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Shattered: Redux

Chapter XII: Past Sins

Only you can absolve yourself of the sins of the past...

-Anonymous

_ _

The reinforced doors slammed shut with a clang, sealing off the cafeteria from the howling monsters swarming just on the other side of the barrier. Their frustrated growls were muted by the heavy steel, returning the room to a more deafening silence. With the threat secured for the moment the guards wandered off with the pair of female wolves, taking them to where the other civilians were. Lupa and Penelope looked back to Alex as they departed, and he smiled softly under his helm, waving with his good hand.

He was glad that he had been able to help them. He wasn't going to lie to himself, the little wolf cub had grown on him a little bit in their short time together. She reminded him of his little sister in a melancholy sort of way. She possessed the same attitude when it came to life. There was an ache in his heart every time he remembered his loss. She and the rest of his family had perished many years ago, back when the Marker war had been in its infancy and they thought victory against the necromorph plague was still a real possibility. Alex did not like to dwell on it too often. There was much for him to grieve over. After all...he had failed not only Sarah, but his family as well. He had not been strong enough to help them. The memories of what happened more than six years ago on his homeworld had scarred him deeply. No child or anyone should have to witness and endure what he had been forced to. He knew that if he allowed himself time to think about how much he actually did lose, he would succumb to the oppressive darkness residing in the blackened remnants of his soul. He had enough on his plate with the haunting nightmares he suffered from almost every night and his awaiting madness, he didn't need to worry about that too.

Alex shook the dark thoughts from his mind and returned them to the present. Now was not the time for self-loathing and brooding, now was the time to be happy with what little pleasure was left in his life. He had finally been reunited with his friends. He did not want his inner turmoil tarnishing such a happy moment.

With the guards gone, the Starfox team and Fara's squad were left to their own devices. The team was glad to have Alex back, but no one was more so then Krystal and Miyu.

"ALEX!" The cerulean vixen yipped excitedly as she blissfully latched onto the kneeling man and buried her muzzle into his chest with a soft purr rumbling in her breast. Her long bushy tail wagged at an incredible speed, in tune with her joy.

The feeling of a vivaciously happy female fox sitting in his lap was more than enough to reinforce his previous decision to momentarily bury the past, and he embraced her wholeheartedly.

"Hey there tough guy, I knew you would make it." Miyu wore a tearful grin as she reached down to help him to his feet.

The human smiled underneath his helmet and grabbed her extended paw. At their touch the aching pains spread out across his body faded into nothingness, soothed by their sincere affection. "Well, most of me did." He replied as she grabbed his hand and pulled him up.

As she did so she noticed an odd discrepancy. The hand that she was holding on to had only four digits with an empty space, the feline glanced down at their connected grip and saw a thick wrapping of gauze around his hand.

"SHIT! Your hand!" She hissed in horror at the sight of his mutilated limb.

Krystal drew her muzzle away from her nuzzling and the vixen's soft emerald eyes took in what Miyu had discovered, and promptly flopped her maw open in shock.

"Yeah...that part didn't." Alex chuckled weakly, wincing internally at their horrified expressions. 'Here we go.'

Krystal was frozen for several moments before she exploded into movement. "Oh my god what happened are you okay let me check on it!" She fired out a stream of concerns at the speed of an assault cannon as she all but flew towards his hand and grabbed it securely in her velvety black padded grip. The vixen ran her paws all up and down the length of the medical wrapping, muttering quietly to herself as she tended to him.

He looked up from the cerulean vixen's gentle ministrations and towards the lynx. "Really, I'm fine. One of the bastards got a good hit in, nothing more."

"_A_good hit?" Miyu grunted as she took a more thorough examination of his battered armor.

"Okay...maybe more than one." He relented with a groan.

Krystal started to unwrap the gauze and when Alex noticed he voiced his concern.

"You really shou-"

She ignored him and tugged off the last of the wrapping, and exposed his bloody gloved hand. Thankfully most of the bleeding had stopped and so had the pain. But all in all, it was not a pretty sight.

The vixen whined and grabbed his injured hand in her paws and held it gently in her grip. She looked up at him and spoke softly. "Does it hurt?"

"Not when you're holding it." He replied with a grin.

She chuckled kindly at that and stood up, still holding his hand. "Then that's exactly what I'll do!" She declared firmly.

Alex felt a warm wave of contentment wash over him, easing his emotional burdens. It was nice to once more have someone who cares about you. And he was lucky to have more than one. His other hand was soon engulfed by the fluffy spotted paw of his feline friend. "Don't forget about me big guy!" The lynx grumbled good-naturedly, rubbing her fuzzy cheek across his with tender affection.

"How could I?" He retorted happily. At that moment it was easy for him to forget his finger, but not the reason for its loss. His smile faded into a frown as he looked over to Fox. The vulpine and his other friends had given him space for his reunion but now it was time to get serious.

"We have to talk."

