Fire in the Sky
"Come on, we're almost there…" Khaya alerted the rest of the group, all of whom were busy running through the sand in an effort to reach the edge of the beach as quickly as possible so they could be far away from the impact point when it finally hit. It had been only a few minutes since Fox had called for the strike, and none of them including him knew how fast the response time for these weapons was.
"When's it coming? Shouldn't it be here by now…" Falco nervously rendered, his expression outwardly displaying the fear that Fox's last ditch efforts at rescuing them had failed. "Maybe these guys don't know what they're doing, they've never had a situation where they've even used these things before!"
"Don't stop, just keep moving!" Wolf urged, throwing his head back at the others to ensure that their paces matched those in the front of the pack. "Once we get to the end of the beach we'll- take cover as best we can."
Falco, not pleased with the lupine's sentiment, spoke up. "Take cover on what? Sand? How do we even know this weapons not going to blow the whole archipelago apa-"
His words were suddenly withdrawn as everyone's eyes gravitated towards a small, yet brilliant point of light hanging midway through the overcast sky; and as they were guided by a collective feeling of dulled curiosity, they each paused, and for a brief period, gazed up into the approaching point of soft luminescence.
The world seemed to freeze at that moment in time; trees around them swung in an unnatural unison, their palm leaves overstepping the beach swaying velvet as the winds flowed through in a tranquil rhythm. Though as that moment drew by, the fire in the sky approached until it and the island met each other, and all of the previous serenity was swept away in its crashing light.
The Phoenix Hi-strike weapons were never quite the favored weapons of the Cornerian arsenal, mainly because the tactical justification for them required so much preparation and oversight that had usually been discarded as impractical. Though as the dense, tungsten alloy rod came into contact with the soft unassuming ground surrounding Partasti, there was no question as to its immediate destructive capabilities.
Water from the surrounding impact site was violently displaced and thrown into the air. The ground itself quaked, and then broke in a torrent of loud tearing angular motions as it was thrown upwards and severely deformed. Trees broke from their roots and snapped in two or more, disintegrating from the mutual forces which shredded the surrounding landscape and tore the ground apart. Moreover, the locations of the island which had been carefully built with complex systems of subsurface facilities collapsed, falling victim to the intense mutilation of the deafening impact.
It was only a second later that the shock had reached the far side of the beach where Fox and the others stood; though its strength now severely diminished, the island still convulsed, throwing the group of their own balance and removing the ground from under their feet. Sand was tossed on top of them as they struggled to avoid the onslaught of fragments flung from the remains of mangled trees. The beach was now littered with a range of localized debris, and once everything settled, they could each see and feel that the shape of the ground itself had been altered.
Gregory helped Khaya out of a particularly large mound of sand, while the others rushed to more stable ground, brushing off their clothing.
"Everyone ok?" Fox asked, looking around to make sure that nobody had any new injuries to take care of.
"We're good- I think." Falco confirmed, being the last to make his way to the rest of the group.
"I was expecting something a little quieter, McCloud…" Wolf began, shaking his head in mixed state of surprise and eagerness. "You just ripped this whole island apart. Not that I'm complaining."
"It's all gone…" Khaya said, looking back into the island's core, where the main building had notably collapsed and the remainder of the landscape was now arranged in a disfigured wasteland. "Everyone there… gone…"
"We couldn't save them all, Khaya." Wolf motioned towards Khaya, but neglecting to involve himself emotionally in her turmoil. "They- you are the ones responsible for making this island so damn hard to leave. It would've been better for all of us if hadn't set this place to blow, but we're out of options."
Khaya did her best to hold back a tear, but she eventually succumbed to the memories of those she now saw in the island's mangled remains. After she'd regaining the strength to speak, she turned back to the group and issued her newly drawn conviction.
"We don't know if that did it. The bomb could still be active, but…" She looked away, not knowing precisely what to think. "There's no way to really know at this point."
"Hasn't gone off yet… so- is that it? Do we just wait here, or do we do something?" Leon urged, being the first to offer any query regarding their current dilemma.
"No, we're still getting off here one way or another, I'm not going to have us sit on our paws until a Cornerian black operations team comes and razes what's left of Partasti." Wolf answered, stepping forward. "The boats may be our only viable option if they're still intact after that strike, I wouldn't expect much at this point to still be standing…"
As there were no objections, Wolf led the rest of the group across the stretches of the beach towards the main dock where the boats were being kept. Although the walk was not a particularly distant one, the collective exhaustion and weakness of everyone involved meant that the journey was much more arduous than if conducted in a more relaxed circumstance.
Upon reaching the docks, one detail was notably apparent; while the wooden structure of the dock and accompanying house had been shattered and left drifting in the nearby waves by the shock of the recent impact, the boats themselves seemed to be relatively unaffected as they floated aimlessly, tethered to the partially submerged beam that still stood entrenched in the waters.
"Well look at that, think they still work?" Wolf asked, turning in the general direction of both Leon and Gregory, whom stood behind and to the left of him a short length out.
The two chameleons jogged ahead of the group and ran into the knee-deep swirling tide before hopping onto the boat to see if all systems remained functional. After managing to turn on the electric motor for the boat, Gregory nodded to the rest of the approaching group in confirmation.
"It seems to run. I don't think there's been any major damage." Gregory said, testing the boat's systems out. "Maybe a little rattled, but not too bad."
"Will it be able to leave the island? Or will it quit once we get far enough out?" Wolf asked as Leon untied the tether preventing the boat from drifting off. "These things weren't meant to be escape options."
Gregory piloted the ship forward so that it ran aground on the beach. "I think that impact might have disrupted the whole confinement system. It was built around the island in a grid so that-"
"I don't care how it was built, I just want to know if this ship has an expiration range." Wolf forwarded himself once more.
"I- don't know… my guess is that we won't have any problems…"
"Well that's good enough for me. I don't see any other choice at the moment." Wolf conceded. "Panther, Lombardi, see if there's anything useful in the dock house over there, provisions and such. I don't know how long we'll be out there in the ocean and I'd like for us to be as prepared as possible."
After a brief search amidst the rubble, Falco and Panther managed to pull out assorted boxes of food, water, and the occasional medical supplies before promptly tossing them into the boat.
"Wait, Wolf…" Khaya began, motioning towards the lupine and nearly placing her paw on his shoulder before stopping herself. "What about the others who might still be alive? We can't leave them here..."
"We don't have any time to go back and get anyone, Khaya. We need to worry about saving ourselves now. Whoever shot the transport down back there isn't going to experience a sudden change of mind, lay down their arms, and agree to leave with us. They've already made their decision, we're getting off this island before either they or a highly trained Special Forces unit manages to take all of us down, do you understand where I'm going with this?" Wolf spat back.
"But… Truman, and…"
"You all knew what you were getting into. There's nothing left for anyone here except death, one way or another. It doesn't bring me any comfort knowing I may be leaving them to die, but their fate is the result of their own antagonism. I won't be losing any sleep over abandoning them." The lupine concluded.
Wolf turned to see the rest of the group loading the last of the provisions onto the tour boat. "Now, unless you want to join them, I'd suggest you comply and fall in line." He said, nudging his head towards the boat.
Khaya nodded and climbed onto the beached watercraft with the assistance of Leon from above. Wolf followed suit, jumping into the vessel.
