Notes: To Kairos Lokorr… I suck. No, I'm not referring to my writing, although that works too. But last time my hard drive exploded, the link to MSS blew up as well. So… could I have the link again? I have a horrible memory. To KKG: For Christ's sake, I ain't mad! Enough with the guilt trip already! To Fanfiction.net moderators: Thank you for making me shove this all in a chapter and not give it its own tidy little nook for my notes. /sarcasm To everyone; after every single friggin' person wanted me to write from multiple perspectives: You win. Take my eyes out and roll 'em in salt, dip 'em in vinegar and shove 'em up my ass, you win. Now how the hell am I going to keep the perspectives different from if and when Quiksilver finishes and starts his story? ;p To KnightoftheApocolypse: Look. I appreciate your attempt to make amends, but tone the sarcasm down about ten notches and I might believe you. I'm not as angry at you now, but only because I can't hold a grudge very well at all. But know that my opinion of your stories still stands (i. e. Absolute crap. Just goes to show you flame wars happen when an artist/author/random dude criticizes another in their trade. Flame wars). And lastly, to Quiksucks, or whatever the hell your name is: I can just imagine myself getting into a flame war with you like I did with TheKnightoftheApocolypse awhile back. You see, there's a harsh mistress called Real Life that bogs down both his and my writing. Hell, both of us are in frickin' high school. Cut us some frickin' slack.
Chapter II
Three months later
Dimensional Cache #18365917863409769087
System of a Down
Forest
Walk with me my little child
Through the Forest of Denial
Speak with me my ONLY MIND
Walk with me until the time
Make the Forest turn to wine
You take the legend for a fall
You saw the product
WHY CAN'T YOU SEE THAT YOU ARE MY CHILD
Why don't you know that you are my mind
Tell everyone in the world
That I'm
You
Take this promise to the end
Of you.
Walk with me my little friend
Take this promise through the end
Speak with me my ONLY MIND
Walk with me until the end
Make the Forest turn to sand
You take the legend for a fall
You saw the product
WHY CAN'T YOU SEE THAT YOU ARE MY CHILD
Why don't you know that you are my mind
Tell everyone in the world
That I'm
You
Take this promise to the end
Of you.
Take this promise for a ride
You saw the Forest, now come inside
You took the legend for its fall
You saw the product of it all
No televisions in the air
No circumcisions on the chair
You made the weapons for us all
JUST LOOK AT US NOW!
WHY CAN'T YOU SEE THAT YOU ARE MY CHILD
Why can't you know that you are my mind
Tell everyone in the world that I'm
You
Take this promise to the end
Of YOU.
Sarah Termingham sat, slaving away at her desktop computer. In the three years that passed since the incident of the worlds, she had taken up college in Wisconsin and was residing in an apartment near campus. She hadn't seen her friend Eric Shroud for almost a year, now. She had spoken to him over the phone, but she still missed him. Other than that fact, Sarah's life was going rather pleasantly. However, that assumes that you don't take the fact that another being was sharing Sarah's soul with her a factor against pleasant life.
What was worse was that the second personality, Vixy Reinhardt was getting angry. She had crawled out of the grave to revisit her son, and Sarah had promised to return into the dimension from which Vixy was born every now and then. So far, no promise had been kept. It had been three years now, and Sarah had not returned. Had it not been for her great sense of patience, Vixy would be fuming. But all she was showing was a sense of urgency.
Thinking of which, Sarah thought to herself. Maybe it was time to head back. There was always time to finish the report later, and Sarah was already doing quite well in her classes. The thought for a second about what it could mean to go back. "What's the worst that could possibly happen?" She said out loud.
With that, she made up her mind. The sun was just beginning to fade over the horizon, so she turned on the light in the apartment and moved to her closet. Inside a few boxes she kept tucked carefully in the back were a couple "souvenirs" from her last foray into the Star Fox dimension.
In one box was a weapon previously residing in the afterlife, the bow Beamstriker. Capable of both ranged combat with the arrows, and melee combat with long, curved blades on the end, Beamstriker had come through for Sarah several times in the last foray into the Star Fox dimension, and Sarah felt she should probably bring it, just in case. It also seemed to have an odd ability to anchor Vixy's soul in this world. A home away from home for her, if you'll have it.
The other box placed carefully in the back contained two objects of great importance. One was an armband constructed of a shiny, substance that would resemble steel had it not had a blue tinge and a slightly transparent covering. Sarah figured it was probably constructed of the same material of the blades on Beamstriker, but she had forgotten the name. Eric probably knew. In addition to viewing the vital sign of it's wearer, it functioned as a low-scale radar and radio. However, for a reason that was as yet unknown, it also possessed the ability to switch Sarah's form (and mind in control) with Vixy's. Eric had one too, for he also had an alter self, that was Vixy's husband, James McCloud.
The other item was a pair of mirrored sunglasses. Both Sarah and Eric had been given pairs by the spectral apparitions of Vixy and James, respectively. When they wore them, they were transported to another world. Eric said he had once gone into the Final Fantasy world to pick out some distinct flowers for a Mother's Day awhile back, so they appeared to have the ability to transport the wearer to a world other than the Star Fox one. But so far, Sarah wasn't entirely sure how they worked. Again, Eric probably knew. Somehow, he found the time to figure out these things. Sarah had the time, but chose to spend it on less adventurous pastimes.
She reached for the sunglasses. It had only been three years since she had been holding them in her hands, preparing for the dimension jump. She still wondered; was she still ready? One way to find out. She put them to her face.
Just before the legs would have touched her face, the phone rang.
