CHAPTER TWENTY
Vengeance
"Mark, get up!" Isaac said urgently.
"Wha…cut me a break, will ya?" Marcus replied groggily. "I'm trying to sleep here."
"I think this is more important that your beauty sleep, pal!"
"Goddammit…fine, what is it?"
"It's Aileen! She's gone!"
"Gone?! What do you mean 'gone'?!"
"I mean she took the keys and made a break for it!"
Marcus shot up from where he was lying and looked all about. Isaac was telling the truth. Aileen was nowhere in sight.
"That damn fool. What's she thinking going up against Aphrodite on her own?" he thought almost furiously.
He gripped his staff and unsheathed it.
"Come on, boys. We've gotta catch up to her before she does something stupid."
It's a little too late for that, don't you think?
The three dropped down to the ground only for Telia to run up to them whining rather loudly. For some odd reason, Marcus could understand her gestures. He knew exactly where Aileen had gone, and Telia telling him about it confirmed it further.
"Okay. Lead the way, girl!"
Elsewhere…
"What do you mean Medusa's dead?!" Aphrodite growled.
"We went to the labyrinth. Someone punctured her brain and cut her stomach open." a guard said nervously.
"That's another thing: what do you mean 'someone'? You know damn well who it is!"
Aphrodite leaned back in her throne and propped her cheek on her fist, her other clenched on a staff. This staff was the only way that anyone would be capable of reaching the mountain where the Great Mother was dwelling. She couldn't let the traitor get it.
"Aileen…where are you? Why don't you just die and put yourself out of everyone's misery?" she muttered.
All at once, several of the guards within the room gasped. Aphrodite stood in a confused motion when she suddenly found someone hanging upside-down in front of her.
"By everyone's misery, I think you just mean yours." snarled Aileen.
Aphrodite nearly screamed, though substituted this with falling back into her throne with a frightened expression. Aileen grunted.
"Oh, so you're fine with killing my father but as soon as I show off some athletics, you become a scared little girl."
She landed feet first on the ground and faced her nemesis with a hand on one of her blades.
"What's wrong, 'dear ruler'?" she mocked. "Did you miss me?"
Aphrodite knew that Aileen had to still be alive, but she didn't think for a second that she would be showing up this early nor did she think she would just barge right in without anyone knowing.
"How did YOU kill Medusa and Ares?!" she spat.
"I had a little help…from your brother."
"Don't be foolish. My brother is dead."
"Is he?"
Aphrodite scowled in disgust and made a motion with her hand. She'd had enough of this lowlife talking trash to her.
"Guards. Get rid of her."
"Oh, no. Not in a million years." Aileen seethed. "I came all this way, I've suffered through three years of pain, and now it's time for me to take you down or die trying. Either way, I'll be happy."
"You value honour more than your own life?"
"No. I value the freedom of our people…the people whose lives you've bastardized."
Aphrodite stood from her throne and smirked.
"Oh, and you think you could do any better, you traitor?"
"I'M the traitor?! You had your own brother turned to stone, you made innocent children work in a mine, you sacrificed innocent lives, and you killed my father, the rightful heir to your throne, right in front of me! You did all that and you think I'M a traitor?! FUCK YOU!"
Aphrodite scowled.
"You dare speak to me that way? I am the mortal representative of the Great Mother! I am your empress!"
"You will never be a leader to me or anyone. You're just a bloodthirsty tyrant turned from a whiny little brat."
Aileen unsheathed her two blades and sank into a fighting stance.
"I've had enough waiting. It's time. You and I are having it out right now. Let's just go at it and see who wins."
Aphrodite gritted her teeth and motioned for the guards to stand back. She needed to put this mongrel in her place as soon as possible. The sooner a problem was eliminated, the sooner she could get back to searching for the Miracle. She drew a blade from behind her throne and pointed it at Aileen.
"I suppose it was inevitable…very well. Draw!"
From the outside of the massive temple, the guards heard of the calamity going on inside. While the majority of them rushed inside to get a better look, two of them were ordered to stay behind and continue to guard the entrance. Neither one was happy about it. In fact, neither one was happy about being here at all.
The older guard sighed out of pure boredom, but her ears pricked up when she heard her younger counterpart making a somewhat irritating noise over by her post.
"Will you stop that, Celes?" she called.
Celes didn't stop making the noise. In an annoyed fashion, the older guard turned toward her, only to be surprised when she saw that Celes was sitting down with her face buried in her hands. More importantly, she was crying.
