Chapter 3
-
Fox had cried himself out by the time he landed his Arwing in the empty hangar of the Great Fox, but his breath was still ragged with repressed sobs. He sat in the cockpit to wait for the others to catch up so the hangar could safely re-pressurize. While he waited, he looked over at the status of his ship. The shields had failed at some point, and there were four reports of damage to the armor plating spread out across the ship. The laser system had apparently also come very close to overheating. Strangely, Fox couldn't remember any of these things happening. The memory of the destruction of Peppy's Arwing, however, was clear as crystal.
The hangar doors sealed and the room re-pressurized as Ashe's ship entered and touched down. Fox popped the canopy as soon as it was safe to do so and jumped out of the cockpit. He slumped down against the landing gear, his head bowed. Falco and the others rushed over to him.
"Okay Fox, what just happened out there?" asked Falco.
"It...it was Peppy," Fox said, his voice a shaky whisper. "He got s-s-shot down..."
"Yeah, I saw it. G-Diffuser hit, and he backed off. So what?" replied Falco.
"No!" Fox shouted up at him. "We were at the Vault, a-a-and he came in from behind me, and then he lost control..." Fox felt the tears coming again.
Falco's eyes widened in shock. "No way! Never happen..."
Ashe bent down and wrapped his arm around Fox, gently lifting him up. "Come on, Fox. Let's get up to the lounge." Fox leaned heavily on Ashe's shoulder for support as they filed into the turbolift.
The four of them sat in silence in the Great Fox's lounge. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the floor. Peppy's chair was empty, as a sign of respect. No one felt much like saying anything.
"I just can't believe he's gone," said Falco.
Fox hugged his knees close to his chest, wrapping his bushy tail around himself. "I feel so cold..." he whispered softly. "I can't get it out of my head... One minute he was there, and then he..." Fox lowered his head back down onto his arms, trying to control himself.
Slippy took off his hat and rubbed a hand over his head. "He was the best pilot I ever knew."
Ashe tightened his hand around his pendant. "It never gets easy, having someone you care about die."
The turbolift door opened silently, and Peppy stepped out. "Hello boys," he said. "Sorry I took so long to get back. I couldn't find a spot to land and fix my G-diffuser." He walked into the kitchen and opened up the fridge, poking his head inside.
Everyone looked up and stared at Peppy incredulously. Peppy blinked, pushing his glasses back up on his muzzle. "What, did someone die?" he asked.
"PEPPY!!"
Peppy found himself flat on his back with Fox, Falco, and Slippy on top of him, hugging him tightly. "Oof! ... Hey, I love you guys too ... urgh, oxygen please..."
They all got up and helped Peppy back up to his feet. "Did I miss something here?" asked the rabbit. Ashe walked around the couch and over to where the team had surrounded Peppy in front of the fridge. "Ashe, what's going ... Gah!" Ashe leaned down and gave Peppy a fierce hug of his own. "What's with you guys today?" Peppy said.
Fox began to ramble. "I-I saw you get shot down, and you were flying along behind me, and then something happened to you, and then the big turret shot at you, and then your ship exploded, and then..."
"Whoa, calm down, Fox," interrupted Peppy. "I'm fine. I was never at the Vault; I backed off as soon as I lost my G-diffuser. Don't you remember?"
Fox blinked twice, staring into Peppy's soft brown eyes. "Yeah... Yeah... But I could have sworn I..." He leaned against the wall of the kitchen, rubbing a hand over his forehead.
Ashe furrowed his brow a bit. "I think we've all had a hard day. Fox, maybe you should go get some rest?" he suggested.
Fox nodded his head slowly. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea," he said slowly walking off towards his room. Falco and Slippy followed after him.
Peppy looked up at Ashe quizzically. "What's going on?" he asked.
"I'm not sure," replied Ashe. "But I think we'd better find out."
-
Peppy and Ashe met with Falco around the kitchen table an hour later while Slippy was down in the hangar repairing their ships. "So, how is Fox?" said Peppy.
"Sleepin' like a kit," said Falco.
Peppy nodded. "Good. I want to ask you two what you saw today."
Falco shrugged. "I dunno. One minute he was fine, the next he was freakin' out. Dove right in like the universe was ending or something."
