Chapter 16

(July 24th)

(11:03am)

Krystal woke from a very good sleep, which had become a rather unusual occurrence aboard this ship....her muscles still hurt like nothing she'd ever felt before. Aryn had told her that the suit he'd given her would help, not make her feel like every muscle in her body was tied into a mass of knots. She winced as she rolled out of bed, he legs refused to allow her to stand up without giving her some kind of grief, She took another hot bath, which really helped with the soreness, she refused to wear the training gear again for the day...then again she hoped they were already at Katina...though she was not about to hold her breath. After getting dressed she headed to the kitchen, happy to find a fresh, hot plate of food and cup of coffee waiting for her with a small note. As she sat down she realized that Aryn could not have left the room all that long ago...as she ate she glanced over to the note sitting beside her plate...

Don't bother looking for me....hyperdrive kicked on last night. I'm in the city scouting this Site-B we've been told about. Coming from Eric I'm not so sure if I trust his word's validity. There's something on the kitchen counter for your muscles, it'll make you feel better...

Krystal waited until she was done with her food before taking her dishes to the sink, where she found a small glass container filled with a strange green paste. As she sat back at her table she removed the lid and recoiled at the smell of the stuff. It was powerful, and made her eyes water and her throat burn a bit causing her to cough. She took a light breath before dipping her fingers into the stuff, she rubbed some of it into the skin beneath the fur of her forearm, it burned for a moment but, as the smelly ointment sat it seemed to quickly make the sore muscles of her forearm relax, relieving their tightness. After such results she quickly moved on to all her other muscles...she smelled horrible but at the very least she felt better. After a bit of time she found herself sick of waiting around and headed to the ship's bridge where she surprisingly found Aryn working at his computer...

"So what's in that stuff?" Krystal asked referring to the ointment.

"You'd be a lot happier not knowing..." Aryn said looking to the screen, "Well I'm not certain if it is a Black Star development site or not but, there is definitely some sort of structure under that building." He said pointing to a map on his screen that displayed a large warehouse.

"Looks kinda run down...how do you know there's something odd about the place?" The blue vixen asked.

"In one hour 30 different men went in...but when I did there were only 10 men inside." The black fox said, "Not many were really armed. I think they may still be experimenting here."

"But didn't the General do all of those things to put a hold on the project?" Krystal asked.

"That was what I thought...maybe I was wrong and someone else took over the project. Or, the new General had plans."

Krystal looked to Aryn, "Peppy would never do anything like that. If someone has started the experiments again trust me......Peppy has nothing to do with them."

"I hope you're right." Aryn replied, "We'll wait till night to make our move...most of these places change shifts for the scientists pretty late at night so nobody notices."

"You certain about this Aryn?" Krystal asked, "I don't know what it is...but, something tells me we shouldn't be doing this."

"Sorry kid...but this is a job and if McCloud is in there it's all be sooner I get paid." The dark vulpine replied, "And...I think I owe him my life." He finished under his breath.

"I'm all for getting Fox out of that place...if he's in there in the first place, but...I don't know my telepathy never steers me wrong and right now it's telling me that that building is bad news." Krystal said rubbing her arms, "I don't like it....I'll go...but, I don't like it."

Aryn sighed for a moment, "Fine then stay here...I'm not staying behind just because you have a sudden moment of woman's intuition."

Krystal glared at the black fox, he was being nicer to her after learning that she was his old chess partner but, he was still a bit of an ass...but then again that much time alone in space would do that to just about anyone, "I'm not saying we should stay here...asshole. It's just that we should actually think this through for once and try to get though it without being shot at for once."

"Alright then. We'll go and examine the place tonight but, if I see an opening to get inside......I'm taking it."

