Disclaimer: I don't own any characters, settings, or whatnot. Most of the stuff is the property of Nintendo, and if not, XxSanitariumxX. And anything else, you're free to use as you see fit.

Before I forget: shout-out to those awesome guys who favorited/followed the story! That's a lot of my motivation, though at this point, I don't need much. Doing a once-a-week update is easy, especially with only 4000 words apiece. But either way, thanks a lot.

Ha ha ha! It's Sunday, and that means...update day! At least, for now it does. When we last saw Ditto, he was evidently trapped in an aquarium of some sort, with a ton of metal holding him in and water slowly filling up his soon-to-be resting place. Does he make it out? Will he die, and if he does, will the "game" restart itself? Let's find out, shall we?

"It's okay," I told myself optimistically. "It's alright. Krystal will be here. She'll open the door, and I'll be alright." But even as I said it, I didn't believe it. She was probably looking through the mall for me, sure, but she wouldn't think to check in a closed store, or in the white halls behind the stores.

"And besides," I continued, "it's not like I can really die. This whole thing will just restart." The words once again failed to calm me, though. The Sins aren't working, what if that doesn't either?

I stood up, if only to stop my backside from getting even wetter, and began to look more closely for a way out. In the corners, the curved glass wall met the hard back wall flawlessly, and I saw no way of breaking the seam with what I currently had at my disposal. As for the door in the back, I could only grip it through a hairline gap in the wall, and I was fairly certain they'd barred the door shut anyway. I had no chance of digging, because I found a solid floor under the fake sand, and no matter how many holes I dug, I didn't find any sort of hatch. By this time the water was up to my waist, and I pulled my iPod out of my pocket to save it.

I turned my attention to the grating over my head next. It wasn't supposed to be there; the guys had just thrown it there and piled scrap metal on top. And despite my attempts at forcing it, I couldn't move any single piece of the metal above my head over an inch. I did manage to balance the iPod on top of the wall, but the space there was under an inch, and much too small to escape through.

My hoverboard, I thought, only hoping to save it from the water. I did hope it was waterproof, but I couldn't be sure, so I tried to take it off of my back. When I pushed the button, though, it didn't detach. After a few tries at forcing it, I just took off the whole clip. But it didn't stop acting odd; the clip wouldn't stick together again, and the hoverboard itself refused to activate.

"What the..." I began, wondering why nothing seemed to be working. I pressed a button on the translator, which didn't react, before I reached up for the iPod again and pushed the button on top. Nothing.

"What, do they have an EMP?" I asked myself, before replacing the iPod. "And since when does that affect the Sins?"

I sighed and looked down as my mind raced to find another way out. I couldn't find one, though. I couldn't go up, I couldn't go down, and I couldn't go through the walls. I could hardly make any noise, because no matter how hard I beat my fists against the walls, I couldn't hear anything but the quiet thud of flesh against an immovable surface.

"Come on," I said to myself as I hit the glass anyway, "Come on! There has to be a way out!"

But in that moment, it dawned on me. This wasn't a video game. This wasn't a movie. Some people had wanted me dead, only because I was a human. I fell into their simple, but effective trap. And by the time anyone found me, it would be far too late.

"No," I whispered, letting my arms and the hoverboard fall into the water. "It can't be over. Not like this," I said softly as despair gripped my heart. "God, please. I need help."

Just as the water reached my chest, the light out in the store flickered. It caught my attention, and I stared at it as a strange hope welled up within me. It didn't flicker again, though I knew there was something about it that spelled a way out. The hoverboard, which was floating on top of the water, bumped into my arm, and I looked at it suddenly.

The EMP, I thought excitedly. It has to be short-range. I looked around and noticed a fake plastic castle, about three feet tall, which I hadn't noted before. I waded toward it and grabbed it, pulling up as hard as I could. The castle refused to budge. "What the –" I began, before taking a breath and ducking under the water. I felt around the base of the castle under the sand, and felt uneven bumps in the metal I found. They welded it there, I thought, confident I'd found the way out. I surfaced, and glared down at the castle.

