Chapter 10

(July 18th)

(12:36am)

Krystal was taken aback by what she'd heard, what was Aryn trying to say by telling her that Fox had his brother's eyes? It really didn't make any sense to her at all.

"Wait a second..." Krystal said, "What do you mean Fox has your brother's eyes?"

"Well..." Aryn replied, "I know those eyes from anywhere...and I can tell you without a doubt that those are Eric's eyes...not to mention he told me something that only me, Emm, and my brother knew had any significance to me. Where are we if not but within winter's cold embrace?" My favorite line from my favorite book. I watched Emilia die in my arms...and the memories of that moment drove me to killing my own brother...or at least I thought he was dead. What other explanation is there...that wasn't Fox at all, it was Eric."

"What are you going to do then?" Krystal asked, "You can't possibly expect to beat that many with that kind of power."

"Maybe you're right..." Aryn replied, "but, I can take as many with me as I can...as long as my brother pays it won't matter one way or another to me. All the sooner I get to he Emm again."

As Aryn stood up and headed out of the room he was stopped by Krystal's voice, "You know what's so sad about all of this?"

Aryn didn't answer...

"It's seeing someone that has given up on living so easily."

Aryn lowered his head with a deep sigh, "Easy enough...when you have nothing left to live for." He said in a low voice before leaving the room in silence.

It took Krystal some time yet to filter through all of the things that she'd heard, no wonder why Aryn had so much trouble trusting her, his own brother and friends killed his wife and unborn child...she couldn't say she'd have had a different reaction. He had a right to be the way he was, everyone he'd ever trusted had at some point turned on him, even his own brother. When they'd first met Krystal had taken him for no more than a selfish asshole that only cared about himself, but it was more painfully obvious now that he cared nothing at all for himself he only seemed to care about making the people that killed Emilia pay for what they'd done...for the first time in a long while she could honestly say that she felt sorry for someone, this gave her the idea of telling him the truth about his chess buddy but, at this moment it would most likely do more harm than good, the last thing Aryn really needed right now was to know that someone else had been lying to him. Krystal found herself in her room soon, with nothing to do but to go about their normal nightly routine of playing their games of chess while Aryn remained blissfully unaware of just how close by his only friend really was. After about their tenth game Krystal and Aryn bode each other a fond farewell and soon the blue vixen found herself trying her hardest to get some sort of sleep through the night but, with the thoughts about Aryn's past running though her head it was hard to get any rest at all. How could one soul be fated to so much suffering with no positive signs of the future? With a heavy sigh Krystal lay her head against her pillow and slowly drifted off to a light sleep...

Aryn was well awake before Krystal the next morning as it often happened...when she joined him on the bridge the black vulpine was going over something on the computer's main screen, a list of places that all seemed like they might be leads to him. It was as she stood there sipping at a cup of hot coffee that she couldn't help but ask...

"Anything?"

"Hmm...No not yet. We may have to wait this out and wait for them to make another move."

"But there's no telling when that'll happen." Krystal replied.

Aryn turned toward the blue vixen, "Look I didn't say it was the best idea but we may be stuck with it until we can find something else out. If you have a better idea then let me know but if not shut the hell up and let me think."

"If you were Eric where would you go?" Krystal asked.

"That's the problem...Eric always hid his intentions, I never really knew him, just the person he pretended to be..." Aryn replied turning back toward the screen in front of him, "What we need to find out is his motive...what's driving him...and most of all what he's up to. Why would he be bringing my old outfit back together and what dose McCloud have to do with any of this?" As Aryn thought to himself he did remember back to the fight, "There was something different about that whole fight though...almost like they were all......weaker somehow."

"What do you mean?" Krystal asked.

"I'm not sure...." Aryn replied, "Just give me some time and we'll see what else I can think up. Keep your eye on the news and let me know if anything unusual shows up."

Krsytal started to leave before she was stricken with an idea, "Wait a second. Where is the old base you all used to work out of?"

"Half destroyed on the far side of Corneria...I've checked several times there's nothing there."

"Take me there." Krystal quickly demanded.

"Why?" Aryn asked.

"Let's just say there's more to telepathy than you may think...just get me there......fast."

"First tell me what the hell you're fucking talking about." Aryn demanded.

Krystal sighed with frustration, "Look Slippy called it Photopathic Empethy. Basically I can see the past through things that I touch..."

Aryn thought to himself for a moment, "Well...I got nothing better to go on. Let's go. I just hope you're not blowing a load of steam up my ass."