Having somehow talked some sense into Aryn, Krystal walked out of the room and headed for her own where she could relax until they were ready, despite the ointment that really did help, her muscles still hurt quite a bit. After a few short moments of laying on her soft bed, she found it impossible to stay awake as she slipped off into a silent slumber. Meanwhile Aryn sat on the bridge looking over all of Wolf's information for a second time just to make certain that he hadn't missed anything. He had attempted to get the wolf himself to talk but, at the moment he was to busy screaming to really hear any of the questions that Aryn had wanted to ask, normally he would have been angry with someone acting so rashly but, he understood Krystal's conviction, he would have done far worse things had it been Emilia that was in Krystal's position...he'd have made them beg for death. As his thoughts drifted back toward his past the black vulpine sighed and leaned his head back against his seat's headrest allowing what he was reading to fall to the floor. His memories would always go there, especially around the blue vixen that was in most ways attempting to help with the mission...she was so much like Emilia that it often made him wonder if somehow the two were related but, from the reports that Aryn had read on the vixen's background that was entirely impossible. It was odd at times Krystal's attitude made him wonder if she'd even harm a simple fly...and then when she was angry it was as if there wasn't a force in the cosmos that could stop her. She was much more frail than she attempted to let on, especially when she was injured...but like himself all she seemed to want....was justice for the things that had been done to her. As he sat by Aryn's thoughts shot around from one subject to another as they often did when he was thinking...but that was cut off as he noticed something on one of his screens. He'd placed a small camera near the warehouse that he was certain was the entrance to Site-B...there were four animals all in uniform laying on the ground outside the outer wall....

"NAV...zoom in on camera 1. 200 meters."

The image zoomed in and cleared up a bit but he still couldn't make anything out...

"100 meters..." He said getting the same results, "25..."

As the image seemed to rush upon him Aryn's eyes went wide, he'd only looked at the screens a moment ago before leaning his head away from the screens. The four guards were brutally murdered, each laying atop a thick red pool of it's own life force, some missing body parts, while one had been completely rent in two spilling his entrails about the ground. Aryn burst thought Krystal's door...

"Krystal...hey wake up." Aryn half shouted shaking the vixen from her sleep.

The poor blue fox had only gotten about thirty minutes of sleep at the least, "MMMM....What?"

"We're moving in early come on."

"What? What about the guards?" She asked stretching her back as she rolled to a seated position on the edge of her bed.

"I seriously doubt that's going to be a problem. Get your gear and lets go."

As Krystal started to get her things and slid her collapsed staff into it's holster on her thigh she looked to Aryn who was just leaving the room, "What the hell is going on? Why are you panicking like this?"

"I think somebody beat us to McCloud...now get your ass moving." Aryn demanded as he rushed off toward the docking bay of the ship.

As Krystal rushed onto the docking bay she found Aryn waiting for her near a small door against the side of the ship that led to the small gangplank that would take them out into the large hanger outside. Krystal remembered everything about Katina; it was a massive city...like Corneria City it was one of the only two cities in the star system listed as a Utropolis...a city housing more than 1 billion citizens...the smaller part of the city they were in now in was no different form the rest of the place. It was a beautiful city just like Corneria City, accept for the fact that most of the time this particular section of town was known for it's disappearing people; murderers, rapists, psychos, gang members, like any other large city could have been the problem but, there were no bodies or anything, and even the crime rate in the city had gone down. The two rushed through the streets as quickly as they could before coming to a stop a few yards from the large metal building that housed the underground complex. Krystal took the moment as Aryn looked around to catch her breath she was still worn from her sore muscles...Aryn had expected the trip to Katina to take longer than it had, otherwise he never would have suggested that she wear the suit all day. After catching her breath Krystal rushed over to the black fox, who at the time was examining a large wolf that was missing his left arm and who's neck had been crushed...

"What happened here?"

Aryn looked to a large fracture in the asphalt that resembled a fist print, "This was all done by someone's bare paws. Tore this one's arm off...ripped the raccoon over there in half, fought the cougar to your left for a few seconds tried to smash his face in right here, caught him and broke him in half. I've never seen this sort of thing done without a weapon."