"And we wasn't responding to our communications," mused Ashe, cupping his chin in his hand. "Has he ever done something like this before?"
"Yeah, now that I think about it," said Falco. "We were on a ground mission on Zoness last week. We were with some Cornerian soldiers, sneaking up on this base, and a guard saw us and shot they guy standing next to Fox. Knocked his helmet right off. It was a coyote, but he dyed his hair blue. I guess Fox must've thought it was me or somethin', cuz he just went totally ripshit..."
"Language!" shouted Ashe sharply.
Falco glared at the wolf for a moment. "Like I was saying, he freaked out or something, and shot the guard like twenty times. Howled up a storm too. Anyways, we got spotted, and we had to back off. He calmed down once he saw me. Hey, that reminds me..." Falco activated the communicator on the kitchen table. "Hey Slip, d'you think you could check Fox's flight recorder? Check to see if any ships were flying near him during the fight at the Vault."
"I'll get right on it," came Slippy's reply.
Ashe nodded slowly. "How has he been otherwise?"
"Well," Peppy said thoughtfully, "He has been having trouble sleeping lately. And his appetite has fallen off."
"Hey Falco," said Slippy over the intercom, "I think you're onto something. I'm sending the recording up to you." Peppy opened up the laptop computer that Slippy always left on the kitchen table, and the three of them gathered around it. Falco called up the sensor logs, and cycled through the recording to the beginning of the fight.
"There it is!" he exclaimed, pointing towards a black dot that was creeping up behind Fox's ship. A moment later the blip pulled up alongside Fox, and was destroyed by a blast of friendly fire from a turret.
"That's not an Arwing, that was an Invader," said Peppy. "Fox should have known that."
"Definitely," agreed Ashe, "If he remembered seeing it blow up."
"So what does this all mean?" asked Falco.
"This doesn't seem to be just a hallucination," Ashe stated. "I think Fox is suffering from some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder. A psychological trauma that is manifesting itself as his greatest fear coming to life during times of stress."
Falco titled his head. "Huh?"
"Fox is seeing things because something bad happened to him a long time ago, and now it's coming back to haunt him," explained Peppy.
"Oh. Why didn'tcha say so?"
Ashe ignored that. "Can you think of any seriously traumatic events that have happened to Fox?" he asked.
"One springs to mind," Falco replied, "It's practically legendary."
"I thought so," said Ashe. "And it does sort of fit together, doesn't it?"
"Definitely," Perry said with a nod.
"Does he ever talk about it? Did he receive therapy when it happened?" asked Ashe.
Peppy shook his head. "No, on both counts."
"So, what're we gonna do about it? Good luck getting Fox to sit still for a shrink," Falco said.
"Well, we need to do something," said Ashe. "It's pretty obvious that Fox is becoming unstable. You saw what happened out there, Falco. If this happens again, Fox could get killed."
Falco grunted. "So what do we do then, padre?"
"You guys are his best friends, right?" said Ashe. Falco and Peppy nodded. "Well, in the absence of a psychologist, we're going to have to do an intervention. Sit Fox down and make him talk about what's wrong with him."
"Fox isn't gonna like that," said Falco.
"That's too bad. He's going to deal with this, whether he wants to or not," said Ashe. "Peppy, do you think you could ask General Pepper if we could get some time off? Tell him that Fox isn't feeling well."
Peppy nodded. "I'll call him right away." He got up from the table and left for the bridge.
"Should I go wake Fox up?" Falco asked.
"No, not today," Ashe said. "He's dealt with enough for now. We'll do it first thing tomorrow morning."
"Okay. So, how does this thing work anyway?" Falco inquired.
"You and Slippy just make sure he stays put. I'll do the rest."
"You ever done this before?"
"A few times. I have psych training from the marine corps. It's never pleasant, but the circumstances are rather extreme."
Falco leaned back in his chair and pulled out a half-empty pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket. Ashe glared at him. "Do you have any idea how fast those things kill you?"
Falco stuck one of the cigarettes into his beak and lit it. "I'm still here, so not fast enough."
