Star Fox 1. Chapter 1 - The Vortex

_This story takes place after the wars with Andross and the Aparoids and directly follows an Adventures ending where the Anglars are defeated. There could be a few errors, or a lot... Either way, feedback would be the best way to fix whatever is wrong and improve upon what I already have, so thank you all for your time._

**CHAPTER 1**: _**The Vortex**_

The stars were quiet.

After years of struggles to maintain elongated peace within the Lylat System, things had finally become tranquil. The effects of the three wars which seemingly rippled through the whole of outer space itself had finally been shaken off. After the wrath of Andross, the horrid Aparoids, and the assault made by the Anglars, recovery was a difficult term to grasp the meaning of.

Of course, there was the one team of skilled fighters that had prevailed through every hellish flame of battle they were confronted with… This team was widely respected, adulated, famed, and incredibly talented. This was, without any doubt, the Star Fox squad.

However, after each recognition and every bit of history made from their astonishing feats, there was never any bed of roses waiting. While they took care of business successfully on the exterior, the interior of the team was rapidly diminishing.

The squad consisted of very distinguished figures, all with their own set of skills and attributes… Falco Lombardi, Slippy Toad, Krystal, and the leader, Fox McCloud. Though they had mainly stuck together, problems were clearly developing.

Fox had a handful to deal with. The relationship he had hoped to develop with Krystal, the love he had longed for desperately, had fallen apart. Slippy, the team's main source of morale and spirit, had decided to spend time with his own love and start a family on another planet (of course, still vowing to keep in contact with the remainder of the team). Peppy had retired and was made general of the Cornerian military. Falco, along with ROB 64, had remained by Fox's side ever since Krystal adamantly made the decision to leave. To make matters worse, the Starwolf team was still lurking throughout the Lylat, causing many other sticky situations which often lead to dreadful results when Starfox intervened and clashed violently in order to try and bring things to a close.

Fox had lost many of his close friends and felt isolated, at times depressed and without a valid cause to travel through outer space on the Great Fox, which once held a much more incredible team than what was left. He and Falco were still attempting to keep the string from snapping, but with little strength, as both were almost at an inconsolable state.

It was at this time they were cruising past Zoness, on their way to Aquas for their monthly rendezvous with Slippy and his wife.

…

"Is it just me, or has this hunk of junk gotten slower over the decade?"

An impatient grumble escaped the sneering beak of Falco as he stood near the front of the Great Fox's bridge, posing cross-armed and gazing out the window into the nothingness which stood between Zoness and the team's destination.

Fox calmly replied, not a far distance from Falco, "Relax… Maybe you're right, but complaining isn't going to make things much better."

"Alright," Falco sighed, "When's the estimated time of arrival?"

A monotonous mechanical tone echoed from the main control panel.

"Approximately seven hours," ROB responded.

"And we're still stuck here… perfect. Might as well try and find another way to kill time." Falco turned around and began to make his exit from the bridge, his hands in his pockets and his expression unchanged.

_He's right… She's grown aged since her journey to Venom._ Fox thought to himself as he sat back into a nearby chair and lounged, trying to relax. He closed his eyes and began to nap as the door slid closed once Falco had left the room. ROB's working pace did not cease in the meantime as Fox's dozing dragged on for a few hours.

A beeping noise rudely awakened Fox after a considerable amount of time had passed. Rubbing his eyes and clearing his throat, he recognized the sound as a communication request. It was Slippy, checking in on Starfox's progress.

Fox ordered ROB to trigger the hologram generator in the center of the room and spoke quietly, "Hey, Slip. What's up?"

The hologram displayed a view of Slippy's head, his eyes with their same positive shine and his familiar smile being exhibited. He chimed, "Just seeing how things on your end are! I've gotten everything prepared for your arrival, Fox!"

"You're always so amiably considerate. The team's really been missing you, but it makes up for the loss whenever we go out to Aquas to see your family, you know?" Fox smiled in return.

Slippy's excitement grew and his head nodded quickly, "Yeah, definitely! It's a real treat having you around as well, and plus the kids really love listening to your epic war accounts!"

"Hah, I'm glad they enjoy them a lot. I don't know if I have many more, but I'll fish around."

"Aw don't worry, you'll come up with s-" *click*

Spontaneously, the connection was lost. Fox blinked his eyes in surprise. "Slip? Where'd you go? ROB, gimme a status update."

"There is an apparent interference. Cause unknown."

As Fox opens his mouth to question, Falco walked into the room and fixed him with a confused stare. "Hey, I've been hearing these noises coming from behind the Great Fox. I can hear them now, too. What's the hubbub?"

"Oh, no…" Fox's eyes widened in fear as the interference ROB mentioned was closing in on the crew fast from a long distance away. "Look there!"

As Falco glanced out the window, a huge blob of blackened precipitation, crackling with electricity and booming with thunder, was approaching the Great Fox at blinding speeds. Falco cursed silently and turned towards ROB.

"Holy shit… Turn this tin can around and let's book the hell out of here!"

Fox stood still and watched in horror as the giant, furious cloud gave no chance for the bulky aircraft to escape, engulfing it fully in a dark uproar. The ship overturned, throwing Fox and Falco against the wall in a loud grunt, and ROB encountered great difficulty navigating through the intense turbulence. The wings of the Great Fox seemed as if they would snap off at any moment, and its lasers ceased to function right at the crucial moment in which they were needed.

Fox barked out an order, "Grab something and don't let go!"

He and Falco both found an object or a chair and clung to it tenaciously through the wild ride. The ship's speed had increased ten-fold as if they were entering hyperspace. It seemed at this moment like that was the situation…

And so, the Great Fox continued to spiral deeper into the booming hellhole, and the team was not sure where they were going or how they would find any sort of way out. The black cloud disappeared from outer space, taking the Great Fox as sacrifice without leaving a trace. The Star Fox squad was just nearing the beginning of another exotic adventure...


	2. Chapter 2 - Beginnings

_This part of the plot introduces my OC and gives his own backstory. If I didn't include that, __A Destiny Entwined_ _wouldn't really exist, or it would be absurdly confusing and incoherent. Thoughts so far? The chapters might get a bit longer, just to let you know._

**CHAPTER 2**: **_Beginnings_**

It was a quiet morning. Beams of sunlight broke through the leaves and tree branches of a dense forest area, illuminating the lush, grassy ground as it gave off a satisfied hum. The environment was slowly ignited into life.

A brilliant winged creature swooped close to the ground and gained altitude steadily. It was decently sized, resembling the appearance of a bird. Its movements and agility were similar to those of a hawk, the color of its plumage rather exotic like a macaw's, and its beak long and pointed like a pterodactyl's. It zoomed through the herb-scented atmosphere underneath the long tree branches and around their trunks, traveling through hills and valleys while following a softened, earthy trail cut into a pathway towards a distant location.

It was at that moment in which a second brilliant sphere of radiance lifted itself off the horizon to join the other burning star, causing the forested area to become jubilant with activity. The exotic bird continued through the clumps of wood, finally coming to a slow-down at a line which separated the trees from a vast, colorful field of long grass, waving back and forth gently in the morning gust.

The bird soared into the air higher than before. A view down onto the continuing trail through the grass below revealed that civilization was not far away. Small huts began appearing, and it wasn't long before the land became denser with them. They turned into structures consisting more of stone and crystal until finally, a village came into perspective.

It was a breathtaking sight… And the village was quite populated, too, despite its small size. The town's squares and streets were filled with brilliant crystalline architecture. The inhabitants maneuvered in and out of the buildings in huddled masses as they normally went about their business. They boasted an interesting culture, yet their primitive ways explained a lack of interstellar knowledge… Nothing was known about what was far outside of the village. They were, as they were made to believe over their history, the only intelligent beings of life that existed. In return, they were an undiscovered race, completely unheard of in the entirety of their own galaxy.

The population consisted of only one particular species: the lynx. Their fur was a beautiful white color, each and every villager being distinguishable only by the pattern of black stripes worn across their body. Some shrouded themselves in a woolen cloak while others displayed a more festive and colorful attire, depending on their relations to the main throne of power. The further away a lynx was to the line of the throne in the family tree, the more obligated he or she was to serve the ruler devotedly. The closer a lynx was to the throne, the more freedom he or she possessed along with rights and authority.

However… almost no power was exerted over one another. The villagers lived harmoniously in equality. The ruler was carefully chosen for this purpose in order to assure that no sort of corruption would every interrupt the serenity of its people. The ruler was kind, thoughtful, loving, and well-respected. The ruler was also strong, wise, knowledgeable, and believed to hold a certain divinity. Rituals took place to cherish the existence of this incredible land… Ceremonies, vigils, celebrations, and specific seasons all withheld a somewhat religious cause, yet there was no higher order. Life itself was worshipped. Everyone had, of course, different personalities, but similar beliefs. The young matured at a very fast pace, and adults were quite responsible and caring.

This seemingly utopian landscape was known as Zelenoa. It was during that eon that a story would unfold, causing greatly unexpected change while helping to mold and mend the heart of a young soul… A lifetime journey would be made to find life's deepest meanings, beginning with one fateful day.

…

A familiar chirping sound began to echo.

It then grew with volume and resonated within the small area of a brightly lit room. Through its only window, the suns sent swirls of light onto the ground as they danced around the walls and ceiling. A small sleeping mat rested in the middle of the earthy surface of the quarters. Within that bundle of quilted covering, a young lynx slumbered soundly as the chirping continued to grow louder. It became annoying as the lynx stirred, trying to make the noise go away, but his eyes were forced open.

With a grumble, the lynx sat up in his covers and looked at the small cylindrical rock sitting beside his mat. He muttered almost inaudibly in Celestian tongue, "It's too early…"

On top of the rock perched an exotic bird, seeming to smile pleasantly at the awakening young boy. He squawked quietly in return, pronouncing in the same language, "Indeed, but such a glorious day this is! Do you not agree, Poljska?"

The disgruntled lynx blinked at the creature through narrowed eyes, "Only my family can call me that. You may be a pet, but you aren't fully there yet."

The bird playfully shrugged and craned its neck, "Oh, surely! After the long journey I took all the way through the Zelenoan wilderness just to make sure you did not receive a scolding from your mother? A stressful job for a pterolark, that is."

"I guess you're right, Kuna..." The lynx stood up and stretched tiredly. "Please, just stick to calling me Sky for now, okay?"

"As you please, Sky." Kuna nodded. The pterolark's wings opened and closed slowly as he loosened his muscles in preparation for the long journey back to his nest. "Luck through the forest, you will wish me?"

"Yes. You may go." Sky replied with a nod and finally managed a smile. With that, Kuna swooped down and spiraled out of the window with one final squawk.

The tired lynx rolled out of his mat after pushing the covers back, standing up and brushing himself off before draping his upper body with a small cloak and putting on a long pair of cotton pants which seemed baggy around his ankles. After readying himself, he passed through a wooden doorway to the outside, which was extremely bright compared to his shady hut.

Sky made his way over to a larger hut, one with multiple rooms and a larger doorway. A couple was standing near the entrance, a middle-aged female lynx and a strong, tall male lynx. A smile appears on both faces.

The male spoke in a quiet yet husky tone, "Ah, Gray Sky has awakened at last." His arms were crossed and his face brightened proudly. "How do you feel today, son?"

Sky looked up and greeted him good morning in return, "Dobro jutro, father. It's pretty dim out, but the weather is nice."

"Poljska, why don't you eat something? Certainly you must be hungry." A sweet, soothing tongue spoke out in the same quiet manner. Sky became eager as he realized that his stomach was rumbling.

"Mother, did you cook anything for breakfast?"

She nodded with a warm giggle, "Yes, dear. There is bread and milk on the table."

"You're the best!" He ran up and happily hugged his parents. They hugged back tightly and laughed after they released the excited child to go into the larger hut. In just a short period of time, the village had come alive with activity.

…

Fox was sprinting through a long, narrow corridor that seemingly stretched on forever. There wasn't any recognizable surface, nor walls or ceiling. His adrenaline pumped rapidly through his body as he picked up speed and momentum. Beads of sweat were flying off of his wet clothing and trailing behind him as he ran…

But what was he running from? Who? Where?

There was nothing but darkness. He couldn't see anything, but he sensed the approaching of something mysterious. All of a sudden, he heard footsteps… so it was someone. Whoever it was, they were closing in gradually, so Fox sped up the pace and tried to lose him.

It was no use… The footsteps echoed right behind him. All of a sudden, they ceased. Fox continued to run, but he had wondered if the figure who was hounding after him had stopped or disappeared.

Fox then had to stop dead in his tracks as a completely white silhouette materialized in front of him. He grunted and slid across the nothingness, attempting to change direction. He turned left and began sprinting again, this time fueled more by panic. He dropped onto a slope, almost causing him to lose his footing as a startled rush of anxiety passed through his body, but he regained balance and continued at an even faster rate. A whisper arose from the darkness.

"You cannot control the winds of fate… You cannot control the winds of fate…"

Fox's footing disappeared. His stomach somersaulted as he fell in a downward spiral, plunging deeper into the black realm. Thoughts of what the whispering meant filled his questioning mind. He closed his eyes during the plummet, and his body faded in a matter of seconds until nothing remained.

…

"Here in Zelenoa, times have always been peaceful. In fact, the land was occupied relatively recently, and since then…"

Yawns crept their way out of a young group of students' mouths as yet another dreadfully boring lecture of history was being given by the professor. Breaking away from the crowd, which was huddled in front of the aged adult, another student hid himself among the shelves and desks set up around the classroom they were all trapped in. Unbalanced stacks of books were piled around him as he sat cross-legged while heavily engrossed in a rather large piece of text, which was written in complex Celestian hieroglyphics.

_There has to be more… Our race is too small to be the only one in existence._

The young student's thoughts were abruptly interrupted as the professor had noticed his absence from the cluster. Without making a sound, he placed the book down and crept his way around the shelves where the old lynx was not directing his attention.

"Sky, where have you gone? We have just arrived at the most important part of today's lesson," the professor inquired.

Almost as soon as he had asked that question, Sky had raised his hand to make himself visible, and he was sitting on the other side of the circle where the confused teacher was not looking.

"Oh… There you are," he added a bit more quietly after finally noticing, blinking his eyes in confusion. "I wonder if my eyesight is getting any worse… Now then. Back to the era…"

As the professor redirected his attention to his textbook, he failed to notice Sky sneak off yet again without making a single noise. He had already made it back to his stacks of advanced reading before the lesson was continued for more than a sentence.

"There were no major wars, no outstanding leaders, and no differences in government…"

Sky concentrated immensely as he interpreted page after page of millennium-old hieroglyphics. His research was not taking him that far.

_The outside of this land is known as "outer space?" But… What is this formation called as a whole? It can't all be Zelenoa._

"In this land, a specific tradition remains clung to after all these years. Anyone who openly proposes or argues against our ancestral theories is not supportive of the ideal of life itself. That person is then labeled an outcast."

