ㅤ

Mission No. 47

Bolse-Y
Bionuclear Orbital Satellite

"Meltdown"

Σ-γ

Krystal lifted her eyes to the giant structure looming in the black. From her angle in the shuttle below, the light of the cold sun reflected off a lattice of steel beams: a skeletal cage of bleached ribs. The block-shaped monolith floated freely in the dark. It was suspended over nothing, for it was the ground towards which other things fell—at least, that was how she understood it. The satellite was the largest creature she'd ever seen, and it would soon swallow her like all the rest. Yet she felt no spirit emanating from within it—besides the thousands of ants, bees, and larger metallic insects weaving in and out of the structure, going about their work.

"Bolse," Andross had called it. Bolse Y.

As they drew closer, Krystal hugged the stuffed panda bear toy in her arms, as if protecting it from the satellite. The shuttle entered a mouth in the creature's exterior where it settled and released the passengers. The tall simian and his entourage of scientists walked on ahead, leaving a squad of four guards to escort Krystal inside. Everyone was so much bigger than her, and well-armed; she didn't understand why they made her wear cuffs.

Once inside it was clear the beast wasn't inanimate after all. It was alive—just sleeping; it had yet to wake. She could feel its power pulsating through the frigid metal floor, humming behind the walls, and shining down from the overhead lights. Somewhere deep inside, a heart struggled to beat, and that was exactly where Andross swept her off to.

At the end of the sterile labyrinth the hall emptied into a large atrium. The chamber was rounded out, its ceiling disappearing far above them; its floor far below. A tall pillar stood in the expanse, appearing as if its strength alone shouldered the sky of this cramped, cold world. A steel walkway led from the room's entrance and across the spacious void to the cylinder, then circled it like the ring of a planet. Out on the scaffold milled dozens of Watchers clad in white cloaks and masks, pouring over glowing displays and blinking stars arrayed around the pillar. One of them was…

"Vixy!" Krystal cried. She ran forward to cross the walkway and embrace her, but one of the soldiers brought the butt of his rifle down on the floor in front of her, blocking her way. Another raised his voice and gripped her shoulder, holding her back. He then spoke to her in a calming tone, but his hand remained firm.

At the sound of her name, Vixy turned to see Krystal and the guards approaching. But when she looked into Vixy's eyes, her face didn't light up with the usual smile. She didn't seem happy to see her. Instead she looked concerned—fearful, even.

Why was everyone always so scared of her?

Andross walked up to a yellow-furred hound clad in a green military uniform; he'd been tapping his foot impatiently. While he set his jaw firmly, Krystal could feel nervousness emanating from him; the tapping was to disguise that anxiousness as apathy.

"Well General Shears, I trust the satellite is operational and ready for the first test?" Andross asked.

"Aye. The trial will proceed as planned…"

Andross began to walk past Shears, but the hound grabbed his shoulder before he could, looking him in the eye.

"Before you continue, Doctor, remember the tragedy at Sector Z, and how much work it was covering up the loss of so many soldiers and workers—not to mention some of your own peers. We have a lot riding on this experiment today. You know who will be held responsible if this ends in catastrophe."

The simian sneered. "If you recall, that was the result of unpredictable phenomena on Cerinia; not an error in our calculations. A gate to Cerinia is unnecessary in this test." He glanced around and drew closer, but Krystal still overheard him. "And regardless of what you or I want, General, the test has been ordered to continue. Neither of us could stop it now if we wanted to."

"Even if you could, I'm sure you wouldn't," Shears grinned back.

"Life didn't crawl from the primordial sea on the fins of a coward." Andross shrugged the general's gloved hand from his shoulder and pressed on to the circular walkway.

Krystal was prodded forward as well; she wanted to run up to Vixy and greet her, but the guards had her surrounded. Instead they took her to yet another extension of the walkway that bridged the final gap to the pillar. There, standing but a few feet from the column, she looked up its towering side and tried to make out the top; but its head disappeared into the shadows far above. She certainly dared not look over the side of the walkway into the abyss to see where its base sat below.

