Chapter 1

Finally, I was nearly done with this tedious mission. All I have to do is turn this stolen plutonium back to star command and I can head back home. I haven't been there in about 2 weeks and I am sure my little brother is safe, even if I don't like who is watching him (but I know he won't hurt Falco).

I am currently flying thousands of light years a minute (bordering the speed of light), faster then what is regulated, cause I'll be damned if I can't get back quick. But, I am still half a Terra day away from the station, then it will be about 3 hours worth of debriefs, paperwork, and other stupid stuff, then another 6 hours before I get back to Terra. So I lean back in my chair while my ship's in autopilot and let out a sigh.

I've been doing this for only a year, but it's getting on me. The constant work just to stay afloat and hoping for a better job. Always being away from my little brother is kinda hard; but I won't lie after raising him for 4 years, it is kinda nice that I can do something with a little bit of excitement, not much excitement in a mechanic shop.

I feel a pang of guilt and sadness over how many people have died around me. I refuse to let that happen to people I love and want to protect. Especially Falco.

"Fox, you there?"

I groan and push my chair up to look at the screen right behind my steering.

"Yes Commander."

"How far are you?"

"About 12 hours away."

"So you're on the outer edge of Jupiter."

I grimace in awkwardness, knowing the Commander is a stickler for rules. And said, "Well, I'm more close to Saturn then Jupiter, like super closer."

The Commander, rage in his doggy face, howled, "Damn it McCloud, what the fuck do you think are doing!"

"Well, I though since I was done, why not speed things up a bit."

"Speed things up! Speed things up! Just so you can go back to Terra, why the hell do you even go back their?!"

"You know that declaring myself as a mercenary allows me certain privacy from the military." I say cooly.

The doggy Commander literally starts growling at me and says, "Well Fox this will-"

Suddenly, my, as well as the Commanders's, alarms start to ring in distress.

"What the hell?" I say, looking at my radar for enemies, but their were none.

"I got nothing on my radar Commander."

"Neither do we."

"What the fuck is going on then, both of our crafts signaled an alarm at the same time."

The Commander, with a serious face, said "There are reports coming from every station and ship we have. All of them saying their alarms have gone off."

Panic finally hit me in my heart, what the fuck was going on? This has never happened before, are we being attacked, where are we being tricked from, is Falco okay?

"Wait Fox! There is something on my radar!"

"What is it!"

"Oh god!" Someone screamed.

"It's huge!" A man hollered.

The Commander screamed, "It's com-"

Suddenly the transmission when static.

"Commander! COMMANDER!"

I was now in a full blown panic. I take control of my R-Wing and start making it head towards one of the moons of Saturn. That is my best bet cause if it destroys a moon, there is no way I'll survive out here. Suddenly there was a bright light that blinded me. I put my hand up to my eyes to try and see. I peak though and see a wave of light, filled with different colors with one color to another just washing in front of it. But, right behind it was void black, there weren't even stars behind it to shine. I can't get away from it, it's moving way to fast.

I'm not a godly man, hell, I am probably the opposite of a godly man. But I put my head down, claps my hands together, and close my eyes.

"God, Devil, Krishna, Zeus, who ever. I don't even know if your there, but if you are there, I know I'll be dead, I'm on a dingy ship, no way to escape, and most definitely going to die. But, please, I beg of you, please make sure Falco is safe. I'm a dead man, but hopefully Falco made it. Please make sure that he lives and lives a long time. Unlike me, unlike my parents, unlike his parents, please."

I see the light close and I breathe out.

—

Where am I?

Am I dead?

Who am I?

Fox

Fox, yes I'm Fox McCloud.

Fox

How did I get here?

Fox

Where is…

Fox

Where is…

Fox

Where…

Fox

FALCO!

My eyes shoot open and I breathe heavy. I feel a splitting headache in my head and my whole body is aching. I look around to see I am surround by light. WHAT! I'm floating around in bright light swishing in color.

"Where the fuck am I?! I'm dead aren't I! Fuck!" I scream in horror, anger, and pain.

