Fox saw stars and nebulas among a veil of darkness as his eyes adjusted to the portal's fading light. Planets of all kinds rushed past him as if he was running faster than light speed, but he was standing still with Samus just a few paces ahead of him, and even though it looked like he was stranded in space, he was not freezing. It was as if he was surrounded by a moving slideshow, and he was fascinated with it. Samus was less fascinated and was focused on the bright light that the two heroes were rapidly approaching. Fox shielded his eyes as the incoming orb of light absorbed them.
There was a sudden flash, and Samus appeared in a dimly lit room with dirtied floors and scattered wires. Stray bolts of electricity bounced around the edges of the unkempt room as Fox followed suit. The armored hunter's visor glowed with a bright green light as the portal of light disappeared behind them, leaving them in relative darkness. Their new location was a far cry from the ethereal spacewalk in the portal. Empty and destroyed crates were littered around the room, and gigantic metal doors covered the farthest wall, decorated with flickering red lights. Tiles on the closer walls had been ripped off, revealing severed machine parts and wires inside. To Fox, it looked like a cargo bay that once saw many kinds of spacecraft and imported materials, but considering the room's lack of even auxiliary power, it was unlikely that the bay had been used in a while. The destruction of the crates and surrounding machinery suggested that a battle may have unfolded, but the lack of discarded weapon rounds among other things concerned him.
"Cargo Bay B," Fox read as he spotted old letters printed on the wall. He was grateful that part of the wall was left intact. "Stands to reason that there's at least one other bay, then."
Samus stepped forward and looked over the edge of a balcony overlooking the farthest wall. "Based on what U-Mos told us," she said as she turned to Fox, "V-Lir is likely located near the station's highest point, where he has the best surveillance." She swapped visors and took a careful scan of the surrounding room, but the closest she found to a hazard were the frayed wires lying around. "And there's no surveillance in here. Judging by the location of the bay doors, we must be near the station's bottom." She turned to face the closer wall for any trace of direction other than countless mangled cables. "I'll see if I can download a map of this station somewhere, but Bay A must be higher up in the station."
"You can, but I'm going to find Kry– Kursed first," Fox said quietly, but he was mesmerized by the glow of the staff, which was much more obvious among the cargo bay's lack of light. Even if he lacked Krystal's telepathic abilities, he could still sense her as if the staff was a radar leading to her subconscious, and it pulsed dimly as he held it up. He guided the tip of the staff around the room like he was using a metal detector, until he stopped in front of a hexagonal door. As he faced it, the staff seemed to pulse brighter.
"Do you trust her?" Samus asked as Fox set a paw against the door.
"Of course!" Fox assured as he turned to face her, the staff glowing a bit less as a result. "Whoever this V-Lir is, I can't let him hurt her. And once we help her, we'll have a powerful ally."
"Then I will help you." Samus took a quick shot at the door Fox was pointing at, and the door opened immediately. "She is a potent warrior. The less advantages V-Lir has over us, the better."
Fox nodded as the two of them passed through the door together, and they ventured through the darkened hallways using Samus's visor and Fox's staff to light their path. The trek was quiet for a while, accompanied only by the echoing sound of their footsteps against the cold metal of the floor, and the occasional flicker of sparks from stray cables. Fox watched his surroundings as he kept the staff facing forward. Whoever had gone through here had made sure to pillage every salvageable piece of machinery, including the metal from the walls. He felt like he was venturing through a construction site.
"Who is Kursed to you?" Samus asked to break the silence.
"Business partners," Fox responded vaguely, but the staff absorbed his focus.
"Just business partners," Samus confirmed with a hint of disbelief.
"We used to travel together in a team," Fox turned to Samus. "But she got hurt, so I took her off the team so she wouldn't get hurt anymore." He frowned as he reflected on Krystal's soulless eyes back on the Great Fox II, when he gave her the bad news. "I hated to see her in pain."
"Then she became a bounty hunter, when she had nowhere to turn to."
"How do you know that?" Fox almost stopped walking for a moment.
"It makes sense," Samus responded as she adjusted her posture to appear more stoic. "That's how a lot of hunters start: no family, no friends, no connections. It's easiest when you have nothing to look back on. Some of them have goals, but I know a lot of hunters that wander aimlessly, like they've lost their purpose, or they don't know what their purpose is supposed to be."
