A/N: Okay my little break didn't last as long as i'd thought. Luckily here in Cali i have a lot of friends that refuse to toss someone out on their ass. Anyhow, enough bout me and my bullfashisim. If anything seems out of place or anything it's only because i haven't had time to have Mykll look this chapter over. In the long run however i will fix this before the next chapter. Thanks for the support all... ^_^
The Footsteps in the Darkness ~ SkullFox
Frag the weak, Hurdle the dead ~ Mykll
Chapter 8: Enemies and Allies……
On a small plane on planet Sauria a familiar cloaked figure stands, overlooking an awe inspiring waterfall, where a small graveyard is set up. He'd taken his time looking over each small grave; examining the small metal tags hanging from each small wooden cross. Kursed had done what he was certain he never could, she'd found a peaceful way of relinquishing the burdens of these animals' deaths. The assassin sighed, he'd lost her trail……true he wasn't completely certain what he'd do once he caught her…but, he would figure that out upon finding her. He couldn't risk loosing any of the others. The animal slowly turned and bantering a small prayer under his breath for the one's who rested here, made his way off toward his small ship…
******
The pale furred vixen woke with a start; like every night since then, she still saw it all, the rivers of blood, the accusing eyes of all the animals that had been lost at her paws. Kursed slowly rolled to one side hanging her legs over the edge of her bed. Resting her palms over her eyes, the vixen took a moment. Her breathing had been slightly erratic on waking. It was Cerinian lore that dreams possessed hidden meanings, not just some dreams but all dreams were a form of the Ether attempting to speak with the mind. Even during her shower, a time she tried her hardest to take to relax, though most of the time her attempts failed, she couldn't get the images out of her head. The smell of something cooking filled the ship however, and this was the only real thing that gave Kursed a reason to head out into the halls. A bit taken by the smell that filled the halls of the small ship, the vixen trudged down the halls until she found herself sitting in the kitchen…
"Morning." Katt's voice welcomed her into the room.
"Morning." Kursed replied with a yawn.
The feline chuckled as Kursed sat in the seat across from her, "This kid can really cook. She's Zang's niece right?" She asked, "What made you bring her with you?"
The vixen sighed looking toward the young panda, who was far too wrapped up in what she was doing to pay attention to them, "She reminded me of……myself." She said, "Back before Fox saved me. I didn't really have anywhere to go either. I wanted to drop her off somewhere, but……I remembered how bad it felt to live like that myself; and I just couldn't do it."
Katt chuckled, "Well at least you found yourself a good cook right?"
Kursed chuckled to herself, "Yeah right." She said, "How far off are we from Xenass?"
"We landed just over an hour ago." Katt replied, "Thought I'd just let you sleep until you felt like getting up."
Kursed sighed, "So…" She said, "How long have you been working with these Wraiths?"
Katt wasn't expecting the change of subject, "About three years actually." She replied, "Apparently Fox had some connections with them. Cuz as soon as word got out that Fox was dead…they came to my door. Saved my ass too; not even two days after they came for me my face came up as a missing person." She said, "It wasn't really until I got there that I found out that several of Fox's old friends had been recruited by the Wraiths. I guess that Andrew wanted to sever every tie possible just in case one of the team managed to make it out alive. Cuz, they went after Miyu, Fay, Angela, even Lucy……but, we were already taken away by Reiko and his little team."
"Are they all safe?" Kursed asked.
Katt sighed, "Possibly……I know that Miyu and Fay were both on an assignment in Stygian." She said lowering her head, "Angela……Andrew's men captured her some time ago. We haven't seen her since."
The vixen hoped to pass up the thought that she might have killed someone she knew; had it been Miyu or Fay she was certain that she'd never have been able to forgive herself. She had never really gotten to know Fay all that much, but, she and Miyu had gotten close in a very short time, their connection was almost the very same as the way she felt for Katt. The vixen was more than happy that Katt was alive, and here with her, but, something told her that what she was about to do was a bad idea……then again something told her that killing one of Andrew's generals was a bad idea, but, that ship had long sailed…and if she had her way about it, it would be a mistake she'd gladly make again. It was after Lin sat out three plates of food and ate her own fill that Krystal looked to the young panda…
"Apparently we'll be staying here for a while Lin." She said, "After Katt and I leave, I want you to lock down the ship, and disable the locks so that even I can't get in unless you let me. Understand?"
"But why?" Lin asked, "I want to come with you."
The white furred vixen smiled, "Thanks for the concern Lin, but, I don't think I'd be able to live with myself if I let you get yourself hurt. I've caused enough people to get hurt."
