Disclaimer: Star Fox is Nintendo's property. Not mine.

The Catastrophe of War

Chapter 3

'Light...so...bright...need to...cover...that...light...' this thought was the first thought that Fox could register as he awoke slowly.

He didn't know where he was or what had happened. He lifted his arm, which felt like lead, and covered his eyes with his forearm. As his eyes adjusted to the dimmed light, he slowly lowered his arm so his eyes would adjust to the brighter light. As they did, Fox noticed he was in a Cornerian hospital room. He lifted his head slowly and felt his neck pop. As he propped his elbow so he could sit up, he noticed a figure standing at the window, staring at the rising Cornerian sun. Its silhouette, completely black due to the light in front of it, showed that it's arms were crossed while leaning on the windowsill.

'Who is that?' thought Fox.

The figure's ear moved slightly and turned around, but was still black as it did so Fox could not tell who it was. The figure slowly walked over to Fox, and while doing so, pushed a button that made the blinds on the windows fall so the bright light filling the room would dim. Fox's eyes widened as he saw a faint outline of Krystal sit down next to his bed and placed her paw on his shoulder in a motion to lay back down. He obeyed it's pressure without protest and lowered back to his pillow.

"...How do you feel Fox?..." murmured Krystal as she removed her paw from his shoulder.

"Like crap...I feel so weak...and my head..." he just noticed that he was only seeing out of his left eye; he felt around his head and noticed it was covered with so many bandages, it formed a turban. This turban was slanted over his right eye and covered his head completely, even though he could feel his ears poking out from the top of all of the bandages.

"What...happened...to my head?" ask Fox wearily. As he said this, a pulsing pain filled his skull.

"Ughnn...ow...AUUUGGGGH!" yelled Fox in pain as the pain moved from his right side of his head to all the way through his skull.

"Calm down Fox." said Krystal calmly.

Fox was amazed and confused about how calm she was, then got hit by another wave of pain. "owww...ugh...auuurg...AHHHHHH!" he screamed as he screwed his eyes in pain.

Krystal's eyes widened with alarm when she noticed that the situation may be more serious than she thought when the rest of the team was carrying Fox up to his room. She stood up over his thrashing body and placed her paws gently on his head. 'Oh my...a fractured skull...its worse than I thought' she thought to herself. 'I have to act now...I hope Peppy doesn't mind...'.

Krystal removed her paws from Fox's head, who was still panting and grunting in pain. The vixen cracked her knuckles and placed her hands together in a hand sign, then after that sign, she made another and another.

While repeating seven different signs, she was chanting, "Xoucadw fenohj ev m0 udsojkehj, hofuah kxaj vhuskihot jbicc."four times.

Her paws glowed a golden brown, and she placed them on Fox's head again. Fox gasped and lie still. His head glowed the same color as Krystal's paws and Krystal clenched Fox's skull more tightly. After 8 seconds holding Fox's head tightly, Krystal let go of his head and stepped back as her telepathic powers did their work. Even though she could not see his head directly, due to the bandage turban, she sensed that his skull healed.

'He'll be ok...he just needs to rest some more...I will come back soon Fox.' she thought, sending the last part to Fox. The weakened fox let out a slight moan as the faint light around his head faded. The vixen noticed he was drifting to back sleep. She leaned over his motionless body and gave him a small kiss on the check, then walked out of the room quietly.

Fox awoke again 5 hours later, and as he did, he found Peppy leaning over the top of his bed...sleeping.

"...Peppy?" said Fox weakly.

The hare's eyes flickered and he woke up slowly. He yawned and lifted his head.

"Huh?" said Peppy sleepily. "Oh, Fox! You're awake!"

"Peppy..." said Fox, "Why am I here...what...what happened? I remember waking up earlier and noticing I was not on the Great Fox...seeing Krystal in here...and that sheering pain..."

The hare was just looking at him blankly; even though his eyes showed concern. "You had a fractured skull when you hit that wall on the Great Fox when we got out of hyperspace Fox. It-"

"Fractured-"

"Yes, a fractured skull, a big fracture at that; it was on your right side." continued Peppy with an offended look on his face after Fox interrupted him.

"'Had'...'was'...I don't have a fracture any more?" asked Fox puzzled.

"No, you do not."

"Then how did it heal so soon?"

The hare looked equally puzzled as Fox. "I have no idea...before you woke up with Krystal in here, you had the fracture, but when she left...it was no longer there. Krystal must of done something, but I don't know what."

Fox got lost in his thoughts. 'I wonder what she did...well, I know she healed my skull...but...how did she do it? I hope this means that she forgives me for what I said or thought on the Great Fox earlier...'

Fox heard another voice in his mind. 'I can not explain what I did Fox. It is something unique to my race...as for my forgiveness...you have already received it...'

Fox sighed. "How long have I been here?" he asked Peppy.

Peppy rubbed the back of his head, apparently trying to remember some information. "You have been unconscious for the past 4 days...the doctors were about to pronounce you dead but Krystal sensed that you were alive and the doctors kept you in this room ever since. Krystal said that-"

"He would come around in due time, and there was no need to give him any surgery or medication." said a voice from the doorway.

Peppy turned around because his back was to the door; Fox, however, just turned his head to the right.

"...Krystal."muttered Fox.

The vixen was leaning against the door frame with her arms crossed. She was wearing a light blue t-shirt with the Star Fox logo on it, dark blue jeans and she was still wearing those black leather boots.

Peppy seemed slightly alarmed. "Why are you here Krystal? Aren't you tired? You've been up for the past 2 days looking over Fox." he said with a touch of concern in his voice, as he always does.

"No...I'm not tired..." replied the vixen. "As for the reason why I am here, General Pepper has asked me to replace your 'sentry' duty over Fox so you could get some rest."

