Normally, the long echoes of space brought peace to Wolf. There was something nearly welcoming about the vast nothingness. To him, this would always be a sign of countless opportunities. Today he seemed fall between the stars into the dark. Something felt off centre about the nothingness this time.

"O'Donnell? I'm Captain Gregory Demmers CDF Juggernaut Victory; I'll be escorting the Star Wolf team on this scouting mission."

Wolf scoffed. "A juggernaut? Seems a bit much for a regular old scout run. Don't you agree Captain?"

Gregory seemed to share Wolf's sentiment. "General Hare insisted that we play host to the squadron assisting you, in case Venom is planning a sneak attack. We'll be able to offer immediate support."

"Forgive me for not believing you right away... Demmers was it?" Wolf growled, pushing the resent memory with one Peppy Hare out of his mind. "How many ships do I have including mine?"

"I'm carrying the six Class A Cornerian Fighters that will be flying with you. Plus enough firepower to hold our own until backup arrives." There was pride in Gregory's voice and maybe just a touch of anticipation. "We'll have you all on trackers so we'll know if you get into a tight spot. But I assume such legendary fighters as yourselves; you've likely fought your way out of many shit-storms."

"We've had our fair share." Panther piped up. "Sorry to interrupt but it looks like our gate is ready."

"Good, I could use some action." Leon gripped the controls of his fighter, boosting towards the Beltino Gate Station. Panther quickly followed suit the rose on his Wolfen just barely visible as he passed Wolf.

"Alright Captain, tell those pilots to get ready for launch. I want them in Diamond formation once we get to the other side. Wolf out."

"It's been a long time since we've been around here." Panther looked down at his control panel; everything appeared green, but his comm link was switching rapidly from green to yellow. "Leon, Wolf you read me? My comm link is acting up."

"Ya I read ya, jeez you act like you really were in the Cornerian Military." Leon hissed, looking from Panther's ship to Wolf's. "My guess is Venom is starting to cut communication satellites around here."

"Would be something I'd do. Cut off the support and you'll gain obedience pretty quickly. Dash seems to have outsmart his Grandfather, and that's saying something." Wolf chuckled, casting a quick glance at his radar. He had two green blips indicating both Panther and Leon, and for a moment he thought that would be all he would see.

"Demmers here. Sorry about our delay, seems like someone tried to close the gate on us. Not to worry though, we're all here safe and sound." Gregory's voice was full of static, and the image of his face was partly blurred. "Seems like we're running on short wave comms. I'll keep Victory close to the group, we don't need any surprises."

"Does that look like an entire fleet coming towards us, or have I mixing my oxygen tanks with alcohol again?" Panther asked as top portion of his radar blinked red.

"Panther, for once I think you're right." Leon forced his screen to reload, but sure enough the same red blips were still there. "Wolf we might have an issue here."

"Noted." Wolf grumbled. "Victory, you seeing what we're seeing?"

"I was kinda hoping I wasn't." Gregory replied grimly. "I know I said we could hold our own, but that was if we were up against one to three of those ships, not an entire damn fleet. I've got preparations to make Star Wolf, pilots should be launching within moments. Victory out."

"Naming that ship Victory almost seems like a sick joke right now." Panther muttered he primed his ship's weapons. "What you thinking Wolf?"

"Something must have spooked Bowman into attacking early. Without long-range comms there is no way we can warn Corneria. Part of me thinks Peppy sent us to our deaths." Wolf sighed; it wouldn't be a fitting end. Hell he thought he'd actually make it to retirement before his time was up. But now, with the three of them staring down the growing bulk of Dash's army survival seemed pretty slim. "I won't lie to you boys. This could very well be the end."

"I'm counting, at least four fleets coming this way, and that's with some generous rounding down." Leon cackled gleefully. "Any last-minute wagers on who's going to take down the most?"

"Victory to Star Wolf, our launchers our jammed, looks like sabotage. Best thing we can do is offer support for as long as possible." Gregory almost seemed calm, all things considered. Wolf looked at the three faces staring at him for a moment before looking back towards the fleet and the stars behind it. "If you ask me, I say we give them as much hell as possible while you guys get to a Corneria friendly planet and warn them about what's coming their way!"

"I'll be honest with you Gregory." Wolf smiled. "I'm pretty sure they already know what's coming, and the suicide mission they sent us on. So when you say give them hell, that's exactly what I plan on doing. We'll catch you on the other side."

