Star Fox : Reunited With Home

by Xxstar-hit96

This is a story about how Krystal's home world reappears on the outer ring of the Lylat. Takes place after Command, when peace FINALLY falls upon the system. If you have read Emile The Watcher's, 'Denial Destiny', don't worry, this isn't stolen. I've talked to him personally and he said go for it. he will be mentioning the story in his next update.

1. Chapter 1

AN: Sorta long this one, but it would mean a lot to me if you read it anyway, thank you. Okay, so, here we are, a new story for a new start on life. First of all I want to give a shout out to Emile The Watcher, he gave me the story after I asked him to use it when I hit a hard spot in my life, which I'll get to in a bit. This story takes place after SF: Command, when peace finally fell upon the Lylat system. Second of all I'd like to state (to Emile The Watcher mostly) that this story, when it was first written it was the perfect combination of emotion that I needed to get writing again. Last of all I would like to dedicate this story to my grandfather.

Dedicated in loving memory of; Garry William Meredith,

August 4, 1940 - May 25, 2013.

Loving father and proud grandfather. You will be missed greatly, Rest in Peace.

(Quick disclaimer: I don't own Star Fox or any of its characters. The only character that I "own" in this chapter is; Nicole Stearn.)

Star Fox: Reunited With Home.

Chapter 1: The beginning, Is it the end?

In the very lost corner of the Lylat system it was like any other part of space... cold, desolate, dark, and not for the faint of heart if that was in anyone's thought tracks. Though you would say this was like a solar system with no planets in revolution, everybody would just refer to this as the "Lost Sector". Bill Grey was on a routine security check of the outer limits of the Lylat system with a few of his selected pilots, hand picked by William himself for this sortie. Bill hand picked these few pilots himself after he heard word that there was a tremor on the edge of the system. It was almost recorded as an earthquake in space, it disrupted the censor buoys on the outer ring of Lylat so, Bill was ordered by the government of Corneria to go and check it out.

Bill glanced out his canopy to the port side of his white Arwing IIC and panned right looking for anything that looked out-of-place to the naked eye while he waited for his conformation codes to the Defence Censor-Buoy network. The vast distance between him and Corneria, let alone the nearest comm. buoy, played hell with his reception. He got reception, just not very good. Bill stole a glance back to the monitor and saw that it was only 45-percent complete downloading. He swore under his breath and gestured for the computer to download the data that he needed faster with a turning motion of his hand, he paused and looked at his watch on his other wrist and opened a communications link up back to Corneria, "Bill Grey to command, come in over."

A holographic image opened up over his dashboard of an attractive black and white female lupine, "This is Nicole Stearn, acting communications officer of Cornerian Command Central, what can I do for you Commander Bill Grey?"

"Oh, well, I wasn't expecting this change... what time is it in the capital right now, anyway?"

Nicole glanced over her shoulder at a digital time clock on the wall, "It is currently 23:46 GCT."

"Wow..." he chuckled and shook his head, "...no wonder I feel like dosing off... right then, onto business. I'm having difficulty acquiring the Go Codes for..." Bill trailed off mid-comment as a light lit up on his dash telling him that data transfer was successful and that his Arwings computer was attempting to connect to the censor-buoy network that was acting quite defective the last 24 hours.

"Go Codes for... what, Sir?" the lady on the other line as she quirked a brow in confusion,

"Uh, nothing. I mean, not nothing, the Go Codes for the censor-buoy array on the outer rim of Lylat. But, I guess all I needed was an active communications link to complete the download that I needed. Uh, stay on the line one second while I take first look at the censor input," he opened the self-recorded files from the censor-array and found the anomaly time and looked at it, "Strange... command, I'm going to send the data from the array and give them a command to get back into formation." Bill said and tapped a few buttons on his dash sending the data collected back to command for further study. He then tapped another series of buttons to re-align the buoy system. "There... mission accomplished-."

Typhoon piped up on the comm. Link, "WAIT, Bill, look at this! You're 3 o'clock!"

Bill quickly swivelled his head to the right and his eyes grew wide, "Holy shi-" Bill trailed off as he saw what was outside his canopy, "EVERYBODY FALL BACK, NOW!"

