Well now we're going to see if Crash's plan is going to work.

For this chapter, I strongly recommend listening to Crateria Depths from Metroid Zero Mission.

Crash is not mine. OC's are mine.

Chapter 15 Last Stand

Crash and Coco found themselves back in the tombs of ancient Egypt. Only now, no torches were lit offering nothing but darkness.

Coco brought out her flash light to dimly light the caverns around them.

"So how do you know we'll find our way to the time twister from here?" She asked.

"Because someone is bound to make a mistake. And when they do, we might be able to find a transporter." Crash explained.

Coco sighed to herself; she didn't like this course of plan, but she knew it was only way they might be able to get to the heart of the time twister.

"All right then, the signal I'm getting from the crystal is this way." Coco said, pointing to the right.

The siblings trotted down the path; avoiding incoming arrows or any gaps in the floor that Coco's flashlight would not be able to pick up.

Crash felt the cold feeling spread across him; the last time this feeling had come to him was back on Cortex's space station. At the time, he never realized it was Cortex's station, but Crash felt cold when he was there. Crash had always regulated that the feeling would come to him when he felt something was not right. And almost always, something was wrong. The bandicoot felt in the back of his brain something still wasn't right. Going to Cortex head on would have not been a good idea because Cortex would be expecting him. But what if this plan wasn't foolproof? What if his plan would've had the same outcome if just went there full on?

The boy was suddenly startled by the sound of a small mew. It first he thought it was an enemy behind ;but he forced himself to relax when he realized it was only Pura.

"Coco can you keep her quiet?!" Crash demanded.

"Quiet girl!" Coco ordered.

Pura lowered her head, without making another sound.

Crash sighed in relief as he continued down the darkened catacombs. Suddenly he felt Coco pull him back.

"What the hell was that for?!" He growled.

Coco shined her flashlight on the floor. Where Crash had stepped, the floor was gone.

The bandicoot felt his heart pounding; looking down at the floor again before he jumped one after the other to avoid falling into the black. Once he reached solid ground on the other side he allowed his body to relax.
Coco and Pura went next and followed suit; just as her brother had done, jumping the path quickly before it would fall into the depths. After a little more time, Coco and the tiger cub reached the other side.
""That was scary… I mean it, it really was." Coco sighed looking back behind her.

Crash looked ahead of the tunnel. "How much farther until we reach the crystal?"

Coco looked at her radar. "Just down this hall straight ahead."

Crash took the flashlight and shined it along the path when he noticed odd light spots all along the path towards the crystal.

"What do you see?" Coco asked.
"These light spots; and do you see those holes along the walls?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"I think those are the arrows that must have been coming from. They must have been set off by the lights."

"There are small holes."

"We're going to have to crawl; it's going to take a little longer than just running, but we'll have a better chance of not getting hit."

"Pura get on your belly." Coco commanded.

The cub was already ready. The siblings followed suit as they got on their bellies.
"Crash, I think we should make as little noise as possible; our voices could also send the arrows off."

"Whatever you say Coco." Crash sighed deeply as he started crawling. The air around him felt so thick, he wondered if he even dared to breathe that it would send the arrows after him. Crash looked above as he stepped on the first light to see arrows whiz by. Luckily, they hadn't. Crash sighed in relief. He looked behind him to see Coco and Pura staying as low to the ground as possible, making sure not to rise or make a sound.
The siblings and their pet continued to snake on the ground until they the crystal and gems were getting closer and closer. Crash smiled in relief as he continued to crawl along the ground when he saw himself passing by the final light. Crash closed his eyes as he crawled within the final light and safely made it to the other side. Once the bandicoot reached the stairs, he allowed himself to stand and take a couple breaths.

Coco and Pura managed to crawl along the final trap light before they stood up and took a couple breaths themselves.

The trio ran up the stairs to see the crystal and two gems glowing brightly in the darkness.

Crash walked up to them and put them in his backpack.
"Well little sis, we got them all." Crash said, with his familiar grin.

Coco smiled back. "Now we just need to worry about finding a way to the time twister."

The siblings walked down the hall they were in until Crash walked into a dead end. He noticed on the ground was a small transporter; more than likely was being used by the minions to teleport from location to location. Crash smiled, but deep within him, he felt the cold feeling flaring up again.

His inner feelings were telling something wasn't right. Why would a minions transporter be out here in clear view if him and Coco were close by?

The boy shrugged it off before he picked it up.

"Coco I found the transporter!" He called.

Coco ran up to him and took it in her hands.

"Now we have a way to get to base itself. So what's the final plan?" Coco asked.
"When we get to the base, I want you to take Pura and find your way to heart of the time twister. Do an observation on how you shut it down safely. I'll go and find Cortex and Uka Uka. Hopefully they won't see me coming right away. Once I stop them, I'll bring Cortex to the heart and then we'll send him off into the far past, helpless. Then we'll destroy the machine safely. When the time twister is the least of our worries, we'll use the crystals and gems to reseal Uka Uka."

"That's a pretty elaborate plan." Coco said.

"Yeah even I'm pretty amazed that I came up with that. So where are you going to teleport us?"

"The lowest level of the base. It's rather far from where Cortex should be and the heart is in the direct middle of the base, but very few minions should be around; giving us a better chance of sneaking in."