Fox winced.
"Does she have any family?" Samus continued.
"I don't know," Fox said quietly, "she doesn't remember her past, either. She comes from a place called Cerinia, but we don't know where that is. We don't even know if it exists anymore."
"Did she ever look for Cerinia when she joined your team?"
"Well, no," Fox scratched his ear, "she brought up Cerinia sometimes, but she didn't research it very much after she joined my team."
"Sounds like your team was her purpose." Samus shook her head. "She probably didn't want to search for Cerinia anymore because she felt like she found where she belonged."
Fox's frown deepened. He felt plenty of remorse already, but he never realized how little Krystal brought up Cerinia after she joined. He figured it was because she didn't want to burden everyone with her personal goals. He remembered her goal back on Sauria was to find Cerinia and her family, but once she met him and his team…
"When she left the team, she wandered by herself for a while, probably looking for Cerinia but not having the funds to find it. I was wondering how someone from Lylat could travel so far away."
"I know I made a horrible mistake," Fox sighed. "That's why I'm here. I need to find her and fix my mistake."
"What will you do once you find her?"
"Well," Fox paused, "I want to apologize." Part of him wanted to tell Samus exactly what he wanted to say to Krystal, and how badly he wanted to embrace her, but going into excruciating detail seemed unnecessary with someone he didn't know well. "But what if she doesn't accept? The original team isn't even together anymore."
"Then it needs to be more than just an apology. You need to give her a new purpose."
"A new purpose…" Fox repeated.
"She seems like most other hunters I encounter: fulfilling bounties to get by but without a goal in mind. If you don't have the old team to invite her back to, then make a new one. Give her a reason to come back."
Fox nodded. Even if doubts of Krystal's willingness to come back plagued his mind, his determination to confirm her safety was enough to overpower them.
"Maybe," he wondered to himself, "finding Cerinia would be a good goal to have, now that Star Fox has disbanded. Krystal might have had her fill of mercenary work by now. Or maybe she wants to keep being a bounty hunter?" His mind was suddenly processing many ways he could talk to her. He would do anything and take any job if it meant winning her back, whether that was continuing as a bounty hunting duo or anything else for that matter. Suddenly, resuming the old search of Cerinia seemed like a good idea, but how would he do it? He never had any leads when he researched it on Krystal's behalf. Details like those could wait. If it's what she wanted, he would try his best. But he needed to find her first.
Some time passed, absent from smalltalk. Fox's plans erupted in his mind, and he grew anxious as he realized that his opportunity to speak with Krystal again might be close, even if the fear that something horrible had happened to her was growing as well. He said nothing to Samus except to explain which corridor they should take according to the staff's pulsing. The station's halls never seemed to become any less derelict until they found a spot of luminescent light hiding behind a dark corner. Fox managed to put his anxious thoughts on hold as he eyed the approaching light.
As they rounded the corner, Fox and Samus found themselves in a hall that forked into a much more luminous room. A wide set of stairs led up to the room's taller second half, and it was covered in decorative banners that vaguely resembled the ones they saw back on the Sanctuary Fortress, but they were gaudy compared to the decrepit floors and walls. Parts of the ceiling and floor had been replaced with much brighter tiles and lighting as if the room was undergoing a disorganized form of remodeling. Samus scanned the room for any signs of threats, but Fox was already heading further down the opposite hall with the staff pulsing brighter.
Suddenly, Fox paused as he picked up a faint sound. White noise was common since he and Samus arrived in the station, but it wasn't until he felt a subtle change in the wind that his ears twitched and he stopped moving. Samus stopped a few paces from him and looked back.
The alert vulpine spun on his heel just in time for a laser shot to come barreling towards him, seemingly fired from nowhere. Instead of reaching for his blaster, he snagged his reflector from his waist, and milliseconds later he was covered with a hexagonal shield of energy. The burst of laser fire bounced off his reflector and shot back in the opposite direction until it connected with something before hitting the wall. Sparks and flames seemed to phase into existence, until the sentry drone dropped its camouflaged shielding and crumbled into pieces on the floor.
Samus took aim at the once-cloaked drone, but she realized it was already scrapped. "That is a potent reflector," she commented as she looked around for additional hostiles, "Does it strengthen the reflected shots?"
