(I'm getting to the song part, but in any case, please look up danger zone and tell me what you think. And NO, I don't mean Gwen f—king Stefani.)

Chapter 5

Krystal awoke very comfortably, finding herself facing the sleeping form of her captain.

Fox lay completely still, breathing silently while he remained in calm slumber.

"He's cute when he sleeps," Krystal thought with a smile. "But even more so when he's surprised."

She kissed him quickly and watched his eyes blink open. She could recognize from his eyes that he had needed a second to remind himself of what was going on.

"Mornin' Captain," she said sweetly.

"Mornin' Krys. Sleep well?"

"Yep. It's only been about three hours though."

"True. Still, I slept pretty damn good."

"It's a nice change, isn't it?"

Fox chuckled. "Yep." He rubbed his tired eyes and sat up slowly. "Hmm? It's still fairly early in the day. What do you wanna' do before we hit the skies?

Krystal sat up next to him. "I'm not sure. Honestly, waiting for a mission to begin kinda leaves me feeling lethargic."

Fox nodded. "That's how I feel too. I guess in that case, wanna' just workout or something? Then maybe we can go grab a bite."

Krystal yawned with a nod. "That sounds good. Let me just change and I'll be there in a second."

"Cool," the male answered. He got up and made his way out of her room. "See you in a bit."

ooo

"Spot? Or you got it?"

"I'm good," she said quickly and tensely. "Eleven!"

"Uno mas, Krystal!" Fox cheered her. "C'mon, Katt could probably do it."

Krystal gave her a weird look despite his tight breathing. He exhaled roughly and pushed the weight up and onto the rack. "Twelve! And most women don't do the whole insult motivation thing."

"Well sorry. I promise next time not to forget my extra estrogen," he said with a 'duh' look.

Krystal laughed and sat up. She wore a pair of black shorts and a white tank top with, surprisingly, none of her jewelry. "Sorry. I forget that guys are used to playing the "asshole" in the gym."

"Maybe you should try being the 'supportive' during my set. I humored you, didn't I?" he laughed.

Krystal grinned as he sat down and lay on the bench. "But aren't you the one who usually asks me to motivate you like you do to Falco or Slippy?"

The male smiled. "Yeah." He gripped the bar evenly and set herself in position. "Add a 10 and a 45 on each side, please?"

Krystal added the plates and looked at Fox. He was wearing a black t-shirt and a pair of white shorts with a red trim. "Looks good," she thought. She was about to set the weights on when Falco walked in. He looked at them for second before taking his headphones off and setting his disc-player on a side table. "Of course, you two would just love to see each other covered in sweat, right?"

Krystal nearly dropped the metal plate she was carrying and was startled by the voice. The Avian just looked at his doings and laughed.

"Very cute, birdbrain," the red todd remarked distantly.

"Hilarious," the blue vixen agreed with equal sarcasm.

"Touchy, touchy," Falco answered. He then smirked and covered his beak. "Speaking of which-!"

Krystal just rolled his eyes. She stood back up and helped Fox to get the bar up. "I hope you're not jealous Falco." She shifted her gaze back to Fox, prepared to help if needed.

"Har har, Krystal," Falco answered. Hey I don't mean to be a distraction. As a matter of fact I'll just come around later." He picked up his disc-player and walked out the door.

"Thank you, Kyuubi," the two foxes said to themselves.

Falco popped his head back in. "Oh, Fox? Remember to keep your eyes on the bar!"

He ran before Krystal could tele-slam the door on him. She just faced the door, a look of pure annoyance dominating her expression.

"Bastard, eh?" Fox managed to squeeze out as he thrust the weight upward.

Krystal snapped back to reality and looked down to Fox, who seemed to be slowing his pace.

"Oh crap! Do you need a spot?" she asked quickly.

"No. But I could use some hype," he said in a strained voice.

Krystal looked to him. "Just think of all the things in your nightmares," she advised him.

It was a good idea actually, and he knew it. So he went along with it.

Instantly, things seemed to slow down, as Fox immediately began to imagine the demons of his bad dreams. In only a second, the entire thing seemed to replay in his mind over and over, and it felt almost vivid. His lifting now felt second nature to him, his arms and chest and body acting almost independent of his mind.

He saw in his mind everyone he had ever come to truly hate.

Fox saw Andross.

"Eight!"

He saw Scales.

"Nine!"

The raptors from his dream.

"Ten!"

The flaming, taunting, demonic fox.

"Eleven!!"

He looked up and noticed Krystal. Suddenly he couldn't take his mind away from his earlier, uneasy feelings. His mind created a picture of the fiery demon looking down at her instead of himself, ready to burn her as it originally did to him. Fox hated that creature more than anything. He wanted to hurt it, to crush it- to kill it!

Fox's anger soared at the frightening ideas, and he threw the weight up with more energy than he had started with.

"TWELVE!!!" he snarled.

"Fox?" Krystal said, concerned. "Are you ok?"

