Star Fox: Krystal's Decision
Part 1 of 3
Written by John Brown

STUFF: Yes, another one. Go ahead and try to stop me from writing these. This is a fanfiction based on the videogame series known as Star Fox, particularly based on the game Star Fox Command. This three-parter is a standalone, it won't tie into SUS or my other stories. And yeah, you know the drill, I don't own Star Fox, Nintendo does. On that note, Rare and Namco don't own Star Fox either. Just saying.

       “Blast it, now what am I going to do?”
       Krystal pounded a fist against a patch of bare metal on her Cloudrunner fighter’s dashboard, frustration fueling the move. Her chest was aching as she gasped for breath, her throat was dry from her shouts of rage, and she could feel very painful indentations in her fingers where she gripped the trigger too rigorously. Krystal’s flight suit was drenched in sweat, matting her fur underneath in the most uncomfortable way, and more than once she had to brush a salty and irritating drop of perspiration out of her eyes. When she realized that she was nowhere closer to her goal than she had been before her rampage, she gave out an inarticulate cry of anger.
       The Cloudrunner, a fighter custom-built for her by the Space Dynamics Corporation, continued its smooth journey through space, while its pilot continued to set it on a meaningless course. Its sublight engines silently operated, in contrast to the noise held within the cockpit. The blue vixen, the only survivor of a virtually-extinct race, weaved the machine in and out of meteoroid clusters, not caring where she was going. She had just effectively evicted herself from the last place she could ever call home, and now, she had nowhere to go.
       It’s been like this for too long, she thought, bitterly. Wandering around, hoping I land on an inhabited planet… begging for fuel, begging for maintenance money, begging for food… I had nothing but the clothes on my back, and even those were taken away from me! Krystal blushed in indignation when she remembered the scraps she was forced to wear mere years ago. The people… those twits on the streets, they branded me a traitor. They want to tell me how to behave, what to do… does it matter to them that I have a mind of my own?
       In her mind, images of the public outcry at the announcement of her defection to team Star Wolf were fresh. She had once been Public Eye-Candy Number One (a fabricated title she did NOT enjoy), and then later she was considered a heroine along with the rest of the famous Star Fox mercenary squad. But they never considered me to really be one of them… And when it was revealed that she had joined the enemy of the “Great Patriotic Hero of Corneria” Fox McCloud, she was branded a traitor, a harlot, a murderer, and every other negative word the public could recall, no matter how irrelevant and inaccurate.
       The imbecilic public was one problem she had to deal with, but it was a small one. There was something else that ate at Krystal’s insides, something far worse. None of them give a rat’s bum about why I’m in this stupid solar system in the first place. I don’t expect those drooling dummies to understand even a lick of Cerinia’s superior culture, so I shouldn’t be so surprised. What gets me really angry is that HE doesn’t even care!
       Krystal imagined the face of Fox McCloud hanging in front of her fighter in space, prompting her to involuntarily squeeze the trigger; only an overheat warning prevented the shots from streaking out and piercing the man she thought had betrayed her. Infuriated, she was about to punch her console again when a thought invaded her mind, seemingly from nowhere. It sent a chilling calm through her, and almost completely extinguished her rage. For the first time in a long while, she was able to think clearly.
       Wait… wait… he… Fox… did Fox really betray me?
       She had no idea where that thought came from, and she shook it out of her head. Krystal reinforced in herself the notion that Fox McCloud, the man who had took her in when nobody else would, clearly betrayed her. However, she couldn’t erase the doubt that now spread in her mind. Narrowly avoiding a large piece of space debris, the Cerinian decided it was safer to put her fighter on autopilot. With a “safety cone” of a kilometer, her autopilot would automatically steer the Cloudrunner away from any dangerous obstacles, letting her take her concentration away from flying.
       Her uncomfortable flight suit, an overly tight mess of pink and purple, made relaxing a chore. Her feet also ached to be freed from the tight, metal prisons in which they were incarcerated. The vixen tried to ignore the discomfort her outfit gave her, using old Cerinian meditation techniques to ignore physical irritation; they didn’t work, so she instead tried to think of a positive memory. Unfortunately for her, the only memories she recently had that could even remotely be considered positive all dealt around Fox; and all memories of Fox all led to what Krystal interpreted as a betrayal. With her fighter gently flying through space, avoiding objects with vastly wide margins, Krystal involuntarily thought back to the one day when her miserable life suddenly took a turn for the better —or so she thought.

