A/N: I kind of put this off for a while to brew up some good ideas. As you can see, it takes a long time. Musical theatre doesn't help any, either. Think of this as an early Christmas present (for those who celebrate this holiday). Anyway, hope you enjoy the chapter and leave a comment or polite critique to help my writing development!

Rykah's first impression of Titania was that it was an overwhelming shade of copper. It was also not flat, as she expected. This was probably due to the Colossus Crater's edge being located not far away. The heat blasted her in the face as she and the rest of the Star Fox Team exited the Great Fox via the ramp that extended from the front of the giant ship. About a hundred feet from where they landed stood what looked like an old, beaten-up shack, but it was hard to tell because the heat gave the small structure a hazy, mirage-like quality. When they got closer, they realized the shack was not a shack at all, but a modern-looking store front and a large, hangar-like garage that was composed of multi-coloured, ill-fitting pieces of metal. A wind-worn sign above the shop windows claimed the building to be "Derek's Starship Dealership and Repair". Rykah even spotted the nose of a brand-new, shiny spacecraft jutting out from behind the corner, and there seemed to be many more lined up parallel to it. Before she could walk around to view the rest, the orange falcon noticed an amphibian walk out of the store.

If it weren't for the oil-stained overalls and nametag bearing "Derek", Rykah never would have guessed this salamander owned the place. He looked more like an employee than a manager. His spotted black and yellow arms probably hid the dirt and oil well, the female avian observed, as he strode up and heartily shook Peppy's hand. Derek's flat head split into a smile as he exclaimed in a wheezy voice, "Peppy, old pal, how have you been? I haven't seen you for ages! You still flying that Arwing of yours?" If his voice weren't any indication, the slightly sagging skin around his eyes and lipless mouth hinted of old age; he was definitely Peppy's age, of not a few years older.

The gray hare chuckled and replied, "I'm not much of a pilot anymore, but we still have those Arwings…Actually, that's what we came here to talk to you about. My friend here, Falco-" Peppy got cut off as said falcon cleared his throat loudly to interrupt him.

"To spare you another half-hour of storytelling from this coot, Star Wolf totalled my Arwing and I need a new one. Got anything in stock?" Falco asked curtly, sparing the old salamander of what he knew would be a long-winded story about Star Wolf's attack.

Derek narrowed his snake-like eyes at the blue avian's rudeness. "If that's how you treat your senior team members, the only thing I'll fix you up with is a muzzle that'll fit that beak of yours, boy."

Everyone except Falco and Derek snickered behind theirs hands, impressed that someone could actually handle the falcon's behavior. When the moment passed, Derek stroked his flat chin with padded fingertips, throwing a sceptical look at Falco. "Arwings are the workhorses of the fighter jets…Peppy said your name was Falco?" He questioned, and continued as the male avian nodded, "As I was saying, you could do much better than a standard, out-of-date thing like that. They stopped making them years ago, but…if your heart's set on an Arwing, I can take a peak in the lot out back and see if I still have one. Are you sure-" He was about to say something else, but the stubborn expression on the blue falcon's face made him change his mind. "Hmm…your father must have had an Arwing if you like those things so much…If you didn't inherit one, you'd be crazy not to go for something a little more modern." Derek said more to himself as he turned around and lead the team around the back of the shop.

Fox smirked and spoke up. "Actually, it was my father who bought those Arwings. They work fine, in my opinion." He said proudly, and the salamander stopped and turned around at Fox's unexpected comment.

Derek blinked disbelievingly at the brown vulpine, and then his face broke out into the same lipless smile. "Well, I'll be darned. So sorry I didn't notice you at first lad, but your youth didn't seem to portray the fact that you must be leader of this team. You're James McCloud's son, aren't you?" At Fox's speechlessness, he explained further, "I remember selling a few Arwings to your father back in the day…you look just like him, and he was a regular customer of mine. Can't believe I didn't see the resemblance at first, I thought the Star Fox Team went down after his passing…didn't believe my old eyes when I saw The Great Fox herself landing on my doorstep. What's your name, lad?" He asked in awe as he went to shake the vulpine's hand.