The panda thought for a moment, "Fine. Can I help from here then?"
Kursed looked to Katt for a moment before looking back to Lin, "Well…how good are you with a computer?"
Lin chuckled, "At this day and age, you ask a person my age that?"
The pale furred vixen mused to herself, "Hmm…touche." She scoffed, "Well in that case I want you to stay here on the ship. Try your hardest to find any information you can; anything that I don't already know about Andrew's generals…other than that just stay here on this ship. Alright?"
Lin sighed, 'Alright. I guess after all you've done for me the least I can do is stay put like I'm told for once."
Kursed rubbed the panda girl's head, "Good." She said patting Katt on the shoulder, 'Come on Katt. Let's go see this leader or yours. Hope he's as calm as he was at Zang's office."
Katt chuckled, "Yeah. I wouldn't count on that too much."
Katt lead the young vixen out into the streets without much delay, hoping that her little plan would fall through as smoothly as it did in her head, though somehow she highly doubted it. She kept an eye out as the two walked through the trash covered streets of the unkept Sector 5, nobody really cared about this part of the colony, which was why Reiko had chosen this place to lay low for a while. The reason behind the assassins' elaborate robes was to keep their identities from being exposed allowing them free movement when not wearing them. The feline however did feel odd at the moment; after all they were both fairly attractive females, in the center of a slum. The feline let out a short cry of surprise as Kursed yanked her into a small alleyway by her arm. It wasn't but a few moments before two slightly short figures moved into the alleyway; luckily not noticing that there were a set of eyes watching them from a small crack in the closed lid of a Dumpster…
"Lousy muggers." Kursed whispered to herself as they two figures moved on, "Stay here I'll make sure it's clear."
The vixen quickly leaped out of the receptacle and rushed around the corner back out into the street. There was nothing to be seen but a short number of vehicles passing by in the street, and a flickering streetlight that seemed like it'd go out anytime soon. However it was as she turned back toward the alley that she noticed a dark figure holding Katt from behind with a sharp looking knife to her throat. At first she was worried until the vixen smiled; he was panicked, the other animal that had run by was an Enforcer. The Enforcers were a special breed of cop, more like a bounty hunter than anything else, one of the many wonderful things that Andrew had decided to give birth to in the Lylat system. He was a shorter rat than even Kursed was used to running into in most of her jobs…
The vixen pulled her weapon from behind her back as she noticed the rat's missing right paw, "I think I remember you."
"Just stay back." He demanded as he stepped out of the alleyway, "This isn't how I wanted this to happen alright?"
Kursed sighed, "I knew I remembered you. They let you out of jail already?" She asked, "You really think you can get away this time? Look what happened last time."
The rat swallowed hard looking to his missing paw; he quickly pulled his knife away from Katt's neck before turning and very forcefully tossing her into the street. Realizing what the rat had done, Katt sat up shaking her head as she'd hit the pavement rather hard. There was no time for her to react to the vehicles that was speeding in her direction. She didn't even see the vixen as Kursed tackled Katt out of the street. As she recovered the vixen realized that the feline was unconscious, with a large cut on her forehead. Kursed wasn't even given a chance to check the feline for the extent of her injury before something slammed into her, driving her over a small rail, causing her to land quite painfully on her back, knocking the wind from her lungs, as she found herself looking up at a short overpass from a heightened rooftop…
It only took her a moment to recover before standing up; she was a bit more than surprised to find that there was a familiar looking dark furred coyote standing across from her. He gave her no time to react; for in an instant the coyote whipped two small pistols from beneath the long white coat he wore firing several shots, each of which impacted what he could only assume was a shield of some kind in front of her. He seemed to practically fly toward her before Kursed's paw reached up toward the overpass causing the coyote to roll to safety as a familiar looking scythe plowed it's way into the rooftop. Kursed looked on as the dark gray furred coyote slid to a stop before growling fiercely at her.