Wolf cut the link to Victory. "Panther, Leon. It's been a fucking hell of a ride; I'll see you in hell. Let's go out in style!"

Both Leon and Panther grinned before boosting their way towards Venom's fleets. Wolf followed just a moment later. 'Looks like I'll be joining you McCloud.' He laughed a little. 'So sentimental.'

Wolf was still laughing when his ship disappeared into the enemy fleet.

"Hey, hey, listen to this!" Ghost yelled, causing both Jay and Tyronos to hurry over to the ship. "Fucking crazy! I just over heard that Venom engaged a Cornerian Juggernaut and what I have to assume was Star Wolf!"

"Star Wolf? Well, what happened?" Jay asked.

"Sounds like they got fucked up. Reports have been coming in faster than I can listen. What I can gather is that they've been dealt with, I can tell you for sure that the Cornerian ship is gone." Ghost shook her head. "A damn shame if they're dead. Hell of a damn team."

"They worked for Andross at one point." Jay growled. "How could they be called heroes after what happened?"

"I understand your frustrations Jay, but they really pulled a 180 during the Aparoid War. Hell, some people say they played a critical role in the last few major conflicts." Tyronos patted Jay on the shoulder. "What I don't understand is why that juggernaut didn't use its cloaking device."

"It's a new technology Ty, no doubt there'll be fuck ups along the way." Ghost mused. "Besides, you've been out of the loop for over a year. I think you might be a little behind in the times, ya know?"

"Oh ha ha, bloody ha." Tyronos grumbled. "Where you always this desensitized Cho?"

Ghost grinned and took a long hit off of her joint before handing it over to the grey vulpine. Tyronos didn't need a reply from her, and took a hit off the joint as well before casting a glance at Jay.

"No thanks, I remember the last time you tricked me into take that crap." Jay smirked waving the smoke Tyronos blew at him out of his face. "I had a hell of a fucking time trying to fly back to Kew that night."

Tyronos laughed heartily. "You should have seen him Ghost. In a word, Hilarious."

"About as hilarious as when we first met face to face."

Kew – 4 years ago

There was a certain type of person Chondra liked to befriend. In a job of blood and blasters they were people who took pride but not pleasure in their work. It was a dangerous way of life on Kew. The lesser-than's hated anyone who was self-righteous. The ones who didn't have to bury themselves in liquor just to deal, something about them was untrustworthy – but it was just the opposite for Ghost.

Chondra buried herself in kinship, in helping others. Pretending her hands were clean. It was in that way she met Jay. He seemed too skilled for how new he was, too deeply wounded to be just another bounty hunter, and too old to be just starting – hopefully.

She had seen the man come into the bar almost a half-hour ago. He ordered drinks consistently but not excessively. Eliminating him as just a hunter drifting in to drown his last job, he seemed to focus too. Maybe he was here for a job? Chondra poured herself a drink and signaled to the shadows before she walked over to him.

"Hey." Chondra said sitting down with the vulpine.

"Can I help you?"

"I'm the owner. Drifters aren't common here. Locals don't take kindly to some random taking their hits. So I'm here to tell yah if you try to make money in my bar I'm going to kill you."

"I'm not here to kill anyone." Jay laughed.

"Really? Then what the hell are you here for? Retirement?" Chondra grinned cheekily. "What's the name old man?"

"Jay."

Chondra choked on her whiskey. "Jay? The Jay?"

"As sure as you are the Ghost." Jay grinned.

"Well fuck. I have to say, if you're here to kill me – I've had a gun on you the whole time."

"Jay, I didn't expect you to even show your face. You had a good thing going; all that mystery and atmosphere." A male voice spoke just as Jay felt gun-metal touch his neck.

"Hopeless." Jay said in recognition. His body stiffened in response to the gun, despite the familiar feeling. Jay looked at nothing. "I'm here because once there was once an Informant. The Informant. Codec."

Chondra felt the air and warmth leave her at the mentioning of the name.

"It is my understanding that Codec had suddenly reappeared in the information market – after such a long absence." Jay spoke calmly like the blaster on his neck didn't faze him even though his posture said otherwise. "I was Codec's closest friend and partner. She spoke fondly of you Ghost."

"Bullshit." Chondra hissed and stood quickly and drew a blade from her hip and sliced Jay's thigh in the same motion. Tyronos let the vulpine fall cursing to the floor.