"I don't know who put that there," I told myself, before kicking the top of it with a grunt. The force pushed me back, so I braced myself against the wall. "I don't know how they did it," I said, kicking with more force. I felt the castle move quite a bit. I ducked underwater and braced both feet against the castle. But they attacked the wrong guy, I thought, kicking as hard as I could. The plastic cracked open, but bent back into shape almost immediately. I swam forward and pushed it aside, looking inside.

That's definitely out of place, I thought, staring at the metallic device within. I reached in and grabbed it, pulling it out with some effort. Once it was in my hand, I surfaced again and stared at it triumphantly.

"Not today!" I shouted happily, throwing it against the far wall as hard as I could. It didn't break like I'd hoped, but I didn't need it to. I grabbed my things and backed as far away as I could, smiling as the glow slowly returned to the marks on my wrist. Without hesitating, I reached into the pool of power, resisting the urge to sigh in relief when I felt it again. In that one second of limitless power, I had only one thought.

Make me safe.

The next thing I knew, I was lying out in the white hallway once more, breathing heavily and fighting a sudden nausea. I forced myself up onto all fours, but collapsed after only a second when the third mark emblazoned itself on my wrist.

"Aagh!" I shouted, clenching that fist and rolling over in pain. I waited for it to end, gritting my teeth in silence. It slowly subsided, and I rolled onto my back, letting my expression soften more slowly. But I couldn't stay gruff for long.

"I'm alive," I said, closing my eyes. A smile came across my face, and for some reason, I was suddenly giddy. I chuckled softly, and then let out a short laugh, before I collapsed in a fit of laughter. Before long, I was roaring with laughter, mostly at myself, for having such a sudden fit of laughter. But I didn't care how odd it must have looked. I have no idea how long I carried on like that, but I only stopped when someone put a hand on my shoulder.

"Woah!" I shouted, turning around as the mirth suddenly left me. I saw Krystal, who was pulling her hand back in surprise. "Oh, it's you," I said, smiling again.

"Are you okay?" she asked nervously as I sat against the wall. "I sensed that you were in danger..."

"Never better," I replied with a laugh, showing her the three marks. "Never better."

"What...What happened? Why are you so wet?"

I looked up at her as the laughter subsided for the last time. "They tried to kill me. Drown me, I guess."

"Oh, my – are you sure you're alright?" she asked. I looked down and fought the emotion choking me up all of a sudden.

"I almost died," I said with a cracking voice. "But," I said, taking a deep breath. "I'm okay now."

"Are you sure?" she asked, kneeling in front of me. I nodded. She sighed and sat against the opposite wall. "I'm sorry," she said after a few seconds' silence.

"What for?" I asked.

"Chasing those losers. I shouldn't have done it. I should have let security handle it," she said as tears welled in her eyes.

"They didn't do anything, though," I said. "I saw that hawk get caught, but he got away."

"Still...and I shouldn't have left you, either. I knew something was wrong, but...that cat's thoughts were so confusing..."

"It isn't your fault," I told her, leaning forward and putting a hand on her shoulder. Through her mind, I felt what she'd felt. The concern she showed for me struck me in no small way, and I leaned back slowly. "It's those three idiots' faults. I really hope I get the chance to meet them again."

"Oh, I'll tell Miyu about them," she said with a sudden anger. "If she leaves anything behind, I'll be sure to let you have the second chance at it."

"I'll take it," I said mirthlessly. "Just don't blame yourself. I should have stopped when they came back here."

"You couldn't have known..." she said. With that, the hallway went quiet, and somewhat awkwardly so. She looked down and waited for something, but I was lost in thought. Once I finally snapped out of it, I looked up at her, which made her look up as well.

"How'd you find me, anyway?" I asked.

"I...I heard your distress. Fear is one of the louder emotions."

"Yeah," I said idly, before standing.

"Ditto," she said, looking down without standing.

"Hmm?"

She looked up with watery eyes. "I...I thought I was going to lose you..."

"Hey," I replied, kneeling beside her. "I'm fine."

"But you weren't," she said as tears ran down her cheeks. "I felt your thoughts. You almost -"

I put a finger to her lips, silencing her. "I'm okay now. That's what's important."

