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Shattered: Redux

Chapter VII: Old Problems

Some things, no matter how strange, never change...

-Anonymous

_ _

Krystal lay sprawled on her bed, twiddling the time away with a short story on her tablet, seeing as she had little else to do. Usually, she would spend her time meditating or talking with Alex, but he was either busy fixing the ship up with Fay and Slippy, or at the armory teaching Miyu how to fire the gun he gave her.

Krystal wasn't meditating because, for the last few days, whenever she did she kept having terrible visions. They mostly were of some great calamity that would befall Lylat. But she could not, no matter how hard she tried, decipher what it was. The vixen decided to keep her concerns top herself for now until she had a better understanding. It would not do to worry her friends when she didn't have any concrete evidence.

With a sigh, she placed a black padded thumb on the bottom of the tablet and shut it off. Krystal placed it on the stand beside her bed and sat up, stretching with a wide yawn. She climbed off her bed and flicked her tail absently as she finished stretching. 'I'll just go find Alex.' She decided.

Krystal dressed herself in a casual affair of blue jeans and a black shirt. She slid on a pair of sandals and slipped out of her room. The cerulean vixen took a left, thinking that Alex would be somewhere around the engine room or perhaps the armory.

She waited in front of the lift and was surprised to see Fox on it when it opened. The orange furred vulpine had been preoccupied with something on his communicator when he looked up and spotted Krystal in front of him.

"Hey Krys, what's going on?" He asked as he turned off his device and lowered his arm.

"I was going to look for Alex; it has been a few days since we last had a lengthy conversation." She responded as she stepped inside.

Fox nodded in comprehension as he made room for her. "Yeah, there's a lot of stuff to do if we want this ship in good shape for the mission. In fact I was just going over the specifics."

"Specifics...?"

The vulpine nodded again. "Yep, looks like this'll be a pretty routine op, but there's a little snag. The outposts are shielded from a conventional air strike, which means that someone'll have to go in from the ground and knock out the generators powering them."

The elevator hummed as it began its descent.

"That sounds like it could be an issue." Krystal mumbled thoughtfully. "Who is going to be doing that?"

Fox shrugged. "I thought it would be fair to put it up to a vote."

Krystal inclined her muzzle in agreement. "That would be the wisest course of action."

Both vulpines stepped out of the elevator and into the loud sounds of engineering. The deck they were on was probably one of the last ones in need of serious repairs. It was on the lower levels, just above the engine core. This floor contained the ships armory and several storage rooms. Currently, there were four team members on it.

Fox and Krystal followed the noises and arrived at the armory. Inside, Slippy, Fay, Alex, and Miyu were spread around. Slippy was tinkering with a console on the left side of the small shooting range attacked to the main arsenal and Fay was near him, holding a small rectangular device that was plugged into the console. Both of them looked to be hard at work.

Alex, was sitting at a large bench that was crammed with a wide assortment of strange tools and equipment that neither Fox or Krystal had seen before. Sitting amid the clutter was a hilt of the human's sword, his pulse rifle, and a pair of black handguns. Alex was at present using two of the foreign tools on one of the pistols.

Miyu was standing next to him with a paw draped on his shoulder as she leaned forwards. Her tail swung idly as and her ears were perked towards Alex as she listened to him talk.

"Now the ODIN is a semi-automatic handgun, as I have no doubt you understand by now. But, it can also be switched to full-auto. Although I would not advice that unless you have more experience with the gun. ON full-auto, most of the kickback is not reduced, so your aim is going to be thrown off and that will affect your accuracy. What I would suggest..." As he lectured the feline, pointing out things as he disassembled the pistol, Miyu listened with rapt attention, nodding her muzzle or humming in agreement to whatever it was he said.

At some point in the instruction, he turned his head and noticed that both Krystal and Fox were there. "Alright Miyu, we'll pick this up later." He said as he quickly reassembled the gun and placed it on the bench. Then he stood up and headed over to them. "Hey guys, what brings you down?"

Fox was the first one to speak. "We all need to go over the upcoming mission, which is happening tomorrow so it's best we be prepared."

Alex nodded. "Sure thing Fox, that's a good idea. Did you come for the same reason?" He asked, shifting his golden eyes to Krystal.

"No, I was hoping to talk with you, as we have not had our daily discussion in quite a while." The vixen explained, making the human frown.

"I'm sorry about that Krystal, but things have been pretty busy as of late. This ship still needs quite a bit of work, but I think I could put that on hold for the rest of the day and we can chat after Fox does his thing. I've been missing out talks."

Krystal's maw curled into a delighted smile at the promise. "That's sounds wonderful. I'm looking forward to it."

