FSE

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Chapter -15-

"Back From The Dead"

The soft hum of the GreatFox's engines soothed his ears in a way that made sleep easy. But Fox's body was naturally ready to awaken at this hour. He felt Krystal against him; his leg was draped over hers. His left arm was over her and his paw rested above her wrist. He slid his fingers down, feeling the engagement ring securely in the golden mount. The pilot's paw moved to her hip then down between her thighs.

She was sleeping soundly and didn't wake. His paw continued to delve until his fingers met soft pink flesh; he began to rub gently while kissing on her neck. He wasn't sure why he couldn't keep his paws off of her. Ever since opening up to her, it was easy to touch and flirt without blushing. Her hips eased forward, pushing herself against his paw but the vixen continued to breathe deeply, otherwise unresponsive.

His fingers found their mark. With a little bit of rubbing he managed to get them into her and in no time his fingers were coated with moisture. With his chest against her back, spooning side by side, he began to rub his hips against her rump. Her tail was tucked beneath her right hip, curled around her waist. It came up over her breast, providing a warm fluffy pillow for her to hold in her arms.

McCloud continued to maneuver his fingers within her until her silk sex was completely slick. She murmured softly then spoke in her sleep. "Reh naduwan, Fox. Doh'n nah." She ended on a soft murmur, humming her lips together. "Mmm..."

He wasn't sure what she said, but it didn't sound like Saurian or any other Lylat language. He began trailing kisses along her neck and brought his right paw out from beneath himself to guide the tip of his swelling manhood against the backside of her thighs.

She shifted her knees so that they were no longer together. Her movement made things easier for him. Carefully he brought the tip up to her semi-exposed pussy lips from behind. She moaned his name again. A devious grin crossed his muzzle. Fox leaned his head back from her neck and whispered into her ear. "Say... please."

"Never," she whispered.

Fox's grin broadened. "You're just too cute."

"No, you," she mumbled in reply.

Carefully, Fox used his fingers to part her silken folds then, spooning with her from behind, he edged the tip of his girth against her puffy folds and firmly arched his back until he sank into her. She casually draped a paw overtop of his then guided his fingers further up her slit until he found her clit. With a guiding touch, she helped him to rub, teaching him the correct pressure and the correct angle. He placed his right and left foot on the corner bedpost then pushed off of it to get deeper. She whined and opened her eyes.

"Now this is a nice way to wake up," Krystal cooed to him. He could feel her body pushing back against his and her delicious little lips slid further back along his cock, engulfing his length. A shudder ran down his back. He eased his hips back a bit then bucked forth once more, sinking into her again. He loved the feel of her body writhing beneath his.

"I love you," he whispered into his fiancée's ear. They moved in harmony, thrusting towards one another then pulling apart only to grind together once more. Krystal's head lifted from the pillow, she eased up on an elbow and stretched. Fox took the opportunity to slip his right arm beneath her. She settled back down on his bicep then shivered in his embrace. Fox cupped her chest with his right paw.

He felt her push herself back against him hard. His ears perked up, hearing her speak. "I want to kiss you."

He started to ease up on his own elbow but with her lying on his arm, it wasn't going to happen. Instead, she rolled away from him. Fox felt his cock slip from her body, cool air greeted the throbbing appendage. His vixen turned over to face him. She leaned up expectantly and Fox kissed her deeply. He could feel her shifting her weight again.

Fox found himself rolled onto his back as she moved up over him. Her knees moved to either side of his hips. The voluptuous little vixen straddled his lap, rubbing her flesh against his erection then she placed her paws on his chest, leaned down and kissed him. Meanwhile he arched his back a bit, shifting his hips to better achieve penetration again. He watched her arm snake down between their bodies and to his delight she took hold of his cock firmly while easing up on her knees. With a smile, Krystal lowered herself upon that pulsing rod of flesh. The sensation of gliding back into her was groan-worthy. He reached for her hips, guiding her into a hip-rocking motion.

Her eyes darted up then down and he couldn't help but note that she had a fond expression on her face. "Do you like what you see?" he asked.

"I like what I feel, I like what I see... I love waking up with you." She leaned forward and kissed his lips again then craned her neck, arched her back and began to rub her breasts against his muzzle. The pillow-soft globes of her breast pushed Fox's whiskers back. He felt his nose meet her sternum then blinked with surprise when she wiggled sharply. She whispered, "Sorry, that's a sensitive spot."