"She knew you had it in you to restart her name." Jay snarled.

"You don't just get to fucking come in like that and talk like you know anything!" Chondra shouted kicking Jay where she had just cut him. "You fucking asshole."

"She did mention your temper as well. As I recall – you had a fetish for bleeding on her."

Chondra stopped in her tracks. Tyronos still hadn't made a move to aid or assist either party but now he looked at Ghost. "Ghost." He said firmly. "I believe him. I'm going to help him."

"Fine." Chondra said walking to the bar and hoping over it to get a bartender's rag. She cleaned off her dagger and drank some vodka straight from the bottle as she sheathed it.

"I think she likes you." Tyronos said cheerfully as he pulled Jay to his feet. He snorted and then groaned in pain.

Present - Near the Coneria/Venom border

Slippy tapped furiously at his laptop. He had come up with an idea to assist the team's entry to Venom while walking towards the bridge. If he could use his remote to shut down the energy beams in everyone's blasters. Why couldn't he amplify the range of his remote to shut down the drone ships Venom was sure to be using?

He knew that the cloak would only work if they managed to stay off radar. The system actually worked as an adaptive camouflage. Hundreds of cameras installed around the ship projected what they saw and project it to a light-emitting polymer skin on the other side. However if they were spotted on radar, or hit by a stray asteroid or any sort of attack by an enemy ship the cloak would falter and it would take a few minutes to reset the system. The Cayuga was fitted with this cloak before Slippy had a chance to test it, and tweak the program so that it could become a truer cloaking device.

"You always did work the hardest."

Slippy turned around to see the bridge door closing behind Fox. For a moment Slippy could have sworn he was hallucinating. The toad turned in his chair to face the vulpine moving his laptop to the side. "I always wanted something to keep my mind active. For you and Falco it was always the fight. But for me, I guess I always found peace in lines and lines of code."

Fox chuckled, walking past Slippy to the helm of the bridge. "We're almost at the Cornerian-Venom border, aren't we?"

"Affirmative." Rob replied. "ETA is fifteen minutes."

Slippy glanced from Fox to his laptop. "Are you nervous? About meeting Jay I mean."

Fox sighed, staring so intently at the slowly growing planet he felt as though he could already see Jay. "My focus is on this job."

"So what happens after it's done?" Slippy asked, immediately he saw a change in demeanour from Fox. Like the question had hurt him somehow. An awkward silence fell between them, and Slippy began regretting the question more and more with each passing second. "You don't have to reply if-"

"It's just..." Fox said, cutting Slippy off. "I've been in this bounty hunter mindset for what feels like a lifetime. Normally after a job is done, I start looking for the next one." Fox went quiet, but had the air about him like he hadn't finished his thought.

"So after this mission. Are you going back to being Shattered?"

Fox shook his head. "I can't go back to being Shattered, but I can't pretend to be Fox McCloud either. I'm not sure what's going to happen Slip."

They both turned to look as the rest of the team entered the bridge. Falco immediately walked up beside Fox. "See anything out there yet?" He asked indicating towards the window with his head.

"Venom is visible." Fox pointed to the now keyhole sized planet. "We should be seeing Dash's forces soon."

Katt made her way to the scanner. "Seems clear right now. But we could also be just out of range."

Krystal placed her forefinger and thumb on her chin. "What if they have similar tech? We could be flying into a trap."

Slippy guffawed at the thought of Venom on par with Cornerian tech. "I assure you, we're well ahead of anything they've got. Besides, we've only got to make it a few more minutes and we can cruise right down to Venom with the cloak."

"We might not have that long. Check this shit out." Katt said, sending the radar to the holo-screen in front of Fox and Falco.

It showed no less than twenty warships, with countless fighters escorting them. "Well shit." They watched as the scanner went to work checking each fighter before moving on to the bigger ships. By the end of its scan the computer displayed that only one out of every twenty fighters was piloted by a person. The rest were drones functioning from sensors and energy anchors from their respective warships.

"Slippy hit that cloak; we're going to need to get down to Venom pronto." Falco said sitting down in his chair. "The rest of you sit down and buckle in, we might not get down there without a fight."

"If we get spotted we won't make it to Venom." Fox muttered, strapping himself into the chair closest to Rob.

