Just as a big FYI, Restoration, and in hindsight, Deception, is no longer my main focus story. do not confuse this with me saying i dont intend to finish this story. trust me, it's a goal. but from here on, Restoration is a pure fun write. it's doin nothing for helpin me with my personal fic any more, and there for, it's gettin downgraded in importance to me. but don't worry, i'mma still keep quality up, i'm just focusing elsewhere. so yall are trackin, in the next week or so, i'm going to post the new focus story, which is, in all honesty, an Altered Universe of Deception. yup, you heard me, it's in a way, a retelling of these characters stories. i won't go deeper in but if yall be fans of Will, Mira, an this version of the Star Fox Gang, keep an eye out for that story to go up!

Mira groaned as she felt something jab her side, not really sure what it was. She was just annoyed that it was waking her up. She had been enjoying a rather wonderful dream after all.

"No…. hang in there Smith! Han…hang in there!" Will's quiet and desperate voice broke clean through Mira's drowsiness, causing her to shoot awake. Will was thrashing back and forth, muttering over and over about things that were incomprehensible to her. she couldn't stop the sigh that slipped out of her, having been woken up like this by him almost nightly. Most of the time, she was able to calm him with out waking him, letting him simply sleep. But it seemed to only be getting more and more common. She very gently set her hand on his shoulder, seeing his entire body tense up at her touch. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop the fear that leapt into her throat at that. Something about the way his muscles tensed looked so much like he did when he swung a knife at her, and that honestly terrified her. and it happened almost every time he was like this. she gulped, taking another breath to try and settle herself.

"Shh, will, it's okay….." she spoke very softly as she shifted her hand away from his shoulder, very gently brushing her fingers against his cheek. He slowly started to calm down, Mira starting to relax a little as he did so. It was only then that she became aware of the dull ache in her side, gingerly touching the spot on her ribs to discover her fur standing up as it started to swell around the impact point. Did he really hit me that hard? The bruise was already extremely tender.

"Mmmiraaa? Whaa'ss going on?" She quickly panicked, hiding the spot on her side from him. being completely naked at the moment did nothing to hide the small injury.

"Oh! It's nothing Will, just go back to sleep!" she tried to sound normal as she spoke, but despite her best efforts, her voice rose several octaves. He groggily sat up, clearly staring at where she was covering her ribs, despite the darkness in the room.

"Why are you holding your side like that…. You're not hurt are you?" his brow furrowed as he spoke, his eyes returning to hers. Her ears dropped flat as she tried to look away. she felt his hand gently remove her's from her side, unable to stop her sharp intake of breath, the small movement causing a sharp stab of pain through her side. "That's…. how did you get this bruise!? It looks fresh." If he had seemed worried before, he was full on panicked now.

"i-It's nothing! You just accidently elbowed me in your sleep! It's fi…" her voice caught in her throat as she watched his skin pale. He…. He thinks he hurt me! I'm causing this, I have to fix it! she quickly hugged him, trying to comfort him. "It's fine Will. Really. You just rolled over. It's bound to happen sometimes!"

"If you say so Mira" She felt his arms go around her, pulling her tightly against his chest, the lack of clothing between them being utter bliss to her. but even so, her ears remained flat against her head, a frown on her muzzle. She heard how disheartened he had sounded right there. He didn't believe me. She wanted to sigh, but she managed to hold it back. "It's nearly six in the morning. I'm going to go start breakfast." She startled as he suddenly pulled out of their tight embrace, quickly throwing on clothes before disappearing out the door to the room, not once looking at her again. She quickly put on fresh clothes herself, having showered before they went to sleep that night. When she stepped into the main room of his apartment, he was already completely focused on cooking. Before he could even notice that she had left his bedroom, she slipped out of the main door and down the stairs. The lobby was near silent as she stepped out into the surprisingly empty streets, tears in her eyes. Damn it! I can't even help him when he really needs me anymore!

"Mira!" she froze when heard Will calling out to her. she didn't let herself turn around, feeling Will's hand on her shoulder. "Mira are you okay!?" her ears pressed back again as she squeezed her eye's shut. "Mira!?" his voice raised several octaves.

