Twisted Shadows:
A New Star Fox Saga

By Wolf O'Donnell

Author's Note: Here goes! It's another one of my What-happens-next-after-Andross-dies' fic. Once again, it's set in a different dimension from the other of my fanfics. The swearing has been censored, once again, with little asterisks that hides the second and third letters of the f**king swear word! Please send comments to me at w_donnell@hotmail.com.

* * * * *

Chapter 9: Tooi Yoake
SURAIDINGU shite surimuketa
hiza itakutatte ne
Sugu tachiagaranakya
CHANSU wa nigete yuku wakatteru sa

The Biggest Dreamer
Wada Koji

One black Darkwing jet flew away from the battleship that had once belonged to the now deceased Dr. Kano. In it was its pilot, Kofu Tarragon, the Leader of a drastically reduced Hercules Team that consisted solely of himself. ´Lord Jingoist will have me killed now for sure` he thought miserably, as he flew away from the battleship. ´But I had to leave, if I didn't, I would have been captured by the Cornerians. Who knows what they would do to me, if they captured me?` He shivered at the thought of it, because he knew that in their eyes, he was a traitor.
"What the Heck is going on here?" he exclaimed, as he saw two blips on the sensors.
"Captain Tarragon," croaked a very familiar-sounding voice over his com-link. "By order of Lord Jingoist, we have come to kill you."
"Actoi!" exclaimed Kofu in horror at the thought of it. He realised that Jingoist had sent his bodyguards after him. Now he was doomed for certain. "This can't be happening! I am Kofu Tarragon, the Leader of the Hercules Team!"
"Don't try and escape us, Tarragon," squawked a voice that sounded so much like Morgue's voice. "It is impossible for us to fail Lord Jingoist, so you might as well give up."
"Yeah," agreed Actoi. "Take your fate like a warrior."
Kofu knew he had to lose the two jets that pursued him now, but he knew not how. That didn't matter, as his jet suddenly shook violently. Direct hit! He banked his jet to the left, but to no avail. A laser tore through his left wing, ripping it apart.
"I will never surrender, you hear me?" roared the lion. "Never!" He heard an explosion and the thing dived towards the nearest planet, nose first. "This can't be happening!" he cried, as his jet spiralled out of control. The last thing he saw was the sandy ground rushing up straight towards him.

Sparks flew from the damaged equipment as the raccoon crawled along the floor. He stopped, hearing footsteps outside. His heart was beating wildly, his breathing shallow, as if he had run for miles. Adrenaline surged through his body, as he listened for the footsteps. All that could be heard was the crackling and sparking of damaged equipment and the whirring of those machines that still worked. ´I have to to stop them` he thought, as he crawled along the floor and up to a machine. ´They can't get the data from our computers. I won't let them.`
They had destroyed everything, killed almost everyone. The station was no longer in use, but at least, the raccoon thought, he would be able to save the place from being taken by the Trade Guild. They would never take the information from the computers, he would see to that, even if he had to destroy the entire place. That was what he wanted to do. The distress signal had already been sent, but he was determined to destroy everything in order to save that precious data from the enemy. He was willing to sacrifice his life for Corneria.
Slowly peering over the machines, he looked out for them but saw no traces of any living creature, except for those other soldiers that had died. The raccoon, a lieutenant, looked at the machine. His eyes scanned the panel for that one button. Pupils widened, as he spied the red button underneath a glass casing. There it was! His target. He reached out for the button, to activate the self-destruct system and kill the intruders that had killed most of his friends.
A scaly hand suddenly grabbed his furry one. He turned round and saw the hideous scaly face that he recognised all too well.
"Such a naughty 'coon," was all he heard, before everything went black and he never saw or thought again.

