Arc VI: Party Crashing

Part 8: Mending Wounds

Are you sure this is a good idea, Rena?

"Shut up, roadkill. Of course it is. If I have to use that wheelchair or hobble around on a crutch for one more day, I'm going to scream."

In Foxfire Enterprises' research and development room, Rena sat on a small bench stolen from the exercise area. Rena wore her normal cutoff hoodie and short shorts combination, but this time, her long, striped socks were absent. Instead, two metallic gunmetal sleeves covered her shins—both her broken one and the one that still functioned correctly.

Lucas paced in front of her, shaking his head in disapproval of what she intended to do. "Look, Rena, I get that you don't like being crippled. I wouldn't enjoy it either. Broken bones take time to heal, though."

"Time that I don't have," said Rena. "Besides, this is going to work. There's no farking way I'm going to miss out on the next mission because of one stupid broken leg. Now, plug those two wires into the back of the leg stabilizers and press the button on the console over there."

Lucas sighed and shook his head. "If you're sure about this."

"I am. Do it." Taking a deep breath, she watched as Lucas knelt at her feet and picked up a duo of 14-guage electrical wires with special connectors affixed to the ends. Then, following her orders, he clipped them into the ports built into the back of Rena's strange bracers. He walked towards a control panel near the room's back wall and stared at the button Rena intended for him to press, but some invisible internal force prevented him from following through.

"Lucas, what's wrong? Press the button already," Rena huffed.

In response, Lucas lowered his head and let out a deep sigh. "I…I don't know if I can."

"Why not? Don't you care about me?"

"Rena, that's exactly why I don't think I can do this," Lucas explained, turning around to look at her. "If this is going to do what you're telling me it'll do, it will scar you permanently. Look—don't blow up on me, but…you're beautiful. I don't want you to permanently damage yourself just to fix something that will heal on its own in a few months."

Rena froze. Something about Lucas's concern for her caused a spring of emotion to well up inside of her. The rarity of such feelings gave her a profound sense of unease, but one impulsive response occurred to her.

"Lucas, come here."

The black and blue jackal crossed the tile floor, unsure of whether to expect approval from Rena or a punch in the face. When he reached the bench where Rena sat, he asked her, "What do you want?"

"Sit on my lap," she whispered.

Lucas's eyes widened, but he had no intentions of denying her request. Being cautious not to accidentally put any undue pressure on her broken leg, he sat on Rena's lap and stared into her ice blue eyes at point blank range. To his surprise, Rena leaned forward, put her arms around his neck, and drew him into a gentle embrace. She brushed her muzzle against his and told him, "I never thought I'd meet someone like you—someone who accepts me for who I am instead of trying to change me to fit their ideas for who they think I should be. I can't believe I'm saying this, but… I love you."

Her voice faltered as she spoke, and despite her best efforts, words failed her after her admission. So, instead, she pressed her lips against Lucas's and gave him a gentle kiss. Too startled and flabbergasted to think straight—let along formulate a cohesive response—Lucas pulled back and stared at her in shock.

"I've never done that before," Rena admitted. "You're the first."

Looking around the room to make sure he hadn't somehow slipped into a hallucinatory spell, Lucas asked her, "Do you mind if I return the favor?"

Rena returned a sad, uncomfortable frown, but said nothing.

"Oh…" Lucas apologized. "Does that gross you out?"

"A little bit. That whole 'tongue in mouth' thing is nasty. Tongues are really disgusting, if you think about it."

"I understand. Is there something else I can do that wouldn't bother you?"

Rena paused for thought and then answered, "If you want to give me a few little kisses on my face while stroking my hair, I think I would like that. Or, we could just cuddle later."

"How about both?"

"Works for me," said Rena.

Having the opportunity to shower Rena with physical love caught Lucas by surprise. If he was honest with himself, he only expected to get as far as making playful comments about her and not fearing violent recompense. However, he refused to miss out on the chance in front of him. As Rena suggested, he sifted through her white hair with his right hand while planting innumerable kisses on her face. Then, before pulling away, he placed one final kiss on her lips and let out a deep breath when she smiled in response to it.

