet's ship began heading in the direction of Tivuri, Hyacinth motioned for Fox to put his arm around her shoulder before she led him to the other dropship and helped him into the passenger area via the cargo ramp. Placing him in one of the seats, which were positioned along both walls inside the dropship, Hyacinth knelt in front of him and whispered, "Try to relax, Fox. I'm going to set this ship to autopilot. After that, I'll be back to administer your treatment. Sorry to say this, but I'm going to have to put you out for this."

"Do whatever you need to," the vulpine weakly replied, "This hurts like hell. Truth be told, I'd rather be unconscious. By the way, how do you know all about these remedies? Were you a doctor at some point?"

Hyacinth returned a faint smile and answered, "No, Fox. I know all about these remedies because I've had to use them all on myself at some point. This part of Cerinia is extremely dangerous; and if it's happened out here, it's most likely happened to me."

"Does that include the gryphon that almost killed me in the garden?" Fox sarcastically remarked.

Hyacinth shook her head and muttered, "I've never seen anything like that in my life, but it definitely does help to explain why no one has ever come out of the garden before."

Fox leaned back into his seat while Hyacinth walked forwards in the craft and dropped into the pilot's seat before raising the dropship into the air. She gripped the control yoke with a large degree of caution for fear of losing control of the ship that she had no prior experience with. She had used airborne and starborne vehicles in the past, but the military-grade dropship was equipped with far more powerful engines than any that she had personally used in her lifetime. Despite her familiarity with the native Cerinian weapons, she felt herself taking an instinctive deep breath when her finger wandered over the raised 'FIRE' button on the control yoke. Although no stranger to combat, she felt concern for the future of Cerinia wandering into her mind. She knew that if Fox and Scarlet's 'friend' (at least, she believed Felix to be a friend of theirs due to her own naivety about the issue) was to amass a large enough number of troops to challenge the Demiurge, war would erupt on a global scale, with the offworlders fighting to prevent the Demiurge from releasing Gematria on their planetary systems while the Cerinian leader's forces fought to hold the planet under their control.

The Cerinian pushed her worried thoughts aside and set the dropship to autopilot after pointing it in the general direction of her residence in Tivuri. Figuring that her rundown shed would have enough room to accommodate the Cerinian vessel as well as Fox's Arwing, she abandoned her pilot's seat and stepped into the passenger area where Fox sat. Judging from his pained expression alone, she could tell that the searing pain in his side had not diminished in the least. To test his temperature, the vixen reached out her hand and held it to his forehead. A frown appeared on her face as she realized that his abnormal body heat level had not subsided in the least. Still, she knew of a solution. However, it would not be able to be implemented until they reached her residence.

In the meanwhile, she collected her thoughts and told Fox, "Alright—I'm going to put you out, and you'll probably be unconscious for four to six hours. I just thought you might want to know about the effects of this medicine that I'm about to give you before I actually administer it."

"Thanks," Fox mumbled in reply. "Go ahead."

Accepting Fox's approval, Hyacinth dropped her backpack on the ground and removed more of the substance that she had used on him earlier in the garden. This time however, she squeezed far more of the medicine into her white cloth before she placed it over Fox's muzzle and forced him to breathe in. The vulpine fell unconscious in less than ten seconds, and he collapsed on his side on the row of seats that he had been sitting in.

With her 'patient' out and unable to feel pain, Hyacinth removed a package from her backpack and opened the small, plastic container that it came in. The utilitarian first aid kit contained an assortment of survival-oriented remedies, many of which she had used on herself at some point. Taking a deep breath, she selected a wrapped bundle of medicated cloths designed for deep flesh punctures or burn wounds. The grisly gash in Fox's side was untreatable by Hyacinth's means, but she did have the supplies to sanitize it and prevent it from becoming potentially lethal. Unwrapping one of the wet cloths that smelled strongly of a sanitizing agent, she draped it over Fox's wound and pressed down on it to ensure that the medicine in the fabric made full contact with the seared flesh that defined Fox's injury. Fox grumbled in his unconscious state, unable to wake up. Hyacinth sighed in relief, because if he had not been put out, his screams of pain would have nearly deafened her.

