Some more French kickin' around in this chapter. You've been warned. Google Translate!

Dash Bowman walked briskly towards his command centre. He had received word a few hours ago that former General Pepper would be speaking to the Cornerian Military, and he wanted to make all efforts to watch that emission.

Despite his absolute disdain for Corneria, Dash had some respect for the old hound and what he went through while serving as General. He had once considered him an idol, and he was one of the reasons he left Venom to join the Cornerian Defence Force. But that had all changed after the Anglar War, when he began listening to Andrew Oikonny.

After that he couldn't look the citizens of Lylat in the face without seeing some sort of hate or anger in their eyes. And it was simply because he was the grandson of Andross. While he was living on Corneria, Dash had gone out of his way to make a name for himself. He accepted what his grandfather had done but he still praised him for his intelligence. No one could deny that Andross was the most brilliant mind in his time; save for Beltino.

But when all was said and done, and the Anglars were defeated. His heroes, Fox and Falco, left him alone. Even after all he had done to help them; Fox vanished, and Falco refused to let him on his team. Granted he didn't know Falco didn't have a team at the time it still hit him hard. Soon after than he returned to Venom and started building an empire, at first it was just to prove to Corneria that they weren't the only planet capable of producing a military force. Rallying Venom to his cause was simple enough once word got around about his lineage.

When Corneria attempted a cease and desist order on him after they found out how big his military force had grown, Dash sent an entire fleet out to patrol his borders. Eventually Corneria attacked, and sent in Star Wolf. This forced Dash into surrender, but he didn't stop training his troops or researching new weapons and armour.

When they had uncovered his grandfather's research notes, Dash began to feel quite confident he could bring Corneria and Lylat to his knees. Immediately he ordered his best scientists to begin work on reconstructing Andross. He was going to make sure to succeed where Captain Shears had failed. It had taken the better part of four years to bring Andross's research to fruition, but it was all worth it.

Now he simply had to wait a week, just one more week and Andross would be fully functional again. Then he'd be ready to bring Corneria and Lylat to its knees. He'd finally be able to make good on his word.

'Venom's time has come!'

"Sir, we've got the feed. It's choppy, but they won't notice us splicing the signal from their satellites."

Dash blinked a few times before looking at the officer that had addressed him. "Main monitor."

"Already done sir." the officer replied before returning to his post.

"Let's see what you've got to say Pepper." Dash grinned, and crossed his arms. The entire room went silent as the stream began to play. It showed the press room, with nearly hundreds of soldiers sitting on steel chairs. In front of them was a simple podium with three microphones resting on top of it. There was a quiet murmur among the soldiers; it seemed laced with confusion and nervousness. Dash scoffed, clearly General Peppy had been good at keeping whatever was about to be said a secret. But he knew, or at least, could assume he knew exactly what this conference was about.

A yell came from the screen causing ever soldier to stand as both General Peppy, and Retired General Pepper walked towards the podium. "General on deck!"

"At ease." Peppy said as he adjusted the microphone slightly. "It is with great pleasure that I introduce my old friend and Retired General Pepper."

There was a mixture of applause from the feed and boos from the room Dash was in. He shouted out for them to quiet down, scowling as he turned back to see Pepper standing behind the podium.

"Good morning soldiers, officers, ladies and gentlemen, my friends one and all." Pepper paused a moment, and took a deep breath. "I come before you today wishing I had better reasons for visiting Cornerian's finest. But alas, that is not the case. I am sure some of you have heard rumors about Venom, rumors about what happened during the security breach, and even about a great evil that has returned." Pepper looked around, letting the soldiers talk among themselves for a few moments. "I am here to clear the air, and give you the truth and as much information we have on those matters. Starting with the Venom. We have known for some time that our peace bond with Dash Bowman was faltering, and we now have to prepare for a possible conflict with Venom once more. I can tell you that it will not be as simple as it was four years ago. We've made mistakes of under estimating Venom before and it nearly cost us our planet, as well as our system."