"Holy Arceus, I never thought flirting with her would lead anywhere!" Lucas thought to himself.

For nearly a minute, the two held each other in a soft embrace, not wanting to move or leave the intimate moment they had created for themselves. Then, Rena gave Lucas a pat on the shoulder and said, "Thank you for caring about me. I still want to do the procedure, though. Get back up to the console and press the button."

Lucas gritted his teeth and stood up. Rena knew he would have preferred to yank the wires out of her strange leg bracers and strap her medical boot back on, but despite that, he followed her orders. His finger hovered over the red button on the console for five seconds. Then, he pressed it.

A surge of electricity powered through both lines and coursed through Rena's bracers. The electric current activated the mechanical pieces built into the braces and caused them to extend into her leg. Rena bit her tongue and gasped as the pressure and the stabbing sensation increased until it reached a fever pitch. With her broken leg in particular, the pain blazed through her nervous system with more intensity than any injury she had faced before. Nerves, blood vessels, and even her bones themselves cried out in pain, but there would be no relief.

She tried to look unfazed, but her pain reflexes caused tears to well up in her eyes. Whimpering, she looked at Lucas and tried to nonverbally implore him not to stop the procedure. Then, as soon as it started, the electrical current cut out on its own. The throbbing, stabbing pain still rifled through both legs—mainly her left one. Two faint trails of blood dripped down both of her shins, but she knew to expect this and knew that it was not dangerous.

"A…Are you okay?" Lucas asked, eyes wide and ears erect.

Rena nodded and unplugged the electrical lines from her bracers. "Fark, this hurts so much."

Lucas took a tentative step towards her. "Do you need any help getting up? Do I need to carry you back to your room?"

"No, no," Rena answered with a dismissive hand wave. "I need to try this." Breathing heavily, she pushed herself up from the bench and tried to stand. The pain in both legs made staying upright a chore, but she managed to keep her balance. Then, she swallowed and shifted her weight onto her broken leg.

There was no additional pain.

"Yes!" Rena screamed, pumping her fist in the air. "Fark you, fragile biology!"

Unfortunately, her exuberance caused her to lose her balance. With a yelp, she toppled over and caught herself in a push-up position on the floor. "Um…give me a minute to get my balance back."

She rolled over and sat up on the floor. As the minutes ticked by, the stabbing sensation in her leg died down to a dull tingle. At that point, she pushed herself up and stood in place for half a minute until she felt confident enough to take a step.

Pointing towards a large metal locker mounted against the side way, she told Lucas, "Help me out. I need to open that thing."

Lucas nodded and draped one of Rena's arms over his shoulder, then helped her cross the floor. When they reached the locker, Rena escaped his grasp and opened the latch. The locker door swung open, revealing an assortment of items that gave Lucas a puzzled expression. Inside, a tight-fitting black bodysuit with a prominent yellow stripe hung from a hook in the top of the locker. Next to it, an assortment of black, armor-like components sat in a pile.

"What are these?" Lucas asked.

"This," Rena replied, pointing to the armor, "Is a suit of power armor that I finished putting together yesterday. I got the plans from Andross's old base. A stupid dead bear who turned out not to be dead tried to get my senpai to destroy everything in the base, but I was smarter than him and saved all the best stuff. It runs on a battery that charges when you move. It's dead now, but according to the blueprint, it can give you extra strength and speed, in addition to giving you more protection and making you look super badass."

Lucas crossed his arms. "Interesting. What's with the bodysuit? Isn't that too 'sexy' for you?"

"Yeah, about that," Rena groaned, "It's kind of important to wear something under that armor because there are gaps in it, and I found out my normal clothes wouldn't work very well."

"That's fine. Where did you get it, though? You don't exactly find stuff like that in the department store bargain bin."