"Sensitive in a good way?" he asked, his voice muffled by her chest.

"Yes, a very good way." Her warm breath flowed over his ear; she added, "I'm ticklish there but... it's ...I don't know how to explain it."

He nuzzled his face up between her breasts again, nosing her solar plexus. His endeavor elicited a gasp from the woman he loved. Knelt over him, with her bosom in his face, the vixen began to ride his cock in a passionate, needful way.

Another groan. Fox ran his paws up from her hips, along her spine to the backside of her shoulders. He pulled her to him, guiding her to moosh her torso against his face. The massaging sensation on his cheeks was delightful. The vixen began to whine, causing his ears to perk up.

Fox felt her shift again and was treated to a pert nipple against his lips. He nuzzled, licked and kissed the cherry nub in an attempt to please his mate. He felt fingers slide into his hair. He began bucking upwards, meeting her downward thrusts. He couldn't help but notice that it drove her wild. A welling pressure filled his loins.

"Fill me," she whispered. He knew she could probably sense that he was getting close but he wanted to hold back just a little longer until he could get her to... His thought was interrupted by a cry of elation and erotic bliss. Krystal sat up, threw her head back and cried out, maddened by orgasm. Her sugary juices created a sexy squishing sound as she continued to ride him throughout the climax.

The knowledge of pleasing her was enough to make him join her. However, the sensation of her pussy clamping down on his cock and fluttering wildly around the hilt was even better. He sat halfway up, sliding his paws back up to her shoulders. Fox pulled her down hard, trying to get as deep as he could at the moment of his release. The glistening ropes of sticky vanilla gushed up into her body. The vixen continued to clamp down on him to placate her aching little hole. "God, Fox, I can feel it flooding into me." She grinded herself downward to receive everything he had to offer. He could feel her thighs shivering against his body. "It's so much." Her paw slid down behind herself, placing two fingers beneath his swollen knot. While it wasn't in her, she used her fingers to pull it upwards so as to cork her pussy lips. "I don't want to spill a drop," she murmured with a devious wink. "You're okay with that, aren't you?"

He decided to be a little more direct with her. "You want pups? I'll be sure to give them to you. As many as you want and as many times as you want."

"Mmm, perfect." She eased down upon him, kissed her fiancé firmly then carefully rolled off of him. He watched her with interest as she lay on her back, lifted her legs in the air and wrapped her arms around the backside of her thighs, keeping them up. Her knees met her chest.

Fox sat up, looked her over and said, "That could make for an interesting position." His eyes trailed down the backside of her legs then he leaned forward and took a little lick at her exposed slit. It caused her to giggle and squirm.

"I'm trying to keep it from running down my thighs like it did yesterday when we woke up together on the beach." Her eyes glistened in the low lighting that filtered in through a porthole across the room. "I'm ovulating. I want a family."

"Then let's get married and have a family," he said with a firm nod. "We can build a house on Sauria and live in our bedroom."

"Yummy," she mused in reply. "But that's not who we are. We're freedom fighters in every sense of the word. We can retire when we're older. But a nice, extended honeymoon could be fun... that's the word, right? Honeymoon?"

"Yes, it's a romantic vacation that takes place immediately after the wedding." Fox leaned down and playfully flicked his tongue over her exposed pink folds again. Same as before, she squirmed from the sensitivity. McCloud got up on his knees, facing her. With her legs held up, lying on her back, he moved close until his chest was against the backside of her calves. "This could be an interesting position."

She craned her head to the right, peering around the elevated legs. "Don't you have to pee?"

Fox gave her hip a gentle pat. "You can sense body function, too?" He chuckled through his nose and slid out of bed, reaching for the computerized gauntlet sitting on the nightstand. He carried it towards the bathroom, fiddling with it to display the chronometer function. He set it back down just outside of the bathroom and announced, "We still have two hours... I can't believe we slept that long," then disappeared into the smaller room.

Krystal's ears perked. She heard the sound of tinkling then a flush. A smile brightened her face, sensing that he put the seat down when he was done. "Thank goodness he's trainable." Her tail beat on the mattress while she lay there on her back, arms around her legs, keeping them up in the air. Krystal drew in a deep breath and called out to him. "Fox, thank you for the nice wakeup call. I'll have to return the favor sometime!"

