Chapter 3

(July 12th)

10:44am

Krystal woke that morning with the full intention of confronting Aryn, or Drayvn or whatever his real name was, the day before he had refused to come out of his room, but today they reached Xenass, he wouldn't have a choice at all on whether or not to come out only he knew the docking codes to his own ship. When Aryn finally walked onto the bridge he walked into a blaster being jammed in his face, Krystal didn't even see the motion that landed her against the wall with the long curved blade of a sword at her throat, her blaster sliced in two in the same motion that had pinned her. She could feel the trickle of fresh blood that ran down the side of her neck which caused her to swallow the lump in her throat, she'd never seen anyone move so fast in her life. For what seemed like forever the black vulpine simply held her to the wall debating on whether or not to kill her for interfering in his life, but after a moment she felt some of the pressure of his blade release from her skin...

"Listen closely...EVER interfere in my life again...and I'll send you back to the general in multiple shipments. Are...we...clear?" He growled.

"Who the hell are you? You're not Aryn Stromwell..."

"I'm the man with your life in his paws that's all you need to know...now. Are we clear or do I have to kill you?"

"We're clear..." Krystal growled baring her teeth at him.

Aryn dropped her to the floor where she instantly placed a paw over the cut on her neck, "Good now get the fuck outta my sight."

Krystal wasn't sure who, or what he was but, she wasn't going to tempt fate and quickly made her way back to her room where she patched up the small cut on her neck. She wasn't sure whether or not she wanted to know how sharp that sword was, but just the pressure of it touching her skin was causing it to cut her. She was still stunned at how fast he moved, she hadn't even noticed the blade at his side before it was at her throat...this Aryn person had some sort of secret that he was trying to hid and he had completely changed who he was to keep it that way she was sure of it. After a bit of time she could feel the ship docking with the Colony...she for some reason was expecting Aryn to stop by to let her know that they were there but, she was well aware of the fact that he was most likely no longer aboard the ship, he preferred to do things on his own, maybe that was why the two didn't get along so well...she was the same way, more stubborn than she cared to admit. She didn't know why she even dared to go back but she had to inspect his study again, luckily this time he was nowhere in sight, but, the door had been locked and there was a password set for entrance. She tried other rooms of his but they'd all been set up the same way, all but the least important rooms on the entire ship, after a short time she decided that there was only one thing left to do...

She went back to her room and opened a subspace link to Peppy's office, "Hello Krystal...hopefully you have some sort of good news on your hunt." The old hare said as the link was opened.

"Not quite...you know something about this Aryn guy that you aren't telling me don't you?"

Peppy looked a bit surprised, "Don't fucking hide anything from me Peppy! He looked like he knew something about that attack on Falco and Slippy that he wasn't telling. I think you know something to...so spit it out."

Peppy sighed, "Krystal I'm afraid I have no idea what your talking about...Aryn is a well known bounty hunter, he always seems to be a bit over informed but that's just the way he is. As for the attack there's a good chance that he's already picked up some kind of a lead, he's never stayed on one case for more that five days he had an impressive track record and from what I hear he's a specialist with blades...that is all the information I have."

"Then I need either you or Slippy one to get some information for me...I want to know everything you can tell me about someone named Drayvn Dark."

"Aren't you being a bit obsessive here Krystal?" Peppy asked.

"Have I ever been wrong on this sort of thing before...? My gut doesn't lie and it's telling me that there is something seriously off about this guy you've got me working with."

"Alright Krystal I get your point...I'll look into it, just calm down and try not to piss him off too much, he did kill his last partner. Well actually he stranded him on a deserted planet but still...he isn't the kind of person to fuck with."

"Yeah I caught that..." Krystal replied rubbing her neck, "Anyhow see what you can come up with and call me back. I gotta go find this Nex guy's place..."

