"When the time comes, don't hesitate, just act..."
Fox's Second Heeding: The Wrong Resolution...
Fox McCloud was sitting alone on a park bench in Corneria City, crying. The vulpine rarely cried; there were very few things which could make him do so. And one such scenario had just occurred.
As he wallowed in his sorrow, head buried in his paws, he desperately searched his brain for the reason he did it. He didn't want to do it. He never wanted to say it. Yet he did. And the consequences were too much for him to bear.
Thinking back, he reflected upon his time just before arriving at the park.
Fox sat in his Arwing, barely concentrating on piloting the craft. His thoughts were centred around two things: the love of his life, and what he was about to tell her.
Krystal, flying her Cloudrunner, noticed Fox's lack of concentration. "Hey, Fox!" she called, over the comms, "Wake up!"
"Hmm? Oh, sorry, Krys. I was just... thinking."
"Yeah, you seem to have been doing a lot of that recently. I'm getting the feeling that something's up."
Fox blinked a few times before replying. "No, no. Everything's fine. There's a lot on my mind at the moment, that's all."
Krystal would have had no problem discovering exactly what was occupying Fox's mind, but she would never enter Fox's mind without his express permission. "Look, Fox, if there's anything you need to talk about, you know I'm always here for you."
And that's why I have to... have to...
He couldn't even think about what he had to do. Did he have to do it? No. Did he want to do it? No. Did he need to do it? He thought he did. How wrong he was.
"You're really not yourself, are you Fox?" Fox knew she was concerned.
"Look, Krys, I'm fine. Really," Fox insisted, despite the fact that he was far from it. But Krystal didn't need to know that. She'd only try and stop me. Oh God I wish she would... Nor did she need to know what Fox had planned, but that's exactly what she was thinking about.
He's not thinking of... proposing, is he? No... that's not it... He's not just nervous, he's worried. Scared. Of course, Krystal's telepathy ensured that she felt very similar emotions to anyone and everyone around her. At times, she was glad she had the gift, particularly that day on Sauria all those months ago, when her every experience with Fox was heightened by the swell of emotions that came flooding from his mind. But now, now all she was getting was the sour taste of worry and the freezing touch of fear. She didn't like it one bit. Oh, Fox! What is it? What's wrong? Oh, I wish you would tell me. Had Fox known what Krystal had just thought, that potentially dangerous cliché would have sprung into his mind in seconds. Be careful what you wish for.
Krystal looked out of her cockpit towards the beautiful evening skies of Corneria. A moment; for that minute, irrelevant length of time, the Solarset put Krystal at peace. All those foul thoughts and emotions had fled, burning up in the orange glow of the sky. She was totally at peace when she subconsciously started making connections in her head.
Look at that Solarset! Is there anything more orange and brilliant? Well... She cast a sly grin over the comms which, after a moment of confusion, somehow managed to squeeze a smile from the bloating thoughts and fears in Fox's head.
"Alright, come on," Fox beckoned, slowly beginning his descent, "we're landing soon. Follow me."
As Fox drifted to the right, all the while tilting slightly downwards, Krystal followed suit. She noticed that Fox was heading towards an empty field just outside the City. The vixen was concentrating on the comms more intently than her piloting, simply because of worry for Fox; his facial expressions wavered every so often, but he would compose himself before long.
When they were eventually hovering just above the field, Fox nodded to Krystal before touching down. He hurriedly opened the cockpit, stumbled out of his Arwing and rushed over to Krystal's aircraft to help her out of it. The action had almost become habit, and he simply enjoyed the company of the vixen more than anything. As he reached his paw up to take hers, Krystal was somewhat relieved that Fox hadn't entirely been consumed by the plague of his worries and thoughts. It earned Fox a smile from the one he loved as she deftly dropped to the ground with the aid of Fox's paw. He almost forced a smile in reply, trying his utmost to truly mean it, knowing full well that that could be the very last chance he would ever have to smile at her. To be with her. To love her back.
"So, where is it we're going then, hon?" asked Krystal, her eyes sparkling with excitement, inhibited with dulling worry.