"What's the matter?" the older guard asked.
Celes sniffled and looked up.
"I miss him…" she whimpered.
"You miss who?"
"Judah…my little brother. H-how could we have sent them to work in the mine?! What kind of monsters are we, Lora?"
Lora looked utterly confused.
"You know why we would do this. It is the will of our goddess. Their hard work will pay off when the Miracle's glory descends upon us."
"We've been waiting for three years and he still hasn't come! What makes you think he will now?!"
"Celes, don't be blasphemous!"
Celes got to her feet and snapped her spear in half over her knee.
"No! You know what? I'm done! The Great Mother is a damn liar and I don't care if she gives us this 'glory' or not! Aphrodite is a terrible leader and you're an idiot if you don't agree with me!"
Lora was absolutely shocked by what her young friend was saying and was quick to stand in her way when she tried to walk away.
"If you leave, the others guard will hunt you down like a wild animal! Don't throw your life away
"We threw our lives away when we pledged our allegiance to that spoiled rotten brat! I hope the abandoner kills her! I hope she burns in Hell for all eternity!"
Then it happened: Celes said the words that stirred up grief in Lora's heart.
"You're just as bad as she is! How could you send your only son to work in the mine?!"
Before she knew it, Lora's eyes were seeping tears as well. It hurt every time she thought of her son. How she longed to see his precious face again…how she longed to tell him she was sorry.
"Good God…you're right…what kind of mother am I?"
"You'll be a good one if you help us." said a voice from behind her.
The two yelped in fright and spun around to find Marcus, Isaac, and Hephaestus standing in front of them. The two trembled especially at the sight of the third man.
"Prince Hephaestus?!" Lora stammered. "But…we thought you were dead!"
"That doesn't matter now." Hephaestus said. "What does matter is that you are going to help us now."
"…why should we?"
"'Cause we'll blast you full of holes if you don't!" Isaac threatened.
The two women shuddered and stepped back. Marcus rolled his eyes and stepped toward them,
"What my 'kind and gentle' comrade means is we know the pain the two of you are suffering through, and helping us will be the best way to put that pain to an end. Aphrodite needs to be put in her place."
"Wait…that staff." Celes said, gazing at Marcus' sheathed weapon.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"You are…you are the Miracle!"
Marcus grumbled under his breath and looked sternly at them.
"Perhaps yes, but there's no time for dwelling on that. Are you going to help us or not?"
The two women considering going into deep thought about it, but reconsidered this when they realized what they would get back if Aphrodite were dethroned. They nodded.
"I don't think we're going to be able to help you too much, but we'll certainly do our best." said Celes.
"Your best is all we need." Hephaestus replied with a warm smile.
For several minutes, the noises echoing throughout the castle had been only the clashing of blades and the loud grunts of Aileen and Aphrodite. While Aileen had considered the possibility that her nemesis would have no fighting experience whatsoever, she was thankful that she had been prepared for the alternative since Aphrodite surprisingly packed quite a punch.
"You feel like giving up yet?" Aphrodite mocked as she made a powerful uppercut that Aileen strafed around.
"I'll give up when I'm trapped between a rock and a hard place!"
"And who's to say you aren't already?"
Aphrodite slashed at Aileen's neck, only for the latter to perform a ninja-like front flip and kick the former square in the back once she had landed.
"That."
"You wretched little…I'll kill you with my bare hands!"
"Funny. You came across as a twig compared to your servants over there. Makes me wonder why they haven't snapped you in half for making their younger siblings work in a fucking mine!"
Aphrodite performed several strong swipes with her blade, all of which Aileen blocked, though the final one knocked her off-balance for a brief moment. This gave her barely enough time to bring her other blade up and block, locking the two blades together and leaving their faces inches apart as they tried their best to repel one another.
"You know, I never really liked you, anyway." Aphrodite growled. "Always just going around like a prissy little child and going about life like nothing hard would ever come your way."
"Like you know what hard living is!" Aileen shot back. "Try living in a treehouse with dozens of people hunting you down for three years, you coward!"
"A coward, am I? What's cowardly about taking command when there was no else to turn to?"
"SHUT UP!"
Aileen angrily shoved Aphrodite away, only for the latter's blade to slash across her forearm very near to her wrist. She let out a cry of pain and dropped her left blade as a result, thought blocked out the pain to the best of her ability and glared.
"Good strike. How about this one?!"
