CHAPTER ONE - UNEXPECTED ALLIES

AN UNCHARTED ISLAND ON THE PLANET ZONESS

"She didn't have to do it."

Tundra Corneilison sat in the cockpit of her ship, the Arctic Wolf, listening to the steady drumming of rain on the roof above her. Angry tears were welling in her pale grey eyes; she brushed them away impatiently with one slender white paw. The young wolf had just watched her best friend walk into the depths of a wildly overgrown rainforest. Tundra was now struggling to accept the fact that the awkward conversation they'd had during the flight from the Phoenix Armada HQ to their current location was probably their last.

She was feeling more alone than she had ever felt in her life.

"She didn't have to do it," Tundra said again. "You know? There are plenty of other places in this galaxy for her to hide. Hell, she would have been perfectly safe hiding out with… I dunno, my Aunt Monica. She's got a place on Corneria with a basement, and I know she was thinking of renting it out–"

"Tundra…" Katt Monroe's voice came from the other end, interrupting her. "You know that wouldn't have been enough. It was way too dangerous for her out in the open – we all decided Zoness was the best option for her."

"But–"

"Tundra." Once again, Tundra fell silent. Katt went on: "It was what she wanted. She knew it was best not only for her safety, but for the safety of the entire galaxy. And I think you know that too."

Tundra racked her brain for something contrary to say. When she came up empty-handed, she instead sighed heavily, running her fingers through her shoulder-length white hair. "Yeah, I guess."

"Look," said Katt, "I know this sucks right now. I mean, she's my best friend too. But look at the big picture, okay? It's all gonna work out for the better."

"You're probably right," said Tundra. "Thanks, K. I'll make my way back there in a few minutes."

"Sounds good to me. We can watch a movie or something."

Tundra couldn't think of anything she wanted to do less than that at the moment. Her mood was such that she just wanted to go home and lay in bed for a few days, maybe weeks. But she reminded herself that Katt, along with the rest of their team, was also dealing with the loss of their most valuable member. So she humored her friend. "Yeah, that'd be great."

"Yeah?" Tundra could hear the smile in Katt's voice. "Cool!"

"Pick one out for me, alright, K? I'll be home in a few." And she hung up.

Tundra knew she should be looking at the big picture just like everyone else. She knew she should have the well-being of the rest of the galaxy in mind. She knew she should be selfless like the rest of them. But at that moment, right after watching her lifelong friend – more like a sister to her than a friend – walk away for the last time in her life, all she could think about was how much she'd miss her.

She took a final stare into the rainforest. "Take care of yourself, O'Neill," she murmured under her breath, allowing a single tear to escape her. "That's all I ask."

ONBOARD THE GREAT FOX – 3 YEARS LATER

It was nearly 2 AM now. There was nothing good on TV; it was an endless parade of noise and light and stupid, frivolous things no one really cared about. But, from where Fox was watching in the darkness, it didn't really look like Falco was watching it anyway. Although his eyes were glued to the screen, there was an emptiness to his gaze. He was looking, but he wasn't seeing anything.

It had been like this for months now – Falco had gone off by himself on one of his solo missions. "I'll be back in a couple of months," he had promised. Just like he always did. Fox and the rest of the Star Fox team had been convinced they'd be one member short for a couple of years once again. They figured he'd wander around for a few years doing God knows what and then come back in some heroic, smoke-and-mirrors gesture like he always did.

But they'd been mistaken. To their immense surprise, Falco had returned a month shy of his promised date. For about an hour or so, it had considerably raised the spirits of the team. For once, Falco had actually come back before they desperately needed his assistance. They had been so used to his long absences and returns on the brink of disaster all these years that it almost seemed to good to be true.

Within two hours of his return, they discovered that that was exactly the case.

Something had happened to Falco when he was away – Fox was convinced of it. When his friend had come back, he'd noticed the shift in his personality almost immediately. He didn't crack jokes. He wasn't impulsive. He didn't show interest in anything at all. Fox and Slippy had even gone out of their ways on several occasions to set him up for a wisecrack at their expenses; he never took the bait.

Fox had passed the point of worry a month or two ago. Falco didn't sleep, he hardly ate, and he spent most of his time sitting on the couch or in his room with the door locked. The few times he did fall asleep, usually passed out on the couch from sheer exhaustion, he'd wake up within an hour, cursing and sweating. His smiles were all forced, he rarely included himself in conversations, he'd started drinking heavily – something had triggered a dramatic alteration in his behavior. Fox wanted to figure out exactly what it was.

