Transit of Cerinia

by SquidgyPlopGloop

On the forbidden planet of Cerinia Fox helps Krystal cope with her past while she fights to contain her runaway powers. But nothing lasts forever, as Captain Bill Grey is close on their heels with the help of another Cerinian subject. Meanwhile in the ruins of Zoness Falco escalates his war against rival gangs, and Slippy unearths dangerous secrets about the future of Lylat.

30. The Anomie

X

Mission No. 30

Zoness
District 13

The Anomie

X

A series of persistent thumps roused Pukes from her slumber. Stretching out her arm, her paw slapped the desk by her bed a few times before landing on her glasses, which she reeled in like a fishing line. She sat up and placed them over her eyes, the blurry room coming into focus. Hazy light leaked in through the cracks between her shade and window frame. A glance at her clock told her it was a little past 12 in the afternoon, and someone was at the door.

Why did Falco have to come so early? she complained to herself. He should've at least given her fair warning instead of turning up out of the blue to disturb her rest.

Grumbling to herself she got up and threw on a lab coat over her pajamas, then stepped into her slippers and stumbled downstairs. The knocks were louder now, and she realized they came from the backdoor.

"Alright Falco, I'm coming," she yawned. "You don't have to bust the door in."

Reaching the backdoor, she stooped over and pressed her eye to the peephole, just to make sure it was him.

A pair of fiery reptilian eyes peered back.

Before she could react the door burst inwards, knocking her to the floor and tearing the latches straight from the wall. She didn't even have time to recover before strong, scaled hands gripped her arms and lifted her up, dragging her back into the townhouse. She screamed and struggled in protest, adrenaline kicking in to banish the last chains of sleep, but it was no use. They slung her into a chair and bound her arms and legs to it, but for whatever reason they didn't gag her just yet. She looked up at the assailants, but her glasses had fallen off during the struggle. All she could see of them were brutish, shadowy outlines against the white apartment walls and the light from outside. At least she could still count them; there were at least a dozen of the intruders.

Making the most of the fact that they hadn't gagged her yet, she screamed for help. But a red-scaled fist struck her across the face, cutting her plea short.

"Quiet," hissed the voice of the owner.

Pukes hunkered into the chair, cowering away from them and trembling. She knew this was the end – or perhaps just the beginning of one protracted, terrible end. She prayed for Falco and the rest of her friends to show up and save her, but odds were they had no idea of her fate and wouldn't until it was too late. Please just make it fast…

A large, hulking figure stepped in through the door, and everyone else in the room seemed to straighten up and go silent. He gently closed the door behind him, sealing off her only exit. He started towards her with heavy footfalls, but paused and stooped over to pick something off the floor. He resumed walking till his shadow fell over her, and Pukes flinched, drawing even further into the chair for protection.

The man set her lost pair of glasses onto her nose, adjusting them with monstrous yet careful hands till they fit just right.

"There, is that better?"

At once the room cleared, finally giving definition to the shapeless forms. Pukes glanced fearfully around, heart sinking now that she recognized the intruders. They were Grimmer's Gang, finally come to pay her a visit; the most vile of street ruffians, little more than beasts clad in a mix of denim, leather, and caked grime. Each one leered down at her, grinning to themselves. She recognized Dimmer, Grimmer's youngest brother, rubbing his fist eagerly beside her – he had been the one who struck her. But the one who stood directly in front of her was the leader himself; the tall, green-scaled iguana with a subdued ferocity about him.

"Pukes, isn't it?" Grimmer rumbled in a deep voice like a dragon's purr. "I don't believe we've met before, but you know who I am. And now, I know who you are. I've got a problem, you see; perhaps you could help me with it. A couple of my precious boys got hooked on a new drug worming its way through the north end. 'Corruption', I think the kids call it. Must be a new recipe. Whatever it is, it's certainly…unique. Unique enough to create a buzz, turn a profit, and gather a loyal fanbase that's big enough to disturb the proper order of things on the north end."

He paused to release a sort of half-hum, half-growl before continuing. "I'll cut to the chase. I know Falco's behind Corruption. I know he's reformed the Free Birds and made a new play for power. And I know that you are the master chef in his operation – the artist behind the graffiti. To tell the truth, I was hoping Lombardi would try to get all of you back together; things have been a bit boring here on the north end as of late. Good-ole turf war would make things exciting again. But this Corruption stuff…that's playing dirty. That's where I draw the line."

Pukes licked her lips. "Ex-excuse me, but it doesn't have to be this way. No one's gotten hurt or killed yet. You don't have to change that-"

Grimmer raised his eye ridges in mock indignation. "What, you think I'd just kill a defenseless woman in cold blood? You insult me. I'm not here to kill you, or even hurt you too much. I'm just here to send Lombardi a little message – a warning, if you will."

