CHAPTER THIRTY
So Long As They Both Shall Live
Christmas Eve, 2066
The sunlight streaming in through the window gently illuminated and warmed Marcus' face, steadily forcing him to wake up. He looked over at his bedside clock. 7:30 a.m. A little too early to get up today, though there was thankfully something in the bed to keep him occupied.
Upon feeling the fur on his arm ruffle under a small wind, he smiled and turned over to find Coyote clinging to him as she had done when they had fallen asleep the previous night. He reached behind her head and gently scratched behind her ears. Her ears twitched and her eyes fluttered open, revealing Marcus to her and causing her to smile brightly with her eyes still half-shut.
"Morning, sweetie." she whispered.
"Good morning to you, too." he chuckled.
The two closed the gap between them, savouring every moment of their embrace until they heard the door open. The two of them smirked, particularly when two small objects began moving toward them very quickly under the blankets.
"I think I smell excitement." Coyote said.
"And it's coming from…." Marcus said, suddenly pulling the blanket. "These two little rascals!"
The two kits jumped on their parents and gave them strong hugs, all four of them laughing while the act was carried out.
"Good morning, Mom and Dad!" they both cheered.
"Good morning to you, too, kids." Marcus chuckled.
Jack and Veronica. Marcus and Coyote's children born within a minute of each other on March 3rd, 2066. Veronica, the younger, had her father's fur and her mother's eyes. Not only that, but she was more adventurous than any child her parents knew. It seemed there was no hill she wouldn't climb, no lake she wouldn't swim across, and no person she wouldn't befriend. Jack, the older, had his father's eyes and his mother's fur. He was much unlike his sister for many reasons, for not only was he weaker than her, he was also quite shy and reserved. He spent a lot of time in his room doing something that he said his parents could see when he had finished, though Marcus had snuck into his room one day and found that it was a beautiful painting of the four of them.
Neither Jack nor Veronica was a striking image of their parents, but they didn't have to be. They were their own people, and that was why Marcus and Coyote loved them so much. In spite of how horrible their previous adventures may have been, the parents were careful to speak of every little detail of what had happened. They spoke of Star Fox, how they met, how they fell in love, and how Coyote had died and come back. There was only one thing they never spoke about. Three guesses as to what (or who) that was.
Then again, did they really need to know? Marcus and Coyote had even forgotten about it themselves, not that it was worth remembering.
"And why are you up so early?" Coyote asked despite knowing the answer.
"Mom, when's Uncle Scott and everyone else coming?"
"They'll be here, Jack, don't you worry. Let's not forget he's not too much older than you. He needs his sleep, too."
"Awww…"
Coyote smiled and cradled Jack in her lap.
"Hey, why don't we all go up the hill and go sledding? It's that time of year."
"Yeah!" Veronica cheered. "Can I use the snowboard?"
Marcus laughed and nuzzled his daughter with his nose.
"You take it and you go as fast as you can, sweetheart." he said.
"As fast as I can?!" she replied excitedly.
"As fast as you can."
Veronica cheered and jumped out of the bed.
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!"
"Oh, great." Jack moaned. "I'm gonna got out there and wind up face-planting myself in the snow again, aren't I?"
Marcus laughed and clapped his down on Jack's shoulder.
"Don't worry, sport. It's just snow."
"Well, yeah…but it's cold and wet and really just not something you want all over your face whether you have fur or not."
Marcus and Coyote smirked at one another.
"I think we know the feeling."
Veronica went surging down the hill screaming in joy at the top of her lungs, while Jack nervously slid down inch-by-inch, doing his best to keep himself from flipping over by accident. While the kids had fun (in Veronica's case, anyway), Marcus and Coyote sat back and watched with big smiles on their faces.
"These kids are growing up faster than we can handle, huh?" Coyote asked.
"Yeah…remember when we were doing crazy things like this?"
Coyote smirked.
"Of course. It was barely a decade ago. Why? Are you having regrets about giving it up?"
"No, of course not."
He hugged her tightly. Coyote chuckled and returned it, though it still stirred something up in her.
"What's that about?"
"I'm just…really happy that you came back."
Coyote smiled and softly kissed his cheek.
"I'm happy, too. I mean, look. We're married, we've got two great kids, we've got peaceful jobs. Life is a lot better for us."