"I won't let you! EEEERRRR! I WON'T LET YOU!" he roared, his mind completely consumed by the delusion. He wouldn't drop the weight, and Krystal started to feel a familiar heat and had to back away.

At that moment Slippy and Falco ran inside the room. "What the hell's going on?" they each said. They both took a moment to scan the situation and looked at Fox, who was supporting 335 pounds with what looked like no tension or difficulty.

"I'LL KILL YOU!!!" Fox yelled.

Slippy shuddered at his friends frightening volume. "Sweet Gama, Fox! What's the matt-!"

Fox silenced everyone with a blood-curdling, unnatural roar.

"GYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRHHH!!!"

In the middle of his enormous release, Fox pulled at the bar with all his might and snapped the iron rod apart, as though it was a thick branch.

"HOLY SHIT!" all three of his teammates called at once.

Fox dropped the two pieces on the ground and fell off the bench, clutching his head in pain. "GAAAAAHHHH!!! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!"

They all hurried to his side and held him down. He shook violently, his fangs gritting against each other.

"Son of a bitch, is he on 'roids?" Falco asked as he tried to keep his friend's arm pinned, but with little success.

"GYAH! GUYS! HELP MEE!" Fox yelled. "I CAN'T- AAHH!"

It was hard to tell if he was truly pleading. His yells weren't that of someone unleashing the contents of their lungs as best they could. No. There was substance, deepness, and it was raspy: a different voice, almost. It was fury being released in a terrifying and primal way. Absolutely feral.

His feathered best friend was nearly thrown back. Literally, thrown. "SHIT! Help him?! Look what he did to the damn bar!"

"He's having a delusion or something!" Slippy pointed out. "Krystal, I think your powers would probably come into good use here."

Krystal nodded and sat on top of Fox, trying to hold his arms down. "Fox? Fox! Can you hear me?"

Fox grunted. "EUGH! Krystal! Krystal, where are you?"

"I'm right here with you, don't worry!" she assured him.

"Krystal. Please. Help me," he said weakly, though not faintly.

She was beginning to feel alarmed. Fortunately she realized that not keeping her cool could only make the circumstances worse. "Fox it's ok. It'll be all right, I promise. Just….you need to try to calm down, ok?"

Fox barely nodded and said, "All right. Please, just please don't leave." He was still struggling and grunting in pain.

She sighed in slight relief. At least he seemed to be calming down, but it was evident he still felt some type of tremendous pain. He was beginning to sweat, and not because of his workout. Every muscle in his body was tighter and denser than ever before.

Normally, not a bad thing in Krystal's mind, but this was not the time.

"Fox, listen. Hold tight, I'm going to merge our thought patterns and try to bring your focus back here with us, ok?" she cautioned.

He simply nodded. "Iiit's ok. Eungh! I trust you."

She looked to her other teammates before she did anything, who each gave her a nod that meant "go ahead."

The vixen nodded back and placed her hand on his chest, and the other on her own. She closed her eyes and entered a trance-like state, while Fox's convulsions seemed to decrease.

Everything began to change….

Through her sealed eyes, Krystal's conscience portrayed a vision of an incredible scenario, one which she had seen many times already. In front of her stood a barrier, invisible but not hidden, standing between her and the essence of Fox's mind, an ongoing vortex of in-and-out fading images of his past, mainly consisting of his currently most prominent thoughts. She recognized the images as parts of their mutual nightmares.

One step, then another. By habit, she began to walk forward and make the transition through the barrier, crossing from her mind to his. She was engulfed by white light as she stepped through the wall, consumed by the illumination that distinguished the transition from one mind to another's. Anyone would stand in complete awe at such a sight, but for Krystal, well, this was no more exciting than watching a movie.

That changed when she crossed the barrier and saw what lay at the core of Fox's mind.

"Oh…..my…..Kyuubi!"

Fox, her hero, her secret crush, her everything, lay on the floor, or "surface" as the case may be, beaten, bruised and battered. Scratches covered his body like tattoos, whose blood red ink seeped from the countless and severe wounds on his body. He panted, very weakly, and was barely able to move aside from his heaving chest. A consistent cough pained him and even further agitated his fight for oxygen. Also strange were the cauterized slashes and other scorch marks that could be found on him.

"Krystal…erk! Krystal….please….I need your help," he barely managed.

He, however, was not alone. A frightening creature sat only a few feet away from him, and was someone both of the vulpine could recognize.

On impulse, Krystal darted towards Fox and stopped at his side lifting him to her and checking him.

"Fox? Fox! Kyuubi in heaven, what the hell happened to you?" she demanded, though she had an idea. The female turned her head to face her enemy, the burning fox spirit from the nightmares.

"What do you want from him?!" she spat. "What the fuck are you?!"

The being eyed her, without pupils, through his burning eyes. It tilted it's head (which is all it had) and let out a quiet growl.