"I won't argue," came the muted reply from the bathroom. Seconds later, she heard the shower hiss to life.

---

Lombardi cut his head towards the double doors. At the far end of the bridge, Fox and Krystal came into the area, hand-in-hand and looking quite smitten with one another. He arched a feathery brow. "Holy crap... look at you two, geeze."

"It's not like you've not seen romance before, Falco." Krystal placed her head on her fiancé's shoulder. "Aren't you taken with Katherine?"

"Yeah," said Falco with a shrug. "I'm poppin' the question soon. What of it? You two went from 'shyly in love' to being unable ta' speak to one another... to this. What the hell happened?"

Fox withdrew his paw from hers then wrapped his arm around her waist. "Sauria happened. Now we can't get enough of one another. That planet helped us to better understand the meaning of love - you should try it."

Falco balked at the response. "Listen to yourself, would you?!" He ran his hand back over his head and sighed. "Bad mental image. I don't want to think about you two not getting enough of each other - I'm going to barf-a-roni because the taste of bile is ten times better than thinking about you guys bangin'. SO! It's time to go to work! I'm ready to fly so get your tails down on Macbeth already and get our 'intel'. My threads are gunna' go out of style by the time we get the show on the road, so let's get movin' already."

"Where are the Toads'?" asked Fox.

Falco stretched out in the chair down by the helm controls. "Hopefully not being as loud as you two were, last night. That'd be even nastier."

Krystal's eyes widened, she swallowed and pushed her face into Fox's chest to conceal her bright blush. McCloud wrapped his arm around her neck to help hide her and shook his head with an eyeroll. "Don't be jealous, Falco. You can go home to Katt right now but you're putting your pilot wings first. Just... be patient."

"I'm cool as a cucumber, bro. I just want to have my way with a few targets before I have my way with a certain kitty. Now... The sooner you two get our info, the sooner I can start flying. So! Say the plan then get moving. I don't wanna' wait anymore and the froggies can get in on the info later."

Fox gave Krystal's back a gentle rub then a pat. "How about we take a Landmaster and Instant Transmission us straight to the surface? We're going to head down to the flight deck and get geared up then you can send us to the surface from here on the bridge."

"Standard. Get going." Falco began twiddling his thumbs. "Don't get yourselves banged up. You don't have anymore of those little creatures."

"Bafomdads," replied Krystal, walking back off the bridge. Fox shrugged at Falco then followed her. The doors slid shut with a soft thump.

Lombardi shrugged back to no one in general. "Yeah, those."

---

Dust and debris clouded the area , stirred up by their arrival. Fox punched in a list of commands then said, "I'm rerouting power to the engines." A proximity alarm chirped twice, starting at a high note and ending on a lower one, as if to warn the pilots that they were dangerously close to the ground. McCloud rolled his eyes. "Stupid alert system. We've landed you dummy." With the tracks safely on the Macbeth surface, the computer acclimated itself to its new altitude setting. A digital HUD flashed, showing that it calculated the horizon line and the warning lights went dark. The digital siren went quiet. "Anyhow, as I was saying, the plasma drive is too loud so I'm going to power it by the G-diffuser system."

Krystal, back-to-back with her fiancé, chuckled in reply. "Explaining yourself to a telepath is redundancy at its finest, love. Isn't the G-diffuser power grid a bit finicky at times?"

"The G-diffuser is stable, just not trustworthy; I'm not saying it's unreliable - using gravity to power a ship is good. But even a good gun still jams every so often. Thing is, I've never seen a plasma drive fail. They're just... noisy. So, today, plasma is out of the question."

"I've checked the sensor grid, Fox."

"What do you see?"

Krystal shifted in her seat and peered over the double-sided backrest. In a rather personal tone, she said, "I don't see any dams in the area, love. We should be safe."

Fox winced. He knew it was a joke but even after all these years (Reflections of The Future, Chapter 14) he still couldn't get the image out of his head. The flashback raced through his mind, seeing his fingers outstretched as Krystal's paw was pulled from his grasp. He watched the distant memory in startling detail, seeing her sucked through the tank's windshield and into the water. The pain of his injured shoulder was beyond belief and then... nothing. Fox swallowed, took a deep breath and the memory was behind him.