Krystal pulled her staff which she'd some time ago modified into a spear after swearing never to use magic again for reasons that she didn't care to think of anymore, her past after the Star Fox team had become less than a happy life. She'd done things she was not proud of and was forced to do things that she would never have even considered in her wildest dreams. She blamed a small portion of it on Fox but, deep down she was well aware of who's fault it was, she was told more than once to stay away from Wolf and his gang but, her pride got in her way again...and cost her dearly. She had transformed her staff into a spear for the soul purpose that she had become a bounty hunter...to kill Wolf and his team for what they'd done. Krystal made sure she was wearing her favorite vest, a dark red sleeveless flight jacket over her black tee shirt, the spear she carried was strapped to the opposite thigh of her blaster in a similar holster, she had made it a habit of carrying several different weapons on her at all times, and was well aware of how to use each and every one of them with deadly precision...her new name Kursed was given to her by the bounties she hunted as they claimed anyone who was marked as her target was cursed to either be captured or killed by at her paws. It was a flattering statement the first time she'd heard it but, after so long it simply reminded her that she'd become little less than a common killer. It wasn't long before she found her way out into the open yet seemingly toxic air of the Xenass Colony, the place was worse off than most places in any situation. The buildings where trashed, calling the state of the small town before her poor would have been a terrible and gross understatement, the air was filled with a thick layer of smog from the ritzier places on the surface of the place where living was a luxury., the smell could be compared to rotting garbage that had been sitting in a stagnant pool of waste for several months, and the small half standing buildings looked as tough most of the wood and metal structures could collapses at a moment's whim. As she walked into the small laughably under cared for city, she noticed that the streets were mostly bare of anything other than the random refuse or body of some drunken animal trying to drown away whatever problems this place had forced upon him...the place had a way of making someone feel alone...

-000-

Aryn nearly choked as he walked into the small bar, an all too familiar smell wafted through the air; a putrid fragrance that came from years of drunken morons wasting themselves away for no good reason. The smell reminded him of the not so often times he had to empty the sewage tanks on his ship, it was revolting, just the thought of these people sitting here in this smell disgusted him. There was not much action for the bar apparently, not usually before 6 o'clock, that was when the real whack jobs came out in the Xenass colony; here was a place that Aryn was sad to say he'd seen 'em of all calibers; rapists, psychos, high end believers, hookers, murderers, you name it you could find it at the Xenass Colony, here in the slums, if you were lucky enough to not be mugged, you could find just about any drug or illegal activity possible for the right price. The tiny bar that stood before Aryn had it's own shady side, but, at least it's owner had his good side about what he did there. Some of the slum's local whores were roughed up by some gang of assholes, Nex put a stop to that by allowing the girls to stay in his bar and use the upstairs like their own personal brothel...in any case it was better than the streets...Aryn saw it more as Nex being some sort of glorified pimp rather than a bartender, then again maybe he was wrong...for as long as he'd known Nex the lizard had never once asked the girls for any money, in fact several of the girls had gone strait since working there and began being waitresses instead. The bar only consisted of about ten small four man tables, two could hold up to 8, both had full poker games going, there was a thick layer of cigar smoke that clung to the air, Aryn took a seat and was soon greeted by a familiar face. A young pink furred bunny...

"Hey Aryn...you haven't been by in a while. You need to see Nex?" She asked setting a small glass in front of him.

Aryn looked at the glass...

"I saw you come in...figured you might want a drink while you waited for Nex to finish in back. It's your usual..."

Aryn chuckled to himself. She was always such a nice kid, he was actually happy she wasn't involved in the same acts as the other girls, "Thank you Roxy...say you haven't seen this guy in here have you?" He asked handing the bunny a small digital imager.

The device looked like a small L shaped piece of plastic but as Roxy pressed a small button a holographic image appeared below it like a small photo instantly coming out of the device, it showed a profile of Fox McCloud...

