Chapter 7

(July 16th)

(11:45am)

Zarr next to it, even Xenass wasn't so bad. Humid, dry, a practical wasteland...the planet's desert environment gave little space to support life but for some reason people actually lived there. Water in Zarr was a rare commodity, the city they were in at the moment possessed one of the only regional wells in the entire area making it a center of commerce and trade on the planet, small gang wars were known to be held in attempts to steal possession of these wells but, thanks to the thick number of mercenaries that often came here for work most of them ended up dead. For anyone with Fox's history that needed quick cash this was definitely the place to go. As soon as the two stepped out off of the ship, Krystal looked around and wiped her forehead, she was already sweating, she could see why Aryn was only wearing a tank top and a pair of long jean shorts, oddly enough the only weapon she could ever see on him was that damned sword. She had luckily been here before however on a job hunting down some rat...literally, and learned about the place's unfriendly environment, thus she was accordingly dressed in a pair of shorts a bit shorter than Aryn's as his hung below his knees and hers just above, and she as well wore a tank top, she however carried her spear and blaster as usual. Aryn had NAV scan the entire area and to his mild joy, they found themselves standing before the ship they had set out to find; it was a small, simple transport, most likely stolen. It's wings were short and stubby compared to the wings on most ships, coming straight out and angling downward a bit near their tips, the cockpit looked as though it could only support space for two or three, and accept for the nose of the craft which came to a small squared off point, it's frame looked mostly rectangular...

Aryn smirked at the ship, "Your boyfriend has shitty taste in ships."

"He's NOT my boyfriend." Krystal growled baring her teeth at Aryn's words.

"Humph...Looks like he ain't here anyhow..." The black fox said, "You wait here and hide so he doesn't see you...call my communicator if you spot him." He said walking off.

"Where the fuck are you going?" Krystal demanded.

"The nearest bar I can find."

"Isn't it a little early for you to start drinking?" Krystal asked.

"Actually there was never a better time for a drink."

The town outside of the large star port was nothing impressive by modern day standards, most of the buildings were worn and made of wood or brick nothing like the massive metal monstrosities on Corneria. There were few people on the dry arid streets, and the sand was kicked up by the passing wind which made the environment even drier...Aryn knew a lot about these places, and in humidity like this a bar where drinks were plentiful was the most likely place to find just about anybody in such a shit hole of a town. Aryn had taken several jobs in this town before, mainly to clear out the morons that thought they could control the water wells, mainly gang members without a clue about what they were doing, a bunch of lowlifes that were out to make quick money. The local bar was run by a tiger named Tajra...she was a bit quiet for someone running a business but, for the most part she kept some stable jobs for Aryn whenever he'd come by. The streets led Aryn to the furthest end of town where, the small building stood; he had to hand it to Tajra she really did take care of her place, the building showed almost no signs of the wear and tear of the other buildings about the town, it's walls were painted a light green but the desert's sandstorms had worn away most of the paint. The doors were oddly enough the old saloon doors which hung at about the middle of the door frame. This place was nothing like the bar Nex ran on the Xenass Colony, there were of course unpleasant smells as came with most bars. Unlike most of the places that Aryn would enter nobody really bothered to even look away from their drinks. The place was packed as usual, and as Aryn found a seat he noticed everyone's attention turning toward the door where he found a certain blue vixen approaching his table...

"You know with you here he could get away." Aryn pointed out.

Krystal sat at the other side of the table, "Not without this he can't." She said rolling a small ship piece across the table, "It's the drive module to his port side thrusters. No leaving here without his engines."

Aryn scoffed at the idea, "Maybe...unless your boyfriend can just take one from another ship."

"He's not..."

"I get the point." Aryn interrupted her.

"Anyhow...it's an older ship, the modules won't match. Not unless he can find another piece of shit like that around here."

"This place is a piece of shit." Aryn replied turning his attention to the orange and black striped tiger standing at the table.

"Hey Taj..." Krystal quickly said.

"Hello Kursed...after someone else today? You haven't been around. You gonna stay for a drink this time?" The tiger asked.

"Just give me whatever he's having..."

Aryn looked to the tiger, "The usual...but fist..." He said handing Tajra a small photo, "Seen him in here recently?"

Their host scoffed tossing the small profile photo of Fox to the table, "Yeah he was in here...yesterday. Asked a few questions about Black Side Alley had a drink and left."

