Why'd she keep doing that to me? I mean, darting in and out of my life? I swear, that cat was going to be the death of me.

And, being the second best pilot in Star Fox, that was saying something. I mean, that something else besides anything I'd encounter in a cockpit would be the death of me.

I sat at the bar and pondered my drink-the third one in an hour. I needed something to get my mind off her, and fast.

The bartender seemed to notice this too. "' 'Ey, Falco...you drinking a lot tonight. In my years only two things cause a man to drink that much that fast..."

"And those would be...?"

"Either he got the need to, or a girl broke his heart..."

I nodded. Damn, he's good. It's the second count, all right.

"That cat again, ain't it?" he asked.

"You...must know me." I said. "Either that, or you're psychic."

"Run a bar long as I have, you don't miss much," the barkeep replied.

I stared into my glass. "I just don't understand why females do that...run into your life and dart as soon as you start to get close."

"Eh, if I could answer that, I'd be rich, buddy."

I sighed. "Eh, I'll live. I've faced bigger fish than a female scared to have a relationship..." I said, trying to at least put on a face of bravery.

"Now that's the spirit."

I finished my drink, set my glass on the bar along with a few credits, nodded to the barkeep, and walked back out into the night.

Now if only I could believe that, I thought. That girl has ripped out my heart more times than anyone should have a right to.

I sighed. I met her way back when Fox and I were recruits in CDF training-before we decided to quit and form Star Fox.

Katt Monroe...wasn't your average female. She was witty, intelligent...and a hell of a pilot. She wasn't tomboyish, like Fara-sorry, Fox, but it's true!-but she wasn't trashy either.

We chatted it, kinda thought we had something going-and then there was the matter of us leaving the CDF. I asked her to come along. I thought she'd be a great addition to the team.

She said no. She wanted to stay in the CDF and help out her home planet of Zoness. So, regretfully, we parted ways.

I never saw her again-up until a year ago. Andross had attacked the planet and left it teeming with biological weapons, so Star Fox was sent to take them out. We found ourselves quickly surrounded.

Then she appeared, out of nowhere. Turned the battle for us...then disappeared as quickly as she arrived.

Again, in Sector Z, with Copperhead missiles bearing down on the Great Fox, she arrived again. Soon as the battle was done, she jumped out.

It was as if she wanted to help, but didn't want to get too close to me, to not allow me to catch up with her.

I saw her again, in Corneria City...but off she went before I could catch up. I swear, she was like a ghost.

I shook my head. I'd seen the way Fara and Fox acted around each other. All I wanted was someone like that for me. I was tough, I knew, but I wasn't made of stone.

Katt Monroe was teaching me that, really fast.

Every chase is bound to end sooner or later, and for me, that day came a couple months down the line.

The Great Fox was doing a patrol of Sector Y and Fox had gotten a call over the general frequency from her. She was extremely low on fuel and couldn't make it to the nearest base and wanted to know if we could give her a quick refuel.

Fox decided to come to me. "Falco..." he said.

"Yeah." I replied.

"Katt just called. She's on her way in for a refuel."

"I know." I answered. "I heard the tail end of the call. Doesn't matter, she'll just dart out again as soon as she's done-as she always has."

"Falco...perhaps now is the time to pin her down. I don't mean, force her or anything...but if you want answers, you're going to probably have one real chance to fight for them."

"And just what am I going to say to her, Fox? 'Hey, I just wanna know why you keep hauling ass every time I run into you?' "

"If that's what it takes, yes." Fox replied. He took a step closer and lowered his voice so only I could hear him. "Fara didn't fall into my lap either, man."

"A lot easier than Katt has been, though," was my response.

"Still hasn't been easy. You want her, you're going to have to show her you can stand up to her and that you won't allow her to treat you this way as well as for her. Don't let her walk all over your heart."

I nodded. He was right, after all.

Fara interupted our conversation by way of the shipwide comm. "Incoming fighter. It's Katt." she replied.

"We're on our way to the hangar." Fox answered, cut the connection, then looked at me. "It's time, bro...either you solve this or you and her need to go your separate ways. You can't keep doing this to yourself, man."

I nodded. I didn't confront her in the hangar, though-mainly because, hey, there were guy things I had to take care of. Even I gotta pee, you know?

That didn't come until a bit later, in the recreational area. She was standing in the corner, and I walked by the door. Upon spotting her, I just stood in the doorway and folded my arms. And waited.

She turned to me and her eyes went wide, "Falco..." she said, as though were surprised to see me.

"Katt." I said, rather flatly.

"I, um...I really can't stay and chat. I just came by for a quick refuel to make it back to Corneria for some business..." she said.

