Chapter 8

(July 16th)

(3:22pm)

Aryn's mind was focused on the task of crossing the planet's desert landscape in order to get to Black Side Alley, which lingered far off in the distance. The harsh wind dried his nose and the sand picked up from the bike that sped across the desert land assaulted his flesh with small abrasions and cuts. The heat was near unbearable but, not to him, he hadn't even noticed the sweltering heat as his mind was perfectly focused on that one name that Tajra had mentioned...Raven. His teeth grit together at the sheer thought of that name causing his jaw to hurt, even if it had to be one at a time and years apart, he'd find them all. As his bike flew through the open desert his thoughts went back to that fist day, the day he heard the truth...

(Flashback)

(5 years ago)

Drayvn had searched hidden for years, taking over the name of an old friend while finding refuge on his brother, Eric's supply transport, the largest ship the fox had ever seen. Eric had his doubts but, he knew that his brother was incapable of the crimes that he was being framed for...the poor animal was caged down in that stronghold for 8 years...they had attempted to simply leave him there and cover everything up as if it had never taken place. Drayvn and Eric had gone back to the two lover's apartment once but, they found that all evidence of a crime at all had been wiped clean and new tenants were set to move into the room. Eric had noticed a change in his little brother, he seemed to spend all of his spare time in training, something Eric had tried to get him to take more seriously before, and for one that was once so talkative the vulpine now often went days or even weeks at a time without saying a word. One day Eric found his brother in the docking bay readying one of his wolfens for take off...

"And where the hell are you going?" Eric asked.

"Papetoon...someone there has the answers I need."

"Drayvn this isn't healthy. You know as well as I do the last thing Emm would have wanted would be for you to be obsessing like this." His brother said, "I can understand how you feel..."

Drayvn turned pushing his brother away, "DON'T you fucking dare." He growled, "You can't even begin to understand what it's like. You chose the life of the loner a long time ago when Beth left you."

"Drayvn...I'm not trying to stop you." Eric said in a caring tone, "But whatever you're going through...know that you're not alone."

The younger sibling turned his head to the wolfen, "I'll always be alone."

(2 days later)

Everyone was convinced when they heard that general Pepper had died during the Aparoid invasion, but Drayvn had found out the truth. The military learned about the black fox's escape from their little prison and had taken the old hound to a place they would have thought he would be safe...his old home town, the last place in Lylat that anyone would look for him...retirement. They even changed the old dog's name but, that didn't help after the things that Emilia had taught her lover about information gathering. Drayvn sat on a small cliff overlooking a small community of condos on the southern Papetoon City beach. The one house he watched was a small cabin, well made, well taken care of, with a freshly manicured lawn, light blue walls and a red shingled roof, with large glass doors that opened into a patio that gave any sitting there a marvelous view of the ocean. As the sun set over the horizon seeming to set the sea on fire as the entire horizon took on a red glow for the last few moments of sunset, the young fox leaped from his stoop. Home security...hah...the house's alarms were easily disarmed for someone with his brand of training, after all even before Black Star his job was being silent and entering a place without notice. The old hound was seated in his living room on a small recliner with what looked like a small glass of vodka in his paw...

"Hello Drayvn..." His old voice cracked as the fox silently made his way behind him, "I knew that it was only a matter of time before you found me here. The information you want is in the profile on the counter behind you, the names and profiles of the four that took part in Emilia's death..." Pepper said setting down the glass, "...but I guess you've come here for more than that haven't you?"

"Good guess." Drayvn's voice cracked, "You ruined my life, and worse yet you took my child's life before it ever had a chance to defend itself, you deserve worse than death."

"Do you really think that it has set so easily on my conscience...knowing that my command caused the death of your wife and child?"

Drayvn stepped closer looming over the old hound, "Life of luxury...is that what you're promised? The money? Was that reason enough to have Emm killed? Or did you do it to protect your fucking weapons and your own ass form the council? If you hadn't used me as a decoy after the Aparoid attack they would have found out about your little freak show, huh? That's why you framed me...they were getting too close to Black Star so you set all this up. If my kid would have been born your whole little secret would have gotten out, and you'd have been banished to that shit hole Venom just like your old friend Andross..."

"I see Emilia taught you a great deal about following clues."

"She taught me everything..."

The old dog took another drink from the small glass, "I...am truly sorry Drayvn."

Drayvn cracked his knuckles, "You should be."