Sky continued to dig deeper inside the text. The interpretations all translated into the same meaning, looped repeatedly. How useless.

_It's so simplistic… There's nothing sophisticated behind these stories. Is that to emphasize the importance of our elders? It can't be right since the idea is to praise for there being life._

No matter which book Sky picked up, its variations were highly correlated to his previous findings. At times, the writings progressed very incoherently, but the same message seemed to appear in every bit of Zelenoan history…

"As you all know, our native tongue is Celestian."

That part was obvious. A challenge to others, the expansive idiom came naturally to Sky, even during his youth. Oddly enough, he had never acquired an excessive sense of pride or arrogance in return for the astounded observations made by his peers as he acted practically similar to a translator… Sky did not want to be labeled as a "prodigy."

_For the decade I've been in Zelenoa, it's been the easiest concept to grasp. How so? It isn't that special… It's not like it's been proven before to be an exceptional talent._

Suddenly, he paused and widened his eyes in deep thought.

"… Our native tongue is Celestian."

The last part of the professor's sentence. It was setting off an alarm of realization inside Sky's head. What could it mean though?

"Celestian."

_That's… That's it! The name of our language! Surely it must have derived from another ancient land, or… better yet, it could be the name of this entire sphere of life! This means there had to have been another place of origin!_

He found through extensive astronomical research all the attributes of a so-called "planet." However, Sky had yet to prove that the formation the lynxes thrived on could have been defined as such since no information whatsoever had been collected about what could possibly be endless expanses of land and wilderness.

Could it have been Celestia? It was a rather small discovery, but in the sense of Zelenoan history, it was a ridiculous use of inductive reasoning. It was also a gigantic postulation, considering the fact that the immediate generalization developed by the elders would most likely include one ten-year-old boy spontaneously experiencing an absurd epiphany and disclaiming evidence that had supposedly been built upon for at least a millennium.

Thoroughly unenthusiastic about his hypothesis, Sky rejoined his group after placing the texts back and pondered upon the subject until it was time for all youth to dismiss from school.


	3. Chapter 3 - To Make a Journey

**CHAPTER 3**: _**To Make a Journey**_

"Hey, bud…"

There was a familiar voice, muffled for some odd reason. Where was it coming from? All Fox could see was darkness…

"I know you can hear me, come on."

The voice grew somewhat less muted. All Fox could remember was falling into that black pit. Now he could hear some kind of howling wind.

"Bro, wake up! It's not safe for us here!"

Fox's eyes slit open very slowly. Of course, his double-vision was blurry, and his other senses were trying to recover from the same numbness… He moaned and moved his head over to the side, "W… What in the… F-Falco?"

"Yeah, it's me. Now wake up, Sleeping Beauty. We gotta get moving and I can't carry you around that much longer."

Fox's sight still wasn't perfect, but it became clear enough so that he could focus on Falco's face, staring worriedly down at his own. Swirling winds roared around the two, and nothing else was visible… They remained stationary over a thin layer of snow, and their bodies were well hidden by surrounding flurries.

As Fox assessed these facts, his eyes shot open and all of his senses finally became active. He tried to sit up, but pain shot through his weakened body at that instant. He gripped his forehead in agony and grunted, squinting his eyes shut once more while he leaned on his hand.

"Ugh! What in the world?!"

Falco's boots crunched into the snow as he knelt down next to his comrade, placing a wing on his shoulder. He spoke softly, "I don't think you're gonna like what's going on…"

Fox brushed the piled-up snow off of his body and finally managed to sit up, looking at Falco with a panicked, yet inquisitive expression.

"Well, give it to me straight then."

Falco's wing pointed into the distance to a gigantic object. Only its silhouette could be seen through the snowstorm, but as the two slowly stood up and walked closer, Fox gasped in absolute shock while his pupils shrunk.

He stuttered almost inaudibly, "T… That's the…!"

"You're right. There she is."

Details on the object could now be fully made out as the two stood a much shorter distance away from it. Towering above them was the Great Fox. Its bridge was buried into the snow and only its afterburners jutted out from the thick mountains of ice built around it. Certain areas of the wings and hull belched out smoke while sparks crackled out of gaping holes made into its backside. It seemed as though it were impossible to remove the craft from the ground, and it didn't look as though repairs would be unproblematic.

Fox's gaze averted towards the ground in dismay. He cursed under his breath and clenched his fist, forcing himself to turn his head away from the wreckage site.

Falco, with his arms crossed and his gaze firmly focused on the ship, spoke up, "After our little unexpected voyage, everything took a turn for the worst. ROB was dislodged from the control panel and you had slammed your head against something. Once you got all bruised from being tossed all over the place, I found you and took you with me as we escaped from that heap of trouble. We somehow ended up here, and all of our communications are down… This definitely isn't Fichina, because otherwise we would have been found and brought back to some military base nearby."

"So… this is it?"

"We're stuck in some wasteland. For now, at least… We just need to find some way out of here."

Fox exhaled heavily, "Well then let's get moving. We have to leave the Great Fox here for right now, because it won't do any good risking the energy we have left in that dangerous chaos."

The two both loosened up and trudged through the hills against the direction of the flurries. They would have yet to figure out their exact location, but that wasn't their primary concern…

…

Sky was awake at night, when the outside had darkened considerably. The sweet song of the pterolarks drifted across the landscape and danced into the lynx's ears. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, sitting up in his sleeping mat. A candle lit on his rock stand was the only source of light other than the soft glow filtering through the window in his hut.

Far away, a mysterious object, gigantic in size and brilliantly shining, floated over the calm village of Zelenoa. There was an apparent atmosphere surrounding the object, shrouding it in a white misty cloud as it augmented into a much larger size than the two suns combined during the daytime. This huge sphere was known as Div Sablast, meaning "giant ghost," because of its ghastly yet beautiful qualities. It also mysteriously disappeared from the night on every second sundown for reasons unknown.

The luminescence emanating from Div Sablast delicately brushed against the walls and surface of Sky's shed, concocting with the candle's flickering radiance to create a calming air which placated the senses and soothed the tiredness of the body.

Sky's eyes opened once again. His pupils glimmered in the candlelight like topaz jewels as they blinked a few times before focusing directly in front of him. Sky reached a hand up to brush his fingers gently through his lengthened hair, which covered the top of his head and flowed seemingly like a stream of water around both of his ears. Smaller tufts of hair arose from the tips of his ears as they were perked and alert to any other possible sounds in his environment. The rest of his hair dropped in broad lavender streaks across his eyes and around the back of his head, almost touching his shoulders. His round and smoothly formed face was tranquil, showing an unwrinkled thin layer of snow white fur. His nose was smaller in comparison to the other features of his countenance, as were the thin whiskers that sprouted from both of its sides. His lips were slightly pursed in concentration as his mind entered a state of serenity to reflect the present setting.

Sky sat cross-legged in the center of his hut, taking extended deep breaths and slowing his body down in order to prepare it for rest. The call of the pterolarks seemed to up its volume until a familiar creature flew into the window and perched once again on Sky's cylindrical stand.

"Very late, it is. Why are you not asleep?" The bird cocked its head to the side while quietly inquiring in a Celestian squawk.

Without altering his position, the lynx calmly greeted the pterolark in return, "Dobro večer, Kuna. Indeed it is late, but one must be in a proper state in order to benefit from a night's slumber."

Kuna chimed positively while moving his head back and forth from content, "My, you know quite a lot for a ten-year-old. I guess the theory of rapidly maturing young is favorably correct."

"You didn't believe that?" Sky still refrained from averting his gaze.

"Of course I didn't. For such intelligent life forms, there normally is a wide range of maturing intervals for the young as they age out of their adolescence."

"You would know more than the rest of my species. The Zelenoan population has yet to achieve any status higher than primitive in terms of the knowledge it possesses and what other information it is compelled to seek." Sky drew a heavy sigh and blinked his eyes slowly.

"Very much you have learned, without a doubt," Kuna nodded. "That you will continue to see from different perspectives, I hope."

As the bird began to fly out of the window, Sky turned towards him and gave a pleasant wave followed by a quiet verbal expression of gratitude. He shifted his position, pulling the covers of his sleeping mat over his body and leaning up to blow his candle out.

The sweet melody of the pterolark gradually came to a close as another Zelenoan nightfall ensued. Sky satisfyingly shut his eyes and fell asleep without any struggle.

…

Before long, a raging blizzard had emerged from the cold flurries. It felt as if icicles were piercing the roaring winds and slicing through the numb, exhausted bodies of the Star Fox team as they had journeyed for hours without stopping. Disregarding their excruciating pain, Fox and Falco focused their minds on the path ahead of them on their journey to find some form of shelter or refuge from the intensifying snowstorm.

So far, it seemed as though they weren't having much luck… Communications were still down, and it did not appear as though they would miraculously receive a signal any time soon.

But the two warriors held fast and carried the trek onward into the unknown…


	4. Chapter 4 - Unearthing

**CHAPTER 4**: _**Unearthing**_

"Kuna, I'm going into the wilderness."

Sky stood a distance from the entrance to his hut, firm in the position in which he stood while talking to his companion who was perched on a nearby branch. The two daylight stars cast their bright rays of sunshine over the Zelenoan residences.

"I very well predicted this would occur…" The pterolark sighed and sagged slightly, "But your decision, this is. If that is where your heart is being called, then I have no objections." Sky's eyes widened as he took a step forward, blinking quickly from surprise as a slight smile broke out on his face.

"Y-You mean it?" He raised his tone out of its earlier seriousness, "No questioning or wisdom lecturing?!"

"Yes, Poljska. I think you are knowledgeable enough to fend for yourself quite well. You shall miss the spirits festival, however…"

"I couldn't care less about that! I'll finally be able to unlock secrets completely unknown to Zelenoa!" The young lynx was practically leaping into the air from excitement. He ran into his hut and packed supplies for his voyage very quickly.

Sky undressed and donned a silken piece of rather vivid long-sleeved clothing as well as his usual pair of woolen pants, strapping his sleeping mat over his shoulders with two woolen strips. He gathered a textbook and a notepad along with a thin brush and a tiny container of ink. Seeing that he was prepared after finally slipping his feet into some lightweight sandals, he eagerly rushed out of his shed and made for the trail that led away from the village outskirts.

"Stop!" An alarming squawk reverberated through the air and caused Sky to stand still. Kuna rushed in front of his path, appearing to be almost flustered. "It is mid-afternoon. Your parents are expecting you to be present at pre-initiation until tonight… What shall the excuse be for your absence?"

"It's simple. Inform them that I haven't been feeling healthy and that I've gone off into the healing gardens in search of some medicinal herbs… Something along those lines."

"Methinks you are counting on your parents to have a rather large amount of trust in you…"

"It feels as though I have been called upon to make this expedition for some time now. I find it difficult to wait any longer." Sky gave a slight chuckle and smiled at Kuna. His countenance was not easy to present any sort of negativity towards… The childish innocence seen within the young lynx was strong enough to crumble a heart of stone into unconditional adoration.

Even a pterolark could be overpowered. Kuna caught Sky's contagious grin, "Dosta, that is good. For your sake I shall risk my plumage again."

"Hvala, Kuna!" Sky pleasantly laughed out an expression of gratitude with a nod of his head.

"Good luck I wish to you, Poljska!" As Kuna and Sky parted ways, the young lynx felt a warming in his heart at his companion's last word of affection while stepping onto the trail towards the wilderness.

…

Falco had finally collapsed in the snow from sheer exhaustion. He wouldn't last much longer in the conditions he and his comrade were attempting to survive through. Fox, who was lagging behind just slightly, immediately rushed to his teammate's side after making a frantic sprint through the thick layer of ice they both had been marching through for the past day. He slung Falco's arm around his shoulder and carried him onward with the little amount of energy he had left.

It seemed as if all hope had disappeared for the Star Fox team… Not a trace of it could possibly be fathomed in their current situation. So what was Fox's reason to carry on?

During the moment in which Fox had almost surrendered to the cold, the two warriors' efforts to survive were rewarded at long last when a silhouette faded into view not too far away from them. A closer look through the intense blizzard proved it to be a rectangular object of some sort… a rather large one. Whatever it was, it provided Fox with an aspiration to use his remaining strength and get to the object as soon as he could.

He grunted through the wind and frost, squinting his eyes shut and straining to keep his muscles moving as they were almost entirely numb. The object got closer… Miraculously to his benefit, it consisted of thick layers of a woolen material on its exterior, keeping sturdy and hardly inching out of position from the strong, chilling gusts. There were long, metallic stakes that resembled the structure needed to keep the woolen sheets in place, and sure enough, there were two opening flaps on one side that indicated an entrance. The whole thing appeared to be a cubical tent…

Fox sped his movements up to the best of his ability and burst into the shelter, collapsing onto the tent's soft, carpeted surface with Falco still on his back.

After a few minutes of much needed recovery, Fox made an attempt to stand up and assess where he was while Falco laid on the carpet unconscious… The inside wasn't as spacious as it seemed to be on the outside, but it was well insulated and kept a relatively warm temperature. There was a thick sleeping mat in one corner with a small rock positioned next to it. On top of the rock sat a lantern with a tiny flame burning inside, and it was the only source of light keeping the tent from absolute darkness.

Fox brought Falco over to the sleeping mat, tucking him under the sheets in an attempt to keep his body temperature from lowering further. Fox still kept close to the lantern in order to try and warm himself as well, keeping his violently shivering muscles in constant movement to expel as much of his numbness as possible.

He then noticed a small crate that stood near the opposite face of the otherwise empty shelter… Curiously, he dragged the box over towards him and lifted the top. To his surprise and satisfaction, there were a few food items of some kind. They looked highly extraordinary, with vivid colors and leaves protruding from its spherical shape… Fox decided to take the risk and tore into the item's thick skin to see what lay inside, quickly discovering that it was no other than a pitaya.

Fox had never tried one before, but he was in dire need of nourishment, recalling how he had spent a good amount of time trekking through a vast and hellish wasteland while suffering from a potentially severe head injury. He removed the flesh of the fruit to the skin and proceeded to devour it hungrily. It had a somewhat bitter taste, but the buds on his tongue were anesthetized by his own starvation as he finished the fruit in a matter of seconds. It was at that same time his comrade began coming to.

"Ugh… I can b-barely move…" Falco mumbled almost inaudibly, "Where am I…? Wh-Where's Fox?!"

"Hey, buddy… I'm right here. Nothing's wrong." Fox calmly replied while sitting next to him, relaxing as he felt replenished by the pitaya. "You went out like a light… so I carried you the rest of the way, which thankfully wasn't far."

"The… The rest of the way where?" Falco turned his head slightly to the side, directing his weakened gaze towards his comrade and conveying a sense of alertness.

