Darkness covers the land

It swallows all

Nothing can be saved

There is no exception


Wolf was not happy, to say the least about his situation.

He entered the bridge, scanning the area for signs of an orange vulpine, but unfortunately he only saw Peppy, who was busy seated at the central table where he stared at a laptop in front of him. The hare must not have heard him approach over the drone of his fingers tapping on the keys, for he jumped when Wolf set his hand on the table.

"Where's Fox?" He asked, looking at Peppy. They needed to have a talk. Wolf needed to figure out Fox's thought process as to why he wasn't eager to throw him out with the rest of the refugees on Katina when they landed in a few hours.

Peppy recovered from his start and cleared his throat, looking up at him. "He should be in his room," he stated.

"Where's that?" Wolf questioned, cocking his head. It was rather odd Peppy was being indifferent to him, but he wasn't going to question it.

"Top deck, second room on your left after the elevator," he answered after a moment of thought.

Wolf nodded, turning to walk back towards the elevator.

"Oh, and be sure to tell him we'll be arriving at Katina soon!" Peppy called as he walked out, and Wolf gave him a thumbs up, not bothering to turn back.

He entered the lift and pressed the button for the top deck, resting his head on the cool metal of the wall and closing his eye. Nightmares and flashes of dark and shadowy figures flitted through his mind, and he whimpered softly. His breath and heartbeat quickened as he tried to clear his mind of the nightmare that was his reality.

The lift deposited him on the top deck, and he followed Peppy's directions until he ended up in front of a blank metal door, where a nameplate hung next to the door frame with Fox's name on it.

Wolf stared at the door, apprehension pooling in his gut as his hand hovered in front of it. He wasn't sure what he was going to say about what their plans for the future were, but his best case scenario was Fox simply shouting at him to get out of his room.

Well, there was no point in standing in front of the door like an idiot. He rapped on the door and crossed his arms as he waited.

"Come in!" A muffled voice exclaimed a moment later, and Wolf entered the room quietly, taking a quick moment to check his surroundings.

Fox's room was rather small, the walls a monochrome and unpainted grey color with a few star charts hung about haphazardly, the biggest one on the ceiling. A messy pile of clothing lay in one corner next to a desk, and an antiquated oak closet stood up next to the queen-sized bed. Fox was sprawled out on it, his jacket thrown behind him as he looked down at a laptop. There was only one exit, unfortunately. Wolf wrinkled his nose; it smelled awful in his room, like a Sargasso locker room that hadn't been cleaned in a long while.

Fox glanced up at Wolf before closing his laptop and sitting up. "Hey," Fox murmured, scratching the back of his neck as he glanced around his room. Wolf crossed his arms, leaning against the door frame.

"We need to talk," Wolf stated, his eye narrowed and ears erect. Fox looked up at him, head cocked and eyebrow raised.

"What about?" He questioned, moving to sit on the edge of the bed, feet barely touching the carpeted floor.

Wolf moved a little further into the room, standing across from Fox with his hands on his hips. "Why the hell am I still on your ship, McCloud?" He asked, frown forming on his face. Fox's eyebrow was still raised, motioning his hands for Wolf to continue.

Wolf huffed. "Don't play dumb. We're rivals, I'm on your ship without conflict, and that's not how it works. You're just going to dump me on Katina when we get there," he snapped, jowls curled downward in a snarl as he jabbed a finger in Fox's direction.

The action made him wince, Wolf noted with a small amount of pride. "Wolf, I'm not just going to abandon you when we get there." Fox sighed, cradling his chin. "If we want to stop this madness, we need all the help we can get. I'm willing to team up with you and I know you're capable of honor."

Wolf scoffed, rolling his eye. "Bullshit. You're just using me because I encountered that thing on Corneria, you don't care about me!" He shouted, tail tucked behind him.

"I don't-" Fox started, but he cut himself off, rubbing his temples furiously. "I just want us to help each other like we used to a year ago. We're doing no good fighting like this," he pointed out, wringing his hands.

Admittedly, Fox's words made some sense; they had a bigger threat to worry about. Yet Wolf still didn't trust him or his team.

