This chapter was tough to write, even though it's pretty short. Especially compared to how long I expect the last two chapters to be!

Also, Jack's flashback is poorly written, I understand.

JACK'S POV

It was the night before we were going to fight in Area 6, and I had yet another nightmare. Even before I had volunteered to join Star Enfield on their quest to defeat the Anglar army, I had been no stranger to them. Now, however, they had become far worse in the last few weeks.

I supposed that it was still worth it, helping these people. There was substantial evidence that, once they had taken over the Lylat System, the Anglars would set their sights on the human world.

Because living and letting live wasn't their style. They weren't going to stop just because they had already won the marathon. No, they were going to run in the 10K right after that as well.

In any case, once I closed my eyes, I found myself in a scene that I was all too familiar with.

I was at one of the Polish army's bases in the Bosnian war. We were on the defensive here, with the enemy coming in to take us down. Unlike what usually happened to me, this was a lucid dream. I was aware the whole time that it was just a dream. In fact, these dreams were almost always lucid dreams. For what reason, your guess is as good as mine.

On this particular occasion, we were hunched over and shooting at the enemy. However, we needed to be careful where our legs were, because one slip-up could easily lead to a mine going off. Yes, our own base was mined by the enemy. The situation was that bad for our side.

I managed to get a couple of hits in on the enemy, but one of my comrades was shot and killed. To make matters worse, his body collapsed and set off a mine. It was an enormous, red explosion, and I knew that some of the red was coming from me. I lost consciousness, overwhelmed by the pain and fear.

Later, I found myself in a medical tent, with a medic squeezing the (insert expletive here) out of an IV bag. He explained that our entire base had been destroyed, and that half of the people present had died, most of the other half being treated right near me.

I remembered all of the grief for quite a while. It wasn't a pleasant experience, being a soldier in the Bosnian War, but I knew that my job as a weapons expert was very much appreciated by both human and furry armies.

I woke up and sat bolt upright in my bed. My bones didn't crack too much. Even though I had aged to 47, I had stayed in good shape the whole time. I could have kicked some Anglar ass right then and there if I had had to.

Instead, I was soaked in a cold sweat. I knew that it hadn't been real, but that didn't make things any less terrifying. Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a very real thing that I don't think people recognize as much as they should. Today, it was making me pretty nervous.

I knew that we were going to fight our way through Area 6 today, which made me extraordinarily worried. For one, it was the last area that we faced before Venom itself, and that no doubt that it would be defended extremely heavily. Ever since I'd been taken in by the Lylatian army, I'd seen gameplay footage of the level, and even seen videos of people able to get six hundred points on the level, that's how many enemies there were.

Are, I corrected myself.

I couldn't believe the dream hadn't been real. It felt so real. Even though I'd been aware of it being just a dream, I could feel the wind on my face, the pain of the bomb, and the grief at losing half of my squadron.

Luckily, the Star Enfield team hadn't lost anyone since I had been taken on. Mike and Will, as well as Mrs. Hooter, had died in a shooting on Fichina that also gravely injured Lucas, but this was before I'd met Lucas Enfield and the others. If I lost anyone that I had actually met and fought alongside, that was going to affect me for many years to come.

Of course, it was far too early to gauge what was going to happen. I didn't know exactly how crazy Area 6 was going to be, and I didn't know how well we were going to be able to handle it, or otherwise.

But, given the situation, I felt justified in feeling at least a little bit nervous.

There was eventually nothing better to do than to get out of my boxer shorts (what I usually slept in) and put on my day clothes. Then, I joined the crew in the dining room of the Great Fox for breakfast.

The general atmosphere around the table was one of nervous excitement. I could tell that Ian, for one, looked like he might have had ADHD or autism, not the first time I had wondered that, because he was rocking back and forth on his chair. But, for that matter, so was I. Everyone had that sort of nervous energy about them, and I could barely eat the two slices of toast I had prepared for myself with peanut butter. Luckily, no one who was currently a member of Star Fox was allergic. Plus, who was I kidding, they probably had a cure for food allergies by this point.

Anyway. Sorry for rambling.

After breakfast, I went back to the hangar in order to do one last upgrade. I had to be quick about this, because our ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) was only about seventy-five minutes away. As a result, I could only do one thing, and that was to help increase the potency of the Arwing's barrel roll feature. Hopefully, the other members of the crew would thank me for this later.

It took me the better part of an hour to do it for all of the ships, but it definitely would pay off. Especially considering that we were entering one of the most dangerous sectors in the entire Lylat System, we could definitely use this increased usage of one of the Arwing's most distinguishable features.

Now, there was only one thing left to do, which was to get ready for the battle.

The time came, and all of us except for Dr. Howler and Cole got into our Arwings and flew out of the hangar and into Area 6.