"I never forget a face...he was in here two days ago." She replied handing him the imager, "Ordered a bottle of scotch and roughed a few of our customers up pretty bad. Some of the "peacekeepers"..." She said making air quotes at the word peacekeepers, "...tried to stop him when he headed for the docks but, they didn't handle him any better than our customers did."

"Alright then...you should probably get back to work then."

"No problem...see ya around Aryn."

Aryn sat by for a bit longer quietly sipping the drink that Roxy had brought him until he noticed a familiar figure approaching him; he was a bit tall for his kind, dressed in a pair of old blue jeans and a white tee shirt covered by a white bartender's apron, his body covered in a thing layer of light emerald colored scales, his arms and chest were thick with muscle despite being rather thin to boot, his build paled in comparison to Aryn's, as he sat down bringing his face form the cloud of smoke that layered the upper portion of the room's atmosphere, the iguana had a short, squared snout, his eyes a clear refection of the color of his scales, the frills that ran along the top of his head hung to one side like some sort of punker hairstyle, a toothpick hung from the corner of his mouth...

"I take it yer in here for the one that kicked those two wolf's asses a few days ago?" Nex asked.

"You got anything?"

Nex slid a small brown folder across the table, "Look I left the group because I wanted people to forget about me alright? You need to find a new info man."

"Would you have said that to him too..."

"That's not the point Eric and Emilia are both dead...when the fuck are you just gonna accept that?" Nex started to raise his voice.

Aryn practically jumped from his seat pulling the reptile to his eye level. "Not one day sooner than the day I get my paws around Mashif's neck."

After a few moments a paw fell onto Aryn's shoulder, "Hey...hic...asshole. You're that fuck that put my brother in prison." The black cat behind him said in a drunken stupor.

"You got 5 seconds to move that paw before I take it off pal."

Aryn gave the cat much more that 5 seconds, but, the cat persisted and pulled on Aryn's shoulder in an obvious attempt to make the fox face him, but, before anyone watching could notice the motion Aryn was facing the door again sliding his sword back into it's sheath leaving the cat screaming in pain as his severed paw landed on the table next to the green scaled bartender. Aryn didn't even bother apologizing to Nex, it wasn't in his nature to apologize for anything, besides he'd given the feline a fair warning. He had what he'd come for Nex had been gathering all the information that he could find on the rouge hero for the days that Aryn's ship had been on it's way to the Colony, and there was nobody better at gathering information than Nex. Aryn wiped a spot of blood form his face and headed back toward his ship, a bit curious as to why Krystal had never showed up at the bar, then again maybe she never left the ship after the way Aryn had been, but, she'd stuck her nose where it didn't belong. It was as Aryn walked by an alley that something familiar looking caught his eye, it was a long golden colored staff with a long chrome blade protruding from a small round headpiece which housed a red stone. He picked up the spear and examined it closely, he'd seen Krystal bring something of the like on board his ship, with a slight sigh Aryn began to walk into the darkened alleyway with the spear in one paw and his own sword in the other; the alley had a foul smell like the rest of the slums, stagnant dumpsters filled with god only knows what lined the walls of the nearby buildings, an overhead light flickered off and on rapidly, from low power or perhaps the bulb itself was going out he couldn't tell. The darkness of the alley seemed like home to Aryn, it reminded him of his ship's halls, simply with a bit of a different smell about it. As he furthered himself into the alley the entrance he'd come through vanished from sight leaving only the darkness to embrace him. There was a familiar smell that he'd picked up besides the rotting trash and as he filtered through the different horrid smells that wafted through the air the smell of blueberries hit him, he knew the scent from his ship from any time Krystal was nearby. The rather pleasant smell led him to a single metal door with a sliding view slot at about eye level. He gently rapped the scabbard of his sword against the metal producing a low hollow echo...after a few moments the slot opened reveling a pair of brown eyes...

"The hell do you want?!" The animal demanded.

Aryn held up the spear, "Just returning lost goods."