There was no pleasure for Drayvn killing the old man...it was just something that he'd convinced himself he had to do, everyone that had something to do with Emilia's death would pay on a far greater scale for everything they'd taken from him. As the fox left the building wiping the blood from his paws he looked to the contents of the folder in his paws and was applauded by what he saw; Rose, Raven, Mashif...his eyes teared over at the sight of the last profile in the folder however, he'd have never thought it possible but the proof was right before his eyes...

Ghost Unit: Eric G. Dark

(End Flashback)

Aryn shook the memories from his head before giving the bike beneath him all the throttle it could muster jolting forward in a violent burst of speed and dust. As his bike sped through the desert at wreck less speeds he never noticed that far in the distance another trail of dust could be seen tearing through the desert in his direction. The valley split between two large cliffs making a large round basin where the old ghost town was, it's location was perfect though as the high walls of the canyon like cliffs gave the place shade at almost every hour of the day...Aryn brought his vehicle to a stop some ways away from the cliffs where there was a small nook to hide the compact vehicle in. He made his way to a bit of high land on a small ridge about 30 feet above the town where he sat with a small set of binoculars scanning the area until something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He knew she wasn't going to listen to him but, he had hoped that Krystal wouldn't get in his way. Aryn was down the side of the hill in her path before she could even make it to the mouth of the valley causing her to pull the bike to a fast stop, Aryn sighed in annoyance and showed her where to hide the bike before she followed him back up to the ridge he'd been spying from...

"What is your problem running off and leaving me there like that?" She asked as she knelt beside him, only to have his free paw snatch her muzzle shut.

"Shut...the fuck...up. Unless you wanna get us both killed." He demanded pushing her face back away.

"Alright..." She replied in a much lower voice.

As Krystal looked out over the small, near dilapidated town she noticed that there was one larger building near the back that seemed a bit better taken care of than the rest of them. As she studied the area Aryn waved his paw signaling for her to come over and handed her the binoculars pointing to a small building where two animals were standing talking with one another...

"He look familiar to you?"

As soon as her eyes locked onto the reddish-brown furred fox even from behind she knew it was him, "That's Fox..."

"I need to get closer to find out how many there are in the town..."

Krystal held up a paw. "53...not counting the 15 in the large building and Fox."

Aryn scoffed at the smart ass telepath, "At least you're good for something." He said moving back down the hillside, "This time....stay here, I can't do this and babysit you at the same time."

Krystal's expression developed a murderous glare as she watched the black vulpine as he headed down the side of the cliff where he slowly vanished from sight. Heading toward the small town, she couldn't believe what he'd just said...babysit? Who the fuck did he think he was? Treating her like a new born kit...he had treated her like shit before, but she thought that after they had gotten along on board the ship that his attitude had changed somewhat, but now as far as she cared the bastard could go out and get himself killed. She knew Fox was innocent and therefor had to talk to him, whether they had a shaky past or not. Aryn found himself in a situation that reminded him far too much of his time in the military...before Black Star, when him and his team's only mission was to eliminate their target without being discovered. Almost by instinct the fox fell into the shadows moving between the canyon walls and the buildings that surrounded the small valley floor, unfortunately this was nothing like his time in the military his mission was not to kill but, to bring Fox in alive. Which posed a bit of a problem, there were animals stationed all over the small town, his trained eyes caught small glimpses of them as they hid behind windows and in the shadows, waiting for someone stupid enough to trespass on their turf. This would make it exceedingly difficult to get past them, especially if he found himself having to pull Fox out of the town by the fur of his tail.

It was as the still unseen fox moved against the back side of a building slinking through the shadows, out of the view of any that could or would see him. He noticed something up ahead, he had no idea how she'd beaten him there but, at the far end of the next building he could see Krystal's backside as her head was slightly peeking around the corner. He crept up behind the blue spy and before she could make a sound she found herself pinned to the wall of the building with a powerful paw holding her mouth shut...

"What the fuck is wrong with you?!" He had to try his hardest not to yell, "I'm not here to get myself killed because of your little crush on lover boy out there."

"Let go!" Krystal growled as her fist caused Aryn to stumble back a few steps, "I am sick and tired of you and your fucking bullshit!"

"Keep your fucking voice down..." Aryn warned the raving vixen.

"Fuck yo..."