Pukes sighed inwardly, realizing she might have a chance of making it out of this altercation alive. "O-okay! Thank you, thank you! I'll tell him anything! What's the message?"

Grimmer grinned crookedly , exposing a few of his sharp teeth. "Oh there's no words. As they say, the medium is the message."

"Wh-what?"

The iguana snapped his fingers, and a rat skittered forth holding a pill bottle and a rusted metal dental tool. Dimmer forced her mouth open and the rat jammed the instrument in, which prevented her from closing it again. She clamped down on the metal with her teeth and tried to pull away, but there was no avoiding it. Dimmer forced her head back and the rat upended the bottle into her mouth, filling it with pills. She immediately recognized the briny taste of Corruption – ironically she had filled these pills herself. But the shear amount of them was dangerous. While not deadly, an overdose would cause a variety of nasty side effects, including one hell of a living nightmare for the rest of the day.

She gagged on the mouthful of pills, but the rat helped wash them down with a bottle of water. She wanted to spit the pills from her mouth and throat, but couldn't. Instead she swallowed until she'd downed them all.

Satisfied, the rat removed the instrument and Dimmer let go of her head. Pukes keeled forward, retching and gasping for air. She could almost feel the pills rattling in her stomach now; they'd certainly torn their way down her throat.

In truth she was proud of her work as a chemist, viewing her profession and creations as art. It was fate that brought Falco and the formula to her lab, and fate that brought the mycoremediating ingredient to Zoness, but it was her knowledge and artistry that pulled it all together. Corruption was her crowning achievement – it even helped her sleep easier, though she wondered how much of that was a placebo effect of feeling satisfied in something she'd finally created herself. Yet all of this made it worse now that Grimmer used it to send her on a bad trip.

The wait felt agonizing. Grimmer's men looked impatient and ready for action, yet all they did was stare at her eagerly. Soon however, the familiar sensation of her stomach dropping out from under her hit, and the reach of her mind expanded. She felt her consciousness leaking out of the confines of her body, until she could view the world from the eyes of her captors. Essentially she had become receptive to everything they sensed, only unlike the effects of the recommended dosage, the overdose made the experience ten times as potent. It was frightening, being in someone else's shoes – especially those of an enemy. She tried to hold onto herself, but it was no use. There was no escaping Corruption's psychic voyeurism.

The green-scaled iguana noticed her horrified expression – or rather, she felt him noticing. "I'd say your candy has set in. Well Ms. Pukes, enjoy our show."

His men shared foreboding laughs before revealing various weapons; broken steal pipes, baseball bats, hammers, crowbars – even torn up sign posts. Pukes flinched and tried to close her eyes, anticipating the inevitable blows she was about to receive…but when they landed the tools struck plywood, drywall, glassware, and steel fixtures. The brutes scattered about her house, smashing her furniture, walls, and windows. But worst of all they discovered the laboratory in her basement, which was apparently what they had come for. Hefting their weapons over their shoulders, they brought them crashing down on the fragile glass tubes. The sharp tinkling reached her ears even on the ground floor. She started from each blow, even if they weren't aimed at her. Those were her instruments being destroyed. More than that, it felt like they were shattering her very bones. And to her horror, she had to watch every minute of it from their eyes. She hated Corruption. She wielded the hammers. She brought them crashing down on her delicate tools. She destroyed the laboratory with her own hands – the craft that meant more to her than anything else in the world. And they forced her to watch.

Pukes began crying then, a constant, quiet whimpering that never even amounted to a sob or wail. She felt so powerless to fight them off. It was merely the conclusion of fate. It nearly didn't register when two of the men carried out a case of the remaining Corruption for Grimmer's own use.

Once there wasn't a single item in her apartment left in one piece, Grimmer returned to her side as if to gloat. Stooping down he said, "As much as I enjoy subtlety, we both know Lombardi has nuts and bolts for brains, so maybe he won't get the message. In that case, be sure to tell him this…"

X

In a supply closet aboard the Justice, Bill and Fay perched upon stacks of crates across from each other, lost in thought. Dr Makepeace leaned against the back wall, while #19 sat on the floor, legs crossed and hands folded in her lap. Her tail swished back and forth while she glanced between Bill and Fay, waiting expectantly. Elsewhere in the room sat the disassembled ROB units they'd confiscated from the Great Fox, now decommissioned and safe. The four of them had sought out the supply closet to be as far away from the bridge and Ariki as possible, using the solitude to clear their heads and come up with a plan without being eavesdropped on.

