Chapter 20

Dark Messages

-Hurth; 3rd Moon of Katina-

Krystal stepped away from her small ship giving Sierra a wide view of the open area; the older Cerinian took a deep breath of the heavily chilled air as they looked over a vast but gentle snowfall over an otherwise peacefully small city. Hurth was a colony planet, nothing more than a smaller moon usually with a much more varied temperature than the larger planet it orbited. It was normally assailed by gentle snowfalls much like what they were experiencing now, yet the temperatures rarely became unruly, it was often compared to a land permanently trapped between winter and spring. As Sierra looked to her older companion Krystal tilted her head toward the sky taking a deep breath; the cold was something that her and Fox had always shared a common love for, the only difference being that Krystal had grown up in a tropical environment so she didn't really mind hot weather all that much either Fox could tolerate but not stand the heat for much of too long. The older vixen smiled as she looked over Sierra who was not touched by a single flake of white, rather fresh water rolled from her fur, a heating trick her father had clearly taught her to deal with overly cold environments during her training. It was a short stroll out into the open, very few cars lined the streets here as most people enjoyed walking or riding the occasional T-board wherever they went. Krystal was a bit curious about why Angel would be in such a place, after all it was fairly well known in Angel's circle of friends that she didn't exactly like the cold. In all accounts it was a rather wonderful place to visit, and Fox and Krystal visited it off and on, even taking their two month long honeymoon there. Unfortunately, the two of them were there for a reason and if Krystal recalled her days as Kursed, there was one person in the entire city that would know where any bounty hunter would be inside such a city without a second thought on it, a young wolverine named Ross; he was an unusual individual who'd spent a long span of his younger years as a hunter himself, before finally making enough money to return home to Hurth where he lives out his dream of owning the most popular bakery and cafe in the area.

It was a small shop in the middle of the city, not far from any business districts in specific making certain just about anyone was capable of stopping by if need be for any reason. The little shop was just as Krystal was certain she would always find it, each seat warming a tail from around the city. Of course any male in the Lylat system could spot the, sometimes Infamous Krystal McCloud from some fair distance away. Sierra had noticed that there was a large number of eyes on her from the moment the sapphire vixen stepped into the small shop. It was to be expected, after all she was the one that had taken the most eligible bachelor in the system off the market, it was only natural for her to catch a little flak for it. However, as she took a seat the moment a small table cleared out, the entire place seemed to forget about her all at once. It was not much longer before a stout fellow approached their table with a small note pad in his hand. He was thick and short, like a very small bear with black fur and a white stripe along his back and tail. He used the back end of a pen to scratch his cheek just under the leather patch covering his left eye before he chuckled a bit...

"When Jas, told me there was a blue fox in the dining area, I was hoping it was you," He said causing Krystal to stand up and hug the individual before sitting back down before he shifted his eye toward Sierra, "Wow, if you're not Angel's kid I'll eat my own tail."

Sierra could only chuckle before clearing her throat, "You know my mom?"

"Course I do," Ross replied with a smile before taking a seat at their table, "your mom's been coming in here ever since Kursed stopped taking care of the no goods that keep coming around. Guess you could call her a bit of a replacement. I wish I could tell you where she is right now, all I know is that she went off into the city looking for Him."

Krystal breathed deeply through her teeth, "Eric..." The name rasped over her tongue like a growl, "...so D was right he did live."

The wolverine nodded, "Yeah,Angel noticed it right away. Senator from Stygian; said there was something weird about his eyes. If it helps any, she assured me she'd be back here before night. If that's the case though, she's been sleeping in the spare flat upstairs, feel free to order something. You know you're always comped here, and I wouldn't dream of charging Angel's family a blind cent for anything. So you two go ahead and order something and I'l have it sent upstairs."

"Thank you Ross," Krystal smiled as the wolverine stood up, "I feel like we could both use a rest, and I think there might be some explaining to do."

