Three days later...

General Pepper had summoned me to his office-long after Fox had given him the debriefing for the situation on Venom.

"Hello, Fara..." the venerable General greeted me.

I nodded. "General."

"Have a seat." he said, and I sat down on the chair in front of his desk. "It has come to my attention that your brother was responsible for the destruction of the Liberator..."

"Sir, I can explain-" I said, but he cut me off with a raised paw.

"I have also been told that he was...not of his own free will. This perplexes me. Our tests show no indication of any mind-altering drugs or substances of any sort."

"Sir...we are dealing with powers that Lylat has not seen in hundreds, even thousands, of years. Andross' research only began to dig this up. One of those powers is the ability to control another being's mind. There may be more-far more-than we are aware of...but the only records we have of the use of such things is in extremely old historical research."

He nodded. "This is something, then, that we must look into. To other matters, then," he said, then added, "Are you absolutely certain that no trace was left of that weapon? That it had been rendered completely unusuable?"

"General, of that I'm positive. Peppy informed me that the material used for its power source had been overloaded in a final attempt to take us with it. I dropped a cluster of Nova Bombs on the cavern network to bury it under the rock and absorb the force of the explosion."

"Very good. That will be all, then..."

I turned my gaze to him, "About my brother..."

"I cannot say for certain. I can attempt to speak on his behalf-as the act was committed against military property, he will face a CDF tribunal-but I cannot guarantee any more beyond that..."

I nodded. There was nothing more I could do but wait. Three days later, though, I got my answer-he'd been acquitted of the charge against him.

As I met him outside the building where he'd had his tribunal hearing, I hugged him gently, "It's good to know that you're finally free..." I said.

He sighed softly, and turned to look me in the eyes. "Am I, Fara? From the standpoint of the law, I am not guilty of what I have done. However...I still have the memories. I was the one who pulled the trigger. So, am I really free?"

"We all know that it wasn't the real you, though..."

He stared up at the fierce orb of Lylat, burning in the midday Cornerian sky. "The real me...I wonder who that is. Since the day my drunken adopted father blurted out to me that I was left on his doorstep thirteen years prior, I don't know who the real me is, anymore. All I had was a necklace with a pendant..."

I glanced at the one I wore-more or less its twin. "Yeah..."

"It didn't reveal to me who my real father was...just my name. I'd heard of the Phoenix name, but I thought...no, it was just a coincidence. Until we met for the first time...although I wish it was under better circumstances."

I nodded. "Whatever happened to the one who adopted you?"

"He plowed his car into a tree, drunk out of his mind, and took my adopted mother with him..."

"I don't understand...why would our mother leave you in the care of such a person?"

"He wasn't always like that. He...changed."

"I see." I said. "So...what will you do now? You have to choose your path in life, now that you are finally able to."

"To choose..." he said, then laughed. "What a novel idea, Fara. I haven't really gotten to make a choice about my life since the day we were born."

"Darien...our mother was trying to protect us...from whatever it was that she was running from..."

"Yeah, and whatever that was, it's coming. Maybe not now, maybe not a year, or five years from now. But it's definitely coming. That much I could see while that...evil...possessed me."

"Then we have to prepare..." I started to say, but he just shook his head.

"Fara, right now, it's just the two of us. Three, if you count Peppy, and I don't think he's strong enough to take on an evil that threatened Lylat ages ago."

The old hare suddenly walked up to us. "Then it's up to us to find others to join us in the fight. This is not something that the people of Lylat are prepared for...in fact, most of the history of that great struggle has been lost to legend-a legend that many Lylatians no longer believe in."

"I agree. How, though?"

"We do have the power to detect our own. Some, more strongly than others. Like myself."

"Can you detect any others now?" I asked.

He shook his head. "It's hard to detect in all the background energy that naturally permeates all living creatures, Fara. I'd have to be much closer to a being to detect the presence of that power."

"Well, then, that's just what we'll have to do. In the meantime...life goes on as usual, does it not? Darien...you need to find something to do with your life. It just so happens that I need an office courier to handle my tasks around Corneria City for the company. How about it?" I said.

He shrugged. "I suppose it's a start..."

"Good. You start first thing tomorrow morning, then." I replied, patting him on the shoulder. "Don't be late."

As he nodded and walked away towards his apartment-which had been so graciously provided for him by the company, I wasn't going to turn my own brother out on the streets, not after what he had been through-I stared up at the sky.

Something is coming...and we have to be ready. We barely made it this time. Next time...we cannot afford to find ourselves wanting.

It is time to prepare ourselves for the war no one is expecting. A war of ages past.

Author End Notes:

Well, here we are at the end of, as I type this, my third rewrite of this story. I conceived this idea back when Star Fox 64 was released, back around 1998 or so. My original draft was written on good old pen and paper, electronically into (gasp) an email only format-thank goodness for WebTV-and posted on a little website I administered as part of the Star Fox fan community. In 2003 I dredged it up and decided to attempt a rewrite...but never finished that rewrite.

This story is the result of many, many 3AM days...thank you, insomnia, very much! I've already got a few ideas in mind for some separate stories that are related to this story in some way, or tell of the second generation of the Star Fox team and its continuing saga.

And, as Fara mentions, an old war of legends fought on the battlefields on the mind, instead of with bombs and lasers.

I sincerely hope that you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing this.

Until we meet again, travel safely on the wings of the Great Fox...

-Silverwolf16