"What is it that you see Bill?" the woman on the communication asked in a calm and mellow voice as she didn't know what was going on,

"I'M SEEIN'A FRICKIN' LIGHTNING STORM APPEAR OUT OF NOWHERE!"

"Impossible Bill. We all know that space can't host properties like that."

"I'm looking at the beastie right now in my rear view! At the rate it's expanding it'll be the size of a planet if not bigger!" That was the last that Central Command heard of Bill as long range communications were knocked out by the E.M. field being generated behind him,

"Bill! It's playing hell with my shields!"

"Just hit your boost Typhoon! It'll all be over soon!" He the cut the channel to redirect power to his thrusters "Hopefully." he growled,

Bill and the rest of his squad broke formation to save themselves from getting either crushed by the incoming "cloud" or electrocuted by one of its many fingers of electricity. The rate it was expanding it was going to be bigger than Corneria in a matter of seconds. The amount of darkness was starting to fade as it grew outward like a supernova. Then suddenly... It just stopped.

Bill kept flying at full thrusters to get away from this possible threat, "Holy Hell, that was close." Bill murmured as he slowed down to a stop and redirected power output to normal. His on-board scanner then booted to life and scanned the new "item" that was located on his six o'clock. "So... There's a planet under that shroud." He read closer on the results and murmured the details under his breath as he read, "Planet name... unknown, Planet source... unconfirmed, Current population... mammal, Planet lead..." He trailed off as he quirked a brow and laughed, "you're kidding, right?" He tapped a few buttons and ran a new scan... same results, "No, there must be 'some' mistake here." He ran the scan again and the conclusion was indeed the same, "That's impossible!"

His comm. came to life with Typhoons voice on the other line, "Uh, sir, are my scanners broken or are your readings the same, that this "planet" behind the cloud is... Um-"

Bill sighed, "Contact Corneria Command, tell them we have a planet-sized issue on our hands and tell them they have a newer more important issue on their hands... one that's gonna take them to Cerinia."

...

X-X-X-X

Bill just got off the flight deck of Cornerian head quarters and was walking toward the change room to get out of his flight-suit and into regular everyday clothes, ones that he could be in that wouldn't chaff his nether regions. Bill was glad to be back on the ground. It was a long flight back to Corneria from "Cerinia", and Bill was exasperated that he could finally get some actual sleep, 'laying down' instead of sitting up like he was all the way there and back.

Walking through the glass sliding doors, he was greeted by the new General of the fleet. Red coat with gold braids on most of the seams within reason. Impossible to miss, and considering he new the general on a more personal level he just gave a lazy salute and kept walking to the locker rooms, that's when he was practically called from the croud,

"Bill. A moment please?"

"Sure General Peppy, what's up?" Bill inquired as he stopped on his heal and turned to face the highest ranking General of Corneria.

"Well, remember when your scanners indicated that the "planet" that appeared showed only mammal race?" Peppy asked as he took off his generals hat and stuck it between his upper-arm and torso, and dropped his arms to his sides

"Er, yeah, why?"

"Well, on the Arwing, it's scanners aren't exactly strong enough to tell what the exact population is and we were curious to prove Krystal's records that this is actually Cerinia, SO." he took a breath and continued, "We sent out a small expedition team in a shuttle with the best gear we have, and we just got the results back before you landed... 'one-hundred-percent' of the planets population is vulpine."

"Wait," he put a hand up to his chin and brushed the tuft of longer fur, "so you're telling me that this whole planet is JUST, fox's."

"Correct." Peppy nodded,

"So if we were to send in a team of people to investigate this planet they would most likely have to be of the same race?"

"Correct again. Either that or they'd be shunned like outcasts." Peppy emphasized, and gave a quick little shooing gesture with his forearms and hands.

"Well, sir, are you forgetting that the only fox teams we have are on Fichina? They are because-"

"Because they adapt to the cold better than any other race. Yes, I know that Bill but," he lowered his voice to be more inconspicuous, "There's always Team Star Fox."

