Hello Star Fox fans! Another day comes with another chapter. Here is the next installment for you. Leave a review if you'd like and as always; enjoy the chapter!

20. Reflections

~The pilots of the 1st Engagement Fleet and the Great Fox crew spent their day on Corneria recovering from the skirmish they fought. While the fleet sustained heavy losses, they returned victorious. As for the Star Fox team, the fact that they were able to make it home with no losses and even recovering Bill and Axios was a major success for them.

Moral was high amongst the Cornerian military, and the team decided to relax with each other within the lounge aboard the Great Fox. They were all sitting down and enjoying coffee while conversing about their current mission. "Oh man…" Slippy said as he was stretching his arms. "Feels like I haven't had a break in years."

"Tell me about it." Amanda responded. "Handling the Black Suns is starting to feel like handling the Anglars all over again."

"At least we cut them down to size." Falco said as he lied back on a couch. "From eight to one right?"

"From eight to two." Katt interjected. "Isn't Axios also a member?"

"I don't think he considers himself a member." Krystal said. "He was pretty certain about cutting all ties with the Black Suns."

"He's even saved our lives in battle." Fox added. "Not to mention he's a member of Star Fox now. He won't be worrying about the Black Suns wanting him back any time soon."

"Hey, at least he went with the winning team." Falco cheerfully said.

The group chuckled at Falco's last comment and continued to enjoy time to their selves. However, Katt was irritated by something. "Where is Axios any ways?" she asked.

The group was silent and was completely caught off guard with Katt's question. "I'm not sure." Fox responded. Fox stood from his chair and exited the lounge. He walked through the halls of the Great Fox in search of Axios. "Axios!" he called out.

There was no response. Fox went to Axios's room and knocked the door. "Axios?" he called out. "Are you in there?"

Fox noticed that the door to Axios's room was partially opened. He gently opened the rest of the door and found that Axios was not in his room. His bed sheets were properly made, and his blaster and knife were left on top of his desk. Fox entered his room to search for any signs of Axios, but after looking around for a few minutes, he found nothing and left Axios's room.

Fox turned to leave Axios's room and noticed that Falco and Krystal were outside waiting for him. "He's not in there?" Falco asked.

"No," Fox responded, "I actually have no idea where he is."

"Strange…" Krystal said.

Fox, Krystal, and Falco went to the bridge in search of Axios and found ROB at one of the bridge's terminals. "ROB." Fox said. "Have you seen Axios?"

"Negative." ROB responded.

"What about the security cameras?" Krystal asked. "Take a look in there."

ROB went to a separate terminal aboard the bridge and started to work with one of the consoles. Soon, security footage appeared on one of the bridge's monitors. The image of Axios's bed room door appeared on screen, yet nothing was happening. "Fast forwarding to times four speed." he said.

The team finally saw the door open and Axios exiting his room. They noticed he was limping out of his room with mechanical prosthetics on his left leg. "Stop it there." Fox said. "When was this?"

"Footage capture was at 3:02a.m." Rob responded.

"What's he doing at three in the morning?" Falco asked.

"Well that's a good question." Fox said.

Fox, Krystal, and Falco watched as Axios continued down the hall towards the hangar. They saw him take the elevator from the hangar out of the Great Fox. Rob switched the feed to the cameras on the exterior of the Great Fox. Axios was heading towards the air way terminal and he was picked up by a hover craft. ROB cut the footage as soon as the hover craft left the screen. "Where could he have gone?" Krystal asked.

"We'll go find him." Fox said. "Falco, you stay here. You're in charge of the ship until we come back."

"No problem." Falco said.

Fox and Krystal said their good byes to Falco and they left the Great Fox. As they were approaching the air way terminal a hover craft approached them. An officer stepped out of the hover craft and saluted Fox and Krystal. To Fox's surprise, it was Officer Pricewho was saluting them. "Captain McCloud! Sir!" Price said. "It's good to see you again, and in one piece."

"Officer Price!" Fox cheerfully responded. "It's good to see you too."

