(author notes- Due to possible plot confusion, I decided to completely overhaul the prologue. I had noticed it was for the most part somewhat confusing, and ultimately not entirely what I wanted. I do hope you, my readers and reviewers enjoy this prologue more then the previous version. Stay tuned for more of this fanfiction in the coming weeks.)

A lone figure stood before a large book easily the size of two large computers, reading over the various text and runes inscribed into it adding bits and pieces of information with a long white quill where they were needed.
From the corridor behind him a single shadowed figure came into view. Hearing the footsteps, the gray haired figure turned and smiled at him.
"Be welcome friend. I have long been expecting you." He said setting the quill down in a small jar of ink.

With a simple wave of his gloved hand, the book floated away from the robe draped figure and settled upon an out of view shelf.
"You have?" He asked while stepping closer to the robed figure.

"Yes. I have long been waiting to meet with you face to face since the very day you were born."

"Who are you?"

"I am known as the Archive Keeper. I write the history of the universe and all of its happenings. All of its victories and failures are recorded here. All the deaths and births among the stars are documented here as well. Everything that has ever happened within our realm has been recorded here since the beginning of time… nearly."

His hand motioned towards the ceiling. The figures mouth hung agape staring up in wonderment. Books of all different colors, lengths sizes, and types neatly set into shelves that seemed to keep going upwards as far as his eyes could see.

"But…what of the others? Did they survive? Did she…?"

"Hmm… I cannot answer that to you yet my friend." The Keeper began to stroke his long gray beard with one gloved hand. As the shadowed figure prepared to speak again, the keeper lifted his hand to silence him.

"Please, keep your peace my friend. When I have finished what needs to be said I will explain everything to you; staring with your friends." He smiled seeing the figure nod slightly in the dim blue light.

The keeper smiled in a very friendly manner before turning and looking up towards the seemingly endless shelves that spiraled upwards into infinity.
"I've not had many visitors in my solitude for well over 1000 years."

The figure chuckled slightly to himself.
"Well might I suggest getting rid of the psychedelic elemental dragon you had me fight? It certainly deters any form of tourists."
The Keeper also joined in the slight laughter at his remark.

"Yes I know my friend it would help now wouldn't it? But you see it is a necessary evil to ensure only the true of heart can enter here. I had to be sure."

The shadowed figure again chuckled.
"My young friend," The Keeper spoke. "My time as the keeper is coming to an end. At the end of every age a worthy soul is selected to chronicle the new era as it begins. I have chosen you for this task."

The figure's smile seemed to drop almost immediately at this news."Why me? What have I done to earn this honor?"

"You have proven yourself to be a soul of strong leadership and undying determination. Yes you have made mistakes, but your heart and mind were always in the proper place. And for that, you have been chosen for this task over any other being."

"But…" He started to protest. He was stopped when the Keeper raised his hand to silence him.

"I see you are still unsure as to why I chose you." With a wave of his hand, a book came free from a shelf above where they stood and slowly floated over to him.

"Here we are. This book contains the years when your era was approaching its end." The keeper held the book out to him. The figure stepped closer, took the book from the keeper and began to read aloud.

Age-346 The Lylatian Chronicles.

A 2493 year ballad of a brave system that fought under one banner in the name of justice towards the end of their reign. Although they made many mistakes along the road, they stood by one another at the end and bravely faced oblivion as a single family.
The figure stopped reading for a second, pondering what the book was saying.
"Keeper, can this book tell the future? It was 2267 when the war officially ended."

"You hold a very solid point my observant friend. Yes, the book can in fact tell the future, although in bits and pieces. The book will tell you everything from the beginning of the age up to the most current events that have been added. I was fortunate to discover the year at which your era came to an end and make necessary preparations. Now please read on my friend. I will answer any other questions you have to the best of my ability."
"Preparations? What do yo-"

"I will explain that in time. Now please, continue."
Venom, ninth planet of the Lylat system. The once revered scientist Andross Oikonny was exiled to this remote planet on the very edge of the system's border by General Pepper of the Cornerian military. This foreboding and desolate planet was said incapable of harboring any form of life because of its toxic atmosphere and highly acidic oceans. It was said to be a dead planet. It was thought that he would die within a matter of days thanks to the hostile environments. The leaders of the Cornerian council were sorely mistaken.

