CHAPTER TWO

Kursed

Mysterious Starship, Hangar Bay

Fox managed to glide past the fighters surrounding the terrorist ship without being located. (which was really much easier said than done) Carefully, he landed in the hangar bay. About two hundred very rusty looking robots lurched around the room as though they were zombies. That combined with the overall all dark and rusted look on the ship's interior made Fox a bit uneasy.

"I think I'm starting to understand why some people called this thing 'the Ghost Ship'..."

Fox pondered about how he'd ambush them without causing too much of a disturbance, but suddenly, the Arwing flickered and reappeared. The Camo Patch had reached the time limit. He had blown his cover. All the robots noticed him right away and stumbled toward his Arwing, proceeding to bang on the hull and claw at the windshield.

"Oh, for the love of…" Fox grumbled.

He carefully turned off the Arwing. Reaching into the back of his seat, Fox pulled out an assault rifle and his laser blaster. Loading up the assault rifle, he holstered the blaster, laid his hand on the ejector seat button, and after a few moments of mentally preparing himself for a wild ride, he pushed the button. The cockpit shot open and Fox was vaulted high into the air, landing a good distance away from his ships.

"Hey! Hands off my ride!" he shouted.

The robots had no time to turn before Fox pumped a few of them full of lead and began running away as fast as he could. After letting out what sounded like computerized shrieks, the robots began clumsily running after him.

More robots appeared to Fox's front. Taking the gun in both hands, he sprinted at the cyborgs and fired it off like a madman, and whether you believe it or not, he was actually having fun! The robots on his left lazily held up their guns in one hand to fire at the intruder, but he slid on the ground with his fist outstretched and knocked them off their feet, where they clattered against the ground and fell apart piece by piece.

Several more made an attempt at dog-piling him. Fox raised up the rifle and blasted them all in mid-air. One came out with a buzz-saw. It took several big swings, all of which Fox either blocked with the rifle or ducked underneath. He brought up his foot, caught the robot between the legs and flipped it over his shoulder. He sprinted forward again, thrust the rifle next to him and swung it like a sword, all the while holding down the trigger. The massive rain of lead hit all the robots in his path.

The next time Fox pulled the trigger on the gun, the barrel gave a loud click. It needed to be reloaded after about five minutes of him firing it off nonstop. The problem was that he had run out of clips for it. Frustrated, he threw the now useless gun aside and pulled out his blaster. He started firing off the medium power gun at the robot guards. The shots disarmed and fried the circuits off the robots as the shots were composed of plasma, though they weren't nearly as powerful as the ones his Arwing fired. Still, as long as it took down his foes, it was enough.

Seeing an empty elevator shaft up ahead as he ran up a metallic staircase, Fox didn't hesitate. He took a flying leap into the shaft. He fell to a lower opening and managed to get a firm toehold on the opening's ledge, then jump through the doorway just as the elevator came crashing down behind him.

He breathed a sigh of relief, the turned to find himself looking down the barrel of an blaster. About fifty more robots were aiming their weapons at him.

"...well, this sucks." Fox groaned.

He dropped his gun and slowly reached behind him, pulling a short metal stick from his emergency backpack. It was Krystal's magical staff. When she disappeared, she had left the staff behind, which could shoot fire, cause small earthquakes and could double as a jetpack of sorts, not to mention it was a good defensive item. Fox had used this weapon once before. In fact, he had been the one to give the staff all of its fantastic abilities in the first place.

He whipped the staff out and extended it so suddenly that the robots had absolutely no time to react. Even more quickly, he slammed it into the ground. The entire ship quaked and the robots in front of Fox fell apart. Then, aiming the staff forward like a gun, Fox sprinted down the hall, shooting off the Fire Blaster at any robot that he caught sight of.

He stopped for a moment and pointed the staff forward. Water vapor erupted from the staff's back end and shot Fox forward like a rocket. He shot up another elevator staff, went all the way to the top floor and landed in front of another gang of cyborgs. Swinging the staff multiple times, Fox bowled over even more robots, and then he backed up against a door

"Come on, you big piles of tin! Bring it on! I'll take you all on at once!" Fox shouted.

He was completely unaware that the door behind him had opened and someone was coming up behind him. He felt so alive! He was ready for anything!

…except the syringe that suddenly sank into his neck.