Taking a step away from the locker, Rena blushed and said, "I had to order it. I tried to tell the person who sold it to me to make it as unsexy as possible, but either that's impossible or that woman intentionally ignored me."

Lucas let out a chuckle. "You ordered it from a fetishist, didn't you?"

"Shut up!" Rena exclaimed. "It's not my fault that the only person who makes practical catsuits also happens to be that red slut's stepmom." She stopped and composed herself, then said, "I'm going to try the outfit on. Can you leave for a minute?"

"I could just turn around, you know…"

"Oh no no no," Rena replied, waving her finger at Lucas. "The only person who's allowed to be in the same room while I'm naked is my senpai."

"Why is that? You're not in love with him, right?"

"No. It's because I trust him not to get all hot and bothered just because he saw me in my biologically natural state. I really don't see what people find so attractive about each others' naked bodies. If you ask me, the male and female genitalia are absolutely repulsive."

"Speak for yourself, but nudity can be a beautiful thing. I mean, think of all the artwork that's been done on that alone. In a way, it speaks of the innocence and naivety that's been lost on the modern world."

At this, Rena burst into sardonic laughter. "PFFT! 'Innocence?' Ha! Yeah right! Also, art is for people with nothing better to do than splatter vegetative compounds on a dead tree and hope other people like it."

"Other people don't have to like it for it to be art," Lucas replied. "Actually, some people think it's more artistic if no one likes it."

Rena raised an eyebrow. "That might be the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Now get out and let me get changed, you perv!"

"Fine, fine!" Lucas relented, raising his hands and marching towards the exit door.

After the door closed behind him, Rena smirked and set to work changing out of her normal clothing and slipping into her new bodysuit. She disliked the sexual implications that the garment placed upon her, but as a form of underwear for a suit of armor, it worked perfectly. Once she zipped up her bodysuit, she began clipping the various pieces of power armor together, starting with the boots and moving upwards.

Securing the chestpiece and shoulder pauldrons, she looked around for a mirror and frowned when she saw none. "Hey, Lucas, you can come back in now."

The door opened a second later, and the jackal reentered the room.

"So, how does it look?" Rena asked.

Lucas stopped in his tracks and scratched his muzzle, a pensive expression on his face. Then, he replied, "That's sexy."

The look on Rena's face took a turn for the worst. "Wrong answer!"

Before Lucas could so much as think, a metallic implement screamed past his head, missing it by mere inches. He turned around in the blink of an eye in time to see one of Rena's pizza wheels embed itself in the back of the concrete wall. "Whoa—hold on! I was just kidding! You weren't going to kill me for that, were you?"

"No. Of course not," Rena replied, a grin on her lips. "If I had wanted to kill you, I would have thrown it horizontally and chopped your head off."

Lucas rolled his eyes and moved towards Rena. "Good to know."

"So, what do you really think about my outfit?" Rena asked, tilting her head to the side.

"I think it looks like you might have been playing Metal Cog: Lightning a bit too much."

Rena grinned. "I'm going to take that as a compliment. There's another part of the outfit, you know."

Raising an eyebrow, Lucas asked, "What's that?"

Rena pointed towards a much larger locker to the left of the first one and walked towards it. After disabling the padlock on the door, she flung it open to reveal a motley assortment of weapons ranging from the ordinary to the bizarre. Handguns, knives, a shotgun with a chainsaw bolted to the barrel, throwing stars, brass knuckles, polearms, pizza wheels of various sizes and blade types, and swords lined the inside of the locker. One particular implement caught her fancy.

Rena snatched up a katana and then turned to face Lucas, slamming the locker shut in the process. She brandished the sword and lowered herself into a mock combat stance. "I've wanted to use this for a long time, but it never felt right until now."

"You do know how to use that thing, right?" Lucas asked.

"Of course, stupid," Rena huffed. "I know how to use all the weapons in my collection. This sword is made out of the same metal that my pizza wheels are, which means that it'll slice through just about anything."

Lucas gazed skeptically at her. "How exactly do your pizza wheels do that, anyway?"

