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Nightmares

"Get in the pod, Krystal," she says as calmly as she can, practically stuffing the poor frightened animal in against her will. "Quickly."

"Wh-what about you?!"

Another crash. Krystal yelps.
Foundations rumble.

Krystal grabs at her hand desperately from inside the escape pod and pulls her in closer.
Miyu wavers briefly.

"There's not enough room or oxygen for two people-"

Krystal's grip tightens as she cuts her off. Tears filling her eyes. "I can't leave, not without you. Please."

"Be brave, Krystal. I'll find you. I promise. I have the fastest, prettiest and strongest ship around, remember?"

Krystal smiles through her tears and reluctantly lets go of Miyu, sniffing. "Please hurry."

Miyu kisses her for longer than she probably should and leans back outside the pod to push some buttons on the panel.

"We'll be together again before you know it."

The door shuts and they are separated by the transparent barrier. Her figure distorted, warped. Krystal is terrified as she begins to drift away.

Booming thunder shaking the earth in the distance stirs the sleeping fox. Her eyes blink a few times before adjusting.
Dawn. No rain.

Dry storm for not. However, she can sense the looming black cloud on the horizon.
She checks her compass to ground herself.
East.
She grabs her spear and tosses her bag over her shoulder, spending no time deconstructing the shelter. Yawning loudly, she presses forward. Dead leaves crunching underneath her feet.

The trees get more barren every day, and every day she struggles harder to hold onto hope.

"And he said 'lady! it's people like you who make this job fucking disgusting!"

Krystal and Fay laugh. Even Miyu laughs at her own joke.

"Say, Krystal," Fay says, setting her coffee down. "You got any jokes from Cerinia?"

"Yes!" Krystal breaks through a bashful smile. "How many beansmiles does it take to fill in a gnortglorm?!"

Both Miyu and Fay blink at her.

"Kridmal!" she snorts into her hand, giggling insanely.

Miyu joins along, not understanding the joke but appreciating the delivery.

"You lost me," Fay says, throwing up her arms theatrically.

Both of them laugh harder.

She saw herself in the reflection and she just had to put the spear down. She couldn't stab herself anymore and she couldn't catch the shadows. And that's okay, right?
She found a new layer of the wild and she dances and she sings and she cries for the dead lambs. But angels come down in front of her, and tells her she's alright e ven though sh e is n ' t.

Message carved into a tree trunk along the river, says;
A hermit bleeds somewhere.
I couldn't become the considered.
And as of ah, all of my god isn't here, isn't here.
But Krystal can't read it.

Krystal scoops up a small pool of water from the river in her hands. She takes a drink.

As she exits Pepper's office, a hand stops her at an intersection and she freezes.
Fox. Glaring at her through that one eye, eyepatch obscuring his face. Brow furrowed.

"This isn't over," he says.

He walks away.

She rushed to the wreckage when she found it.
Tearing off foliage. INTERCEPTOR.
Revealing the prettiest, most fastest and strongest ship in the fleet.

"Aint she a beaut'?" Miyu asks, affectionately slapping the Interceptor on the side of its body.

Krystal smiles politely at Miyu's beaming pride. "It's wonderful."

"She aint like the others," Miyu says, chewing a piece of gum in the corner of her cheek. "You know much about ships?"

Krystal shakes her head. "I am to be educated shortly."

"Eh, no need. All you need to know is that this baby is faster, prettier and stronger than anything on Team Star Fox," she hooks her free thumb towards herself casually, "just like her pilot!"

But the cockpit was open, and empty.
Frantically she looks around for markings, some kind of trail.

Footprints. Specks of blood leading up to the rocks.

Heart pounding in her chest, she begins to follow in those footsteps.

"I'd like to see it someday. Will you take me?"

"See what?"

"Central. Your home."

"Ah. Central isn't really my home. Central's my mom's home."

"You grew up there?"

"Yeah."

"Then I would like to see it." Krystal closes the distance and puts her arms shyly around Miyu. She buries her face in her neck and peeks up at her. "I would like to see where you grew up. Will you take me?"

A satisfied chuckle. "What did I say?"

"You said you would take me wherever I wanted to go."

"I suppose I'll have to, if I want to keep my word then, huh?"

"I suppose you will. You should know better than to make promises to strangers."

"We aren't strangers anymore," Miyu laughs and she begins to mimic Krystal's accent. "We are, how you say, mate?"

A playful slap on Miyu's back. "Kiss my ass."

More mockery. "Keese miyass! Do you say that because I am your mate? Is that why you would like me to keese you there?"

