XII

Not the best way to go, Fox thought as the thing raised its claws. It'll probably rip out my jugular, letting me bleed to death. I guess there's no good way to die. He shut his eyes, waiting…

A bang came from somewhere in the room. I don't feel anything… He opened his eyes, and saw the thing in front of him, claw still raised, but with a different expression on its face. It stared blankly, in awe, not at him or anyone else. Then it fell down, to Fox's left, and let Fox see what had happened.

He glanced over at the demon. It had fallen over on its front, revealing the gaping, charred hole right between its shoulder blades. He then looked over to the doorway.

Krystal was standing their, gun in hand, trembling a bit. She dropped the blaster and started toward him, but he grasped for his and pointed it at her.

"F-Fox? What're you- " she started, but Fox cut her off.

"Hold on. Stick out your tongue," he told her. Krystal stared at him in confusion.

"What?"

"Just do it."

She did. A normal, pink tongue. Fox lowered his blaster, and Krystal came over to him and helped him up.

"Fox, what happened? I was out in the hallway because I couldn't sleep and I heard something in here, so I came in and-" Fox held up a hand.

"That thing," he said, "tricked me into thinking it was you. It got close to me, but I figured it out. It overpowered me, and, well… you shot it." He looked at the floor for a moment, and then looked up at her, half smiling. "I owe you one, now." She let out a nervous laugh. She came a bit closer to him, but hesitated. When she saw he was ok with it, she hugged him tightly, and he returned it.

Fox felt no unease now. He was finally at peace. For the moment, anyways.

"We chucked the thing out of the airlock as soon as we could. It's free floating atoms now," Fox told the others. They were in the lounge, briefing each other on what they found out. "That thing must've somehow gotten through warp going in the opposite direction and somehow got into the Great Fox." He nodded thoughtfully. "So, what's the situation on this Hellborne planet we're off to?"

"We all eventually found the location of the planet, Hellborne, but we all found different things about it," Krystal told them. "The planet is a jungle-covered planet. It has a fast rotation, so day and night are a lot shorter than normal. There are a lot of volcanoes there because of it. It's close enough to the sun that it's a hot planet, but not close enough to be desert-like." She sat back in her seat.

Slippy spoke next. "The place was settled years ago, but we lost contact around the time when the Aparoids attacked. The Cornerian fleet was supposed to check it out, but the Aparoids crippled them, so they haven't gotten the time to."

Falco spoke up. "What could've happened to them, ya think?" he said softly. He sat back, lost in thought. "Anyways, the place is abundant with natural resources, which is why the place was settled. Wood, metal, you name it."

Fox took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "So, we're gonna go there, see what the demon was talking about, and hopefully clean up this mess." The others agreed, and they got to work, getting ready to fall out of warp.

"So. It's dead, is it?"

"Y-yes, my lord. An unforeseeable occurrence, I assure you, which will not happen again. I can send out another if you-"

"Stop your babbling. Preying on his emotions that way won't work again. We'll have to kill or capture him another way… Make sure the geomancer is ready."

"Yes, my lord. Also, the last of the resistance from the settlers has ended."

"Good… how about you let the geomancer get in a little target practice before our guests arrive?"

"I'll tend to it, my lord."

"See that you do."

That's the end of chapter 12. Review, please. Thanks for all of your kind reviews, I'm not going to give away any spoilers to the story, either, but you can keep guessing.

Black Swordsman342