The machine began to hum, and a pair of reinforced blast doors split apart in front of her. They separated to reveal a chair sitting in the middle of an onyx-black sphere. The shells forming the sphere were surrounded by rings of concentric circles; slowly they aligned themselves with one another, permitting access to the bleak chair within. The seat looked uncomfortable and foreboding, with neck, arm, and leg clasps already opened, waiting to ensnare her.

Fear gripped Krystal in that moment, for she realized they intended to have her sit in the black sphere, and the tower would swallow her, becoming a new prison. She looked back at Andross, but his expression was one of confidence and excitement. She looked to Vixy, but only saw strain in her face; the strain of having to hold herself back.

The sound of wheels approached from behind, and she turned to see the baboon scientist Dr. Liebegute rolling a table her way; it carried several tubes of a pale, iridescent substance she was quite familiar with, as well as a roll of gauze and a syringe.

At the sight of the shining needle she tensed and gripped her teddy bear tighter. Another needle. Again and again and again, the needle. Prick and stab and pinch. Stinging and soreness in one instant, followed by a sickening drop in her stomach and a strange feeling in her head.

One of the soldiers took her arm and guided her towards the chair, his face expressionless, but she could feel how torn he was on the inside. Yet before he could seat her on the cold throne—

"Wait!"

Vixy and another female scientist rushed over to Andross, who looked irritated at having to stop. The teal-furred rabbit—Vivian, she thought Vixy called her—adjusted her glasses and presented him with a glowing tablet.

"Doctor, we've been going over the core's schematics, and its entire structure is unstable."

"Yes, Dr. Hare, I thought we were all aware of that? It's… a calculated risk we decided to take—is it not? There is a high uncertainty factor, to be sure, but the most probable outcome today is success. I am quite confident in your abilities and the abilities of all the esteemed scientists here—and I am most confident in my own."

The hare and vixen looked at one another worriedly before Vixy spoke. "Well Doctor, if you're so confident of our chances of success, why not use me instead?"

The simian balked and stared at Vixy with wide eyes. "You can't be serious! Are you suggesting—?!"

"You're so quick to gamble the life of an innocent child; perhaps you would be more cautious with the life of someone you actually cared about; that of a valued colleague—or a dear friend?"

It was true. Krystal saw it in his eyes; he never looked at the vixen the same way he looked at anyone else.

"But Vixy, you're not… not—"

"Not what, Dr. Andross?" she challenged, eyes narrowing.

This seemed to corner him. Uncharacteristically flustered, he glanced around at each of his most-trusted scientists in turn, then at General Shears, who looked between them with a mix of confusion and irritation. Even the nameless guard who had been pushing Krystal forward stopped in his tracks, eager for any excuse not to go through with his orders.

"It's… it's against protocol!" Andross spluttered. "We agreed to test the core with Number 28, and we should adhere to those plans!"

"I'm perfectly capable of taking her place," Vixy claimed. "Inject me with the lysergic acid instead. Let me power the core—or are you actually worried there might be something wrong with the satellite?"

Krystal looked up at the two scientists towering over her, staring each other down with her in between: Vixy defiant, and Andross feeling trapped.

Ending the standoff, the primate sighed and sleeked his silver hair back; Krystal had only ever seen him capitulate to Vixy—never to anyone else.

"So be it. Give her the full dosage. We shall conduct the preliminary test of the core with Doctor.… McCloud." He nearly spat the last word for some reason.

Relieved, though her ordeal was only beginning, Vixy sat in the chair and let the scientists close the restraining clasps around her appendages, while Vivian looked on worriedly. Andross kept his expression stoic and unreadable, and he never looked her way. Meanwhile the baboon scientist—Liebegute—wheeled the cart closer to the chair and rolled up Vixy's sleeve. With practiced precision he slipped the needle into the crook of her elbow and began emptying tube after tube of the liquid into her arm. As he injected her with the chemical, Vixy looked down at Krystal and put on a smile, trying to tell her everything would be alright.

