Zhenxuan20002: Glad you think so!

"Ganon-who?" Fox asked.

"Ganondorf. He's the one behind everything, and we know where he's going to strike next."

Fox turned away from Link and looked over to Mario, who was leaning against the door on the opposite wall.

"See?" he said. "We're not just running around in the dark. We have a lead."

"Well good luck with that," Mario replied. He turned around and pulled the door open behind him.

Fox frowned. "Where are you going?"

"I'm leaving."

"You're leaving?" Link stepped forward, a worried look on his face. "But why? I thought you needed to capture Wario. Don't you have to bring him in?"

"Only because I thought he was coming back to the Mushroom Kingdom," Mario said, waving his hand dismissively. "Now that it's clear he's got some other grand scheme on his mind, I think I've stuck around long enough. I've got family back home that's probably wondering what's been taking me so long. Frankly, I've been wondering that as well, since I know he can't hold down the fort for long."

"But you can't leave!" Fox said. "We need to stick together."

"Well consider yourself down three members." Mario stepped through the door, before he threw a glance back at Donkey Kong and Yoshi. "Come on guys. We're going."

Fox turned to them. "You have to help us."

Donkey Kong's eyes flicked over to the open door, then back to him. Yoshi stepped toward the door, but even he looked unsure about leaving.

Seeing a chance, Fox grasped it with both hands. Turning to Mario, he said, "Do you think the four of us can take on the enemy? We need you."

"Well we don't need you," Mario said. "We were doing fine before I let us get dragged into this mess, and we'll do just fine without you. We don't owe you anything."

"You owe it to Pikachu," Link cut in. "If it weren't for him, that thing back there might have killed you."

"Yeah?" Mario's shoulders slumped a bit, but he kept his glare firmly fixed on Fox. "Well, whose responsibility is it for keeping their teammates alive? The team leader. You wanted to be head chef, so now you might as well try acting like one."

With a huff, Mario turned to leave.

"Wait."

Mario stopped. He kept his face turned away, but the fact he'd stopped showed that he was listening. Everyone else's eyes fell on Fox, and Fox's eyes fell to the ground.

"You're right," he said. "It's my responsibility. Just like it was my responsibility to keep my team together after I lost a teammate. I couldn't do it then, and I always felt guilty about it. I guess it's been weighing me down more than I've realized since now that I'm back on a team, I don't think I'd be able to live with myself if I couldn't make this work. I lost a teammate before. I don't want to lose another."

"I won't try to stop you if you want to leave after this is done. No team leader should try to control their teammates, something I think I might have forgotten from spending so much time by myself. But what's happening right now, if we don't stop it, it'll come back to hurt your family and friends. I just need you to trust me to keep you all alive until we finish this."

Silence hung in the air. A shadow passed through the room, a dark cloud in the orange sky. Slowly, Yoshi stepped away from the door, but Mario remained at the doorway, his back still turned to the rest of them, as the setting sun cast his shadow out into the hall. Fox held his breath.

Then, Mario closed the door.

He turned back to Fox, the beginnings of a smile on his face.

"Alright, Fox," he said. "I'll give you your chance to make things right. For us, and for yourself."

"Thank you," Fox replied, his face breaking out into a relieved grin. "I won't let you down!"

I had to cut down on the chapter length so I could have more time to work on my other story. Speaking of that, I might cut down on how frequently I update this story, but then again, I might not. We'll just have to see how it all works out.