Chapter 34

Krystal stood in the medical bay, frustrated and angry. "My sister?" She desperately hoped that the cat was lying, but she wasn't. "So you're telling me my sister murdered my entire family?"

"I... I'm sorry." Vivian began to sob, but no empathy was offered from the blue vixen.

"You destroyed my home! You destroyed my family! And you tried very, very hard to destroy me as well."

"Mom's death was an accident!"

"Oh, that's supposed to make it better? You not only murdered my family, you tore them apart before you did it!" She ignored the tears that were dampening her cheeks. "You are evil! You disgust me. We may be related by blood, but you are no family of mine."

"Just tell me what I can do. Anything! I'll do anything!"

"How about you bring back my dead family!"

"They're my family too! You don't think if I would do that if I could?"

"Well, then we have nothing to talk about. Get off my ship."

"Wait!" She pressed a button on her arm, and a bag materialized beside her. "I want you to stop him."

"Who?"

"Who do you think?"

Krystal rolled her eyes. "Right, Con's mysterious evil brother, who everyone knows except for me. I'm so tired of this! I just want to live my life in peace."

"And you can! There's a way to save Cerinia... and it might bring back your family. Wait, you don't know who he is, do you?"

"No, I don't. No one will tell me."

"Take these." Vivian opened the bag and held up two staves nearly identical to Krystal's, but with white and red gems, respectively. "Take these to the temple in Cerinia. There are four others that you need. Once you get them, pass the temple tests and use them to advance. I don't know what it will do, exactly, but I do know that it will save Cerinia."

"Nothing short of turning back time will save Cerinia. You made sure of that."

"I don't know how it works! I just know what I was told by the people who created the temple. The Guardians made the temple as a safety device, and when it's activated, Cerinia will be saved. That's what they told me. That's all I know."

Krystal sighed. "Who is your partner?"

"If you haven't figured that out already, I'm not going to tell you. You won't believe me, anyways. Just save Cerinia, and he will die. He and Con and I will all disappear forever."

The vixen grabbed the two staves. "I need four more?"

"There are seven total. Red, blue, white, black, purple, yellow, green."

"Thank you. Now, get off my ship."

"Can I ask...just one favor? And then you won't have to see me ever again."

Krystal sighed. "What is it?"

"Can you take me to Corneria?"

Krystal sighed again.

"There's an old friend that I... I want to say goodbye to. I'll go willingly to the military, and you will get your reward, if that's what you want. But my friend... he died today, several years ago. I never got to pay respects."

"We could get into real trouble by harboring you."

"I know... and if you do get caught, I will swear to them that you had no knowledge of me being here. I will take the blame."

"I'll talk to Fox."

"Krystal..." She touched her sister's arm. "Thank you."

The vixen didn't reply, exiting the room.

Fox stood in the hallway. "How'd it go?"

"Can we go to Corneria?"

"Are...are we turning her in now?"

"I can't do that."

"What?! Why?"

"She's my sister."

Fox blinked. "You're joking, right?"

"I was not raised with her. I've never even met her before all this. She was banished when I was born, because Cerinian households are only permitted to have two children. My father only spoke of her once, and Kevin mentioned her a few times, but I didn't know who they were talking about. By their tone I thought someone had died. I could sense her thought patterns. She was telling the truth."

"She doesn't look anything like you."

"No, but she does look a lot like my grandmother. My mother had a lot of fox-like features from her father, and I inherited from her and my father. It seems that Vivian got our grandmother's genes."

"What about finding her partner?"

"She said that if I take these staves to Cerinia and place them in the temple, he will die."

"How do we know she's telling the truth?"

"Telepathy. She received the information from the Guardians. They're... the gods of Cerinia, basically. They created Cerinia and the temple. I'm actually inclined to believe her."

"So, I'm guessing getting that bonus is going to be a little more difficult than I first thought."