"I am as well Krystal" Alex responded with a likening grin.

Fox rolled his eyes. "Whatever, you guys can confess your love later, for now let's just get this show on the road."

Krystal blushed brightly at the insinuation, taking a peek at Alex for his reaction. The man looked to Fox before he smiled and chuckled. "Alright then Fox, we'll take a rain-check on it."

Fox nodded with a grin as well and ushered the team together, out of the armory and into the ops center, calling in Falco from his room. The avian took quite a bit of time before he finally arrived. "What's going on?" He demanded as he stepped inside.

"We're all here to get you to come out of the closet. You don't have to hide yourself around us Falcy." Miyu responded, eliciting a chuckle out of the group at the avian's expense.

"I'm not in the closet!" Falco squawked feistily.

"All right, all right, we can deal with Falco's problem later." Fox said, shifting topics. Although he did smile and look to his friend who was now fuming. "But for now let's get down to business." The vulpine stood in front of the room and began to speak.

"Now, this mission is going to be a big one. It is going to take a series of strike over the course of a few days before we will have successfully weeded the venomian remnants out of the Zoness quadrant. They are dug in deep on the fringes, having taken over many outposts on the outer lying smaller planetoids. Combine that with the small fleet they slipped in past the cornerian army, and we have a serious problem."

Fox folded his orange furred arms behind his back and cleared his throat. "Each outpost has a two part defense arrangement. There is an automated anti-aircraft system installed in the base's ops room. And there is a shield generator hidden in the compound near the east wall. We have free rain for this assignment, which means that the army doesn't care if the base is intact or not. They just want the venomians ousted."

Falco's beak twisted into a smile. "I love it when we get to blow stuff up."

"Slow down there Falco." Fox said with a chuckle. "First we have to either disable or destroy the AA's and the generator. With those still functioning we won't be able to even touch the base."

"So how are we going to destroy it?" Miyu inquired with a puzzled frown.

"Well..." Fox began with a sigh. "Someone is going to have to go in on foot and take them out."

Slippy shook his head. "But there must be at least two dozen or so venomians. How can anyone get in and take out the defenses?"

"They'll just have to find a way. That's the only way we can get this done. And since the venomians have access to fighters and ships, we can't all just go down there. Besides, we do have the landmaster." Fox added.

"Actually...." Slippy said with a nervous chuckle, scratching his scalp. "I haven't fixed it yet."

"What....why?" Fox asked in wonder.

"Since we have been working on the ship, I decided to put that on hold. I thought we wouldn't need it for at least a while." Slippy defended himself.

Fox groaned and dragged a paw down his muzzle. "That...complicates things a little bit. Whoever goes down there won't have any armor. And until the defenses are down, they'll be on their own."

He was worried. Whoever did it would be outnumbered and outgunned. With the landmaster things would have become a little more even. But with that out of order, it would be that much harder to win. The hardest part would be putting up the vote and seeing who would have to go.

"I can do it Fox, I'll go in on foot." Alex suddenly jumped in with a determined expression.

"Are you sure Alex?" Fox asked in surprise.

"It makes sense, Fox. I don't have any training with the arwings yet, and I have the most experience with infantry fighting. Not to mention it would be a walk in the park compared to my last tumble." The human explained with a slight chuckle.

Fox had to admit he had a point. He was the best suited for the mission, his armor was stronger than anything corneria was fielding at the moment; he had experience as a commando, and he plenty of grit to see him through. "Alright then Alex, it's yours. We'll keep any enemy aircraft off you and you knock those systems out."

"Wait, he can't go by himself. Shouldn't at least one of us go in as back up?" Krystal interjected with a concerned tone.

"I don't know Krys, we'll need all the help we can get to get rid of those ships." Fox replied.

'I'll be fine Krystal, nothing I can't handle." Alex reassured her. "I'll be in and out in a flash."

The vixen still had apprehension plastered on her muzzle, but she didn't voice any more complaints.

With that done, Fox got down to the rest of the meeting, emphasizing everyone's task and making sure that they all knew what they were going to do.

An hour later, the briefing was over and Fox dismissed everyone until tomorrow. As they all left the room, Krystal quickly moved to walk alongside Alex. The vixen looked up at his face, her muzzle still having worry decorating it. "I don't like this Alex. What if you get hurt and no one can reach you?"

The human tilted his head down to look at her, not a shred of unease apparent. "That won't happen Krystal; I'll be fine, really. Don't let it bother you, how about we talk instead? As I recall we need to do a little bit of catching up." Alex put an arm around her, attempting to make her feel at ease.

