Authors note: Hey everyone, thanks for clicking on my fic! Please R&R! thanks.

Star Fox: How we survive

Chapter 1: Greet death.

"DAMN YOU FOX McCLOUD!" Andross screamed as he exploded after Fox landed his final shot.

"YOU THINK YOU HAVE WON?! I WILL NOT DIE WITHOUT TAKING YOU WITH ME!!"

The destruction of Andross set off a chain reaction in the base where the final battle took place between the two. Fox pulled a half loop and full throttled it towards the way he flew in. Flames all around him the temperature spiked and Fox started sweating like crazy as his heart raced faster and faster.

"Come on Fox you didn't come this far to die this way." He thought to himself as he pushed his Arwing to the limit with flames and explosions engulfing everything he passed by.

His arwing started to shake violently as different alarms started to sound signaling the ship just couldn't take anymore abuse. Fox life started to flash before his eyes and time seemed to slow down. His childhood, the death of his mother, the military, flight school, being with his father, the death of his father, all his friends, and damn near everything he ever been through played out before his eyes... Then it all came back, time sped back up and all of of Fox's senses were back in tune. The tunnel Fox was flying through was collapsing on him and burning twisted metal fell all around. One large piece struck the right wing on his Arwing, ripped it off, and sent the ship into a spiral.

"Oh Shit! No, come on baby just a little further." Fox yelled as he struggled to get the broken arwing back under control.

Finally the light at the end of this tunnel showed its self to Fox.

"Almost... there!"

Almost every alarm was going off in his cockpit and it caused Fox to lose his hope of surviving.

"NO! OH SHIT!"

Flames totally surrounded his ship, he couldn't see anything and the eject light started flashing on his HUD but that was suicide. He loosened his grip on his flight controls... he wasn't going to make it. His cockpit hatch started to crack, small lines started to spiderweb all over the glass.

"This is Bad."

The thrusters died because of over heating and the Arwing started to shake even harder now.

"Oh man, this is really bad."

The hatch started to crack like crazy as Fox shielded his face with his arms and closed his eyes on instinct and waited for death to come but suddenly the all the fire around the ship subsided and the light from Venom's pale sky filled the cock pit... He made it.

The ship arched out of the flames that shot into the sky and Fox grabbed the controls with some new hope instilled in him. The ship started to go into a nose dive, the thrusters were still out. He had to think fast. The Arwing arched over and was now barreling towards the planet below gaining velocity. Fox pulled hard on the controls trying to get the nose to come up, maybe he could glide it to the ground. No, the Arwing was to heavy and going to fast already. The breaks still worked but the ship was going just to fast for them to do anything.

Fox eyed his altitude gauge, 1300 feet.

"This is not going how I imagined it." Fox said trying to get the thrusters back on line.

1000 feet.

"Come on, Come on. Please!!" Fox yelled punching the ignition over and over.

800 feet.

Suddenly the com channels lit up again. "Fox what's going on? Are you alright? We saw the explosion from orbit! Do you copy Fox?" It was peppy

600 feet.

"PEPPY, I READ YOU, I'M GOING DOWN, MY...MY THUSTERS ARE OUT. I THINK...YEAH I THINK GOTTA BAIL SO GET THE GREAT FOX DOWN HERE. ILL SET OFF A DESTRESS SIGNAL. I WON'T BE TO FAR OFF FROM ANDROSS'S BASE." Fox yelled over the the Arwing screaming out of control.

"Fox I can barely hear you! What's going on?"

"I...AM...GOING...DOWN GOD DAMMIT!!"

"FOX?!" The com channel cut out. There was to much interference between the dense atmosphere of Venom and the Great Fox orbiting the planet for anything to get through.

400 feet

"COME ON!!" Fox hit the ignition one more desperate time before he would decide to eject and to his surprise the thrusters roared to life.

"Oh man I can't believe it! Ha-ha oh man Falco is never gonna live up to this." He laughed out.

Fox pulled hard on the flight controls and the nose started to come up

200 feet.

"This is gonna be close." Fox thought to himself as he was sweating bullets and his heart beating so hard it felt like it was going to explode out of his chest.

Some thing was wrong through. The arwing was struggling to nose up and it was some what leaning to the left. Fox looked over his right shoulder...He forgot something...The right wing was gone.

100 feet...

Fox flipped the distress signal switch.

50 feet...

It was to late to eject.

20 feet...10...5...

Fox braced for impact.

"Shit..."

Zero...