"She wants to go to Corneria to say goodbye to a friend of hers. And then we're going to take her to Cerinia. Her and I will go to the temple and fix this. You're not allowed to follow me, okay? Your technology doesn't work on the planet's surface. Your arwing will die as soon as it touches the atmosphere, and people not of Cerinian descent will die within a day. The air is toxic to your lungs."

"Point taken." Fox motioned her to follow him and walked to the bridge. "Rob, set course for Corneria." He turned back to Krystal. "Since you're doing most of the work on this mission, I'll give you the highest bonus. Whatever we get in total, you'll get forty percent of it. The other sixty will get split among the rest of us and ship maintenance."

"That's not necessary. We're a team. We each get an equal share."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. You're giving just as much time as I am to this, even if my job is going to be a bit harder."

"I guess so. If you change your mind at any time before we get paid, let me know."

The ship groaned as it turned towards Corneria.

"Would you like to use the Warp Gate technology to travel to our home planet, Corneria?" Rob asked in monotone.

"If possible."

"The complicated part of this mission is going to be getting me back to the ship. Technology doesn't work on Cerinia. The entire atmosphere is like a giant EMP. When Katt was on the planet, she managed to fix up a few things, but they broke down immediately afterwards. The only source of energy we have is the staves, but they're going into the temple. I'm not sure if we'll be able to remove them again."

"What about that stone?"

"Con has it. If I can get it back from him before we go..."

"I can have Slippy hard wire your arwing to the stone so that you'll be able to land and take off from Cerinia safely."

"That's perfect." She smiled. "Two birds with one stone, yes? Saving Cerinia, and catching the bad guy."

"Kill the bad guy, save the world. What else is new? I've already saved the damsel." He winked. "I'll see if we can get hotel reservations for tonight. Whereabouts is Vivian's friend?"

"Corneria City Cemetary." Vivian replied from the hallway.

"Ah." Fox looked up, and then turned his face down. "My condolences."

"How long have you been standing there?" Krystal asked.

"Long enough. I'm glad you've decided to save Cerinia. I wish I could be there to see the planet's restoration."

"I can hardly wait for it. I'm desperate to know how it's going to work. Everyone's dead."

"I wish I could tell you. The Guardians brought me back to life. Maybe they can do the same to the village. I hope I can stick around long enough to... to see mom again."

"The Guardians are the ones who are fixing everything, yes?"

The feline nodded.

"Perhaps I can ask a request, to keep you and Con alive."

"You'd do that?"

She nodded slightly. "I may not be very fond of you, but you do seem to be trying to undo what you've done."

Tears filled Vivian's eyes. "Thank you."

"Hey, Fox, are we mo-WHAT IS SHE DOING HERE?!" Katt shouted, pointing an accusatory finger at Vivian.

Krystal turned around to calm her friend. "It's all right."

"It is not all right. It is so far from all right."

"She's helping us, now. We're going to save Cerinia, Katt. There's a slim chance that everyone from the village can still be saved."

"She murdered Kevin." Katt stared at her friend with teary eyes.

"It wasn't her." Krystal lied. "It was her partner. Katt, she's my sister. She's Kevin's older sister. She's trying to help us."

Katt shook her head. "I can't be here with her. I'll kill her."

"She's not going to hurt anyone else!" Krystal insisted. "Once we place the staves in the temple, Cerinia will be safe, and her partner will die. She is helping us."

"I don't believe it. I don't trust her."

"I can hear you." Vivian cut in.

"Good, you slithery bitch!"

"Katt!" Fox snapped. "Cool off."

The pink furred feline stormed off the bridge.

Krystal turned to Vivian. "I'm sorry. Just avoid her."

Rob beeped. "Arrival at Corneria in T-minus ten minutes."

"Go get packed up for the night. I'll make reservations." Fox said.

In ten minutes, the ship was in orbit. Krystal took Vivian into Slippy's tool room. "We can't be seen with you, or we'll be in trouble and you'll be arrested. They have video evidence of you, right?"

"Yeah."