"We ended up here… I still don't know where we are or who's shelter this is, but we have to stay here for right now. Also, there's food… You'd best take this and eat what you can."

Fox took another pitaya out of the crate and split it open, setting its innards next to his comrade, who weakly reached a wing out from underneath the covers. He brought the fruit to his beak and bit down, digesting the pitaya at a much slower rate than Fox's. He breathed out a sigh of satisfaction and rested his head back onto the carpet once again…

Fox smiled and looked at the entrance to the tent while adding, "We don't want to deplete the entire supply. We'll take what we needand keep resting until we're ready to keep going. I'll let you recover first, then we'll swap shifts and I'll take a little snooze while you keep watch for anyone or anything that might attempt to make an entry."

Falco nodded slowly and continued eating. Their bodies very gradually regulated to a normal temperature. The two relaxed themselves again and proceeded to silently ask themselves where they were or how they would ever escape the hell they've just entered… They were without the Great Fox and all alone in an icy desert. With no supplies and no others to come to their aid, how would they survive? Would this be their final destination?

…

Sky had already progressed further away from his comfort zone than he had intended. The vast fields next to the village boundaries were noiseless… Not even the rustling of its long grass was audible enough to break the silence. However eerie the setting was, he knew that stopping there was not an option. His boundless curiosity pulled him closer to his destination, causing a blend of nervousness and exhilaration to rush through his brain.

Sky then arrived at the borderline… There, a plethora of noises could be heard, but not from a far distance away. Feeling slightly relieved, yet still on guard, he took a step forward into the unknown and began his true journey.

As he walked onward, the creatures of the forest seemed absolutely rapturous and full of life. It put a satisfied smile on Sky's face to hear the melodious song of the pterolark mingling with those of the other birds and animals. He had to restrain himself from skipping because of the ecstatic anticipation growing within him at the thought of making discoveries that could change Zelenoan history.

Hours dragged by, and the mid-afternoon light had been reduced to a swirling orange sunset, giving off pink beams of radiance to pierce through the forest's leaves and cracks in its branches. Sky had been furiously scribbling and sketching in his notepad all of which he saw in the immensely diverse wilderness, referencing everything he knew from the wisest textbook which he brought from the village library on his journey. He grew tired quickly, having scaled rolling hills and tramped across miles of open plains along with trails which were crowded with tall, exotic vegetation. He acquired a sense of frustration after noticing his ink bottle, which was almost completely drained.

Sky's efforts were rewarded a bit later when the two Zelenoan stars had all but barely disappeared over the horizon. There came a clearing at the end of an excessively teeming portion of the trail… After a few more kilometers of intense wildlife and overcrowded trees that darkened his surroundings and gave off a rather ominous aura, there was an exit through a thick wall of shrubbery which led to a wide-open range of much softer earth. It was as if Sky had been sealed in an open cube of sudden silence, where nothing could be heard except the movement of his own feet. He looked as far up as he could behind his back and could barely see the dimly lit atmosphere.

As he wearily turned around and continued, not knowing what else to expect after how he had progressed so far on his fantastic journey, he lifted his head up and was immediately stricken with awe from the sight presented directly in front of him.

There in the center of the enclosure's surface stood a large, pyramidal stone structure, looking as though it had existed for much more than a mere millennium. It towered a good fifty yards over the flabbergasted lynx, displaying Celestian hieroglyphics on each of its mossy, aged bricks all around the ruin's faces. The symbolic Zelenoan Eye of Wisdom, the renowned emblem of the entire village that was frequently exhibited on every crystalline building and street corner, was carved into the side Sky was facing as it almost dangled precariously over a deep cave-like entrance leading to the structure's interior.

Sky took the opportunity he had left, seeing that the atmosphere was altering its lighting into a more violet hue, and made a detailed and thorough drawing of the ruin in his notebook with the miniscule amount of ink remaining. The nervous lad took a quick swallow along with a deep breath, and then focused his attention to the corridor in front of him.

_This will be an entirely new chapter of our timeline… I intend to explicate every last bit of it, even if I should be endangered, for the sake of our species… for Zelenoa._

He tried to relax himself before taking a leap of faith, walking into the cave and immersing himself in its darkness.

With every step he took into the stone passage, Sky's footsteps echoed louder. He then widened his eyes as he foolishly realized that he neglected to bring a light source... It would have been important in a situation such as the one he had just gotten himself into.

He cursed under his breath as his hands slid across the increasingly dampening stone wall with extreme caution. He moved at a steady pace and finally came to the top of a stairwell from what his sandals determined to be a dull drop-off. Thankfully it really was a stairwell and not a bottomless chasm that could have potentially led to a dreadful death…

Sky kept his eyes shut tightly while advancing deeper into the temple, convinced that it made no difference compared to the darkness he observed when he opened his eyes. However, he was oblivious to the fact that a faint glow was present much farther inside, and it gradually grew with intensity as the stairs continued. He subconsciously opened his eyes once the walls were lit brightly enough and felt a wave of relief rush over him once he could finally see where he was going. It also looked as though he had reached the last step.

He transitioned onto a much colder surface in a more spacious hallway. Openings in the wall, evenly spaced and deeply cut, contained torches to brighten the path towards the temple's centermost destination. As Sky looked closely, they weren't torches… Instead they were uncut crystalline formations that seemed to give off a mystical luminescence as they stood at the tip of their aged wooden stakes. The disorientated lynx took another look at the surface upon which he stood. It was also crystalline, polished and radiant as it mirrored the glow given from the crystals on the wall.

Sky wanted to record this in his notebook somehow, but his supply of ink was empty. Instead, he stared with fascination at the hieroglyphics displayed on the walls as they were made visible once again. They weren't the same as the ones he saw on the outside of the temple, and each of them conveyed messages seemingly in the form of riddles. He decided that he would find their answers later and keep moving.

The hallway's lighting was increasing significantly with every step. Sky found himself becoming entranced by his own reflection off the ground as he walked forward, not noticing the room straight ahead of him at the end of the corridor.

He was then blasted by a wave of freezing air as he crossed the hallway's exit into what appeared to be a massive underground dome. Again, the only noise to be heard was the sound of his sandals shuffling along the smooth, shining surface. Sky observed the outermost surroundings, gawking at the walls and spherical ceiling as they were plastered with Celestian symbols and letters of much larger sizes. Column after column expanded directly from the pole of the roof down to every edge.

The pictograms could be seen very indistinctly from where Sky was standing because of some sort of blue radiance being emitted… but where was it originating? There weren't any crystal lights on the walls.

The lynx turned around and averted his astounded gaze towards the center of the dome. There in the middle sat a small stone pedestal, but hovering stagnantly above it was a huge, glowing gem. It was considerably bigger in height than Sky's body, and soft azure light poured out of every cut edge from the gem's heart steadily as if it were a fountain. It seemed absolutely divine, sacred and powerful.

As Sky staggered slowly towards the gem, he could feel newfound energy seeping into his bones and muscles, causing free-formed thoughts to spark instantaneously within his mind. He stopped just within a few yards of the sapphire as he heard a voice echo in the room.

It reverberated with a deep, aged tone, "It is good to finally meet you, Gray Sky."

…


	5. Chapter 5 - A Sudden Turn

**CHAPTER 5**: _**A Sudden Turn**_

Fox's feet splashed in and out of the rising tide while he was engaged in a moderate sprint across the sands of a tranquil beach. The shoreline was rather calm where he ran as the seawater ebbed and stretched endlessly. He was dressed in a pair of long, green swimming trunks and nothing else, bare-chested and barefooted with his fur damp from swimming in the ocean for an hour or two. His mind was cleared of all things negative as he could only focus on one thing in his path straight ahead.

"Hee hee, I'm sorry, Fox! But you'll have to run faster than that!"

A short distance from Fox was a familiar blue-furred vixen, attempting to run away from him while looking back every so often with a charmingly playful expression on her face. Krystal was in the midst of a giggling fit as she repeatedly teased her pursuer. She sported a deep purple bikini, exposing most of her body to the bright orange rays of sunlight that cast down around the two vulpines from the distant horizon.

The way Krystal ran across the sand of the beach could be seen by Fox as if it were all in slow motion… He noticed her clean, bare backside as her muscles rippled from her shoulders to her waistline because of the swinging motion her arms made, her silky and cottony tail that swished back and forth with every step she took, her alluringly smooth legs that rotated beautifully in her well-formed stride, the tattoo she displayed which marked her royal resemblance to her homeland… Fox, thoroughly enticed, took everything in. When Krystal's face turned around once more, her sapphire locks of hair swished around while her sparkling aquamarine eyes met Fox's in a brief, amorous gaze. Her smile alone was enough to warm a damaged heart, and the rest of her face further contributed to her almost divine elegance.

There was no questioning. Krystal was obviously the most perfect mate anyone such as Fox could come across in any galaxy. Her strong yet endearing personality, her stunning and curvaceous body, her incredible mind and her caring heart… It was so much more than what could be asked for.

As time resumed in normal speed, Krystal turned her head back around and continued to giggle as Fox finally caught up to her, tackling around her waist and gently bringing her down upon the sand. They were both out of breath, tired from the long moments they spent swimming and from their quick-footed chase. It ensued once Fox had leaned in with his eyes closed for a small kiss, instead being greeted by a splash of seawater to his face.

Krystal caught her breath again, jokingly sighing, "Heh… Okay, you got me. What are your intentions?"

Fox, who sat beneath the gorgeous vixen as he held her close, laughed out a reply, "Well, that certainly didn't cross my mind."

Krystal turned her head, a smirk spreading between both cheeks, "Then what was the reason for your pursuing?"

"Aw, c'mon! You know why I was chasing you!" Fox reached up and poked his finger against her nose delicately, mirroring her grin as she let out a ticklish giggle. Krystal turned her body over and proceeded to lie across Fox's front side.

The two found themselves gazing at each other yet again. Krystal's finger began tracing across Fox's chest fur, then she began to lightly feel his chest with both her hands, noticing its physical definition along with the rest of his upper body. In return, Fox brought an arm up slowly to brush his hand across the back of her neck. A blush was apparent in the cheeks of both vulpines.

Krystal whispered in a silky tone, "I wasn't going to let you have it that easily, Fox." Another few seconds passed before the couple leaned their heads in slowly…

Fox closed his eyes as their lips met at last.

When he opened them, however, he was transferred to an entirely different setting. His vision blurred with different colors and silhouettes before everything came into a clearer view. Then, his smile turned into a depressed frown as he realized that he was in the sleeping mat inside the tent which he and his teammate were temporarily residing in from the earlier frozen wasteland.

Fox directed his gaze over to the side. Falco was snoring while leaning against the wall of the tent next to the mat. He took one more look around… but there was no Krystal. There was no beach, no shoreline, no magnificent sunset to liven his optimism. The gust heard from the outside of the shelter signaled that the harsh blizzard was still occurring.

Fox leaned over to the other side and curled his body up underneath the covers, hugging his knees and choking back silent tears as his heart ached with desperation. Krystal was still gone… Everything he once had which made him happy was now gone… Except for being with Falco, he would die a lonesome death here in a barren wilderness without ever seeing his closest companions again.

Fox squinted his eyes shut and tried to sleep through his aching pain.

…

"Who goes there?"

Sky frantically spun around in every direction, fully alert to his surroundings and determined to locate the origin of the voice that had caught him by surprise. The voice seemed to chuckle a little before continuing, "There is no other life form present except you, Poljska. Look towards me again as you did before."

"How the heck do you know all my names?!" Sky realized it was the large blue jewel on the pedestal that was talking to him. He turned towards it again, trying to relax his tension.

"I am Mudarduh, the omniscient spirit that binds Celestia together."

"Wait… What do you mean by Celestia?" Sky tilted his head.

"You have already discovered the truth, Sky. The formation upon which Zelenoa exists is called Celestia."

The young lynx widened his eyes and felt a wave of thrilled satisfaction as the all-seeing spirit before him confirmed his earlier theory that Zelenoa was just a miniscule village located on a larger object with a different name. His excitement faded as the thought of his parents worrying over him returned to his mind, causing him to frown slightly.

Mudarduh must have sensed Sky's dread, adding in the same tone, "Your parents are neither worried nor frustrated. Alternately, they foresaw your voyage long before you had made your final decision to begin it."

Sky blinked his eyes in shock, stuttering in a more quiet tone, "They knew I would be gone?"

The glimmering jewel responded, "Of course. The reason why I know who you are is because of Kuna. The spirits festival was how the pterolark telepathically transferred information towards the temple, and it was secretly held to celebrate you and your epiphany to go out and gather wisdom as the prodigy Zelenoan child."

Sky couldn't believe any of what he was hearing… There was only one possible conclusion to be made from Mudarduh's explanation, but there was no possible way this could be prophesized. His heartbeat steadily increased while his topaz pupils shrunk from utter astonishment, fixed solely on the glowing gem.

"In other words, you are Millennia Sky … The bringer of knowledge and bearer of incredible power."

Sky stammered almost inaudibly, "But I… I don't have powers! I'm just an ordinary lynx!"

"No, you are the opposite. No matter how much you have denied it throughout your life, you possess a special gift. It will grow over time into something truly incredible."

The lynx lifted his own hand in front of his face very slowly, watching it tremble as he attempted to make any sense of the divination that was just described before him.

_Millennia Sky… Why is it me? Why not anyone else? There are others who possess the same intellect, there have to be!_

Mudarduh's voice began to boom into a much louder volume, causing Sky to flinch slightly, "Your intellect alone exponentially exceeds that of the elders' combined. You are many generations ahead of your own time, and your real journey has only just begun."

"Y-Yes… I know that…" Sky swallowed and stood up straight.

"The very idea of how much change you shall endure throughout the course of your life cannot be fathomed. It will be in your hands to determine your own direction, how you shall cope with this change, where you will travel, and what you place your beliefs in…"

Sky blinked slowly, processing every spoken word carefully with much thought, "Change? What do you mean by this?"

"I'm afraid this realm will not exist much longer… A certain danger approaches that could potentially cause the tides to shift in a violent manner. The spirits of Celestia have been embedded within the essence of your soul."

"So I've been chosen to bear the weight of my whole species? A-Am I supposed to figure out how to prevent this danger?" Sky's voice grew more tense as beads of sweat trickled down his face.

"That is confirmed," Mudarduh lowered his tone again to a more serious one, "And you are thus the embodiment of Zelenoa."

Sky had so many questions… His brain throbbed from the anxiety building inside of him, but he kept his composure and only succumbed to a light shivering. He took deep breaths and contained his emotions, confronting the gem once more and speaking calmly.

"U redu… Is there anything else prophesized?"

The gem remained quiet for a few more seconds before its luminescence began to increase. It responded in a more gentle voice, "That is all I have to deliver to you, Millennia Sky."

