I figured some people wanted an update on this fic. So here you are!


Shattered stood at the edge of the ramp of his ship. Fortuna looked like it hadn't changed a bit. He went over the plan once more in his head before Rob announced that they were at there destination. Shattered touched his pack before jumping out of his ship, then pulled down the visor on his helmet. The blasts and bullets seemed to create a weird backwards rain as Shattered feel towards the base. "Shields at eighty-five percent and falling."

"Roger that. I need a few more seconds Rob." Shattered pulled his shoot and used a barrier, by now the base knew he was here, and he only had ten minutes before things went to shit. As he hit ground he set charges on the cement and ducked behind some pillars for cover. Once the dust from the explosion settled Shattered jumped into the newly made whole. He pulled out his blaster, taking down the first two guards without much trouble. "I'm in Rob, get clear. I'll contact you for evac when I'm done here."

"Shield stabilizing at forty percent. All systems except for live support have been turned off to conserve power. Ship will be five minute from orbit to avoid hailing parties. Rob out." With that Shattered checked his watch.

"Seven minutes... shit." He was a bit behind, but he knew he could make up for it. The stairs were about ten doors down, and he'd likely meet resistance in the stair well. Shattered moved swiftly towards the hostage's location. As he reached the door he heard, what sounded like, a group of soldiers running towards him. He growled and ran down the steps. "Those guys weren't supposed to be here yet." After a few minutes the alarm began to blare. "Wonderful." Shattered was really behind now, he had to haul ass to make it to the hostage before Beast decided to kill her.

"Attention, Attention. Base under attack, Base under attack."

Shattered cursed his luck and checked his map, he was almost to the hostage. He turned around when he heard the sound of guns cocking. There had to be at least ten guards pointing either blasters or automatic weapons at him. "Drop your weapon and come quietly."

"You're no threat." Shattered grinned, he used another barrier and turned around, blasting every single one of them until he had to reload. He looked at his handy work and sighed, he ran to the end of the hall and opened the door.

"Not now sir, I'm interrogating." A male weasel laughed back handing Kursed. "Can't you see this bitch likes this kind of treatment. Once Beast gives us the okay, she'll be begging for me." Shattered controlled his temper, he hated when women were treated poorly. "You want a crack at her?" Shattered finally looked at Kursed, she hand her head hung, and was looking away from the weasel. "Wait a second, I haven't seen you before."

"I know." Shattered replied before pulling out his knife and plunging it into the weasel's neck. He covered his mouth to silence him as he helped him fall to the floor. "People like you sicken me." He pulled out his knife and used the weasel's uniform to wipe off the blood. He moved to Kursed and began to undo her bindings. "You don't know who I am, but all you need to know is that Jay sent me. I'm getting you out of here."

"Jay sent you?" Kursed replied. "How do I know that?"

"You think I willingly come to the rescue of a damsel in distress?" Shattered replied. "Those days are over. Jay sent me here because you were in trouble." Once Shattered finished he handed her a weapon.

"This is Cornerian." Kursed said as she inspected the shotgun. "Who did you kill to get it?"

"I borrowed it from a friend before he passed on." Shattered replied. "Shattered."

"Kursed, and if you don't mind me asking-"

"I do."Shattered growled. "My job is to save you, kill Beast, get out, get paid then..." He sighed. "It doesn't matter, can you handle yourself?"

Kursed pumped the gun. "Definitely."

Shattered nodded and opened the door, carefully checking both ways before motioning for Kursed to follow. "We'll have to get to the surface in under five minutes."

"My ship is closer. I cloaked it here before I was captured, should be in the old hanger." Kursed took the lead before Shattered stopped her. "What Shattered?"

"We have to take out Beast first." Kursed sighed. "Look if you don't want to help that's fine, but if you get yourself killed then I lose my job, and how do you think they make a bounty hunter disappear?"

"The same way they get rid of criminals. Except for Star Wolf, they get a hero's welcome." Kursed growled.

"Heh, Star Wolf helped ruin my life." Shattered checked his map and lead Kursed towards Beast. "Thanks."

"Why?"

"For not asking how." For a few minutes they ran, stopping to hide as patrols came around. "You know for a base that's on high alert, we aren't meeting much resistance."

"Beast was never dumb enough to hire a bunch of thugs to do his work. Most of his guard is surrounding him right now. We'll have to be careful, we could be walking into a trap." As soon as she finished the hallway they were in sealed itself. "Me and my big mouth."

"Do you see a vent anywhere?" Shattered asked looking around. "They're gonna flood this place with a nerve gas, we need to get out."

"There!" Kursed pointed to the ceiling. "Boost me up." She place a foot in Shattered's folded hands and pushed open the vent, climbing inside and disappearing for a few seconds before she reached for Fox's hand. "Come on, jump!"

Shattered looked around as the gas began to flow. He tried a few times, missing by inches. "Look Kursed, the gas is already starting to affect me. Finish the mission Kursed, it doesn't matter what happens to me. Take my scouter, it'll tell you how to get to Beast with the least possible resistance."

"Shattered..." Kursed whispered, catching the scouter. She placed the scouter on her face and began to follow the path that was prompted.

Shattered began to cough, his mind fought against the gas, but he knew it was a losing battle. "I guess I got to save one last girl before I died."


Kursed moved as quick as she could in the vent, trying to make the least amount of noise as she could. She stopped to rest for a minute, checking the scouter once more. She heard the voices of the guards who had captured Shattered, and she could hear them dragging him towards her previous captor. "I have a feeling that Jay wouldn't be happy if I returned alone. But..." She was closer to her ship than to Shattered, if she wanted to she could explain what happened to Shattered then flee the system. Jay wouldn't like losing his best hunter, but she knew how to disappear. It wouldn't be the first time. "Sorry." She whispered before continuing towards her ship, knowing this would be her only shot at a peaceful departure.


"I have got to stop getting myself into these situations." Shattered grumbled, the room was familiar. It was the same one that he broke Kursed out of not twenty minutes ago.

"About time you woke up. You've been out for hours."

"Conversations work better when you can see each other." Shattered growled. His wish was granted as the lights came on. As his eye adjusted to the new light source Shattered looked up at his captor. "Beast."

"You're the second bounty hunter that has failed at taking my life today." Beast hissed. "So I'll give you the same options I gave her. Surrender, or die slowly." Shattered chuckled. "She thought the same as you, but who's going to come and save your ass? I know who sent you, he always sends people to get his favorite bounty hunter out of trouble. But you? You're a nobody, if anything I'll get bloodshed from you." Beast made his point by punching Shattered hard in the nose, a trickle of blood began to flow from his new wound.

"That tickled." Shattered replied with a twisted smile. "Is that you're best shot?" Beast punched him again, causing more laughter from Shattered. "If this is really all you can do, then you best come back in a year once I'm delirious. Maybe then it'll knock some sense into me."

"You've made a hilarious mistake vulpine. Enjoy your five star suite, I'll get all the things you'll ever need in here as soon as possible." Beast laughed.

"I'm not into S and M." Shattered let his head hang. "Besides, live hasn't been very fair to me, this would be a fitting end." Beast left the room, after inviting two of his men in.

"These two will give you some massage therapy. We wouldn't a guest of ours to get anything but the best." Shattered looked at the two thugs before snickering.

"Massage therapy, nice." Shattered grunted as the thug took his first punch. "Well at least you don't hit like a pussycat." As the second thug was about to take his first hit an explosion rocked the base, the two looked at each other, then at Shattered. "What? I was here."

"Attention, Attention, Every available guard to Beast at once."

"Sounds like he's got you guys whipped. Try not to keep him waiting." Before the thugs could leave they both fell over dead. Shattered looked up to see Kursed smiling at him, shotgun perched over her shoulder. "I told you to finish the mission."

"What do you think that blast was?" Kursed quickly released him. "I don't have a gun for you."

"That's fine, I'll beat the hell out of someone and borrow theirs." Shattered looked at Kursed, a machine gun in her free hand.

"I don't have a gun for you, but these guys told me they really wanted you to have this." Kursed tossed the gun to the vulpine. "Come on Shattered. This place is going to blow up in about ten minutes. You said you had a ship right?"

"Yeah, it'll take about five to get here." Shattered went to tap his scouter, but felt nothing. "Uh, can I have that back?" Kursed handed the scouter back to Shattered, noticing a symbol she hadn't seen in a while."

"Your friend that you borrowed your stuff from. He was on Star Fox wasn't he?" Kursed felt the tension in the air rise. "Shattered?"

"Yes. He was a good friend, but he wouldn't survive in this day and age." Shattered looked away from Kursed. "Rob, we need a pick up at the hangar."

"Affirmative, I shall contact you upon arrival. Rob out."

"Rob?" Kursed whispered. "Shattered, how do you know Rob?"

"How do you know Rob, Kursed?" Shattered snapped back.

"F-from rumors I heard about Star Fox. I didn't think I would meet someone close to that team." Kursed stuttered, something she rarely did anymore. "I can tell its a touchy subject, I'm sorry I asked. Now, lets get to the hangar before Beast gets to us." Shattered nodded at her, letting her lead the way to the hangar. "You never did answer my question."

"I used to work with Star Fox before they disbanded. They gave me Rob, figuring I would need him more." Shattered sighed, Kursed was silent. "Did you kill the alarm?" Kursed didn't respond. Shattered felt guilt for snapping at her, it was apart of him he couldn't get rid of. "Look, I'm sorry for yelling at you. Emotions are something I find hard to control."

"I'm not going to tell anyone. I was just curious, I kinda had a crush on Fox McCloud, how is he anyway?"

Shattered sighed. "He's the friend." He swore he saw Kursed nearly lose her footing. "Sorry to tell you that."

"Damn it." Kursed punched the nearest wall. "I never should have left." Shattered offered her help but she shrugged it off. Thanks to her distraction they made it to the hanger with little problems. Kursed secured the area while Shattered called Rob."

"Rob we're in the hanger, what's your ETA?"

"One minute and five seconds." Rob replied.

"Shattered we have company!" Kursed yelled as she began blind firing down the hallway. "Looks like Beast is making one final assault."

"Does he know about the bomb?" Shattered shouted. "Rob, we'll need a danger close retrieval. How's shields?"

"Shields have recharged to sixty percent. Life support still at one hundred percent. All other systems off-line. Rob out."

"Thirty seconds!" Shattered ran over to Kursed, firing at the guards as he went. "I sure hope he can fly like he used to."

"My dear little bounty hunters." Beast called. "Give up your fight and I'll make sure you get double what he's paying you."

"Doesn't sound like much of an offer." Kursed yelled. "Besides, dead men tell no lies." Shattered looked over at Kursed with a grin. "We'll have to turn that down."

"So be it." Beast laughed. "Enjoy your last few seconds alive." Beast tossed countless grenades towards the two bounty hunters. Most missed horribly, but a few came close.

"Come on... where are you Rob?" Shattered yelled tossing back a grenade that landed close to him. He watched as a few landed close to Kursed, but she didn't seem to notice them. "Kursed move!" She couldn't hear him over the gunfire, without thinking he ran over to her and move her out of the main blast radius. The shrapnel from the grenade hit both of them, Shattered blocked most of the blast from Kursed, feeling small pieces of metal embed in his skin. "Fuck me that hurt!"

"Shattered..." Kursed hadn't been saved by someone in a while, never really needed the help. She felt a tear in her eye, her former love had been the only other person to save her. She heard Shattered's ship land and pulled the vulpine to his feet. "Come on, we're getting out of here." As soon as she had them on board Rob took off. "Rob, get us out of here."

"Affirmative, it is good to see you again." Rob replied as he guided the ship away from the gunfire.

"Again?" Shattered asked before passing out.

"Rob, I'll fly, you take Shattered back to either his room or the medical room."

"Right away Miss Krystal." Rob replied. "Do not be alarmed, my sensors indicated that you arrived on board the same time Shattered did."

"Don't call me that Rob. At least not while he's awake." Kursed looked down on at Shattered. "He said you were a gift from Star Fox, is that true."

"Yes, I was given to Shattered after Fox decided Star Fox was to be disbanded, he left soon after. Shattered is my new owner now. I shall not reveal to him who you are Miss Krystal, data banks will record your name as Kursed."

"Thanks Rob." Kursed sat down in the pilots seat, looking out into space. "Wherever you are Fox. I'm sorry things worked out this way." All she could do now was wait, either for another job, or for Shattered to recover. Either way, she was stuck in the hospitality of a man she hardly knew.


With that out of the way, when will Jay contact them? Is Beast dead?

H-T