Krystal could feel doubt pierce his mind and she sent what confidence she had towards him. She knew it wouldn't help much, but she smiled as Fox sent back a similar warmth through their mind link.

"They seem really focused on heading towards Cornerian space." Katt pushed the scanner to each of their stations. "But I can't tell where it ends and where it begins. How the hell did Dash get this many ships?"

"We've left him alone to stew in his madness for years. I can't say I'm truly surprised. But damn, he certainly recovered from that battle with Star Wolf some quick." Falco glanced over at Slippy. "Hit it Slip. We're making it to Venom."

"Cloaks up, directing auxiliary power to shield as a precaution. Surplus power is being redirected to engines... now."

There was a low hum as the ship began bolting towards Venom, which now rapidly grew to its full size. "It's going to make a hell of a noise once we hit the atmosphere. We'll likely lose the cloak for a few moments. I'll try to time it so we'll disappear as soon as we're clear."

Had they the time, they could have looked over how Venom had changed. It had lost most of its red hue due to the huge city Dash had built. In a way it looked like Corneria.

As they hit the atmosphere Slippy disengaged the cloak just before it sounded like an inferno had been set inside the Cayuga. Red waves lapped at the window, threatening to slip inside before sliding off the hull harmlessly. The engine's hum lowered to a barely audible tone as the ships adjusted to the pressures of the Venomian environment.

"Get that cloak back up Slippy. I don't want to pop out of these clouds right the hell over downtown Venom." As he finished Slippy had the cloak reengaged. Giving everyone the time to take a sigh of relief. "Katt, got anything on radar that looks friendly?"

"I've got a blip pulsing about two minutes northwest of us." Katt brought up the map of Venom on the main screen before tapping the pulsing yellow dot. It brought up a blue print image of a ship that looked almost familiar.

Fox unbuckled himself and made his way back beside Falco, all the while looking at the blue print. "Hopeless? Here?"

"Shit, Hopeless is here too?" Krystal gasped. She had only heard rumors about that name, and all of them pointed to him not being someone you wanted fuck with.

"He's been friendly to Corneria in the past, so if we're lucky he's here to help us out." Falco turned the ship and began creeping ever closer to Hopeless's ship.

"He has worked with Ghost, and she..." Fox shook his head. Hopeless hadn't been there when Ghost gave him and Krystal to Star Wolf. But he had an assumption that the vulpine knew what had happened. Somehow, Tyronos always knew what was going on.

"Incoming transmission. Call-sign: Hopeless." Rob announced before the main screen showed a stock photo of Tyronos.

"Glad to see you've made it here Star Falco. I've got a flare down where it's safe for you to land. When you're good come over to my ship. I'll make sure you guys get Jay without any fuss." The vulpine quickly cut the link.

"Guess that makes this mission a lot easier." Falco said, standing up to let the ship's auto pilot land. "Told you he was going to help Corneria, my guess is Peppy sent him a little encouragement to help us capture Jay."

"I'll be damned for saying this. But this is too easy." Fox muttered, watching the rest of the team leave the bridge. He looked out the window one last time, trying to shake this weird feeling in his gut. He tapped his pocket; sure enough his recorder was still there. "Guess we'll find out why I needed to bring this." He ran his fingers against the tiny metal object before following the team.

Ghost smiled, waving as the Star Falco team got close enough. She jumped off the wing of her ship and walked over to Tyronos who was just finishing off his joint. "They're here."

"Be useful and get Jay out here, once he's had his time to prepare that is." Tyronos flicked the roach into the sand and blew out the last bit of smoke before turning to face their new arrivals. With a smirk he gave them all a mock salute. "Bienvenue a Venom! I'm truly glad to see you all. We've had some rather bad news about half an hour ago. And while I personally had nothing but faith in you guys..."

"What are you doing here Hopeless?" Fox asked folding his arms. "Last I heard you just up and left. No one heard from you for months."

"Ah, Shattered. Or should I call you Fox McCloud?" Tyronos grinned. "I've got my reasons for being gone, but this isn't about me." He looked at Krystal. "Kursed aka Krystal. I have heard some wonderfully horrific things about you. You've certainly earned that bounty on your head. But you can both rest assured; I'm not here to cash in."

Fox went to speak his mind but was stopped as Krystal stepped forward. "I'm glad to hear that Hopeless. Now, let's get to the reason why we're all here."

