Chapter Six

In a dimly lit room, walls covered in dark red, a white octagon merged with a pentagram in the center of the floor, stood two figures each in a black cloak which bore the same logo as the floor, "What happened on Corneria?" A cold voice asked from one of the hoods.

"We entered, they fought back, Star Fox came and we were forced to retreat." The much larger hood answered with a gruff voice.

"So Star Fox is the reason we weren't victorious?" Asked the smaller cloaked figure, disappointed.

"No, there's someone else."

"Who?"

"Less than half of the soldiers we sent came back, very few saw what caused this, but the few who did say that the assailant was simply a dark red flash."

Silence filled the room, it was so quiet that even the most silent assassin would be heard.

"Thank you, that is all." The smaller figure dismissed the larger one, and as he left the room, the smaller one thought, "Who is this 'red flash'?" There was something familiar about a 'red flash' but he just couldn't place anything in his mind about it, but then his eyes widened as he thought more and realized who Corneria's sudden savior was as he whispered, "Cross." The cloaked figure stood completely still, somewhat afraid, but soon the fear was discarded as he let out a small chuckle, "No, that's impossible." He thought more and soon brushed it off, "We will attack again, just as soon as our forces recover, you won't be so lucky next time Fox McCloud." A snicker escaping his muzzle.

1:50 A.M.

"So what exactly happened back there in the gym with Fox?" Krystal finally asked the dark vulpine walking beside her after a few minutes of silence.

"What do you mean?" Cross answered with a confused look.

"Don't play dumb with me, I mean when you lifted him off of the ground with one arm, he's almost twice your size for Lylat's sake!" The vixen almost yelled.

"Adrenaline I guess." Cross simply shrugged.

"That's a lie and you know it."

"No it's not, I'm just an ordinary fox like yourself."

"Ordinary fox's eyes don't turn red."

Cross wasn't ready for this, "So you noticed huh?"

"It's easy to see," Krystal told him, "So tell me, what are you?"

"Well...let's just say I haven't had a great life so far." This wasn't the answer Krystal wanted, so she decided to search the young vulpine's mind, Cross felt a slight warmth behind his ears and chuckled, "You won't find anything Krystal, you should just stop now."

This startled the vixen, "How do you always know?"

"It's easy to tell." Cross told her sarcastically as they arrived at the two-sided door to the bridge.

"Well, here we are." Krystal said as she put her paw on the scanner causing the two sides of the door to separate.

Cross immediately went over to the window and gazed into space, "It's beautiful." He said, awestruck.

Krystal wasn't amazed like Cross because she saw this everyday, but she joined him anyway, "So this is your first time in space?"

"Yeah, I've lived on Corneria for as far as I can remember." Cross answered, not so much as glancing away from the window.

"How come I've never seen you there?"

"Because I've always lived on the streets, ever since I was eight years old the only home I knew was either a dumpster or a sidewalk."

"Then why are you so smart? How come you can fight so well?" Krystal felt as if she needed to know everything about the dark vulpine.

"It's always been that way, one day I woke up in an alley and I had all of this knowledge about the quickest and slowest ways to kill someone, every weak point, that's all I'm good for," He looked down, "I'm just a killer."

"Cross?" Krystal asked.

"What?" The dark vulpine looked at the vixen.

"How far back can you remember?"

"I don't know, why?" Krystal then put her paw gently on the vulpine's forehead, Cross was confused, "Krystal, what are you--" He was cut-off.

"Shh, I'm going to search your memories." The vixen said as she closed her eyes and concentrated.

"Okay then." Cross said with a puzzled look.

Krystal was seeing everything that Cross had seen, starting with the sparring match with Fox, to the incident in the kitchen, which made her giggle a bit, all the way to the fight on Corneria. When she dug deeper however, she saw what looked to be the inside of a carrier ship, it looked as if Cross was walking through the halls, but something wasn't right, she noticed a soldier clad in purple and black armor, but then the soldier was lying on the floor of the ship, gasping for air, to the left she saw a dark red paw come into view only to slash the soldier's throat, and then another soldier came along, only to suffer the same fate, she then realized that Cross was the one doing all of this! The vixen didn't want to but she had to keep watching the violent slaughter, she watched Cross walk through the ship from his eyes, slashing every soldier who came into view until he came to where the pilots were, the vixen watched as the lives of the two pilots were taken without hesitation, but then she saw the ship's front fall to the ground at great speed, as a forest grew closer and closer with every passing second and then, nothing. Krystal started to stop but she saw something else, it looked as though Cross was crawling through the streets and into an alleyway, as he propped himself up against a wall, he raised a photo of two kits, one of them was dark red while the other was a pure white, both of them were smiling, for a few seconds she saw nothing but darkness, but then she saw something else, it was too a blur of white, she couldn't tell what it was but it didn't matter as the white blur soon faded into darkness.

