AN: Sorry this took so long...writer's block and the whole stomach virus thing kinda sucked the life outta me for the past few days but...yay I can finally stand up without tossing ma cookies.

Song of the day: Crossfade- Invincible

-Chapter XXXV-

Everyone was attired just as Krystal had predicted, but the thick jackets, masks, and goggles were easy enough to guess considering what the planet's constant condition was. As Fox leaped from his arwing the harsh chill in the snowy air seemed to make the uncovered parts of his face go numb, but at least the wind wasn't half as bad as she had described. Everyone gathered by the arwings, to make a double check on their things...

"So where is this energy signal originating from?" Creed asked.

Fox took a moment to examine the specs on his communicator, "Hmm...about a mile and a half that way." He replied pointing to the east, "You all got your gear?"

"I'm good..." Creed answered.

"Same here..." Silver added.

"I just want to get back to Shera..." Jared said.

"I want to hear him stop complaining." Voss sighed.

"I'll take that as a yes...lets move."

Though not as bad as Krystal had described it, Fox never did like the planet in the first place, he liked the cold quite a bit but, there could always be too much of a good thing. They headed out toward the direction that Fox had pointed out, at some points the snow was knee high, at others only ankle deep, but regardless of that the snow seemed perpetual...an unending blanket of white clinging to the air and caressing the ground. Fox found it to be a beautiful sight and after a rather lengthy excursion into the icy wilderness Fox stopped the group...

"What's going on Fox?" Creed asked.

"You feel the difference in the ground here?" Fox replied with his own question, "We were walking solid stone a moment ago and now it feels like steel or something. Everyone spread out and start looking for something like a small pedestal."

Everyone did as Fox said and the group split up in the large area, stopping wherever the ground became normal again, but nobody found anything and they'd been searching for hours, their feet were cold and tired and as far as they could have known, whatever was fueling Fox's desires on the frozen planet was simply myth...

"Fox we can't find anything...there's nothing here." Creed said as they returned to the center of the area, "We're all tired and I'm sure the girls are getting worried...we can come back in the morning..."

Fox sighed as he looked to the others, he was right, the fox hung his head in defeat, "Fine...lets go."

Happy that he'd finally said it and the others began to walk off, Creed looked back to Fox, he looked confused...

"What's wrong Fox?" Creed asked.

"Krystal was so certain that there was something down here..."

"Fox you're thinking way to fucking hard about this...If it isn't here we'll just look somewhere else."

As Creed turned to follow the others the sheer frustration that Fox felt forced him to kick his right foot into the snow before him. However, the force of his childish kick was stopped in place as his toes let him know it was time to scream...

"SON OF A BITCH!!" His voice cracked through the howling wind.

The others were quick to run back to him, "What the hell happened?!" Creed yelled.

"I think I found it..." Fox replied hopping on one foot while holding his other..

Where there was now a large trench in the snow, something black and shiny was slightly visible. Creed quickly began to dig into the snow until the small rectangular pedestal was in view. Without a second thought toward it Fox took the staff from his belt and extended it shoving it's bladed end into the small crevice in the small square of metal...the reaction was just as Krystal had described it. The small thin patterns along the ground that she had mentioned began to show from beneath the snow at first glowing and making the melting snow about their feet look as blood flowing onto the black metal that appeared below them, as the seemingly bloody snow washed away. Fox snickered at the others...

"Told ya she was right." He said removing the staff and collapsing it before placing it back onto his belt.

As Fox led the others down the path that Krystal had mentioned Creed pulled up beside him, "Do I have to tell you that something is a bit odd about all of this?" He asked, "If the Cerinians were trying to keep this weapon ever being used...Why do you have a key to unlock it?"

"I don't know...something smells pretty fucking fishy about all of this. My mom said that the blade was broken into four parts...but, she also said that they had no way of destroying it either...but, if that's true...How'd they break it in the first place?" Fox said, "I'm not a half wit Creed, I wanna get this thing to Slippy ASAP and find out what the fuck it is and whether or not it can be destroyed, and if possible what it dose..."

"I'm glad to see that you're thinking this through."