With the sanitizing bandage in place, Hyacinth took a step back and placed her medical supplies into her opened backpack before she seated herself on the right side of the craft opposite from Fox. Letting her heart rate fall, she leaned forward and placed her head on her hands as she regressed into thought. That is, until Fox's wrist communicator chimed.

Sitting bolt upright, the vixen stood up, walked across to Fox's side of the ship, and sat down next to the vulpine's unconscious form. She grabbed Fox's limp arm and glanced at the screen, which displayed an incoming call from a number extension that she recognized as being exclusive to Cerinia.

"I'm not sure this is a good idea, but I get the feeling that I should answer this."

Breathing in a quick draught of air, Hyacinth pressed the green button on Fox's screen and answered the incoming transmission. In less than a second, a familiar female voice came through the interface's speakers. "Fox? Are you there? Can you talk for a little while?"

"Krystal."

Hyacinth's mind raced as she considered the myriad number of possible outcomes that could result from her conversing with Krystal. She considered the possibility of talking her young friend out of her allegiance with her deranged father, but she knew that if she was to have a shot at doing so, she would first have to initiate conversation with her. Replying to Krystal's initial question, Hyacinth spoke, "Hi Krystal. This is your friend Hyacinth. Fox is…er…asleep right now and can't talk. Might there be something that I can help you with?"

Surprise manifested itself in the young vixen's voice as she responded, "Oh—hello, Hyacinth. How did you get involved with Fox?"

"It's not important," Hyacinth replied. "If you really must know, his aunt requested my services in being his guide on Cerinia."

From the other end of the line, Krystal gasped, "Wait! He's here? On Cerinia?"

"Yes. He's been here since yesterday." Hyacinth's face broke into a tense grin as she realized that she had just gained a small amount of leverage against Krystal by adding Fox's presence on Cerinia to the equation.

Now breathing heavily, Krystal exhaled, "Is he looking for me?"

"Now's the time to put the hammer down," Hyacinth thought before she gritted her teeth and replied, "To be honest, no—he's not. He was, but after what he saw you do in the High Council chamber, he's more or less given up on you and turned his attention to other things."

Krystal shrieked and panted, "No! How could he have seen that? I would have felt his presence if he was anywhere close by, and I didn't feel anything!"

"Remember that yours truly is highly skilled at masking her thoughts as well as the thoughts of others," Hyacinth murmured in response. "Both he and I saw what you did."

Krystal became eerily quiet, making no noise except for her sobs of anguish at the realization that Fox had watched her murder the Cerinian High Council in cold blood. With a tremor of regret in her voice, she yipped, "Oh, please tell me there's something I can do to convince him to look over that."

Leading Krystal in the direction that she had hoped to draw her towards, Hyacinth answered, "There is one thing that might convince him to overlook your murder of the High Council, and that is this: leave your father and help us to stop him from using Gematria."

At this, Krystal took a sharp breath and growled, "No. I can't do that."

"And why not?" Hyacinth asked in reply.

"You don't understand!" Krystal snapped, "If things are left as they are, this whole galaxy will become a war zone! Gematria is the kindest way to make sure that the people of the nearby star systems will never have to suffer the wars that are sure to come if nothing is done about it."

"Oh my word—her father has completely brainwashed her. She thinks that Gematria is a necessary evil to prevent what? Large-scale galactic war? That's beyond ludicrous. Neron has lost his mind and become so radical that he's turning into a danger to everything that lives and breathes."

Turning her attention back to her conversation with Krystal, the pale vixen presented the one fact she knew Krystal's father never would never dare to speak to his daughter about. "Krystal, listen to me. You can't trust your father—he's gone completely mad. I heard from one of his men that he has a subterranean explosive device primed and ready for detonation if he feels like he's about to be defeated. He won't hesitate to destroy this planet if he thinks it'll help him. Please, listen to me and get away from him before it's too late for you."

Krystal gasped in shock at the mention of the seismic rupture device. "He didn't tell me about that," she whispered. "Are you serious, Hyacinth?"

"Yes, Krystal," Hyacinth firmly replied. "I know you love your father, but you have to get away from him before…"

"Before what?" Krystal demanded.