Marcus smiled and returned the kiss, settling for placing it on her forehead.
"Couldn't have said it better myself…really. Philosophy really isn't my thing."
"No ki….oh, shit, there he goes."
Just like Jack had predicted it, his skis had crossed by accident and he was about to go tumbling down the hill, but before he could so (or even before Marcus and Coyote could try to catch him), he stopped in mid-air.
"This is definitely little Veronica's thing, isn't?" Krystal chuckled as she and Fox came up the hill.
"Grandma! Grandpa!" the twins cheered, Jack in particular as Krystal telekinetically drew him into her embrace.
Marcus breathed a sigh of relief and smiled when Fox walked up and gave him a warm hug.
"Merry Christmas, Marcus."
"Merry Christmas, Dad. Thank God Mom still has her powers, huh?"
"Yep. She'll need them until Jack starts to get the hang of that."
"It's like Mom said. It's not his thing."
Krystal snuggled with her grandchildren a little while longer before she spoke again.
"Good news, little ones. We brought someone with us."
Jack and Veronica looked over their grandmother's shoulder and grew excited smiles again as Aileen, Hephaestus, and their daughter Siri came up the hill. The children rushed to them almost immediately, as they did with everyone else, especially Wolf, Lori, and Scott when they finally appeared. Coyote immediately started snuggling her brother, who blushed and tried to pry himself loose.
"Hey, come on, Coyote! Knock it off!" he stuttered.
Coyote laughed.
"Aww, what's wrong? Can't I hug my little brother?"
"I'm twelve now. I'm not that little…and besides, there's people watching."
"You mean people like Casey?"
Speaking of Casey, the nine-year old Lombardi came running up to Scott and hugged him from behind.
"Merry Christmas, Scott!" she said happily, nuzzling his back with her nose.
"You too, Casey…uhh, what are you doing?"
Katt laughed.
"Sorry. She's just really excited to see you."
Falco smirked, catching Wolf's eye and also getting a smirk out of him.
"My kids just get with the most random people, don't they?" he said, chuckling under his breath.
"Hey, don't you go callin' my sweet little angel random, pal."
"Easy there, Lombardi. We're all friends here…I think."
"You're tellin' me." said a cocky voice from behind them.
Wolf, Katt and Falco turned to see Isaac and Aphrodite.
"Uhh…what's going on here?" Katt asked.
"We're here for the thing Marcus is doing." Isaac replied.
"I know, but what's she doing here?"
"Check it out."
The two held up their right hands. After taking a moment to see it, Katt's eyes bugged out.
"You two are married?!"
"Yes." Aphrodite chuckled, nuzzling her cheek against Isaac's chest. "Your brother is quite a rider as they say."
"Ooookaaay, I didn't need to hear that, so why was I listening?!"
Isaac smiled and kissed the nape of Aphrodite's neck. Falco rolled his eyes.
"What is it with this guy and girls twenty years younger than him?!"
"Alright, enough lollygaggin', everyone!" Marcus called out. "Come on inside!"
Later that night…
It seemed like several life-changing events had happened over the past little while. Despite it seeming like it would never happen, Anna and Chase were happy to say that Anna was pregnant with their first child. Though they jokingly admitted that it would seem weird for the kid that "Dad's a froggie and Mom's a bunny." Peter and Susan seemed to have been successful with the same thing, Damalgo was starting to get human students from Earth, and Panther and Sierra had shown up for the first time, bringing their daughter Bianca with them.
She was certainly quite lovely for a girl her age. Like her mother, she was a tiger, but her stripes were navy blue like her father's fur. Also like here mother, she had her eyes narrowed very seductively when she spoke to Scott, so perhaps it was no wonder why he had gotten uneasy with her, and it wasn't long before he locked himself in the bathroom for a good three minutes. Upon asking Casey about, she simply replied "It's just something that he does. When in doubt, go use the can…I know. Doesn't make any sense to us girls, but it does in his mind."
Then there came the McCloud children. While Veronica was inside talking with everyone and playin with the other children, Jack was sitting out on the porch, looking out at the moonlit horizon. For whatever reason, he felt alienated from everyone else. It had actually taken him quite some time to pick out why that was, but realizing it made him feel uncomfortable to be in there with everyone, fearing that someone might try to squeeze it out of him.