The very quintessence of Mudarduh himself seemed to seep out of the gem, illuminating magnificently and brightening the dome while the hieroglyphics on the wall began to shine with a mysterious force. The lights magnified even more and floated seemingly as a large, transparent ghost before Sky before engulfing him fully. The great spirit's voice echoed once more with a much more amplified tone.

"Your power shall be awakened… Your strength, knowledge, telepathy, and wisdom, all bestowed upon you by the great Celestian ancestors, will be your guide. Farewell to you, Poljska…"

The ghost was absorbed by Sky's body as his pupils were set ablaze with an azure flame. Mudarduh and the other spirits had been implanted in his mind while their mystical abilities adjusted to the lynx's mortal adolescent form. Sky lurched over on the ground and gasped sharply while on his hands and knees, straining to control what had just become a part of him.

After a few minutes, the hieroglyphics ceased to shine as well as the once glowing sapphire on the pedestal. It dropped towards the crystalline ground and shattered instantaneously into a thousand tiny shards. The dome was kept lit only by the orbs in the adjacent hallway as everything else became lifeless.

Sky, out of breath and legitimately disoriented, struggled to stand up for a quick second but recovered his balance in time and proceeded to assess his own basic information.

_My name is Sky Felis. Millennia Sky. I am ten years old. I live in Zelenoa. I am the symbol of my own village. The fate of my people rests in my hands. I have acquired strange powers. I am no longer an average villager. I am the embodiment of Celestia itself._

…

There was nothing else to discover inside the stone temple, so Sky decided to climb back up the dark stairwell.

He groaned at the fact that he would have to be cautious in the narrow, pitch black hallway while making his ascent, but something quite peculiar happened right when he approached the first step. There was a light that appeared which illuminated the path much more clearly so that he could see at last where his footing would end up.

Where was this mysterious light coming from? It glowed in the same manner as Mudarduh had in the dome… He held his hands out in front of him and observed that the light reflected more off the silken fabric of his long-sleeved shirt. It couldn't have been the remainder of the spirit merge.

He experimented with the source by waving his hand back and forth, determining from the shadow that the light originated from his own face. He brought his palm closer to his mouth, his cheeks, and his forehead… The light was coming from his eyes.

Sky let out another light gasp of surprise, realizing that this could have been a part of the powers Mudarduh mentioned. He didn't know how to control the light coming from his pupils, yet it appeared at the moment in which it would have been useful. How convenient.

And so, he proceeded out of the entrance of the temple and onto the earthy surface of the Zelenoan wilderness. Taking a deep breath, he began his homeward expedition.


	6. Chapter 6 - Eradication

_This part of the story directs the spotlight towards Sky for one chapter, so bear with me and read on through the sadness, if you will. I contemplated on whether or not I should have added more, but I think this will suffice._

**CHAPTER 6**: _**Eradication**_

Sky progressed at a much slower pace compared to how he had practically raced out of the village a day ago. He was unusually compelled to do so, taking in his environment as if it were the first sight he had ever witnessed, even though he had already seen it once on his way out. He experimented with more of his newfound abilities, finding out that he could communicate with any creature of the forest by using telepathy to absorb its spoken or body language so that he could proceed to hold simple conversations with them. His sight had changed drastically, giving him a perspective of much higher definition, and so frequently gazed at the interesting sights he came across as if he were taking time to paint a still-life portrait.

All in all, a full week passed peacefully in the wilderness. Over time, Sky had very quickly become accustomed to living away from civilization… He didn't think he was quite ready to go back.

However, one day, he began conversing with a pterolark that casually flew across his direction. When he got its attention, he attempted a simple greeting… but it didn't respond. Silence ensued as the creature perched on a nearby branch for a few seconds before fleeing in panic.

Thoroughly befuddled, Sky tried talking to other animals. Their responses were no different, and their concluding action was exactly the same as that of the earlier pterolark. The forest was noticeably hushed… Not even the atmosphere's gentle breezes could rustle the vegetation into producing a single noise.

Then, the confused lynx felt an unseen wave of giant force pierce through his whole body. The impact had no physical effect, but his stomach felt as though a thousand butterflies were generated out of nowhere, further amplifying an agonizing rush of fear that coursed through his nerves and spread fully from head to toe. He reflexively hunched over and grunted painfully while a thousand sharp cries of despair screamed inside of his mind, reverberating inside both of his ears at full volume.

_Argh! What the hell is going on?!_

Squinting his eyes tightly and grinding his teeth together, Sky questioned where this had come from while the pain continued to grow within his body. He figured it must have been the spirits, and the horrid suffering he was enduring could possibly have indicated the reason why the forest creatures were so silent. But what was wrong?

He could understand clearly as the sensation disappeared gradually… He realized that he had detected the fear that bubbled within every living creature in a certain radius, and he absorbed everything simultaneously to produce a potent effect on his own body. He frantically looked around, trying to see the cause of the tumult.

In the direction of his village, a pitch black cloud of evil energy colored the atmosphere a sinister violet hue. Both suns could not be seen in any direction he turned.

_It's the danger Mudarduh mentioned! I have to get back to the village before things get ugly!_

Sky instinctively leaped and ducked through every obstacle that stood in his path as he charged into a full-out sprint along the trail that led back towards his home. He had left his belongings behind, including his mat, his notebook, and his silken long-sleeved shirt, all of which he judged as highly insignificant compared to the currently developing scene. His tired muscles were fueled by cyclical rushes of pure adrenaline while his heart felt as though it would pound out of his chest.

He could hear the screams become louder as well as noticing the blackened atmosphere continue to darken ominously. Sky approached the wilderness line and didn't break his pace, forcing himself to disregard the fact that the vast fields of healthy grass had disappeared completely to leave everything except for a dry, hard soil that looked sickening to the eye. The fearful feeling in Sky's stomach skyrocketed when he saw a red light in the distance where the village was supposedly located.

As soon as he arrived, he paused and stood still while looking directly over the expanse of the Zelenoan parish. A horrid sensation of dread and despair filled his body as he witnessed the unfolding chaos beneath him from the top of a rising hill just on the outskirts… The town was lit brightly in scorching, hellish flames that belched smoke into the air to wilt every patch of vegetation within its confines. Another force was present as well… The real cause of Sky's sudden wave of intense trepidation came from massive hordes of tall, brutish warriors that looked like shadows in their gray armor as they purged every structure they could find to terrorize the once sacred grounds of Sky's homeland.

Villagers were thrown forcefully onto the grown, maimed, flogged, stabbed gruesomely, and beaten brutally without end. Torturously agonizing death was all Sky's friends had in store now… More crystalline architecture was set on fire as well as gathering areas and residencies, and the lynxes were completely defenseless. There was nothing that could be done except watch the parish burn.

Sky's body went numb with shock. He felt as though he would gag, but his focus was kept on every member of his species that he could see suffer because of the unknown fighters. Even though he was a relatively long distance away, the smoke from the billowing flames made his eyes water painfully and seeped into his lungs, causing him to choke and almost fall over in anguish.

Luckily, Sky had inherited healing capabilities from the spirits, so he semi-successfully attempted to cleanse his lungs and expel the foul gas from his body. He knew he had to check and see if the soldiers had purged his own house yet, so he began to sprint down the hill towards that direction, avoiding the attention of the shadowed warriors and weaving his way around piles of dead bodies and weapons lodged into the ground.

Inside of his family hut, he saw something that made his heart sink into hopelessness… Both of his parents were stretched out with their backs against the far wall by two huge brutes. They displayed bruises around their torn garments as blood trickled down both of their faces from rather large cuts… Sky was frozen in place while sweat poured out of his trembling body, and his heartbeat was close to its maximum. As the two adults finally turned their gaze towards their child, smiles cracked weakly between their cheeks.

His mother was the first to speak, weakly coughing out, "Poljska… Y-Your time has now come to be free. You must l… m-must leave this place… for your own safety, and b… begin a new chapter."

Sky remained silent, his mouth wide open as his breathing rate increasingly hastened. His father croaked out while the two oppressors seemingly allowed for them to have their final words spoken, "M-My son… Millennia Sky… You will d-do so many g… great things. Keep us… in your h-heart… and g-go forth."

As the command escaped the wretched male lynx's lips, a large portion of the hut's dirt ceiling caved in and crashed to the ground in violent flames right next to the petrified young lad who was dismayingly listening to the last few spoken syllables of his lifelong guardians. His father continued, "There… is not m-much time left… Please, h… hurry. A-And don't forget… that we love you."

His mother shed a small tear as she joined in softly, "We love you… w-with all our he-"

All of a sudden, her attempts to breathe were viciously cut short as a katana pierced through her chest, causing her to utter a sharp wail of misery before shutting her eyes permanently. Following the death of Sky's mother after not even a split second had passed, the same reddened blade was impaled through the stomach of his father, who squinted his eyes shut and grit his teeth, bellowing out a cry of terror from the excruciating amount of pain he was receiving.

Unable to watch anymore, Sky sprinted out of the doorway, restricting his gagging reflex to the best of his ability while rushing as fast as his legs could carry him back to the wilderness. He kept his pace over the hill where he stood earlier, closing his eyes to block any other gory scene which could have triggered his succumb to a grieving madness.

He stumbled over a stray sword blunt that protruded from the cracked earth and ran his head into something solid. As he fell to the ground with a panicked grunt, a shady figure turned around and glared at whatever had just plowed straight into his backside. Unlike the other warriors, he had no armor on and only sported a pair of training pants while his gray and muscular upper body was covered with large scars. He was a cougar with long hair like Sky, except it was slightly more unkempt as his serious countenance displayed a huge laceration-like scar diagonally across his left eye and his nose. A sneer was expressed as he observed the pitiful, cowering Zelenoan.

He spoke in a smoky tone full of disgust, "Humph. A survivor in the midst of all the rest? How inconvenient."

Sky, who was now hyperventilating, crawled away frantically in the opposite direction but stumbled once again and fell face first into the heavy dust. He turned around and stared up at the frightening soldier as he advanced towards him at a very eased pace, wearing the same the same ruthless expression. The hysterically distraught lynx noticed he was being surrounded by more dark-plated brutes.

The cougar leaned down and effortlessly lifted Sky up in the air by his neck as though he would strangle the young boy, but instead he gave a powerful glare and displayed a sharp-toothed grin as he spoke in a low tone over Sky's panicked breathing.

"You are nothing but a worthless coward… and your species is a disgrace to your galaxy and nothing more than a mere burden. You shall expire soon with the rest of your pathetic and sickly family members. As you die, my name will echo forever within your ears on your trip to hell… You shall remember me as Siva."

As he spoke the last word slowly with a faint hiss, the last thing Sky could remember as his body shook violently while his breathing became more rapid was dropping to the hard, dusty earth as his vision became black with nothing.


	7. Chapter 7 - Encounter

_So now it's time to mix things up a bit. After presenting you with a pretty beefy backstory on Sky, here's a rather interesting section that unusually took me quite a bit of time to finish. Don't worry, I won't be centering in on my OC as much as the previous chapter, and I'll refrain from doing so most likely for the rest of the story._

**CHAPTER 7**: _**Encounter**_

Fox shifted around in his attire to make himself more comfortable. Due to the intense weather he had endured, there wasn't much sweat to be noticed anywhere on his body, but it was clear that he was starting to become sore because of how he had worn the same outfit for a few days. Thankfully, before the Great Fox was thrown into the massive vortex, he had prepared himself for the soggy scenery of Aquas by donning a pair of green cargo pants and combat boots as well as a thick cotton tee shirt and a light blue survival vest.

He had woken Falco from his resting period a few minutes earlier in order for them to get ready to leave their shelter and continue their search for civilization through the heavy ice storms once more. Fox had also advised that his teammate wear similar clothing, except Falco sported a type of red jumpsuit with boots that weighed significantly less than Fox's.

Falco cleared his throat, stretching out in his worn-out garbs, "Hey, we need to get to town pretty soon before it's too late."

"What do you mean, too late?" Fox replied while retying his boot laces.

"I'm freaking starving. Plus, that dragon fruit thing tasted like shit."

_So what if it did… It's better than nothing._ Fox rolled his eyes and smiled from amusement, exhaling, "Alright… Well, the sooner we head out, the better."

As he finished his sentence, Falco had already opened the flap and emerged from the tent, "Let's get this show on the road, whaddya say?" The vulpine nodded and rushed over quickly to exit the shelter, following close behind and bracing himself.

The two-man squadron resumed their trek into the howling, snowy hills.

…

There was nothing visible except for darkness. A wandering pair of eyes searched around frantically for some source of light, but it was too far from reach… or nonexistent.

Sky's pupils strangely did not possess any sort of brightness, as if the dimness of depression and anxiety had overshadowed the once optimistic and positively gleaming lynx and taken most of the energy he had left within his weakened body. The Celestian spirits seemed to have been silenced inside of him as well…

The young boy somehow found the strength to stand up. It was at that moment in which a blurred concoction of swirling color began to materialize before him. Sky blinked and rubbed his eyes as his sight gradually brightened and became increasingly detailed. Silence was still dominant in his surroundings as he realized he was regaining his conscience from some earlier event that he couldn't recall.

Finally, his senses returned to him… Sky took in his environment as he stood upon a small area of elevated ground. The air was dank with the putrid scent of dried blood and burning vegetation. As he directed his focus above, he noticed that the atmosphere was completely static, exhibiting a ghastly contaminated gray shade that covered the sky completely. There were no traces of any light or fresh air anywhere… Div Sablast was nowhere to be found, nor the two suns.

He looked down upon where he stood… He was without a shirt and badly lacerated in some areas of his upper body, and his woolen pant legs and sandals appeared to be worn down tremendously, stained with dense blobs of ash. The earth was lifeless… The lack of moisture in the air presented breathing difficulties, and the ground remained arid and cracked throughout the vast expanse.

Sky focused ahead of him once more… Memories flooded back into him as he gasped sharply at what his mind registered. Broken weapons projecting from the surface, heaps of ashes and unstable remainders of familiar crystalline structuring, limp bodies as well as a few skeletal frames scattered in various locations, crumbled stone statues that steadily dissipated into rubble, splatters of dried crimson fluid that coated a large portion of the land…

Zelenoa was laid out in a destructed field of ruins.

It didn't take long for the full effect to set into Sky… Every horrifying image he had encountered during the disaster flashed in his mind one after another, and every ounce of composure he possessed had fallen apart. His eyes welled up with heavy tears as they began to stream down his cheeks and drip onto the earth, each painful sight sending a piercing feeling of raw agony straight through his stomach.

Sky again saw the murder of his fellow villagers… The steady flow of tears hastened.

The magnificent holy site was cruelly destroyed… He choked out sobs and clutched his stomach.

His parents were killed before his own eyes… His back heaved violently as he grieved.

His homeland was now nonexistent… He collapsed onto his knees with no strength left.