"Panther, hop on. We're leaving." Wolf curled his paw forward to command his subordinate onto his ship; however, he forewent the same motions for both Fox and Falco.
The vulpine approached the boat from the remaining section of the wooden dock, but the moment his outstretched fingers came into contact with the metal edge, Wolf turned to him with a visibly .
"McCloud?"
"What?"
"I didn't give you permission to board my ship." Wolf said in a stern tone, before reaching for his gun and slowly lifting it to a readied position in Fox's direction.
"What? Wolf, what are you talking about?" The vulpine returned with a genuine look of utter shock and confusion.
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa- What?" Falco rushed forward, stressing his already wounded leg in the process.
Wolf twirled his gun around somewhat playfully while a confident streak ran across his muzzle. "I've been thinking McCloud, if I'm leaving this island, I'm doing so on my own terms. They won't stop searching every square centimeter of southern Zoness until they find you, and I'd rather they not find me at the same moment so they can cart me off to a maximum security prison station for the rest of my life. I hope you understand."
"Wolf, wait, what about the transport? You were fine with leaving together then, why not now?" Fox asked, somewhat frantic.
"That was a different time, McCloud, and a different method. But now that you've alerted the higher authorities to our location, it's only a matter of time before half of the planet's military descend on this island to figure out what's been going on all this time." Wolf turned his gun slightly to embolden the impact of his words. Fox knew he wasn't going to shoot him, but it was still best not to test him.
"Wolf, you don't have to-"
"I've made up my mind, McCloud."
Falco attempted to step forward and enter the boat forcefully, but the vulpine stopped him with his outstretched arm. "Falco, leave it. This isn't worth it."
Unable to contain his frustration, Falco lashed out against the boat dwellers in a verbal pitch of anger. "You know what? Get out of here you slimy bastards! I don't want nothing to do with you anyways! You can get stranded in the middle of the ocean and die for all I care!" He stormed off, not looking back even as he ascended up the middle of the beach.
Fox looked back at the boat. Wolf was still pointing his gun in his direction, but not menacingly so. "One more thing before I leave, McCloud. When they eventually come to the island, I want you to make sure to convince your… superiors for just one simple request."
"Well? What's that?"
Wolf grinned. "Full amnesty for me and my crew, in addition to the official recognition of my exploits during the Aparoid conflict and our week together here. I have no loyalty to Venom or whatever that comes along that claims to be its true successor and demand that my status as a participant in the conflict be seen as nothing more than a legitimate combatant such as yourself. I won't be able to live like this forever, and believe it or not, I'd prefer if I spent the later years of my life without having to run from every single planetary government and cover my tracks every day that I live."
Fox paused, unsure if he could grant the request, but sure that if it was in his power he'd allow it. While at times considered enemies, there was no true conflict of loyalties that pitted them against each other anymore. They each had forged a mutual respect for another, and that burdened Fox with an obligation to allow his counterpart to redeem himself.
"I'll try. Trust me, I've been completely honest about you in the past, but they've never seen fit to revoke your status as a criminal mercenary and perhaps never will. It's not within my power to determine whether or not your current position is upheld." The vulpine explained the best he could. In truth, he'd never seen such an event as a priority, but if it weren't for Wolf, he would never have been able to escape the island at all.
"I know that McCloud, all I'm asking for is your word and nothing more. If you can't convince them then so be it, but I'm only demanding that my actions be recognized for what they are. I'm in complete agreement that these people on this island needed to be stopped, whatever they were doing to you was something that would only endanger the rest of the Lylat. I only hope that whatever was going on here dies along with a Cornerian sanitation team." After finishing the last of his words, Wolf gestured to Gregory who promptly started the boat's main engine.
Amidst the unbroken air of idleness, Fox resented the lupine's position but understood it nonetheless; although he would be leaving with both Khaya and Gregory, each of whom could probably deliver a host of useful information to the proper authorities following a formal interrogation. However, not every battle could be won, and they admittedly had their own survival interests in mind.
"Where will you go now?" Fox asked, just as Wolf was beginning to turn away from the island and focus his attention on the rough waves and foggy expanse.
"Us? Far away from here McCloud, I can tell you that. I've lost so much that I have little to go back to, my station, my territory, it's all gone now, but it was fun while it lasted. All that's left now are my Wolfens and my crew, and hopefully they haven't been tampered with since I left them in storage. Now I have a few more to take care of, but they'll be able to handle themselves. Honestly McCloud, you may not be hearing of me for a long time…" He trailed off, attempting to retain a sense of self-certainty, but correcting himself from being too open with the vulpine.
"Well, just so you know, they recently opened the commercial travel routes to Sauria. I heard the colony population's low and there's only a few small settlements. If you really wanted to disappear, I'm not saying it's the best option, but…"
Wolf returned a casual grin, nodding upon hearing the vulpine's suggestion. "You know what? Maybe you're right… I'll think about it McCloud."
The boat began to shift off the sand of the fractured beach, soon leveling off in the cool waters.
"Fox!" Khaya arose from her seat on the opposite end of the boat from where Fox was facing them. This was the first and only time from the vulpine's recollection that she had called him by his first name.
"Khaya?" Fox's ears flicked at the sound of the husky's call. "What?"
She paused a while, gathering her thoughts the best she could before one last meager delivery. "If you ever start to… feel the interloper…" She struggled to fight against the years of silence and conditioning, either out of a sense of goodwill or her own personal fears.
"Make sure you know who you are."
"What?" Fox replied, confused. "What does that mean, what are you-"
"Goodbye McCloud…" Khaya raised her paw, delivering a half-reserved wave towards the vulpine as the boat gradually drifted from the sand strewn waves.
"Khaya? Khaya!" Fox yelled for the husky to give a better explanation, but his demands were not met. The woman retreated, lowering her head as she sat down at the brink of the boat in silence.
Wolf, noticing that the boat was continuing to drift further outwards, stepped towards the bow to deliver his last gesture of farewell. "Fly high, McCloud. May our paths cross again on better terms."
"Good luck…" Fox returned, watching as the group slowly began to fade as their distance grew. Their eyes locked onto each other for a few moments, communicating on a level that words could not reach. In these unheard transmissions, they have their real goodbyes, each understanding that if their paths were to one day cross again (which they assumed was almost certain) that they would hopefully rival each other in a competitive sense rather than an adversarial one.
The sentimental connection of the two pilots drew on until the interval between them became so great that they could no longer retain their mutual focus. With one last nod, the lupine stepped back towards the center of the boat to command the eagerly awaiting pilot.
"Greg, take us out of here."
The boat's engine cycled with a loud whirr, then angling itself around, the vessel began its long trek towards the vast unknown of Partasti's surrounding waters. From the view of the shore, Fox could see the ship move farther away until its distorted outline was no longer visible amongst the foreground of chilled morning air. With one last sigh, the vulpine resigned the departure of the craft, and made his way back to the battered pink sands of the island's shoreline.
Falco watched as his comrade came closer, eventually squatting down next to him as they stared into the newly void horizon.
"They left us… They really left us…" Falco's muscles tightened with the visible anger that boiled inside of him. "I was ready to get off of this damn island but now…" His head drooped down in what appeared to be a resentful sign of defeat.
