Author Notes: Thanks all for staying with the story for as long as you have. This is the ''final'' chapter in the story. Though I might consider editing it - I have to say I'm satisfied where this has taken me as being the first fan-fiction I have EVER written. I hoped you all enjoyed it; I'll definitely consider writing another Starfox fic after hearing what you honestly thought at my attempt to writing a Fanfiction. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work! I'd like to extend a special thanks to Jasalazul who helped push me to improving my story the entire way, thanks Jazz. Here you have it the final chapter: Out of this Dimension (based on the secret location of the Starfox game/which also is true of the Black Hole)!
When you enter the McCloud tunnel back in Corneria, they tell you to hold your breath and to make a wish – count for every second. If you wish hard enough, legend says your wish comes true. McCloud was a legend, a hero. But what makes him so damned special? His eyes cleared and he saw the legend, the hero, "James? I tried to save him." His voice was but a muted whisper, he was crying. "I could never be how your son sees you. I wanted only to be there for him." James continued looking ahead, in the distance he stood on his Arwing.
Falco was floating above clouds, had he died? Was Fox dead? The sky was orange and the clouds drifted by. He tried to get closer to James, swimming, trying to pull his body, to just see his face. His wounds were no longer there, he felt at his chest and he was whole – his arms moved through his feathers, no blood. He was garbed in only his trousers. Where was he? He watched as the illusion melted away, he rubbed his eyes, Fox stood on the Arwing, his tail flicking idly. Fox was whole as well, his fur was clean and his wounds were mended.
"Fox!" His ears shot up, and he turned around. He, too, was crying.
"You're here!" He was blissful for a few seconds; he collapsed to his knees, his bliss halted, still atop the Arwing. "Are we dead?"
"I don't know." He stopped, hovering a small distance from Fox. "Where are we?"
"I think –" Fox paused. "I think this is where my father took me, a long time ago, in his Arwing – but…never mind, it doesn't matter." Birds fluttered by. Falco didn't press Fox, but with a sigh he continued, "Back at Papetoon, my homeworld, my father brought me up here to experience flight. Some fathers take their kids fishing, but not mine." He smiled and shook his head. "It was really something, right then and there I knew what I wanted, to fly." The clouds bubbled by around the base of the Arwing.
Falco sat on the Arwing, his legs swung over the side. Fox sat beside him. Falco smiled, if he had to spend an eternity here, it wouldn't be too bad. He looked down, suddenly too shy to look Fox in the eyes – perhaps it was that he was certain that his eyes belonged to James. He looked through the cloud breaks, watching the tall buildings and the metropolis below – there was no movement down there. Even eternal silence with Fox would be pleasant but broke it just to hear his voice, "What's Papetoon like?"
Fox sighed, "It's a small farming planet on the Lylat Rim; my dad chose the planet because of how quiet it was, he wanted a nice place to settle with Mom. Why?"
Falco stood now, concerned. "Fox, that's not a farming planet below us. You told me you were from Corneria! That's Corneria below us!"
"I know. I don't understand it either." Fox only looked up at his wingman's surprise.
Falco started looking around, something was not right; no one sat in the cockpit – it was all too strange. Then he saw it. The shining emblem: Starfox. This wasn't James's Arwing, it was his own! He looked towards Fox, but he was still looking into the distance. His gaze met the front of his Arwing, to where it was flying, but now stood frozen in time. Up ahead he squinted, but swore he could make out what looked like another fighter. This wasn't Fox's memory, it was his! His heart fluttered, what did any of this mean?
He took his place at Fox's side once more, both staring into the emptiness of a Cornerian Sunrise – permanently fixed in time. Fox met his gaze, his eyes. They were green, like James, but softer – they weren't the steel-strong eyes of his father. They were caring, deep. Fox smiled when he looked down, "Why Falco, I didn't know you only had six toes."
Falco's brow screwed up in a rather awkward stare, "Erm, eight actually," he motioned to his heals. He crossed his legs, trying desperately to hide them from Fox.
