"You miss me, Pepper?" The screen in front of Wolf was occupied by the general's aging face as the communication line was finally answered. Even using Fox's number the man was difficult to get ahold of.

"O'Donnell. Somehow I thought I might hear from you."

"I'm not surprised." Wolf spoke with a toothy smile, showing his frighteningly sharp fangs off to the camera. "I'm sure you know why I'm calling." Pepper exhaled a deep sigh, trying to maintain his composure.

"I was afraid of that. This is about McCloud, isn't it? You know where he's at, don't you?" Wolf crossed his arms, making a quick glance over to his teammate. Just out of frame is where he stood, holding Fox by the handcuffs.

"Yeah, you could say I might know something. But, before we get into that I'm actually on the prowl for my own men. Two of them to be specific. Would you know anything about that?"

"Out of respect for both of our time, O'Donnell; I'd prefer if we just cut straight to the point. I assume you're looking for your old teammates. Well, at the very least I can assure you that they're both alive. Andrew Oikonny and Leon Powalski have been placed in custody, charged with the innumerable crimes they've committed against the Cornerian people and neither will be released under any circumstances. If you've got information on the whereabouts of Fox McCloud we'd gladly pay you for it, but those men belong to the Cornerian justice system from this point onwards."

"Hmph, funny. You think I have information do you? Well how's this for information?" Wolf turned and waved a beckoning paw towards Panther. Fox immediately stumbled into view of the camera. Beaten and ragged but still breathing. Pepper had to suppress his surprise.

"M-McCloud?" His regal voice waivered for just a moment, "So, it seems that Falco was telling the truth. With his flight box damaged we didn't have any recordings of the encounter… Are you okay, Fox? Have they hurt you?" Wolf grabbed Fox by the muzzle, aggressively manipulating his head and forcing his jaw shut.

"No, you don't get to talk to him. You talk directly to ME, Pepper."

"…It's very unfortunate to see your latent talents continue to serve such a sinister purpose, Wolf." The general spoke, wording his indignation as diplomatically as he could.

"I have no ties to any 'sinister purpose'." Wolf pushed Fox back out of frame, he'd proven the boy was alive and that was more than enough. He approached the camera, getting close and personal with his adversary to make sure his words and the temper that drove them came through clearly. "It's simple; you kidnapped my guys and I want them back. Me, my actions and my alliances aren't what you should be worried about here, you should be worrying about your little bitch. What kind of legendary pilot gets shot down by some old bandits? If he's the best you got I should run you all through myself."

"I know you didn't call just to taunt me, Star Wolf. What do you want for Fox?"

"I told you, old man. Leon and Andrew. The men you kidnapped. Both returned to us. Unharmed."

"Absolutely not. Those men are bandits with the deaths of hundreds to thousands attributed to them galaxy-wide. They won't be released under any circumstances."

"Well that's a goddamn shame, because they're all I want. And if I don't get what I want we'll just have to find some fun and creative ways to take it out on your little errand boy here. I'm sure the Cornerians would love you then."

Pepper's tone turned grim as he realized that Wolf wasn't going to comply under any other conditions; he thought he'd be able to bribe him with money but the man seemed to have stronger morals than he'd given him credit for. Being the general of the Cornerian army Pepper certainly had the ability to pull some strings, make an executive decision and simply go through with a two-for-one trade; but what kind of precedent would that set for the future? That the Cornerian people would comply with dubious criminals, release maniacs out to return to terrorizing the galaxy after they'd already been captured? No, there had to be some other option. He mulled a few ideas around in his head before opening his mouth again to present a different, possibly tougher offer.

"Both Leon and Andrew will not be returned to you, that's not something I can comply with. That said, I would be willing to return one to you in exchange for McCloud's life. One-for-one sounds perfectly fair to me."