"You passed out from the pain," Krystal said, sensing the flashback he experienced. "The rotator cup and the joint had to be replaced. You shouldn't have had the ability to hold on as long as you did. Besides. I'm alive - I'm fine. That was years ago. I'm sorry I brought it up; I was trying to make light of our current situation."

He cleared his throat and glanced back at her with a weak smile. "I blamed myself because I let go. I thought about it a lot when I pushed you off the team about a year later. I kept thinking it would happen again and..."

"Fox." Her voice was stern. "If you're about to tell me that your lifestyle is too dangerous, I'm getting out and doing this job by myself. This will sound harsh so take it for what it is worth... but I'm not your ward. I'm the telepathic one and I'm responsible for using my abilities to keep you out of danger. So if ANYONE is a ward here... it's you. And I'm mature enough to accept you and the rest of Star Fox as my personal ward, so if you can't return the favor... then I've made a mistake by coming here with you."

Eyes wide, Fox wasn't sure how things turned so sour so quickly. The conversation went straight to hell in a hand basket and he wasn't about to let it spiral out of control. His mind raced. The pilot tried to think of what he could say to fix this new situation as quickly as possible. The problem was that her words took him by surprise, catching him off guard.

He swallowed. Fox blinked and looked around the small cockpit as if dazed by a sucker-punch. He thumbed the seatbelt harness clasp positioned over his sternum then turned around in his seat. He got up on his knees and peered over the backrest, resting his chin on the top of her head. Next, he wrapped his arms around her from behind and held her for a moment. His mind swirled, emotional at the thought of her leaving a third time. "Krystal, we're a team. I can't do this without you. I don't want you to do this without me. Not because I want to be left out and not because I'm worried about anyone's safety. I just want you at my side because I want to do things as a team. I know I was conflicted in the past but that's because I was so young when I was involved in my first war. I saw people taken from me and I lock that out of my mind and repress those memories to the best of my ability. However, you're not like the ones that I lost in the Lylat War. You're right - your advantage gives you power on the battlefield. And with great power comes great responsibility. And that sense of accountability makes Star Fox your ward. I've been too dense to see that until recently. Star Fox needs you. I need you. My team is safer when you're around. And I fight harder and am more successful when you're at my side. You help me to achieve great things because I'm only half a man without you."

Krystal felt his arms move around her from behind. She bit her tongue so as not to choke up, deeply moved by his sincerity. Her paws lifted, covering his and keeping them pressed to her torso. Her eyes moistened and she swallowed. She looked up, seeing his reflection in a glossy display panel. Her eyes glistened in the light of the tactical monitor to the left. A slow smile spread across her lips. In a quiet voice, she said, "For someone who claims he's not very good at speeches... that one was pretty good."

"That's because it was from the heart."

She looked down in a demure way. "I can tell." Krystal brought his paws together and lifted them to her lips, kissing his knuckles. "I've never doubted your feelings for me, just the way you show them. When you tell me you love me, I believe it. I just want you to show me that you love me. It's not a matter of needing proof... it's a matter of wanting to be respected. You say we're a team... I'm glad. Now, let's act like one."

Fox kissed her head between the ears then rested his chin on the metallic band of her headdress, obscured by her hair. "Even if Star Fox had reunited before the Anglar invasion, our ships would have eroded to the point where we wouldn't have been able to break from the Venom atmosphere." He expected her to say something and quickly added, "Just hear me out first..." Fox took a slow breath then continued. "Let's say, just for the sake of argument, that you led Star Wolf down there without the device on Titania. Now, you're the one who told Corneria about it in the first place. How you found out about it... I'll never know but... that's not the point. Anyhow, so... hypothetically, you lead the Wolfens down into the acid seas. You're racing against time in this scenario, because the acidic waters eat away at your hull plating. However... you're telepathic. You can see where the ambushes are, where the enemies are hiding and you can lead Star Wolf right to the nest and destroy it in record time.

"Now, let's say Star Fox was at the top of their game and you never even came to Lylat... First of all, no one would have known about the device. Secondly, we would have had to hunt for the Anglar base. IF we found it, and IF our ships hadn't corroded away by that point, and IF we defeated them without your help, the likelihood of getting out of the water in time, then breaking back through the atmosphere while leaving Venom... yeah. Impossible without you. Star Fox couldn't have done it without help. We couldn't have done it without you. And we're lucky you came back to help us. You were the hero of the Anglar War, not me. If anyone tells you differently then they're ignorant. You've made us a better team. You've made the pilots better people. You've made me into a better man and a better leader. And, hopefully, you'll make me a better father and better husband material. So... are we a team or what?"

