Gazing downwards towards the Aparoid homeworld, Slippy analyzed the center of the colony, as it was surrounded by what seemed like an endless amount of energy, as thick as the dense fog in the sky.
"We can't go inside the core of the homeworld unless we take down the generators powering the shield," explained Slippy. "The generators themselves appear to be guarded by a number of Aparoids, each of them much more powerful than the ones we faced earlier."
Krystal looked behind her ship, seeing that the entrance had been sealed up, not allowing anyone else through after Star Fox and Star Wolf had snuck through. "With nobody else around for backup at the time being, we'd better get this plan right, for everyone's sake."
Fox found the six generators on his radar, and delegated accordingly. "Falco, Krystal, Slippy, take care of the generators on the left side. The rest of us will take care of the ones on the right. Once the generators are out, Wolf and I will try to get into the core. But just in case both of us don't make it through, remember that all of you have the self-destruct program on you, so anyone can get through. But we'll need to be backed up from the air once we enter the core."
The two groups then split off, but Panther, riding with the rest of Star Wolf, immediately found himself in trouble. A group of Aparoids swarmed his Wolfen and surrounded him without giving him a chance to breathe. Wolf fell behind the pack and shot down as many of the Aparoids as he could, but there was still a couple of Aparoids left remaining that latched onto the wing of Panther's Wolfen. Panther shook his Wolfen from side to side to shake off the Aparoids from his wing, but they held on for dear life.
"Hold still, Panther!" Wolf shouted, carefully aiming his lasers. "Let me try and shoot the damned things off your ship."
Panther nearly stuttered in fear. "Shoot at my ship? Only if you have to, Wolf, but I have another plan…" Panther dived down towards one of the generators, and found a pack of Aparoids guarding the generator. Panther made sure his Aparoid-affected wing was pointing downwards as he turned his ship sideways, making his ship vertical towards the ground. He shot at the pack of Aparoids to distract them, as his infected wing scraped the edge of the generator, pushing the Aparoids off his wing, though Panther could tell the Wolfen was out of balance as a result.
"Those buggers should be off my ship now," Panther sighed in relief. "Any further damage, though, and the wing would have been a goner."
Wolf turned his attention back to the generators surrounding the core. "Just be more careful where you're flying, Panther. There's no time for playing games around here."
Fox was flying above Star Wolf, taking down any enemies that got in their way as Star Wolf focused on the generators. "Any progress on your end, Falco?" he asked.
"Slow but steady," Falco replied back. "If you fire at it long enough, it looks like you can just shoot them down with regular lasers. You just gotta plug away at it."
Almost on cue, the first generator broke apart in the distance, and Slippy immediately celebrated the achievement. "I got one!" he declared.
"Slippy got the first generator?" Wolf said to himself with the radio off. "I have to get a move on, then. It shouldn't be too difficult to break the rest of the generators down."
Wolf immediately set himself onto the nearest generator he could find, and set his lasers onto rapid fire, so that he could mindlessly shoot at the generator while keeping an eye out for any Aparoids circling above him. Wolf zoomed in closer and closer to the generator until he had to move out of the way, baffled at its sturdiness. "Damn… how the hell did that frog blow up that thing?"
Slippy then started shouting as loud as he could on the radio, shrieking like a mad man. "Fox, get these guys off me!" he yelled.
"Be quiet, you idiot," Wolf grumbled. "Let me focus on the generators here!" Wolf could then feel his ship shake for a brief moment, and Wolf looked around him to see what had happened. He saw some smoke spewing from the distance. "Looks like another generator just went," he grinned.
"That's four more to go," smirked Leon, chuckling slightly. "The bird's right, these things are pretty simple to take down. We just gotta keep these pests at bay while we shoot the generators down."
Out in the distance, Falco, Slippy, and Krystal flew in formation towards the generator right beside them, and shot in unison, tearing down the generator in an instant.
"Three more to go," Fox commented after the generator fell. "Maybe you guys should take the next one down in formation as well. I'll watch you from above."
