Chapter 11: Past Regrets

Kursed managed to raise her staff and activate its energy shield a bare fraction of a second before the wall of fire reached and washed over her. The force of the explosion tore the door from its hinges and slammed it into the wall on the other side of the hallway, but the flames surged around her protective barrier without touching her. As quickly as the explosion began, it ended, leaving everything in her apartment blazing furiously. Kursed let the shield dissipate, and was left standing in a meter-diameter circle of untouched carpet amid an ocean of roaring flames –an ocean that began to surge in upon her island of safety the moment the protective energy barrier disappeared. Leveling her staff, she triggered the Ice Blast and began to suppress the flames that lay between her and the exit. She was almost out of the burning room when she remembered that there was something that she couldn't leave to the ravening fires, and turned back to retrieve it.

Kursed began to fight her way back through the flames towards the apartment's single bedroom. The lone window in the room had been blown out from the force of the explosion, but escaping through the broken window wasn't what she planned on doing. Hidden in the back of the closet was a fireproof box that contained all the possessions she still valued, though she hadn't opened it up in a long while. The box was too hot to touch at first, but a quick spurt of freezing air was enough to cool it down enough to handle safely. She grabbed the box and tucked it under her arm, then turned to make her way back out of the burning apartment and into the hall. Kursed wasn't overly bothered by the loss of the domicile - or most of the things in it - since she spent so little time there anyway, but the simple fact was that someone had found out where she lived and set a trap in her own home to kill her. That knowledge would be enough to rattle anyone.

She was out the doorway before she realized that there was no alarm sounding to warn people of the fire. Of course, if someone went through all the trouble to set up a firebomb in her apartment, they would probably want to make sure that no one would come to intervene until it was too late. Still, there were at least a dozen other tenants here, most of them families, and it would never sit well with her if she simply left them to the mercy of the blaze. If she could just find… there, there was a manual fire alarm on the far wall. She grasped the handle, hoping that this hadn't been sabotaged as well, and pulled down as hard as she could.

To her relief, it was still in working order and began to emit a shrill squeal that was echoed by other similar units placed around the building. The dictates of conscience satisfied, she then turned to the nearest stairwell and fairly flew down the two flights that led to ground level. As she headed for the exit, she could see a couple of families hurrying for the way out as well. There was none of the chaos or conflict that she would have expected in an emergency situation like this, which told her that they had prepared for this sort of thing in advance. While the fact that they expected a situation like this was certainly a little depressing, the fact that they knew how to handle it reassured her that everyone was more likely to make it out of the building alive and unharmed.

Once she was outside, she was able to turn around and see the damage that had been done to the building. Her own apartment was on the third of four floors, and she could instantly tell which one had been hers by the smoke and flames billowing out of the broken window. Her place was a total loss; whoever had planted the bomb had obviously wanted to make sure she would not escape the inferno, but had also not anticipated the energy shield built into her staff. Nonetheless, it had still been a very close call; and if she had been just a fraction of a second slower in getting it up, she would have been cooked inside and out in a heartbeat.

"Hey, Krys! You alright?"

Kursed turned at the sound of that nickname and saw Shadow and Amber running down the sidewalk towards her. A part of her was glad to see them, but another part of her resented the implication that she would need help. As they came close, Amber asked, "What happened?"

"Someone set a firebomb in my apartment," Kursed replied, with the tone of someone stating the obvious. "Fortunately, I was able to get my shield up before the explosion hit me." She paused for a second, and then said, "Don't tell me you both came running back solely on my account."

"Well, we heard the explosion and figured that somebody would need help," Shadow replied evenly. "Is there anyone still in the building?"

"No," Kursed and Amber said at the same time. They looked at each other with bemused expressions at their stereophonic answer, and Kursed elaborated, "The fire started in my apartment, and someone had killed the automatic alarm system, but I managed to trigger a manual alarm and warn my neighbors. As far as I know, mine was the only place that fire broke out in, so everyone else should have had time to get to safety."

Further conversation was interrupted by the wail of approaching sirens, as an emergency response team came around the corner and stopped just in front of the apartment complex. The crew jumped out of the vehicle almost before it came to a stop and within no time was directing a stream of fire-retardant foam into the open window. At the same time, another group of workers was entering the building through the main entrance, in order to bring more fire suppressants to bear on the blaze from another direction. Judging from the speed with which both crews were operating, the fire would be under control within minutes.

"They're good," Amber commented into the silence.

"They've had lots of practice," her brother answered, a little glumly. "On the bright side, though, it looks like they'll be able to save the building, and no one will be sleeping outside tonight."

"Except me," Kursed growled. "I don't know if either of you noticed, but my place is trashed already. Even if they save the rest of the building, I won't have anywhere to stay." She looked back at the ruins of her apartment and was lost in thought for a moment, missing the whispered exchange that went on between the other two foxes. After a little while, she half-turned and asked them, "I don't suppose you could suggest a motel or somewhere I could put up for the night?"

"Actually, we could do one better than that," Amber replied. "How would you feel about crashing at our place?"

Kursed looked at the two of them in surprise, caught off guard by that offer. She scanned their surface thought patterns to see if they were trying to prank her, or setting up some other plan; but the offer was wholly sincere, as far as she could tell. Both of them stood there with their gazes on her, waiting for her answer. Curiosity, caution, fatigue, and suspicion all warred within her, but finally she came to a decision and said, "I don't really see why not."