Andross soon discovered what everyone thought about the floating green rock was false. Venom did in fact have albeit miniscule, an indigenous population of varying species of reptiles. However, it was strange to Andross finding them here of all places. The reptile race as far anyone knew had been wiped out when an asteroid careened into Titania and smothered it in eternal darkness for thousands of years. It is unknown how or why the reptiles escaped to Venom, but when Andross had found them, they were on the very verge of extinction. It soon became clear to Andross that the reptiles sadly were not very intelligent; evident by not only their inability to comprehend simple spoken language, but their inability to provide the simple needs to survive, and with each passing day more and more of their already tiny population passed away.
Using his knowledge of water purification and simple medicines Andross did his best to try and improve the living conditions among the reptilian population with somewhat promising results. However while exploring the nearby mountain-ranges, he made startling discovery. Hidden below the surface of the planet lay an ancient and vast library filled with scrolls that contained knowledge long thought destroyed. In addition, he also found what the scrolls described as the planetary resurrection device; a device long thought to be of legend and myth. With the help of his reptilain friends, he found the location of the device and with it he brought life back to the dead world. Under Andross, the reptiles began to flourish. He opened schools to teach them how to read and write. He taught them how to farm, and grow crops. He helped them build a prospering society that one day might help Venom become just as important to the Lylat system as CornerIa had. Sadly, Venom's toxic atmosphere had accelerated his carpal tunnel syndrome. Without any form of modern medical instruments readily available, his hands sadly were removed. This unfortunate event had unforeseen consequences no one could see.

With the loss of his hands, Andross began to slowly drift into insanity. Using the scrolls he'd found in the library and with the help of the reptiles he constructed a pair of robotic replacements in their place. Afterwards he began to teach the reptiles in the ways of warfare and began to arm them with simple weapons and war machines. As the years steamrolled by, he managed to construct a genetics facility with the aid of mercenaries who would raid Cornerian research and development facilities for him. With this he began to mutate the reptiles who followed him so faithfully into stronger, smarter and faster super soldiers bred for one thing, and one thing only. They were bred for war; and in only a few short years Andross's newly designed forces would block out Lylat's ray over Corneria.
The activity on Venom began to draw attention from General Pepper. Pepper enlisted the aid of his old friend James Marcus McCloud and his StarFox mercenary squadron; inevitably sending James to his doom. Unbeknownst to James and his Second in Command Peppy Hare the third member of the group Pigma Dengar, had sold them out to Andross in exchange for a place among Andross's forces as a general. When James and his squad arrived to investigate the reported sightings of the mysterious activity, they were ambushed by Pigma and another group of mercenaries known as StarWolf lead by Griffin O'Donnell. James was sadly shot down then captured by Griffin and the reptiles of the newly formed Venomian army. Peppy however barely managed to escape from the rival mercenaries, and returned home to tell Jame's now orphaned son Fox, about his father's fate.

The figure again turned to face the Keeper; a tear breaking from his eye.
"And that's when the first war broke out…between us and Venom?"

"Yes…it was most unfortunate that it occurred in this fashion. James… he was a hero among your people. His legacy however continued with his son. He was never truly forgotten. Please, read on."

When Venom first invaded Corneria, many couldn't believe what was occurring at the time. Andross in his exile had attracted many pirates and thugs from all across the system to join him in his war against the oppressive leaders of Corneria who saw fit to banish him for a mistake. The result was an army of overwhelming proportions. The outer planets fell quickly to Andross and his army followed by Fichnia, then finally Katinia. Corneria was in the midst of its finaly desperate battle against Adross's hordes when the newly formed StarFox squadron lead by Fox McCloud assisted in the defense of the capital city and all other outlying cities until the defenders could hold them off indefinitely. Although young and mostly inexperienced, Fox and his squadron quickly began to turn the tide of the war by routing Andross's forces from the inner planets.

The Keeper put his gloved hand on the figure's shoulder causing him to abruptly stop reading.
"Because time is short my friend, I will stop you there. When you become Keeper, you will have all the time you desire to relive all of these old memories. Besides, I'm quite sure this all ancient history for you so I will save you the trouble of reading through all this." He said flipping through the many pages that filled the book until a particular date came into view.