Krystal bites Miyu's shoulder, both of them giggling.

"I love you," Miyu says.

"I love you, too."

The footprints and specks of blood lead her around the side of the mountain. Each step filling her with more hope and anxiety.
She tries not to panic.

Trail runs cold at the mouth of a small cave. She squats and peers in to try and see into the darkness.
Sun is setting behind her. She hasn't thought about a shelter or food.

Just Miyu.

"Miyu?"
She drops her spear and approaches slowly. "Miyu..?"

"Miyu," a rough, voice growls. Something moves in the darkness.

Krystal freezes.
That's not Miyu.

"What fortune has this shithole of a planet brought me today?"

Krystal backs up slowly, back towards he spear. She reaches for it.

The cocking of the laser pistol is followed by the readied glow of the inside of the barrel. "Don't."

Her fingertips stop just short of it and she backs up further, raising both her trembling hands in the sky.

"M-Miyu.." she trembles. "H-have you seen her? Do you know where she is?"

"I wouldn't worry too much about your little girlfriend," Fox says, emerging from the shadows. Pointing the pistol directly at her. "I'd worry about yourself, if I were you. I'd worry about what I'm about to do to you."

"M-mister Fox, I- ... please-"

"Oh no. Your little girlfriend isn't here to save you now." He straightens himself up when he gets past the mouth of the cave, advancing slowly. "You and I are gonna have a little chat. We have unfinished business, you see."

His grip on the pistol isn't steady. He's squinting at her with his left eye. His only good one left.

Krystal yelps as she trips backwards over a good sized rock and gravity takes her down to her back.

Fox laughs. "Good, getting into position I see. First I'm gonna fuck ya, then I'm going to tear both your eyes out of your fucking head and leave you to die in this shithole. Now, take off your-"

Krystal's quick to cut him off by a handful of rocks to the face. "FUCK!"

The gun goes off and misses her head by inches. Already she's getting to her feet, rushing him and tackling him to the ground.
She punches him in the face and punches him again. He starts to struggle. She wrestles the pistol out of his hands and tosses it hard to the side before hitting him in the throat. He struggles to breathe, air whistling through his damaged windpipe.

She gets up and watches him clutch his neck desperately for a second before walking past his head to retrieve her spear. She picks it up and walks back to him, clutching it tightly.

His eye wide with fear. His nails on his left hand digging into the jacket on his chest, reaching for something. The other hand reaches weakly for her.

Krystal brings the spearhead down hard into his neck, staring him in the eye.

She remembers being so vulnerable in his arms after he saved her. Thinking she was safe.

She remembers being grateful for the opportunity to pay him back.

Fox McCloud was no better than any of the other monsters and that's why Miyu hated him so much.

"Kiss my ass," she says, twisting the spear inside of his neck. A cough attempt at a gasp sends a jettison
of blood upwards to the sky. It rains back down on him. She rips the spear loose and drops it next to him before walking away.
His hand drops as he bleeds out at an alarming rate. Sputters and coughs and gurgling attempts to draw air quickly die out as his blood pools around him on the rocks.

Krystal kicks something and screams before sobbing.

"He's dead, Miyu," she says absentmindedly. Staring out the window of the observatory. "I killed that sleazy furbag. He tried to kill me first and I killed him."

Miyu doesn't answer. Just stares out into space.

Krystal reaches for her hand.

She drags the body to a cliff and drops it off. Leading a trail of blood from the place he died near the mouth of the cave to his limp corpse crashing against the rocks on his way down.
Fuck him.

It begins to rain. Krystal takes shelter in the cave.

The ambient sound of water crashing down on the rocks echoes around her throughout the shadows. Krystal does not sleep. She doesn't attempt to.
She hugs her knees and waits.

Lightning flashes, lighting up the whole cave. She rests her head on her knees and gazes out into pure darkness.
Another flash and she sees something, her ears perking up and her eyes widening.

It couldn't be.

"Miyu!" she screams, crawling to her knees and out into the rain.

Again the world lights up for a fraction of a second, and there she is, standing still. Further away this time.
Following the trail of blood.

"MIYU! WAIT!"

Her desperate screams are buried under the rain.
Feet pounding against the ground, digging into gravel.

The world lights up again and she comes to a dead halt just feet away from the ledge. Miyu is right there, facing away. Just a few more steps.

Krystal reaches out for Miyu's hand in the darkness as thunder cracks the sky.
And as the wind picks up, pelting her hard on the side of her face with rain, Krystal's hand closes in on itself into a fist.