Krystal found she had nothing to say as the five men led them back through the woods towards their landing shuttle. Their group totaled nine, and every instinct Krystal had acquired on Kew was reminding her that crowds were lethal, and whenever she was in the company of others, she wasn't nearly as secure as when she was alone, with only her wits to keep herself afloat and no burdens to drag her under the surface to drown as all that she held dear sank beneath the waves to fester for the rest of eternity…

She shook the notion from her head, startled at how quickly her thoughts had shifted towards drowning. The image of the bell she and Fox had encountered in the clearing flashed through her mind, and for an instant, the golden eye gave her a powerful glare.

Again, she shook the thoughts from her head, clouded as it was, muddled with images and omens she couldn't explain or comprehend. It made her head spin, and her stomach ache.

And what of these five men before her, leading her and her comrades onward through the ever-vigilant trees? What of their alignment? Had her powers again failed her? So sure she had been of their vile intentions, and now they graciously offered forth salvation. She bit her lip. What would Fox think?

Fox…

Her heart melted with love for him. She'd been so cruel to him, so closed-minded. Staring blankly at his back, which was facing her as he followed the men in blue, she cursed herself for being so cold.

But heart solidified again. He'd proven time and time again to be too attached, and his stubborn will threatened to get them all killed. She cursed herself for being so soft. Surely, a melted heart wouldn't sustain her life for long, and it would certainly do no good to sustain Fox's life, which she knew she had to preserve.

Ironic. Preserving a life you don't even care enough to cherish. But that was her curse, wasn't it? She'd run away because of it, she'd become a killer because of it, and now she'd wound up an unwilling bodyguard, all because of this terrible curse she had become.

"Here we are," said the man with the brass pins on his wide, blue collar, motioning to a large transport craft. Krystal noted a serial number on the door that they slid open, and gathered that this was likely a drop-ship designed for use by soldiers. The navymen filed aboard, Falco being supported by one of their number and Fox. Krystal hesitated a moment at the door, struck by a sudden urge to remain on the planet. She felt that she'd forgotten something, something crucially important.

"Get in." It was Fox. From his tone of voice, he'd already formed some misconception about Krystal and her mistake earlier. He probably thought she was lying to them, perhaps to protect herself. She could've read him to determine what it was specifically, but Krystal didn't want to know any more than she'd gleaned from his tone and demeanor. She climbed aboard, discarding the impulse to stay behind that she'd initially experienced.

As she ship spooled its gravity drives and rose from the ground, Krystal thought still more about the mistake Fox was now holding against her. Never before had her powers failed her like this. When she first saw the shuttle, the very one she rode aboard now, descending on the planet, she'd summoned up the energy to pry into the minds of the occupants. She didn't go far, but she saw, without so much as a shadow of a doubt, hostility. Looking over at the five of them, who were looking everywhere around the ship but at their passengers, she wondered if perhaps, she hadn't been mistaken at all.

A trap would've been brilliant enough, and having been so distracted, she'd let them all walk right into it. But they were Cornerian—surely they wouldn't anything against citizens of the nation they served. Fox and Falco were national heroes, but Krystal wasn't even a citizen... Perhaps she had been the target of hostility. It certainly would explain quite a bit.

Deciding to risk reading one of them again, she leaned her head back against the wall of the ill-lit craft, and taking one last look at the slowly shrinking features on the surface of the planet below, shut her eyes, and moved her thoughts into the mind of the closest navyman to her.

His thoughts were many, and each was complex and precoordinated, and they filed past Krystal in an orderly fashion, implying a plan. He was carrying out orders. As for hostility, it was certainly present there, but it was in the back of his mind. For now, he concentrated on sending a transmission back to the CSS Providence, where the shuttle was returning. Opening her eyes and suppressing the memories of the dead man in the alley, she took a few deep breaths.

She turned to Fox and whispered breathlessly into his ear, "Fox, I think I may have been right the first time."

He replied flatly, "What? About members of the Cornerian navy wanting to kill us?" His tone stressed the ridiculous nature of such a scenario.

"Not necessarily, but I've just seen into one of these men, and he's withholding something from us," she pleaded.

"You were wrong before and you're wrong now. I've worked with the Cornerian navy before, and I can promise you that they have nothing but our best interests at heart." He sounded annoyed that someone would imply such things about the Cornerian military. "You're not going to accomplish anything by lying to me."

"I'm not lying!" Krystal hissed.

"Something wrong?" the leader asked, Krystal last retort having caught his ear.

Fox cut Krystal off before she could say anything, "Nothing. She just gets spacesick."

Perhaps she was wrong. She slouched in her seat, wondering if two years without using telepathy had made her powers rusty. But then again, she'd sensed so much love in Fox when she'd read him, and that had to prove that her second sight was in proper working order… didn't it? She was still unconvinced, although now with even more doubts riddling her thoughts, so that she was having trouble keeping them all straight. They wrapped around her like a chain, and pulled her down into the depths, never to see the sun again…

Krystal felt as though her powers had betrayed her. She'd gotten along without any problems without them on Kew. Why should she still need them? Here, now, for the first time in two years, she was using her abilities, and nothing good had come of it. Perhaps she'd made the right choice when she'd sworn to abandon them forever. But the real mistake was that she broke the vow, for such oaths don't like to be broken.

Indistinct radio chatter cut through Krystal's thoughts. Through a small viewport, Krystal made out a massive Cornerian battleship. The shuttle moved slowly in its direction, like a hurt child returning to an abusive parent, seeking a love that never came.

Falco busied himself studying the ceiling intently while Fox looked at the floor between his feet. The occupants of the shuttle remained silent, and the random slew of static and garbled voices from the radio provided a fitting background for their wordless exodus. The planet had offered them a home upon its surface for the longest week of Krystal's life, and now they all left it with unceremonious quietude, floating away in a rusty transport. She felt a faint melancholy at her departure from this unnamed world, and she caught an aura of the same feelings from Fox and Falco. She closed her mind, having no wish to listen to anything but the soft, harmonious discord of the radio traffic.

Through a viewport, Krystal watched as the shuttle was enveloped by one of the battleship's docking bays. She heard the engines whine as felt the floor plates rattle as the thing settled down on the grubby steel deck of the hangar bay. Dogfighters and other transport craft were lined up in neat rows against the walls, ready to come zooming out of the hangar bay and into battle at a moment's notice. Just who they would be firing at when they did so still remained unknown to Krystal. The expectation of learning the situation and what happened to the first battleship made itself prominent in Krystal's mind.

The thick rumble of the engines slowly died away, and, power being subsequently cut to all the shuttle's systems, the radio's gentle gurgling was abruptly silenced. Krystal got to her feet.

"Take me to see your captain," she ordered the leader as one of his men slid the door to the side.

"Yes, certainly. Follow me." He led her out of the shuttle and out across the empty deck, leaving Fox and Falco behind them without further adieu.

"Krystal," Fox's voice rang through the expansive chamber, stopping Krystal in her tracks. Turning to face him, Krystal caught his eye. "Get some answers. And be careful," a half-hearted smile brightened his countenance as he spoke. As Krystal pivoted back around and strode away, she smirked to herself. Perhaps Fox could be reasonable after all.

Once out of earshot, the man leading Krystal said without looking at her, "So you're the infamous Krystal…"

The grin vanished from her face as she snapped, "Shut up and walk." As if he hadn't already known who she was.