Fox woke up, his head in a total daze. One moment, he was having a cold drink at a bar at Zoness, unwinding after another tough delivery contract. He thought there was something weird inside his beer… the next moment, he was tied up to a chair with his hands behind his back, and with two guards monitoring his every breath.

"Ugh… where am I?"

Fox could feel the still, frigid air all around him, with grime all over the walls and floor of the room he was being kept in. He was left without a shirt on, with only his boxers for warmth. He'd feel embarrassed, were it not for the guards holding rifles directly beside him, making Fox more nervous at what they'd do if he tried to escape, rather than what he was wearing at the moment. He tried to move, but his hands were handcuffed behind his back, as were his feet, and his stomach, thighs and chest were tied directly onto the steel chair, which itself was bolted directly into the ground. He could only move his head around, but it did nothing to help him escape.

A tall figure started to approach Fox, and Fox closed and opened his eyes to adjust his vision towards the dim lighting in the area. His head ached as he struggled to focus entirely onto the man in front of him, but as he looked up he could see the purple leather jacket and the metal spikes decorated all over his body. Immediately, Fox knew who it was in front of him.

"Oh no…"

"I'm quite surprised at you," Wolf chuckled heartily. "I thought you would be more careful when inspecting the drinks at a bar you've never been to before."

Fox just glared up at Wolf, not saying a single word back in reply.

"Don't give me that pouty look, pup. I wasn't the one that spiked your drink. You should be thankful I saved your ass again, otherwise you'd probably end up buried six feet under by now."

"So why should I be thankful for being tied up without a shirt on?"

"I never said that you were going to be saved for free, pup." Wolf chuckled as he threw off his jacket, leaving only a tight t-shirt wrapped around his chest. "I always get paid for in full."

Fox grimaced as the two guards that were surrounding him left the area, leaving him alone with Wolf. "What the hell do you want with me, anyway?"

Wolf grinned as he rubbed Fox's chin, lifting his face up in the process. "I thought you'd never ask…"

Fox bit his lip as Wolf leaned closer to Fox, close enough for Fox to feel his cologne-induced breath. He held his breath as his heartrate started to accelerate.

Wolf could feel Fox get increasingly nervous by the second, so he stepped slightly back from Fox. "Don't worry, I'm not interested in fooling around with you… as much as I think you're attractive…"

Fox said nothing in reply, catching his breath as Wolf stayed back.

"I'm more interested in how you get from Corneria to Venom so quickly. Is it true that there's a warp that cuts through Meteo and goes straight to Katina? It would certainly be easier than going through the Cornerian Army at Sector Y and Fichina…"

"Where on earth did you hear that from?"

"Let's just say I have friends in high places… I also heard that there's another warp that goes directly from Sector X into Sector Z! It's literally on opposite sides of the Lylat System! How do you explain that, Fox? Unless there's something you want to tell me…"

Fox smirked, almost chuckling to himself. "Do you really think I'd willingly betray my allies just to save you a bit of time? Get real, Wolf. There's no way you're getting any information out of me."

Wolf clenched his fist, giving a mischievous grin back at Fox. "Wanna bet?"

Fox looked up at Wolf, not giving a response. When he looked away, Wolf struck Fox's head with a backhand fist, taking Fox completely by surprise. His head dazed for a moment as he attempted to figure out what just happened to him, only for Wolf to strike back at Fox again with his fist, as Wolf chuckled quietly at himself. Fox groaned as he slowly lifted his head up, while Wolf mockingly stared directly at Fox.

"Well? How do you like that? I can do this for as long as I like."

Wolf held Fox's chin up, as Wolf carefully studied every inch of Fox's body. He then swiftly hit Fox's head with another glancing blow, and Fox grunted out in agony, as Wolf chuckled more audibly in front of Fox.

"What the hell, Wolf? You're –"

"Oh, stop whining, pup. I've waited a long time to toy around with you like this. And I'm not going to stop till I get what I want. And the best part is that everyone you love knows you've been taken, but nobody knows where we are…"

The gravity of the situation started to sink into Fox, as his heartrate started to slowly accelerate. "You're crazy! You're not going to get away with this!"

"On the contrary… I just might…" Wolf held Fox's chin up, smiling menacingly as Fox emotionlessly glared back at him.