Before Krystal could finish her sentence she found herself in the same powerful grip as before this time with the incredibly sharp blade of Aryn's sword to her throat, "I said keep you voice down, or I'll fucking cut it out. I won't be caught and killed in a place like this, just because of some stubborn little vixen that doesn't even know when orders are for her own fucking good..."

As soon as the blade left it's position Krystal's right paw drug it's small claws against the side of his face, causing Aryn to stumble back with his own paw on his cheek. As he moved his paw he looked at his bloody palm for a moment, "No wonder why he left you." He retorted the strike in a cold tone.

Those words were far worse than any insult he could have possibly thought up, to assure her than he had left her on Kew on purpose just because she was too unbearable to deal with. She tried to reply, in any way, but those words were the worst thing anyone had ever said to her, amongst all the lies, the rumors, and the hated curses...that one little sentence hurt more than anything the animals of Lylat could have ever thought to say. As her hurt filled eyes filled with tears Aryn could see that he'd crossed a very thin emotional line, there was no telling what kind of damage he might have done...and in his hardened state of awareness it was hard to care. It seemed as if she'd stopped breathing as she looked at him with sheer disbelief that he'd even said such a thing, and as her mouth opened she took in a shallow stuttering breath, the kind that let you know that you'd just stricken someone's heart with the worst type of injury. As her tears began to fall she knocked the horrible animal out of her way and rushed off toward the bikes they'd left hidden, she had completely forgotten about Fox, at that point she simply wanted to disappear from the face of the world. Aryn couldn't tell why but, something about her eyes at that point of realization at what he had said reminded him so much of Emilia that it hurt. He really hadn't meant to say such a thing but, the words just came, he knew all too well what it was like to doubt yourself. With a heavy sigh the black fox looked back toward the fox standing by the large building; who was soon joined by three familiar looking forms and one unfamiliar...a black avian wearing a red shirt and blue jeans that looked like they'd seen better days, a sickly thin gray wolf who wore white jeans and a white shirt, a rather well formed vixen with fiery red fur and long matching hair, her light red shirt was covered by a white sleeveless vest and her pants were what appeared to be uncomfortably tight, and the last he had no clue about, a Drogan, thing but muscular reptile with an elongated snout, his body covered in light azure colored scales that almost matched the color of Krystal's fur, a small set of horns curved from his forehead along the top of his skull back into a long mane of flowing dark blue hair, his eyes were like all the others of his race, a bright golden hue...

"Rose? Rave? Mashif?" Aryn asked himself, "What the hell are they doing here? And who's the drogan? What the fuck is going on here?"

He tried his hardest to hear in on the conversation between the four but, at his current distance it was impossible to make out anything. He was now beginning to wish he'd not forced Krystal away. As they all sat there talking Fox's ears stood on end, and suddenly Aryn flew from his cover slamming into a pile of barrels, several of them exploding on impact, the invisible force that had thrown him with such force was already clear to him...Mashif was a telekinetic and a telepath, a powerful one. As Aryn shook the cobwebs from his head he felt something tighten around his neck, and as he looked to the ground his own shadow had a tight grasp around his neck seemingly animated of it's own free will which suddenly threw him back into the open, Raven had the ability to manipulate shadows with his mind often giving them physical solidity. Rose was perhaps the worst, a single word from her whispered into your ear and you had no choice but to do as she said, even your body would listen to her words without your brain so much as thinking about it, she was also quite a miraculous fighter. As Aryn got to his feet the vixen rushed at him, luckily he'd always been a much greater fighter, and as she threw her first punch Aryn quickly ducked the blow...unfortunately this had always been the vixen's tactic. She spun behind him grasping him about his ribs with her muzzle resting next to his ear...

"You can't move..." She whispered quickly.

Aryn should have known, but as her words sank into his skull Aryn's muscles tightened up making his entire body freeze in place like some sort of statue. His limbs began to shake violently as he tried desperately to bring himself out of her control, he'd known better than to let his guard down around Rose, she had a habit of using her power against others to take the fairness out of a fist fight. Black Star's program had left all of it's participants with abilities that categorized on some sort of psychic level. As Aryn stood there the rage buildt in his eyes which brought a hint of fear to the vixen's eyes, the last thing any of them wanted was for Aryn to give them a taste of the power the project had left him with, especially not in an environment like this. Unfortunately as they all looked on, the fox's arm lurched out and took the vixen by the throat. Aryn's face contorted into a hideous snarl as he bared his teeth at the vixen. She could feel his ability building as the paw about her neck began to heat up at exponential rate. Rose could feel the vulpine's heart rate racing fueling his power until there was a sound, like throwing a match on something covered in gasoline, and as she looked at Aryn's free paw which he rose to the vixen's face, her eyes widened as his arm from elbow down was engulfed in dancing bright red and orange flames. It was as Aryn looked to Fox that he noticed something about the vulpine's eyes, they were familiar somehow...