"Taking Ariki back to Lylat is out of the question," Bill mumbled darkly. He sat with his elbows on his knees, hands steepled in front of his muzzle. "Best case scenario he'd find some remote place to live as a hermit. He seems to hate people enough, and he's socially inept. Worst case…he tries to take over Corneria, resulting in thousands of deaths before the military decides to glass wherever he is and be done with it. Either way, I'd never be able to face Pepper again after I let a spoiled brat get the best of me. God, Fox never had to deal with anything like this during the Lylat Wars…"

Fay held her face in her hands for a moment, holding back tears. Swiftly however, the emotion turned to rage. She punched her fist into an open palm, staring through the floor panels as she undoubtedly imagined the horrible things she'd do to Ariki. "We can't let him live – not after what he did to Miyu and the others. I'd love to make his death as slow and as painful as possible…"

"That is out of the question," Makepeace spoke up. "While we are all in agreement Ariki must be killed, he must die as swiftly as possible; we can't give him time to react."

Fay released a broken sigh. "Yeah…" She looked across at Bill, eyes glassy and trembling. "Hey…do you think there's any chance Miyu might have…survived?"

Bill looked up as well. "I'm sure she's okay. The missile didn't kill her, so it's possible she ejected before…before the crash. But the sooner we get rid of our hijacker, the sooner we can return to find out. And Cerinian 28 was close by, too. We just need a surefire way of killing Ariki, and we only have a few hours before the gate opens."

At that moment 19 yawned, covering her stretching mouth with a paw. Her eyelids seemed to droop, and the dim light in the closet didn't help her staying awake.

"Guess none of us are getting any shut-eye tonight, huh?" Fay commented, smiling at 19.

"The devil doesn't sleep," Bill dryly responded. "We can't afford to either."

After a few minutes of wracking their brains in silence, Fay ventured, "What about poison?"

Bill cracked his knuckles absently, staring at the bulkhead. "I considered that, but Ariki might be suspicious of anything we give him. You saw the way he looked over the clothes we gave him. He's paranoid beyond belief. He'd just read the mind of whoever offered him the food and find out they'd poisoned it."

"Well, what if we didn't tell the server we poisoned it?"

"Hmm…Ariki would still force someone to taste-test it first."

"We could give the server the antidote to the poison beforehand so they'd survive, but Ariki wouldn't."

Bill nodded. "But of course we'd have to slip the antidote into the server's food without him knowing as well, then poison the rest of the food after he's eaten his meal."

Fay looked like she wanted to pull her hair out. "Oh this is getting so convoluted! But it still might work if we do everything exactly right."

"There's just one problem."

Bill and Fay grimaced, preparing for Makepeace to douse water over their plan yet again. She continued, "The stores aboard the Justice weren't stocked with poisoning individuals in mind. While my scientists could concoct something, it wouldn't have a ready antidote. The poison would need awhile to take effect so that the server doesn't die right away; only after Ariki ate the food. But whoever serves it would by necessity also have to die. Nor would they know ahead of time or be able to consent to their sacrifice, because we can't tell them."

Makepeace looked at Bill with piercing teal eyes. "Could you do that, Captain? Could you pick out one of your unwitting men for the slaughter?"

Bill sighed and looked down, debating with himself. In war, sacrifices always had to be made, but was he really that cold?

In the end he chose not to answer, instead fielding a different idea. "Who says it needs to be poison? What if we just hid a sedative in his food and killed him while he's asleep?"

The vixen weighed the idea. "You could. But there will always be a window where he realizes he's falling asleep and subsequently lashes out. He could kill anyone during his final moments of clarity – perhaps even take the whole ship with him before his eyelids close."

Bill clenched his teeth. "It's certainly a risk…"

Makepeace folded her arms. "Besides, Ariki has no plans to sleep; I doubt he'd be willing to eat food until he's safely by himself either."

"You have a point."

Fay wrung her paws together. "What did he even eat all these years?" After thinking for a moment, her eyebrows raised, and her voice climbed in pitch. "You don't think he resorted to-?!"

"You know, I wouldn't put it past him," Bill smirked at Fay's gruesome implication. There certainly wasn't much a normal person could do to gather their own food after society broke down and the surface of the planet transformed to a barren wasteland. But the train of thought brought back some of Hime and Ariki's words from earlier that day. He looked over at Makepeace.

"Doctor, there's something that's been eating at me today. Ariki and the other Cerinian mentioned something about our having caused the apocalypse. Is what they said true?"

Makepeace frowned. "I fail to see how that is of any relevance at the moment."

Bill quickly dug for an excuse. "It might help us understand why he hates us so much."

The doctor pursed her lips, taking a moment to answer. "Corneria did not…directly cause what happened to this planet. While Dr. Andross was allowed on the project, he showed no signs of psychosis until it was too late. He acted without the proper authority, and without alerting any of our superiors. What happened on Cerinia was his responsibility alone." Unconsciously as she spoke, the vixen wrung her hands and seemed to be staring somewhere far away.

"Then why do the Cerinians think we caused it?"

Makepeace shook her head dismissively. "Ariki and his partner probably heard rumors. Sensational news travels fast, but it is also easily distorted. I'm sure the complete truth was buried under the rest of the ash and rubble. Without knowing the full story, survivors are bound to jump to hasty conclusions in place of facts."

