CHAPTER NINETEEN
Forgotten Children
The next morning…maybe. Cerinia's in perpetual twilight, remember?
Marcus stirred awake in the treehouse after the four had gotten there what he thought was six hours ago. Aileen and Hephaestus were still sleeping, with the former's arm oddly draped across the latter's chest. Marcus smirked.
"That figures."
He stood up and took a good stretch, only then realizing the house was short one inhabitant. Turning his head towards the door, he saw that said inhabitant was sitting outside with his legs hanging over the side of the balcony and something in his mouth. Marcus stepped outside, prompting Isaac to look over his shoulder and smirk. It was then Marcus saw that the thing in his mouth was a cigarette of sorts.
"Mornin', sport."
"You finally got that smoke, eh?"
"Yep. Heph taught me how to make one."
Marcus sat down next to Isaac and took in a deep breath, leaning away from the smoke first.
"You want one? I can whip one up in about ten seconds now."
"No thanks. I'm not into that."
"You sure? You don't even drink?"
"I wouldn't be able to handle the hangover."
"Point taken."
The two looked out at the landscape, and at the sky in particular. It really made Marcus sad to know that the sun hadn't raised here in three years and that even some of the native children had forgotten what it looked like.
When he was a child, the sunrise was like a holy event that he never got to see because he was asleep when it happened, but he had seen the sun set with his own eyes. From what his mother and father told him, the sunrise was just as beautiful if not more so. Even if it wasn't, he knew it existed. These children didn't. Was that why he wanted to help them? Not exactly. Being controlled by a tyrannical monster was the primary reason.
Thus came another question: was it them he was fighting for, or was it himself? Was he being a hero, or just a greedy little child? And one more thing.
"Why are you helping us?" he said aloud.
"Huh?" Isaac asked.
"You weren't promised any reward, you've been put in danger way more than necessary, and you've been the ass end of quite a few jokes so far. But you still want to help us. Why?"
Isaac put out his smoke and looked at Marcus with a very stern look.
"What I'm about to tell you is something that happened to me a little while after Katt left the Hot Rodders. When she told me she wanted to join the Cornerian Army, I thought she was crazy. The reason I said that was because she was putting her life on the line for people who didn't really give a damn about her…well, except for Falco, of course. Then she said something to me that I've kept in my heart ever since then. I haven't seen Katt in God knows how long, but I've never forgotten what she said to me that day."
Now Marcus was beyond curious.
"She said 'Seeing smiles on people's faces when they know they're safe is the greatest reward anyone can give me'. I don't know why, but that really seemed to hit home for me. For whatever reason, I left the Hot Rodders a little while afterwards and sort of took on a Robin Hood persona. I helped a couple people get out of scrapes with some really shady-looking guys, and before I knew it, I'd saved a little kid from a burning building. The smile on her parents' faces made me realize exactly what someone who has any kind of star fighter is supposed to do in this day and age."
Isaac smiled up at the sky. It felt good to get this off of his chest.
"I want to help you because it's the right thing to do and it will make people happy, Mark. I'm still a vigilante at the core. I don't take orders from anybody when I'm in familiar space, which is another reason why I think you're what this whole galaxy needs."
"Huh?"
"As the leader of Star Fox, everyone on Corneria sees you as a hero even if they don't realize it. That's what you were born to be, and if anyone tells you otherwise, they're either lying or in denial. The people of this planet need someone like you to help them get back what's rightfully theirs."
Marcus smirked, but this smirk quickly faded when another thought came into his mind.
"I've never really held myself in the high regard everyone holds me in. I've never seen myself as that much of a hero."
"Why not?"
"Simple: I'm a mercenary. I get paid to blow things up. We used to joke about that when Katt and Falco were still in the team, but now I know that it isn't funny...Goddammit…"
"What's wrong?"
"The longer I'm on this planet, the more I think that the so-called morals everyone's taught me are completely meaningless. You know the old McCloud family motto?"
"'Never give up. Trust your instincts.'…that's it, right?"
"Go ahead and say I'm reading too deep into it, but that motto is bullshit. You know what trusts its instincts? A monster that thinks everything around it is weaker than it is and is therefore food. If I follow my instincts and not my morals, I'm no better than Kursed."