"Yes, let's." Everyone turned to see Ghost coming out of Tyronos's ship. She had a stupid grin on her face, and walked up towards the group. "You guys are here for Jay. And he'll be out in a moment, but before that. Well, I just tell both Shattered and Kursed, what I did was done for a reason. I just hope that eventually there'll be no hard feelings between us eventually."

"She did what?" Katt asked looking over at Fox and Krystal.

"I can tell you it wasn't for the money." Tyronos stated. "Because Ghost is in the information business now, and I tell you she doesn't need Cornerian's profits to keep her going."

"Thanks asshole, but I can speak for myself." Ghost muttered.

"What do you mean by 'profits'?" Slippy asked nervously. The look he got from both Tyronos and Ghost unnerved him, it was as if they knew what he knew. He quickly looked to the ground and adjusted his hat.

"I can tell you exactly what they mean."

Fox looked over to the ramp of Tyronos's ship. That silhouette was none other than Jay but the voice sounded so different, yet so familiar. He turned to face Jay completely, watching that shadow slowly gain color. It wasn't until he saw the side of his face did he understand why. His eyes widened, there was only one person who used those sunglasses.

"Dad?"

Falco looked over and nearly fell on his ass. "Holy-"

"But..." Katt covered her mouth with her hand as the older vulpine continued to step into Solar's light.

"There's no way." Slippy whispered. "There is just no way that's him."

"James?" Krystal thought she was looking at Fox, had he been older.

James McCloud pulled off his sunglasses and walked calmly toward Star Falco. He looked over at Tyronos and Ghost who nodded at him before he glanced at each member of Star Falco in turn. As he reached Krystal he smiled. "Kursed, sorry Krystal... it's good to finally see you." Krystal was too stunned to reply, causing James to chuckle a bit; he had nearly forgotten that this would be the response he'd get.

Finally he looked at Fox, a near spitting image of himself, save for the dyed fur, and those colour contacts. "Fox... my son." James wanted to reach out and touch him, he wanted to hug Fox and start apologizing for everything. But now was not the time, now he needed to set his plan in motion. "You're all likely wondering why I've decided reveal my true identity to you. Maybe more so that now than why I've given myself up."

Tyronos chuckled. "James, they're still in awe. You might want to hold off for a moment." The grey vulpine noticed a twitch in Fox's hand and frowned. "Guys, snap out of it."

"Fucking, James McCloud is Corneria's most mother fucking wanted." Falco blinked a few times; still unsure about if it really was Fox's presumed dead father standing in front of his team. "There's just..."

"Krystal." James raised his voice slightly, causing Krystal to shake her head and refocus on James. "I need you to sense my thoughts and let them know if I'm lying when I explain exactly what's going on here. And I mean everything. Okay?"

"U-uh... ok, sure." Krystal stuttered, before connecting herself to James's mind, instantly she felt a great deal of regret, anger, and sorrow. It was a blend of emotion she was familiar with, but she hadn't felt such a raw state of those emotions in such a long time. It gave her a dull, throbbing pain but it wasn't unbearable. "Ok. I'm ready."

"Alright. I guess I'll start with what you guys know." James pulled out a small projector and set it on the ground. After a few moments a light began to emit from it but no image had loaded. "A few days ago I hacked into the Cornerian Defence Force's database. I had made it look like I had taken information, when in reality I only left a note for Peppy. It was something I knew would spook him into action." Suddenly the image of Andross floating above Venom appeared. "This image is of Andross is barely above a fear campaign. And before you try to call bullshit, I know exactly who made it. It was propaganda released by Cornerian spies throughout Venom to entice its inhabitants to start joining Dash's army. As you all know Venom uses a lot of drones, but with more labourers available, drones can be produced quicker."

"Wait, when did Corneria send spies to Venom?" Falco asked looking at James intently. "We've been at a peace, albeit barely, for a long time."

"Corneria has had spies in Venom since before the Lylat wars." James replied matter-of-factly. The image changed from Andross to the original Star Fox team. "This was my team. Pigma, Peppy, and myself."

Fox's ears twitched as his father tone changed drastically when he said Peppy's name.

"Our mission was labelled as 'scout'. But it was anything but that. We were sent to detain Andross for killing my wife, Fox's mother Vixy. At least, that's what I was told. It turns out Pigma had been selected as one of the new waves spies being stationed on Venom."