The liquid in the dart flowed into his blood stream. His whole body went numb. He suddenly felt as weak as a baby kitten. He fell flat on his face and dropped the staff. He slipped into unconsciousness just as the ship's captain pulled the dart out.

"You just never stop being so stubborn, do you?" she growled.

Twenty minutes later

Fox slowly began to regain consciousness, his head feeling like someone had smashed it with a rock. His hands started twitching as he struggled to open his eyes, but he stopped moving upon hearing a voice whisper to him.

"Finally awake, are you?

His eyes snapped open and right away realized that he couldn't see or move. There was a burlap sack over his head and his hands and feet were handcuffed behind him. The syringe liquid was out of his system, but he still felt extremely lousy. Suddenly, the burlap sack was swept off his head.

He hazily looked around. From what he could see, he was in what seemed to be the command bridge. He could see his staff hung on the wall a few feet behind him, along with several laser blasters. Shaking his head a little, his vision returned to normal.

He looked forward and saw a blue and white furred vixen in a black leather outfit standing in front of him with a very sour look on her face. It took him a moment to realize who he was looking at, and even then he had a hard time believing his own two eyes.

"Krystal? Is that you?"

It was Krystal, but she looked significantly different from when Fox last saw her. Her hair was longer than usual and was a dark violet color. Some of it hung down in front of her left eye and her outfit was a little on the…revealing side. She was silent for a moment or two, and then she spoke in an expressionless voice that Fox had never heard before as she stepped forward, took off Fox's cuffs, and stepped back again.

"It's been a while, Fox McCloud." she said, as though she weren't even slightly happy to see him. "You look well."

Fox stood up and slowly stepped toward her.

"I can't believe it…you're still alive!"

Krystal grunted in response.

Fox was about to take her hand, but in one of the most violent manners he had ever seen, she pulled it back and roundhouse kicked his face. He stumbled backward and clutched at his face for a second or two before looking up at her in shock.

"Don't touch me….or I'll tear your arms off!" she warned. Her calm demeanour was gone in an instant.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Fox asked, wiping the blood away from his mouth.

"The time for excuses is past, Fox." Krystal said angrily.

"Look, can you just calm down so we can get the hell out of here?"

"'We'? I'm not going anywhere with you! You can get sucked into a black hole for all I care!"

Fox was flabbergasted. The Krystal he knew wouldn't hurt a fly, but now she seemed as vicious as a carnivorous dinosaur!

Krystal smirked. "What's the matter? You're surprised? It's your fault, after all."

"But...why?"

He wasn't prepared for her to make a sudden mood swing.

"WHY?" she screamed at him. "You're the one that tossed me aside like yesterday's trash months ago and you're still asking why? I'm the one who should be asking that, not you!"

Fox realized that she was talking about how he left her and didn't want her to be on Star Fox anymore. He had done that to keep her safe, but it looked like she had taken it the wrong way.

"I loved you, and you left me. Did I mean nothing to you? Was I not good enough? Was there someone else? There are only so many questions I can ask and you'll just give the same damn response every time: absolute silence!"

"Bu….y-you don't understand! I..." Fox stammered.

"I understand, alright. Because of what you've done to me...I'll never forgive you...one of these days you're going to die and I won't give a single care for it..."

"That's enough! I didn't do this to you, Krystal! You did this to yourself! Just stop and think for a second! Don't you remember what you and I have been through together? If you kill me, all of that will become a horrible burden! Do you want all of our memories of each other to mean nothing at all?"

Krystal stopped and thought for a moment. He had a point. She thought back to the first day she met him, on the planet Sauria. She had been trapped inside a gigantic crystal that was slowly killing her from the inside, but Fox brought beings called the Krazoa Spirits to the altar where her near lifeless body floated. When the prison shattered, she nearly fell to her death. With Fox's intervention, she had survived.

He had saved her life that day. He was her personal hero for that. A tear welled up in her eye. She seemed willing to forgive him.

But suddenly she thought about how he left her without telling her why, and she became angry all over again. For that, he was her personal villain, too, and she couldn't forgive him for that. Krystal's thoughts returned to her. Pulling a crystalline blade from behind her, she pointed it at Fox. He looked even more shocked than before.

"Too bad. My mind is set and you'll never change it. I've finally realized something…when the chips are down, I can't count on anyone, especially you! Now...I'm going to kill you!"

