Star Fox Alliance: Chapter 7
Hostile Takeover: Part 1
The room was white. Pure, and unflawed. Fox was in the dead centre of this seemingly endless room. He felt weightless, and slightly light-headed, but not ill. He looked to his left. Nothing. The white stretched on for ever. Then he looked to his left, and was immediately shocked.
There were three creatures in front of him. Very familiar creatures. Two foxes and a frog. The male fox was tan-coloured, and wore a white jacket with brown combat trousers. The frog was about Beltino's height, but female. She wore a long pink dress and smiled at him sweetly.
The female fox took his breath away. It was his mother. Not the diminished, grief-stricken woman he knew as a small child, but his mother full of her serene grace. She was swathed in different shades of blue silk, and her resemblance to Krystal was uncanny. The only real difference was the colour of her fur, white instead of Krystal's blue.
"We've never been fully introduced." The frog said. "My name is Francesca Toad. I need to talk desperately with you about Beltino and Slippy. Now, we are allowed to reveal the future to some extent." The foxes nodded as she said this. "But the 'extent' often restricts us. We cannot change the course of time itself. Now, tell my husband and son that they will soon be on an adventure all on their own, and it is unlikely that both of them will survive. As you are doing a favour for me, I will do one for you. In the next 48 hours, either the love of your life or your oldest friend will die. To be blunt, it is your decision which way this goes. Though I will give you strong advice. The future splits in many directions. In this instance, there are three. If your true love dies, the future saviour of the Lylat System will never be born. If your friend dies, you will be on a relatively short road to suicide."
Fox tried to let all this information sink in.
"That is two of the three ways. In the third, no-one will die, not even yourself. But terrible, terrible things will happen. I have to go now Fox, but persevere and you'll pull through. Tell my boy and Beltino that they must be prepared. Good luck."
She faded away, leaving Fox with his parents.
"I'll take the fore Paris." James said. She simply nodded.
"It's been a long time son." James said. "Too long you've been led astray."
Fox was puzzled.
"What do you mean?" Fox asked.
"Who killed me, son?"
"Pigma and Andross." He replied.
"Andross yes, Pigma no."
"Then it was just Andross?" Fox asked.
"No. I was still betrayed." James scowled.
Fox was suddenly taken to another place. 27 years in the past. In a large chamber, Andross was standing before Peppy, James and Pigma.
The Star Fox members suddenly turned and ran, James in the lead. Then Fox saw something he thought impossible. A team-mate raised his blaster and shot James in the back.
"No!" Fox yelled. Tears streamed down from his eyes. "Not you…"
Pigma had now tripped over, and Peppy Hare was running for the main door. Blaster drawn.
Fox was back in the white room on his knees, crying freely.
"Leave James." Paris ordered. In a second, he was gone.
"I don't understand…" Fox sobbed.
"You will," Paris said, offering a small smile, "I'll make sure of that." She looked into the air. "There's not much time left. Listen close honey. Peppy is no murderer. A killer maybe, but never a murderer. I asked him to kill James. Remember that. It was my doing."
"But-"
"Not now. James started undermining his team-mates and beating me. I fell out of love with James very quickly after that. And I fell in love with-"
"Peppy."
Paris smiled. "Yes. James was the only thing standing in our way." She looked up again. "Oh, we're out of time honey. I'll be seeing you. Look after Krystal. She has a most powerful destiny in front of her, both with and without you. And to ease your suspicions, you have nothing to fear from any of your team mates."
With that, Paris and the room around her dissolved into a dreamless sleep.
"RED ALERT. RED ALERT." ROB alerted the team over the ship's comm.
Fox's eyes shot open. Krystal was stirring in his arms, she was at first startled to wake up with her uniform on, but she and Fox had simply fallen into bed last night, exhausted by the day's events. (A/N: That's for all of you who got the wrong end of the stick. You know who you are!)
Fox and Krystal ran for the bridge, meeting Falco and Tinan along the way. No words were exchanged.
As they arrived at the bridge, everyone was present in full uniform. For Fox, the speed of the team's reactions and the unmistakably military atmosphere was reassuring.
General Pepper's hologram was in the center of the room.
"Corneria has been attacked and a takeover operation is in place." He said, seemingly afraid of this development. "The culprits are as yet unknown, though eyewitness reports describe them as sapienoids."
"At least they aren't those stinking bugs." Leon muttered.
"Not so. The Aparoids were not interested in killing other life forms. But over a thousand civilians are thought to have perished." Pepper said, looking downcast.
"My God…" Peppy gasped.
"Launch all ships." Fox said, looking at the radar. "They seem rather dependant on their air force."
The team jumped into their ships, Tinan into a new Wolfen, and prepared for launch. After they launched the Great Fox would follow.
"Lift locks released." ROB said.
The ships then took off, ready to fight whatever got in their way.
I'm sorry how long this has taken me, and I hope that readers haven't given up hope on me ever posting again, but I've had everything from exams to holidays tofriends in hospital all in the space of around a month, my apologies.
Also, I was rather concerned as to a couple of reviews. Actually I think it was just one, and time has made the facts grow bleary. But anyway, a reviewer expressed their 'disgust' about the ending of the last chapter. I won't go mad, but will kindly call for that review to be removed by the poster. They got it drastically wrong. Period.
Next chapter up soon! Thanks for all reviews, they're really appreciated. -cerberus