Fox wondered how she could stay up so long. 'Two days? Meaning...two days straight? Jeez! I've only been able to stay awake for 20 hours tops! How does she do it? ...Wait a minute...' Fox remembered that she was a telepath...so, predictably, the vixen glanced at him.

Peppy yawned. "Yeah...I guess you're right...I do need some rest...I'll see you later Fox." he said and patted Fox on the shoulder. He walked over to the door and Krystal stepped out of the way so Peppy could get past.

As the hare disappeared from view, Krystal walked over to Fox's bedside, turned the chair that Peppy was just sitting on around so that the back was against the bed and sat in it, with her arms crossed over the top of it.

"You feel ok now Fox?" she asked with more emphasis on the word 'now'.

"Much better...than I did about...how long ago were you in here? When I first woke up?"

"That was 5 hours ago." said Krystal.

"Hmm..." sighed Fox, trying to remember what happened when the pain was overtaking him.

"I was wondering Fox," continued Krystal, "Why did you lose your grip on that railing on the bridge; yes, I know what happened, Slippy told me." she added when Fox looked surprised.

Fox hesitated. "Um..." he was struggling to find the right words; he also noticed that Krystal was eying closely, with her ears swiveled around pointing in his direction, as if listening to his thoughts more closely than normal.

"Yes?" prompted Krystal.

"I was...I was erm..." Fox didn't want to tell her that he was thinking about her a lot when he was holding on to the railing on the Great Fox. Then, Fox felt a freezing chill in his mind and it went blank. He knew no more as his vision went blue.

The sensation lasted about 3 minutes. After that amount of time, his mind came clear again, his head felt warm, and his vision went back to normal. As the room came into view as if like coming out of a dense blue fog, Fox noticed Krystal was glaring at him with narrowed eyes; Fox knew instantly what that sensation was as he looked into her narrowed eyes.

"Fox...you were thinking about me when you were holding onto that railing...weren't you? More than enough to lose your concentration on the railing resulting you getting a fractured skull." she said calmly, but Fox could tell she was not to happy about it.

Fox decided it was not a good choice to lie; besides, she just probed into his mind and read it word by word. "Yes...yes I was..." responded Fox guiltily.

Krystal didn't seem furious, but not glad either. "Fox, in the future, I don't want you to let your mind drift to think about me when something potentially life threating is occurring; you were lucky that you only got a fractured skull." she commanded as she stood up.

"I'm...I'm sorry Krystal..." muttered Fox while gazing at her paws on her hips.

"There is nothing to be sorry for Fox...besides..." her eyes and voice softened has she took a step backwards toward the door. "I was kinda' thinking about you too." Fox gaped at her as she walked out of the room, completely speechless to what the vixen just said.

Fox was released from the hospital the next day and he was on his way to the Corneria Army Headquarters (CAHQ) to see General Pepper for something. He had a fast pace going toward the CAHQ building, which was about 2 miles away from the hospital,when he found Slippy stepping out of the hardware store, with a lot of supplies to update the Great Fox. So much in fact, it seemed like the toad was being crushed under the weight of all of the supplies he bought.

"Hey Slip!" yelled Fox as he jogged to catch up with the moving pile of metal and tools.

"Fox?" said a voice from under the pile; it turned around and nearly hit Fox in the gut with a metal 4x4. "Is that you? I remember that Falco said that you were out of the hospital, but I didn't believe him, so I didn't check on you before you left. Er...could you ah...could you help me out here?" he said with a hint of urgency.

"Yeah." said Fox; he couldn't bare to see Slippy's tiny legs trembling under this pile of metal.

Slippy placed the pile of metal on the ground; Fox split it in two and he took one half of the pile. He noticed there was gold metal shining very brightly in the Cornerian noon sun.

"Slippy? Whats this gold metal for?" asked Fox as he concentrated on not slipping.

"It's a new 'suit' for ROB. I think he needs to be updated pretty badly; I still need to fix his joints, because the oil didn't do anything." came Slippy's voice from under his half of the pile.

"Figures..." grunted Fox as he readjusted his grip on the pile of metal.

Fox and Slippy took the supplies to the Great Fox, which was docked at a special hangar on the edge of Corneria City. Slippy asked if Fox could stay and help him update the Great Fox, but Fox said he had to go CAHQ to see General Pepper. Slippy, who did his best to hide his disappointment, told Fox to say 'hi' to the General and went on board the Great Fox with his half of the supply pile, Fox's was already on board.

Fox ran out of the hangar and sprinted over to the CAHQ building in the middle of the City. On his way, he nearly crashed into many objects, including Bill, who Fox said a rushed "Hi, Bill." to as he zoomed by; Fox didn't even hear his long time friend's response.

As he got there, one of the guards intercepted him. "Well, hello, Mr. McCloud. Why are you out of breath...er...on the ground gasping for air?" added the guard as Fox collapsed, rubbing his chest.

"Ran...from...the edge...of...the city... to...see...General...Pepper." gasped Fox as he struggled to catch some air.

"Of course; the General did tell me that you were coming. I completely forgot, my apologizes Mr. McCloud."

"None...needed..." said Fox as he stopped struggling for air and took several deep breathes to get his heart to the right beat.

"Please, allow me to show you to the General's office." said the dog moving his paw to open the door.

"Ok...lead the way." said Fox, who took a last deep breath and stepped into the building behind the CAHQ guard dog.

Note: The hand signs that Krystal made when healing Fox are the hand signs from the anime series, Naruto. If you don't know what those hand signs look like...watch the show, read the series, or look it up. Credit for creating the hand signs in the first place goes to Masashi Kishimoto, the creator of Naruto. I just thought it would be cool to combine Krystal with those hand signs from Naruto. Don't criticize me for it. (Well...do what you like.)