Aileen stabbed fast enough that Aphrodite had barely enough time to move away from it. Upon Aphrodite slashing again, Aileen jumped onto her shoulders and vaulted herself high into the air before plummeting at her rival with a downward strike. Sadly, she missed and left herself wide open for a very brutal attack.
"SEIZE HER!" Aphrodite yelled after violently kicking Aileen in the stomach and sending her sprawling backwards.
The guards rushed in and grabbed Aileen's arms, throwing her remaining blade a good distance away. She thrashed about with all her might to try and get loose, succeeding for a brief moment. Aileen had her offense crippled without her blades, but she was far from defenseless when it came to hand-to-hand combat.
A quick punch got one guard off her back, as did a roundhouse kick to another. Then someone came out with a chain and got it tangled in the poor girl's legs, thus pinning her to the ground until the guards heaved her off her feet and kept her standing up. Aphrodite began advancing on her menacingly and seized her throat with one hand, steadily beginning to cut off her airway.
"Let me assure you, dear Aileen." she whispered. "I am going to send you to a deep dark place, and I am going to have fun doing it."
"Didn't expect…any less from you…bitch." Aileen rasped. "Your father would…be ashamed of you…"
The mere mention of her father pinged in Aphrodite's brain and struck her last nerve. She let out a violent roar and was about to plunge her blade straight into Aileen's heart when…
"That's enough!"
Marcus ran into the room with one of the guards strung under Marcus' arm, the spear end of his staff jutting against her throat.
"Let her go now!" Marcus hollered.
Aphrodite lowered her blade and scoffed.
"Well, what do you know? The boy from the river."
She turned towards Marcus and crossed her arms.
"And what if we don't?"
"I'll kill your servant here."
The girl Marcus had in a near-chokehold whimpered, and this only served to make Marcus' thoughts on the matter even more aggravating.
"What am I doing?" he thought to himself. "I'm holding a teenage girl hostage…I was right. I'm going completely insane."
Regardless of whether he was going insane or not, he didn't let her go. Aphrodite looked at him for a few seconds longer and began…laughing?
"That seems a little extreme for someone like you." she said before turning away. "Go ahead. She's not my problem."
"It'll be easy!" Marcus growled over the sobbing of the servant. "I can break her neck like it's a toothpick!"
Aphrodite turned her head with one sadistic smirk and said, "Show me." The anger sparked in Marcus was unparalleled, but then he realized it. He couldn't do it. The woman he was threatening to kill had done nothing wrong to him and was terrified beyond belief.
"No…I refuse to become like Kursed." he whispered.
Before anyone had time to ask what he had said, he hung his head in shame and released the girl from his grasp. Aphrodite's smirk grew even more obnoxious.
"I thought you wouldn't be able to do it. You Cornerians are completely spineless."
"Marcus, why the hell did you follow me?!" Aileen spat. "I could have handled this just fine on my own!"
Aphrodite froze in place when she heard the name.
"…your name is Marcus?" she asked.
"Yes." Marcus replied, looking up at her very sternly.
The hostile natives' jaws dropped, as well as their weapons. In less than a second, they had all fallen to their knees and were bowing before him.
"Great Miracle, please forgive us!" Aphrodite cried.
"Please forgive us!" all the guards echoed.
Marcus rolled his eyes
"Not this bullshit again…"
"If only we had known it was you, we would have taken you in like one of our own." Aphrodite said, getting to her feet. "Please stay with us for this evening. We will prepare you for your ceremony tomorrow."
Aphrodite gently took Marcus' hand and stroked it against her cheek.
"Hey, what are you doing?!"
"You're so warm…it's fortunate that you and I have met so soon. I was beginning to think I would be an old maid before you came."
She led Marcus' hand down her face to her neck and eventually to her chest. One felt heartbeat forced him to reel backward. Aphrodite giggled.
"Are you nervous? There's no need for that."
"Sorry, lady, but I'm in a previous engagement so to speak."
"Oh, yes, of course. The Great Mother is eagerly awaiting you to return to her."
He wasn't sure why, but every second someone talked about Kursed, he became angrier. Then he turned his head to the side and saw the guards strapping Aileen to a pole.
"What are you doing with her?" he asked.
"The abandoner?" Aphrodite asked. "She will be executed. We cannot afford to have her ruin this most sacred event. Hopefully she will supply herself as a perfect meal to the Great Mother's proxy."
"Her…proxy?"
"Yes. A lovely white-furred being who feel from the sky just as you did."
"WHAT?!"