"Relax Fox."

I turn around and see a woman. She is about my height, maybe an inch or two shorter. She has pale blonde hair, gray-blue eyes. She was wearing a turquoise dress with pearl earrings, with a crown on top of her head. She had a wand in her left hand while holding the top in her right hand going almost straight across her body. There were star people, I think, well they look like stars with eyes, floating behind her head.

I finally gain my reigns and say "So I'm guessing I'm dead."

She chuckles slightly and opens her mouth with a calm, steady voice and says, "No you're not dead. Not yet anyway."

"Wait, how am I not dead?" I ask in relief and anticipation.

"Well," the women speaks, "you are just very lucky and extremely unlucky."

"What do you mean Mrs…"

"Rosalina."

Seriously, what a rather showy name. Oh well.

"Well, Ms. Rosalina, what do you mean by that?"

She gives a sad smile and speaks, "Well, the light that hit you did not kill you, it ate you, for lack of a better term, and kept you in it. Only about 1% of people that got directly hit by the light were eaten, less the 0.0001% of the people eaten will get out."

"Wait, I got hit and eaten, that sounds weird, but how do you know less then 0.0001% of people will get out, and you still haven't explained why I am extremely unlucky." I say calmly, but freaking on the inside.

"Fox," She said, more tense in her voice, "you are the only person that is going to be able to get out."

"What! How, why, when?"

She gives a look that is both serious, sad, and thoughtful. She said, "You have a connection to 2 people that are going to be important when dealing with the cause of the lightwave. I saw this and saved you, but things have changed."

"Why have things changed, and who are the people?"

"I'm going to be blunt so don't freak out okay." She said.

I give a hesitate nod.

"It has been 5 years, yet you haven't aged an hour."

My eyes go in shock and I can't move, I can barely breath. My mind is blank, I have no clue how to process this. That would make Falco a year older then me now. Wait!

"Falco!"

"Excuse me."

"What happend to Falco?!"

"I can't say what happened to anyone outside of this light, I am only a traveler and get messages every once in a while. Most of the time they are just caution or greetings." She said calmly, but then turned grave, "but the message I got for you, was urgent. That hasn't happened for a long time."

We float there in silence, I am both happy I'm not dead, shocked about being flung 5 years in the future, panicked over what happened to Falco, and afraid cause I have no idea what is going to happen next. It was just overwhelming.

"Fox," I turn to look at Rosealina, "are you okay?"

I don't feel okay at all. I say morosely "Yeah."

She turns, still with some sadness in her eyes, but says calmly, "Fox, there are some things that you should know before I send you out."

I remain silent but nod in response.

"The world, the worlds, you knew. Some are gone, but others reformed. There is one mega planet where several different planets have merged. And there about 7 planets not very far from the mega planet, about a size of a solar system. There are a few space stations that survived."

"So the Commander could be alive?" I say, still a little hollow, but gaining a little bit of life in my voice.

"I don't know, but maybe," she says, passively, "I will be sending you to the mega planet. Don't worry, you will be alive when you arrive."

"So, am I like a chosen one." I say neutrally.

"Don't worry your not the only one right now, so you're kinda special." She says sweetly.

My ears go down slightly, "Good to know."

We float for another second, I don't feel the energy of panic like I had a bit ago. Now, it's just dread.

"You ready."

"I got no choice." I say.

Suddenly, I'm engulfed in this bright light that burnt me. I scream in pain, swearing in agony. I feel the fire creep from my skin into my mouth and eyes and move down into me as I feel the pain double as I felt the flames inside of me. I was in hell.

"Good luck, Fox. Just know, you are not alone."

I barely hear her whisper though the pain. I can't take it. The pain was too much. I'm dead.

—

I open my eyes, again. But instead of being in some place made only of light, I was on a grassy plain. I still ached, but I wasn't in pain anymore, so there's that. I groan as I move my muscles and bones to stand up. Once I stand I look around trying to find some way to go. Rosalina was so cryptic about what I was sent and who I'm connected to.