Krystal was surprised at how quickly Aryn had gone with her side on this...but then again she did have the only good idea at the moment. Soon enough the ship was on a path for Corneria...unfortunately, at their current distance from the place the trip could take some serious time. It was after he had set the course to Corneria that Aryn walked into the ship's kitchen and sat down across from Krystal with a rather large sandwich. After a bit of time Krystal noticed that Aryn was studying her harshly...

"What?" She half yelled.

"How dose that power of yours work?" He asked, "You just touch it and see where it's been, and what's happened around it?"

"That's about the most of it why?"

For a moment Aryn wasn't sure that Krystal was telling him the truth, "Hmm..." He hummed to himself sliding something across the the table which she stopped under her paw, "Who was the last person to hold this?"

Krystal moved her paw to see a pair of familiar dog tags with the name Emilia Jones on them, "I'm just guessing but...Emilia?"

"No...I found them on the other side of the room that night."

Krystal took a moment before she closed her eyes as soon as she opened them the blue was washed over with white, the images that Krystal saw flashed by at an incredible rate, she saw flashes of rooms full of scientists and glass equipment, countless scenes of dead animals, several more images flashed by of the entire team that Aryn had described, broader images of the time after the team was dissolved it seemed like every image that she saw at that time was Emilia and Aryn together, the images kept flashing through her head until one last image hung in place of Aryn holding a bleeding vixen laying in a corner. The worst part of all of it was the fact that this ability allowed her to tap into the emotions that were present at the moment she was seeing. As Krystal finally opened her eyes again she tossed the tags to the table and wiped a stream of tears from her eyes. Aryn didn't need her to say anything to know that she wasn't lying about the power, he simply scooped up the dog tags from the table leaving the blue vixen alone in the kitchen. Krystal sighed before heading out of the room herself, she had no idea what she'd do to occupy her time after all it would be a three day flight. As she sat in her room the images she'd seen from the dog tags flashed back through her head several times and there was one word that stood out PRODEUS. Her faith in Peppy slightly shaken after all that she'd seen, Krystal looked to her laptop, there really was only one animal that she could trust to find this kind of information for her...

After punching in a familiar com channel Krystal was surprised to receive the image of an unfamiliar green amphibian, she was a bit taller than Slippy would be and had much deeper green eyes, "Can I help you?" She asked.

"Yes.." Krystal replied, "At least I hope. I'm one of Slippy's old team mates...you must be Amanda."

"Oh...you must be Krystal. Hang on I'll go get Slippy."

It was only a minute or so before the short toad came into Krystal's view, "Hey. How are you? They let you of the hospital?"

"I've been better." The mechanic replied, "They let me out of the hospital yesterday. It's funny really...I always thought my dad would end up in a wheelchair before me."

"Listen...I don't expect you to understand but, Fox isn't the one that attacked you."

Slippy looked to the floor, "I know. I kept thinking that something was wrong. He was gone for so long and then suddenly came back acting like nothing had ever happened. I guess I was just happy to have him back."

"Slip...If you want to see Fox again I need your help with something. I went to Peppy with the problem....but...I don't know it feels like he's hiding something from me."

Slippy smiled, "What'cha need?"

"Information." Krystal replied with a smile she always knew she could trust Slippy, "Find anything that you can on something called The Black Star Project...and also run the name PRODEUS on as many searches as you can."

Slippy pulled out a small pen and began to scribble on a notepad, "Black...star....Prodeus. Got it. I'll get back to you with all I can find a-sap...it was good talking to you again Krystal. I've heard some pretty bad stuff about you floating around."

Krystal looked away, "You don't......believe any of that...do you?"

"Of course not. Even Faclo knows better than to believe that horse shit." Slippy turned away from the screen for a moment, "Look Krystal I gotta go...good luck...and try not to hurt Fox too much when you find him."

Krystal chuckled, "No promises Slip. Bye."

For the rest of the day Krystal found herself unable to find anything more to do, which eventually forced her to fall back onto retiring to the training room...a place where she felt she hadn't spent enough time. After hours of training Krystal headed back to her room and took a hot shower to relax her sore muscles as well as scald the smell of sweat from her fur. She always dressed in the bathroom on Aryn's ship...she didn't suspect him to be a peeping tom or anything, just for some reason the whole place still made her feel unsettled at most times like someone was watching her. The entire ship gave off the feel not matter where she was, it was....creepy. The problem was that now the feeling was constant, when she entered her room something grabbed her arm slamming her into the wall, she started to scream before Aryn's paw rushed to her muzzle as as he quickly put his index finger against his lips. Despite her being topless at this point, Krystal noticed that Aryn's eyes were looking about the roof of the room...

"You hear that?" He asked softly.

Krystal then ignored her partial nudity, "Hear what?" Suddenly there was a rapid tapping sound on the metal of the ship, almost in audible, Aryn released her muzzle and allowed her to get her shirt on, "I heard it that time what is it?"