There was a commotion behind him that forced Dash to look away from the screen. "The next person who makes a noise is going to be front lining the attack on Corneria. Understand?" Dash's scowl deepened as he focused on the emission once more.

"-Answer any questions you have at the end of this conference, until then you will give your full attention to Pepper." Peppy adjusted the microphone so that it was directed to Pepper once more before returning to his seat.

"Thank you Peppy. Now, the last two things coincide with one another. Firstly, the security breach was originated within Lylat, and we have already sent a team to investigate. They are some of the best we have, and I'm sure they will figure out who managed to hack into our systems. We have, however, figured out exactly what was stolen. So we wish for you to see it before he sells it to the media, or whoever else would buy information." Pepper looked behind him as a screen dropped down. With a heavy sigh he tapped it, loading up the picture of Andross. "This was taken by one of our convoy ships near the borders of Venom. We're going to have to deal with Andross once again. And this time we don't have Star Fox to assist us."

"How the hell did they get that?!" Dash yelled slamming his fist on his armrest. "That was the only bargaining chip I had for Star Wolf, and it's on a secure network! There's no way Wolf was able to download that... Damn it."

"Please, quiet down, I'm not finished." Pepper said, almost as if it was directed at Dash himself. "Thanks to Wolf O'Donnell and his team we've been given a week to prepare for the worst. I will be here to aid General Peppy with anything he needs. I won't lie to you; we're in for a long fight. But it is nothing we haven't faced before, and I can't think of a better team to lead our forces than the one standing behind you right now."

The camera panned back and turned to show Wolf, Leon, and Panther standing in front of the main door to the press room. Both Leon and Panther smiled smugly, but Wolf was glaring at Pepper. Dash growled and stood up. "We're starting our attack now. Get fleets moving to the closest planets, I will not give up the element of surprise!"

"But sir! Andross isn't fully functional; he still needs the week to finish diagnostics!" Dash pulled out his blaster and shot the officer in the head, grinning as the body slumped to the floor.

"Anyone else got something to add?" He scanned the room, cackling when no one dared to reply. "Get those fleets moving. I want an update within the hour." With that Dash left the command centre, already planning his next move.

"Prochain endroit c'est..." Katt said more to herself as she read what Slippy had sent her. "Not really much help, but I guess the code isn't finished yet." She opened up the canopy and jumped out of her ship and began making her way to the bridge. "Can't believe Peppy finally gave Falco a team." She looked over at the four other ships docked in the bay of Cayuga. "Bullfrog, Skyclaw, and two..." She stopped those ships looked similar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on where she had seen them before. "They look like Arwing III's but I thought the Arwing class fighter had been discontinued." She shrugged and continued walking towards the elevator. "I guess I have been out of the loop for a few years." She told the elevator to take her to the bridge and leaned against the wall. "It's been a long time since I've been working on a team and back then..."

"Katt! Glad to see you've made it! Did you get the code I sent you?" Katt looked up to see the doors had opened and Slippy was waving her into the Bridge. She smiled at the amphibian.

"Yes, but the code isn't finished is it?" She asked making her way to Falco command chair and sitting down on it. "Because all I have is 'Next place is...' not really the most helpful thing to put in a code."

"Well the first code simply repeated the name Katina over and over again. I guess this Jay guy must want to make it more challenging the closer we get to him." Slippy brought up the code on the main screen once more. "This is the up to date version. I've got about fourteen percent more to go, but you might be able to figure it out quicker as it's in Zonian."

"Oui, et je parle cette langue." Katt giggled as she looked over the image. "Hmm. Next place is..." She began to read the sentences in her head, but most of them were incomplete. Each seemed to be missing all but one letter in the word that followed. "Maybe if I..." She began to look for the sentence that had the first letter, then the second, and so on until she finally figured out the trick to this code. "It's the same sentence over and over Slippy, but each one has one letter of the next planet in it. Next place is MacBeth!"