The Star Wolf team quickly followed Fox's instructions, flying right beside each other as they zoomed towards the next generator. Panther cleared the path by shooting down the Aparoids guarding the generator, and then Wolf and Leon sent down a fury of lasers ahead of them, breaking the generator down.
"Only two left," Falco cheered. "Man, this is easy!"
Wolf then heard a shriek of horror outside his cockpit, emanating from the core of the homeworld. Soon enough, the shriek grew louder and louder, and a flock of Aparoids came out of the core, as they yelled out their war cries, sending chills down Wolf's spine.
Memories of seeing his father being mutilated by the Aparoids flooded into Wolf's mind, hearing the same shrill sound that they made seventeen years ago as his parents died in front of him. Wolf didn't notice the Aparoids encircling the entire each one of the ships, as they easily outnumbered the pilots flying around the homeworld, and soon became a menace to handle.
"Where the hell did these things come from?" Falco belted, swerving his Arwing in every direction possible to clear space around his ship.
Leon annoyingly growled back as his engines were becoming overloaded. "Never mind where they came from, just find a way to get rid of them all before we're killed!"
Wolf swung his Wolfen around and followed Leon closely behind, ignoring the Aparoids following him as he sprayed a line of shots towards the Aparoids that were encircling Leon, mowing them down in quick succession.
Leon let out a sigh of relief, but put his attention back to the dashboard of his Wolfen, screaming out in terror. "Shields are going down, Wolf. I don't know how much longer I can go on in this thing."
Soon enough, Falco was then surrounded by the Aparoids, but flew his Arwing into the path of Star Wolf, allowing for them to shoot at the Aparoids in point blank range. Leon and Wolf opened fire at the Aparoids and took down the majority of the pack following Falco, allowing him to focus back on the generator he was trying to shoot down, which was in the distance.
"Now's our chance," Falco yelled on the intercom. "Let's take the rest of the generators down!" Falco sent a charge shot at the bottom of the generator ahead of him in the distance, going down with a spectacular thud.
Fox noticed the generator fall, and darted over towards the last remaining generator, wasting no time in sending over a smart bomb over to make the last of the generators fall. A crackling was heard over the radio shortly after the last generator fell, and Slippy tapped into the radio, analyzing the noises it made.
"The energy field around the core is down," Slippy announced. "I'm still getting a definite energy reading from the core, but it's much weaker than it was before."
Wolf started up the boosters of his Wolfen in anticipation. "I don't trust that the energy field around the core will be down for long. Let's get down there before it seals back up again."
Fox and Wolf flew their ships into the centre of the Aparoid homeworld, mowing down any Aparoids that flew in their path. Wolf in particular kept the controls locked down and kept firing away at the Aparoids, speeding towards the core at full speed.
Fox opened up the menu on his dashboard containing the self-destruct program. "I've got the program ready; I'm going to send it down!" He wasted no time in sending down the missile with the program contained inside, as it went through the core. Fox flew around the core for a minute, waiting for the results.
"Anything going on, Slippy?" Fox asked. "I don't see any action going on yet."
"Hold on a sec, Fox..." Slippy scurried away at his dashboard, waiting for his analyzer to view inside the core. "...I don't know if the program has started working or not. I can't read any major energy changes on here yet."
"Perhaps the program isn't instantaneous," Krystal speculated. "I don't mean to be a devil's advocate here, but Beltino never did mention when the program was going to get active..."
"I think we got bigger problems than that," Falco yelled in panic. "Something's coming right at us!"
Rising from the core was a dark and shadowy figure, appearing much like an Aparoid, but much bigger, covered with pedals all over.
Fox stared at the figure in shock, trembling at its size. "The Aparoid Queen... it has to be the Queen."
