Just a short one-shot of what I thought should have happened to Steele when he fell down that cliff and how that would have affected the story.

The End Of Steele

Cliff edge. Authors POV.

"Since when do you need a pedigree to help someone?" asked Balto, trying once more to reach the medicine to save Rosy and the other children. Steele just got angrier and started throwing Balto around, but Balto refused to fight and just kept trying to reach the medicine. Steele continued to attack him and even threw him against a rock, but even that wasn't enough to stop Balto. Now blindingly angry Steele tried to pull Balto under the edge by way of Jenna's bandana, which was still around his neck. Balto ducked and reversed positions with Steele, who had pulled too hard and was dangling on his hind legs, still gripping Jenna's bandana. Unfortunately for Steele, the knot holding the bandana together wasn't up to supporting the weight of a full-grown Malamute sled dog and came undone, leaving him with nothing to hold on to. Within half a second Steele fell over the edge, hitting several rocks on the way down. He would have survived had there not been a particularly sharp rocky outcrop at the bottom of the cliff. When his body smashed into it, his bones and tissues were unable to hold together and failed spectacularly, put simply; splat. Steele's death was agonizingly slow and painful, but the selfish prick deserved it. Balto looked over the edge and felt sick at the sight of Steele's body. The sled dogs had seen that he was trying to help too late and before they could stop the fight Steele had gone mad and tried to kill Balto. The sled dogs knew that Balto hadn't meant to kill Steele and that Steele had brought it on himself and the world was likely a better place without him. They did not blame Balto; they had never really hated him and were just trying to be popular by siding with Steele. But Balto didn't know that. He looked between the body of Steele and the sled team with fear in his eyes. He swallowed and said nervously

"Err *gulps* I-I didn't m-mean t-to h-honest!" he started backing away fearfully, tail between his legs. But the sled dogs made no move to attack and Nikki said

"Balto, we saw what happened. You never made any move to attack and Steele practically threw himself off the edge. We know you only wanted to help... Steele was just too angry to see it."

Balto perked up a bit and started running through what had happened, most notably the suddenly friendly sled dogs.

"Right then... Back to why I'm here, I've left a trail back to Nome so we won't get lost again. And, err, can we agree not to tell anyone about that, I know some dogs who might take that as an excuse to kill me..."

"Balto, he led us off a cliff and tried to kill the rescue party, as far as we're concerned, he tried to pull you off a cliff, failed and lost his footing, and ran off, because he might as well have done."

Balto felt his worries start to dissipate at that. As he was about to ask who would be new lead dog, Star picked up Steele's harness and held it out towards him.

"...Me?" he asked incredulously.

"You made the trail, you know what it looks like, we don't have time for you to teach any of us what it looks like." said Nikki plainly. Balto suddenly felt like he was drowning in a sea of inadequacy. He had never dared to hope of being lead dog. But before he could lose heart, he heard a howl. Turning around, he saw a white wolf staring at him. For whatever reason, the sight gave him courage. He also felt a need to howl back unlike any of the times that wolves had howled for him before. Uncaring now of what anyone else thought of him, he howled back, feeling as he did so a great weight lift from his shoulders. Boris was right, he thought, there really is nothing wrong with being half and half. In that moment, he knew that to feel good about himself, he had to accept himself for who he was. A dog might slow down even on a run as desperate as this. But a wolf wouldn't. Balto turned back to the sled team and took his place. The run back was fast, but the marks that Balto had left behind did their jobs well and they didn't get lost once. The team came into town and everyone was curious as to why Balto was leading the team, but the sled dogs explained that Steele had led them straight down a cliff and that Balto came to help, and that Steele had attacked him without reason and Balto hadn't even tried to fight back. True to their word, they said that Steele tried to pull Balto over the edge, failed and ran off, they also stated in no uncertain terms that without the trail Balto left and led them down they wouldn't have been able to get back. Everyone was shocked at this news but even more were angry at Steele for what he did. The medicine came in time to save all the children and finally Jenna could get closer to Balto. This had been a good day for all. Well, all except one.

Hell. Duh.

Steele quaked as he saw the fires around him, then a voice came from behind him.

"Now then… what do we have here…?" *evil laughs*

Yea, this is what should have happened. Just to note, I'm actually an atheist but I thought that if there is a hell, that's where Steele should go. This alternate ending explains why we don't see Steele again and also accounts for the personality changes in Balto between the first and second films – guilt, maybe? Sobering? Meh, I just don't like Steele. Plz note; this is a part of my 'Balto' section of stories and is a part of all of them, just though I'd like Balto to be able to relate somewhat with John and Fogul having killed something.

I DON'T OWN BALTO, ALL CHARACTERS EXECPT JOHN, FOGUL AND JOEY BELONG TO THE ACTUAL MAKER OF IT!