Krystal reluctantly nodded and tried to let her anxiety fade. He was right, it should be easy for him, and worrying would only sidetrack her during the mission. So she decided to strike up conversation, picking up where she had last left off in her tale.

**********

Alex finished loading the fresh batch of pulse rounds into the cylindrical magazine, placing it on a stack of them beside his work area on the bench. Silently, he began to repeat the process, packing another clip with new recently created munitions. It was slow work, but it was also the only way he could keep his gun running. There was no manufacturer of pulse rounds here, so he had to make them himself.

With a click, he packed the last round into the coiled mag and snapped it closed. After a few hours of industriousness he now had fifteen fully loaded magazines. That should be more than sufficient to keep him supplied for however long the mission might be.

Alex stood up from the table and swiped his gantlet over the stack of mags, collecting them in his storage bank so that he could retrieve them at a moment's notice on the field. The man walked away from the table and began to head down to the hanger to find the rest of the team. As he made his way, he had a strange thought.

This would be a fight against something besides a necromorph. He had been fighting them for so long that he had considered it normal, almost as regular as breathing. But now he would be going up against intelligent beings, equipped with weapons and armor. Alex just hoped that his experience hadn't faded with time.

He stowed that thought away for the moment as he stepped into the large hanger. He crossed the long deck to the six fighters lying on the far side. The others were already setting up and getting ready to depart.

Alex was quick to join them.

"You ready to go?" Fox inquired as he fixed his flight suit and strapped his blaster to his thigh.

"Ready and raring Fox, time to see if I still got it." Alex replied, grabbing the vulpines forearm as Fox did the same.

Fox smiled roguishly. "You better hope you got it, I'd hate to have to bail you out on your first mission. Think of the teasing you'll get."

"Well, I guess I'll have to just roll with the punches then." Alex chuckled and talked with his friend for a few more minutes. Eventually, he let the vulpine go to finish up what he was doing, and walked to Krystal's ship. Since her Cloud Runner (an arwing variant), had two seats, she would be the one taking him down to the surface of the small habitable moon that the outpost was erected on.

He spotted her sitting on the wing of her ship, eyes closed and with a determined expression on her muzzle. He wondered it was that she was doing exactly. "Hey Krystal, what's up?" He asked.

Slowly, she opened her emerald green eyes and they narrowed in on him, and her muzzle lit up in a smile. "Nothing, just getting ready for the mission, a little meditation always helps." The vixen lithely glided of the wing and stepped over to him.

"Meditation, huh, sounds like fun." Alex rolled his eyes; he was not one for meditation. It was all about reflection and relaxing, things he didn't like doing, seeing as they brought the return of his memories.

Krystal shook her head in bemusement. "I think that you could use some. I think it would be beneficial."

"Maybe some other time, for now, how about we get this thing moving?" Alex responded, waiting for her to climb in so that he could join her. Once he was settled in, a thought came to him. "Tell you what, when this is over, I'll join you during one of your sessions."

"Is that a promise?" Krystal inquired curiously turning her muzzle to look at him with a playful gleam in her eyes.

"It's more than a promise, you have my word." Alex answered with a grin that she soon shared with him. When he saw her smiling muzzle, he couldn't help but think he would do anything to ensure that she smiled like that every day. Krystal had a beautiful smile, and it would be a waste if she didn't use it.

"Is everyone ready to go?" Fox requested over the radios that linked each fighter to the other. Alex looked out the window from his passenger seat and saw the vulpine's ship lifting slowly off the ground. It used something called G-diffusers if the human remembered correctly. It was hard to nail down all these alien terms.

"I'm always ready." Falco responded.

"Ready's my middle name!" Slippy added with a cheerful yelp.

"I thought it was Ethel?" Miyu interjected with a chuckle.

"Ah Miyu, leave poor Slip alone." Fay muttered.

"Can we go now, there's some venomians that are itching to take a shot at yours truly." Alex said with a small chortle.

Moments later, he felt a tail bop him right on the nose. "That is hardly something to joke about." Krystal admonished, although he swore he could see her smiling from his seat behind her.

"Cut the chatter guys, let's get serious. This'll be the first real assignment we've done in a long time. I want everyone on the top of their game today. We are all coming back alive." Fox eased into their banter with a firm tone.

"Alright Fox, we'll keep it nice and tidy." Miyu promised, but she was had her paw's digits twisted.

With that assurance the vulpine sighed. "I'm sure you will Miyu, now let's go." With that being said the six arwings rocketed out of the somewhat refurbished carrier and into the depths of space."