"Some questions should not be asked," Rena replied, wagging a finger at him.

"Okay, I'm just going to say it's magic, then," Lucas commented, knowing that attributing anything in the real world to superstitions or religion irritated Rena to no end.

Sure enough, she took the bait. "No, dumbass. Magic isn't real."

Lucas grinned. "Then what is it?"

Traces of unease appeared on Rena's face. "Um, it's really complicated. I don't think you'd understand."

"I'm not as dumb as I look," Lucas replied, still smiling from ear to ear. "Go on—tell me."

Rena froze. Then, she turned away from Lucas and yelled, "Change the scene! Go see what Fox and his stupid bimbo are up to! Do it now! Pleeeeease!"

- § -

Back in Eladard, the rest of Fox's team found themselves in a familiar situation—namely, sitting in front of a television in a hospital waiting room.

After dropping off the Landmaster at Felix's storage yard and being picked up by Miyu and Cassie, Scarlet managed to locate a 24-hour store that sold clothing. Sadly, but also obviously, said store had exactly zero catsuits in their inventory. This forced Scarlet to acquire a set of clothing that she knew would either end up trashed or donated to charity within a week. At the moment, she wore a pair of white denim short shorts and a powder blue graphic tee with a stick figure and a string of Eladardian symbols on it. In the native language, it read "Life is Tolerable," but Scarlet had no way of knowing that.

"This is itchy," the vixen grumbled, picking at her shirt.

"And your catsuits aren't?" Miyu asked in response. "By the way, you owe me 60 Eladard Credits, which comes out to…I dunno—about C25-ish? If you want, you could just give me one of your catsuits as a payment."

Scarlet turned to her right to look at her and raised an eyebrow. "I thought you just said that my catsuits were itchy. Why would you want one?"

Blushing, Miyu sheepishly replied, "Well, um, they're kind of sexy. I'd like to try one on sometime."

In the seat to Miyu's right, Cassie elbowed her and said, "That's the spirit!"

"Ugh. You two are horrible role models, you know that?" Miyu groaned while shaking her head.

Scarlet adopted a scandalous smirk and purred, "It's just our way of having fun." Then, she winked at Cassie and blew her a kiss.

Seated to the left of the three women, Slippy felt like the third—actually, fourth—wheel in the operation. Having little desire to talk to the red vixen seated next to him, he rested his head on his hand and stared at the television screen on the wall. As it had in Titania, it displayed a nightly world news program. Considering that he kept up to speed on the more important developments in the world—at least the ones that would impact mercenary work—little of the programming held much interest for him.

For a few minutes, the news anchors mulled over the surprising outcome of the Titanian presidential election, in which the brazen, pro-Macbeth upstart Sergio del Rio managed to upstage Iris Vinca and deny her re-election. The anchors discussed the possible trade and foreign policy changes that could occur under his leadership; but since the Eladard-based news network had no dog in the fight, so to speak, they quickly transitioned to another topic.

However, this one attracted Slippy's attention.

"A suspected terror attack was launched on the Cornerian Memorial Amphitheater last night. There were no recorded fatalities or serious injuries," the male anchor—a slender barn owl—stated. "Local authorities are investigating the incident, which occurred during the middle of a concert held by the award-winning multi-platinum band Dimeback. Witnesses say that that all power to the auditorium failed all at once, including power to all concertgoers' phones and electronic devices. The Cornerian Department of Public Protection (DPP) is all but certain that this was a deliberate attack involving an electromagnetic weapon. At this point, only four militaries in the entire world are known to have EMP weapons in their arsenals, which points to this attack being linked to an enemy of Corneria. The case has been turned over to the Cornerian DIS for further review. We will update you on this story as more information comes in."

"Correction: four militaries and Rena," thought Slippy.

As soon as the anchor finished speaking, his colleague—a silver finch with spiked up head plumage—interjected, "Roger, the DIS doesn't exist."