Shadow looked a little surprised at her assent, but Amber beamed at the answer and said, "Great, then, let's get going!" Her brother hesitated a moment, looking back at the scene of the accident, and she asked him, "What's the holdup, Arlen?"

He turned to look back at her and asked, "You're sure we aren't needed here?"

"The emergency services crew has everything under control," she replied. "And weren't you the one saying the streets weren't safe at night? We need to get going." He mock-glared at her out of one eye at how she used his own words against him, but she simply smiled and held up her hands in a 'what can you do?' gesture.

He shrugged and said, "Well, 'safe' is a relative term anyways. If we're going, we'd better go quickly; all the freaks come out at night." Kursed lifted one eyebrow at his phrasing, but didn't need to ask what he meant. She knew all too well about the predators that roamed the streets under the cover of darkness; she didn't have very much to fear from them, but the average citizen would. Shadow turned and started back in the direction that he and his sister had come from, Kursed following behind them and keeping her senses alert in case someone tried to follow them, or finish what they had started at her apartment.

They managed to travel several city blocks before Kursed began to feel uneasy. She immediately identified the sensation as a warning from her sixth sense; someone was following them, probably several someones, and their intentions were far from friendly. She glanced up in Amber's direction, and noticed a similar apprehension in the younger vixen's face. Shadow was harder to read, but she could get enough of his thoughts to tell that he, also, knew they were being stalked. After another block's worth of travel, he finally stopped and called out, "There's no use in hiding; I know you're there."

There was a pulse of surprise from several sources at his pronouncement, but gradually seven individuals sauntered out of the shadows and took positions around the group; five in front of them and two behind. They were a mixed-species assortment, but all of them had several things in common – they were all scruffy, they all had multiple tattoos, and while their clothing was as ratty as their appearances, there was nonetheless a common theme among all of them. Kursed turned to keep an eye on the two behind them, while Shadow addressed the apparent leader of the gang, a mangy looking lynx featuring an impressive, if grotesque, array of facial piercings. "What do you punks want?"

"Hey, now, dat's no way t' speak to us," the leader said in a slightly slurred voice. "Dere's seven of us, and only three of you, and da bitches won't do ya much good, I don't think."

"No, you obviously don't," Shadow retorted, even as Kursed glared daggers at the gang leader for his choice of words to refer to her. "It wouldn't matter if there were seven, seventeen, or seventy of you here; I'd still whip you all, so run along home before you get hurt." Behind him, Amber looked at him as though he'd lost his mind at the way he was provoking the gang.

"Aw, dat does it," the lynx said scornfully. "We was gonna let you go and just have some fun wit' da bitches, but now you gone and pissed me off. We's gonna rough you up real good, so's you knows not to mess wit' us again." The group in front spread out to block the street, although they intended to let their leader have first crack at the black fox that had insulted them. Kursed scanned their minds as quickly as she could; all of them were brimming with pent-up aggression, and there was a strong likelihood that the gang had intended violence regardless of their quarry's reaction.

Shadow smiled as the gang leader put on a set of brass knuckles onto his right hand. It wasn't a friendly smile at all; it was more the smile a cat might give a mouse just before dispatching it. "Oh, you boys picked the wrong day for this," he said softly as he settled into a combat-ready stance. "I am not in a good mood right now." The punks either didn't notice, or didn't think he could do anything to seriously hurt them. Kursed and Amber likewise tensed up, preparing for the action that was sure to come. Kursed's hand drifted to her staff, ready to draw it at a moment's notice, while Amber brought her hands up to a defensive position and kept alert for any sudden moves on the part of their potential assailants.

Without warning the gang leader suddenly lunged forward, right fist cocked to deliver a devastating punch. Quick as thought, Shadow lifted one hand and caught the feline's fist in his own palm, stopping the punch cold and gripping his opponent's hand to keep him from withdrawing it again. Shadow allowed just enough time for the reality of the situation to seep into his opponent's mind before he clenched his fingers down, crushing his opponent's hand within his own. The crackle of breaking bones was drowned out by the agonized yowl from the lynx as every finger in his right hand snapped at once. The yowl was cut off a second later when Shadow jerked the lynx forward and swung his free hand up into the feline's solar plexus. The gang leader dropped to the pavement in a heap, holding his mangled hand and gasping for breath, and then was blasted to the ground in an unconscious heap when the black fox landed a roundhouse kick in his face.

Shadow expected that seeing their leader laid out so easily would have caused the gang to back off, or at least think twice about pressing the fight. However, either they weren't as smart as he thought they were, or else too angry at seeing their leader felled to think about the danger. The four remaining in front charged Shadow all at once, while the two behind the trio of foxes went after the females - one after Kursed and the other after Amber. Kursed extended her staff and slammed its cap into her attacker's right knee, then the left. The double impacts stopped the canine dead in his tracks, and she used the opening to lever the staff upwards, smashing the cap straight into his groin. The thug's knees turned to jelly and he collapsed to the sidewalk, whimpering in pain.

The rat that went after Amber thought that she would be easy pickings, but he was quickly taught otherwise. He lunged at her with the intent of grappling with her, but she stepped aside and avoided his grasp, then grabbed his wrist as he went by her and twisted it around behind his back. She applied enough leverage to force him off balance, and then hooked a leg between his and tripped him up, sending him sprawling to the ground. He struggle to get back up, but before he could regain his feet she gave him a kick that connected squarely with his snout and dropped him back to the pavement, this time out cold.