Fox almost winced when she referred to him as 'hon'; every little action and word like it would only make it harder and harder for her to accept, but also for him to follow through with, the plan he had brewing in his mind. The plan. That jumble and chaos of thoughts inside his head, desperately searching for an opening, an excuse to be freed from the doubting and inhibiting grasp of Fox's love for Krystal; stronger than even his fear for her safety.
"Well, I thought we'd just go to the park and chill," Fox almost stated. "That OK with you?"
"Sure, Fox!" replied Krystal, somewhat enthusiastically. Of course it was OK. As long as she got to spend some time with her beloved, the vixen was content to do anything.
"Alright then. Let's go." Again realising that it might be the last time he ever experienced it, he reached across for Krystal's warm, blue paw and clutched it in his. They both looked up and smiled at each other, the burden of his impossible, and indeed unnecessary, task relieved from his shoulders somewhat.
Not another word was said until the pair reached the park. Fox let go of Krystal's paw and hastened himself to sit down on a relatively clean park bench overlooking the city. The park was devoid of life, not counting the two vulpine, as Krystal took her seat beside Fox. He was looking straight ahead, into the evening Solar, taking it all in.
"Awesome, isn't it?" he asked, keeping his gaze firmly fixed ahead.
"Oh, yeah," agreed Krystal, "it's lovely."
Fox, little by little, twisted around to face the vixen before continuing.
"You remember the mission in that sky?"
Krystal almost frowned when Fox said that. That particular mission had given him nightmares for weeks. Two weeks after the pair took their little trip to Sauria, Pepper had received a new mission for the team. It wasn't a particularly challenging mission, so Fox accepted and jumped straight in. They simply had to watch for some Katina-bound ships disguised as medical transport vehicles which were believed to be smuggling weapons from Corneria. With Slippy's keen eye, the fake aircraft were easily spotted and taken down by Fox, Falco and Krystal. The mission was accomplished, the money was forwarded and Star Fox returned to the Great Fox III to celebrate another successful job. If anything, Fox and Krystal grew closer rather than apart that night. But it was what happened another two months later that broke down Fox's mind and his rational thought.
Star Fox's next assignment from Pepper was more a favour than a mission; they simply had to check up on the same shipping route they watched a couple of months previous. But, not all went to plan.
"Yes, yes, I remember," assured Krystal, wincing at the pain and suffering endured on that follow-up mission. Not her pain, but Fox's.
"So do I, Krys, clear as day."
"Anything yet, guys?" I asked.
"Nothing on this end," called Falco.
Slippy was next. "No suspicious ships yet."
And then Krystal. Sweetness herself. "All good over here!" she enthusiastically replied.
"Alright then, I guess we can pack up and go home!" I pulled the Arwing to the right and headed back to the Great Fox.
"That was the easiest assignment to date!" exclaimed Falco, following me back to the mothership. "Did Pepper say he was gonna pay us for doin' this?"
"Yeah, but it probably won't be all that much."
"Well, its payment nonetheless!" chirped Slippy.
"Just remember, guys, this isn't all about the money. We do this to keep everyone out there safe. The money's just a bonus... well, yes, we live off it and stuff, but you shouldn't worry about how much. Enough to get by."
"Well, Mr. I-can-make-a-fancy-speech, I'll keep that in mind, shall I?" asked Falco in a mock matter-of-fact tone.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right Fox," admitted Slippy, rather downheartedly. "But at least it's fun!"
"When you're not being chased by the enemy ten seconds after we start?" observed Falco
"Hey! Just 'cause I'm enthusiastic!" Slippy defended himself.
"Now, there's enthusiastic, and there's idiotic." Falco chuckled at his own joke.
"Falco!" chided Krystal, "Leave Slippy alone! Fox has had to help you too, you know!"
I smiled at that. Krystal always helps Slippy out when Falco has a go at him. You are too good, Krys!
"Good on you, Krystal." Everyone bar Falco laughed at that. "Right, let's-"
"Fox... they're..." Krystal stopped and closed her eyes. I knew that she was concentrating on some form of thought pattern or telepathic signal.
