Another Side, Another Story
Disclaimer: Not mine
(This is from Wolf's POV. After all, what is balance without both sides of the story?)
Wolf's POV
Injury? I know all about injury. I have felt enough of it. Why am I here? What am I doing in Fox's story? Why am I writing this? See... I know a lot about injury, and quite a lot about this story, being a part of it. Every story must have two halves, I suppose. No heroes without Villains, the saying goes. And so here I am.
Insanity? I know my fair share about that, as well. Yes... I know insanity. Well... sit back, and I will tell my story. Perhaps then, all will become clear.
Why did I do it? That question takes us back a long... long time.
Allow me to set the scene. Winter, freezing winter, several inches of snow resting upon the ground. This was the weather the day I met Fox. I had been in training in Corneria Academy for some time, now. I had never met the son of James Mccloud, but knew that I had to eventually.
I was quite a good pilot, and it was rumored that Fox was even better than I. It wasnt until I met him, though... until I saw in his eyes that beautiful determination, that brilliance, that power, that I knew what my purpose was.
I'm sorry, I have digressed. Back to the original story I was supposed to tell. Fox and I met on that day in winter, and the very first thing we did together was to have ourselves a dogfight. In the interest of training, mind you.
He was a beast in the old days, his ability to pilot his fighter dazzled me, his natural talent made me ache to have it. I lost that first dogfight, and after that I trained. I trained night after night, foresaking sleep. I knew I had to beat him, had to defeat THE Fox Mccloud.
Dont get me wrong, we soon became good friends. Fox and I were a common breed, both simple beasts with nothing but fight inside us. For me, it came from natural viciousness. It sort of... ran in my family, you might say. My father, Grey O'donnel, was nearly notorious as a soldier, and not in a good way. If there was ever a man who tortured more prisoners or killed anyone more brutally in the Cornerian Military than Grey O'donnel, he has never been brought to my attention. Grey was killed in a skirmish when I was very young. There was never any Filial love, and so I took his death without really noticing it.
For Fox, though, this viciousness came more from righteous anger. His drive came from the death of his father, and an odd , ongoing drive to surpass the Legend himself. He was good, so very good. He always strove to get better, to surpass his old man.
We got along beautifully, he and I. Along with Falco and Slippy, we made ourselves quite a little group. As I recall, we always got on Pepper's bad side, back before he was a general. I remember some of the stunts we pulled and I still laugh about them sometimes. That's ancient history now, though.
Fox and I always trained together, at everything. I remember training with him at gunfighting, each of us struggling to outdo the other. He has always been quicker with his hands than I, so gunfighting was something he usually won at.
In hand to hand, though, we were more fairly matched. He was faster than I, but I was far stronger. I could really only hit him about once for every four times he landed a hit on me, but at the same time my single hit could deal the damage of all four of his, and maybe a bit more. I learned his tricks and how to counter them, and he did the same with mine. We always tried to outdo each other. Sometimes I would win, sometimes he. I liked it that way, it gave me a challenge.
I dont remember quite when his Fara entered the picture. It must have been... a bit more than a year before the insurgency. Fara melted into our little group easily, and I was among the others who welcomed her into the fold. She was, as I recall, a brilliant pilot. I soon became friends with her as well. All four of us trusted each other with out lives, for the moment.
It was during a training practice, one of the few in which we flew actual fighters. We were dogfighting, Fox and I, and I was losing. I tore around a corner, trying to lose him, but he caught up and locked on to me. This is where things went wrong.
The fighters were supposed to have their weapons disabled, but his had apparently not been effectively disabled. Before I knew it, I my fighter had made a crater in the dirt. The last thing I had heard was Fox's voice screaming my name. I had lost my left eye in the crash, but I didnt notice because I was all ready unconcious
I think I spent several months in the infirmary. I think I was in a coma, since I had the strangest dream... I cannot remember the details now, but I do know this. I died.
Fox killed me. I dont blame him for it, I know he didnt mean to. I dont remember how long I was dead. A few minutes, maybe, before the doctors brought me back, restarted my heart. In that time, though, I knew I was dead. I could see... something. I couldnt tell what it was. In that space between life and death, I saw something. Whatever it was, it was beautiful.
