Author's Note: Well, drat. I went and became one of those people who lets a thing lie far too long. So many apologies. Life, job stuff, you name it has been in the way but somehow this chapter just was insanely hard to write anyways. I'll be trying to update more regularly. Reviews appreciated (especially if you have suggestions/thoughts on how it compares to the original version/ whether the story is more interesting for the other characters now!) I do think this is probably the weakest chapter of the three I've written so far, but I have no idea how to fix it.

Outside Corneria City - Lylat University Research Lab - 18 Years BLW

LEDs and various displays blinked around the lab, each indicating the status or results of some measurement upon it's assigned experiment. The soft hum of fans could be heard, as workers in gloves and covered boots and masks entered and exited the sterile room. At 5pm, they each drifted out again as they wrapped up their work for the door, and headed out into the courtyard to catch the shuttle back to the city. Save for two.

The lead biologist was working late, hunched over a microscope observing the effects of the latest nano-bot design upon living tissue. Petri dish samples, of course. It was designed to repair cellular damage, or destroy cells too damaged to repair. The implications were fantastic. The results so far were disasterous. Avery Andross scowled in disappointment as he shoved his chair back and stretched his back. "No good, no good at all" He muttered to himself scribbling down more quantified observations of the failures in experiment 37b.

Upstairs, unknown to the primate, the lead AI expert who he had called into consult was currently copying files of all his future experiments. Locked beneath four layers of encryption, what should have been completely secure was anything but. Then again, Beltino Toad had designed the encryption systems they were using, that he could also get past them would in hindsight be far from surprising. Some of the requests Andross had made of him, how he wanted various pieces of software for his nanobots written, made the amphibian quite uneasy. It might be terribly useful, but some of it had some terrifying potential if used for the wrong purposes. Beltino wasn't so sure he wanted to open that particular Pandora's Box without knowing why he was doing so.

Files in hand, and a second copy stashed in the hidden compartment in the bottom of his insulated travel coffee mug, he headed down towards the lab floor and waited at the door for Andross to exit the airlocks. "We need to talk."

A warm smile was given in return, disarming in how friendly it was. "I had thought you would have left for the day by now. What do you need Beltino? I had tried to give you much better specifications this time, but we can work on them again if there are still some questions." Gray was just beginning to creep into the primate's hair and beard, as he approached fourty. It gave him a look somewhere between distinguished researcher, and somewhat father-like. Most of his staff found him rather agreeable , although Beltino had the feeling it was best to keep his distance from the other man.

"No, the specifications are fine at least in terms of clarity. I have some reservations about them though. Giving artificial intelligence the ability to alter it's own programming is...dangerous to say the least. It would take me some time to put the proper safeguards in place, but to be fully honest with you, I don't see any reason that your current plans need such a capability. Unless, you have other plans I'm unaware of?"

Instead of an angry scowl or a denial that such plans existed, Andross kept the same warm smile on his face. "Ah. I should have imagined you would start asking those questions. It's easier explained from my side of the fence, so to speak. Biology is not all so neat and tidy as the textbooks would like you to believe. I realize it's not your field, so I'll expound a bit. The reason I wanted the ability to adapt was that once we have our preliminary designs right, there's a list of other applications dealing with rapidly changing and varied problems I'd like to look at. Think viruses for example where the mutations are quite wide for the same disease in some cases. Imagine the ability to wipe out something like, the common cold, in an entire population."

"I see. That still doesn't explain why you might want it to be able to rewrite its behaviors. That's pretty well beyond the scope of even that. Nevermind that we're at least ten years away from this being in real production if everything goes well for the first goals." Beltino frowned a little as he spoke. The two scientists never argued, this was about as heated as their discussions got, but he was more than willing to change that fact.

"Behavior yes, but not the core directives. Those shouldn't be alterable other than by us. As long as it's behaving in accordance with the goals we give it, it shouldn't be all that problematic should it?"

"Assuming the goals we give it are always going to be good ones. I'm not so sure I necessarily think.."

Andross waved a hand and interrupted him. "Then make it alterable only by yourself and I, if it makes you feel any better about it. At least for now, and we can delegate that to only people in the future who you approve of. It would be a shame to hold this back when it's so needed." Beltino folded his arms over his lab coat, as if mulling it over as the primate continued. "Look, go home, think it over, I can give you more examples in the morning if you wish of instances where this would be remarkably useful. I think you'll come around to the idea that the benefits of this vastly outweigh the risks. We're talking changing the lives of everyone in the entire Lylat system for the better Beltino. Think about that for a minute. No, don't answer me right now, go home and think about it."

Corneria City - StarFox Team Hangar - 18 Years BLW

"James, are you sure?" Disbelief tinged the voice of the hare as his team leader informed him they were taking a break from flying maybe for good.