"You're at this again, eh?"

Fox hadn't noticed Krystal's presence beside him, and at the sound of her whisper, he started. She put a hand on his shoulder.

"C'mon. Let's go back into the bedroom."

Fox raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, not for that. I want to talk to you."

A little disheartened, Fox trailed her into the room they shared and shut the door behind him. She sat in a chair by the window, gazing out at the distant stars. Their reflection sparkled in her bright, sea-foam blue eyes. As he often was throughout the day, Fox was suddenly taken aback by her beauty.

She turned to him, noticed the expression on his face, and smiled bemusedly. "Are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm…" He cleared his throat loudly. "W-what is it you wanted to talk to me about?"

Her expression of amusement changed immediately to one of distress. After a long pause, during which she was apparently trying to put words to the thoughts in her head, she sighed. "I'm worried about him, Fox."

Fox moved to the bed and sat across from her, meeting her eyes with his own green ones. "We all are, babe."

"I know, but… You know, I've tried so hard to read him. I mean, you know how he is – he's not one to keep things bottled up. If you had asked me before, I could have told you exactly what was making him do the things he did. And now…"

She stood up and paced a few times, then stopped and faced Fox. "If he doesn't sort himself out soon, there's no telling what he might do."

Fox cringed. "I was afraid someone would say that eventually."

"So you thought of it too?"

"Jesus, Krystal, we've all thought of it at one point or another. It's just too awful for anyone to put into words." He blew a long breath out through his nose, rubbing his temples tiredly. "I'd talk to him, but it seems like the one part of his personality that's still intact is the whole closed-book bullshit he pulls."

Krystal sat beside him and took his hand in hers. She kissed his cheek fondly. "We'll figure it out, won't we? Before it gets out of hand?"

He ran his fingers through her hair. "I hope so." He leaned in to kiss her on the lips, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. Irritably, he pulled away. "What?"

"Uh, guys?" Slippy's voice came from the other side of the door. "I hate to wake you or anything, but… I think you should see this."

Within minutes, the residents of the Great Fox in their entirety were standing in the central control room, groggy and in their pajamas – with the exception of Falco, of course. Beside Slippy was his wife Amanda. The pretty pink toad was looking neat and well-groomed in a purple robe, and although it was likely that she had just been woken up like the rest of them, she was alert and cheerful.

Also there was Peppy and his daughter, Lucy. Although Peppy had aged considerably since his run with the original Star Fox team, the old rabbit was still just as skilled a pilot as he ever was. And it looked as though Lucy was following in her dad's footsteps. Tricky, the young dinosaur prince of the EarthWalker tribe looked sleepier than any of the rest of them. At any moment it seemed like he would doze off where he stood. He probably would have, too, if the robot ROB wasn't constantly nudging him in the ribcage with one foot.

"All right," said Slippy. "Everyone's here."

"Yeah, we're all here," said Lucy grumpily. "And we're all wondering why the hell you dragged us out of bed at two in the morning."

"S-s-s-seriously, man," Tricky yawned. "You'd better have a good reason for this."

"Haven't any of you looked out the window?" said Slippy incredulously. "It would be pretty obvious if you had."

Every pair of eyes in the room turned to the large window behind Slippy, and there was an instantaneous explosion of angry shouts.

"It's Wolf and Panther!" Krystal hissed. "What are they doing here?"

Sure enough, the ships of the two Star Wolf members were closing in on the Great fox – and fast.

"Do they have a death wish or something?" growled Fox. "The two of them against all of us? They don't stand a chance."

"That's just it, isn't it?" said Slippy, a little breathlessly. "About ten minutes ago, I got this email."

He held a sheet of paper out to Peppy, who took it immediately. Lowering his glasses, he scanned it for a few seconds, a deep frown of confusion creasing the space between his eyebrows. "This is the strangest thing…"

"What does it say?" said Amanda eagerly. "Read it."

Peppy cleared his throat and began to read, a little hesitant at first. "This is an urgent message for team Star Fox. I can assure you that neither of us means you any harm. To demonstrate this, we will come from our ships unarmed and without any intention of starting an argument – Panther Caroso." Peppy snorted before reading the final line: "P.S. I have with me a bouquet of roses for the lovely Krystal – if you could have a vase prepared, I would be incredibly grateful."

Krystal rolled her eyes. "Persistent little kitty, isn't he?"

"I don't know, Slip," said Fox warily, "there's something I don't like about this. What if it's a trap?"

