At this point, I had started Four Seasons, so I was kind of over it already. Still, I hope you will enjoy this chapter. It's really short for what it is, with two battles, but, like I said, this wasn't an easy chapter to write. I know that there will be longer chapters in the story, though.
LUCAS'S POV
I woke up in my own bed on the Great Fox, sweating like a beast. How could I not have been, when I knew, somehow knew, that my dream had been real? Andross had captured Fox McCloud and was holding him hostage on Titania.
"Hey, Lucas" said the voice of Dr. Howler from outside my door.
"Come in" I said, not caring what state she found me in.
"I brought you your medication, so take it before breakfast. Is there anything you want to tell me? It sounded like you were having a nightmare".
"Yes" I said. "I have some bad news for you. Fox has been captured by Andross".
"Where is he?" the Bengal tiger asked me. The doctor had learned to trust our dreams, in that they were foretelling real-life events, after Konstantin dreamed of plans to shoot me on Fichina, which had ended up working, although not as well as they had been planning.
"He's on Titania" I told her. "We need to go and save him".
"Very well, Lucas" Dr. Howler said. "At breakfast, we'll talk about it with the others".
At the table, there was a clear division in terms of who supported going to Titania to save Fox.
"We only have seven days? We should probably do it right after Fichina, then" Cole said. He seemed to be an advocate for me in this conversation, something I was more than grateful for. I knew that my dream was correct, so I needed as many people on my side as I could possibly have.
"Are you sure it's not just a trap?" Ian asked. "I mean, Andross is infamous for his traps!"
"It could be, for all I know" I said. "But don't we have a moral obligation to at least try? Fox's life might be counting on us. And, if not, we could at least take or destroy the base".
"He has a good point" Willow said, reaching for my hand, on which I planted a quick kiss.
"So you guys are together again" Ian observed.
"I thought you already knew that" Konstantin replied. "It's in the news".
Konstantin took out a newspaper, on top of which was the headline: STAR ENFIELD COUPLE BACK TOGETHER? EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS SHOW THAT LUCAS ENFIELD MAY BE DATING WILLOW FOSTER AGAIN.
"Well, I don't really read the Cornerian newspaper" Ian replied. "Really, we should just talk about tomorrow. Falco, what's our strategy for this battle?"
"We're going to go to Fichina, and we'll talk about it once we're there. Really, it's mostly figured out. On the other hand, it's important to decide what we're doing about Fox. Personally, I'm all for saving him".
"I am as well" I said.
Konstantin looked at the rest of us seriously. "In my dream back on Fichina, I saw them plotting to kill Lucas. We lost three members of our team that day, and we might have lost Lucas as well had I not had that dream. I think we have good reason to believe that the dream is true now, so we might as well go and get him".
Ian was still against it, but Cole and Willow were still for it. I was glad about that. Like I said, I knew that the dream accurately reflected reality, and that Fox had been captured by Andross. However, it was very true that we had today's battle to focus on.
In a way, it was just like old times. Now that I had Willow Foster back by my side again, who knew what we were capable of?
COLE'S POV
The next day, we arrived on Fichina. During breakfast, we mainly focused on fine-tuning our plans for the battle, since it had been about four months since the last time we had been in one. I was nervous as hell, to tell the truth.
This time, Victor, Konstantin, and I were going to be on the ground. Each of us wore a flight suit and had a blaster. Lucas, Ian, Willow, and Falco were all going to be providing air support for the battle, flying in the Arwings. I didn't necessarily think this plan was airtight, but it could definitely work.
As soon as we got out of the Great Fox, we found ourselves in the middle of another battle. Enemies were all over the place, fighting to take the base from us. I knew that the Cornerian army had a low probability of winning the war should they lose the base, so I focused all of my attention on shooting the enemies.
"Let's go!" Victor yelled, spamming blaster fire. I knew that the young man who had formerly worked with Andross was now determined to work against him, considering the fact that he had a lot of grievances against the monkey, and felt the need to repent for what he had done.
There were droids running all over the place, as well as several other types of enemies. Shooting like a maniac, I was able to short-circuit some of the robots. This battle was going by pretty quickly, and we were already winning.
IAN'S POV
"Let's take down this ship, Lucas!"
It felt good to be back in an Arwing, having pretty much recovered fully from the blast. I felt like a natural at this, even though it had been less than half a year since I had started flying. This was quite something, to be sure.
And yet, I knew that we couldn't get complacent. What looked like a huge mother ship was approaching.
"Let's get the core, Ian!" Willow shouted at me. She was aiming her lasers, I saw, at an orange button-like thing on the bottom of the ship. The ship was humming dully, but it was still very clear to hear the sounds of the battle below us. It served as a reminder of what was at stake.
I trained my crosshairs on the orange button and detonated a smart bomb. I knew that if we could get the mother ship to crash, a lot of the enemies on the ground would flee, and we could take back the base easily. It wasn't going to be a difficult battle to win.