***
       “Thank you, Fox,” whispered Krystal as she passed by the door to the Captain’s room on board the Great Fox. She had never felt more grateful in her entire life, and she wanted to thank Fox McCloud with more than the tiny words she said to him on the bridge. Because of all the people around she felt too scared to say anything more, but she was sure she kept any signs of nervousness off of her face. She had heard plenty of fairy tales as a little girl, all focusing around a beautiful princess falling instantly in love with a handsome and brave knight; though she knew those were just stories to keep little girls hopeful, she couldn’t help imagining herself trapped in a crystal above a massive stone castle, with her orange savior storming up the tower in shining armor. She wondered if Fox truly had the same feelings for her, but she didn’t need psychic powers to see the obvious signs that he was at least mesmerized by her beauty.
       That’s fine and all, I don’t mind being considered beautiful, but I hope there’s more to his attraction to me than that. She thought of one way to find out, but working up the courage to ask him proved more challenging than she wanted it to. Of course, he just spent a chunk of his life doing ridiculous errands for countless strangers… why should he listen to another total stranger spill her guts?
       Krystal was about to finally knock on Fox’s door, but she lost courage at the last second, instead deciding to ask him tomorrow. She was going to go to her room when she realized that, as she had virtually just stepped on board this ship, she did not have a room. Thinking it would be better to head back to her own small ship and sleep in it, she walked back through the Great Fox’s lounge, and her heart almost jumped out of her mouth when she saw her rescuer sitting on the couch, eating a midnight snack.
       “Oh, um… hi?” asked Fox nervously, and he comically spit cracker crumbs all over the table. It didn’t help his nervousness that he was in his underwear. “Uh… yeah, I…”
       “I’m terribly sorry, I’ll just go back and—”
       “No, it’s fine. I guess I’m just not used to having a woman on board… yeah, that’s it.” The orange vulpine stood up and brushed crumbs off of his undershirt and boxers, then asked, “So… um, are you heading back to your ship?”
       “I guess so, I don’t have anywhere else to sleep.”
       “You don’t have to do that. We have… wait, no, Falco’s back. Dang it.”
       “It’s okay, I can just—”
       “No, no, please, we’ll work something out.” It was plainly obvious that Fox did not want her to leave, so Krystal decided to let him keep talking. “This couch isn’t exactly the ‘king of comfort’ to tell you the truth, so I wouldn’t ask you to sleep on it… but I could sleep on it instead. You can have my bed.”
       “I… wow, thanks, Fox.” Though she thought that Fox should not have given up his bed to someone he had just met, her back did desire to sleep on something that wasn’t made of rock or dirt, and the couch did not look too high above those in terms of comfort.
       “Yeah, I have my own bathroom and shower in there, too, so you can use those. I mean… your staff saved my life like a billion times, and without it I couldn’t have saved anyone else on that… strange… planet, so yeah, the least I owe you is a warm bed and a hot shower.”
       You saved my life, I don’t think you owe me anything. Krystal took a seat on the beat-up couch, and Fox, not knowing what else to do, sat next to her. She could sense his awkwardness when he remembered that only a paper-thin sheet of cotton separated his bare hip from hers. But, while you’re offering…
       “So, uh… care for some crackers and cheese? Take what you like.”
       “Thank you.” The vixen put a piece of cheddar between two crackers, and took a bite; she appreciated the first meal she had in years in which she did not have to kill something first. While he’s still awake, I need to ask him. Maybe when the conversation drifts to it, slowly and not too rushed—
       “So, uh… Krystal? Sorry if I sound insensitive, but… why are you in this solar system?”