A normal person may have been effected by such a sight as the one before them, but Krystal had seen much worse, and Aryn had created far worse. The two ignored the scenes of ghoulish slaughter the littered the interior of the warehouse; it was as if something had stormed through the building ripping apart anything in it's path, what was worse...Aryn believed that that was just what had happened. As the two approached what would appear to be a wall, they noticed that a set of doors were torn open, peeled apart as if they were no more than aluminum siding, Aryn ran his fingertips along a set of massive claw marks set into the steel surface of the wall next to the door. Whatever had done this was strong enough to tear open a set of steel doors like paper and leave scratch marks in a solid steel wall. As they entered the room the doors led to, they found themselves in a massive elevator shaft, the lights had been deactivated, there was a severed paw hanging from it's place on the small pressure pad that would cause the lift to head down the long, dark, diagonal shaft before them, someone had attempted to get away...with little results. Aryn brushed the paw over the side and pressed the large pad that caused the lift to shake for a moment before descending towards the depths below the city, a secret that the Cornerian Alliance tried their hardest to keep a secret. As they reached the bottom of the shaft, they were met by yet more blood and gore as the walls were painted with the remains of several guards that had attempted to stop whatever had come through the area. Whatever it had been didn't really believe much in doors as the smaller ones themselves in front of Krystal and Aryn had also been torn from their spot flung down the hallway. The white halls were stained red with spatters of blood from the constant stream of soldiers that had in some way or other attempted to stop the advancing killer, whether it was living or machine Aryn was not certain but, it was not to be taken lightly. Overhead several lights flickered as the facility's electrical systems had clearly been damaged, often giving them a clear image of the death and blood left in the wake of whatever had walked through this place. As they made their way along the halls there were more scratches along the walls as well as large imprints where bodies had been slammed into the walls with killing force, as there were large spatters of blood in each large dent that was left in the area. It was as they walked about the area that they heard a shrill scream, as if someone was fearing for their life. Aryn and Krystal rushed to the end of the hall where Aryn stopped the blue vixen from rushing out into the open and peeked around the corner.

A single young looking wolf guard was on his back attempting to crawl away, though his legs had clearly been shattered, His please for his life seemed to be filled with the fear of death, at whatever was stalking him from the shadows. From the darkness stepped a single figure, an otter, his fur a deep chromatic color, wearing what appeared to be a denim vest over a well defined chest and abdomen as he wore not undershirt at all, the blue jeans that he wore were covered with holes from blaster fire and bullets, as was the vest he wore. His hair was a bit longer than normal, just reaching his shoulders, and was allowed to go free. His face carried no expression, even though every inch of his body was spattered about with blood. He didn't seem to care much about the environment or the animal begging for his life, instead he simply took a few heavy steps before stomping his boot into the begging lupine's face, the force causing the animal's head to rupture in all directions simply leaving behind nothing but a blood stained impression in the metal floor and a wildly jittering body that soon came to a stop as it's nerves realized that it was dead. The animal then turned to a door to his left, which produced a slight voice...

"Code Red lockdown."

The otter reached out digging his fingers into the door's edge that closed against the wall, which he then pulled away with little effort. As the animal trudged through the door, Aryn looked back to Krystal. The animal was barely as tall as she was, but his strength was beyond anything Aryn had ever seen before. Without any sort of words the two rushed off following whatever signs they could find looking for some sort of holding cells. Fortunately it looked like no one had been there before Krystal and Aryn rushed into the room, the guards had left a long time ago, There was only one cell active with a large sheet of blue light buzzing with power instead of a door or bars, and behind it a large brownish red furred fox lay on his side on what appeared to be some sort of bed that hung from one of the cells walls...

"Fox!!" Krystal shouted as she rushed over to the blue lights.

The vulpine's ear twitched for a moment, "Krystal....?" He muttered before rolling over.

As soon as he could clearly see the blue vixen standing on the outside of the blue field of light he rushed over; he was much larger than she remembered, his usually dense musculature was even more well defined than ever, his chest was much wider than it once was, and even his arms were much wider, showing that he'd build up much more muscle over the years...

"Krystal...how..." He started.

"Forget it. Peppy sent us to save you." She said working with the small device on the wall that would open the cell before being pushed aside only to have the device smashed in by Aryn's fist, causing the field to vanish from in front of the cell

"What the hell are you talking about? Peppy's the one that put me in that cell." Fox asked as the vixen rushed over and hugged him.