"I heard about the troubles the Star Fox team had been experiencing. Good to know you guys are ok."

"We've hit a few road bumps, but we've had plenty of help thanks to the military."

"Understood. Who's your friend?"

Fox placed his arm around Krystal and the two smiled at Price. "This is Krystal," Fox said as he held Krystal close, "she's a member of the Star Fox team and a very good friend of mine."

"Pleased to meet you Krystal."

"Like wise." Krystal responded.

"Price," Fox said, "I'm not sure how recently you've been escorting people from the air way, but we're looking for a friend of ours. He's a silver furred fox that goes by the name Axios. Have you seen him?"

Price took a step back and placed his hand on his chin. "Axios…" he said as he collected his thoughts. "Haven't met an Axios, but I have recently escorted a silver furred fox."

Krystal took the opportunity to establish a mental link between her and Price. She looked into his memories and found that Price had escorted Axios. Price drove him to a park roughly twenty minutes from the air way. "Price," Krystal said, "do you mind taking me and Fox to the park?"

"Uh, sure." Price said out of confusion. "What about you friend?"

Fox looked at Krystal with slight confusion. However, Krystal winked at him and Fox caught on to her intentions.

"We were just wondering if he passed by or not." Fox said.

"Fair enough." Price said. "Hop in and I'll take you."

Fox and Krystal got into the back seat of Price's hover craft. Price drove away from the air way and into the Cornerian streets. While the air way is close to a major city, the streets were relatively clear of traffic. Fox and Krystal also noticed that the streets were relatively clear of people as well. "A lot less busy compared to normal." Fox observed.

"Yea people have been keeping indoors a bit since word of the Black Suns got out." Price said. "A lot of people weren't ready for another war, and lately the streets have been empty."

"They're scared?" Krystal asked.

"You can say that. Considering we lost a whole fleet, and almost lost another just recently; people aren't feeling exactly safe."

Price made a turn onto a street that lead straight to the park. After another ten minutes of driving, they had arrived. Fox and Krystal dismounted the hover craft and walked around to Price's window. Price handed them a small communicator before they left. "Take this." Price said. "Just press the blue button when you're ready for an extraction and I'll come get you."

"Thanks Price." Fox said as he took the communicator. "We'll be in touch."

"No problem. Take care!"

As price had left, Fox and Krystal decided to take a walk in the park looking for Axios. Krystal placed her finger tips on her forehead searching the area for any signs of Axios. After a brief minute of walking, she found a faint signal from Axios. "I think I found him." Krystal said.

"Where is he?" Fox asked.

The two continued to walk until they could see a large marble fountain in the center of a large pond within the park. There was a paved path that circled the pond and on the other of the pond was a bench. Fox and Krystal could see a black clothed figure sitting alone on the bench. They started to walk around the pond until they could see the face of the figure. As soon as they realized that it was Axios, they quickened their pace to greet him.

Axios was sitting on the bench with his head lowered and his eyes closed. He was simply enjoying the time to himself while surrounded by nature within the park. The air was cool, and the sun was shining brightly within the blue sky. He could hear people coming, and he turned to look at his visitors. "Company…" he thought.

Fox and Krystal walked up to Axios and were wondering why Axios had left the team. "I didn't break any rules did I?" Axios asked as Fox and Krystal approached them.

"No." Fox responded as he stopped next to the bench. "But we were worried about you. You can't just walk around on your own in the condition you're in you know?"

Axios did not understand what Fox was referring to until he looked down at his new prosthetic leg. "You know, this takes some getting used to." Axios depressingly responded. "But I felt like I needed to escape the air way and clear my head. Not to mention I haven't even visited Corneria's main tourist attractions."

The group chuckled at Axios's words, and Axios continued on. "It's jut nice to take in a bit of nature when it's offered."

"Is that all?" Krystal asked as she sensed a disturbance in Axios's thoughts.

