Today is the start of a new era. Donald John Trump will, for the next 1,441 days, be our president. With approval ratings at an all-time low for an incoming president, we are going to see some riots. If you live in a blue city within a red state, be prepared. But that's enough about politics.

This is the penultimate chapter. At long last, we have hit 2,000 views. I am hoping that the next story may have even more.

Also, to guest reviewer Anonymous: I have not played Phoenix Wright. However, things are different on Corneria.

In any case, enjoy the chapter!

LUCAS'S POV

It was now the afternoon after Willow and I had our second night under the stars, and it seemed that there were a great many things that could go wrong. For instance, it was far from guaranteed that we would be able to rescue Konstantin from his underground prison. Really, it seemed like he had been a little too careless with his enthusiastic singing of a song that he thought was patriotic, as well as the fact that he was flipping off the Cornerian flag the whole time.

Even so, there was no evidence that he had done anything wrong in terms of allowing the Anglars to penetrate the boundaries of the school. None.

After my lunch and rest hour (which had become extremely boring and anxiety-inducing given that it was time during which we were not able to discuss our plans), I decided to go for a walk, since we had a free period.

Eventually, I ended up in the hangar, which was still an impressive room here, even if it might have been far grander in the original location. Here, though, it looked a little more practical. It was even large enough to hold the Great Fox, and that thing was no joke in terms of size!

And, at the bottom of the landing gear...was a Bengal tiger.

Not just any Bengal tiger. It was Dr. Howler, and she was carrying large cardboard boxes into the ship. She appeared to be struggling with them a bit, so I raised my hand and called, "Hey, Dr. Howler!"

She looked so startled that she nearly dropped the box.

"Whoa, Lucas, you almost made me drop some bags of blood!" she said, half-angry, half-laughing at me. I could tell, however, that I had surprised her.

"Sorry I startled you" I said. "I just was walking around here, and I was wondering...do you want some help with whatever you're doing?"

"That'd be great" she said. "I'm carrying medical supplies and other things into the Great Fox. You can never be too prepared for a crisis, and like I have said before, I don't know what condition we will find Konstantin in. I've got plenty of bandages just in case. In fact, they're in the next box!"

Looking around the hangar, I saw that cardboard boxes were arranged in what seemed to be rows of ten, and there seemed to be a lot of them.

"So...I just pick some up and carry them in? Yes, that's going to be easy. I got some guns!"

In truth, I'm not really that muscular. Even though I'm extremely tall, I'm a little bit scrawny, and my arms are pretty skinny. But, I can carry some heavy things if I don't repeatedly have to lift them up and down. For instance, medical supplies.

"Good" Dr. Howler said. "Just be careful with the IV bags. Those things can be very fragile".

I promised her that I would, and then I started hauling boxes into the Great Fox.

"The med bay is just to the right of the entrance, so that's where you should take the stuff" she said as I began to load the supplies into the ship.

The inside of the ship appeared slightly futuristic, but also a little bit homey. If what Dr. Howler said was true, we might end up living in the ship for a while, so it would be good to be familiar with it and like the accommodations.

I remembered the med bay of the ship from when Falco had carried me in here after I'd gotten bitten by the Anglar. She probably assumed that I had been too out of it at the time to be able to realize where I was. She'd clearly been wrong.

Dr. Howler was stronger than you might think, which was probably due to the fact that she was a Bengal tiger. She could take one box at a time, and so could I. Together, we were making a little bit of a dent in the boxes.

"All of the cardboard is going to go in the incinerator" she said. "We have, on the Great Fox, other things to store the supplies in".

"You could've told me that earlier!" I exclaimed.

"Sorry, but you'll have to put the other things in their respective refrigerators. Luckily, in this fridge, the blood keeps practically forever. So you should be thankful, that you don't have to make regular donations just in case".

In general, the task was easy. The only things that were problematic were the IV poles, which required us to each take one end and maneuver them through the doorway. Luckily, there weren't too many of those, so we were soon left with just the bags and bandages, as well as surgical equipment.

Just then, I heard a knock at the door. I excused myself from helping for a minute so I could answer it, since the hangar was massive.

"Hey!" Cole said.

"We were walking down the hallways, but we hear that Dr. Howler is carrying medical supplies into the Great Fox. Is that true?"

"Yes, it is" the Bengal tiger said, grunting as she carried a box that, I had seen earlier, contained two computers.

"You want to help?" I asked them. "Eight hands are better than four".

