Chapter Eight

"Recuperating from a broken heart"

Fox's eyes slowly opened. The first thing he noticed was the fresh, yet sterile smell of oxygen. Plastic tubes rested against his nose. The back of his paw was covered in tape and it hurt to tense up. His eyes lowered to his paw, where an IV catheter had been inserted into the back of his hand, with a piece of tape over it, to keep it from slipping free. Finally, Fox could feel a distant pain in his gut when he moved.

The room swirled and danced around his head, tauntingly. He was too loopy to really come to the conclusion that whatever pain medication he was on had caused these effects. He tried to sit up but despite the pain medications, his gut burned like fire. Fox collapsed back into the bed, panting softly. His heart seemed to be in the most pain. If it wasn't for the pain medications, he had to wonder if he'd be as calm as this... probably not.

His ears perked up and after a moment his eyes lifted, drunkenly, to the door at the opposite end of the medical bay. Peppy's tired eyes met the inebriate gaze of Fox McCloud. The rabbit could only hurt inside for his friend's misfortunate twist of fate. Peppy settled down on the edge of Fox's mattress.

"How ya feelin'...?" Peppy offered the pilot a slight smile.

"I... failed her," Fox muttered. Peppy placed his palm upon Fox's head, running his fingers through Fox's fur in a paternal gesture. Fox's eyes seemed distant and not from the pain drugs, either. To Peppy, Fox's eyes seemed to be looking off into another place, perhaps even watching whatever it was that Fara did to him, over and over.

A moment of awkward silence passed. Fox frowned in a thoughtful way then broke that silence with a mutter. "I've got to get her back. I've got to destroy Iliria and get my girl back," He said, his mutter showing some resolve in his tone, on the last sentence. Peppy nodded slowly, listening to his friend ramble from the pain medication.

Fox's paws balled up into a pair of fists. He wasn't the strongest man in the world, but he would push his endurance to the very limit and do what it takes to get Fara back, safely. Fara, on the other hand, seemed quite happy without Fox's love... no, that didn't make sense... Did it? Fox decided it was the pain medication that made him think so foolishly.

He knew darn well she didn't seem happy, but detached and distant. It was then, that he remembered Fara beaming softly, rubbing her muzzle against Iliria's palm. That very sight, watching out of the corner of his eye, was enough to turn his stomach right then and there. Not to mention the fact that it had to be Iliria that spared Fox's life. How could such a tragic travesty like that be allowed to happen?

Fox had no answers. Peppy, equally, had little to offer beyond comfort at the moment. The two were quiet, sitting there, for a moment. After several minutes of silence, the hare broke the silence, after straightening his shirt.

"You know... Ya slept for two days," Peppy trailed off, looking up at his best friend's son. Fox frowned weakly, sighing through his nose. "You're lucky Corneria had a doctor that could repair your intestinal track. Not to mention all the stitches from that gaping hole in your stomach and back," Peppy paused again, smiling slightly. "I can't believe she plugged you..."

"It's my fault," Fox muttered.

"Oh?"

Fox nodded. "I grabbed her wrist and practically dared her, trying to see how she'd handle it. I thought if she hesitated for even a second, I could pull the gun away and work from there."

"She... didn't hesitate, did she," Peppy deduced.

"Good assumption, detective," Fox muttered with a cough. The rabbit shut his eyes, shaking his head softly. How Fox could live with this... curse, Peppy would never know. First his mother, then his father, then Andross has a personal vendetta against the boy, not to mention StarWolf... and now Fara supposedly being pregnant and living with Iliria, where Fox should be with her, taking care of her. Peppy knew the boy wanted to have the joy of babying Fara and getting her mint ice cream at 3 AM, and now that wasn't happening.

"Nah, no turning back now," Fox idly mused.

"Oh?" Peppy cocked a brow. Fox was still trying to be positive and that pleased the old man.

"Yeah," Fox said with a decisive nod. "We're gonna get her back and sink Iliria to the bottom of Zoness's deepest ocean bed. No one takes my girl," Fox growled softly. Peppy wasn't sure how he did it, but Fox always managed to have a heroic slide about him. Even in bed with plastic tubes in his nostrils, Fox had that courageousness about him. James would have been proud, for sure.

"I've lost too much to let something like this just slip through my fingers. The life of my son or daughter is at stake. If I'm ever to be half the man my father was, I've got to do what it takes to get Fara away from Iliria." Fox's words were calm yet strong. The old hare leaned forward and kissed James' son upon his forehead.

"Get your rest, Junior; get well quickly so we can stage our next attempt. We'll make the next one a simple abduction."

"You want me to stick some Ether on a napkin, underneath her nose?" Fox raised a brow.

"Something like that, Mac." Peppy patted Fox's shoulder, stood up and walked out of the room. Finally the Pandorian glanced up to the television set at the end, opposite of Fox's bed. A rainbow of lines covered the screen vertically. The old hare reached over to hit the switch before heading out of the room.