Axios's smile quickly vanished and he took a deep breath. He sat back in his chair and his facial expression revealed depression from within him. "I suppose I can't lie to you now can I." Axios said to Krystal.

"You're a member of Star Fox you know." Fox said as he placed a hand on Axios's shoulder. "We're always here for you if you need us."

"What's really the matter Axios?" Krystal asked.

Axios stood from the bench and faced Fox and Krystal. "I don't know how to explain it…" Axios said. "So I'll just show you."

"Show us?" Fox added.

"It's not something I can put into simple words. It's something to do with my past. Krystal, I know you can read thoughts and memories, so I'll let you and Fox dig into my memories for a bit."

Krystal nodded her head and gently placed her finger tips on Fox and Axios's foreheads. Krystal focused on Axios memories and Axios focused on the memories he was willing to show. To Fox and Krystal's surprise, they were looking upon the memories of Axios's child hood.

Fox and Krystal found themselves on Macbeth. They were both wearing black clothing and were invisible to the people within Axios's memories. They found themselves within a city in Macbeth and it was crowded with people. However, a strong haze surrounded Fox and Krystal, and the voices of the people around them were echoing. "What is this?" Fox asked as he saw the people around him move very slowly. "Is this a dream?"

"This is how I can view memories." Krystal responded. "We're invisible to these people and we can move freely within Axios's memories, but we can only see what Axios is willing to show us."

"Seems like we're on Macbeth. I don't recognize this city though."

"We must be far from the factory districts. According to Axios's memories, this city is known as Province."

After a brief moment however, the vision had changed. Fox and Krystal were now standing behind a set of trees in a park on Macbeth. They found a pair of young foxes having a foot race side by side within the park. One had silver fur while the other had brown fur.

As the two were running, the silver vulpine tripped and fell on the ground. However, the brown vulpine continued to run. The silver vulpine quickly got up and continued running to catch the brown vulpine. However, as soon as the brown vulpine crossed a certain set of bushes in the park, he stopped and raised his hands over the air. "Woo!" the brown vulpine cheered. "Looks like I win again."

The silver vulpine finally crossed the bush and was hunched over panting. "You're lucky I tripped." the silver vulpine said. "Next time I'll win for sure!"

"Well…" The young brown vulpine came up to his silver friend and pushed him down to him down to the ground. "If you had better balance then maybe you wouldn't fall on your face all the time."

The silver vulpine grinned at his brown friend and quickly rose to his feet. He brought his hands up ready in a fighter's stance and called out his brown furred friend. "Can you back up that talk?" the silver vulpine asked.

The brown vulpine took a step back and brought his hands up in his fighter's stance. "I'm not going to go easy on you." the brown vulpine said. "You're eight years old now; I think it's time you learned how to really fight."

"Bring it!"

After a brief moment, the two foxes charged each other. The brown vulpine tackled his silver friend into the ground but the silver vulpine flipped the brown over his head. The two of them both stood from the ground and charged each other. As the two foxes were in the middle of their sparring, the vision had changed again.

The two foxes were now within their early teen age years. They were both sparring with each other again in front of a home. There was an older brown furred fox standing off to the side watching the two foxes spar. The older vulpine had a scar run across his face and he had an eye patch over his left eye.

The brown fox charged his silver friend and attempted to punch him across the face; after his silver friend blocked the punch, he tried again with a knee to the gut. However, the silver vulpine blocked the knee and stepped into the brown vulpine and delivered a punch into his gut. The brown vulpine fell down to one knee and the silver vulpine took the opportunity to jump over his shoulders. As he got around behind him, he grabbed the brown vulpine's neck and forced him down to the ground. Upon the brown vulpine being brought down, the silver vulpine grabbed one of his arms and bent it behind him. After a brief moment, the brown vulpine could not move an inch as he was completely restrained.

Fox and Krystal watched as the elder vulpine slowly approached them both. "That is enough." the elder said.

The silver vulpine released his brown friend and the two stepped away from each other. Both of them were panting and exchanging mild looks of hate. "Corvo," the elder said to the brown vulpine, "you must not overcommit to a single attack as it may be the death of you. Do you understand?"