"Fox; it's a pleasure to meet a friend of my father's." The Star Fox Team leader smiled humbly at the old amphibian.

"It's an honour to meet you, young Fox, and you're a friend of Peppy's, no less! Come, I know I have an Arwing around here somewhere…" The salamander said joyfully as he took the lead at the front of the group. "Forgive my rudeness to your feathered friend here; it's obvious I don't get young whippersnappers like you coming here very often. Although, I did do some business with a…a wolf, I think he was…yes, definitely wolf, too much of a brute to be a husky…he came with a team of his some weeks ago. My stars, I've never seen someone so impatient! You'd think he was escaping from prison, that boy! His teammates weren't any better, mind you. Strange lot, they were…about your age, too, Fox. I only hope you'd have time to try the Arwing out before you sign for it and speed off." Derek chuckled, but Fox's brow was furrowed in concern. Slippy, Peppy, and Falco also seemed to tense up.

"Their leader wasn't by any chance Wolf O'Donnell?" Slippy asked tentatively, rubbing his hands together nervously.

Derek thought for a moment, trying to recall the memory in his aging mind. "Yes, I think so…Was he a friend of yours?"

Slippy made a noise that was somewhere between a squeak and a snort. Falco smirked and retorted, "I'd sooner peck out Wolf's good eye than be friends with him!"

The black and yellow salamander ignored Falco's comment and resumed babbling, "Wolf had impeccable taste in fighters; he had obviously done his homework and chose the best ones on the lot for his team. Still can't say where he got all the money…five Antha-Nova 200's cost a fortune…" He trailed off, scanning the colourful ships on either side of him for the elusive Arwing.

Krystal shook her head and whispered to Rykah, "Probably stole all of it. I don't think he ever earned a penny in his life." The female falcon sniggered in response and surveyed the ships around her. Each model was a different shape and colour from the last, and there seemed to be a lot of them. The further down they walked along the rows of ships, the older and shabbier they looked. At last, she spotted the tell-tale white, pointed nose and blue body of an Arwing. It appeared to be in decent condition, but it was clear that some patches of rust were forming on the wings.

"This is the last one I own, and I'm eager to free up the space. How do you like her, Falco? She's not in too bad of a shape, and still flies beautifully." Derek smiled as he and his customers halted in front of the Arwing.

Falco strode up to the fighter and walked around it twice, visually inspecting it like someone would a prize stallion. He looked inside the cockpit window and frowned, "It looks like the inside might need some work, but otherwise it's not bad. Can I take her for a test flight?"

The salamander nodded. "Hold on a second, I'll just get the gadget that controls this thing. Oh, and one more thing," He fixed the blue avian with one of his sceptical, snake-like eyes, "Don't try and fly off with this ship, I can command her to turn around and land at the touch of a button."

Falco raised a disbelieving eyebrow, but didn't say anything. Derek ambled away, leaving the Star Fox Team to themselves. Peppy huffed and crossed his arms. "Never was very trusting, that salamander. I'm not surprised he remotely controls all of his spacecraft." He commented once Derek was out of earshot. Krystal and Slippy half-smiled in agreement and the latter wandered off to ogle a particular four-winged, sleek green fighter jet with unusually large engines.

Rykah, with nothing else to do, followed Slippy's example and motioned for Krystal to follow her. The pair admired all the different spacecraft and threw disgusted looks at the less flashy ones. "These are all much prettier and practical than my old starship. That ugly hunk of junk wouldn't even hold a candle to some of these fighters. Look at this one; doesn't it have an interesting design?" The blue vulpine pointed to the jet in front of her.