He had been thinking of what Coyote had turned into right in front of him as he said that. To think that that was how someone would act when their animal instincts were released was simply unheard of back on his home planet. He had seen it with his one eyes…how easy it was for someone to be consumed by rage.
The two were unaware that Aileen was listening in from the doorway. She had been listening intently and only now showed herself, though spoke like she had heard nothing.
"We should probably get going. Aphrodite's scouts are usually doing patrols in a few hours."
Marcus nodded, and both he and Isaac stood.
"Right. Where to next?"
"The mine…I just have to warn you now that what you're going to see may be a little more than you can bear."
One grimtiger ride later…
Telia went running off again into the forest after Aileen had given her enough food, and thus left the group standing in front of yet another empty tunnel, though this one looked like it had been inhabited by actual civilized beings…once upon a time, anyway.
"Our people used to mine for precious gems here." Hephaestus said. "It was rich with minerals back in those days. The workers came back with basket-loads of them."
"What did you do with them?" asked Marcus.
"Most of them were used as mating offerings."
"You mean wedding rings?"
"In a way, yes."
Marcus bit his lip and looked over at Hephaestus as the group began their descent into the mine.
"What is love like on Cerinia?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean do you just choose a mate for the sake of choosing one. Is there any consensual love between the two people?"
"Yes, of course. We do not choose mates sporadically. Meeting your mate is an act of destiny. It cannot be changed in any way, but then again, why should it?"
While one of Coyote's favourite Earth shows from the past fifty years had been Twin Peaks, one of Marcus' favourites had been Penn and Teller: Bullshit!...why is this important? Because Marcus was a large skeptic about everything these people were talking about. He hadn't believed for a second that Kursed was in fact a soul born without a body and was instead forced to leech off of another, thus technically making him his aunt, not his surrogate mother. He hadn't believed for even a moment that his maternal grandmother was a being from another dimension. Like any skeptic, he would only be convinced if it came straight from the horse's mouth, and now he had yet another thing not to believe in.
Wasn't fate what you made it out to be? Couldn't the future be changed if you wanted to change it? Why was Marcus thinking so philosophically about everything? Why was he looking at everything so negatively?
"I wanna go home…" he mumbled.
"What?" said Aileen.
"Nothing."
It was true, though. Whatever it was in his head that made him want to just forget this whole fiasco and go home had overpowered him for just a moment. But no. He couldn't go home. He knew that, so why did he keep thinking otherwise?
"I know what this is…being on this planet for this long…I've only been here for one night and I'm already losing my fuckin' mind!"
Marcus shook the thoughts out of his head when the group stopped in front of a very deep shaft, though with a rope that hung down into it. Marcus grasped the rope and tugged. It held firm.
"I'll go first. I can wall-jump back up if it breaks." he said.
Really he just needed something physically demanding to do to put his mind at peace. He planted his feet against the other wall and steadily edged himself downward through the dark shaft. For a moment, it became dark enough that he couldn't see anything, and he even thought for a moment that his hands had slipped. Thankfully, he clung on and continued to inch himself down until he felt solid ground under his feet.
"It's okay!" he called up the shaft. "Come down one at a time!"
The group steadily followed him down the shaft, and once all four of them had their feet settled on the ground, they continued down the dark pathway, using the glow of Marcus' staff to light the way. There no sound side from their own footsteps, and even then they were quiet enough that you could just barely hear them. Upon another sound ringing out, the group readied their weapons, increasing their grip when something came stumbling towards them in the darkness.
Then the moment of clarity came over them as the figure stepped into the light: it was a little Cerinian boy, and he looked like he'd been through Hell. There were scars all over his body, his fur was stained in blood, and he was wheezing like someone had filled his lungs with smoke. He took a few more steps forward, looked up at Marcus, and then collapsed. Marcus rushed forward and caught the boy, cradling him in his arms and keeping his head raised. The boy wheezed for a few more seconds before looking up at him.
"Please…my friends…help them…" he coughed.
"Save your strength." Marcus said softly. "Everything's going to be okay."
"No…my friends are still down there…they're torturing them…"
"Who?"
"Aphrodite's servants…please help them…they want to…"
The boy coughed again. Marcus clenched his teeth.
"We need to get this kid back to Persephone." he said.