She swallowed again and gave his paws a gentle squeeze of reassurance. "You're not normally this good with words."

"I have you to thank for that. I'll just add it to the list of things you've helped me with. Krystal, for the first time since I was a child I really like who I am. You know what changed? You helped me to open my eyes back on Sauria. Look, I carried those Krazoa spirits around that planet before. It didn't heal me or make me a better person. I matured when you joined the team. But when we went back there together the other day... standing up there on the roof of the palace with you... that was life changing for me. I feel like a man. Up until that point, I was still just a boy. A smart person is enlightened enough to know his place in life, but a dumb person ignorantly drifts through life never knowing they could be something more. You opened my eyes that night. I feel smarter, I feel stronger and I feel whole. But..." Fox trailed off and kissed her head again.

He rustled her bangs with a deep breath. Fox pressed his chest against the backrest of his chair to better get his arms around her. "But... like you said, telling you how much I love you is one thing. Showing you how much I love you is something more. So, from here on out, I will do my best to make you feel like you're apart of this team and apart of my life. I want to share everything with you. If you give me the honor of being partners in life, I promise we'll be side-by-side until the end of time."

Krystal released his paws and unfastened her safety harness. She turned around, putting her knees on the seat cushion and faced him. They looked in one another's eyes. She could see the sincerity shining within his eyes, as green as the emerald on her tiara. She could feel his emotions radiating from his soul. Until recently, she'd always known Fox to bottle his emotions especially on a battlefield. Seeing him raw and open was special. "I'm in love with you, Fox McCloud. Even though I'm sorry I stripped away your armor, it really is wonderful to see this side of you."

"I'm sorry my armor was thick enough to block you out until now. I don't need it anymore. When we're together, we shield each other and armor isn't necessary. But you know what else?"

She cupped his face with a soft smile. "What's that?"

He brushed his nose against hers. "We make one hell of a team. I almost feel bad for whoever gets in our way." He ran out of words and leaned forward instead. His lips met hers and she shuddered instantly. Krystal drew in a jagged breath through her nose, immensely responsive to the touch of his lips. They shared a kiss that made her heart beat fiercely. Afterwards, they hugged one another, despite having the double-sided backrest between them.

"I wish you were telepathic for just one minute. That way, you would have some semblance of understanding."

He put his chin on her shoulder, not yet relinquishing the embrace. "What do you want me to understand?"

She sighed with a soft smile, tightly pressing the side of her head against his. "Just how much I love you. Just how much you complete me. I want to give you all of me. I want to bare children for you. I want to satisfy you and relax you and make you as happy as you've made me in these past few days."

"I'm sorry I scorned you, Krystal. I'm sorry I tarnished our love once upon a time. I'll never do it again - I'm a different person now. I'm a better man. I'm a happier man."

Her smile broadened further. "Fox, I've always loved you. I never stopped. When I saw a romantic movie at the theater on Corneria, I thought of us and it made me cry with hope. When a love song came on the radio, I would daydream about us still being together. But please don't have regrets about what happened. It helped us to mature. We're both finally capable of respecting what we now have together. Perhaps everything does happen for a reason. Being together gives my life greater meaning." She eased back and brought her paws back to his face again. "Fox, when I went back to Sargasso for the second time, Panther asked me to wear an engagement ring. He asked to give me a ring to symbolize how happy he was that I returned to him. But I balked. I practically scoffed right in his face at the very notion of marriage. I went two years without so much as looking at you, then we cross paths by chance. Next thing I know, you ask me to marry you. Conversely to how I responded to Caruso, when you pulled that ring out of your pocket I was so delighted that I nearly fainted on the spot. If the concept of 'soul mates' is as true as people claim... then it's obvious that you must be mine."

She drew her left paw from his face and wiggled her fingers, causing the ring to sparkle from the various sources of illumination throughout the all-digital cockpit. "I'll wear this proudly until the day I die." Her smile turned into a toothy grin. "But from what I understand about Cornerian customs... you still have one more to give me."