"Krystal, are you okay?" Cross asked.

The vixen was sweating, tears rolled down her face as she was panting heavily, "Y-yes, I'm fine." She said as she wiped the tears from her eyes and began to catch her breath.

Fox walked in a few seconds later and noticed Krystal's condition immediately, "What's wrong Krys?" He asked, concerned.

"I need to talk to you in private." Krystal said as she walked towards the door and down the hall.

Fox looked at Cross, "Did something happen?" Cross shrugged his shoulders while Fox turned to follow Krystal.

Cross looked back into space as he thought, "I wonder what she saw."

Fox followed Krystal for a few seconds until she turned around, "What's wrong Krys?" He asked again.

"Close your eyes." She said.

Fox did as he was told, "Okay but I don't know where you're going with this."

"Just shut up and let me concentrate." The vixen said as she held his paw in hers and closed her eyes.

Krystal showed Fox everything that she saw while searching Cross' memories, after a few minutes Fox's eyes opened up and a horrified look came across his face, "My Goddess." Was all he could say.

"So what should we do?" Krystal asked.

"How should I know?" Fox asked with a puzzled look.

"You're the captain! You have to know!" The vixen yelled.

Fox thought for a moment, "I don't know."

"We can't take him back to Corneria, he has no home." Krystal was saddened.

"Well then we just keep him on the ship with us, all we need to do is keep an eye on him and make sure nothing sets him off," Fox told the vixen, "I told you before, I'll talk to Pepper about it when we get our mission."

The two headed back towards the bridge, but Cross was waiting for them at the door, "Is something wrong? I heard yelling." Cross looked concerned.

"Nothin' wrong here." Fox said as he walked through the doorway onto the bridge, Cross went back over to the window to look at the stars as they passed, every few minutes the Great Fox II would pass Corneria, which Cross was amazed at how it looked from the ship, Kystal walked over to the couch and sat down.

"I still can't believe I'm on a ship in space, it's unreal." Cross said, still gazing at the stars.

"Yeah it is pretty cool huh?" Fox said as he joined the dark vulpine by the window, "So, I hear you like Krys."

The sudden statement caught Cross off guard, "What's not to like, she's a very nice person." He said nervously.

"It's okay, hormones are kickin' in." Fox joked, thus resulting in embarrassment for Cross, which resulted in Krystal laughing a bit.

After a few minutes passed, "Well, I'm gonna head back to bed," Fox said looking at a clock that read 3:00 A.M., "Gotta be ready just in-case a call comes through, plus we gotta get you some clothes that fit." The light brown vulpine stated as he turned towards the door.

"I'll go to bed as well," Krystal said as she stood from where she was sitting in, "Sweet dreams." The vixen winked at Cross as she said this, which embarrassed him a little.

Cross was the only one left on the bridge, still looking at the stars, but as he looked into space, "What did Krystal see that I can't?" He couldn't remember anything past when he was eight years old, and became frustrated, "Am I really that terrifying?" His assumption was that he could only have been created for killing since that was all he knew how to do, and soon frustration turned to anger, "What am I? What was that dream about? Why can't I remember?" Cross then looked at his claws, and anger turned to realization, "Maybe that is all I am, nothing more than a killer, I hope General Pepper will know more about me." Cross could only hope.

After an hour passed Cross decided to head back to his room, it was easy to find because beside the door read 'Guest Room' so the dark vulpine put his paw on the scanner and the door slid open, Cross walked in and sat down on the bed, then opened one of the desk's drawers, reached in and pulled out a photo of two kits, one dark red, the other pure white, as Cross turned the photo over, on the back it read 'Brother', "I will find you one day, no matter what it takes." He said before putting the picture back into the drawer and as he lay down he said, "I promise."