"Yes father." Corvo responded.

The elder then turned to the silver vulpine. "And you, Axios." the elder said. "You mustn't always fight for submission. Should the need arise; it is better to eliminate you enemy rather than force him to surrender. Do you understand?"

"Understood." Axios responded.

Fox and Krystal were stunned to finally have the identities of the foxes revealed to him. Krystal used her psychic ability to pause the memory as she and Fox approached the young foxes. "Axios and Corvo?" Fox asked as he looked at them more closely.

"This is their youth." Krystal responded. "Corvo must be his brother. It seems like they trained together at a very young age."

After another brief minute of observation, Krystal continued the memory but the vision had changed again. They saw Axios and Corvo working with an older, silver, feminine fox on a pair of star fighters. "Keep this in mind boys," the feminine vulpine said. "These fighters are to be used for good. There are bad people out there in the system that only wants to hurt others. When the time comes, your training will not be easy. However, you will become stronger men because of it, and you're piloting skills will become a lot sharper too."

"You worry too much mother." Corvo assertively said as he was underneath one fighter. "We'll be better than all the students."

"And better than the instructors as well." Axios joked as he appeared form behind another fighter.

Axios and Corvo both chuckled and gave each other a high five. Their mother simply chuckled and rolled her eyes. After a brief moment, she came to her boys and embraced the two of them. "My boys…" she said. "Just be careful."

The vision changed again and Fox and Krystal were both standing in the rear of a crowd. It had been a few years and Axios and Corvo were both graduating from the Macbeth Flight Academy. They both graduated at the top of their class and their piloting scores surpassed those of even the instructors. As they were receiving their medals and graduation plaques, they got strange looks from a group of people within the crowd. Axios and Corvo were a bit on edge as the looks they were receiving from a group of bull dogs were far from friendly. Krystal could sense their distress and pointed out the bull dogs to Fox. "Fox, look." Krystal said. "They don't look very friendly."

"Something is bound to happen." Fox responded as he became nervous. "Just keep moving through the memories."

After a brief minute, the vision was changing again and they could see Axios and Corvo being driven back home in a hover car. However, they were stalled several blocks from their home as there was a police road block. Axios and Corvo both stepped out of their hover car and approached the officer in charge. "What's going on here?" Corvo asked.

"There was a fire." the officer responded. "One of the homes on 33rd street was burned down."

A line snapped within Axios and Corvo's minds. "That where we live!" Axios called out. "Which home was burned down?!"

"The listed owner was a brown fox named Faxton." the officer replied.

Axios and Corvo were both shocked. They both looked at each other in fear, and then they sprinted past the blockade. "Hey! You can't go there!" the officer called out. "Come back here!"

Axios and Corvo ignored his warning and they pushed and shoved their way towards their home. They eventually reached their street and found their home in ruins. They both rushed to get inside of their home to search for their family but they were tackled by fire men and the police. "MOTHER! FATHER!" Axios cried as he tried to fight off the guards.

"LET GO OF US!" Corvo demanded as he struggled.

It took four men each to restrain Axios and Corvo until they were both forced on to the ground. Fox and Krystal could not believe the sight. Axios and Corvo were only in their mid-teens and they had lost their parents and their home. "I don't believe this…" Fox said as he watched the horror of the burning home.

"This… It's horrible…" Krystal said. "I can't see this…"

As the vision progressed, they saw both Axios and Corvo in an interrogation room. They had glasses of water in front of them and they were both scared beyond belief. A husky detective entered the room and both Axios and Corvo stood in an instant. The detective held out his hand and the two boys sat back down. "Are you two Axios and Corvo Faxton?" the detective asked.

Axios and Corvo both nodded their heads and the detective sat down and placed an envelope on the table. "Well boys," he said, "There's no easy way to say this so I think I'm just going to come out with it."

Axios and Corvo were both on the edge of their seats. "Your parents…" the detective said. "They were killed within the fire."