This left the females free and clear, and Kursed turned and started towards where Shadow was still beset by his opponents. Amber placed a restraining hand on her shoulder and said, "No, just watch." Kursed took another glance at Shadow, who was more than holding his own despite four-on-one odds, and decided to heed the younger vixen's recommendation this time.

The first thug to rush Shadow was a very burly human. He came in fast and low, intending to use his greater mass to pin the black fox in place and allow the rest of the gang the opportunity to beat on him. Shadow moved back just out of the reach of the man's grasping hands, then grabbed hold of his wrist with one hand while placing the other on the back of the man's neck and used his body as a pivot to direct his opponent's momentum into the side of a nearby building. The human slammed face-first into a wall and slid slowly down the side, leaving a smear of blood on the bricks.

The second thug was a cougar, who adopted a boxing stance that he must have picked up from watching endless reruns of old fighting movies. Shadow shook his head in amusement at his opponent's actions and parried his opponent's first two punches with his hands, then led with a jab at the feline's nose and then, when the cougar raised his hands to protect his face, delivered a pile-driving kick into his abdomen. The cougar was knocked flat on his back by the force of the blow, where he curled into a fetal position on the ground from the pain.

The last two members of the gang were mixed-breed canines, and similar enough in appearance that they might have been brothers. They were also armed, one with a length of pipe and the other with a switchblade. The one with the pipe swung first, putting as much force as he could muster into it in hopes of scoring a knockout blow. Shadow ducked out from underneath the blow and then put both hands together and pounded down on the canine's back as the momentum of the swing carried him past the fox. The hydrostatic shock of the impact temporarily paralyzed the target, and he collapsed to the ground like a puppet whose strings had suddenly been cut.

The knife-wielder advanced a little more cautiously – maybe he was a cannier fighter to begin with, or maybe the fate of his comrades had made him a little more wary. Either way, though, he was still way out of his league. The canine advanced with reckless speed, swinging the knife in short, sudden slices that were intended to keep Shadow at arm's length, where he couldn't so easily get into grappling reach. That strategy depended on both combatants having equal ability however; when one of them had hair-trigger reflexes and was twice as strong as the other, there was no contest. Shadow waited until his opponent had finished a slice and then snaked out a hand to grab his wrist, twisting his arm around behind his back and forcing it almost to the breaking point. The canine whimpered in pain and tried to bend his arm back so he could stab at the fox with the switchblade, but Shadow pressed a thumb into the pressure point of his opponent's elbow and popped it out of joint. The canine yelped and fell to his knees, dropping the knife and cradling his immobile arm in his good hand.

"Be a good boy and run along now, before you get hurt," Shadow said to his fallen opponent. "Well, any more than you already are, at least." He put his foot on the fallen switchblade to keep the canine from getting any ideas of retrieving it. The thug gave him a venomous glare, but saw the futility in further aggressive action and backed away from where the black fox was standing. Once he was satisfied that the canine was out of the way, Shadow bent down and picked up the switchblade. He closed it and turned it over in his hands, examining the item with an appraising eye, and then tossed it underhand to Kursed. "Here, spoils of battle," he said to her.

The blue vixen grabbed the weapon out of the air and looked at him curiously. "Why not keep it for yourself?" she asked him.

"It'd be a little redundant, don't you think?" he asked rhetorically, indicating with one hand the various blades that he had hidden on his person.

She shrugged and examined the weapon for herself. When closed up, it was easily concealable, and could serve as a surprise for any foe should a situation go sour. She tucked it into a pouch on her utility belt and said, "I'll keep ahold of it."

"What about the gang?" Amber asked.

Shadow looked around at the group of fallen hoodlums. Most of them were still moaning in pain over their injuries, and a couple of them were beginning to stir. "I don't think any of them are in any real danger," he told her. "We'll leave them be for now, and maybe they'll think twice before trying to attack the next passer-by." She nodded in reply, and the three of them continued on towards the bus stop.

They arrived without further incident and found themselves waiting for the next bus to arrive. In the process, Shadow became aware of Kursed giving him a strange look. He wasn't quite sure how to describe it – it might have been evaluating or admiring, or something completely else, but it wasn't her usual stony scowl, that was for sure. He raised one eyebrow in silent inquiry and she asked, "Why didn't you use any of your blades? You could have easily slain all of them, but you chose to fight on even grounds. Why?"

He shrugged and replied, "It wasn't necessary. If there had been more of them, or had they all been armed, then yeah, maybe I would have had to drawn some blood, but as it was they were no serious threat." He smirked and added, "Besides, it was good stress relief after getting raked over the coals by Senator Vares this afternoon."

"You handled them pretty well, especially since you were outnumbered."

"They were street punks," he said dismissively. "Nothing special." Then he did an almost comical double take and cupped one hand next to his ear, as though he were suddenly hard of hearing. "I'm sorry; was that a compliment?"

"Don't push it," she growled. He only snickered and resumed his study of the road where the bus would approach from. They waited in silence for a few minutes, until the rumble of an engine and the glare of headlights signaled the arrival of their transportation. They boarded once the vehicle came to a stop and the doors opened to let them on; Shadow paid the fare for the three of them then joined the two vixens in the back of the bus. They sat down as the lumbering vehicle began to move, and silence reigned for the first half of the journey.

