Chapter 11

(July 19th)

(1:11am)

Hours passed and neither Krystal nor Aryn could find it in themselves to get any sort of sleep...every time Aryn closed his eyes he saw that god forsaken creature again, those beady eyes and horrible sound that it made. He was amazed at how good Krystal actually was at chess, their games had gone on and on ending oddly only by stalemate. Aryn closely studied her movements, every move was carefully thought out and seemed to perfectly counter his...if he didn't know any better he'd have sworn they'd played before. Aryn sat there with a large cup of tea studying his next move and finally made his own resulting in another stalemate. It all seemed familiar to him somehow, then again the only games he played anymore all seemed to end this way so he really found nothing too odd about it...

"Where did you learn how to play?" Aryn asked as they set up the board again.

Krystal took a sip from her own cup of tea before making the first move, "Fox...taught me when the Great Fox's engines went out over Sauria a long time ago."

Aryn thought for a moment, "Hmm...I might want to play him after we save his ass."

"Wouldn't do you any good...I'm better than he is now." Krystal said making a move that took one of Aryn's knights, "You know...you aren't that hard to talk to when you're playing this game."

"It's the only way I feel at peace anymore...as soon as the game starts it's the only thing on my mind." Aryn replied, "I always tried to beat Emm but, that was like trying to ice skate uphill...completely pointless."

Krystal felt a bit sorry for the dark vulpine, it seemed everything that he remembered seemed to remind him of her. She even wished that there was a way to take his mind off of his past, but, it seemed like the board in front of them was the only possible way of doing that. Their games carried on through the night until eventually they decided that combing over the ship for more of those damned spiders might not be a bad idea. Aryn had told Krystal to simply clean up the mess in her room since he couldn't stand to be anywhere near the thing, he felt a bit more comfortable killing them rather than touching them. It was only after hours of searching the ship that Aryn finally flopped down in his seat on the ship's bridge...he was now however thinking of other things. He had long ago realized something that was bothering him somewhat. Krystal however was in a different state of mind, it was early morning and she still hadn't gotten any sleep...and now that she was covered in the green, sticky remains of the huge arachnid, a shower didn't seem like that bad of an idea at all. It took everything she had not to fall asleep against the soothing hot water that rushed over her body. She didn't even bother getting dressed any further than her underwear before heading to her bed now that the creature's corpse was gone she could hopefully get some sleep, after Aryn's search for any more of them came up dry she had no trouble in falling to sleep shortly after laying her head on her pillow.

(July 20th)

(5:09am)

It had only seemed like moments that Krystal was asleep before she woke but, as she looked to the clock next to her bed she noticed that it was indeed the next morning, she'd slept all throughout the day and night. She was slow in getting dressed as she realized how early in the morning it really was, she wasn't sure whether or not Aryn was even awake. She slid on a white tank top and a pair of light blue sweatpants that perfectly matched the color of her fur, and headed out to the kitchen for something warm to drink. After getting a cup of coffee Krystal headed to the bridge where she surprisingly heard the sound of a light snore escaping the dark furred fox, who's constant loss of sleep finally caused him to pass out in his chair; his arms hung limply over the sides and his head was laid back against the head rest of the chair his mouth hanging open slightly. The whole sight caused Krystal to smile a bit, she'd found Fox in the same position before, asleep in his captain's chair, for some reason she had a hard time picturing Aryn in that sort of position. For a time she simply sat by looking at the bright rainbow of colors that danced around the ship that came with traveling at the speed of light. A bored sigh escaped her she hadn't expected to wake up so early...then again she hadn't expected to sleep until the morning of the next day either but, she was incredibly tired. As Krystal sat there sipping her coffee, the ship suddenly jolted as it broke from hyperspace splashing her face and causing her to spill the hot liquid down her front...

"SON OF A BITCH THAT"S HOT!!!" She screamed pulling her tank top away from her skin.

This noise instantly shot Aryn from his sleep where his sword was instantly pulled from it's sheath, but it was put away as soon as he saw Krystal. He didn't really say anything as he looked to the viewing window before him seeing a blue planet hovering below them...