The spacecraft in question was a pearly colour, with a pointed nose, a cylindrical body, ending with two small, circular engines at the back. The wings were slanted as far back as possible, giving the impression the spacecraft was made for speed, and not defence. Even the four guns on the wings were particularly thin and small. The cockpit took up about half of the front of the starship, leaving enough room for the rest of the nose. The design along the side of the fighter resembled a long, slithering dragon. Rykah thought she had seen this ship somewhere before, but that was impossible. She had rarely seen a starship during her imprisonment, but the colour struck her as so familiar…

Before she could dwell on the memory, Derek came back with a piece of square metal in his hand with a few black buttons on it. The team gathered around the Arwing once more and the salamander pressed a button on his device, causing the cockpit to open with a slight creak. Falco hopped in with ease and pressed another button to lock the window around him. Derek pressed another couple of buttons, and then gave Falco the thumbs up. The blue avian nodded and pressed the ignition, easing forward the throttle a quarter-way. The Arwing responded with a jolt and crept forward. As soon as the jet was away from the other ships, Falco pushed the throttle forward all the way and speed off into the Titanian sky within seconds. The test flight was going well so far, and he had forgotten how much he loved flying. It was like he had his old Arwing back again.

The out-dated fighter coughed and bucked a few times, but once most of the sand had been blown out, the engines settled down and worked smoothly. The stationary ships on the ground were merely shiny twinkles on the otherwise vast, red landscape of Titania. Satisfied with the way the Arwing was performing, Falco executed a few barrel-rolls, somersaults, and dives to make sure everything was up to snuff. He shot a few rounds out of the guns on the wings, not impressed with the slow reloading time. As he pulled out of his third dive, the blue avian spotted something odd in the distance. It seemed as if a black speck was speeding towards him, becoming larger with every passing second. Falco paid little attention to it, assuming it was just an incoming customer, but kept an eye on it to make sure he wouldn't crash into it. Soon after the first black speck appeared, two more followed without any intention of avoiding him. When the newcomers streaked past him, Falco had to dive down and barrel roll out of the way, or else he would have been in a head-on collision. He swore loudly at the black spacecrafts' carelessness and executed a U-turn to land in the vicinity of Derek's shop, eager to give the other pilots a piece of his mind should they land.

Sure enough, as Falco parked the Arwing in its original slot, he spotted the three black starships that had almost collided with him off to the side of the shop a short distance away. The pilots didn't appear to have exited their cockpits yet, and the blue avian was in a temper, impatient to insult them for having almost impaled him with their sharp noses.

"How was it? Do you like the Arwing?" Derek questioned eagerly as Falco walked over to the salamander.

"Yeah, she flies and responds great…engines are a bit clogged up, but that's easily fixed." The male falcon said half-heartedly, staring in the direction of the black starships. It appeared that the pilots were finally hopping out of their cockpits, glancing around as if looking for something.

Derek was about to reply to Falco's comment, but then looked in the same direction as the avian. "Yes, well she's been sitting there for quite a while, I would expect some sand got blown in there. While you think about whether you want to buy her or not, I'll just slip away to deal with those customers over there, they seem a bit confused." The old amphibian frowned and strode briskly towards the black ships.

"So, do you want to buy the Arwing?" Fox asked, placing a hand on his best friend's shoulder. The blue falcon stared at the blue and white ship in front of him, weighing the pros and cons. Before he could voice his decision, he and the rest of the team heard shouting from the direction of the mysterious black starships.

"What the hell is going on over there?" Falco muttered as his attention was reluctantly torn from the Arwing. Instead of waiting for an answer, he saw this as an opportunity to go tell the reckless pilots off.

Fox held his friend back, but Falco roughly shrugged his hand off. "That's none of our business, Falco. Leave them alone." The brown vulpine warned firmly, but Falco ignored him.

"I've got a bone to pick with those guys. They nearly killed me by flying so close and so fast." The male falcon hissed through clenched teeth, picking up his pace. Fox relented in his attempt to restrain Falco out of curiosity and merely followed him, motioning for the others to do the same. Slippy and Peppy surveyed the black ships with furrowed brows, while Rykah began to tremble with fear.

The green frog elbowed Peppy and whispered, "Aren't those the ships we were shooting at on Macbeth a while back? A pain in the ass they were; I could barely get a hit on them!"