I just continued to watch, not saying anything.

She said nothing else, just walked past me towards the hangar.

"Katt..." I said again.

"Falco, I said, I can't stay. Now I'm sorry, but I have to go..." she answered and quickened her pace.

She jumped into her fighter, lowered the canopy, and then...

Nothing.

After five minutes, the canopy raised again and she got out, perplexed. She strode to the rear of her fighter and stared at a loose access cover. "That's strange...the hell? The primary engine coupling has been pulled out...who the...?"

Fox walked up behind her, carrying the part in question hooked on one of his digits. "That'd be my doing, I'm afraid."

Katt widened her eyes, confused. "Fox, you know I have things to do, why would you...?"

He let out a sigh. "Because I know you're just running again. You knew what-or more accurately, who-you'd likely run into when you came to my ship, and now you're trying to do your damnedest to run from them. I just ensured that wouldn't happen so easily this time."

"Fox, this isn't between..."

"He's one of mine, Katt. And he's my best friend. You at least owe him an explanation."

"Owe him? In case you forgot..." she started, but Fox cut her off.

"I remember, Katt. And we've since squared up our debts to you. This isn't a debt to Star Fox, though, it's a debt to Falco. "

"I..." she said.

"Either you settle this up now, or you can both go your separate ways."he said, with finality, then glanced to the pilfered part he was holding. "I'm going to keep this for 24 hours. You two have that long to decide-but I refuse to watch one of my own suffer any longer."

She fumed. I saw her expression and was thankful that her eyes weren't hyper cannons right at that moment in time. "Fine," she spat.

The longest 24 hours of my life started in the rec room. "So, where do you want to start?" Katt growled.

"How about with the reason why you feel you've had to run from me every time we've encountered each other?"

"Because I wanted to. Next question." she retorted.

"Damn it, do you think I'm going to buy that crap for a second, Katt? Don't try playing that stone wall act with me."

"Who says it's an act? If I don't want to tell you something, I don't have to! So why not make this easy on both of us and agree to just walk away from each other?"

"Because I'm not ready to do that." I answered.

She shrugged. "Suit yourself. You're the one that has to suffer with it, not me."

"Katt..."

"It's all about the consequences of the choices that you make. You can have them easy-just let me go-or you can be stubborn, fight, and make this hard."

My eyes narrowed at her. "Is that what this is about?"

"Is what...?"

I had to resist laughing at her. "You're still pissed because I chose to leave the CDF and join Star Fox, aren't you? That I left you behind..."

She shrugged. "I don't see how...that was years ago."

"Not that many, Katt. It's been...five years now?"

"Yeah." she said. We agreed on something...maybe we were making headway.

"Katt...I couldn't pass something like that up. Fox and I felt that we could do more for Corneria outside the rules of the CDF. And I do recall asking you to come with us."

"Yeah, and you remember my answer. I wanted to protect my home in my own way. Falco...this isn't something that you didn't know, so I don't understand why I'm having to stand here and explain this again."

"Because it doesn't explain why you keep running away from me!" I said, my voice raising. "Whatever in the hell I ever did to you to make you hate me so, I'm sorry...I just wish I knew what it was..."

Katt stared at me as if I'd struck her. Had I touched on a nerve or something? Was she even aware of what she was doing to me? "Hate you, Falco? Whatever in Lylat makes you think I hate you?"

"You can't face me..."

"Do you know what it feels like to lose everything?" she screeched. "Everything that you've fought your whole life to protect?"

"Katt..."

"Those damned bioweapons didn't just destroy Zoness and everyone on it, they rendered the world uninhabitable! I can't even set foot on my own homeland anymore...not in my lifetime, or my children's lifetime-should fate ever deign to let me have any-or their children's lifetimes! Everything I hold dear was wiped out in that damn war...everything! Fate just kept taking from me...I was raised an orphan because my parents died in an accident, for pete's sake...so you want to talk to me as if I hate you?" she growled.

I just stared back at her in shock. I had no idea, until now, just how much the devastation of her home had affected her. She'd always kept it hidden under her cover of cheerful disposition.

"Falco...you're the only damn thing I have left in this universe anymore. I'm so cursed, though, that if I acknowledge that, fate will take you from me as well. So I choose to ignore that. If I ignore what you mean to me, I can't lose you..."

"And you really think that sort of thinking is going to help you..."

She just stared at me, her cheeks wet.

"Katt, damn you, you're stronger than this! I said, getting close enough to her so that she had no choice to look me in the eyes. "What happened to the fearless girl I knew in basic? The one that could take on anything?"

"The war changed us, Falco..." she said.

"The hell it did. Not so much to reduce the strong woman I loved to a shell of herself, running away because she can't face up to the fear of losing something..."