Knowing that Angel would return some time in the near future, the two made their orders and retired to the upstairs room. More like a small apartment it was a room that Krystal was all too familiar with. In her days as Kursed, this became a safe haven when she was out and working anywhere near Hurth, that way she could be out of the public eye and safe from too much scrutiny. It was a decent little living area, a large bed, a small bathroom, fairly large mini fridge, fairly old television, and a few other small amenities. It was there that Sierra found comfort in the large bed, where several scraps of clothing lay from someone who'd recently changed. Krystal actually found it a bit adorable seeing Sierra attempting to fit into what Krystal was certain to be Angel's clothing. It was a while yet before an unfamiliar individual knocked on the door allowing the two to know that their food had arrived which Krystal was quick to bring into the room before settling down at the large dinner table the rooms had been supplied with; Sierra was equally impressed with just how much Krystal seemed to be capable of eating, it was just like Marcus, he was fairly small but seemed to eat more than Maryk. Then again, now that she thought about it long and hard, she and her father had always been capable of eating far more than her mother was as well. Maybe it had something to do with their abilities, whatever the case was there was little reason for that to bother her much, after all the sapphire vixen was expecting...

The thought brought to mind a question, "So..." She paused a bit, "...when are you?..."

Krystal paused mid-bite before shaking her head, "I suppose there's no real harm telling you. There won't be another baby anytime soon..." She sighed, "...sadly this was the fifth false alarm. You see Fox is naturally sterile, in fact most of his immediate family has been; Beltino and Slippy's family has been helping the McClouds with the issue since before Fox's father was around."

"So Marcus is someone else's kid?"

Krystal chuckled enjoying a bit more of her food, "Not quite, it's a bit more complicated than that I'm afraid. See, Slippy's great grandfather was a very good friend with someone who called himself Darion McCloud, according to the facts however, up until this man appeared the name McCloud didn't even exist. The military thought it would be a terrible loss when they learned that he was sterile. A small team of individuals grouped together with the Oinkonney family's knowledge of genetics and managed to synthesize...well," She thought for a moment, "no real way to sugar coat this. Not really synthetic semen, but, they managed to make an exact living specimen based on the man's DNA. They called it much more advantageous than cloning. They only just discovered however, that the process is starting to fail. This was our fifth attempt after Marcus and so far it still hasn't worked a second time. I think we both wanted a second child before he..." She stopped talking as all expressions seemed to vanish from her face and her mind seemed to trail off, loosing sense of whatever conversation they'd been having.

For the longest time Sierra simply sat there watching Krystal remain in a dazed state, her face seeming like she was on the verge of tears though none seemed to come; as if something was deeply saddening her but she simply did not know how to process the idea of it, "Ummm...Miss Krystal? You okay?"

Krystal seemed to snap back to her old self fairly quickly blinking and looking about for a moment, "No dear, I'm fine. Just a bit lost in thought," She sighed gently scratching her cheek before moving away from the table, "I think I could use some rest."

The young vixen watched as Krystal made her way to the bed before slipping a strange device around her head, after which she seemed to instantly fall asleep upon touching the pillow she chose to lay on. She on the other hand found herself back and forth, not capable of standing still in the room; she wondered if her mother would recognize her, it seemed to be an impossible idea after all it had been so long since they'd seen each other, she even wondered if she'd recognize her mother in fact. At this point of her life she could only really recall ever seeing her in photos anymore, and on top of that, what would her mother think? She didn't consider herself terribly successful, she was a bit average in fact, spare the fact that she often heard people refer to her as a walking Incinerator; thinking about it all caused her to wonder even further about where she stood with Marcus, he'd seemed much more accepting to her when he'd woken up on the gate station. Walking about the room brought her to become aware that she was still wearing the same clothing from a day or two ago, which caused her to stop as she moved by a full length mirror at the side of the room as she tossed her shirt to one side before stepping out of her jeans. She gave the vision looking back at her a questioning glance as she looked over everything she'd ever felt insecure about with herself. Her hair had never bothered her, she actually liked it where it rested, she did however quickly note that , as Marcus had pointed out her ears were quite a bit longer than his, or even Krystal's. Tuning to the side, she brushed her hands over the dark red bra she wore before looking to he reflection, in specific the tuft of fur situated just above her backside. Cocking her head to one side, she wondered why it was something that bothered her so much; she knew where it started, but why did it still bother her? Possibly because it was so very different than other vulpine that she'd seen before; but given a good long look, was it really so bad? She looked over the dark gray jean shorts she picked out of the things she'd packed for their trip and after a carefully thought out modification stepped into them before fastening them about her waist, now allowing herself to flick her tail about a bit , now in perfect view through the rough hole she'd made. For a shirt, she'd noticed a slight chill in the air, even though this didn't really bother her, she chose from her favorite shirts; the one she chose was a sleeveless dark gray hoodie, crimson letters across the chest of which spelled out BITCH in a style of font which looked like blood dripping from the word; a gift from Maryk sort of a gag but, a shirt she'd always loved since the day she'd received it. Fairly pleased with the look she finally found herself able to take her mind off of her constant rambling thoughts, ending with her finally nodding off while laying on the large sofa near the middle of the room.