"Now we just wait, huh? Isn't that great? Feeling helpless, unable to anything but hope that someone else is coming for you? If he didn't have that gun, I swear I would've…" Falco paused, knowing that if he dwelled too much on the past it would only vent into meaningless frustration. "You know Fox, I really don't like this place."
"I hear you…" Fox nodded. "The place is falling apart and room service keeps trying to kill me." He continued as if in a normal conversation. "But I guess the food was nice, and there are some pretty good views, so who am I to complain?"
"Should've checked the online reviews…" Falco joked. "Maybe they would've told us that this place was run by a rogue Venomian splinter group and that's why the prices were so damn cheap."
"Definitely one-starring this place once I get back." Fox noted.
"Yeah, about when we get back Fox… I don't know how things will be the same ever again. I mean, doesn't everyone think we're dead? How long have we really been gone? Have they given up looking for us, or…" Falco returned his eyes towards the tossed pieces of sand lining the beach. "I don't know… I don't think anything could be the same; you, me, the team- I mean after this whole thing is over, what's left?"
"Falco, you're not considering leaving Star Fox, are you?"
"I never said that, Fox, I-"
Falco was interrupted by a low rumble which was first heard, and then felt under each of their feet. Immediately they understood what the bellowing vibration meant.
"Was that what I think it was?" Falco wondered, looking around to see if there were any noticeable changes in their immediate surroundings.
"The island, I think it's… collapsing on itself. That Hi-strike seems to be doing its work, now that the island's core has been taken out from under it, there's no telling what's going to happen. We should be fine, but…" Fox froze mid-sentence. The realization hit him with such force that it paralyzed him. "No… damn it…"
"What?"
"Our Arwings. If they stay here, we might lose them, no telling what's already happened to the hanger after that strike… I can't believe I almost forgot about them." Fox usually ensured that he kept close tabs on where is Arwing was at all times and in what condition it was in; however, now that he wasn't leaving the island with Wolf, it opened up the opportunity for rescuing the fighters, even if they were severely damaged.
"Well I doubt that either of them are airworthy, they'll need weeks of maintenance before their in any condition for flying." Falco retorted, falling back on his prior experience with his own aircraft.
"They might not be fully operational, but they don't need to be. As long as we can restore power and reboot the engine system, we may be able to tune them for basic flying." The vulpine assured.
Falco considered the option, yet couldn't find any reason to go against Fox's observation. There was no harm in trying, he supposed.
"Come on, we need to get to the hanger before this whole island falls apart."
~X~X~X~X~X~
The journey to the hanger involved a long series of unexpected maneuvers; the jungle floor was lined with an entirely new set of obstacles for them to overcome now that the orbital strike had made short work of its previously pristine condition. Trees and large jagged rocks were scattered around, making a simple one-way excursion a tiring and lengthy task. But still they continued on, eventually reaching the partially intact hanger where their Arwings had been kept.
"There." Fox said, pointing to the hanger while Falco struggled to climb past a particularly thick patch of organic debris. "Looks like it took most of the roof off, but hopefully not much else. Come on."
They entered the hanger by ducking under a strut of the crumpled metal frame which used to be the main doorway. The area surrounding the few remaining aircraft was an absolute mess, littered with scraps of metal lined the cracked concrete floor. To the pilots' relief, the Arwings themselves didn't seem to be too damaged from the impact and ensuing collapse of the roof, but they also knew they weren't in a good shape to begin with.
"Well look at that, all we have to do is fly out of here, right?" Fox wondered, though his sarcasm he realized felt somewhat misplaced.
"Neither of them will even activate, I tried. Not even a hard reset brought it back, and I doubt if we could even get the propulsion systems to work if we- Ok, what are you doing?" Falco watched as Fox jogged over to his Arwing and released a small latch near where the cockpit was housed, manually lifting the canopy.
"Propulsive power is kept separate from avionics. We can replace the power and fuel cells and jumpstart each using only the essential systems. I just might work as long as nothing else is too damaged." Fox explained, reaching behind his seat in the back of his cockpit to retrieve an emergency toolkit. Pulling it out, he then stepped back down and handed one of the strange looking implements to Falco.
"What's this?"
"It's for disassembling standard power cell housings so that they can fit in the Arwings." Fox answered.
"Oh, I always thought it was an emergency fork or something."
Fox rolled his eyes. "Try looking in the transport over there for some spare cells and use that to get them open. I'm going to look for something to open the Arwing's main panel."
Fox searched for the tool on one side of the hanger while Falco scoured the other. He lifted piece after piece of twisted shrapnel off from the ground before finding the right one. With a satisfied grin, he lifted it off, shook the dust from it, and carried it towards the two fighters. He went to work on his own Arwing first, removing the maintenance panel from the underside of the fuselage.
"Great…" The vulpine muttered softly upon seeing the status of the power unit.
"What?" Falco asked as he pulled the last remaining cell from the transport ship.
"Four out of four burned out. Yours is probably the same." Fox said, loosening the panel completely.
"I got five cells from the transport, that's all that was in there…" Falco mentioned while he knelt down to Fox's level to see the total effect of the damage.
"We'll need four for optimal running, but I think we could manage with two or three." The vulpine noted.
"One of us is going to have to fly with two… there are only five good cells which means two for one and three for the other, and shields alone are pretty much two already so we'll have to do without that." Falco noted.
"We'll just have to do without them. This is a temporary thing after all, just get off this island and hop to the nearest SAU airbase, that's it." Fox went to work fitting the new power cells in place of the old ones, fortunately when it came to this there weren't any special tools to move them in and out of place.
When it came to inserting the third cell, Fox paused and looked back at Falco. "Alright, who gets the third, you or me?"
Falco shrugged. "I think I can manage with two… you go ahead, your ship looks more beat up anyways."
Fox went on inserting the cell and did the same for the remaining two on Falco's Arwing. Lastly, they went to work replacing their fuel cells with ones that happened to be conveniently lying at the back of the hanger. The procedure was a simple one for the experienced pilots and could easily have been accomplished by even the most inexperienced mechanic.
After securing the maintenance panel, Fox made a decided leap into his Arwing's cockpit as Falco soon followed by climbing into his.
"Well?" Fox looked over to his right, noticing that the other pilot had finally managed to sit down once more in his own cockpit.
"Here goes nothing." Each said in unison, pulling the ignition switch and closing their eyes in hopeful anticipation.
Fox noticed a slight fizzle erupt from the cockpit's control panel, followed by a much louder crackle that sent a few sparks showering out of the display screens and electronic consoles. His hope dwindled after the few moments of absolute silence made his efforts seem futile, but it quickly regained upon the sight and sound of the panels humming to life, slowly booting up the textual information screens.
"Great." Falco said from his ship.
"What?"
"Avionics on my end are almost all non-functional." Falco commented, testing out a number of the ship's features. "Engines seem fine though, might still get it to fly, how about you?"
"The electronics are on, but they don't seem to be displaying right," Fox noted, tinkering with the settings as much as he could. The Master Warning light had flashed on at the initial start, but Fox had manually switched it off. There were evidently serious issues that may prevent his Arwing from flying properly, but for all he knew with such little information it could mean anything from a minor shield layer decoupling to a primary engine failure.
Next, the pilots checked their radios, which while some of the most robust parts of the entire fighter were nonetheless susceptible to damage. Although they could somewhat make out each other's audio, the video function which was usually an additional feature built in to show their faces was non-functional on both ends.