Ashe rolled his eyes and got up from the table as Falco exhaled a puff of smoke in his direction. Falco walked over to the couch and vaulted over the back, crashing out onto the cushions. With his long legs kicked over the arm of the couch, he stretched out and grabbed the remote control off of the table.
Ashe stepped into the turbolift and went up to the bridge, arriving just as Peppy was finishing his call to General Pepper. "Any luck?" asked Ashe.
Peppy nodded. "I gave him the basics. He's as concerned as the rest of us are." He brushed a hand over his long ears, pushing them back over his head. "So, what's your impression?"
"He's troubled," said Ashe. "They all are."
"I'll say. But how are we going to get Fox to confront his past?"
Ashe winked at him. "The Ripper way."
-
Fox slept through his alarm the next morning. Even though it was almost nine o'clock when he got up, he still felt tired. He gave some serious thought about just not getting up at all, but hunger and a growing need to use the bathroom forced him out of bed. He was still wearing the clothes he had fallen asleep in from the previous night, which were rumbled. Fox stripped off his old shirt and put on a fresh one, then he headed for the bathroom.
When Fox went down into the lounge a few minutes later, the entire team was sitting in the kitchen. They all looked up as Fox walked down the stairs. "Hey Fox," Slippy said. "Good morning."
Fox grunted at him. "What's going on?" he asked.
Falco and Peppy stood up from the table. "Come on over to the couch, and sit down," Peppy said as he and Falco moved to flank Fox and escort him over to the couch.
"What happened this time?" said Fox with suspicion as he sat down in the center of the couch. Falco and Slippy sat down on either side of him. Peppy sat down in his chair, which had been dragged closer to the leather couch. Ashe picked up one of the kitchen chairs and set it down directly in front of Fox.
"We just want to talk to you, Fox. That's all." said the priest.
Fox looked around at his friends, who were all staring at him intently. Fox tried to get up, but Falco and Slippy pushed him back down. "Fox, something happened to you yesterday," Ashe told him. "You blacked out while you were flying. Your friends tell me that this sort of this has happened before, and that you aren't sleeping right."
"What is this, the inquisition?" Fox said distrustfully.
"No, it's an intervention," said Peppy. "We're going to talk about what's wrong with you."
"Screw this," Fox said. He moved to stand up again, but he was stuffed back into his seat by Falco and Slippy.
"Fox, this is hard for us too, seeing you like this," said Ashe. "Something is haunting you, and we want you to talk about it."
Fox rolled his eyes, folding his arms in front of him. Ashe glanced over at Peppy for a moment, then looked back at Fox. "This is about your father, isn't it?" asked Ashe.
Fox looked away from the wolf. "Fox, look at me," Ashe said, "I know how you feel about what happened to your father..."
"Shut up," Fox hissed, still deliberately looking away.
"... And I know you've been trying not to think about what happened to him..."
"Shut up."
"... but you have to face this. You can't just hold it all in."
Fox glared at Ashe. "I thought I told you to shut up," he said, his voice starting to rise.
Ashe leaned forward in his chair. This was always the hardest part. Like lancing a wound to prevent infection, it was always painful, but it was necessary. "Fox, we're doing this because we care about you."
"Fuck off."
"Tell me about your father, Fox."
"I said I don't want to talk about it," Fox said with anger rising in his voice.
Ashe looked over at Peppy again for a moment, then he turned back to Fox. "This is because you feel guilty..."
"No..."
"Because you think that it's your fault that he's gone..."
"Stop it!" shouted Fox, his face contorting with anguish.
"And you want to tell him how you feel..."
Panic began to rise inside of Fox. "Stop it! You don't understand!"
"And you want to tell him you're sorry..."
"NO!! I hate him! I hate my father!!"
There was silence in the room for several moments, save for Fox's heavy labored breathing. Fox closed his eyes tightly as repressed memories washed over him like a sea of acid. Peppy rose from his chair to walk over to him. "Oh, Jesus..." Falco whispered.
"It's okay, Fox," Ashe said softly, extending his hand in a comforting gesture.
Fox bowed his head, feeling the great dam of anger inside of him burst.
"Do you want to tell us about it?" Ashe asked.
Fox felt a lump building in his throat. He swallowed, and nodded his head slowly. "Alright..." he said in a subdued voice.