The quiet made Kursed's thoughts turn inward, and her mood began to darken as time passed. This wasn't the first time that someone had tried to kill her since she'd taken up her current career, but it was the first time that someone had been able to find out where she lived, when she wasn't out on a hunt at least. There were two possibilities: either someone was very good at finding out secrets of that sort, or someone had sold her out. The trouble was, she wasn't in the habit of giving out her address to anyone, and the people that did know her here still didn't know which apartment she'd set up residence in. As disconcerting as it was, the most likely scenario was that someone had both the determination and the resources to find out where she lived, and set up a trap meant to kill her when she got back. Whether it was for her participation in the raid on Verdas, or her apprehension of Algus Fant, or her success in finding the remaining members of the Purist administration in general, was academic at best.

Shadow and Amber were talking quietly between each other, but she didn't pay their conversation much heed. A sudden thought occurred to her: what if whoever had sent the person who had given her the datascreen containing the information about Shadow's past had intended it as a delaying tactic, something that would sidetrack her for a few hours while they set up the firebomb that had obliterated her apartment? It would explain a few things, certainly, but there was little evidence to support that theory. She didn't sense any sort of malice in the mind of the messenger; though it was entirely possible, in the convoluted maze of politics, that he didn't actually know who wanted him to hand the datascreen off to her. Trying to figure out the culprit based on that was an exercise in frustration, but knowing that didn't make her stop trying, and her failure only served to deepen her already-black mood.

Her train of thought was interrupted by Shadow's voice calling her. She glanced up to see him looking at her expectantly, like he was waiting for an answer to a question. "What'd you say?" she replied.

"I asked what you would like on your pizza," he repeated his question.

She blinked in confusion. "What's a pizza?" she asked.

Shadow and Amber exchanged incredulous looks between each other before turning to look at her in amazement. "You don't know what a pizza is?" Amber asked in disbelief.

"If I did, I wouldn't be asking now, would I?" Kursed replied a little frostily.

Amber didn't seem taken aback at all by her icy reply. "Pizza is a type of food item that humans brought with them when they settled here, and easily one of the best contributions that they've made to this world's culture. It's a flat crust with tomato sauce and cheese spread on top, and then anything else you want on top of that."

"I still have no idea what it tastes like," Kursed told her. "How would I know if I liked it at all, let alone what I wanted on it?"

Shadow thought for a moment before answering, "Okay, I'll order one extra cheese, that's the most basic kind. If you find that you like that, you can build from there, and if you don't, well, more for the rest of us, then."

"Whatever." She leaned back and closed her eyes, hoping to shut out the rest of the universe even for only a moment, to try to get her thoughts back in order. The clarity she craved continued to elude her, however, and after a little while she opened her eyes again to see Amber looking at her with an expression of wary concern and curiosity. "What do you want?"

"Were you always this…" the scarlet vixen's voice trailed off as she searched for the appropriate word, finally coming up with, "…antisocial?"

"No." For a moment, Kursed's mind was drawn back to memories of earlier days, better days, before everything had gone so completely wrong. Those memories only served to emphasize how much she had lost since then, how much more bleak and dreary her existence was now, and she forcefully shunted them away from her mind. "But I don't want to talk about it." She leaned back and closed her eyes again, effectively killing any further conversation.

Across the aisle from her Shadow finished placing his order and put his comm link back in his pocket, then he and Amber regarded each other with silent looks. "Something's bothering her," Amber said softly to her brother.

"Obviously," he replied in the same tone. "But she's been in moody pretty much all the time I've known her, so what's new?"

"No, this is something different," Amber told him, "something recent. I… I'm worried about her. I wish there was something I could do to help."

"Perhaps there is," he said. "But unless she feels like opening up to one of us, I don't think there's much either of us can do right now."

If the cerulean vixen overheard the exchange, she gave no indication. As the ride continued, the density of the buildings they passed began to decrease significantly, as they left the main city area and entered the outlying suburb. Shadow tapped the button to let the driver know that their stop was coming up. The bus drifted to a halt at the designated location and the three of them disembarked by the rear door, and then started walking down the sidewalk towards their destination once the bus had left. "How much further do we have to go?" Kursed asked after a few moments.

"Not much farther," Shadow replied. "Just a few more blocks or so left to walk." The rest of the walk went by in complete silence, and Kursed took the opportunity to look around at the houses and other structures that lined the street. Judging from the quality of the homes that she could see, this was a fairly well-to-do neighborhood, although some of the houses looked like they had suffered significant damage over the course of the civil war. Every now and then, they passed by a spot that had a pile of debris instead of a building, a grim reminder that some people had fared worse than others in the course of recent events.

After walking for several more blocks along the main road, Shadow turned onto a side street. Near the end of the pavement was their destination- a two story home that also featured a fairly large yard. It was plain to see that it had been a nice place, but it was also plain to see that it had not escaped the ravages of violence, either. One of the walls looked like it had just recently been repainted, and the large picture window that faced the street on that side had been replaced by a piece of plywood. The front garden had once featured several beautiful bushes and small trees, but all of them had been demolished recently, leaving only stumps and splintered branches as indication of what had once been there.

"Looks a bit the worse for wear," Kursed commented offhandedly.

"It looks better than it did before," Shadow replied evenly. "I've spent my free time when I haven't been working at Tony's or hunting down remnants of the Purist administration restoring my home back to the way it used to be. But supplies are getting expensive, since everyone else is doing pretty much the same thing, and I don't have a lot of money to spare."

"What about the trust fund that Mom and Dad had set up for us?" Amber asked him.