Her answer did little to satisfy the captain. Bill had hoped she would completely exonerate Corneria of any wrongdoing, but it wasn't the straightforward acquittal he was looking for. He did his best to push the thought aside, but it kept nagging at him in a quiet voice from the corner of his mind.

For the moment they returned to brainstorming in silence. Bill continued playing out different scenarios in his head, each one wilder, more complicated, and more desperate than the last to the point of being fantasies. But no matter what he came up with, there was no easy way out. Some way or another, he was bound to lose more men in the process, and the clock was ticking fast. If he didn't come up with something, time would make the decision for him.

Growing agitated, he glanced at 19. During his time cooped up aboard the Justice, the sight of her always managed to calm him down. There was something reassuring about seeing her so contented and confident in him, trusting that he would take care of her no matter what happened. At the moment she was scratching her claw in the steel floor, making increasingly-complex circle patterns.

Bill looked over at Makepeace, an idea beginning to take hold. "Are 19's powers truly gone? Or are they just dormant?"

The vixen straightened her glasses, catching onto Bill's intention. "After her encounter with 28 we worked tirelessly to reawaken them, but with no luck. Whatever happened between the two of them caused 19 to lock her abilities away deep within herself, reversing years of progress. Are you suggesting we could reawaken her powers and have her face Ariki?"

19 raised her head at the sound of her name, looking back and forth between them curiously.

"It may be our only chance. I don't think he knows about 19 yet, and if he does he wouldn't know about her powers; after all, everyone else on the ship knows she's harmless. Or at least thinks she's harmless. If someone could distract Ariki, and 19 sneaked up on him, she could remotely kill him in the same way he killed our men – it could be as easy as crushing his skull."

Makepeace bit her lip. "You could certainly try, but we'd have to be sure. We can't risk 19 unless the odds of failure are negligible."

Bill slid off the crate and knelt on the floor beside the Cerinian. "I agree. Let's try to test her powers; maybe we can bring them back together. She's…I think she's rather fond of me, so maybe if I'm here to encourage her the result might be different. Can you explain to her what we're doing?"

Makepeace pushed off the wall and crouched by 19, taking her hand. She spoke at length in Venomian, and 19 answered shortly.

"She says she doesn't think she can, but she'll try if it's to help us. We'll start by giving her a large dose of crystal lysergic acid." She pulled her medical bag over from its resting place by the wall and removed a brownish-orange bottle of pills. She tapped four onto her palm before tipping them into 19's paw.

Fay slid off her stack of boxes. "I'll get her a cup of water…"

She hurried off into the outside corridor, but by the time she returned 19 had already swallowed the pills. From how fast she upended them into her mouth, Bill judged she was well accustomed to the act. Yet the grimace on her face said repetition didn't make it any more pleasant.

Along with Makepeace and Fay they gathered around 19 in a huddle, eager to watch the experiment. Bill drew his tactical knife and set it on the floor in front of her; perhaps they wouldn't have her use something as obvious as a knife to kill Ariki, but it was a good starting point.

"Here. Just see if you can lift this," Bill instructed.

After Makepeace translated, 19 set her gaze intently on the knife. She frowned and furrowed her brow, as if in intense concentration. The three spectators glanced back and forth between the purple vixen and the knife; Makepeace with doubt, Fay with wonder, and Bill with tentative hope. Knowing she had an audience, and that this was crucial to the survival of her friends, 19 threw herself at the task.

From Bill's end it looked like she was simply staring at an object on the floor, but he knew inside her mind she must be struggling against such a herculean trial. Soon he noticed outward signs of her mental battle; her breathing ran shallow, her forehead muscles trembled, and sweat glistened down the tips of her fur. It felt like agonizing torture just watching her.

A distant look came over the girl's face, as if she were transported far away. Shadows of haunting memories played across her widening eyes. She no longer trembled from mental effort, but from fear. And in that moment, Bill understood. 28 hadn't taken her powers. 19 had suppressed them herself. She realized the horror she had inflicted on Bill's men and was scared of ever repeating it. She was scared of what she really was:

A monster.

19 buried her face in her hands, sniffing back tears. She apologized in Venomian, her voice fragile and close to breaking.

Then, the weapon shook. Bill, Fay, and Makepeace shared a gasp, sucking in their breaths as they stared at the knife in wonder. Slowly it lifted off the floor to hover between them. Then it rotated around till the dagger end pointed in the opposite direction. Finally it floated through the air only for the point to stop against 19's throat.

The vixen looked down at the knife, swallowing. She placed her arms on the ground behind her and backed away until she came up against the wall, but the knife pressed against her neck the entire time.

"Kei-kei-kei, what do we have here?"