Fox was able to get the spacecraft level to the planet when the bottom of it slammed into dirt sending it toppling out of control breaking everything else off that was still attached to the fuselage. Had he hit nose 1st it would have just crumpled like someone stepping on a soda can. Fox was still conscious but all he could do was hold on as the world just spun out of control out side of the now shattered cockpit hatch. It was so loud; the sound of the Arwing smashing to pieces as it rolled and tumbled over the barren waste land; Fox could barely take it. Although he just defeated the biggest threat in the entire Lylat system, he didn't feel like he was the victor at the moment. He felt like he was just shot down, was about to die, and he was the one who lost.

Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, the ship did one more flip, landed belly down, and came to an abrupt halt which forced Fox to smash his forehead into the controls giving him a mild concussion. The blow cut him open, blood running down his face and staining his uniform. The world was still spinning out of control and the sickening taste of blood was in his mouth. He started to look around him trying to figure out if he was still alive or not. He slowly reached to undo his 5-point harness that finally got its chance to do its job.

"Thank god for seat belts." He thought.

"Okay, let's see if I broke anything else besides my freaking head... god damn." He said as he wiped the blood from his eyes.

He looked him self over and didn't see evidence of anything else that was broken or sprained but he was painfully sore all over.

"I guess...I made it." Fox chuckled out with disbelief.

Fox pulled out his small field medical kit all the Arwings had inside their cockpits, pulled out some gauss and bandages, and wrapped up is head. He was bleeding so much he had to stop it or he would probably pass out.

Fox tried the com link, "Peppy, anyone, do you copy? This is Fox, over?"

He heard no response.

"You guys read me?"

Nothing but static.

"Crap."

Nothing seemed to be working in the arwing but that didn't surprise Fox after that crash. The small l.e.d lights that showed the distress signal was being put out was a bit comforting however.

Fox just sat there for a moment, quiet, listing to the wind howl and feel it blow through his fur. He looked to the sky to see if maybe the Great Fox was on it's way; if his friends were coming to save him from this waste land of a planet. All he saw was the huge plume of smoke that came from the inside of Andross's base.

Fox slowly climbed up out of his seat, balanced him self on the edge of the cockpit and jumped down to the ground below. He stumbled forward a bit when he landed and nearly fell to his knees; he felt so weak his legs almost gave out.

"Man, that crash really took it out of me." He said to him self weakly.

He turned to his Arwing, took a few steps back, and saw a sight that made him sick to his stomach. There was really nothing left of it. The fuselage was some what bent in half from hitting the ground and now both wings were gone. Pieces of the ship were everywhere; there was barely anything left of it at all. Fox just stared at it with his arms folded in front of him still not being able to grasp how it stayed together enough to save his life; he should have died from a crash like that.

Smoke started coming out of the rear of the ship.

Suddenly the Arwing erupted in fire engulfing the cockpit and the rest of the mangled spacecraft. Fox's jaw dropped. If he would have stayed in the Arwing, we would have been cooked alive.

Fox had cheated death before, but not like this. It was almost like someone was watching over him and keeping himself safe; maybe his father; maybe not. He could have just waited in his ship in the mean time but something compelled him to get out of it. It was indeed a miracle that he was still alive and breathing rather than dead inside of the downed ship.

"Peppy is gonna be really, really pissed about this."

There was no way they could salvage the Arwing now. By the time the Great Fox could get to him there would be nothing left of it and it depressed Fox a little because it was his ship and now he had nothing to fly. Sure they could have a new one built but that would cost as much as the entire bill they were going to charge General Pepper for this job.

"Man, this is such bull shit! I should be...I should be celebrating right now on the Great Fox but instead this freaking happened and here I am stranded on Venom.

Fox was getting angry at him self.

"What hell!? Why does that happen every time? Why can't he just die? No, he has to freaking blow everything up with him as well and majorly jack up my ship in the process... But whatever, I still defeated him, I'm alive, and he is gone for good now."

Fox turned to the smoldering, distant, structure that was once Andross's base.

"Yeah that's right! YOU are dead! Not me you stupid ape! You don't got shit on me Andross." Fox yelled out at the top of his lungs towards the wreckage.

Fox usually wasn't one to be cocky but at this moment it felt right so there was no holding back.