But did she really want to? Fox, Falco, Slippy and Peppy had taken her in when she had nothing left and when no one else would give her a home. But she had already said she would, and there was no taking back what Fox had done. She gritted her teeth.

She meant it.

A tear fell from Fox's eye. He could literally feel his heart breaking.

"Krystal…I don't know who you are anymore…I'm so sorry."

Krystal clutched the sword in both hands.

"I'm not." she growled.

She leaped at Fox with the sword raised over her head. Fox dove out of the way, back-flipped to the wall and grabbed the staff.

"You're going to use my own weapon against me? Very well." Krystal said. "You won't fare much better with it anyway."

She ran at Fox again and swung the blade. Fox dodged the attack and the sword sliced open a few electrical wires.

Fox didn't want to hurt her. Even if she hated him now, he knew the real Krystal was someone in that body. He just needed to bring her back to life.

This time when Krystal swung her sword, Fox blocked it with the staff. Over and over, she tried to make a huge cut on his body, and over and over she couldn't break his defenses, but Fox didn't dare to try and strike her. Eventually, Fox tripped over his own feet and fell on his back. Krystal took that as an opportunity to run up and try to stab him. Fox shot his foot up, caught her in the stomach and flipped her over him and onto her back. They both leaped to their feet.

Their weapons locked.

"Krystal, I know the real you. You're kind, caring, and you never hurt someone unless you have a reason." Fox said to her, resisting her push. "You've gone down the wrong path, but I know you can turn back somehow!"

"You think a little smooth talking is going to get you out of trouble? GET SERIOUS, BUSTER! I THINK YOU'RE GOOD AT THAT!" Krystal shot back.

Fox pushed Krystal away and thrust the staff at her. She swiftly avoided all off his attacks and swung her weapon. Her attacks were blocked. Fox sidestepped away from her, seized a blaster off the wall and set it to "Stun". One shot would temporarily paralyze her. Temporarily was all he needed.

He didn't fire quickly enough. Krystal saw the weapon, rushed forward and used an athletic back-flip to kick the gun out of Fox's hand and nail his chin. He flew backward again.

Fox got back up and the weapons locked again. Krystal had the upper hand and began pushing him backward. Fox was inches away from falling off onto another platform ten feet below. He regained some of his strength and resisted.

He couldn't believe what she was doing. Was this really happening or was it just a nightmare? He wished it was the latter, but he couldn't deny that Krystal really was trying to kill him.

"Please stop!" he begged her. "Krystal, you don't wanna do this!"

Krystal stopped pushing and just stood there panting for a second. Fox lowered his weapon.

Suddenly, Krystal's fiery glare fixed on him again.

"MAYBE I DO!" she yelled.

She screamed and pushed Fox off the platform. The staff went flying away from him as he tumbled to the platform below. He cracked his spine on the metal surface. He groaned. His entire body ached. From the way he felt right now, he wished he could just lie there and never get up again, but he had no time to rest. Krystal jumped down on top of him and tried to bring the blade to his throat. Fox grabbed her arms and resisted. For a few minutes, they both struggled to gain the upper hand. Neither really seemed to be winning the fight that was breaking both of their hearts.

Finally, Fox let out a loud shout, flipped Krystal onto her back, threw the sword away and pinned her arms down. She squirmed to get loose. If there was one place she didn't want to be, it was in his grasp.

"Let go of me!" she screamed.

"Krystal..."

"I HATE YOU!"

"LISTEN TO ME!"

That sudden shout shut Krystal up. Fox never shouted even when he wanted everyone to pay attention. She stopped struggling and stared into his eyes.

"Why?" she asked, about ready to cry. "Why did you leave me when you knew we were perfect for each other?"

"I didn't want you to get hurt because of me." Fox calmly said. "I wanted to keep you safe."

Krystal's eyes went wide.

"You…wanted to protect me?"

"Yes. If my enemies ever found out about my love for you….if you got hurt because of me, I could never forgive myself. And I know that I didn't show any courage near you, but I will now….and I admit that I should have told you before."

More tears welled up in Krystal's eyes. She felt like such an idiot for not understanding him. Fox let go of her wrists and sighed. The fiery gaze was still there.

"If you wanna kill me now, go ahead." he said. "I've got nothing left, either."

She sat up, slowly reached over and touched his face. The glare was gone. She smiled.