       …Okay, let’s get right to it, then. She took a deep breath, and Fox seemed to brace himself for what she was about to say. Fighting the urge to tear up, Krystal simply said, “Many years ago, I forget when exactly, my home planet of Cerinia was attacked. It was virtually destroyed, and I’m the only survivor of my species. I don’t know what did it, or who did it, but I want to make him, or her, or them, or it, pay. I want whatever did it to feel all the pain I’ve felt. I want to make sure nobody else in the Universe has to suffer what I have suffered. I’ve been roaming the galaxy looking for answers, drifting around like a bum, but so far I’ve found nothing. Then some traders told me about this guy… Andorf, or Andross, whatever. And I thought, this monster sounds like he could’ve been the one to do it. But then I thought about it more, while I was floating up in that stupid crystal, and since Andross was stuck here, trapped as a spirit ever since you killed him eight years ago, he probably couldn’t have done it. And before then, the traders told me he was either on the planet Venom or on your Corneria, always accounted for, so… yeah, I doubt he’s the one who did it.” She took a deep breath, then asked, “Fox, if it’s not too much trouble, can you help me find the real—”
       “Yes.”
       The vixen blinked, then asked, “Really?”
       “Really.” Fox’s nervousness was gone, and his eyes burned with fire she hadn’t seen since he ran off to his Arwing to defeat Andross for good. “I… know what it’s like to lose everyone. My mom was killed when I was a very young kit, and then my dad was killed by Andross over Venom later on. I have no real family left. I felt exactly like you did, I wanted revenge and then I got it. I got it twice, but I got it. I’m like you, I don’t think anyone deserves to feel my pain. And what you’ve gone through is worse than my situation.” He turned away from her, as if he wanted to focus on his thoughts, then whipped his head around and stared directly into Krystal’s eyes, making her lean back a bit in surprise. “Whatever destroyed your home, it can easily do it again here. I’m going to tell Pepper —he’s the guy that gives us most of our jobs— that we’re going off-duty for a while. Peppy, Slippy, and Falco will all understand. I guarantee you, we will catch the guys responsible for this.”
       The tears were genuinely flowing down Krystal’s cheeks now, and before she could stop herself, she hugged the man who not only saved her life, but vowed to avenge her family, her people, and her world. “Thank you! Thank you, Fox! I won’t ever forget this, ever!”
***

       Krystal did not forget that moment. As she snapped back to reality, watching as her Cloudrunner automatically oriented itself on its course to nowhere, she felt fresh pain in her heart when she thought of the promise made to her by Fox… a promise that was broken. Fox and his team did agree to help her search for clues, but then their own problems got in the way. Fox’s notice to General Pepper was immediately met with an order from the General that he and the rest of Star Fox were to return to their patrol duties; if they disobeyed, Pepper would freeze their bank account and remove the pay for the Sauria mission. Because of the dire state that their ship and fighters were in, Krystal understood why the Star Fox team could be bullied by money. She told herself that if they were going to stop a ruthless world-destroyer, they’d need the best technology possible, and if they were on patrol, they might just run into him.
       For a whole year, they tried what they could. Every time the Great Fox entered orbit over an inhabited world, Fox honestly tried to ask around about any unusual sightings, but the traders never had (reliable) stories about anything capable of what Krystal talked about. The Cerinian told herself that space was vast and she shouldn’t expect immediate results, but the thought of her entire species’ souls floating in the afterlife, only to be joined by many others soon, did upset her. Finally, their quest was abandoned when an ape named Andrew Oikonny suddenly and senselessly attacked the innocent planet Fortuna, prompting a full-scale response.
       Krystal understood the need to react to Andrew’s rebellion, but right after his defeat the Aparoid menace revealed itself. She had to put aside her own desires in order to help the people of Lylat, and for a time, she thought that the Aparoids were the ones who had decimated her world. Every time she pulled the trigger on her Arwing’s stick, she imagined that the dying Aparoid screamed in pain, and that thought thrilled her. Her desire for revenge was so great that she regularly volunteered for ground duty so she could really hear them scream. Seeing the ruthless carnage caused by the insect-like aliens reinforced in her the notion that the Aparoids could indeed have been the ones; she was almost one-hundred percent sure of it as the war progressed.