"Yeah," Fox responded as he lowered the shield, but he kept a hand on the device just in case. "I've had it for years."
"I wonder if it can repel more than laser fire."
"Never tried it with anything other than blaster shots," Fox shook his head.
Suddenly, a much louder noise erupted, and a huge metal blast door descended from the ceiling, slamming the floor with no hydraulics or friction. Fox stumbled and adjusted his stance, only to realize that the blast door effectively shut him off from Samus, and there were no panels in sight to raise it, much less Ingsmashers to help. The blast door was covered in scuffs and scratches, but it was too sturdy for either of them to punch through with any of their weapons.
"Samus! Can you hear me!" Fox pressed his paws against the door.
"Tch. That cloaked drone must have got its emergency signal off before it was destroyed."
"Hang on, I'll find a way to you," Fox assured, already looking around the cramped hallway for any vents he could use.
"Don't worry about me," Samus said. "Go find your friend. I'm going to find V-Lir. Meet me at Cargo Bay A, we can plan our escape from there. If that doesn't work, let's meet back where we used the portal."
"Got it," Fox said as his fists clenched. "We'll meet again. Good luck." A familiar determination burned within him, and in moments he took off with Krystal's staff at his side.
"Same to you," Samus said quietly, but she could tell the determined vulpine was already gone.
As Fox's footsteps disappeared down the hall, further muffled by the old but sturdy blast door, Samus was left in silence. She adjusted her scanners and approached the larger room once more. As soon as she stepped into the luminous room again, her scanners picked up multiple readings. She raised her arm cannon and carefully looked around the room, expecting more cloaked drones to fire at her at any moment.
Instead of more robots, a large figure emerged from behind one of the banners near the back of the room, and it stood at the top of the stairs. The lanky but imposing creature resembled a Luminoth, but dressed in tan armor and decorated with banners like the ones surrounding it. The armored Luminoth's eyes glowed with a hostile red that reflected off its mask. Samus took aim without hesitation.
"Greetings." V-Lir spoke with an unpleasant tone, far less compassionate compared to U-Mos. "I am V-Lir, monarch of the Luminoth, and you are trespassing upon my space station."
"I don't recall the Luminoth having a monarchy," Samus said dryly.
"The Luminoth require a powerful leader to achieve true species restoration," V-Lir spoke as he paced around the top of the stairs. Samus's weapon followed his trail. "I will ensure our race does not dwindle away."
"U-Mos is a fine leader. He stayed awake while you and the rest of the Luminoth were in hypersleep. You would be dead without him."
"Samus Aran," V-Lir growled as he turned to face her, "you symbolize the Luminoth's weakness. Your existence is a problem for us." As he spoke, several other Luminoth appeared behind him and joined him at the top of the stairs, each armed with spears and firearms of their own, although their armor was whiter and less regal compared to their leader. "If we are to survive as a dominant race, then we must not rely on anyone. I fear my people will grow complacent if they realize that a 'great hero' like Samus Aran will come to rescue them in times of peril. I am certain U-Mos asked you to rescue them from me as well."
"You trapped them in a secluded temple and prevented them from contacting anyone. You have imprisoned your own kind." Samus kept her weapons raised, even as her number of adversaries visibly grew. "You are the enemy of the Luminoth now, you are no leader."
"How dare you question my leadership!" V-Lir roared through his mask and raised his arm. The armored soldiers on either side of him readied their weapons. Samus's stance did not break.
"You are no Luminoth," V-Lir growled, "you could never understand our struggle. With my leadership, the Luminoth will be reborn and strengthened until no one dares to challenge us. Including the likes of you. Now that you are here, I will ensure that you will never defile us again."
The lights flickered and the room adapted a shadowy hue as V-Lir took aim with his own arm cannon. A blend of pure white energy and opaque dark energy swirled around the tip of the cannon, creating an eclipse of beam power. Samus was forced to look away from the blinding combination of beams, and V-Lir's soldiers did the same.
"You stole our weapons and used them as your own," V-Lir snarled, "but you only gained access to the weapons that failed us during our struggles with the Ing. You cannot fathom the kind of beam technology I have created in your absence." The soldiers on either side of him readied their own weapons and charged their own blasts, but none of them were as potent as V-Lir's, which was glowing so bright that it warped the colors of the entire space. Even the gaudy banners seemed muted by comparison. "You shall be the first victim of my ultimate Annihilator Beam."