The reason the Bengal tiger did not allow Cole to take part in the battle was, once again, because of the concussion and other injuries he had suffered on Zoness. It was for his own good, and he knew it, but it didn't stop him from looking very irritated. I could tell that Cole McCallen was one person who would not want to miss the opportunity to stick it to his enemies in Area 6.

"Are you guys ready for this?" Falco said. "It's pretty intense".

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be!" said Lucas excitedly.

"Let's get this done!" Konstantin bellowed. Even though he was almost twenty years old, the Texan sounded like a little kid in a toy store. I was almost going to remind him that this was not supposed to be fun, but I restrained myself from doing so. I didn't need to make him worry, or anyone else for that matter.

The whole area of Area 6 looked kind of pretty, to be honest. The yellow-green planet of Venom lay far ahead of us, but it was still very much visible, and it felt almost like we were skiing downhill to the planet. Amid the whole area, there were these things that looked kind of like hurricanes or tops, spinning in the middle of it all.

And, laying beyond all of this, there was the endless blackness of space, that which inspired such awe and wonder. Really, who knew what was going to come after this whole war, assuming we all survived? In this one moment, it really did feel like there was boundless possibility for the future.

But then, I told myself the truth: That it wouldn't come true if we failed to take Area 6. We had to get through and fight the boss.

Ian and Lucas were the ones who were doing most of the shooting down of the hurricanes, while Willow and Konstantin were focusing on the other enemies that came out of seemingly nowhere and shot red lasers at us. Really, it wasn't that tough.

"Look out for the space mines!" Konstantin yelled.

I looked up ahead. Sure enough, small, blue spiked balls were all over the place in this next part of Area 6. If we weren't careful, our ships would most likely explode, in which case we were going to be dead.

Acting out of instinct, I fired a smart bomb. "Look at that!" said Ian.

Sure enough, the enormous three-dimensional starburst that had appeared in the middle of the air (if you could call it that) was literally consuming all of the mines. It was quite a sight to behold, to be sure. Not only that, but there were some Anglar ships in the blast, and they seemed to all disintegrate before our very eyes. It might have been pretty freaky to see if it wasn't in the interest of our side.

With the help of the smart bomb, we were able to navigate our way through the minefield and into the next part of Area 6, which would no doubt turn out to be even more dangerous than it had been so far.

LUCAS'S POV

The feeling that Jack described was definitely accurate. It really did feel like we were going down a ski slope, getting closer and closer to the bottom, which was where Venom lay.

Along the way, we were firing a lot of lasers. I allowed Willow to take down one of the enemies behind me, and then we continued onwards. It wasn't going to be too hard to get through the batallion, so I wasn't that worried. We were on a roll.

"Shoot down those enemy ships, Lucas!" I heard Falco say.

I looked and noticed that there were indeed some ships that resembled Star Destroyers. I mashed the fire button as much as possible, ensuring that these ships would be downed as much as possible.

"Did we get 'em?" said a voice through my communicator.

"Not yet, sir!" came another voice.

I realized that these were two affiliates of the Venomian army, talking about us. Clearly, this was meant to unhinge me. It was a last-ditch attempt to stop us from reaching Venom. That much I understood.

Soon, the Star Destroyer clones began firing, but I was able to use Jack's new barrel roll technology to help deflect the lasers. With this, it became easy to get the ships to begin to fall. Had this been the level in the video game, I had little doubt that this would have been enough to merit the medal.

I had, to paraphrase George Michael, "hit that high". I was in the zone, shooting down enemy ships and protecting my teammates, and allowing them to protect me. This was the kind of thing that got that adrenaline pumping through my veins. I really could get used to this.

Then, I felt a lurch, and my roller coaster was no longer one that only went up.

I'd been shot. Not in the body, but my Arwing had gotten a laser to the front. Luckily, I didn't clip a wing or anything, and nothing seemed to be damaged except for my invisible shield gauge. This was a good thing.

Breaking a wing is one of the worst things that can happen to you in Star Fox 64, other than dying. This means that you will have a lot less control, and if you had upgraded your lasers, you would lose the upgrade and be back to the single green ones. I didn't know if this would nullify Jack's upgrades to the lasers, and other features of the Arwing, but I knew that I didn't want to risk that.

At this point, my metaphorical roller coaster was already at that point where your stomach feels weightless. I didn't want to get it to a loop-de-loop, or something like that.

"Are you okay, Lucas?" Ian asked me, having noticed that I'd gotten shot and probably wondered if I was in trouble.

"Yeah, Ian, I'm fine" I said. "Just an enemy laser or two, nothing that I can't handle".

The others seemed not to be too concerned. After all, I'd taken a laser to the leg before, and it hadn't been anything that blood transfusions, physical therapy, and a mystery injection couldn't fix. My ship was far more durable.