       When she first laid eyes on the Aparoid homeworld, she thought it was beautiful, like the face of a pampered, spoiled celebrity who deserved a rifle butt to the face, and Krystal was more than happy to contribute to the beating. However, when she dove in with the rest of the squadron and confronted the Queen, the colossal Aparoid taunted her. She heard its address to the whole team, using the voices of their close friends and (in the case of Fox) family. But then the Queen turned to Krystal and tormented her one-on-one. The Dinosaurs of Sauria berated her for failing to stop Scales, and thus she was the reason for their enslavement and death until Fox arrived; and the people of Corneria all declared that if she did not want to become a member of Star Fox, Peppy Hare would still be flying and the team would likely have defeated the enemy sooner. She realized these were baseless accusations to the highest degree, but then she had noticed that not one Cerinian had ever appeared in the Aparoid Queen’s mental assault, and that fact nearly drove her mad. The Aparoids always absorbed any living people they could, so Krystal concluded that if she did not see any images of Cerinians, then the Aparoids did not destroy her people.
       She had thought that she had found it, the answer she was looking for; it was more frustrating than she ever thought possible when she realized she was wrong. Krystal bounded a fist off of her fighter’s console again, and the pain in her hand tossed her mind into another memory, perhaps the darkest memory she had next to the horrible day that started it all. She remembered Fox’s betrayal…

***
       Krystal felt like she was on top of the known Universe, her joy was so great. A number of months had passed, but she was still thrilled with the victory over the Aparoids, her finest hour. She remembered diving right into the Homeworld Core, pounding the Aparoid Queen with lasers until Fox finished it off. She had taken a few hits in that fight, but it was no big deal to her. The Aparoid War was her first major combat deployment, and she had not only survived, but she had a direct hand in the victory of the free people of Lylat. It was almost enough to make her forget that her true mission went unfulfilled. I’m still looking for you, she thought, aiming her threats at that elusive culprit. I just helped drive a mindless, murdering race to extinction. Imagine what I’ll do when I find you!
       In addition to her still-hot pride, she was filled with relief after Peppy Hare, the closest person she had to a father, was deemed ready to leave the hospital. The day before this one was full of celebration, and she had a long night out with Lucy, Peppy’s genius daughter. The two females became fast friends shortly after the Cerinian’s enrollment in Cornerian Flight School, and Krystal was glad to finally have female company after her long years of solitude. However, the real reason she was so ecstatic, the real reason her anger had subsided, was what Fox had said to her that morning.
       “Krystal, I want you to know… I love you. I’ve loved you since I first laid eyes on you, and I’ll keep loving you until the end of time.” Fox’s words were like divine music streaming down from Heaven. Before Fox had left on an early-morning training exercise, he woke her up just to tell her that. She had loved him right from the beginning as well, though she ached to tell him. She kept dropping hints, some more obvious than others, but Fox never took the bait. But with the war over…
       The vixen was looking at her reflection in the mirror, observing how her new outfit looked. She felt that her old suit was too dark, and asked for something lighter; the tailor who normally serviced team Star Fox’s uniforms gave her a form-fitting pink and purple outfit. Not the best choice of colors, Krystal had decided, but she wanted to give it a chance. She turned around and moved her tail to the side to see how she looked from behind, and thought, The colors may be… meh, but Fox, I think you’ll like this.
       Concluding that her outfit was no more eye-hurting than Slippy’s yellow jumpsuit, she took a few steps around the room to test her new, gleaming boots. Her toes protested, but the pain was minimal; she figured she would get used to it. She would have rather had her sandals, but they were in a poor state of repair. Rubbing her bare arms, Krystal looked over at the pair of long, white gloves sitting on her bed. She’d have preferred to wear her old jewelry, her golden gauntlets and epaulets, her tail bands, even her hair beads… but they were all located in a small, secure box in her new fighter’s cargo bay. If I’m going to be a member of Star Fox, a true soldier, I can’t go around wearing jewelry in battle. Besides… I’ll look good enough with Fox’s head on my shoulder…
       With that thought she slipped her gloves on, careful not to rub her fur the wrong way. Her new outfit was now complete, and she stepped out of her apartment bedroom, intent on taking a short walk. The sun was starting to drop from its high-noon position, and the vixen wondered where Fox could be. Her wonders were answered when a hover-speeder drove into view from the living room window. Krystal’s heart pounded with joy against her chest, but it nearly deflated when she saw the ghostly expression on her loved-one’s face as well as black soot all over his clothes. Worried, she walked —almost ran— out the door to console him as the cab flew away.