He knew what a proxy was from things like the Slender Man myth, but if Coyote had become like that…then it was undeniable. She was a full-on monster now. But no! He couldn't give up! He had to save her!
"Is something wrong?" Aphrodite asked.
Marcus looked at her furiously. She heard the anger in his voice and she was still asking him is something was wrong?
"Yes. You need to let Aileen go right now and tell me how to get to wherever Kursed is."
All of the women shuddered.
"She is the Great Mother. Her name is not to be spoken." Aphrodite replied.
"And before long she'll be dead."
"Precisely. That is why we must take you to our place of offering as quickly as we can."
"No, because I'm going to kill her."
The women all stood aghast, and Marcus could easily tell why, though he also could tell that they were going to be fairly upset that he had said this.
"W-what?!" Aphrodite stammered. "But…she is your mother!"
"No, she isn't. Krystal is my mother."
"That doesn't matter! You must be sent back to her by way of sacrifice! She and her proxy…"
The word "proxy" being used to identify Coyote hit Marcus' last nerve and he had the Fire Blaster end of his staff pointing right at Aphrodite's head.
"Enough of this proxy and Great Mother stuff, okay?!" he growled, the pent-up anger steadily escalating his voice until he was screaming at the top of his lungs. "That thing is a two-timing bloodthirsty monster that tricked every single one of you into feeding her just so she could kill you all later! All sacrificing me will do is guarantee that she'll be able to do it! And as for that proxy shit, Coyote O'Donnell is the girl I love the most out of anyone in my life and I'm not going to let your stupid myth keep me from getting her back! And let me warn you right now: if you say one more word about her, I WILL BLOW YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!"
Never had Aphrodite been more frightened in her life than now. It was only for a moment when she came to a rather false revelation, and upon reaching it, she frowned.
"You are not the Miracle. Whoever you are, you will pay for trying to deceive us!"
"Oh, for Christ's sake…" Marcus grumbled.
"Yo!" yelled a voice from the door.
Everyone in the room turned to see Isaac cockily aiming his gun at the women.
"Alright, ladies. I'm not one to rain on parades, but this little shit storm is over. Get your hands in the air and back away from our darling ninja friend. Now!" he ordered.
The guards all raised their hands and backed away from Aileen…right as Aphrodite slashed Marcus across the chest.
"Son of a bitch, that hurt!" Marcus seethed.
"The Great Mother will not be slain by lowly worms such as you." she in an almost crazed tone. "She is divine…righteous…she will make sinners like you burn in everlasting…"
"Oh, fuck this. C'mere!"
In one swift motion, Marcus planted his hand on Aphrodite's head and demonstrated a new ability of his: letting her see what he had seen. She heard Kursed's voice making the threats against Corneria, she heard the pain she had caused Coyote, Peter, Anna, Chase, Damalgo, Leon…she heard everything. She heard AND saw everything. When Marcus brought his hand back, the look on Aphrodite's face was like she had just woken up from a nightmare.
"There. Are you happy now?" Marcus said.
In what seemed like an instant, Aphrodite buried her face in her hands and began to cry.
"She used me…I can't do anything right! I…I never should have listened to her!"
"I've been waiting to hear you say that, sister."
Aphrodite turned her head and yelped at the sight of her brother standing over her with a blank expression on his face. She scampered away from him on all fours, too frightened to even stand up and try to confront the person she had turned to stone three years ago…which now she saw had all been for nothing. Hephaestus advanced on her until she had backed herself into a wall.
"You caused our people so much pain…" he said. "You trusted a monster…and you had me, your own brother, turned to stone before the gaze of a creature we were told never to interact with."
Aphrodite said nothing. She knew her sins. She knew that whatever he was going to do was justified. The person who was concerned was Marcus. Was Hephaestus really going to kill his own sister right in front of everyone?
It certainly seemed like it. Right at that moment, Hephaestus drew his massive blade. Aphrodite gasped.
"Brother…please, no…don't…"
"When I woke up, you were all I thought about. I wanted to know why you had done all of this. Now I know. You just wanted your chance at ruling this world even though deep down, you knew you weren't ready. Knowing that, I came all this way to make something very clear to you."
The blade was raised. Sensing her doom being imminent, Aphrodite closed her eyes and let out a yelp when she heard the clang of impaling metal. However, it was not her body that had been impaled. She opened her eyes and saw that Hephaestus had planted the blade to his side. He got down on one knee and smiled into her wide and confused eyes.
"I forgive you."
Aphrodite sat still for one moment before rushing into her brother's open arms and embracing him.