"What is it, Krys?" I asked, now slightly worried. I braked, causing everyone else to follow suit. "What's happening?"
"There's someone's, no, a whole gang of thoughts, all with malicious intent." She opened her eyes and the team received a glimpse of raw fear just before it disappeared from those pools of aquatic blue. "Malicious intent towards us."
"What?!" yelled Falco, wheeling his Arwing around before he could think. "Whoa... They're not happy..."
I banked the Arwing and turned around to face whatever Falco was looking at. At least twenty E-class fighters were heading straight for us. They opened up a comms channel.
"You jerks stopped shot down our smuggling ships!" a rugged-looking sheep screamed, spittle clouding the comms screen.
"So it was you guys," mused Falco. "We were just doing our job! What do ya want?"
The sheep laughed coldly. "To get rid of you."
"Sorry, but that's not happening today," I warned them. "We took you out once, we can do it again, if you want."
"You're on, boyo!"
And so, we engaged them. In between their fire, we managed to take down six fighters, before it happened.
I was switching my concentration between shooting them down, avoiding their fire, and Krystal. She appeared to be doing fine so I turned back to my enemies. Big mistake. There was a flash of light and a huge explosion as one of Krystal's G-diffusers had been torn clean off.
"Oh no you don't," I growled through my teeth, chasing after the ship that had hit Krystal. Another huge mistake. He swerved and dodged to avoid me, but, fuelled with the determination to save Krystal, I charged the laser and fired, the shot taking him down in one. Then I realised that Krystal was out there with only three G-diffusers working. I pulled a u-turn to face her. Over the comms, her teeth were gritted, trying to keep the Arwing under control.
"Krystal!" I called. "You OK?"
"No! I need to get to- AAAAHH!"
My throat tightened as another ship secured some shots in Krystal's afterburners. The ship was smoking badly now.
I slammed down on the boost and sped towards the ship. "Krystal, you need to get out of there, now! Your Arwing can't take any more damage."
"No, Fox," she protested, calmly. "We have to take out these enemies!"
I slowed down when I pulled up behind Krystal, destroying any and all enemies around her. "Get out of here, now!"
Before she could answer me, one of the ships pulled up behind me and opened fire on her ship. It rocked and swayed, its pilot screaming before the comms went dead.
"Krystal!"
The lasers finally found their way to the fuel reserves, blowing the Arwing clean apart. Despite the explosion finishing four more ships, I turned the Arwing straight into it. There was no sign of Krystal among the wreckage of her Arwing.
"NO!!" I screamed, cutting the engine, which automatically diverted all power to the shields. "KRYSTAL!!! NO!!!"
Falco was trying to say something over the comms, but I couldn't hear him. I couldn't hear anything. My own heartbeat, barely. She was gone. Just like that, she was taken from me. Forever. All the things we'd done; the rescue on Sauria, welcoming her to Star Fox, shopping on Corneria, training on Katina, Summer nights on Aquas, the mistake on Sauria, wiped out in an instant. I slowly fingered the blaster in the cockpit. "She's gone..."
I was brought out of my despair by a thud on my left wing. I assumed it was part of the destroyed Arwing and carried on wallowing. Until I heard several smaller thuds on the cockpit window. I turned around to face the impossible. I thought she'd been destroyed, but no, there she was, alive and well.
"Krystal!" I yelled at the top of my voice, knowing that the glass was almost soundproof. "You're alright!"
"Yeah, I'm fine," she called back. "Just a bit... shaken, that's all."
"Thank God!" I flicked the engines back on. "Right, we're getting out of here. Falco, Slip, take care of the rest of them."
"Will do, Fox," replied Falco, simply. He was still a bit shell-shocked after what happened. Slippy didn't respond, probably for the same reason.
"Fox out." I shut off the comm channel and slowly guided the Arwing, with Krystal standing on the wing, clinging tightly to the G-diffuser, down to solid ground. I wasted no time in opening the canopy and throwing myself into Krystal's arms.
"Oh, Krystal!" I breathed, holding her tighter and more caringly than ever before. "I thought I'd lost you forever." I felt myself crying as I leaned my muzzle on her shoulder as she did the same.