It felt like only a brief second that she was out before the sound of muttering voices woke her; she must have been sleeping rather deeply as she found that sound did not come in clearly right away, neither did her eyesight. However, as she allowed herself to slowly wake she took notice that her head was laying across the solid structure of an incredibly well toned thigh; A glace upward and beyond the hills of flesh that blocked her view, Krystal's face looked down at her before looking back to the television. There some newscaster or other went over the details of a small chase that had taken place only recently at the far end of the city which had broken into a shopping mall along with a rather terrible shoot out which was all eventually ended by a tall, black furred bunny who Sierra attempted to get a clear look at but found the video simply could not allow for a good view of anything really. As she sat up Krystal shook her head with a light chuckle before standing and giving the signal to follow after her. Dawnstairs in the lobby there was no kind of commotion at all, but, she wasn't really sure what it was she expected. These were bounty hunters, they were used to seeing this kind of stuff on a daily basis. She'd been looking forward to seeing such a thing, considering her love for all the stories she'd heard about Kursed, but, upon meeting Krystal and seeing what she was really like in person...could she really have been the ruthless killing machine that her father had made her out to be? It was clear as they sat there at their table that Krystal was looking out for someone, clearly Sierra was certain she was on the look out for her mother. It was a painfully long wait for the young vixen, yet, after a time a small surge of attention fell toward the front of the lobby where an unfamiliar form broke way from the crowd. She was a fairly tall black furred bunny with long stiff ears, her build was quite powerful though this did nothing to hide the fullness behind the white tank top she wore, though it was heavily stained with blood, mud, and random other things. Her hair dangled around her head in a horrible mess, and her jeans were torn here and there and stained likewise with her shirt. She chuckled and laughed at a few comments from the crowd as she moved to the receptionist behind the counter at the far end of the lobby who went over a few details with her before pointing toward their table. It took her only a moment to recognize the blue vixen seated next to Sierra before rushing toward them with an brilliant smile on her face, as she drew in close the bunny threw herself toward Krystal whom, with an impressive application of strength managed to swing her about before placing her back on the floor...

"K!" She shouted as she rest her hands on Krystal's shoulders, "I can't believe that you're here in this shithole. Last I heard, you married lover boy and had a kid and..." Her eyes moved to Sierra for a second, before double taking back and forth between the two for a moment. Only to stare at Krystal whom simply nodded causing Angle to turn toward Sierra, "S...sierra?"

The young vixen didn't know how to respond. What do you say to someone you haven't seen in so long you could hardly remember them or what they looked like? She attempted to say something but in the end all that left her mouth was a very weak, "H-hi Mom."

She placed her hands on Sierra's shoulders inspecting her as she knelt down to her level, "My god, you're so big," She chuckled, "and you look just like your father," She chuckled looking her over again examining the young vixen's chest before looking back up to her face, "well sort of," She chuckled pulling Sierra into a tight hug, "why did you bring her here?"

Krystal sighed heavily, "She is old enough to make up her own decisions and she wanted to see her mother. You know how difficult it is growing up without one, but you were never given a choice, she still has one; and honestly I think the three of you should be together, not searching for a crazy person that might not even be there anyhow."

Angel looked to Krystal with a very serious expression on her face this time, "K; I know after what you saw on Papetoon, it's hard to believe, but, Eric is alive and he is still just as crazy as he was before. He's already tried to kill me once and even moreover tried to kill Dravyn several times. He will do it again, and if he learns about Sierra you know he'll go for her fist. Where's D?"

Krystal gently shook her head, "I...I don't know. Last I knew he was just on his way to the Gate Station. Whatever the case let's go upstiars and figure this all out okay?"

"Yeah," Angle replied pushing back away from Sierra as she stood up, "I think I have a shitload of catching up to do."

-2 hours later-

Angel and Krystal went through all of their history together with Sierra, explaining all the times the two had shared toegether throughout Krystal's history as the Bounty Hunter Kursed. Sierra was amazed to learn that her mother was not only once considered Kursed's equal but, once lost her left arm and had it replaced with a stolen piece of military grade weaponry. They continued to chat about their past until Krystal eventually found herself worn and once again in bed; the idea worried Angel a bit, as she wasn't used to Krystal finding sleep so easily, then again she'd never seen the vixen using the strange device she wore around her forehead. It took a long while of sitting by before Angel left her seat at the table of her little apartment returning with two cups of coffee and laughing loudly...