Fox returned the Cheshire grin. "Yes. I do. A wedding band." His ears perked up tall, brushing against the top of the cockpit. "Let's make the napkins blue and hire a DJ for the reception." He winked, because the statement was turning into an inside joke. "I'll let you pick the place. I've never entertained the thought of a big wedding before. I didn't see the point in it before... but now I do. It's a fancy party. It's a grand way to celebrate the love I feel for you and the ceremony acts as a way to show my friends and loved ones how much I adore you. Let's make it a huge event. I want you to feel like royalty when you walk down the aisle."

She returned her left paw to the side of his face. "I've always felt like royalty in one way or another. But when I'm with you, Fox, I feel like the Queen of queens. A big wedding would be nice but it's not necessary. I'm happy just to receive your vows and to perform a ceremony that, from what I understand, involves getting our friends and loved ones together to openly dedicate ourselves to our love for each other."

"We certainly have our plans cut out, don't we? Smite the villains, start a family and have a big wedding..."

Krystal tilted her head a bit. "Things were a bit different on Cerinia. Having a family and being ceremonially joined in matrimony, I mean."

"Isn't that why you want to marry me? So we can have a big family?"

"Fox, the two aren't necessarily connected. Yes, I want you to be the father of my children. But I don't need a wedding for me to bear you children. However, the thought of us expressing our love for one another sounds wonderful and I'm quite keen to experience it with you. Make me your bride. The thought of being your wife is enticing."

Fox grinned again. "Then the wedding will be as big as you want. It's your day."

"It will be our day." She kissed him again. "I want to make you as happy as you make me." Another kiss then she drew her head back, winked playfully and turned about. Krystal buckled herself in and cleared her voice expectantly. "But for right now... we have a mission together! This is going to be fun so let's get to it!"

He couldn't help but laugh at her cute, spirited attitude. He sank back into his seat, attached the harness over his chest again and announced, "Let's go and kick some scale."

---

The two pilots peered over the rim of a crater. At the center, far below, was a pile of rubble beyond belief. Small shuttles moved to quarry the site. Fox reached into his gear bag and withdrew binoculars. He peered into them and frowned. "These imperial lizards and the marmosets that are mixed in... These guys are all between the ages of thirty and forty. They're remnants of Andross' original forces by the looks of it. I've not seen those uniforms for at least fifteen years."

Krystal reached for the binoculars and began scouting ways to get down into the crater. She blinked then squinted her eyes. Her right index finger moved to the zoom button. "There are automated turrets located around the perimeter of the..." She tumbled backwards, dropping the binoculars to the ground.

Alarmed, Fox dropped back down from the crater lip and quickly scooped her head up in his left palm. "What just happened?" He looked her over but didn't see any blood or any signs of injury. His left paw sifted through her bangs then he blinked, realizing that she wasn't wearing her tiara. Fox cut his eyes over to the shiny circlet on the ground. He reached over her with his left paw and picked it up to inspect it.

There was a tiny nick in the polished metal of the headband. A groan came from Krystal and he shifted his attention back to her. "Are you okay?"

She murmured softly then brought a paw to her head as if favoring an injury. Her fingers felt the soft strands of hair and her eyes widened. "Where is...?"

Fox hushed her softly and brought it up into her line of view.

Krystal sighed in relief then dropped her head back into his right palm. "Is it damaged?"

"I don't see how it could be, what the heck happened?" He shifted the small headdress about then showed her the very faint scratch mark. "This is the only thing I see."

She drew it into her paws, eyes wide again. "My goodness, it must have been quite a round to have caused that!"

Fox blinked as if confused. He thought she was being sarcastic but the look on her face suggested anything but... "I don't follow."

She took the metallic object into her left paw and brought her right one back up to her head. "That hurt horribly. The damned thing must have spotted a glint of light reflecting off the binoculars." Her eyes lifted to his. "I'm sorry. I can't sense the intentions of mechanical objects. The blasted thing fired a round when it saw me. If it was powerful enough to leave a scratch mark, we've seriously misjudged our enemies. The alloy coating put overtop of this tiara is the strongest thing Cerinian scientists have ever invented. My staff is coated with it too. You see how detailed the carvings and designs are on it... but even after using it to beat down countless Sharpclaw, it's still scratch-free."

Fox furrowed his brows. "You were just hit with a sniper round?"

