Well, here it is. The promised sequel to Star Fox: Next Gen. Like I said, it's gonna be darker. Bloody, vulgar and sexual...wait, WHAT?!
Well, anyway, for this one I'm just gonna upload chapters whenever I feel like it. You can count on this one being longer than Next Gen. As for how much longer? I guess we'll find out.
CHAPTER ONE
Hell Thaws Out
Darkness. All around her. That was all she could see, just darkness.
How she hated it.
Krystal shivered and hugged herself. There was no breeze but she still felt so cold. She couldn't move her legs, and all she felt was the loud thumping of her heart in her chest. Why did this kind of darkness make her feel so cold…and so alone?
Or wait…was she alone?
Her ears pricked up when the voice echoed in her ears.
"You lying, traitorous bitch…"
That voice…it was her own voice...no…it wasn't. It was the voice of something that she thought she'd torn out of her a long time ago, but clearly it wanted vengeance. What wouldn't after being neglected by the thing that basically spoon-fed them for nearly their whole life.
It was her…Krystal's evil twin.
"Kursed." she whispered in a panicked tone.
"Oh, you remembered my name. I'm so flattered." Kursed said cynically.
Krystal looked all around. No matter where she looked, she couldn't find the source of the voice. Then again, why in God's endless universe would she WANT to find the source of the voice?
"I can't believe you left me in the dirt after everything I did for you." the evil one growled. "I made you strong, I made you smarter…"
"You made me into a monster, and I'm glad I let that part of me go."
"Don't you remember those wonderful feelings of satisfaction when you sliced all those criminals to ribbons? Or how you terrorized the entire Lylat System just to suit yourself?"
"I don't want to remember that…I don't even want to be told it happened. I'm happy with the life I have now."
"So you'd choose Fox and Marcus over me…you make me sick."
Krystal heard a loud slither-like sound echo through the air, but she didn't turn. She just looked straight ahead, as though Kursed was standing right in front of her.
"I frighten them just as much as I frighten you, you know." Kursed hissed. "Let me go on record as say that I love fear. Fear makes me happy…and it makes torture and death all the more delicious.
Something that looked an awful lot like blood began oozing toward Krystal. Within moments, it washed over her feet and stained her fur a deep and sickening red. Krystal wanted to run, but what good would that do her? She couldn't run from Kursed…NOBODY could run from Kursed!
"I am the thing that keeps all three of you up at night after you've had a nightmare. I am the reason you fear for Marcus' safety whenever he's called to duty. I never rest, but you already knew that, didn't you? That just makes you more afraid, and me more satisfied when I finally have my chance to kill you right in front of your family."
"You won't kill me…not while Fox is around."
"That pathetic husband of yours is the cause of everything wrong in your life. Marrying him was almost as idiotic as having Marcus."
"H-how dare you?! No one insults my husband OR my son!"
Kursed laughed.
"Getting angry, eh? C'mon. Get a little angrier. It's so entertaining. It's music to my ears, really."
Krystal growled. There was nothing she could do
"Besides, you really think he's going to stop me? He couldn't even tell you why he left you so long ago to begin with and then you just decide to let him back into your life?"
"I was being selfish. I'm happy with the life I have with him now."
"Oh really? How so, dare I ask?"
"In ways that surpass the extents of the universe. Though what's the point in explaining it to you? It's not like you'd know."
"C'mon. Say it. I dare you."
"You can't feel love…and you made me hurt all those innocent people."
"I beg your pardon, but did you just say innocent people? They were scum! Fox is scum! Marcus is scum! Hell, YOU'RE starting to turn into scum! Look at you! You're a gutless coward blinded by the distraction that you call love!"
"You have a heart of stone! When someone is in love, every day with the one they devote themselves to is a new adventure, every touch is another fading stress, and every kiss is another blessing. I love Fox and Marcus, and they're the only family I have left now, so I'll protect them from you as best I can."
"You'll protect them from me? That's probably the most idiotic thing I've ever heard. Stupid lovesick bitch. When the time comes you'll have only one option anyway: join me."