"We're here." He said stretching his arms over his head causing his back to pop, "Get changed and meet me in the docking bay."

Krystal made her way into her room, it made her a bit glad that Aryn had left the room so quickly as a wet shirt, especially a white one had a nasty tendency to becoming quite transparent. Of course had she decided to wear a bra that most likely wouldn't have mattered to her. She was hardly dressed for any kind of mission going anywhere at the moment they had reached the planet in the first place; but now that she was wearing a pair of blue jeans, a white muscle shirt, and her favorite denim vest, she quickly assembled her weaponry before finally leaving the room. It was as she rushed down the halls of the large ominously quiet ship that she caught the smell that rose from the spot on her chest where she'd spilled her coffee...she could think of a lot worse smells to be stuck with all day. As she made it to the bridge Krystal wasn't surprised to find the impatient black fox was already aboard his modified wolfen going through standard take-off procedures. Krystal then made her way to her arwing and after prepping it's drives and engines Aryn's wolfen shot out of the docking bay, Krystal following shortly behind. She noticed that Aryn's wolfen was deceptively fast for a wolfen, where Star Wolf's wolfen's downfall was that their speed and maneuverability was slim in comparison to that of an arwing this one seemed as though it would have no problem moving right alongside and arwing at any speed...he must have done some serious modifications to the ship, and she was only guessing that because of this he most likely scaled down the wolfen's usually superior firepower. As the two ships tore into the planet's atmosphere a com channel opened to Krystal's command console...a button press bringing up Aryn's face on a small green screen...

"Try not to wander off when we reach, Star Labs..." He quickly said, "They could keep patrols out there."

"Where is this place?" Krystal asked, "We're a long way from Corneria City."

"Downtown Tybeck...why else do you think they haven't destroyed it yet?" Aryn asked, "Alright we've broken through the atmosphere...the dock is on the west side of the city. D hanger is always empty. Keep your wits about you...I don't wanna have to save your tail again."

Krystal smiled, "Yeah...right. You mean save it or just stare at it."

"Bah...whatever..." Aryn retorted cutting the line, Krystal smiled at least she'd found a way to shut him up.

Krystal was amazed at the city's appearance, it was like Corneria City but, drab and neglected in a horrible way, she'd only been there once before. Fox had taken her there to pick up some sort of package for Peppy a long time ago...but even then it wasn't this bad. The buildings were horribly vandalized, there were missing windows and graffiti everywhere, there was a strong stench that blew in from the streets the mixture of rotting garbage and death clung to the air as if it were the city's natural oder. Krystal was appalled by the sight and smell of the place, how could such a place exist on the same planet as a place as beautiful as Corneria City? It was as her nose recoiled at a rather strong whiff of the city's foul fragrance that the blue vixen pinched her nose shut...

"You get used to the smell..." Aryn said placing a paw on her shoulder as he walked by.

Krystal could only tell that Aryn had no longing of being in this place, she could only imagine what kind of memories that it brought back. Nonetheless however, the two began to walk into the barren streets of the ghost city, it was only after a short time that Krystal was forced to stop, the smell had gone from disturbing to absolutely repulsive, she could clearly smell the stench of rotting corpses...the smell soon caused her to brace herself against a wall as her stomach violently emptied itself.

"I...urk...I need a minute." She said between vomiting and trying to catch her breath.

Aryn doubled back and took a seat on the edge of the sidewalk resting his sword between his legs so that it leaned against his shoulder...

"Sorry..." Krystal said sitting next to him, "I never could handle that smell. What the hell happened here?"

Aryn sighed, "After the Aparoids attacked...they refused to rebuild, in hopes that everyone would abandon the city...you know keep wandering eyes from Star Labs. Unfortunately a load of gangs found this place and migrated here from other cities, apparently they decided having an entire city to themselves wasn't half a bad idea. Over the years more and more gangs moved in...the weekends are the worst...I'm surprised we got here on a burning day."