"No, absolutely not." Bill shook his head in denial, "You 'know' that Krystal is part of that team. You even worked with them... So long as she knows, she's still the last of her kind and if this really is something related to Andross, then she will be safe from all the heart-felt sorrow knowing that her planet exists, but not her people."

"Bill, I'm sorry but, our statistics state one-hundred-percent that this is Cerinia we can't take the chance of her living life without this... 'conformation'." Peppy placed a paw on Bill's shoulder and looked him in the eye, "We both know what this has come down to don't you?"

"Yes sir." he murmured and nodded with a frown. Bill wasn't pleased that he had to break the awkward news to a woman that he cared for.

"Good, now come with me, we have an unexpected call to make."

X-X-X-X

Feminine laughter filled the recreation room on the Great Fox dreadnought-class battle cruiser, "C'mon, Fox. I thought you said you always let the ladies go first?"

Fox McCloud gave the blue vixen a stoic look and tilted his head to the side with a half-grin.

"What? It's true. Let me serve. I'm the lady here after all." Krystal persuaded as she batted her eyelashes and placed her paw upon her chest above the swell of her bosom.

Krystal was wearing her headband to prevent any sweat from beading up on her forehead and dripping into her eyes, when she played any type of sports she was always on call for it. If it gave her any sort of a rush, she was in. To go with the purple headband that she wore, she was wearing a black tee shirt, it didn't show any signs of her sweating one bit. She was also wearing her yoga pants, yoga pants she found were really loose feeling, they didn't hug her legs overly. They did but, they weren't exactly formfitting like her Flight-suit was, it gave her leeway to move any which way she wanted or needed to. It also made her svelte figure a bit more "noticeable" to a certain fox that she secretly adored, though it wasn't inappropriate in any way, she knew it always caught his attention. And Fox being Fox, always beat himself up over his wandering eyes, that sometimes wandered down too low on a certain vixen who was a part of the team as much as Falco or Slippy were.

Fox McCloud thought about it and pondered the thought that Krystal just gave him and then he answered it to the best of his ability, "Well, yes, you are Female, I'll give you that. But I'm going to have to disagree on you being a 'lady' because you always intentionally pick fights with the enemy." Fox smirked and picked up the badminton birdie and passed it to Krystal as she glowered at him for not calling her a lady. "You're like a hooligan. Worse than Falco, I mean." She caught the birdie and served it, intentionally aiming for the back of Fox's head. This made Falco chuckle.

"Ow. What was 'that' for?" Fox whined, jokingly as he spun around to see Krystal smirking, "Oh, I'm so going to 'get you' later." He growled playfully

Fox was wearing his typical red shirt and pinstripe black Oakley shorts that gave him a more casual look than a whole full blown "Gym-strip" like they give you in junior high. Fox liked being the one that looked professional doing anything. All of Fox's outfits were simple, but they weren't "cheap-looking" like people might say. Maybe some were, but did anyone give a damn? No. They were the most respected Mercenary team in all of Lylat.

She quirked a brow, "Oh, you mean in 'bed' later." Krystal joked, tauntingly, making Falco and Slippy laugh hard.

Fox's eyes snapped wide, he wasn't expecting Krystal to propose such a threat like that, especially in front of his two best buds, he glanced back at Falco and seen him whispering something to Slippy and Slippy chuckled, when that happened his eyes started bouncing around the room in drastic thought and he started to stammer, "What!? No, uh, I-"

Fox was interrupted by the loudspeaker in the room, "Star Fox to the bridge immediately." ROB called over the PA system.

'Thank heavens.' He sighed mentally, and ran over to the comm. terminal, "We'll uh," he stole a glance at Krystal and saw her giggling lightly from what he said in his mind, "we'll be right up ROB." Then he closed the comm. channel to the bridge and turned back to his team so that he was facing the three of them fully, "Alright Star Fox, it looks like we got something important up a head of us, so, you heard the robot. Let's move!"

X-X-X-X

"They will be right up sir, please hold." ROB said in his monotone voice to the General on the line, and went back over to his station and punched in some keys to run a power check, to see how the ship and it's systems were holding up, then ran a diagnostic to find out if the ship had to be serviced at all as they were headed back to Corneria anyway.