With a disapproving frown, Andross flicked a finger and gave the signal. The two halves of the blast door reunited, sealing Vixy within; the last Krystal saw of her between the ever-thinning crack was her tranquil face, eyes closed and head tilted upwards as if in meditation.

It was at this moment that Krystal felt a sinking feeling in her gut, while a pitcher of ice water flowed through her veins. Everything was wrong; she knew exactly how it would turn out and how the satellite met its doom. She wanted to scream and warn the white-clad phantoms of their coming destruction, but everyone seemed to ignore her; brushing past as they flitted from screen to screen. Nor would her body obey her own commands, or her lips cry the words her mind did so loudly.

She remembered; the whole satellite was about to explode, like she had seen it repeat so many times in her nightmares.

The sequence of events began to replay precisely as she remembered it, in the exact same order. Despite all her efforts she was powerless to change its course. Like an ant atop an old watch, the gears of the machine so much bigger than her were already set in motion, and all she could do was watch them wind down as it all came to a giant, catastrophic head—

ㅤ⦲ㅤ

With a jolt and gasp, the vixen awoke and panted for breath, catching the last echoing flashes of emerald lightning on the walls of the hut. Even for Cerinia the green wasn't normal for lightning; she had suffered many thunderstorms in the temperate valley and had never seen its like before.

Many of the other girls in the dorm awoke as well, some sitting bolt-upright on their mats. Even Māra gasped and sat up, staring around with wide eyes. "Goodness but that was loud!"

Hana groaned and rubbed her eyes on the other side of Krystal. "Ughhh, I was having such a dreadful nightmare…"

"It must be this horrid storm. It's worse than usual, but this feels like it's right over the house!"

Realizing the thunder had awakened her from her own nightmare, and that she was far away from any real danger, Krystal fought to get her breathing under control. It had only been a dream—well, a memory. She could still hear the dull roar from that explosion years ago, though it faded into the white noise of the storm and buffeting rain. Sweat soaked her fur and robe, and her heart continued to race—but she was safe.

When Māra saw the look of fear on Krystal's face, she swallowed. "Oh Krystal, you look like you had a nightmare too!" She rubbed her back. "Do you want to tell me about it?"

Māra was right. She needed to talk to someone: someone who could listen to and comfort her, to hold her and make her feel safe as the nightmarish memory refused to leave. She opened her mouth to tell her, but at the last second caught her tongue.

…No: she couldn't share that with the other vixen. A world of difference still separated her from her new sisters; they only knew flowering trees, delicious foods, and beautiful things. They couldn't relate to the dark cages, cold lights, and violent past that she had come from. To expose Māra and the other girls to those images would be like casting her own cloud over their peaceful valley. It would frighten them, and make them dislike her—and if anything, she was the one who'd brought these nightmares upon them…

Hana lay a paw on her heaving shoulder. "Krystal?"

Instead of recounting the nightmare, she forced a faint smile and touched her hand. "No, I'll be alright. Let's just… get some rest."

As peals of thunder continued to intermittently sound overhead, and torrents of rain buffeted the house, the Cerinians lay down and returned to sleep.

But when the others slumbered once again, Krystal's eyes flashed opened. Clutching her night robe tightly about her, she rose from her sleeping mat and gingerly stepped over the other girls, careful not to wake them as she left the dorm room.

She couldn't tell her new friends, she couldn't tell the elders, and she couldn't tell Namah—but there was someone who'd promised to be there for her no matter what.

Outside the cabin the rain began to soak her, so she ran to make her journey briefer. Because of the storm no one patrolled the streets that night; everyone was asleep inside where it was dry, so there was nothing preventing her from taking the main path through the village and forest.

Lightning streaked across the sky, and Krystal glanced up with wide eyes, watching as it lit the clouds behind the canopy of branches. The thundering boom was louder now that she was outside, the sensation once again reminding her of the nightmare. Gritting her teeth, she kept her head down and eyes on the path, using the intermittent strobes to light her way.