Axios and Corvo were both frozen. They could not believe the reality of the situation and they were both devastated. "They're… dead…?" Corvo asked as a tear ran down his face.

"I'm sorry son…" the detective said. "But I'm afraid they are. We found two burnt corpses within the home and-"

The detective was interrupted as Axios stood from his seat in an angry fit and flipped the table off to the side. He rushed the detective and grabbed him by the collar of his suit. Axios held him up against the wall as tears started to break from his eyes. "You're lying!" Axios screamed as he pinned the detective. "You're lying! You can't be serious! YOU'RE LYING!"

Corvo did nothing but sit back in his chair. There were tears streaming down his face and he could only watch Axios as he threw his tantrum. "Son please!" the detective said. "I'm sorry. There was-"

"SHUT UP!" Axios yelled. "SHUT THE HELL UP"

Axios could not hold his tears back any longer and he released the detective. He started to stumble backwards until his back hit a wall. He simply sank to the ground in complete defeat and disbelief. "Just shut up…" Axios said. "Just shut up…"

"I'm sorry boys." the detective said. "I really am…"

"Sorry for what…" Corvo said in a depressed, hateful tone. "This isn't your problem… So why would you be sorry?"

The detective was silent. He couldn't try to relate to the boys since they had just lost their parents. After a brief moment, Axios stood from the ground and approached the detective. "Who did this?" Axios asked.

The detective handed Axios the envelope that was turned over when Axios flipped the table. Axios opened it and went through pages which revealed the images of several bull dogs. "They're part of a gang known as the Crimson Ghosts." the detective said. "They have been making petty crimes here and there on Macbeth. Lately however, they've been stepping up their game by conducting raids on a few settlements and factories here on Macbeth."

"Why did they do this?" Corvo asked. "What did we do to deserve this?!"

"Well boys… Your father was part of an investigation that was seeking to bring them to justice. He discovered some evidence and turned it in to the authorities. Afterwards he-"

"Wait," Axios said as he read the documents, "this is wrong. Our father worked in a factory, he wasn't a cop."

"The factory your father worked in was owned by the Crimson Ghosts, or at least some of their thugs. He was working undercover as a factory worker."

Axios and Corvo were both silent. "He lied to us…" Corvo said.

"I'm sorry son." the detective said. "He must have hid the truth from you in order to protect you. He wouldn't want you to be involved with his line of work as it can be dangerous for family."

Axios and Corvo were both shocked to learn of the truth. They didn't know what to do next and they had no home to go back to. "Where did these guys go?" Corvo asked. "The Crimson Ghosts, where did they go?"

"They're centered on a place known as Sargasso Station." the detective said. "I'm not sure of its exact location but it somewhere within the Meteo asteroid belt. Right now we're waiting on a go-ahead form MacBeth Police command to send in a strike team to take care of them."

A light bulb went off in Axios and Corvo's head. Corvo rushed over to Axios and the two of them started looking upon the photos. They would never forget the faces of those who killed their parents. Still watching from a hidden void, Fox and Krystal were both mortified at Axios and Corvo's past. Going against her better judgment, Krystal destroyed the psychic link and soon Fox, Krystal, and Axios were back in the park. "What's wrong?" Axios asked.

"Why are you showing us this?" Krystal asked.

"Because throughout my entire childhood; Corvo was always at my side. My own brother would die for me, and I would have done the same for him."

"I still don't understand." Fox said as he shook off a mild headache. "Who is Corvo? What happened to him?"

Immediately upon asking his question, Axios's eyes widened and he was in shock. Fox and Krystal were both confused as to Axios's change in facial expression until they turned around. They saw a black robed, hooded fox approaching them from a set of trees. The hooded Fox approached them and removed his hood. As soon as his head was revealed, Fox drew his blaster and Krystal drew her staff.

"What are you doing here…?" Axios asked.

"What…?" One said in a happy, dark tone. "Can I not have a nice chat with my little brother and his friends?"