"One isn't going to cut it," Wolf spoke, raising his voice in aggravation. He pointed a finger directly at the general, his claw making a clink against the screen. "You know, criminals are dime a dozen but 'heroes' like your little orange fox here? These guys are in short supply. I think the value of what I've got to offer is just a bit higher than yours, wouldn't you agree? I'm getting BOTH."

"The terms are set, Wolf. I won't be budging for you any further. I will trade one of your thugs for Captain McCloud's safe return. Since you apparently know how to contact me, call me back when you've made your decision. If we don't hear from you, both of your men will be sentenced and we'll retrieve Fox by force. I'd rather not resort to that. Understood?"

"I don't think you-"

"Good." General Pepper interrupted. With that final word the line of communication was severed, room falling dark as the transmission screen turned black once again. The three stood in silence for a moment, Wolf left quietly seething by the stubbornness of the Cornerians.

"…He drives a tough deal." Panther was the first to speak as he crossed the room to turn the lights back on. He felt a bit disconnected from a decision as deeply emotional as the one presented due to his lack of time spent on Star Wolf. He'd never formed a proper bond with Andrew and didn't explicitly enjoy Leon's presence.

"Tough?" Wolf scoffed, "These dogs disgust me. They turn their back on their own 'hero' just to hold up their pathetic morals. How does it feel?" The captain turned to Fox and grabbed him by the white tuft of hair on his head, pulling himself frighteningly close to shout in the captive's face. "How the FUCK does it feel to be abandoned by your own people? These people you fought to SAVE and they just tossed you to the wolves." Flecks of saliva spotted Fox's face as he took the brunt of Wolf's aggression, eyes wide open and trying to predict what was going to happen next.

"I-I…"

"You and your people are PATHETIC." Wolf released his grasp and pushed Fox backwards, causing him to topple over onto the ground with a whine. Without skipping a beat the grey canine grabbed him by the shirt and yanked him back up to his feet, flinging him over towards Panther. "Put him back where he belongs, we'll talk in private."

Wolf meant what he said when he asked Panther to meet him to discuss matters in private, but found himself simply locked away in his room instead. Cigarette smoke lingered hazily in the air as the Star Wolf leader sucked down his third in a row. Ashes littered the floor underneath him and mixed into the dark colored fur on his bare feet. Pepper's proposition played in his head over and over, so badly he wanted to call the general on his bluff but deep down he knew the old man's pride would never let him change his mind. And while he didn't want to admit it, if the Cornerians knew where the Star Wolf hideout was it wasn't unlikely that they could just take Fox back by force if it came down to that. Wolf and his team were more about being elusive and in the right place at the right time than they were about straight confrontation. He didn't have the manpower to compete with an actual planet-backed army.

Maybe if this was a handful of years ago and the captives were just Andrew and Pigma, things would be a bit easier. But they had Leon and something about that was just different. Throughout their years together Wolf had allowed himself to grow a closer bond with Leon than he'd ever grown with anybody before. Early on in their career the chameleon's prowess as a criminal wasn't hard to spot; what he lacked in direction, individualism and motivation he made up for with his raw skill. He just needed somebody to mold him, give him the leadership and firm hand of guidance that he was missing. Their ability to work and grow off of each other, Wolf's leadership with Leon's undying loyalty, meant that they were rarely ever apart. Living a life of crime and hedonism there was nobody that ever really filled the role of a traditional lover for Wolf, but no matter what happened or where he found himself, Leon was always right there next to him. Other members would come, offer their services and subsequently leave when the timing was convenient, but that chameleon was a constant.

Over the last few months things had certainly taken a turn for the interesting as well, it was impossible for Wolf to not think about that as pieces of Leon's clothing littered his room. They'd grown… Closer. Mostly due to the advances of the chameleon. He'd always been a bit of a freak but his obsession with his Boss had seemed to grow more physical as time passed. Touching him, flirting with him, what started as casual ribbing became something a lot more than that and Wolf had slowly grown accustomed to liking it. While he'd never considered himself… Of that persuasion… Leon was the closest person that Wolf had and being alone in a distant corner of the galaxy for months at a time wore on a man. Plus, in the right light with the right clothing Leon could easily be mistaken for a woman.