"Will, I'm fine, okay!" she snapped that out at him, instantly regretting it as his hand pulled off her shoulder. When she finally opened her eyes, she found him staring at her, completely wide eyed and even paler than before. "I'm sorry! i… I'm…." her voice quickly failed her, unable to stop herself from breaking down crying. She felt his arms go around her, very gently rubbing her back as he quietly cooed into her ear, trying to calm her down. but if anything it only made her sob more.

"Mira! It's okay! Just…. What's… just come back inside, okay?" she barely managed to nod, letting him slowly guide her back up to his apartment, gently sitting her on the couch. She really didn't want him to let go, but he did, the sounds and smells of cooking food announcing why.

"Will, after I get off today…. There's someplace I want you to meet me at." She had no idea how she had managed to speak, but her quiet voice was clearly heard by him, given she heard him stop what he was doing.

"Uh, yeah, of course Mira. Just send me the address and when, and I'll be there." She absently nodded at his words, not paying attention to anything as he brought her an omelet, barely eating any of it, nor tasting what she ate, before she finally left for work.

Katt smiled as she pulled herself deeper against Falco's back, unable to stop the euphoric feeling she always got when they rode his hover bike together. And today was most certainly no exception to that. It was bright and warm out, not a cloud in the sky, even the wind being calm and mild. Not that she currently felt that as the air rushed past her fur, wearing nothing but a tube top and short shorts.

"Jeez Katt, mind not squeezin' me so hard? Ya might strangle me!" she barely heard his shout, his head canted ever so slightly back so he could shout more toward her.

"awl, come on Falco, you know you love this!" She merely laughed as she pulled him closer, feeling the soft leather of his jacket rubbing against her fur, her eye's slipping closed as she let out a purr.

"Oh shit!" she felt the bike swerve underneath her, being tossed from it as that happened. Her eye's snapped open to get a split second glimpse of the bike careening away from her, Falco falling beside her, just before she slammed into the pavement. The next few seconds, all she could really tell was that she hit the ground several times, and that she was in an excruciating amount of pain. When she finally managed to open her eyes, her vision was swimming, barely able to see a bend in her forearm that should not be possible. She let out a scream, barely noticing the sections of bleeding skin where the pavement had ripped several layers of skin off her body. She barely managed to locate Falco in her blurry vision, seeing the blue bird nearly two dozen meters away, and completely still. As excruciating as it was, she started crawling toward him, only able to use one leg and one arm as she dragged herself across the pavement, calling out to him several times, with no response.

"Katt, come on gal! wake up!" Katt startled awake as she realized she was being shaken, Falco's frantic shout cutting clean through her sleep. Her eye's snapped open to find Falco practically on top of her, both of his eyes flicking frantically between her own. "Yo okay Katt? You were screaming my name in your sleep!"

She groaned as she closed her eyes, rubbing her forehead. both her ear's were peeled as far back as they could, the pillow under her head preventing them from laying truly flat on her head. "I'm sorry Falco, just… dreaming about that day I broke my wrist and arm."

"Oh…. Yeah, that…." He flopped onto the bed beside her, an exsasperated sigh ripping out of his beak. His entire body seemed to just deflate as his feathers laid back down. "Jeez Katt, ya scared the crap out of me!"

"Sorry, my bad! I can make it up to you?!" she smiled to him as he cracked the eye facing her open, half glaring at her.

"And how are ya gonna do that little kitty?"

Her only response to him was to roll over on top of him, gently purring into his ear as she pressed her entire body down on his. Her tail almost immediately snaked around one of his legs, the feathers around his face and neck tickling her whiskers as they puffed out. "oh… I'm sure I can think of something that could please you." she tried to make her voice as alluring as possible as she very gently whispered that into his feather covered ear.

"Yeah, I think ya just might."

