Once again, Star Fox is not mine, but the OC's are. Also, if you're a Star Wolf fan...please don't hate me. I like them too, but my OC's don't.

I'm also really sorry this took so long, but I've been through alot of things that halted my progress...I'd rather not go into detail...

Song of the Day: Nothing Else Matters by Metallica and Beautiful Mourning by Machine Head...(I'll let you guys guess when to play the songs...although when reading it's kind of obvious)

Star Fox: The Company of Strays

Chapter 4

"Memories are a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are… The things you never want to lose" – Spyke's Musing's

Time: 12:00 AM

Location: Hidden Oasis – Titania

Hidden in the desert of Titania was a place of refuge to escape the harsh sands of the planet. It was quiet and calm, a place of peaceful reflection for those that came to it. A small oasis that only a handful could ever hope to find in their lifetime. There was a cool pool of water that lay in the center of a serene oasis. The light of the planet's luminescent moon reflected off the clear water, giving it an evanescent glow.

There, at the waters' edge, stood a lonely lupine figure. His Blood Red eyes stared at his own reflection in the pool. His eyes began to look himself over in disgust, his entire attire was black, from the spiked boots on his hands, to studded gloves he wore on his hands. An open, black vest showed his black fur beneath, and a thin chain with a silver ring hung around his neck.

His eyes stopped on the ring, and he stared for a brief moment. At least until a silvery furred hand blocked his vision and began to wave up and down. The silence was broken by an almost melodic, feminine voice.

"Spyyyyyyke... Oh Spyyyyyyke... Spyke!" the female said, causing Spyke to begin blinking rapidly before he finally snapped out of his trance.

He let out a deep sigh before turning his head slightly to the right. "Did you want something Silver?" Spyke asked in his usual raspy voice, although if one listened closely enough, they could make out a touch of sadness in it.

Silver walked up to the right of him and handed Spyke small a data pad. "Oh, I just came by to drop off the report of today's raid and to see if you would like to-"

Spyke looked at the data pad confused. "What is this?" he asked her, pointing to a holographic picture of what looked to be some sort of massive satellite.

Silver looked at the picture and shrugged. "Oh, that? Some sort of new tech that the Cornerians developed. Kane's trying to figure out what it's for."

Spyke lifted his hand up and rubbed his muzzle in thought, "Hmmm, what the hell are they planning?" he asked himself out loud as he placed the data pad on a nearby rock where his weapons lay.

As Spyke returned to his spot at the edge of the pool of water, Silver turned to face him which in-turn caused Spyke to turn and face her. Silver smirked at Spyke, "Don't worry about it. Relax and we can-"

"I don't believe now is the best time for that Silver. I must speak with Spyke." A ghastly rasp spoke out in Silver's mind, sounding strong, yet feeble, ancient, yet young, a contradiction of the highest calibur. To say the least, it was a little disconcerting.

Silver turned around to see a lupine with ghostly white fur. His entire left arm, and everything below his waist was robotic. Crawling up his right arm, across his chest, neck and face, he had black tribal tattoos. Covering his eyes was a disgusting rag that had apparently once been white.

Silver frowned at the lupine and rolled her eyes. "Spoil Sport." She muttered, then turned back to Spyke. "It looks like the fun will just have to postponed..." she said, her voice taking on a subtly seductive tone.

Spyke arched an eyebrow in confusion at her statement, but before he could say anything she turned to leave. Her tail lightly swept against his crotch causing Spyke's expression to show even more confusion.

"We'll talk later, Spyke." She said in a slightly flirtatious tone as she left.

The white furred lupine approached Spyke as he turned back towards the pool of crystal clear water. Suddenly Spyke felt a slight tingle in the back of his mind as that same indescribably disturbing voice spoke to him. "You summoned me?" the lupine asked telepathically.

Spyke closed his eyes and knelt down and began brushing his finger tips through the surface of the water as he spoke, "Yes, I did Falanks."

"Why?" Falanks asked.

"I need to ask you for something, your opinion" Spyke spoke hesitantly.

"Ask away" Falanks stated calmly.