I see a river and walk to it. Luckily it wasn't far from me and I got on my knees to get a drink. I see my reflection while trying to scoop up some water. 5'11", mud brown fur, shocking green eyes, muzzle with some white on my chin that runs down to the rest of my body, white shirt, green jacket, and a necklace with a feather emblem and a fox emblem on it. The Fox is for my family, specifically my dad, since he used to be the lead mercenary in the Star Fox team. And a feather for Falco. I look to my wrist to see my gloves, black, with 2 bracelets on my left wrist and 1 on my right. The 2 on my left was a nest, for Falco's parents, and a rabbit, for Peppy. The 1 on my right has a heart, for my mother.

I sigh as I continue to drink some water, I did not realize how thirsty I was. Once I was done drinking, I continued sitting. Right now I need a plan. I'm on a new world, the mega world to be precise. I don't know where I am on here, don't know where the closet population is and in what direction, and I don't know anyone here (and if they do know me they are now 5 years older then I last remember them). The best idea right now is to follow where the river flows, as there is generally a population at the point where the river meets ocean, plus there are generally settlements along the way. If I'm unlucky, I will just go along the ocean, eventually I will hit civilization.

I go and grab some grass to see which way the river flows But before I do I hear an explosion and a yell. I look to the direction of where it was and saw some smoke. Its no more than a half a mile away. I sprint. It's stupid, but there is someone there and some that needs help.

My muscles burn slightly as I get close and pull out my pistol. I see a person (he has cloth all over him so I can't see his features) in a fighting stance. I then see several robots, with big laser knifes attack him. He seems to be handling himself pretty well, dodging and taking down a few bots. But one sneaks up behind him and he jumps back to it, dodging a different robots attack.

I shoot the robot so it would stop the attack. As it died, all the power in the laser knife goes away and as it moves forward he doesn't hit the guy. He turns and looks at the robot, then looks up at me. I see him stop and freeze, I have no clue why, but I see a couple of robots coming into attack him. I jump forward, shooting one in the face and the other I kick and crush its chest plate in, killing it. I see 3 more. I kick one back, shoot the second in the face (killing it), activity my shield blocking and knocking back the third, as it was falling back, I shoot it, killing it as well. The first bot gets up, after I kicked it down, I dash forward, using my hyper boots to go extremely fast, and kicking it in the chest. Breaking it to pieces as it flies back.

I let out a sigh of relief, wiping some sweat from my forehead. I notice the guy is still staring at me. Still in the same spot.

"Hey," I say, as I walk to him, "you alright. You kinda froze their."

He still stands their frozen, Then says, "It's not possible."

I give him a quizzical look, "Um, it is very possible. I saw you do it."

"You can't be here you bastard."

"Hey," I say back, "is that really the right tone to be talking to a person that saved your life."

"I was fine." he says, clearly in a dilution.

I nod my head to the side a bit and say, "Yeah, you handled the bot about to kill you from behind real well. Especially the 3 that attacked you when you were frozen."

"Will you shut up, Fox."

I tense up, I haven't said my name to this person yet, same with Rosalina, but she's some type of space angel, so it makes since. He is definitely not a space angel.

"How do you know my name."

"Oh you don't recognize me."

"That shit only works if I can actually see you." I say pointing at him, or more specifically, his cloth.

He throws off his cloth to reveal bright blue feathers, shinny yellow back, and silver eyes. I stare for a second before remembering that it was 5 years in the future. My throat catches my breathe.

"Falco." I say tentatively.

I wait for him to say something, instead he punches me right in the face. I tumble down to the ground, but land on my feet and stand up.

"What the fuck is wrong with you." I scream, putting my hand on my cheek, the spot where he hit me.

"Oh, fuck you motherfucker. You got that coming from a mile away."

"I don't see why."

"You left me you jackass. You left and never came back." hollered Falco, leaning forward slightly to project his voice more.

I put my hand down and say, "That wasn't my fault, that giant light thing hit me and I was swallowed up."

