The stars. He hadn't seen them this bright since he was a boy, but he could see them now. They gently bobbed past him in the darkness, and when he would try to reach out to one, his hand would go through it like it did when he tried to grab the sunlight streaming into his room.

He was floating, but it still felt as if he were laying on the hard ground. Where was he? He tried to remember what had happened leading up to this point, but every time he did it was like his mind hit a wall. He didn't want to remember, all he wanted was to watch the stars float past him.

A cool feeling washed over him, startling him, and when he lifted up his hand he found water dripping from it. The water flowed in around him, soothing his hot and broken body.

Nux closed his eyes and sighed in relief at the cool feeling. He so rarely felt peaceful like he did in that moment. The only other time he'd felt at peace was when Capable had fallen asleep against him, and he'd cautiously put his arm around her, making sure to keep an eye on the other shiny wives, Imperator Furiosa, and even his Bloodbag. He didn't want them attacking him, but he'd wanted to touch her so badly.

The stars were getting brighter, and behind them the blackness was growing darker. He felt the urge to close his eyes and go to sleep, but he didn't like sleep. Sleep was when the fevers came, and when the fevers came, he was afraid. He didn't like to be afraid. Besides, with a view like this, why would he want to sleep?

Suddenly, there was a blinding light that startled Nux, and he looked in the direction he was floating. There was the light, and in the light he could see doors. They were golden and glinting in the light, and it was the most beautiful thing Nux had ever seen in his life. The doors started opening, and suddenly he knew where he was.

Valhalla.

His mouth fell open and he felt tears in his eyes as he drew closer. He'd waited his entire life for this moment, and it had finally come the way he'd always wanted-on the Fury Road. He held up his hand, reaching out for the gates. But something wrapped around his wrist and pulled, pulled him away from the doors. He gasped, trying to pull his hand free, but his strength was gone.

All he could do was watch the golden doors of Valhalla grow smaller and smaller. The stars too, began receding, until all that was left was the black.

Nux looked around, the grief in his chest turning to emptiness. He was alone now, in the black, and he felt like he was home.

Until a pair of black boots stomped the ground next to his face, startling him out of the black. He stared at the boots, and then at the red dirt and sand beneath them. The red met the blue of the sky in the distance, and he realized he was lying on the ground. That would explain the hardness in his dream.

Another light was beating down on him, not soft and glowing like his dream, but harsh and hot on his skin. He squinted up at it, and found that there was a figure in this light too. He could make out a head and shoulders before a woman's face bent down close to his. He thought she looked like an angel with a fiery halo around her face. She said something, he could see her lips moving, but he couldn't hear her over the pounding in his ears.

The light began to fade, and more blackness dotted his vision. The last thing he saw before he slipped into unconsciousness, was the face of the angel, her deep blue eyes staring into his.

She'd heard the explosion before she saw the smoke. She'd been scanning the horizon for any signs of enemy war parties when it had happened. It was a sudden clap of thunder that echoed through the desert landscape, and even from miles away she could feel the vibrations it caused.

Not five minutes following the explosion, a thick black smoke billowed up into the sky, eating up the blue.

Daring let her binoculars fall down onto her chest, where they hung by a string around her neck, and looked down at her dog, Scout, a black mutt she'd found on the side of the road, "Should we go check it out?"

He sneezed and looked up at her with his tongue lolled out the side of his mouth. She opened the door of her coupe she'd won off of a stranger in a Death Duel. Out on the Fury Road, people challenged each other to Death Duels for drivable cars. A group of people would throw in their weapons and fight to the death. The lat one standing got to keep the car. She'd never bothered with it, finding the idea stupid, but when she'd seen this car, she'd thrown her swords into the mix of knives and other crude looking blades. The car was an old coupe, an outdated hot rod that had caught everyone's eye. The man had said he'd found it in pieces in a long desert stretch, taken it back to his camp, and fixed it up into a better condition than it had ever been.

At first the men had laughed and mocked her, but as the fight began and she started winning, they stopped laughing. She'd looked down at the last man, who was cowering at her feet, and spat on him, walking away. The owner of the vehicle still had the keys in his pocked as he laid on the ground in a pool of his own blood. She'd gingerly dug them out of his pants and got in, Scout already waiting in the passenger's seat for her.