"I haven't seen you in years...I'm sorry about everything..." Krystal started.

A light laugh caught their attention from behind, "Oh now this is precious...I wish I had a camera."

Aryn instantly shot about to meet his brother, with the otter form before standing beside him, "ERIC!!" Aryn shouted reaching for his sword.

"Hello brother...I never would have thought my plan would have played out so nicely. The Cerinian, you, and McCloud all at the same time...and now I don't have to hand the blue one over to O'Donnell when I'm finished with her...perhaps I could find a more suitable use for her afterward, she is a very lovely creature after all." Eric said shifting his sights to the blue vixen that Fox pushed behind him, "Ah...right. The hero...I'd almost forgotten about you, I don't think even my friend here has much of a hope of fighting you and coming out unscathed. However first my brother here and I have unfinished business to attend to, don't we Dravyn?" Eric said taking a wide legged stance before placing his paw a few inches from the handle of the sword he held that was nearly identical to the one Aryn carried, "...first matter however...perhaps you'd feel better fighting someone you know a bit better."

After saying this Eric took a deep breath, he somehow became a bit shorter, and his fur began to shift lighter and lighter until it was as pure white as virgin snow, his hair grew from it's shorter length until it lay against his back and even his chest developed into a pair of rather full breasts. Eric then opened his eyes, the only thing that hadn't changed. He'd somehow taken the form of the black vulpine's worst nightmare...Emilia...

"You sick son of a bitch." Aryn growled as he fell into the same fighting stance as Eric.

"Oh...come now that's no way to speak about mother..." Eric said in Emilia's voice.

Aryn and Eric slowly stepped closer toward one another squaring off a bit their stances perfectly similar to each other's...for what appeared to be an eternity the two simply stood there. Neither moving an inch. At times it was hard to tell if either of them were even breathing, More than a minute passed and still they didn't move, Krystal could clearly see the tears rolling down the sides of Aryn's face, he was hesitating...even if Eric only looked like Emilia he couldn't bring himself to do it. Suddenly Aryn's expression twisted into one of pure hatred as he shot forward tearing his sword from it's scabbard, Eric doing the same, a long jet of blood flying out between the two. Aryn took a few steps before dropping the scabbard to his weapon, as his steps began to stagger and slow until his weapon itself fell from his paw and with one final step the black fox fell to one knee before falling to his the cold metal floor. In an instant Fox rushed Eric only to meet the point of a sword being held to his throat...

"I don't think you want to do that....the little one's life may depend on it." Eric smiled evily.

Fox's expression fell as his fists fell to hi sides and he lowered his head, "I'm sorry Krystal....I have no choice."

"Maxx take the Cerinian." Eric ordered the otter.

"What about him?" Maxx asked tapping Aryn's body with his foot.

"As good as dead...he's useless now. Leave him..."

As the Eric and Maxx led their hostages out of the room, Aryn could only lay there and watch the world fade...he'd failed in everything he'd set out to accomplish. The mission was a failure, and most of all, he had died, attempting to avenge Emilia's death. As the wold faded before his eyes into a bitter and cold darkness, he could hear Krystal's voice carry out over the area fading as she called out to him...

"Aryn"

"...ryn."

"...yn."

Soon being replaced by a melodic tone that was all too familiar as the world faded into utter darkness....

"Dravyn..."

A/N: Wow...I hadn't even realized that there were arleady 15 chapters to this thing...going by kinda fast. Well for those who care...seems to be quite a few, I've decided that Chains of Fate may be a two parter I'm working it out so You'll know when and if it gets posted. Though I have no Idea what to call it...I'll know when I get there. Anyhow hope you all enjoyed the chapter...I know i did ^_^...R&R and I'm currently trying to get some work done on Legacy of the Fallen and Relaxation. But that's proving difficult...meh...It'll come to me It often dose...

Thanks for the endless support....

The footsteps in the darkness- SkullFox , Saying...

"You can't spell Slaughter without Laughter...^_^"