Bill and Fay spun to see Ariki standing in the doorway, leaning against the frame with his arms crossed. He was dressed in a comfortable civilian set of clothes Bill had given him, only he insisted on wearing that ridiculous, weather-beaten cape of his.

"I'm surprised to see you have another Cerinian prisoner! Forgive the knife, my dear, but it's merely a precaution. Nothing personal, I assure you. But one wrong move…"

"Ariki, don't!" Bill pleaded. "She's not like you: she has no powers! She couldn't hurt a fly!"

The Cerinian raised a brow. "Oh?" He searched Bill's thoughts and the canine grimaced, but ultimately Ariki discerned he was telling the truth. He burst out laughing. "So she doesn't have telekinesis anymore, but you three were still trying to convince her to kill me, is that it? You naughty Cornerians! I can't leave you unsupervised for less than five minutes or you'll begin plotting behind my back. I'll have to babysit you like younglings from now on." He turned his attention back to 19, letting the knife clatter to the floor beside her. "Well then, what's a girl like you doing with these foreigners when you could be flying first class with me? Don't you know these people kidnapped you? They're merely using you as a tool. You're nothing to them. Nothing. But to me, you could be very special. I know of the past that was robbed from you, but your future belongs with me. Why stay cowering with your enemies?"

Makepeace stood up, the light from outside the closet finally falling on her. "We're not her enemies. We're the ones who saved her."

Ariki seemed to jump. "Egad, there's another Cerinian! Where are you hiding all of these women?!" he demanded. Then he studied the doctor more closely. "I must say though, your fur is…oddly-colored. Is it a dye job?"

The doctor rolled her eyes. "I am a Lylatian vulpine. You would do well not to imply falsities of a woman's natural coat."

The Cerinian smirked. "Interesting…" He paused for a few seconds, during which time Bill could only assume he was reading her mind, yet Makepeace didn't even flinch. "No powers, either. Your species must have escaped the Curse. But your existence in…'Lylat' begs the question: did your race descend from ours, or did we Cerinians descend from yours?"

Makepeace nodded. "A worthy question for a research project, but we aren't likely to find the answers now."

"Mmm, yes. Not after the holocaust. Well, good luck with your research, Doctor. But I'll have to ask your…'test subject' to come with me. What is her name?"

Bill and Makepeace exchanged glances. The doctor coughed. "Well, we call her 19, but-"

Ariki snorted. "19? Really? You mean in the future you got so uncreative you began numbering your children? What's next, naming them after your species? My gods though, 19 sibling kits…hasn't your population growth plateaued yet?"

"We never knew her name. As I explained, we rescued her from someone else."

The male Cerinian held out his hand to the frightened vixen. "Well, come on 19. Perhaps I'll call you my Hime from now on, for that is what you'll be. When we get to Lylat, you will be my bride; my queen. No more experiments, no more wild chases, no more post-apocalyptic wastelands. And best of all, no more pesky aliens!"

He took her hand and pulled 19 to her feet, but Bill stepped between them. "Ariki, please, she doesn't deserve this. If it's a hostage you want I'll go back with you to the bridge-"

But the Cerinian laughed. "You really think you want the best for her, don't you? That after all this is said and done, she might end up in your care so you can make things right for her? All in the better world you're imagining. Well I have news for you, Bill. You are part of the problem. You will always be her captor. You will always be different. But I…" He let go of 19's hand and grasped the collar around her neck. With minimal effort he snapped it open and worked it free, dropping the binder to the floor. "I am her equal. I will raise her up from your ashes and crown her as my queen."

19's eyes widened and she reached for the collar, only to discover it had vanished from around her neck. She began to gasp for breath, as if freedom was stifling.

"I'm quite lucky to have found a girl like her. She'll be even better than Hime! Without any powers she can't hurt me; nor does she possess Hime's same fiery spirit which so often scorched me. I think we'll get along nicely. You'll never betray me, will you?"

He tightened his grip firmly around 19's hand again, pulling her out of the closet. She looked back with pleading eyes at Bill, but couldn't do anything else to stop Ariki.

Bill ran to the doorframe to watch them go, but he was just as powerless. "Don't worry 19, you'll be okay," he assured her. "I won't let him take you away."

Ariki looked over his shoulder. "Was that a threat?"

Bill stopped in his tracks, closing his mouth.

"I know all about your little plot to poison me. It will interest you to know I've taken up fasting; food doesn't agree with me when there's poison about, and besides I get airsick. But I'll be sure to wine and dine 19 on your ship's finest cuisine. Glad I sought you out! From now on I'll regularly be scanning your minds to make sure you don't plan any more mischief. Someone might get hurt!"

He laughed at his own joke and guided 19 away, disappearing down the corridor in the direction of the bridge.

Clenching his teeth, Bill returned with Makepeace and Fay back to the storage closet. He beat his head several times against the wall, then remained there leaning.