"Are you serious?" She laughed shaking her head as she set a cup in front of her daughter before finding her seat again, "he carried you across the snow fields, and used his own jacket to cover you because your suit melted off?" She sighed shaking her head, "I guess you still have that little Marcus bug going huh?"

Sierra paused as she pulled her cup away, "Wait what do you mean?"

"You don't remember?" Angel chuckled, "you, Celine, and Marcus were pretty much inseparable when you were little."

The little vixen thought about it but nothing came to mind, "Well some things had to change when you were all pretty young. When we pulled you away, you were about four when Krystal altered your memories for your own safety. She tried it with Marcus but for some reason it didn't work. When Wolf was killed they had to wipe Celine's memory as well; of course that was at Wolf's request."

The pieces fell into place rather quickly, "Wait, Skye is Celine? And we were all friends?"

"Skye? Is that what they call her now?" Angel scoffed, "think I preferred Celine; but, yes you followed her like an older sister. Though you were always a little jealous about the way Marcus was always following after her too. Cerinian bonding sure is a strange concept. I don't know if I could handle being that close to your father; I'm sure you know by now but he can be a real handful at times."

"But...?" Sierra filled in for her with a smile.

Angle chuckled a bit at her own transparency, "But...I don't think anyone has ever cared more about me in my entire life. There's also the curse of that Lapin libido I've got and he plays into that pretty well too." She pointed out with a spry wink, which caused Sierra to shudder.

"Mom I'd rather not know about you and dad's love lives," She chuckled, "though I suppose it is good to hear that you still feel that way."

Angel sighed heavily as she took a sip of her coffee, "Well, when you get used to a certain level of treatment, you tend to get used to it, and I know he might not seem like much of a Casanova but, your dad isn't exactly a layabout when it comes to that sort of thing," She chuckled again, "honestly, I'm surprised there aren't five or six kids out there looking for me right now."

Sierra laughed this time while shaking her head, "Mom you're the worst."

The two continued about their time while not far away Krystal still lay in the apartment's large bed; the vixen had a great deal of things on her mind and the least of all were the two in the other room. She could sense, even from a great distance that something terrible was bothering Marcus, she could still feel the impulse from her sister somewhere as well. However, there was something else that caused her mind to stir a bit more than other feelings and sensations she was experiencing. It was a familiar feeling back from her days recalling how it felt as Kursed to stalk a target; the rapid pulse in her chest beat not from fear but excitement and anticipation, her breathing steadied, and her muscles flexed like a cat ready to pounce on some unsuspecting prey. Her breathing slowed and her senses cleared, suddenly her ears perked up and her vision shot back to the hawk like sense she'd honed over years of battle and hunting. Angels senses seemed to snap into attention as well upon the older style wooden door bursting from it's hinges along with a blue furred vixen whom wordlessly hurled a large chair toward the two seated at the table; in the moment that it seemed the chair would strike Sierra however, an unseen form shot through the nearby window, causing the uncertain body to careen into the chair mid-flight before they toppled across the kitchen floor. It was an instant that turned the room into a flash of steel and fire as Sierra's entire body exploded into blue hot flames, caught a bit off guard by the semi-circular blade that now protruded from the top of her mother's left forearm. There was only a moment of pause however before Sierra noticed the familiar presence that now stood crouched with a single hand on the floor in front of him. The slightly tall black furred fox wielded a long curved blade in his left hand...

"Sierra get away from her." He growled angrily.

Sierra looked to her mother before looking back to her father, "But dad I..."

"That is NOT your father...!" Angel shouted, "take a closer look."

Sierra took a moment to look the fox over; now that Angel had mentioned it there were several inaccuracies. For one her father's right leg had been injured for as long as she could remember and such a landing would have caused him great pain, this individual held his blade in his left hand, while her father was right handed not to mention the completely different blade he held in the first place,. But most of all her father's eyes seemed...different. In the span of the instant which it took for her to bring all these things to focus she felt a sting at the back of her skull as her world turned black; Angel and Krystal both lurched toward the black fox as the young vixen collapsed into his arms, yet, in that same instant he shot back across the room in another blaze of impossible speed, the table that was sent in their direction meeting the cold and cruel edge of the blade protruding from Angle's arm...