The grey canine made a throaty groan and buried his face in his paws, cigarette smoke escaping from the corners of his muzzle. He'd thought he was doing his teammate a favor by sending him in as a non-combatant, it was unlikely that his orders were disobeyed since that wasn't Leon's style. No, Wolf knew the accountability was all on him for putting him in that position, setting him up for capture. "Am I losing my touch?" Wolf thought to himself as his claws ran through his messy, unkempt headfur. They'd been slow for jobs and hadn't had to do much in the years since the end of the war, coasting off of the warchest that was given to them from Andross as well as the money they plundered from enemy forces. Did this downtime make him soft?

"Captain." A muffled voice spoke from the other side of his quarter's door, it was followed by the quick rapping of knuckles. Wolf looked up, flicking the ash from his cigarette away and starting to pull himself together.

"What cat, what do you want? I'm busy."

"I think it's Important that we speak."

"Fine, fine. Come in." Wolf beckoned, the unlocked door slipped open and Panther stepped in. He was looking a bit stressed himself. "What is it?"

"I figured I'd let you know that we've been receiving a flurry of calls, all from Sargasso and the surrounding area." The smoke in a room stung Panther's sensitive nose. He wasn't much of a smoker himself and even with all of the time around his boss he'd never fully grown used to the smell. "I think they were expecting to hear from you about their leader by now. I haven't been picking up- I figured you'd be the best to speak with them."

"Well I don't have anything for them and I probably won't, so you can just tell them to go to hell."

"Captain… Pardon my transgression but I don't think that's a good idea. They seem… Desperate."

"I don't care what they seem to be, the Cornerians have Leon and that's the end of the story. The mission's over, this wasn't part of the deal and we won't be assisting them any further."

"Have you considered that Leon may be just a bit better equipped to handle this than Andrew?" Panther spoke carefully, he walked across the room and placed himself down next to Wolf on his bed. Sitting down with his tail flicking nervously over the sheets.

"Of course he is, Andrew's a pilot and a leader but he's not a fighter. Never has been."

"That's my point, Leon… Maybe he can break himself out. Or from another angle, maybe there's simply a different answer to this that will make both you and Oikonny's boys happy. If you rescue their leader, you'll win favor with them, maybe they'll lend their forces to help us save Powalski. It's not like the Cornerians are going to execute him, that's not their-"

"No, absolutely not." Wolf interrupted, his voice was firm. "Getting involved at all was a mistake and I'm not going in deeper than I have to. We get Leon then we're done, end of story. We're not fighting with them or helping them any further." Panther sighed, choosing not to pursue the conversation any deeper. His leader's stubbornness was a double-edged sword. When he made a decision like this he'd stick to it, the man was impossible to sway and it was clear to the feline that Wolf was acting more out of emotion than he was acting logically. After a few moments of sitting quietly Wolf broke the silence, sensing the tense feelings in the air. "If you have something to say to me, spit it out."

"I feel like you're acting against your own better judgment."

"Yeah? And how's that?" The corner of Wolf's maw raised in a bit of a questioning snarl. Panther initially hesitated but ultimately decided that what needed to be said, needed to be said.

"They're going to run us through if we turn our backs on them, I'm confident in that. Those men are aggressive, not much more organized or mature than a street gang but there are a lot of them and they know where our hideout is. I feel that by not helping them we're inviting more trouble than if we do. Their backs are against the wall and drawing their ire while being under the lens of the Cornerian Army again, that may be the end of our story."

"Yeah, maybe you're right." Wolf spoke earnestly, flicking his cigarette between his fingers. "Maybe a smarter man than me would agree with you. But… That's not who I am, I'm an old dog Panther. My friend's in danger and I have to help him. That's all there is to it, it's the right thing for me to do."