It was worse on the other side of the trees; the open fields provided little cover save the tall grass, and Krystal found herself instinctively crouching to envelop herself in the brush as she ran. With every flash of lightning she saw the memory of the explosion repeated, but she pressed on through the storm, knowing respite lay just on the other side of the grass sea.

ㅤ⦲ㅤ

Another peal of thunder sounded through the walls of Itoro's hut, and Fox turned over on his mat. For some reason he couldn't sleep that night, the restlessness more than the result of the storm. Try as he might, he couldn't find a comfortable sleeping position, nor could he shake the anxious feeling that something wasn't quite right.

His ear twitched; a muffled pounding seemed to come from the front door. It wouldn't be loud enough to wake Itoro; the old fox was a heavy sleeper, and his snoring was even louder than the thunder on most nights. At first he brushed it off as the rain bucket banging in the wind, but the pattern was too consistent.

'Fox…'

He couldn't have imagined that!

Fox flung the covers off himself. He grabbed a light tunic and threw it on while he walked through the darkened hall. The banging only grew louder as he approached the door. Finally with a squeal of hinges, he flung it open to reveal Krystal standing on the threshold—and she made for one of the sorriest sights he'd ever seen.

Lightning flashed for an instant, allowing Fox to catch a glimpse of her just as she flinched. Her soaked robe clung to her frame and weighed her down; her hair and matted fur were shiny with water. But even through the misery, he couldn't mistake the look of relief on her face when he answered the door.

"C-Come in!" he stuttered, stepping aside to make way.

Krystal nodded in gratitude and ducked past him before Fox shut the door. He turned to find her standing in the middle of the room, arms clutching her sides as drops of water began to pool on the floor.

"Krystal, did you run all the way here in that storm?!"

She didn't answer for a second, instead staring at him with watery eyes. Then her lip trembled and she rushed forward, embracing him. The act startled Fox, and he nearly pulled away to keep from getting soaked—but he returned the hug and held Krystal tight. As she cried on his shoulder, he wondered whatever could have brought on this episode.

Fox craned his neck, but thankfully Itoro's door remained shut. He began to lead Krystal to his room. "Come on, let's get you dry, and you can tell me what's wrong."

Ferrying her inside, Fox had Krystal sit before the black iron stove in his room. The vixen sat in a wet, bundled mass, sniffing while he began stocking the furnace with wood and kindling. Then, after a few frustrating attempts with his flint and tinder (he missed the ease of matches and lighters), Fox managed to catch a spark on the flammable hay and set the stove alight. Soon, with a little coaxing, he had a warm blaze going that emanated heat and light throughout the room.

Thankful for the warmth and eager to get out of her wet clothes, Krystal shed her soaked night robe. She wrapped her arms around her bare frame and shivered, her damp, azure fur shining in the light. Fox blushed when he took her only garment and hung it on the wall to dry, but quickly replaced it with one of his spare blankets.

"Th-thank you," she stammered through the shivers as he draped it over her. She clutched the front of the blanket closed with a fist over her chest.

Fox awkwardly sat down beside her, wondering if she wanted him to be closer. "…Do you want to tell me what's wrong now?" he asked. "It must be pretty bad if you came all the way out here on a night like this, just to see me."

Krystal looked down at the wood floor in shame, her shimmering locks falling over her face. "Oh, you'll laugh when I tell you…"

He shrugged. "I couldn't sleep anyway, and I'm glad to have your company anytime—even in the middle of the night!" he smiled.

"Well… I had a nightmare."

She was right; if it had been anyone else, Fox would have laughed, or at least chuckled inappropriately. But because it was Krystal, and because he knew of her horrible dreams, he didn't even crack a smile; on the contrary, he frowned worriedly.

Slowly he asked, "Do you feel well enough to tell me about it?"

She sniffed and looked back up. "It wasn't a dream, really; it was more of a memory. Andross was there, and the Watchers, and my… your mother as well. All of them were at some large place in the black ocean; it was bigger than your ship—even bigger than the gate we passed through to get here. It… it was destroyed right in front of me."