**********

Alex and his friends all moved to a table, far from the venomians and he made sure they were sitting before he started. Perhaps it would help cushion the blow of his dire news, not that he truly believed it would. From his seat, he looked across the table at all his friends, and he wished with all his heart and soul that it hadn't come to this. He already missed the simpler times he had not so long ago. He knew that if they all managed to survive this, that those days might be fleeting.

They weren't ready for this.

Hell, no one could ever be truly ready for something like this. He wasn't, and he had fought these monsters all his adult life, and the last of his teenage years as well. Nothing with these creatures was predictable and the odds of surviving even a single encounter were always heavily stacked against you. They had laid waste to humanity, killing and converting his species until only he remained...a broken-down relic of a lost civilization. Now the necromorphs would try and commit the same atrocity on their race. And he was the only one who knew enough to even have a chance of stopping them.

Knowing this, how was he supposed to break the news to them? The last thing he wanted was to see their frightened expressions as the truth was revealed. He had seen the hopelessness and despair on too many faces in the past already.

Would they not blame him for bringing this plague upon them? It was because of him after all that they still existed. Because of him, they now threatened a new galaxy. If he was in there shoes, he imagined that he would be more than angry. Would they not hate him now?

"What are we dealing with here, Alex?" Fox asked from his seat across the table. The vulpine had guessed that his human friend must have known something if he looked as he did at that moment, stone faced and completely serious.

At this point Alex knew he had to come clean, and he was dreading every moment of it. He looked up from his lap and into the eyes of all his friends and wished that this had never come to pass. He decided it would be best to be quick and blunt, like pulling a Band-Aid.

"It's them, Fox, the necromorphs."

At his announcement, only five present could comprehend the true magnitude of his declaration. Fox froze in shock as his mind tried to piece together what it had not been expecting nor wanted to hear. He was well aware of what the necromorphs were and the great threat they represented.

Krystal adopted a fearful look and shifted closer to Alex for comfort, now she knew why the creatures were familiar. She had seen them before when they had all been watching Alex's HUD cam. But they had looked different, no doubt because of their previous alien hosts.

Slippy looked about ready to lose any food he had left in his stomach and Falco summed up all their thoughts in one word.

"...Shit."

Seeing them all so distressed, Fara made her voice known. "What the hell are you guys talking about? What is a necromorph?"

Miyu turned her muzzle towards Alex with a slightly upset twist. She did not like being left out of the loop.

Neither the armored fennec, her companions, or even Fay and Miyu knew what the group did. Any and all information pertaining to the truth of the Alex's arrival had been classified to all present during the incident itself. No word of what actually occurred was passed down through the ranks of the military or lower levels of government. It seemed that even the commandos of the 48th had not been told of their existence. Which came as no surprise to Alex, the necromorphs were supposed to be dead and gone. So there wouldn't have been a need to pass on that information. But, now it seemed that his past had come back to haunt him. The human began to wonder if he would ever be able to have a normal life. It seemed that he would never truly pull himself out from underneath the shadow of those damned monsters.

Fox looked to his friend.

The vulpine had gotten somewhat proficient at reading his alien friend's expressions and could tell that he was having difficulty trying to form the words to explain what this all meant. Fox couldn't even begin to imagine what it must have been like for Alex. He had only encountered these necromorphs for the first time and even then he had not truly fought them. Nonetheless, just the thought of having to eventually confront them once more sent shivers down his spine and all the way to the tip of his tail. Did he have the courage to face them again? He liked to believe so. His father would have, and that meant that he would too.

Alex on the other hand, had been fighting these monsters for years, no doubt having felt much like Fox did at that very moment. And now, after beginning to believe that terrible chapter of his life was finally finished and he could try and pick up what was left, the necromorphs decide to rear their ugly heads, shattering his wavering efforts at trying to eke out a life of his own among a race of aliens that held barely any physical similarities to the people he once knew.

Fox was starting to think that he understood his friend a little bit better. Not only did he wish that none of this happened, he also wished that Alex didn't have to go through it all again. The vulpine had still not forgotten what he had promised not so long ago, something he had discarded as an unnecessary and silly precaution at the time. He had never once even considered that he would ever have to do what the human has asked of him. Now...it was a very real possibility. And even though he had made a promise, Fox was uncertain that he would be able to do it if what they both feared came to pass. Just the thought of it made his trigger finger tingle painfully.

Fox heard the sound of his friend's voice as Alex at last found the words to say.

"Not all of the events you may have heard about my arrival are truths." The human confessed slowly. He interlaced his remaining gloved fingers together and transferred his attention downwards, unable to meet their curious eyes.

"What have you been hiding from me, big guy?" Miyu asked softly, placing a paw on his arm and trying to get him to meet her gaze.

"My people were not truly wiped out by a virus, at least not any that you would recognize." He answered. Feeling the feline's reassuring paw on his arm, Alex found the courage to lift his eyes back up. But they all could see the hesitancy that lay within them. "We encountered an ancient alien power source, and in doing so, released an even more ancient evil upon our race. These necromorphs are that evil."

Fara recalled vague images of what they had encountered in that hallway. "What exactly are they?"