"Alright, I'm going to try and cycle the engine." Falco said through his radio. Fox nodded and watched while the other pilot gradually increased the thrust until visible cones of blue exhaust sprouted from the underside of the Arwing's fuselage. "How am I looking?"
"Ok… don't see any faults." Fox answered with a thumb raised high, noticing that while obviously not optimal, the ship was likely to generate the thrust necessary to maintain flight. "Your turn." He followed by slowly increasing the throttle on his own ship, not stopping until he heard Falco's voice call out.
"Hold on, Fox… Looks like you've got something, back side, top-left."
Fox turned to see a small plume of smoke rising from the upper left fin of his Arwing. Instinctively, he reached for the manual shut of switch for it as well as for the upper right one to balance things out. "Damn, that doesn't look good. Just to be safe I'll be running on about 30% engine power at max, it's not what I'd like but it should be enough for now."
"Thirty?" Falco looked back, unsure. "Fox, you won't even be able to go supersonic with that output."
"I know, but it's just to be on the safe side." Fox cautioned. "Now, let's lower the canopies and see if we can't get these things flying." He stood up from his seat to reach the manual pulling bar that was built into the side of his canopy. As it came down, it locked with a distinctive hissing sound. However, after this had been accomplished, Fox noticed a flashing light on his indicator panel that he could not remember seeing before; the amber light gleamed softly, displaying the words 'CABIN PRESSURE WARNING'.
"Falco…" Fox began fidgeting for the radio. Neither of them had any sort of headset and so any communications would have to be done in a less convenient manner.
"Yeah?"
"I have a cabin pressure failure, probably nothing too serious, try to stay low, 'kay?"
"Sure thing."
"Alright, ready to take off?" Fox asked, looking through the transparent canopy to lock eyes with the fellow pilot."
"Yeah, I'll start it up." Falco raised the throttle until the jets of blue vectoring from under the ship became more visible. To his surprise, the ship managed to lift off the ground with relative ease, though he still was forced to manually correct for a minor horizontal shake. Ten seconds later, he was clear of the hanger, and his beaten ship was hovering over it in a closely knit circular motion.
Fox took a deep breath and started to raise the throttle to the maximum amount that he had allotted for himself, yet even as it went up, he felt little change in the Arwing's vertical movement. "It's getting there…" Fox said to himself, ensuring that he kept a tight grip on the flight stick in case something went unexpectedly wrong (there were a lot of things going expectantly wrong, there was little that could be done about them).
Not a moment after reaching the maximum amount of throttle, Fox felt the ship violently shake. "What?" He turned around to see if there were any visible abnormalities coming from behind the cockpit, but as he shifted his head, the Arwing took a sudden turn for the worse, and by worse, that meant careening straight into the solid metal transport only meters away. The vulpine's lightning reflexes, although somewhat inhibited in his current state, reacted immediately and pulled the flight stick to the right in order to avoid the oncoming obstacle, barely scraping the side of the transport.
"Whoah, Fox, you ok?" Falco asked from his above position, genuinely worrying about his comrade's safety.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Fox finally returned as his battered and barely functional Arwing made a long crawl out from the barely large enough hole at the top of the hanger. "That was close, though…"
"Wooohooo! Airborne baby! You know what that means, straight shot to home!" Falco cheered from the other side of the radio.
Once Fox was comfortable with the distance he had made between him and the ground, he adjusted the thrust vector so that power would be directed forwards. Falco soon did the same, lowering himself near Fox's right wing.
"Yeah, let's just hope they take us that far." Fox casually remarked, dispelling the excitement that Falco had just uttered. "It's a miracle these things are flying; I didn't know they could be this tough." He couldn't help but try to imagine how the Arwings got into such a state.
As the Arwings increased speed to a level that was both comfortable and stable, Fox decided to encircle the island once more, observing Partasti for what may be the last time. He flew by the main building, which for the most part had collapsed on itself, only remaining somewhat standing on a single corner, but leaving every other part exposed. The surrounding buildings bore a similar effect to the hanger, with maybe a fallen roof or wall at best or a total structural failure at worst. But as they gained altitude and were able to survey a greater scope of the island, it became clear no structure was as damaged as the series of underground corridors that had previously been hidden from the surface.
"It looks so empty…" Falco said over the radio.
"Hopefully it'll stay that way."
The ships swept over the main building, which now housed the dismantled anti-aircraft weaponry that had threatened to keep them all grounded before. Fox knew very well that with the condition their Arwings were in, it would only take one or two well placed shots to take them down, assuming they would even survive regular flying in the state they were in.
The two fighters slowly gained altitude, rising through a thin white sheet of white overcast which obscured the sea from the sky. Fox glanced through the left side panel of his cockpit to watch as the ever-distant shores of Partasti faded from view, overcome by the veil of mist that grew only more intense as the Arwings ascended. A few moments passed before all they could see was the vast expanse of the clear sky, populated only by the two stars that glistened in the distance.
"Ah, isn't it nice to see the suns again?" Falco pondered. "I've been getting quite tired of the shade lately."
Fox reached for the radio button. "Me too… let's just head east for now, try to find some civilization at least."
"Yeah, ok. I was up for a little bit up for wandering aimlessly across the ocean, but I guess I can settle with getting back home."
"Right. You know, Falco, practically everyone we know thinks we're dead, right?"
Falco hesitated a moment before responding. "I would guess so. From what I can gather, we've been gone for about a week. Do you think they've already had a funeral for us?"
"Maybe…" Fox reminded himself for a moment of the pain that others must have felt at the realization that all hope was lost. He could see them searching endlessly for him but never making any discovery. What possibly could've gone through their minds? What level of shock would befall them after their eyes reasserted his existence?
"Hey Fox," Falco spoke up, breaking the vulpine from his current thought.
"Yes?"
"How's your engine doing?"
"Oh… Not good, but it should be fine in the short-term." Fox could only see the status of his ship's systems by examining them on the basic display panel, which offered little in terms of detailed information.
"How short-term?"
"I don't know. Anywhere from five seconds to five hou-" Fox's eyes froze as they caught what appeared to be a disturbance in the clouds below them.
"Say again? I didn't hear you right."
"Falco…" Fox looked frantically on each side of the canopy glass. "I don't think we're alone…"
The moment the vulpine's final word was uttered, the clouds below them broke open, and tearing through the mist came a deafening screech of a fighter moving at high speeds, blazing forward with its weapon at full charge and aiming directly at the wingman's aircraft. Fox's vision jolted for a moment, as past and present seemed to meld into an incontrovertible flash of recognition. He knew that he had seen this before, but from where his mind had no time to contemplate.
"Falco!" Fox yelled as he tried in vain to warn his teammate before the streaking green bolt from the enemy fighter collided with the rear of Falco's Arwing, knocking forward with a pummeling momentum and showering residual glints from the explosive impact before sending his ship spiraling downwards in an uncontrollable fashion. The hostile fighter pulled away, pitching downwards so that it descended once more into the safe cover of the clouds.
The vulpine was unable to react in any meaningful way, his weapons were useless, none of his ship's electronics were functional, and he was hopelessly disadvantaged against the opponent in terms of maneuvering as his Arwing was in no condition to perform stressful motions. But in that moment, he knew he had to do something; Falco's ship was cascading down, with no signs of immediate recovery, and as the fiery Arwing slipped beneath the clouds, he forced himself to take a heavy breath, before pushing down on his stick and lowering his own craft into the white haze that intermediated between the water and sky.
