Chapter 26: Fox VI
They came up to their Arwings in a forest clearing. The blizzard covered the fighters in a layer of snow, which now made Fox feel stupid that they'd bothered to disguise them with branches and foliage. They grabbed shovels out of the equipment compartments and started to dig out the Arwings in silence.
It took a while to dig out the cockpits enough to open them, but when they were finally freed, Fox and Emerald started the diagnostics check and restarted the engines. Temperatures weren't doing them any favors. Cold was one thing. Moisture was another. They'd thaw and dry out just fine. It would just take some time.
Fox sat down on one of the wings and leaned back, staring up at the sky.
Emerald walked over and asked, "Can I sit with you?"
"Sure." Fox nodded.
Emerald climbed up onto the wing and sat next to him.
They sat in silence for a long time. Fox didn't seem to notice anything, but she was looking down and was tracing lines from the scars on the Arwing, "I don't blame you."
Fox looked over, "What?"
"I don't blame you for being this way."
"What way?" He felt a strange tug at his wrist. He wanted a drink.
"This way." She looked back at him, "I don't blame her, either."
"Her? You mean Krystal?" Fox asked.
"Of course. I don't think she seduced you. I don't think you chose the things that keep you spiraling down."
"I'm... I'm not spiraling down."
"Do you ever think you'll be happy?"
"Hold on." He held her shoulder and pulled her towards him. "I'm not spiraling down."
"Fox," she met his eye, "A week and a half ago I found you drunk in a rundown motel buying a door-to-door prostitute."
"It was you. Pretending to be a prostitute."
"And if I wasn't? If I was the real thing?"
He knew what answer she wanted, one he couldn't honestly tell her, "You know why I drink."
"Do I?" she turned away, "Do you?"
"Do I what?"
"Do you know why you drink? Why you sleep with prostitutes? Why you were flying around in a deathtrap for years on end?"
"Maybe because my parents were murdered?"
She turned back to him.
"Maybe because my home was taken from me? Maybe because after the war that killed and took my friends prisoner, I was left alone, and hunted like an animal? Maybe because the person I loved..."
Emerald didn't say anything.
"Nothing."
"What about her?" Emerald said, "What?"
"Why do we have to talk about this again?"
"You know, all of those things you mentioned have happened to other people. They've happened to me."
"What are you talking about?"
"My parents are dead. My home no longer exists. After my war I was alone. I had no one but more warriors. I'm a fugitive, too. And noone loves me either, apparently."
"So what does that mean?"
Emerald didn't respond.
"Really. What are you trying to say? All that same shit happens to other people, but why am I so broken?"
"Basically, yeah."
It was his turn to be stunned into silence.
"My mother had a saying: the tea egg has to break for the inside to be delicious. It's ok to be broken. It's necessary to break at some point. But you are strong enough to pick up and move forward."
Fox wanted to get angry at her, but she was making too much sense, "My mother died when I was only a month old."
"It wasn't your fault."
"My father was murdered when I was sixteen."
"It wasn't your fault."
"My wife and I were married for eleven months."
"It wasn't your fault."
"My son was stillborn."
"It wasn't your fault."
"And the war? The one I had an active hand in? That led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people?"
"Not your fault, either."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"You've internalized all of these tragic, fatal endings. You're trying to construct a grand narrative proving that all you do is sow and reap suffering."
Fox didn't say anything. He grabbed a fistful of snow and tossed it off the wing, "You saw Fara and Falco."
"I did."
"You saw how they reacted with barely three minutes of my presence."
"So what?"
"So..." He couldn't think of words. Or he thought of them, and rejected their blunt truth. He stood and stomped off into the snow, So I do sow and reap suffering.
Emerald jumped off the wing and followed him, "Fox, do you think you're the only person to experience tragedy and think it was somehow your fault?"
"What's your point?" He whirled around, snow flying in all directions.
"My point is you're actively trying to get yourself killed..."
"So what?" He felt like he was spitting venom, "It's my life to fucking throw away if I want. What good ever came to anyone because of me?"
Emerald froze. Her determination melted away and turned into horror.