The walk was long and tiring down the narrow path that was seemingly permanently cut through the snow, and the winds seemed as though they were picking up bringing an added chill to the already frigid air. Soon enough they found themselves before the large empty shaft that had been in Krystal's vision, Fox didn't hesitate before beginning his decent into the bowels of the planet, shortly followed after by the others who had recently traded in their hope for rest, for a mind full of curiosity and intrigue. None of them seemed to like the pit that seemed to descend into the pits of hell but, there was too much curiosity to stop them now. They were forced to rely on small LED lights that they kept at the end of their assault rifles, as the pit they descended into was darker than midnight, making the stairs rather hazardous. This gaping wound in the surface of the planet seemed to descend forever, before they reached the bottom, Fox didn't hesitate when they got to the empty room at the bottom...instead he headed down a lit hall, to behold the room that was the main purpose of Krystal's dream in the first place. Fox was amazed at how much it looked like he'd imagined it, spare for the pillar of light with the rotating piece of the blade at it's center. Fox took a few steps toward the altar at the center of the mountain of metal before him...

"You all stay clear of that door and watch yourselves." He called back before continuing his was up.

Normally with this sort of situation he'd have been cautious of a segment of metal dangling in mid-air but, with the way Krystal had described everything he felt as though he'd already lived this out once before. He took a short breath before walking into the pillar of light, as soon as he could see the small section of the weapon he held out the stall allowing it to freely jolt from his paws and connect with the small "V" shaped blade, the now spear turned staff floated there as the blade had perfectly vertical rotating on some sort of unknown axis. As he took the weapon in his paws once again, a sudden surge of unexplainable energy instantly took his breath away as it jolted through him leaving his fur standing on end...

"Wow...what the fuck was that?" He asked shuttering a bit. He shook it off however, "Well...maybe this Arlex guy was a fabrication after all...it was just a dream."

As Fox exited the pillar of light he noticed that all his allies were still there and no sign of the black fox, "Well maybe something was off about that dream after all..." Creed said as Fox approached them.

"Yeah..." Fox scoffed sarcastically with false enthusiasm...Somethin' still doesn't feel right though. Fox thought to himself.

"Alright..." Creed said turning toward the others, "We've got what we came here for...so lets get the fuck outta here."

Their entire trip back to the surface Fox couldn't shake this uneasy feeling he had in the pit of his stomach. Unfortunately so many stairs are easier at a decent than to climb them. They were all exhausted from such a climb that the frigid air of the surface was welcome to their burning lungs. They didn't mind that Krystal's vision was wrong on any account but, Fox still felt unsettled about the whole thing, he constantly had the feeling that someone, somewhere nearby was watching him. After a bit more walking they found themselves in the midst of the large, black, metal area Fox had left on the ground that had melted the snow...but as the others stopped to rest Fox stepped forward and drew out his black knife as well as the collapsed spear that was slung to his belt...

"Come on out Strider...or should I be calling you Arlex?!" Fox shouted into the wind.

Creed looked at Fox in confusion, "Fox don't be a fucking nut...there's nobody else here..."

As if from nowhere a powerful voice carried through the sheet of falling snow, "My...we certainly have sharp sense don't we? There is no possibility that you could have seen me."

"I don't need eyes to see you...I can smell a piece of shit a mile away..."

With that said a dark figure appeared in the blanket of snow that fell from the heavens, "Now now...lets not harm one another with words." Arlex chuckled.

"You're right..." Creed agreed moving to Fox's side while Silver fell back to the opposite side, "...lets use bullets instead." He finished aiming his weapon at the animals head.

Silver and Jared followed him in step while Voss said nothing...he was too stunned by what he was witnessing...

The hail of gunfire that opened up was indeed deafening at close range, as the wall of deadly projectiles rushed at Arlex the vulpine made a single motion another sword strapped to his back, nearly identical to the one he'd left with Fox, in that instant the fox seemed to completely vanish from sight. As if from nowhere a burst of air rushed by them leaving a streak in the snow; Fox felt the familiar warms of fresh blood trail down his cheek, but even worse yet he heard the familiar sound of bodies falling to a hard floor. Fox turned to see Arlex now standing a short distance behind him, his sword covered in blood...as he looked around Fox found that the others had been slashed multiple times and most were bleeding rather badly. Fox stepped away from his friends with his eyes fixed on Arlex. As the two dropped into fighting stances Voss rushed out between them facing his old friend...

"Arlex what are you doing? Stop thi..."

Voss's body had went rigid as Fox watched the point of Arlex's sword rupture through the young Cerinian's back, Fox could barely hear the black vulpine's voice, "Sorry kid...Arlex doesn't live here anymore."