"Ah, here we are; the year when everything began to draw to a close for Lylat. I'm sure you remember this well?"
The figure nodded slightly wiping another tear that sprouted from his eyelid.
Year-2259

In the years following the great Angler Blitzkrieg an uneasy peace has settled across all of Lylatian space. Under the rule of Nazareth Oikonny second nephew of the late Andross, Venom has once again become fertile and life bearing. Nazareth has vowed never to allow war to ravage his home for as long as he remains ruler. To the Cornerians, this was reasonable enough. The eighteen years had passed since the blitz and many had seemed to forget all about war. Economies were booming and relations between the planets and species were growing stronger with each passing day.
But, trouble was beginning to brew on Venom.

There was a very rare and mysterious metallic alloy known simply as element blue that the Venomians depended on for their very survival; unfortunately, this vital element was beginning to run dangerously low. The element blue allowed for not only fighter production much like the platinum used in Cornerian designs, but it also powered the air purification and planetary heating generators that allowed the planet to bear life. Because of the toxic gases that would constantly seep out from the planet's core and oceans the air would become toxic in mere minutes without constant adjustments. Standard terra-forming air purification designs simply could not clean the air quick enough to stop the toxins from spreading. Nazareth and his top advisers contemplated for months on finding a solution to this devastating problem, but no solution could be found. In only one year the element blue ore deposits would run dry and anyone planetside would all suffer an agonizing death from the relentless poisons that for now, were held at bay.

However, during a visit to planet Corneria Nazareth made a discovery. The entire Cornerian capital city was sitting directly atop the largest deposit of element blue anywhere else in Lylat. There was enough of the ore to power the purification plants for several decades in addition to the production of several large fleets of fighters, carriers, and escort ships. However, Cornieran officials simply wouldn't allow him and his miners to harvest the ore due to the public outcry against letting Venomians set foot on Corneria. For many months Nazareth and his top scientists and advisers battled with the Cornerians trying to gain permission to mine the minerals, but it was like trying to force ice out of volcanic rock. They simply would not relent. Infuriated by their decision Nazareth crumpled into despair. If Corniera would not allow them to harvest element blue, he and his people would perish in only a few short days. In their despair, the Venomians began to draw up plans on how to escape the planet as the generators began to approach the red zone. Sadly, because the generators used so much element-blue, there wasn't enough blue alloy remaining to construct civilian transports. Knowing that there was nothing left, and most of the generators were shutting down, Nazareth and his generals made a public announcement to the masses of Venom. He told them the truth as any leader should. He told them that in only a few short days, the generators would shutdown and the toxic gases would begin to escape back into the atmosphere. They would all die from asphyxiation or atmosphereic poisoning.

Mere hours before the generators were estimated to shut down, an convoy of Cornerian transport ships descended from the heavens bearing nearly eighteen tons of the vital element blue with them. General Peppey Hare of the Cornerian military himself had organized the salvation effort. Nazareth was dumbfounded by this completely unexpected move. However, Peppy had come with an ultimatum. Raids against civilian vessels and cargo transports had been rising steadily for the past several years. With StarFox officially disbanded, there was no one to protect these vessels, and a full blown military escort was considered a waste of resources. If Venom would be willing to provide manpower to ensure peace on the outer colonies, and protect the convoys, Corneria would be willing to allow them the rights to mine element blue from under the capital. Although Nazareth knew they were blackmailing his people into protecting the other planets and their colonies, he had no real choice other then to accept their bribe.

Two months have passed.
Venom is once again peaceful. The generators are once again running at full capacity and the air remains untainted. However, trouble was beginning to brew on Corneria.
As the Venomians began to dig deeper into the planet, very odd and strange events began to occur. Civilians and military personal were beginning to go missing, Venomian miners were winding up dead from unexplained cave-ins, machinery and weapons from military bases were disappearing, and seismic activity was beginning to rise to alarming levels. Many began to blame the disturbances on the Venomians although did everything in their power to prove they were innocent of the charges.; and although the facts suggested they were not guilty, many were unconvinced. General Peppy was then forced to contact an old friend and bribe him out of retirement to spy on the Venomian mining camps.
The figure looked up from the book to the Keeper yet again a single tear beginning to break through.

"And…that's when the nightmare truly began…"

"Yes." The Keeper hung his head slightly. "I'm afraid so."