"God I want to stuff that pretentious cape down his throat," Fay growled. "I would've taken 19's place if I could, just for her sake. The poor girl's been through so much…"

Bill remained standing with his forehead pressed against the bulkhead, wallowing in hopelessness. Any idea he came up with he immediately shot down, knowing Ariki would read his mind the next time they met and that would be the end of it. What was it Makepeace had advised about fighting Cerinians?

Fay sighed. "Well Doctor, got any more ideas?"

When Makepeace replied it was in a painfully-flat and drawn-out voice as if she were broadcasting over a microphone. "I must remind you, Lieutenant Spaniel, that anything we plot together will merely be revealed by our enemy. Taking that into account, me must not speak about such matters together."

Bill looked over at her, surprised to find Makepeace had been directly staring at him the entire time. Her blue-green eyes burned with a mischievous fire.

What sort of tricks must you have up your sleeve? Bill mused to himself.

X

Fox grit his teeth, jabbing left and right at his opponent. His cloth-wrapped fists struck home with hollow thuds against the training dummy. It was a creature of his own design, though he recruited Kaia and several other Cerinians to help him construct it. The dummy stood slightly taller than himself; a simple cross of thick bamboo shoots for the spine and shoulders, and bags of sand gathered from the river bank for the head and torso.

For the most part the storm had passed that morning, but the sky remained cloudy and the air cool, making the weather perfect for training. Kaia stood not too far away, observing his progress and occasionally shouting out when the dummy left an opening or tried an imaginary attack. Depending on the case Fox would parry, dodge, or seize the chance to strike a powerful blow in a way he couldn't while fighting his tutor.

For some reason he was angry; fury powered his fists, making his blows land harder and more erratically than usual. He tried imagining the dummy as different enemies: rogue Cerinians who threatened the village, always turning out to look more monstrous and hideous than he knew Cerinians to be; Cornerian soldiers hunting Krystal down, though never Bill specifically; even the ghostly shadows of Venomians who continued to torment Krystal in her memories. If only it were so simple…

"Good afternoon, Fox."

With one final blow, Fox struck the sandbag head clear off the rest of the body, flinging granules across the lawn. Face flushing with blood, he turned to see Mother Namah standing at the other end of the yard. Hurriedly he scooped the sandbag off the ground and tried to fix it back atop the dummy's shoulders, embarrassed that the Cerinian matron had witnessed his aggression boil over.

Namah walked purposefully along the rear of the blacksmith's shop, pausing to return Kaia's bow.

"Mother Namah, it is an honor," the wine-furred vixen stated.

"Kaia." When she rose she said, "I'd like to have a word alone with Fox, please."

"Yes ma'am." Kaia nodded, glancing at Fox curiously before disappearing around the side of the shop. Namah continued on until she stood before Fox.

"Is there…something you wanted to see me about?" he asked. It was only now that she stood closer that he could see lines of worry etched in her visage.

"Fox, were you in the village when the storm hit this morning?"

"No, I was just leaving Itoro's."

"Do you remember hearing thunder? Even just one peal."

Fox scratched his chin. "Er, yeah, I think I did, but only once. Now that you mention it, I didn't see any flash of lightning either, or I might have turned right back around and stayed home. Why?"

"It wasn't lightning," she said flatly. "It was Krystal. She's getting worse."

Fox raised his eyebrows worriedly before repeating, "Worse?"

Namah gestured to a pair of seats behind the blacksmith shop and they sat down across from each other. The matron leaned in closer to Fox, keeping her voice low as if Krystal might overhear.

"Please, it's imperative that you tell me all you have learned about her. While I have some familiarity with Corneria's project, I've had no news since they cut themselves off from us."

The todd shrugged. "Well, there's not much more I can tell than I've already told you before, but maybe something will stick out to you more than it would to me. Like I said I found Krystal in one of Andross's laboratories before I came here. She was with several other Cerinians, but most were killed before I arrived."

"Did she demonstrate any unusual skills? Anything you might call…magical?"

Fox smirked at her word choice, then frowned. "Besides being able to speak telepathically, there was a point where she saved my life by means I could only call supernatural – that is, until I got to know her better and now nothing surprises me anymore. While escaping we ran into some soldiers who mistook me for a monster. They…they shot me. At least, I think they did. When I came to I was covered in blood, but there weren't any wounds left. Krystal had dragged me to safety. Suffice it to say, I owe her my life."

"You said you found her in Andross's labs. Do you know of his ultimate purpose for her?"

"I think he wanted to use her and the others as power sources for a space station. My team and I destroyed the first one he managed to get working, but it was an ordeal I don't want to repeat."

Namah leaned forward and took Fox's hand, surprising him. "And did Krystal ever power one of these satellites?"

Fox stumbled. "I…I don't know."