"Your army you sent to Coneria?! No problem. We wasted all of them! Even your Attack cruiser and that stupid walker you had out in the woods? We took it down. Oh! Then the Fleet you had in Sector-Y? We blew through that also! We took down EVERYTHING. The meteor field, Katina, Aquas, Fortuna, Sector X, Zoness, Macbeth, Titania...uhh, Bolse Defense Station, and your bullshit Area 6!! And lets not forget your bio weapon you had on Solar because we shut down that operation too. Oh! And your ace pilots for hire, Star Wolf? Yeah they're dead too. You're all fucking DEAD!" He yelled out in a very animated way; using his arms and motions as he ranted on.

"But not ME!" Fox Screamed out with his fists clenched.

Fox took a deep breath and let out a very heavy sigh he dropped his arms to his sides.

"Man that felt good; I feel so much better now."

Then he looked to the sky.

"Where are you guys?"

Distant thunder boomed off in the distance as massive thunder heads started to roll in from the west. Fox looked around him and saw nothing but open desert for miles. Fox needed to find shelter from the fast approaching storm because when it rains on Venom, It's not a good thing. Usually it's rain thats so dirty and contaminated you would need a bio-hazard suit or the water that fell from Venom's highly polluted sky's would would ravage your body with disease. Or it could be the worse alternative; acid rain that would burn right through your skin. Andross's army didn't really have out posts for soldiers on Venom's surface because it was so uninhabitable and the frequent toxic rain.

Fox could see the rain start to fall in this distance as more thunder cracked and boomed becoming louder now. There was no shelter here so Fox had to start moving and hope he could keep ahead of the storm long enough until the rest of the team could come pick him up.

Fox searched the sky around him again hoping to see the Great Fox coming to his rescue.

Nothing. Not a thing that looked like a rescue at all was seen.

Then Fox began to wonder if the distress signal even got out because of all the interference between the Great Fox and his Arwing. Or maybe they though he was killed in the crash after that last broken com link transmission.

"Nah, they wouldn't just leave me here like that. Dead or alive they would come for me." He reassured him self.

A strong gust of wind blew through his fur; it was time to go. Fox started to walk in the opposite direction of the storm. His whole body was extremely sore from the crash and it hurt to move in any fashion but he had to keep moving in hopes to not get caught in the toxic rain that was falling in the distance.

He walked for about 30 minutes, his eyes searching the horizon for some kind of shelter from the incoming storm. His vision started to become impaired and his tounge was sticking to the inside of his mouth, he was dehydrated. He kept on treading through the endless desert but then came to an abrupt halt when he tripped on a rock and fell to his hands and knees. He cough and sputtered out some blood and then fell to his side as his head started to spin. Who knows what other internal injuries he got from the crash but signs of them were starting to become apparent. He rolled on his back staring up into the bleak, pail green sky still hoping to see his team coming to pick him up but still nothing. Fox was severely dehydrated now, his mouth bone dry and he felt like he was going to throw up.

As he looked up into the sky he saw the clouds up above, the storm caught up with him.

"They left me behind" He thought to him self.

Fox was a mess. His bandage on his head was blood soaked and he didn't have any more to replace them with because the rest of his field kit was burned in the ship. He was now coughing up blood every so often and he was now very dehydrated and started to think irrationally.

"I can't believe they did this to me. How could they leave me here to die like this? How could they leave their leader down here to rot."

He started to lose his mind.

"Star FOX. That's what it's called! They can't have Star Fox with out this son of a bitch! Oh no they can not." He frustratingly said to him self.

The rain started to fall.

"Like father like son I guess."

Fox curled up into a ball with the rain starting to fall harder and harder.

He was never scared of death before but given the situation he was in the thought of it scared him to death. He had no idea what the rain would do to him.

He just laid still in the rain for about an hour waiting for something, anything to come save him.

"FOX!" A familiar voice called out.

Fox's head snapped around and saw peppy standing before him.

"Fox?! Are you okay? We have been looking every where for you!"

Fox was shocked out of his mind at what he saw. It just couldn't be peppy; not just like that out of thin air... But he was so real.

"Fox... what's wrong? It's me."

"You...Your not real. You can't be."

"Fox I'm sorry about your father. I did everything I could."

"What... what are you talking about?"

"You can stay with me if you want. Your always welcome at my home."

Fox rolled on his stomach and started to crawl towards the old hair.

"Fox, these things just happen. It's part of what your father and I do."

Fox was at Peppy's feet now. He reached out his hand hoping to be helped up. Maybe he was real after all.

"Please Peppy, Help..me.."

He just stood there looking down on Fox, staring him dead in the eyes.

Fox Struggled to his knees.