Before Fox could fully scan the area around the Aparoid Queen, an army of Aparoids flew out of the core, and as the queen pointed her wing as if to give an order to the Army, the Aparoids charged at once to Star Fox and Star Wolf, scattering them away in a panic. Fox was able to dodge the army quickly, as did Wolf, but the rest of the pilots had more trouble. Panther and Slippy both flew away from the battle scene with Aparoids trailing behind them, and all around the homeworld, Aparoids flew around everywhere, flying randomly around anything they could see in front of them.
"There's too many of them, Fox!" Krystal screamed in agony. "I can't even focus on flying this thing..."
"Just focus on trying to get away from them," Fox told Krystal. "It looks like the only way we're going to defeat the Aparoids is to get rid of the Queen herself. If the Queen goes down, we can inject the program into her, and that should bring down the Aparoids, just like Beltino said the program would do."
Wolf nodded in agreement with Fox's plan. "Let's take down the Queen, then. Together."
Fox and Wolf darted directly towards the Aparoid Queen, while the rest of the pilots were left defending for themselves, completely overwhelmed by the Aparoids. The Queen turned around to face the two pilots as they came charging towards her, and the Queen sent an energy charge right at the two of them, though they were both able to dodge the attack rather easily.
"It'll take more than that to defeat us," Wolf growled, gripping tightly on the controls. Wolf noticed the wings of the Aparoid Queen spread out as she started to spin around in a circle, generating more and more speed. Wolf backed his Wolfen away from the Queen, getting a better glance at the Queen in the process. "Looks like the wings can be taken down easily with lasers," Wolf assessed. He opened fire at the wings covering the Aparoid Queen, and one by one, they started to flake off, revealing a large red area at the center.
"Is the center where the Queen's energy is stored?" Fox wondered out loud.
"Could be," Wolf replied. "Either way, it would do a lot of good taking away her wings. That seems to be the parts which attack most of the time." Wolf got back to work attacking the wings of the Aparoid Queen, and as more and more of the wings started falling off, the center became much more visible.
Fox zoomed nearby the Queen, hit the brakes with his reverse thrusters, and started shooting at the center, making the Queen wince in pain. "That seems to be doing the trick," Fox confirmed. He kept shooting at the Queen at a faster rate, until his brakes let go and made Fox move forward in his Arwing again. As Fox started to move away from the Queen, The Queen sent out a purple mist into the air, completely covering herself in the thick breeze. The mist started to spread across the entire area, making it more impossible for any of the pilots to see very far ahead of them.
"Got any ideas for this, Slip?" Fox asked, slowing down his Arwing to a halt.
Fox didn't hear back from Slippy immediately, but after a few seconds, Slippy bellowed and yelled at the top of his lungs, screaming at the Aparoids chasing him.
"Never mind then," Fox sighed. "It looks like the mist is dissipating, so there's no sense doing anything until we can see again."
As the mist started to fade, all the pilots could see the Aparoid Queen again, but it had regained its wings, covering the center just like it did before.
Fox gripped the controls of his Arwing in anger. "Damn... guess we gotta take down the wings again."
"The wings regenerate themselves?" Wolf said in shock and admiration. He zoomed through the fading mist towards the Aparoid Queen, shooting at the wings as he circled around her. They flaked off just as they did before, falling off like leaves on a tree. The center was slowly revealed to them just as it did before, but Wolf had another plan this time.
"I've got one more smart bomb on my ship," Wolf explained. "I'll use it right here. I might as well try to blast it away." Wolf lined up his lasers and aimed it right at the center of the Aparoid Queen, and shot the bomb as soon as his sights aligned with the Queen. The bomb exploded right on the Queen, and the Queen nearly fell down from the impact, going down on her knees from the impact. But within a few seconds, the Queen got back up, rebuilding her wings just like the previous time.
"Did that do anything?" Fox asked.
"I doubt it," growled Wolf. "Everything we throw at her just seems to brush off her, and she keeps getting back up."
Wolf backed away from the Aparoid Queen to see more her, analyzing every inch to see another attacking point other than the center. It also gave the Queen more time to recover from the attacks the pilots were making, and the wings started glowing, gaining more and more energy.