He was clearly deaf to the world as she called for him to stop, as Reiko lunged at her again. Not wanting to actually be forced to injure him however after promising Katt that she would at least try to explain herself, the vixen barely managed to dodge an attack that seemed to come from a source that remained unseen until he was standing prone again. The two guns he'd held were now both housing long slightly curved blades, making each gun roughly a two foot sword each. He seemed to be studying her movements as the two circled one another. Reiko spun one of his blades before yet again rushing in on the vixen only to have his blade meet that of Kursed's scythe; before, however, Kursed could even realize it, his other gun shifted it's form and a loud shot followed a red hot projectile grazing the side of her face. Kursed instantly lashed out driving her foot into the coyote's ribs driving him slightly into the air before the back end of her weapon came down across his back. Reiko yelped in pain as he was driven chest first into the rooftop; not waiting for a moment, however, the coyote rolled toward her in a surprising movement, his weight knocking the vixen off balance and onto her back before she rolled to one side, narrowly escaping the blades that buried themselves into the roof before a heavy boot met with her chest sliding her some distance away. It took only an instant for the vixen to get herself back to her feet as she used the sliding momentum to roll onto her feet. The shots came again however, this time as she found the coyote rushing in at her; Kursed however beat him to the attack this time coming down on him with her scythe only to have Reiko stop the blade, which slid across the surface of his gun before she found the other aimed at her face.
As the vixen's scythe blade plowed into the floor however, the coyote's weapon seemed to practically explode in his paw, causing him to throw the weapon away. In an instant another attack fell upon the vixen as her scythe was swung upward from under. The attacks however froze as they two both heard a loud cry for sanity…
"Stop!!!" Katt's voice screamed causing a scythe and sword blade to both come within mere inches of her face.
Katt slowly opened her eyes, and as she realized that the attacks had stopped she turned to Reiko, "She's my friend." She huffed wincing in pain as she held her paw to her forehead, "She killed Verra……Caruso even watched it happen."
"That doesn't change what she did." Reiko replied, "That animal has killed everyone I swore to protect."
"And it was a misunderstanding……" Katt replied, "She was with Star Fox…she saw someone that night wearing one of our uniforms. What would you have done if your whole life was taken from you like that?"
Reiko took a moment to catch his breath as he looked the vixen over, "So you're the one that Andrew went crazy looking for all those years ago?" He asked.
Kursed lightly nodded, "Yes. I came here because I thought you might be able to help me. I need information, about what happened to Fox."
The coyote sighed, "And I'm supposed to trust you after everything you've done?"
Kursed looked to the ground, "No……" She replied, "I wouldn't suppose you would."
Reiko was clearly thinking sharply about something as the vixen continued to look to the ground until Katt looked to him, "Reiko. Please……she's my friend."
"I understand……but, I'm not putting anyone else in danger." He replied, "Take her to the Red Rose Motel……I'll see what I can sort through. Then I'll be there to talk to her……" He sighed, "In the mean time I need to have Eight see whether or not she can find Seven. He normally doesn't run off like this."
Katt sighed, "Come on Krystal." She said helping the vixen along the way as she seemed to favor her side a bit.
******
The white clad animal watched like a hawk as several animal, all in rather nice suits headed into a building. He could recognize them all as Andrew's higher ups, several generals followed by several high ranking officers each. It was as he stepped away from the ledge of the rooftop that the animal kept his eye out toward the far off building…not bothering to look to the other clad in white behind him…
"I was wondering if I'd find you here." Seven sighed.
The strange animal across from him dropped a metal tag to the rooftop, "Funny how this shit works out huh?" He chuckled, "I bet none of you ever even knew how long I've been working for Andrew……he's had a mind to overthrow his uncle for years, he just never had the manpower to pull it off."
Seven slowly turned around freeing a small knife from it's sheath across the small of his back, "I trusted you."
The animal across from him lay his wrists behind his back, resulting in a metallic sound before he pulled his arms back reveling two rather long curved blades protruding from his bracers, "To be honest I was hoping you died with the others; or at the very least that, that bitch Kursed would have finished you off."
"Too bad you were too afraid to do it yourself back then." Seven retorted angrily, "If you'd have just finished the job this wouldn't be happening. If you weren't a god damned coward!"
The animal across from him rose his arm, pointing one of the long blades at Seven, "You're one to talk, hiding behind masks." He said, "So why don't we stop lying to each other and ourselves and finish this the way it the way it was meant to be finished?"
Seven rose his free paw, pulling his hood away slowly; what lay beneath was a young, battle worn fox. His light chestnut fur waved against the bitter night wind that blue through the rooftops. What appeared to be some sort of white bandages wrapped about his muzzle covering the lower half of his face. A thick white tuft of hair started just shy of his forehead trailing back down his skull to the back of his neck, and his eyes thought filled with anger and rage were a deep jade that seemed to even glow in the city's night. A single, elongated scar stretched from the corner of his right eye, crossing his cheek and vanishing below the bandages that hid his muzzle from sight…
This was the one part of Seven's past that he could never let go of, this one animal had ruined everything he'd ever held dear. A powerful wind blew through the rooftops as small specs of white slowly began to fall around them.. He'd save no more time for words……