"Drake...now." Fox said looking to the drogan to his side.

As the reptile moved forward Aryn could feel the air about his body loosing it's humidity, no not loosing it but, rather it was condensation and gathering onto his fur in small beads of water which very rapidly began to freeze. He attempted to finish the vixen in his grasp off, but as he did so the flames died down and vanished back into his arm. Seemingly all at once he could feel the chill of ice encasing his legs, it rapidly began to climb until it was up to his crotch. He quickly dropped Rose from his grip and began to pound away at the ice that crept up his body knocking large chunks away at a time. As the ice reached his chest it finally stopped and to his dismay a small sphere of ice began to form a few feet from his face, which instantly took the form of a long sharp shard...

"No..." Fox grabbed the dragon's wrist causing the shard to fall to the ground shattering into a million tiny pieces, "No...not yet, he hasn't learned anything yet."

Fox moved closer to Aryn studying him and his current situation, "I imagine hypothermia must be a bitch. Then again; where are we if not but within winter's cold embrace?" Aryn's eyes widened and met Fox's, that quote was from 'No More Sorrow' one of Aryn's favorite books, "You know the truth don't you? Look into my eyes, you can see it clearly."

Aryn knew those eyes, they were as Krystal said not the eyes of Fox McCloud...and as the hate filled sneer on Aryn's face grew into an enraged snarl, despite his numb body, he lurched out with a blood thirsty roar at the fox's face, grasping maddeningly at the air about Fox's face, his eyes full of tears...

"There you go...you understand now don't you?" Fox said with a smile receiving no reply. Fox's paw quickly locked a tight grip around Aryn's neck, "I should kill you right now..." Fox said stopping with a smile, "but, where would be the fun in that?" He asked letting go of Aryn's neck, "Now that Raven is with us we can finally get started. Seems our guest wants to give us the cold shoulder, so let's just leave him to his problems, we have bigger matters to attend."

000

After being left there like that Aryn had finally began to loose consciousness, but as the sun rose to high noon he could feel the sun's heat on his face, a powerful desert heat. The heat had never really bothered him in any way but, his old team mates knew his weakness was the cold, if his body heat dropped to far he could not generate a combustion rate without seriously overdoing it. As he felt his stable mind slipping away he was left with no other choice, he grit his teeth and concentrated forcing all of his strength outward causing the ice to crack and finally shatter as a short burst of flames shot out all around his body, setting fire to a nearby building. It was as he staggered out of town that Aryn discovered that all of the small place's inhabitants had left, and to his unlucky happening his bike was gone. His only hopes as he began to walk toward the small town far off in the distance beyond the horizon, he kept his arms folded about his chest rubbing his shoulders in an attempt to make the numbness and cold feeling stop. His body was shaking violently, but at least he was in the best kind of place for someone with his ability to adsorb and produce heat...a desert...

It was hours later that Krystal decided to leave the ship again wiping her tears away from her eyes, she had forced herself to stop crying and realized that she needed to go back in hopes of finding Fox...but as she neared the edge of the city she could see a black form collapsed at the desert's edge, several large vulture's picking it hungrily. As she made her way over to the curious figure the birds scattered back into the air once again circling over their hopeful meal. It was as she rolled him onto his back that Krystal, began to walk away and leave him there, until she could hear his voice barely escape his exhausted lips...

"Not......McCloud......"

At that Krystal rushed to Aryn's side trying her hardest to get more information but, the black vulpine had already lost consciousness...

A/N: Okay that posed a lot more questions than answers...but I wanted to get the psychic powers out of the way so now you all know that Aryn is a Pyrokinetic and his entire team had developed powers of the like because of the experiments from Black Star. Anyhow the story should start to pick up now that most of the plot is out of the way for the time being. There will be a lot of hell to pay in further chapter I can assure you...R&R and thanks for the constant and ongoing support...my next update should actually be on Chains of Fate, I'm going to try to alterate from this to it chapter to chapter, that way they both get done I hope...Anyway thanks again and all you readers out there are awsome...

 The footsteps in the darkness- SkullFox