Worse yet, Sky was chosen by the Celestian ancestors to be the embodiment of Zelenoa. Mudarduh had placed in a hopelessly feeble ten-year-old the hopes of the village's prospering for eons to come as they were built upon a millennium of life…

Sky grabbed his chest and doubled over from excruciating exacerbation, moaning loudly as he mourned the enormous loss of everything he once owned.

He felt as though his own label of Millennia Sky had been damned. Even with the ancestors' spiritual gifts, he still could not protect those he loved from such awful demise. He couldn't return to the village in time to warn the unsuspecting passersby of the danger lurking from the other end of the wilderness… Now, the horrid flashbacks of the unfolding Zelenoan genocide began to rend his heart viciously.

Who was it that purged the village anyway? And… what was the purpose behind the mass slaughter? An idea formed inside of Sky's brain that filled him with sudden rage along with his suicidal melancholy.

_It… It was that wretched Siva… That was his name._

He remembered how the harsh and intimidating figure had called him worthless along with the rest of his race. Perhaps he had intended for the young boy to die while enduring his own shame and his realization that he didn't deserve to survive.

Sky trembled and slammed a clenched fist onto the earth furiously, still hunched over in his convulsions… He grit his teeth while he opened his eyes once again, wanting to rid his mind of every remembrance of Zelenoa he experienced since birth. He especially wanted to kill Siva for the suffering he caused.

Sky lifted his head slowly into the air, letting his remaining tears slide down his face as he looked towards the bleak atmosphere. He opened his mouth and let out a shrill scream, one that was filled with resentment and anger to mask over his deep sadness. The cry echoed through the landscape at a tremendously loud volume and finally died out half a minute later.

Then, the physically and emotionally worn lynx was left with barely any energy to keep himself conscious for much longer. His loud bellow had expelled much of the leftover emotion he had yet to force from his body, and so he stood on his hands and knees, letting his tears dry as he breathed in and out slowly from exhaustion.

The image of Siva faded out of his brain as he felt a subconscious force grow within him. Sky questioned his own fate and whether or not this would be the place he would truly perish. He pondered the afterlife of both his own spirit as well as that of Celestia. He knew that he couldn't die… He desperately did not want to. Even though his friends were deceased, Sky was the one who lived on, the one the great ancestors chose who would bear the weight of the whole of Celestia. Sky Felis refused to die at the hands of such a cataclysm.

Yet once more, he felt his own senses grow faint… His tiredness had finally overcome him as the numbness returned. With his vision blurred and his breathing slowed down significantly, the lynx sprawled out onto the earth on his front.

The force that had amplified inside of Sky emitted an azure aura from his body while he slipped away. Where his body was lying, a thin line began to trace around him to form a circle which illuminated the decayed ground. He was then engulfed in a mystical flame, the essence of Mudarduh himself, causing the particles of his body to dissolve into thin air.

After another minute passed, Sky had disappeared from the ruins. Deep within his own mind, he drifted through a spiritual void seemingly into another realm…

_You are many generations ahead of your own time, and your real journey has only just begun…_

_Your real journey._

…

"Yo, Fox. Check the connection, will ya?"

Falco and Fox had been nonchalantly trudging through a weak flurry for what seemed to be an hour or two after they finally left the shelter. Falco, who was obviously exceptionally bored, stayed a little ways behind his comrade and kept his wings in his pockets while sightseeing in a carefree. Fox looked down at a device on his wrist which displayed a few numbers on an LED screen, but sadly neither the satellite indicator nor the cellular meter showed any signs of a signal.

He frowned slightly while replying, "Nope. I got nothing."

Falco laughed as a new thought crossed his mind, "Hey… Ever considered the fact that we're not in the Lylat anymore?"

"Oh, totally. Anything is definitely possible. I don't know what to expect next."

"I'm just sayin', what if we come across a bunch of really trippy aliens?" Falco's rumbling stomach became noticeable, "And what if they had a lot of food?"

"I wouldn't be surprised, that's for sure." Fox raised his eyebrows and redirected his focus ahead of him, "I'd say we're pretty lucky. The weather's been merciful."

"You can say that again. Remember the beginning of this when we had just gotten outta that burning heap of garbage?"

Fox turned his head around briefly to catch a glance at his teammate before looking straight ahead again, "Whoa, don't say that about good ole' Foxy. She's gotten us through a lot more than you'd think. And of course I remember what happened… It was just a few days a-"

Falco noticed his comrade's break-off after a few quiet seconds. "Uh… A few days what?"

Now, Fox had stopped walking. He was motioning for Falco to do the same as a silhouette came into view in the distance, seeming as though it was making its way towards the two-man team slowly but surely. Falco took his wings out of his pockets and squinted his eyes to see better.

"What the hell is that? Or… who is it?"

Fox shifted uneasily and kept his guard up as he recognized a tall figure walking at a moderate speed in their direction. After twenty more seconds passed, a few more details could be made out clearer.

The figure wore a sleeveless black shirt of various fabrics and training pants which bunched around the knees, displaying decently sized torso and leg muscles. A belt with a sheathed katana was fastened around the waist of the outfit, and the figure's appearance overall presented an apparent masculinity.

"Falco, you seeing this?"

White fur could be seen on his body with a small pattern of black stripes. He had long lavender strands of hair that reached down to his shoulders and two ears with furry tufts protruding from the top of his head. His countenance, mainly his glaring yellow eyes, gave off a rather serious expression, closely resembling that of a certain species of cat…

Strangely enough, he didn't confront the team, instead going straight in between them without giving any sort of acknowledgement. Fox and Falco were left bewildered as they stared after the weird swordsman.

"Fox… Now's our chance. Let's see where he's heading off to." Falco whispered over to his teammate, who nodded quickly in agreement. As the figure furthered the distance between them and disappeared into the horizon, they both proceeded to track him by following his footsteps through the light snow.


	8. Chapter 8 - Through the Storm

**CHAPTER 8**: _**Through the Storm**_

Tiny swirls of light danced in the night sky as the stars were finally visible, combining their own radiance with that of the fluorescent auroras as they weaved beautifully through the air. Gentle gusts of wind blew across an icy, snow-covered landscape that expanded far into the flattened horizon. The chilling aura given off by the quiet setting was unusually soothing.

In the midst of the surface's multiple layers, there was a visible speck that jutted out slightly in a snowy mound. Inside the cold heap, someone who had slumbered for a considerable amount of time had just begun to awaken, shifting around and causing the white powder to roll off his bare backside as the figure lay face-down towards the thickly-covered ground.

Slowly but surely, two arms, those of a lynx, pulled their way out of the mound and dug into the surface. Soon after, a head poked out as well as a small torso with gleaming white fur, and then the whole rest of the figure's body was hoisted into the open.

A young boy, examining his location briefly, took a deep breath and loosened his body muscles as they warmed up from their earlier shivering state. His lower half remained concealed by a pair of tattered woolen pants, and his sandals were quite close to falling apart, but every inch of his shimmering body fur was unscathed. The lynx's tufted ears flattened as he averted his focus to the lights in the atmosphere, their colors reflecting from the film of his golden pupils while the rest of his face was vividly elucidated.

However, the expression he wore displayed no sign of pleasure or interest in the sights before him… Faint tear lines could be seen on his cheeks as they traced miniature grooves from the bottom edges of his eyes down to his chin. Instead of being entranced in any manner, he was lost deeply in subconscious thought… The lynx plucked from his mind a series of ongoing occurrences that he could clearly remember from the period of time that happened before he had ended up where he stood currently… It was not easy to permanently erase a genocide that happened in his plain sight from memory, much less the death of his loved ones… his mother and father.

The boy's long and moderately bushy tail swished very slowly back and forth while his brain filled with questions. He knew this had to have been the work of the spirits… It was the reason why he was no longer in Zelenoa, but where would he go from now? Was there any way to redeem both himself and his entire race? It seemed impossible… And Siva was positively lurking in outer space somewhere.

The lynx hung his head and sniffled silently while a guttural aching arose in his throat and stomach… He wiped his face and blinked sadly at the ground as he assumed his questions had yet to be answers. The boy would have to gather the strength he had left and continue onward, hoping that Mudarduh could guide him in the right direction. There was no use in contemplating death in that moment, as he had already determined that he still had too much left on his plate for him to throw everything away.

There was no other option… and so the lynx reluctantly began the next portion of his journey.

…

The Star Fox squad had been trailing their target for a while now, but their reserves proved abundant as the weather presented no signatures of another approaching snowstorm. Fox and Falco had kept silent for relatively the entire way until they noticed their destination was coming into view.

The vulpine pointed a finger at another familiar shape in the horizon, blinking from disbelief, "Wait a minute… That's the same shelter we were in earlier!"

Falco scoffed and expressed a smirk, "Maybe he doesn't have any idea where he is either."

Regardless, they had reached the front of the cubical tent in the next few minutes, tracing the footprints straight to the shelter's entrance. The two both exchanged an uneasy look before they braced themselves…

However, as Fox was opening his mouth to speak from the outside, a quiet and oddly calm voice unexpectedly interrupted him.

"Just come in. I sensed your loud presence long ago."

Blinking from shock, the pheasant and vulpine cautiously stepped through the flap and stood on the inside, noticing the swordsman as he sat cross-legged on the sleeping mat. His expression was somewhat less serious and his stare was focused on the wall ahead of him. Fox and Falco hesitated before sitting on the floor in front of him.

A moment of silence passed before Falco swallowed and spoke up, "So, uh… Who or what are you? More importantly, you aren't an alie-"

Fox almost jumped over and cupped a hand over Falco's beak quickly as he chimed in loudly to interrupt him, displaying a nervous smile, "What he means is… Could you help us figure out where we are?"

The stranger's countenance remained static. He nodded slowly and fixed the edgy vulpine with a calming look, responding, "Yes, I could… However, you would have to explain to me some basic information first."

Falco pulled Fox's hand away, rubbing his beak and raising an eyebrow, "What kind of info?"

The swordsman took a deep breath and closed his eyes, still thoroughly relaxed, "You see, it's not every day that a group such as yours is seen marching across this frozen hell, given that there is no present population in this area. I am only a simple traveler… not a native inhabitant in his homeland."

"So that's why this place is so empty…" Fox rubbed his chin and furrowed his brows as he engaged in deep thinking, "I don't think we're in the Lylat anymore."

A hint of a smile broke out on the stranger's face, "I had gathered that you and your pheasant friend were Lylatian. Yes, I'm afraid you are currently somewhere different… but do not dread. Is there an explanation for how you ended up here?"

Falco cleared his throat, "Our ship made a crash landing after we went through some crazy vortex."

"Ah, so that must have been the disturbance I felt… And as for the vortex, I can inform you about that subject later."

"Okay, so… What about you?" Fox shifted his position and sat on his knees.

The stranger's tail flicked to the side while one of his eyes opened, "I have a rather long story to tell… but primarily I was once a part of a large race of lynx."

"Those are extremely rare… I've never seen that many living in the Lylat before."

"That's right, my friend. They are practically nonexistent in your galaxy, and there are no others that inhabit this planet, for the people that do are a part of the tiger race…"

"Where is this place anyhow? I always thought Fichina was pretty intense." Falco leaned his head forward, intrigued by what he had heard from the mysterious lynx so far.

"What is this planet, you ask? Its name is Div Sablast. The conditions in most of its locations are too harsh for most beings of life to make their home…"

Fox and Falco both blinked at each other, then back at the lynx. The pheasant inquired, "What's your name?"

The lynx opened both of his eyes and lifted his head up, giving a friendly smile as he looked met both gazes. He affably greeted the two, "My name is Sky Felis… Please, call me Sky."

Fox, considering how his new acquaintance had seemed so serious and introverted at first glance, was taken aback by this sudden demonstration of kindness. He decided to accept the lynx regardless and smiled in return.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Sky. My name is Fox McCloud."

Falco gave a smirk and nodded eagerly, "I'm Falco Lombardi. Call me Falco."

Sky's grin was still apparent, "It is good to see you, Fox and Falco. I assume you are a traveling duo?"

The vulpine gave a slight chuckle and jokingly replied, "Wonder how you knew that. Yup, we're team Star Fox… or rather, we're what's left of it."

"You are… the remainder of your team? Enlighten me."

Falco took a deep breath and frowned slightly, "Alright… So we were an awesome team of pilots that went through the Lylat while taking care of business. First, there were the Lylat Wars… It was me and Fox, along with Peppy Hare and Slippy Toad, two more original team members."

Falco gave his teammate a nod to join in. Fox acknowledged, clearing his throat and continuing, "We put an end to the plans of an evil scientist named Andross, who was threatening to take over the galaxy. Shortly after, there was a new team member who joined, and her name was Krystal… Peppy had let her take his position on the battlefield as we got rid of a second enemy that threatened to blow up the Lylat, the Aparoids. That's where the team started having issues."

Falco followed up, "The relationships within the squad started getting pretty rocky. You see, Fox and Krystal had a thing going on for each other at first, but a few issues with that came up… Then, Slippy found love on a different planet and wanted to retire from the team after staying a little longer. Peppy went to Corneria and was made general of their military. Our timing couldn't have been better once the Anglars appeared out of nowhere."

The vulpine, who became uneasy at the mentioning of his former love, reluctantly finished the story, "We fought for a while with the Anglars, and wrestled with another team that rivaled us ever since the Lylat Wars… Star Wolf. We ended up finishing off the Anglars, but those two things together were what split us apart. Krystal left, and Slippy moved out… Ever since then, it's been me and Falco."

Sky, who had been intently paying attention to their anecdote, blinked at the ground as they finished. His smile faded into a seemingly normal expression, but his tone was quiet and rather serious.

"I see… I'm sorry you have encountered such misfortunes." Sky sympathized after another few quiet seconds ensued. Fox and Falco were both uneasy and became slightly depressed as they realized the direction in which their team had gone since the beginning, but their new friend's softened tone proceeded to lift them out of their woe temporarily.

Sky added, "If it is any further consolation, I can offer you anything that might be of use for your journey… Of course, other than what you have already consumed from my supplies."

Immediately brought out of his sadness, the vulpine's head jerked up as a streak of red appeared across his face. He stammered out, "Y-You mean… those pitayas were yours? Wait, of course they are! This is your shelter… Anyways, I'm really sorry, we just needed food to give us-"

The lynx cracked a teasing grin as he laughed to himself, holding a hand up to interrupt Fox's apology, "Do not worry, my friend. In these conditions, such provisions would be advised in order to keep alive… I am okay with this."

Falco and Fox leaned their heads down and simultaneously let out a sigh of relief, letting their panicked emotions be replaced by gratefulness. Fox chuckled, "Thank you, Sky… It's really considerate of you."

Sky beamed pleasantly, "Heh… 'Tis not a problem. Now, would you care to partake in listening to my story?"