At the mention of Vixy, Fox's ears perked. "She was there?" he repeated. "Can you… can you tell me everything that happened? It may help if you talk about it."

Krystal released a broken sigh. "I'll try, but… I may not be good at describing it."

"Then, could you show it to me? Like we did before?" He reached between the folds of the towel and took her free hand in his, holding it tightly.

She returned the grasp, the act reminding her of the time they shared memories by the waterfall. "Alright, if you think it's a good idea. Whenever you're ready…"

The two foxes closed their eyes, and Fox concentrated on reaching out to Krystal mentally—though he wasn't sure how much a non-Cerinian like him could do on his end. Their minds overlapped, and she let him inside, seeing the aurora of her thoughts. The backdrop of the dazzling light display showed soft oranges and pinks that shifted and swelled at a relaxed pace; they seemed to be her overall mood, safe and warm now that she was here with him. But underneath the surface, the lights shimmered and oscillated much faster, revealing a whirlwind of confused emotions—and when Fox looked into those darker colors, they were made up of thousands of tiny images flashing by.

'Okay, I'm ready…' he told her.

Σ-γ

A low, powerful hum rose from the silence, and the core began to rotate slowly. The dull white lights in the satellite's interior surged brightly, as if crackling with new life. Behind the pristine metal walls, machinery groaned and began to move. A new heart had been placed in its chest; the leviathan was finally waking up.

"Doctor, the subject is beginning to output higher levels of energy than we anticipated… she's exceeding the threshold!"

"Remarkable…" Andross mused while scratching his beard. "And to think if we had used Subject 28 we would have surpassed that amount by an even greater margin…"

"Output is still rapidly increasing!"

"Let's see how far this goes. The test has only just begun! Apply the reactor pylons and begin the cooling process."

Far above their heads and below their feet, a series of glowing blue cylinders extended from rotating rings to the central core, matching its lazy spin. A thin sheen of ice spread out around where the pylons docked in the column's side, initially cooling it. But they weren't enough; still the core's energy levels rose, till the cooling rods began to glow red-hot.

"Exceeding half a trillion kilowatt-hours!"

A fire gleamed in Andross's eyes; the scientist's now hungry smile widening.

"Connect all operable functions of the satellite to the core and make use of that energy! Channel all the excess into beams aimed outside Lylat's plane."

All around Krystal, the satellite came to life, pumping more and more blood through its dormant veins. It stretched and tested its muscles, as if waking from a long hibernation.

General Shears' expression was one of awe and inspiration; his exposed thoughts raced with visions of grandeur and the uses he would put such a wealth of power to.

"One-point-two trillion kilowatt-hours!"

"ANDROSS!" Vivian shouted, shaking the scientist's shoulder.

This seemed to wake him from his euphoria. No longer intoxicated, he waved his hand in a downward motion. "Enough! It's even more of a success than we anticipated! Shut the core down now."

Liebegute complied, hunching over a monitor and inputting commands. He glanced up worriedly at the core, taking note that it had not reacted in any way. Hurriedly this time, he typed away on the control panel, yet nothing seemed to work.

"Doctor, the core isn't responding! The shutdown command is going through, but it won't obey!"

"Nonsense! I accounted for the differences in the subject! How could—"

"It's not the subject!" Liebegute interrupted, "the core wasn't meant to handle this much power; it can't shut down!"

"Andross, what's happening?!" Vivian cried.

The simian stood gazing at the core with wide, crazed eyes. He gave a short, gasping laugh, then tugged at his collar. "My dear colleagues… we may have another one on our hands."

A shower of sparks and molten metal rained down from above, causing the group of scientists to scatter and look up. They were just in time to escape being crushed and incinerated by the flaming carcass of one of the reactor pylons; it fell from hundreds of feet above, mangling their equipment and twisting part of the circular walkway into the abyss below.

"This can't be happening!" Shears cursed. "Can't you stop it?!"