Now in the seemingly endless expanse of overcast, the vulpine searched desperately for any sign of the sudden attacker, and when his search came up empty, called on the short radio for his comrade.
"Falco, Falco, can you hear me?" He called, still looking around the white mist without any sort of electronic aid. "Falco, please respond."
Nothing came.
"Shit… Shit… Falco! FALCO!"
Still, only silence punctuated through the radio.
Ok, Fox, get a hold of yourself. We can take this guy, whoever he is… all I have to do is- shit! I don't even have any weapons… damn it, my engines won't be able to help me either… where the hell is this guy?
The vulpine caught a quick glimpse of color penetrating the fog, moving fast and descending. Fox flipped his ship across the horizon and guided it downwards, the damaged structure resisting him every bit of the way. Within a few moments, he had cleared most of the overcast, and now he could see the darkened enemy fighter silhouetted against the crashing waves. The vulpine was in a surpassingly good position to make a shot, yet with all of the ships secondary systems disabled and the energy banks fully devoted to keeping the Arwing in the air, there was no possibility of landing a well charged shot.
He's got to notice me, why isn't he doing anything?
Fox watched as the hostile fighter continued on its path, seemingly unaware that Fox's Arwing was bearing down on it and fast. Hopefully, Fox would be able to land a lucky shot on him, either disabling or eliminating the threat.
His ship descended faster and faster, until Fox noticed that he would soon need to pull up in order to keep his Arwing from crashing into the waves. The vulpine lined up the shot as fighter came to within reasonable range, without any visual aid except for the backup sights that lined the center of HUD, Fox placed his thumb on the trigger in preparation for taking the shot.
The front of his Arwing glowed brightly as the cannon discharged a bolt of encapsulated energy, sending it flying on a collision course with the opposing fighter. The bolt nearly scraped the fighter's fuselage, but missed, splashing harmlessly into the waves below. A display light in Fox's Arwing lit up, warning him that the current levels of energy consumption were unsustainable. The vulpine soon realized that he had to pull up before slamming into the ocean, pulling hard back on the stick while the damaged Arwing struggled to follow his command.
The enemy fighter seemed to get the message. After narrowly avoiding the bolt, it pulled over to its starboard side in a tight circle until it was perpendicular to the vulpine's Arwing.
Fox swiveled his head around after recovering to see where his enemy now was. He managed to gain an advantageous position to the damaged Arwing, and was now behind him and slightly to his right at the five o'clock position. Fox figured that it was best for him to try turning into his circle and pull upwards in hopes that the enemy would overshoot him, but if the enemy was prepared for such a maneuver and managed to land a shot, Fox's Arwing would be toast.
It was worth a shot. Fox nearly had the residual effort to correct his mental vocabulary.
The enemy fighter was closing, weapons trained and ready to fire. Since Fox had no shields, the only protection he had was the base armor plating which was almost assuredly damaged beyond use in its condition. It was almost now within range; whoever was piloting the fighter surely had some experience, as all of Fox's efforts to achieve a better turning angle seemed to be failing. As soon as the two aircraft were an optimal distance from each other, the opposing fighter sent a stream of red bolts headed in Fox's vicinity. Many of the bolts slammed into the cresting waves, causing wide gushes of vapor to expand outwards and clouding a good portion of the nearby area, yet a few streaks nearly made contact with the Arwing.
Fox reacted to the barrage of fire by pulling upwards in hopes that he could swerve inwards of their current direction. One of the superheated bolts contacted his canopy, but was deflected away thanks to the proprietary design that Space Dynamics had purposed it for. The vulpine gasped for air after the tense moment had passed, noticing that his ship was now having trouble dealing with the sudden move. The Arwing was generally a resilient craft, but certain stressors would impact its performance in ways that made it more difficult to operate than standard craft, and this wasn't counting the fact that Fox's Arwing was somehow airworthy despite its damaged state.
The vulpine attempted to throttle his ship enough so that he could gain some altitude and hopefully lose the enemy in the clouds, but the engines stuttered and failed to respond with enough power to accomplish the move. Before long, he remembered that he was dedicating too much time to focusing on his own ships problems and not on the position of the enemy fighter, which had already gained a positional advantage on him. He knew that whoever it was didn't have tracking weaponry (or Fox would already be dead by now), and so if he could evade him long enough, perhaps he would become dissuaded and leave for fear of other forces joining in on the fight.
"F..x… pu- …p" A voice came from Fox's radio.
"Falco? That you?" Fox immediately recognized the avian's voice, but wanted to get a response from him.
"Pull… up."
Fox knew that if he attempted to pull up now, his Arwing would stall and likely enter a spin due to the imbalances it currently had. Since he had no plans for himself, he decided to follow Falco's advice. He pulled back on his stick and raised his fighter in the air. The aircraft visibly wavered from its intended path, struggling to provide enough thrust to match the rising angle of attack.
There was no turning back, as the enemy fighter was closing on him fast. He was now the target locked dead in the adversary's sights, and nothing could prevent their paths from intercepting.
At that singular moment, Fox's Arwing breached the layer of clouds. Looking through the dense overcast, he thought he could make out a distinctive circular shape quickly approaching his aircraft but slightly off course. Instinctively, the vulpine veered his ship off its current course to claim the shining hope that Falco had just left behind.
'The absolute madman…' Fox thought, noticing that Falco had left a twin blaster drop for him in his wake. 'He actually did it…'
The Arwing, even though most of its electronic systems were non-functional, still managed to collect and install the upgrade, despite technical issues in the automatic regulation system that would make the weapons useless after a few shots.
"Give him everything you've got, Fox. Don't stall on me."
Fox took one long breath, not knowing whether his Arwing would manage to clear the dense overcast. At the right moment, he would immediately cut the engines and allow his adversary to screech past him, giving him the perfect opportunity to use Falco's discarded cannons.
A brief flash overcame his sight, and the enemy fighter came up from close behind, launching barrage after barrage of shots directed at the vulpine's Arwing, but missing almost exclusively to the variable of obscured vision. Fox turned his head to the right side of his ship as the enemy passed only a few meters from the edge of his own canard.
Their eyes met, even if only for a brief glimpse.
The vulpine's paws froze on the stick, unable to execute the last ditch plan that Falco had just offered him. He watched almost helplessly as the enemy fighter drifted perfectly into position. His finger was on the trigger ready to push down, but his conscience directed his body in a different direction.
'Don't hesitate McCloud, just do it!' The vulpine could hear Wolf's voice play through his mind. Surely there was another option. 'Take the damn shot!'
With time now an opposing force, the Arwing failed to maintain the velocity necessary to keep its current angle, and the nose was now quickly tilting downwards in the uncontrolled stall.
"Fox! What's wrong? Why didn't you shoot him? He's getting away!" Falco snapped, noticing the ordeal from below in his own crippled Arwing. "He'll be coming back around!"
"He… he…" Fox desperately tried to regain control from the stall while still communicating with his wingman. The piloting mantra of 'Aviate, navigate, communicate' that had been drilled into his mind early on in his life started to take hold, and before long, his skill and experience guided him out of the descending spiral.
"What, Fox, are they not working?"
