A/N: This story's quickly approaching year-old status. I'm glad to have written this much for only my first fanfiction… but now that I take a look at what I published that long ago, I realized that these chapters needed MAJOR repairs. Thus, I spent much of my time polishing and buffing out every little thing that could possibly have needed attention.

Anyways, this story involves a lot of different things… It has tragedy, action, suspense, a touch of romance, and a few other genres, I'm sure, just ones that I can't name off the top of my head. Yes, it mainly involves my OC, but he doesn't play as large of a role as Fox does.

I hope you all like it! Shoot me a review if it intrigues you enough.

CHAPTER 1: The Vortex

The stars were quiet.

After years of struggling to maintain elongated peace within the Lylat System, things had finally become tranquil. The effects of the three wars which rippled through the whole of the galaxy itself had finally been shaken off. After the wrath of Andross, the horrid Aparoids, and the assault made by the Anglars, recovery was a difficult term to grasp the meaning of.

Of course, there was the one team of skilled fighters that had prevailed through every hellish flame of battle they were confronted with… This team was widely respected, adulated, famed, and incredibly talented. They were, without any doubt, the Star Fox squad.

However, after each recognition and every bit of history made from their astonishing feats, there was never any bed of roses waiting. While they took care of business successfully on the exterior, the interior of the team was rapidly diminishing.

The squad had originally consisted of very distinguished figures, all with their own unique set of skills and attributes… Falco Lombardi, Slippy Toad, Krystal, and the leader, Fox McCloud. Though they had mainly stuck together, problems were clearly developing.

Fox had more than a handful to deal with. The relationship he had hoped to develop with Krystal, the love he had longed for desperately, had fallen apart completely to leave him heartbroken and devastated. Slippy, the team's main source of morale and spirit, had decided to spend time with his new wife Amanda and start a family on another planet (of course, still vowing to keep in contact with the remainder of the team). Peppy had retired his role after so many years of service and was made general of the Cornerian military. Falco, along with ROB 64, had remained by Fox's side not only after Slippy left the stage but also ever since Krystal adamantly made the decision to leave them. To make matters worse, the Star Wolf team was still lurking throughout the Lylat, causing many other sticky situations which often lead to disastrous results when Star Fox intervened in order to try and bring things to a close.

Fox had lost many of his closest friends and felt isolated, at times depressed and without a valid cause to travel through outer space on the Great Fox, the admirable vessel that once held a much more incredible team than what was left. He and Falco were still attempting to keep the string from snapping, but with little strength, as both were almost at an inconsolable state.

It was at this time they were cruising past Zoness, on their way to Aquas for their monthly rendezvous with Slippy and his wife.

…

"Is it just me, or has this hunk of junk gotten slower over the decade?"

An impatient grumble escaped the sneering beak of Falco as he stood near the front of the Great Fox's bridge, posing cross-armed and gazing out the window into the nothingness which stood between Zoness and the team's destination.

Fox calmly replied, not a far distance from Falco, "Relax… Maybe you're right, but complaining isn't going to make things much better."

"Alright," Falco sighed, "When's the estimated time of arrival?"

A monotonous mechanical tone echoed from the main control panel.

"Approximately seven hours," ROB responded.

"And we're still stuck here… perfect. Might as well try and find another way to kill time." Falco turned around and began to make his exit from the bridge, his hands in his pockets and his expression unchanged.

He's right… She's grown quite aged, even when she was restored after the Anglar wars. Fox thought to himself as he sat back into a nearby chair and lounged, trying to relax. The vulpine had already reminisced so many times today and during the past week, but he knew that eventually his daydreams would have to come to a close so that he could reluctantly snap back to reality and concentrate on what he did best at the current moment… which was to aimlessly drift through and patrol the planets as though he were a useless cop. Thus, he closed his eyes and tried to take a nap as the door slid closed once Falco had left the room. ROB's working pace did not cease in the meantime as Fox's dozing dragged on for a few hours.

A beeping noise rudely awakened the tired culpine after a considerable amount of time had passed. Rubbing his eyes and clearing his throat, he recognized the sound as a communications request. It was Slippy, checking in on Star Fox's progress.

Fox ordered ROB to trigger the hologram generator in the center of the room and spoke quietly, "Hey, Slip. What's up?"

The hologram displayed a view of Slippy's head, his eyes with their same positive shine and his familiar smile being exhibited. He chimed, "Just seeing how things on your end are! I've gotten everything prepared for your arrival, Fox!"

"You're always so considerate. The team's really been missing you, but it makes up for the loss whenever we go out to Aquas to see your family, you know?" Fox put on the best smile he could muster in return, even though he was still quite noticeably drowsy.

Slippy's excitement grew, regardless of his former leader's exhaustion, and his head nodded quickly, "Yeah, definitely! It's a real treat having you around, and plus the kids really love listening to all of our epic war accounts! Makes for twice the charm when you have two veterans, eh?"