	9. Chapter 9 - A Celetsian's Legend

**CHAPTER 9**: _**A Celestian's Legend**_

Fox and Falco made themselves comfortable upon the carpeted surface of the tent while they prepared to be told a great chronicle from the kind lynx. It was nighttime outside the thick walls, and a few flurries had begun to pick up, so Sky had lit an extra candle inside to keep the temperature from lowering.

After Sky had introduced the topic of his own life's story, Fox was too intrigued to deny the offer. He excitedly nodded his head and replied almost the instant after the question was finished being asked, "Of course! I'm pretty curious, you know."

Seeing as the two foreigners were enthusiastic, the lynx gave a small chuckle and cleared his throat, taking time to mentally gather his own chapters together. The lingering aroma given by the flickering oil lamps provided a setting ideal for such a moment…

He started almost from the very beginning.

…

"First, I need you both to close your eyes." Sky had already drifted into some form of meditation as he advised the vulpine and pheasant to do the same. Confused, the two looked at each other one last time to confirm that they would trust the kind soul with whatever method he chose to give his tale.

They suddenly found themselves under a trance… Their eyelids involuntarily fluttered shut, yet their bodies remained completely still. They were still conscious of their surroundings, but it was as though their minds had been gripped with an inexplicable power. It was somewhat… sleepwalking. A soft voice, able to be heard only in the deepest dimensions of their minds, resonated and grew with volume…

_I find this to be a more effective way of properly conveying my emotions. Allow the great Celestian specters be your guide into my subconscious…_

Immediately after the words had finished resonating, brilliantly vivid patterns of light stirred and shimmered across their vision in fluorescent hues while the two floated into an incredible void while their sensory receptors anesthetized completely. Bewildered and awestruck, Fox and Falco seemed to have been attracted towards a white flash at one of the cosmic centrifuge's hiatuses. It was as if they were zooming through the spacial gap that existed between Sectors X and Z of the Lylat. They soon realized that they were to experience various bits of Sky's most prominent memories for themselves in first-person…

It began with the lynx's fondest childhood memories. Year after year, he had grown up peacefully in the boundaries of an incredibly bustling village known as Zelenoa. An entirely new culture was introduced, and the two-man squad had never heard one word of Celestian dialect, therefore they proceeded to take hints of what happened based solely upon body language along with phrase and reaction… They could make out a few situations rather clearly between Sky and his family, but the newly towering language barrier had yet to be broken by the Lylatians.

The lynxes were quite interesting and, not to Fox's and Falco's utmost surprise, very sociable and extroverted… The village held many incredible wonders, too. Not just one, but two burning suns were present in the atmosphere and relatively short distances apart. The moon, quite spooky in its appearance, had a larger mass than the sun and only revealed itself every so often during the week… A new species of animal thrived within the forests of Zelenoa as well as its village, the pterolark. The huts and structures inside the village were made from a transparent crystalline substance.

Fox could not have been any more excited to steal a glimpse at a civilization completely unknown to the outside. Its lands were absolutely beautiful… even more striking than Cerinia, he could venture. Bit by bit, Falco was also enthralled by the amount of diversity Zelenoa held. Everything the pheasant had seen, however, could not be compared to the grace and magnificence of the pterolark. The friendship held between Sky and his wise companion, Kuna, fascinated him without end.

The two determined early on that Sky was very intelligent for someone so young. He was a problem solver, an extremely dedicated reader, and such a curious soul. The village elders seemed to worry about him often as he discovered truths that no one else would dare to contemplate. He would further discuss new theories over with Kuna, who would always manage to steer him in the best direction in order for the inquiring lynx not to get into trouble.

Side by side, Fox and Falco absorbed every strikingly majestic landscape presented before them in Sky's memory bank… They felt as though they had become a part of the lynx species at one point, and their amazement gradually elevated as the unfolding chronicles progressed.

_"Hey, Falco…"_

_"Yeah? What's up, Fox?"_

_"Why haven't we ever been outside of the Lylat before?"_

_"Beats me. ROB needs to update his GPS coordinates."_

At long last, they arrived at the point where Sky had traveled quickly through the Zelenoan wilderness as an elated ten-year-old. As they all went deeper into the woods, the darkness increased until Fox was unsure if the end result would be pleasant or not… Instead, they came to an ancient stone temple with a rather sinister-looking entrance. As was predicted, the nervous lynx took the plunge and began his descent…

Falco was mystified by the crystallized torch lights in the hall, but he almost gasped as his eyes widened at the gigantic dome at the corridor's exit with the shining blue crystal in the direct center.

_"Whoa… Zelenoa's really got it going on, even underground."_

Fox and Falco suddenly flinched as Sky's body was forced backwards slightly… The crystal had shattered in midair, and the inside of the dome had moaned and roared into life almost. The walls gleamed with azure beams that radiated from the gem's essence, which was engulfing Sky's body at that moment.

The two experienced a rush of raw power while their senses synchronized with those of the awestruck lynx. It was too much for the capacity of their bodies, no matter how much strain was put into containing the incredible force. A concoction of different sensations flowed steadily from the brain: intense headaches from apparent spikes of knowledge, boiling rage that fueled the muscles with Herculean strength, crackling sparks of searing heat and glacial coldness from elemental specters, soothing sensual warmness that spread deep into the heart, and a multitude of other effects.

Sky stumbled about, struggling about while Fox and Falco tried to gather their bearings, and he finally stood up after a few minutes. Everyone had expelled their dizziness, and the shivering lynx proceeded out of the temple. Falco exhaled heavily and held his forehead.

_"Holy hell… Any idea what that could have been, Fox?"_

_"It could have been some sort of spirit, or a group of them… Sky was talking to the gem like he was frightened, then the gem's light became a part of him."_

_"Jeez laweez…"_

_"You're telling me. This is probably one of the coolest things that's ever happened to us."_

The next chapter of Sky's story was one they were unprepared for. Sky was thrown into painful convulsions during his journey back to the village, and the once beautiful landscape had turned into something dreadfully horrific.

Fox and Falco were both stricken as they took in the violent scene of Zelenoa being laid to a fiery, destructive waste. There were no villagers left after the billowing flames took an enormous toll upon the whole expanse, and the vulpine and pheasant shook with fear at the very sight of the black warriors as they pillaged all that was within the borders of Sky's doomed civilization. Falco broke out into a cold sweat and gagged while Sky's mother and father were brutally murdered, and Fox shed a small tear as he endured a miserable stab of grief… It seemed as though the fallen lynxes were tugging them all into the mire. Their cries of despair that had echoed across the dead plains were ceased, and silence ensued once everything had cleared out.

There was simply nothing left… Falco closed his eyes and turned his head away from the view while Fox wiped his face and continued to mourn quietly at Sky's excruciating sorrow and anguish. What had been so peaceful and heavenly before was now reduced to ash, and Sky was the only survivor, abandoned and heavily scarred as he longed to die with his brothers and sisters… Where the village once stood, only a barren hell remained.

As the lynx's body dematerialized and faded into space, Fox and Falco heard a certain name that lingered for a minute or two before the memory faded into a black nothingness… Siva.

…

The vulpine's eyes were slit open very slowly, and he forced them wider until he at last emerged from the realm of Sky's mind back into the real world. His vision was blurry, and he found as he rubbed his eyes that he had been crying from his experience during the lynx's final snapshot. Falco stared at the ground solemnly and didn't blink. The inside of the warm tent was noiseless.

The two were suddenly forced to look up when Sky had fallen over on his front, clutching his head and breathing at a quick rate. Fox laid a hand on his shoulder and worriedly exclaimed, "Are you alright?!"

The lynx remained on the ground while trying to regain his own strength and expel the pain, his voice muffled by the carpet as he was face-down, "Y-Yes… I shall be okay, I believe. You see, I have never transferred any of my thoughts telepathically to anyone else… and I just finished synchronization with two bodies, and it burned almost every bit of mental energy I had to share with you my full memory…"

Falco replied calmly, still saddened, "Cool… So you just made yourself extremely tired."

Sky confirmed with a nod as he sat back up, and Fox went back to his original position on the carpet across from the lynx. He cleared his throat and asked a question.

"So… how long ago was that hellish occurrence?"

Sky blinked at the vulpine and rubbed his temples, "Thirteen years ago."

"You're twenty-three years old now?" Sky muttered a positive confirmation, and Fox continued, "And what's been going on ever since the genocide?"

"Once my homeland was obliterated totally, I was transferred here by the great Celestian spirit, Dobriduh. I've lived on Div Sablast ever since."

Falco joined in, upping the volume in his tone just barely, "Does that have to do with the name of Zelenoa's planet?"

Sky smiled and closed his eyes as he lowered his head to the ground, "Its name was Celestia, and it wasn't a planet… It was a moon."

Fox stuttered out, "A moon?! How is that possible?!"

"It's always been a topic of heated scientific debating. No one knows how it came into the orbit of Div Sablast, but it has a widely elliptical path around this planet… That was the reason why it disappeared from view every few nights."

Falco raised an eyebrow, "I don't buy it. Moons are rocky and asteroid-y. How is something that awesome and full of life considered to be a moon?"

"Simply because it orbits a larger object with a stronger field of gravity. It has attributes like a planet in a system, but it also behaves as an asteroid would once it enters the range of a planet where its attractive force is present."

"Well… I'm officially mind-blown," Fox relaxed and exhaled again, "And pretty depressed from what I saw from your memory. Speaking of which, I'm really sorry that happened to you…"

Sky held up a hand and smiled, "No need to apologize, friend. It was prophesized by the spirits from the very beginning… My village has barely lasted over a millennium."

Fox raised both eyebrows at that thought, "Is that so?"

"Indeed. I was born during the thousand-year marking… and so I was named Millennia Sky."

Falco chuckled a bit and smiled, "Hah, wow… Sweet name!"

At that instant, the lynx's expression lowered to a more serious frown, "No… I believe the name to be cursed."

That was also the moment in which Falco stopped smiling as well, "Wait… a cursed name?"

"A valid reason is that I never asked to have the entire Zelenoan race to be abruptly dropped upon my shoulders, and even my spirit abilities, the situation was hopeless… Now I could possibly never be able to revive it."

"So what are you doing here?" The pheasant crossed his arms and leaned back slightly.

"Training," Sky responded quietly. "I had risen from this same snow when I teleported away from my destroyed village. Seeing that I had nowhere else to go, I decided to travel wherever the wind blew me. After a few days without food, I fortunately arrived at a strange mountain… Upon the summit rested the Wind Kingdom."

"That must have been ridiculously hardcore."

"You are correct, Falco. 'Twas indeed quite arduous to cover such a distance… As I entered the kingdom gates, and keep in mind this was a very tiny mountainside empire, I collapsed at its front gates and was rushed to the infirmary. They thankfully spoke my native language as well as their own tongue, so they were able to effectively assist me in my recovery and consolation.

"Their race consisted solely of the tiger… And they were ascetically somber almost all the time. As in Zelenoa, equality dominated the ranks, yet there was still an unofficial monarch whom everyone gave a decent amount of respect to… The king's name was Bright, and his daughter's name was Lady Zephyra. The noble warriors that protected the royalty in their golden armor were strong and well-built, and at that moment, I had decided to become a Wind Knight.

"I had neither any of my possessions nor food to replenish myself at the time, so the tigress who treated to me at the infirmary vowed to house me and take care of me. I was very lucky to receive a gift like that after such a disaster, and I was blessed to be given the opportunity to train with the other apprentices… However, it didn't go as well as I thought it would.

"I was the bare definition of an underdog… A weakling, an embarrassment, a speck of dust among titans. And so, I was repeatedly singled out by my mentors as well as being ganged by the other apprentices. My work was the most difficult to complete, but… for some reason, I could sense that Princess Zephyra was watching me. Adding to that, there was a very sacred katana which was encased in a heavily secured, jade trimmed chest… Aegis's Tail. Its presence was felt by me more than any other tiger to approach it, yet they would abstinently refrain from allowing me to be remotely near the blade.

"I continued my training, built my own body strength and agility, and tried to become equal with the golden knights themselves… I could never fully succeed in that, but my skills in combat had become considerably decent. My masters were relatively pleased with my decade of progress, even though I was still very insignificant and feeble compared to the other apprentices as they had already been knighted. I had yet to achieve that ranking…

"However, Lady Zephyra and I began conversing more often. Note that the princess was two years older than I was. She was absolutely divine, exquisitely beautiful and desired by every male citizen of the Wind Kingdom… Her fur was a very bright orange, and her magnificent eyes resembled shining emeralds. The way she expressed herself with her well-shaped body and with the thoughts from her wonderful mind could captivate any soul she pleased. We became closer to one another… best friends.

"It was then that she had taken me deep inside the kingdom's palace one day… What stood before us in its centermost room was the sacred weapon chest. She had excessive knowledge of the Celestian spirits sealed within me, and also told me they could help me to be its rightful wielder… As out of her mind as I thought Her Majesty was, she quickly turned things around by giving me a good luck kiss. After that, she told me to steal Aegis's Tail and run."

"Hm… Sounds like it could have been more than just a friendship." Fox then inquired once Sky had finished that part of his anecdote, "But what did you decide to do?"

In response, Sky reached for his belt with a small visible grin on his face, gripping the handle of his own katana and unsheathing it very slowly. He held it before the astounded vulpine and pheasant, letting the candlelight brighten and reflect off of its long, polished curve. Its handle was adorned with several small emeralds in a neat pattern, and the grip consisted of thickened flat strips of woven string, shining with colors of gold, crimson, and jade. The silver and chrome blade looked sharp enough to pierce a steel plate without any effort.

The lynx beamed with pride, and Falco let out an amused laugh while closely observing the sacred katana, "Well, well… A sneaky bastard, aren't ya? This thing would resale for at least millions of credits back in the Lylat!"

Sky laughed in return and grinned wider, taking the katana and sheathing it back in its place, "I guess you could say I am that. I learned the secrets of invisibility and espionage as a part of the Wind Knight's technique… And this blade is valued worth more than any amount of credits can suffice."

Fox couldn't help but think to himself in the meantime. He sat back, rubbing his chin gently while questioning.

_So… What is he training for? Why would acquiring such a prize help him with whatever his cause is?_

The lynx looked down and let out a sigh, then fixed the two with a more solemn look, "Do you remember Siva?"

_He was the one that caused Sky to black out during the genocide, if I remember correctly… I wouldn't have wanted to tangle with that menacing creep._

"Well… I plan to travel throughout the galaxies in search of his army's black energy traces. Once I can locate my target and corner him, I plan to make him suffer very painfully for his disgraceful deeds. Every weakness, I shall exploit. Every flesh would, I shall exacerbate. Every part of his body, I shall inflict the agony felt by the tens of thousands of souls he and his men sent to hell…"

Falco swallowed and tilted his head a bit, "Then what?"

"After I have eradicated Siva and his forces, I shall proceed to rebuild Zelenoa for the rest of my life."