Falco started laughing bitterly, and says, "Yeah fucking right, and I'm 85."

"You're 19 idiot, so stop acting like you're 14."

"How the fuck would you know that?" he ask angrily.

I look down slightly, and say, "It's a long story."

"Yeah," Falco says, still bitter and angry, "I bet it is."

We stand there for a minute in silence.

I ask, "So how did you get out here, and a better question is where are we?"

"Are you stupid or high?" He ask, "You know what I don't give a fuck."

We stare (Falco stares) at each other for a second. Then I say, "Are you going to answer me?"

"We are currently in the Mushroom Kingdom. It's the domain of Princess Peach Toadstool. I was heading back to the castle after a mission when I got ambushed by the robots. I was flying in an R-Wing, but…"

"It crashed." I say, completing him.

"Yeah," He said, finally losing some anger as he bows his head. "but I'm not very good at the mechanical stuff."

"Take me to it." He looks at me once I spoke.

"Did you forget I worked at a mechanic for 4 years until I started mercenary work."

He breathes in heavily, and says "Fine, it's this way…"

"Toward the smoke I'm guessing." He looks annoyed but nods his head and we start walking.

We walk for about 5 minutes in silence when Falco says something. I only caught it because the wind was blowing from Falco to me.

"What was that?" I ask with my hands behind my head.

Falco sighs and says, "I was wondering why you look the same since I last saw you."

I sigh and say, "Its part of that long story I was saying about."

"We still got another 2 miles to go, so I'm listening."

There was a hint of threat in his voice. Like if my answer wasn't good enough he would attack me. Maybe he would, when he was younger he was always ready to fight, why would it be different now.

"Well," I say, preparing for the inevitable, "when I say I was swallowed by that lightwave, I wasn't kidding. I was inside of it."

"Bullshit," Falco interrupts, guess he hasn't changed to much, "no one that entered there got out."

"I'll tell you how, if you let me finish." That seemed to silence Falco, for now. "I then woke up and met a women named Rosalina, saying that she was sent for me. She then set me on fire and I ended up here."

"Bullshit," Falco says, "I don't believe that for a second, and that doesn't answer my question."

"Let me finish." I say, "While it had been 5 years, I was only in the lightwave for about an hour. But Rosalina said it was 5 years. I honestly didn't believe it till I saw you."

Falco stopped and I nearly ran into him. He then just laughed hysterically, with his hands on his knees.

"That's great, you're fucking great. I don't think I've laughed like that in ages." Falco kept on laughing.

"Fine, you don't believe me. Can we just keep on walking."

Falco's response was to keep on walking while he laughed. He kept it up for half a mile, he then just kept on chucking for a while. We finally reached the plane. It wasn't in great shape, but nothing I can't fix in a bit; however, the wings were banged up, if they go a long distance it will fall apart.

"3 questions," I begin to ask, "do you have any tools, when was the last maintenance check, and where is your destination?"

Falco turned slightly to look at me, as I was currently standing by his right shoulder. We were close to the same height now (maybe he was half an inch or an inch shorter then me), and said, "In order, I have a toolbox behind the second seat, about 6 months ago, and only 20 miles away."

I hum to myself while I walked up to the cockpit, popped it open and got the toolbox. I look inside and see a decent amount of tools available, once I got down, I popped the engine hood, under the front of the ship. Once done, I moved to the engines to check on them. After about an hour of work I had the ship at a state that would make it at least 30 miles with no problems.

"Are you sure its only 20 miles away?" I yell to Falco who was lying down looking up at the sky.

He got up, whipped some dirt from his pants, and said, "Yes, I know where I'm going."

"Don't you mean, where we are going."

He shrugged and said, "Yeah, yeah, whatever."

I give a huff and said, "Well, your ship is going to need to be looked at more closely when we reach the destination. There was just some stuff that can't be fixed right now, so your weapons and shield are down, but your engines, thruster, and steering are working fine. Your navigation will be slightly shoddy, but since we are going such a short distance it will be fine. We can't go too far, your wings are chipped and there is nothing here I can fix it with."