"Falco, I..."

I couldn't bear it. This wasn't the Katt Monroe I'd fell in love with. No, this was a shadow of the woman I adored. And I kept letting her rip my heart out over something she was too cowardly to face. She was right-I was wasting my time trying to fight her, but not for the reasons she said.

"The Katt I know would have found a way to overcome. A way to move forward. Not this sniveling creature I see before me..." I spat, then added. "Get out of my sight...I'll have Fox fix your ship...and I never wish to see you again. Ever."

She stared at me, her eyes misting over. "I always loved you..." she murmured, but I refused to acknowledge her.

I sat in the cockpit of my fighter-which Slippy had already repaired for me-and cried my eyes out.

I knew that if I had to confront Falco over why I couldn't face him, I'd only rip his heart out again. Yet, to run from him was doing the same.

Damned by one hand, damned by the other.

For a moment, I toyed with the idea of leaving, getting to a safe distance, and overloading my fighter's tiny reactor. Anything to rid myself of this overwhelming pain I felt.

Do that, and you are exactly as Falco says you are, and you do not deserve him, came a thought, almost instantly.

Had I truly fallen that far?

Just as I pondered this, I heard my fighter's missile lock alarm whine. The hell? I thought before my instincts kicked in and I punched the throttle-just as brace of missiles slammed into the hangar.

I shouted into my comm pickup, "Fox, we have incoming!" I spared a glance backwards. Whoever had fired on the Great Fox had more luck than skill. The missiles had damaged the hangar to make it difficult for Fox and the team to launch fighters, but hadn't actually hit any of the Arwings.

That didn't mean that said person wasn't a threat. I scanned space in front of my fighter's canopy-a modified Invader MkIII that I'd "appropriated" from Venom forces during the war, the Katt's Paw-as I knew these fighters were stealthed, given that they approached the Great Fox without alerting anyone to their presence. What saved me was the fact that I had left my fighter's systems prepped and ready for launch as I'd expected this to be a quick stopover.

A whole squadron's strength? Whoever attacked wants Star Fox dead pretty bad. No army markings of any sort...looks like pirates.

"What's your status, Fox?" I asked.

"Hangar's damaged. We'll have to get down there and clear the debris before we can launch. They're too fast for the Great Fox's cannons."

I nodded and targeted the closest fighter. I'd have to buy them some time, then. Firing off a quick burst, I watched the fighter erupt into a fireball before drawing the attention of two of his comrades.

They weren't hard to evade or deflect-my fighter's capability almost matched the Arwings', after all-and I took another out before a missile lock alarm sounded and I had to execute a quick G-turn to fool it as it shot out into the distance of space.

"How's that clearing coming along?" I asked, as the other fighters started to arrange themselves in some sort of formation. Good as I was, I didn't think I could hold against ten fighters in formation single-handedly.

"Working on it." Fox replied.

"Work faster..." I shot back, banking hard to evade another fighter even as I locked my own missile onto it and blew it to shreds.

Two fighters came at me, cannons blazing, and I rolled hard, letting my G-Diffuser take care of some of their fire, wincing as a few shots got through and impinged on the shields. I returned fire and one exploded, the other veering away.

"We can launch one fighter," I heard over my comm from the Great Fox.

"One is more help than I have right now..." I replied-just as I took a glancing blow from a missile I hadn't noticed to starboard. Alarms lit up on my control panels.

Damn. That lucky shot just happened to take out the G-Diffuser unit...as well as drop my shields to mostly non-existent. "Guys, I've been hit..." I replied, calmly.

"Affirmative," I heard Fox reply, and noted the telltale exhaust from the Arwing that launched from the hangar bay of the Great Fox.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't get here in time to stop the other fighters bearing down on me...and one fighter wasn't going to make any difference. If they couldn't get the other Arwings launched soon, they were going to get shot down one by one.

I sighed. I had to even the field. Already my fighter was taking heavy damage, and many systems were critical. My eyes quickly scanned the field in front of me.

Five in the blast radius. It...should be enough. I thought. Calmly, I reached for the overload controls for my fighter.

Can't say I'm a coward this time, can you, Falco? I just hope that you know, I always loved you.

My paw was a centimeter from the button when I heard a voice screaming over my comm, "Get the hell away from her NOW, you scavenger bastards!" and the blaze of hyper cannons bracketing my fighter, reducing two of my assailants to incandescent plasma, a well-aimed Nova Bomb taking out most of the rest.

The last one peeled off, deciding that discretion was the better part of valor.

I didn't care. I recognized that voice. "Falco?"

"You okay?" he replied.