Scrambling to put the boxes back into the closet quickly, she hurried to the phone and glanced at the caller id. "J.'s Sell." Eric. Even after a dimension jump, he still didn't have what an average Joe would consider a life.
"Hello?"
"Hey." A deep, raspy voice on the other end of the phone said. Since Sarah moved, Eric had very little to practice the usage of speech on.
"Hi, Eric! How's it going?"
"Absolute crap. I got grade-skipped, though. That's a bonus."
"How does that work, anyway?"
"Beats me. I just know I scored a 1745 on the SAT's as a junior, so they graduated me. You just have to know how to grease the wheels of destiny…"
Sarah chuckled. "Well, now that you an get to college a year early, what are you going to do?"
"Aw, hell, I don't know. I'm thinking of getting a job the Dave & Busters down here. Booze and games, best combination ever."
"Don't you have to be at least 21 to get a job where alcohol's involved?"
"Oh yeah… Thanks for stomping on my idealism, Sarah," Eric said with apparent resent. Then he laughed. "Hey, are you still on this side of the United States? We're having a family reunion over the summer. Mom loves that sentimental crap. Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to show up."
"I'd love to, but I'm under some financial strain right now… I don't think I'll be able to afford the plane ticket…" Sarah said, spirits slightly dampened. Eric's family was an interesting bunch, except for his Uncle Sam. Everyone worried about him.
"Gotcha covered. Dad got a raise recently, and he said that now he's got the money to let me fly one of my friends over. And guess the first person to come to mind was?"
"Can I guess who the only person to come to mind was?" Sarah joshed. She heard Eric laugh.
"Okay, okay. Point taken. Anyway, he'll pay for the two-way ticket. You want to come?" Eric asked.
"When was this, anyway?"
"Let's me think for a second… It's April right now… I think the big party is July 31st, although there will undoubtedly be other mini-events the days leading up to it. Everyone leaves August 2nd. Think you can make it?"
"You know, that works out, this year in college ends somewhere in June. So you'll be able to pay for the ticket?" Sarah asked.
"Yep. I'll have Mom start arranging it; she's a lawyer, she's good at that sort of thing."
"Okay. Nice talking to you."
"Later." Click.
Well, that was something she could look forward to. Just a couple of months and then a huge breather."
"Sarah," a voice said. Sarah jumped.
"Oh… Vixy…"
"I want to be able to see James while we're there," Vixy commanded, her voice coming out of nowhere. It was like hearing her voice, only not hearing it at the same time. "It's been too long…"
"I know…" Sarah muttered. "I'm sorry I haven't been able to arrange something sooner…"
"I hadn't realized how long it's been. Three years! Fox must be worried sick about his daughter, and I miss James horribly."
"We've talked to him over the phone…" Sarah stammered pathetically.
"I want to see them. I want to remember the joy I've known in their presence."
"Okay… can it wait another three months? Please?"
"I'll wait that long, but not much longer." And with that, Vixy fell silent.
It was a dampener to high spirits. Sarah knew she couldn't keep making up excuses for it all. She'd have Vixy see James during the reunion. It was, after all, a reunion for family.
But Fox wasn't going to be there, and couldn't possibly be there. She guessed that Vixy wasn't going to be able to see Fox until later. Sarah really was overdue for a visit back into the Star Fox dimension. But not now. Maybe sometime after Sarah met Eric again.
Either way, it was getting late. She went to her bed, and turned to the photo of her family on the bedstead. She closed her eyes, her almost-venture into the next dimension, and the box with the sunglasses, lay forgotten.
At that very moment…
Falco sidestepped the falling debris in the broken down warehouse he had been chased into. His pistol had gotten broken, and he was bleeding from several lacerations. He didn't know how much longer he could keep running. He wasn't sure exactly who was chasing him, but he got more than a few good looks at him. Really tall, with spiked back hair, dyed a horribly bright shade of yellow. The kind you get in a child's crayon set. Black eyes twinkling with an inset insanity, with thin, gangly limbs. His speech was as insane as his eyes, shouting out bizarre threats that mirrored the way his eyes sparkled.
And he was human! Yet another of the human tyrants, carrying an unmistakable number of similarities to the other hairless monkeys Falco had seen earlier. Eric, Sarah and Jack. And through all of this, it was his choice of armament that was especially scary.
He had a standard laser assault rifle over his shoulder, but Falco hadn't seen him actually hoist it. He instead preferred two long, steel rods to beat Falco senseless, and he was trained enough that he could use the shiny surface to reflect Falco's lasers. It was really scary because at completely random intervals, blades would shoot out the end of the rods, slicing anything near them, except his hands. The sound it made could only be resembled by a switchblade symphony all going at the same time, played by a manic-depressive orchestra whose tempo resembled their mood. Falco had taken a nasty cut from this attack across the chest. Blood had stained his combat vest and was slowly dripping down into his lower body. Feathers were matted with sweat; a piece of Falco's beak had been hit off from the force of the assailant.
"Forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight…" Falco heard the voice of the person who was chasing him. "Forty-nine, fifty… Ready or not, here I come!"
Falco went into a guarding stance, looking all around for any possible movement that this foe was making. A futile gesture. So far, the enemy had been able to hide extremely well while pursuing Falco.
"Peekaboo!" A voice shouted. Falco lurched forward into a roll out of instinct. "My attack brews nervous feelings! I HAVE FURY!" He shouted.
Falco choked on chuckles in spite of the situation. As he bent down for a rock to throw this foe, he heard an insane chuckling accompanied by something sounding like, "I love it when they do that."
He was closer to Falco than Falco thought he was, unfortunately. Three seconds later, the last thing Falco saw was the last building in the down, slowly crumbling, the pillaging army of The End sweeping through the town he had been sent to protect.