"I think that's been frozen," he answered bluntly. "I tried to access it several months back, and I couldn't get past an 'account terminated' message. I'm not sure when it happened, or why, but the bottom line is that working at Tony's is the only source of income I have right now, and it's barely enough to cover living expenses." He turned back to the door and unlocked it, then pushed it open and gestured with a wave of his arm. "Ladies first?"

Amber strode though the door immediately; Kursed followed shortly thereafter at a more reserved pace. The blue vixen stopped shortly after the entryway and surveyed what she could see of the house. In front and slightly off to the right was a stairwell that led to the upper story of the house. The ground floor branched off to the left and the right from the entrance. To the right was the dining room first, and the kitchen after that, situated along the back of the house and halfway under the stairwell. To the left was the living room and den, and against the back wall of the den was a large window that looked out over the back yard, although there wasn't much to see on a dark and relatively moonless night like this one. Presumably the bathrooms and bedrooms were upstairs.

Amber took off up the stairs and down the hallway to her own bedroom. Shadow entered and closed and locked the door before turning to Kursed. "We can set up a guest room for you right now if you want. It'd give you a place to set your stuff down, too."

She simply shrugged in reply. "Eh, why not?" He led her up the stairs and past one bedroom and what appeared to be a study, to a small but decently-furnished room halfway down the hall. There was a small dresser against one wall, a bed against the other, and a desk situated at the far wall under the window. The bed and desk were both bare, since no one had been using this room before. Kursed set her small box of possessions down on the desk and waited while Shadow retrieved a set of bedcovers from the linen closet just down the hall. Within a few minutes he had covered and made up the bed, complete with a mattress cover, fitted sheet and loose sheet, and a blanket and comforter on top. The whole setup looked remarkably inviting, and a part of her wanted to do nothing more than flop down on the covers and go straight to sleep.

Hardly had he finished, though, when there was a chime at the front door. "That'll be the pizza delivery," Shadow commented. A second later, footsteps could be heard as Amber raced down the hallway and stairs to the door, and Shadow added dryly, "And that would be my hungry younger sister." He descended the steps at a slightly more sedate pace, checking in his pocket along the way to make sure he had enough money to pay for the pizza delivery. He opened the door and handed the money over to the young female otter standing on the step, while Amber took the three boxes that he had in his hands and hurried as quickly as she could into the dining room. After the delivery girl had gone, Shadow shut the door and followed Amber into the dining room, where she had already set the pizza boxes on the table and was rummaging through the cabinets in the kitchen looking for some plates and drinking glasses. Gathering three of them in her hands, she hurried back and set them out on the table, and then the three of them took their preferred pieces out and began eating.

Under other circumstances, Kursed supposed she would have enjoyed the meal, but tonight she found that she had little appetite. For some reason, she just couldn't bring herself to enjoy the meal. After eating only half of her slice, she pushed her chair away from the table and said that she wasn't hungry. "I'll be upstairs in my room if you need me," she told them. Both of them gave her concerned looks, their worry for her evident even to a non-telepath. She tried to give them a reassuring explanation, but suddenly found that she couldn't meet their eyes. Averting her gaze to the tiled floor, she turned and ascended the stairs without further comment, hurrying as quickly as she could to the room that she had set up in. It seemed that this meal was something of a celebration for the two reunited siblings, and she didn't want to spoil it with her bleak mood.

Kursed shut the door as soon as she was inside her room, and then moved to sit on the bed. She unlaced her shoes and slipped them off her feet, then pulled off her socks as well and lay back on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. She simply lay there for a while, until a stray thought occurred to her. Sitting up again, she regarded the small, rectangular box that held all the things she could still call her own in the universe. She had nothing else; no home, no family or friends, not even a mission or purpose. Sighing as depression started to sink down on her, Kursed slid over to where she could reach the box and picked it up. It was supposed to be fireproof and impact-resistant, but she wanted to make sure that all of the things inside it were still intact. They were, after all, the only things she had left.

It took a couple of minutes to input the security code that would allow her to access the contents of her strongbox. Once that was done, she carefully lifted the lid and inspected the contents, lifting each piece out one at a time and making sure they were all undamaged. There wasn't really much inside. The first things she came to were the remaining pieces of the ceremonial jewelry that she wore when on Cerinia. Most of the larger pieces, like the arm and leg bands, she kept in a safe place nowadays, though she usually wore the tiara and necklace when she wasn't bathing or asleep. These comprised the bulk of the items inside the strongbox. There was a slot for her staff when she wasn't using it, but nowadays she had it with her every waking hour, and hadn't put back in its slot in several years. A small paper envelope at the bottom was the only other thing left inside. A cold voice in her head warned her not to pick it up, that only pain awaited her if she opened it, but her hands seemed to move almost of their own volition as she lifted the envelope up from the bottom of the box. The open end was on the bottom, so the contents spilled out across the bedcover when she tilted it to a vertical position. Kursed's eyes flicked down to see what had fallen out, and then they widened as she beheld what had been inside.

It was a stack of photographs, an assortment of various scenes from her life when she lived in Lylat. All of them were of happier times, and back when they were first made she'd placed each of them in the box as a collection of fond memories. Now, however, they only served as a pointed reminder of what she no longer had. Hastily she gathered them back up in her hands and stuffed them back in the envelope, trying her best not to look at them too closely. She thought she had gotten them all until one stray picture near the edge of the bed caught her attention. She picked it up to put it away with the others, but froze as the light from the room's single lamp fell across it and she saw the image it held.