She stared at me with a trembling jaw for a few seconds, before leaning forward and putting her arms around my neck. Once I got my balance back, I returned the gesture, and we sat like that until our thoughts sorted themselves (and each others' selves) out. Before long, I found myself stroking her fur, though I wasn't sure whether she'd find the gesture odd. It didn't cross her mind, so I assumed it would be alright to continue. Eventually, she took a deep breath and pushed herself upright.

"Maybe we should find Mike and Kat," I said with some hesitation. She sighed.

"All the way back up on the third floor," she said.

"Yeah. But, y'know...we could take our time," I suggested.

"That could be your first good idea today," she said, before giggling and wiping her eyes.

"Yeah," I said, collecting the things I'd dropped and walking slowly down the hallway. "You think we can both stay out of danger tomorrow?"

"Didn't you say that yesterday?" she asked.

"Yeah. And we didn't succeed."

"Well, maybe we should stay together more. You know...keep each other safe."

"That reminds me," I said, deflecting the statement, "You can get a phone if you want."

I heard her sigh, but she kept her thoughts to herself. "Okay," she said idly. I got the odd feeling I'd made a mistake somehow.

This is why I'm bad with relationships, I thought.

"Just so, you know, we could keep in touch," I said, hoping to salvage the situation.

"In case one of us gets in danger?" she asked knowingly.

"There may me more reasons," I replied.

"Like?"

"Oh, come on, Krystal. You're my best friend on Corneria. Heck, I'm pretty sure you're my girlfriend. And for all I know, all my other friends died seven hundred years ago. Who else would I want to talk to over the weekends?"

"Pretty sure?" she asked, humored. I held in my sigh. The bomb has been disarmed.

"I heard that," she said, elbowing me.

"Heard what? I didn't say anything," I said with a snicker. I managed to get her to laugh, while earning myself another hit. We turned toward the exit, and she slowed down slightly.

"You okay?" I asked, walking backwards.

"Hmm?" she hummed, looking up. "Oh. Yeah. Everything's fine."

"Oh, no. No you don't," I said, stopping and effectively blocking her path.

"What?"

"'Fine' doesn't really mean fine. Now come on, open up."

"Ditto, it's nothing."

"Does that mean 'nothing' nothing or is that 'I don't want to say it because it's taking a chance' nothing?"

She stared at me like she was uncertain whether I was serious, but her silence spoke volumes.

"Well?" I asked, offering her my free hand. She rolled her eyes, but took it, and we continued down the hall slowly.

"Well?" I repeated impatiently.

"Calm down," she replied.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I nearly died, and now you're telling me to calm down?"

"Hey, I almost died yesterday, and nobody had to tell me to calm down."

"You were sedated. And the day before that, we both almost died. And you were the one acting crazy."

"Maybe if we had fewer near-death experiences, I could learn to enjoy your company," she said, but I caught the sarcasm.

"Well, I'll just see about that, then," I replied. We passed through the doors at the end of the hall and came back into the mall, but Krystal didn't bring up what she'd been thinking about before.

"How are you going to explain that to the others?" she asked.

"Explain what?"

"You're still wet."

"Oh, that," I said, looking down. "We'll just say I fell into a fountain or something."

"Is there a fountain in the mall?"

I shrugged and dropped the iPod into my pocket. "But it works as an excuse. Now, c'mon. Help me put this back on," I said, handing her half of the hoverboard's clip.

"This is still wet, too," she said as I pried the other half off of the hoverboard.

"Yeah," I agreed, looking back and forth between the two pieces. I made her trade with me, before pulling my arm in and positioning the inner clip once more. "That's what happens when they try drowning you."

"Maybe we shouldn't bring it up again," she said, attaching the two halves of the clip. I turned to face her and replaced the hoverboard on my back.

"On one condition," I said, doing my best to hide my thoughts even though I didn't know how.

"And what's that?" she asked.

"You race me to Mike and Kat," I said with a smile. She mulled it over for a few moments, then looked at me uncertainly.

"We're not supposed to use these inside," she said, gesturing to her feet.

"We did a public service. They'll get over it."

"Oh," she said, looking down nervously.