"Yes, it does, Felicia. It's in the official report right here. Read it for…"

"I'm telling you—the DIS doesn't exist; and even if they do, they definitely aren't gathering highly classified intelligence on foreign governments and allies without their knowledge or permission."

"Sounds like a suspiciously specific denial to me," Roger grumbled.

"Well, it doesn't make it any less true."

Frustration in his voice, Roger turned to face the camera and said, "Coming up next: Dreyson Morgan reports on the strangest and most feared gang in Eladard—the Kitanai Sagashi Warrior Clan. What do they want, and what can you do to protect yourself and your loved ones from them? We'll be back after the break."

Scarlet snickered and nudged Slippy. "Heh. All you need is a gas can and a lighter. Works like a charm."

"Are you trying to tell me something?" Slippy asked back.

The vixen nervously shook her head and replied, "I'm just making an observation, that's all. Oh look—that must be Fox's doctor over there." She pointed to a collie wearing square-rimmed glasses and a white coat as he entered the waiting room and addressed them.

"Good news," said the canine, "Your friend's injuries weren't bad at all. We need to keep him here for a few more days to make sure there isn't any risk of infection, but apart from that, he's good to go."

Despite his words being intended to console the group, a general feeling of dread fell over them, especially Scarlet. A scowl on her face, she stood up and walked towards the doctor. "Listen—we're on a very tight schedule. We don't have the luxury of waiting for your precautions. If Fox is able to move, we need to get him out of here now."

The doctor scratched the back of his head and replied, "I understand your situation, but it's our official procedure to keep patients like your friend here for a few days. Think of it as a safety measure so that he doesn't have to come back next week if his recovery doesn't go as planned."

"You don't understand any of what's going on here," Scarlet snapped, her hackles rising. "Tell me, who owns this hospital?"

"Um…Gaia Medical," the doctor anxiously replied.

"Good. It just so happens that the Gaia Corporation's CEO is a friend of mine. If you won't let Fox leave tonight, I'm going to take matters into my own hands—and I have a feeling it might not turn out that well for you."

"Okay. If the Gaia CEO is your friend, get him on the phone. Otherwise, I'm going to ignore you," the doctor declared, crossing his arms.

Scarlet scowled and pulled her phone out of her shorts. "You're making this so much harder than it needs to be, you know that?"

Still seated next to Miyu, Cassie crossed her legs in unease and suggested, "You're the one making this harder than it needs to be, Scarlet. For real, take a chill pill!"

Her phone held in front of her, Scarlet turned her head towards Cassie and glared at her. "If you ever say that again, I will punch you."

"Really, Scarlet," Miyu added, standing up and confronting her. "You know, you're acting a lot like Rena right now. Is that what you're trying to do here? Just call Felix and get this over with. No need to get pissy."

For a matter of seconds, Scarlet stared into Miyu's eyes with such intensity that the lynx felt as if she could rip her soul to pieces if she wanted to. Then, Scarlet relented and sighed, "Fine. You're right. It's been a rough day for me, okay?"

"What's been so rough about it? We got everything we came for. You seemed to enjoy your dance with Cassie, too."

"I…I don't want to talk about it. I did something horrible, and… I think it's going to come back to bite me big time. Let me just call Felix and get him to deal with this. Sorry for getting mad, everyone."

Shaking her head, she pulled up Felix's contact information and contacted him.

- § -

Three hours passed. The time in Eladard transitioned from near midnight at the time of the escape from the Red Group facility to 4:00 A.M. With Fox out of the hospital with a bandaged arm, the team returned to Felix's guest house, where they quickly fell asleep. Considering the stress and the amount of energy they had expended in the previous hours, none of them expected to wake up before noon.

Scarlet, however, struggled to sleep. A primal fear unknown to everyone else plagued her mind, although if they had been aware of it, they would have understood her plight. While Fox snored quietly beside her with his arm draped across her stomach, Scarlet shuddered beneath the sheets. In time, though, her exhaustion caught up with her. She drifted off to the land of dreams.

…In actuality, more or less the land of nightmares.