The abbess withdrew and sighed, looking pensive. "Then perhaps you've confirmed my worst fears. Fox, that girl is one of the most powerful Cerinians I have ever come across – certainly of those that have survived to this day. She might not display it outwardly, but I sense within her the potential to move mountains. If Andross was priming her to power an entire satellite, her powers could be limitless – and definitely catastrophic."

"You mean…like my mother?"

The Cerinian nodded gravely. "One of the reasons she gained Cerinian powers so quickly was because Andross tried using her to power a satellite. When the space station collapsed and he ferried her here, Vixy struggled to contain herself. She managed to for awhile, but it couldn't last. You know of what happened to her…"

Fox felt the blood drain from his face, realizing what happened to his mother now had a strong chance of happening to Krystal as well.

"Namah, there's…there's got to be a way to stop that from happening. Aren't you helping her fight it?"

"I've tried my best for the past month, but…there's a good chance I won't be able to rein-in her powers. If that becomes the case, I will have no other choice but to exile her to save the rest of the village."

The young vulpine felt his temper rise. "What? You can't be serious. So you'd just give up on her like that? You'd cast her back out into the wastelands, after she came so far looking for a home?"

Namah's face darkened. "Don't you dare imply that I don't care for that girl! I cherish Krystal as much as anyone else in the village. I see what you love in her. It shatters my heart just thinking about this possibility, but unfortunately as the matron of Altaira Valley I have to make difficult sacrifices. If it's between her or the entirety of the village, I'd have to choose the other hundreds of Cerinians living here."

"But-but Krystal can't possibly be that much of a threat! That's ridiculous! She'd never hurt anyone!"

"No, perhaps not by choice. She has the heart of an angel, but if she can't suppress her powers it will be of no consequence. At the outbreak of the Anomie, completely normal people – many of whom I knew and loved – endured mental breakdowns which resulted in the deaths of millions."

Fox still couldn't bring himself to believe it, but there was nothing he could say to refute her.

Namah sighed. "I see you remain skeptical. Allow me to show you what I myself have witnessed."

Before he could stop her, Namah closed her eyes and overlapped minds with him. The experience felt similar to the previous day when Krystal had shared memories with him, only this time it was nowhere near as pleasant.

The backyard disappeared as Namah numbed his external senses, tuning him into her own recollections. Fox found himself standing inside a bakery, not too unlike ones found on Corneria or Papetoon a century prior. The advertisements on the walls and colorfully-decorated confectioneries all blurred together, as if Namah could no longer remember what they looked like; but the smell remained clear and tantalizing.

Everything in the shop seemed normal at first, but by the time Namah took Fox out onto the street the atmosphere seemed…eerie. The bright sun poured over the buildings, washing away their color and leaving the city a pale white. For a metropolitan street, everything seemed too quiet.

Then the screams rose above the sound of horns blaring, and hell broke loose. What followed was a frenzy of violent images without any order that even Namah seemed eager to avoid. She jumped between them quickly, unwilling to relive the ordeal she already relived every night while trying to sleep.

Out on the sidewalk, multi-colored Cerinians dressed in modern clothes pointed towards the sky, and Namah had to shield her eyes as she looked up. The silhouetted buildings that stood black against the blinding sky loomed over them, but they were…moving. Tipping over. Namah turned to run as a momentous thunder shook the street. Brakes squealed and cars crashed, but the Cerinian was too busy stumbling away from the collapsing buildings to pay them any mind. A cloud of debris engulfed the street like a wave, blotting out the pale sun. Screams sounded from somewhere above her, growing louder and louder until they ended in wet smacks against the pavement. Fox felt sick to his stomach as Namah tripped over their crumpled remains, but they were obscured by the dual smog of the collapse and Namah's own forgetting.

Elsewhere across the city climbed pillars of fire, accompanied by tremendous explosions. As she made her way through the rubble, Namah was lucky to avoid cars, dumpsters, and chunks of buildings hurled across the thoroughfare. The confusion shared by the Cerinians on the street was as palpable as the fog. Was it an earthquake? An invasion? A terrorist attack? But even at that time Namah seemed to know the truth; she just wouldn't accept it.

She came across another woman in the smog, seated beside an alley and covered in blood. Namah stooped to offer the woman her hand, but she made no move to accept it. Trembling, and with eyes as wide as dinner plates, she scooted backwards into the side of a building.

"Get…get away from me!" she screamed.

A shadow fell over the both of them, and Namah looked up to see a building pass above their heads. Something had torn it straight from the ground, with leaking pipes and wires showering sparks swinging precariously beneath it, as if they were veins from a severed limb. Both women ducked and covered their heads, but only handfuls of plaster and cement rained down on their backs. When they looked up the building continued to sail effortlessly down the street, its shadow disappearing into the smoke.

Namah offered her hand to the woman again, but she flinched and cowered more, placing her paws over her temples and screaming. Fox was surprised when the next instant he found Namah flung across the street, her body denting the roof of a small Cerinian vehicle.