Wolf stepped away from Fox as he went into a storage bin, taking out a large steel baseball bat and gripped it tightly in his hands. Though Fox couldn't take his eyes off the large bat and grimaced as Wolf stepped back towards him, he did everything he could to not show any fear back towards Wolf.

"Perhaps this could persuade you to speak up?"

"I'm not going to be intimidated by you wielding weapons in front of me!"

In an instant, Wolf swung the steel bat directly at Fox's head, leaving Fox little time to brace himself for impact. The steel bat pummeled across his face, leaving acres of pain even long after the bat remained still in Wolf's hands. Fox could start to taste a small trail of blood flowing out of his mouth as the impact started to travel through his entire body.

Wolf took another step forward and swung the bat directly at Fox's stomach. The impact sent more shockwaves across Fox's body, as he could feel the bones of his ribs start to move around. As Wolf glanced down at Fox, Fox was left catching his breath while his ribcage winced from the hit. Wolf looked into Fox's weary eyes, wiping off some of the blood that had been trailing down his face.

"Hmm… Still not saying anything? No matter. I have all day and all year to talk to you. You're more than welcome to take as long as you like… but I wouldn't recommend it." Wolf took out a small radio and clicked it on, speaking sternly into it. "Bring the guards in. Place the prisoner in the cell for the night." As Wolf put the radio back in his jacket, Wolf started to shake his head while Fox could do nothing but sit there, unable or unwilling to move. "Same time tomorrow, then."

As two guards arrived on Wolf's command, they carefully undid the restraints around his chest and thighs, leaving him still tied down on his arms and feet. He thought about squirming out of their grasp, but the guards were both holding large rifles on their holsters, and two more guards arrived carrying the same rifles, plus having a large baton hanging onto their belts. Even if he could somehow get away, he wouldn't get very far.

The two guards nearby Fox started carrying him out of the interrogation room and down the hallway into a small prison cell, absent of any windows or any other opening. There was simply a steel door that let anyone in and out, with no holes at all to see outside into the hallway.

As Fox was carried into the prison cell, the guards undid his restraints on his hands and feet, all while another guard kept their rifle pressed directly onto Fox's back. As soon as his restraints were released, the guards quickly went away and locked the door shut behind them, leaving Fox completely alone in the cell.

The prison cell only had a small cot attached to the wall, and the cell itself was not much wider than the cot itself. There was a toilet, but in order to access it, Fox had to fold the cot onto the wall. Other than the cot and the toilet, there was little else inside the prison cell, save for a small, dim light above his head. There was no blankets or any other fabric on the cot, not even a pillow to rest his head.

But Fox wasn't worried about the lack of furnishings inside. His head and ribs were still throbbing from the beating he took, and Fox collapsed onto the small cot, holding his hands on the back of his head in a futile attempt to ease the pain. He laid still for a few minutes, as the trail of blood started to ease off, but his muscles and head still ached all over.

"Oh man, what the hell did I get myself into?" Fox groaned, laying hazily on the cot. For the next few minutes, he quietly begged for the pain to go away, but it didn't begin to subside.

Fox rolled over towards his back, staring up at the ceiling. The lone light was attached towards the wall, dim enough that he couldn't see much around him, but bright enough that it was getting at his nerves. But what bothered him more was the lack of any sound around him – not the engines of whatever ship he was in out in space, or the heating of the room he was in. It then dawned on him that there was no heating in the room, and although there wasn't any cold air blowing around, there wasn't any warm air blowing around either.

The stillness of everything, the lack of sound, the lack of colour in the walls left only the dim light to flicker every now and then to give any kind of stimulation to his senses. Even then, it started to annoy him after a while – however long that was. He had no watch, no clock, nothing to indicate what time or day it was. For all he knew, he could have been captured as long as a month or as little as a couple of hours. He had nothing to go on, no sunlight outside, not even the constellations to gauge where exactly he was.

At that moment, Fox got up from his cot and lifted it up to access the toilet underneath the cot. The mechanism was clunky and hard to move, but it eventually fully moved over and attached to the wall nearby. Nearby the toilet, Fox found nearby a single roll of toilet paper.