"I knew you'd be able to figure it out!" Falco said as he entered the bridge, he quickly ran a hand through his hair and smoothed out his clothes before standing beside Katt. "Good job."

Katt smirked. "Please, I'm surprised you didn't figure this out by yourself. I taught you and Fox how to speak Zonian a long time ago." Falco shrugged and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You know me and anything that isn't flying related."

"Yeah. We certainly do." Slippy said with a laugh. "Rob set a course for MacBeth. Looks like we won't be stopping on Katina after all."

"Confirmed." Rob replied, adjusting Cayuga's course. "Increasing speed, approximate time of arrival is three hours."

"Looks like I got here just in time to relax! What is there to do on this boat?" Katt looked up at Falco who had a stupid grin on his face. "I said what, not who you idiot." Falco motioned with his free hand to the door. "Let me give you the grand tour. I've got to inform our other two teammates about our change of course anyway."

"Well that sounds exciting." Katt replied sarcastically. "Tell me, oh glorious leader, what else do you do on your down time?"

The conversation faded as the door closed behind the two, leaving Slippy on the Bridge with Rob. It wasn't something the toad wasn't used too, but it still felt a little weird to be near the AI again. It was almost like Fox was watching out for them, this mission was full of lies and deceit that much Slippy knew. But with Rob here, Slippy was allowing himself to relax, and focus on getting this mission done as quick as possible. "Rob, what information do you have on our bounty hunters that isn't public knowledge?"

"Request denied. Protocol seven one six. Invalid voice recognition." Rob's normal monotone voice had raised a few octaves with his response.

"Hmmm." Slippy rubbed his jaw his with hand. "Activate emergency override on protocol seven six one."

"Request denied."

"Well then, I guess Shattered knows how to keep you tight-lipped." Slippy cracked his knuckles and tapped his hologram. "But I know how to crack those codes."

Kursed wiped away the tears and rested her hand on the door of her room. She couldn't tell how long it had been since their mind link had been re-established; but she knew now that she wanted nothing more than to be in Fox's arms. She wanted to take him, leave this ship and start a live far away from Lylat. Just her and him, alone, without the stresses of politics or war. Just the peace they deserved.

But that just wasn't possible, not with the price on her head. The second they left the protection of Corneria she would be hunted down until the day she died. That wasn't what she wanted; she needed that clean slate from Peppy in order to make her dreams a reality. For now, she was stuck with Star Falco, and their mission to find her old employer. Who hadn't contacted them since before they got captured on Kew. She had all but given up on hearing from him again, as he more than likely knew they had been forced to come after him. "Yet another person effected by my curse."

'Krystal, can you come to my room. I'm ready to talk again.'

That presence, his presence. She couldn't describe how she had missed his thoughts. The emotions connected to them were so pure; even now after so many years they still soothed her mind and calmed her soul. Without replying she opened the door, and rushed out running into Katt in the process. "Sorry."

"Hey..." Katt narrowed her eyes and growled, instantly recognising the vixen in front of her. "What the hell are you doing here? Come to fuck up more lives?"

"It's great to see you again too Katt, but I don't have time for this." Kursed spat and turned around, walking towards Shattered's room. She fell suddenly as Katt tackled her from behind. The feline began throwing punch after punch at the Vixen's head, causing Kursed to yelp in pain. Katt felt Falco lift her off of Kursed and fought against him.

"Let me go Falco!" Katt yelled, managing to break the avain's grip. She grabbed the vixen as she was standing up and tried to push her against the wall. But Kursed countered her, and used her own momentum to push Katt against the wall instead. Katt blinked away the pain and tried to elbow Kursed in the face. Kursed ducked, but felt the elbow graze the top of her head. With a growl the vixen hooked her leg between Katt's and kicked out, causing the feline to topple to the floor. Katt swung her legs in a circle before pushing herself up to her feet. Kursed easily dodged the kick and grabbed the feline's head in her hands.

