This is the longest chapter in a while, and I'm sorry that I seem to have been putting so little effort into the story thus far. Really, it does feel like a chore at times, but I'm going to continue. There are only four chapters after this, so why stop now?

At one point, I do state, as well, that the Vice President of Corneria is not Mike Pence. In this timeline, like I said, Trump/Pence is the current U.S. administration, but this barely matters in the story. I do not believe this breaks the rules, since neither of them play any real role in the story.

WILLOW'S POV

On August 4, I spent the majority of the day in my apartment. The whole time, I'd just been looking at the various books I had. Although I wasn't as much of a bookworm as Ian or Konstantin, I did find some of the books by James Mattis interesting. After all, it did make a lot of sense that, in a war, you would need to use your wits just as much as your physical strength in order to win.

I could only hope that I would glean some wisdom from these books in order to help the group. Somehow, I doubted it. We'd succeed or fail on our own merits.

Eventually, I was turning through one of Mattis's books when my telephone rang. Even though this was Corneria, with all of its futuristic technology, they still didn't have holophones, so we had to settle for the classic things. Go figure.

I saw a number that I recognized as belonging to Tigre Howler, Lucas's physician. There was no doubt some important news she wanted to tell me, so I decided that it would be worth it to pick up the phone.

"Hello, Willow?" the Bengal tiger on the other end said.

"Yes. What is it?". Was Lucas cured? Was he dead?

"I am pleased to report", Dr. Howler said, "that Lucas's surgery was a success. He seems to be fully cured of his illness, and he's awake and alert, which is a good sign. You can come and visit him if you want".

I thought about it. Really, it made no sense not to see him. After all, we were back together, and things were going pretty well between us. We had resuscitated the flames of our romance, and now it was an inferno again.

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes".

As it turned out, it took me nearly twice as long to reach the Green House. That had been where his surgery was performed, because there was apparently an operating room there. Apparently his surgery had not been too invasive, only to remove some blood from his shoulder, but I was still worried about him all the same. I hadn't even known that the procedure was going on today, let alone that it had already been done and had succeeded.

Dr. Howler met me at the door, positively beaming. "Lucas is all right! He's been cured!"

I could have kissed her, except that I'm not a lesbian. I headed in the door and saw Lucas sitting up in bed, reading a book.

He was still wearing a hospital gown, and he still had an IV drip in his left arm. However, he looked much healthier than the last time I had seen him. Evidently, getting all of that bad blood (literally) out of his body, his face had instantly gone further back to its normally healthy, slightly yellow color.

"Are you doing better, Lucas?" I asked him.

Lucas looked up from his book. Seeing that I was there, he got up in order to hug me.

"I'm feeling very well" he said happily. "We're about to kick some alien ass, and I no longer have this stupid disease weighing me down. I'm going to give it my all, and, if I die, it will not be at the hands of Andrew Oikonny!"

The way he said it, it sounded kind of like an ancient Greek monologue, but when you've just gotten back with someone whom you now really love again, and have seen them through a very severe illness, you start to not care much about such things.

"You look happier, too" I said.

"I know" he told me. "I'll be even happier when I get this stupid IV out of my arm, but unfortunately Dr. Howler says it has to stay in overnight". He slumped his broad shoulders at that last sentence.

"Why?"

"They're just giving me an extra dose of the medication, just to make sure I am really and totally cured, but once that is done I only have one more day here. Then, we can go and fight Andross".

I was pretty nervous for the upcoming battle, and I could not lie about that. However, with Lucas Enfield, the President Of Corneria, healthy again, it really did seem like we were going to be okay. This was going to work out, one way or another.

"We're probably going to have to go and make sure with the Senate that this new quest of ours is okay" I said. "I know that they can't just have us governing in absentia".

Lucas rubbed his hair. "You know, I've been giving that some thought as well. I've decided that it's really not going to work unless we find someone else to rule in our place. Who is the Vice President now? Not Mike Pence".

"No, not Pence. I believe that there is none".

We both pondered the line of succession, Lucas rubbing the small growth of beard on his chin. After Vice President came Secretary Of State, which was not an option for obvious reasons.

"The head of the Cornerian military!" he said, finally, pumping his fist. "What was her name again? Maisie something?"

"Johnson" I said. "Maisie Johnson. She could lead!"

"Okay" Lucas said. "We're going to have to alert Maisie Johnson to this fact, and she's going to step in and govern the country. I guess that we are resigning now?"

I nodded. "I suppose so".

KONSTANTIN'S POV

It felt good to be back on the Great Fox. Even though I'd been having a good time as a military commander, it was nice getting back to what I was familiar with, especially since many of the planets we were going to be traveling to were ones that we had already visited during the Anglar blitz.