"I'm sorry, Brother." she sobbed. "I promise I won't ever do anything like this again…"
"It's alright, dear sister. Kursed will not live to see the sun finally rise on our planet."
Though these two were not related to them in any way, Marcus and Isaac couldn't stop their hearts from being warmed by this show of sibling love, nor could they keep themselves form smiling. With a well-deserved apology, the guards released Aileen from the pole and dripped some water into her mouth to help her regain consciousness.
"Wha…what happened…" she said groggily before seeing what was going on.
Light footsteps echoed in the hallways before Persephone emerged with a bright smile.
"And so a ray of hope has shed on our beloved world." she said before looking over her shoulder. "Come, children. Your families await you."
The children that Marcus had rescued from the mine came walking into the room. The guards were all severely shocked, thinking that the children would never forgive them for what they had done, but they saw they had nothing to worry about when the children came rushing to their parents and older siblings with bright smiles on their faces.
"Wow…can kids really forgive someone's sins this easily?" Marcus asked himself.
That said, he couldn't forgive Kursed. Aphrodite had done what she did because she thought she was doing the right thing. She was horribly misled, sure, but she at least thought she was doing the right thing. Kursed was simply pure evil. A pure evil that…we've gone over this several times already, haven't we?
"I've been enlightened." Aphrodite said, releasing her brother. "I'm not fit to rule this planet until I learn what it really means to do so. Hephaestus, you are our leader once again."
"Thank you, Sister, but no."
"No?"
Everyone was confused. Hephaestus had willingly taken the position of leader when his father had passed away, so why was he turning it down now? With that in mind, he began to explain.
"For the past few days, I've been in the presence on three very brave individuals who were willing to give there all for a common cause. Let us not forget that our leader was originally supposed to be Sabre. He turned this duty down on the grounds that he didn't find himself fit to lead us. I don't find myself fit to lead us, either, but one of the people I travelled with is. Marcus and Isaac are both very strong and courageous men, but I believe it's time for a strong and courageous woman to lead us."
Everyone had caught on in an instant, and to Aileen's surprise, they all knelt before her.
"May you lead us to further victory, great Queen Aileen." Hephaestus said humbly.
Aileen's expression was that of pure shock. She had been given the position that her father was supposed to have and she had no clue how to handle it. She wasn't a leader, so why did Hephaestus pass the duty on to her. No…she knew why.
"That little tramp!" she thought aggressively.
She shook the thoughts out and turned to Marcus.
"I may be the queen, but since he is the one destined to bring Kursed to the ground, Marcus will decide our next move."
Marcus nodded.
"I hate putting this off, but we'll rest here for the night." he said. "Tomorrow, we corner Kursed and bring her down once and for all."
Several hours later…
The joy of the reunion of Cerinia's families kept everyone up rather late until Aileen announced that they all needed to get to sleep. Once he was sure everyone had fallen silent and was asleep, Hephaestus slipped outside and looked up at the night sky. The haze seemed to be parting high above, letting the stars gleam down on him. He smiled. For once, everything was going right.
"I don't need to be the leader." he said to himself. "I'm happy just being who I am."
His ears pricked up when he heard footsteps. Turning his head, he saw Aileen walking towards him. He turned fully.
"Aileen? What are you doing up so…"
The last word didn't escape his mouth before Aileen slapped him across the face.
"OW! Come on, I didn't deserve that!"
"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?!"
"What do you mean?"
"You know damn well what I mean! You just let Aphrodite live after everything that she's done."
"It's called mercy. You should try it."
Aileen furrowed her brow even further. As if she wasn't angry enough already.
"That woman forced children to mine for gemstones, she turned you into stone, and most of all, she killed my father right in front of me!"
"She's also my sister. I'm not going to kill my sister. Besides, she wasn't evil. She was misguided."
"You call murdering my father in cold blood misguided?! And what were you thinking making me the leader of Cerinia?! I have no experience with that sort of thing!"
"Well, look at it this way: you can finally start living."
"…what?"
Hephaestus clapped a hand down on her shoulder and smiled.
"I would hardly call running around the planet for three years steering clear of the rest of the tribe and having a grudge against my sister living. Wouldn't you? Now that this whole charade is coming to a close, you can start doing everything you wanted to do in life before all this happened. You can fall in love, you can have children. You can do anything you want now!"
"And why do you bring up falling in love and having children?"
Down came a giant metaphorical anvil, slamming into Hephaestus' head and alerting him that Aileen had seen through his ruse.