"The….last…….heir……must…embrace his….true potential…"

Without even attempting to make sense of it, the enraged vixen disregarded the cryptic words and stood, ready to fight.

"I don't know what you did, but you're fight's with me now, asshole!"

In response, the being scattered into a brilliant flame and threw itself to the ground. Krystal had to shield her eyes from the massive flash and ember debris at first, then looked back to the fire. It seemed to settle down and shrink into itself, until she noticed the fire was merely unveiling a new being, a fur.

The flames cleared and in the spot where the head once stood a real fox. But not just any fox. She had no way of making since of it, and yet, there she was, staring at another Fox McCloud.

She nearly stumbled back at the sight, but kept her nerve. "What the-? It's some kind of trick, isn't it? Well, I'm not buyin' it, fucker. Let's see what ya got!"

The new Fox looked at his fallen counterpart, dead silent. Then, he turned to Krystal, and again spoke in the same quiet and mysterious fashion.

"You're not….the enemy. He is not the enemy."

She stared at him as if he were insane, or perhaps as though she was. "What?"

"The last….heir. Kyu's last ash……must burn again. You…must give purpose….give life…to the fire. Perhaps, it…..I…..am too early."

"What are you saying? If he's not the enemy, then why'd you hurt him? You don't make any fucking sense," she yelled. "What the hell's going on?"

"He…hurt himself…..he holds me back………..never knew me……never knew himself. We sense danger….a challenge…………more than any of you…..have ever seen………he must….learn….he….I….must wake us up."

"How is this helping him?" she said, her anger changing into extreme confusion. us up? What does he-ergh-mean?"

She snapped her head around to see Fox coming to. She was also stunned to see that his wounds were already healing quickly.

"What the-?" She turned back to the other Fox for answers.

"Only…an example…of true potential…..Hmmm…..You are….Cerinian………very ironic……but we trust you."

"Huh…ironic? So what if I'm Cerinian? Why wouldn't he trust me?" she asked herself. "Wait, I've never been so confused."

He turned to the original Fox, who was standing straight with almost no difficulty at this point, and only scars of his horrid battle marks remained.

"You ….will feel the difference….even already…..your strength…..your speed…..your mind…..and when you are ready…….to learn……when you……realize your…..driving force…….I….you…..we……..will teach you……and fight…….."

Fox stared in wonder at his doppleganger. "Fight? I was almost killed by you!"

The clone shook his head slowly. "Today……you were beaten……..humility is….a foundation…….they……..Kyu…..could have embraced….and have been……saved…….next fight….Fox…..you will see……the difference….even now."

Krystal's ears perked up. "Kyu….kyu…..hmmm?" After a second or so, she gasped aloud. "…Oh…my…Lord…"

Fox and Krystal just looked at the mysterious copy, both more confused than they've ever been, though they didn't know why.

After all, it was pretty simple, wasn't it? The strange fox had beaten the original, within his own mind, to a bloody mess and sent them disturbing nightmares. And yet they were too unsure about it to attack. Fox was healed now, but did that make it all right? Neither of them could make sense of anything.

"Fox…..Krystal………" the second Fox spoke.

Both of them broke out of their deep thoughts and stared at him.

"I may early……I was awakened…..no longer alone…..a foreign spirit……a mystic……ancient and…….glowing……..with long hair and…….. face…..unnatural……he or it…….triggered me……almost…..three years ago.…I need to …..further the spirit again……the world of the reptiles…..your friends…"

"What-what spirit are you talking about, er…..Fox?" Fox asked his clone, unsure of what to call him.

"What?...You……carried him…..them……you saved them…..remember?"

Krystal's eyes snapped wide open. "Huh? The Krazoa? The Krazoa from Sauria?"

"Yes…..but…..I can not explain….I must further…..awaken……I'm almost done…..for now…..I have given……already very much……to us…….Fox….Krystal…..I will see you again…..when I have further awoken………..I promise…..to explain….."

"Oooo-k," Fox answered. "I guess we trust you, even though we don't really understand you. This is a lot for both of us to grasp, me and her. But let me make see if I understood you. You want us to seek the Krazoa?" he asked.

"Yes…….they will…..expect you…..I am sure of it…"

Krystal eyed him curiously. "Wait. Before we're finished here, what did you mean when you said you've already given very much to you and Fox?"

"Did you…..not listen?...I said….even already……I have begun….to wake us up…….Literally……he is…..we are……already closer to our potential……that is all….that I have for now……I need….to further awaken……Cerinian Krystal…"

"Huh? Yes?" the vixen answered nervously.

"All….is well….for the moment……but for now…..break your link…….so I may prepare…."

"All right. Just promise to keep to your word, please," she asked him.

"I second that," Fox added, now completely healed. "We'll still have questions."

"I shall…….and…..Krystal……?"

The telepathic vixen had already begun to dissolution of her mind-link, but she and Fox were both able to hear the being's last words echo in the light:

"Thank you, Cerinian……."