Spyke took in a deep breath through his nostrils and exhaled through his mouth as he opened his eyes to see his reflection and Falanks' in the water, "Am I doing the right thing? With Corneria I mean."

"Spyke… You know that I respect your opinions highly, and would happily follow you to the end. But what you ordered Arson to do was simply barbaric. Many of the others share this feeling with me." His telepathic voice said with a hint of disappointment.

Suddenly a wave of confusion hit Spyke as he looked up to his telepathic friend. "What are you talking about? All I ordered him to do was sabotage Corneria City's airfield and their R&D Department. Are you telling me that he did something else?"

Falanks looked down at Spyke, his brow furrowed in confusion, "Wait… You don't know?"

Spyke began getting impatient, as he clenched his teeth, "Know what?"

Instead of telling Spyke, Falanks showed him an image of a mushroom cloud looming over Downtown Corneria. As Spyke saw this, his ears drooped and his muzzle dropped down to stare at the water in front of him. "I'm sorry Spyke, we thought you knew."

Spyke remained silent; the only sound that could be heard was the sound of Spyke's fingers gently wading through the waters' surface. "Spyke?" Falanks asked, causing Spyke to shake his head as he came out of a flashback. "Is something wrong?"

Spyke didn't respond like he usually would, instead a small smile spread across his muzzle. Falanks looked at Spyke completely surprised. "Don't worry yourself Falanks. I'm fine" Spyke said, his raspy voice sounding gentle and happy. His fingers stopped wading through the water as a droplet of water fell into the pool. Spyke opened his eyes as tears began to flow freely down his face and into the water.

"You know that I can see that you're lying Spyke." Falanks stated. "Simply speak the truth, it will help."

"The happiest moment of my life" Spyke said, his voice becoming shaky. "It took place right here, in this very oasis. My mother was sitting right there where you are standing..." Spyke said as he pointed to the ground Falanks was standing on. "She watched and laughed as my father taught me how to swim in this very pool. We splashed each other and even raced from one end of the pool to the other. Afterwards, we sat over by the tree behind me and had a picnic." Spyke finished his narration, his voice now unstable, thousands of tears now flowed from his eyes and landed either into the pool or on the ground. He lifted his right hand out of the pool and began to gently rub the silver ring around his neck.

'This is sacred ground, for this is the last oasis on this planet. There is to be no bloodshed in this oasis, no fighting. I will do all that I must to protect this place... no matter the cost.'

Before Falanks could respond to Spyke's little prayer he felt a hostile presence close by. Spyke's torn ear twitched at the sound of a blaster being un-holstered. Spyke turned his head slightly to the left. "What do you want, O'Donnell?" Spyke asked the figure, a hint of malice clinging to his calm voice.

As Spyke stood up to face the new figure emerging from the brush, Falanks walked up beside him, feeling Spyke's smouldering anger beginning to rise into a fire. Instead of just one figure emerging, there were three. The first was a grey lupine with a cybernetic eye, the second, a green chameleon, and the third was a black furred feline. All three of them were wearing what looked to be completely midnight black Spec. Ops. uniforms.

"I'm in no mood to shed any blood right now Star Wolf." Spyke practically growled at Wolf.

Wolf smirked at Spyke, "Well that's just too bad. Cause we are. In fact we were sent here to bring you in alive, but no one ever said anything about un-harmed" he said with a small, evil chuckle.

"No, I will give you two options. Either kill me, or leave this place." Spyke said as a couple of tears fell from his eyes.

Instead of answering Spyke, Wolf quickly raised his blaster and shot Spyke in the gut. Spyke's eyes widened as he looked down to see a gush of blood drip onto the sand of the Sacred Oasis. He put his left hand on his new wound as his eyes began to twitch. Falanks could feel his companion's rage rising and his sanity leaving him.

Wolf smirked at Spyke's reaction but that smirk soon vanished as he saw what Spyke did next. Spyke took his now bloodied hand, moved it up to his nose and sniffed it. After inhaling the scent of his own blood, he slowly lapped at the red liquid until the hand was clean. He put his hand back down to his side, looked and Wolf, and spoke with a wide, sadistic grin. "So that's how you wanna do it?" He chuckled as he began cracking his knuckles. Falanks was entering a fighting stance when he heard a familiar presence return.