Arlex wore a sick smile as he pulled his blade free allowing the limp Cerinian to fall to the ground. It was true that he and Fox were never really close at all but, the thought of the look on Krystal's face when her brother was taken back to her, he wasn't the easiest person to get along with...but, to be attacked like that without any remorse was something no animal deserved. As Fox looked to Voss, who didn't seem to be breathing, he could almost hear Krysta's heartbroken cries at finding her brother was dead...it was a sound that Fox never wanted to hear again, a sound that he was sad to admit he'd caused before. Fox's face was taken over by a snarl of sheer hatred, every thought of Krystal's possible reaction to her brother being stricken down by someone she'd trusted so much in her life fueled the hate that Fox had already grown for this loathsome creature. Fox's expression grew more hate filled by the moment; his teeth were clenched so hard that his gums bled, the veins on his forehead bulged profusely...he'd never lost a man on any mission and now that record was no more, fresh tears of anger rolled from his eyes...

"What's the matter? Was he a friend of yours?" The sadistic fox asked with an evil grin...Come on. Where is this power Syler speaks of?

"You seem to be short of words...perhaps you don't care about these pieces of refuse. Perhaps I need to go after the ones on the ship next..."

Creed came to with a severe pain in his gut, his arm was slightly damaged and his eye was sealed shut with blood, but, that wasn't the first thing he thought of. Creed looked other toward Fox who was now trading attacks with Arlex...but, something was off, Fox seemed distracted but, nonetheless Arlex was capable of moving much faster than he was at the moment. He was toying with Fox taking small swipes at him at random opening small cuts all over his body. Creed began to check up on the others that had been hit; Silver had gotten off easy, two slashes across the ribs and one across the chest, Jared wasn't nearly as lucky a much deeper gash was cut into his shoulder, he'd only been hit once but it was worse than any on Silver or Creed. That was when he noticed Voss laying in a pool of his own blood. Creed was fast to rush to the fallen Cerinian's side, he didn't want to see Krystal hurt almost as much as Fox didn't. Creed rolled the vulpine onto his back and inspected the inch long stab wound in the center of Voss's chest that still drained the animal's life force from his body...

"Oh man..." Creed said looking back to the others noticing that they were coming too as well, "Silver...Jared get over here."

The two made it to his side as quickly as possible, "You two get him to the Dark Star right now."

"What about him?" Jared asked looking to Fox.

"Don't worry about him just go!" Creed shouted.

Creed watched on as Fox tried to keep up pace with Arlex. Fox kept up as well he could using both weapons in his disposal to try everything possible to kill the creature but, the swordsman always seemed to be several steps ahead of him. Fox was in no perfect condition at the moment either, there were bleeding lacerations about his entire body, some were only minor scrapes compared to what the sword could have done but, others were rather deep and he couldn't tell if it was the blood loss or not but his sight was slowly fading, darkness clutched to the edges of his vision while all else was a mere blur of what it should have been. As their fight ensued more and more tiny cuts appeared along his arms and legs , either Arlex, or whoever this was, was toying with him or tearing him apart slowly. There was a moment that Fox believed he would die in this place but a shot rang out from Creed's position...Arlex instantly stopped, the bullet that zipped through his chest had caught him completely off guard as he fell to his knees then face first to the metal ground. Creed took the moment to make his way to Fox's side where he could clearly see the many small slashes on the fox's body...

"You alright man?" He asked after catching the staggering Fox, "He cut your ass up pretty fuck'n good."

Fox seemed completely out of breath, "Yeah...tell me...about it." He replied between labored breaths.

"Come on then..." Creed said helping the injured animal stand, "Lets get back to the ship...WHAT THE FUCK!?"

Creed was cut off as Fox knocked him to the ground, only to see Arlex swipe his blade across Fox's chest issuing a spray of blood through the air painting the black fox with a red face. Creed could do nothing but watch...

-000-

As Krystal sat in Fox's captain seat a slight warning alarm sounded followed by MIA's voice from the PA system...

"Reading abnormal energy pattern on planetary surface...Danger class Code-4...Code-6...Code-10...Danger class unreadable."

(BTW. The E.D.C "Energy Danger Class" system goes from Code-1: mild life threat...to Code-12: Planetary threat)

"That can't be right...nothing has a level over 12." Krystal said to herself, "MIA...bring up planetary view on the main screen."

As the large image of the planet just below the ship appeared Krystal placed a paw over her mouth; the snow clouds that had dominated the atmosphere were all swirling about the planet leaving one massive gaping hole in their formation, for the first time the surface of the planet could be clearly seen. Despite the beauty of the planet Krystal could only hope that this had nothing to do with the area Fox was in...