"It's Truman." Fox answered.
It wasn't that surprising all things considered, after all, Truman had claimed to be a fighter pilot just like them and so it made sense that his final line of duty would be preventing them from leaving the island.
"Well… where is he? I didn't see much, I'm under the clouds." Falco wondered, his battered Arwing low near the water to avoid easy detection. Although he didn't have any weapons now that he'd given his own to Fox in that recent effort, he still had his eyes, and to any experienced pilot, that was good enough.
"Still up there… haven't seen him come down… Falco? I'm going to try talking to him."
"Fox WHAT!?"
"I think I can end this. Just… give me a minute." Fox reached to the manual setting dial on his radio, turning it over to the 'multicast' position. "Truman? Truman are you receiving this? I know that if you're listening that you can hear me…" He began, still scanning the clouds for any sign of the opposing vessel.
"Listen Truman, we don't have to fight. You can get out of here and you might have a chance to escape, but they're coming for you- for us. Please, do this for me, for him… I could've taken you out back there, I had the right position and everything, and I wouldn't have missed, but I spared you. There's no fight left anymore, you've done all you could, but I'm begging you not to throw your life away…"
No response came from the other side, leaving Fox wondering whether his message had even gone through.
"I'm sorry about what happened to your friend those years ago- I know what it's like to see someone you know die in front of your eyes, I-"
Fox halted once he noticed a slight break in the clouds. The fighter above skimmed below them momentarily, before disappearing back above.
A fizzling sound came through the radio as an isolated transmission began to stream through. The voice that came through was coarse and searing with the memory of loss.
"This is not a matter of sympathy McCloud… I failed him… he trusted me to make the move and I hesitated. Whatever I think about it now doesn't change what happened. When I saw him go down I-" a few moments of pause separated his words. "I waited years to make the Cornerians pay for what they did… everyone I knew and everything I loved was taken from me, and all I had left to retreat to when everything came down was Partasti. When they pulled you two from the ocean and put you on the island, I was so ready… for days I watched over your unconscious bodies and screamed in pain as I restrained myself from choking you while you slept. I would've had no second thoughts…"
"Truman…" Fox said softly over the radio. "I understand your hate, I know what you mean when you talk about your loss- I knew that then and I know now no matter what side you're on… the whole Lylat has moved on, this war only lasts as long as you'll let it last. You can let go and move on, or you can die along with his memory."
Fox waited for a response, although he still looked upwards to see if Truman was making an attack move.
"What I saw McCloud was a monster… a demon, the one that had caused so much destruction and taken so many of us in his unstoppable wake. Most of us had a hatred for what you did, but forcing ourselves to hide it was necessary for the sake of the mission. But now that you've destroyed everything else once more, I have no more restraint left." Truman spoke through the radio.
"Truman, I don't want to fight, there's nothing left to fight for."
The conversation was split once more with a few tense moments of silence.
"I thought the worst of you McCloud, the days before you'd woken up, I was hoping to see your demise. But then came the whole incident with Break-Fast… When I saw that, I knew this wasn't some mindless tool that the Cornerians had pulled from hell, it was someone with bravery and a willingness to fight for the good of others with his own life at risk. What I saw- I saw him in you… and you know what? It disgusted me, even now I feel sick knowing that I had to pretend all along. But it doesn't change what I owed to him, Khaya, Luther, all of them, and that was to devote my last dying breath to defending what they worked so hard to keep, and preventing the last vestiges of the island from infecting the Lylat."
Fox reached to the radio in order to give his reply, but stopped a moment before contacting the transmission panel. Reluctantly after gathering his thoughts, he continued on.
"Truman… Khaya's still alive… she escaped earlier with Wolf. You know her, she wouldn't want you to do this, she stopped fighting and did so knowing that she could redeem herself in the future and so should you." The vulpine continued looking upwards, noticing that drops of rain had begun to come down from the gleam of the thick overcast. "There's nothing left to fight for, there's no honor killing me now."
Silence overcame the air, as all that broke through was a faint static. Tension rose ever so slightly as Fox braced himself for whatever would come next.
"You're right…" Truman began. "but you realize I have nowhere left to go, no life outside of here. Partasti was all I had, and now that's been taken away by you, just like before. I have no life outside of there, McCloud, I can't go back to an adoring crowd or a caring team. No matter what happens now, I'll never be able to go back."
"There are enough islands on Zoness for someone to escape. You don't have to live in fear, just find an isolated island where you'll be able to stay without anyone bothering you, there are thousands of them around, I mean look at Vincenzo and Partasti! Truman, I don't completely know what parts of you I saw were real or not, but you can still move on like the other survivors have. You don't have to hide because you were once part of Venom, you're free to move on like the rest of them."
A few more moments of quiet broke the countering words apart.
"McCloud…" Truman answered. "That pilot that flew theses skies during the war, ensuring that the invasion would prevail, died years ago. All that remains in me is the hope that his death wasn't in vain. But- I don't claim my story to be unique, and there's nothing I can do to bring him or any of them back…"
Against his previous judgement, Truman made a final decision. As he saw the distant blips in his own radar approaching his position, he knew the battle if he intended to prolong it would not draw on much longer.
"McCloud, Fox… Goodbye…" With that, the transmission was audibly broken, and the fighter lowered itself from its place in the clouds far in front of the vulpine's Arwing. But instead of turning towards him, the ship jinked suddenly to its side and shot straight away, navigating in an ambiguous direction.
It wasn't long before his fighter and the bright tail from his engines faded into the distant atmosphere.
From his cockpit, Fox motioned for Falco to rejoin his earlier formation. The two neared each other once more, and soon they gained enough altitude so that the overcast no longer obscured them.
"Well…" Falco began. "That went better than I expected. You know Fox, even though I'm a better pilot than you, I- don't think I could've done that…"
"Yeah… I know." Fox casually reciprocated. "Let's just- get out of here."
The fighters continued onward, now that the threat had been dispatched (even if in the most unorthodox of ways) there was likely nothing keeping them from reaching safety. That was at least what they though until Falco voiced his concern upon his Arwing's barely viable sensors making an unexpected discovery.
"Shit… not again."
"Falco? What is it? Your engines acting up?" Fox wondered.
"No, we have two- no three bogeys, seven o'clock high. They're closing fast." Falco answered, his randomly functional screen displaying the approaching group from behind them.
"Are there more of them?"
"Can't tell, they're bunched together, but they're all coming for us, whoever they are." Falco stated, half-panicked by the possibility. "Truman should've been the last one, something's wrong."
"Falco, our weapons won't be able to take them on… there's too many for us to handle with our low charge."
"I know! Just give me a sec…" Falco swiveled his head back, noticing the small figures behind him and slightly to the left in the upper sky grow larger each moment he watched.
"Falco? Falco… anything?" Fox urged, watching as the three small dots soon became more than small.
"Damn it. They're almost here. Closing fast, they've got a lock on us."
"There's nowhere to go!"
"Break low and I'll-"
A sudden sound made its way through each of the pilot's cockpits. Desperate, the pilots looked around to see if any new warnings had begun flashing, but they quickly pinpointed the sound as originating from their radios. Someone was trying to contact them.
"Attention unidentified aircraft, this is Col. Winters of the Southern Archipelago Union Security Forces, you are encroaching on restricted SAU airspace and have been deemed to be military aircraft, please respond."
