ㅤ

Mission No. 23

Sector Y
Bolse Station Fallout

Down
ward
Spi
ra
l

Σ-γ

Unable to stand being near the kitchen, 28 wandered the ship. She did her best to respect Fox's parting wish, keeping her distance from him. Frankly, she didn't want to be anywhere near him, either. But everywhere she went, the Great Fox was dark save for the dim lights illuminating the floors, and silent barring the humming and mechanical white noise. Already, it felt like she was back in the abandoned labs again…

She had to get out of here; she had to find a way off this giant, metallic creature, or she'd end up back there again. So she prowled the ship like a caged animal, looking for a way out. She scoured the cabins, keeping a wide berth around Fox's; she crept through the storage rooms on the lower decks; and she paced around the observation room, pounding her fists and banging her elbows against the glass to test its strength—to no avail, of course. Though part of her wondered, how easy would it be to break through if she really wanted to?

Eventually 28 stumbled her way to the bridge again, where she was dazzled by the arrays of sparkling buttons, gleaming controls, and changing screens. She remembered Fox and his toy servant interacted with these whenever they needed to go somewhere, but she didn't know which ones to touch, nor in what order.

Maybe if I study them long enough, I'll be able to turn the ship around and return to that planet, "Aquas."

28 took a few shaky steps towards the controls before she froze in place. Standing by a side control panels was one of Fox's robots: Navigation ROB, she believed he called him. The cold, thoughtless individual had his torso facing the controls, but his head was swiveled around at an unsettling 180 degrees to watch her.

28 swallowed, hands wringing the hem of her shirt. Damn it, he's still here! That one's always suspicious of me… But he can't read my mind, can he? Maybe he won't know what I'm up to…

Sucking in a breath, 28 resumed walking to the central control panel, flinching at every noisy clack her claws made against the floor. When she arrived in front of the captain's chair, she looked down at the controls, examining them.

This wheel must turn the ship, but what does everything else do? How do I get us moving again?

Biting her tongue and furrowing her brow, she studied the rest of the controls. But the number of buttons, levers, dials and screens completely overwhelmed her, making her feel anxious.

She sighed. I'll never understand what these do! At least, not until I test them. I'll have to figure it out as I go. Well, it's now or never, before Fox catches me here…

Swallowing again, 28 slowly reached for the control wheel, keeping her back to ROB so he couldn't see. While she couldn't feel his cold gaze on her neck like she could usually feel others, she knew it was there all the same. But if she just turned this wheel around carefully enough, maybe—

"I will have to ask you not to touch the controls, please."

28 jumped and spun around, hands snapping back to her sides. ROB's head still faced her, and she imagined he was giving her a disapproving, suspicious stare.

"Only Fox is allowed to alter our course."

She couldn't understand his words because she couldn't see his thoughts, but she caught Fox's name among them and guessed his meaning; if she tried anything further, he would likely report her to Fox, or try and stop her himself.

Scowling at ROB, 28 clenched her fists, her knuckles turning white as they trembled. He couldn't keep her here. This rickety metal skeleton couldn't lift a finger against her; and if he did, she could easily crush him like a tin can. It would be so easy, too. Already she could feel her mind reaching out with invisible fingers, tracing ROB's hard exterior, feeling his flimsy joints, and sensing where he was weakest. She didn't hear any thoughts inside his head, so he wasn't really a person like her or Fox, right? It would be so easy to just…

But 28 unclenched her hands and sighed, releasing a pent-up breath. No, she couldn't do it. She just couldn't bring herself to destroy him.

Keeping her head down, she marched out of the bridge, leaving ROB alone with his confusing array of controls that no one could possibly understand.

Next, 28 tried the hangar. The spacious room was barren and colder than the rest of the ship, causing her to shiver and wrap her tail around her exposed legs. She scanned the cargo crates and workbenches populating the hangar till she spotted Fox's smaller winged creature: the Arwing. The graceful, blue-and-white-painted vessel still sat in its catapult, unattended. If Fox had flown her here from Venom with it, that meant she could escape the same way. A ship of that size had to be much easier to control, too.