"judging from the way it's been moving around...I'd say it's a Genic."

"A what?" Krystal asked.

"Ugly little fucks from Varsac Prime. Kinda like a large mutant tarantula. Assassins use em all the time...hide em on your ship. Once they pick out prey they stick to their guns. Until you kill it or it kills you."

"Are they poisonous?"

"Very...If you were bit I'd give you about twenty minutes before you kicked." Aryn replied, "Just get some sleep...I'll wait right here just in case. I hate spiders."

"Wait a second..." Krystal laughed as she noticed Aryn scratching his arm, "Are you Arachnophobic?"

Aryn glared at Krystal thrusting a finger at her, "You shut the fuck up!" He half yelled, "I am seriously uncomfortable with spiders. So fucking ugly."

Krystal though hesitant not only for the thing stalking her but, the fact that Aryn was sitting in the corner of her room while she slept. She really didn't trust men all that much anymore...especially not assholes, then again he had his reasons for the way he was. Oddly enough she found herself asleep within the hour, she was certain that Aryn was just being paranoid about the spider thing and that he'd be gone before she woke up. For Aryn the time passed far too slowly, Emilia often made fun of him for his fear of spiders, he couldn't explain what it was about them, everything about spiders seemed to make him feel incredibly uncomfortable, thinking about it litterally made his skin crawl. Unlike the blue vixen that lay there in bed Aryn had no problem at all staying awake, he was tired of the constant flashbacks. The longer he sat there the more he began to pass off his conclusion as paranoia. That was until he could hear it again, it was much lighter this time, almost as if the steps were taken was careful grace not to wake the sleeping prey lying in her bed. He'd come across these things before, they were often rather dark in color, a darker brown or gray, unlike your common tarantula, their bodies were much larger, spanning several feet long and coming to about two to three feet off the ground, also rather than a set of fangs these alien arachnids developed a full mouth and a set of rather advanced eyes rather than a set of eye beady little ones that normal spiders had. For a moment Aryn closed his eyes to try wiping the thoughts of his eight legged nemesis from his mind but, unfortunately as he opened his eyes he saw the monstrous insect crawling, nearly hovering just above the sleeping vixen. Aryn was nearly petrified just by the sight of the ugly thing...

As the thing reared back it's head for the only bite it would need Aryn managed to snap himself out of his stupor...

"Krystal!!!"

At the sound of his yell the thing instantly shot around it's large black eyes now fixed on the clear intruder. It let out an incredibly horrible screeching sound before leaping at the black fox with and incredible capability practically flying at Aryn's face. Aryn closed his eyes as he realized that his legs refused to move, but nothing hit him. He opened his eyes and to his horror the thing was mere inches from his face, biting frantically at the air trying it's hardest to break the telekinetic force that held it in place, Krystal had woken up and managed to stop the creature as it flew at Aryn's face. Aryn's expression changed from that of fear to total and complete rage. The ball of flames that shot from his palm slammed into the massive creature's face dragging it from Krystal's mental grip and into the far wall where it hit the floor wailing horribly as the flames enveloped it completely...unfortunately that wasn't enough. As Krystal noticed Aryn's arms coated in sheaths of bright flames he flung his right paw forward with his palm open causing a large ball of flames to fly from his palm. This ball of fire struck the creature causing it's body to burst into a horribly messy green slop that splattered onto the walls as well as Krystal's bed, the smell of cooking spider nearly caused Krystal to empty her stomach. Aryn, looked to the destroyed body of the arachnid, the only remaining signs of his powers the light billow of smoke rising from his fists...he shuddered a bit at the thought of the thing...

"Well...I'm not getting any sleep tonight." He said.

"I don't think I will either...I don't like the idea of there being more than one of those around here." Krystal added looking about the room suspiciously.

"I think I need a drink and something to take my mind off of all this..." Aryn said turning toward the door, "You play chess?"

Krystal smiled at the fact that he had no idea who he was actually talking to, "I dabble..." She replied before following him out of the room, "But how did that thing get on this ship?"

"I don't know......" Aryn replied, "I'm just glad it's dead. We can worry about how later, right now I just want to forget I ever saw the damned thing."

A/N: Yay a new chapter. This one was a bit though for me to write...mainly because I am Arachnophobic and just thinking about a spider that big made my fucking skin crawl *shudders* GOD I HATE SPIDERS! Anyhow the story's about to do some serious picking up on this one. Plenty of action and maybe some sort of romance somewhere. Well my brain hurts so I'm gonna take a nap and try to write something on COF...hopefully.

Those *happy in the pants* footsteps in the darkness- SkullFox