It was a picture of her and Lucy Hare, a few months after the two of them had met. The pink-furred lapine female had one arm thrown around the blue vixen's shoulders in a friendly gesture and a broad grin on her face. She herself was smiling for the camera as well, one hand lifted as if in greeting while the other rested on Lucy's nearer shoulder. Written in black marker in one corner were the words, "Lucy and Krystal - Best Friends Forever".

Forever hadn't lasted nearly as long as she had thought, however. Kursed groaned aloud as she remembered the least time she had seen Lucy Hare. Their parting had been decidedly less than friendly…

Krystal took a look around at Lucy's apartment in one of Fichina's domed cities. It was only lightly decorated, which seemed appropriate as Lucy tended to spend most of her time at the University, where she was an astrophysics teacher, of all things. Lucy Hare was a complex person; people who looked at her somewhat tomboyish nature seemed to ignore her obvious femininity, people who saw her femininity seemed to overlook her sharp intellect and can-do spirit. Krystal hadn't overlooked any of those aspects, and in fact had found a steadfast friend in the young lapine female shortly after she had officially joined Star Fox. It wasn't until after they were introduced that Krystal had found out that Lucy was the daughter and only child of Star Fox veteran Peppy Hare, whose gentle wisdom and easygoing manner had helped the Cerinian vixen transition more easily into life on Corneria. The two of them had hit it off almost immediately, and had maintained their friendship over the years despite the many other calls on their time.

Now, in the middle of the Anglar War, Krystal had come to visit her lapine friend again. She and the rest of Star Wolf had set up base on the outskirts of Fichina's habitable zone, far enough away that no one was likely to stumble across it and report that a group of wanted outlaws was hiding out on the planet's surface. Wolf was currently off with Fox McCloud, of all people, who had come to Fichina a few days ago saying that he wanted to fly alongside his longtime rival. Wolf had challenged Fox to a dogfight and been shot down (again), and then had accepted the offer as an opportunity to keep Fox preoccupied with other things while the rest of Star Wolf kept searching for the device that was supposed to make their ultimate victory possible. Krystal had voice the opinion that the device was located on Titania, but had been unable to provide any sort of evidence to back up her claim, so none of the rest of her new team was willing to move to investigate Lylat's biggest sandbox just yet.

Despite the time that she had spent with them, Krystal still hadn't gotten used to being around the members of the renegade merc squad. Leon wasn't one for socializing, and Panther seemed more intent on trying to woo her than anything else. She'd warmed up to him initially, but mostly because she'd been lonely after Fox dumped her and Panther said the things she wanted to hear. He kept trying to subtly coax her into bed with him, though, and while she was lonely she wasn't that lonely. The end result, though, was that she was longing for a familiar and friendly face. Learning that Lucy had taken up a teaching position at the University here on Fichina, she had discreetly arranged for the two of them to meet up at her apartment and talk together. Lucy had had a couple of things she still needed to take care of, so Krystal was waiting in her living room for her to finish up.

Her introspection was interrupted by the chime of her wrist-communicator. Hastily she answered the call, hoping that Lucy didn't hear the chime and come see who was calling. There was only one of a very few possible individuals who would be calling her at this point in time, and she was reasonably sure that Lucy wouldn't approve of any of them. Her guess was confirmed a second later as the one-eyed face of Wolf O'Donnell coalesced into being above her wristcomm, which projected a six-inch image of the lupine warrior from the shoulders up. Krystal moved to a place where she hoped that Lucy wouldn't overhear the conversation and asked Wolf in a harsh whisper, "What are you calling me now for?!"

"Sorry to interrupt your holiday, Princess, but I've got good news and bad news," Wolf's gruff voice said over the speaker. "The good news is I know where the device is now. You were right; it's on Titania."

"That's good," Krystal said without any emotion in her voice. "Let's go get it then."

"And there's the bad news," Wolf continued. "Apparently that annoying frog off your old team somehow found out about its location as well, and he told old General Hare, who told McCloud and the birdie where to start looking for it. We're already in orbit around Titania, and about to start searching."

Krystal gritted her teeth and growled softly at this news. This could ruin everything she'd been working for over the past couple of months, unless… "Do you want me to get Panther and Leon and head over to Titania to chase them off?"

"No, there are too many Anglars around," Wolf answered her. "If you all showed up now, we'd have to fight Star Fox as well as the Anglars, and we can't afford a three-way battle. We'd probably lose."

Krystal growled again as she tried to think of a solution to the problem facing them. After a moment, she smiled coldly and said, "I have an idea: let Fox and Falco do the hard and dangerous work of searching for the device, and then once they find it you can swoop in, grab it, and bring it to Venom. You'll be able to clear the way to the Anglar Emperor and defeat him, and Lylat will hail Star Wolf as the heroes of the day this time."

Wolf's good eye widened with surprise at Krystal's scheme. "I never would have expected something that cold from you, of all people. You must really have it in for McCloud."

"Well, you know what they say: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" she said icily. "And I don't want you to kill Fox; I want him alive to realize the mistake he made when he cast me away."

"So you want me to tell him that this was your idea?" Wolf's tone was neutral betraying neither aversion nor interest in the scheme.

Krystal thought for a moment before answering. "Yes. If he thinks he doesn't need me around, I want to make him see how wrong he is."

