Nothing made sense. Endless tunnels, leading nowhere. Left, right. Endless. How long had it been since he flew into the black hole? Seconds, minutes, days, bled together, dripped into eternity. And it was cold. Colder than the deepest night on Fichina, cold that pierced the skin and bit into the bones. A cold that numbed the mind. Endless tunnels, left, right.

And then Andross was there. Andross was there and he loomed impossibly large in front of Fox. His laughter shook the arwing and boomed down the endless tunnels that weaved into eternity. Everything was Andross. Fox realized that he was screaming. The joints in his fingers ached from gripping the throttle so tightly. He haphazardly fired a few laser blasts directly into Andross' eyes.

Andross exploded, oh god, but he didn't die. His face was gone but his eyes were still watching; it looked like they were getting closer, closer, dear god. He was trapped with Andross in a little room the size of the night sky. Fox could hear the thoughts running through Andross' brain. Agony. Hatred. Despair. Recognition. Pleading. He was trapped with the thing that used to be Andross. Fox pressed his hands desperately against his ears to try and keep the thoughts out, but they trickled through his fingers and threatened to burst out of his skull.

Fox couldn't take anymore. He slammed his fist onto the bomb panel, aiming straight for the gigantic brain. The thoughts stopped. Fox was suddenly alone, floating in an ocean of nauseous greens and yellows and reds. His anger disappeared with Andross, leaving him feeling empty. He realized that he was stuck down here, up here, wherever here was, forever; there was no way to get out.

" I'm stuck in here forever. I'm stuck in here forever. I'm stuck in here forever. I'm stuck in here forever."

Fox repeated the words to himself like a mantra. He tried to remember why he had flown into the black hole in the first place. What was he doing here?

"Holy shit, he's alive."

"WHAT!? FALCO, WHERE ARE YOU?! DO YOU SEE HIM?!"

"Relax, Peppy. He just kinda…popped out of the black hole. I'm following the old river bed, about 20 miles south of where we split up. I circled back a bit."

"Oh my god." Peppy's voice was shaking. "Oh my god. Does he look okay? I'm on my way right now. Why isn't he talking? Does he look okay? I'm more than 50 miles outside of the temple ruins, but I'm on my way right now. Get him away from the black hole."

"Peppy. The black hole is gone. It collapsed." Falco squinted just to make sure. "Definitely gone."

"WHAT!?"

Fox ignored the chatter coming through his commlink. He let his arwing drift, looking blankly up into the stars.

"Hey. Fox. Fox buddy. You alright over there? What're you looking at? Can you hear me? Fox, it's me, Falco. Can you hear me?"

"Yeah." Fox was still looking beyond the night sky. "I'm fine. I think."

"Can you make it to the Great Fox? Do you need help? I can be there in about fifteen minutes." Peppy still sounded frantic.

"No. I think I can do it. Give me a second." It took Fox a bit of effort to steady his arwing, but he made the journey to the docking bay of the Great Fox, which was orbiting Venom, without saying anything else. Other than the occasional "oh my god" murmured by Peppy, silence cracked through the commlinks. When he landed, he slowly pulled himself out of the cockpit, thudding onto the metallic floor only to be quickly embraced by Slippy.

"Fox! I'm so glad you're alive! I would have been out there looking for you too, you know, but Pigma shot my arwing up pretty bad and I had to pull it up for repairs. Geez, you're freezing! I was looking for you though, from the Great Fox. See, I can look at the black hole you disappeared into from here. Did you know there are more than ten known black hole warps on Venom? Peppy and Falco went flying out to some of those other ones to maybe try and find you. What one did you come out of? It wasn't the one I was watching. Are they all connected? You're so cold! Here, let's go to the kitchen."

Fox let Slippy talk and pull him towards the kitchen, which was little more than a tiny room with a table tucked beneath a view-window. From here, Venom looked like a marble of rotten, raw meat floating in space. Slippy guided Fox gently onto a chair and started fumbling through the metallic storage containers built into the walls. Slippy didn't seem to notice that Fox hadn't said a word since boarding the ship.

