Chapter 2

(July 10th)

(3:40pm)

It took at least an hour for Krystal to find and board Aryn's ship, docking her own in the larger ship's docking bay. She found the large ship to be void of almost every possible thing that was not deemed a necessity; no decorations, no color, just the same dull shiftless chrome color that seemed to fill the lonely ship's halls. The docking bay though huge and impressive was wasted on nothing more than three ships; her own small transport, and her modified arwing which she'd named the Curse, and a single flawlessly cared for black and red wolfen; the wolfen was slightly modified not seeming to be quite as large as a standard wolfen. She then made her way through the halls of Aryn's ship making herself familiar with every small corner as she passed each different hall...there was nothing in any of the halls short of dust and darkness, not even a light, the sights of the ship itself seemed incredibly depressing. The ship, at least to Krystal, turned out to be much larger than it's formal exterior seemed to let on. As she made her way through the halls her telepathy picked up on something that sent a cold, arid chill up and down her spine causing the fur on her tail to stick out on end. It wasn't thoughts of any kind. This strange feeling was being emitted by a single door she now stood before; it looked as if it were a part of the ship's living quarters...but, the palm scanner next to the door was broken and was covered in dust and dried blood. As she lay her paw on the door the feeling hit her again, this time taking her breath away...this ship, this room had seen terrible, horrible things...things that left behind feelings so strong that they still lingered there possibly many years after the events in question had unfolded.

Krystal was still shaking off the bizarre feeling she'd gotten as she walked onto the ship's bridge, the room was just as dark and ominous as the rest of the ship, spare for the space in front of the seat that Aryn was sitting in, where she could see his many display screens illuminating the small area in front of the dark furred vulpine a light green. The ship's captain paid no attention to the blue vixen now hovering over his shoulder...he was far to involved with the information that Peppy had sent him on the attack from Fox. As she watched on a small video began to play, she could see the inside of the old Star Fox base situated on the far edge of the city...the current room on the screen was the docking bay where Falco was working on the team's Landmaster. The blue avian said something to someone off screen before pulling off his red shirt and wiping off his forehead with it. He stood there talking for a bit longer and soon a portly little green toad walked into the camera's view, Krystal smiled, she hadn't seen Slippy in forever. The little mechanic said something to Falco causing the bird to lightly smack him in the back of the head knocking his lucky red cap to the ground. As Slippy ran off screen to retrieve the hat Falco turned saying something to someone that had apparently just entered the room, the bird turned to go back to work, but as soon as his back was turned a familiar reddish-brown furred fox stepped up behind him striking him in the head with a large wrench with a force that made Krystal cringe as a short spatter of fresh blood shot onto the side of the tank the bird had been repairing. The assault continued for several moments with Fox stomping on the downed avian and repeatedly striking him with the bloody wrench. Suddenly Slippy rushed in and grabbed Fox by the arm which resulted in one of Fox's near lethal kicks to be slammed into the side of the fat little toad's head sending him to the ground several feet away. Fox stomped on Falco one more time before throwing the wrench to the ground and turning his attention to Slippy who was slowly trying to crawl away from the carnage but, Fox nonchalantly walked to Slippy's side and lifted his foot into the air high over head in a clearly deadly axe kick. As Fox's heel was brought down onto the toad's spine the poor animal's body practically folded in half with a silent scream rushing from his wide opened mouth. She was glad she couldn't hear it, She could understand hitting Falco with any sort of blunt object, but Slippy? He'd never hurt anyone, Slippy was the last person she knew that would have ever deserved that sort of treatment, especially not at the paws of his best friend. Aryn glanced over his shoulder as he heard Krystal sniffle a bit wiping a tear from her eyes, but quickly glanced back to the screen as he saw the last thing on the video. Fox looked up at the camera with a sinister grin on his face as his tongue licked the blood from his muzzle that had covered him when he was assaulting the team's ace pilot, then there was nothing but static...

Krystal had noticed something about that last moment, "Those...they aren't Fox's eyes..."

Arlex grew intrigued, if anyone knew the vulpine best he figured it would be his ex-lover...as he thought on this the dark furred enigma rose from his seat stretching his back with a tired yawn, "NAV...Get up in orbit then clear a path for the Xenass Colony...if anyone knows anything about this Nex dose..." Aryn said walking to the door.

"Where are you going?" Krystal asked.

"Haven't decided..."

Krystal stood there, "Then what should I do?"

"Find a room...do whatever you want. Just stay out of my room, and stay away from my study."

"You know you're an asshole right?" Krystal half shouted after him his constant negative attitude was getting on her nerves.

"Yeah just stay outta my rooms..." Aryn replied calmly walking out of the room.