Angel retracted the blade before holding her hands up in defeat, "Eric...you may consider letting her go."

Suddenly Angle grabbed Krystal by the arm before throwing her to the ground and dropping on top of her. The room suddenly exploded into a rush of heat that took their breath away before Krystal managed to look back to the room. Dravyn's double had been blown into the far wall, where his shirt lay smoldering and a wreath of blue flames danced across the room now before a loud siren brought a downpour from overhead, extinguishing it all. Eric fell to the floor on his hands and knees, fur and hair that had been burned away slowly growing back while his labored breathing broke into a light chuckle...

"Well well," He breathed, "even more powerful than Dravyn; but, it won't help you, it won't help any of us," He said turning his head quite ominously to Krystal, "it's all true you know? The visions? You see them too, you feel it, you've witnessed it...just like she has. If there is any recompense for all the things that I've done, it will be that Dravyn will not have to deal with me any longer."

Krystal stepped forward before shoving Sierra unusually forcefully out of her way, "Wait what are you talking about!?" She demanded swinging Erick up against the wall by his shoulders, "how do you know about that?"

Eric laughed a bit more clearly this time, "You think you're the only one that can see that they're coming?" He asked, "Dravyn and I have your cells just as well. I'm sure he's seen it as well," He replied looking to Sierra, "I'm sure even the girl has seen it here and there."

"What the hell is his jabbering about?" Angel demanded pushing her way toward Krystal.

Eric's stare quickly shot back toward the semi-enraged Lapin, The shadows..." He replied, "...you think Kursed's sister is the problem, well they're using her just like they used me. They've been using all of us and they're coming."

Angel stopped before looking to Krystal, "K, what the fuck is he talking about?"

Krystal lowered the black vulpine to his feet as she lowered her head, "I've been having these dreams for a bit more than a couple years now. This massive, looming shadow washing over the entire Lylat System filled with millions of pairs of blood red eyes, all moving together in this horrifying mass; I don't understand why it's there or why I'm running from it but, I suddenly watch it engulf everyone that I know, before finally the only thing chasing after me is my own family...growling and snarling. I usually wake up the moment they overtake me. The idea of being torn apart by Fox and Marcus is...well...a nightmare, I have lost...very many hours of sleep."

"Nightmares?" Sierra scoffed skeptically, "all this crap is about nightmares?"

Angel shook her head, "Cerinian nightmares are nothing to sneeze at; Krystal once told me something she saw while she was dreaming, I call that dream my day to day life."

Eric slunk toward the shattered window as the three conversed among themselves, "The ship is the first sign, they've been watching," He chuckled a slight bit as he backed toward the window, "Corneria isn't strong enough, neither is your little army," He sighed before pointing toward Angel, "warnings are warnings, but, I still haven't forgotten, this was merely another detour. After all," He smiled standing in the window sill, "one cannot find vengeance if his target is already dead?"

As the dark vulpine seemed to tilt back on his heels, Angle leaped forward to stop him only to look out into a long drop into an empty alleyway, "K, what the fuck is going on here? What ship? What Shadows? Why would he stop to tell us this?"

In the moment Sierra cleared her throat, "Umm...not that I know anything about this cryptic bullshit but..." She paused, "...did he just mention something about the Colletta before jumping out that window?"

The moment of realization was almost too sudden for Krystal as all fell onto her at once. Not only was the Colletta alone, the military would have nothing to do with helping in the case of an emergency. She only hoped for the sake of Skye's team that they would all be safe enough, or at the very least much more prepared than intruders would hope.

-Beltino Oribital Gate Station-

-0245am-

Fox hated medical tables more than anything in most cases, ice cold metal, bare skin, even his love for cold environments could not help him cope with the idea. As he sat there however, the young vulpine simply pulled his shirt back over his bare torso. His labored breaths were becoming difficult to hide and he feared more than ever the results of Slippy's tests. They'd been keeping tabs on Fox's health for some time. There were a number of reasons he was there but mainly the results of one specific test in total. The staggering fit of coughing took him over causing him to look to a blood mess in his palm once the fit subsided; staring at the clot of blood made him wonder what Marcus would think. It was wrong to hold such information back from him, but, Krystal had been in agreement that their young son simply would not handle such information well. It was only another few minutes before his old friend entered the room shaking his head solemnly at the paperwork on the tablet he held. He only looked up to Fox for a moment before looking back to his notes before taking a seat and folding his glasses setting both his specs and tablet on the desk beside him...