       “Fox, what happened?”
       He looked right at her with his green eyes, the same verdant windows into his soul that won her over on that fateful night, and said, “There was an accident during the training exercise. Fay… Fay was testing a new fighter model, like the ones Beltino set us up with, but she… she lost control.”
       “Oh no…” was Krystal’s worried reply. She had met the canine pilot before and knew that Fay was an acquaintance of Fox’s.
       “Her ship spun out of control and demolished a warehouse, and I was there helping the firemen to put the blaze out all this time.”
       “Is she okay?” Krystal asked.
       “We got her out, and she’s in the hospital with Miyu for company, but she’ll be lucky if she can walk again.”
       The two walked into their rented room, and Fox sank right onto the sofa. Krystal put her arms around him and said, “You helped put out the fire? That was heroic, Fox, and I’ll bet your actions saved her life.”
       “Yeah…”
       “Fox? Fox, look at me.” Her companion for life gazed into her eyes, and she continued, “These things happen, Fox. I know how horrible it is, but you and the firemen did all you could. It’s just… this is the risk we take, whenever we climb into a cockpit. It can happen to anyone, even friends and loved ones.”
       The pilot leader stared silently for several long, painful moments. Krystal wondered if she had said something wrong, until Fox startled her by speaking up. “I… yeah, you’re right. Very right. I’m just… a little shaky right now.”
       Krystal wiped some soot off of Fox’s hand and kissed it, then said, “If the doctors could save the General, and then Peppy right after, then Fay will be fine. Just take a shower, and lie down. It’s hard to accept, but you can’t save everyone.”
       When she said that, she felt a fresh wave of agony, as the ghosts of thousands of people, with horrified blue faces, passed in front of her mind’s eye. Fox seemed to react similarly, and he turned away from the vixen.
       “Fox, I… I didn’t mean it that way, I shouldn’t have said—”
       “Don’t worry about it, Krystal. You’re right… she’ll probably be fine. I’ll go shower and take a nap. I’ve been up since five AM anyway.”
       They shared a quick kiss, then Fox got up and left for his bedroom. Krystal took out her personal communications device and contacted the pilot Miyu, and heard firsthand about Fay’s condition. After giving her well-wishes and exchanging good-byes, she hung up, and decided to call Lucy. Her newest friend had already been informed of this incident, and immediately asked how Fox was taking it.
       “He seems really shaken up over it, Lucy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him like this before.”
       “Fox has always been paranoid over losing pilots, according to Papa.” Alluding to her father, Peppy Hare, Lucy continued, “It got worse after Papa… um… did what he did at the Aparoid planet. From what I gather, Fox took it as if James had died all over again. You know how Fox is Papa’s de facto son now, right?”
       “Yes.” Krystal tried to hide the sudden spike of emotion she felt. Until Slippy had detected the Great Fox’s escape pod, Krystal was sure that Peppy was dead, just like the other team members.
       “I guess… after what happened to his parents, what almost happened to his foster-father, and the fact that his best friends knock on death’s door for a living, I guess it finally got to him after all these years.”
       “That could be it…” Krystal took a worried glance over at Fox’s room. Though the door was closed, her sensitive ears could faintly pick up the sound of a dresser drawer being opened.
       “He’s bounced back from worse, though. I’m sure he’ll be okay after a while.”
       “Yeah…”
       “Anyways, I have to go, the Education Minister wants to talk to me. Something about a teaching post on Fichina. But it’s always nice to hear from you.”
       “Likewise, and have a nice one.”
       Krystal sighed as she hung up, thinking about Fox’s mental state. Yes, he has come back up from worse, but all of this has to be piling up on him. How much more can he take? As bad as it sounds, he doesn’t even know that pilot all that well, and from the way he reacted…
       Time went by slowly, as the vixen aborted her walk before it had even started and instead sat on the apartment’s couch, thinking this incident over. However, the more she thought about all the pain Fox had felt, the more her own tragic past tormented her. Trying to force those thoughts out of her head, she concentrated on the positive. She thought of her new boyfriend, Fox McCloud. The man who had saved her life. The man who took her under his wing. The man who promised to help track down the evil being (or beings) that destroyed her people and help her take revenge. The man who… is screaming?