V-Lir grasped his arm cannon and unloaded the charged shot Annihilator shot, and at once the soldiers around him opened fire. Samus sidestepped the blast, but the resulting noise disrupted her sensors and filled her vision with static. Two soldiers jumped down the stairs and rushed towards her with spears raised. Samus jumped in the air as a volley of laser fire tore the floor apart where she stood, and she unleashed a rain of missiles at the small army of soldiers aiming at her.
Meanwhile, V-Lir was already charging another shot.
…
Fox ran through cramped hallways full of fizzling lights and erratic sparks, while parkouring over old machines and damaged decorations. All the while, the staff glowed brighter and brighter, until it began to outshine the surges of sparks around him. He ran faster as his anxiety grew.
She wasn't reaching out through the staff, but he could feel her presence through it, and it felt like she was very close. Just one room away. In a burst of motivation, he dashed through the next door and found himself on a small balcony overlooking a larger room below. Unlike the previous corridors, this room had many machines that were still functioning. He looked up just in time to see a turret mounted on the ceiling begin to turn towards him, but he ducked out of the way before it could see him.
Cautiously, he looked down at the floor below. Several humanoid robots sauntered around the room while looking at the machines and mumbling processes to themselves. On one end of the room was a large monitor, but on the other was a pair of large glass cylinders and a small tube that connected them. In one tube was the Metroid; despite its lack of facial features, it seemed agitated as it swirled around every inch of its cylindrical prison while screeching and tapping at the glass with its mandibles. Even from a distance, Fox could notice the tube's wear; despite being small, the Metroid had done a number on it. The other tube housed a battered reptilian creature with damaged armor, but Fox only glimpsed at it while he looked for any trace of blue in the room. The robots were all the same dull monotone as the machines they worked on, and the tubes were a light green. Fox checked the staff. Maybe Krystal was hidden somewhere in here, or in a room beyond? But the staff's feedback made it seem like this was the right spot, even if she was nowhere in sight.
The monitor on the wall flickered for a moment, and a creature wearing extravagant tan armor and glowing red eyes appeared. Fox recognized the creature as V-Lir, from the hologram that U-Mos shared. His eyes narrowed as if he was looking at Lylat's Most Wanted list.
"Our knowledge on the Metroid's potential grows ever steadily," the recording of V-Lir spoke. "With this series of tests, we shall determine how effectively the Metroid can gain life energy. As with other tests in this series, you shall have the Metroid perform its task and gauge its energy levels afterwards."
"Life energy?" Fox thought to himself. He had never seen a Metroid in action before, and although he heard about its terrifying power, he was less familiar with the "life energy" that V-Lir referred to.
The routine recording of V-Lir ended, and the robots in the room began to speak up as some machines powered on. The tube separating the two cylinders opened, and the Metroid immediately screeched and dashed through the tube to meet the reptilian creature on the other side. Fox winced as he saw the Metroid latch onto the reptile's head with its mandibles and began to absorb energy with a sickening sucking sound. The reptile roared weakly, but it only thrashed about for a few moments before its body began to grow coarse and frail. The color drained from its black and green scales until it was left as a gray husk. As soon as the Metroid let go, the husk dissolved into dusty powder and scattered to the bottom of the tube. Fox had to look away.
The robots communicated with each other as if they were disappointed with the results from their test, but Fox couldn't bear to wait another moment. Even if he couldn't see Krystal, he couldn't bear to think of her suffering the same fate as the reptilian creature. He grabbed the edge of the balcony and launched himself in the air, unloading a volley of blaster fire on the ceiling turrets and charging through another with his illusion technique. The robots below looked up and drew blasters of their own, but Fox was already on top of them by the time they began firing. The first robot tried to activate an alarm on its chest, but it only got to play the alarm for a split second before Fox kicked in its polished head with his boot. As quick as a flash he tossed his reflector up to block the other robots' shots, and he threw his staff like a spear through another robot's chest plating before his reflector powered down. Another robot was flattened as one of the damaged turrets detached from the ceiling and landed on it, sending scrapped parts in all directions.