"Hey guys! I'm sorry but I accidentally left that data pad here-" Silver said as she burst through the brush but stopped dead in her tracks at this new sight. She turned to Spyke and saw the crazed look in his eyes that screamed he was going to bloodily murder these intruders. She had seen this look in his eyes when he saved her from being raped. Silver walked up to Spyke's right so she was now facing Panther.

"Three against three, Huh?" Wolf asked not really as a question but more as a statement. Wolf then lifted up his left hand and waved Leon in.

As Leon walked forward, Falanks planted his cybernetic feet into the sand as his eyes began to glow an eerie blue. Suddenly, Leon whipped out ten throwing daggers and threw them at Falanks with incredible speed. But instead of meeting their target they simply vanished a few centimetres in front of Falanks. Leon tilted his head to the right in confusion and was left in utter shock as Falanks' hands twitched and the daggers reappeared but were flying towards Leon instead.

Leon quickly dodged 8 of the daggers but two of them pinned his shoulders to a fallen tree trunk. Before Leon could make any kind of sound, the now panting Falanks began to make a pushing motion with his hands causing the log, to which Leon was currently attached, to skid forwards into the pool of water. It began to sink when it hit the water, but as the splash it made subsided, he made another motion with his hands, which caused the water to rise up from its resting place with Leon in tow. Falanks made his hands into a formation as if he were holding a sphere and the water followed his command. It quickly made a spherical prison around Leon causing him to very slowly begin to drown. Falanks began to use his fingers to make the sphere of water spin around the oasis until finally he let the sphere drop back into the pool while Leon fell at the edge of the pool unconscious. The ghostly white lupine was visibly exhausted from the amazing feat he had just finished doing, but he raised his fists confrontationally none the less.

Wolf's eyes went wide at what he just witnessed. His most loyal ally and friend had just been beaten by some freak. As Wolf was about to send Panther to attack he heard the sound of a blade stabbing through someone. He turned to his right and saw that Silver had indeed stabbed a katana right through Panther's gut, pinning him to the ground.

Panther looked at Silver as if he had seen the most beautiful angel ever. "If this is how Panther is going to die, then I'm glad it's by your beautiful han-" Before he could finish his oddly timed come-on there was a loud gunshot.

"It's men like you that make me sick." Silver spat, disgusted at Panther, but simultaneously satisfied at what she had just done. Panther simply screamed in pain and horror as he looked down between his legs. A gory mess of what was once his private area was all that was left. Before he could even think of pulling up his blaster to shoot the bitch that had destroyed his manhood, Silver quickly yanked her katana out of his gut and removed him from his head.

"Well Wolf, it looks like it's just you and me." Spyke said to Wolf in a taunting way. Wolf, completely enraged at what had just occurred, rushed at Spyke with his blaster and combat knife out, but before he could do anything, Spyke quickly stepped to his right. In a single swift motion, he tripped Wolf and grabbed the back of his head before throwing him to the ground. Before Wolf could get back up, Spyke grabbed him by the back of his shirt, picked him up and threw him against a nearby tree. Wolf impacted the trunk with a sickening crack. Spyke grinned at this. He slowly walked over to Wolf and flipped him around, and proceeded to grab Wolf by the collar of his shirt, lift him up, and punch him square in the muzzle, sending Wolf flying and land right next to Leon.

"Now. Instead of killing you, I'm going to suggest that you get the water out of his lungs after Falanks here removes you two from here." Wolf was barely able to register what he had said before, in the blink of an eye, Wolf and Leon vanished.

"Come. Let us leave, and prepare for the days to come." Spyke muttered as he and Silver practically had to carry Falanks out of the oasis and to their home.

From the distant foothills, a looming figure watched the fight silently. It made not a noise as its black cloak fluttered in the dry desert wind. A cloud of sand was kicked up by the quickly picking up wind, and in a matter of seconds, the figure was gone without a trace.

Authors Comments: Well I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did! And as I will say from now on...my updates are really spaced out...so I wouldn't expect another one for a while. XD

Remember R&R!