-
-
Fox had cried himself out by the time he landed his Arwing in the empty hangar of the Great Fox, but his breath was still ragged with repressed sobs. He sat in the cockpit to wait for the others to catch up so the hangar could safely re-pressurize. While he waited, he looked over at the status of his ship. The shields had failed at some point, and there were four reports of damage to the armor plating spread out across the ship. The laser system had apparently also come very close to overheating. Strangely, Fox couldn't remember any of these things happening. The memory of the destruction of Peppy's Arwing, however, was clear as crystal.
The hangar doors sealed and the room re-pressurized as Ashe's ship entered and touched down. Fox popped the canopy as soon as it was safe to do so and jumped out of the cockpit. He slumped down against the landing gear, his head bowed. Falco and the others rushed over to him.
"Okay Fox, what just happened out there?" asked Falco.
"It...it was Peppy," Fox said, his voice a shaky whisper. "He got s-s-shot down..."
"Yeah, I saw it. G-Diffuser hit, and he backed off. So what?" replied Falco.
"No!" Fox shouted up at him. "We were at the Vault, a-a-and he came in from behind me, and then he lost control..." Fox felt the tears coming again.
Falco's eyes widened in shock. "No way! Never happen..."
Ashe bent down and wrapped his arm around Fox, gently lifting him up. "Come on, Fox. Let's get up to the lounge." Fox leaned heavily on Ashe's shoulder for support as they filed into the turbolift.
The four of them sat in silence in the Great Fox's lounge. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the floor. Peppy's chair was empty, as a sign of respect. No one felt much like saying anything.
"I just can't believe he's gone," said Falco.
Fox hugged his knees close to his chest, wrapping his bushy tail around himself. "I feel so cold..." he whispered softly. "I can't get it out of my head... One minute he was there, and then he..." Fox lowered his head back down onto his arms, trying to control himself.
Slippy took off his hat and rubbed a hand over his head. "He was the best pilot I ever knew."
Ashe tightened his hand around his pendant. "It never gets easy, having someone you care about die."
The turbolift door opened silently, and Peppy stepped out. "Hello boys," he said. "Sorry I took so long to get back. I couldn't find a spot to land and fix my G-diffuser." He walked into the kitchen and opened up the fridge, poking his head inside.
Everyone looked up and stared at Peppy incredulously. Peppy blinked, pushing his glasses back up on his muzzle. "What, did someone die?" he asked.
"PEPPY!!"
Peppy found himself flat on his back with Fox, Falco, and Slippy on top of him, hugging him tightly. "Oof! ... Hey, I love you guys too ... urgh, oxygen please..."
They all got up and helped Peppy back up to his feet. "Did I miss something here?" asked the rabbit. Ashe walked around the couch and over to where the team had surrounded Peppy in front of the fridge. "Ashe, what's going ... Gah!" Ashe leaned down and gave Peppy a fierce hug of his own. "What's with you guys today?" Peppy said.
Fox began to ramble. "I-I saw you get shot down, and you were flying along behind me, and then something happened to you, and then the big turret shot at you, and then your ship exploded, and then..."
"Whoa, calm down, Fox," interrupted Peppy. "I'm fine. I was never at the Vault; I backed off as soon as I lost my G-diffuser. Don't you remember?"
Fox blinked twice, staring into Peppy's soft brown eyes. "Yeah... Yeah... But I could have sworn I..." He leaned against the wall of the kitchen, rubbing a hand over his forehead.
Ashe furrowed his brow a bit. "I think we've all had a hard day. Fox, maybe you should go get some rest?" he suggested.
Fox nodded his head slowly. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea," he said slowly walking off towards his room. Falco and Slippy followed after him.
Peppy looked up at Ashe quizzically. "What's going on?" he asked.
"I'm not sure," replied Ashe. "But I think we'd better find out."
-
Peppy and Ashe met with Falco around the kitchen table an hour later while Slippy was down in the hangar repairing their ships. "So, how is Fox?" said Peppy.
"Sleepin' like a kit," said Falco.
Peppy nodded. "Good. I want to ask you two what you saw today."
Falco shrugged. "I dunno. One minute he was fine, the next he was freakin' out. Dove right in like the universe was ending or something."