28 climbed the stairs to the catwalk connecting the four ship catapults, scampering over to the Arwing. She didn't sense any thoughts in the hangar, but that didn't rule out the possibility of one of Fox's toy soldiers milling about. But when she got to the ship and jumped onto its wing, the creature seemed devoid of life. Unlike the "Great Fox," this one wasn't even awake. It was dormant, and she had no idea how to wake it from its sleep. In fact, she didn't even know how to get inside it. The vixen lay across the glass canopy, cupping her hands over her eyes to peer into the cockpit. The controls inside were dark, and no simpler than the ones on the bridge. And even if she could learn how to use them, she'd have to figure out how to pry open this glass shell first…

Feeling even more frustrated, 28 slipped off the canopy and descended the stairs back to the hangar floor. At a loss, she glanced around the interior again—till eventually, she noticed a sickly, green glow out of the corner of her eye.

Turning, she stared across the hangar floor to the exit. The large metal doors were still retracted into the walls, revealing the emerald clouds of Sector Y outside. The only thing separating the hangar from the void of space was a floor-to-ceiling forcefield, the constant hum of which permeated the entire room. The shimmering energy reflected in her eyes as if hypnotizing her, while the ever-present hum lulled her into a trance.

28 set out across the hangar floor, walking towards the gate. The psychedelic display beckoned to her, and something within her mind stirred, trying to answer—but it couldn't. She could feel her neurons trying to reconnect; to tell her something, or remind her of some lost memory, but the answer always evaded her.

All the same, she approached the gate till she stood a few paces from the brink. She was so close she could feel the electromagnetic field raising the fur on her arms and legs. There were two, maybe three paces of steel floor left before the track slots for the gates to slide through, and then… nothing. The void. Emptiness, like she felt in her heart. It had wormed its way into her stomach, sitting like an ever-expanding cavity, and now it was calling her back to it.

She stood on the edge, teetering as she considered it. Was it really this simple? Could she simply step through the forcefield and be free? The eddies of sparkling clouds looked so beautiful, gently wavering like a sea of green. She wondered if she could go swimming in it like the ocean on Aquas—or if it would burn her away, like the ocean on Venom.

And then she realized, it didn't really matter.

One way or another, if she stepped out there into the unknown, all of her problems would be solved. Maybe she could swim through the stars all the way back to Aquas like she wanted to. But if that didn't work, the other outcome would be fine, too. That would keep them from taking her back. She could still escape this ship, and those horrid labs. The loneliness in her heart and the hunger in her belly would both be filled—or rather, freed from the prison of her withering body till they could join the infinite loneliness and hunger called "space." So, would she stay and try to fill that empty gap inside her… or surrender to it?

28 swayed on the brink for a minute, not so much debating as simply letting the desires of her heart and body battle it out for her. There was no conscious reasoning to be had: only feeling, and eventually, acting.

Surrendering herself to it, she took a step forward.

"Please back away from the forcefield."

28 froze, then looked over her shoulder to once again find ROB behind her, though this one looked slightly different. For once she felt grateful for his presence, as he managed to snap her out of her stupor. Her heart began pounding in her chest again, knowing what she had intended to do, while her lungs forced her to gasp for breath.

"There is no atmosphere or pressure outside. Please be safe," ROB added.

28 only stared at him blankly, clutching her chest as she tried to calm her body.

ROB's optical sensors extended slightly, as if raising his eyebrows. "Are you alright, ma'am?"

"N-nas? Tashich nīe verkaru siekim."

ROB's gears whirred for a second. "Aha, Venomian. Onbitte verzai koher. Nīe ghen nizu doat…"

While ROB repeated his message in Venomian, 28 felt a little relieved that someone on the ship could understand her, and speak in a language she knew—even if he didn't seem like a real person. As she expected, he was asking her to back away from the forcefield.

A loud clang echoed through the hangar, and 28 jumped slightly. The twin gates on either side of the exit emerged from the walls, sliding across the tracks in the floor and ceiling. 28 stumbled back, letting the two halves come together in the center. She watched forlornly as Sector Y became little more than a bright slit between the gates, then freedom disappeared completely when they finally locked together. Her shoulders slumped, tail drooping.

Now she was truly trapped.