"WHY WON'T YOU HELP ME?!" He screamed out.

Suddenly thunder cracked over head and in a flash peppy was gone.

Fox looked all around searching for him but he was gone. He was just a hallucination after all. The rain started to pour now and Fox was becoming drenched.

His was losing his head.

"Well well how the mighty have fallen."

"F-Falco?"

Now it was Falco that stood before him with a menacing smile on his face.

"I knew you couldn't do it McCloud, I just knew it!"

Fox knew his mind was lost so he just ignored him as he sat on his knees; hunched over in the pouring rain.

"Yea here you are, crying your heart out. Help me, oh please help me." Falco said in a evil yet humorous tone.

Fox looked up at him with a grimace on his face.

"Shut up you stupid bird. Your not real."

"You were always a second rate pilot Fox. Honestly I think the team wouldn't have made it past Corneria if it weren't for me."

Fox clenched his fists

Falco continued, "Yeah your just full of luck McCloud and nothing more. Your not the leader of this team, I am. Your just a stupid loser that dropped out of flight school to avenge your old man. Your just a failure Fox; just like your father."

"Shut the hell up! How dare you say that!! You are not real!" Fox screamed.

Falco grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, brought Fox to his feet, pulled him close so they were face to face, then took out his blaster and pushed it against Fox's head.

"Do I look real now?"

Lighting flashed as thunder cracked and boomed.

Fox now had no idea what was going on. His eyes were wide and his heart was racing so fast it felt like it would explode out of his chest. Was this a hallucination? Or was he really there? He could feel the cold steel of Falco's blaster against his head; maybe this was really happening. Or maybe he was in hell.

Fox mustered up the strength to speak, "Falco. Why...why are you doing this? What did I ever do to you? I thought you were my friend."

There was a moment of silence and then Falco's face turned from rage to utter sadness. He loosened his grip on Fox's shirt and lowered his blaster to his side. Fox stumbled back away from him, still very confused about the whole ordeal.

The rain continued to steadily pour from the sky.

Falco's expression on his face went blank and his eye started to twitch.

Then he spoke," You give so much. They take everything from you. Then they pat you on the back and tell you that you did a good job even though you have done terrible things."

Fox replied," What the hell are you talking about? We did the right thing! We saved the entire system!"

"There's to much blood on our hands now, Fox."

"I don't, I don't understand." Fox said

"They never wanted us to understand."

Blood started to seep from his wing tips forming small puddles of it at his feet. Fox noticed his hands were feeling a bit strange so he took of one of his gloves and saw that it to was blood soaked as well.

"What the hell is going on?!" Fox cried out.

Then Falco fell to his knees.

"I NEVER WANTED TO BE LIKE THIS!!" The avian screamed.

Then Falco put his blaster to his head.

"What are you doing!? Falco no!!" Fox pleaded as he dove towards his friend in hopes of stopping him.

He pulled the trigger.

Thunder once more erupted in the sky and in a flash Falco was gone and Fox face planted in the thick rain drenched mud.

Fox was getting tired of this and wanted his sanity back but the odds were not very good that he could obtain it at the moment.

So once more he just curled up as tight as he could in to a ball trying to keep warm in the pouring rain.

He could feel his skin start to crawl and his eyes start to burn from the storms rain. Fox started to struggle to keep his eyes open and his mind active and he was pretty much drooling blood now. His body was starting do shut down on him and it was hard to breath.

"I'm so sorry father. I only wanted to make you proud. I just wanted to be like you." He whimpered out.

Death was upon him now but maybe this was a blessing in disguise. Perhaps he will now get to be with his father in heaven; if there is such a place. Or maybe the exact opposite would happen and his spirit would be cursed to roam this planet for the rest of time. Or maybe nothing at all happened and this was it, the end.

What ever it was though Fox started to welcome the idea of it. He had never been so miserable in his life. His body was bloody and broken, his friends left him behind, and he had no motivation to keep his heart beating anymore. No loved ones back home waiting for him, nothing.

So he just closed his eyes and accepted his fate. As a tiny speck in the middle of this never ending desert that was still being pounded by the thunder storm, Fox drifted off to sleep.

Then it was black.

The rain kept falling.

The wind whistled and howled.

No one saw him take his last breath, no one cried by his side, for he died a heroes death. He saved so many lives; many that will never know his name. His end, was a lonely one.

Venom has claimed its 2nd McCloud.

The Pain was gone...

And that's chapter one! Hope you enjoyed. More to come very soon.