"Hey, if you don't want to –" I began, when she suddenly leaned toward me and planted a kiss on my cheek. My eyes widened, and by the time I shook myself and realized what had happened, she had gotten a few seconds' head start.

"Hey, no fair!" I shouted, reaching for my hoverboard. My hand grasped only air, and I turned my head to make sure. I looked forward again, and saw Krystal taunting me, holding the hoverboard over her head triumphantly.

"You little cheater!" I shouted, running toward her as she turned and fled.

"You got lucky," she told me again as, reunited with Kat and Mike, we approached the food court. Earlier, I had tried catching her for a good ten minutes, before I realized she was just trolling me. At that point, I decided to look for Mike and Kat, and I happened to meet them as soon as I reached the top of the escalator I'd chosen. Krystal had only found us after another ten minutes or so, telling us that she'd gotten in trouble for skating indoors. She returned the hoverboard, and I'd held the result of the "race" over her head since that point.

"And you cheated. Badly," I told her with a laugh.

"I did not," she said. "All I did was show you how I felt."

"Oh, I'm not mad about that part," I assured her, eliciting a giggle, "I'm mad about the whole 'stealing my hoverboard' thing."

"Why? I only took the opportunity you gave me."

"Get a room," Michael groaned.

"What?" I asked with a laugh.

"Don't mind him," Katherine said. "He's just mad because he chose to follow me into a store while you were gone."

"You went shopping during that time?" Krystal asked.

"Of course she did," Michael said. "She's a shopping machine. I only went because I didn't want all four of us to split up."

"Sure you did," Katherine said with a smirk. "Of course that's why you went with me."

"Well, I definitely didn't go to shop for a pretty pink dress," he countered. He turned to me. "Those were her exact words, by the way."

"I never said that," she protested.

"You said 'This dress is such a pretty shade of pink.' I heard you."

"There's a difference between 'pretty pink dress' and 'a dress with a pretty shade of pink'," she said.

"Are you sure?" I asked. "They sound pretty much the same to me."

"That's because you have no fashion sense," she told me.

"Oh, really?" I asked as the gears in the back of my head started to turn. "Well, then can you have a pretty pink dress that's an ugly shade of pink?"

"No," she replied, making both me and Michael laugh. "But you can have a nice color on an ugly outfit."

"Oh," I said, suddenly feeling outwitted. "Then the dress looked bad?"

"No," she said. I snickered. "I didn't buy it, either way. I don't really do dresses."

"Then why go into the store?" I asked as we entered the food court. "Or did they sell more than –"

I stopped when I looked around, feeling suddenly out-of-place. The mass of tables in the center area was familiar. The holo-screens overhead were new, but they didn't feel too unusual. Even the brightly colored signs surrounding the tables weren't new. But the combination of anthropomorphic animals instead of people staring at me and the foreign language on every sign made no little impact on me. It was a few seconds before I realized how many people were staring at me.

At least two small children pointed me out to their parents. Another three or four people within earshot were asking simple (and simple-minded) questions about whether I was actually here, and how I would eat the food I would buy. A few families simply pretended I wasn't there at all. But I silently thanked those who didn't notice, didn't care, or at least treated me like I wasn't an alien, which actually made up more than half of the food court.

"...just like to look around," Katherine was finishing, oblivious to my surprise. She abruptly stopped walking and turned toward the three of us. "Does everyone have enough money?" she asked. Michael and I nodded right away, but Krystal waited for my reaction before nodding. "Good," Katherine continued. "Just get what you want and look for someone else," she said, before turning away and heading toward what looked like some sort of sandwich shop.

"So, what do you want?" Krystal asked after Michael left.

"Pizza!" I said right away.

"Well, okay then," she said, leading me to one of the stores.

The meal was good. The store turned out to be more like Pizza Hut than any other franchise I knew, and that made me quite pleased. I couldn't have gotten more cheese on the pizza they sold me, and I surprised (and possibly disgusted) everyone but Michael with how much of it I ate in one sitting. Everyone but Katherine ended up having at least a little bit, and we didn't take any leftovers out of the food court.