Falco walked over to the ship, gave it a look then nodded. We both got into the cockpit, Falco was flying and I was in the back seat. I instinctively grabbed the arm rest, in my head Falco is still a 14 year old, and now he is flying. Falco seemed to be able to tell I was apprehensive.

So he said, "Will you chill, I know what the fuck I am doing."

I just gave him a glare as we started to lift up. We then started to fly, since we are only going 20 miles it shouldn't take longer then 5 minutes. R-Wings naturally slow down in orbits due to their programming system. We sat in silence, I looked out the window to see nothing but grass and trees for a while, although I thought I saw a desert in the distance.

I break the silence and ask, "So how has everything been?"

"Like you give a shit." Falco said cooly.

"I do give a shit."

"Yeah, that's why you abandoned me for 5 years."

"I didn't abandoned you." I say, my irate rising, "I was on a mission, shit went bad."

Falco said, with anger slowly rising in his throat, "A mission I begged you not to go on."

"And how were we suppose to eat Falco. I didn't know the lightwave would come, no one knew. I had to do something to make sure you were taken care of."

"Yeah I was taken care of, but not by you."

I growl in anger, that seemed to stop the conversation. How dare he, I tried my damnedest. Dropped out of school to make sure we ate, tried to get more money so we could have a better life. I told him that my job was risky, and even then, the lightwave was a universe shattering event that no one could have foreseen.

Suddenly the warning beep went off.

"What's wrong?" I ask, calmly not to freak Falco out.

"Power is going down." Falco said calmly, but I could hear a hint of panic.

I get up out of my seat and look at his dash. Scanning it quickly I notice the shield generator is on, but the switch is off.

I say quickly, "The shield generator must have been locked into a power mode."

"How?"

"When you where attacked, you must have gotten hit in just the right spot for it to happen. Its been syphoning power since you turned the ship on."

"Why didn't you notice this." Falco said in a panicked anger.

I look at him and say, "Its not something you can see unless you have a power scanner. Something that has no portable option to it."

I hear Falco panicking slightly.

"How far are we from the destination?" I ask calmly, trying to keep from Falco panicking.

"1 mile."

"Alright," I say, processing the information, "you are going to give one final push on the forward thrusters, then turn them off. You are going to glide there. Once there slam on your emergency backward thrust."

Falco was now panicking, and says, "You're insane."

Starting to lose my cool I say, "Please tell me your idea then."

He was silent.

I say, "If your scared, switch with me quick."

That seemed to snap Falco back into focus, "Hell no, I got it."

I get back in my seat and as Falco pushes the final thruster then stops it, I lock my seatbelt in. We glide silently with the emergency blaring. I then, around the front seat, see a castle.

"Falco can you reach the audio speaker."

"No, I got to hold the wheel or we spin."

I grab the speaker and say, "Mayday, Mayday. This is, um…"

Falco says, "R-Wing 113."

"R-Wing 113, requesting emergency landing. We're coming in hot with no way for a clean landing."

Though the speaker I heard, "Understood, how far from potential hard landing."

"Half a mile away from destination."

"Roger. Runway is clearing now."

I then hear a blast of an alarm form the field just to the right of the castle. I see ships and people moving quickly out of the way.

"Clear, emergency crew is on standby. God Speed R-Wing 113."

"Roger." I say.

I can now see the runway clearly and I hear the wheels move down.

"Falco pull your wheels up now."

"Why the fuck."

"Because once you back thrust they will snap off and will definitely crash. Roll it up, activate the back thrust very slowly. Then on my mark, blast the thruster and immediately roll the wheels down."

"Roger."

I hear him move the wheels up. Then for a brief second I held my breath as Falco slowly pushed the back thruster.

"Now!" I scream.

Bang, I was pushed forward, hoping Falco moved the wheels back down. Everything was rumbling and then we stopped.

I move my head up and say, "Falco, you alright."

"Yeah." he said shakily. "Are you…"

He turned around and looked at me, eyes wide, and then the world went dark.