Eventually 28 gave in, knowing even if the emptiness of space couldn't devour her, the loneliness in her heart might still eat her from the inside out. She knew she shouldn't, and that he'd probably get mad, but she went on the search for Fox. Quieting her mind, 28 listened for his thoughts, then followed their echoes through the maze of passages through the ship.

The thought-waves led her to a compact room near the hangar. Little more than a closet, it housed black, pod-like chambers roughly the size of an Arwing's cockpit. Each was studded with lights and crawling with wires hooked up to monitors and power outlets. There were four in all, but the only chamber that was closed and active was the one in the far back—the same one she heard Fox's mind inside. No physical material could contain his thought-waves, regardless if it was the artificial chamber, or the todd's own skull.

Curious, the vixen crept inside the room and approached Fox's pod. The lights were blinking on the outside, and the exterior monitor displayed a video feed like the one in the rec room. Peering at it, she had trouble understanding what was going on. It seemed to show the inside of a cockpit much like that of Fox's ship, but from the perspective of the pilot. The canopy looked out over an artificial world, soaring high above rocky gray terrain while trees and plant life mysteriously faded in, as if in a dream.

But as 28 watched, the view tipped downward, and the ship plummeted. It raced faster and faster, the simulated world rendering more details as it approached the ground. The rocky crags raced up to catch it, accelerating until—

The girl flinched, tearing her eyes off the screen before it happened. When she looked back, there was wreckage strewn all over the rocks, while a filter tinged everything red. Cornerian letters flashed over the screen, but she couldn't read them. Then, just like that, the screen reset, and the ship resumed flying through the air, as if nothing had happened.

Only to immediately tip down again, repeating the horrible crash.

Ignoring the screen now, 28 timidly reached out with her mind. '…Fox?'

Silence at first. The ship crashed a second time.

"Isss that you, 28?" His voice escaped the pod muffled, and… strangely slurred. "What are you doing here? I told you not to follow me."

She gripped her elbow anxiously, standing back from the chamber. 'I was… exploring the ship. I've never seen this room before. It's not my fault you happened to be here.'

She glanced back at the screen, grimacing when the ship crashed again. 'What are you doing in there?'

"…Nothing."

Unsatisfied, the Cerinian pursed her lips and dared to venture into Fox's mind again. But when their thoughts bonded, she was treated to a distorted world where everything felt like jello or syrup. The floor and ceiling of the cockpit melded together, and the landscape looked bright and blurry, swaying beyond what the screen showed. When 28 felt Fox's head begin to turn her own thoughts to molasses, she jerked herself back out.

The vixen teetered in place, bracing herself against the pod till the floor and walls stopped spinning around her. "Urgh…" She clutched her stomach, feeling it still moving. 'Are you okay? Your thoughts are… odd.'

Grumbling, Fox opened the back of the pod—but he made no move to step out of it. When the carapace raised up, 28 was treated to the young vulpine slumped in his chair, not even touching the controls. His arms lay at his sides, sometimes lifting a silver-colored cylinder to his mouth and tipping it up, swallowing a stream of amber liquid before wiping his lips with a sleeve.

The skin beneath his cheek fur burned red, which was strange because he normally only blushed when she was unclothed. Instead, he was intently focused on the immersive display on the wrap-around screen in front of him. Together, they watched as the world in the screen tipped downwards again, then rushed towards the cockpit like a wave. On the wrap-around screens it was twice as realistic, and the vixen couldn't help but panic at the illusion of falling they created. She latched onto Fox's chair, expecting him to grab the controls and wrench his "ship" upright again, but he made no move to. While her eyes widened like a deer's in the headlights, his revealed an excited gleam.

"You know, falling isss one of the greatest feelings ever. It'ss the feeling of being weightless, doing nothing as the world moves around you. You're free from everything: gravity, the ground, your responsssibilities, your worries—all the things weighing you down. For a few, blissful moments, you feel like you're just floating…"

Fox closed his eyes and raised his arms. The decreasing gravity let him rise against the seat straps, simulating what it would feel like to really fall. Then, the wall of rock reached him. The ship impacted. The screen flashed red, and hundreds of animated pieces flew in every direction. The artificial gravity kicked in again, ending the illusion of Fox's weightlessness, and he came crashing back down into his seat. The vixen couldn't help but gasp as she watched, even though she knew it was fake.