The last robot continued to fire at Fox without regard for how quickly its allies had fallen, but a flurry of rapid kicks was enough to shatter the robot's armor and flip it over. The robot's blaster came loose as it reeled back, and it began to pelt the room with random blaster shots like a sprinkler. Walls, equipment, and light fixtures were all pierced by hapless laser fire until Fox jumped and stomped on the loose blaster before it managed to punch a few holes in him too.
Fox paused to breathe, and he took another look at the room around him. Nothing was shooting at him now; the turrets on the ceiling were either destroyed or disconnected, and the robots below were in pieces. The last robot's stray blaster did a good job at clearing the other turrets that Fox hadn't hit yet. Light metals cracked under his boots as he walked over the mess to find Krystal's staff still jutting out of one of the robot's chests.
Suddenly, he heard a familiar screech behind him, much louder than it should have been. He whirled around just in time to see the Metroid floating above him, no longer stuck in a tube but still seemingly agitated. In the heat of the battle, he hadn't noticed the stray blaster shots destroying the Metroid's glass prison. The parasitic predator swayed back and forth as it drew closer to his head, saliva dripping from its mandibles.
In his shock, Fox didn't think to draw his blaster again. He could only muster a gasp and a quick step back as he raised the staff as his only weapon. He aimed it at the Metroid while desperately trying to remember the staff's setting for Ice blasts, but the Metroid stopped short as he aimed the tip at it. Suddenly, the Metroid's screeches seemed to turn into softer chirps, and the saliva from its mandibles receded. It stopped pursuing Fox and instead slowly circled the tip of the staff, as if curious. As it pressed its domelike body against the staff, the staff's jeweled tip lit up, and Fox's ears were filled with the sound of a familiar voice.
"Krystal…?" Fox wondered. There was no mistaking it; he could hear her voice, but it sounded distan. They were thoughts addressed to the Metroid, as if she held a previous "conversation" with it and that her messages had never left the parasite's mind. As the staff remained tapped against the Metroid, he picked up their whole conversation. Even through the Metroid's memory, he could pick up the compassion in her voice, hidden behind a surly façade. From their conversation, it sounded like the Metroid mistook Krystal for its mama. He almost smiled.
After a while, Fox raised the staff from the Metroid, but the creature remained calm. Instead of diving towards Fox, the Metroid floated towards the room's exit, chirping quietly and moving slowly as if goading Fox to follow it. Fox raised an eyebrow, but with the staff still raised high, he decided to follow.
The Metroid guided Fox through additional corridors. Part of him was worried that the robots he attacked would activate additional alarms and impede his progress, but he hoped that Samus was keeping V-Lir and his security busy. Either way, he didn't mind taking on an army to get to Krystal, wherever she was.
Eventually they reached the end of a hallway, and a stairway lead further down. An illuminated door sat at the bottom of the stairs, marked with another Luminoth banner.
"Is… is she in there?" he asked the Metroid, without realizing how silly it seemed to ask. The Metroid said nothing; it only chirped a few more times and then floated away, disappearing past the stairs. He turned to follow but realized the staff's glow was only bright as he faced the door. Would it be okay to leave the Metroid alone? He realized he could help Samus find it again with the staff's help, if Krystal's thoughts still echoed in it. He wasn't here for the Metroid anyway. He took a deep breath as he set a paw against the door.
What was once an old cabin bay for workers had been repurposed into a brig of sorts. Despite the glowing door, the interior was as dark as the rest of the station, only lit by occasional fixtures that were likely powered by a secondary generator. Many of the cells and sleeping pods were open or broken, but even the functioning cells were vacant. For a prison, it had a significant shortage of prisoners, but Fox realized that the battered reptilian creature may have come from here. An intense wave of worry washed over him, and his search through the walls of cabins accelerated rapidly.
What if she was already gone? The staff was pulsing brighter than ever now, but Fox's irrational fear was climbing faster than he could search the empty cells. He was running so fast that he almost missed a cell covered by a forcefield. The patch of cerulean fur out of the corner of Fox's eye was unmistakable.
On instinct, Fox jammed the staff into the cell's control pad, and it erupted into sparks. Moments later, the forcefield over the cell powered down. A vixen with familiar blue fur and long indigo hair sat on the cot in the cell. She only raised her head as she realized the forcefield was removed, and her dull but still beautiful eyes glimmered as she made eye contact with him.
"Fox?"