"Hey! Leave that on," Fox grumbled softly.

"Why, Fox? It's contra-band."

"So what, leave it on, I'm a detective," McCloud groused softly, lying down on the bed, his head gently covering the pillow.

"Eh, whatever," Peppy said, re-hitting the switch before walking back out of the room. The aging hare completely ignored Fox's joke. The television set flared back to life, gently humming an annoying little tone, from that particular station being off the air. As Peppy left, he flipped the room lights out.

Fox lay there in the dim illumination of the multi-color band display, staring at the group of colors, covering the screen from top to bottom. Another moment went by and suddenly the television's lines disappeared, replaced by a picture of numbers.

"We now begin another broadcast day on Channel 17. Thank you for tuning in to channel 17 and we will begin your favorite television shows shortly. Channel 17 operates on a bandwidth between 710 and 716 megahertz and is located in Papetoon's Blithe County in the State of Franklin on the upper west hemisphere's country of Amiga. Thank you for tuning in and enjoy your broadcast day..." Immediately the message was replaced by morning gospel shows. A man in a wheel chair suddenly stood up, putting his hands in the air as some guy in a priest cloth waved a paw over the wheelchair man's head. Fox rolled his eyes, lifted the remote and flipped the set off. He then rolled over, closing his eyes... maybe Peppy was right, who needed television anyhow.

Meanwhile, two days had gone by and Iliria found herself to be engaged in yet another conversation with Fara Phoenix. They had been talking about Sterin's death at the paws of Fox McCloud, deeming him an unfit man to hero a planet.

Fara shook her head with a soft sigh. "Why hasn't anyone done anything about McCloud, at any rate?" She mused, cleaning her pistol after an afternoon at a firing range. "I thought for sure he'd be dead after that gunshot. You'd think he was healed on a Gospel television show to have survived it."

"But you know who would make a good pairing?" Iliria mused, changing the topic back to Sterin's death. "The man who's working for me right now. Sterin's brother? That one. You could go out to dinner with him," She added, trying to make it sound like a suggestion. The fact of the matter was simple, if she could make Fox see Fara with another man somehow, she could use it to lure Fox into coming back and serving her again, to be with Fara once more.

"Oh, I don't know. Who needs a man right now? I'm pregnant aren't I?" Fara shook her head softly, going back to cleaning the pistol.

Only Iliria knew the truth. Fara was about as pregnant as a man, right now, and yet the ploy worked great against Fox. He was flustered and off balance. He was off his game and the best part of it all, was the fact that he got hysterical, begging Fara to shoot him.

"Do you think this drama with Mister McCloud will ever end?" Fara asked, turning to look out the window with a sigh. Whenever there was confusion, she would be punished, but Fara was a smart girl. She kept Iliria from knowing there was confusion and made it known that she understood everything completely. However, due to the fact that she was learning the ins and outs of the entire situation, she was secretly coming to distrust Iliria more and more.

Lying to Andross was the first tip that things weren't right. Some days she was roleplaying as Vixy, other days she was Fara Phoenix. It was overly odd, regardless.

"What's the plan, Mistress?" Fara asked quietly.

Iliria smiled slightly, patting the fennec on the shoulder. "If we can't beat him, we have him join us," She said in regard to McCloud. "We'll do what it takes to have Fox join our side, then he won't be a threat."

"Indeed, that sounds logical," Fara mused softly.

Days turned into weeks….

Falco Lombardi knelt down, carefully aiming his pistol and fired. The gunshot caused his firearm to buck gently in his palms, the blaster discharge lancing from the barrel and disappearing into the center ring of a target. He grinned his cockiest grin and gave the pistol a twirl on his finger.

Another shot rang out, from behind. It hit the bullseye closer to the center than Falco's own shot, causing him to balk in surprise. His head snapped about, staring at Fox McCloud, sitting in a wheel chair, holding a handgun. Falco knew he owned this range, on a good day, and obviously he was being a marksman, this afternoon.

"What brings you out to the range, McCloud?" Lombardi asked, sniffing the air with a frown. He despised when someone came by to show him up.

The vulpine glanced down for a moment then looked back up. "We're going to try again, soon. I'm pretty stitched up and I want to be at the top of my game, when we go and get her back," Fox explained.

"S'that a fact? Well, I think you should sit this next attempt out," Falco said, turning back to the target range and trying to hit the very center of the bullseye circle. He would have to hit Fox's mark, because the stupid mammal had hit dead center with the last shot fired. "You're too emotionally attached, if you ask me. I've got Nolan's team to help, this time. Nikki, Ryan, all of them."

"You're getting people involved that are just going to get hurt," Fox argued. "Nikki's a great girl, but that squirrel would rather be putting beads in her hair and braiding then getting a gun shot at her. Nolan is a swell man, but I'd rather try one more time before we drag in a bunch of people that don't need to die because I screwed up," the furrier of the two pilots added.