	10. Chapter 10 - Reawakening

_This chapter took a pretty long time to write. I have a lot more ideas for coming chapters, and also, school's been strangling every last bit of freedom I could possibly fathom... These are two reasons why it might take me a while to update in the future. The story is far from being complete, so fear not, fellow readers... I shall strive to continue onward. Again, reads and reviews are highly appreciated._

**CHAPTER 10**: _**Reawakening**_

A dense fog hissed across a craggy surface. Two silhouettes approached each other from opposite ends, one appearing to kneel on one knee a short distance away. The other rasped in a low, intimidating tone.

"Cadavera… Respond."

"Yes, my Lord. What are your wishes?" The other figure had a lighter tone, clearly that of a female… She remained static and inexpressive as though she were demonstrating unbreakable composure.

"Proceed with your discoveries."

The shadow of Cadavera hadn't inched out of place as though she were a completely inanimate object, "The boy… He is one of the lynx."

"That is false. Why do you assume such confidence to confront me with this nonsense?"

"My most sincere apologies, my Lord… 'Tis what I witnessed during the reconnaissance."

The shadow directly in front of Cadavera seemed to scoff from annoyance, "Bah… Even my most trustworthy eye is losing its vision. The senses of your leopard kind are usually flawless, as I was originally convinced. Very well… Let us assume this to be true for the time being. What further information is there? Speak up."

"There is a spiritual presence within him that exceeds the essence of Zaoduh."

"Explain to me how something as preposterous as that could be possible."

"It is Mudarduh, my Lord… The remaining soul of Celestia has exceeded the boundaries of his own strength by combining his own core with that of the lynx's body. There are apparently other specters within him as well."

"The power of Mudarduh's righteousness has, by far, paled in comparison to the darker quintessence of his counterpart."

"If I may, Your Excellence… Zaoduh has noticeably weakened."

The masculine voice raised its intensity, "This… This is improbable. Nothing more than ridiculous."

"It is the presence of the other ancestral ghosts that assist the lynx to further withdraw spacial power… Dobriduh, the embodiment of goodness, and Bijesanduh, the raging beast, as well as the elemental spirits."

"I see… I have no punishments in order since you successfully completed your task," the voice calmed itself once again. "Dismiss, Cadavera. In the most profound darkness of black matter we shall meet again to discuss your further assignment…"

Cadavera stood up and appeared to take a bow. The shadows dispersed and seemed to fade into the moaning cloud of gas.

…

"So… Siva and his men are still out there, eh?"

Falco rubbed his beak and muttered a question curiously while deeply thinking about Sky's story. Fox sat beside him, confused about how that could possibly be accomplished. The lynx nodded with a somewhat grave countenance.

"That is correct. The forces within me have detected traces of threateningly sinister matter somewhere on this planet…" The lynx sighed and closed his eyes again, leaning his head back slightly. Fox appeared to be engaging his full concentration as well.

Suddenly, he shot upright and widened his eyes, quickly blurting out another inquiry, "I-Is that why you left the Wind Kingdom? You could sense evil there?"

"Yes. I could feel a very faint hint… It disturbed me, almost repelling me away from the mountain itself as though it were a sleeping giant awaiting its eruption. I also had suspicions that I could have been under surveillance."

The pheasant raised both eyebrows again and almost stood up, "Who the hell would do that sort of thing?! You don't think it could be… No way!"

"It is a possibility that I cannot simply discard. Siva could know of my existence. However, I mustn't be so hasty as to target the source and attempt to confront it directly… I am not prepared enough for such a battle, should there be one, especially against someone as mighty as the mastermind behind the genocide of my species. I resided to building this shelter in order to secure my own protection."

Fox responded with another proposition almost immediately after Sky finished, "Well then what are we still doing here? That threat could very well still be imminent, and plus we need to find a way out of here also!"

Falco followed him up, "Yeah, definitely. How's about we put things this way: you help us escape Div Whatever-its-name-is, and in return, we'll try and help shield you from anything that could harm ya?"

The lynx thought pondered upon the offer for a few minutes while the two-man squadron withheld their anxiety and impatience. Finally, he responded, "I'll do it. At first I considered it as ineffective because of your current conditions, but I may have a solution to get you two back to the Lylat as soon as possible."

The vulpine and pheasant smiled and nodded their heads simultaneously from gratitude and looked at each other with newfound expressions of hope.

"Perhaps, if your technology has the aptitude, you can later relocate this planet and recover your ship from the wreckage site. I would imagine that to be quite expensive, no?"

"Damn right it is…" Falco chuckled nervously, "We'd have our asses toasted by General Peppy if we permanently lost that thing."

"Wait a second…" Fox blinked at Sky and swallowed, "You mean we're gonna have to leave the Great Fox here? What's your method of getting us outta this place?"

Sky sighed and opened his eyes once again, reaching over towards his food supply and withdrawing a pitaya, "It involves teleportation. It's very risky, but effective… I possess the capability, but it would consume a massive amount of my remaining body energy to perform such a task."

The two assessed what they had just heard from Sky, watching as he peeled the skin off of his fruit and proceeded to steadily eat its innards. Once he finished, he drew a deep breath and clapped both of his hands together.

"I need you to envision in your own minds your desired location. As we enter the spiritual void, I shall convert the image into our destination, which would be existent at the end of a dimensional hiatus. Oh, and I need you both to breathe at the same speed," he added.

"The spiritual what?!" Falco almost exclaimed.

"Just trust him… It's our only chance of escaping," Fox motioned calmly for his teammate to close his eyes. "Think of the Cornerian Military Headquarters. Now watch me…"

Falco forced himself to relax and briefly observed his teammate, then closed his eyes as they both inhaled and exhaled in unison. They both imagined an external view of the illustrious command center that contained the office of General Peppy on their home planet in the Lylat.

The lynx proceeded to fully synchronize their breathing rate with his own while he amplified an immense amount of power inside of him. His body emitted an incredible blinding aura, illuminating the room and causing a strong draft to swirl inside the tent, but by then they had already traversed deep into another dimension.

The gust, which was set ablaze with flashes of brilliant blue color, had increased its strength from blowing the candlelight out to almost uprooting the external structuring of the shelter as well as causing its thickened walls to flap violently in the tremendous uproar. The three bodies, however, remained completely stationary inside, unaffected by their surroundings as they radiated into a shining outline while anesthetized to a widespread numbness.

Within seconds, they had faded into the swirling lights, and the shelter had all but entirely fallen apart. There was nothing left except for a few scraps of carpet and clothing scattered across the soft snowy landscape.

…

A loud and obnoxious knocking noise was heard at the door of General Peppy's office. The famed military leader was abruptly awoken from an unintended slumber as he was hunched over in his chair at his own desk. Mountains of papers were piled in various heaps on the smooth surface of his working area, which was lit only by a tiny fluorescent lamp that hung overhead. There was much work to be done and many hours to be spent completing it, yet the general's lack of rest had unfortunately gotten the best of him.

The exhausted hare searched the room frantically for whatever had interrupted his sleep. A muffled voice broke through the locked entrance, "General! Sir, you have to come outside the building! Something unreal just happened!"

Peppy uttered a faint grunt and narrowed his blurry eyes at the control panel on his desk as he flipped a switch to unlock the door. He mumbled in a low, smoky tone that was ripe with tiredness, "Calm yourself. I'll see to it…"

As soon as the metallic entrance slid open, a uniformed canine soldier almost stumbled inside with a somewhat flustered look as he tried to regain his breath. The grumbling old hare got to his feet and exited his work area, being escorted quickly by the frantic and excited soldier who was babbling out details at a speed which made everything almost impossible to interpret. Peppy rubbed the sleep out of his eyes while navigating through a complex maze of hallways to the elevator, and there were only a few words he could catch along the way.

"… the two… I think they were… and… randomly appeared… few minutes… big crowd!"

"Mhmm, okay… I'll deal with things," the general droned in response. The soldier took deep breaths to ease out of his panic.

As the two entered the main lobby of the Cornerian military headquarters building, they noticed that outside the door there was a huddle of men gathered. Peppy's eyes blinked open a bit more, and some of his weariness was replaced by a slight sense of alarm and suspicion. The two walked cautiously outside of the building from its grand entrance, the other men creating a wide path for the hare and assisting canine to walk through. All forms of commotion had been hushed instantly at the sight of their leader.

The other men had formed a semi-circle around a three-man group on the sidewalk next to the building. However, as Peppy approached the center of the circle, he noticed that it wasn't just any average group… Two dazed faces, those of a vulpine and pheasant which were very familiar and immediately recognizable, tried to make sense of their current environment as though they had just experienced a powerful trance. Behind them, another figure was lying sprawled on the ground on his front side, motionless except for the fact that his back was rising and setting with shallow breathing.

The general was thoroughly shocked and surprised to see Fox McCloud and Falco Lombardi standing in front of him.

The vulpine's vision finally came to, "Whoa… General Peppy, is that you?"

Falco's senses were regained immediately after his teammate's, "Yo, Fox! It really worked! That spirit realm thingy was pretty trippy though."

…

General Peppy, now fully awake and in deep thought, sat at his desk inside his headquarters building office once again while Fox and Falco lounged one of two small couches that were positioned close to the general's work area. In the other couch, the white-furred figure that was collapsed on the sidewalk beside the two earlier outside was stretched out on his back with his head resting comfortably on a leather cushion as he was still unconscious. An audible snore could occasionally be heard from his end.

The befuddled hare took in a breath of air and exhaled, "Alright… I have a lot of questions for you two, and there are many explanations that I must hear in return."

"Yes, Sir," Fox nodded firmly. Falco mimicked the vulpine in the same manner.

"Right then… First and foremost, why did you appear at the front door of our headquarters so spontaneously? You haven't shown yourself in person here in almost a decade since the end of the Aparoid invasion."

"Err… Well, uh…" Fox sighed nervously, "You see, we teleported here."

Peppy leaned back in his chair, rubbing his chin skeptically for half a minute before finally deciding to accept what was just told to him, "Right… How did this happen?"

This time, it was Falco who replied, "We were cruising towards Aquas a few days earlier when we got swallowed whole by this huge space cloud. When we got out of it, we ended up making a crash landing on this really icy planet in some different galaxy."

Fox swallowed as he finished their story, "We had to make a little trip through a blizzard to seek shelter after the Great Fox was almost completely destroyed. We not only found a place to keep warm, but we also found someone with a really interesting background who graciously took us in."

The general, still attempting to make sense of their explanations, pointed a finger towards the slumbering figure on the other couch, "Now tell me who this is. Why did you haul him here unauthorized? We Cornerians haven't seen his kind here before and we don't know what his plans are or what he's capable of doing."

Fox finally smiled as he answered, "That's Sky. He's a lynx from the planet we mentioned earlier. He's got a pretty long life story, but we heard some pretty fascinating things from him…"

"That's no excuse for picking up strays and bringing them onto government grounds."

"But wait!" The vulpine held up a hand and interrupted, "Sky's the one who helped us through the blizzard and also the one who teleported us here."

As soon as he finished, the lynx mumbled something inaudible and leaned his head up as he was at last regaining consciousness. He sat his tired body up and rubbed his temples while he moaned out and tried to open his eyes.

Sky had yet to make sense of his surroundings as he felt from his chest down to his feet to make sure he was still in one piece, only remembering that he had passed through the spirit realm again. He felt his hands against his belt and noticed that something was missing, immediately causing his topaz pupils to shrink in a miniature panic attack.

The lynx stuttered out loud in his own Celestian tongue, asking where Aegis's Tail had disappeared to. Then he took a glance around the room to find an aged uniformed hare staring at him blankly from behind a cluttered and dimly lit desk. The room that he was in had a few windows in the back wall, but they were masked over with blinds so that only cracks of light could seep into the area onto the smoothly polished floor. Near the main desk on a different piece of furniture, he recognized Fox and Falco as they were looking at him with excited expressions that also seemed to be filled with relief.

Realizing that the three couldn't understand his question, he switched over and then asked, "What happened to my sword?"

The general glanced over at the other two with a surprised look, "He speaks our language?"

Fox nodded positively, but before he could respond, Sky had already caught on. He added, "Oh, m-my apologies, sir. I can telepathically synchronize with other minds in order to gain the ability to speak their tongue…"

Peppy nodded very slowly, still quite discombobulated, "I guess I can understand that. Now, as for your weapon… It's been confiscated and put away safely in a different room."

Sky sighed and averted his gaze to the ground, dissatisfied and a bit anxious. He then looked back up at the general, "Sir… Uh, who are you? A-And where exactly am I?"

"My name is General Peppy. It's a pleasure to meet you… Sky." The hare put on an amiable smile and waved his hand in greeting, "Welcome to Corneria, heart of the Lylat System."

"Thank you, General," Sky smiled in return and looked towards Fox and Falco, who decided to continue their lengthened report.

Falco lowered his tone, worried about what Peppy's impending reaction would be to his next bit of information, "Alright, so when we teleported here, there was something we were forced to leave behind…"

Unfortunately, the general had already comprehended what the pheasant was attempting to inform him of. He almost shot up from his chair, "The Great Fox! It's still wherever you had crashed it? And you said it was destroyed?!"

"Yeah… We're gonna have to go back and hunt for it later."

Peppy leaned back in his chair and gripped his forehead, running it down his face as he let out an exasperated sigh of frustration while staring up at the ceiling. He tried relaxing his own nerves as much as he could and added more calmly, "Well… I suppose it's possible. It would depend solely how far away this new planet of yours is. Anyway, I think I've got the basic idea of what happened… Is there anything else you have to tell me?"

Fox was quick to jump on the situation, "Yes, Sir. There's a pretty big threat out there that could possibly reach the Lylat…"

"Another threat?"

"You see, Sky is the last survivor of his race. He witnessed the genocide of his people at the hands of an evil foe…"

Sky, who had been listening closely to the conversation, lowered his tufted ears and frowned at the mentioning of that horrific incident, but he reluctantly joined in with a lowered, serious tone, "Yes, General… The vortex which sent the Great Fox in a violent death spiral was caused by black matter, an energy harnessed by the one who killed my people. There is no explanation yet for how it was able to reach as far as the Lylat, but… I am quite possibly still being pursued by his men currently, given the fact that I was supposed to be dead along with my brothers and sisters."

Peppy leaned in, furrowing his brows, "You mean to say that you came with Fox and Falco in order to seek refuge against this threat? Just how powerful of an enemy is he?"

Sky blinked at the ground and then fixed the general with an expression much graver than before, "He has the potential to obliterate every object within the vicinity of the Lylat. Should we be unprepared for such a menace, there would be absolutely nothing left."