"Sure!" they both said in unison.

And so, we all continued our work on carrying the boxes into the Great Fox. As I looked at the freshly painted parts of the outside of the ship, I thought about the day that we would, if everything went right in the next two days, take to the skies in this thing.

KONSTANTIN'S POV

Ever since the trial had ended, I had not been in a good mood. Technically, things had sucked even before I had learned that I would be executed, but now it was far worse.

I was in a dark, dank prison cell that was at least a hundred feet underground. It reminded me of the time that our family had gone skiing in the Alps, and there we had gone on a tram that cut through a mountain. That was cool at the time, but now I had grown to despise the idea of being underground.

If, by some miracle, I was rescued, I would forever hate anything having to do with underground. I'd follow Falco's philosophy of "Personally, I prefer the air".

I had not been given any water for two days, and I could feel dehydration start to take effect on me. I was feeling rather hot, and this wasn't something that was to be taken lightly given that I grew up in Texas. The chains were chafing against my fleshy skin, and I knew that at this point, death would be a relief.

In addition, every single movement I made felt sluggish, in a way that I could imagine Lucas might have felt after being cured of hypothermia by Dr. Howler. If only the Bengal tiger were here right now. Things could have been so much better, having another person to share my misery with. Plus, she'd deserve it, too.

Really, what had I done to deserve this? I was an innocent young man, driving off to college, when I get involved in traffic akin to a parking lot. So what do I do? I leave my vehicle and walk down the hill, trying to find the source of the problem.

But instead, I get shot by a tranquilizer arrow and wake up on the way to the Grey Clouds Flight Academy, also known as the Tenth Circle Of Hell. Yeah, that's how strongly I felt about the place. I was stuck with people whom I absolutely despised.

And then what? Our school gets attacked by the alien race that the war is being fought against, so they evacuate. I get it. But did they really have to lock me up, with no evidence substantiating the idea that I was responsible? What kinds of people were they?

Then, I was put on trial and, by a vote of seven to five (which would probably have been unanimous or close to unanimous in my favor if Wolf had not butted in), sentenced to execution. Again, death would not be so bad as compared to this, but that doesn't change the fact that I'd have to endure another few days here before I enjoyed the sweet release.

My mouth was getting increasingly dry, and I had not been fed since I was sentenced. I guess that they just didn't see a point in feeding someone who was going to be executed just a few days from now. Which I guess I understood, but still, I was hungry. My stomach was aching, and I don't like to go without food.

Just when I thought that I could not get any hungrier, the door to my cell opened. The guard, whose face I was not able to make out, placed my lunch in front of me. I was only barely able to extend my chains enough to pick up the plate, and I looked at the contents.

It was really quite pitiful, just a mini bagel and no water. Well, at least it was something.

In spite of my dry mouth, I was able to eat it in just one bite. Yes, it was that small!

This mini bagel, however, did little to satiate my hunger pangs. Not like it would matter soon enough, but I still felt that with each passing day with little or no food, I would sink far enough to the ground to the point that I didn't even need to be executed. Maybe I'd just sink through the floor.

Feeling around my belly, I could tell that I had probably lost at least five pounds by now. This would be a good diet plan, I realized. If not for the fact that I wasn't able to exercise at all, except try to hold myself up against the urge to fall down and go to sleep.

No, I was probably being watched. I didn't want to give those fuckers the satisfaction of knowing that they had been able to get to me. They would not get that much, and they didn't deserve it after all of the atrocities they had committed.

With that, I sat back down, the chains clinking once again, reminding me that until the moment I faced the firing squad, I was very much tethered to this life, and the pain that it brought.

LUCAS'S POV

The preparations continued. After the afternoon that I had devoted to helping carry medical supplies into the med bay of the Great Fox, I tried to focus the majority of my brainpower in lessons not actually working on my lessons. Instead, I devoted it to thinking about how we would rescue Konstantin.

After all, if we succeeded, we would have to leave the school in order to keep him, and ourselves, safe from their wrath.

On the afternoon before Konstantin's scheduled execution date, I once again saw Dr. Howler in the hangar. This time, she was with a different figure, yet one that I had seen many times before.

It was a dark blue anthropomorphic tropical bird. I knew, of course, that this was Falco Lombardi. Not only that, but the other students involved in the plan were present as well, and I had no wonder about what was going on. At least, I could tell that it was something having to do with what we were trying to do to save Konstantin.