Fox and Falco left out an immediate sigh of relief. With a smile quickly finding its way onto Fox, he reached for the radio to respond, noticing the SAU fighters pulling up beside them so that they could see each other sitting in the cockpits.
"Good afternoon colonel, this is Fox McCloud and Falco Lombardi of Star Fox. We're a bit um- lost, and we're unfamiliar with the area. Could you help us get to the nearest airfield?"
Fox turned at that moment to look Falco in the eyes. Neither of them needed to say what they were each thinking.
Let's never go on vacation here again.
"Of course McCloud, your ship also looks a bit damaged; we'll prep a space for you at the nearest airfield and escort you there."
"Thank you colonel, we'd appreciate that very much."
~X~X~X~X~X~
In the unknown depths of his recollection, Fox descended through an endless stream of shuffling voices, until he reached the beckoning of the interloper. His senses faded as their two memories touched, becoming one. In the last moments of his own will, he felt a great light overcome him, before that which had once guided him on his own terms morphed into the primary force which now led his shifting apprehension towards its own purpose.
In the immediate transference of cognition, his mind drifted past countless magnificent visions and transcendental perceptions, long waned in their integrity by the destructive agent of entropy. In his few moments of sight, he was offered glimpses of gaping canyons, lofty mountains, and of brilliant stars, each vision passing onto the next with greater clarity. He felt a strange impression of his body ascending before a bright image flashed into his sight, carrying him across the residual memory and onto what felt like solid ground.
Though he could tell his senses were not his own, there was an odd degree of autonomy that encapsulated his every motion, yet felt as if it had been prearranged all the same. The immediate surroundings seemed to be a soft pale expanse that was at first impossible to make any form out of, but the indistinct boundaries which made up this world soon molded into familiar outlines of rocky outcroppings, then shifted in accordance with their determined depth until shapes of all manners could be made out.
And then, like a blast of wind in his face, the world around him began to form colors, all stemming from the center of his vision and spreading outward until everything had its own definition.
He found himself standing on a great cliff side, overlooking an immense scene of change, for whatever reason was not quite clear. Before him and below the mountain he stood on were millions of unidentifiable creatures, each gathering at a central location in the massive reaches of a winding desert valley. The horizon in the distance was half occupied by a great fire in the sky, which cast its light across the vast orange mountains and the sparsely clouded landscape of the alien looking world. Everywhere he would look, his view shifted into a singular focus, time and sight both distanced themselves from the rules of the waking world and substituted the recollected ordinances of this one. No longer bound by merely his own instruction, he moved his form through the incoherence of his surrounding thoughts, controlling no more than what the interloper allowed.
Fox noticed an entity standing next to him along the cliff edge, observing the immeasurable scene before them as large portions of the crowds below entered a massive central tower which cast a shadow that stretched for miles. The entity seemed to hold either no distinct form or some form that Fox's mind was unable to comprehend, as if it both existed and yet didn't at the same time. When it spoke, it did so in ways that betrayed its visible location, and even its presence seemed to switch from one area to the next. It was then that he realized this was not simply a memory, but a disconnected amalgam of perceptual experiences that were not organized as in a singular entity.
"The joining is nearly complete, once the rest have all gathered, our journey will commence." The entity spoke in a way that sounded eerily familiar. "This event has waited millennia, and nothing like it will ever be seen again on this terrestrial frame. Our hope rests in this machine, the guide that will take us through our journey."
"But what of the others, the off-worlders? What shall become of them?" The interloper asked, following the path that the entity had begun to lead away from the cliff's edge and down a path that led to the desert valley.
"They have already begun the ascension, both the Ysi'ko and the Uyuth from our sister home. Those that do not commit to the joining of the Onemind will be left to face the dying sun, and fade amongst the land they grew from."
For the most part, Fox couldn't comprehend some of the names that he was hearing, and he figured that many of the verbal elements included in the names were on some plane of auditory expression that he couldn't tap into.
"How long will we roam on the journey? And what are we hoping to find?"
"That is the choice of the Onemind, its guidance will be ours, and its intentions its own. The off-worlders have chosen a different path, but one of their own accord. Their journey is their own, though some are willing to join us. Ours will fall under the supreme guidance of the Onemind, and once the journey is complete, it will encompass all. Its force will be us, its life will be ours, and our path, its own." The mysterious entity answered, leaning forwards in a way which pulled Fox's view in its direction.
Fox noticed that the ground beneath them had now changed; their location had switched through means unrecognizable, yet their footing was one which bore resemblance to the massive tower that they had once gazed upon from afar. The Interloper looked upwards and studied the frame of the overall structure, taking in the incredible sight of the massive crystalline forms which patterned the exterior while the lines cutting through them glowed soft as if it were its own being.
It was then that Fox noticed that this machine was alive.
"This, is the Onemind?"
"No, not yet at least. The Onemind will only exist once we cease to exist, that is, the Onemind exists so long as it does so alone."
Fox hesitated, unsure about what this entity was implying. Was he going to be sacrificing himself so that something else could exist? The questions only reached so far as the Interloper's predilection allowed.
The great machine echoed with a deep groan, suddenly calling for the ascension of thousands of winged beings into the air. The beings collected themselves in large swarms, swirling around the tower until the last one disappeared within one of the large openings on the upper ends of the tower.
"Come now, our time is almost here." The accompanying being spoke to him, leading him closer to the tower where many moving parts had begun to coalesce. They each stepped onto a nearby platform, which was bound against the giant structure. The platform rumbled, and began to elevate itself against the side of the structure, taking the two along with it.
"Why am I being shown this? What does he want to tell me?" Fox managed to speak through the interloper.
"You have already known, for the Interloper and you are one just as it was one with the Onemind. You have become its new Onemind, yet your journey has only begun. In some way, there is no 'You', and 'it' anymore."
"What does it want from me? Why is it here?"
"Your time has almost come too, McCloud. The vessel you carry with you is still on its journey, and has yet to be awakened."
As the elevator carried them higher past the edge of the cylindrical structure, they could see that the ground below them remained void of any life.
"But who is it? And what does it want with me?" Fox asked.
"That is for it to decide. But it has chosen you for a reason." The voice softly explained.
From the upper reaches of the structure, he noticed a strange vibration begin to overcome him. And his sight was drawn upwards to see the crystalline shapes gathering in a wide central sphere above the great structure. As they rose higher, their direction strayed towards the moving shapes, which echoed a low hum the closer they approached. Soon his vision started to distance itself from its current awareness, and darkness subdued the form of light until he was left alone in an expanse of emptiness and silence.
He was surrounded now by complete darkness, though he could tell the interloper still held onto him with its immaterial pull. A barely noticeable chill slid across his form, as he could tell now that the environment had just taken a drastic change. One by one, strange dots began to float across his undefined vision, until their uniform flow and distinct shapes clearly placed them as falling snow.
Fox now became more alert as he noticed himself walking through the snow, unable to see much of a distance in front of him due to the icy haze that swept across the plane of white snow. He soon realized that he'd been here before, no, not quite this exact place, but the environmental clues that even the icy structures near him gave off pointed strongly to him now being on Fichina.
His path was guided by a winding series of colored lights, which presented the only synthetic arrangements on this otherwise undisturbed landscape. He followed them instinctively, not guided by conscious thought, but again by an untold feeling inside that could only partially be described as his own.