"This should help." She took a chunk of coal from a box and rubbed it around Vivian's face, giving her the appearance of black and grey fur. She then worked down her tail.

"Thank you..."

"Yeah, I don't fancy being arrested and taking down the entire team with me."

"Understandable..."

"Wear this." The vixen took a sweater with a hood out of her room and handed it to her sister. "It's late right now, so there are less people about on the street. But we can't be too careful. We'll take you to the graveyard, and then we're going to a hotel for the night."

The Star Fox team flew down to the planet in their separate arwings. Vivian hid in the storage compartment of Krystal's arwing. When they landed, Krystal looked around to ensure no one was watching before she opened the compartment and helped her sister climb out.

"God, it's stuffy in there. And cold."

"Sorry. We couldn't risk giving you your own ship." She looked around, and then lifted on the hood of her own sweater. "Come on. Let's go. I'll escort you to the graveyard."

The girls hailed a taxi. The drive to the cemetery was short and uneventful.

Vivian walked slowly to a tall gravestone, decorated with medals of honor and several bouquets of flowers. "Do you mind giving me a few moments alone?"

"Of course." Krystal glanced at the name on the stone and gasped softly. She quickly stepped away.

"I'm sorry..." Vivian knelt at the foot of the grave. "I am so far from who I was when I met you. You saved my life... and I'm sure now, you're looking down with regret on that decision. You were the savior of your world, and I destroyed mine." She sat down, tucking her legs to her side and playing with the grass by her feet. "You were always too good for me. You were always meant to be a hero." She smiled softly at the name on the grave beside his. "I'm glad you found her. I wish I could have met her. She must have been amazing. And your son, he really lives up to the hype. You must be so proud of him. You've always been my hero, James."

As Vivian was talking, Fox stepped out of his taxi and walked swiftly to Krystal. "She find her friend?"

"Yeah... she asked for a moment alone."

Fox looked around with a sad glint in his eye. "My parents are buried here."

"I know." Krystal said. Her expression quickly changed to alarmed.

"Do you mind if I...?"

"Fox, I don't think that's a good idea at this moment..."

"Why?" He glanced in the direction of his parents' grave. "Is there something wrong?" He took a step, but Krystal grabbed his arm.

"Vivian wants to be left alone, Fox."

He looked at her. "No, don't tell me she's..." He ran towards his father's grave and stopped short, ears twitching. His first impulse was to be furious, but he paused just long enough to hear her speaking.

"You've always been my hero, James. I can't thank you enough for helping me... I'm sorry for who I've become. I will never stop being sorry for the things I've done. I wish that when you looked down, you could be proud of me. If it's the last thing I do, I will do something good. I'm going to work with your son to bring Tony down. I will stop him." Fox's eyes widened. "And, I know you know this... but your son is a hero, like you. And he's found a girl. My own sister, wouldn't you know it? Of all the people in the galaxy, he found her. It's almost a good thing the adoption didn't work out, yeah? And she is absolutely wonderful. I tried for years to hate her, and at every turn she impressed me with her kind heart. It made me hate her more at times, but I've finally realized my mistakes. And she really loves him, and oh boy... he is so in love with her. They're taking on the world together. They're going to save Cerinia. You should be proud."

Fox clenched his jaw at the salty water that stung his eyes.

Krystal stepped up behind him and touched his arm. "Are you okay?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah... I..." He took her hand and walked away from the grave, attempting to discreetly wipe away his tears. "I thought that she... I thought I was going to be angry with her. I didn't realize she actually knew my father."

"She lived an entire different life. It's complicated to explain... She was born here, around the same time as your father, probably."

"Well, she looks good for her age."

Krystal elbowed him. "That's my sister."

"Any time you'd like to explain how that happened..."

"I'm trying. Shut up. She grew up on Corneria. It seems unlikely, but your father was a kind man. She grew up on the streets. Don't you think he could have had contact with her somehow?"