Mira sighed as she paced back and forth at the small parking structure she had asked Will to meet her at. It was still a couple miles from his apartment, but it was very close to where she wanted to take him. and having already received a return text from him, it was now nothing more than her waiting for him to show up. Her ears perked up as she heard the revving of his bike's engine, able to easily pick it out from the Cornerian vehicles that were passing by. Although the grand majority of Cornerian vehicles were electric powered, that was a very recent change in their society, and a large number of collectors and richer individuals still had fuel based vehicles, using very similar organic fuel to humanity's vehicles, for the simple reason that fuel based vehicles had much better performance, and were very fun to drive, or so she had heard. She personally didn't even have a driver's license. The engine sound grew in volume as she saw him round the corner, surprisingly calmly, compared to his norm for riding. He had a high performance street bike, completely matte black in finish, matching the matte black helmet he was wearing. he rolled right into the parking garage beside her, almost ignoring her. but he almost immediately stepped back out, and pulled her into a tight embrace.

"You okay Mira? You are acting….. kinda strange today?" he didn't let go of her as he spoke softly into her ear.

"Just a lot on my mind Will. Don't worry okay? I'm fine, I have you after all." Truth be told, Mira didn't even believe her own words. Her mind had been a battleground for weeks now over everything that was going on between them. this morning had merely been the first time she had been unable to prevent herself from showing it outwardly, at least as far as Will was concerned. "Anyway, lets go. There's some people I want you to meet. Come on." He nodded following her around the street corner and down into the building she had found almost four weeks ago. most of the group was already there, Mira instantly moving to Karin, the small feline. She wasn't sure why, but something about the woman just made Mira think they would get along.

"Oh hey, Mira, right? And I'm guessing this was who you were talking about earlier?" The woman sounded surprisingly excited to see Mira, positively beaming at Mira.

"Uh, yeah, Karin, this is Will. Will, this I Karin, she was a combat medic, was a part of the Katinain campaign." Will very curtly nodded to the feline, politely accepting her handshake. Knowing Will, and how little Mira had given him about what they were doing, likely had the human on the defensive. That said, she saw the nervous looks one of the Vulpines kept giving Will, George quickly breaking away from the other three two come say hi as well.

"Hey Mira, nice to meet ya Will!" he was also equally cheery, but he always seemed that way. Come to think of it, he never once shared a story about him, simply listening and encouraging the others. "We're just waiting on Klein and Brady to start so, just relax and chat. Kay?" Mira nodded to him, just barely noticing Will do the same beside her.

"So I'm guessing your girlfriend didn't tell you what you're doing here, did she?" Mira's head snapped back to Karin, where the feline was simply smiling to them. Will seemed to stumble over what to say several times, shocking Mira. In all the time Mira had known him, he had never seemed to have trouble talking to strangers. "It's okay. We are just a group of war vets, looking for some folks who understand each other. You don't have to be shy here." As Karin spoke again, her voice squeaked several times, both of her angular ears twitching almost incessantly. She was clearly beyond nervous, and yet still trying to be welcoming and friendly.

"Well, um…. Okay." Mira's shoulders slumped as Will managed to say that small statement, his voice weak. He seemed as twitchy as she was. Karin simply nodded and stepped away, plopping into her usual seat, Mira noticing that someone had already added two more cushy seats for Mira and Will. "Mira, what are we doing here?"

"I well….." she let out a sigh as she debated exactly what to respond to him with. "I'm not sure how to help you and I just kinda stumbled across this so….. I don't know. Maybe you can help someone here. Or maybe they can help you." he seemed to relax as she spoke, giving her a warms smile.

"Oh… I see. That's…. I'll give it a shot, but I'm not sure help group is what I need." He playfully bopped her shoulder as he spoke, his more normal sly smirk returning.

"Good." She simply stuck her tongue out at him, as playfully as he had been. But she could tell he was still nervous.

"Great, she wasn't fucking kidding about bringing one of them here." Mira startled at the sound of brady's harsh voice, looking back to see the canine glaring daggers at Will, Klein ushering him past and to the seats, Mira and Will picking out seats just as everyone else did.

"Well, we have ourselves another new guest I see! Welcome, I am Harry Klein, if you would, please, introduce yourself, and feel free to ask any questions you want!" Brady grunted at the friendly offer the psychologist made.