She sat up, still favoring her forehead. "Perhaps if the round was fashioned from a diamond, nothing else I know of could have scratched the headband." She placed the tiara on her knee and brought her other paw back behind her neck. "I don't sense anyone has been notified by the automated defense system. Perhaps it thought it was shooting at a large insect or other indigenous creature..."

"Too bad they're not smart enough to know Macbeth is a lifeless, dead planet." Fox drew her into his arms. "You're not indestructible, Krystal. Neither am I. Let's uh, let's... exercise more caution. I don't know how we can possibly be more cautious than we already are but..." He lowered his eyes back to her and frowned.

She squinted in response. Silence. Finally she said, "You'd better not tell me I'm in danger, so help me, by the Creator, I will never let you hear the end of it."

Seeing she really was all right, his frown melted into a slight grin. "No, you're not in danger. If anything, this proves you can't die."

"How do you figure?"

Fox shrugged a bit then drew her head into his chest. "Think about it... Those things are perfect and there's absolutely no wind right now. It should have put a hole through the binoculars, through your eye and out the back of your head." He felt her flinch in his arms. Fox frowned again. "I didn't mean to be so graphic. What I mean is... those things don't miss. But it hit your tiara, which just so happens to be designed to withstand something more powerful than I can comprehend. With that in mind, you should be dead. It should have targeted me a fraction of a second later and killed me, too. But we're both fine. I'm not one to believe in providence but... maybe it just isn't our time yet."

She eased back up the rest of the way and went to put her tiara back into her hair but winced instead. The bruise on her head was far too sensitive to wear it anymore. With a great measure of reluctance, she packed it into her bag. "Not our time, huh?" Her paw went back to her head. "Immortality hurts. Let's count our blessings and make our way around the crater so we can dismantle them. I don't want to take any more chances."

McCloud reached for the binoculars and picked them up from the ground. They were damaged. He showed the unit to Krystal. "Look at the entry angle. I think the round ricocheted off of your metal band then angled downwards and into the binoculars." He held them up and glanced at the bottom. "Straight through. That means the round should be around here somewhere." Fox used his wristwatch computer to scan the area until he found it buried in the ground.

He took the metallic battery panel off the useless binoculars and used it as a makeshift spade, digging down until he found the round. His eyes grew large, seeing the size of the tip. He brought it near the gauntlet computer and said, "This thing is the latest model - my last one was beat up on Kew. ...Hold on, scan is complete." He waited for the screen to display its findings then he passed the round to her and shook his head. "Diamond coated. This round is big enough and strong enough to have shot straight through an Arwing and out the other side. I don't know what Cerinia used to make these tiaras but... I'm impressed."

She placed her paws on either side of his face. "I'm impressed that you're not sending me back to the Landmaster for nearly dying." She brought her paw up to her head again. "How about a painkiller from the first aid kit? Something for my headache."

Fox removed the kit from his bag, opened it then glanced up at her and smiled. 'Say PLEASE,' he thought then opened his mouth to say it.

She sensed it before he could speak and glowered at him. "You're incorrigible." Her eyes softened then she leaned forward and whispered, "Fox, may I please have the painkillers?"

McCloud handed over two small pills then retrieved a canteen of water for her. "No, no... say it like you said last night."

"Time and place," she scolded, quickly swallowing the pills then the water. Again, her eyes soften right away and she passed back the flask with a smirk. "You really liked hearing that, didn't you?"

"At first I was just trying to joke with you because you were giving me a hard time."

"...I was playing hard to get," she murmured overtop of him.

"Yeah, that... anyhow, once you actually said it, and the way that you said it... yes. I really liked hearing it. Is that so bad?" He stashed the kit back into his pack. "Are you going to be all right? You usually refuse Cornerian pills."

She lifted the bullet that he had placed in her palm. "I was just hit with one of these, Fox. I can hardly think over the thumping combined with the ringing in my ears. Plus, my neck hurts because this damn thing nearly took my head off my shoulders. Had it been fired from a soldier, I could have evaded it or kinetically discharged the energy from the round."

Fox nodded, remembering the name for the technique she'd demonstrated for him so many times in the past. "Dahn Daju."

Krystal smiled. "You even pronounced it right this time." She rewarded him with a kiss then placed the round back into his paw and stood up. Krystal lifted her gaze to the crater lip then sighed. "I guess we should start circling the perimeter. How long before the pills work, love?"