"Burning day?" Krystal replied cocking her head to the side.

"One day a week all of the different gangs gather the bodies from all the fighting and burn them in the city square. That's why the smell's so strong right now. They send recruiting parties into the cities once in a great while anymore to restock their numbers...just more dead to throw on the fire for later I guess." Aryn finished standing up, "You ready?"

"Yeah...I think I'll be okay from here on."

"Good...the Lab is just down the street about another mile."

As they made their way down the street Krystal looked at the environment rather disgusted, "So...how long was your team here?"

"After the experiment. Not very often...we were on missions about every other day."

Krystal was a bit happy that he seemed to have gotten used to having her around, if she'd have asked any kind of question before chance are that he'd have made a smart ass remark and simply walked off...but, now he was actually walking at her pace rather than his own. He didn't seem to have any more hatred in his voice when he spoke to her rather, it was just a naturally harsh tone of sorts, maybe he'd finally realized that she wasn't all that bad having around...or maybe they had somehow bonded or something during their chess game, whatever the cause he was listening to her now and for the most part he was answering what questions she did bother to ask. Their walk was rather long...it felt to Krystal like it was a bit more than a mile or so, but, soon Aryn grabbed her arm and ducked into a dark, disgustingly foul smelling alley only to see several animals run by screaming at one another before several other animals rushed after them with large automatic weapons...

"Hmm..." Aryn hummed to himself, "Must be a gang war. Take a rest while I check the roofs."

Aryn made his way up a half dilapidated fire escape and after a few moments he was back down to the ground level where he leaned against a wall in thought...

"Well?" Krystal asked.

"Three marksmen guarding the place. We should wait here for a bit and see what happens." Aryn replied, "It shouldn't take too long for them to back off...the reds usually do these things fast."

For a time the two simply sat by, Aryn refused to move from his spot hidden in the shadows while Krystal had found a half destroyed trash can to sit on. The silence was only randomly broken by a far off gunshot here and there...most likely from the group that had run by earlier when Aryn and Krystal had ducked into the alley...

"So..." Aryn said surprisingly starting a conversation, "When were you planning to tell me?"

Krystal looked shocked, "Tell you what?"

"That game last night. It wasn't the first time we've played..." Aryn pointed out, "Was it......Foxy1?"

"Sorry for not saying anything earlier. I thought you'd be angry or something..."

Aryn sighed, "The only person I've been able to call a friend for over 5 years...and you thought I'd be angry to find out that she's on my ship, where we could actually play a real game instead of using that god forsaken computer."

"Well...you didn't exactly roll out the welcome wagon when I came aboard." Krystal answered looking away.

"Like I said before...I'm not used to having other people around. Sorry..."

Krystal sighed, "Ah...forget it. With everything you've been through I don't blame you for pushing others away. I'd probably do the same thing." She said, "Just do me a favor and lay off a little huh?"

Aryn scoffed a bit with a slight grin, "I can promise to try....but, no promises."

Krystal laughed a bit at the rather useless joke, "Whatever...lets just get what we came for and get out of here this smell is making me sick again."

The nearest building to the two was a large apartment complex, the two vulpine managed to slip in through a window without being noticed by the guards that passed by. Aryn was a bit confused however, how is it these animals knew that he and Krystal were coming? He had no answer to the question but, as he and the cerulean Cerinian made their way through the dank, dark halls of the empty apartment building Aryn brought Krystal to a halt. It wasn't until Aryn pushed the doors of an old elevator open that Krystal realized that they were already there. The elevator seemed to be so old that it was barely being held up, but after stepping inside with Aryn, the black fox pulled back an old panel on the wall pressing a hidden button that caused the thing to silently begin to move...

"The apartments above were used as housing for the majority of the scientists...our team was almost never allowed to leave the facility below, " Aryn started, "The lab is about a mile underground, it can house up to 150,000 staff members and house over 50,000 itself. There are two entrances to the place. This is the main entrance...or at least it was. When the Aparoids attacked I was held in confinement after being framed for Emilia's death. One of the ugly fucks busted the door down to the cell. I managed to get to one of the dead guards guns and kill it before it could kill me. Most of this place should be pretty fucked up...keep an eye out though. You never know if any of those dumbass gang fuckers got down here."