Seconds later the quadrature entered the bridge and approached the main view-screen, "Ah, General Peppy. And what do we owe the honour of your call today?"

Peppy looked up from his tablet back at the holo-phone and readjusted his glasses, "Ah, Fox McCloud. How nice of you to report back to me so soon."

"We all came as soon as we were called over, sir." Slippy replied as he straightened his hat.

"Good, well, I don't usually act so... 'uptight' you might say, but, lets get to business."

"Right sir, we're all ears on this end." Krystal assured and everyone nodded in conclusion. Krystal was wearing the exact same outfit that she had on in the gym, minus the headband that she sported earlier,

"Right, uh, Slippy, is it true? Your resignation?"

"Er, yes sir, it unfortunately is. I don't really want to leave but... I promised my wife that I would after another year in the line..." Slippy murmured and trailed off, ashamed.

Falco put a wing on his shoulder, "Dude, we all had this discussion together before. We're proud of you for making that choice Slippy. Don't go thinking you made the wrong decision now, everyone has to settle down sooner or later."

"Yeah," Slippy sighed, "I guess you're right."

The general spoke up bringing all the team members' attention back to the view-screen, "Well Slip, do you feel up for a "going away" mission?"

Slippy cocked a brow, Lylat was in a state of peace. Venom was now allies with Corneria after eons of needless fighting, there was pretty much no need for Star Fox anymore. There was nothing that Star Fox could do to beat the Cornerian army in a state like this. The current state that Corneria was in was numerous amounts of at-the-ready soldiers. A mission call intrigued Slippy, "What of, General Pep?"

Peppy sighed, "That's what I was afraid you would ask... I kinda wanted you guys to come back to Corneria, so we could brief you four on it, but," he trailed off and looked away for a moment to take a deep breath, he started to speak before he glanced back, "I guess since you're already in space... It won't matter much... In fact, I think you'll want to act quicker after you hear what it is that I have to say..." He trailed off again and removed his hat,

"What is it General? Whatever it is, Star Fox is on it, like white on rice... even you know that."

"Yes well, I'm also worried about that... You see... 36 hours ago there was a "disturbance" in the Outer-Lylat censor ring. So 24 hours later we sent out our best pilots. This included Bill Grey and a few of his chosen pilots-"

"What happened to them, are they okay?" Fox asked in a worried voice,

Peppy chuckled, "Now hold on." He cleared his throat into his paw and continued, "They're fine, a little shaken up from what they saw, but everyone is fine." Peppy nodded and Fox sighed in relief, "I called you because this mission is most important to the young lady of your team. And I'd prefer you to be briefed by someone who experienced this sort of thing in person, and uh, let me be one to say, Krystal will 'definitely' be calling us some serious names in the book after she hears what Bill has to say," he turned to his left and gestured for someone to come on-screen, then nodded and backed away to allow Bill's image to appear,

Fox was the first to greet his old dorm-room pal from the academy, "Ah, Bill, and what do we owe the pleasure?"

"Hello Fox, good to see you my friend. Krystal, Slippy, Falco, all nice to see you guys."

"Same here." the trio agreed in response,

"Well, considering you four aren't here in person to be asked to sit down, I still ask that you please be seated at this time." The team responded by shrugging and taking seats. "Good. And at this time I would like you to take a look at a few photographs," Bill clicked a few buttons on his side and a few images popped up on Fox's monitor, "do any of you know what planet you're looking at right now?"

"No sir." Fox replied as he turned to face his team to see what their opinion was on the matter, Krystal was surprised, however she played along with everyone else and shook her head in unison with Falco and Slippy

"Well, we are under, uh... Hell how do I say this with out being called names or laughed at... uh... Oh right... There is none... Well then, here goes... we're under the great assumption that this planet you have just looked at is indeed... Cerinia-"

Krystal shot up from her chair first, while it was on wheels it rolled halfway across the bridge. She raised her hand and pointed at Bills image, "BULLSHIT! Bill Grey, you are full of SHIT! I 'saw' that planet die..." She started to break under the stress of reliving that memory she witnessed many years ago, by now she was starting to sob lightly when she spoke, "I was, there, I saw it..." She sobbed as she cupped her face in her paws, rubbing gently and then she looked up, "I saw it die with my own two eyes." She cried.