"Hey, Lucas" Falco said. "You're just in time. Do you want to get a tour of the Great Fox, so that you know what your life on the ship is going to be like once you have rescued Konstantin?"

"I most certainly do!" I said enthusiastically. Because, really, I was quite curious to see what life was like on Star Fox's mother ship. It was going to be quite interesting.

"The others have already told me that they would like to see it, so that's what we're doing. Now, if you'll follow me, climb up the ramp into the ship".

We did so, and then we were inside the Great Fox. This was, depending on how you counted it, either the third or several hundredth time that I had been inside the ship. No matter what, it was quite something.

The foyer of the Great Fox had blue wall-to-wall carpeting, making it look kind of like my room at home in Maine...which really made me sad and mad at my parents for sending me here.

Way to reopen old wounds, Falco!

In any case, it was really quite spectacular. Falco led us into the med bay and showed us everything that we had helped set up.

Unlike the hospital wing at the school, this place did not look like an early-21st-century hospital room. Instead, it looked far more high-tech, which was no surprise considering the place we were living. IV stands still looked fairly the same, but the beds looked a little more futuristic. Despite this, they looked fairly comfortable, which was important for recuperating patients.

"Here's the blood bank, here's the bandage box, here's the saline stash..." Falco said, showing off each area as he said its name.

"You really love alliteration, don't you?" Cole asked teasingly.

Falco chuckled good-naturedly. "Yes, I do, but does it really matter? No, I do not think so. I want to show you the rest of this place if you'll let me".

We all nodded, and so Falco led us out of the med bay, while also showing us the operating room just in case someone needed a very quick patch-up after a severe injury or something. "Expect a lot of those" Falco said.

He then led us down the stairs into the rec room, and it was quite a rec room indeed! There was a pool table, which I never really cared about, reason being I don't like to play pool. There was also a table tennis table, a TV with several video game consoles, and a dartboard.

"I bet Konstantin is going to kill us at Super Smash Bros.!" Cole exclaimed.

"Not until we rescue him" Dr. Howler chided.

Her reminder seemed to bring Cole back to earth, remembering that there was no guarantee that our mission would even succeed. It was going to be tough to get him out of his prison, but we would do everything we could to at least try.

"I guess not" he said.

"This is the rec room, where you will likely spend a lot of your free time, of which you tend to have a lot when traversing the galaxy. The nearest planet, for instance, is Fichina. There's a city there, and yet it is several days from here at the speed this thing travels. You'll have to go full engines ahead...and I'm coming with you!"

"Wait, you are?" Will asked him.

"Yes, I am going to help you get Konstantin out, as I'm sure I have already told you. You haven't seen the best part of the ship yet, though. Don't you want to see where you're going to sleep?"

The sleeping arrangements were even better than they had been at the Grey Clouds Flight Academy, which was saying something. The beds, while not four-posters, were very nice bunk beds, much like you would see in a suburban home. There was a sturdy-looking railing so that you wouldn't fall off the top bunk.

"And there's a bathroom right here that each of you can brush your teeth in. There are three bedrooms and three bathrooms in total on the ship, and there's a dining area, which is where we're going next".

Falco led us down a carpeted hallway to the dining room, which was right next to the kitchen. This dining area held a table that could seat up to twelve people, and it was just as fancy as the special Christmas tablecloth that they used at home. I knew that they celebrated Christmas on Corneria, but I didn't know if the Great Fox would have additional tablecloths reserved for special occasions.

I decided that didn't matter right now. Not when Falco was still showing us around the place.

Falco led us into what looked like a large home gym. "This is the exercise room" he said. "N

ormal gravity is simulated in here, meaning that you won't lose muscle mass at the rate that you would on the International Space Station. Even so, it is still important to exercise in order to stay healthy".

Dr. Howler looked at us seriously. "I expect all of you to spend at least thirty minutes in there each day, unless I say otherwise. Do you understand me?"

Everyone present nodded. Willow held up her arms like a professional bodybuilder.

"All right" Falco said. "We've got treadmills, weights, exercise bikes, and elliptical machines. It's enough to keep you all in shape on a long trip, am I right?"

After we stated that we had understood, Falco then told us to leave and take our daily showers. Even though I had now seen where we would hopefully be living once we escaped, that didn't change the fact that I was so very worried about what we were going to do in order to rescue Konstantin. I didn't know if it could even work.