"I thought Pigma had betrayed you and Peppy to join with Star Wolf." Katt eyed James suspiciously. She glanced over at Krystal who simply nodded at her.

"Technically that's what happened. Pigma betrayed us. But Corneria wanted someone to take his place. My ship had been damaged in the fire fight, and before I could even blink, I watched Peppy blasting away from the fight. One of my closest friends had simply left me to take that god damn spy shit." James growled, clenching his fists in anger. "He forced me to leave my son completely alone. I then heard that they told him I was dead! Killed in action! Someone else said that I had been sucked into a black hole or something ridiculous like that."

James unclenched his fists and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly before continuing. "I quickly became consumed by rage and sorrow. I might have been assigned to Venom as a spy but I refused to help a planet that had so quickly forgotten about me. It wasn't until I saw a new Star Fox coming to Venom that I began to see clearly again."

James gave Fox, who still seemed to be in a different place, a slight smile. "I followed Fox into Andross's hideout. I knew he didn't need my help, and I wasn't really stable enough to do anything should things have gone south. But I watched with pride as Fox destroyed, or at least I had thought so at the time, Andross. But then that ape did something I had only heard about. His end game had always been to take as many people with him and this time it looked like he wanted to kill Fox. I knew the way out so I contacted Fox and had him follow me out of the base. I might have been stolen from him, but I'd be fucking damned if I didn't help my son when I could."

"So that's what Fox was talking about when he came out just seconds before that explosion." Slippy shook his head slowly. "But we were just above that entrance, how come we didn't see your ship at all? I mean, sure or tech back then wasn't the greatest but I know for a fact our scanner worked."

"I can't explain how I evaded you guys. Honestly I thought then and there you'd have seen me. But I guess Fox distracted you guys long enough for me to get away unnoticed." James shrugged. "After that I began planning my revenge. I was going to make sure Corneria couldn't do to Fox what they did to me."

"But when I joined the team it kinda looked like Corneria had already abandoned them." Krystal glanced at Falco and Slippy. "No offense, but the Great Fox was in a bad way."

"At that time I was building my character as Jay. The next time I had time to really focus on what Corneria was doing was just during the Anglar Blitz, more so near the end of that. And then I realized I was too late. They had already replaced Fox. When he faked his death..." James stopped and cleared his throat, choking back his emotional response. "Let's just say I was happy to figure out who Shattered truly was. I hired him as soon as I knew he was deep enough into the bounty hunter life. Once he was there I could start my mission. And with you all here now, I can explain what needs to happen next."

"Which is why we're here as well by the way." Tyronos said stretching his arms over his head. "And it's going to be a bit hard to hear."

"Before I go on. Krystal will you confirm that everything I've said is true?"

Krystal nodded slowly, she had focused on the pitch of his voice and his emotions, but had yet to detect anything that even came close to being a lie. James was speaking from the heart.

"Thank you. Now like Tyronos said, this isn't going to be easy to hear and I don't expect you to believe me, even with a telepath confirming everything that I have said." He looked at each of them in turn once more. "Corneria has fabricated this entire war; they've been war profiteering for the last five years. They've enticed Bowman into attacking them so that they can have a legitimate reason for their years of research and recruitment during a supposed time of peace."

He was ready for them to voice their opinions, tell him how wrong he was but instead he got the last thing he had expected – internal confirmation.

"That would explain..." Slippy started, staring at the ground intently. "That would explain why we've been getting so many research projects."

"How do you know about all this?" Katt demanded taking a step towards James. "How could you possibly have all of this information?"

"You clearly do not understand how bounty hunters work Miss Monroe." James smiled. "Quite simply getting this information is how Jay became so renowned. I pay a good chunk of money for whispers and scraps of details. However, in this case, you could say I've got a very good source on the inside."

"James, we're losing time. Speed this up." Ghost said spinning her sword's sheath around in the ground. "Dash is going to join his ships eventually."

"Right, of course." James cleared his throat again. "We need to split into two teams. One will stay here and capture Dash. If we can get to him we can halt the Venomian forces before they can do any real damage to Lylat. The other team is headed to Corneria."

"Why?" Falco asked simply.

"Because we need to get the people responsible for all of this. Peppy, Pepper, and Beltino." James went to continue but was cut off.

"Stop. Talking."