"Why would he want to know about that hell hole?" Aryn asked more to himself than to anyone else.

Tajra shrugged her shoulders, "Search me...let me go and get those drinks."

Krystal decided to wait until the tiger was gone, "What's Black Side Alley? I usually don't stick around this town long enough to learn anything other than what I needed on a mark."

Aryn stretched his neck from side to side, "It's a valley about 100 kilometers east of here. Nobody goes there anymore."

"Why?"

"The Raiders that's why..." Tajra said appearing with two glasses of clear liquid which she set in front of the two foxes, "They're a pretty big gang that calls an old ghost town in that valley home...Aryn here has had a job or two..."

"Three..." Aryn added taking a sip from his drink.

"Well then three." Tajra said rolling her light yellow eyes at the vulpine's interruption, "Anyhow he's done several jobs keeping the creeps away from the town's well. They keep trying to take it over, for some reason the guy in that photo asked about this...he seemed to find it interesting, especially wanted to know all he could get on their leader. Nobody's ever seen him but rumor says he's a big fella named Raven."

Krystal noticed that Aryn's ears twitched a bit at the sound of the word...she could tell something was already working through that mind of his...

"For the longest time we haven't seen hide or hair of any of those bandits but, none of us are complaining."

Aryn took another sip of his drink, "You should...there are two of the lousy fuckers in here right now...most likely waiting for me to get here, they haven't stopped staring at me since I came in here." The black vupine said tilting his head toward a table in the corner of the bar.

Sitting there were two shady looking figures; a gray furred feline missing an arm with a terrible looking scar across the side of his face, and a red furred echidna with an equal injury as well as a missing eye. Krystal looked back to Aryn, there was no doubt that their current appearance was thanks to him some time ago...

"They ran..." The dark fox said answering an unasked question.

"What the hell are they waiting for?" Krystal asked,

"Us to leave the bar...most likely wondering what they're gonna do with you once they're done with me."

As Krystal thought about it she took a sip of her drink nearly spitting it out in surprise before swallowing it, "It's fucking water."

"You'd best drink it...a body can dehydrate really fast out here. Alcohol would only make matters worse, speed up the process, so they only serve water here."

"So then what do we do?" Krystal asked looking to Tajra who had walked back to the bar.

"I'm gonna finish this drink..." Aryn replied, "Then step out that door and as soon as they follow me we won't have a problem anymore, because they won't live long enough to think about the mistake of following me."

Aryn did just as he'd said, he finished the glass of water, picked his sword up off the table, and headed out of the bar...and as he'd predicted the two followed him. There were no sounds at all as the two left the bar, not for the kind of commotion that Aryn had talked of before leaving. Krystal finished her drink and thanked Tajra before leaving the bar. It had been completely silent, the gray cat lay in the street a deep gash spilling his insides onto the dusty road, a nearby set of tracks gave her the impression that someone was dragged through the dirt...Krystal quickly followed the trail to a small shack on the far end of the town where she could hear the sounds of Aryn's voice. Upon entering the small building she found the echidna as well as her missing partner. The red furred echidna was unconscious with Aryn's sword pinning him by the shoulder to the wall of the wooden shack. It looked to Krystal like some sort of storage area, compared to the outside the tiny place was pleasantly cool, Aryn was sitting on a wooden storage barrel with another glass of water in his paw...

"Where the hell did you learn how to use that thing?" Krystal asked, it was absurd how fast he could attack someone with it even sheathed.

Aryn let out a light fit of laughter, "Samurai movies..." He answered with a smile.

Krystal rolled her eyes at his immaturity, he'd rather make jokes than tell her the truth, "Do you take anything seriously?"

Aryn simply looked at her and placed his index finger over his lips before looking back to the wounded and trapped animal pinned to the wall, "My work..."

It was at least an hour before the echidna finally woke up, only to recoil at the sight of Aryn's face...

"Look who's finally awake?" Aryn said with a smug grin, "We can finally get started."

"You might as well kill me..." The echidna said, "Cuz I ain't tell'n you shit."

Aryn chuckled, "It's a good thing I don't wanna hear 'shit' then huh? Have you seen this fox?" He asked holding up the photo of Fox.

"Fuck you..." The beaten echidna answered.

Aryn shook his head lightly, "I seriously doubt you're my type. Now...I'm gonna ask one more time before you start begging me to kill you." The black fox replied, "Have...you...seen...him?"