"And we wasn't responding to our communications," mused Ashe, cupping his chin in his hand. "Has he ever done something like this before?"
"Yeah, now that I think about it," said Falco. "We were on a ground mission on Zoness last week. We were with some Cornerian soldiers, sneaking up on this base, and a guard saw us and shot they guy standing next to Fox. Knocked his helmet right off. It was a coyote, but he dyed his hair blue. I guess Fox must've thought it was me or somethin', cuz he just went totally ripshit..."
"Language!" shouted Ashe sharply.
Falco glared at the wolf for a moment. "Like I was saying, he freaked out or something, and shot the guard like twenty times. Howled up a storm too. Anyways, we got spotted, and we had to back off. He calmed down once he saw me. Hey, that reminds me..." Falco activated the communicator on the kitchen table. "Hey Slip, d'you think you could check Fox's flight recorder? Check to see if any ships were flying near him during the fight at the Vault."
"I'll get right on it," came Slippy's reply.
Ashe nodded slowly. "How has he been otherwise?"
"Well," Peppy said thoughtfully, "He has been having trouble sleeping lately. And his appetite has fallen off."
"Hey Falco," said Slippy over the intercom, "I think you're onto something. I'm sending the recording up to you." Peppy opened up the laptop computer that Slippy always left on the kitchen table, and the three of them gathered around it. Falco called up the sensor logs, and cycled through the recording to the beginning of the fight.
"There it is!" he exclaimed, pointing towards a black dot that was creeping up behind Fox's ship. A moment later the blip pulled up alongside Fox, and was destroyed by a blast of friendly fire from a turret.
"That's not an Arwing, that was an Invader," said Peppy. "Fox should have known that."
"Definitely," agreed Ashe, "If he remembered seeing it blow up."
"So what does this all mean?" asked Falco.
"This doesn't seem to be just a hallucination," Ashe stated. "I think Fox is suffering from some sort of post-traumatic stress disorder. A psychological trauma that is manifesting itself as his greatest fear coming to life during times of stress."
Falco titled his head. "Huh?"
"Fox is seeing things because something bad happened to him a long time ago, and now it's coming back to haunt him," explained Peppy.
"Oh. Why didn'tcha say so?"
Ashe ignored that. "Can you think of any seriously traumatic events that have happened to Fox?" he asked.
"One springs to mind," Falco replied, "It's practically legendary."
"I thought so," said Ashe. "And it does sort of fit together, doesn't it?"
"Definitely," Perry said with a nod.
"Does he ever talk about it? Did he receive therapy when it happened?" asked Ashe.
Peppy shook his head. "No, on both counts."
"So, what're we gonna do about it? Good luck getting Fox to sit still for a shrink," Falco said.
"Well, we need to do something," said Ashe. "It's pretty obvious that Fox is becoming unstable. You saw what happened out there, Falco. If this happens again, Fox could get killed."
Falco grunted. "So what do we do then, padre?"
"You guys are his best friends, right?" said Ashe. Falco and Peppy nodded. "Well, in the absence of a psychologist, we're going to have to do an intervention. Sit Fox down and make him talk about what's wrong with him."
"Fox isn't gonna like that," said Falco.
"That's too bad. He's going to deal with this, whether he wants to or not," said Ashe. "Peppy, do you think you could ask General Pepper if we could get some time off? Tell him that Fox isn't feeling well."
Peppy nodded. "I'll call him right away." He got up from the table and left for the bridge.
"Should I go wake Fox up?" Falco asked.
"No, not today," Ashe said. "He's dealt with enough for now. We'll do it first thing tomorrow morning."
"Okay. So, how does this thing work anyway?" Falco inquired.
"You and Slippy just make sure he stays put. I'll do the rest."
"You ever done this before?"
"A few times. I have psych training from the marine corps. It's never pleasant, but the circumstances are rather extreme."
Falco leaned back in his chair and pulled out a half-empty pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket. Ashe glared at him. "Do you have any idea how fast those things kill you?"
Falco stuck one of the cigarettes into his beak and lit it. "I'm still here, so not fast enough."