"I have to, Peppy. I have a family. Vixy didn't like how often I was gone anyways, and now there's going to be a kid any day now. What the hell do I know about being a dad? Absolutely nothing! I definitely wouldn't learn it either if I'm never there!" Anxiousness at the decision left James pacing the floor of the hangar they were in. It was everything to fly, and here he was giving it up for something that was more important. The vulpine didn't question his priorities, but he did question whether it would work out. He didn't know anything but flying. He balled his fists and was geared up for the next round of arguments when Peppy relented.

"Which is a good reason if I ever heard one. I just never thought I'd see it. I do understand James, you know I have my own family. I just never thought I'd see the day where you thought the risks were heavier than I did."

"Oh now this is bullshit." Pigma interjected. "You're both out of your heads." James started to open his mouth and Pigma didn't give him the moment to interrupt. "Don't even start with me. You call me up when you've come to your senses. If you haven't noticed, this leaves me in a hell of a position."

James sighed. "It really doesn't. I'll give you a recommendation to any team you want. You know that will get you a spot just about anywhere piloting."

"You better." Pigma folded his arms, still unhappy. Mostly because he knew a more strict team would eat into his side jobs, and StarFox frankly earned more than a lot of the other teams.

"That said James, lets not sell everything quite yet. Jobs aren't all that easy to come by for pilots who don't fly. Give it a couple weeks and make sure that it pans out, then we sell the ships and split everything out that was team owned?" Peppy had his doubts about this, but mostly because he knew other pilots who had tried the same. Few of them managed to keep their feet on the ground, and none of them were James McCloud.

Corneria City - Home of Vixy and James McCloud - 18 Years BLW - Several weeks later

"He's perfect. He's got your eyes." James leaned over the crib, his son's tiny hand gripping onto a finger while his other arm wrapped around his wife. The redder furred vixen swatted him lightly and laughed as she hugged him back.

"And your fur coloring. Quite the handsome little fellow. We'll see whether you still say that when it's your turn to feed him at 4 in the morning. You might think he's a little less than perfect then." Vixy teased.

James gave her a sideways look. "It's not like I won't be up anyways given I'm on second shift till further notice" He loathed the only job he'd managed to find. Even then he'd had to practically beg for it, which had grated on the todd's pride more than a little. Working at the space docks was at least steady work, but it was mind numbing.

His wife frowned, mostly because she knew he was unhappy with it, but there was little she could do about it. Her job as a nurse in the city hospital didn't give her any connections or sway to try and help him get something better. "James." She sighed. "When I go back to work we're going to have to figure out who can watch him when we both have the same shift."

"I don't know Vix, there's not exactly room in the budget to pay anyone for it. Even when we get the ships sold most of that will go to the debt on them." It worried him, although he didn't say more as he continued to play with his son who was happily unaware of his parent's troubles.

"My mother does keep asking to move in with us…"

"Vix…." James sighed. He really didn't want his mother in law moving in. Then he really would go off the deep end, as if staring up at the sky every night watching others come and go as they flew it wasn't bad enough. He was trying to convince himself that it wasn't something he needed, something that wasn't slowly driving him in circles to be grounded all the time. "C'mon. You really wouldn't want her to be here all the time would you? I know you two get along and all but, indefinitely?"

Vixy leaned against the dresser in the room and watched her mate. "No, I wouldn't. I'd suggest moving to somewhere cheaper, but then that just means a longer rail ride for both of us. And worse schools when he gets older."

"The commute I'd take, the schools I won't." The tone implied there was no argument on the latter. James furrowed his eyebrow in frustration, he'd been trying to make the numbers work for weeks. It always came up the same, or close enough it didn't make a difference. He felt his wife leaning against him and her muzzle against his cheek. "We'll make it work, somehow."

The fox cub beneath them giggled and reached up for his mother. She lifted the small boy they'd named Thaddeus, although most of his relatives called him "Todd", which James had turned into simply "Fox" much to her chagrin and his father's amusement. She hated him being gone, but she also hated the way he dragged in from his shifts. She'd wanted him to stop being so reckless and worry about the future a little more, but not like this. "Maybe you should go back to doing what you're best at. I know I said I wanted you to be more careful but..I didn't ask you to quit James."

"I know you didn't. I know you hate when I'm gone for so long sometimes too. I just…I can't seem to make this work Vixy. And I should be able to."

"And I hate seeing you this frustrated. Life's not perfect, I'll deal. Just, promise me you'll be more careful. I am not doing the single mom thing." She nuzzled against his cheek again. "I was thinking maybe one day he'd have a little brother or sister, maybe a couple of them. You know, a few to drive you crazy and make your fur go gray. I think you'd look good in gray, personally."