But Andross ignored him. "Sound the alarm! Evacuate all personnel from the satellite immediately!"

Klaxons blared from every direction at once, and Krystal fell to her knees, covering her ears. The lights dimmed and faded to blood red to conserve power, but even then they flickered on and off, sometimes flashing back to white like lightning when the core's energy jumped the circuits. The small crowd of scientists fell over each other in their effort to escape, but one figure pushed through them in the opposite direction: Vivian.

"What about Vixy?!" she demanded. "She's still in there! Is there no way we can—?"

"I'm trying!" Andross shouted. Now only he, Vivian, Liebegute, and Krystal remained on the walkway, which dangerously swayed beneath their feet. Liebegute worked frantically at the control panel while Andross rushed across the scaffold to the core's center. As the baboon brought the core's rotation to a standstill, Andross seized the manual release to the door and threw his shoulder against it.

"GO!" he ordered Vivian, "See the others out safely! I'm not letting her die because of my mistakes!"

The hare desperately scanned the walkway but didn't spy the small form of Krystal cowering on the floor. With one last glance back at the core which held Vixy, she turned and left.

With one final heave, Andross twisted the lock the rest of the way, and the blast door guarding the center of the core split open. A blinding aurora of multi-colored light poured forth from the inner chamber, causing Krystal to look away, but Andross continued on. She didn't see what happened next, but over the alarms and reverberations shaking the satellite she heard a blood-curdling scream from the mouth of the ape.

He emerged from the light, staggering to-and-fro and badly burnt, but with Vixy in his arms—yet when Krystal looked at the woman he carried, she didn't recognize her anymore. Rainbow licks of flame danced across her fur—the tufts along her arms standing on end as if electrified. Whenever her eyes flittered open, they betrayed no pupils; only blinding orbs of pure, white light.

She barely looked like Vixy anymore. In fact, she barely looked mortal.

Liebegute rushed over and put his hands beneath Vixy to help Andross carry her, but when he touched the woman he cried out and recoiled, shaking his paws.

"Andross, this is it. This is the end of the project—and us! You know what will happen if we face the government; we already failed them once. You must take Dr. Reinard and come with me to Eladard! We have powerful allies there, and buyers!"

"I can't put Vixy through that again!" Andross shouted, voice cracking as he cradled her unconscious body. "I must get her away from here. If they hear she was used instead of 28 and was successful, they'll never let her go! I have to hide her far from here. I have to take her b—"

"If you slip through the gate to Cerinia the Cornerians will catch you on the way out! That surely means death for you, and the project is done for!"

Andross glanced between Vixy and the exploding core. It was clear he knew this might be his end.

"Go: take the rest of the Cerinians to a safehouse on Macbeth. You must order them there before the Cornerians react! Lie low and continue the experiments in secret."

"But what about you?!"

"I've made up my mind. Vixy must not fall into their hands, nor am I willing to sacrifice her. I'll take her to Cerinia even if it means I'll be caught. They might kill me outright, but if I'm fortunate they'll turn me into a scapegoat. Poplar Sector is too close to Corneria to cover up; they'll have to go public about it, and the people need someone to direct their ire at. If I'm lucky they'll exile me to Venom. If they do, come for me. If not, continue the experiments. Lylat must be awakened."

Liebegute nodded. "Good luck, Doctor. May fortune favor you!"

Spotting Krystal, the baboon grabbed hold of her arm, his grasp pinching like talons; then he began dragging her back across the walkway. In the process she dropped her stuffed panda bear, struggling to keep up with the larger scientist as she sobbed.

While Krystal had trouble understanding what was going on, she knew deep down that this was the last time she would see Vixy again. Reaching out towards the crumpled woman, she screamed desperately above the sirens, "MOOOOOOM!"

But Liebegute jerked her in front of him, glaring down at her. "She's not your mom—you never had a mother. You're not even an orphan; you're less than an orphan! Now shut up you worthless shit and keep up!"

At the end of the walkway they joined with a few of Andross's loyal scientists. They fled through the shaking halls of the collapsing satellite, then boarded an emergency shuttle and departed.