The start of the flight was relatively boring, time that Alex spent chatting with Krystal and the others on the comms. It was nice, and he rather enjoyed the amazing view from space. Alex had no experience with fighters, unlike his old deceased friend Santiago. The boisterous fun loving Latino had been an excellent fighter pilot before they were considered insufficient in dealing with the marker threat. So they had shoved him into a team of ground pounders and that's when Alex had met him. At first, Alex resented the man and his air of superiority that he exhibited over the 'meatshields' as he called the soldiers. But over time, they began to respect each other and then become friends.

Alex sighed softly as he stared out into the stars. He missed Santiago, and wished that he here with him in this crazy place he now found himself. Alex looked over to Krystal, who he could see was intently staring at the instruments as she flew the ship. At least he had friends again.

Krystal picked up on the human's mood and shifter her muzzle to look back at him. "What's the matter Alex?"

"Just thinking about the past, and how things will never be the same. Not that that's a bad thing. I think I like the direction it's taking now." He replied.

The vixen nodded softly. "I understand. After my world was destroyed, I questioned how I would ever come to terms with it. Everyone I knew, all things I had come to accept as my reality, were wiped away in the blink of an eye. I was alone, scared and confused." Alex noticed that her eyes were glinting with emotion and she looked about ready to cry. But she was a strong women and she held it together. And that earned her a lot of respect in his eyes. He was still prone to breaking down every now and then. But not once had he seen her fall into despair as he was often to do when he was alone. But maybe she was like him, and that she could hide it very well. He hoped that he was wrong and that she was just stronger. Alex despised the thought of her crying.

"I think I know what you are feeling better than anyone else Krys." He said quietly, using her nickname for the first time as he stared into her gleaming eyes with his, gold to jade.

Krystal sniffed, but smiled at the familiar tone in his voice, she liked that. The vixen wiped her eyes and responded. "I know that Alex, and as terrible as it is to say, I'm glad you came here."

At that they both broke into a fit of giggles and he reached over the seat and placed a hand over her paw. They may both have been laughing, but he knew that she was still in pain, as he was. She stopped laughing at the feeling of his furless fingers intertwining with her own fuzzy blue digits, and looked at him with a faint hint of a rosy color in her cheeks.

"I will do my best to stick around; I think we could both use a good friend." He said with firm promise in his voiced, his smile morphing into a determined smirk.

Krystal found that she was choked up, and could not find words to respond. So instead she smiled back luminously and turned back to flying the ship.

The rest of the flight was spent in a comfortable silence, Krystal often looking back to him and smiling. Her tail was brushing against his knee as it twitched contently through the hole in her seat.

Alex remained smiling until he had a flashback.

**********

"I love you." Sarah whispered into his ear as she planted a kiss on his cheek. Alex looked down at her and smiled. The both of them were lying on the grass of the small park aboard the ark. Alex had finished his day shift in engineering and she was done with the med-ward for the day. Sarah had suggested that they take their free time and use it at the park.

"I love you too Sarah, and I am surprised every day that you fell in love with some nobody like me." He said with a chuckle and kissed her on the forehead.

The women giggled and squeezed him tightly. "You're not some nobody, your mybody." She poked his chest with a delicate finger and planted a kiss on his lips with her ruby red ones. "And don't you forget it!"

Alex chuckled. "Alright, I won't. It'll be impossible anyways, what with your constant reminders and prodding.

"Good, you better not forget. "You're mine Alex, and I am the one who is surprised that I managed to snag a prize like you." She said, turning serious. "You keep beating yourself down Alex when you should be lifting yourself up. You are a good man, and I don't understand how you can't see it."

Alex frowned. "I don't know Sarah, what have I done to be called a good man?" He sat up from her, staring at all the people traversing the park, without a care in the world. It had only been a few months since they escaped the necromorphs and their all-consuming terror, and he prayed every day that they would never be found.

"For starters, you saved my life back on Scippio II. I would have been one of those slavering monsters if you hadn't disobeyed orders and come for me and the children." She argued, sitting up alongside him and placing a pale and slim hand on his own, intertwining her fingers with his.

Alex scoffed. "Anyone would have done that."

She shook her head determinedly. "No, they wouldn't have Alex; they would have boarded that gunship and left us to our fate. But you didn't, you risked your life and your rank for us. And they took one of those. I think that makes you more than a good man, it makes you a great one." Sarah planted a kiss on his cheek, leaving a rosy pink mark on his cheek. "Now, let's talk about something different. What do you want to do for dinner?"

Alex decided to let it go for now, helping Sarah up from the blanket and beginning to pack up. "How about we do Chinese?" He inquired hopefully.

Sarah giggled as she helped him. "We got that yesterday."