       Krystal’s ears swiveled towards the direction of Fox’s room, and she heard him yell again. In a state of panic she bolted up and had a hand on his doorknob when she realized he was merely having a bad dream. She was about to return to the sofa when she heard him scream again, this time more coherently: “MOM!”
       Carefully and silently, she opened his door and stepped to Fox’s bedside. He was tossing and turning in his sleep, tortured by his dream’s obvious subject. The vixen gently took one of his hands in her own, then used her other to brush Fox’s forehead. Thinking she could help calm him, she tried to summon her magic power to put his mind at ease. Unfortunately, curiosity got the better of her; she wanted to know exactly what was causing her lover’s pain. With a sigh of reluctance, she concentrated on a spell that would enable her consciousness to enter that of Fox. All feeling of the physical world left her, and she was suddenly surrounded by alien senses and stimuli.
       She saw through the eyes of Fox, but their short distance above the ground told her that Fox must have been very young. Her heart almost tore itself apart when she saw that Fox was holding the bloody and burned arm of his own mother, with flaming wreckage bordering the horrible scene. She heard an anguished voice cry out, assuming it was that of James McCloud, but the dream’s focus was on his wife, and Fox’s mother. The vixen was already dead, her eyes vacant and growing harder to see as Fox’s own eyes filled with tears. Then…
       The dream shifted dramatically, almost without reason. The change in perspective implied that dream-Fox was now an adult, but his mother’s body was still on the ground… until her appearance started to change. The surreal metamorphosis started with her muzzle shortening, then the shape of her ears changed, then several long locks of hair grew out of her scalp, and finally… her fur turned blue…
       That was the point at which Fox woke up, the same point in which Krystal’s presence was thrown back to her own body. Fox immediately sat up, panting heavily and sweating, seemingly not knowing that Krystal had been in his mind. He turned, saw her, and without even asking her why she was there he threw his arms around her in a near-suffocating hug. The vixen held on just as tightly, and in that tense moment she was relieved that Fox’s suffering was over.
       Fox did not want to talk about the dream; as far as Krystal knew, he remained unaware that she had just intruded into his consciousness. He assured his newfound partner for life that it was no big deal; both of them knew that was a lie. The Cerinian did not want to push the issue, however, and she left Fox to himself, hoping he could get some real rest.
       The hours seemed to melt away as she sat in despair, trying to understand her companion’s torment. She had felt just as horrible as he did —if not more so— after the destruction of her people. Even that pain dulled over time, however. She knew it was not her place to question other people’s responses to such horrific events, but she wanted to know why the pain was still so fresh.
       With the sun descending behind the edifices of Corneria City, Krystal made herself a simple sandwich (along with another one she left in the refrigerator for Fox) and tried to skew everything back towards the positive. Fox admitted he loves me. Fay’s still alive. Peppy’s out of the hospital. I proved I’m as good a pilot as any rank-and-file Cornerian Airman. And what Fox saw was just a dream, nothing more. Krystal finished her small dinner, then set her plate in the apartment’s small sink and rinsed it off. While she was washing her hands, she heard some hurried footsteps, followed by the door closing. “What the…”
       Wondering why Fox was leaving without even saying a word, she barely dried her hands off before bolting out the door, intent on catching him. She saw him a short distance away, carefully threading his way through a thick crowd of pedestrians. Keeping an eye out for the lone fox tail in a sea of dogs’, it wasn’t every hard for Krystal to track him. Fox must have known she was following him because his pace suddenly quickened, and Krystal reluctantly nudged several pedestrians out of her way just to keep up. Why’s he so intent on avoiding me?
       All doubts about whether or not Fox knew she was after him were erased as he broke into a full run. With her longer legs and thinner build, however, Krystal was faster than her lover, even with her uncomfortable new outfit. Before long, she cornered him. “Fox!”
       “Krystal, I…” he replied, trying to catch his breath.
       “Enough of this!”
       “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to—”
       “This is not how people in love should act!” blurted Krystal in response. Her words stunned Fox, and she hastily added, “Fox, I didn’t mean to yell…”
       “No, it’s okay. I guess I’m the one who needs to apologize.”