- § -

The dingy seaside streets of Eladard stretched in front of her, with no one in sight.

Except the one person behind her.

The air in her lungs felt hot and heavy, as did her exhausted leg muscles. No matter which side streets she sprinted into in an attempt at evading her pursuer, she could not seem to pull away. Skidding into a dark alleyway to her left, she leaped over three bags of trash and looked over her shoulder upon landing. To her horror, a flash of yellow rounded the corner behind her. She pushed herself to sprint faster, but her legs felt as if they were made of iron.

She looked over her shoulder again, only to see the yellow menace drawing closer, weapon in hand. In her terror, she tripped over a pothole in the road and fell flat on her face. Ignoring the newly-smeared dirt on her hands and her catsuit, she pushed herself up and dug her heels into the ground. All the while, the furious screams of her pursuer filled her ears.

Then, suddenly, a screech of pain rifled through her being. She looked down and saw a blood-soaked pizza wheel protruding from her eviscerated stomach.

- 0 -

With a scream, Scarlet awakened and sat bolt upright in bed. Her body felt as cold as a glacier and would have been covered in sweat if she had not been a vulpine, because as Nail Strafer noted in response to an earlier story, foxes cannot sweat.

Fox groaned next to her, but remained asleep until Scarlet threw her arms around him and throttled him in a desperate attempt at finding some sort of comfort. In that moment, she needed to feel the softness of his fur and the warmth of his body. She needed to hear him tell her that everything would be okay in the end, even though she saw no hope for herself.

Coughing, Fox rolled over and opened his eyes, which happened to coincide with his muzzle being buried between Scarlet's breasts. He blushed, then lifted his head to look into his girlfriend's terrified eyes.

"W…What's wrong, Scarlet?" he mumbled, his voice drenched in sleep.

Scarlet sat speechless for a moment, until sanity returned to her. "I had a bad dream."

"It must have been pretty bad if it made you wake up and halfway strangle me," Fox replied.

The vixen's ears fell. "Yeah, sorry about that. I don't think I'll be able to sleep anymore tonight."

Fox yawned and sat up, then stroked Scarlet's shoulder. "What's going on with you? Something's up. I can tell."

Shaking her head, she dropped her shoulders and said, "I did something horrible near the storage area. I think it's going to be the end of me."

For a moment, Fox thought about making a lighthearted joke about the previous statement, but when he realized how serious Scarlet was about it, he changed his tone. "What did you do?"

"I killed Rena's sister," she whispered. "While I was driving the truck, three of Rena's old gang members forced me to stop and take them on. I killed the first two. After that, Rena's sister tried to get me to spare her, but I knew that if I did that, the rest of her gang would find out what I did and would hunt me down for the rest of my life. So, I killed her when she tried to run away."

Fox swallowed. Fear became apparent in his eyes. "You're afraid of what Rena might do if she finds out, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Scarlet whimpered. "What's worse is that I feel like I have to apologize to her somehow. But if she knows that I murdered her sister, she'll probably kill me in my sleep with her pizza wheel."

Gripping Scarlet's shoulder with more force than before, Fox emphasized, "She'll have to go through me first. And she won't do that."

"Maybe not, but when you're not around, there's no telling what she'll do. She'll be plotting my murder for weeks, waiting for you to go on a supply run; waiting for me to go out on the town; waiting for me to turn my back so she can poison my food without me knowing it. I don't know what I'm going to do! Fox…please don't panic, but I might have to leave the team because of this."

Fox's eyes widened. "Scarlet, I think you're overreacting. I never even knew Rena had a sister. Knowing Rena, she might have hated her sister and won't do anything to you if she finds out that you killed her. Try to look at the bright side, okay? Plus, if she really takes it that badly and acts like she's going to murder you, I'll fire her and file a police report. Does that make you feel any better?"

"Just a little," Scarlet replied.

In spite of her admissions, Fox still felt as though something remained unresolved in her heart. Something buried beneath the surface darkened her countenance with a form of anxiety and uncertainty that had not been present before. For a few seconds, he thought about what to say next while silently admiring her body. Something about seeing her sans clothing in a nonsexual context came across as strikingly beautiful.