"Great… nice to see him be generous to his captors…"

Thankfully for Fox, he wouldn't have to use any of it for now – not yet. He simply leaked into the toilet, and after he was done, he brought the cot back down, as it quickly slammed back down, nearby clipping his knees as it fell down. Fox widened his eyes at the close call, before then lying back down on the firm cot, trying to stretch out his back as much as he could.

Some time had passed, and even though Fox was exhausted from the beating he took, he couldn't find a way to fall asleep. The cot was too uncomfortable to fully relax in, and the cool, still air didn't help either. The boxers he was wearing were too thin to provide any kind of warmth, so Fox curled up his knees, as he quietly shivered on the cot.

He lied there quietly on both of his sides, his back, even on his stomach, trying to drift off to sleep, but he couldn't. The silence was too deafening for him, as he could swear he could start to hear his own breathing after a while. The light was giving Fox a headache from beaming into his eyes for so long, so he closed his eyes, trying his hardest to block out any sound or light going into his head.

He was interrupted with a thumping at his door, and a guard stepped inside holding a plate, with two more guards watching behind him. Fox sat up from his cot and was given the plate from the guard without a word being spoken to him. Before Fox could process what was handed over to him, the guard left the cell and closed the steel door shut behind him.

Fox looked at the plate he was given in disgust, seeing the stale loaf he had been given to eat. The loaf was nearly colourless, odourless, and when Fox took a bite, the taste barely registered in his mouth. He had heard about "prison loaf" before – a tasteless, bland baked loaf given to prisoners without requiring any utensils to be eaten. It was also designed entirely to be bland and generic, palatable enough to keep any prisoner alive. He tried some a while back as a joke, and wasn't overly impressed by it. But even now, it didn't seem to do much to him.

Fox sighed after finishing the loaf and lied back down on the cot, rubbing his head as it ached all over his body. He closed his eyes for a while, trying to get some kind of rest, but could not doze off, being distracted by the blaring lights inside the cell, or the deafening silence blasting into his ears.

It was then that he heard the door to his cell jump open, as Fox's eyes widened from the shock.

"Get up," grunted one of the guards.

Fox slowly started to push himself onto his feet, when two more guards ran inside the cell and grabbed Fox's arms, guiding him out of the cell and back into the hallway. He was then led back to the chair he was in the day before, strapped down and unable to move once again. And within a minute, Wolf appeared in front of Fox, giving a mischievous grin down to him.

"Well, are you ready to talk?"

Fox didn't respond, his mind still in a haze from the lack of rest. He didn't know how long he had been awake for, but whatever the case, he was in no mood to give Wolf any information whatsoever.

Wolf grabbed Fox's chin and lifted it up so that Fox was looking straight at Wolf, as Wolf glared directly at Fox. "Still haven't learned your lesson, pup?" Wolf then elbowed Fox in the midsection, as Fox winced immediately in pain from the blow.

Throughout the next few minutes, Wolf continued to beat up Fox to a pulp. He struck him in every part of the body imaginable – the chest, the legs, the arms, and the head. Within a short moment, Fox was more battered and bruised than he was before, with bits of blood scattered all over his body. Still, Fox remained silent, not saying a word back to Wolf.

"You really are a stubborn fellow, aren't you?" Wolf chuckled, crossing his arms. "I think I'll let you reconsider your position. Same time tomorrow, then."

Within a minute, the guards came by towards Fox, brought him out of the chair and dragged him back towards his cell, and locked him back up again. Fox was left alone again, only this time with more bruises on his body than he could count.

Fox laid in his cot nearly motionless for a while, not even moving an inch, even as one of the guards gave him his next serving of prison loaf. He was completely exhausted, but he couldn't bring it to himself to fall asleep, given how silent and still everything was in his prison cell, and how bright the lights inside still were. Fox just stared blankly at the wall, shivering quietly as he wrapped his arms around his body in a desperate attempt to generate warmth.

It seemed like forever had passed since a guard last left him, but eventually another guard entered the cell and brought him out back into the interrogation room. This time, Fox was tied up against a pole, with his hands shackled and raised in the air, and his whole body bound against the pole – his legs, his torso, and his chest.