"There! That better?" asked Katt, as she finished up the bandages.
"A bit," replied Falco monotonously. His thoughts were on other things, however. "I don't believe he shot me." Emotions were riding high. He felt betrayed. "So this must have been what Peppy felt when Pigma betrayed him."
Katt felt concerned for her boyfriend. He was far more depressed than usual. She placed an arm around him and hugged him as tightly as was possible without hurting him.
"Falco, you shouldn't brood over this," she said calmly. "You don't want to end up like Peppy, do you?"
"I just can't forget about it, Katt," snarled Falco angrily, throwing her arm off of him. "Fox was my best friend! Do you realise what it's like to have your friend deliberately shoot you in your leg and then leave you to bleed, laughing his head off? Do you even realise what it's like when your best friend can't even stand the sight of you?" And to think that he had been the most eager to save Fox. "If I knew what would have happened, I would have left that ungrateful fox to rot in there!" he spat in his blind rage.
The door to the med room slid open and Fara walked in.
"Hey, Falco, how're you doing?" she asked him.
"A little bit better," he replied miserably, which didn't convince Fara very much. "Thanks for asking." He then remained silent, his thoughts returning to memories of the past. ´Kokoro ni nokoru Kasuka na kioku wa Togireta uta no you ni Kinou wo tsunagitomeru` he thought miserably¹.
The door to the sick bay slid open.
"Fara, Katt, we're needed in the command centre," said Peppy, as he popped his head in. "General Pepper's got another mission for us."
"Again?" asked Fara in surprise. ´Why can't his army do anything right?` She watched as the old hare nodded. "Oh, all right. Katt, let's go." She walked away from Falco, and stopped, turning to look back at Katt. "Katt, you coming?"
"Sure," replied the pink-furred feline. Katt then looked nervously at Falco, worried that he would get more depressed without her near him. "Will you be alright?" she asked him.
"Go," said Falco sternly. "Go ahead, I'll be fine; I promise."
"If you say so," stuttered Katt with concern, as she slowly backed off reluctantly. She saw him look up and glare at her. Shivers ran down her spine when she saw the expression in his eyes. She could see the pain he was feeling, the mental anguish that must have been tearing at his soul. "I'll see you later then, sugar," she said before leaving reluctantly with Fara and Peppy.
Falco sighed miserably, spotting the wheelchair that had been prepared for him. Slowly and cautiously, he slided off of the table and sat himself down. Getting himself comfortable, he wheeled himself over towards the window and looked out.
"Why, Fox?" he muttered. "Why'd you have to go and do this? We were the best of friends, Fox. The best of friends."

* * * * *

Fox sat in the recreation room alone, his head resting on his hands, his elbows on his knees. He sighed miserably, a look on his face that seemed distant. That was the position that Falco found him in, when he entered the rec. room. A concerned look spread across the avian's blue-feathered face. ´Fox has been like this for weeks` he thought quietly, as he walked over to his friend.
"You feeling okay, Fox?" Falco asked the vulpine, as he sat down on the red couch right next to his best friend, placing a wing around the vulpine's shoulders. "Fox?" Falco said, after receiving silence for a reply. He clicked his fingers in front of Fox's face. "Hey, Fox! Fox!"
Finally, the vulpine snapped out of his deep thought. He turned his furry head and saw Falco next to him.
"Huh? Oh, Falco, it's you," he said in an almost disappointed tone of voice. "Didn't hear you come in."
"No, guess you didn't," agreed the blue-feathered avian. "So, tell me what's wrong." He watched as a frown appeared on his friend's furry face. "Don't ask me how I knew, Fox. The look on your face is as plain as day. Everyone on board has noticed. You've been acting like this ever since you killed Andross. Silent, sulky, not replying to anything anyone says, not hearing what anyone says..." He paused. "So, you can tell me, right?" He looked at the fox's blue eyes, waiting for a reply. Falco could see the hesitance the vulpine was feeling in those windows to his soul. "Trust me, Fox, you'll feel much better when you've gotten this off your chest." Falco saw the strange look on the vulpine's face, and began to wonder what had gone on down in Andross' bunker on Venom, all those weeks ago.
"I thought I saw my father down there," admitted Fox, as he sat there fiddling his thumbs, not changing his seating posture one bit.
"Alive?" asked Falco with a frown. Now this surely was a big surprise for the avian. He thought Fox's father had been executed by Venomian forces.
"No, that's the problem," replied Fox. He paused a while. It looked as if he were thinking deeply, as if he didn't know how to explain it to the avian, or if he was embarrassed about the entire thing.
"Oh, Andross was messing with your head, huh?" suggested the avian.
"No, this was after Andross died," stated the vulpine worriedly. "My father, I think, guided me out of Andross' bunker. Thing is, after we flew out, he disappeared... as if he wasn't there." He shook his head. "It's stupid, really. I shouldn't be worrying over such a simple thing."
Falco wondered about what had gone in to make Fox see such a thing like that.
"Fox, perhaps your father is alive," he stated quietly after much thought. "Your eyes wouldn't play on tricks on you, and Andross was dead."
"Maybe," stated Fox, before trailing off. "Maybe, Falco." He looked back down at the floor, the whiskers on his muzzle twitching nervously.
"Well, anyway, you shouldn't brood too much over it," exclaimed Falco, as he stood up, stretching his wings. "We've been worried sick about you ever since you started acting this way." He looked over towards the door, a smile spreading across his beak. "Say, why don't we have a one-on-one game of basketball to take your mind off things, huh? It'll do you some good."
Fox stood up. The strange look on his face had disappeared completely and he looked as happy as he usually did.
"Okay," he agreed. "Why not? I need the exercise anyway." He walked with Falco over towards the door. "Come on, I'll trash you."
"Won't happen, pal," retorted Falco, as they left the rec. room. ´You are nothing. I will crush you.` "Yeah, real funny, Fox," Falco commented sarcastically. "You're a riot."
"What's funny?" asked the vulpine, as he turned to look at the avian with a puzzled look on his face.
For a moment, Falco said nothing else, wondering whether he had actually heard his friend say anything.
"Never mind," he sighed. "Let's get going, before we're called away to another mission Pepper's army can't bother to do themselves."