"If it was a trap," said Slippy, "it would be a pretty poorly planned one. Like you said, they don't stand a chance against all of us. They'd basically be handing themselves to us on a silver platter."

"Yeah, but should we let them through?" Lucy asked skeptically.

"Let them through. They won't try anything – they're not stupid."

The focus of the entire room was shifted to Falco when he spoke. Even his voice sounds hollow, thought Fox with dismay. It's probably been days since he's said anything.

"Uh… okay. Send them a message, Slip."

"Got it."

Slippy's fingers were lightning fast as they clicked away on the keyboard. When the message was sent, he stood from his chair. "Follow me, everyone," he said as he walked from the room. "We've gotta meet these guys at the door. They may not be stupid enough to attack us, but I wouldn't put stealing past them."

When Panther and Wolf stepped aboard the Great Fox, the team's demeanor transformed completely. The air around them was so cold, it was almost enough to make them shiver. Wolf made eye contact with Fox from across the hall and nodded icily.

"McCloud," he said coolly.

"What do you want with us, Wolf?"

"Well, now," said Panther in his low purr, "that's hardly the way to treat a guest."

"We let you come into our ship," said Peppy, uncharacteristically harsh. "We didn't say anything about making you comfortable."

"I see. At any rate, I have here twelve red roses, and if we don't get them into some water soon, I'm certain they will wilt."

Krystal's mouth twitched. After what seemed like an intensely painful moment of contemplation, she snatched the roses away from Panther. When Fox gaped at her, she muttered, "I'd hate to see pretty flowers go to waste, that's all…"

"Can we at least sit down somewhere and discuss the matter?" inquired Panther.

There was a momentary silence, broken by Amanda: "I'm sure that would be alright. This isn't really the place to have a conversation. Well it's not," she snapped, because everyone was gawking at her in disbelief. "Let's go into the living room. I'll get us some beers…"

"Ooh, beer! Excellent"

"Not for you, Tricky."

"Damn it."

When they were all seated comfortably in the living room, Wolf began to speak. "Obviously our reason for being here is important. Important enough that we thought it might be possible to put our differences aside temporarily."

Panther snorted. "We thought? I almost had to drag you here."

"Nonetheless," said Wolf loudly, "once we obtained the information you're about to hear, we knew we would need help. You guys were the only ones skilled enough to be of any assistance at all to the cause."

"Yeah, yeah," said Fox impatiently, drumming his fingers on the coffee table. "Just tell us what it is that you need.

Wolf scrutinized his rival for a moment before beginning. "Panther and I have severed our ties with Leon. He's joined up with Pigma and Oikonny."

Fox blinked. "And…?"

"And they're planning something. Something horrible."

"Of course they are. What is it this time?" Fox sounded almost bored. They had dealt with Andross' nephew, Andrew Oikonny, several times in their career. Every time he had plotted evil against the Lylat system, his attempts had fallen short. Every time the Star Fox team had been called against him, they had been successful in thwarting him. What was one more of his pathetic schemes?

"Do you remember the O'Neills?" inquired Wolf.

The sound of the name was somewhat startling to Fox. "You mean Lex and his family?" Wolf nodded. "Yeah, of course I do. They were a pretty big help to my dad back in the day. Lex is a hell of a pilot."

"Who's Lex?" asked Tricky.

"Alexander O'Neill," explained Fox, "is the head of the Phoenix Armada."

"The Phoenix Armada?" Amanda said, frowning slightly.

"They're an incredible team," said Peppy. "Lex and his wife Natalie formed the Phoenix Armada around the time his youngest son was born. Lex, James and I went to school together. Good guy. Good pilot."

"Last I heard, they had their kids on the team, too," said Fox.

"Yep. They've got four kids, the O'Neills. The oldest was Alyson. Then there were the twins… Meg and Jack. And the youngest... Well, he'd be about your age now, Fox. Damn it, what was the name…?"

"Rocky," said Lucy, a little too quickly. She blushed furiously and muttered, "His name's Rocky."

"Wait a minute," said Slippy slowly, "is this – Are they raccoons?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I've heard of that last one. Rocky O'Neill… He's supposed to be some sort of big shot, isn't he? They say he's crazy fast."

"Yeah," said Fox nostalgically. "Yeah, I remember Rocky. He and I used to hang out when we were kids. Boy, I'd like to see Lex again, though. What's he up to?"

"He's dead," said Wolf harshly.