Fox trudged through the snow and into the trees. He wasn't looking for anything, but running from problems had been the only thing that made sense. Ever since his life began, he was either defeated and driven off or... or...
He walked back to the Arwings.
Emerald seemed like the whole incident was trivial. That initial horror seemed to be shrugged off as if accidentally hitting someone in the street.
"Emerald," Fox started.
"We're ready to go," she said, and then mumbled, "We've been ready for a while."
"Emerald," he started again.
"I sent off a message to the Great Fox. Katt knows we're heading back."
"Em..."
"What?" she demanded without looking at him.
"Can you come down here? I want to apologize."
There was a long moment where the only sound was the wind. Finally, Emerald stood up out of the cockpit and climbed down the side of the ship. She landed in the snow facing away from him and stood up, not turning around to look him in the eye.
"I'm sorry." She didn't move and there was another long period of the wind and trees raging and then dying into stillness. He said it again, "I'm sorry," and added, "for what I said." Emerald didn't move, but her ear twitched and the energy suddenly shifted, "I'm sorry for everything."
He looked down at his feet buried in the snow.
A blue hand suddenly held his. He looked up. Emerald was still facing away from him, but her arm had reached back and gently held his hand softly, like one might cradle a broken eggshell. Fox had never felt such tenderness before.
"Em..." he said, barely. She turned slightly so he could see just the side of her face and a single eye. And then she was upon him. She whirled into his arms and kissed him. He didn't flinch this time, or try to move or flee or even think. He accepted it, and realized he even liked whatever this was. Not the physical contact, but intimacy. He'd been truly open and honest with maybe three people in his life. And one of them had her arm around his neck and her lips on his.
She separated from him, her fingers digging into his scalp and around his ears, "Don't you leave me, Fox McCloud."
He kissed her. He wrapped his arms around her body. He felt the snow melt away. He felt the worlddisappear. For just a moment, he was back at the Fooding and Lodging on Eladard. But he wasn't himself. He was someone else. Someone worth being. Someone not burdened by death and failure. Someone who could provide strength, security, survival. Someone worthy of Emerald.
She turned around and faced the Arwing. His hands were still all over her, moving clothes and equipment aside like an inconvenience and began to kiss and touch, and nip parts of her that he'd stared at for so long.
Emerald was busy elsewhere. Fox heard the clink of metal as she undid her belt, felt the rush of blood and warmth as she tugged her pants down. He suddenly felt animalistic, primal, base energy rising inside of him as she rubbed him with one hand and worked his belt with the other.
Finally, he was released and Emerald seized his length, leaning over until her face was a breath from the ship's hull, and Fox was pressed against her temple. She guided him inside and sighed deeply.
Fox felt himself consumed by the beast inside of him. The one that he both revered and feared, the creature that made him what he was and what he hated. In the Temple he grew up in they called it "The Blood." And here he felt it. It was like a great wave rising inside of him. The wave itself was nothing special, but it kept rising, and rising. He felt his mind become unhinged from time. He lost all sense of self as his ego, his illusory continual consciousness fell away, decoupling from his flesh, which became more and more consumed by her flesh. He felt himself growl, a vibration coming from that inward beast, now consuming what his rational self had left behind.
"Fox, stop," he heard. But just barely.
He kept moving, kept tearing at her until their bones and muscles seemed to mix and blend and become one.
"Stop."
He held a hand on her hips, another on her neck. He knew how this ended. He knew, this time, this way, was real. It was true. It was present and here, and now, and what could be more...
"Fox! Stop!" She pushed him back as forcefully as she could. He stumbled, and almost fell backwards into the snow. He stood, a few feet back from her, half naked and wondering just what was happening. He felt the wave, The Blood, subside and he remembered who and where he was.
Emerald pulled up her pants and fastened her belt with some dignity left.
Fox still couldn't move very well. He slowly felt his dexterity returning with his sense of language and managed to speak, "What? What did I do?"
She pulled her clothes straight and reordered herself. Only when she was finished did she answer him. "My name," she said every word as its own self-contained statement, "is Emerald."
For a split second, Fox didn't understand. And then he did. Shame came over him like a blanket, and then Emerald came over to him and helped him get dressed.