"There's a charge attack coming through!" Fox blurted, revving up his engines to speed out of the way. The Aparoid Queen sent out an aurora beam wildly in the air, barely avoiding Fox and Wolf. It grazed Falco's ship in the distance, and he had to back away from the Aparoid he was chasing down to recover from the hit. The Aparoid Falco was chasing then turned around and fired directly at Falco, as Falco started taking more damage on his Arwing. Falco looped his Arwing around, ending up behind the Aparoid that was chasing him, and Falco quickly shot down the Aparoid, as it crumbled into the ground.
The Aparoid Queen sent out another energy charge at the pilots as voices started to emanate from the Queen, sending its thoughts from her own mind into the minds of Wolf and Fox. At first, the voices were indecipherable, distorted by the mist that still remained in the air, as well as the thick atmosphere of the Aparoid homeworld. Fox's mind was muddled with these voices, dampening his concentration as the Aparoid Queen continued to throw everything it could at the pilots.
Eventually, the voices started becoming more and more clear, and Fox could figure out what the voices were trying to say. "Join us," they started to say. "Surrender and become a part of us…"
Fox almost shuddered in fear at the voices. "I thought you were dead… All of you…"
Wolf ignored the voices as he dodged the Aparoid Queen's attacks, brushing the voices aside as they intruded into his mind. "Become a part of us, Wolf… It is your destiny. You are only delaying the inevitable."
Fox sent a flurry of shots towards the wings of the Aparoid Queen, revealing the center again. He then sent a charge shot towards the center, and the Queen wailed in agony. The voices inside his head grew louder and louder as Fox and Wolf whittled down on the Queen.
"Fox... don't destroy the Queen. She is the only way we can become as one."
Fox slowed down his Arwing upon hearing Peppy's voice. "But... I thought you were -"
"It is meaningless to survive, Fox. All things must pass eventually."
Wolf noticed Fox slow down in the air, even with the battle going on. "What's going on there, Fox? Move out of the way before someone rolls over you!"
Wolf then noticed a gravelly, sinister voice pop out into his mind, one from his past. "Don't be a fool, Wolf. You know better than to do something this stupid."
"Pigma?" Wolf looked around his ship to look for him. "I thought you were taken in by the Aparoids!"
"Being a part of the collective is more important than money itself... it is the only thing to do."
Wolf growled at the voices in anger. "Something's not right about all this..."
A more authoritative figure then spoke into Fox's mind. "Star Fox... accept defeat."
"General?" Fox shuddered in fear as he noticed the Aparoid Queen build up more strength. "It can't be..."
"There is no reason to go on like this, Fox. Accept defeat and move on, accept your fate as part of us."
Fox tensed up and grasped the controls in a fit of rage, and began shooting at the Aparoid Queen again. The Queen noticed Fox break out of his trance and sent an energy charge right at Fox's Arwing, heavily damaging the engine and sending debris flying into the air. The two then heard another voice from the air, one they had just saw recently.
"Give up Fox," Peppy spoke. "There's no need to fight like this anymore."
"What's going on?" Fox shouted at himself. "Why is everyone like this? Why are they trying to haunt me?"
Wolf shook his head in frustration. "I thought Peppy died just a few moments ago..."
"Wolf..." the next voice said.
Wolf's thoughts suddenly drew blank as he froze in shock, hearing a voice he hadn't heard in years. "Dad? ...is that you?"
"We can be together again, Wolf. Just like you always wanted. We can assimilate to each other, Wolf, and live as one."
Wolf shut his eyes and suppressed the tears from his face, wanting to deny himself what was happening. "It can't be... you would never want to be with those... things..." Memories of his Dad flowed back and forth into his mind, reliving them in an instant as his mind was being torn into pieces. Wolf swirled back and forth between the memories and the voice of his Dad telling him to submit to the Aparoids, to live as one...
