Hello! Sorry this update took so long but I couldn't help it with school and all. This
chapter was almost finished but we switched to Cableone so I lost everything! Now lately
I haven't been getting as many reviews as I did during the summer and I don't have a problem
with that at all. As you should know if you read all of the earlier chapters, Fox, Clay, and
Tricky were landing on the planet and Fox and Clay didn't see what they hoped to see. If
you read the earlier chapters that won't sound all dumb and stupid to you now will it? I also
got a review telling me that I'm slightly rushing things and that may be true but I'm working
on that and it's gotten a lot better. Now that I've said all that lets move on to chapter 15!
Fox and Clay couldn't believe it...everything was...gone. Nothing remained, just the shattered
memory of a beautiful land destroyed by laziness. All of it was their fault none of this would of
happened if they had just paid attention to where they were going. The whole area was gone...
everything was either dead, burnt, or burning. There wasn't a single sign of life left in the hollow.
The warpstones garden was smoldering with ashes, the warpstone was nowhere to be seen. The well,
which had already been destroyed from an early incident, was now scattered around the hollow and
the flying rubble probably didn't help the thorntails survive that much. The most disturbing scene was
that of a throntail that had got caught under a fallen tree and skewered by a large chunk of rock. The
thorntail of course was dead along with many others who layed dead on the dark, cold ground. Some
were even burning and the burnt skeletons of already cooked animals were scattered across the land. They
looked over to the temple that had been housing the queen earthwalker when they departed for the mines and
to their horror the temple...was on fire. No...that would mean that the queen was...dead. She couldn't be...it
just wasn't possible.
"No." whispered Fox as he and Clay began to sprint towards the raging inferno.
The building was almost burnt down to the ground when they reached it. The rocks had tumbled over
each other and the door seemed to have been destroyed. If this were true then the queen would have no way
to escape when the building began to burn! Though the body of the queen was no where to be seen it was
pretty obvious what had become of Tricky's mother. Both of them knew that they couldn't let Tricky see this,
if he found out he would never forgive them. Even though they could hear the loud pounding of Tricky from
the arwings they let him be. Again, he could never know. The sky was a dark gray color due to the mixture
of smoke and clouds which weren't that color before. The sudden barrage had damaged even the water.
Instead of it's usual aqua blue it was an oily black and in some places...scarlet red. This couldn't have
happened it just wasn't possible that THEY could have all of this destruction. Before they had felt proud
and happy that this mission had taken place. Now, they rather be in the hands of Andross instead of seeing
this sight. By now the building was almost gone, just a burning pile of ash and probably bones.
"We...why didn't we...how did this happen?" said Clay as he put his blackened face into his hands.
"We were exhausted. We just didn't pay attention to what we were doing and this is the consequence."
Whispered Fox as he looked around the silent patch of hell.
Yes, they were exhausted and even though they hadn't suffered fatal injuries yet they still were in great
pain. Both of their furs were scorched and blacked by heat and ash and their muscles hurt to no end. They
both were hurting emotionally too though. Now, they had just killed many innocent beings plus the queen
of the entire planet not to mention their friend's mother. Now the temple was nothing. Though it still gave
off heat they saw nothing except for the smoldering ashes of a temple of royalty. There was nothing left for
them to do. Even if they returned the spellstone to the force point temple it wouldn't make a difference. The
mission was over; the two strongest members of team Star Fox...had failed. Maybe they never should have
taken the mission in the first place. Maybe they should have just retired the team after they had beaten Andross.
"God, this never should have happened." Whimpered Clay as he slowly drew his sword out. Maybe it was time
for him to give up the blade. It was probably best if he just left it here where he found it and let it be destroyed
with the planet. Then again, if he did leave it here and the planet blew up then it might NOT be destroyed. Since
it has so much power it probably wouldn't even be phased by the explosion.
"No, it shouldn't of. We can't change the past though, but we can prevent it from happening again in the future."
Said Fox as he gently looked over his weapon.
"Maybe we should just go, we can't do anything else here. Without the queen to help us we're like lost in space
without a radar." Said Clay as he looked around again to see if anything was even moving.
Nothing. There wasn't even a breeze. It looked and felt like...they couldn't stand it. They had just made the
planet they trying to save look like the planet that they hated most. The planet that no one dared to go to. The
planet that held the blood of their fathers. Venom. They had caused Dinosaur Planet to look like the planet that
housed the most demented scientist in the galaxy. Now, it felt like they were part of the Star Wolf team,
destroying and killing innocent beings. All they could do was head back to the Great Fox and tell Peppy, and
Slippy what happened. After that they would think about weather or not they continue the Star Fox team. It
was quite doubtful, so there wasn't much to look forward to in the future. The big question was what were
they to do with Tricky? They couldn't just leave him here on the planet he'd be killed by sharpclaws in a
matter of hours. Everything seemed so hopeless, it seemed that General Scales had won.
"I can't believe that we lost. We never lose! How the heck did we get so lazy that we weren't alert when
flying? If only we had been awake and ready this wouldn't have happened!!!" yelled Clay as he threw his
sword tip first into the ground.
"I know! Everything that happened here in OUR fault but moping about it isn't going to change anything!