"Yeah well you can never have too much of a good thing." He responded, sweeping her up in his arms and running down the hill with her, Sarah giggling the entire way down.

Once he had reached the bottom, panting from the exertion. She looked up and smiled. "I thought that the saying was you can have too much of a good thing."

Alex shrugged. "Fine, you win, we'll get Italian. I know that the Angelo's are always happy to see you.

"Yay Italian!" Sarah squealed excitedly. "Come on, move it soldier, your commanding officer is hungry.

"Right away, on your orders Ma'am!" He chuckled as he began to jog off to the food district, the sound of her laughing ringing through his ears.

**********

As the giggling echoes in his mind began to fade Alex could feel tears silently treading down his face, emotional stricken by the flashback. The human quickly ducked his head, not wanting Krystal to see him like this.

But the telepathic vixen easily picked up on his tormented mind. But instead of asking him about it, she let him be. The pain was so intense though, that she wondered what it was that had him so. It was in fact so strong, that she was feeling it as well, it was a terrible feeling.

It felt as if her heart had been ripped out of her chest and replaced with a blackened core of misery, despair, longing, and anguish. It was so strong, that she felt a tear leave her eye. Krystal quickly shut off her empathetic field and gave a relieved sigh.

By that time, Alex had regained his composure and wiped his eyes with his gauntlets. Both sat in silence, one awkward, and the other confused. Krystal had no idea what it was that triggered his emotional collapse. But she wanted to find out. "How are you doing back there?" She asked innocently.

She heard him clear his throat before he answered. "I'm doing great. Just a little bored is all." For all intents and purposes he sounded like he was fine. In fact it sounded genuine enough that if she didn't already know, she never would have.

Krystal decided not to press it, postponing the conversation for when he meditated with her. Besides, the mission would be starting soon as they were now closing in on the small moon. "Alright, well your boredom should be done now, we are reaching the moon." She said as she saw the tiny blue and green marble getting larger. She also spied out several objects sitting in orbit.

Seconds later Fox's voice cut in with a similar update. "Alright we're here. Krystal you know what to do. Get Alex down there and come back to us. We'll keep the venomians occupied until then."

"Okay Fox, I'll get him down." Krystal assured as she and Alex watched the five other arwings boost off into space, heading towards the venomian ships.

As Krystal guided her arwing down to the planet, she could hear the team communicating.

"Fox, I got a fighter on my tail!" Slippy warned.

"Fay, bail him out, I'm stuck with this cruiser."

"Got it Fox, I'm moving to Slippy's position now."

"Hah! Just took out three fighters, which throws me ahead of you Fox!" Falco boasted smugly.

"Oh yeah, I just got four, which jumps me ahead of you feather brain!" Miyu chuckled.

"Maybe for now Miyu, but it won't last for long!" The avian promised.

"It sounds like their having fun." Alex said with a grin. It would seem that he was fully recovered now.

"Yeah, they're always like that." Krystal said with a shrug as her Cloud Runner began to skirt a forest on the moon, nearing the drop zone. In moments she banked her fighter around a large cropping of trees and landed it behind the screen.

The canopy of the arwing variant popped open and Krystal climbed out. Alex followed her a few seconds later, jumping out and looking at the alien forest around him. None of the trees looked familiar and it was strange. He looked to Krystal. "Looks like this is my stop, wish me luck."

He was expecting a verbal wish, but instead he got more. Krystal pressed herself against him and wrapped her soft cerulean furred arms around his larger body and pressed her muzzle over his shoulder. "Good luck Alex, I-we, need you to comeback alive." She whispered into his ear. As she pulled back she pressed her black lips to his cheek and lightly deposited a kiss.

As he felt the whiskers on her muzzle brush against his cheek, a shiver crawled down his spine. Yet that wasn't the only thing, an image of Sarah flashed through his mind, and he almost involuntarily shoved Krystal back. Instead he managed to get a hold of himself, hugging her back uncertainly.

Krystal purred as she felt his arms encircle her protectively, it made her feel safe. Eventually she pulled away fully and looked up into his face. His expression made her feel a little hurt. He was smiling, but it was pained. "I promise, I'll comeback and we can meditate together."

At that her hurt dissipated somewhat. "Sounds like a good promise."

"Not a promise, a certainty." He said, hugging her again quickly before his helmet snapped on over his face. He backed up and a rifle materialized in his gauntlets. "You'll see, I'll be done in a flash."

Alex turned from her and walked into the forest, shifting back one last time to wave before vanishing into the underbrush. Krystal watched him depart and when he was gone, her tail stopped wagging and she climbed back into her cockpit.

As the fighter lifted and headed back into space, she frowned.

The cockpit felt so empty.