"Dad... I made it this far so that I could avenge your death. And if I have to betray my trust in you to do so, then so be it." Wolf charged up his lasers and aimed it at the Aparoid Queen, who was defending off the attacks from Fox at the same time. Wolf let the charge fly right into the center of the Queen, and it absorbed into her like all the other attacks, as if nothing had happened. But Wolf kept shooting at the Queen, and little by little, the Queen started to wear down slowly, collapsing onto her knees again.
At that moment, the shrieks of the Aparoids surrounding the area started to grow weaker and weaker, growing more and more faint as Wolf kept shooting furiously at the Queen. Fox looked around the air and noticed Aparoids falling from the sky, one by one. "What's going on? Is the program starting to finally work?"
"Send down a smart bomb, Fox!" Wolf yelled in desperation. "We won't have much longer before the Queen recovers again!"
Fox immediately delivered the smart bomb towards the Aparoid Queen, and as it exploded directly into her face, the last of the Aparoids started to fall down from the air, and the entire homeworld started to crumble around them.
Fox searched frantically for his teammates. "Where did everyone go? We should get out of here soon... before the homeworld collapses on us."
Suddenly, the Aparoid Queen broke apart from the armour that was encased around her, and out came a more primitive creature, slithering from the armour and into a shelter created by the ground breaking up around her.
"We have to get down there before the Queen finds another way to survive!" Fox shouted, approaching the shelter the Queen went into. Wolf followed closely behind, but stopped as he approached it.
"The opening is too small for a ship to go through," explained Wolf. "Only a person can fit through the opening. Is the air safe to breathe?"
"I'm not receiving any toxicity alerts from my Arwing," said Fox, analyzing his scanners. "It probably won't be very good for us, but if we get out, kill the Queen once and for all, and get right back into our ships, we'll be just fine. But we need to act quickly!"
Fox and Wolf dutifully flew their ships close to the entrance of the shelter the Queen went inside, and jumped right out of their ships, with rifles in their hand. Fox ran first inside on the glossy floor, resembling a slippery tile surface. Fox ran for a bit but stopped soon after he entered in, nearly slipping down onto the glossy floor.
"What happened?" Wolf barked, trailing behind Fox, as he slowed down and stopped alongside him. He then looked on towards what was left of the Aparoid Queen, shaking and trembling inside a vat of fluid, much like the same fluid that flowed inside each Aparoid. It flowed from the vat and down under the floor, giving off the dim light that could make Fox and Wolf see inside the shelter.
Fox was taken aback, standing still on the floor. "My god... I've never seen the Queen be so... frail."
Wolf stepped backwards away from the vat, soaking in the situation in front of him. He stared intently at the Queen, as its eyes were still glowing but slowly fading by the second, losing more and more light from inside.
Fox lowered his rifle, holding it in only one hand as he stared at the Queen in shock. "The Queen is dying right now, Wolf. The program was already working. She just suppressed it until it couldn't suppress it anymore. Anything we did to it didn't matter. The program entered inside her, and it's now starting to infect everything inside her body."
"That would explain why the homeworld is falling apart," concluded Wolf. "If the Queen provides for the homeworld, then the homeworld has nothing to live on. So the Queen is dying, as you said."
"Yes," said Fox, still at a loss of words. "And with the Queen dead, the Aparoids will cease to exist." Fox kept looking at the Queen as she groaned weakly, gasping for air, soaking as much energy as she could from the thick fluid.
Wolf let the Queen writhe in agony, as he stood at the entrance of the shelter, raising his rifle. "The Queen is dying, then... and now it's time for you to pay back for what you did to me all these years, Fox." He fired his rifle right at Fox, still staring at what remained of the Aparoid Queen.
Fox fell forward onto the hard ground and groaned as he struggled to get back up on his feet. "What happened?" he said in a daze, searching for the rifle he dropped.
As Fox turned around, Wolf fired another shot from his rifle and Fox fell backwards into the vat of Aparoid fluid, and Fox screamed out in agony as soon as he fell in, floating on top of the fluid. Fox tried moving his limbs as much as he could, but the thick fluid prevented him from lifting them up, and the fluid soon infested into his body, eating into his muscles and bones, as Fox slowly sunk down in the fluid.