"Before you become like him. Krystal, I know this is a lot to ask of you, and I don't expect you to follow through with it…but..." She paused and took a deep breath before she finished, "All of this madness would end immediately if you killed your father."

Silence reigned until Krystal gathered the resolve to reply. "No—I can't…I can't do that."

"Then war will come to Cerinia. Fox's friends will not let your father's plans reach fruition without a fight, you know. I can assure you that if it takes place, this war will be the bloodiest one that this planet has ever seen—and it will end with Gematria, the destruction of our homeworld, or with subjugation by offworlders who will show your father's supporters no mercy," Hyacinth warned. "You have to make a decision now, Krystal. This is your last chance."

On the other end of the line, Krystal paused and mulled over her options. While the blue vixen pondered the choice that had been presented to her, Hyacinth crossed her legs and bit at the edges of her claws, awaiting an answer from her former friend. Seconds passed before Krystal collected herself and said, "I'm sorry, Hyacinth, but I am not willing to abandon my father. That's my decision, and I'm willing to accept the consequences."

Feeling a sense of desperation welling up inside of her, Hyacinth begged, "Please, Krystal! Don't do this!"

"I'm sorry, Hyacinth."

With that, Krystal closed the call, returning Fox's communicator screen to its main menu. Perturbed by Krystal's unwillingness to listen to her pleading requests, Hyacinth let go of Fox's hand and sat down on the row of seats on the side of the dropship across from the vulpine.

"That's all there is to it now. War will ravage Cerinia, and there's nothing anyone can do to prevent it."

For a brief moment, she looked up at Fox, sprawled out on the troop seats with a flat, lifeless expression on his unconscious face. The vixen looked over his multiple wounds—the shoulder gashes he had sustained from his encounter with the gryphon in the Sacred Garden and the deep tissue burn that he had received from the stray plasma round—and sighed.

"Poor guy. And to make it even worse for him, he loves Krystal and had to watch her become somebody that I never thought she could be. Oh, why is this happening? Neron, what are you thinking? I don't understand this! You're going to end billions of innocent lives, and for what?"

Shaking her head in disbelief, Hyacinth stood up and walked back to the cockpit, where she retook control of the dropship from its onboard flight computer and began the preparations for landing in Tivuri. War was inevitable at this point—she knew that much. All she could do was to help Fox recover from his injuries and to prepare herself for the violence to come.

Several hours later...

Fox's eyes slowly worked their way open. As opposed to the unbearable heat he felt after being shot, the temperature around him felt blissfully cool. The aromatic scent of natural citrus candles filled the air, which seemed much cooler than the humid jungle that he had spent most of the last two days in. His vision appeared like one large blur at first, but within seconds, his eyes began to adjust themselves to the room that he found himself in.

The first aspect of his surroundings that he noticed was that he was sitting in a bathtub filled with cold water and soap suds. He noticed his clothes folded on the floor next to the tub, which stood next to a large, wood-patterned sink with dark trim. The walls of the room appeared to be made out of bamboo or a material of a similar composition, and the color scheme followed a dark, earthy pattern with warm beige tile on the floors and darker colors on the walls with a black ceiling to accentuate the rest of the room.

Turning his head to the side, he came face to face with Hyacinth, who was sitting next to the tub with an opened book in her hands. Feeling shocked and moderately violated at the knowledge that his guide had willfully stripped him of his clothing and bathed him while he was unconscious, he furrowed his eyebrows and demanded, "What do you think you're doing?"

Matter-of-factly, Hyacinth replied, "Saving your life. Your wounds had some serious toxic buildup in them, and your body temperature was dangerously high, as you might remember. Just relax. It does feel good, doesn't it?"

"I guess it does," Fox admitted. "But what is it with you Cerinians and your complete lack of privacy? I mean, I haven't seen you put on any clothes other than that loincloth of yours."

Hyacinth brought her hand to her muzzle and pensively stroked it. "I suppose we simply don't feel guilty about our bodies the same way that your people do. I don't think there's much of a reason for it. It's just how it is."