"Can do. Wolf, out." The hologram of Wolf's face faded, and Krystal turned her comlink off. It was then that she became aware of another presence nearby, and whirled to see Lucy standing in the doorway, her expression a mixture of shock and dismay. The blue vixen felt guilt rise up in her chest at what she'd been caught doing, but she smothered it beneath a show of indignation. "Were you eavesdropping on me?" she asked defensively.

"Every word," Lucy said, in a tone barely above a whisper. "Krystal, what are you doing?!"

"Making Fox see the error of his ways," was Krystal's flat reply.

"You're letting your hurt feelings get in the way of your judgment. This isn't going to solve the problem, Krystal; it's only going to make it worse. This isn't like you." Krystal turned to try and leave the room in an attempt to avoid the growing confrontation, but Lucy moved to block her path and continued, "Fox has lost so many people he loved over the years, he was probably afraid of losing you as well. He wasn't thinking straight when he dropped you from the team!"

Krystal glared at her in anger. "You're taking his side!"

"There is no 'his side' or 'your side' to me!" Lucy fairly shouted. "You're my best friend, and I love Fox as a brother, and I don't want to see either of you hurt!"

"Then you should have said something when he dumped me!"

"Oh, believe me, I'm going to bust his chops good when I see him," Lucy told her. "Regardless of his reasons, it was still a dumb decision. But there's a difference between taking him to task for poor judgment and scheming with outlaws to set him up for humiliation. If you give him time, Fox will realize his mistake and apologize, but if you go through with this you can kiss any chance of reconciliation goodbye!"

For a moment, Krystal considered listening to Lucy's advice, but then she recalled the night Fox had told her he was kicking her off his team and fresh anger welled up within her chest. She shook her head and replied, "He's too proud; he'll never admit he was wrong unless I show him how bad he's screwed this up. He seems to think that he can do it all without me; well, I plan to prick his ego and make him realize just how much he needs me."

Lucy's jaw dropped at her friend's coldly spoken intentions. "By using him and then discarding him?!" she asked in disbelief. "And rubbing his nose in the fact that it was your idea on top of that?! You're not going to prick his ego; you're going to break his heart!"

"Like he broke mine when he tossed me aside?!" Krystal retorted hotly. "He tells me he loves me, and then not three days later, he throws me out! If he shows up at Venom and begs for forgiveness then maybe I'll consider it, but otherwise he and I are through! For good!"

Lucy stared at Krystal in complete shock at this ultimatum. After a moment, Krystal turned and started walking to the front door, intending to leave. Lucy grabbed ahold of her arm and tried to stop her, but the blue vixen jerked her arm out of her group and shoved her back a couple of paces into the wall. "If you aren't going to help me, then stay out of my way."

Lucy's mouth opened and closed a couple of times before she could finally speak. "I am trying to help you," she whispered sadly. "But you've let hatred consume your heart… I don't even know you anymore." A tear began to form in the corner of her eye, but Krystal turned away before she could see them start to fall. The blue vixen walked out the door and onto the street, heading back to where the rest of Star Wolf waited in order to get ready to head to Venom. Try as she might, though, she couldn't shake the image of Lucy's face, or the last words she heard from her one-time best friend.

Kursed let the picture fall from numb fingers. Her eyes squeezed shut, fighting to keep tears of shame from escaping. This was the cold, hard truth that she had been oblivious to until just now: in pursuing revenge against Fox McCloud, she'd also turned her back on everyone else in Lylat who had once called her a friend. She couldn't breathe; it felt as though a giant invisible hand had its fingers wrapped around her chest, slowly squeezing her ribs until she gasped for air. "Lucy," she whispered, "I'm so sorry!"

Deep inside her heart, a dam burst. All of the emotions that she had been trying to repress came boiling up in a flood of hurt, grief, and regret. Kursed closed her eyes in an attempt to keep her tears from leaking out, but this time they would not be stopped. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, she recalled the accusations thrown at her by the citizens of Lylat in the months following the defeat of the Anglars and the revelation of her new affiliation with Star Wolf. "They were right," she whimpered. "I am a traitor." She threw her head back and wailed aloud, then curled up into a ball on the bed and buried her face in her hands as her body was wracked by muffled sobs.

Shadow and Amber had finished their late dinner and were in the process of cleaning after the meal. There wasn't that much washing that needed to be done, but the leftover pizza had to be put away so it wouldn't spoil. Shadow debated what to do with the slice that Kursed had left half-eaten on her plate, but eventually decided to cover the dish and see if she felt hungry later. No point in wasting what was otherwise perfectly good food.

They were almost done with the cleanup when Amber suddenly gasped and dropped a plate into the sink. The clatter brought Shadow's attention around to her, but his demand to know what was going on froze in his throat as he saw her expression. "What… what's going on?" he asked, more gently than he had at first intended.

"Our guest," Amber whispered softly. She had a distant look on her face, like her mind was elsewhere, and her expression was drawn tight with concern. "She…" Amber fumbled for the words to express what she was feeling, until the answer hit her like a thunderbolt; "She's in torment!"

Shadow immediately dropped what he was doing and raced to the stairwell, grabbing hold of the end of the banister and using it to sling himself around and up the stairs without slowing down. Amber followed close behind him, acutely aware of the waves of mental anguish pouring out of the room above them. Neither of them knew what had happened to trigger such a reaction in their guest, but neither of them was willing to stand by and let her suffer by herself if there was anything they could do to help her.