"Fine, I'll play it your way and we'll see how far it gets us," Wolf shot back, jaw clenched and hands balled in fists. He turned around and shoved his hands in his coat pockets as he stalked out of the small room.

"Be a jackass about it, see if I care!" Fox shouted after him. He turned to snap something back at him, but the door already closed.

Words couldn't express how pissed off Wolf was at Fox, so he simply gritted his teeth and swallowed any words he wanted to scream at the ceiling. He snorted to himself, looking down at the floor.

He really needed to take a nap and cool off.

Wolf saw that the room opposite to Fox's had no nameplate on it, and he entered that one, finding the room to he completely devoid of everything but the sparsely furnished bed and a blank desk. He dropped on the bed, his eyelids feeling heavy. Despite spending a good amount of time upon the Great Fox unconscious, he still felt completely drained.

Wolf closed his eyes, crawling up to rest his head on one of the hard pillows. Those frightful images from before still haunted his psyche, and he tossed and turned for what felt like hours, terror coursing through his mind.

Eventually he found sleep, and what he hoped was a temporary respite from his reality.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

Wolf was standing upon the edge of a great skyscraper overlooking a vast flatland of brown tallgrass and scrubs. He looked up and saw a deep orange sky, cloudless and untouched, and his eye widened.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

The plains extended endlessly, fading and mixing into the orange horizon, leaving a minimalist landscape of nothing but grass. There was little else but Wolf and the skyscraper amongst a sea of barren wasteland.

He was alone.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

Wolf found himself mesmerized by his surroundings, unable to tear his gaze from the nothingness. He sat on the edge, his legs dangling over an impossibly tall dropoff, and he folded his arms together. For an unknown reason, he had a feeling he was somewhere out of time and space itself, and that was a humbling thought. He was at the mercy of whatever had sent him here.

He could've been sitting there for minutes or hours, he couldn't tell anymore, but he knew he was waiting for something incredible to happen.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

Without warning, clouds began to darken the orange sky and they brought with them the smell of rain and the charge of electricity in the air. The clouds covered every inch of the sky except what was directly above the skyscraper, and it started to storm. An entire sea must have dropped down onto the plain, for it was flooding the entire area.

Wolf got up and backed away from the edge, terror constricting his lungs and making it hard to breathe. He was going to drown by himself on top of a lonely skyscraper.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

He scrambled away from the edge, only to slam his back into something hard. A stench of burning flesh was prevalent in the air and he felt something warm and wet seep into his fur and skin. Wolf slowly turned around, ears pinned to the back of his head, and came face to face with the burning and bloody body of Panther Caroso himself, his arms reaching out in a silent plea of help and his eyes bloodshot and unblinking.

Wolf tried to reach for him, but Panther was thrown backwards off of the building by some unseen force, landing in the sea that was now lapping at the edge of his steel island.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

He tried to scream and reach for his fallen comrade, but he couldn't move. Wolf was forced to stare down at the unblinking face of Panther as he sunk to the bottom of the sea, and he wanted it to stop. He wanted to save his friend, but it was too late.

Wolf was always too late.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

Wolf shot up out of bed with a gasp, and he glanced around wildly, finding himself back in the room on the Great Fox. He stared down at his hands, and all he could see were the stained and bloody hands of Panther. His throat felt tight and he started to hyperventilate, mindless terror consuming his soul. He tried shutting his eyes, but all he could see was Panther's lifeless face.

Wolf had failed to save him.

He hugged his knees to his chest, trying to focus and steady his breathing so he wouldn't descend into a full blown panic attack. He focused on the wall across from him, and instead of being spotless and smooth, he noticed it was warped and twisted. Wolf bit his lip until he drew blood, his heart rate steadying and breaths slowing down.

And with the calm came the tears.

Wolf tried to stop the waterworks, he really did, but it proved useless and broke down into sobs, hiding his face in his hands as the tears fell from his eye and matted his fur down. He was so utterly and hopelessly alone in the room with walls casting distorted and incomplete reflections of a wounded lupine all around him. He curled in tightly on himself, laying back in the tangled sheets of the simple bed and buried his tear-streaked face in a pillow.