"Over my dead body!"
"That can be arranged."
Krystal was too focused on yelling at Kursed to notice that two long and bony tentacles were slowly slithering toward her through the stream of crimson blood, just level with her ankles.
"Even if it takes an eternity, the power that dwells within Marcus will be mine once again. I don't care if I have to kill everyone in the Lylat System to do it."
"You lay one finger on my son and I'll rip your head off!"
"Not if I rip yours off first."
The tentacles wrapped around Krystal's ankles and pulled her down on her stomach. She fell flat on her face in the blood, causing it to splash up and stain her face.
"I live off of the fear of those I choose," Kursed cackled. "And DING DING! Looks like we have a winner! And this time, Fox can't save you."
"This can't happen…it's just a dream!"
"Not a dream, sister! A NIGHTMARE!"
With Kursed's last two words, the tentacles strengthened their grip on her ankles and began dragging her away toward Kursed's towering form behind her. Krystal buried her fingernails into the ground, trying to keep herself from being pulled to her doom.
Now she couldn't tell if this was a dream or not. It was so horrifying that it seemed almost as real as the fur on her body. She wanted to call out for help, but she knew that would just make Kursed all the more satisfied.
Besides, when Kursed was involved, help wouldn't come. She'd see to that.
Finally, Krystal couldn't hold on any longer. She lost her grip on the ground and let out a blood-curdling scream as she was pulled into the darkness.
Awakening…
Krystal screamed one last time before her eyes snapped open and her head darted up.
She wasn't being dragged across the floor through a river of blood to her death. She was sitting in her bed, in her room, in her house, staring into her husband's green and worried eyes.
"Krystal, what's wrong?!" Fox asked with a concerned tone in his voice. "Are you alright?!"
From the way he was dressed, it seemed he had just gotten home from the bar with his friends. He had come running upstairs be the looks of it as soon as he had heard Krystal moaning and screaming. Krystal herself couldn't answer. She couldn't stop trembling.
Once Fox had put a hand on her shoulder, she pulled him into a loving embrace. And embrace that made her feel like nothing and no one could hurt her.
"I…I just had the worst nightmare of my life." she whispered, nearly choking on her own fear.
Fox returned the embrace and stroked his wife's soft head. He hated to see her so scared and upset. One thing he knew was that he could cheer her up somehow.
"It's alright." he assured her. "It was just a dream. However bad it was, the reality is that you're safe here with me."
Krystal ignored his statement and told Fox exactly what she had seen. Fox listened attentively, and once Krystal mentioned Kursed, his ears pricked up in alarm.
"But how could that happen?" he asked her once she had finished talking. "I thought Marcus used the Seal of Spirits on her."
"That's exactly what I thought." Krystal fearfully replied, tears starting to well up in her eyes again. "But somehow I think…she's broken. One of the strongest of all seals and she broke it in just a few years. "All the torture she brought to Marcus and us…it's going to start all over again and get even…"
Before she could finished, Fox interrupted her with a kiss. Krystal suddenly lost all interest in what she had been saying before. Just as she had said in her dream, every kiss form him was another blessing, and that blessing gave her the calm mind that she needed at that moment.
When Fox finally drew away, he took her hand and looked sternly into her eyes.
"That monster isn't gonna come anywhere near you as long I live. That's one of thousands of reasons I married you in the first place: to keep you safe. You know I'd never let you go just to save myself, right?"
Krystal half-smiled. She was glad to hear that Fox was willing to risk life and limb for her safety, but he had sadly missed the point.
"It's not me I'm worried about."
"Huh?...oh. Don't worry. Marcus has the greatest potential I've ever seen. And as long as our love is with him, Kursed will never be able to lay a finger on him. Besides, he's always got the rest of the team to back him up, doesn't he?"