"It's too risky. The scouts are probably already out combing the jungle for us." Isaac replied.
Aileen stepped forward and gently heaved the boy onto her back.
"I'll do it. They don't have a chance of catching me."
The boy held on tight as Aileen vaulted her way back up the mine shaft, leaving the boys to stand alone in the darkness.
"My sister's servants…what would they be doing down here?" asked Hephaestus. "And torturing them…no…it can't be…"
Hephaestus ran on ahead, forcing Marcus and Isaac to sprint just to keep up. Upon reaching a cliff side with another rope leading down a slope, they peaked over the rock and saw the mine's primitive machinery were still functioning. What horrified them was how it was running: all around the room, there were children pushing against mine carts and turning gears with their bare hands. All of them were covered with dirt and ash, all of them sweating and bleeding, and many of them were crying.
"What the fuck…" Isaac said in shock. "What is this?!"
A few of the children had accidentally tipped over a mine cart and sent several of the gemstones it was carrying spilling out all over the place. Before they knew it, several of the women guarding them were yelling at them at the top of their lungs before shoving them on the ground.
"Unbelievable…I know just what is happening here." Hephaestus growled. "They're forcing the children to mine for their own ornaments. They're working them to the bone and then sacrificing them when they've become useless."
"Shit. We need to get down there somehow without being seen and…Mark?"
Marcus wasn't paying any attention to what the two were saying. He looked at the scene with anger welling up more and more within him.
"Making their own children work like slaves…how many kids are in here? You bitches…scumbag motherfucker!"
Before one of the women had time to lash the cat o' nine tails in her hand across one of the poor children's backs, Marcus seized Isaac's gun and ran down the slope. His loud and slamming footsteps echoed throughout the room, as did the loud ringing of bullets as he fired off Isaac's gun at every single one of the guards. Each of them cried out in terror and dove down to the ground to avoid being shot. Marcus meanwhile was screaming in rage.
"YOU MOTHERFUCKERS! YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST WORK YOUR CHILDREN TO DEATH AND SACRIFICE THEM TO A MONSTER?! FUCK YOU! I'LL PUMP YOU ALL FULL OF LEAD!"
"Dammit, Marcus, you of all people!" Isaac grumbled as he and Hephaestus ran down the slope to assist.
He was furious. To think they even had a thought of enslaving their children. Then again, their parents were probably locked up somewhere where they couldn't find them. No way were these women old enough to want bear children, let alone have the responsibility to take care of them. The fact that they had been easily manipulated into doing this served to make Marcus even angrier.
After several moments of bullet fire, the gun made a hollow clicking sound. Marcus scowled and threw it down on the ground before drawing his staff.
"OH, YEAH, SURE! YOU GOT BIG GIRL PANTS ON! YOU'RE GONNA STAND UP TO THE BIG MEANIE WHO THINKS ABUSING KIDS IS WRONG! COME GET SOME! I'LL MAKE YOU FUCKERS PAY FOR THIS!"
The last time Marcus had been this angry was when he thought his parents had died at the hands of the Venomians. These children didn't even know who he was, and yet he was fighting like a complete lunatic. Maybe it was just an impulse that everyone got: war is something a lot of people get upset over, but if even a single child is caught up in the mess, someone is bound to get angry.
Once the bullets had stopped, the guards stood and began charging headlong at Marcus. One of the women ran at Marcus with her spear raised, only for her to meet with his staff smashing into the side of her head. Another came at him from behind and was sent sprawling backwards once Marcus had kicked her in the stomach. Once Isaac and Hephaestus had joined the fray, the situation got even more manic with the boys wrestling the guards to the ground and even throwing them away.
Not only were the guards having a hard time defending themselves, they thought they were insane with the former prince standing in front of them. They had seen him be turned to stone with their own eyes, but here he was standing looking alive and well like nothing had happened. And as for the other two men…
"Wait…aren't you the boy that we picked up at the side of the river?" one of the women asked. "I thought we had you executed!"
Someone was going to be executed here, but it certainly wasn't going to be Marcus. Before long, the guards found themselves overpowered and running away as fast as they could.
"YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT! RUN, BITCH! RUN!" Marcus hollered after them.
"Jesus Christ, dude, calm down!" Isaac said sternly.