"Depends on your metabolism," he said with a shrug. "Hey, you're better than me. Last time I took a big whack to the head, I lost my memories. Same situation, too... I was wearing the headset. Now that I've got'em back, I actually remember how it happened, too." They began walking together. "The canopy ripped off with part of the anti-grav flap. The cockpit didn't eject from the ship like it was supposed to do... When it collided with the ground, it rolled because the wings came off in the trees. I tried to duck down but my headrest was ripped off and my headset communicator connected with the ground during one of the rolls."

"God, it must have been awful!"

"I was pretty calm during the rolling." He grinned a bit. "I heard Peppy in the back of my head, telling me to do a barrel roll - the whole Arwing was flipping over and over," he chuckled at his own joke then continued his story. "I felt something collide with my head and I passed out for a little bit. Then I awoke to the smell of hydraulic fluid. I got out, checked myself over and looked at all my inventory to determine my identity... then you showed up. You already know the rest."

"It's a good thing your plasma engine wasn't ruptured. It would have set off your Nova Bombs. We'd probably both be dead from the size of the blast."

"Well that really settles it... it's not our time." Fox paused then took her paw as they walked the perimeter. "Maybe we're just destined to be happy together. I sure hope so. I like being with you."

She smiled and looked down, keeping her other paw adjacent to her ear, trying to rub away at the pain. "Do you now?" She loved hearing him say such things. "I like when you're sweet to me."

They came up behind one of the turrets, mounted up on the lip of the crater. Fox opened a channel to Slippy's communicator then quietly said, "We have a small situation. I'm going to make my wrist pad computer 'pairable' and network into the GreatFox. I want you to somehow hack into the turret system and either disable them or make them recognize Krystal and myself as 'friendlies.' Can you do that?"

Slippy replied over Fox's headset communicator. "Yeah, Fox. Let me look up the program I'll need on the subspace net, beam the program down to your personal communicator then we can use it to 'jail break' the turret's core code, overwrite the registry and ...nevermind. I'll explain it later. Stand by." The transmission link ended.

Fox grinned at his fiancée. "That's what I love about him. He's resourceful. Let's give him a few minutes to look up whatever he needs off of the 'net."

Ten minutes later...

Fox and Krystal ducked down behind one of the large machines used in digging out a part of the base. From the looks of things, part of the base was still accessible, with several storm-shelter entrances on multiple sides. They crept along the line of equipment, passed behind one of the supervisors, and made a dash for the nearest entrance.

Once inside an abandoned wing of the subterranean section of the original base, Fox activated the green targeting window on the right side of his headset. He used an infrared flashlight due to the fact that it cast no visible light but illuminated the area when looking through the small green glass square. Krystal activated her targeting lens as well, following him through the darkness.

"What is it that we're looking for?" she whispered.

Fox replied in his mind, knowing she'd hear it. 'Anything to detonate this place, maybe even one of the control decks. If we can somehow get emergency auxiliary power to one of the many command rooms, we might be able to initiate the self-destruct sequence and finish off whatever was left from the train wreck we caused all those years ago. Then we'll give Falco and Slippy the signal to engage the battleship. However, I want to know exactly who is in charge of this operation, too.'

"I see." They continued through the hallway, ducking several times due to a half-collapsed ceiling. The couple came to an intersection that had digging equipment and portable lighting rigs. A collection of cables ran along the floor and around the corner. Fox and Krystal exchanged glances then followed the cables until they came to a room full of computers.

Some of the equipment looked dated. However, newer, smaller computers sat atop of some of the older ones throughout the room. They were powered by the cabling that ran through the hall, in through the doorway and branched out to the field gear. A single man stood in front of a view screen at the far end. Fox and Krystal got down at the corner, staying just outside of the doorway.

Krystal brought a paw to her muzzle. "Oh my... It's Oikonny."

Curious to her reaction, Fox peered in through the door and watched the conversation between the man and his employer. Up on the screen, Andrew Oikonny was rambling on about some meaningless tirade he'd just held with the new 'Ranger of Venom.' The screen dimmed and the man at the end of the room turned around.

Fox's eyes widened and he bit back the desire to gasp. His stomach iced over and his heart dropped, recognizing the canine male instantly. He cut his gaze to Krystal and said, "I thought that guy died for sure."

"Who is he, Fox?" she whispered.

"His name is Captain Shears."