The todd reopened his eyes, awaiting his next fix of the fleeting high. "After I killed Andross, and his lair started to collapse around me, I didn't do anything for a while. I just sssat there in the cockpit, letting my sip shink into the flames. It felt so easy to just… give up and stop trying; to let it all end there."

The ship reset, nosed down, plummeted, and crashed while he spoke.

"All throughout the war, I sssometimes wondered why I was fighting—why I still cared. I didn't care about saving anyone, really. I just wanted to kill Andross and avenge my parents, but… sometimes it seemed like a pipe dream. Sometimes I just wanted to give up."

Nose down. Spiral. Crash. Repeat.

"But I didn't. I kept fighting because my friends needed me, and because Corneria needed me—even if my own goals ssseemed so far away." He took another swig, letting the can drop and clatter beneath his seat. "But when I killed Andross, I not only saved everyone; I avenged my parents. I accomplished everything I wanted. So… why did I escape his lair? Why did I go on living without my mom and dad? Before, Slippy, Peppy, and Falco needed me. Heh, all of Lylat needed me. But now that Andross is dead, who still needs me?"

His empty eyes flashed red, reflecting the screen. "No one does," he said, answering himself.

The Cerinian swallowed. 'I'm not no one,' she said.

The todd lurched. He blinked his eyes for a second, as if realizing where he was again. For an instant—just an instant—his fingers darted for the control stick; but he quickly sank back down into his seat, the apathy overtaking him again.

"Then… who are you?" he asked.

She scowled. 'I told you, I'm Kr—'

But she caught herself, and her head slowly tilted down, tail drooping.

'…Number 28.'

Fox went silent, lost in thought as he stared darkly at the screen. This time when it showed him crash, he flinched. Glancing up at her, he seemed to realize she was present again. He switched off the simulator, and the screens and buttons went dark.

"Why are you here again?" he asked, pulling a ring tab on another can and raising it to his lips. His eyes glanced down at her shirt for a second, and she caught him oddly imagining her chest again.

'I, I came because…'

She trailed off as he downed the majority of the liquid. It was the most she'd ever seen him drink at one time; she wished it was as easy for her as it was for him.

'What are you doing?' she asked.

Fox lowered the can and sighed in satisfaction. "Getting drunk. What'sss it look like?"

'Drunk…' She remembered the confused thoughts swirling in Fox's addled brain when she peeked in, along with his distorted, shifting perception of the world. Easily, she made the connection to the silvery cans littering the fake cockpit.

'Why do you drink that if you know what it will do to you?' she asked.

He snorted. "That'sss the point. When you're sad it makes you feel happy. People drink to forget the sitty shituations they're in."

The vixen's ears folded down, guessing what "shitty situation" Fox was referring to.

'It… it helps you forget things?'

"Yup."

Her eyes darted between the amber liquid Fox was greedily guzzling and an unopened can on the simulator's dashboard. Heart pounding, she snatched the drink up, hooking a finger through the pop tab and pulling.

"Hey, you can't drink that!"

Fox dropped his own can, ignoring the liquid he spilled all over the controls. He dove out of his seat, snatching the can from the girl's hands before she could open it—but the chemical addling his brain made him lose his balance, and he fell over the lip of the cockpit, face-planting on the steel floor much like his ship had for the past several minutes.

Worried about his safety, the vixen rushed to help him up. She grabbed beneath his arms and grit her teeth, struggling to lift him in her weakened state. Fox slowly rose to his feet with her help, but he started swatting her arms away, tussling with her and trying to wrench free.

"No, ssstop. You're not strong enough. I can't… I don't want to drag you down with me!"

The Cerinian released him and stumbled back, letting Fox finish rising on his own. He shook his head, trying to recover from his fall.

"It's… it's not for you. 'Sss bad for you. You can't drink any of it—and you wouldn't like it anyway." Fox scooped up all the unopened beer cans left in the cockpit into his arms, but while his back was turned, 28 discretely shoved a can beneath the pod.