The animal froze at the sight of the spear but could do nothing as the blade pierced his forehead, Aryn released his end of the weapon allowing the body to fall to the floor pulling the shaft through the small viewing window. Aryn attempted to pull the door open only to realized he never got the guard to open it, but with a quick motion of his blade the door fell from it's hinges dashed into four large pieces, the racked that it all caused was sure to make things here interesting. As he sheathed his sword Aryn freed the spear from the poor raccoon's forehead causing a small spurt of blood to shoot out as it gushed a mixture of gray and red matter. It was easy enough finding his way through the building, it felt like some sort of fucked up night club, he could hear a scream from a short ways away and simply followed the echo of whoever's voice it was. As he made his way through the building's halls an unknown brown furred Manx rushed him with a large knife, but without so much as breaking his stride Aryn spun to one side planting his boot into the side of the cat's face driving the side of his head into the nearby wall resulting in a large spurt of red that splattered from the side of the animal's face to cover the wall. Aryn shook his head in shame as he walked on, gang member, or whoever these people were knew nothing about fighting properly, they rush in blindly not even trying to calculate any aggressive reaction that their target might have which was what had just led to the Manx's rather painful death. The animals seemed to come at him in small numbers, most of them being dealt with by his feet and the spear that he carried, but, at some point they stopped coming altogether. At the very end of the hall Aryn walked through a small door that led into a very large room, it was most likely used as storage for some sort of company at one point, there were small stacks of boxes everywhere, but there were also ruined sofas and what seemed like burning barrels about the room, the walls were covered in graffiti. Sure enough however there was one person, a dark red feathered avian sitting in an old recliner, a blue furred vixen stood against a nearby squared pillar, most of her uniform was ripped and torn, and she was bleeding from her nose as well as several other places about her face...

"I don't know what you're here for friend...but this is private property and you're trespass'n." The avian said causing a large group of animal to surround Aryn in a circle.

Aryn looked over both shoulders then back to the gang's leader, "Ten on one...doesn't seem fair." Aryn said with a grin dropping the spear and his sword, "Tell you all what, I'll do this with my paws." He said laying his paws at his sides.

Two of the animals, a fox and wolf rushed in on Aryn from two sides, in a similar motion from before his foot dragged the wolf to the ground by the side of his head, and as the fox made his way close enough a single punch from Aryn shattered the animal's windpipe instantly dragging him to the ground where the fox struggled to breath for a few moments before collapsing to the ground from the suffocation, Aryn locked his heels on either side of the half conscious wolf's neck and twisted his hips resulting in a loud snap that sounded through the room. Aryn couldn't help but to smile as he made eye contact with the red bird again...his only love in life was fighting, and it had been far to long since the last time he'd gotten to do so. Another rushed in at him trowing what could have been a powerful punch, but Aryn quickly side stepped him leaping into the air and driving a solid kick to the back of the animal's neck, he'd never walk again. Two more rushed in from either side this time, the first within striking distance was a black leopard Aryn stepped to one side driving a powerful kick into the feline's shins which sent him into a dangerous flip through the air landing him on the back of his head, from this position Aryn spun about sweeping another's feet out from under him and driving a bone shattering punch into the airborne animal's chest sending him several feet across the room. The next two seemed to reach him all at once, but the numbers didn't help, he managed to catch them both under by the wrists spinning them both counterclockwise locking their heads under his arms and with a sharp upward tug snapped both of their necks with little effort. As he released the two lifeless bodies he now noticed the tree that were left were all brandishing weapons of a crude nature, an echidna spun a thick chain about the air, an otter seemed to have found some sort of pipe, and the supposedly smartest one seemed to be the hare that had at one point picked up Krystal's spear. The echidna rushed in ready to swipe the thick chain in his paws at Aryn's face but and unseen black object struck him in the gut forcing him to stop in place, and seemingly from nowhere Aryn appeared beside him, the blade of his sword piercing the animals neck, to any watching the move would have been completely overlooked, Aryn had propped his sheathed sword onto the toe of his boot and with a swift motion used his other foot to throw the scabbard freely into the animal's stomach stunning him for the split second it took for Aryn to attack. Aryn quickly pulled his sword free of the animal who surprisingly staggered about a bit making a horrible sound as his screams were choked out by his own blood flooding his vocal cords, as he staggered about the hare holding Krystal's spear rushed in at Aryn hoping his attention to their dying friend would be enough to get in a killing shot, the hare thrust the spear forward at Aryn's back but, the black fox strafed the blow and swung his blade at the rabbit's head which was to his surprised ducked and in his instant of shock Aryn could feel the tip of the spear slide across his chest leaving a trail of blood as it tore his shirt open, the poor rabbit tried again to stab the fox but, this time Aryn took the weapon by the shaft and pulled the hare forward his next slash sending the animal's severed head through the air as his body finished a last step before falling to the ground in a pool of it's own blood...the otter that had seen all of this suddenly froze as Aryn's gaze finally met him, the otter dropped his pipe and ran for the door but the flying blade of a thrown sword pierced the back of his skull pinning him to the very door he intended to use to escape the carnage. Aryn's attention now went back to the avian leader of this small group...