Krystal spent the next hour or so moving some important things to the new room that she'd stay in making sure it was the furthest from Aryn she could possibly get. She only moved some clothes linens and her laptop into the room, she figured that other than a few simple weapons she didn't really need anything else. She was forced to dust the room as there was a thick layer of dust everywhere; like most rooms on these ships the room she'd chosen was bare, spare for the bed which was unmade and a single wardrobe built into the wall which she found to be convenient as it was voice activated by simply telling it what piece of clothing you wanted. She dressed the small bed with her favorite red comforter as well as the blanket's matching pillows and sheets, making sure to place her blaster under the pillows and her staff under the mattress. For a short while she simply sat on the edge of her bed thinking that she wished she had a friend to talk too, but then she remembered that she always did...

Over the passing hour or two, he didn't really bother to count as he didn't care, Aryn had sorted through his thoughts about the mission then took a shower. Showers had become the only thing that ever calmed his mind anymore. Soon enough however he emerged from his bedroom with a towel draped over his shoulders still drying the side of his head...he had decided that wearing a shirt was not necessary, most men would have worn one with a female on board but, Aryn was not one to care for these things, it was his ship and he'd do as he pleased. He found his way back to the bridge and to his great delight he was welcomed by a familiar screen displayed before his seat, his only real friend was trying to contact him, and a few games of chess with Foxy1 was more than enough to make all of his stress vanish. He was fast to jump at the game he was being offered and though his hardhearted expression did not change he was happy to be connected to his friend again. The two's constant and continuing games ended in their normal fashion...stalemates, in fact he never could remember a single time that either of them had won a game, he didn't like loosing but, this was different Aryn didn't mind admitting that this person was as good as he was. The hours seemed to pass like minutes, as the time seems to go that much faster when you're having any sort of fun. Soon Aryn let out a huge yawn stretching his arms high over his head. The digital read out of the time in the bottom corner of the screen before him that showed another stalemated game read 3:45am. No wonder why he was tired...

"Well I guess I should get some sleep...long day tomorrow. Same time then?" Aryn typed.

A few seconds when by, "I should probably get some sleep too...my new partner's a real prick...but, yer on...C'ya..."

Having finished a grand total of 13 long strung out games, Aryn stretched his back and shut down his computer heading off to his room for the night...or what was left of it. As Aryn made his way down the halls he closed his eyes yawning again, and just as he opened his eyes to turn a corner he ran into Krystal who was headed from the kitchen to her room, spilling a bit of the glass of milk she had in her paws. Aryn ignored the venomous sting to her voice as he kept to his trek to his room when she muttered the word 'Bastard' in a very stern tone. Aryn didn't even bother with anything else he simply dropped himself onto his bed and drifted off to sleep, dreaming of the good old days when the ship was nothing more than his own personal isolation chamber...the way it was supposed to be...

-000-

The next morning Krystal woke up to the unfamiliar surroundings of her new room, it would take some getting used to, then again she had no idea how long she was going to be with this guy. She was well aware that a trip from Corneria to Xenass could take up to and including 4 days...she was in for a long trip so far. It was six o'clock in the morning when she woke up, it was an average time for her since she had become a bounty hunter. Unfortunately...her night had been filled with horrible dreams from her past, about the time she had spent with Star Wolf. Her morning shower was the only thing to clear away the thoughts of it all, what had happened haunted her, it was her reason for becoming a bounty hunter in the first place, she had every intention of killing them all; Leon, Wolf, and especially Panther, many times throughout her day she simply thought of new and more painful ways she'd kill them once she got her claws into them. Finally finished with her shower Krystal wandered back into her room with her towel held around her chest allowing it to drape down to cover the rest of her body...it wasn't exactly necessary, but, this ship gave her the creeps on a level she'd never known before...it constantly felt as if someone was lurking behind her peering over her shoulder at all times. She walked over to the small wardrobe built into the room's wall telling it what she needed. At the word 'underwear' a single, small drawer slid open filled with her unmentionables. Krystal dropped her towel and slid on a pair of black panties before catching a view of herself in a nearby mirror, there were three long scars along the side of her muzzle ending on her cheek under her right eye, she was glad she couldn't see the mess of them on her back, all gifts form her former Star Wolf partners...

Soon Krystal took her mind off of the past and continued getting dressed, she fitted on a black bra, a pair of old gray sweatpants and a black sleeveless shirt that reached down just above he waist, it was an older shirt...but, what did she care? The blue vixen made her way out of that small void of space she slept in and into the larger one that was the rest of the ship. It had a bit of an ethereal aura about it, she dared to compare the feeling to being in a haunted house but, she knew that that would just be stupid...still what was this constant feeling like her own telepathy was telling her that something was seriously wrong with this ship? Was the feeling coming from Aryn? She'd picked up on people's feelings before but, she'd never actually experienced something like this before, not a feeling more like a presence, one that seemed not to exist at all, but, when she thought about it clearly it was there. It seemed to have no physical form at all though, as if it was pure emotion...absolute sadness, as if the entire ship seemed to weep for the single crew member that it housed. As Krystal headed for the kitchen of the ship she couldn't help but wonder. Why did such a large ship have only a one man crew? And better yet why was it that she picked up so much negativity on this ship without trying? Several times she'd attempted to delve into Aryn's mind since they'd met only to have herself sharply, and painfully rejected at the touch of his mind.