"But… Why?"

"I've known Leon longer than I knew my own father. I know how he thinks, how he works. If we leave him there they'll use that to try to get to him, whatever bastard that's interrogating him will tell him I abandoned him. That I don't care about him, use it as leverage to see if he'll give in and spill what he knows. They'll think something like that will break him but, I know that it won't." Wolf took a long drag on his cigarette, burning it down to the filter before pinching the lit end out and tossing it aside. "He's a psychopath, Panther. If he thinks I can't get to him then he'll try to get to me and he won't let anything stand in his way. He'll try to fight his way out and he'll die in the process. No, it's important that we get to him as soon as we can, no matter what the cost." Panther swallowed, carefully considering his next words before letting them out. There was only one explanation for him making a decision that endangered the integrity of his team this way.

"Forgive me captain but… Do you love him?" Wolf froze, turning to look at Panther, wide-eyed and dumbfounded.

"You wanna repeat that?"

"…Do you love Leon, captain?"

It all happened in a flash and the next thing Panther knew he was laid out on the ground next to Wolf's bed, a ringing in his ears as his muscles tensed up defensively. Wolf stood over him, shaking his fist out. Without any hesitation he'd connected a right-handed haymaker across his teammate's muzzle, rewarding him for his insulting question with an action equally as insulting. Wolf was a bit smaller than him both in mass and stature but his fist felt like it was made of solid iron. Panther rubbed his jaw and inhaled sharply through his teeth; it wasn't the first time he'd taken a hit from Wolf and he knew that it wouldn't be the last, but that was easily the strongest. Critically thinking about it he knew that he deserved it too, what else did he expect asking such a blunt question to a man like him?

"That the answer you were looking for?" Wolf asked as he offered his paw down to help Panther to his feet. The feline accepted, still wincing and rubbing his face as he stood.

"It feels like you've gotten stronger."

"Hitting fools like you helps."

"…So, it's decided then. We trade McCloud to the Cornerians in exchange for Powalski." Panther asked solemnly, Wolf shook his head in response.

"No, no 'we'. There's no 'we' in this equation. You're right, this isn't a smart move and I understand that I'll be pissing off people I probably don't want to piss off during a time where they may not be acting very rationally. I can't honestly say that I know what's going to come as a result of that but I'm ready to bear it on my back as my own responsibility. I won't get you or anybody else around me killed due to my actions, so… I'm dismissing you."

"…What?" The pain in his face and ringing in his ears seemed to immediately subside as Panther heard his captain's words. They shocked him but he wasn't sure he knew exactly what they meant. "What do you mean?"

"You're not involved with this anymore Panther, any of this. I'll pay you out with half of Star Wolf's money and then you'll leave. You're a good man and if I go down because of this mess, I'm not taking you with me."

"That… Wasn't our agreement." Panther pushed back, grabbing Wolf by the arm. "No, no when I joined your team I pledged my life to you and your cause."

"Well I'm giving it back to you."

"I don't WANT it back Wolf, I want to HELP you. I plan on serving you and your team until the bitter end and I'm committed to that."

"That's too bad. I'm the leader of this team and I'm discharging you. I can't in good conscious get you killed for my own greedy decisions, a soldier like you deserves better than that. You've done enough for me Panther, you've got a life to live." Panther responded by lowering himself to the ground, kneeling in front of his captain to demonstrate his devotion.

"Please don't do this to me, Wolf."

"I'm not doing it TO you I'm doing it FOR you. I'll face my demons and pay for my mistakes on my own. From now on this is a command. I command you to leave."

"I-... Wolf…"

"The next words out of that maw of yours better be 'I understand'." Panther was quiet for a moment as he breathed and reflected, his ears folded against his head as his tail lay still.

"...I understand." The feline muttered through his teeth, staring at the floor. "I will obey your command."