"-and that's why the warp zones aren't stable. Hmmm…. we ran out of tea two weeks ago, back during that covert supply mission on Titania, I think. No coffee since way back when. Where does all of the coffee go? You'd think that with the four of us we could at least- "

"What in the actual flying FUCK were you thinking?!" Falco's voice burst into the kitchen before he did. Fox flinched and looked at his boots but didn't reply.

"I mean, seriously? Are you fucking serious? Jesus! Peppy nearly had an aneurysm when you disappeared! He's been hyperventilating for the last three hours! I thought he was gonna die, have a heart attack or a stroke or somethin'!"

"Three hours?" Fox asked in disbelief. It had felt like days in the black hole.

"Yes, three hours! Three goddam hours! We've been flying all over Venom looking for you! Fuck! Even Star Wolf was stunned when you flew in there, and they are all about doing stupid fucking shit! Christ, even they know not to touch a black hole! You're lucky to be alive, you-"

"Where is Star Wolf?"

"They said they had somethin' to do. Some business shit or somethin'. I wasn't really listening because MY BEST FRIEND HAD JUST FLOWN INTO A BLACK HOLE." Falco crossed his arms and glared at Fox.

Fox started to say something, but his voice cracked. He cleared his throat and tried again. "I'm sorry Falco. I'm sorry. You don't have to forgive me."

Falco crossed the kitchen in two strides and sat down across from Fox. "Look at me. Fox, look at me. Of course I forgive you, you little fuck. You're such a dick, but I forgive you."

The room fell uncomfortably silent. Falco sniffed a little too loudly and tried to play it off as a cough. Slippy tugged nervously at his jacket, and when a loud beep broke the silence he nearly threw himself at the microwave door and pulled out a steaming cup.

He put it down in front of Fox. "Here, It's just water, but…"

"Thanks, Slip." Fox wrapped both hands gratefully around the cup and took a drink.

"What, are you cold or somethin'?" Falco asked. "Don't we have any coffee left? Hey. Hey wait a minute. Fox."

Fox was letting the steam from the water warm up his face. "Yeah?"

"The black holes collapsed, so you did kill Andross, yeah? How much money do you think Pepper will give us for that? We didn't just bomb most of the army, we actually eliminated Andross. How much money will he pay for that?"

Fox thought for a moment. "It had better be a shit-ton of money."

Falco laughed and slapped Fox's shoulder. "Damn right it had better be. Man, we could charge…anything! Add it on top of what we were gonna charge already – we could afford anything! We could get some badass new outfits, we could take a permanent vacation, we could buy enough coffee to last the rest of our lives!"

"Yes!" Slippy shouted excitedly, which made Fox grin.

And then Peppy walked in.

Falco and Slippy shared a look and immediately left the kitchen, leaving Peppy and Fox alone.

"Peppy…" Fox moved as if to get up from his chair.

Peppy held up a hand and shook his head. "Not right now, Fox. Here." He wrapped a thick blanket around Fox's shoulders, fussing with it until it was perfect. "I'm just glad you're okay."

"I'm sorry Peppy." Fox's voice was strained. "I don't know what I was thinking, I just, one minute I was on Venom, the next I was in there, I don't even really remember flying into it and I don't know what I was thinking because it was horrible and-"

Peppy cut Fox off with a tight hug. He pulled Fox close to his chest for several moments before letting go. He was trying not to cry.

"It's okay. I'm just glad you're okay. I would never have forgiven myself if…if…if I never saw you again. I was reliving that horrible day all over again. I can't lose you too. I couldn't leave you in there like I had to leave him. Couldn't." Peppy sat down and wiped his nose on his sleeve. "Fox, I have to ask you one question. Did you…did you see anybody while you were…in there?"

Fox didn't look Peppy in the eye. "Just Andross."

Peppy stared intently at Fox and nodded slowly. A moment passed. And then another. Finally, he sighed and pushed himself back up.

"Alright. We'll talk more about it tomorrow. I'm tired. Get some sleep. We're headed towards Corneria, should take us about a week to get there if we fly nonstop." At the doorway, Peppy stopped and looked over his shoulder. "I love you, Fox. Goodnight."

"I love you too, Peppy."

Fox didn't move. He watched the desolate planet Venom get smaller and smaller in the view-window. The cup of water went cold. Still, he watched. He watched as it disappeared among the vast canopy of stars.