3:30 A.M.

In a small house on Corneria, a bright orange vixen with a unique red stripe that ran down her face was sitting at a table in a kitchen holding a glass of water in her paw, "What's the matter Ziv, couldn't sleep?" A low, smooth voice asked.

"Yeah, something's been bugging me about that one guy who helped us earlier, what about you?" Zivia asked in her somewhat high-pitched voice as Hax came into the kitchen and sat down next to her. She was wearing a bright red tee shirt along with a pair of equally bright red pajama pants.

"You know me, I just like the night, and the guy that you're thinking about, his name is Cross and he's with Team Star Fox right now up on their ship." The lupine informed. Hax was dressed in a blue muscle shirt and a black pair of jeans.

"How do know all this?" Zivia was stunned.

"I hacked the military data-base, they work pretty damn fast that's for sure." The wolf said with an arrogant grin.

"You know you're not supposed to do that."

"I just can't help myself sometimes," The lupine shrugged, "Besides, they're the ones who sent us home as a reward for helping to fend off whoever was attacking us, if they didn't send us home I wouldn't have been able to hack them."

"One of these days you're luck is gonna run out." Zivia warned the black wolf.

"Hmm let's see, by my count I've hacked them at least twenty times and they've caught me," Hax put his paw to his muzzle as if he was thinking, "Oh yeah that's right, they've caught me an astounding zero times."

Zivia giggled, then yawned, "Well, I'm gonna go ahead and try to go to sleep." The vixen said as she stood and headed for the stairs.

"I'm goin' for a walk y'know, get some fresh air," Hax said while standing up as well and turned towards the entrance to the house, "Good night Zivia." The lupine said as he put on a pair of running shoes.

Zivia yawned again, "Good night Hax." She returned while walking up the staircase.

4:00 A.M.

As Hax walked down the sidewalk, he didn't see a single soul for the past half-hour, that until a voice came from a corner, "Look what we got here boys, I'm guessin' that someones lost." A tan bulldog said as he walked out from the shadows with three other dogs behind him, a collie, a brown german-shepherd, and a grey bulldog, all of which wore a black leather jacket.

"Hey guys, I don't want any trouble." The lupine said with his paws in the side pockets of his jeans.

"I bet you don't." The tan bulldog said, obviously he was the leader of the group.

"No, you misunderstood, I don't want any trouble 'cause I'd hate to be the reason for any hospital bills that I know you can't afford." Hax insulted.

"Let me take him out boss." The grey bulldog said eagerly.

"Show this idiot we mean business." The lead canine ordered.

Hax simply sighed as the grey dog rushed towards him, the wolf didn't even move from his spot as the bulldog grew closer, the grey dog shot a right hook at the lupine, but only found air which was taken from him in an instant as Hax lifted his knee into the dog's stomach, still with his paws in the pockets of his jeans. The leader of the group then motioned for both the collie and the german-shepherd to attack, the two followed their orders as they too rushed towards Hax, the collie went to tackle the lupine's legs, while the other dog tried to land a left cross to his jaw, Hax saw this coming and reacted quickly as he took his paws out of his pockets and flipped upside-down standing on his right paw while punching the collie square on the muzzle and kicking the other dog in the jaw, knocking both of them unconscious.

"So, what're you gonna try?" Hax asked arrogantly, the bulldog growled and pulled a knife from the side pocket of his jacket, "So you're not gonna play nice, what a shame." The lupine grinned as he said this, thus angering the bulldog even further as the canine ran straight at the wolf, when the bulldog was close enough, he slashed the knife at Hax horizontally, the lupine ducked and quickly shot his elbow up, slamming into the dog's chin, the bulldog's body fell limply to the ground.

"Well, at least I warned them." Hax shrugged as he turned to walk back home.

Author's Note: I'm sorry I couldn't get this up sooner, something went wrong about a month ago with my laptop which is where I do my writing and I had to send it back to get it fixed(2 year warranty for the win), and I didn't get around to sending it due to laziness, but now it's fixed and I can continue this story for those who care. Until my next update, later and I hope you enjoyed.