When I awakened, looking around the hospital room with my one good eye, I felt an idea begin to form in my mind. I got up, forcing myself to stand through the drugs the hospital pumped into me and my own disused muscles. I walked to the restroom, taking who knows how much hospital equipment with me. I looked in the mirror. My left eye looked horrible. The surgeon had sewn it shut to help keep it from getting infected, but it would never be useful again. That was actually when I decided on the eyepatch. it was marginally better than this wound.
Looking into that mirror, looking at myself, it truly hit me. I had a purpose! My purpose was to balance Fox out, dont you see? Fox and I were two parts of a whole, opposite halves, yin and Yang, equal and opposite. It all made SENSE. I started to laugh. I laughed so hard and so loud that the nurses stormed into the room, thinking that I was siezing. I had decided, then, that no matter what side Fox was on, I would be on the other.
I was released from the hospital not long after that. I re-entered the academy and set to work training my disused body back to where it had been before. I even entered the same social group, though Fox and I were always tense around each other after that. In the meantime, Fara and Fox had a bit of a flame going. I could tell that from the beginning.
Of course, I hadnt known just how far it had gone until about three months later, when we were all on leave for a weakend. I had nothing to do, the nightlife around Corneria City didnt satisfy me the way it did Falco, and so when he asked if I'd go drinking with him, I declined. Instead, I followed Fox and Fara. I considered it an excercise. A test. Could I stalk Fox from the shadows without him thinking anything is amiss?
As it turns out, I was a better stalker than I thought I was. I watched them eat dinner together, and check into a hotel room at the end of the night. This was just too juicy for me to pass up. There was a large tree outside the hotel, apparently there for effect. I climbed it, watching them climb the stairs and enter the room.
I had to applaud Fox, he managed to get a quite pretty woman for himself. I watched the lovebirds play until it looked like I might want to leave and give them some privacy. Falling lightly off of the branches, I began to walk away aimlessly. An Idea was forming in my mind.
Yin, you see, has a small bit of Yang within it. Thus, in order for there to be a balance, Fox and I had to have something about us that was the same. Fox had changed, you see, since Fara had come into his life. He was happy, he had lost that viciousness that gave him such an edge in battle.
The idea didnt fully come to me until a few months later, when Fara brought Katt, Falco, and I together, her most trusted friends, and asked us what she would do about a certain problem she had.
After much prying, we found that she was carrying Fox's pup. I was intrigued. If Fox had a Son, what would he be like? He would probably be a pilot... what would that do to the balance?
It was then, staring at her, that the idea fully came to me. It was all I could do to keep my gaze "normal" so that she would not suspect. I knew, now, how I would make Fox my true counterpart. A true balance to me.
The insurgency was planned a long time beforehand. We got together almost twenty men who wanted to defect from the Cornerian Army. We prepare the bombs, kept them hidden, and finally, set them off. I had more than just my rivalry with Fox riding on it... Andross had promised to give me back my left eye. A heavy price for any fighter pilot.
Oh, I remember the flames! The fire leapt into the sky beautifully. I didnt care much for it, at the time. I quickly made for the one destination I had before making my escape. Fara's quarters werent far from mine, and I could get there long before Fox could.
When I entered her room, Fara was about to leave. She looked up at me like she was going to greet me, and then I think she caught the look in my eyes. She shrank back, and that fear I felt from her seemed to... make me lose it. I charged her like a rabid beast, clawing, biting, breaking, tearing. I didnt actually realize what I was doing until I was standing over her corpse, her blood fresh in my mouth, her scent filling my nostrils. I think that... by taking that from Fox, I killed a part of myself as well. I seemed to... numb. There is no other word for it.
When Fox entered her quarters, I barely noticed. He screamed something at me, and I rattled off some glib reply. When he drew his guns, I drew mine. I hadn't meant to do so much damage to him... but then again, I killed him like he killed me. Then Bill came running after Fox. Bill put a shot in my shoulder and a shot in my leg, grabbed Fox and carried him of. I was left to limp out of the base into the waiting escape vessel.
So that's the story. I know that you ont think that justifies a thing. Villains, after all, are and always will be villified, though that is a bit redundant. There is nothing more to tell, except this... I'm sorry, Fox.