"I…" she started, but stopped when she heard a loud crack.

Both she and Fox looked back and gasped. One of the windows had a huge crack in it from one of the electrical cables that Krystal had accidentally severed. Fox quickly reached for Krystal's hand.

He wasn't fast enough. The window shattered and the suction from the hostile atmosphere of space pulled them off the floor. Fox grabbed the staff and jammed it between 2 walls to keep him from being pulled out of the ship. Krystal grabbed an emergency bar, which was dangerously close to the window.

A red light bathed the room.

"WARNING!" blared a computerized voice. "Hull breach. Deactivating main power."

The ship began to dip downward, and Krystal and Fox found themselves dangling from the ceiling in desperate attempt to hold on. Outer Space now looked like a cavernous mouth below them that would swallow them up and they'd never see or hear from anyone ever again. But no. Fox had come too far for that. He wouldn't lose Krystal...not again.

She was hanging just out of his reach. He stretched his arm toward her.

"Give me your hand!" he shouted.

He didn't care if she loved him or not. He wasn't going to let her die. Not like this. She stretched out her arm. Her knight in shining armor was there for her again. They could almost touch each other's fingertips. Suddenly, the bar Krystal was clinging to gave way and she was sucked out into space screaming.

"NO!" screamed Fox.

Not thinking about the possible outcome, Fox sheathed the staff and dove out of the ship. He pressed a button on his wrist communicator. A remote control for his Arwing. The starship exploded behind him, but as he dove down through the hostile air, Fox only focused on getting to Krystal. As soon as he was close enough, he wasted no time; he clasped his arms around her. The Arwing swooped underneath them. They landed inside the cockpit and immediately shut the door. Krystal took in a few deep breathes, as did Fox, and then she looked fearfully into her savior's face. She hugged him against her body and didn't dare to let go as tears began streaming from her eyes.

"I'm so sorry." she sobbed. "Everything that's happened…..it's my fault."

"It's okay. There's no need for you to be hurt anymore." Fox whispered back.

"Yes, these is...if anyone deserves to be hurt, it's me. I've just been so stubborn for my entire life, and now you hate me because…oh, God..."

Fox touched Krystal's face. She stopped crying.

"Please don't cry, Krystal. I don't hate you. I never have. I still want to be with you. I just don't want you to get hurt, that's all. If you can forgive me, I can forgive you. No matter what anyone says about you…"

He slowly smiled. His eyes shone with a light that made Krystal feel safe in his arms.

"...I'm never going to shut you out again. You deserve better than that."

Krystal slowly took Fox's hand.

"I…I've always felt like I've been asleep for a long time. But now that you're here with me…I'm awake again."

She nuzzled Fox's chest.

"Take me back to Corneria…where we both belong."

Fox brought Krystal's head up. Their gazes locked. A loving smile stretched across Fox's face, and he slowly leaned his head down, closed his eyes, and kissed her. Before this, he would have been too scared to even talk to her straight. Now his fear of messing up was gone for good.

He pulled back. Krystal smiled even more and kissed him back. It lasted for several blissful moments before they finally came to their senses.

"Let's go home." Krystal whispered.

Fox ignited the engine and they slowly rode off back to the Great Fox, making sure he took the smooth route on the way back. Krystal eventually fell asleep on his lap. He stroked her soft, furry head. Now that she was with him again, his nightmares could finally end.

Upon returning...

Fox locked his Arwing in the hangar bay. Krystal was still asleep, so he cradled her in his arms and carried her to the bridge. He opened the door. Falco and Slippy immediately rushed to him the second they saw him.

"Fox! You're OK!" Slippy cheered.

Slippy's sudden cheer woke up Krystal. Fox stood her on the floor.

"Huh? Wha…oh, we're back." she said.

"Krystal? Is that you?!" Falco sputtered. "Man, you look...uhh, different."

Slippy immediately rushed over to Krystal and hugged her so tightly that he started to cut off her air supply.

"Oh, man, we missed you so much!" Slippy said. "Where the hell did you go?"

"Nice…urg...to see you, too...Slip...gack…can you let go please? You're choking me."

Slippy let her go. Krystal doubled over, gasping for breath.

"We certainly weren't expecting to see you again." Falco grunted.

Krystal smiled at him.

"C'mon, Falco. Give your best friend's girl a hug." she said.