DR. HOWLER'S POV

An hour later, during dinner, I was eating a meatball sub when I got the feeling that I was being watched. I know that that sounds pretty cliche, but it was really what I felt like. I didn't know what to make of it, until I turned around to look and see for myself what was going on.

And, lo and behold, it turned out that I was being watched. More specifically, Katt Monroe was behind me.

I didn't know if Bill Grey was aware of the plan to bust Konstantin out of his death row cell, or, if so, he wanted to prevent it. If the answer to at least one of those questions was no, then Katt was the highest-ranking person at the school who would be in opposition to what we were doing.

Either way, I felt a certain degree of nervousness when I noticed her, and I tried not to perspire, because that would make me look guilty.

"Good evening, Dr. Howler" she said coolly to me.

"Good evening, Katt" I said, not knowing what she wanted, but having a strong feeling that it was something not in my best interest.

Katt turned towards me. "I want you to view some more footage of Konstantin as he is in his cell. I want you to make sure that no one tries to bust him out, and alert me immediately if an attempt starts. You got that?"

"Yes, Katt" I said.

I had been to this room before.

Katt had led me to a room that had been built into the rock foundation of the mountain. This room was lined with pink and green tiles that looked like something you would see on a game show. A series of video cameras were built into the walls, each of which showed footage of a different part of the school.

A staff member was supposed to be manning these cameras at all times. The reason for this was that, if there was anything dangerous going on, it was our job to put a stop to it and protect the students.

I took this job very seriously. After all, I was the school's doctor, and so it was my responsibility to take care of the students. I could see footage of the hospital from here, as well as each of the classrooms and the hangar.

The central camera, which was far larger than the others, always showed the room that was judged to be the most important at the time. While the criteria for this were not something that I had been made aware of, I was not surprised to see that the central camera currently showed Konstantin's cell a hundred feet underground.

Looking at the screen, I saw just how absolutely pitiful the youth looked. He was hunched over, no doubt from the tiredness that resulted from being forcefully stood up with anklets and wristbands that shackled him to the ground and the walls. Escape was impossible, and he seemed resolved to this.

If he succumbed to the exhaustion, he was going to collapse in a heap on the floor, and that would be quite painful. And yet, from the combined forces of exhaustion, dehydration, and aches, I had no doubt that was going to happen eventually.

There were, however, positives to this job. As I was able to gauge the type of medical care he would be likely to need should we save him, I was also able to see where his cell was. I knew that it was ten stories underground, but I could also see how it was guarded.

Unfortunately, it didn't look like it would be easy to get through their defenses. The cell was guarded 24/7, as if a bunch of chains weren't enough to keep him in one place. For all intents and purposes, he looked like Zoroark in the movie Zoroark: Master Of Illusion. More specifically, it looked like the scene where Kodai has trapped her in a box and bound her to the walls with chains of electricity that shock her when she tries to break out.

In this case, it would lash tighter around his ankles if he attempted to escape, much like a Chinese finger trap. He wouldn't be able to get out without outside help, and none was likely to be forthcoming unless...

Unless...

Getting past the guards had seemed hopeless, but I suddenly had a burst of inspiration. I literally felt my face light up in a smile, which might have tipped my watcher (yes, I was being watched as I watched the screen, much like in that Dr. Seuss book) that something was up. I just couldn't let Katt realize this, or else I would fuck up our plans.

I'd been one of the ones who helped develop the sedative that we used to capture the students by knocking them out and dragging them into the choppers. As Mrs. Hooter had used on the very youth that I was now watching suffer in a dank prison cell, I had seen that it was possible to administer the sedative by way of arrow. You didn't need to have a direct shot into their arm or leg. You could just shoot it into them from afar.

I didn't have good enough aim for that. But I knew someone who did.

As soon as I was allowed to leave the camera room, I found Mrs. Hooter in the archery range of the new school. She was doing some target practice, as she almost always was. When I saw just how engrossed she seemed to be in what she was doing, I could tell that it would be an uphill battle in order to convince her.

"Hey...Mrs. Hooter?" I went to ask her.

She fired her arrow before turning to face me. Which was a good thing, because I was the most skilled doctor here, and no one wants the doctor to get hurt.

"What is it, Dr. Howler? I'm kind of busy here!" she said irritably.

"There's something I would like your help with" I said, trying to get straight to the point.

"Well, tell me, then" she said.

I didn't know where to begin. Since she had been the one to escort all of us to Konstantin's trial, I decided to skip to the verdict.