* * * * *

"What happened to make you so twisted?" wondered Falco out loud with a sigh. Another thought occurred to him. "Kano," he muttered under his breath. Silence, as he thought about the possibility thoroughly. "If only he didn't die. I'd love to know what that bastard did to you to make you so..." he trailed off, not wanting to think about what his friend had become. He suddenly heard the door slide open and he turned his head, seeing Katt walk over to him.
"Falco, we're needed at Sector X," said Katt solemnly, as she stopped by him. "Someone's attack the station there, probably the Trade Guild."
"I understand," sighed the avian. "Good luck, Katt."
"Thanks, Falco," she said, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. "I'll be seeing you later, sugar," she purred sultrily, as she sauntered away from him.
The avian sighed, as he watched her disappear behind the closing door. Turned his head to look out of the window towards the inky blackness of space.
"I'll find a way to bring you back, Fox," he said sternly. "I'll find a way, no matter what."

Peppy stepped over the fallen body of a Cornerian soldier, as he looked around him carefully. Attached to his rifle, was a torchlight, and the same was for the other's weapons as well, a necessary addition in the dark corridors of the lightless corridors.
"Whoever it was, trashed this station pretty good," he said quietly, in case there was any enemy soldiers lying in wait for them. He ducked underneath a dangling wire, still crackling with electricity and carried on walking down the corridor with his other team mates.
"Worse than a party at my place," joked Bill, but the atmosphere around them seemed to drain all the humour out of it. He shivered nervously, as he thought he heard something whisper to him. Whirling round he looked behind him, shining a torch back down the darkened corridor. Another whisper and he whirled round, looking around him, shining the torch at everything. "This place is starting to creep me out," he stated, shivering from the cold and from fear. "This looks very much like the work of the Trade Guild."
"This is horrible," stated Slippy, as he looked at the dead soldiers. "I haven't seen anything like it since Andross' bio-weapon got loose from that military base on Macbeth." He shivered at the thought of that bio-weapon, which looked to him like something from the very bowels of Hell. "I wonder what did this?" He looked at the broken lights, and the walls that had huge holes practically punched into them.
They soon walked out of the narrow corridor and into a large hall with four exits. Like the rest of the station, this hall was completely damaged, with dangling wires and ruined walls, with debris scattered all over the floor along with dead bodies. It was a horrible sight to behold and none more so than what they saw in front of them.
Fara's eyes narrowed with hatred and anger, as she saw three figures in front of her. She recognised them all too well, her hands clenching tightly on the rifle.
"There's your answer," she growled angrily.
The three figures in front of them turned round to face them.
"Ah, Star Fox!" exclaimed the middle one, that looked so much like Wolf O'Donnell. A cruel smile spread across the Wolf android's muzzle, as each one of the android replicas reached for their improved laser guns. "It's such a pleasure to see you again."

¹ The Romaji phrase means- The few memories Lingering in my heart Like fragments of a song Hang onto yesterday. (Extract from Tooi Yoake, sung by Takehito Koyasu for Gundam Wing).


Star Fox and all related characters and places are copyrighted by Nintendo Ltd.
Jingoist, Dr. Kano, Kofu, Miasma and Kappa are copyrighted by me.