Marcus stood there breathing in and out through his nose like a bull before he finally calmed himself down. Now he could see what Coyote had suffered through when she had been possessed by her instincts. In that moment, he felt just like Coyote had after her own attacks. He had been consumed by rage for only a few moments, but it was going to haunt him for the rest of his life.
The children were utterly confused as to what was going on (though they were admittedly relieved that the women had all run away and they could stop working themselves to death), but once they saw Hephaestus, they let out a mass cheer.
"Quickly, children!" Hephaestus called. "Escape through the back way and head towards the Sanctuary! We'll meet you there!"
The children climbed down from wherever they were and began running through a back tunnel as quickly as they could go. Once they were all out, Aileen suddenly appeared behind them.
"I got the boy to Persephone safely…whoa. What happened here?"
"Marcus happened." Isaac replied. "He took one look at what happened to those kids and he went apeshit!"
Marcus had dropped out of the raging euphoric state he had been in and fell into a state of intense guilt. Sure, they had deserved it. Physically abusing children wasn't something that went unpunished, but he had gone full-on murder crazy and was sure he came very close to killing a few of these people. He sighed.
"I'm fine." he said. "It's just…well, you know."
"You don't look fine." Hephaestus remarked.
"I said I'm fine, so that's that! Let's just find the fuckin' key and get out of here!"
Marcus had chosen to angrily slam the tip of his staff against the ground which inadvertently activated the Fire Blaster, sending a single fireball flying through the air and hitting a beam a good distance away from them. This beam was what held up what seemed to be a massive gate, and once the fireball hit it, it crumpled away and dropped the gate to the ground. The group turned and saw something that nearly made all of them wish they hadn't set foot outside of the treehouse.
The creature that thundered out of the gate stood at well over thirty feet tall and looked strikingly similar to…uhh…I don't know, Palkia from Pokémon Pearl or some shit. I can't come up with every monster's appearance out of the blue, can I?
In any case, the moment the creature saw the group, it let out a massive roar.
"Ares." Hephaestus growled.
"…yep." Marcus sighed. "Guess that was my fault…again."
Well, ain't that a load a' shit.
It only took Marcus one second to notice the strange glint coming from Ares' left eye. The second he saw it, he groaned.
"Oh, for the love of God, why does every single thing we need to do this have to be guarded by some giant monster?! Why not just have a cute little girl who hands it to you once you find her, and why did I just make myself sound like a pedophile?!"
Whatever the case, the four rolled out of the way as Ares slammed its massive foot down in an attempt to crush them underneath it. The ground had shaken enough to knock the group of their feet, leaving Ares to strike its fist down at Aileen. No sooner had it motioned to do this did Hephaestus interfere. He threw himself under the giant stone fist and held it away from her to the best of his ability, and even with his immense strength, he showed obvious signs of strain.
"Go! Now!" he growled.
Aileen didn't waste getting out of the way. Upon seeing this, Marcus received another stimulating bit of nostalgia. He remembered that he had done the same thing for Coyote at Krazoa Palace three years ago, except it was just a falling statue, not a thirty-foot tall obelisk that was actually trying to kill them. His thoughts were only on her. Even if in this dire moment of trying to stay alive, all he could think about was her. Besides, another big difference between what Marcus had done three years ago and what Hephaestus was doing now was that Marcus hadn't steadily lost his strength to the point where it looked like he was a goner.
With that in mind, Marcus rushed in and slammed his staff into the ground, sending a shockwave throughout the room and successfully managing to imbalance Ares. Hephaestus jumped out of the way the second he was able to do so.
"Many thanks." he panted.
"No problem. So how do we kill this thing?"
"We don't."
"…huh?"
"Ares was created as an obelisk to protect miners from cave-ins, and it was unfortunately made without any sort of flaw."
"So there's only one thing for it, then."
"I'm afraid so."
Marcus turned to Isaac and Aileen and blurted out his command.
"LET'S HIGH-TAIL IT OUTTA HERE!"
Going back the way they came in was impossible, so they immediately darted for the back entrance, only to have it cave-in when Ares slammed its fist into the wall.
"Great! Now what?!" Isaac hollered.
"There's still one more way out!" Aileen shouted in return. "If we get on one of the mine carts, we can escape through the tunnels!"