Now we might as well leave this land. It's quite obvious that we can't do anymore here. We'll just have to
tell General Pepper the bad news." Said Fox as they began to walk towards the arwings.
"What about Tricky? I mean we can't just leave him here. The sharpclaws will get him for sure!"
"We'll just have to take him along with us, back up to the Great Fox. We can tell him what happened
there." Answered the vulpine as he slowly lowered his staff to the ground near Clay's sword.
"Fox, what are you doing?"
"...I'm putting the staff back. I have no use for it anymore. Besides I like to use my blaster
more than that." Replied Fox as he slowly and gently stuck the staff into the cold ground next to
Clay's sword.
"I suppose that I'll just leave my sword here too. I can't use it anymore plus nobody else can wield it.
It just won't let them."
"Yeah, they hold too many memories anyway." Whispered Fox as he and his friend continued to
the arwings.
"What should we do with the spellstone? If we take it that means that Scales can't take total control
over the planet. The question is though, where would we keep it?" asked Clay looked back at his
faithful sword.
"I guess we'll have to keep it on the Great Fox. Nobody is going to steal it, I mean what would
Peppy or Slippy want with it?" said Fox as he put his hands behind his head.
"Yeah, good idea. We can give to Tricky as a memory of his mother." Clay shook his head as he
heard the banging noises that Tricky was making from the cargo hold.
They had now reached the arwings when Fox remembered something.
"Wait, we can't go."
"WHAT?" Why not?" shouted Clay which seemed to have scared Tricky for the moment for the
banging had ceased.
"Don't you remember? We still have to find out who that girl is! I think her name is, Krystal."
"Oh yeah. I forgot about her. But we can't do anything to help her Fox! We don't know where
she is and even if we did know we couldn't go there because the warpstone is gone!"
"I really wish that we could do something to help her. I feel really bad leaving her like this."
"I know but hey, maybe she'll escape and we'll still get to see her." Said Clay who was trying his
best to cheer up his friend.
"Yeah, maybe. Well, I guess we better tell Tricky about what we've done. He's going to hate us
when we tell him." Complained Fox who didn't want to do this at all.
"We have to tell him Fox, he has to know."
"Yeah, well, here goes nothing."
Fox kicked the bottom of the cargo hatch of his arwing and he heard many noises come from with in.
"WHAT!!! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP HERE!!!" yelled Tricky who didn't have a clue that his mother
was dead.
"Tricky it's me Fox" said Fox trying to sound as confident as possible.
"Oh hi Fox! Why won't you let me out of here? I know we're at the hollow."
"About the hollow Tricky, we can't let you see it." Clay stated who was also not trying to sound nervous.
"Why not? Is something wrong?" answered the prince with lots of curiosity in his voice.
"Well Tricky, the hollow has been..."
Fox didn't get any further. For right at that moment a bright light appeared behind them. Fox
and Clay whirled around to see an astonishing sight. Fox's staff and Clay's sword were glowing
bright colors like they were about to do a magic attack. The staff was glowing a blue color and the
sword was red. This light was so bright that Fox and Clay had to shield their eyes from the colors.
The lights shone for about 10 seconds before they fused into one large purple beacon. One beam
of blue light was feeding it while a beam of red was as well on the other side. This one was
extremely bright and nearly blinded Fox and Clay. Now the clouds where spinning in a spiral
motion and the water was overflowing it's banks. The purple beacon was extremely large now and
was getting bigger. It was almost to the arwings when it stopped. Fox and Clay just looked at it, the
staff and the sword were still feeding it and the clouds and water were still active. Then a loud rumble
started to come out of nowhere. It was starting to get darker and darker before Fox and Clay looked
up to see why it was getting darker. When they saw they both yelled and flung themselves onto the
ground. The clouds where swiftly moving downs towards the ground but not at Fox and Clay but at
the purple beacon of light. The water was also changing directions as it literally lifted up into the air
and towards the beacon. When the clouds and water met the beacon they didn't go through it but into
it! The beacon was sucking up all of the evil looking clouds and the blood stained water. The ground
was even beginning to lose it's gruesome colors. When the clouds and water were almost gone the
beacon suddenly gave off a huge flash of bright white light that temporarily blinded Fox and Clay.
The flash lasted for about 5 seconds before it ended but it took Fox and Clay another 10 seconds to
regain their sight. Even before that though they could tell that something was different. It wasn't
cold anymore and they could here the sounds of footsteps. When Fox and Clay opened their eyes
they dared to believe that what they saw was true. The Hollow was back to normal.
All right! Oh come now, admit it. You know that that chapter was one of the best yet! I
spent a long time on it so you better like it! I sure hope you did. Now I'll give you a hint about
why the staff and the sword were able to change the hollow back to normal. It has something to
do with Krystal's home planet of Cerinia. You'll find out a little more at the end of this story and
a lot more in the next one. So don't come asking me questions because I'll tell you through the
story. I'm REALLY sorry that it took so long to update but school isn't merciful. I know this
chapter didn't get Fox and Clay anywhere but it is crucial in the next story. I'll make sure that
they get a good distance from now on in every chapter. If you have anything that you want to
say about how I write then go ahead! I'll gladly take any opinion! The next chapter won't be
coming out for a while but I'll do the best I can! See ya later!