When Shadow opened the door to the guest room, the first thing he saw was Kursed, sitting on her bed with her back to the door and curled up with her knees by her chest, her shoulders shaking with suppressed sobs. He approached slowly and carefully, not wanting to startle her in her emotionally reactive state. He stopped beside her and knelt by the bed, asking gently, "What's wrong?"

"Empty…" she whispered without looking up at him.

"What's empty?"

Each phrase of her response was punctuated by a sharp gasp, as though breathing and speaking pained her. "My life... my heart… my future... Everything! I have nothing… I am nothing!" With that last outburst, she buried her face in her hands, trying desperately to wall away the pain that threatened to overwhelm her.

Shadow said nothing in reply to her, but simply reached out a hand and gently placed it on her shoulder. Her head jerked up sharply and turned to look at him with that contact, and for a moment he thought she was going to take a swing at him; but then the last walls of resistance in her heart broke and she practically threw herself into his arms, burying her face in his shoulder and weeping brokenly.

Shadow was taken aback by her reaction, but he quickly recovered his wits and put his arms gently around her shoulders, holding her close as she wept against his shoulder. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and shoulders in response as her breath came in short, ragged gasps - clinging to him the way a drowning person would cling to any hope of rescue. In a sense, the analogy was quite appropriate; she was drowning in guilt, shame and remorse - and he was the only thing keeping her from going completely under.

Shadow carefully got up from his kneeling position and moved to sit next to her on the bed. Amber slid in on the other side of the distraught vixen and gently placed a comforting hand on her back, between her shoulder blades, offering her own support to this suffering soul. The three of them stayed like this for quite a long while, until Kursed's sobs dwindled away to just an occasional sniffle, and she lifted her head to look Shadow in the eye. "Feeling any better?" he asked her softly.

"A little," she replied. She was quiet for a log moment, and then said, "You want to know what… this was all about." It was a statement, not a question.

"I wouldn't mind," he said gently. "But if you don't want to talk about it…"

She looked down at the floor for a second before bringing her head up to meet his gaze. "You trusted me with your deepest secret… so I believe I can trust you with mine. I'll tell you everything… tomorrow. Right now, I just want to go to sleep." Shadow nodded in understanding. She looked worn and haggard, as though her emotional outpouring had drained her of every last bit of energy in her body. Her motions were slow and languid, and it was all she could do to keep herself up. He pulled the covers back for her, and she snuggled down underneath them before looking back up at him. "Thank you… for caring," she said softly.

"You're welcome," he answered amicably. "It was the least I could do for you." A slightly awkward silence followed for a few minutes, but then she propped herself up on one elbow and looked up into his eyes. "Why?" she asked softly.

"Hmm? Why what?"

"Why did you… do what you did? You could have easily left me to my pain, but instead you helped me through it."

He thought carefully for a minute before responding, trying to find the words to accurately express his feelings. "That look you had in your eyes… I've seen it before - in the mirror."

Her eyes widened slightly at that statement, and then her expression softened slightly, as she looked down at the covers. "You … understand," she said, more to herself than to anyone else.

After another, longer silence, Shadow stood up and turned towards the door. "Well, I imagine you want to get some sleep, so I'll leave you some privacy." Amber stood up to leave too, causing Kursed to sit up suddenly and shout, "Wait!"

They both turned around to look at her, making her feel more than a little embarrassed at her exclamation. She continued in a more subdued tone, "I… really don't want to be alone right now."

"I can keep vigil for the night," Amber spoke up.

Shadow turned to regard her skeptically. "Are you sure you're up to it?"

"I'll be fine," she reassured him. "Besides, I probably shouldn't leave the two of you in here unchaperoned right now," she added with a grin.

"Scamp," her brother growled as he snaked an arm around her shoulders and ruffled her hair into a royal mess. Amber squirmed out of his grip and glared at him in mock indignation, using her fingertips to try to smooth her hair back down into some semblance of order. He grinned at her reaction, then looked down to where Kursed lay, watching them with a slightly amused grin on her muzzle. "Well, good night, uh…"

"My name… is Krystal," she told him.

"Krystal," he repeated, rolling it around in his mind a little. "That's a beautiful name." He brushed a hand over her shoulders and murmured, "Good night, Krystal."

"Good night… Arlen," was her reply. He smiled slightly in response and left the room, presumably to head to bed himself. Krystal snuggled back beneath the covers and lay her head down on her pillow while Amber took a seat in a chair that stood in front of the desk positioned against the back wall. The cerulean vixen looked up briefly at her watcher, grateful for her company at this time. "Good night, Amber."

"Good night, Krystal," Amber replied warmly. "Sleep well."

"I hope so," Krystal murmured in reply, before settling down for the night. Given her recent emotion rending, she expected to toss and turn for a long while; so it was a bit of a surprise to her when she fell asleep almost immediately. The last thing she could recall before she dropped off was Amber, sitting in the chair and softly humming a gentle tune, keeping watch over her in case she needed anything - and for the first time in a long time, Krystal knew there were people she could trust absolutely.

Author's notes: I actually started this chatper back at the beginning of summer and have been working on it in tiny increments 'til now...^^; I have several other stories that I work on as well, and work and college to juggle along with those. For everyone that has waited this long for the next chapter of this story, I apologize for it being so long, and I hope you enjoy this latest installation of Sojourn's End.

If anyone is curious, I'd recomend Skillet's song "Falling Inside the Black" as a companion piece for the latter end of the chapter... it seems to capture Krystal's emotions pretty well.