"Amazing those things can squeeze into boots." Fox leaned against the Arwing, crossed his arms behind his head. "You promised you'd tell me 'everything' if we made it out alive."
Falco expressed his surprise, scratching the back of his skull. He turned a bit to look at Fox, "Yeah but, we're not even sure if that's the case." He paused, and watched Fox frown, the silence filling eternity; awkward silence was not the silence he could handle forever. "Maybe you're right." He took a deep breath and gulped – feeling in the weight of it all fill his throat. He suddenly felt very naked. "You see…I…"
"I hope Slippy's okay."
"…Yeah." He was not at all relieved at his being interrupted. More silence found itself ever-present, the sort that ate at the two. He felt at his pockets, it was there! He held out the photo, it was torn in places but Fox knew what it was. "Here."
Fox pulled what was left of the photo from his friend and felt at it; as though running his fingers against it would let him feel his father's face again. His eyes already beginning to water, "Where did you get this?"
"I've been holding it since I found it in Peppy's diary. I've been waiting to give it to you, but never had the chance – things were crazy. Oddly enough it was that one thought -I think - that really got me through it all. The idea of seeing you again, I had to make it happen – even if I had to die to get to you." His word choice was poor. A minute passed when Fox's eyes struck him. Had he gone too far?
"None of this comes as a surprise to me," His face was grim, and Falco felt each verbal blow, "I should've known." Fox's brow was raised with a small grin, "Peppy writes in a diary."
Falco let out a small laugh, on the inside he was dying of laughter. The warmth filled him until he built the courage to tell him everthing. "Fox, when I was just a hatchling I was forced to grow up in the harder parts of Corneria. Everyday was a struggle to see tomorrow. My father tried to give me and my brothers a real home, but after my mother passed away he wasn't the same again. He started drinking, gambling, and sometimes wouldn't even come home at night. In this environment it was either join a gang or be killed, or be killed joining a gang, or just dying in the crossfire. My father had become violent, blaming the three of us of having caused our mother of dying – but we all knew it was heartbreak. My father was a mercenary and in his desperation to feed us all, had participated in some unthinkable acts – and she'd found out. She threatened to contact the police but he convinced her to tell no one after a night of violence. The three of us could do nothing, the oldest of us tried to shoot him with our Dad's blaster." He took a breath, the rings of his eyes red with tears. "He was wrestled to the ground by Dad and in the mess the pistol had fired, killing my baby brother in his crib. A few days went by and Mom eventually joined her baby; no police ever get involved in the ghetto. My eldest brother left that day to become a mercenary like our father, leaving me alone with Dad."
Fox's tears dropped onto the Arwing's Hull. "That's horrible."
Falco nodded, "I blamed myself for weeks, and so did my dad. I vowed to go to school to try and get out of that shit hole. I was accepted into a small school in the nicer parts of Corneria, it was miles away but I made it there – sometimes having to walk for hours; I still woke up to make that journey. I had made friends and things got better; I even had a best friend. He made my life exponentially better, you probably wouldn't remember, but you saved my life Fox. The Fox I knew those many years ago had saved me. I wanted to kill myself, but you made every day worth living. I wanted to spend every hour with you, but always had to leave to make the long journey back. My father had other plans. I was attacked and tried to run home, but I was caught in an ally. I shouldn't have been able to survive the assault – but the thought of seeing you again pushed me forward. Then I saw my father in that ally, he just watched as they tried to kill me – he hired them! I never saw my dad after that. I quit school and became a mercenary and vowed to hunt down my father – but he wasn't ever found. But then you found me again, years later. I could not even believe seeing you again, but in my embarrassment buried it away. You looked so heroic, idealistic with those dreams in your eyes; you really lit up that bar! You certainly stood out among all those pirates and mercs."
Fox moved closer to Falco now, wrapping his arm around him.