Once he'd gathered up all the cans he could find, Fox began limping away. "You ssshouldn't… see me like this…"

The todd stumbled out the door, leaving her behind. When he'd disappeared around the corner, and she no longer heard the sound of dropped beer cans in the distance, the vixen ducked beneath the pod and recovered the can she'd hidden there.

Sitting on the floor cross-legged, 28 furrowed her brow and worked the pop tab like Fox had, opening the silver can. At once an eruption of milky bubbles foamed out, soiling her hands and staining her shirt hem. She cried out in surprise, holding it far away—it certainly hadn't done that when Fox opened his. But once the foam subsided, she raised the can and drank.

Immediately the young vixen regretted it. She spat the liquid out, coughing and choking as her one-and-only gulp burned its way down her throat. It tasted downright rancid. No wonder Fox felt that way after drinking so much of it…

Brow furrowing, she turned the can around in her hand. Well, she was never going to drink this.

Sticking out her tongue, she set the can down and hugged her knees. Just like everything else, she couldn't bring herself to keep it down.

Σ-γ

Fox headed to the rec room a few hours later, humiliated and still feeling a little off-balance. He found the Cerinian vixen seated on a couch, legs pulled up to her chest while she faced the holovision. The HV was tuned to some random channel playing a Whimsy Cola ad. The remote sat by her lap, and Fox guessed she'd discovered how to use it by herself. She rested her chin on her knees, watching blankly as a quartet of Cornerian women in brightly-colored swimsuits sang and advertised different flavors of soda—though the screen flickered with static every few seconds.

As soon as Fox entered, 28 swiveled her head towards him, probably wondering if he'd still be acting "strange." The todd folded his ears down and walked in, trying to ignore the girl's attention. He felt ashamed of himself for getting drunk in front of her, but at least she didn't fully understand what had happened, and she therefore wouldn't judge him as harshly as say, Fara or Peppy would.

He made for the kitchen while the Whimsy ad played out, heating himself a mug of old coffee and hastily drinking it. After the first gulp he grimaced, lowering his head and rubbing his eyes. Geez, he shouldn't have done that earlier…

Once he'd finished the cup and mentally prepared himself, he approached the Cerinian in the adjoining room. He shut the HV off, before that annoying jingle could get stuck in his head.

"Come on, let's weigh you again."

Fox took 28's arm and firmly pulled her off the couch, but she didn't even fight him this time. Fox guided her by the shoulders into the kitchen, where the vixen stepped onto a scale he'd set up, and together they looked down at the LED numbers between her bare paws.

28 recognized many of the arrays of red marks as they flashed by: 19, 26, 28: her own, 37, and 39, but she couldn't tell if they were good or bad. She just knew that they were counting up, and Fox wanted them to go higher.

As the numbers slowed down, Fox's visage darkened. 28 kept stealing glances up at his face; while she couldn't tell what the results meant, she could glean all she needed to off his expression alone.

Eventually, the scales seemed to settle on one number without changing.

Fox grimaced, his stomach turning cold. "Okay, that's not good 28. That's too much to have lost."

He tore his eyes off the display, unable to look at or accept how much the girl weighed. 28 merely scowled down at the numbers, wondering why they wouldn't cooperate for her.

Fox flew into the kitchen, desperately raiding the pantry and cabinets.

'Fox, just stop. I'll… I'll take the needle, like I used to.'

"No," he said, hunting through the fridge. "The IV's just a supplement. It's not enough. I don't know what souped-up concoction they used to give you, but it's too late for anything ROB has. You need to start eating solid food. Just… just try, okay? Trust me, you'll get used to it."

'I won't eat it.'

Fox ignored her. Oh yes, you will…

He sat some cakes on the table before her, then guided the vixen into her seat. The high-calorie desserts would go down easily, and he knew the taste would be irresistible. His own stomach yearned for food, but he was too anxious to eat; he had to make sure she ate first—only then would he be able to stomach food himself.

"Here, eat. They're delicious—I guarantee they'll be the best things you ever tasted!"

She drew her knees up to her chest. 'It only tastes good when it goes down. When it comes up it's horrid.'

"You need the calories."

'What good will it do if I throw it back up?'