"I promise. I'll call Peppy in the morning. Thank you. I know it's not what you want. It's not what I want either. Well, not entirely." James laughed and turned to kiss his wife, only to flinch when his son grabbed at the fur on his ear before he grinned again. "Yow! Hey grabby paws, I was having a moment with your mom here buddy. One day you're going to understand the whole "girl" thing."

Vixy just rolled her eyes.

Iliona, Ervi System - Village of Abandale - 17 Years BLW

Even the children of the village noticed that the past several months had been unusual. The weather had turned colder earlier than anyone could remember and crops were failing, although most of the younger members of the village didn't understand fully what that meant for the coming months. Amathla had been asked many times whether things were going to get better. For now, she had said she did not know the spirits would not speak to her. In truth, they had but the answer they gave her made no sense to her. Light followed by cold and darkness beyond anything she'd ever known. As ill as it boded, the seeress knew better than to give answers before she herself understood them. Sometimes omens were far from what they appeared on the surface. It was only a few more days until the Hunter's Moon and the annual gathering of the villages, which meant only a few more days until there would be at least two others gifted with sight who might could assist her in deciphering what sparse answers she had been given.

Until that time though, Amathla pretended on as if she knew no better and went about her other mundane duties. The white furred wolf took another item of clothing off of the drying line, and paused putting a hand to her large middle as a pain went through her for a moment and then was gone again. Her second child was not due still for another moon, if not a little more. "Ember, come get this basket for me." Her voice carried over the yard to the child on the other end of it, a gray furred cub with white markings and violet eyes. Ember Ó Dulchaoinaill looked up from the carved wooden toys he'd been playing with and scowled, ears going out flat to the sides of his head, although he stood up and trudged over across the yard and picked up the basket full of clothing. "You can go back to playing once it's inside Ember." The wind picked up as the wolfess watched her rather temperamental son go inside and she glanced towards the sky, her brows furrowing.

The next few days seemed an eternity, Amaltha torn between whether she wanted to know what her visions meant, and the pressing need to understand and keep her village safe By the time the appointed day arrived, anyone could tell she was on edge. She and Piarelyn jad even wound up yelling at each other in perhaps the second argument they'd ever had. Now she walked beside him in uneasy and anxious silence. The moon of Ervi hung low in the sky, lighting easily the paths between the torches and homes. Her husband pushed open the door to the his father's cabin, the warmth of the fire inside doing nothing to change the solemn look on her face. Inside, the old gray wolf who was her father in law and their leader waited, four other elders who were all about his own age with varying degrees of scars and grizzled fur sat in chairs nearby him. A wan smile crossed her face when she saw the only two females in the room besides her self. One could easily imagine the three were sisters, identical coloring on each of them, despite the fact they shared no ancestry as far back as anyone could remember and their ages spanned a quarter century difference between them..

Her father in law's voice seemed too loud in the quiet cabin when he spoke. "Amaltha, Piarelyn." He motioned them in and his son to one of the empty seats, as the other two female wolves got up and headed to a separate room. Amaltha tilted her head, slight confusion clear on her expression, and glanced back at the village leader. "I know it is not traditional to have the seeresses confer on the upcoming year until dawn, but given what Elder Tassarion and Elder Friast tell me, go on."

"Yes Elder Dulchaoinaill" Amaltha bowed her head once and stepped into the other room, which obviously normally served as a dining room although it had been hastily cleared out. Cushions in various colors of cream and brown had placed upon the floor for them. The younger of her two peers embraced her gently, but without warning. Amaltha blinked and reached a hand up to stroke the back of the young girl's head. "Halueve? What.."

Ingrid shook her head. "You already know, I think. She and I...get nothing but the same vision. I cannot imagine you don't see the same."

"I do, but I do not understand it."

Ingrid let a harsh "ha" fall from her lips as she shook her head again. "Nor did I. But Haleuve and I together made...some sense of it. I think...the three of us should try together."

Haleuve let out a small frightened whimper, which took Amaltha aback. She'd never seen the other wolf afraid of anything they'd found in visions. "I think, that's the only option we had anyways. It'll be alright Haleuve..."

The smell of ritual incense and faint chanting of the seresses drifted into the main room. The five elders shared their news, which crops had failed, that the northern rivers had iced over early this year, the herds of yakil that the southern tribes hunted were dwindling. Each dismayed to find that hard times seemed to be in front of all of them. Plans were proposed, argued about, and others raised in their place. Merge the tribes into two not five, send scouts to the far south valley to see if the yakil had migrated there, send scouts east to the Great River. Bickering about which plan was best had ensued and they were no closer to having any sort of agreement than when they had started. Consensus never would be reached as the debate was interrupted by the bang of the door to the other room swinging open. All of the heads and ears in the room instantly swerved to look at Ingrid who stood in the doorframe, leaning on it heavily.

"This world is dying."

Shocked silence fell upon the room before Ingrid spoke again. "The darkness and cold is what happens when the fire of our sun goes out."