       “You can apologize later, I just want to know what all this is about!” Since she loved and respected Fox, she decided not to try to invade his mind again
       Fox had an uncomfortable look on his face, and he looked around, trying not to make eye contact with Krystal. After a long, awkward silence, he said, “I… think it was a mistake to fall in love with you.”
       That hit Krystal like a bullet. “What did you say?”
       “That is why I wanted to get out of the apartment. I needed some time to seriously think it over, and I didn’t feel right with a psychic in the same building.”
       Krystal’s head was throbbing with indignation over Fox’s lack of trust in her, but she kept herself under control. “You think our love is a mistake?”
       “We’re soldiers, we’re fighting to keep the people of Corneria safe! That has to be our primary concern, not each other. This… this is unprofessional—”
       “I don’t care if loving you is unprofessional! We’re mercenaries, not uniformed soldiers. You joined this team so you could do things your own way, and if that means falling in love with one of your wingmen, it shouldn’t be a problem!”
       Fox took a deep breath, then said, “I know you saw my dream. When my mom’s body turned into your body.”
       “That’s probably just a side effect of me stepping into your mind, don’t worry about it!”
       “No, Krystal, it’s not.” He tried to turn away again but Krystal forced him to look right at her.
       “Go on.”
       “I’ve… I’ve been having that dream every night since you joined the team.”
       “The exact same dream?”
       “Yes, with me holding your dead body and everything. Losing you is my greatest fear.”
       “Your most unfounded fear! Look at all the Aparoids I killed! Look at all the Aparoids that tried to kill me, but failed! And all of Oikonny’s troops, and those thugs at Sargasso! How about the Queen? Or Panther? He’s in what is supposedly the second-best squadron in the entire Lylat System and he couldn’t bring me down either! Or Scales, he threw me off his bloody galleon, and that didn’t finish me!” The vixen was seething with rage, not even trying to hide it any more.
       “Krystal, any enemy pilot can get lucky. Or some ground gunner, or you could get mechanical failure… it can happen at any time, you said so yourself.”
       Lucy was right, but I had no idea how right she was… it’s really piling up on him! “We all take that risk, Fox! All of us! Peppy, Falco, Slippy… even ROB! What about them?”
       “That’s different, I don’t—”
       “You don’t love them?”
       Fox shut his eyes, and took another heavy sigh. Krystal wondered what he was thinking when he suddenly snapped his eyes open and said, “You’re off the team.”
       “…What?” To Krystal, that thought had come out of nowhere. She knew, however, that it was not a response to what she had just said. A disturbing feeling in her gut made her think that Fox had been wanting to say that all along, and he wanted to get it out of the way.
       “Mistake or not, when I told you I loved you, I meant it. I lost my parents, but I won’t lose you. I can never fly safely when death is hovering off your wing. As of this moment, you are officially released from Star Fox.”
       Struck with equal measures of shock and anger, Krystal was left silent for a long, tense moment. Though this was clearly the toughest decision Fox ever had to make, Krystal did not care. “You’re kicking me off because you’re afraid I might die one of these days? HOW DO YOU THINK I FELT ALL THIS TIME?” She startled Fox with her sudden outburst, but she continued, “Whenever you did something reckless, or volunteered for another ground mission, do you think I just sat in my Arwing and accepted it like a good little obedient girl?”
       “Krystal, please—”
       She stopped him as she pointed a clawed finger right at his face. “If I leave the team, I leave you. I’m not going to sit at home and pray I don’t get a folded Cornerian flag in the mail. If we’re not together on the team, then we’re not together at all!”
       Fox’s mouth hung open in shock. It took him several long moments to consider what Krystal had fired at him. His face barely concealed the great emotional pain he was under, and with his eyes closed, he quietly said, “If that is what it takes to keep you safe… then we’re done.”
       Every heartbeat felt like another weight crushing her body. Krystal could not believe what she had just heard. Her head was swelling with pain, and all the good feelings that had propped her up during the day had left her. Part of her wanted to scream, part of her wanted to draw her weapon and shoot Fox, part of her wanted to beg him to take her back, and another part wanted only to get away from him. That impulse won, and she turned and walked away. She could feel his pain with her magic sense, and she turned for one last look. Her now-former lover was still avoiding eye contact. She felt her own eyes tear up, and she ran.