I spent most of our first afternoon in my cabin, getting ready for what was going to be another odyssey through the Lylat System. The age shift from 19 to 20 had been a big shift for me, because a 19-year-old can still be considered a teenager. Once you're twenty, however, you really are an adult now.

Right now, I was just glad that we were back in business, working towards our goal of defeating Andross. It wasn't going to be easy, but very few things worth doing ever are.

It was now August 6, a Tuesday, and Lucas had been allowed to get on the ship. Evidently, his operation to remove all of the toxic blood out of his body had been successful, and he was now cured.

This was something that meant the world to me, as I had spent so much of the last seven weeks worrying about him. Now, knowing that he was healthy again, I could focus most of my efforts on the coming battle.

As I saw Lucas and Willow chatting in the rec room, I decided to chat to Cole.

"Do you want to have a match in Brawl?" I asked him.

Cole nodded, and so we each grabbed a controller. Four minutes later, we were having an intense match on 75m. I know that this is one of the most universally hated stages in the game, but don't judge. We were having a pretty good time.

Eventually, Ian came in. "How is it going, guys?" he asked us.

"I'm so glad that Lucas is better!" Cole told him, not taking his eyes off the screen as he used a smash attack on me.

"Me too" I said. Really, what else was I supposed to say? I was a pretty big fan of Lucas Enfield.

"I'm nervous" Ian admitted. He was pretty brave to say that, I thought, because I was also pretty nervous. Ian actually had the guts to say it, which was something I admited him for.

I supposed that this meant that I was a coward. And I was perfectly okay with that.

IAN'S POV

The next morning, I woke up in my cabin, a place that I had become pretty familiar during our time on the ship during the Anglar blitz. After lying in bed for a while, mainly nervous at the thought of today's battle, I decided to face the day. Just because I didn't want to didn't mean that I didn't have to.

After debating on what to wear today, I headed into the dining room, where everyone else already was. I analyzed how all of us looked, though it had only been a few months since the last time we were all together in this room on a combat mission.

Willow Foster's hair had grown out. Apparently, she was only a week from her seventeenth birthday, and then she'd be able to use magic outside of school. Of course, magic didn't exist, but it was still cool to think of things in Harry Potter terms. That didn't change the fact, however, that I just wasn't into girls, although I saw why Lucas found her attractive.

Cole McCallen, on the other hand, looked more orderly than I had ever seen him. His hair was neatly combed, looking more like a senator than a former juvenile delinquent. I could tell that it wasn't just his look that had been reformed, however. It was also his attitude. Cole seemed to be a better person in general than when I had first met him, during which time I had still gone under the alias of "Seventy-Four".

Konstantin Brockenbough was now a healthy weight again, and this time it wasn't because he had been imprisoned in a dank, dark prison cell. He was now more muscular, and his glasses made him look more confident. I wondered if this change would be made to my look when I turned twenty; maybe that was where the line was drawn between looking like an adult and looking like a child.

Lucas Enfield also looked more confident in himself, and his tall frame no longer looked gaunt, his skin looked rosier, and he also appeared to have more energy. Probably he was no longer on those awful medications, which would make sense if he did have more energy than before. All in all, he looked happier, more like someone on a beach, which was his usual hairstyle.

Falco and Dr. Howler were sitting next to each other, which made a lot of sense now that they had officially tied the knot. I still remembered Lucas fainting in the middle of that wedding, which put a damper on those memories for sure. Even if Willow was now back with Lucas, I still didn't like the fact that she had essentially just crashed the wedding with no warning. I wasn't likely to get over that anytime soon.

"So" Lucas said. He was sitting next to Willow, no surprise there. "Are we going to fight in Sector Y today?"

Falco nodded. "We're going to make our way through its gauntlet of enemies and then fight the Shogun at the end. I hope that you guys are ready for a battle, because it's going to be pretty intense. I'll fly, but I need one other person to go with me".

I knew I wanted to do this. All of us raised our hands, but I was first to the punch.

"Ian Keller" Falco said. "He's going to be the one".

I had to admit that I was more than a little nervous for the battle of Sector Y. In order to practice, I'd played that level plenty of times.

In the game, when you're on Sector Y, you need to get 100 points or more in order to move on to Aquas. If you cannot do that, you have to go down to Katina.

After we were both in our Arwings, we raced through the first segment of the level at high speeds, working to defeat the Shoguns and reach a point where we would be able to get through the swarms of enemy ships.

"Use a smart bomb, Ian!" Falco commanded me.

I did that, causing all of the triangular flying droids to explode. It was satisfying in some sort of primal way, seeing the three-dimensional starburst of fiery doom destroy everything.