Once that was done, we resumed (or "began") our shopping day. Even though I didn't really like shopping, and Michael agreed with me, all four of us had a good time. Katherine got way too many clothing items, or whatever was in those bags, and by the end of the day she needed help from me and Mike just to carry it. Michael himself ended up getting a few games, though most of the names, consoles, and series were unfamiliar to me. And I still couldn't find a single reference to Star Fox in the whole store. That would make too much Meta, I reasoned, before dropping the subject.

Krystal and I surprisingly bought the least of anyone during the second half of the day. I got her the phone, which apparently came with less strings attached than on earth, and she chose a few minor accessories. We spent half the day fiddling with that device, along with my own translator, and eventually got the two to send messages between each other.

Krystal would have bought more, but something stopped her, and she didn't tell me what it was. She seemed particularly interested in jewelry, but she just about forbade my buying of it for her. Still, I decided I liked her, and money really wasn't an object, so I bought the necklace she'd been eyeing once I was alone in the shop. I planned to stash it somewhere and give it to her when the time was right, whenever that would end up being.

Overall, the rest of the day was surprisingly tame. Nobody tried to kidnap, sedate, or murder any of us again, so it technically went without incident. Sure, someone tried to con me out of everything in one of the bags I was holding, but Krystal came through and saved me. Again. Otherwise, it went well. We only stopped when Katherine couldn't hold any more, and she called Joanne to come and get us. She was only too happy to oblige, and we made it all the way back home without getting in an accident. Sometime around then, I decided to be more optimistic.

About an hour later, after the novelty of finding and sorting everything we'd purchased wore off, Joanne decided it was time for Krystal to go home. She agreed reluctantly, and Michael conveniently asked me to try out his co-op games with him. Sitting in the living area, I couldn't help but stare at Krystal as she was exiting the house. We made eye contact and each managed a weak wave, but once the door closed, I sighed. Suddenly, it felt like something was missing.

"Hey, loverboy!" Michael said, gesturing to the ready system and television, "Let's go already."

"Oh, don't get yer knickers in a tizzy!" I shouted with a thick fake accent. It put just enough weirdness into the room so that he didn't notice my reaction to his statement. I stared out the window at Joanne's car as it pulled away, and sighed wistfully once more.

A/N: Okay, I'm sorry with the "only once a week" updates. Heart's Illusion (my primary [and totally original] story) is on round ten out of ten in the arena, so as a note to my reader(s): Just bear with me! A week or two, and I should have it done and my cousin sated. Then I can return to this story, though every-other-day updates may never be recovered. Thrice a week shouldn't be too much. I think. (I wouldn't get my hopes up.)

Okay, now about the story itself. I kinda enjoyed writing this chapter, and the minor religious sentiment near the beginning wasn't there in the first few iterations. But the point is, there's something about that device that stopped up Ditto's Sins. And yeah, I actually have a reasonable explanation for the whole Sin and dimensional travel thing. Sharp will probably be the one to unveil it. (Though, I don't have a good explanation for the way I write Sin: capitalized and italicized. Maybe so that you know it's the Sin of the Unforgotten and not just a normal sin, like robbery or murder. It's important to make that distinction.)

Also, believe it or not, I really toned down the romance in this chapter. I nearly had Ditto make out with Krystal once they were reunited, but my subconscious said "No, they wouldn't do that." But this chapter took longer than I anticipated to write. Still, it didn't take too long, I guess. A day or two's work is pretty much what you see up there. And I only finished it on the day I uploaded it. (That statement will make more sense on Monday, but it won't make as much Sunday.)

I'll be entering a chapter that will be a little (lot) romance-y. Yes, it's Ditto*Krystal. Because at this point, doing it Fox*Krystal would mean Ditto*Miyu, and...I'm not sure he would survive that relationship. There are other options, if Fox*Krystal is in popular demand, like Melina (not likely), Miyu (already mentioned), Fara (I could live with this...), Melissa (yikes!), and even Katherine (she's not technically related...), but since I only have a few readers, and even fewer reviewers, it shall continue as it is. So, hey, don't come crying to me if the story takes a turn you don't like.

Leave a review, favorite, follow, and above all else, no puppy-kicking this week.

EDIT: Okay, edited to appease a reviewer. Turns out, Krystal WAS more worried about Ditto.