"It'll be practice. Besides, how do you know that for sure? Your body should have recovered from cryosleep by now, and you managed to keep those noodles down, right?"

She stared down at the decorative cakes. They looked pretty. They certainly smelled good. But she made no move to eat them.

"28…" he prodded.

She turned her head away.

"Krystal…"

'Stop.'

Fox huffed. He snatched one of the cakes, holding it in front of her face. "Come on, just taste it. Once you get that first bite, you won't be able to stop eating it! They're so good I had to hide them from Falco and Slippy behind the vegetable juice."

Her eye flicked at it for a second, but she glanced away again.

Fox looked at her pleadingly, but as time went on and she still shunned the cake… it began to tremble in his hand.

"You don't know how good you have it. You have someone who wants to feed you; someone who wants you to live. Someone who'll help you even when you betray them. I'm doing all the work for you besides chewing it first. Do you want me to work your jaws for you? Do you want me to push it down your throat?"

'I don't want it at all.'

"What is wrong with you? I don't for a second believe that act about throwing up delicious food. Maybe it was the cryosleep at first, or the way they fed you, but it's not anymore; that's all you. That's your choice. You're the one rejecting the food. You're intentionally barfing it back up whenever I feed you. It's like you don't even want it!"

She shook her head. 'I-I-I don't understand what's going on with me!'

"This is just another way of guilt-tripping me to get what you want. You want me to keep you here. You're so desperate you'd starve yourself to get it. Well I'm not letting your silly hunger strike go any further."

He shoved the cake in her face, causing her to flinch and shift away. "Eat! You'll die if you don't. Is that it? Do you want to die?!"

'There's no point,' she spat. 'Why would I eat if I have to go back there?'

Fox blinked, realizing it was true.

'I'd rather die than go back.'

The cake shook in his hand. His fist clenched, and his fingers squeezed into it, breaking its neat boxy shape. He pushed it against her lips, smearing them with icing.

"Eat."

28 shoved his hand away. 'Stop!'

"One way or another, this is ending up in your stomach!"

The Cerinian stood up abruptly, knocking her chair over. As Fox rounded the table 28 fled for the rec room, but he caught her shirt by the neckline and used it to sling her back into the kitchen, tearing the garment. Fox dropped what was left of the crushed cake in the struggle, tackling her to the ground. He pinned her to the tiled floor.

"Nīe, nīe!"

The vixen tried to wiggle her legs out from under him to knee him in the groin, but she wasn't strong enough. Fox reached up and grabbed another cake off the table, cramming it in her mouth when she screamed, cutting it short.

'Stop—!'

"EAT!"

She tried spitting the food out, but he jammed his hand into her mouth, forcing the mashed cake back towards her throat with his fingers. 28's eyes bulged, then she squeezed them shut, clamping her jaws down on Fox's intruding hand. Her sharp canines dug into his paw, and he cursed, but he stubbornly kept his hand in. Blood began to leak out onto his wrist, also staining the cake in her mouth red, but still Fox didn't relinquish. Enduring the pain, he shoved the food back, trying to force her to—

"Swallow, dammit!"

'Fox, stop! Please stop! It hurts!'

"SWALLOW!"

The Cerinian's muscles acted on their own, against her will. Fox saw her throat bulge for a second, and he finally removed his hand, backing off her.

Almost at once 28 coughed the food back up. Twisting beneath him, she sprawled onto the floor and retched. Once she'd gotten rid of the food again, she went limp underneath him, sobbing.

Fox sat up, watching her shoulders shake while she cried. He'd failed. She hadn't eaten any of it. He saw the numbers on the scales dropping to zero. He saw her ribs showing and her body withering away to little more than a skeleton.

"You're going to die," he said, voice cracking. "And I can't do anything about it. I can't save you if you don't let me, so why won't you?!"

Still lying face-down and shaking, 28's voice came to him. 'I don't understand! Why do you want to keep me alive? You'll never see me again, so why do you care? What do you want from me? What can I possibly give you so you'll let me stay? Just tell me, and I'll give it! I'll give you anything!'

"I just… want you to live! I swear I don't want anything else from you."

'That's not possible—everyone wants something from me. That's the only reason they keep me alive. So tell me, what is it?! What can I give you?'