He was about to apologize again, but she beat him to the punch, "It's all right." She bucked his belt.
"Em..."
"It wasn't your fault." And she kissed him lightly on the cheek. She held his hand and said, "You can understand..."
"Yeah... it's not exactly encouraging."
"I know we can do this. I know we can make it out of this alive. I just... I need you. I always needed you, Fox. Before, I just needed the thought of you to keep me going. To know that not every Cornerian hated me. Not every Vulpid wanted to kill me and my people. Some of them wanted to love me, to be me. And now I need you. A different you."
Fox heard her, but couldn't bring himself to believe she was truthful. Couldn't cross a bridge of doubt built by his experience in overanalyzing tragedy.
"Come on. Let's head back to the Fox." She smiled, "We can finish up there."
He didn't know how to feel. Was she idolizing him into an unrealistic hero, or did she see someone that was hiding deep inside of him. They split and went to their individual Arwings.
The G-Diffusers warmed up unbelievably fast (courtesy of a brand new fabric) and they started into the sky, pointing their noses star-ward. Blue didn't have a chance to turn to black when Em came on the comm link, "There's something heading our way. It's coming fast." Fox checked the navigation just as his fighter streamed out of a cloud and into open air. Sure enough, two other fighters were on their way towards them, on practically a collision course. He felt something strange tug at the back of his mind. He looked up as if he might be able to see them. Nothing. Just clouds.
He opened up another line of communications aimed at the newcomers. Seconds ticked by. A small timer pinged over and over while the screen remained black.
"Something wrong?" Emerald asked.
"I'm not sure."
And then the line opened with a beep and static. There was nothing said. No sounds or words, just the very tired and angry face of Falco Lombardi.
He set his wings to attack mode.
"What are you doing?"
"Em, you get out of here. I'll handle this."
Falco's comm screen went dark.
"I'm going to stay." Emerald said.
"No. I got this." Fox pulled the Arwing up until he had U-turned and was heading head-to-head with Falco's Skyclaw. There was only one ship off in the distance. Where was the second one?
"All right..." Emerald said.
Fox could see Falco's ship as a blip on the cloudscape in front of him. He didn't think about the forest, on the beach at Cape Claw, but rather some earlier fight, when they fought together instead of against one another. He said aloud, "How long has it been, Falco? Only one of us can make it out of this one..."
Emerald shouted over the comm.
"What is it?"
"There's another fighter above waiting for us to make a break for it."
"They're doing a hammer-anvil thing." Fox primed his weapons, "Follow me. We're going to have to do something else." He hit the boost and started aiming to crash into Falco. The Skyclaw only responded by increasing its own speed and positioning itself to slam into Fox's Arwing. Emerald fell in behind him, "Get ready!" The distance was closing. Fox charged his lasers and locked onto Falco, "Em. On my mark, fire your secondary weapon."
Emerald didn't flinch.
Falco opened fire with his cannons. Green lasers began to wash over them, coming close enough to the Arwing's canopy that the flash burned Fox's eyes.
He ordered, "Mark!" and dipped the Arwing low. Emerald fired a nova bomb that passed over Fox's head, and threatened to slam into Falco's fighter. The aviad pulled up.
Fox followed him, laser still charged, and fired a nova bomb of his own. Almost immediately, Falco U-turned and sent a hail of laser fire on Fox. His ship shook like a rattling cage as the shields absorbed damage.
"Evasive maneuvers!" Emerald turned downward and they both descended towards the Ice Mountains. Above them their bombs exploded into a spectacle of blue-white light and geometric patterns. The three ships shook like leaves in the wind from the combined strength of their weapons.
Falco hailed him on the link, "We did that on Fortuna. It may have worked on Pigma Dengar, but it won't work on me."
This was the challenge of this sort of game: he had to strategize and fly all at the same time.
The three ships burst out of the clouds and headed for the white and iron of the mountains.
"You have a plan?" Emerald asked.
Fox didn't answer.
"We can't keep flying this direction forever."
The mountains loomed closer. Fox checked the scanner: the Skyclaw was decently behind him, but gaining.
"It's me he wants." Fox said, "So we're going to get lost in those mountains."