"Then let's hurry! That guy's packing!"
The four ran up the ramp that the children had come down from and onto the tracks, jumping in the nearest mine cart and activating it. It rolled quickly along the tracks, quickly enough that it slipped by before Ares could swing its colossal arm at them. The cart slipped into the tunnel, and only then did the adrenaline rush cease enough for someone to question the stupidity of the situation.
"Great, except we forgot the fuckin' key, genius!" Marcus shouted.
"You're making it sound like you WANT to get crushed!" Aileen retaliated.
"Uhh, guys?" Isaac said.
He pointed back the way they came, and the others turned just in time to see Ares crash through the wall and begin chasing after them.
"Holy schnikes…" Marcus groaned.
"Now what?!" Isaac cried. "The cart's going too slow!"
Hephaestus looked upward and saw that the cart was kept on the tracks by a cable running through the tunnel. He thought himself completely insane for even thinking of this next idea, but did he really have a choice in the matter? He gripped his blade and started chopping away at the wire cable as quickly as he could.
"Whoa, whoa, are you trying to kill us here, man?!" Isaac stuttered. "Sit your ass down and think of something else!"
"There's no time, you buffoon! Ares is gaining ground on us!"
"…I don't believe I've ever been spoken to like that before."
Hephaestus continued hacking away, steadily beginning to split the cable to the point where only a few metal strands clung on.
"In your defense, Mister Munroe, this is probably the most insane and even idiotic things I've ever done. Therefore, I suggest that we all hold on tightly…VERY tightly!"
He made one more slash and the cable broke, releasing the cart from its bonds and sending it shooting down a ramp of tracks. Every one of its inhabitants let out loud yelps as the air rushed past the fur and they clung on to the cart to the point where their knuckles turned white. Regardless of its targets' increased speed, Ares continued chasing them letting out loud roars and clawing at the tracks whenever it had the oppourtunity.
"Oh, shit, SHARP TURN!" Marcus called out. "EVERYONE LEAN TO THE RIGHT!"
The cart zipped around the corner and would have tumbled off the tracks had it not been for its riders shifting all of their weight away from the pitfall and rebalancing it. Ares crashed its way around the corner, giving Marcus enough time to see an energy buildup in its mouth.
"Get down!' he yelled, shoving everyone's heads downward before ducking down himself.
A massive beam of plasma shot over the cart and blasted into the tracks in front of them. Focusing to the best of his ability, Marcus released a telekinetic burst, popping the cart up into the air for a few moments and allowing it to safely cross the pitfall. Just as well, because underneath the tracks was a very deep trench that Ares paid no attention to until it found itself tumbling down into it.
"That was a tad anticlimactic." Hephaestus commented.
"Fine by me." said Isaac. "So long as we don't have a giant monster chasing us any HOLY SHIT!"
It didn't seem possible, but Ares had suddenly burst through the part of the track in front of them and let out an ear-splitting roar. Before it could attempt to inflict any damage on the cart, Marcus hatched an idea and put it into effect the second he thought of it. He jumped high into the air, flipping over Ares' head and drawing its attention away from the cart. He landed perfectly on the other side of the tracks and threw his staff at the tunnel wall. It bounced off at a perfect angle, slammed into the key in Ares' eye socket and dislodged it. The key landed perfectly in his hand, and he stretched out his other one to telekinetically pull his staff into it.
"HEPHAESTUS! NOW!"
Hephaestus tossed his giant sword up in the air where it spun several times before he suddenly jumped up as high as he could and slammed it down hard on Ares' neck. The great creature collapsed onto the tracks as its head fell into oblivion, leaving its targets with a well-deserved moment's peace.
"And here I thought I was agile." Aileen chuckled. "Good work, cousin."
"Thanks."
Marcus looked intently at the key and nodded.
"Let's head for the Sanctuary and make sure the children made it there alright. We'll head for wherever Aphrodite is hiding after a good sleep."
Several hours later…
Aileen was never one to shirk her sleep, but having a bad dream was one thing to keep her awake all night. Her eyes opened once her nightmare had concluded.
"She was right in front of me…I had her in my hands…" she thought to herself.
