A/N: The chapter before the last and I'm sure that you may enjoy this a bit. I won't jump around too much but to warn you, this chapter jumps a bit and it isn't even that long to begin with. But I think this chapter will be a bit enjoyable.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Star Fox, Nintendo and/or Rare do. Any relation to my original characters in anyway is entirely coincidental.

________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 29: Wolf Quits.

It was now in the middle of the night and Wolf was now formulating a plan of his own. He warned Fox that he never did anything for free and he was about to make off with what he thought he deserved.

Wolf decided that the first thing to do was to get a trained red-eye. Since Mia had trained them they'd probably be trained pretty damn fast and the only thing Wolf could hope for was for that to be true. When he first went out to the courtyard where the red-eye were, the first question Wolf asked himself was how to go about this. When he then got the idea.

Wolf made his way to the armory and went inside. Being Captain of the Guards he had a key for every room in the palace…except the King's room, which Fox refused to sleep in there anyway.

Wolf took a wagon from the armory and cautiously, VERY cautiously rolled it out of the armory trying not to make a sound. Wolf knew how to be quiet and to him this moment was no problem. Except that he was in a completely new place. He wasn't outside he was INSIDE! And this wasn't just a stand in the market place he was stealing from, but ROYALTY! If he was caught he knew what the consequences were. But Fox would probably go easy on him.

Each step that Wolf took in rolling the wagon reminded him of his days when he pilfered ten years ago in the market place. Just trying to make a living. Sure, Wolf had his morals but after being on the streets for years before Scales came to power he knew exactly how to get around quietly and without being discovered. Unfortunately he never had to get around inside a facility before.

When Wolf got to the treasury he quickly unlocked the vault and made his way inside. Time was running short. A part of him feared that he'd be caught. But was there to fear? Fox would let him off easy right?

Quickly slipping the wagon inside, Wolf began to scoop up some of the treasure. After Scales had taxed the hell out of Corneria (what he left of it anyway) it was impossible not to climb a mountain of gold.

Scooping up the treasure wasn't going to be enough. He needed more! A whole lot more to get this job done. If he had scooped on his own then he'd be caught for sure and he didn't want that. He wanted the treasure and to be out of the palace before sunrise. The faster and sooner he left the better. Looking around a bit Wolf spotted a chest. It was full of treasure but Wolf could easily dump it on the wagon and substitute that in for a shovel.

The lupine went along with that idea. Of course this chest also had a lid and it was getting annoying. Wolf managed to rip that off in no time flat with his razor sharp claws. He wouldn't need the top of the chest; it wasn't as if he'd really need the chest anyway. There was time for that later. All he wanted was a good new start.

It didn't take long using this method to fill up the chest. Being satisfied with what he'd done, Wolf rolled the wagon out of the treasury, keeping quiet. Wolf wasn't exactly a greedy fur. He didn't fill the wagon up so much that it was overflowing. It was close to the top but not enough to go over.

'Anything else I'm missing?' Wolf asked himself. Food! Of all the things how could he forget to feed himself?

Wolf didn't feel as if he'd have the time to go back for food now, but he might as well. If he didn't then he'd starve before he got anywhere. But there was no way he could leave the treasure in the middle of the hall. The risk of someone walking into the hall was high. There was one place Wolf could put the wagon and be safe. That was the courtyard. So of course that's where Wolf headed.

He left the wagon there. While there was red-eye awake it wasn't like they could actually say or do anything to get him caught. Well, save the part about them not being able to do anything.

The palace was full of food and Wolf knew this because it wouldn't be right to just throw away all the food that Scales took from the furs. Wolf knew that Fox was planning on giving the food back to the furs. "I might as well help myself." He smirked as he began to raid the pantry of almost everything he could find. Except anything made of pork. He'd never eat pork again. He took some fresh fruits, or at least what hadn't rotted away. Scales took a lot but certainly didn't eat much.

"Damn the bastard!" Wolf hissed under his breath. Whether it was something Scales had done to taunt Wolf or not, there were little meats left. A lot of it was pork and Scales knew that Wolf didn't like pork. He grabbed whatever wasn't pork and stuffed some of it into a side pouch he had with him. The rest he could put o top of the gold in the wagon.

That's exactly what Wolf did. Each piece of food he grabbed was vital to him in a way. Each had it's own value to him.

With his pouch full and his arms in the same manner he went right back to the wagon in the courtyard.

Quickly, Wolf tossed the food into the wagon on top of the gold. Time was beginning to run short. He grabbed a harness and put it on a red-eye's back. This part was going to be loud, but by the time it would be finished, Wolf would hope to be gone. The red-eye was strong and he could easily force his way through the wall.

Wolf quickly grabbed a whip and got everything set up. 'Time is everything.' He always told himself and this situation was no different. Each passing second was another to the time bomb in his mind. When he was done getting everything set up and ready to go. One more thing was missing. A weapon. There was no way he could expect to ride around the world with this much treasure without having to defend it.

Once again, Wolf was back into the palace. This time to the armory. 'Perhaps I need more than just a sword and a dagger.' Wolf thought and went on his own little shopping spree. He grabbed more than enough quiver of arrows and a crossbow to boot.

Returning to the red-eye and the wagon he felt as though he was ready to leave. Anything missing? He loaded up an arrow in his crossbow and was about ready to leave. He grabbed a whip but before he could crack it he got the sense that someone was there and as soon as he got the feeling he pointed the crossbow to the doorway leading to the courtyard. He didn't fire as he saw Fox McCloud approaching him. "I'm not stupid. You hinted that you wanted some sort of reward and I knew that you'd try something eventually."

Wolf was silent. "I can't stay here Fox. What are you going to do now? Behead be for stealing the treasure? I won't hesitate to shoot you know. Even if it's you."

Fox stood there in awe. He could go summon the guards now if he wanted to. "Why?" he questioned.

"I helped Scales kill James. The furs here don't like me. Do you think they'd trust ME to be in charge of their safety? They already look at me with disdain."

Fox was starting to feel sorry for Wolf. It was true. Many of the furs thought that he should be executed. "I thank you for what you did for me." Fox nodded. "YOU are the real hero in this war, and you know it. Take your reward."

Wolf lowered his crossbow. "What did you just say?"

"Take your reward. I think that what you have is enough to satisfy you."

Wolf nodded and then hopped down from the wagon and approached Fox and took his paw in his. "Thank you King."

"You'll be back someday won't you?" Fox asked.

"Of course I'll be back. But for now, I can't stay." Wolf said and went back to the wagon. Seating himself he cracked the whip and the red-eye rushed forward barging through the stone wall.

"Someone is bound to have heard that." Fox whispered to himself. The lupine was gone with a fair share of treasure. No red-eye made an attempt to follow their comrade and Fox now found himself alone for a while.

Fox gave a sigh and felt that perhaps it wasn't best to let him go…but he knew he owed it to Wolf.

Fox did an about-face and was now standing in front of Mia. He lowered his ears in thinking that perhaps his father would've approached it in a different way.

"James would be proud of you, Fox." She said and smiled. "James would be very proud." Then she walked off.

There was a tear etched in Fox's eye and he turned around to stare at the night sky. Staring off into space he rested his eyes on a red star.

His star.

_______________________________________________________________________

A/N: Something about this chapter wasn't quite that satisfying to me but I liked it nonetheless. There is still one more chapter left (epilogue of course). I don't have a sequel planned out for this but I actually did draw inspiration for another fic. I'll let you all know about it in final Author's Note.