No doubt the logic was lost on Emerald, but the soldier just responded, "Got it."
Fox hit the boost and pulled up, dipping in between and around mountains at speeds way too dangerous for this atmosphere and altitude. Falco followed them, undeterred, boosting this Skyclaw so the distance closed with every second.
He wondered if Falco would phone this in and call for reinforcements. No. That wasn't his style. But he might try and keep them on the planet and funnel them into a row of anti-aircraft guns.
The mountains became smaller and less labyrinthine. Complex aerial maneuvers gave way to flying over open plains and lakes south of the mountains, approaching the Great Inland Sea. In a few minutes they'd be over Walled City and Thibfu/Earthwalker territory. Farther south, they'd approach Cape Claw and Sharpclaw lands to the southeast.
Falco was practically breathing down their necks. He let off a shot every so often to test his range and accuracy.
Fox pulled up the navigation and drew up a dozen coordinates on the Saurian map. He sent it to Emerald who checked her route and came back, "Are you serious?"
"Yes," was all he said. Falco opened fire. Green lances shot through the air all around them. They passed over Walled City's sprawling expanse and the lances stopped. Emerald banked off to the southeast, at about a forty-five degree angle from Fox and Falco's trajectory.
Falco didn't budge, but kept on Fox's tail. Fox dodged, banking hard to the left, and saw Falco fire lasers dangerously close to him. Navigation indicated a canyon off to the south. It took a few seconds for Fox to realize which canyon it was. He boosted that direction and watched the nav, seeing Falco pull up and into the atmosphere almost dipping off his sensors for a moment.
The canyon came into view. Falco barreled down on Fox from a high angle. He went from being a rear profile of an engine and wings to an overhead map of an Arwing.
He heard Peppy's voice in his head...
He did a barrel roll, activating the Arwing's auxiliary shields, deflecting Falco's lasers harmlessly off into the desert. Fox turned to starboard and kept the Arwing's profile facing Falco, zooming through the twists and turns of the canyon by dipping and pulling. Bolts of laser fire lanced out like tentacles from a space-borne beast, but all missed Fox's ship.
Fox could practically see the Skyclaw just above him. Falco followed him almost into the canyon, but stayed just out of it, and fired his only nova bomb. The bomb landed just behind Fox, impacting the canyon's riverbed floor and exploding. The walls of the formation shook and shuddered. The explosion couldn't stretch in all directions like it wanted, and so was limited to up and the flow of the gorge. Half of the bomb's energy threatened to overtake and send Fox crashing into the red walls of rock. But he pulled up just in time, boosting himself out of the planet's depths and into open sky barely a mile from the coastline.
Naturally, Falco was right there waiting for him. Fox reset his flight path to rendezvous course with Emerald. Falco had lost some momentum with that attempt to flush him out, but he won't get another one. The Skyclaw was faster than the Arwing. Fox knew Falco's ship was superior. His flight skills were arguably so.
He needed to turn those into disadvantages.
The ocean appeared, almost endless in its immensity. And Fox his hit ship's boosters. The Arwing launched over the waves and zoomed through the air. He lifted it as if he was trying to make a run for space, and a charged, locked on star of laser blast launched in his direction. He ducked and barrel rolled. He set back to his straight-course and boosted. Falco followed, boosting as well. Fox could practically feel the nose of the Skyclaw against his wing. Falco charged his laser again. Fox didn't change course.
An alarm went off, informing him, "Target acquired."
He didn't move.
Falco came over the comm link, "I just wanted to say: yes, it is personal."
That was his cue: Fox steeled himself, and switched from maximum boost to maximum brake. Falco only noticed when it was too late. And just as the Skyclaw passed his Arwing, Fox had locked on and fired his last nova bomb.
He didn't stay to watch, but as he kept course over the ocean, he wasn't followed.
Emerald was finally in range of his comm, "Where'd Falco go?"
"Don't know. But I know where his Skyclaw went."
"What about this last guy?"
"Well, his ship can only shoot at one of us."
They pulled up, forming an obtuse triangle with Jan's ship in the stratosphere. Jan fired at Emerald, who he'd been following for the better part of an hour. He only saw the second Arwing when it was already blasting into his cockpit.