Despite having lost his powers, if Marcus could tell when a complete stranger was sad, he could sure as hell tell when his own five-year old son was sad. Jack nearly jumped when he heard the glass door behind him slide open, but breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was just his father.
"H-hi, Dad." he said meekly.
"Is something wrong, Jack?" asked Marcus. "You don't seem very social tonight."
"I feel…alienated."
"Where did you learn that word?"
"I read it somewhere. Why do you ask?"
"I didn't even know what half the words you say meant when I was your age."
They shared a laugh, but Jack quickly readopted his depressed expression.
"Well…it's because of what you guys did."
"You feel upset because we were mercenaries?"
"No…it's that you made all those friends because of what you did. You flew around in space fighters, shot down bad guys, fought giant monsters…saved millions of innocent people, for crying out loud! And…I can never live up to that."
Marcus sighed with a moderate smirk. He knew exactly how to counter this, and let his response develop while Jack continued to talk.
"I'm nowhere near as brave, strong, or even smart as you and Mom are, and…I just…feel like every time I fail at something, I'm disappointing both of you."
The door slid open again and out walked Veronica and Coyote, obviously having just overheard what Jack had said.
"You're wrong!" Veronica said in a comforting manner, running up and hugging her brother. "You ARE brave, Jack. Remember a year ago when I almost got hit by that big guy on a skateboard and you pushed me out of the way just in time? You could've gotten hurt, but you saved me, anyway!"
"That's right." Coyote replied, kneeling down and clasping her son's cheeks. "And don't you dare think for even a minute that you aren't smarter than me and your father. I mean, you figured out how to ride a speeder all by yourself a few months ago. I couldn't do that 'til I was eight!"
Marcus laid a hand on Jack's shoulder and looked at him with the hypnotizing and warm stare that his family knew him well for.
"You don't have to be like me, sport. You can be whatever you want to be when you grow up. I don't care if you become a doctor or a lawyer or an unpaid intern…God forbid that last one, but I digress. Whatever you end up doing, I want you to know that your mother and I are proud of you either way. We are who we choose to be. There is no such thing as fate, because fate is the future, and the future is yours to command."
Jack smiled almost immediately and embraced his whole family.
"Thanks, guys…to tell you the truth, I think Star Fox sounds really amazing, because…well, you guys could fly."
Veronica shrugged with a half-smile.
"Yeah…I've always wondered what it's like to fly."
"Would you like to find out?" asked a voice to their side.
The four looked over and spotted someone that neither Marcus nor Coyote were expecting to see ever again. It was the angel that had lifted Coyote's spirit, and here he was sitting on the metal railing and smiling att he two children, not looking any older than he had nine years ago.
"Wow!" Veronica exclaimed. "You…you're a real-life angel!"
"Yep!" the angel said with a small laugh. "My name's Pit. And you two are Veronica and Jack, right?"
The two young McClouds nodded. Pit stepped down from the railing and took hold of their hands.
"So, you guys up for it?" he asked.
The two grew excited looks, though Pit looked at Marcus and Coyote for their approval. The two smiled.
"Have them back before bedtime." Marcus said with a smirk. "They don't wanna miss Santa."
"Got it." Replied Pit.
"And not over any bodies of water, got it?" Coyote jokingly warned, knowing full well that an angel wouldn't risk a child's life like that.
"No promises…I'm kidding. Good heavens, what's a guy gotta do to get a laugh down here?"
The five shared said laugh before Pit began to gently flap his wings and lift off the ground, a blue light forming around Jack and Veronica to level them out once they began to take flight.
"Okay, kids! Hold on tight!"
With that, the three rose off the ground and flew away into the night, the children releasing excited cheers as they went. During this time, Marcus and Coyote's parents stepped out and watched.
"You don't regret giving up Star Fox for even a minute?" asked Fox.
"Nope." replied Marcus. "…well, a little sometimes, but there's no need for it anymore. We all live wonderful lives, and through all the events and road bumps, we're still a family."
Wolf nodded in agreement.
"We need to hold tight to each other while we're still together. I hate to admit it, but the pup and I getting old. We need to make sure that those kids are ready for the real world."