       She didn’t care where she was running, or who she bumped into. She just wanted to get as far away from Fox as possible. Krystal didn’t get too far away before a hand on her tail stopped her. Thinking that Fox had pursued her, she turned and was ready to strike when she saw an unfamiliar silhouette in front of her. It was a taller, bulkier man, with a scruffier outline. The only clue to the man’s identity was the blue glow where one eye should have been…
       “Krystal, I saw what Fox did to you just now,” said Wolf O’Donnell.
       “Why do you care?” she asked between sobs.
       “I don’t want to see him hurt another woman. This is the ugly truth of Corneria’s ‘great hero’ and I want to put a stop to it.”
       “What did you just say?” asked the vixen.
       “I’ve been watching Fox for a long time, and I’ve seen all the hearts he’s broken. You know he’s only in it for the short term, right? Just wants to get girls in bed, then he’s done.”
       “That doesn’t sound like Fox at all…”
       “Don’t believe me? Go find Fara Phoenix and ask her about what a wonderful man he is.”
       “Who the Hell is Fara Phoenix?”
       “Fox’s first girlfriend, and the first —of many— woman to attempt suicide over him.”
       “I’m sorry, but I don’t think—”
       “Then there’s Karen Rey, an orphan just like him. He couldn’t resist her… probably the same reason he went after you, if you don’t mind me pointing that out. They were together for quite some time, until Fox got bored of her.”
       “I’m… I’m finding it hard to believe you, Wolf.”
       “And Jennifer Jackson, a wolf from down south. She used to be my girl, to be honest, until Fox stole her away. You can guess why I’ve been after him for so long.”
       If Krystal had been in any other state of mind, she would have seen through Wolf’s lies. Fara, Karen, and Jennifer were all equally non-existent. Unfortunately, Krystal’s breakup with Fox skewed her towards automatically sympathizing with others he had hurt. “So these ladies… they killed themselves over Fox?”
       “They tried to. Imagine the pressure… one day they’re with the honorable hero of all Lylat, and the next they’re dumped on the street. And they can’t dare speak out against Corneria’s darling pilot, nobody would listen. It’d be all their fault, not his.”
       “What do you want from me, then?”
       Wolf stepped into the light of a nearby lamp post, and said, “I want you to join Star Wolf. We’ve been light one pilot since Fox murdered Pigma, that misunderstood man who only did those evil deeds under Aparoid control. And poor Andrew, it’s not his fault he wanted to follow his birthright. What was he supposed to do, betray his family and his people?”
       “Join… Star Wolf? I don’t know, I didn’t come to this solar system to jump from one mercenary team to the next.”
       “Then why did you come here? To fight for the ‘greater good’ or something?”
       Why… why did I come here? She completely ignored anything Wolf said after that sentence as she continued her thought. Isn’t it obvious? I came here to look for answers over what happened to Cerinia, to my people… and I wanted to look for help… A fresh wave of anger washed over Krystal’s face. Fox… you promised…
       “I apologize, did I say something wrong? I don’t want to hurt you more than Fox already has. If you don’t want to join, we won’t force you to.”
       Krystal looked Wolf right in his one eye and said, through gritted teeth, “I’ll join.”
       “You will?” he replied in surprise, until he put his feelings back under control. “Ah, you’ve made the right decision. Star Wolf will be your new family. We will always look out for you, and Leon and myself will build you into the greatest female pilot who ever lived. And Panther, there’s a real man, he’ll treat you right. And…”
       Krystal let Wolf drone on and on about the supposed virtues of joining his mercenary team. She only cared about one thing: Fox, you betrayed me. You promised me you’d do anything to bring my people’s murderers to justice, and YOU LIED! You gave up on your promise, you probably forgot it, even! To Hell with you!
       “Wolf,” she interrupted, “give me half an hour to gather some clothes and some personal items, then I’m going to run to the hangar and get my fighter.”
       “We’ll be waiting for you in orbit. Don’t be late,” he said, with a hint of a smile.
       Krystal dried her tears and shook Wolf’s hand. This is the new beginning, Fox. The beginning of a new Krystal.
***