It had been a long time since the bomb, and I was now fully recovered enough to do barrel rolls. As we reached the part of the level with the large ship with Andross's face on it, I felt a rage of fury. It had been Andrew, his nephew, who had caused us so much pain and suffering over the last few months. I was ready to terminate Andrew as well as Andross.

Using the smart bombs, as satisfying as it was to take down entire fleets of enemies just like that, really did bring back memories of the bomb that had been sent to me in the mail. I tried to push them back, but they kept bobbing to the surface like apples at a Halloween party.

"Let's keep on going!" Falco said. "I'll take everything above, you go below!"

I looked up and saw that, much like the point in the game where you have two pathways to choose from, we were at a crossroads here as well. I went downward, shooting like a madman, making sure that none of the enemies escaped. If even one of them got to the Great Fox, that might put us in trouble.

Eventually, I reunited with Falco, and we were able to make our way through various ships and droids before we reached a wide-open area. I knew where we were. In the game, this is the part of the level where you go into all-range mode.

We had reached the boss of Sector Y.

The boss of Sector Y is a battle machine called the Shogun. It looks kind of like a cat on its hind legs, carrying a shield in one arm that faces directly at whoever is facing it.

"Let's take this thing down, Ian!" Falco shouted at me.

I was doing all I could, but the boss kept on moving around. Which, if I were it, I would of course be doing as well. Still, though, it was quite annoying when you were on the other end of this and trying to defeat the boss.

"I'm coming for ya!" yelled the Shogun pilot.

I circled back around and continued shooting at the battle machine. With a quick hand, I was able to take it down in just a few shots.

Circling back to a point where we could head back onto the Great Fox, Falco said, "Great work, Ian. Let's go back to the others".

When we got back on the Great Fox, everyone else was waiting for us in the hangar bay. After they had seen the Shogun explode, they were all standing there, celebrating. Which I would have been as well, considering what we had just done.

"You did it!" Cole said, giving me a high five.

I was also pretty thrilled. We were getting closer to winning this war with each step. And then, we could actually do something more productive, something I was very much looking forward to doing.

LUCAS'S POV

Let me tell you, it was a good feeling to be cured. I had been feeling pretty sick before then, and been taking my medication, which only made me feel sicker. But, after waking up from the operation, it was like I had immediately felt a hundred percent again. I felt ready to take on Andross, that we could actually do it this time.

I decided to head on over to Willow's cabin, because I could use a talk with her. I wasn't sad by any means, but I knew that things would never be the same now that we had been apart for several months.

"You know, maybe things could be better now" I heard a voice say from behind me.

Turning around, I saw that it was indeed Willow. She led me into her cabin and sat down on the bed next to me.

"It's like you read my mind" I said.

"What do you mean?" she asked me.

"I was thinking about how it's never going to be the same, now that we've broken up and gotten back together again".

"You're right" Willow said. "It's not going to be the same, but if we can ultimately survive something as big as you killing Jack, I think we can go anywhere together. We're getting closer and closer to Andross. Are you feeling better now?"

"Yeah" I said. I flexed my arm, grateful that it no longer had an IV port in it. It was a nice change from constantly feeling like I was in the hospital.

Just then, the dinner bell rang. Yes, I said dinner bell. One had been installed so that we could know whenever we were being called to a meal.

"I guess we should go to dinner" she said.

Just like usual, we sat next to each other at the dinner table. Even if there had been a sliver of doubt that the flames had been reignited, there now no longer was. I was back in love with Willow Foster. And she was back in love with me.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

We ate soup for dinner, with noodles, but we didn't feed each other like couples sometimes do in restaurants. We weren't going that far, at least not yet. Maybe someday.

"So...Aquas tomorrow" Konstantin said. He looked pretty good today, relieved that we had already made our way through Sector Y. I felt the same way, of course. One sector down, only a few more planets and sectors to go. This was going to be a piece of cake.

"That's right" Dr. Howler said. "We're going to send two people down there in the Blue Marine, and we're going to take out the bio-weapon that Andross has planted there. I really don't think that Aquas is too strategically valuable, but since it's in our way, we might as well take it".

I saw her logic. It was difficult to resist the logical road she was taking us down, and I knew that it would make sense to take Aquas just to be safe.

"I just don't want it to be me" Konstantin said. "I'm afraid of the dark".

That was something weird to hear him say. I'd never known Konstantin Brockenbough to have that many fears, and knowing what one of them was came as a shock to me.

But then I remembered the time he had spent, so long ago, in that underground cell, awaiting death. I knew that this didn't sound pleasant, and I would never have wanted that to be me. Had it been, I'd probably have felt the same way as Konstantin.

"I'll go" I said. I was sick of being fussed over, and now that I was no longer ill, I wanted to take a part in all of these missions. I wanted to help.