"Listen here, Super-Voop," Falco snapped in return. Voop was a sort of nickname for the term vulpine. "No one goes alone. We're a team, and their team is friends with our team. Friends are important, Fox. You forgot who your friends are last time this happened, and I won't let you forget now."

"Falco, please. This is a very personal fight, for me. I have to conquer her on my own; I have to. If I don't, she'll be my greatest fear, for the rest of my life. Do you understand that?" Fox asked, adding the additional inquiry, "Do you realize that I fear no enemy except Iliria? She turns my stomach to ice. I have nightmares about here. I had to go to psychological rehabilitation over that crazy freak!"

"And you're about to go back, because you've got some sort of trust issue when it comes to your friends," Lombardi shouted. He finally pulled the trigger. His shot was a great deal closer to the center of the bullseye, but it was still just a few centimeters away from the very center. He would have had to hit McCloud's first shot to have gotten it perfect. "I fly better than you, at least. Dammit!"

"Yeah?" Fox said, squeezing off another round. He hit his first shot mark perfectly. It tore through the first hole, making it slightly larger. He gave a smirk, then added, "I don't want my friends in such danger unless they're being paid to do their jobs," The wing commander said. He thought better on the situation, then said, "As far as Nolan's team, that's plan-B. I want to stomp on Iliria and get my girl back, and it's a personal challenge to me. If someone else accidentally became responsible for dispatching Iliria, I would feel robbed. I can take my stomach stitches out in just 3 more days."

"Which is great," Falco said with a sigh, getting shown up again. "But if Fara kills you because you had no backup, everyone would blame themselves and you'll have done an even greater disservice to your friends."

"I appreciate my friends wanting to help," grunted McCloud, "But I need to handle this on my own. I have to, it has to happen," He said, almost begging. "It will put my mind and heart to rest. This is too personal," He explained, putting a third shot directly into the center of the target bullseye, right over the hole where his first two shots had landed.

Lombardi put his gun down and approached his team leader, with a forlorn sort of expression. "I respect your optimism, Fox; I do. The thing is you need back up. You're talking about your woman trying to kill you. You're talking about some guy's brother trying to kill you, who serves Iliria of his own freewill. You're talking about some crazy psycho-chick that wants to reel you back in and steal your mind, again. The sooner you let your friends help, the sooner we can all end this, kill her and help this guy get real justice for his brother."

"Sterin was a good guy," Fox said with a sigh. "I promise I'm going to avenge him by giving him the personal chance to mop the golden bricks outside of the pearly gates, using her butt."

"Not going to happen if you don't let your friends back you up," Falco persisted. "C'mon, let me rally the group and we'll all go up against Iliria. Please?"

"Not until I've tried one more time, without help," Fox said. He stomped his foot on the ground, between the stirrups of the wheel chair. He wouldn't need the stupid thing any more, after this weekend. As soon as he got rid of his stitches, walking wouldn't endanger their premature removal, from physical stress.

"Look at you, you're going to start a war with her, sitting in a wheel chair, Fox?" Falco's tones were harsh, almost scolding.

"The day I get my stitches taken out," Fox said, "I'm going to personally attack the Night Hawk, alone. You just don't understand. I'm resolved."

"I'm sure you are," Falco said, folding his arms and walking off. He didn't clean his gun or clean the targeting station; he was so disgusted with Fox, he knew he had to take a walk before he started throwing punches. There was no way he could throw punches at Fox, when the man had stitches. Maybe he could save them for the night that Fox tried to leave for his stupid suicide mission. "Your funeral," He said over his shoulder, leaving the room.

"THIS MISSION IS NOT SEPPEL KERR!" Fox shouted in reply. "Stupid bird, I swear he's got feathers for brains," Fox muttered under his breath a moment later.

"Fox?" The word, the name, the voice made a cold chill run down McCloud's spine. There was no one else in the range and there were no females on board. "Fox, do you hear me?"

"I refuse to answer you," McCloud said aloud. He knew the voice, it was Illiria. It had to be in his mind, she wasn't on board, that was impossible.

"You just did. So, as long as I know you're listening, that's all that matters," She replied. "Come to me. I need you to save Fara, she's in danger. I sent her on a mission against Andross and now she's been captured. Believe me, I didn't mean for her to be captured. You must come to see me, so I can send you after her. We can resume our feud after she's safe. You must hurry."

"What!" Fox stood up from the wheel chair, placing a paw over his stomach. He nearly stumbled but he knew this was a test. Fara was probably listening. This was his chance to prove to her that he cared for her. If he didn't come because it was a trick, Illiria would use it against him, convincing Fara that he didn't love her.

If he played his cards right, he'd have the chance to get Fara back. Against his better judgment, Fox headed back to the medical ward to personally remove his stitches a few days early and begin preparing for a commando-style assault. He swore to himself, he would rescue his mate. There was no other way.

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