Wolf was left alone with Fox again, smirking mischievously while holding a crowbar in his hands. Without saying a word, Wolf whipped the crowbar across Fox's torso, creating a large gash across his upper body, as Fox grunted heavily.

"Aww… is the poor pup starting to give up?"

"Shut up…" Fox glared directly back at Wolf.

"Good, I'm glad," Wolf chuckled. "I haven't even started toying with you…" Wolf reached into his pocket and brought out a large and sharp knife, immediately causing Fox's breath to get shorter. Wolf noticed Fox squirming around as he studied the knife. "I'll give you a chance to save yourself before I begin to work on you."

Fox bit his lips, his mind already dizzy from the lack of sleep he had since he arrived at the prison. "You're… you're crazy, Wolf… You're insane if you think that's going to make me talk!"

"Who's the crazy one? Me, or the one who hasn't taken care of themselves over the past few days?"

It immediately dawned on Fox that he had no idea how long he had been captured by Wolf – perhaps a few days, or even a few hours. There was no way of knowing. He hadn't seen the sun for a long time, or even anywhere outside of the confines of the prison walls.

"Hold still, it'll be worse if you move around," Wolf said, as he brought the knife close to Fox's wrists placed above his head. Wolf carefully placed the knife nearby the first wrist and skimmed it across Fox's skin, creating a small but noticeable cut, causing Fox's muscles to tense up at the blade's movement. Fox's arm then gently flinched, but it was enough for his wrist to push slightly against the knife, causing the cut to get larger, as Fox gasped at the wound.

"Tsk… I warned you to be careful, pup…"

Blood started to drip down from Fox's wrists down onto his head, slowly but more noticeably. Fox could sense the blood accumulating even if he couldn't see the wounds on his wrists.

Wolf brought the knife close to Fox again, as Fox held his breath and moved as far as he could away from him. Wolf took the knife further down Fox's arm and made a small slice. Fox started to shake and run out of breath as more droplets of blood started to drip down his body, enough that it could be visible from the floor.

"Feeling weak yet? Given enough time, most of the blood will drip out of your body, and there would be nothing you could do about it…"

Fox's face froze as more droplets of blood were dripping down his body. "You're gonna kill me, Dammit!"

"No… You're worth more to me alive than dead. This is payback for all the pain and suffering you've put me through all these years."

Wolf then swung the knife across Fox's other arm, causing a large gash across the forearm, large enough that Fox could see it, even with his forearms tied above and behind him. Fox gasped as the wound stung all across his spine, as his open arms throbbed in pain.

"Still don't want to talk?"

Fox breathed heavily in and out, as his sweat started mixing in with the blood that was dripping down, stinging his wounds even more. He gulped as his heart pounded more faster, barely able to focus at Wolf in front of him. "You'll have to try just a bit harder."

Wolf leaned closer to Fox's face, grinning mischievously. Fox held his breath as he could see Wolf grasping the handle of the knife in his hand. In an instant, Wolf jabbed the knife in Fox's midsection, as Fox yelped out loud at the wound, taking his breath away in an instant. When Wolf pulled the knife out of Fox's body, the blood started flowing out near his ribcage, dripping down towards the ground.

Even with his whole body tied up to the pole, Fox found it harder to stand up as each second passed, while he breathed heavily in and out, now tending towards two significant wounds on his body. Wolf grinned wildly as he wiped off the blood from the knife and put it back in his pockets.

"You didn't think I would actually do that, would you?" Wolf asked, as Fox could only weakly look up in reply. "That's what you get for messing around with me."

Wolf then left Fox alone tied up at the pole, as the blood continued to leak out of his body. Fox was left alone for a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity, as Fox struggled to maintain consciousness while more blood continued to drip out of his body.

Eventually, a group of thugs entered the room and bandaged up the large wound on Fox's midsection, wrapping the bandage so tightly that it couldn't be easily removed. Not that Fox wanted to, as his heart rate started to drop back down now that he wasn't losing as much blood as before.

When he was led back to his prison cell, Fox practically collapsed onto the small cot inside, first lying down on his stomach, then rolling onto his back as the wound groaned in agony at the front of his midsection. Fox could feel the wound swelling up, even as it was bandaged tightly. Fox tried to relax his body and mind, but as each minute passed, the wound only started to get more sore, and Fox's breathing started to accelerate, while sweat started to pour down his head again.