Groaning she rolled off the tram, sprawling onto the road on her hands and knees. She threw up on the street, and Fox wanted nothing more than to do the same. Yet the nightmare only worsened.

Beneath her palms, the hardened mixture of stone began to glow white hot. It melted away in the shape of her paws, turning to molten liquid. Frightened, Namah shot to her feet and threw herself back against the tram, only to find her hands had melted straight through the window and side door. She examined her paws in disbelief, crying out when they burst into flames in front of her face, yet they didn't burn or feel unbearably hot. She set off down the street, hoping to escape the city, all the while holding her hands as far away from the rest of her body and anyone else that she passed as if they were diseased or radioactive.

Involuntarily, Fox was seized by a wave of his own memories. He found himself plunged back a year ago to the initial attack on Corneria City, and the chaos and destruction and death it brought. He felt his heart rate begin to pump dangerously fast as his insides begged to empty the contents of his stomach for better flight. Sharp daggers of ice pricked from the inside of his chest, stabbing him mercilessly whenever he dared breathe. While the attack on Corneria marked Starfox's triumphant entry into the war, the images of carnage he witnessed were no cause for celebration.

Only…here they weren't ships buzzing through the air. It wasn't spacecraft strafing the streets with hellfire; it wasn't bombers dropping explosive ordinance onto buildings; it wasn't hulking mechs toppling over towers. It was ordinary people just like him.

Just like Krystal.

And within an instant, Fox blinked his eyes back open to the lush Cerinian valley, the sounds of chaos and destruction replaced by the songs of innocent wildlife. The present silence was so serene it drowned out the last echos of screams.

Namah sat across from him with a grave face. "I think I've made my point."

She didn't have to draw the conclusion for him. Fox realized that what he saw could easily happen to the village if Namah wasn't careful, or to a Lylatian City if Fox managed to return there with Krystal.

Or, of course, to him.

"How did all of that happen?" he asked in disbelief.

Namah looked down at the head of the training dummy, which had not stayed put on its shoulders for long. "While researching my people for Corneria's project, Andross discovered certain evolutionary traits that were not present in Lylat's species. The psychic organs in our brains were more developed, and this interested him greatly. He became obsessed with the telepathic potential of my race.

"While Cerinians initially volunteered to be examined, Andross took his experiments too far, apparently kidnapping orphaned children. He wanted to see if he could awaken the abilities of an entire race, and what society might look like if he did. Andross…put something into our water supply. It accelerated our psychic development by thousands, perhaps millions of years. He didn't care about the possible consequences. We developed telepathy and other abilities. Some awoke sooner than others, confounding leaders and news organizations. Then, like a chain reaction to the trauma, the majority awoke on a mass scale the same day. And…well, suffice it to say you have witnessed the rest."

Fox's tail drooped. "Then, there's no other way?"

Namah dipped her head. "If Krystal doesn't show signs of improvement, I'm afraid I'll have to ask her to leave the village. I'm sorry, Fox. Maybe she will learn how to control herself after all, and all of this worrying of mine will be for nothing. But, if I do have to send her away…what will you do?"

The todd looked up at her, surprised the subject had changed to him. "Me? I'd go with her. What else would I do?"

Her face betrayed none of her intent. "You have a home here in the village, and new friends. I admit I was quite wrong about you, and the rest of my people are learning to accept you as well. You would always have a place to stay."

Fox shook his head vigorously. How ironic, he thought, that he would be allowed to stay while Krystal might be turned away. "I'm sorry, but that's out of the question. I've come this far with Krystal. I'm not about to abandon her now. I'm not even a part of your village anyway. I live outside of it, like Itoro."

"I'm only thinking of your safety, Fox. I owe you for the service your mother did for us in helping to build this village. If Krystal's condition worsens, and you continue to stay by her side, there's a very real chance she may unintentionally kill you. You're a Lylatian with no such powers. Your physical training with Kaia means nothing against a psychic."

Fox shrugged. "Then that's just a chance I'll have to take. I gave up everything to find my mother and return Krystal home. Now that I have closure, she's all I have left. If Altaira doesn't work out, we'll just move on and keep looking."

"Then for everyone's sake I pray this moment never comes." Her expression suddenly softened as she looked at him. "Sometimes, Fox, I find your blind stubbornness admirable, even if it may be your undoing."

Fox smirked. "Thanks, I guess. But it hasn't done me wrong yet." Then he narrowed his eyes at her. "Just one more thing. How do you know so much about Andross, my mother, and their Cerinia project?"

The Cerinian elder sighed. "I suppose an explanation is finally in order, isn't it?"

She took a moment to roll up her sleeve and expose the upper portion of her forearm to Fox. There, in the midst of her dark blue fur, he saw the faded strokes of a white tattoo written in Cornerian:

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