Falco smirked and hugged Krystal.

"Nice to see ya, Krystal. Not gonna go running off again, are ya?"

"No, Falco. This time I'm back for good."

"…nice threads."

"Umm…thanks?"

"ROB, set course for home." Fox said.

"Affirmative."

Later...

"No, seriously! What happened up there? I just gotta know!" Falco said.

"Look, I already told you, I don't wanna talk about it, and neither does Krystal! Can we just leave it at that?" Fox retorted.

They were still about 425 km from Corneria. Krystal had gone to the lavatory to change her clothes. Slippy had already dozed off in a chair on the bridge, while Falco kept bugging Fox about what had happened.

"Alright. You don't wanna tell your best friend? Fine. See if I care." Falco said as he started pouting.

"….You really don't care, do you?

"Not at all."

Fox rolled his eyes. Typical Falco. His motto was "Always look out for Number One." Number One being yourself.

"I'm gonna go check on Krystal. You better get some shut-eye." Fox said as he walked toward the lavatory door.

"Whatever. 'Night, boyfriend."

Falco chuckled as he walked off. Fox sighed in an annoyed tone.

"Sometimes that guy is such a pinhead." he muttered.

He was just about to knock on the door when he heard Krystal's voice from inside. Slowly, he opened the door just a crack and looked inside. Krystal was standing in front of a mirror, grasping her long hair behind her.

"You've caused me so much pain…you made me hurt all those people…you took me away from Fox…now, no more." she said at her reflection

"What the…who's she talking to?" Fox thought in confusion.

She pulled a knife out from in front of her. Fox got a look of panic on his face. Why did she have a knife? Was she going to kill herself…even after he forgave her?

She brought the knife up near her neck.

"Stay away from me. If you ever come back…I'll kill you."

With that, she cut her hair to shoulder length. The length most recognized her with.

"She's just cutting her hair? I don't get it. What's the big deal?" Fox thought.

Krystal turned on the sink and let the water run through her hair. After a few minutes, the violet dye washed out and her hair returned to its normal blue color. A loud rushing noise rang through Fox's ears for a few seconds, and then stopped. Krystal looked at herself in mirror and smiled.

"She's gone…thank goodness. I guess I'm really me again now." she sighed with content.

He looked at Krystal again. She looked completely normal now, save for her revealing outfit. He could see that she probably didn't want to be disturbed at the moment, but he felt as though she was lonely, and the sight of him was the one thing that would comfort her.

He took in a deep breath and knocked on the door. Krystal yelped and turned around, but breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it was just her friend.

"Fox, please don't sneak up on me like that." she said. "You scared me half to death!"

"Sounds like you were just trying to bring something to death right now." Fox replied.

Krystal got a nervous look on her face. "Um…yeah."

Fox walked into the room and took another look at her outfit.

"You look like you again…except for the suit."

"Err….I…uh….."

"How did you change so much, anyway? It was almost like you were taken over by a demon or something."

"Fox."

"Yes?

"…I was."

"You were what?"

"I was taken over by a demon...in a manner of speaking."

"I…I don't understand."

"A few months ago, after you saw me last, a woman started speaking to me in my head. Her name was Kursed. She offered to grant me the power to have my revenge on the ones that wronged me. In return, all I had to do was allow her to live inside me."

"And you let her?"

"Yes. I had no one else to turn to. Not Falco, not Slippy…not even you. She gave me the power she promised, but the whole time it felt like she had been born from my hate to begin with. It felt like she had been leeching off me ever since I was born…in fact, I think she WAS me!"

Krystal sat as tears began to form in her eyes.

"I let her take me, so everything that happened was my fault. Having her inside of me was literally a living hell. It burned…it made me burn for the innocence that I lost so long ago...but I might never get it back."

Fox knelt down and laid a hand on Krystal's shoulder.

"Hey, don't worry about it. It's all over now. Now you have someone to turn to other than Kursed…and he's standing right here with you."

Krystal threw her arms around Fox and kissed his cheek. She felt better now that Fox was there with her.

"Fox…there's something I've wanted to say to you for a long time."

"Oh, boy. Here it comes." Fox thought.

"Fox…I…I…" Krystal stammered.

Fox placed his hand on her cheek.

"Here. We'll say it together."

Krystal smiled, and they both said the words that knit their souls into one.

"I love you."