"That was uniquely impressive..." The bird said holding a small knife to Krystal's throat, "...but, this is my den. Anything and anyone that comes here belongs to me."

Aryn chuckled a bit, "Really now...I'm thinking maybe mommy and daddy didn't give someone enough attention." He said in a mocking tone.

"You really want this bitch dead that bad?!" The bird yelled.

"What makes you think I'm here for her? I was just looking for a fight."

The avian pulled the knife away from Krystal's throat for a moment, and pointed it at Aryn, but as soon as he attempted to say something a blue foot struck him in the side of the face causing him to fall forward, he'd not even noticed that Krystal had even come to, before the avian could get up somehow Krystal managed to force the ropes off that held her wrists above her head. There was a moment that the avian looked to her but, the vixen's foot landed against his jaw cracking his beak causing him to scream in pain, the bird rolled over onto his side but the angered vixen kicked him in the ribs rolling him onto his back after pulling him a short ways into the air, Aryn was actually enjoying watching this happen, he'd never known Krystal had this kind of an aggressive side to her, it really did surprise him, plus her kicks seemed to really hurt the avian pretty badly. She kicked the bird in the ribs and gut several more times until he tried to crawl away exposing parts of his anatomy that he really shouldn't have. As soon as his crotch was open Krystal took a running start swinging her foot into the animals manhood with enough force to lift him end over end landing him on his back. Aryn nearly laughed, every female he'd ever seen fight a male had always gone there for some reason. Krystal held an arm across her ribs, apparently whatever beating had taken place to put her in her current state had done some damage to her ribs, which was now becoming obvious now that her adrenalin was wearing off. She managed to walk over to Aryn's side and retrieve her spear without saying a word, she collapsed her weapon and placed it back where it belonged in it's holster...she still said nothing as she limped to the door where the otter was still pinned by Aryn's sword and just as if the incident had never happened limped out of the room. Aryn retrieved his sword from the otter's skull and cleaned the blade of the thick mess of blood that covered it before putting it back in it's scabbard. Aryn left the room, not many survived but those that did would hopefully learn a lesson...Aryn could care less whether they did or didn't he had what he needed from this place, and was happy that it was time to leave...

AN: Well that's another chapter off of that...and with the size of Chains of Fate, god only knows how long I'll pan this one out for...HEHEHE, who knows how many chapters it could be, I sure as hell don't I write most of this stuff on a whim so...meh. Anyhow R&R and I'll try to post the next one soon. Thanx for all the support everyone...

PS: This story has nothing to do with any other fics I have written in the past...any characters from other fics are only here because I like to use my OCs more than a lot.

The footsteps in the darkness- SkullFox