"Now, Krystal, we're not saying or calling you a liar of 'any' kind... But what I witnessed first hand is most definitely true. This planet matches up to what your old record database has told us and we believe it's the real deal here."

Fox was first at Krystal's side with a paw on her shoulder for emotional comfort as she cried into her paws, suddenly her knees started to shake underneath her from the reliving of such an emotional memory and she collapsed onto them, still lightly sobbing, Fox knelt beside her as she started to murmur things under her breath, "It's impossible, there's no way that's..." She sniffled and looked up at the picture again, "Cerinia." she sighed and put her face back into her paws. She didn't like what she saw... there was no way for her to even remotely tell if this the real deal or some joke Corneria was playing on the team, it was intergalactic joke day after all.

Fox gestured to Falco and then to Krystal's kicked away chair and then brought his arm back to him in a swooping manner gesturing for him to come here.

Falco stood and walked over to the chair on wheels and pushed it over to Fox and Krystal. Fox nodded in thanks and helped Krystal back up to her feet and into the chair, "So, uh... is this all you wanted? Was to tell me... 'Us' about the planet?"

"No we... We want you to explore it. With Krystal."

Fox leaned in close to Krystal and whispered in her ear, "Will you be able and willing to accompany me on this mission?"

She nodded in silence still lightly sobbing into her paws.

"We'll do it then Bill. On one condition."

"Anything,"

"We get paid triple the usual rate because this planet is so far away, and you bring us a transport shuttle for this mission."

"Done. Thank you for acting so fast on this matter. And Krystal, I'm sorry you're the one to go and survey this yourself... we 'wanted' to send a team but-"

"But, my planet is one-hundred-percent vulpine... the only differ to ever visit my planet was Andross and now they fear everyone except their own race." she sighed and dried her eyes on the back of her paws, Fox patted her on the shoulder for emotional comfort, "I'm okay, I'm okay." she whispered, "Um," her voice was shaky, she brushed a loch of hair behind her ear hand held her arm in place, thinking, "was there anything else we needed to know, Bill?"

"Not that I know of Krystal... OH! There is, yes, all of your records that you gave us based on your planet from your ship... so far, one-hundred-percent of the records add up."

"Well..." she shook her head, "...that clears a lot up. Thanks for the update on the matter."

Krystal shook her head for only two reasons; one was a happy thought, about her records adding up and that this was truly her planet and that she would see her people again. The other was a type of thought that some people think when they believe things are too-good-to-be-true, and that her planet was a terraformed meteor from a different part of the universe transported there, and used as bait to kill the sole remaining Cerinian.

"No problem Krystal... If you guys need anything or need any advice on anything don't hesitate to call back."

"Right Bill, just send us the coordinates to the planet and we'll be on call."

"Alright I'll send them when the call ends. Make sure you guys stay alert and safe and get lots of sleep."

"Alright," Fox chuckled, "Bye now."

"Alright bud, peace." Bill gave a lazy salute and then the call was closed from his side of the communication link, leaving Fox and the rest of the team to look upon the Cornerian flag.

"Alright everyone, get some sleep, I'll have ROB punch in, and take us to the coordinates we were given and I will too be on my way to bed."

"Alright Fox, good call I was starting to get restless anyway. Krystal," Falco called and Krystal lifted her head and looked at him expectantly, "...will you be okay?"

Krystal nodded her head slowly and then spoke up, "I'll... I'll be fine, I'll just go and meditate... maybe do some stretches to get my mind off of this for now."

Falco nodded, this was the always strong Krystal, that he saw on a day to day basis. It was only now and again which he seen Krystal break down like she did moments prior, she was doing a good job holding herself together, "Okay... glad to see you're taking it well... for the most part."

Krystal, Slippy, and Falco turned in for the night. Fox was reading over some files the Bill sent along with the coordinates given, they were a little emotionally challenging, and nerve-racking in nature. When he was done reading the notes he gave ROB instruction to take them out of hyperspace and turn them back around and take them to the new coordinates that he was e-mailed, and then he as well called it a night.

...