She twisted around again, lying face-up on the floor. Her eyes leaked tears over her cheeks, but Fox's gaze darted down to her shirt. During the struggle, he'd torn the neckline clear down her chest. The front now lay open, exposing her breasts as they rose and fell.

Once he realized he was staring, Fox ripped his eyes off her body, but it was too late; she had noticed where his gaze fell, even through the tears.

"I meant what I said," the todd reiterated, clenching his teeth. "I don't want anything from you. Anything. But please, please just stay alive. Forget about what I want; just do it for yourself."

He rose to his feet, swaying over her for a second while he clutched his bleeding hand. Then he turned and stumbled away, leaving her to cry alone in a heap on the kitchen floor.

Σ-γ

Once he'd left, the Cerinian finally felt safe enough to get up. She lifted herself onto her elbows, humiliated by the mess she'd left on the kitchen tiles.

Using the table for support, she struggled to rise into a standing position. Through blurry eyes she caught sight of the scales again and shuffled over, stepping onto them.

As before, the numbers climbed and climbed, then gradually slowed. Why wouldn't they go any higher? Was it the food she'd lost? Was it the tears she cried?

Sniffing, she tried to wipe the tears back into her eyes, but it made no difference; once gone, they couldn't be put back.

Her mess of azure hair hung in front of her eyes, shielding them. The clock in the kitchen ticked. The fridge hummed.

She couldn't stop him. She couldn't stop them.

She bared her fangs. Her toes curled on the scale, digging into the plastic pad with her claws.

Suddenly, the numbers began to rise again. They climbed and climbed, till a third number appeared in front of the other two, and even that digit began to change as well. The scale groaned beneath her, till finally the numbers stopped at 999.

With a sharp snap, the glass over the LED screen cracked, splintering beneath her feet.

Σ-γ

Fox ducked into his cabin and locked the door. The med bay was just down the hall, and there was a first aid kit in one of his drawers, but he didn't bother tending to his bleeding wrist. Instead he made straight for the bathroom, locking that door as well.

When he finally secluded himself in the shower, he drew the curtain tightly closed, too. He turned the warm spray on, shivering beneath it not from cold and nakedness, but from fear. He begged the warmth to chase the chills away, but it couldn't melt the shards of ice pricking him from the inside.

At this rate, if he didn't take the Cerinian back to Venom, she would die—and her death would be his fault. He was responsible for her; he saved her, he kidnapped her from Venom, and he flew her halfway around the system.

He stared at his bleeding hand; diamonds of puncture marks where 28's fangs had sank into him still leaked red trails down his wrist. The shower stream only chased the rivulets of blood away for a few seconds before they ran red again.

How had he fallen this far? What happened to the Fox McCloud he was so used to being? Last year he'd saved everyone in the Lylat, but now he couldn't even save one girl?"

He blinked, realizing he'd been ranting out loud.

It became hard to breathe again. The humidity from the shower weighed heavily on his chest. His lungs stung whenever he inhaled. She was going to die, she was going to die…

He wrapped his arms around himself, trying to remember what Ms. Marjorie taught him. Breathe in slowly, hold it, then slowly breathe out. Breathe in, hold it, breathe out. Think about something else; something that made him happy.

He remembered having fun on the playset at the park while his mother looked on, smiling. She disappeared in a fiery green burst—the same one that now surrounded his ship.

No, not that memory…

He remembered eating at a café corner with Fara, the fennec laughing at the story he told. Then her back turned and she left him alone on the pier.

No…

Liza, the artist girl. Showing him her paintings in the dark. Swimming in the pool together. Wrestling in the shallows beneath the stars. The photo she led him to of his mother and Andross. The fiery green burst—

He pounded the wall, cutting it off again.

This wasn't working. It's not that he was thinking of the wrong things; it's that he was thinking at all.

Closing his eyes, he instead focused on what he could sense. The warm spray against his chest; the hot air hugging his face; the hard shower floor beneath his paws; the shower curtain opening—

Fox blinked his eyes open and turned.

The Cerinian was standing in the bathroom, as if she'd materialized from thin air. She stepped into the shower exactly as before, only this time her focus was clearly on him, and not the warm water.