Ashe rolled his eyes and got up from the table as Falco exhaled a puff of smoke in his direction. Falco walked over to the couch and vaulted over the back, crashing out onto the cushions. With his long legs kicked over the arm of the couch, he stretched out and grabbed the remote control off of the table.
Ashe stepped into the turbolift and went up to the bridge, arriving just as Peppy was finishing his call to General Pepper. "Any luck?" asked Ashe.
Peppy nodded. "I gave him the basics. He's as concerned as the rest of us are." He brushed a hand over his long ears, pushing them back over his head. "So, what's your impression?"
"He's troubled," said Ashe. "They all are."
"I'll say. But how are we going to get Fox to confront his past?"
Ashe winked at him. "The Ripper way."
-
Fox slept through his alarm the next morning. Even though it was almost nine o'clock when he got up, he still felt tired. He gave some serious thought about just not getting up at all, but hunger and a growing need to use the bathroom forced him out of bed. He was still wearing the clothes he had fallen asleep in from the previous night, which were rumbled. Fox stripped off his old shirt and put on a fresh one, then he headed for the bathroom.
When Fox went down into the lounge a few minutes later, the entire team was sitting in the kitchen. They all looked up as Fox walked down the stairs. "Hey Fox," Slippy said. "Good morning."
Fox grunted at him. "What's going on?" he asked.
Falco and Peppy stood up from the table. "Come on over to the couch, and sit down," Peppy said as he and Falco moved to flank Fox and escort him over to the couch.
"What happened this time?" said Fox with suspicion as he sat down in the center of the couch. Falco and Slippy sat down on either side of him. Peppy sat down in his chair, which had been dragged closer to the leather couch. Ashe picked up one of the kitchen chairs and set it down directly in front of Fox.
"We just want to talk to you, Fox. That's all." said the priest.
Fox looked around at his friends, who were all staring at him intently. Fox tried to get up, but Falco and Slippy pushed him back down. "Fox, something happened to you yesterday," Ashe told him. "You blacked out while you were flying. Your friends tell me that this sort of this has happened before, and that you aren't sleeping right."
"What is this, the inquisition?" Fox said distrustfully.
"No, it's an intervention," said Peppy. "We're going to talk about what's wrong with you."
"Screw this," Fox said. He moved to stand up again, but he was stuffed back into his seat by Falco and Slippy.
"Fox, this is hard for us too, seeing you like this," said Ashe. "Something is haunting you, and we want you to talk about it."
Fox rolled his eyes, folding his arms in front of him. Ashe glanced over at Peppy for a moment, then looked back at Fox. "This is about your father, isn't it?" asked Ashe.
Fox looked away from the wolf. "Fox, look at me," Ashe said, "I know how you feel about what happened to your father..."
"Shut up," Fox hissed, still deliberately looking away.
"... And I know you've been trying not to think about what happened to him..."
"Shut up."
"... but you have to face this. You can't just hold it all in."
Fox glared at Ashe. "I thought I told you to shut up," he said, his voice starting to rise.
Ashe leaned forward in his chair. This was always the hardest part. Like lancing a wound to prevent infection, it was always painful, but it was necessary. "Fox, we're doing this because we care about you."
"Fuck off."
"Tell me about your father, Fox."
"I said I don't want to talk about it," Fox said with anger rising in his voice.
Ashe looked over at Peppy again for a moment, then he turned back to Fox. "This is because you feel guilty..."
"No..."
"Because you think that it's your fault that he's gone..."
"Stop it!" shouted Fox, his face contorting with anguish.
"And you want to tell him how you feel..."
Panic began to rise inside of Fox. "Stop it! You don't understand!"
"And you want to tell him you're sorry..."
"NO!! I hate him! I hate my father!!"
There was silence in the room for several moments, save for Fox's heavy labored breathing. Fox closed his eyes tightly as repressed memories washed over him like a sea of acid. Peppy rose from his chair to walk over to him. "Oh, Jesus..." Falco whispered.
"It's okay, Fox," Ashe said softly, extending his hand in a comforting gesture.
Fox bowed his head, feeling the great dam of anger inside of him burst.
"Do you want to tell us about it?" Ashe asked.
Fox felt a lump building in his throat. He swallowed, and nodded his head slowly. "Alright..." he said in a subdued voice.
-