Chapter 2: Crimson

He too was engulfed in the light from that explosion. Only to wake up in an unfamiliar void. A place where nothing made sense. He was fighting those Star Fox pricks, when everything went bright.

It was like clockwork. It was an ordinary day, well the ordinary day for one of the Lylat System's most feared mercenaries. Assigned a mission by that overzealous dictator. They never questioned the orders they were given. The only question they ever asked was ho much money would they receive. Now he wished they asked more questions. Perhaps it would have given them an understanding of what was inside that ship. Andrew was the only one with any knowledge of it. Maybe he should have interrogated that information out of the kid, but he had no reason to do so. Instead, he floated there there with no knowledge of where he was or how to get back.

Leon Powalski sat in the cockpit of his ship. His slit eyes blinked as he observed what was outside his ships. The blackness of space changed to crimson. For a split second he thought he was back on his home planet of Venom, but the skies there were never this color. Still, it was a color he was all too familiar with. The color of blood. There had to be a connection, some sick symbolism.

Crimson used to be Leon's favorite color. His days of assassination were filled with that color. Spilling blood was something he was naturally good at. He had a thirst for it.

It was also the color of Wolf's singular eye, a man he admires greatly. Wolf was the only one who had shown him any love. His parents and his community did not. They only showed Leon hatred. They called him words like 'Crazy' and 'Psychotic.' Perhaps they were right, but they did nothing to help him. Leon had Wolf to thank for being the one to keep Leon from descending into madness. Without him, who knows where Leon would be now, probably dead. Wolf gave Leon the chance to make something for himself, and gave him the opportunity to explore his love for crimson in different ways. Many would say he had already succumbed to insanity, and sometimes he would agree. But Wolf always told him he was not insane. Wolf made him feel like a person rather than a machine, yet still allowed Leon to do what he did best. How Leon wished it could just be him and Wolf. Everything would be so much better if Dengar and Oikonny were not in the way.

Leon knew they were not loyal. Dengar was only in it for the money. Oikonny was only there because Andross insisted they take him along. The talentless kid only dreamed of following in his uncle's footsteps. A path Leon knew would only lead to his early demise.

His Wolfen had taken quite the beating from that explosion, but he himself seemed to be fine. The systems of his ship were down, and he could not fly.

"Boss, you there? Is anyone there?" He spoke into his communicator, but no response. Leon hoped that someone at least heard him, and were just unable to respond. He waited a few moments before trying again. "Boss, can you hear me?" He spoke again, his voice becoming panicked. The chameleon crossed his fingers. But to no avail, there was no response again. He sat there in silence, realizing that he was cut off from everyone else. All he hoped for was that Wolf made it out of this cursed place. If not, hopefully he would join Wolf in an afterlife.

After a few hours of drifting through the crimson. His communications device began making static.

"Hello?" Leon asked out.

"Lunatic!" A voice said.

"What? Who's there?" Leon asked.

"You're fucking crazy!"

"Psycho!"

"You fucking monster!"

These were the voices of the people of his past. He couldn't name them, but he knew it was them. Their words cut deep into Leon, and filled the wounds with salt.

"NO! I'M NOT A MONSTER!" Leon yelled into the device.

"You are!"

"SHUT UP!" Leon kept punching at the device to get the voices to stop speaking. After a dozen punches the voices stopped. Leon took a few deep breaths, but the pain in his fist became unbearable. Leon looked down at his hand to see it bleeding. He looked closer at the blood, admiring the color. He slowly twisted his hand around, watching the blood trickle down his hand and arm. When he looked back up at the windshield, everything was black. His eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the drastic change in color. As his eyes finally did so, a white light beamed down from above like a spotlight on a stage. Inside the light was Wolf.

"Boss?" Leon cried out. Wolf payed no attention to him, instead stared off into he distance.

While Leon could only see his side profile, he could tell something was wrong. A chameleon appeared into view. It was himself. Why was he seeing himself? The other Leon walked closer to Wolf, carrying a knife in his hands.

"Leon, you okay? What's wrong?" Wolf asked. Leon didn't answer. the chameleon kept walking towards him with his head tilted and a sinister face. "Leon? What are you do-" Wolf's words were interrupted as Leon plunged the knife into his stomach. Leon watched in horror as he pulled the knife out of Wolf's chest and stabbed him again. Wolf dropped to his knees and blood came out of his mouth. The chameleon kept stabbing and stabbing until Wolf's body sat lifeless on the ground. Why? Why did he just kill the one man who cared for him? Leon couldn't bear to watch anymore. He closed his eyes and hoped the visions would go away. His breathing got heavier as he waited for them to be gone.

When he finally opened his eyes, his bloody hand was holding the bloody knife.

"NO!" Leon hissed. He felt like vomiting. He dropped the knife onto his lap and reached over to his busted up communications device. He was not even sure if it would work, but he pressed a button to broadcast a message regardless.

"Hello...this is Leon Powalski. Don't bother coming for me. I'm insane. I...I killed Wolf."


A/N: Let me know if you'd like to see more of these. I'm going away to college soon which means two things. 1: I will be on my laptop more. 2: I will have other things to do. I'm sure I'll still be able to continue practicing my writing. Anyways the point of this story is to delve into the minds of each character in a randomized order. I'm sure not many of you were expecting this chapter to be about Leon. Please feel free to leave reviews and criticize my writing.