The words felt like a blow to his chest. For a very long time, he couldn't say anything – just sit there and blink. The warmth in the air had been sucked from the room once again. Everyone was silent.

"I thought you said you'd break the news slowly," said Panther quietly, irritably.

"I was," snapped Wolf, "but we've wasted too much time already."

"But," said Fox, when he regained use of his voice, "how? When?"

"He was murdered," said Panther. "And from the looks of it, it was long, drawn-out, and unpleasant. Stabbed through the stomach and left there to bleed to death."

"Oh, God," said Krystal.

"Who did it?" asked Fox miserably. Wolf smiled a crooked, mirthless smile.

"The only scum in the Lylat system who could make a good man suffer and still lay his ugly head on his pillow and sleep at night."

"Pigma," said Fox immediately. "Son of a bitch."

There was a shattering sound from the corner. At the sound of Pigma's name, there was a change in Falco's solemn demeanor. He had slammed his glass down on the table with such force that it had shattered – but he didn't seem to notice it. He looked panicked, and it seemed for a moment as if he was going to say something, but instead stared at the ground, shaking his head.

"Pigma," said Panther, looking at Falco with a raised eyebrow. "And Leon. So you see now why we severed our ties with the slimy little reptile. We figured it was his handiwork. Not Lex – no, Pigma's ego wouldn't allow Leon to take care of the father. That's his specialty. But the rest of them–"

Peppy looked up. "The rest of them?" he said, face lined with shock and dismay.

"Oh… Uh… we, uh… I guess they were having some kind of a family reunion or something. They killed the whole family, plus Alyson, Meg and Jack's husbands and wife... And there were… two little girls. They're all dead."

Fox shook his head mournfully. "All dead…" he echoed. "They killed them all… I can't believe this."

"That's not the half of it," Wolf continued bitterly. "When we were sent in to… evacuate the house, we found Meg and Alyson in the master bedroom. They were ripped to shreds, but only God knows what else the bastards did to them. Jack we found drowned in the bathtub. The in-laws were shot in the back yard, execution style. And Natalie, she was hanging in the closet."

"The kids were the worst part," Panther went on. "Just little things… We found them face down on the living room floor. They were poisoned."

"Why?" said Peppy in a voice that was barely audible. "What could they possibly want with the O'Neills?"

"Lex O'Neill was a great scientist," said Wolf heavily. "Not many people knew that about him. When he wasn't fighting or flying, he spent his life dedicated to a top secret experiment. It was supposed to be a weapon unlike anything in existence. He called it Project Phoenix."

"Named after the Phoenix Armada?" asked Amanda.

"Actually," said Panther, "it would appear that it was the other way around. Project Phoenix was in its early stages long before Rocky was born, so–"

"Wait a minute!" said a tearful Lucy suddenly. "What happened to Rocky?! You never said!"

"Rocky is still alive," said Wolf. "For now, anyway. But we'll get to that later."

A surge of relief swelled up in Fox's stomach. Panther went on, "As I was saying, Project Phoenix was kept under wraps for years. No one even knew he was working on anything. But then, about three years ago, a rumor began to circulate about its existence. Oikonny was curious about it. He searched high and low. But it seemed like it just vanished into thin air as quickly as it had materialized. It wasn't until last week that the whole secret was blown."

"How?" said Lucy.

"Rocky O'Neill," said Wolf, "was working as a spy. He's amazingly convincing. Even I believed the whole story he sold Oikonny about his resentment of his father and his hatred of anything to do with you, Fox, or anyone who has anything to do with you. Oikonny took a liking to him. Pretty soon, Rocky was in on all of Oikonny's master plans. He was doing good work. But he got careless."

Wolf paused, took a swig of beer, stretched his long legs out, and continued, "He got way too comfortable being around Oikonny. He could have left anytime, but he figured he could get more information out of him. Then, one day, we were all sitting around, drinking margaritas, when Oikonny storms in. Someone – we don't know who, and trust me, we've tried to figure it out – had been spying on the O'Neills. They went to Oikonny and ratted Rocky out. And they seemed to have a lot of information about Project Phoenix."

"They told Oikonny everything," murmured Slippy. "Everything about Lex's research."

"Oikonny went ballistic," said Panther. "I've never seen anyone so angry in my life."

"It was then and there that he ordered the O'Neills to be killed and their house ransacked. He wanted all and any information on Project Phoenix," said Wolf. "Rocky he locked up. He's been torturing him ever since – the first act was showing him the video they'd taken of his family's murder."