"Hah, I'm glad they enjoy them a lot. I don't know if I have many more, but I'll fish around."

"Aw don't worry, you'll come up with s-"

*click*

Spontaneously, the connection was lost. Fox blinked his eyes in confusion. "Slip? Where'd you go? ROB, gimme a status update."

The robot responded as commanded, "There is an apparent interference. Cause unknown."

As Fox opened his mouth to question, Falco hurriedly walked into the room and fixed him with a bewildered stare. "Hey, I've been hearing these noises coming from behind the Great Fox. I can hear them now, too. What's the hubbub?"

The two teammates curiously headed towards the front window. They panoramically scanned the surrounding area, noticing Aquas was still quite a distance away from them, but then there were a few tiny flashes of light that flickered in that same vicinity. The blue-feathered avian blinked a few times and wondered to himself while craning his neck forward and tilting his head. Is that a scuffle? I thought the radars said that this sector was clear of any other ships. What the hell gives?

"The interference has become visible. Sources are still unidentifiable." ROB added after a few seconds of silence.

To the duo's dismay, the flashes grew brightly… In fact, they were expanding at a frightening pace. They also noticed a light, violet tint that colored the outer space as whatever was in front of the Great Fox occupied a much greater mass with each second that ticked by. It looked like a storm cloud… but since ROB couldn't bring up any matching info on what it could possibly have been, Fox and Falco prepared themselves for the worst.

All of a sudden, the lights in the bridge went out in a strobe flash. The familiar electric whir of the main power generator, which was the gargantuan mechanism vital to the Great Fox's survival that normally didn't experience any issues, ceased in an instant. It was almost as black on the inside of the control room as it was on the other side of the window, with the exception of a few stars that provided meager luminescence to keep the shadows of a few objects in the room distinguishable. Other than that, Fox and Falco remained fearfully rooted to the spot, unable to see anything around them.

During that moment, Falco slowly turned his head around and stole a glance at ROB, who was also frozen in place, powerless after the electricity disappeared. He swallowed and felt himself breathe faster once he realized that even the backup power was completely shot since ROB was the primary machine that was supposed to function on reserve energy even after all of the grids within the vessel were down. The avian silently cursed to himself and frantically wondered if there was any immediate solution to this sudden predicament. How was it that everything could turn into trouble so quickly after so much as a simple communication hindrance occurred?

"Oh, no…" Fox's eyes widened in fear as the 'interference' was closing in on the crew fast from a short distance away. Falco's question was interrupted and remained unanswered once he noticed out of the corner of his eye that his leader had pointed a trembling finger towards something outside the window. "Look there!"

As Falco glanced out the window, his stomach somersaulted twice and he took a step back. They were in the presence of a huge blob of blackened precipitation, crackling with electricity and booming with thunder, as it approached the Great Fox at blinding speeds. Falco cursed again and forced himself to burst into action, heading straight for the control panel.

"Holy shit… Let's turn this tin can around and book the hell out of here!"

Fox could only stand still and watch in horror as the giant, furious cloud gave no chance for the bulky aircraft to escape, engulfing it fully in a dark uproar. The ship overturned, throwing Fox and Falco against the opposite wall with a loud grunt before the avian could even get his hands on the dashboard, and their surroundings were filled with whirling twisters that flashed with huge lightning bolts and echoed with deafening explosions of thunder. Machinery and metal was ripped from the floor and thrown chaotically about the room. Wires and pipes snapped and sparked as they waved and cracked against the whole interior as though they were whip lashes.

In the midst of the roaring turbulence, Fox at last managed to bark out an order, "Grab something that's still attached to the floor and don't let go!"

He and Falco both found an object or a chair that was thankfully still rooted into place and clung to it tenaciously through the wild ride. The ship's speed had increased ten-fold as if they were entering hyperspace. It seemed at the moment like that was what was bound to happen… The Great Fox continued to overturn and flip through the raging storm like it was being sealed in a gyro sphere, and soon all other sounds, including the panicked bellowing and screaming that came from Fox and Falco, were drowned out in the midst of the space maelstrom.

And so, the Great Fox continued to spiral deeper into the booming hellhole minute by minute, and the team was not sure where they could possibly be going or how they could ever find a way to recover from this disaster. The black cloud disappeared from outer space, taking the Great Fox as sacrifice without leaving a trace, but before that, Fox squinted his eyes shut even tighter while clinging to whatever was planted on the floor of the control room after everything else had been uprooted and smashed into the walls and ceiling.

It was funny… Somehow, they had gotten themselves in a situation that seemed all too familiar. It started with a bit of incomprehensible static and turned into a spatial hurricane in just the blink of an eye.

Fox had a stream of questions flowing through his mind, and at the time he felt like he should have been worrying since his beloved battleship was in danger of being blown to bits yet again, but the commotion that ensued around him grew into nothing but a muffle. The vulpine relaxed and found his vision fading into white, then he decided to disregard his questions and loosen himself from his senses.

That's when he lost his grip on consciousness.

…