Peppy didn't know whether to frown or snicker. "Is that because you're a bad shot or because they were actually worthy opponents for once?"

Slippy made a derisive noise and retorted, "You were having trouble with them too, and I saved your neck more than once on that mission!"

The gray hare had to leave it at that; a strangled cry had emitted from Derek's mouth and Peppy looked over at the new pilots to see one of them had lifted the old salamander a good two feet off the ground. As he glanced around, it was clear the tense feeling was mutual with his teammates. Fox and Falco had their hands on their blasters, ready to pull them out if needed, Slippy's lip was curled back in disgust, and Krystal was muttering something to Rykah in Cerinian, which he could not understand.

What he did understand on Rykah's part was quiet, muffled moans of dread. "They're back; they're back…don't let them see me…." she whimpered, as if giving a request to the rest of the team. No one else seemed to hear her except Peppy and Krystal. They were close enough now that they could make out the foreboding, four-winged spacecraft that looked equipped to do some major damage. They looked somewhat like Star Wolf's fighters, except they were slightly larger, had much more armour, two sets of guns on the upper pair of wings, and one set of missile launchers on the lower pair. Suddenly, Peppy felt extremely lucky that he had survived the mission on Macbeth. He glanced behind him again to see that Rykah and Krystal were both heading discreetly towards the shop. The sapphire vixen had already pulled out her own blaster.

"Hey! Put that salamander down, he hasn't done anything wrong!" Fox shouted at the new pilots as they came within earshot. The one holding Derek dropped, or rather threw him on the ground with satisfaction and turned on Fox. The team was finally able to see what species these three pilots were, but even Fox obviously had trouble identifying them. They weren't exactly lizards, but they had scales that were iridescent, and they reminded him of pearls. Their eyes were a striking teal. Their snouts were elongated like an alligator's, but he could tell their bodies were thin and muscled, whereas an alligator's was stout and bulky. They had a row of curved spikes starting from their heads that ended at their long, whip-like tails. Like their ships, they had black, fitted, armoured flight suits designed for combat, and were carrying at least two daggers and an impressive-looking handgun each. Two humps protruded from their backs, which Fox guessed were either wings or weapons, but it was hard to tell because of the flight suit. Two of the larger ones seemed to be males and the third was smaller, probably a female.

"You are Star Fox?" One of the male lizards hissed condescendingly with a thick Macbethian accent, similar to a Siberian Tiger's. He sounded like a brute and looked the part, but his tone was sophisticated like Wolf's, yet more intimidating. Kystal thought he sounded like General Scales, and she suppressed a shudder at the likeness.

"Yeah, and who are you?" Fox demanded with evident dislike. He eyed the strange reptile suspiciously.

Two of the other pilots whipped their tails from side to side, as if offended by his question. The third remained stony and crossed his muscled arms, looking down his long snout at Fox. "We are part of the Macbethian Air Force, Squadron 247. I am Feralt, captain, this is Dominix, my second-in-command," he motioned his head towards the second male lizard, "and this is Nagina." He pointed a clawed finger at the female. "We have come to collect our escaped experiment, RY-92. We know it is here."

Falco looked disbelievingly at the lizards, as if he thought they were crazy. Fox had trouble keeping a composed expression, and Slippy and Peppy both cocked their heads in confusion. "Am I going mental, or did these guys just say they're looking for an escaped science fair project?" Falco snorted, and Slippy and Peppy cracked a smile, despite the seriousness of the situation.

Feralt hissed menacingly, brandishing his gun at the blue avian, who put his hands up in surrender. "Do not insult us, Falco, we may yet decide to kill you after we have RY-92." Nagina and Dominix also pulled out their handguns.

"How do you know my name and what is RY-92?" The male falcon demanded. The three lizards didn't put down their guns.