Wolf came closer to the vat, still keeping a fair distance away from the edge so that he wouldn't fall inside, but he was able to see Fox scream out in pain, seeing the Aparoid fluid infest him, taking control of his body. Fox's struggles became weaker, and his cries soon started to die down and become a digitized version of itself. Fox sunk further into the fluid, as the fluid started to surround his chest, and the light in Fox's eyes started to fade and digitize. He lifted his arm up in a vain attempt for someone to grab him, but by then his body was so deep inside the thick fluid it would have been impossible to be pulled out. Wolf looked on, staring at Fox as he succumbed to the fluid, sinking further and further inside.
Soon, all that remained of Fox above the surface was his arms and head, and Fox had stopped calling out for help, by now accepting his fate. As his head started to envelop below the fluid, he lifted up his hand in the air in one last desperate attempt to get out, as his breaths started to become a metallic wheeze. Slowly, Fox crept further and further down into the fluid, until it had reached the point where his face was the only thing Wolf could see from afar. Fox kept his right hand up, but it too, sunk further down, and Fox's voice crackled as his face started to get eaten by the Aparoid fluid, gasping for one last breath, before he sunk into the bottomless pit. Fox had garnered enough energy to call out one last time, tears starting to fall down his face as he croaked one last word to anyone who would hear it: "Goodbye…"
In that moment, Fox's face was fully swallowed up by the fluid, and all that Wolf could see was his hand spasm and shake until it too went into the pit. Wolf stared blankly into space, shuddering and breathing heavily and quickly, as he lowered his rifle. He spoke nothing, but simply stood still in the shelter, alone and unattended. At one moment, his mind was full of intense emotions, yet now, having seen Fox succumb to the fluid, his mind was alarmingly empty. He was completely speechless and stunned, unsure what to do with himself in that moment.
Wolf then felt the whole area rumble around him, and stepped out of the shelter without hesitation. He saw the rest of the homeworld start to break apart and disintegrate, and immediately ran to his Wolfen and jumped right into the cockpit and sped away from the shelter, leaving the Aparoid Queen and Fox behind.
More of the homeworld started to break away in chunks, with some pieces of the earth nearly hitting Wolf as it flew across the sky. Wolf had to dodge quickly out of the way, slowing him down as he noticed the homeworld now start to explode and send a wall of fire directly at Wolf. Wolf sent his thrusters to the maximum it could go on, but he still felt that the wall of fire was quickly catching up to him. He dived down a tunnel leading away from where the fire was going, not checking where the tunnel was headed, in a desperate attempt to get away from the wall of fire creeping up on him.
As Wolf went further and further towards the exit of the homeworld, seeming so close yet so far from where he was as the wall of fire inched closer, he gritted his teeth as the Wolfen gave all that it could towards barrelling out of the homeworld. "This thing better reach Mach 4 soon," growled Wolf, as his engines started to overheat and contort from the heavy G-forces applied at the speed it was going at.
Eventually Wolf could see the void of space in front of him, as the tunnel he was in started to get narrower, and the wall of fire behind him only seemed to be a small step away, as the engines started to squeal and weaken from the extreme stress of the G-forces. Wolf started to hold his breath as he got near the end of the tunnel, closing his eyes as he let the Wolfen drive straight forward towards the exit, hearing nothing but the engines whirring behind him…
Then, silence. Wolf kept his eyes closed, as he suddenly felt how fast his heart was thumping while he was piloting the Wolfen. He pleaded quietly to himself as he breathed heavily in and out. A few seconds had passed when Wolf decided to open his eyes again, albeit very slowly, feeling oddly at peace over the sudden quiet that drew inside his cockpit.