"I don't want to fight you!" Kursed yelled she was forced to let go as Katt swung wildly at her head. She blocked it with her arm and grabbed her wrist, twisting it fiercely enough to cause Katt to cry out in pain. The feline used her free hand to grab the vixen's hand and shoulder tossed her to the ground, causing Kursed to lose her grip. Katt took her fighting stance, shaking her hand to get feeling back into it.

"You may not want to fight me Kursed. But I certainly want to beat the hell out of you!" Katt snarled, she let the vixen stand back up.

"What the hell happened between you two?" Falco yelled, causing both women to look at him. "Look clearly this has to get out of your system, and far be it from me to miss out on a cat fight; but seriously what happened?"

"If you only knew who she really was Falco." Katt glared at the vixen. "And you just might find out sooner or later, once she betrays us again." With that Katt lunged at Kursed, extending her claws. Kursed sighed and readied herself once more.

Katt faked a swipe right and swung wide with her left, Kursed saw her attack at the last second and missed most of the swipe but felt those razor-sharp claws dig into her side. She cried out in pain and threw a punch at Katt, catching her on the jaw. The blow caused Katt to stumble back, giving Kursed a chance to get a few more shots in on Katt's head.

Katt snarled and swiped her claws quickly across Kursed's face, her hand eye coördination was off but she still managed to leave three fresh lines across the vixen's face. Kursed grabbed both of the feline's hands and crossed them before leaping behind Katt, twisting herself around mid-air to land behind the feline and began using her own arms to choke her out.

"ENOUGH!"

All three of them turned to see Shattered standing a few feet away. To say he was angry was an understatement. Kursed quickly let Katt go and went to go back into her room. "Wait right there Kursed."

"So... yeah, this is awkward." Falco said placing his hands in his pockets.

"You had better control your teammate Falco." Shattered snarled looking at Katt. "Si vous lui touchez encore, je vais te faire du mal. D'accord?"

"Si j'étais vous, je voudrais me débarrasser de votre petite amie." Katt turned on her heel and walked away.

"Well that went about as good as it could have... I guess." Falco stretched his arms above his head. "I meant to come down here to let you guys know that we're heading for MacBeth. I didn't know that Kursed and Katt have history."

Shattered sighed and grabbed his side, feeling the distress that Kursed was in. "I'll let her know. How long til we get there?"

"About three hours. Should give you guys lots of time to do... well, whatever." Falco laughed and waved before walking in the same direction Katt went. Shattered watched until Falco took a corner before knocking on Kursed's door. "Hey Krys, it's me."

The door opened and Kursed wrapped her arms around Shattered, sobbing into his chest. "I didn't think she'd still be angry." Shattered rested his head on top of hers. "I didn't think she'd recognize me either.

"What happened between you two, if you don't mind me asking?" Shattered broke the hug, and followed her inside, sitting down beside her on her bed.

"Before I left Lylat, I asked Katt if I could stay a few nights at her place. Everything started out normal until she asked me if I was going to rejoin Star Fox." Kursed took a shaky breath. "When I told her what my plan was she started yelling at me. Saying that the rumors about me being a traitor were true. She was going to take me back to the Great Fox, something I honestly didn't want at the time. So I knocked her out, stole what credits she had and fled the system."

"That would explain a lot." Shattered sighed, still rubbing her side. "Say um, not to change the subject, but does our mind link send pain as well as thoughts and emotions? Because I made my way to your room because I felt this huge pain on my side." He pointed just above his hip, the same spot where Katt had managed to claw Kursed.

"Normally after a few years, the mind link evolves and things like pain can go through. But it's not limited to just pain." Kursed explained. "Are you mad at me?"

Shattered looked away from the vixen, trying to hide his frown. "I feel like I should be Krys, and you have every right to be mad at me as well. But the more I think about it, the more it just seems natural that we're together again. But at the same time, how do I know history won't repeat itself?"

"We'll just have to stop it from repeating then." Kursed placed her hand on his. "I'm willing to give us another chance Fox. I want to forgive you and forget what happened."