Keeping an eye on the shield gauge the whole time, I made sure to shoot at the orange button as much as I could. Truth be told, I was pretty detached as I was shooting at it, mainly worried about something entirely different, namely the mission that we were going to undertake tomorrow. The mission to save Fox McCloud.
Eventually, we did manage to destroy the mother ship. It fell to the ground, not able to stay in the air any longer from all of the punishment it had been given. Once that was done, we only had to aim at the enemies on the ground.
The battle was over, almost as soon as it had began.
"We did it!" Falco cried. "We took back Fichina!"
That battle had sure been quick, I thought. It was easy, almost too easy.
However, I was not going to complain about that. We were heading back to the Great Fox now, for yet another strategy meeting. It sure seemed like we had been having a lot of those lately.
None of us had gotten injured in the battle, thankfully, so we all gathered in the dining hall in order to discuss our plans for Titania.
"We're going to land right by the river?" Konstantin asked. "Like we did last time?"
I remembered that river. The water was very hot, and if Fox was not in a condition to swim across it, one or two of us was going to have to carry him. I wasn't looking forward to that task, especially since I'm not exactly the king of physical strength.
"Yes" Falco replied. "Andross has built a new fortress on the red planet, meaning that we are going to have to be very careful about what we do there. No doubt, there will be a lot of enemies we will have to face, and I don't know if this is the best idea".
"It's not" Dr. Howler said. "But I'm going to stay on the Great Fox, as always. I'm going to make sure that we can treat any people who get injured. Fox is likely to be hurt as well".
I nodded at that. I remembered just how bad off Konstantin had been after having been locked in the mountain prison for four days with no food or water. If Fox was getting tortured by Andross...I didn't want to think about that.
That night, I lay awake in bed for a while. I couldn't get the fact that we were about to have yet another battle the day after tomorrow out of my head. It had seemed like, even though Andross had risen, not much of anything had happened. As a matter of fact, things could not have been further from the truth.
We had been thrust back into our old way of life, whether we liked it or not. I would have liked to remain a scientist for the rest of my life, but the way things had been going, it wasn't going to happen.
Eventually, after much tossing and turning, I managed to get to sleep, praying that I wouldn't have a nightmare.
LUCAS'S POV
Andross's new base had been built in the same place as the old base, right across the hot river. It was about half a mile from the bank, but the ground was defended so well that there was just no way we could possibly have landed anywhere closer. It would have been far too dangerous, and we'd be at risk of getting shot by an enemy.
We braced ourselves, because the river was not a comfortable temperature to swim in. It wasn't even like a hot tub, it was more like when you turn on the water for a bath and it turns out to be much, much too hot for your liking. This was what it was like.
We all jumped in, careful to keep our blasters held above our heads. If we dropped them, even on accident, the water was likely to short-circuit them, rendering them unable to perform their basic function. Needless to say, we didn't want that.
"Are you ready to rescue Fox, Falco?" I asked the bird.
"As ready as I'll ever be!" Falco responded, trying to keep his head above the water.
We made it to the other side, before beginning to make our way towards the fortress. It was certainly imposing, a very noticeable presence on the desert landscape. Our wet clothes were quick to dry off in the arid, scorching air.
"Here it is" Victor said. "I heard about the construction of this fortress during, you know, my time with Andross".
We didn't really hold it against Victor, but I could tell that he didn't like to talk about it, not in front of us at least.
"Let's go in" Cole said.
At first, things went well enough. The first few hallways, which were white in color with black rectangular patches in the middle, were completely devoid of enemies. The Anglars had pretty much been decimated, but there was no telling what other enemies there might be.
"Everybody stay alert!" Falco shouted.
"Why did you have to shout that?" Willow said irritably. Looking ahead, I saw that some flying droids were heading towards us, but they were quickly dispatched by Cole's blaster. I remembered just how skilled he had been with it back during the war against the Anglars, and how happy I was that we had him on our side now.
We were continuing our way through the base, shooting down all of the droids that we saw, until we reached a map. This map showed the entire first floor of the base, as well as parts of the second and third. It was plain to see, based on this map, that the fortress had been built to be difficult to navigate. It was more like Boston than New York City in that respect, in that New York City's streets are specifically numbered, while Boston is basically just a maze of marshes, highways, and office buildings.
"He's on the third floor" I said. I didn't know how I knew that, just that I did.
Ian looked skeptical, as did Konstantin. Falco, on the other hand, said "We have to trust Lucas's instincts. We could be very, very wrong, but the third level is just as good a guess as any other. Let's start there".
The two boys mentioned above grumbled a bit, but we began running up the stairs, looking for Fox. I desperately hoped that he was still alive.
As it turned out, the third floor was big. So big, in fact, that it was difficult to narrow down the exact room. However, based on my dream I had a pretty good guess of where Fox was being held, so that was what we had to go on.
It wasn't the best lead, but it was better than nothing.
We found, and faced, quite a few more droids. I saw Cole kick some, while Ian continued to use his haymaker on a few more. Meanwhile, Willow was using her blaster to its fullest potential. I only hoped that she didn't misfire and hit me, because I'd had enough of laser wounds back on Fichina. I wasn't eager to repeat that experience, thank you very much.