"There's something else. I can tell," Fox finally spoke.

Scarlet sighed. "You're right. There are a few things. One of them…I don't want to talk about right now. It's not the right time."

"What's the other thing, then?"

"I met Christina Ortega," Scarlet answered. "She's a real person."

Ears on end, Fox demanded, "What did she look like?"

"She had dark red and gray fur, but her outfit was…well, weird. It looked like it came out of the 19th century. All black, a dress with a corset in it, a huge hat with lace, stiletto boots…it wasn't normal. With the boots, she was as tall as me. She definitely wasn't slight."

"Did she say anything to you?"

Scarlet tapped her lips with her finger, then replied, "She told me there was a tracker on the truck, then she got rid of it and told me where to find the Arwing. She said she was unhappy with how Rafa's been acting lately and wants out. Isn't that the same thing you said about Krystal?"

"Yeah, it is," said Fox. "She said that Ortega might have been feeling that way, too. So, does this mean that Miss Ortega is on our side now?"

Scarlet gave her head a tentative shake. "Not really. She told me she still hates Corneria. She very much has her own agenda. However, she does want to stop Rafa. At least she was nice enough to tell me where the Arwing is being kept."

"Where?"

"Northern Titania. A PMC called Affirmed Security has it. They're going to deliver it to East Fortuna in five days. If we want it, you're going to need to move really quickly."

Fox frowned. "What do you mean, 'you're going to need to move quickly?'"

"Remember, Titania? I can't go there. Besides, my Zoness swimsuit shoot is this week. I'm sorry, but I can't go with you."

"For real?" Fox grumbled, crossing his arms. "The Arwing is a hell of a lot more important than a photoshoot. I'm going to need all the help I can get. Please, come with me. If you do, I'll let you try out that creepy, disturbing, kinky fetish you have on me."

A faint glint appeared in Scarlet's eyes. Sadly, it disappeared as quickly as it came. "I'll think about it. I really do want to help. You have to understand how dangerous it is for me to go to Titania, though. Also, I've already rescheduled this photoshoot before. They're not going to let me move it again without a damn good reason."

"I think saving the world is a 'damn good reason,'" Fox countered.

"I think saving the world is embellishing things a bit," Scarlet chuckled. "Look, if I can come with you to Titania, I'll do it. You have my word."

She sighed, then rested her head on her pillow. Despite being reassured of her safety, she still felt fear tugging at her mind. How was Fox to know how Rena would respond to any of what she had done? In her mind, nothing could assure her that she would not end up murdered by a flying pizza wheel or an exploding ninja star. She thought about trying to convince Fox to stay awake and to 'love her fear away,' so to speak, but she knew better than anyone else that Fox needed his rest after having several shotgun pellets removed from his arm just a matter of hours ago. That, and introducing impromptu sex scenes is General Whitefur's department, not mine.

While Fox fell asleep within minutes of comforting her, sleep evaded Scarlet. Apart from thinking of Rena, she pondered the upcoming train of events. The next day would bring a journey back to Corneria and the start of the plot to steal the Arwing from Affirmed Security. How would they accomplish that? She knew that both she and Fox owned pilot's licenses and had trained in fighter jets before as part of the Cornerian Army's Advanced Soldier Training Program, but merely obtaining the aircraft seemed to present an impossible challenge.

Similarly, she felt guilty about not helping Fox with it. She loved him and wanted to do everything possible to make Foxfire Enterprises' operations successful, but at the same time, she had her own life and career to deal with. She had never officially joined Fox's unit, either. That knowledge eased her guilt somewhat, but not enough to silence her internal angst.

"Fox is right—the Arwing is so much more important than my photoshoot. What am I going to do?"

After nearly an hour of lying awake, Scarlet once again fell asleep. Thankfully, this time, her dreams remained blissfully free of the murderous yellow banshee.