Krystal walked into the kitchen and began searching through the cooking area for something that she knew someone like Aryn must have kept around the place...something that she badly needed after the dreams about her past. After having no luck in her search the cerulean furred vixen slouched into a seat at one of the room's tables with a heavy sigh. As she sat there the door hissed open causing her to roll her eyes Aryn was the last person she wanted to see right now. The ship's captain walked through the door, his only attire a pair of red sweatpants and a light gray towel draped over his shoulders; though not incredibly tone, the shadowy vulpine had an impressive build, his abs were not like Fox's which could even be seen through his fur but, they were still proponent enough to be seen, his upper body on the other hand was most likely much larger than Fox, his arms were rather thick and his tone chest showed two massive scars, one trailing from his right side to his left shoulder, while the other stretched from his left hip to his right shoulder forming a large X across the center of his body. She could tell by the smell of him as he entered the room that he'd been training hard for hours. He for a moment looked at her, then to the cooking area that looked as if someone had been looking for something. Aryn didn't say a word as he disappeared into the small cooking station still drying the sweat from his body. Krystal's gaze was brought up from the table as something heavy was brought down in front of her, a dark blue bottle of familiar looking alcohol...

"I think you were looking for this..." Aryn said in a surprisingly light tone, taking a seat at the far end of the table.

Aryn didn't do much other than have a drink himself before walking toward the door, "I'm gonna need your help in the docking bay with some repairs, so don't over do it..."

"I'm not a drunk." Krystal growled.

"Whatever...just don't drink yourself stupid before you get down there."

Figuring that it would help take her mind off of things Krystal forgot about the bottle and headed with Aryn to the docking bay. There were more things to do that she thought; relays had to be replaced, wiring as well, fuel cells needed changing, several things had gone wrong with the ship's engines over the night, and there was an electrical short in the com system. It took hours to finally get everything done, and by that time Krystal was exhausted. As she made her way through the halls back toward her room she noticed one of the doors that wouldn't open before had opened as she walked by accidentally stepping too close to it. She looked around to make sure that Aryn was nowhere in sight and entered the room. It was his study, if you could call it that at all, there was a single chair situated in front of a large painting on the wall of a very familiar black vulpine holding a white vixen in his arms, Krystal was amazed to see that he was actually smiling in the picture. To the right of the chair sat a small table with another bottle of vodka and a glass, and next to the glass a small set of dog tags. Krystal picked them up and examined the names...Drayvn Dark and Emilia Jones. Krystal quickly set down the tags and rushed out of the room and into a murderous expression on Aryn's face. He stood there for a second then forcefully pushed Krystal out of the way vanishing into the room who's door closed behind him. Krystal didn't feel bad at all for what she'd done, after all rules were meant to be broken, but, something sat on her mind as she finally headed back to her room. She pulled out her laptop and began typing, soon bringing up the Lylat database, she then typed in the name Aryn Stromwell...

She was surprised with the results, "Who the hell is this?" She asked herself.

The picture that she received was a fox...but, it most definitely was not the person she was in the presence of; this person was almost solid red if not for the white that covered his muzzle. She thought for a moment then typed in another name Drayvn Dark...

"Access denied? Why deny access to someone's records?"

She then went into public records, and sure enough there was the picture of the one she was traveling with, she slowly read the specs of this person off to herself, "Drayvn Dark, height 5'9, weight 215 pounds, blood type O positive, eyes...left blue right brown..." As she read through the file she realized that this had to be Aryn's real name, "This is him...then why call himself Aryn? Something isn't right about any of this."

As Krystal delved as far as she could into the mysterious black fox's past as possible, she found that he was surrounded by red flags...missing information, lock downs, firewalls, everything she could think of seemed to stop her form finding anything out about him. By the time she'd been at if for three hours she only found one piece of incriminating information, a missing persons report on Drayvn Dark about fifteen years ago. She wanted to know the truth, there was something about this entire situation that just didn't feel right at all. The real Aryn Stromwell was reported missing at about the same time as Drayvn Dark. However there was one last thing that she found that sparked her curiosity, a single warning on the current page her laptop screen displayed...

A wanted poster with the black vulpine's face on it, for the sum of 800,000credits.

AN: Sorry this was a little strung out and all but I'm still setting up the storyline here. The action should start pretty soon, hopefully this fic won't leave me with a horrible writer's block anytime soon. Well R&R and I'll try to get Chapter three up soon. Thanks for all the support and C'ya next time...

SkullFox