"I think he's in here" Victor said. "I can kind of just feel it".
I was a little skeptical of this, which you wouldn't think I would be. After all, I'd just trusted a dream I had had, that Fox was going to be there. What reason did I have to do so?
Eventually, we ran into what looked like a tall brown monkey in a labcoat. It was instantly completely clear whom this was.
It was Andross.
"Ah, the son of Ken Enfield!" Andross laughed.
"There's no time for games" I said. "What have you done with Fox McCloud?"
"Why do you think I would tell you that?" he said.
"We really do need to save him" Falco said. I'm sure that Falco knew there was no pleading with the mad scientist. After all, there was pretty much nothing Andross stood to gain from cooperating with us.
"Don't press him, Falco" Cole said. "I'm sure that...".
"Victor Halsmith" Andross crooned. "You are brave, or stupid, enough to come here again, after abandoning me".
Victor paled visibly. I knew that he couldn't be feeling happy about the current situation, not at all. Running right into his former master.
"I don't work for you anymore" he said angrily. "I serve Star Enfield, and Star Enfield only!"
Without hesitating, at least on the outside, Andross pulled out his blaster and shot Victor in the chest. The youth who had used to work with Andross, Victor Halsmith, crumpled to the ground. He was dead.
"What did you do?" Falco yelled.
"He had to be eliminated" Andross said simply. "He deserted me, and I do not take kindly to that. Now, go and get Fox McCloud. He's right in that room".
I was, once again, a little skeptical of what Andross had to say right here. He had no reason to say anything like that, except maybe to deceive us, probably what he was doing right now. On the other hand, there might be some other reason that I hadn't been thinking about.
As we left Victor to lie there, dead, we strode ahead into the room Andross had pointed out. Everyone else seemed to be following him, and no one noticed a certain something else.
It was that, as we were leaving, Andross fired a bullet that hit me in the arm.
WILLOW'S POV
I was the only person walking behind Lucas, and I could see the bullet hit his arm. I knew that he wouldn't have wanted to let anyone know that, though, so I decided to keep my mouth shut.
Even so, it took everything I had to do so. I cared so much about Lucas, even more now that I had broken up with him and now gotten back with him again. I didn't want to lose him again, but I feared that if we abandoned this mission to treat his wound, this might be something that ate at him forever. This was another thought that I just couldn't allow to happen to him.
We went into the room, and immediately I saw Fox McCloud hanging, unconscious, on the wall, much the same way that Jack Novsky had been on that occasion in the first war that we'd been on Titania. I knew that we were going to have to cut down those chains, while hopefully not getting shot at by any enemies.
"I'll help you cut the chains, Willow!" said Cole. We all seemed to be pretty numb to Victor's death, probably from the adrenaline we had. Of course, that might change once we were safely back on the Great Fox.
"On the count of three!" I yelled, hoisting my blaster up and aiming at the chains.
"Let's do it!"
We both shot at the chains, which immediately released. Fox's limp body fell to the ground, and he showed no signs of revival from hitting the cold, hard floor of the base.
"We need a stretcher!" Falco said. He looked around, and immediately found a panel that might do, on the wall. After working to get it off, he said, "You know, my wife isn't the only paramedic on the Star Enfield team".
Once we had Fox on the makeshift stretcher, we began to work our way out of the base.
LUCAS'S POV
It wasn't too hard to get out, although I did have to resist the urge to shoot Andrew Oikonny when I saw him out of the corner of my eye. I knew that getting him would take up valuable time, and that our number one priority at the moment was escape, but I still hated the ape. He'd injected me with the agent that was slowly killing me. Not only that, but his forcing me to kill Jack Novsky had destroyed my relationship with Willow, albeit temporarily.
"This is like the time you got me out of the cell on Corneria?" Konstantin said, either asking a question or confirming something.
"Yes" Falco said. "Except that all the enemies were unconscious from Mrs. Hooter's arrows. Now, come on. We've got to get out of here!"
As we made our way back down to the first floor, I saw that there were a surprisingly low number of enemy droids. It was like they were trying to make it easy for us. Granted, they probably were, for whatever reason I could not fathom just yet.
Another thing I had to contend with was my arm wound, which was leaking out a lot of blood. I knew that I'd need to have Dr. Howler check that one out, because it was probably a pretty big problem. It didn't seem as bad as the one on Fichina, but I'd been tied to a chair on that occasion. I knew that we needed to get out of there, and fast.
After making our way out of the base, we covered the half-mile to the river as fast as we could, and then we really had a good time, trying to keep the stretcher above the water. However, we did make it to the other side.
As soon as we reached the Great Fox, the door opened. Dr. Howler was standing there, probably ready to attend to Fox. Meanwhile, I just stood there, probably looking pretty pale.
Right after Falco passed the stretcher to Dr. Howler, I fell to my knees. I saw her look worried, but not for very long, as I soon passed out from a combination of the adrenaline running out and blood loss.