"The degradation is a lot further along than we thought," He sighed rubbing his head a bit as he did so, "I've come up with some ideas about how to treat it but they're all long shots. I just don't know what part of the Exigent Process is causing the failure in your organs. Your heart more than anything."

Fox held out his hand allowing the young toad to scrape the bloody mess away into a small dish, "I know Slip," He sighed, "I guess all the times the process has been used, it's had a side effect on the McCloud DNA or something."

"Well," Slippy replied, "at least Marcus isn't showing any real signs of the degradation process like you or James did at that age. I don't like the way these tests are looking though; it's almost like your hear and lungs are tearing themselves apart inside of you."

Fox chuckled a bit, "Trust me, doesn't feel any better either. You said you might have a cure though?"

Slippy sighed as he set down his sample of blood before turning his small chair back to face Fox, "We know the degradation is being caused by an instability in your genetic structure; the problem is fixing that without extensive gene therapy, and..." He paused taping the back of his hand against the tablet on his desk, "you simply don't have that kind of time. We need something slightly...well less evasive," The blank look on Fox's face caused Slippy to chuckle, "I'm talking about fundamentally altering your genetic code so that we know for a fact that these deteriorating genes are no longer a factor."

"You're sounding a little crazy there Slippy," Fox replied, "that doesn't seem possible."

Slippy shook his head, "By all standard logic no, it shouldn't but, we've already seen it done just on a smaller scale."

Fox stood up stretching his back for a moment, "You're talking about Black Star?"

"Of course," Slippy replied, "like I said though, what they did to Dravyn and his crew is just a short dose, we're talking about a complete transference. I've gone over the number multiple times based on the information we recovered on Black Star thanks to Dravyn. Theoretically I should be able to do this; but without a lot of time to test a theory it's just that a theory."

Fox nodded as he sat back down, it was a lot to consider, "What are my odds?" He asked, "any suspected side effects?"

Slippy simply shook his head as he picked up his glasses and began to clean them on his coat, "Sixty, forty at best. Dravyn and the others went through the process and they all came out very different; for Dravyn it made him a Pyrokinetic. The treatment I'd be forced to give you would be..." He shrugged his shoulders, "...several thousand times what was done to Black Star. Fox if all goes the way I'm thinking it will, it could very much fully alter your genetic structure as it stands; I have no way of knowing what this sort of change would do to you. Could completely change who you are, could fundamentally mutate you as you stand," He shrugged his shoulders again, "could just make you develop abilities akin to the other subjects. All I know for certain is that like the other subjects you would, in all likelihood develop a very similar mitosis rate to Krystal's."

Fox laughed gently to himself, "Saving my ass without even saving my ass..." He shook his head, "...sounds like something she'd do. How long do I have to make up my mind on this? Big dicision."

Slippy simply shook his head, "Fox you don't understand," He replied with a very clear tone, "the time for thinking this shit out is done and gone. If the degridation keeps up at this rate, you'll be dead in less than a month, and the treatment is going to take most of that time. This is it...we take action now, or start planning a funeral service. It's your choice," As Fox lowered his head in thought Slippy stood and placed the tablet in Fox's hands, "look over the data yourself. I have some errands to run over in bay twelve, and an injured scientist in Sector four, I should be back in about thirty minutes. We'll talk more about it then."

As the toad headed out Fox thought to himself how much he was beginning to sound like his old man Beltino; it was always a joke between them that he was slowly turning into his father but, now he realized just how truthful that statement might have been. Turning on the tablet he began to flip through the images, what was one small spots of black dotted about his scans were now large, solid patches. The more he inspected the images the more it all started to creep into his mind; leaving Krystal and Marcus in such a way. The droplets that gathered on the screen were proof enough to him that he simply couldn't hold it all back anymore. The weight of the entire situation finally bore down on him, and he was left with no further option than to set the tablet to the side and let it all out while he was still alone...

AN: Hey all, sorry for the lack luster performance on my part here. It's been a weird couple months, job from job, financial issues, family matters. You know the shtick of the lower class working man. Well this chapter is more a set up for the rest of this part of the story than anything else, sorry for the lack of action on the better part. Don't forget to R&R the reviews help when opinions are stated. However, regardless of it all thanks mainly for the support guys.

~The Footsteps in the darkness

~SkullFox