"Well, I…uhh…you see…"
"I see what?"
Aileen had no time to react before Hephaestus had kissed her directly on the mouth. Out of shock and some still-lingering disgust, she pulled back and slapped him across the face again. He rubbed at his smarting cheek without questioning it this time.
"Let me guess." Aileen growled. "You didn't deserve that, right?"
"No, that one I DEFINITELY deserved."
"Why? Just…why?"
"Because…you are easily the most beautiful girl I have ever laid eyes on."
"…go on."
"No, I think that should do it."
"Do it or else."
"Or else what?"
"Or else…I'll slap you again."
"Do you get a kick out of abusing me?"
"Just get on with it."
Hephaestus shrugged and continued to speak. In truth, Aileen had been captivated by him the second he called her beautiful, and this captivation only grew the more he spoke.
"When you came running to me and warned me about what had happened, not only did I think you were very responsible, I thought you were brave, as well. Travelling around with you for the past couple days only proved I was right in judging you that way. I thought you were beautiful when you were fifteen, but I felt odd for looking at you that way since I was older than you."
"And now that I'm older by one year since you were frozen solid for three years, you don't feel bad about it?"
"No, I still do in a way. You've suffered far more than I have in this folly we've been forced into, and yet you still managed to pull through until the end. You're a strong and courageous woman…exactly what a good man would want in his wife."
Aileen looked away from him for a brief moment, though neither of them could ignore the smile that was steadily stretching across her face.
"The feeling…is mutual." she said slowly. "I always thought you were very brave…and handsome, too."
She turned her gaze back toward him, revealing her smile to be more of a salacious grin.
"Besides, I kind of like the idea of being dominant over you."
Hephaestus chuckled.
"I can well imagine."
The two founds their hands meeting one another and their gazes locked. The moment of truth was on them. They couldn't be separated.
"Let's help Marcus to the best of our ability." Hephaestus whispered. "Let's work with him to make our homeland a truly better place."
"Yes…united, we as a tribe are strong…as are the two of us."
The emotions reached their peak and were finally released with a mutual and drawn-out kiss.
With all this chapter over and done with, I'm happy to announce that the winner of the Star Fox Subspecies cover contest is none other than Twilit Smash Nova , the author of the Super Smash Bros. Brawl fanfic "Space and Time Cannot Divide" (DeviantArt and Youtube username is SmasherNova if you want to check her stuff out. She's made some pretty kick-ass Brawl GMVs on Youtube).
Like many others, she has supported this story since the day I published the first chapter, and I'm very happy that she took part in this contest of mine. In all honesty, I wasn't expecting anyone to submit anything but she exceeded my...well, non-existent expectations by far. Congrats, Twilit, and I hope you and all the other readers enjoy the rest of the story!
SOUNDTRACK SO FAR
Krystal's nightmare- "Parabola" by Mer (Originally by Tool)
Marcus versus Coyote (friendly)- "Name of the Game" by the Crystal Method
F-Zero race- "F-Zero Medley" by Entertainment System
Space pirate attack- Space pirate theme from Metroid Prime
Ridley- Ridley's theme from Metroid: Other M
Falcon takes down Ridley- "The Meaning of truth" by Hiro-X
The date- Ilia's theme from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Coyote versus the shadows- "The Beautiful People" by Marilyn Manson
The star Lylat- Magmoor Caverns theme from Metroid Prime
Marcus and Fox/Marcus and Chase- "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Fox versus Kursed- "Du Hast" by Rammstein
Marcus and Coyote versus Nightmare- Nightmare's theme from Metroid Fusion (ArcX version)
The Nightstriker- "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath
The death of Commander Dane- "Mad World" by Gary Jules
The prisoners of Kew- Byelomorye Dam from Goldeneye 64
Escape from Sargasso- "Hard to See" by Five Finger Death Punch
Marcus and Wolf versus Master Hand and Crazy Hand- Final Destination from Super Smash Bros. Brawl
To Cerinia- "Laser Cannon Deth Sentence" by Dethklok
Aileen- "Working Class Hero" by Green Day (Originally by John Lennon)
The slaves- "Forgotten Children" by Tokio Hotel
Aileen's sorrow- "Narcissistic Cannibal" by EarlyRise (Originally by Korn and Skrillex)
Marcus and Aileen- "Name" by the Goo Goo Dolls
Aileen versus Aphrodite- "This Fire Burns" by Killswitch Engage (suggested by ianagainstcliffhangers. Thanks, man!)