Her dream had been her finally having her revenge on Aphrodite, choking the life out of the screaming monster that had murdered her father. She knew that was what she wanted, but the way she had done it made it seem like she was there for the bloodshed, not to avenge her father. She had seemed like a killer, but then again, was that all she was? She wasn't worth anything to anyone else on this planet. She had no part in Kursed's evil plan, so why did she even bother getting involved?
She sat up. The dark treehouse didn't serve to comfort her in this moment of anger, as did the fact that there was no one else with her. As far as she knew, Marcus and the others were still checking on the children. She didn't say it, but she had seen Marcus go berserk. He had let his anger get the best of him after he saw just what the natives had been doing to the children. She identified with it. Right now, she felt the exact same way.
Her thoughts reverted to that time three years ago. She remembered running through the forest after witnessing her father's murder at Aphrodite's hand. She remembered thinking…no, KNOWING that her world would never be the same again. Why had she done this? Was she really that angry that Hephaestus had been declared the leader of their tribe instead of her, or was she just pure evil?
"Why am I still alive? I can't move on from anything…I'm just fighting life until the end of my days."
At that point, she didn't even care. She stood up and looked to her side. Maybe she was just hallucinating, but she saw the self-declared Queen of Cerinia standing there and smiling maliciously at her.
"You're a fool, Aileen. Look at you." she said. "You have no family, you have no pride. All you have are those three idiots that follow you."
"Shut up…"
"You dragged them into your fight because you're scared to face me alone? Is that it, or do you just like it when men do the dirty work for you?"
"SHUT UP!"
Aileen unsheathed one of her blades and swung it with all her might at Aphrodite's neck, only to confirm what she thought before: Aphrodite wasn't there. The sword buried its tip in the side of the house, proving that it had just been a manifestation of her inner anger.
"She murdered my father right in front of me…I will never forgive her."
She dislodged the blade from the wall and put it away. She had the keys now. She could finally have her revenge, but the question was if it was going to be worth it or not. Her father wasn't coming back regardless of whether she killed Aphrodite or she let her live, so why even bother? What did Aphrodite have that Aileen could ever possibly want? Not her position of power, certainly. That rightfully belonged to Hephaestus…right? After all, wasn't it her father than had turned the position down? Maybe she WAS supposed to be the leader.
"Father…" she said quietly.
She said it again, this time clearly showing signs of sorrow before tears steadily began to fall from her eyes and she began to sob. She missed him. She needed his guidance, and he wasn't there for her.
She quickly wiped her tears away when she heard someone pulling themselves up onto the platform. She hid herself well into the shadows and waited, though breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it was just Marcus returning from the Sanctuary. Marcus let out a sigh and sat down facing towards the jungle, not bothering to look inside the treehouse and see if anyone was there. Right away, Aileen could tell Marcus was in low spirits, so she quietly stepped out and sat next to him.
"Where are the others?"
"They're still at the Sanctuary. Heph wanted to comfort the kids a little longer, and Isaac…who knows what he's doing."
"So why are you back so early?"
"…I wanted to be alone to think."
He slumped over.
"I'm tired…I'm hungry…I just wanna go home, but I can't. I can't leave until I save Coyote, but the longer I'm on this planet, the more negatively I begin to think about…well, everything!"
"What do you mean?"
"Seeing these children suffering like this and flipping out like that has made me realize how cruel and savage people like me can really be. I don't know if I'm either going primal or just going crazy."
Aileen sighed.
"I don't blame you, Marcus. You see, our tribe has been learning about your planet since before I was born, and there's many legends about it, including one about why Corneria and Cerinia are so far apart."
Marcus' grief was replaced with curiosity, and he thus sat and listened intently.
"Before either of our races were born, Corneria and Cerinia were brother and sister. For some reason that even they didn't know, they could never stop fighting with one another. One of them tried to make peace and begged the other to stop instigating these fights, but the sibling never listened. They constantly hurt one another so badly that their cries of pain could be heard from light-years away. Eventually, the creator of the cosmos finally had enough of their bickering and separated them, placing Corneria in one region of space and placing Cerinia in another region very far away, and thus forbade them from ever interacting with one another ever again. After several centuries of deep thought, the siblings realized how foolish they had been and began trying to make their way back to one another to try and make amends."
