Chapter 14

Several days had passed since Fox's torture. He remained imprisoned in his lonely jail cell, with nothing to do but lie around and hope for the best. There had been no considerable opportunities for him to attempt an escape yet.

The guards gave Fox just enough food and water to stay alive, disallowing him the chance to fully regain his strength. His wounds from the acid continued to hurt quite badly. He constantly thought about how he might be able to escape, desperately hoping the guards would slip up someday soon and give him an opening. No situation before had ever been so bleak for Fox.

Fox thought to himself constantly in the cell, thinking about his circumstance and his teammates. He wondered if Slippy and Amanda were still alive, and if they had also been tortured. He wondered if Falco and Krystal would come back, and if they could somehow rescue them all. It was far-fetched, of course, but wishful thinking was all Fox had at the moment.

Mostly Fox thought about Krystal. He wanted so much to reunite with her, and to make sure she was alright. The thought of dying without her stayed in his mind, making him feel even worse about being trapped here. Sad thoughts of his love kept circling his mind. He needed to get out so he could be with her again…

I can't die without her… Krystal… I'm sorry for everything…

One particular day, a miracle happened. The day started normally, with Fox waking up at an unknown hour and continuing to lie around depressed. Much time passed in silence; Fox had no reason to expect any surprises today. A surprise was just what he got though, when he saw two familiar faces enter the jail room. A monkey guard was walking with them.

"Slippy! Amanda!" Fox cried, rushing to the bars of his cell to see his friends up-close. He could hardly believe it, but he was overjoyed to see them again.

"Hiya, Fox!" Slippy said, cheerful to see his friend again.

"Good to see you, Fox! We were worried we wouldn't ever see you again!" Amanda said.

An awkward silence came next, as Fox turned his attention to the guard. Fox could only assume the guard's intentions couldn't be completely good. Fox stared hard at the monkey, clear resentment in his eyes. Why was this happening?

"So what's this all about, then?" Fox asked the guard, with some harshness in his voice.

"Captain McCloud… I know this will sound crazy, but I want to help you," the guard explained timidly.

"It's okay, Fox; he's on our side!" Slippy assured Fox chirpily.

The guard nodded, and continued speaking, "It's true! Bowman doesn't know, but I've never been loyal. I was drafted and had no choice but to fight for him. I think he's insane and needs to be stopped before he completely ruins the Lylat System. I want to get you and your friends out of here and back to Corneria, so you can help win the war and defeat Bowman."

Fox eyed the monkey skeptically, heavily considering that he wasn't telling the truth.

What are the odds one of Bowman's troops would want to help me out and become the most wanted man on Venom? Sure, maybe he doesn't like Bowman, but he's risking everything for this. It's probably just a trap…

"How can we trust you?" Fox questioned the guard, as politely as possible.

"I know it may not be much for you to go on, but I am a man of my word," the monkey said earnestly. "I'll do everything I can to get you all of here, to some ships, and off of Venom. I want you to win the war, and make our galaxy peaceful again. For now though, I need you to trust me. With all due respect, sir, what other choice do you have?"

Fox continued to stare at the monkey. He knew he had a point; it was either take the chance of going with the guard, or continue to sit around here and hope for some other kind of opportunity. Fox couldn't be entirely certain if the monkey was being sincere, but if he was lying, he was doing an awfully good job of it.

"Alright," Fox said, giving the monkey a nod. "Let's go."

The monkey smiled, and opened the cell door for Fox. As Fox got out of the cell, the monkey noticed the nasty wounds Fox had sustained. His smile turned into a frown, and he looked disgusted at what Bowman had done to Fox.

As Fox noticed the monkey looking at his wounds, the monkey looked down, and said, "I'm… I'm sorry…"

"It's fine," Fox said. He turned to face Slippy and Amanda, asking, "Did he hurt you guys?"

"No, we're okay," Amanda answered. "He just came to our cells once and tried intimidating us. Told us about what he did to you. He's a real… character…"

"Pffft, that's for sure!" Slippy agreed. "What a creep!"

The monkey addressed the three Star Fox members. "Here's the deal: I'm going to walk you all out of the building as quietly as possible. Bowman's not supposed to be in the building right now. If any of the guards ask about us, I'll tell them Bowman said to move you guys into another cell. If I can get you guys to the nearest ship hangar, which isn't far, you should be able to get out of here from there."

Fox, Slippy, and Amanda nodded, understanding the situation. The monkey led the three out of the prison room and into the red hallway. It was time to escape.

While the monkey walked in front of them, the three Star Fox members acted like prisoners as best as they could. A thought crossed Fox's mind however, and he suddenly began to worry. They had missed an important detail.

No handcuffs…

"Slippy… Amanda…" Fox whispered to his teammates.

"What?" they whispered back.

"Pretend like you're handcuffed. It'll look too suspicious if we keep going like this," Fox said to them.

"Good thinking," Slippy said.

The three each pressed their fists together and put them behind their back, trying to look as convincing as possible. They had gone through the first two hallways, and so far they hadn't seen any guards. Once they got to the purple hall, however, they did notice one guard strolling along, who appeared to be in his own world. The guard simply whistled and walked past the four, seemingly not having even noticed them – or paid any attention anyway.

Someone's alert, Fox sarcastically thought to himself, still grateful the guard hadn't said anything.