"As you know, Konstantin Brockenbough was found guilty despite no actual evidence being brought up in the trial. I think that this is a big problem, and I am part of a group that is trying to help him escape from his cell".

"Are you crazy?" Mrs. Hooter lashed out at me. "You don't even know if any of these people will betray you or not! You have no idea if they are trustworthy, so why work with them on something as dangerous as this?"

"It's just the same students who were at the trial with us" I said, trying to calm her down.

Mrs. Hooter put down her bow and tried to steady her breathing. "I'm sorry. I just...get a bit out of control".

I helped the owl sit down in a chair before I said more to her.

"So why do you want me, of all people, to help you with this crazy plan of yours?" she asked, sounding like I must not have been right in the head.

I explained the whole thing about how the sedatives, when the arrow was laced with them, could be shot into someone from afar. "Just look how you did it to Konstantin" I said.

"Okay. I'm still not entirely persuaded that I should do it. I mean, there will be a lot of guards. It's not going to be easy getting past all of them, even with the tranquilizer arrows. And if we get caught, we're going to be the ones in trouble, and that won't even get Konstantin free. Are you really going to do this?"

At this point, I was almost tearing up, although I tried not to show it. "I've got no choice, Mrs. Hooter. You might be the only person who could help us, and we really want to do this. I, quite honestly, think that this is our moral obligation to do everything in our power".

Mrs. Hooter laughed darkly. "Okay, so even if I did this...where would you go afterwards? This school wouldn't be safe for you anymore, you do realize that?"

"Simple. We'd escape in the Great Fox, which is already prepped with plenty of food and medical supplies. It's going to work out. But if you don't want to leave with us, that's fine. Stay here and let whatever happens to you happen".

She sighed. "Fine. I'll do it. But you'd better not tell anyone!"

Like I'm going to, I thought.

KONSTANTIN'S POV

I had drifted off...some time ago. I didn't know how long I had been asleep, but I knew it could not have been more than a day or so, because I had not been executed yet. Or maybe they were waiting for me to wake up, so that I could feel the full pain and terror that the firing squad would bring. There was no way to know.

The firing squad was going to come at about two in the morning two days after the last point I had fallen asleep. This meant that, if I had slept through the night, this might be my last full day in this world.

In falling asleep, I had also fallen forward. I was more chained than I had ever been, and it was utterly pitiful. I was glad that my family couldn't see me now, because I probably looked like I was in a lot of pain.

Granted, I was in a lot of pain. The chains dug into my ankles and wrists, and blood was starting to come out in drops. Not to the point that would make one worry about blood loss, but still it was not pleasant. My mouth was as dry as the Sonoran Desert, and I didn't know if I would be able to swallow my dinner...if I would even get fed this close to my execution.

Fuck the Cornerians for doing this to me!

Really, there was nothing else I could think about other than my physical state, as well as my mental and emotional states. The anger helped fuel me, make me determined to last until my execution. And I would die as I had lived here, with two middle fingers raised at the flag.

Just then, a knock came at my door. A guard came in with a plate of food, setting it before me.

It didn't look too appetizing- a few slices of dark lettuce with bread burnt to a crisp. It looked like it had been left out to dry for a very long time, but it was still food.

As I leaned into it, the guard pushed me away.

"This food is not for you, Brockenbough" the guard said. Before I could protest, he slapped me on the stomach, hard.

Maybe he's just trying to make me not eat, I thought.

But no, he kept on beating me, on the stomach, legs, and arms. The pain was becoming unbearable, and I wished that I would just die from this already. Not have to face any more of this punishment. Send me straight to my execution already.

After five minutes of this, he slapped me in the head, which sent me reeling. Because of my chains, I was limited in terms of how far I would be sent backwards, but that didn't change the fact that my vision darkened.

I tried to stand back up, but he hit me once again on the leg. I fell forward...

...and lost consciousness.

I woke up some time later, which I estimated was the next morning. Really, down here there was no way to tell. Not from deep inside a mountain, there wasn't.

This was the last morning before the guards came in to lead me off to the firing squad. And, unless there was some crazy miracle that took place, this would be the last morning of my life.

I hope you enjoyed this moderate-length chapter. The next chapter is the last one. Since the author's note at the end will be HUGE, it is likely to be the longest in the story.

In any case, enjoy reading and reviewing!

And no, I'm not running out of ideas. I just REALLY wanted to add Dr. Howler's POV.