As he strode onward, he forced himself to stop, now recognizing that he'd gained a new degree of lucidity allowing him to look where he wanted and shift his muscles in whichever way he pleased. He looked back towards the direction which he came from, noticing the softly glowing red lights shining through the growing blizzard.
'Keep going.' A voice from nowhere in particular told him, prompting the vulpine to pick up the pace and continue following the series of illuminated beacons.
Fox kept on moving, until eventually he reached the ending point of where the lit pylons had been placed. It overlooked a curved icy cliff that led downwards into a shallow valley, which itself had a much higher degree of visibility than where he'd just come from. He could now see the sky, as well as the three suns which blinked weakly through the atmosphere.
Wait, three suns?
In the sky stood the Lylat and its twin sun, which stood even now as familiar sights to the vulpine, but the third fire in the sky looked different, unnatural even. Not only did it give a strangely off color, but its size seemed to change by each moment as well- yes, he could see it had been growing larger, whatever it was it was breaking through the sky and coming straight for him!
He dove for cover against the side of the ridge, as the approaching meteorite streaked downwards through the sky at incredible speeds. Although Fox did his best to shield himself from the blast, there was no protecting against its immense force, yet, as Fox noticed the landscape around him break in the wake of the meteorite's craterous impact and deafening crash, there was no sense of harm or discomfort that overcame him. Removing his paws from his shielded head, he slowly turned to see the impact site, as large chunks of ice and debris fell back down after being flung upwards by the crash.
'Come, you're almost there'. The voice said again, but this time clearly originating from whatever object had found its way from where Fox stood. Seeing only one place left to move, the vulpine slid down the icy slope of the crater's ridge and stepped forward to encounter the gigantic structure.
'You can feel it now, you're journey is nearly complete.'
As Fox approached the great structure, the world around him progressively darkened, until only the violet glow originating from the machine was left. The snow around him as well as the gusting wind quieted down, and he found only the presence of the machine in his darkened surroundings. He could now see the crystalline structures that formed the machine, and the other shapes that he saw triggered an earlier recollection of the tower that he and the interloper had watched from afar.
Only steps away from where the call beckoned, he stretched his dominant paw outwards in preparation for touching the machine. With every step he made, the voice that had called became clearer, and more prominent, until he finally contacted the machine's surface, bridging the gap between them- and in a sense, becoming one.
Out from where he touched, sprang a web of brightly illuminated paths that gave light to the rest of the machine, giving it a cool hum of life as it winded across the immense reaches of darkness. Fox felt an otherworldly invigoration course through him, bringing with it the odd chill that only the interloper had given to him.
'You've done well. Your journey is complete.'
Fox froze upon recognizing that the voice he heard was his own. In a brief moment of clarity he removed his paw from the machine, which by now had already been fully imbued with the force that Fox had transferred into it. He calmly lifted his paw, and stood in wonder at final sight of the interloper's form.
"I… understand now."
With those words, his world faded to black.
~X~X~X~X~X~
Fox awoke from his bed, jolting upwards at first in surprise, but calming himself quickly once he recognized he was back in his own room on the Great Fox. Standing up from his bed against the inward demands of his tired body that he instead remain, he staggered over to the bathroom across the floor with a reduced sense of balance. Once inside, he reached for the knobs on the sink, which let out a smooth stream of water that he promptly used to help wipe the crust from his eyes and wet his own muzzle. He took a brief glimpse into the mirror, almost recognizing the figure that stared back to be something other than his own.
A couple knocks on his room's door precluded his attention from remaining on the mirror. Grabbing a small hand-towel to dry off the remaining water, the vulpine headed back inside the main area if his room in order to release the controls keeping the door from opening. "You can come in now." He said, noticing the figure of Bill Grey soon stepping inside.
"Fox, hey."
"Hey Bill." Fox returned noticing a paper folder being held tight in the dog's paws.
"I have the final report, on paper as you requested." Bill continued, tossing the report on Fox's desk next to his old laptop. "Big Boy, the mission, the island, Vincenzo, everything we could gather about it is in here. Have you- been resting well?"
"Yeah, it's just…" Fox threw an ambivalent gesture, raising but then releasing his arms. "I don't know… I'll be fine, it's only- something's felt different ever since I've left that island, it's not like I'm missing anything it's-"
"I get it." Bill concluded, placing his paw on the vulpine's back. "It's strange to be back in the world of the living, isn't it?"
"I guess." Fox nodded. "How are the others doing? I guess they're also having to get used to me… well… being back again."
"They're fine, but- they want to see you- they'd like to see you I mean, it's nothing urgent, you understand."
"And what about High Command?"
"Them too." Bill nodded.
"Alright. I'll be ready sometime soon, just give me a- couple of hours or so."
"Fox?"
"Yeah?" The vulpine turned to look at Bill directly.
"I'm always available if you need me."
Fox let out a muffled sound of acknowledgement. "Thanks so much Bill, you've… been really great to them."
"I'll see you later." Bill released his paw from touching the vulpine, and proceeded to head outside of the room.
Fox wandered over to the desk where the final report lay. He shifted his paw over to lift the cover, but stopped himself before he could lift the foremost panel. Inside of this was the truth, at least all that remained of it now. Everything that had happened until this point, all he'd experienced, condensed into a singular form.
He closed his eyes, half-lifting the frontal flap of the paper folder.
Was all this even real? Could it be some illusive force that had teared into his memory, influencing the lucid facets of his unconscious mind? Was he driven away from this waking world and consigned to a realm of action where nothing existed but that which originated from his own being? The cognitive motions that stirred within him, was there no real framework by which it worked?
Were all the thoughts that made their way into conscious stream merely a misaligned construction meant to make sense out of what never was there? Or perhaps the cascading events were the result of a densely interlocking weave that his own mind had created in its last gasp before death and he was merely living through the disconnected and decaying visions of a life that had long passed.
Would he be able to stare into himself and within the glimpse of the parallel eyes capture the form of his own reality that had evaded him with every new breath of cognizance? Within another being, another existence, find himself struggling to break free from his mental prison? And if he opened his eyes now, would his world immediately brighten into the realization of what has been there this whole time? And would the passing memory of Partasti and everything with it fade like the image of a long deadened dream?
"No, of course not… I'm here. I'm myself, and I'm perfectly fine." Fox said to himself, indifferently opening the folder.
"Now, let's see the story we've been missing." Said the interloper.
~X~X~X~X~X~
The End
Author's notes: Well, I don't have much else to say.
Thank you to everyone that's read this far, I know this chapter has taken way too long, and I've had to edit and rewrite it so many times before I felt it was ripe. Unlike most of the chapters in this story, there weren't many instances where this one 'clicked' and everything afterwards felt automatic. But I'm glad to see it's over.
The story began as some fun idea, me playing with the concept of 'what if Fox had been captured by the enemy without him even knowing it?' and then growing outwards from there on. Without being too simplistic, I enjoyed how unconventional the entire story was, while still retaining the sense of the source material. All the comments and reviews and messages have meant a lot to me, they really do; having the encouragement to keep going and recognition that also comes with critical examination helps reinforce the reason why I'd even care about writing some 'nerdy' fanfiction in the first place.
This whole time has been great, and I'm pleased with how everything turned out.
Again, thank you all.