'Fox…'

"You shouldn't be here!" he hissed.

She reached up, peeling the torn neckline of her shirt down around her shoulders and letting the garment drop off her thin frame. It landed around her feet with a wet splat.

"What are you doing?!"

'You want this. I know you do—I saw it in your eyes earlier. I felt it in your mind.'

Fox took a shaky step back, only to find his tail bumping up against the rear wall. He couldn't run from her; there was no escape in the cramped shower.

28 approached, stepping closer and cornering him. 'What that other girl did for you—I'll… I'll do it too, if you let me stay.'

Her arms snaked up around Fox's neck, and he tensed. She stood on tiptoes, leaning against him and kissing his mouth. Only, she clearly didn't know how to properly. Her kisses were confused, like she didn't know what to do with her lips.

Fox felt his blood pumping; his body rebelling at her touch. He'd always secretly desired the strange vixen from the moment he laid eyes on her, but… he couldn't—not after everything that happened between them; not after what they'd done; not after he knew her true feelings for him, and they were hate.

28 broke off the clumsy kiss. Parting from him, her hands slid down his chest. 'Just show me what to do, and I'll do it for you. I know I'm not as good as her, but I'll try my best.'

Fox found it difficult to swallow. "No…"

She took his paw in hers, pulling it to her body. She guided his hand to her chest and lay it on her breast. He didn't know whose trembled more: her paw, or his.

Fox could have torn his hand away at any time, but he didn't. She felt warm and soft beneath his palm. He had wanted this. He'd missed this. He was addicted to it and suffering withdrawal. But was he so desperate that he'd take it from her?

For the first time he became aware of her ragged breathing; her chest rose and fell beneath his hand, her heart pounding under his palm. She was just as scared as he was, he realized. She didn't know what she was doing; she was only repeating his memories, acting on the desires she read in him. This blood he felt racing beneath her skin wasn't from excitement; it was from fear.

'I know you want this. You're always looking here; you're always imagining them in your head whenever you think I'm not around. But I know.'

Fox felt paralyzed. She was right; he did want her. She possessed a wild, untamed, mystical beauty he'd never seen in a woman before, and he really needed someone else right now. But… the more he stared, and the more details he noticed, the less he enjoyed the sight of her.

28 wasn't just lithe; she was dangerously thin. Now he could see the striped pattern of her ribs at her sides, the taught tendons around her neck, and her bony joints. Looking at her now, his arousal… died. He began to feel sick. She wasn't a freshly-bloomed flower, but a rose wilting and withering away. She wasn't beautiful; she was gross. She was revolting. She was disgusting. He was hideous. He was pathetic. He was, he was—

Fox tore his eyes away, unable to stand the sight of his future. His hand recoiled from her breast.

'What's wrong, Fox? Why do you look away? You can't hide what you feel from me…'

The vixen pressed her body up against him. 'I'll dance with you, if you keep me here. I can make you feel like you did back then, when she was with you. I can be Fara, and it'll be like she never left. So show me. Show me how…'

She peeked into his head, overlapping her mind with his. But when she saw herself through Fox's eyes, she gasped.

'Is that me?!' her thoughts screamed in his head. 'That's not me! That can't be me! I'm so, so—'

Finally Fox had enough. He shoved her off of him and tore his hand free from her grasp, stumbling out of the shower. Without even bothering to dry off, he fled the bathroom, leaving 28 alone in the stall.

But her own disgusting image was burned into her eyes; the image of herself withering away that Fox had inadvertently shown her. It was too much; she doubled over, dry-heaving till her legs collapsed and she sat in a damp puddle on the shower floor, the spray raining on her back. Yet no matter how much her body retched, nothing came out besides gurgling rasps.

Her shoulders shook, her eyes squeezed—but no tears would fall, either.

When 28 stopped dry-heaving, she reached up to
wipe her lips. No nasty food… She felt beneath
her lashes. No salty tears… She smiled
sadly, half-laughing, half-crying. The
epiphany left her feeling lighter
than ever: lighter, and free.
There's nothing left in me,
she realized. I'm empty
now. She watched as
it all disappeared,
spiraling down,
down the
shower
drain.