I was pacing the waiting room of the base hospital like a madwoman. What the hell was it with me and hospitals this week? First, my father, and now, the one I loved.

For as much as I wanted to be back there with him, the chief surgeon, some white wolf named Bianca, wouldn't allow it. I'd have had a hard time forgetting who she was, because she had the bushiest damned tail in all of Corneria. She also seemed to know me-at least by reputation and my previous post.

"He'll be okay, Fara..." she said...gently, but firmly. "He's in the best paws for the job."

"I wish he were in mine.."

She gave a tired smile, as if trying to keep my courage up. "Yes, but you're one hell of a test pilot. I'm the doctor here, though. This is my area of expertise. Trust me, Fara, I'll do my best. You have my word on that..."

Hours later, she emerged again. Exhausted, tired...but I could see the relief in her eyes.

"Is he..?" I asked.

Bianca nodded. "He'll pull through. The bolt missed his heart by a fraction, though..." she added, and for a moment, I saw a flicker of a memory that I instinctively felt she'd rather not share cross her eyes. "He's going to be out for a while, and in a fair bit of pain after that...but he'll pull through..." she said.

She then sat down in the chair for a moment, looking dead on her feet. Poor thing, she must have worked without any rest at all trying to tend to Fox.

In minutes, I could hear the very distinct-and rather loud-sound of a wolf in surgical scrubs snoring rather soundly. I didn't care, I wouldn't begrudge her that. She'd saved Fox, and I was grateful.

The days passed, and all I could think of was (1) being with Fox and (2) if my brother was truly beyond redemption or if he could be saved.

"Fara?" I heard a voice behind me. I turned to see Bianca addressing me. "I just wanted to share Fox's condition with you."

"Go on."

"He should be clear to go home tomorrow." she said, then took a seat beside me.

"I assume that there's more than that which you wished to share."

She nodded. "Yeah, and this is something I don't normally get the luxury to share, being a doctor and all. I see the way you two look at each other."

I nodded.

I saw that same flicker pass her eyes that I had earlier, and she sighed deeply before continuing. "Fara, the damned war for Lylat...it left me a widow at only 22 years of age. My husband was killed in action at the Battle of Sector X."

My eyes widened at this revelation. That battle was against one of Andross' many superweapons that decimated much of the Cornerian fleet. "I'm so sorry..."

"Star Fox was the guys that went in and destroyed that weapon, though, so...I owed it to you guys to save Fox. Not that I wouldn't fight to save anyone who I operated on, but...this task, I guess I took personally. Sorry about falling asleep right there in the waiting room, though..I'm sure that must have looked totally unprofessional on my part."

"I see. And it's okay. I didn't mind, you looked like you'd earned it."

"But I wanted to tell you something else, Fara. Something...dear to my heart."

"What is it?"

"Live every day with him like you aren't guaranteed tomorrow-because you aren't. I found out the hard way that we weren't. We...never even had the chance to start a family..."

"I will, Doctor..."

"Please, call me Bianca. I'd only known of you by reputation and post...but I could see something in your eyes that reminded me of myself. If it's okay, I don't mind your calling me on a first name basis..."

I nodded. "As long as you don't go around calling me 'Commander' or something like that."

"You...don't have much use for titles, do you..." she asked, blinking.

"Never have."

"Oh good. At least we have something in common then. Well, duty calls. A chief surgeon's work is never really done..." she said. "Please...promise me, though, that you'll remember what I said."

"I will," I answered. "Hopefully you will find someone to mend that wound in your heart one day, too."

She gave a sad smile and nodded, "One day...I hope." Then she walked off down the hall.

I went my own way, looking for his room, and found it quickly. I padded inside quietly and my heart just broke looking at him, lying there.

My sole comfort was that I knew he would pull through. However...I blamed myself. I wasn't strong enough to protect him. He wouldn't be lying there if I hadn't hesitated in trying to save my brother instead of stop him.

I blinked. I flinched. I showed weakness. And he nearly paid the price.

Never again, I told myself. If I had to learn to use this power I barely understood, so be it. If it meant having to take down my own brother, next time, I would not be the one found wanting.