Shattered turned his hand so that he could interlock it with hers. "There's nothing more than I want than to have you back." He leaned his head against hers sighing contently. "Will you forgive me?"

'A'cc mubo ak ucc if ke 0ei jemotu0, no'cc ro kewokxoh uwuad.' Kursed's thoughts entered his mind, causing him to smile. "I told you I'd make it up Fox. I'm sorry it took so long." Shattered pulled back, lifting up her head with his finger before kissing her. He felt her arms wrap around him and followed suit.

They were no longer Kursed and Shattered, two of Lylat's top bounty hunters. Now they were Fox and Krystal, two long-lost members of the Star Fox team. They could start the healing process in their relationship.

"Attention Star Falco. Incoming transmission from Corneria, all team members are required to be present. Repeat, all team members are required to be present."

The two finally parted panting from the lack of air. "Rob always did know how to ruin a good moment." Shattered laughed grabbing Kursed's hand and helping her to her feet. "I guess we should keep using our bounty hunter names huh?"

"Just until we're done this mission. After that I want to escape with you, away from all this shit." Kursed let him lead her towards the bridge, having not actually been there herself yet.

After a few minutes of walking, they found themselves entering the bridge. "Well, friggin finally!" Falco scoffed before turning to the large holo-screen in front of him. "Alright Peppy, we're all here."

"Good afternoon everyone." Peppy said looking at each person individually before clearing his throat. "I know you're all busy looking for Jay. But I got word from Wolf that none other than Dash Bowman had contacted him last night."

"Bowman huh? Wasn't he that young pilot that helped us out during the Anglar Blitz?" Falco asked crossing his arms across his chest. "I guess he ended up following his grandfather after all."

"The very same Dash. To make a long story short, he had Wolf kill Beast who apparently had worked for Dash. My guess is so that he'd have a base within striking distance of Corneria, and we'd be taken completely by surprise."

"Clever tactic. But why kill off Beast? Surely he could have been more help to Dash alive." Kursed asked shaking her head as the picture of Beast's body appeared on screen. "Doesn't make sense."

"Like a few other around here." Katt muttered, getting a growl from Shattered. "Down boy, it isn't like I called her out."

"You might as well have Katt." The vulpine replied. "If you want to be unprofessional I'm sure there are tons of places back on Corneria."

"Whoa, now who's stepping over the line?" Falco stepped in front of the vulpine. "You'd better remember who's in charge here buddy. Else I might have to kick your sorry ass before I throw you off this ship."

"I would love to see you try." Shattered chuckled. He looked up at Peppy. "You gonna just sit there and let this happen?"

"Don't look to him for help. You're nothing but a common criminal, and the only reason I agreed to this is because Peppy vouched for both you and your little fuck buddy over there." Falco snapped, he poked Shattered hard in the chest a few times as he spoke. "Don't remind me just how much she's worth to the right people. I just might want to make some money on the side."

Shattered drew his blaster and pointed it at Falco's head. "You wouldn't make it an inch." He looked over to see Katt with her blaster pointed at him. "And she wouldn't have been quick enough to save you."

"Or herself." Kursed had her blaster pointed towards the feline, doing her best to hide the inner turmoil she was having at the idea of killing her best friend.

"Everyone seems to forget about me." Slippy chuckled walking towards the group. He pulled out a small device and pressed the red button on it, causing every blaster to power down. "Now, Peppy I'll just start by saying, you should have told me about who this guy really is." He jerked his thumb towards Shattered. "And Katt and I already know who she is." He indicated Kursed with his head. "So my only question is, should I do the introductions or should you?"

"We've got bigger things to deal with here Slippy." Peppy loaded an image and expanded it. "This is what we're going to be dealing with if you five don't get your shit together."

"Andross!?"

"I figured that would get your attention." The hare straightened up his uniform. "If Star Falco cannot find Jay within this week I fear we won't be able to stop the media from finding out that the single greatest threat to Corneria is back." He looked at Slippy. "As for your question Slippy, you brought it up, you can deal with the consequences. Peppy out."