After a bit of time the lights in the elevator flickered off, and the moving box jolted to a stop.

"Well it took us further than I thought it would." Aryn said forcing the doors open, finding that the door to the lab was just visible enough to lay down and squeeze through.

After forcing the next doors open Krystal lay on her back and slid herself through the small opening flipping forward onto her feet as he body exited the elevator. She silently mouthed the word 'wow' as she looked at the surroundings; most of the walls were an off white color and looked as thought they were made of some sort of metal, most of the doors were clearly once made of glass, there were loose wires hanging from the ceilings, missing panels from the roof that lay on the floor, the windows to most of the rooms were scattered in millions of tiny pieces all about the place and here and there there were the unmistakable remains of what must have once bee scientists now nothing more than skeletal remains. Aryn suddenly slid from the lift with a fluid motion landing beside her...

"Home sweet home..." He half whispered before stalking off into the dark halls, "Keep your guard up. Never know what the fuck's lurking around down here."

The halls were ominously dark, at times Krystal could see nothing of the black fox in front of her if not only for the lighter gray shirt he wore. After so long Krystal heard the sound of something suddenly bursting into flames as Aryn held up his now flaming fist which cast a welcome light on the area around them...she noticed that Aryn's eyes donned a familiar blue glow when activating his power. The dark furred Pyrokinetic made his way through the halls making stops here and there as if he were looking for some sort of specific room. Krystal on the other hand kept her blaster ready for anything as she realized that it was remarkably cold which caused her to get nearer to flame fisted vulpine in front of her, finding that it did provide at least some sort of heat. Their trek through the halls were filled with the sound of crackling glass beneath their boots. After so long Aryn stopped Krystal when they'd neared a large metal door...

"This is it...Sector-15 lab. The lead doctor's name here was Legal Prodeus." Aryn said as he ran his paw over the surface of the door, "He worked directly above Wilde overlooking all the work and making sure nobody fucked up too badly."

"Prodeus?" Krystal asked herself, "When I touched Emilia's tags...I saw that name a few times."

"Hmm...Prodeus wasn't in charge of Emilia...I wonder." Aryn said lowering his head.

"Wonder? Wonder what?"

Aryn shook his head, "Nothing let's just go..."

As the door was opened a foul oder even more powerful than the one outside rushed by Krystal's face, causing her to turn away from the door almost immediately. The room here was clearly a lab, there were broken containers and beakers everywhere, all kinds of scientific equipment the likes of which the blue vixen had only seen in the presence of Slippy's lab on the Great Fox. Against the far wall of the room Aryn ran his paw over the surface of a well preserved glass tank more than large enough to hold a full grown animal, as Krystal looked around she noticed that there were five of the large glass structures. It was as Krystal approached Aryn that she noticed a small plate with imprinted words on it positioned on the tank's door. The following words were printed on it...

Black Star Candidate 2/5

Emilia T. Jones

Codename: Citrinitas

Id: 174-2-5

Without giving notice Krystal reached out and lay her paw on the large tube and as Aryn turned to her he noticed that her eyes had coted over with white, she was well into the process of viewing everything that had happened in that room over the past years. By the time she woke, she would be able to tell him anything he needed to know that he didn't already...the problem now was waiting...but to Krystal the past played over behind her eyes as if she had been there through everything...

A/N: Well the writer's block isn't completely gone but, I managed to shoo it away long enough to write out this chapter. Some questions will be answered but, unfortunately it will create more than it will answer. Eric's plans will soon be revealed and eventually this story will come to an end of some kind...I think. Anyhow...R&R and Hope you had fun reading this ch as much as I did writing it. I'll try to put up another chapter soon...but...well we'll see. C'ya... ^_^

The footsteps in the darkness- SkullFox