	11. Chapter 11 - Into the Frying Pan

_Hey, everyone! Long time no update, right? I know, things have slowed down tremendously because of everything that's been going on in the tiny little pathetic life that I do have as of right now. There's family matters being sorted out, things I'm trying to keep sharp in athletically as well as musically, but most important, I'm doing pretty miserably in terms of my grades._

_In a nutshell, I've been pretty braindead lately, and I encountered one of the worst cases of writer's block I've ever had while writing this stupid chapter... In fact, I got caught up in writing out a long chronicle meant to be added much later in the story instead of continuing from my previous leave-off. Why? Because I'm a big ole' moderately impatient procrastinator who gets himself distracted too easily._

_And so, I apologize for the huge delay. I present to you the next part of A Destiny Entwined, open for reading and reviewing and so on, if any of you would care to (you know the drill, blah blah blah). Anyways, thanks for your patience and patronage. Oh, and one more thing... I also posted another story. It's a haunted gaming creepypasta about Mario, to be exact. If you wanna take a break from this crap and read a good campfire tale that I wrote eight months ago, look for "A Golden Memory" in my profile and you should see it. Again, thank you all, and happy reading to ya! Many more expressions of gratitude towards my reviewers thus far for giving me awesome feedback._

* * *

**CHAPTER 11**: **_Into the Frying Pan_**

"Cadavera… He's changed locations."

"I know. Regardless, we shall proceed normally."

"How so?"

"I'll see just what kind of potential he possesses…"

…

General Peppy stroked a few of the hairs on his chin as he sat hunched over in the chair of his office desk. His brows were furrowed while he stared at the mounds of papers in front of him, engrossed in heavy contemplation over the entire course of the conversation he had been having with his former teammates and with this mysterious new face. A small and low-toned 'hmmm' sound came from the old hare every now and again throughout the whole five minutes of utter silence that ensued after the three in front of him had finished explaining their case.

So there apparently was a new threat… As Sky had mentioned, this was much worse than Andross, the Aparoids, or the Anglars. Of course, it was hard to even imagine such a cataclysm considering how the Lylat was still in its recovery phase, but he knew from the lynx's honest tone that he couldn't just discard his theory and cast it as rubbish.

There was an army out to cause destruction… and their gigantic forces would soon impact the Lylat if enough time had passed. Peppy finally let out a thoroughly exhausted sigh and decided to wrap things up.

"So this… Siva…" He began, "How would you propose a method of defense for us Cornerians?"

The lynx blinked down at the ground with a concerned frown, but both Fox had spoken up in response, "Sky's the only one who can put a stop to them. Taking it to the skies wouldn't be so effective in this battle, I don't think… And from the way we saw everything, Siva's got a lot of pretty nasty foot soldiers on his side."

Sky looked up at everyone solemnly and spoke in a soft tone, "I… I can hold them off, or find some way to retard their progress… Fox is right: their methods of combat are stellar and hard to contest. I would only need your help to find enough time for locating a weakness."

Fox sat up straighter and nodded quickly towards the general, "I'm gonna take Sky in as a new Star Fox team member. In the meantime, I think our best strategy would be to prepare our own forces as much as possible for when Siva's here-"

At that moment, an alarm from Peppy's desk along with a brightly flashing red light caused everyone in the room to almost jump as the conversation was interrupted. The general flipped a switch that triggered a megaphone-toned voice from a speaker on the surface of his work space. The alarm ceased as the voice drowned over it excitedly with an urgent message.

"This is Peppy, what's the emergency?" The hare firmly responded.

The voice on the other end crackled with static, but each word that dribbled rapidly from the speaker's lips could still be distinguished, "Sir! It's Zoness!"

"Speak up, my friend. I'm gonna need more info than that."

"There's been a temperature spike in the planet's core! The amount of heat being generated is insane! Oh, and there's this… purple mist that's engulfing the atmosphere. There's been no major damage dealt yet, but we'd like to request permission to gather highly-ranked officials for investigation, Sir!"

"It would be easier if we sent in the Star Fox team. They've got the right tools for the job, and I just finished discussing some rather peculiar terms with the squadron over the past hour or two."

"But… Correct me if I'm wrong, Sir, but hasn't the team been reduced down to just two members?"

"They've actually acquired a new team member that might be a big help towards locating the source of the problem. I'll handle the transportation and supplies, they'll be deployed to handle things. In the meantime, while they're down there digging, there's something I need to announce to the whole of the Cornerian military from the headquarters building…"

"Yes, Sir."

"Peppy out." The static clicked off as the hare hung up his transmitter. He immediately stood up from his desk and looked around the room at Fox, Falco, and Sky as they were all on edge and bristling with anxiety and anticipation over their upcoming task. "I assume you heard everything. We'll pick this up later. For right now, I need you to prepare for some pretty rough conditions. You'll be travelling by one of our government aircrafts to the Zonessian atmosphere, and from there I'll give further instructions… Star Fox team, get ready."

With that, the three squad members stood up and made their way to the door. The last to leave was the lynx as he stopped at the exit and turned to face the hare with a final question.

"By the way, General… Where did you say my sword was again?"

Peppy, who had taken the rear of the pack, continued onward and led Sky out of his office in the direction of the elevator in the process, "Oh, my apologies. I'm gonna contact one of the officers here and they'll deliver it at the front desk of the headquarters on the double."

"Thank you, kindly," The lynx replied in relief. "It's a rather important item to me that I'll most likely need for this mission…"

"So, Sky! How does it feel to be a member of one of the most famous pilot squadrons in history?"

"Oh, um… It's…" He widened his eyes while an enthusiastic grin spread on his face as he searched for the right words, "It's really an honor! I'm greatly happy to serve and assist Fox and Falco."

"That's good. They'll definitely need you there," Peppy smiled while giving the lynx a brief and encouraging pat on the back. They took the elevator down to the first floor and stopped by the front desk in the main lobby of the headquarters, and Sky was very thankful to have Aegis's Tail in his possession once again after an officer carefully handed it to him as though it were a sensitive time bomb.

_They have never witnessed black matter before… I am worried that there could be a mishap or looming tragedy in this reconnaissance._

The three-man squadron was escorted to an open hangar not far away from the main center, still within government precincts. Sky was brought into the spacious aircraft bay a bit later than his teammates as he decided to take things slow and note how much civilization had changed over the course of a decade compared to his former lifestyle… Or had Zelenoa and Div Sablast really progressed so primitively? He hadn't considered it at all primarily, but as he made his way outside, even if it was only a half mile to the transportation craft, the frighteningly evolved and state-of-the-art technology that surrounded him from all sides began to make him feel small and insignificant. He swallowed and focused his sight ahead of him, quickening his walking pace towards the giant bulky ship, _Mercury III, _designated for the team's journey to Zoness.

After everything was in place, once Fox, Falco and Sky were all situated comfortably, the ship's engines roared while its powerful thrusters proceeded to slowly lift the craft into midair. It exited its dock and blasted away from the Cornerian atmosphere into outer space on its way towards Zoness.

…

Fox's boots crunched onto the sand as he made a smooth landing from a two-story jump off the deck of the ship. Falco's pair of boots thudded a bit more softly a short distance away, then the small noise of squeaking rubber was made audible every time the two flexed or stretched any part of their body. The vulpine and avian were fully clad in suits that somewhat resembled the hazmat, but had qualities that were more weather-resistant and also contained very tiny air conditioning and heating units inside small control panels located externally on their stomachs so that they could easily cope with whatever temperature in almost any area imaginable. It was very recently developed by the science department of the main Cornerian military facility, and the Star Fox team was honored with getting to test them for the first time on their mission in Zoness.

Falco's voice sounded over the suit's intercom machination and echoed into Fox's helmet, "Hey, where's our flurry friend?"

Fox replied, "Let him take his time… I think some of this stuff might be a bit new for him."

As if on cue, a louder thud vibrated the sand around them as another figure in the same model suit made a rather sloppy entrance while rushing to catch up with his teammates. The lynx from within the third suit stood up quickly, regaining his posture and brushing a bit of sediment off his control panel as he shakily switched on his speaker, "Sky h… m read…"

"Wuzzat you said, Sky?" The pheasant turned around and tilted his head slightly in confusion. He then realized the problem, "Oh, wait a sec… You're not holding down the intercom button for long enough. Try it again."

The skin underneath the fur of Sky's face turned red from embarrassment as he fumbled around on the bottom of his electrical box on the outside, finally locating the small transmitter key and firmly pressing down with his gloved index finger. He spoke again, chuckling nervously, "Sky here, I'm ready."

"There ya go. Alright Fox, let's move."

The three began a small ascent up a sloped, sandy Zonessian shoreline. _Mercury III_ had landed close to the waters, which reflected a sinister violet glow due to the dense particles spread throughout the atmosphere. Small beams of light broke through cracks in the dark clouds at almost a horizontal angle, indicating by their bright orange tint that it was most likely sunset in their current location. The heat index was absurdly blistering, most likely because of Zoness's core spike, which would have made surface conditions incredibly difficult to navigate without proper protection. Indeed, it was quite strange to see the normally placid planet swallowed spontaneously inside its current sphere of darkness, but the Star Fox team was undeterred and fully focused on locating the disturbance's source.

Sky, thoroughly uncomfortable, tried to become used to the drastic changes around him—the monstrous vehicle that had transported the lynx along with his teammates, the well-constructed and perfectly cubical edifices in Corneria that towered stories above him, the incredible amount of polished chrome and steel that every piece of seemingly exquisite technology possessed, the jolts and beeps of holograms and translucent lighting along with endlessly snaking limbs that surged with electricity to power the environment to life, the overall transition he was forced to make between walking upon soft earthy grounds teeming with wildlife to experiencing excessive aching in his feet from solid, perfectly flat surfaces… It was all a massive electrical tumult that would probably take a lot of time to adapt to for the primitive Zelenoan.

However much his new surroundings made him uneasy, Sky knew that he had to continue onward… He could somehow feel the heat radiating strongly from within Zoness's crust pulling him down like a second field of gravity… calling out to his spiritual essence.

_This must have something to do with the black matter… I can feel its ominous presence. It's almost sickening._

Meanwhile, Fox led the pack further away from the shoreline and onto a vast plain of rotting vegetation… Thankfully, a considerable portion of the local population had already been evacuated and brought to neighboring planets for safety and security purposes and also to clear a pathway for the Star Fox team to proceed with their investigations. It was completely unknown what this baleful force could have the potential of doing to benefit or harm Zoness, but it seemed more reasonable to assume the latter.

Fox sighed nervously and felt a bead of precipitation creep its way down the fur of his cheek, even though conditions inside of his suit were fully normal. At first, he wasn't at all worried about the given circumstances of the task, but visions of his explorations within Sky's immense subconscious reminded him that he couldn't cast this mysterious occurrence aside as remnants of Aparoids or even remainders of Andross, which is what he and Falco were hoping would be the whole cause of Zoness's turbulence…

_It could all start to fall into place if this weird cloud turned out to be related to that vortex that sucked us into that other galaxy in the first place. I wonder what this could be… The Lylat isn't really ready to be doomed by another apocalypse._

He tried to shoulder off his anxiety and keep trekking. Falco was clearly apprehensive as well, but he communicated the same determination to reach the goal. Sky brought up the rear closely behind, so the vulpine nodded and allowed himself to be instinctively guided onto the quickest route to the heat spring.

As their land voyage took the team further downward into steeply descending valleys and low elevations of more decayed plants and mammal remains, Fox generated another deliberation that left a faint trace of hope inside: if all that Sky had mentioned successfully caused everything to be connected by means of their "new threat," perhaps his team would be prepped for another exciting exploit where he could take to outer space once again in his beloved Arwing, or storm planet after planet in search of targets on land by employing his classic weaponry and combat skills that he and his former teammates had used to bring down both the Aparoids and the Anglars. It would be just like his golden days…

While the vulpine subconsciously and simultaneously kept a watch on his suit's gauges along with a three-dimensional geography plane displaying in a hologram at the corner of his helmet window to remind him periodically of his exact location, he continued to nostalgically reminisce the glorious moments he had experienced in the past regarding the victorious outcomes of his original journey from Corneria to Venom, or infiltrating the Aparoid home world, or completely exterminating and ridding the Lylat of every Anglar in existence that attempted to fathom the conquest of his galaxy. It brought a smile to his face and took his mind off the intense situation he and his current teammates were immersing themselves in.

He wanted it badly… Just once more. Fox (as well as the action-ready avian Falco) desperately wished he could relive that same experience. He ached for his long-lost adrenaline rushes and bursts of incredible action from navigating the stars to save the Lylat from destruction…

He also began thinking of his original teammates—Slippy, Peppy, but… more importantly, Krystal.

The vulpine's heart endured a harsh pang of emotional longing for his stunningly beautiful former mate. He knew throughout earlier months that he couldn't even let himself begin to imagine the times that they used to share… It all produced the same ending result every time: being brought painfully to tears. If there was anything he wished he could have done equally as much as reliving his glory days, it would most definitely have been finding Krystal and trying to persuade her to come back… to be by his side once more. He cursed himself, just as he had always done before, for acting so cruelly towards her near the end of the Anglar Wars and driving her away into a life of solitude.

He stopped himself before progressing deeper into his remorseful thinking, knowing it wouldn't provide any sort of benefit in the current state that he and his team were in. Instead, he reverted back towards the developing situation, letting his original faithful sentiments spring back into his head once he proposed the idea that perhaps this mission would create a threshold for more to follow, that it would conclude better than expected…

Perhaps Krystal could be found in the process as well. It could very well present a new and legitimate reason for her to reconsider rejoining the Star Fox team. Fox could talk to her then, and afterwards formally apologize for his previous actions when the time came.

At first, the vulpine felt a new wave of positively-charged energy pass through him as he suppressed himself from joyously leaping into the air in eager anticipation, but he was forced to refocus his attention to where he and his teammates had ventured while he was in his state of deep contemplation. A beeping noise echoed from within his helmet, and then the intercom sounded immediately after.

"Fox, this is Sky! Um… There is something up ahead!"

The vulpine swallowed and looked ahead. The three were standing near the entrance of a gaping vertical hole, almost right on the edge of the drop. Inside the top portion of the opening and around the its rim, the rocky sediment was molten and glowing red with what appeared to be boiling magma. The three, as they were located at the very bottom of a tremendous trough that stretched across the land for at least a few miles, gathered at the hole's perimeter and cautiously peered downward… Nothing was visible after a hundred feet, but it was noticeable that it didn't descend at an exactly vertical angle, but rather it progressed at an extremely steep, rocky slope supposedly deeper inside Zoness's crust.

Sky worriedly continued shortly after the observation was silently made, "I'm detecting larger amounts of heat within this gap… They're reliable readings because I can feel the presence of something gigantic in my spiritual half. I think this is the correct pathway."

Falco followed up, smirking as he turned briefly towards his teammates, "Well, are we just gonna stand here?"

"Heh, I don't think so," Fox grinned as he climbed down the ledge, sliding at a slow pace down the ashy path. "Let's heat things up, shall we?"


End file.