"Until that time, though," said Coyote. "They'll be as carefree as we all were at one point in our lives."
They all watched in wonder as Pit flew off with the children in tow, all with warm hearts and smiles.
"If something like love can give us all this…" Krystal said. "Then we really do have loved ones watching over us forever and always."
And so it was. Love kept them all together and had given them gift after gift. Their new lives were all they wanted, and with innocent people like Jack and Veronica in the world, there would always be those who were willing to fight to keep them safe. Eventually Jack and Veronica would grow up and have children of their own. Of course, there was no real way of telling.
Then again, sometimes it's fun to leave luck to Heaven.
But no matter what outcome there was, there was but one certainty: this family had many members, and in their own ways, each one would live and die as what they always wanted to be, and what many strive to be even to the day they were gone…
Heroes.
And with that, this milestone of mine has come to a close.
Thank you everyone for supporting this little story of mine for this long and putting up with my overuse of cliffhangers and procrastination. It's been a long road, and even though I had fun writing this story, I'm honestly really glad to be done. Special thanks goes out to tylerjeraldr for the Aparoid idea, ianagainstcliffhangers for suggestions for the soundtrack, and of course Twilit Smash Nova for creating the cover art for the story. And of course, ultra special thanks to Shigeru Miyamoto and all the creative minds at Nintendo for coming up with a spectacular universe that's grown such a gigantic cult following.
By the way, there's actually a bit of an allusion involving that "leave luck to heaven" bit. It translates to a certain word in Japanese. Go check it out. ;)
Now, as for the next story, I mentioned that the winner of the cover contest would receive a chapter of the next story I was doing which is (by popular demand) a prequel to Next Gen. Now I can reveal just what that story is. The title is Notorious, and it is Wolf's life story, leading up from his childhood days to the birth of Coyote. Where did Wolf come from? What was his involvement with James McCloud? Why did he harbour an intense rivalry with Fox? How did he and Lori meet? These questions and more will be answered in this story coming...I want to say soon, but we all know how I am with deadlines.
Update: August 3rd, 2013
The first chapter of Notorious is now available to read. Enjoy!
Update end
Oh, and I forgot to post this at the beginning of the story: THE STAR FOX, F-ZERO, METROID, AND KID ICARUS FRANCHISES ARE ALL OWNED BY NINTENDO AND ITS SECOND-PARTY COMPANIES (i.e. Retro Studios, Monolith Soft, Intelligent Systems etc.). AS MUCH AS I WOULD LIKE IT TO BE CANON, THIS IS A FAN PRODUCED WORK AND IS IN NO WAY AFFLIATED WITH THESE COMPANIES.
Thanks for sticking with me for so long. This is ZombieAxeHero signing off. I'll see you guys later.
FINALIZED SOUNDTRACK
Krystal's nightmare/"Save her..."- "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
Aileen versus Aphrodite/Marcus versus Malice- "This Fire Burns" by Killswitch Engage (suggested by ianagainstcliffhangers. Thanks, man!)
The river Styx- "Where the River Flows" by Collective Soul
Marcus versus Coyote (infected)- "Mermaids" by Xandria
Coyote's death- Laura Palmer's theme from Twin Peaks
Marcus versus Kursed- "Magia" by Kalafina
Krystal versus Kursed- "Everybody's Fool" by Evanescence
Engaging the final beacon- "I Will Not Bow" by Breaking Benjamin
"I give up..."- "Leaving Hope" by Nine Inch Nails
Escape from the Echo- "Awake and Alive" by Skillet (another one suggested by ianagainstcliffhangers. Thanks again, man!)
The final battle: Marcus Alpha versus Kursed Omega- "The Beginning" by ONE OK ROCK
The sun finally rises- "Calling to the Night" from Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
Kursed's sad and lonely end- "Watch Me Bleed" by Scary Kids Scaring Kids
"Farewell, my love."- "Iridescent" by Linkin Park
Coyote's funeral- "In the Morning Light" by Yanni
Star Fox is no more- "Highway of Heroes" by the Trews
"So what now?"- "Negative Space" by Senses Fail
A happy ending after all- "Second Chance" by Shinedown
Jack and Veronica- "Here I Am" by Bryan Adams
Angels taking flight (I guess you could call this the end credits song)- "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance