Forgive me for the wait. I should just end this note to just get to the story, no more waitin-

Death Count: 4

Dislaimer: I misspelled Disclaimer as a hat tip to an old joke I did with it... Not that it matters...


The vulpine lolled his head back in his chair, he wanted to get over some more painful moments before going on with the mission. That way nothing else would be on his conscious when the need for battle arrived. He needed to alert Peppy's daughter of his untimely death, he already knew what to expect seeing as he had to do the same for Slippy with Beltino, but something disturbed him about this. Beltino is as good as dead, but from what Wolf said, it would be a peaceful death. Peppy however suffered a warrior's end, fighting for his team as well as sacrificing himself for the life of a teammate. Slippy was able to cope with his father's death, knowing it would be a painless death. Fox could already expect the sorrow that would befall Lucy from the news, he already knew what it's like to lose a father on the battlefield.

"ROB, have you managed to patch through to Lucy yet?" Fox stared off to the side to the machine. After a few moments the young Hare's image appeared on-screen.

"Hello Fox, why are you calling me, aren't you supposed to be fighting against the Aparoids?"

"Well, at the moment we're more of preparing to end this invasion." The vulpine felt his heart sink low as he felt the words approaching. The horrible news of Peppy's end would soon surface. "But the reason I called for you is... To let you know that your father..."

In an instant, the young Hare began realizing what the sentence would end with. "Papa's..." Her voice trailed off, if she would try to speak now the words would only get choked out by her tears.

"He gave up his life to save Slippy, we're all... Mortified, but I assure you, I won't let allow the Aparoids to go unpunished." Fox declared more to himself than to explain to Lucy. His following speech being more of a self-motivational speech. "I promise you, this invasion will end, and I won't allow any others to die."

After having his small moment, the vulpine couldn't help but notice that Lucy kept only a sadden look, by now he expected a flood of tears. Perhaps she was tougher than he had thought. "Lucy, will you be alright?" Fox needed to make sure that the rabbit would be fine in order to ease his conscious. On the screen, the image of Lucy gave a shaky nod of affirmation.

"I always knew that with each battle, papa might not come back... I always prepared myself each time he left to fight." With that said, the young Hare decided to cut the transmission and left the vulpine alone. 'That wasn't bad at all...'


Since their arrival at Cornerian Defence Force base, the Amphibian cloistered himself in his father's lab. Others shared that the young Toad would only leave for either research materails or snacks. Slippy dedicated more than enough of his time into his father's research, wishing to ensure that he could finish what Beltino started and be rid of the pests forever. Fellow scientists admired the effort he was putting in, yet few others saw it more as a negative on his health.

Amongst those few was Wolf. The lupine, while waiting on his Wolfen's repair, took it as his duty to guard Slippy in case of another attack to set back their invasion of the Aparoid Home World. The Star Wolf leader sat himself against the wall opposite to the lab, although he found it to be incredibly boring, he knew that someone needed to stay on ground. With his ship being put under repair, Wolf was the candidate for bodyguard leaving Falco with air patrol.

To help make the waiting game bearable, the lupine counted every time the Amphibian left the room. Though eventually they became so few in numbers that he switched it to counting how many people passed by. Even adding on to the game by counting the footsteps as well. Needless to say, Wolf wanted something to do other than play security guard.

The lupine rose from his seated position, his limbs felt stiff from being in the seated position for too long. After rolling his shoulders and popping a few vertebrae, Wolf decided to head into the lab to see Slippy's progress for himself.

Upon entering the room, the sound of furious typing caught the mercenary off guard. It sounded almost as if there was no pause during the whole symphony of clicking. After focusing on the lab and putting the typing aside, the lupine noticed that many pieces of paper lie scattered across the floor. The whole lab appeared as a mess, the unorganized fashion put worry into the mercenary.

"Slippy, I think you should take a break." Wolf spoke out his mind, after seeing the conditions that the Amphibian put himself in, he couldn't bear to see it go on any longer, at least not continuously.

"I'll take a break after I finish with this program." The young Toad replied, never-ceasing in his work as he replied. Wolf crossed his arms as he realized that Slippy would be hell-bent on finishing his work.

"Fine, but mind telling me what it is that you're actually doing?" The lupine asked, frankly, he did not want to his quiet and boring post as a guard. At least with a small conversation he could understand some things and pass the time.

"Creating a Self-Destruct Program, after looking through pop's notes, Aparoid cells seem to have the capability to combust at will." Upon mention of the self-destructs, Wolf thought back to the source of all the comas. Each one was much like a Kamikaze, given that explanation and connection, the program seemed like a plausible solution.

"So we use it to make all those pests explode?" At this point, Wolf asked questions only to prolong his boredom rather than curiosity and understanding. The typing finally ceased, which startled the lupine at first. The amphibian turned in the chair to face his bodyguard.

"Yes and no, it'll be too tedious to use it on the Aparoids one at a time, which is the purpose for the assault on the Home World." Slippy's eyes seemed to droop a bit, possibly from exhaustion. "Shoving the program in the Queen will have all her creations follow in her wake, thus ending the invasion and their existence."

"Huh, that simple... Let's hope she welcomes us with her door unlocked." The Star Wolf leader joked, hoping it would lighten the amphibian's mood. A small chuckle did escape Slippy's mouth, which relieved the lupine, but it sounded a bit forced.


Much later on Corneria, the remaining members of Starfox began to gather their supplies to prep for the assault. Though only Bill and Fox left the Great Fox while Krystal supervised the ships being upgraded.

The canine walked along his friend, each surveying the weapons spread out before them in neat rows.

"I get why our ships need to be in top conditions, but are we really going to need this many blasters?" Bill asked as he watched Fox fiddle around with some the stronger rifles. The vulpine looked over for a moment, casting a knowing look at the canine.

"When the fate of the galaxy, as well as other worlds depends on one mission to be successful, there's no such thing as being over-prepared." The vulpine reasoned with him. Bill couldn't help but feel the pressure weigh down on him, error seemed to not be a choice in this mission.

"Then I should really get weapons I know I can make use of." The green-eyed canine replied as he ventured among the rows of weapons. Searching far and wide for the SMGs.

"That's actually a smart idea." Fox smiled as he kept the idea in mind as he picked out his arsenal.

"It's not the size or the power, but what you do with it." Bill replied as he found his weapons of choice, small dual SMGs that packed a lot of ammunition and easy to maintain. The canine approached his friend with weapons in hand and standing confident in his small weapons.

"Isn't that saying what men say for when they have a small...?" The vulpine trailed off, his sentence remaining unfinished. Unfinished but not cryptic, a blush spread across the canine's face as he realized what he meant. He hadn't even heard of that saying used as a innuendo.

"Whatever, we're taking about guns, not..." Bill couldn't bear to even say the word in the presence of his childhood friend. There were many things the two discussed together, this however was not one of those topics. It unnerved the canine, pushed him over his comfort zone and left a physical mark of that discomfort in the form of a flushed face. He sighed in frustration and turned away from Fox. "Can we just change the subject?"

The vulpine chuckled a bit as he shook his head. "I thought the conversation was good as is, helped ease my mind from thinking too much of the fate of the world." Fox replied as he took a rifle off the its rack. Bill agreed that it did help lighten the pressure, but he would rather save the entire star system first before having a conversation with his crush about the 'size matters' topic.

"Doesn't mean we can't talk about something else." Bill stared at his friend with a deadpan expression, hoping that he would agree to it and switch to a more average conversation. The young vulpine thought for a moment, soon asking a question while taking a standard machine gun and inspecting it.

"Alright, so Bill, has any girl caught your eye yet?" 'Dammit! Of all the things, he chose to ask that!?' The canine cursed his luck as he tried to maintain his composure. The blush returned to his face as he attempted to formulate a proper response.

"None, at least not yet." He responded, adding the last bit as to keep his true infatuation hidden a little while longer.

"Hmmm, would have figured yes, you did say earlier that there was someone who's safety you worry for." 'Shit! Wait... Maybe I can still get out of this...'

The canine turned away from his friend and began to idly walked through the aisles of weapons. An impulsive thought crossed his mind that told him to come clean, yet he stilled had the Devil's Advocate on his shoulder saying otherwise.

"Fox... Are you sure we'll be able to come back from our mission?" Bill began, which confused the vulpine. The question seemed to pop out of nowhere and showed nothing relating to what they were just talking about.

"Hopefully we all make it back in one piece... But there is a chance that our lives will be the cost to saving the galaxy." The canine felt shivers course through his body at the thought of dying for peace. A noble way to go, but he would still have regret haunting his soul. "Why are you bringing this up all of a sudden?"

The canine turned to face his friend, running a hand through his head-fur and sighing deeply. "Incase we don't come back... There's something I want you to know, Fox." The canine approached the vulpine, placing a hand on his shoulder and head hanging low, avoiding eye contact and keeping his gaze set on the floor.

"... I love you."


Death Count: 5 (why five? The fifth one was for my heart, it got shot writing this last moment. RIP My Heart)

Anyways, hope the chapter was worth the wait, so sorry for it. Hope you enjoyed!