Chase Toad, Anna Marie Grey, Damalgo, Peter Cornelius Dengar, and Coyote Lorraine O'Donnell. Marcus' Star Fox teammates, his best friends, and his girlfriend in Coyote's case. The treated him like family. So did Falco Lombardi and Katherine "Katt" Monroe (or, I suppose, Katt Lombardi seeing as how the two had gotten married some time ago). They'd stuck with Marcus through life and limb in gruelling missions that Krystal was always worried he'd never come back from, but he always did. They worked together to get out of sticky situations, and their bond never faltered for as long as they stood their ground against impossible odds.
"Yeah, you're right." Krystal finally said with a smile. "Just call it a mother's concern for her little angel."
"Happens to the best of 'em."
At that moment, the door opened. The two looked over and spotted the only other person in the house. Wearing a T-shirt and pyjama pants was their 19-year old son Marcus James McCloud. He stood there for a few moments, then slipped his hands in his pockets.
"So the THING is back, huh?" he asked.
Krystal didn't want to look Marcus in the eye and tell him that the thing he should have been the most afraid of was coming to get him yet again, but he had the same hypnotizing gaze that she had which forced nearly everyone to tell the truth to him. She couldn't resist it, either, especially seeing how much he meant to her.
"I'm afraid so." she admitted with a sigh.
Marcus stepped into the room and sat down on his parents' bed. He looked at them both for a few minutes before giving them a warm smile.
"You guys worry too much." he said.
"I don't think we worry enough, sport." Fox replied. "You nearly got yourself killed three years ago, and trust me when I say that Kursed is much worse than Andross could ever be."
"Kursed, schmursed. I'll tell you one thing; she's all talk and no action. She sent a dark clone of myself to bring me to her instead of coming to get me herself. If that tells me anything, it's that she doesn't like to fight her own battles."
"Marcus, just because she didn't come to fight you herself before doesn't mean she won't do it now."
"Then let her. I never go down without a fight."
Fox smiled. Marcus was arrogant, but that's exactly what made him willing to stick through a fight until the end. That, and he was man enough to fight his way out of trouble if he absolutely needed to, not unlike Fox himself.
"They grow up so fast." he thought.
That wasn't to say Marcus wasn't scared of Kursed before. ON the contrary, he was originally scared to death of her, but he had trained himself spiritually, and eventually, he began to fear little to nothing at all. He had sworn an oath to himself that the next time she tried to torture him, he'd kill her. He didn't care how he did it or that Kursed was in a way his mother. He simply knew that the universe was far better off without him.
"I'm your son, remember?" he spoke up. "I have you guys. I've got Chase, Anne, Pete, Al, and Coyote, too. There's dozens of people watching my back every day, and knowing that is enough to keep some evil spirit from taking me down. I'm more scared about what might happen to them as opposed to me. "
Krystal smiled at his words. The true words of a young hero.
"Your bravery surprises even me sometimes." she said to him. "You always have the courage to stand up to what is wrong and make it right, no matter what the consequences are."
"Y'know, I've seen brave, but you…" Fox said. "You're straight up courageous."
Marcus smirked and scratched at the back of his head.
"Well, that's not to say I don't have the help of a loving family." he said, glancing at them.
The three of them shared a group hug.
"Sometimes we just wish we could be as brave as you." Fox said.
"Hey, you guys were brave enough to bring me into this world and raise me like a mother and father should. That's good enough for me."
Marcus stood up and walked towards the door.
"In the meantime, I better hit the sack. You know how pepped up Coyote gets on Valentine's Day."
"Alright. Good-night, dear." Krystal said.
"Sweet dreams, sport." said Fox.
Marcus looked back at them for a second with a mischievous grin.
"Don't you two stop being adorable."
Fox and Krystal laughed, forcing Marcus to smirk again before closing the door and letting the two be by themselves. On the way back to his room, Marcus' smirk had vanished and had been replaced with a frown and clenched fists.
"You won't take me alive, Kursed." he muttered to himself. "Next time, the son will surmount the mother. Come for me. I dare you."
He grabbed the doorknob, and before he closed the door and got in bed, he finished it.
"I double dare you, motherfucker."