"Captain William Hawkins, former fifteenth group special forces, battle roster Whiskey- Hotel 7526. Was UEC military but left and joined up with Star Fox before the war started." He shrugged, several of the others there looking at them very differently. Brady seemed only more angered toward them, but the others all seemed to look at them with a newfound respect, the feline's jaw literally dropping.

"Bull fucking shit. Neither of you could have been in Star Fox, and even if ya did, you lousy pieces of shit should be in fucking prison!" Brady was accusingly pointing at both of them as his hackles started to raise, a light snarl and growl from his muzzle. Surprisingly, Will remained relatively calm. Mira on the other hand, wanted to dart across the space and slap the man outright. She had become extensively proud of being a member of Star Fox, and very defensive of that.

"Believe what you will. We were both Star Fox pilots. But that's it. nothing special." Brady grunted at the two of them the room falling eerily quiet all of the sudden.

"Well, is there anything you want to share with us Captain? You can talk about anything you need to get off your chest." George was the one to break the silence that had quickly fallen, Mira's eyes focusing on Will beside her. she watched as his eyes dropped to the floor, almost as if he was staring at something else, beyond the floor.

"I guess. As I said, I was a member of the US Military before I joined Star Fox. I was a deployment to our outer moons and we were on a patrol." He stopped for a moment gulping as he did so. As far as Mira knew, he had never shared anything from his time as a soldier, beyond the very vague description he once gave of his entire platoon being wiped out. "About our third patrol, we got hit by an improvised explosive, lost one of our trucks. Crew was alive but seriously injured. So I had my platoon dismount and start pulling security while myself, the medic assigned to our platoon, and my platoon sergeant all started extracting the injured from the vic. Specialist Smith was one of the crew members, and despite his shrapnel wounds and concussive injuries, he stayed up in the gun turret of the destroyed truck. Next thing we knew, we were under heavy fire, including mortars. I had the wounded loaded up and watched as Smith was shot in the chest as he covered us. the man just kept firing the turret until I physically dragged him out of it. I had no aid supplies, his were ruined by shrapnel, and it ended up that the medic was in a different vehicle than the one I dragged him too." his eye's closed as he was speaking, Mira able to see the tears forming on his eyes. She herself was shocked by the tale he was telling, having never known that he had been in more than one fight in his time in the US military. "I was with him when he died. And there was nothing that I could o. I just sat there, holding his hand as he begged me to bring him home. He wanted to see his wife and son again and I failed him. he passed away long before we reached the nearest base. i…. I'm never forgetting his face that day, the pain he was in. in some ways, his loss was worse on me than losing my whole platoon, because he was the first I had ever lost. So before you start saying anything against me, remember, we are all soldiers. We have all experienced losses. You got that?" He straight up glared at Brady as he said that, almost all of the other's agreeing.

Brady and Will remained silent for the rest of the session, Will seemed to be completely lost in his own thoughts, Brady simply glaring at Will the whole time. Mira had wanted to say something to get Will to talk more, but she was frankly too scared to. She let out a sigh as the pair left the building, heading back to the parking garage that Will had parked in.

"So?" Mira tried to sound hopeful as she said that to Will, both trying to break the silence between them and legitimately wondering what he had thought of the veterans group.

"I don't think they can help me much…" Mira's heart fell as she heard him saying that, knowing her attempt to help him had just failed miserably. "But, I think I might be able to help some of them. most of what they are dealing with isn't too far from things I dealt with already. I mean, it still bothers me but….. gah what am I saying! I can't even sort my own problems out." He rubbed the back of his head as he finished, kicking at a loose piece of concrete almost simultaneously.

"Oh…. I'm sorry…" He instantly looked at her as her quiet voice broke out, Mira quickly looking away. she didn't want him to see her nearly crying right now.

"I know what you were trying to do there. And I really appreciate that. I just need to find my own way forward, okay? I don't think they will be of much help is all." She felt his arm go over her shoulder as he spoke, forcing her to stop as he pulled her into a tight embrace, one she was wary to return. Damn it! no matter what I try, I can't help him!