Scout hopped up and sat in his usual spot as Daring slipped in and turned the key in the ignition. She put the pedal to the floor and steered around a drifting sand dune. Shifting gears, she got back onto the road and sped toward the black smoke. As she did, she looked down at the floor like she had a hundred times, at one of the foot pedals with, 'Nux' painted in white. She often wondered what it meant. At first she thought it stood for something in the car, but for the life of her, she didn't know what. She'd spent long hours on a one way stretch of desert, doing nothing but thinking about what this 'Nux' was. She even talked about it with Scout, because there was no one else to talk to.

And so now, as they sped toward the black smoke, she found herself wondering about 'Nux'. Maybe it was the owner that had been killed in the Death Duel. He had never given his name.

Scout began barking, and she looked in the direction he was facing. She slammed her foot down on the brakes and jumped out of the car, bringing her binoculars up to her eyes. Through them, she could see a car speeding west, two flags flying on the back of it. She recognized it as Immortan Joe's.

Scout sneezed again, and she looked down at him, "Now what do you suppose he's in such a hurry about?"

Daring lifted her gaze to the smoke in the east and figured he had something to do with it. She had never been to the Citadel before, but she'd seen Joe and his war party out before, terrorizing other parties that had, for some reason or another, wandered into his territory. She would sit high in the cliffs at night and watch them, their lights tearing around the landscape and kicking up dust. She would listen to the shouts and cries of the War Boys as they hunted down and killed their prey, like playthings.

Climbing back into the car, she shifted it into double gear and raced to the east, eager to see what had Immortan Joe speeding away from, and alone.

When she drifted around a cliff corner, she was met with a grisly sight. There were cars, piled on top of cars, all of them burning. There was twisted metal and debris everywhere, and blood was running through the red dirt. She could see bodies in the burning cars, but there seemed to be no survivors of whatever had happened.

She started walking through the wreckage, Scout at her heels, searching for any sign of life. The only thing she could find, though, were the bodies of the dead. The smell of burning rubber and charred metal filled her nose, and the fumes made her eyes water. She coughed and waved the air away from her face, walking back toward her car.

At the front of the pile, Scout stopped to dig his way into the cab of a large war rig. The dog started barking, catching Daring's attention. She called out to the dog, who poked his head out of the hole he created

"Come on, Scout." She said, starting to walk to the car again.

The dog didn't move, he just stood there and whined, panting with his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. She knelt down next to the hole, peering inside past Scout, and found a man lying in a pool of gasoline. The fire from the other cars was rapidly spreading, leaving Daring only two options: leave the man to die, or save him and risk her own life doing so. She was ready to pull Scout out of the hole, get into their car, and continue on their way, but the man in the gasoline stirred and a smile spread across his pale face. He held up his arm, reaching toward her. Scout cried again, looking at her with his dark eyes. She rolled hers and crawled further into the hole until her entire upper body was inside. Her arms sloshed into the gasoline as she grabbed hold of his wrist, pulling him through the hole.

She drug him free of the debris, pulling him away from the fire and toward her car. His gasoline coated hand slipped from hers, and she stumbled backwards, falling to the ground. When she sat up, the man's eyes were opened and he was looking around the landscape in confusion.

Daring got to her feet and walked over to where his head was. He stared at her boots for a moment, before looking up into her face. His light blue eyes widened when they met hers, and his mouth fell open. She squatted down next to him and asked, "Hey, you alright?"

He didn't answer, only continued to stare at her like she was some sort of angel. Finally, his eyes rolled to the back of his head, which lolled to the side. She grabbed his chin and turned his head, opening his eyelids to make sure he was okay. She decided he was just unconscious, and threw his arm over her shoulder, dragging him towards her car.

When she opened the passenger door, Scout hopped in and sat down, which she shook her head at, "Ah, you were the one who wanted me to save him, you're the one who sits in the back." She pointed to the back of the car, "Go." The dog groaned, but jumped into the back, leaving her room to struggle the man into the car.

Once they were both in, she put the pedal to the floor again, speeding away just in time to catch the explosion of the war rig in her rear-view mirror.

K guys, this is my first Mad Max story ever attempted, so here goes! I just saw Fury Road and it was probably my favorite movie this year. It even beat out the Avengers for me! I might make a story for Max, because I obviously love him, but I already knew Nux was going to be a favorite of mine from the commercials. So I guess if you liked this first chapter here and you possibly want a Max story, you should let me know and I'll get working on it!

Thanks guys, (and gals, just in case anyone's touchy about that subject), leave a review, I love those!