"RY-92 is quite informative. We know almost everything about your team, your ship, and your route thus far. It was not difficult to follow you here. Unfortunately, RY-92 has evaded recapture and developed emotional attachments to all of you, particularly Falco, and this has interfered with obtaining useful information while it is offline. We have come to take back what is ours, and we will kill you all if we must. RY-92 is far too important to us to leave behind." Feralt explained, but it was still clear that most of the team was still confused.

Falco thought for a moment, and then it dawned on him. "Wait, you're saying Rykah is RY-92? She's some kind of crazy experiment? That's impossible! She's as normal as the rest of us!"

Dominix spoke up. "Is that the name RY-92 has given itself? Quite clever…That is the point of RY-92, to obtain information without being noticed. It is somewhat reluctant to do so when it goes offline, but we don't mind doing it by force." He chuckled sadistically, and Nagina smirked.

"I still don't get what you're talking about. Rykah…RY-92, I guess, is some kind of spy that escaped from your base on Macbeth? How does that explain how she knows Cerinian?" Fox asked, scratching his head in confusion.

Nagina bared her sharp, pointed teeth and spat furiously at Fox, "You filthy murderers stole RY-92 from us!" She extended the humps from her back and they were clearly bat-like wings. Fox finally realized that these lizards were actually dragons. Dragons had a nasty reputation in the Lylat System, but he was convinced that they had all died out. He had no idea that these were the guards he was shooting on Macbeth. He was now even more cautious. Dragons were renowned for their ability to breathe fire, and kill mercilessly.

"Hush, Nagina, they are simple-minded thieves, do not overload their petty brains." Feralt murmured to his comrade, who slightly relaxed her claw on the trigger. He turned to Fox again. "RY-92 was organically born on a planet not far from Cerinia and learned the language there, but when our master Andross destroyed it, we took it with us, genetically and physically modified it to create our perfect espionage unit, which we were to send to Corneria to obtain crucial information. Then you, Star Fox, stole RY-92 and destroyed our operations base! Hylast, a double-faced traitor of ours, along with his gang, wanted to get rid of all the evidence and terminate our other genetic experiments, but I thank you for shooting them and leaving RY-92 online." The male dragon smiled eerily, making Slippy shudder.

Ignoring Feralt's first comment, Fox questioned, "How does that explain Rykah's psychic abilities?" His insides squirmed at the thought that these dragons would kill each other for their own convenience.

Dominix answered this time. "Ever wonder why RY-92 looks so stunning? I'm proud of my work on its exterior. I embedded dragon's wing membrane along her outer skin, which is highly receptive to the brainwaves of others, like an antennae. It makes communicating across long distances quite easy, and I hear one of your team members is clairvoyant. Dragon wing membrane also makes for quite a lustrous appearance. It gives RY-92 very shiny feathers, and if I'm not mistaken, that is a trait your kind find desirable, falcon?" He raised a scaly eyebrow at Falco, who scowled at him. He said nothing.

"If you are finished asking questions, we will ask you one: where is RY-92?" Feralt hissed impatiently, but it was not any Star Fox Team members who answered. Nagina, who had unfurled her wings, inexplicably snapped her head to glare at the shop a small distance away. Derek, who was too scared to move from his place on the ground, whimpered because he thought she was going to choke him again like Feralt did.

"Stupid vixen…she knows nothing of dragons. I can read her psychic messages to RY-92 from here. Come, let us collect our experiment and cease wasting time here." Nagina snapped tersely and the other two dragons made to follow her.

Fox pinned his ears back and snarled defensively, "Krystal is not stupid! We're not letting you take Rykah, she's on our side now! You over-grown reptiles are sick for what you do for your own gain!"

Nagina, Feralt, and Dominix stopped in their tracks and Feralt looked over his shoulder at Fox. "Do not confuse us with our grounded, pathetic brethren...or distant cousins." He threw a condescending look at Derek, his nostrils smoking. "We are much more powerful, and much deadlier." He unfurled his own wings, as did Dominix. "Restrain them, they have annoyed me enough." He drawled as if the Star Fox Team members were nothing more than persistent, irritating children.