"You were looking for the toughest 'son-of-a-bitch' you could find; it was funny listening to you use all those rough words, badly, I had to end your embarrassment. So I challenged you to a dogfight. You were okay, for a novice, a few rookie moves and some dumb luck – but I had you in my sights the whole time – any other mercenary would've killed you up there, but I landed my shot and we were done. Then you tried to sell me your invitation to your silly squadron and I heard none of it – the chance to be at your side was the real prize." He thought best to leave the funeral from his story, but recalled the feeling of holding Fox. "We met again at the Cornerian Base – I waited outside while you tried to convince Pepper. I could hear you cheering from down that hall, something was up – and when we were given the Arwings, man that was something. I forced you to sneak out with me to give those babies a test flight, we both knew you wanted to. That night, just before dawn, we stole those birds and sent them sky bound. We flew until daybreak and made another wager and –" Falco stood. He pointed to Fox's Arwing in the distance. "This is where we are."
Fox's face was riddled with surprise; he gasped and stood beside Falco. "My God, you're right! This is your Arwing! Falco…" He stopped; Falco's face was inches from his own. In the light his eyes were soft, a blue. They were so clear, they'd seen more than anyone should see. He had done more than anyone has done for him. He felt as Falco's feathered arm began to wrap around his waist, slowly, his mind no longer could form solid thoughts. What was happening? Their chests pressed against each other's and the warmth tickled over him, spreading – he could feel their hearts beating against their chests. His fur pressed against feather. Their feet tangled. Their lips…closer.
He closed his eyes, and so did Fox. They'd met: soft and cool, Fox's lips caressed his own. He felt his other's arms pull his head closer -their breaths escaping into one another. They began to rise into the still sky, allowing their bodies to pull closer and closer through the zero-gravity. They were bathed in the orange sunlight, but their lips were the only things that parted and only for air. They fought to get closer and closer, as though their souls were battling to become one, separated only by their bodies. They had made love before Falco had realized what had occurred. Fox purred against his chest as they drifted, him having fallen asleep. Falco's eyes grew harder and harder to keep open, if this was a dream he was terrified of waking up but felt himself melt away in the warmth of emotion. He held his breath and counted to five: I love him.
He remembered the wager he had made; a gamble Falco was thrilled he lost. He had lost his bet and gained a lover.
--
When he awoke Fox was still beside him. He released his held breath. An idea came to him in his sleep – farfetched, but he woke Fox, sadly – they'd have to go home, as much as Falco would want to spend forever here, he grew hungry. With no food or water, dying here set reality simply: this was not heaven, they had not died. "Wake up, Fox."
He stirred, his eyes halved, "What's up, Falco." He looked around, slightly cheerless that he was still in this memory. But Falco left him; he opened his Arwing and took his place behind the helm. "You don't think that'll work, do you?" He heard the Arwing hum to life. A wealth of emotions ran over Fox, the strongest was hope. He dashed to his own ship, but stopped when he reached Falco's. "I, I don't want to go."
Neither did he, "We can't stay here, Fox – we'll die." He wanted to see Corneria again, get an apartment and live out his life at Fox's side.
But nothing can hurt us here…
He stepped towards his Arwing. He climbed inside. He turned the engines on and felt the fantasy melting away, the pocket dimension was evaporating behind them. The clouds gave way, the sun fizzled, and the planet before them was gone. Fox sighed as the last of the memory drizzled away. He turned around, staring ahead, his eyes fixated on the horror before them now. A transmission:
"Fox? Falco? You're alive!" Slippy cheered. "I thought the blackhole took you with it, I was spat out," he laughed. Fox and Falco both stared only in their silence.
"Oh my, Fox! What did you find?" it was Peppy. "Thank God you're all alive. The fleet was destroyed, Falco; I tried to hold Pepper off as long as I could."
The pilots began taking fire but dared not move, frozen in their seats. They stared at where the dimension had sent them, ignoring their being shot. They stood among a thousand-fold wreckage of Pigma's destroyed fleet; they were booted from heaven and set at the doorstep of hell. There two stood before thousands, the gravity already pulling them closer, and they stared at the planet Venom. Worse still, they couldn't remember getting here.