With tears blurring her vision, Krystal watched through the spaceship's rear window. Bolse-Y still looked immeasurably large, even from thousands of miles away; almost as big as a planet or moon.

Sensing the muted, jumbled thoughts of Vixy, and the frantic yet distant thoughts of Andross, she zeroed in on a tiny speck of light flying away from the satellite. In a blink it disappeared, and the echoes of their thoughts with it, leaving only a confused, terrified swarm of lights scattering from the blocky leviathan.

Then the entirety of the void of space glowed from black, to green, to white, and she was flung off her feet—

The explosion rocked Krystal to the core of her being. She curled into a tight ball, squeezing her eyes shut and burying her face in her knees, but there was no escaping the resulting shockwaves. Surge after surge of brutal force washed over her; it felt like being swept under by a wave, buffeted back and forth in the dark until she was so disoriented she didn't even know which way was up. It was the loudest sound she had ever heard, roaring higher and higher till it became all-encompassing. There was nothing else; only the sound.

ㅤ⦲ㅤ

When it was over, the memory left Fox speechless. The images faded, leaving the two of them back in his little guest room. Surprised, Fox found himself rooted to the floor, as stiff as a statue. His grip around Krystal's hand had become iron-tight to the point of hurting her; he had been the one holding onto her for support.

It was like reliving his mother's death all over again.

Only… she didn't die in the satellite. She died on Cerinia—not too far from where he was now—to something far, far worse.

Finally Krystal's soft sobbing reached his ears, and he realized he was crushing her hand. He let go and pulled back, staring at her in stunned silence. It was difficult looking at her, soaked and scared and crying before him. Pity and regret swelled in his heart, and he forgot about his own woes for the moment. He leaned forward and wrapped her in his arms tightly.

Crying louder now, Krystal hugged him back and rested her head on his shoulder, soaking his tunic with something other than the residual rain.

He rocked her back and forth gently, a tight lump forming in his throat. "I'm sorry, Krystal. I can't believe you've been carrying that memory with you all these years; it must've felt so heavy." Then, mentally punching himself, he added, "I'm sorry I made you recount it to me. I shouldn't have—"

"No! I'm glad to have finally shown someone." She hugged him tighter. "Only… sometimes I think everything that happened is my fault. If I had been the one to sit on that seat, none of this would've happened! Vixy wouldn't have taken my place and been cursed with the same power. She would've lived if I had been the one!"

Suddenly she pushed away from Fox and turned her back to him, cowering in the corner.

"I'm so sorry Fox," she sobbed. "Your mother is dead because of me! Everything that's happened to you is because of me!"

She blurted out words so fast he struggled to keep up with each new blade she sliced across herself. "If not for me, those thousands of people would still be alive—and your mother as well—and Andross would never have rebelled—and your father would never have gone after him and gotten killed—and the war never would have started—and you never would have had to fight and see all those horrible things—and you wouldn't have had to turn your back on your people and run off with me. Me, the person that caused all these things in the first place—"

With every knife she cut herself down with, Fox felt a mirrored one rake across his own heart. Unable to listen any longer, he came up behind Krystal and grabbed her shoulders, spinning her around. She faced him with glassy, tear-soaked eyes that wouldn't meet his.

"Krystal, stop it!" he pleaded. "None of what happened is your fault! You're not responsible for any of it! No one could have predicted that spiral of events, and there's nothing you could have done to change it!"

"—It's all true! I'm a worthless, good for nothing, weak, cowardly—"

"Listen—!"

"—shit!"

Those were Liebegute's words, and Andross's; Fox recognized them. Krystal had heard them so many times, and they were probably the only thing she'd heard till she started believing them herself; like they were programming her. And now she was echoing them back to him…

"None of that is true!" he said firmly. "Do you hear me? It's all lies they told you about yourself. You know how bad those people are; all they do is evil, so all their words are evil. Why would you ever believe a thing they said?"