We kept on going down the line, continuing to get closer and closer to Venom, until we were suddenly stopped in our tracks.

"Is that..." Falco began to ask.

There was no question about it a couple of seconds later. A disc-like being, standing on its site, with a massive blue button in the middle and three or four tentacles on the edges, was looking right at us. Based on my experience from playing the game before, I knew exactly what this was.

It was Gorgon, the boss of Area 6.

Gorgon opened up its disc-like body to reveal three segments similar to flower petals, with teeth like a Venus fly trap. It had three energy balls centered around an energy core in the middle.

"Let's take this thing down!" Konstantin bellowed.

Falco was wasting no time, shooting down those three energy balls in what seemed to be no time at all. Jack was also helping, shooting down the core very quickly. As a result of this, the core turned from blue to yellow.

It wasn't a pretty golden shade of yellow, though. It was a more olive color, which I personally find kind of disgusting, but to each his own, I guess.

Gorgon immediately seemed to undulate in front of our very eyes, before appearing in front of us once again.

"Get away, fast!" Falco barked.

I remembered why soon enough. As soon as we moved to the side, a large pink beam came blasting out of the middle of the Gorgon, in the energy button or whatever. It wasn't that hard to avoid, but it was pretty freaky just the same.

After this, Falco repeated the process two more times before the Gorgon was defeated.

"We did it!" he cheered.

My heart lifted. Out of everything that had just happened, everything that was still to happen, one good thing had come.

We had taken Area 6.

After we had done something so pivotal to winning the war, in taking Area 6, I'm sorry to say that our celebration was short-lived. After all, there was still Venom, and that was going to be the largest and most dangerous battle of all.

We'd done this so many times over the last five weeks, but I knew that I wanted to have one more dance with Willow. After all, there was a very real possibility that we would die the day after tomorrow, so I figured that we might as well get this in.

"I'm cool with that" Willow said. "I agree, we might not be here this time next week".

We went down to the workout room, and I pulled out my phone. After a while, I got to the song I liked, one of my favorites by Coldplay. It was also one of my father's favorites, but I wasn't going to let myself become distanced from the songs we both liked.

I took her arms as the song began.

It really did seem that we were dancing to a lot of songs about unrequited love lately. But Coldplay had always been one of our favorite bands, so that was what we listened to as I pulled her along in a slow dance.

In this part of the song, the singer is begging the girl to get with him, saying that he's changed. As for what it means to "shiver" in this song, that's anyone's guess.

Willow seemed to be getting into the music just as much as I was, and I was happy about that. It seemed that, in the midst of this war, we were able to have a good time together with regards to something that was entirely unrelated.

It's a long song, about five minutes long. And yet, Willow didn't seem to get tired of dancing to it. And neither did I.

I really was in love with this girl.

All too soon, it was time to go to bed, where, for the first time in a long time, I didn't have any dreams. Maybe I was just really tired from the day's events, or maybe the dance with Willow had helped with my nightmares.

After a quick breakfast the next morning, it was time for the most important battle of our lives. I know that I keep emphasizing just how important every battle was, but this one really was a big deal. The Anglars' backs were against the wall, and we just had to win the battle of Venom in order to win the war.

We landed on Venom, and I was immediately assaulted by the toxic air. It smelled like rotten eggs, and it was very dry. It was like Yellowstone National Park without the geysers.

Well, there might have been geysers on Venom, but I had no way of knowing if that was the case or not.

"I know where to go" Konstantin said.

The rest of us looked at him, puzzled. Dr. Howler was once again still on the ship, there to tend to anyone who was wounded in the battle...which was likely to be just about all of us who survived.

"There is a temple about half a mile that way" he said, pointing to his right. "This is where I saw Wolf and Panther plotting to kill Lucas".

I flinched at the sound of my name, remembering being tied to a chair and shot in the leg. That wasn't a good memory.

"Show us the way, then" Jack said. "I know that we will need guidance on how to get here. The location of the temple isn't clear from where we are at now".

"Sure" Konstantin replied.

The Texan led us about half a mile up a hill to where we could see an old, seemingly abandoned stone temple.

"This is the place. I know it".

"Okay, then" Falco said. "Let's stay safe, guys, and remember: This one is for all the marbles. We really have to win today".

After all of us nodded to show that we understood, Falco led us inside the temple.

I'm sorry if, once again, the battle with Gorgon seemed rushed. The fact of the matter is, writing this at nine in the evening really does make one not want to include quite as much detail. And I would like to apologize once again for the short length. But I PROMISE you, the last two chapters are both going to be huge.

With that, please review and tell me what you thought about it!

P.S. I do not own the song "Shiver" by Coldplay.

SnowLucario out.