"I...don't think I'll be able to make it off the Great Fox anytime soon...," I replied. "So..."

"We can talk about that later, Katt." Falco answered. "For now, you're safe. We owe you our lives..."

I nodded, somewhat relieved.

I stared at her for a long while, later that evening after we'd gotten what was left of the Katt's Paw back to the Great Fox. Thankfully, it was still able to be repaired with what we had on board, but it also meant she'd be here for the duration.

And we had a lot to settle up.

"Falco..." she said. "I know you're angry at me, but..."

"Katt, yeah, I'm angry, all right. But not at you. I'm angry at what you allowed yourself to become."

"But..."

"But nothing," I cut her off, then added."Katt, you aren't the only one to have lost things in your life. Take a look around you-we all have. I lost my father. Fox lost both his parents. We still pressed forward."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right..."

"And even if you keep losing, you don't just give up the fight. Fox and I didn't. Look where we are now."

"But I couldn't stand to lose any more...not more than I already had. If I lost you..."

"You think I don't think the same about you? Where you might be? Don't you think it worries me when you just drop in and out of my life like the four winds, off to who knows where?"

She stared at me, her eyes wide.

"Don't you think I'm scared to lose you too?" I said, lowering my voice. "You aren't the only one with something to lose in life...and for me to admit that takes a hell of a lot, Katt. You know me."

"But what do I do?"

"For starters, stop running away and face the future."

"But..."

"You said you always loved me, did you not?" I asked her, my gaze level.

"Yes, I...I did." she answered. Apparently it hadn't registered that I did note her last words to me when she walked away from me earlier.

"Do you mean those words? Or were they something that you came up with to try and soften my wrath?"

"Falco, I..."

"Katt, I can't keep doing this. I can't keep watching you walk out of my life on a whim because you're scared of what the future might bring." I replied, my voice starting to raise again.

"I..."

"I can't keep having my heart torn out over and over again..." I added.

"Dammit..." she growled, opening her eyes to face me.

"Because I love you too much to allow it!" I said, shouting.

There it was. How I felt for her...how I had always felt for her. Something that never had a chance to come out, until now.

"Falco..."

There was a rare sight-a tear on my cheek. "I'm tired of my heart breaking every time I see you, Katt Monroe. I'm tired of not having what I need in my life. I'm tired...damn it all to hell, I'm tired of being tired. If all you're going to do is break my heart all the time, then we just need to walk away from each other. This time I'm not saying it in rage. I'm saying this because I love you far too much for me to wind up hating you for making me feel this way, over and over again. I...need...you," I said, those last three words hard for me to admit to even myself. But I had to. I had to if I wanted any chance in hell of keeping her.

I could hear her sobbing...hell, it wasn't as if I looked or sounded any better. We had wounded each other raw.

"I'm tired of watching you run away, Katt." I said, and I sounded horrible, but the dam had already broken. Trying to keep up the bravado just wasn't going to help either of us. This was where she got to see the real Falco Lombardi-the side of me I showed no one, not even Fox. The vulnerable side of me. "I'm tired of chasing your tail for eternity. If you're going to keep on running, I'm not going to chase you anymore. I can't chase you anymore. My heart just can't take it. If you truly love me, then stay with me...at my side, where I need you to be. I'm not going to let harm come to you, or anyone take a damn thing from you anymore, not as long as I have a say in the matter."

"But.."

"Katt, I'm not going to promise you that I'll be around for the rest of your life. I just can't, and I'm sorry. I can, though, promise you that I'll be around for the rest of mine. Just stop running from me, okay?"

"I..."

"Katt, stop hesitating...oh, for the love of..." I said. If I kept this up, we'd be here all night, and she was so hesitant I would have run out of things to say and just gotten pissed off. And I didn't want to get pissed off. I loved her.

So I did what lovers do. I grabbed her and kissed her. She started to say something, then just closed her eyes and let herself go, her arms wrapping around me.

"Now do you understand?" I said. "I'm not letting you go. Not this time and not ever again. Got me on that?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I think I understand now," she said with a purr.

That was over a year ago. Soon after that, well...I followed through with my promise that I wasn't ever letting her go again. We married.

About a month or two after that, she found out she was pregnant. Man...that had to be the hardest nine months of my life. And I thought things in an Arwing were sometimes frightening.

The daughter we had, though...yeah, she makes it all worth it. She's fast asleep, my little Kalico...just as sassy as her father, little blue kitten with eyes like her mother.

Even brash pilots have a soft spot, I suppose. But I learned that the most important fights in your life aren't in a fighter-and sometimes, you have to let your shields down to win those fights.

What the future holds...well, we'll see. But we'll face it together. I promised her that, and I keep my promises.