The four continued to walk, eventually getting to the green hallway – the hallway containing the room Fox had been tortured in. Just as they were nearing the end of the hallway, a guard emerged from one of the doors and immediately took notice of the Star Fox members. They all stopped moving once the guard shouted.

"Hey there! Robert – stop right there!" the guard said, running over to them.

Oh, great; nothing good comes out of this room…Fox thought to himself, the memories of his torture all too fresh.

Robert and the Star Fox members quickly turned around, and hoped the guard hadn't noticed they weren't really handcuffed. They three Star Fox teammates now knew their rescuer's name. The other guard approached them, a cocky smirk on his face. Like most of Bowman's army, he was another monkey.

"What do we have here, Rob? An escape attempt?" the guard asked, having seen right through them.

"I'm taking them to different cells; Bowman's orders," Robert replied calmly, hoping the guard would buy it.

"Yeah, sure; and he also ordered longer lunch breaks for us, right?" the guard scoffed. "I know you're trying to bust them out, Rob. You could never stop blabbing to me about how talented and great the Star Fox team is. You're their number one fan-boy, for goodness sake! I always knew you were a traitor. They're not even wearing handcuffs!"

Before the guard could say anything else, Robert lunged forward and tackled him to the ground. The two struggled for a moment, but Robert prevailed, knocking the guard out by smashing his head into the ground. Robert quickly got back up and ran back to the Star Fox members.

"We've got to get out of here now – there's no time to waste anymore!" Robert stated, leading the team out of the green hallway.

The four were running now, determined to get to the ship hangar as quickly as possible now. They knew the guard's unconscious body would be found quickly, and their window of opportunity to escape successfully was shrinking every second. They bolted through two more hallways (yellow-colored and orange-colored), running past a couple more guards who gave chase. Once Robert led them out of the orange-colored hallway, they were finally outside, leaving the bizarrely-designed building behind. From the exterior, it looked much plainer – simply a large, gray structure. Unfortunately, the guards that had noticed them continued following them outside, and a blaring alarm had been switched on.

"Just keep following me!" Robert yelled over the alarm sound. "The hangar's not far!"

They kept on sprinting, trying their hardest to outrun their pursuers and get to the hangar. More and more guards began to join in on the chase; tons were emerging from the building due to the alarm. They began to shoot their blasters and machine guns at the fugitive group, laser-fire circling them from every side. Each of them had incredibly high adrenaline, desperately hoping they would make it. They knew if they lost here, it was all over.

"Almost there!" Robert exclaimed, laser-fire whizzing over his head.

They could see the hangar up ahead, with its doors already open; it was a modestly-sized one, but it still had an abundant amount of ships inside. The hangar included numerous ships and weaponry; it was like a much smaller version of the main one inside Corneria's Army Center. Still managing to avoid the laser-fire behind them, the team rushed into the ship hangar and wasted no time getting to the three closest ships. Luckily they had managed to separate themselves from the enemy with some fast running, but they weren't ready to stick around.

Each of the Star Fox members hopped into the ships. Fox noticed Robert was sticking behind; he had assumed Robert would get into one of the ships and fly out of there with them.

"Robert! Aren't you coming with us?" Fox asked the monkey, genuinely concerned about him.

Robert looked up at Fox, a conflicted look in his eye. He did want to join them, but he also wanted to help them as much as he could. He was going to remain behind.

"No… I'll stay here and hold them off as long as I can. There's some grenades and rocket launchers I can use," Robert said to Fox.

"You don't have to do that," Fox said sadly. "Come with us! We could use you in the Cornerian Army, to help finish the war!"

"I appreciate the gesture, but… it's better this way," Robert replied. "If I come with you, they'll be right on our tails. We couldn't make it. If I hold them off you guys can get out safely, and they won't have enough time to follow you. I can't come. You must go now."

Robert ran to a nearby box containing a rocket launcher and picked it up, ready to start fending off the guards. Fox felt bad, but he knew Robert wouldn't change his mind. He had sacrificed everything just to give Fox, Slippy, and Amanda a fighting chance. It was an incredibly selfless act, and Fox could not fully express his gratitude for it.

"Robert… thank you, for everything," Fox said to Robert before departing.

Robert turned back to look at Fox one last time, and gave him a kind smile. It was the kind of smile a lifelong friend might give another, before the two separated for a long time – in this instance, forever. Robert knew he wasn't going to make it, but he had no regret in what he was doing.

As Robert turned his attention to the horde of oncoming soldiers, Fox, Slippy, and Amanda closed the cockpit windows of their ships. As quickly as they could, they took off with the ships and moved out of the hangar at full speed, finally getting out of Venom. It wasn't without stress, but the three found themselves in outer space once more. They continued flying as quickly as possible for a while until they were certain Bowman's troops wouldn't have a chance of catching up and finding them.

There was a long silence before anyone spoke to each other through the intercom, each teammate sad about losing Robert. It had all happened so fast. Fox felt sorry for having been rude to Robert when they first met, but was still grateful he got to thank him in the end. It was a bittersweet moment for all of them.

"Let's get back to Corneria," Fox said solemnly over the intercom.

Fox knew without Robert's help, there was no way he, Slippy, and Amanda could have made it out of Venom. Their ships would have been outnumbered and shot down by Bowman's forces. It had been a true miracle to keep them in the war, and Fox was not going to let it go to waste.