"They are you." He replied simply.

The vixen and her squad shook their helmets in confusion.

"Necromorphs utilize corpses and turn them into biological weapons. And when there are no corpses to use, they make them."

"So those things out there..." Miyu muttered slowly as her eyes widened in shock.

"...Are the corpses of the venomian staff of this facility yes. They are a threat to the galaxy itself, and if not stopped. They will consume everything." Alex finished softly.

The ones who did not already know this processed the new information and soon felt the dread that the others had been feeling. These...things were worse than even the aparoids.

"How do we beat them? You must know of some way!" Fara demanded loudly. She could not accept that they had already lost to these things, not until she had her say.

"If I did, my people would still be alive." Alex growled quietly. "Do you understand? They killed us, my entire race. We could not stop them, not with our armies or our fleets. They swarmed through our galaxy, consuming all traces of biological matter and assimilating it to suit their own needs. We. Did. Not. Beat. Them." He clarified angrily. The vixen recoiled slightly at his hostile retort.

However, the man's burst of anger did not last long, and it faded as fast as it flared up, leaving him with a long winded sigh as he rubbed his forehead. "Still, there might be a way to stop them."

"What is that?" Falco jumped in at the news.

"If we manage to destroy the Marker in this facility, we could buy valuable time. The necromorphs have not been in this galaxy long enough so they don't have the same foothold they did in mine. There is still enough time to stop them from completing their goals. But we have to act now. With the Marker here eliminated, the necromorphs on this planet will cease to function and die off. That is their only known weakness. I have learned that there is a piece of a Marker off planet, but it is in the hands of the venomians. With luck, we have a month before they start to unlock more of its secrets."

"We can't worry about that now. We need to take care of this problem first." Fox stood up from the table determinedly. "The sooner we handle this, the better."

Alex watched as his friends closely. He was surprised that none of them had even mentioned what he was confident they were all thinking.

He did this.

He was the true monster. He had brought this upon them all.

'Perhaps...'_He thought. _'They don't hate me, but why? It's my fault.' Maybe they didn't care. Alex hoped his theory was true.

"The Marker is most likely on the R&D level of this base, we just have to get their without getting killed." Alex agreed with a grimace. He would have preferred to have done all of this alone. But he knew he had no right to have them sit out of a battle deciding the fate of their galaxy. He was just a refugee from an extinct alien race. That did not mean though, that he was happy with Miyu or Krystal coming along. He didn't want either woman stepping within a thousand meters of a necromorphs. He had lost one woman he loved to those fiends. He would not survive a reoccurrence of such a tragic event, especially with two lives on the line. It would utterly destroy him. Alex had enough demons to deal with, inside and out. But he knew that if he tried to get them to stay behind, they would deny vehemently. And so with great reluctance he bit his tongue. He was already expecting a lecture for getting separated, even though it was not his fault he got ambushed. Not that it would matter to them. But just knowing that they cared enough to do that, was a wonderful feeling. It was still a novelty to him that people cared about him. It had been so long since last there had been anyone that did.

"So what's the plan?" Falco stood up from the table as well. "From what the researchers told me and what you just explained..." Falco looked over to Alex. "The Marker is at the R&D lab. But we need a code to get to it. And the guy who has it did not make it to the cafeteria. So either he is one of those...things. Or he's somewhere around the facility."

"What's his name?" Fara inquired.

"Dr. Liedman."

"So we need to either find the doctor or his body...sounds easy enough." Fay said with a semi-confident grin.

"Yeah, there's just a legion of monsters between us and him." Falco grumbled.

Slippy shuddered and looked queasy just at the mention of them. "Oh yeah...those."

"We can do it!" Miyu declared, standing up with a more confident expression than her friend. "After all, Alex here is a professional monster slayer!" She turned to him with a grin.

He halfheartedly returned her smile. "Yeah...just follow my lead. I'll get you all through this, or die trying."

Miyu's grin faltered. "Hey now...that's no way to talk. We'll all get through this."

'I sure hope so.' Alex sighed internally.

"What are we waiting for, let's get moving, the sooner the better." Fara barked, turning to her squad. The rest of the team sat up from the table and started to get ready. Alex could see the anxiety in their movements and expressions. Understandably, none of them were looking forward to this.

'Neither am I for that matter.' Alex sighed as he made to stand up.

Halfway to his feet he felt his limbs suddenly lock up and an arc of lightning sear its way up his spine and into his skull. He growled in pain and hit the ground hard, back arched at an unnatural angle as he spasmed erratically. He felt a warm trickle start to leak from his nose.

Alex's vision blurred, everything tinted a deep amber color, as if the whole world had been drowned in honey. It was much like before when he had been attacked, but far more severe. The agony was beyond excruciating and he could not form coherent thoughts. It felt as if his nerves had been replaced with napalm and his spine was about to snap in half.

'You said you loved me. You said you would keep me safe. Where were you when I needed you?'

The voice was hauntingly familiar and he easily knew why.

'Sarah?' He moaned drunkenly before blacking out.