"Oh, God," Lucy sobbed. "Oh, no…"

"Anyway, we were sent in to collect information about Project Phoenix,' said Panther. "Now, you can imagine by that time, we'd already made up our minds to leave. It was just… it was sick, you know? So we told Oikonny we didn't find anything, that he must have had some kind of secret lab somewhere. And we took off."

"But you did find something, didn't you?" said Tricky excitedly.

Panther nodded. "This," he said, fishing around in his pocket, "is a map of the planet Zoness." He showed them all a piece of paper, old and yellowing. "We found it a frame behind their family portrait. Now, right here…" He pointed to a tiny island. "…See he's got an arrow pointing to that little island there. And the label is written in some kind of code."

"It was a pain in the ass to decode it, too," said Wolf. "But we finally figured it out."

"And?" said Krystal. "What does it say?"

Wolf's eyes glinted. "Phoenix," he said. "It says 'Phoenix.'"

"Then that's it!" said Fox, jumping out of his seat. "We've gotta go find Project Phoenix and take it before Oikonny can get his dirty paws on it!"

"That's the idea, yeah," said Panther dryly, but there was a slight smile sparkling in his eyes.

"I say we get going," Fox said. "Slippy, it's time for a little change of course."

"My thoughts exactly," said Slippy, standing. "I hope you all like swimming, 'cause it looks like we're headed for Zoness."

"Why hasn't he said anything?"

Somehow, an hour or so later, Fox had found himself sitting alone in a room with Panther. For the most part, they had just been staring shrewdly at one another. But, every once in awhile, one of them would speak.

"Why hasn't who said anything?" Fox asked.

"The bird." Panther nodded to where Falco was sitting, behind a sliding glass door in another room. "As I remember, he used to have quite the beak on him."

Fox sighed. "We don't really know," he admitted. "He left a few months back, and when he came back, he – Hey, wait a minute, why am I telling you this?"

Panther shrugged. "Because I asked."

"Yeah, well," Fox grumbled, "what do you care, anyway?"

"I was just wondering," Panther growled back. "No need to get defensive."

"Fine."

"Yeah, it is."

"You know," Fox snapped, "just because we're helping you out doesn't make us cool, alright?"

"Unless I'm mistaken, fox boy, it was we who were helping you."

"And that makes you a saint all of a sudden?"

"Hey, I don't need this from you!" Panther, at his full height, fur bristling, was quite the spectacle. He clenched his fists and bared sharp white teeth as he snarled, "We're not asking for charity. We're not even asking for hospitality. All we want is a way to make things okay again. I mean, I know it can never be okay, but as long as we do something to prevent that son of a bitch from slaughtering anyone else, maybe it'll do some good. Until then, you don't have to like me, you don't have to talk to me – hell, you don't even have to look at me. But just don't get in the way, alright? And don't try to tell me I've got some kind of ulterior motive in mind!"

Fox stared. "Alright, alright," he said slowly. "Calm down. Just… sit down."

Panther did so, still trembling a little, but otherwise calm. "I'm never going to get the image of those little girls out of my head," he said, more to himself than anyone else. "But I can at least make sure nobody else ends up in the same state."

He looked so dejected sitting there; Fox felt a stab of guilt. "Look," he said. "I don't know if I'm ever gonna like either of you. I mean, we've been enemies for so long. But I… well, I guess I respect you, that's all."

Panther looked up.

"It took a lot of guts to do what you guys did," Fox went on. "I guess I underestimated you. And… well… I…" He struggled to find words.

"Let's just call it a truce," said Panther quickly, and then hastily added, "For now, anyway."

"That sounds like a plan to me."

There was an awkward pause between the two, which was thankfully broken when the door was pushed open. Amanda stood in the doorway.

"Hey, guys," she said. "Suit up. We'll be landing in less than five minutes. Oh, and it's supposed to be hot, so don't dress too heavily!" And she turned and walked away.

"Well," Fox said, glad for an excuse to leave the room, "I guess we'd better do what she says."

"Yeah," Panther agreed, standing. "Yeah, we should… What did you say her name was again?"

"I didn't. But it's Amanda."

"Have I met her? No, I couldn't possibly have. I would remember a face like that."

"She's married, Panther."

"A minor setback."

"Jesus… would you just keep it in your pants, just for this trip? Just – don't try to sleep with any of the girls, alright? Especially Krystal."

"Oh, all right. I can try that."

"Thank you."

"I can't make any promises, though…"