Next time, only one of us would walk away, and with us would go the fate of the Lylat System.

With that in mind, I had to figure out where to start. There was only one logical answer to that-and, after a while, I'd found him in the base library.

"Peppy...what do you know about psionics? You said you were Andross' teacher..."

The old hare turned to me with a sigh, closing a book he'd been poring through. Yes, even for all our high technology, some of our history was still on paper. "It's an ability that goes back several thousand years. To call those that have the power 'psionics' is something of a misnomer, as all Lylatians have an infinitesimal amount of psionic energy in their being. We just reserve the term for those who have a significant amount."

"Okay, I think..."

"It was said that thousands of years ago, beings came to Lylat. Beings of...such incredible power that, by our reckoning, they would be gods. They were the first. Some used their power benevolently...others for evil. As is normally the case with such differences, war soon erupted."

"What happened?"

"Some of their fighting changed the face of Lylat. It has been theorized that the asteroid belt near Corneria was once a planet ripped apart by the colossal release of psionic power...and that the core of Macbeth was torn open."

"Such...terrible power..."

Peppy nodded. "In the end, it was psychonite that changed the tide of battle. Psychonite, as you know, amplifies psionic energy-but its creation comes at a price..."

"That price being?" I asked, not sure I wanted to know the answer.

"Psychonite is the condensed psionic energy of another being. Its mind is...destroyed in the process of the creation of the material. To make a gem the size of..." he said, glancing at my neckline for a moment, "your pendant there, took the energy of...ten moderately strong beings."

"My.." I said, gasping.

"For that much to exist on Venom, in one spot..." Peppy said, shaking his head. "The amount of beings who died must have been terrible."

"That's putting quite a fine point on it, Peppy..." I said. "It would have been short of mass genocide."

"Or mass sacrifice, more likely. Venom was known as the stronghold of the dark psionics, and the lizardfolk who called it home worshipped them as gods. Wasn't just the bad guys that used it. Good guys knew what they were up against, knew what was necessary...didn't stop them from making the sacrifice either."

"How'd the right side win?"

"Because they realized there's a lot of power in unity and love, that's why. Small band, along with their leader and her mate, sacrificed themselves to destroy the leader of the dark psionics." Peppy said.

"So, my brother has a tremendous amount of psionic energy at his disposal. How do we stop him?"

"We'll have to find a way to get back into that chamber without being detected. Even then, there's still the matter of fighting him. There's really only one chance."

"That is?"

"We'll have to harness that energy before he does." Peppy said, shaking his head.

"Isn't that dark energy, though?" I asked. If I had to utilize the same weapons that he did in order to stop him, then I was no better than he was. There had to be another way.

"It's energy." he shrugged. "How it is used is up to the will of its user."

I sighed. "How will we get there? I'm sure he'll be expecting the Great Fox this time...and I don't think he'll be in a talking mood. We'll be shot to pieces before we get close enough."

It was then that my heart skipped a bit, and at least my spirits rose as I heard a voice behind me. "He won't see the Arwings coming. Even if he did, they're nimble enough to avoid his shots." I heard Fox say.

"Fox, you're awake..." Peppy said. "But we'd still be goners if we took one solid hit...the shields on the Arwings aren't strong enough."

Fox nodded, coming over to my side. "Then we'll just have to be at the top of our game." he replied, then his eyes met mine. "You okay, Fara?"

"Fox, I..." I started to say to him, but what would I say? That I was sorry for letting him down?

"Fara, it's all right. You were being yourself. No need for blaming yourself for trying to talk him down."

"If I hadn't, though..."

"Fara, I'm okay. That's what matters now. We've got to be at our best this time. We're going back in, because we can't let him do this."

I nodded. "I won't hesitate this time, Fox..."

"Just don't have your guard down so far that he can sneak your blaster out of your holster this time, okay?" he said to me, with a slight grin.

"Yeah, I got it."

"We're going to have to launch fighters from well outside the range of that weapon. Once we launch...it's now or never."

"Then what are we waiting for?" I responded. "Let's go."