"I thought I was going to die. But you were there to save me. Again." We managed to chuckle in between sobs. After a while, Krystal broke out into full flowing tears of what could have happened.
"It's OK, Krys. You're fine. We're both fine." I sniffed a little. "We're here. For each other."
"Forever..."
"That was the worst experience of my life," recounted Krystal. "But you were there," she said, unable to stop a smile coming to her lips. "You were there to catch me."
OK, Fox. Here we go.
"But what if I wasn't there?" asked Fox, calmly.
"Don't say that, Fox!" insisted Krystal, suddenly worried that such things had been on his mind. He continued regardless.
"What if you'd died? I wouldn't have been able to keep going." He took her paws in his. "I literally couldn't live without you."
More tears formed in the back of Krystal's eyes as she rubbed Fox's palm with her thumb. "Well, I'm here. We're both here; you don't need to worry about that."
"And should it happen again?" Fox's tone was strangely angry yet exceedingly calm at the same time. "I just can't risk that."
"...What do you mean?" she inquired, now shaking from expectation and sheer worry.
Fox paused for a moment as he swallowed the enormous lump that had formed in his throat.
"Krystal," he began. "Before I say anything else, I just want you to know that I don't want to do it. I really, really don't want to." He paused for a moment. "But I have to."
"But if you don't want to say it, then don't!" She almost laughed at the vulpine's stupidity. "It can't be that bad!"
"Wanna bet?"
That got her. Krystal decided to just sit and listen.
"You know I love you. I love you more than anything in Lylat, more than anything else God has to offer." Fox noticed a smile find its way to Krystal's muzzle. Well, that's good I suppose...
"And it's more than that; I need you. I don't know what I'd do without you. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something happened to you. That's what's been on my mind for a good while."
"I feel exactly the same way, Fox!" she admitted, although she was thoroughly unprepared for what Fox would say next.
"It was a mistake."
"...Sorry?"
"It was a mistake to ever have loved you, to ever have let you join the team. I know that's gonna sound harsh, but I don't mean it that way."
Krystal was half gaping at Fox. What? He's putting me down? But he doesn't mean it that way... Oh, wait, I know...
"Is this the whole 'relationships in work' thing? Because-"
Fox interrupted her. "Yes, it's something like that. Don't get me wrong, I'd spend every day of my life with you, but you're in too much danger flying with us."
"What?!" If there was one thing Krystal hated, it was her skill as a pilot being challenged. "I can take care of myself!"
"I know you can," Fox told her with a trusting smile, "but sometimes even the best of us can be caught out. Your ship got destroyed and if I wasn't there, you probably would have died. And it would have been all my fault."
"No... No it wouldn't," challenged Krystal, but to no avail; the vulpine threw out another very valid point.
"Who let you join the team in the first place?" he stated, confidently, yet cringing.
"Fox, you gave me a home! You gave me a job!" She held back a sob. "You gave me a family. You gave me you."
"And I don't intend to take that away from you." Fox reconsidered his statement. "Well..."
Krystal gasped at that. Something she had not known existed in her bubbled up to the surface, lusting for her own needs. "Listen, Fox," she almost spat, "I don't know what you think's wrong with me, but if you're gonna say something, please say it now. Please."
Fox intended to honour this request. "Krystal, I..."
That phrase triggered a memory inside both of them; the memory of their trip to Sauria. The same, yet so very, very different. He had followed Wolf's advice then, and it wasn't going to fail him now.
"I think it would be safer. Safer for both of us if you..." He stopped himself. He couldn't do it. He didn't need to do it. The one simple act. The act...
"Don't hesitate. When the time comes, just act."
Fox tried to resolve the situation, but how wrongly he did it.
"If you left the team. Stopped flying with us. I can't let you."
"Fox!" she yelled in response, not even attempting to hold back the tears. "I... why?... why did you...?"
"I really, really don't want this, Krys, but-"
"Oh, it's clear what you want! You're probably sick of the sight of me. Why, Fox? If I get killed, then I get killed!"