As his eyes opened, he could see the dark skies of space around him, and the collapsing Aparoid homeworld behind him, as the fire stopped right at the exit, and Wolf was now flying far away from the homeworld, leaving everything inside behind into the abyss of space. Wolf exhaled in relief, taking a few more precious breaths as he started to collect himself from the wars raging all around him. And in an instant, the intercom on the Wolfen brought itself to life again, complete with the giddy celebrations of all the other pilots in the battle, both from Star Fox and Star Wolf, as the Aparoids flying in the air started to deactivate in unison.
Soon after the initial celebrations started to die down, all the other pilots' faces grew more and more concerned, as they searched around the air. But they didn't say anything, not wanting to bring up any tough questions, especially right after their decisive victory over the Aparoids.
Eventually, Krystal found the courage to speak up in the awkward silence. "Where did Fox go?" she asked cautiously. "I thought he went in with you, Wolf…"
Wolf took in a deep breath, letting the hums of the engines keep his mind in focus as his mind scrambled for an explanation. He sat inside the cockpit, tensing and relaxing his arms as he braced for emotional impact.
"…I'm afraid Fox didn't make it," Wolf started in a slow and quiet tone. "We both went to face the Aparoid Queen… and the Queen killed him."
Silence filled the airwaves of the intercom, as the shock from the news settled in. Falco was speechless, unable to speak or even say anything that could come close to expressing his grief, and simply buried his head on the dashboard, keeping his eyes shut so as to not let a tear drop from his eye.
Wolf sat back and didn't add on to what happened, maintaining his solemn mood. No sense apologizing to everyone about this, Wolf thought to himself. It will just make everyone else sadder than they are already.
"Is true that Fox is gone?" asked Slippy, shuddering in disbelief. "How can I trust that you're telling the truth, Wolf?"
"I'm telling the truth, Slippy," Wolf insisted. "I can tell you that it was terrifying seeing Fox get eaten alive by the Queen. I don't want to go into detail… it's not something I should discuss right now.
Krystal put her hand on the window of her cockpit, facing towards the disintegrating Aparoid homeworld. A small tear started to roll down her eye as her voice started to break up in sorrow. "Why, Fox… why did you have to die for us?" Her sadness started to turn towards anger as she clenched her fist, building up tension in her arm. "Damn these Aparoids… Damn them all! So many people sacrificed themselves to save the Lylat System, and yet… it feels all so worthless. Peppy, the General, and now Fox… I can't believe they're all gone."
Falco lifted his head back up from the dashboard, still shaking on the inside. "What am I going to do now?"
The three remaining members of the Star Fox team drifted away from the group, while Leon and Panther flew beside Wolf, as they switched channels so that they could talk privately between each other.
"You ok, Wolf?" asked Leon. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to help out in the battle with the Queen. I got surrounded by the Aparoids, and then… let's just say I'm lucky to be alive."
"Don't worry about it now, Leon," sighed Wolf. "I'm just glad this whole ordeal is over. The Aparoids are finally exterminated once and for all."
"That fluffy little idiot is finally gone, too," Leon added. "I thought he would never get out of our way."
"I suppose," sighed Wolf.
Leon raised his eyebrow in confusion over Wolf's hesitant comment. "What's the matter then? I thought you wanted that scumbag dead."
"I did," Wolf replied. "I just didn't think it would happen so quickly in front of me. I've wanted him dead for some time, after all that he did against me, humiliating me and making me the most wanted man in Lylat. But that's all in the past, Leon. He's dead now, and I don't want to think about him anymore."
"Ok, boss," sighed Leon, leaning back in his seat.
Wolf hazily looked forward into the distance as his mind started being flooded with what had happened to him in the past few days. "I do have to say, Leon… I can't stop seeing Fox dying in front of me, seeing him getting swallowed up by the Aparoids… it reminds me too much of what happened to me in the past. I can't shake it off my mind."
"Forget about him," snarled Leon. "He's dead, just like the Aparoids, and we can finally live freely in Lylat again."
"That's true," conceded Wolf. "We don't have to worry about Fox shooting us down again. But I keep wondering what will happen if somebody finds out about what I did to him. Somebody's going to find out. I just know it."