Fox had been so stunned when he saw his father. Someone might have well stabbed him. He couldn't breathe; his brain was firing everything at once. Memories of nights as a pup spent crying alone.

Crying.

Crying.

Crying.

Tears of sorrow turned bitter with age. How dare he. How dare he leave?

How dare he come back?

Krystal felt the surge of emotions; she was not prepared for them. Suddenly she was drowning in them. She pulled herself out of James's head, but still those emotions attacked her. She held her head by her temples and slumped down to crouch, forehead pressed to knees.

"Kursed- Krystal." Slippy was at her side at once.

"Fox." She sobbed.

Fox tasted blood and saw red. He had bitten his cheek hard in effort to bring himself out of the spiral. James had yet to notice his advance. He had no longer had the right to. Ghost was set to pounce - she knew what was coming. 'One punch.' she and Hopeless had agreed, Fox got one punch before they removed him. He deserved to throw it, and James deserved to receive it.

They had not realized though, this was not Fox who was launching himself at his father James. This was Shattered; A bounty hunter with nothing to lose, with nothing left but the job. The job now – kill his employer that had betrayed him.

It worked out for the best that Tyronos had stepped in. Fox so blinded with rage he didn't even realise that his punch had landed with the wrong jaw. Ghost was able to pull James away while Hopeless viciously disabled Fox with a stunning punch, trip and hold. Bleeding from his mouth he snarled. "Enough." And shoved Fox's face into the ground. He took a moment to spit out the blood from his tooth being forced into his cheek. "Everyone knows you have every right to be angry and I don't dare try to justify his actions to you. It's not my place and honestly I don't think he fucking can, but you have other reasons to be here."

"Besides, pretty sure I sold you out too." Ghost said pushing Tyronos off of Fox. "Even though you probably see why I had to now."

"You just got your fingers in everything don't you" Falco snarled at the vixen as he walked up to stand beside Fox just as he pulled himself to his feet. Their friendship had just been repaired but the brotherhood was easy to fall back into.

"I do my best." Ghost grinned.

"I wish I could explain it to you. But we simply don't have the time."

Krystal, who had just recovered pressed her head again as a new wave of raw emotion jolted through her. Slippy looked over at Fox who had flinched at the sound of James's voice. Ghost was ready this time. Remembering it was Shattered – not Fox – that she was standing near.

"Easy pup." Ghost said calmly, her sword pressed to Fox's neck. "I can cancel this reunion if needed."

"Chondra." Tyronos said with his easy authority. "Put the blade down, we need him. Everyone – take ten minutes to chill the fuck out, or we've lost Corneria already."

"Got it. Ten minutes." Falco nodded and pushed Fox into a turn and the team shuffled towards Cayuga.

Ghost, Tyronos, and James watched Star Falco until they reached the ramp of their ship before looking at each other. "They'll need every single one of those minutes. It's a lot to take in, but Krystal knows it's all true."

"With respect James, we could have broken Fox more. I suggest whatever team Falco places him on you take the other." Tyronos spoke calmly, patting the older vulpine on the shoulder. "Come on; let's take a last look at our plans of attack."

James looked one last time at the Cayuga. "I knew he was going to hate me for this. But I guess I wasn't ready for that." He turned on his heel and followed Tyronos and Ghost into the smaller ship. Despite how emotionally charged he was he still had a mission.

He still needed his revenge.

For those of you that had been asking and guessing. You're correct; Jay was James McCloud the entire time!

I think this is the longest chapter I've ever written. Also, I had a great conversation with my beta reader and I can tell you guys that this story is close to being finished. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it!

Ghost is owned by Chondra and used with permission!

Codec is also owned by Chondra. If you want to see more of her Check out Teamwork by Chondra!

In a reply to:

Kaiju Knight - Hope I was able to answer a few questions that you had! And I'll agree, to those that knew James's character it was more than obvious as to who Jay was. Thanks for not blurting it out!

Troygroomes - Thank you very much! Glad you enjoyed it!

Blazehunter64 - We've already discussed what you asked. =D

bryan mccloud - I'm pretty sure Ty is going to help out Star Falco. But I don't think Star Wolf is going to be able to help.

dajaunwilliams - Haha, that's true and I was kinda playing on that. And hey! You're wait is over! Actually if you're down here, I think your wait just started over again.

Chondra - I totally snagged the name Cayuga from your training days. Jeez, it's like you know me in real life or something.