"But if you get killed, then what will I do? I'll have nothing to go back to, to fall back on. Nobody to love and hold until the end of it all."
"And kicking me out's gonna get you that, is it?" spat Krystal, unable to control the other being within her. "Try again, genius!"
It was then that Fox realised just what he'd brought upon them both.
"Did I just...?"
"Yes," confirmed the vixen, standing up in front of Fox, "you just cast me aside like you never even wanted me in the first place and thrown me out of my home, away from my family..." A little bit of Krystal resurface to control herself. "Away from you."
"No, wait, I-"
He was cut off by Krystal's other self. "No, you've said what you said and that's it! It's over! WE'RE THROUGH, YOU HEAR ME?!" Fox recoiled in terror as she screamed at him like that. You are not Krystal. You're not my Krys. Oh Lord, what have I done?
Krystal stormed off back to the Arwings, earning a cry from Fox. "Krystal! Where are you going?" Then he realised. "Where can you go?"
She spun to face him, tears rushing down her face in torrents like never before. "I don't know, but if I were you, I'd go back up to that Great Fox of yours and think about what just happened. And what you've lost because of it." She sniffled. "I love you, Fox, but do you love me?" Just as he opened his mouth to answer, she said it. She said what he had never wanted to hear, not least from Krystal.
"Good-bye, Fox."
Fox sighed. He had recovered slightly from the events that had just transpired. He stood up, stretched himself off and slowly made his way back to the Arwing. He saw that Krystal's was not there, but he was half expecting it. He clumsily scrambled into the cockpit and began the long, laborious flight back to the Great Fox.
When he arrived, Falco, Slippy and Peppy were waiting for him.
The moment he stepped out of the Arwing, Falco grabbed him around the shoulders. "What the hell did you do?"
Fox knew exactly what he did, but nonetheless, he said "I dunno."
It was Peppy's turn. "Then why did Krystal just storm on in here, crying like nobody's business, pack all her stuff and leave without saying a word?"
"I... I told her to leave the team."
"You did WHAT?!" exclaimed Slippy, tears starting to form in his eyes too.
"I had to. You saw what happened; she nearly died! I couldn't risk that again."
"Well, now you're probably never gonna see her again! Well done, you moron!" With that, Falco stormed off, his rage at Fox's actions painfully obvious.
"He's right," seconded Peppy, "but what's done is done. I'm sorry Fox."
Slippy started crying, along with Fox. Peppy took the frog under his arm as Fox ran to his room.
He threw himself on the bed, unstoppable tears soaking the bedsheets.
"WHY?! WHY?! I'M AN IDIOT!! I love her, I need her, and now SHE'S GONE!!"
He cried, and cried, not stopping for a long while. "I tried to fix it, but no. That was the wrong way to do it."
Krystal sat in what had become her favourite café in Corneria City. Her coffee had gone cold, but she didn't care. She was too busy thinking. Thinking about what had just happened to her.
"Why, Fox?" she whispered, choking back sobs, "Why did you send me away? I love you, I need you, and now, I'm gone."
She laid her head in her arms and wept. There were very few people in the café at that time of night and those who were didn't care much for the pained vixen among them. She continued wallowing in her precious memories of Fox.
Krystal didn't notice the bell jangle as the café door opened. Krystal didn't notice the individual who had just entered walk towards her. Krystal noticed the familiar voice that spoke to her.
"Hello, my darling Krystal."
She looked up. "Panther?"
SchmEthan here:
OK! This is where YOU, yes YOU, get to choose what happens next. As you are probably aware, there are multiple endings to Star Fox Command, in which my final chapter will take place. The question is, which one do YOU want to see?
The options:
Sauria: Fox faces a choice: his team, or his love.
Kew: Fox runs into Kursed, but doesn't recognise her. Will she accept him?
Corneria: Fox and Krystal are reunited again, but will they believe in each other once more?
Which one? Well, leave your choice in a review or send me a PM or something, and the majority wins!
BY THE WAY, thank you for taking the time to read this, those who have. Much appreciated!
SchmEthan.
To be continued with Fox's Final Heeding: His Own Consequences...