"Great" Falco said. I could tell that he was glad that I was getting an opportunity to be useful, rather than just sitting back and letting him and Dr. Howler take care of me. Really, he probably figured, I was ready for the job. Which I was.

"I'm doing it too" Ian said. "Lucas needs my help, he's my buddy".

Truth be told, I liked the idea of Ian going with me on this mission. After all, he was kind of a nerd, but in the game Slippy, also a nerd, is very helpful in guiding the team through Aquas. If Ian could play Slippy's role well enough here, there was a good chance that he would be able to help us win this battle as well.

I didn't sleep well that night. Granted, ever since becoming ill I hadn't slept quite as well, but this was different. I knew that it was pre-battle jitters, and nothing to be too worried about. The battle coming that day was something I cared about far more.

I put on my clothing for the day. Since the Blue Marine was a pretty strong submarine, I did not need to wear swim clothes in order to get in. However, I did need to make sure that we kept the water from coming in through the windows of the submarine, because I didn't want to be caught underneath all of that water and crushed. That would bring back bad memories...

After breakfast was over, I headed into the docking bay with Ian. After we said goodbye to the others, with Dr. Howler wishing us luck and Falco giving me instructions on how to control the Blue Marine, we opened the hatch and both climbed in.

"Are you ready to get started on this?" I asked Ian.

He nodded next to me. "As ready as I'll ever be".

At first, things weren't going all that well. I had a tough time figuring out how to control the Blue Marine at the beginning. But I soon realized that if I held onto the steering wheel tightly enough, I would have much more control of where I was going.

I supposed it was pretty enough, the areas we were passing. When I was younger, I had wanted to be a marine biologist, but I had never been the biggest fan of science. That's not ripping on scientific advancements, as without it I would most likely not have lived long enough to reach this point.

In addition, there were ancient ruins that hung out in pitch-black areas, and it was only through firing torpedoes that we could get to see the whole area.

As for the inside of the Blue Marine, it wasn't too comfortable. The area was five feet by two feet, with what felt like pillows on a sofa on either end of it. From my vantage point, I could see the dark underwater landscape. Ian sat backwards, but the whole area was kind of like a car on a Ferris wheel, not the most comfortable way to go about things.

There were also plenty of jellyfish present, as well as angler fish, which did not bring back good memories for me. I could only think of the Anglars, the fish-people from Venom that we had faced during the first war. It had been because of the Anglars, at least partly, that Konstantin had been imprisoned and condemned to death.

"Are you ready to face this bio-weapon?" I asked Ian.

Ian nodded. He didn't say anything, but for once he didn't sound timid. It occurred to me just how much he had changed ever since he had unmasked himself and stopped calling himself by the alias of "Seventy-Four". He had used to be timid, never taking off his gas mask. Now, he seemed much more confident in himself, as well as what all of us thought about him.

I had to admit, at first I hadn't thought that he'd be brave enough to help us rescue Konstantin from that underground cell. Now that I knew him and had grown to appreciate his help on all of the combat missions we were doing, I really was starting to care what happened to him. I was starting to trust Ian Keller a lot.

"Here's the bio-weapon!" Ian said. Looking forward, I saw what he was looking at.

It was a sight for sore eyes, to be sure. The bio-weapon of Aquas is a clam with one pearl-like eye with an iris in a rainbow of colors. It's pretty creepy, with two columns that somewhat resemble smokestacks. Lots of bubbles came out of both of them.

"Let's shoot some torpedoes at the eye!" I ordered to Ian.

Ian began mashing the button for shooting torpedoes like a maniac, but one was only dislodging and going forwards at a rate of about one every ten seconds. Most likely, Ian was pressing the button too fast.

"I think there's a limit as to how many you can shoot, Ian" I told him.

Ian seemed to take my advice, no longer hitting the button as many times. I could tell that what we were doing was working, however. We were weakening the thing, hopefully enough so that we could defeat it without the Blue Marine taking too much damage.

"I think we're getting close, Lucas!" Ian shouted.

Sure enough, the eye exploded after we hit it with just a few more torpedoes. Trying to limit the amount of barrel rolls we did, we nevertheless were able to avoid getting hit by any more of the bubbles released.

"We won!" I cried out.

Back on the Great Fox, Willow took me aside. "It's really awesome that we've taken back Aquas" she said.

I looked back at her. So nice to have her back. She was just so beautiful, and my knees almost buckled.

"Lucas...you look like you're about to faint. Are you okay?"

I straightened back up. "Yes, I'm fine. Yes, we've taken Aquas. Just a few more battles to go, and then it's Andross".

Then, it's Andross.

I didn't know how I felt about the fact that we were soon going to be taking on such a powerful enemy. The evil scientist was not going to be easy to defeat, and the Lylat System's fate rested on our shoulders. That's one thing that you should never take lightly.