"I see," Fox replied before he changed the topic and asked, "What time is it? And what's Scarlet doing?"

Hyacinth set her book down and answered, "It's well after sunset. Scarlet called up your friend Felix and explained the situation with Gematria. Then, she went to bed. As far as I know, she's asleep right now—although if she really is a machine like she says she is, I don't see why she'd need to rest."

"I think she realized something about herself that disturbed her," Fox suggested. "While she was carrying me to the dropship, she ate some kind of fruit. I don't know what it did to her, but she almost dropped me because of it. I don't think she needs to sleep, but she might just be trying to escape from something in her mind by shutting down."

A perplexed expression appeared on Hyacinth's face. "Strange. You know, she doesn't act like a machine. In fact, if she hadn't mentioned it, I never would have known. There's something very 'organic' about her, even if she is a robot."

"Yeah," Fox agreed. "Speaking of her, I'd like to talk to her for a little bit. There are a few things between us that I need to get off my chest."

"Do you have a history with her?" Hyacinth inquired, a faint smile sneaking onto her lips.

Uneasily, Fox replied, "Well, she's my cousin, even though I didn't know that until a few days ago. This last week has been ridiculous for me, and it looks like it's only going to get worse. I might as well vent about it with Scarlet. Maybe it'll help her to take her mind off of whatever it is that's bothering her."

"That sounds like a good idea," Hyacinth murmured. "I need to get some sleep myself; and now that you're awake, I can finally catch some rest. When you get out, just make sure you drain the tub, alright?"

"Sure," Fox agreed.

Hyacinth stepped out of the bathroom and into the adjacent master bedroom, where she proceeded to slip into bed while Fox climbed out of the bathtub and dried his fur with a Cerinia-appropriate blue towel that his host had left for him to use. He matted his fur with the blue cloth, shook out his pelt, and assessed the pile of clothes on the floor next to the tub. To his delight, Hyacinth had taken his shirt and his jacket out of his Arwing's cockpit and set them out for him to wear. The soft fabric of his T-shirt caressed his fur as he slipped it on, reminding him of the seldom-realized joys of comfortable clothing after having trekked through the harsh Cerinian jungle without any clothing above the waist.

Fastening his belt and throwing on his jacket, Fox exited the bathroom and crept through the master bedroom, being mindful not to wake Hyacinth, who was sound asleep at this point. The vixen's house could have been best described as a large apartment in the form of an individual residence, with a small, rudimentary kitchen and a diminutive guest bedroom with a bed barely large enough for two. Without a third bed, Fox realized that he would either have to sleep next to Hyacinth or Scarlet if he wished to avoid spending the night on the hard wooden floor. For the moment, though, he directed his thoughts elsewhere as he stepped through the short hall that linked the central kitchen and dining area with the guest bedroom, where Krystal had often spent her nights as a kit when her parents could not care for her due to other obligations.

The door to Scarlet's hung open; and in the darkness of the room, the outline of Scarlet's enviable physique could be seen beneath the sheets that covered her body as she slept. Stepping into the room, Fox noticed her folded bodysuit beside the bed and blushed. However, he reasoned that Scarlet would not be concerned about her lack of nightwear if he was to wake her from her mechanical sleep. After all, she was merely a machine with a replicated body covering her mechanized components.

Fox intended to approach the bedside and wake Scarlet, but before he could take another step forward, he heard the vixen murmur a faint series of sounds. Perking up his ears, he stepped towards the bed and listened closely as Scarlet repeated herself in her sleep.

"Obey us…obey us…obey us…obey…"

AUTHOR'S NOTE(S):

I'm not sure whether to be happy or sad about this, but The Oasis is drawing to a close. Only about six more chapters remain until this story is completed. What will the outcome be? You will have to wait until further notice to find out. I will try to do my best to keep the chapters coming in spite of the increasingly-chaotic nature of my life. Strangely enough, most of Hyacinth's conversation with Krystal and all of the final scene were written at 30,000 feet onboard a CRJ-200.

In response to Foxy Wonder: will Fox and Krystal be reunited at the end of this story? Well, as the Archetype from the Iridium Chronicle would say, "That is yet to be determined."