Fox suddenly screamed in agony as his head exploded with pain. He fell to his knees, and judging by the other moans of pain, the dragons had done the same to the others. It seemed that dragons could not only read minds, but attack with them, too. He was almost blinded with pain, feeling as if his head was splitting open. He could barely see what was happening at the store…

He could only make out blurred shapes, but he registered the black and white blurs that were the dragons drag a blue shape, Krystal, and an orange shape, Rykah, out of the store with ease. The pair were kicking and screaming, and the shapes were coming closer. It didn't seem that Krystal or Rykah were affected by the dragons' mental attack, though. In fact, it appeared as if they were fighting against it. The pain slightly ebbed away from Fox's mind as the dragons focused on their mental battle with Krystal and Rykah. He saw the fierce looks of concentration on Feralt, Nagina, and Dominix's faces as his eyes focused once again. They were fighting back with just as much determination, but their strength appeared to be waning. The pair was overpowering them.

Suddenly, Dominix, who was holding Rykah, went wide-eyed and collapsed, as did Nagina and Feralt. Krystal stumbled onto all-fours and yelled, "Fly, Rykah! They'll wake up soon! Fly!"

Rykah raced past the other Star Fox Team members, who were just beginning to recover from the mental attack. She didn't spare them a second glance and hopped into one of the dragons' black starships. In a matter of seconds, the fighter was airborne and she was gone. Krystal shook the shoulders of each of her team members to rouse them out of their stupor. "Get up, get up! We have to leave, now!"

"Where'd Rykah go?" Falco mumbled as he got to his feet.

As Krystal helped Peppy up, she answered hastily, "I'll explain later. We don't want to be here when three angry dragons wake up and burn us to a crisp." Finally understanding the urgency, the rest of the Star Fox Team made a beeline for the Great Fox. It took about two minutes to get the giant starship airborne, but once it did everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"That was scarier than Star Wolf with rocket launchers." Fox panted as Derek's shop got smaller the higher they flew. Soon they were outside of Titania's atmosphere.

Krystal had the bridge of her nose pinched between her thumb and forefinger. "I completely forgot that dragons were psychic. I blew our cover; I'm such an idiot…"

Falco scoffed, drawing her attention to him. "We all are; we were all fooled by Rykah…RY-92. Why didn't she…it tell us?" He found it strange to refer to Rykah as an object; she had seemed too genuine to be an experiment. He wasn't sure what to believe.

Slippy rolled his eyes at this comment, "Well if you were in her shoes, would you want everyone to know you're the product of a twisted experiment? She was finally free to live a normal life for a while, even if she's not fully organic. Gosh, I don't even know if she's mechanical or not…it's just so weird to think about her that way. But she does bruise and has blood in her, so I guess she's not all machine." He fell silent, unsure of how to continue.

"I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around it. What worries me the most is that she was meant to be a spy. Those Macbethian dragons know everything about our crew and our ship thanks to her. Now I know what all her nightmares were…they were forcefully extracting information from her, but she was refusing to give it up…" Falco said quietly from his corner on the bridge.

Fox sighed heavily. He opened the armrest on his chair and began typing on the small computer that emerged from it. After a minute of staring at it, he confirmed, "I see nothing on the ship's radar, so the dragons aren't following us, but neither is Rykah in our vicinity. Where do you think she went?"

A short silence was his response. Then Peppy cleared his throat and suggested, "She could have gone to Katina. It's the only place I can think of that's solid and liberated by us and Bill's company. She can't have gone to Fichina, it's still occupied by Wolf and his cronies. They've set up a base there and it's hard enough getting them to move without losing half the fleet."

"Does Rykah know it's not safe on Fichina?" Slippy asked uncertainly, seeing the worry on his comrade's faces.

Krystal shrugged. "Once she finds out it's not safe, she'll be smart enough to high-tail it out of there. What are we going to do in the meantime?" She asked the question that had been on everyone's mind.

"We wait." Fox stated, keeping an eye on the radar in front of him.