"Once we're teleported in, we split up. I'll take the crystals and gems with me. You ready?"

Coco breathed deeply. "Sigh… Yes I'm ready now… Crash?"

"Yeah?"

"Incase neither of us gets out alive; I just wanted…to tell you… I love you." Coco whimpered, trying her best not to cry.

Crash felt his heart crack in two; this was making it so much harder, he didn't want his sister thinking this way, they would get out alive.

Crash hugged the little girl tightly.
"I love you too Coco, But don't worry, we'll get out in one piece, just think positive. Now take us to the base."

Coco swallowed before she typed in the location and the world went to white. After a few seconds, they found themselves in the base.

The lowest level had no light, forcing the siblings to use their flash lights.

"All right, let's do what we need to do." Coco said.

Coco and Pura started off in opposite direction.

"Wait…" Crash called after her.

"Yeah?" Coco asked.

"Incase anything goes wrong, I went you and Pura to get out of here."

"Then what will you do?"

"I'll shut the machine down myself; hopefully it won't come to that. But if it does, be ready to run. You promise?"

"I promise."

"Good! Now get going!"

The two run down the hall until they finally disappeared into the darkness.

Crash looked ahead of his path.

"All right Crash old buddy, it's time to test fate again."

The bandicoot started trotted along the path slowly as he used his flashlight to find a small opening to a duct, leading him upwards. The bandicoot knew he had to stay off any main halls. Even if he just saw one minion, in less than 5 minutes, dozens would swamp him.

He reached his hand out to find a hollow opening. Crash shined his flashlight upon the opening to see a duct that would lead upward.

Crash carefully crawled in; putting the flashlight in his mouth to use his hands to crawl. Crash saw the duct had a slight ramp to it; making the climb a bit easier and that he wouldn't make as much as noise.

Crash continued his crawl when he noticed some light below him. Carefully, he looked through the cracks to see that he was above the minions quarters; several minions sat around, waiting for someone to give them instructions. Crash forced himself to hold his breath and moved as silently as possible to avoid the he made a small bump.

"What was that!?" A minion demanded.

They looked at the duct.

Crash held his breath.
After staring at the duct, they seemed to no longer press on the matter.

"Could be that some small rocks got in there. The duct appears to be working just fine so I wouldn't worry about it." Another minion sighed.
The minions went back to whatever they were doing. Crash sighed in relief and continued through the ducts.

Finally, Crash saw the opening end to the duct and quietly crawled out to find himself in what looked like heating and cool down room. The bandicoot assumed this was to fire and provided the time twister with energy and fuel; with the cool down to make sure that it didn't over heat. The room itself was rather warm, but Crash felt oddly cold. He also noticed some auto repair mechanisms that if even if he broke any of the machinery in here, it would just repair itself so Crash decided not to do anything. The heart was where the machine really mattered.

Crash quietly exited the room to find the walls darkened again. He turned on his flashlight and continued to walk down the darkened halls. All the bandicoot had to do now was find another duct opening that would take him to an alternate route that would lead hi, to where Cortex was. Crash had figured that Cortex must have designed that route in case he needed to escape. Crash couldn't help but roll his eyes; his nemesis always wanted to have an alternate route.

The boy walked farther and farther along the path, but he found himself getting colder and colder.

The bandicoot felt the back his brain screaming that something wasn't right. The transporter should have been a huge red flag. Could Cortex have been waiting already? Did he know that he had an idea that he and Coco were to trying to sneak into the base another way?

Crash closed his eyes tightly as he tried to clear his head; he knew his plan wasn't a very good one to begin with, but he also knew that if he had gone to Cortex head on, there was a much stronger possibility that the machine would only temporarily be shut down and Cortex would escape.

But would that be a better solution? He and Coco could have fled safely themselves, right?

Crash looked behind, only darkness was following him.
"I think I'm losing my mind. I just need to get to the controls."

Suddenly Crash felt a painful shock against his already sore side, bringing him to his knees.

"AUGH! DAMN IT! WHAT GOT ME!?" He howled.

Crash looked up to see Craig emerge from the shadows.

"I knew I'd find you here. Dr. Cortex was right; leaving my transporter was perfect bait."

"WHAT!? That was yours?! But how did!?"

"Dr. Cortex overhead you talking to your sister about coming to the a base a different way, so he told me to leave my transporter behind and just like he predicted, you two took the bait. All I had to do was wait for you in here."

"He knew; he knew we were going to attempt stealth, and he got us." Crash sighed, defeated.

"Don't worry Crash, Dr. Cortex made it clear once I found you, you were to brought to him alive. You can even still hang on to the crystal and gems yourself." Craig chuckled, darkly.

"Craig don't do this; you know it's not right."

"I honestly don't care."

"Asshole!" Crash growled.

Craig forced Crash to his feet holding his arms behind him.

"Get moving, the Doctor's waiting for you."

It then hit Crash hard; he would have to battle Cortex, but only this time, he would have Uka Uka protecting him. He remembered Coco telling him how it had taking so many hits to strain him when he was protecting Midori. And to make matters worse, he had absolutely no idea where Aku Aku had gone all this time. Leaving the bandicoot completely defenseless.

Crash felt his throat go dry as Craig led him away.

Next chapter will bring us into the climax. So read and Review.