After lying down for a while, Fox tried to feel the wound to see if it had improved, but it became impossible to even touch it without wincing in pain. Soon Fox began to get sick to his stomach, and started to make his way onto his feet. He yelled out in agony as he sat up on the cot, leaning onto the wall for support. He pushed on the wall as he stumbled on his feet, shuffling towards the door of the prison cell.

"Can you hear me? I can barely breathe, dammit! You said I was worth more alive? Well, help me out, dammit!" Fox slumped onto the door of the prison cell, leaning onto it with both his hands as he gasped for breath, and could barely see in front of him. "What the hell did you do this for? Let me out!"

Fox banged onto the prison cell door as hard as he could, even as he could feel his own strength start to weaken. "LET ME OUT!" Fox frantically pounded on the door, desperate for anyone to hear him through the soundproof walls. "Let… me… out… p.. pl… ease… please… I… can't… s… s… see… sss… st… st…"

Fox collapsed onto the hard floor, leaning against the door he was pounding onto. It was the last thing he remembered before appearing in front of a stern doctor – or at least someone wearing a lab coat. He could still not see straight, but he couldn't feel a thing in his midsection – or anywhere else, for that matter.

The brown cat scratched his whiskers as Wolf glanced onto Fox, lying down half-conscious on the stretcher, not even tied down in any way. Fox was in no position to move anywhere any time soon.

"You're damn lucky I was able to operate on him when I did," the cat scowled. "Another hour or two and his ruptured spleen could very well have made him bleed to death."

Wolf was unmoved, keeping to himself as Fox glanced upwards at the ceiling. "How soon will it be until he regains consciousness?"

"At least another day or two. He's on heavy anesthetic, so even if he does wake up he'll be hardly in any condition to speak at all."

"Good. Let me know when he's able to talk." Wolf then left in a hurry without saying another word to either the doctor or anyone else in the hallway.

The doctor carefully monitored the heart monitor attached to Fox's body, seeing the recent spike before dropping down to normal levels. "Damn fool," the doctor cursed to himself, making sure Wolf was out of earshot.

Fox was able to drift into a state of sleep for the first time in what seemed like forever, aided by the anesthesia pumped into his veins, and the fact that the stretcher was the closest thing to a bed he had been in since being kidnapped.

He was in his ship, flying out in space, much like he normally would be. He noticed something blip up on his radar, and swung his ship around to close in on the target laid out in front of him. As Fox started to get ready to shoot, he felt his weapons start to seize on him. No matter what Fox did, the lasers didn't fire from his ship. Soon every instrument on the ship started to disable itself, leaving Fox floating aimlessly in the middle of nowhere. He tried switching on the radio to speak to his teammates, but the radio also didn't work, and nobody came in nearby to help him out.

Soon the enemy ship he was tracking down turned around and started to charge up their lasers, and Fox's muscles tensed up in dread, not wanting to get annihilated by the enemies.

"No… please! Don't shoot me! Please, get away! Falco! Peppy! Anybody! Help me!"

The charge shot came out of the enemy ship and barreled towards Fox's stricken ship, while Fox pressed everything he could on his dashboard.

"No! Get out, get out… No… AAAAHHHH!"

Fox woke up from his daze, screaming at the top of his lungs as he sprung up on the stretcher and jumped down towards the ground, making a break for the closest exit.

The doctor was nearby with an aide of his, as he darted towards Fox in a panic. "What the hell...?"

"GET BACK! LET ME OUT!" Fox stumbled his way up to his feet and started to shuffle towards the nearest door, even with the heart monitor still attached to his arm.

"Hold up, you're not going anywhere!"

Fox then felt extremely weak and fell down to his knees, struggling to get back up to his feet. The doctor's aide ran over to place Fox back onto the stretcher, and the doctor joined in and gently placed Fox back onto his back. Fox hazily glanced up at the ceiling, barely able to keep his eyes open, as the doctor turned down the volume of the heart monitor, as it beeped incessantly from Fox waking up in a panic.

For the next few hours, Fox kept himself awake, not wanting to go back to sleep and face another nightmare inside his own mind…