"You know, now that I think about it... he told me about his childhood a few times. The adoption thing happened with some girl named Angie. Supposedly, he rescued her off the streets when he was young, and his parents wanted to adopt her. Legalities got in the way, and she was put back into the foster system. He never saw her again. She tried to contact him once when he was about twenty, in some hotel, but the secretary of the building turned her away, thinking she was just a crazy fan. By the time my dad got all the way down there to see her in person, she was gone. But the description is all wrong. Angie was a tabby. And her name was Angie, not Vivian."

"Angie... like... Angel?" Krystal asked.

"Yeah, actually... her real name was Angel."

"I think... I think that might have been her. She said her first name was Angel. Oh my god." She ran her fingers through her hair with wide eyes. "Fox, when I was on Cerinia... I was engaged to Tony. And I'm now fairly certain he slept with my sister in that time."

He scratched his neck. "Wow. And that's the guy you were going to marry?"

"I heard him, one night, in his sleep. He was having a dirty dream... and he called out for Angel. When I questioned him about it he got all weird, and I got the feeling he'd had an affair. Why didn't I remember that before?" She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Angel was Vivian. My own sister!"

"You know... I would never do that..."

She grinned and elbowed him. "I am going to be so pissed with him next time I see him. My sister! That's disgusting." She scoffed.

"I'm sorry... that's really terrible."

"So, Angel grows up on Corneria... James becomes her friend, almost her brother, and then her idol. She runs away and crashes on Cerinia, where a Guardian finds her almost dead. He saves her by putting her soul into the body of baby Vivian. Vivian gets banished because our mom can't have more than two children. She ends up killing our mother, somehow, by accident. I've yet to discover exactly how that happened. Of course, my father hated her. He never spoke of her, save once, in his sleep. Kevin mentioned her once or twice, leaving out the whole blood relative thing. They didn't want me to know about her. She then causes, or takes part in, the destruction of the entire planet."

"I wish I could know exactly what took place in between those events, because that's kind of a jump. From being my father's friend to genocide?"

"She was the outcast of the village. I imagine there was a bit of a grudge there. She blamed me for everything bad that happened to her."

"So, then she teams up with Tony..."

"Tony? No, that happened before Cerinia's death."

"Oh, right." He bit his tongue.

"She leaves Cerinia, and becomes evil. Then she teams up with..." Krystal paused, giving him a sideways glance. Tony? Is that what he's been hiding from me? "She partners up with someone evil, once she learns I'm still alive. And it becomes their mission to destroy me."

"Well, let's see what we know about the bad guy. His brother is Con. He's close with Vivian. He wants you dead, but he doesn't want you to know who he is."

"Right."

"Well, since Con is his family, what do we know about Con? He's in love with you. He wants to protect you. He tends to show up when you're in trouble, and then mysteriously vanish..."

"Do you know?" Krystal asked. "You know who it is, don't you...?" It was more of a statement than a question.

Fox was silent.

"You know who's trying to kill me. How long have you known?"

"Look, I don't know for certain. I have my suspicions, but I don't have any real proof."

"Tell me who."

"I can't."

"Why?"

He sighed. "Because if I am wrong..." He shook his head. "I can't make such a strong accusation without proof. But I promise you, the minute that I get proof of who it is, who it really is, you will be the first one I tell."

She stared at him for a few minutes. "I'm getting really tired of you hiding things from me."

"I'm sorry..."

"Do you not trust me?" She asked.

"I do trust you. I trust you with my life. But there are some things I can't tell you right now. I can't risk being wrong about this."

Krystal shook her head and turned away. "When you're ready to be honest with me, Fox, we'll talk. Until then... I don't know." She walked towards the cab. "Make sure Vivian gets to the hotel. Goodnight, Fox."

He watched as she left, clenching his fist. I'm sorry... I'm sorry I have to keep hiding things from you. When this is over, I promise... I'm never hiding anything from you again.

Author's Notes: Vivian's life and tragic past is detailed in Prelude to an End.