The story was wondrous and hit Marcus very deep in the heart. The entire reason for having part of his family so far away from him was because of sibling rivalry.
"But there was one thing that was left open to interpretation for those of us who heard the story." Aileen continued, looking Marcus deep in the eyes. "They didn't say which one was which. They didn't say which instigated the fights or which tried to make peace. For the longest time, I thought it might have your planet that started the fights and I was afraid of ever meeting you or Krystal or anyone from there. When Aphrodite came to power, though, and had her own brother turned to stone, I began thinking differently."
"You don't need to think differently."
"What do you mean?"
"Corneria thrives on war. There's been more than five wars in the past half-century, all of them with Corneria as one of the opponents. If that's not enough, take a good look at my team. Yeah, we're hailed as heroes back home, but the fact is that we're getting paid to blow things up and kill people."
Marcus sighed again and closed his eyes in despair.
"I'm not a hero, Aileen. I never have been. When I save someone's life, usually it's at the cost of someone else's. People die all the time because of my team…because of me."
Aileen gently touched Marcus' cheek and averted his gaze to connect with hers.
"Yes, but you never stabbed your friends or family in the back, did you?" she said sternly. "The people you kill are those that the galaxy could do with either imprisoned or without. It might take some more convincing than I can give you, but you are a hero, Marcus."
Then in a sudden shifting of moods, she smiled the most charming smile he had ever seen.
"Especially to me."
Isaac's words of how someone's smile made everything worth it resonated in Marcus' head. He felt his chest warm up until he began to smile as well.
"Thank you, Aileen…I'm glad I met you. I probably wouldn't have the strength to go on if you hadn't shown me what was at stake. I'm going to fight alongside you until you get what you deserve."
"Yes. But until then, let's get some sleep."
The two cousins found themselves embracing one another before lying down inside the treehouse with arm's reach of one another. Aileen's sorrow had lifted. She had found new life within Marcus. He gave her the strength to keep trying until she had no energy left. He was family, and she was glad he transcended the cosmos just to help her.
And as for Marcus, his spirits were lifted. They wouldn't be as high as they would be if he saved Coyote, but he was at the very least happy again for only these moments so he could put his mind at peace.
A little update for the cover art contest thing. The contest is over once the next chapter is uploaded, which will probably be sometime next month (that's enough time, right?). I currently have one submission that kicks ass, but I'm willing to look into any others should they pop up. Remember, PM me as soon as you finish it telling me your username on whatever art website you submit it to, and I'll have a look. If you win, you get a preview chapter from the Star Fox: Next Gen prequel story I'm working on. If you submit a cover, you get free promotion on my profile. That's always cool, right?
SOUNDTRACK SO FAR
Krystal's nightmare- "Parabola" by Mer (Originally by Tool)
Marcus versus Coyote (friendly)- "Name of the Game" by the Crystal Method
F-Zero race- "F-Zero Medley" by Entertainment System
Space pirate attack- Space pirate theme from Metroid Prime
Ridley- Ridley's theme from Metroid: Other M
Falcon takes down Ridley- "The Meaning of truth" by Hiro-X
The date- Ilia's theme from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Coyote versus the shadows- "The Beautiful People" by Marilyn Manson
The star Lylat- Magmoor Caverns theme from Metroid Prime
Marcus and Fox/Marcus and Chase- "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd
Fox versus Kursed- "Du Hast" by Rammstein
Marcus and Coyote versus Nightmare- Nightmare's theme from Metroid Fusion (ArcX version)
The Nightstriker- "Iron Man" by Black Sabbath
The death of Commander Dane- "Mad World" by Gary Jules
The prisoners of Kew- Byelomorye Dam from Goldeneye 64
Escape from Sargasso- "Hard to See" by Five Finger Death Punch
Marcus and Wolf versus Master Hand and Crazy Hand- Final Destination from Super Smash Bros. Brawl
To Cerinia- "Laser Cannon Deth Sentence" by Dethklok
Aileen- "Working Class Hero" by Green Day (Originally by John Lennon)
The slaves- "Forgotten Children" by Tokio Hotel
Aileen's sorrow- "Narcissistic Cannibal" by EarlyRise (Originally by Korn and Skrillex)
Marcus and Aileen- "Name" by the Goo Goo Dolls