"Then what's good about me?!" she cried. "Any power I've had is because of what they did to me. It all comes from them! None of it was me! There isn't anything good about me!"

"Forget about stuff like 'power' and 'abilities!' None of that matters in the end. You aren't great because you're strong; it's how you use that strength and what you do with it that matters. Whether your powers are a gift or a curse isn't important; you saved me, and I will never forget that." He reached out and lifted the tangled locks of hair from over her eyes. "…Remember?"

Her self-belittling wound down, now just gently weeping. Her thoughts went back to the day they'd met, and how she'd rescued him from death. Finally she looked up at him with trembling eyes and admitted, "Yes… but only after you had risked your life to save me."

"I didn't mean you saved me from those soldiers and that monster," Fox explained, eyes narrowing in earnestness. "You gave me a purpose; something real to live for after I'd lost everything else. But more than that, you do kind deeds all the time. You're a wonderful person! Anyone else who had to endure the things you went through would've become a hateful person with no love left inside. But you're strong, Krystal!" He firmly shook her shoulders. "You never let go of love and trust. In fact, if anything, you've come out of it loving even more! I should know, because you've given me so much of it. You never despaired, you never gave up, and you never stopped loving. And that's true strength."

Krystal closed her eyes and let her chin sink to her chest. "I don't understand… everything that happened… you must hate me," she spat in a whisper.

Fox cupped her cheeks in his hands and lifted her face back up to him. "No one could hate you." And he bent forward, kissing her surprised lips.

At first Krystal was too stunned and confused to respond; with one simple act he'd swept aside her thousands of words. There was nothing left to say now that he'd demonstrated what he really felt, and she could no longer deny it. So Krystal gave up her self-hatred and met his lips' embrace with her own.

Silence fell over the room like a peaceful, comforting blanket. Their ears were greeted by the sound of the fire crackling away, the rain now gently drumming against the roof, and the quiet sound of their lips meeting again and again.

Finally Krystal retreated and wiped her face with the corner of her blanket, feeling silly. "Thank you for that," she smiled sheepishly.

Fox sighed inwardly, relieved that he'd managed to calm her down and dispel the lies weighing on her spirit—if only for the moment.

"Fox," she asked, wringing her hands, "could I sleep here with you? Like we did that one night?"

The todd's heart fluttered. It felt like ages ago when the alien vixen had a similar nightmare and snuck into his cabin aboard the Great Fox.

"I'd love to have you," he answered in a heartbeat. Then to his surprise, a yawn possessed his mouth, and his eyelids suddenly felt droopy. After sleep had evaded him for so long that night, it was finally seeming to return.

The yawn proved contagious, as Krystal stretched her jaw as well.

"Care to turn in?" Fox asked.

She nodded. "I think I can sleep peacefully now." Then, watching his expression, she let the blanket slip from her shoulders; Fox's reaction didn't disappoint, and she giggled at his quick intake of breath. She sat patiently waiting with her legs folded and her hands neatly in her lap.

Somewhat distracted by her appearance, Fox clumsily pulled the blanket down on his bedroll and crawled in. He held the opposite corner down for Krystal, who accepted the gesture and slipped beneath the covers next to him. With her robe hung up on the wall and her fur still in the process of drying, she cuddled up to him for warmth, nuzzling her muzzle into the crook of his neck.

Fox cradled the smaller vixen in his arms, grateful to have someone to fight the loneliness he'd also endured every previous night. He still sensed some lingering fear within her, so he began combing his fingers through the hair on the back of her head to soothe the last of her stress.

"The thunder's stopped," he said.

"Mhm," she breathed faintly into his neck. "The rain's nice…"

Together they listened to the patter of droplets on the roof, and the singing embers in the nearby stove. The heat from the fire and the warmth they shared lulled them both to sleep. Fox could feel Krystal's heartbeat slowing against his chest, and her shoulders began to rise and fall at a relaxed pace beneath the arm he'd wrapped around her. He wanted this moment to last—but as he drifted off, he wondered if they'd be able to stay like this forever…