All five members of Star Falco looked at one another, before slowly looking at Slippy. Two faces almost begged him to keep quiet, while the other two nearly demanded further explanation. Slippy looked from one face to another before taking a deep breath. "Rob, tell them what I just found out."

"Request denied, owner is detected. Voice recognition failed." Rob replied.

"Owner?" Falco whispered, looking over at Shattered. "But we programed him to respond to us. Only Star Falco, the only own who could supersede that order is-"

Shattered looked over at Kursed and smiled. "I guess we won't be using these names anymore." Kursed shook her head and tried to tell him to keep quiet but he didn't listen. "Rob. Override protocol seven one six."

"Command confirmed." Rob began typing on the keyboard in front of him, sending an image to the holo-screen. "Welcome back Fox."

"B-but..." Falco stuttered, looking at the vulpine in front of him. "But you died. We fucking buried you. You..."

"That would explain why he's so damn protective of you." Katt shook her head, staring at Kursed. "Don't expect me to forgive you Krystal."

"Krystal?" Falco looked from the vulpine to the vixen. "You, but... we. Your." He sat down on his command chair, shaking his head. "How didn't I see it?"

"Why didn't Peppy tell us who you were when he interrogated you Fox?" Slippy asked a mixture of anger and happiness in his voice. "Better yet, why did you fake your own death?" He continued before Fox could speak. "You were given a hero's funeral, everyone that we have ever helped came by to give their condolences Fox! You cheated these people, people that we saved out of the one symbol that has stood as hope for years. How dare you just show back up like this?"

Shattered was silent for a long moment, and as he went to speak he was interrupted by Kursed. "He left because of me. Because I betrayed him and the Star Fox team to give Star Wolf the device needed to clean the seas of Venom. I helped them become heroes. I left when he needed me the most because he broke my heart."

"So why bother coming back now?" Katt asked bluntly.

Kursed went to speak but was cut off by Shattered. "We literally figured out who each other was thirty minutes before you guys did. But when we were together we made a mind link. Once we reactivated it we decided to try to make things work between us, almost as if these four years never happened."

"While that's all fucking lovey-dovey. I want to know why the hell you couldn't be bothered to tell us, your god damn brothers why you were leaving!" Falco's voice rose as he spoke. "Why the fuck couldn't you at least tell us that you were going after Krystal? We would have helped you!"

"It wasn't your problem Falco. Besides, I couldn't have just up and left. You saw how the damn media was following my every fucking move!" Shattered shot back. "They fucked up royally on mine and Krystal's relationship; everyone called her a traitor when it was because of me she ended up leaving the team! At that moment all I wanted was to find Krystal and apologize for everything, even what the media was doing."

"Well, I need a stiff fuckin' drink." Falco stood up and made his way to the door. "You all might as well come with me, because this talk is far from over. And we'll need to figure out what to do should we find Bowman's forces."

"You always did articulate better when you're drunk." Slippy chuckled walking passed the avian.

"Shaddup." Falco turned to look at his three other teammates. "Did I stutter? C'mon, that's a damn order."

"I don't intend to play nice Krystal. You've got a lot more explaining to do." Katt looked over at Shattered. "And you, I don't even know what to say."

"Then don't say anything. I'm not expecting some huge party for my return." Shattered replied and looked over at Kursed. "On y vas?" Kursed nodded and grabbed his hand with hers before looking at Falco.

"After you."

Katt watched the three of them walk for a moment before following. 'Damn it Krystal, why couldn't you have just told me the truth?'

Well damn, that was something eh?

In a reply to:

Blazehunter64 - Well we certainly found out how they'd react eh?

dajuanwilliams - Ask and you shall receive!

Troygroomes - Really? That's awesome! And I hope Fox/Krys get married at some point too. Or at least hinted at or something.

Kazila - Legit? You'll have to teach me how to beta first.

bryan mccloud - Thanks for the idea of having Katt and Kursed fight hand to hand! I hope I didn't make it too boring. *sweatdrop*