"Why can't they be here with me?" Wolf whispered to himself, reaching his hand out for something that wasn't tangible enough to grasp onto.

With a weak sniffle, he finally got out of the bed and stood up, stretching his arms up over his head without much effort. Wiping the last few tears from his snout, Wolf left the room and turned down the hallway to the elevator. He hoped they had arrived at Katina to drop the civilians off.

Wolf pushed the button, and the door opened a few seconds later. He entered the small space and the door slid shut, leaving him alone with nothing but his thoughts. The lupine sighed, rubbing his eye. That dream… it sent a shiver down his spine and a chill through his soul just at the thought of it. He wasn't sure what it meant, but he knew for certain it wasn't great.

The doors reopened, depositing Wolf at the bridge once more. He noted the crew was crowded around the table again, although they were missing Krystal and Slippy. Bill managed to catch his eye, and he smiled, waving Wolf over to stand by him.

"Hey dude! Been looking for you," the dog said with a cheerful grin, hands resting on his hips.

"What do you want?" Wolf questioned, his words coming out a bit sharper than he meant. He frowned, staring down at his feet.

Fox cleared his throat. "We're orbiting Katina right now, and we need the team to escort the Cornerians to the military base," he explained, fingers drumming on the smooth surface of the table.

"We're also trying to come up with a plan on what to do after that," Peppy murmured, rubbing his chin as he looked at Wolf. It still confused him to no end why the hare was being so kind to him of all people in the system.

Wolf hummed, glancing around at the group hunched over the table. Everyone looked completely drained and exhausted, Bill even having bags under his eyes despite the cheerful grin on his face. He sighed, looking back around and making eye contact with Fox for a moment, before they both looked away.

"Anyone have some ideas?" Wolf asked, placing his hands on his hips. Everyone looked over at Katt, who cleared her throat.

"The only thing that's going to get us any answers is locating General Pepper, and the best way to do that is by returning to Corneria," she pointed out, her arms crossed.

"So what? It's not like he's going to do anything about what happened," he stated with a raised eyebrow. Katt merely sighed, leaning over the table to look Wolf in the eyes.

"This is our only option, and frankly, I'm sure Pepper would tell us why a capital city was destroyed in a matter of hours," she shot back with a glare. "He trusts this team and it's judgement, unlike you."

Shards of glass seemed to pierce through his chest after hearing that and he winced, involuntarily taking a step away from the fiery pink feline. Wolf looked guiltily at Peppy and Falco, and they didn't make eye contact with him, which hurt all the more.

Fox scowled at Katt. "Maybe if anyone here other than Krystal would give him a chance, we'd see that he could be trustworthy!" He exclaimed, his teeth bared in a growl. Wolf looked at him, mouth agape and eye widened.

Falco scoffed. "What's with the sudden change in attitude, Foxy? You used to resent him, and now you're on his side?" He accused, jabbing a feathered finger at the speechless Wolf.

"We shouldn't be on different sides! We should all be helping each other!" Fox shouted, throwing his hands into the air. Wolf shrunk back from the table, moving to stand behind Bill.

"We need to quit fighting each other and figure out what we're fighting against," Peppy remarked with a harsh glare, standing between Falco and Fox, arms extended on both sides.

"R- right. Sorry Peppy," Falco murmured, scratching the back of his neck. He threw an apologetic look at Fox, and pointedly ignored Wolf's curious gaze, which was upsetting to say the least.

Fox sighed, scratching his ears. "As much as I hate to admit it, Katt's right. We need to go back after we refuel on Katina," he stated, crossing his arms. Wolf deflated further, and Bill set a hand on his shoulder as he frowned.

Wolf shrugged the hand off and backed away from the table, turning around when nobody was looking, everyone debating on what the plan of attack would be. He left the bridge, shouldering past Krystal at the doorway.

"Wolf?" She asked, but he growled, stepping into the lift. She frowned at him as the door closed, but he merely looked away.

He wished Fox would just drop him on Katina and be done with it.