-000-

Creed was frozen in place, it seemed as though time had completely come to a standstill in the area, he could clearly see a large hole in the constant snowstorm overhead giving it the appearance of a hurricane around them, there was no more snowfall around them, it was eerily quite, and despite the fact that Fox was badly injured he had not moved an inch since he'd been struck. As he faced off with Arlex, Creed noticed a look of fear that washed over the dark vulpine's face, as he seemed to be forcing himself to stand...Creed could feel some sort of bizarre force in the pit of his gut that made him feel incredibly uneasy. A dead wind blew through the area and Creed realized what had happened, he quickly made an exit of the area hoping that the aftermath could be much less than catastrophic.

Fox's face had become as calm as the area they now stood in, as Arlex looked on in his frightened state he realized that the fox's eyes were not white this time as Syler had explained from his experience with the enraged Fox, they were instead this time a deep pit less blue that covered his eyes entirely. The energy that hit Arlex seemed to come from nowhere...it forced him to his knees for a broad moment before he was able to stand back up again...

"DON'T TELL ME THAT'S THE BEST YOU CAN DO!" He shouted leaping at the Fox.

Arlex swung his sword at the fox's face but he came to an abrupt stop in mid strike with his blade only a mater of centimeters away from Fox's face, "You've not begun to see what I'm capable of..." Fox replied in a voice that was not his own. This gave Arlex an uncertain expression as he was released being pushed several yards across the ground.

This time Arlex shot at Fox with the same blistering speed he'd used to take out the others but, at the last moment Fox seemed to easily sidestep the downward strike of the blade which lodged into the ground. The tranced fox then kicked the showing flat edge of the blade with a bizarre force which shattered the blade completely...

As Fox stepped back from the dark vulpine who discarded the now useless weapon the same calm yet eerie voice echoed into Arlex's head, he hadn't even realized until now that Fox was not speaking at all, the speech was completely telepathic, "Now who's holding back?" The voice chuckled, "You or Us?"

"Us??" Arlex questioned his words before rampaging toward him again.

This time Arlex used his speed and his claws to attack the fox, but, there was no avail, one attack after another was dodged at the last second...it was as if Fox was reading every movement before he made it. Arlex finally leaped several feet into the air driving his heel down onto the top of Fox's head. Arlex landed with a cocky smile as he watched a small stream of blood flow down between the fox's eyes rolling down the side of his muzzle. Fox's tongue slipped across his lip wiping away the blood with a devious smile, "Our turn..." The eerie voice echoed into Arlex's skull as Fox rose his eyes to meet the black furred fox's. Almost on the same second that their eyes met, a ferocious impact from Fox's left foot which hoisted the black fox into the air. With and unbelievable burst of speed Fox shot into the air after Arlex, as Fox met him in mid-flight the light orange furred vulpine rolled forward driving his heel into the black fox's chest in a similar fashion that he had been hit in the head...this attack however drove Arlex to the metal ground with such force that it planted him into a large dent in the black metal below. Creed had been taking notice of everything from his station on the sidelines, Us? Our? What was going on? This wasn't Fox's fighting style at all, he'd never heard of anyone being so strong or fast...last time this had happened it was bad but, this time it even effected the environment, he was stronger than the last time he'd done this...it was far worse this time. The first time that Creed had seen Fox go into such a rage he had thought that it was some sort of miracle, now he wasn't so sure I seemed more like Fox was just not himself...

As Fox landed near the seemingly unconscious dark furred fox, he staggered forward a bit...despite this massive increase in his abilities the severe blood loss that worked through his body was beginning to effect him. Creed took this moment in which Fox was panting heavily from the blood loss to approach him...

"Fox?" He asked cautiously.

Fox's head snapped about to face Creed but grimaced in pain as the familiar point of a small black knife jutted from his side. The grimace on Fox's face contorted into a snarl of hatred as he spun about, instantly locking Arlex's neck under his arm and pulling upward with enough force to send a loud crushing sound out over the silent landscapes, Fox finished by keeping the creature in it's position taking him by his legs and pulling until his back gave in resounding another loud crunching sound as the animal's buttocks met the back of his skull. Fox didn't even have the time to discard the body as he fell to the hard metal ground. Creed couldn't believe what he'd just saw...Fox was strong no question, but, he didn't have the strength that it would take to fold an animal Arlex's size in half. As the snows came again Creed retrieved Fox as well as Krystal's staff and headed back to his arwing to rush Fox as quickly as possible to the Dark Star as possible...he was in bad shape and was still bleeding profusely...

(Several hours later on Fichina...)

Arlex's head shot up from under the snow that had covered him and twisted to one side resulting in another loud series of pops giving him a clear look at the sky...

"That is very interesting indeed..."