The animal remained silent as Krystal walked by and took a seat somewhere behind Aryn...

"Hmmm..." Aryn hummed stretching his neck, "I see you're going to make me be an ass about this aren't you? Check this out. You know who my favorite people are?" Aryn asked not expecting an answer, "The Drogan from Aetheria, you see they're really peaceful animals being dragons but, when you piss one off you learn about their..." Aryn searched for the words, "Gruesome side. They developed this form of torture that was said to be absolutely effective in every way to deal with; spies, outsiders, thieves especially...they really hate thieves. You see what they'd do is they'd take your hand like so..." Aryn said pulling the animal's hand toward him forcing all but one finger into a balled fist, "Then they'd ask you the question again. Have you seen the fox in the photo?"

This time when there was no answer the dark furred vulpine placed the animal's finger in him mouth and bit down until the creature's hand fell free of his jaws with a bloody nub where there was once a pinky finger. This caused the echidna to let out a scream of pain that hurt Krystal's ears. As soon as his screams died down Aryn turned his head to the side and spit the dismembered digit onto the wooden floorboards of the shack along with a large clump of blood, he spit a few more times clearing the blood from his mouth then wiped a trail of blood from his lip on the back of his paw...

"See..." Aryn said stopping to spit out more blood, "...they always started with the fingers...easier to bite through. Now I could stop there and let you talk but, you aren't going to do that are you? But, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and let you make up your mind for yourself. You wanna tell us what we need to know? Or, do I move on to the next finger?"

Though his paw was shaking madly from the shock of loosing his finger in such a violent manner the echidna managed to raise his middle finger up toward Aryn's face, causing Krystal to laugh a bit, before Aryn snatched the echidna's paw in it's current position...

"Well that's the last time you're ever gonna do that." He quickly said using his jaws to bite off, issuing another ear shattering scream from the animal's lips.

"Look..." Aryn said after spitting the next finger over near the last one, "I'd really rather not do this. You're screaming is hurting my ears, and you taste perfectly foul. So why not just tell me what I need to know and it can stop hurting."

This time the animal crossed the line however as he spit in Aryn's face. Aryn leapt up with his paw at the animal's neck his claws clearly dug into his flesh ready to tear out whatever he could catch in his grasp...

"Is your leader's name Raven?" He so low that Krystal was barely able to hear the word 'leader'.

Something Aryn had done caused the animal to release an even louder scream than before, "YES!" He finally screamed.

Aryn quickly ripped his sword free from the mutilated animal's shoulder, and wiped it clean of all traces of blood before sliding it slowly back into it's scabbard. He paid no mind to either Krystal or the now unconscious animal that lay on the floor before leaving the building. Krystal of course rushed out to follow him as Aryn was headed toward the docking station that they'd landed in. As she caught up to him Aryn was paying an animal with a small roll of cash before climbing onto a nearby hover bike. He began to take off before the blue vixen stepped in front of him placing her paws on the front of the vehicle...

"Where the fuck are you going in such a hurry!?" She demanded.

"Nowhere..." Aryn said starting the bike up, "...now get your ass out of my way before I go through it."

"What is the deal with you?" Krystal half yelled over the bike's engine.

Aryn waited until she was out of the way, "It's personal." He weakly said before the bike shot off toward the horizon, leaving nothing behind but a large cloud of dust as the bike tore over the land it's sheer speed kicking all of the sand up from beneath it.

In a fit of anger Krystal turned to face the cat that had rented Aryn the bike, "How much?" She demanded.

"50 credits an hour..."

Krystal pulled several bills from her pocket and tossed them at the feline before hopping onto another of the horribly under maintained crafts and tearing through the town's main street hot on the black fox's tail. He knew something that he wasn't saying and it had everything to do with their mission...and she was going to learn what it was if she had to beat it out of him herself...

A/N: Hey all...Chapter 7 is up. I'm hoping that this thing doesn't drag out too long but, hey it could be a pretty long fic even thought I'm gonna try to keep this one under 30 chapters...then again I was also gonna do that with Chains of Fate and look what happened there. sigh well, anyone who's reading both chapter fourty...uh...8? No 2 chapter 42 of Chains of Fate should be up and posted soon enough.

R&R and hope you enjoy it...like always thanks for the tons of support you guys all kick ass...

The footsteps in the darkness- SkullFox