Disclaimer: I'm back! Thanks for waiting everyone! I know this story's been on hold for two months now but I'm ready to finish it up. It's been a year already since I came on this site and I'm proud of the accomplishments I've done. I remember starting this storyline last year and here I am concluding it now. The story won't end when this chapter ends, we still have a long way to go so I hope you enjoy it to the end. Thanks for the reviews and adding this fic to the favorites as well as welcoming all new followers. Let us continue. Furrball and Fifi have now expressed their love when we last left them, and they in turn left Lious to rot for the time being, that is until he rises again, can Furrball take him on one last time? And if so, what will become of him? And Fifi, what will become of her? I own none of the characters or the formula on how the story goes so enjoy chapter 23!

Chapter 23

Fifi turned over on the bed only to feel an empty space where her paw landed. She felt the bed sheets but not the fur of whom she was expecting. Opening her eyes, she started to get familiar with her surroundings as she remembered that she had spent the night at Calamity's…with Furrball. The skunkette got up and quickly checked the room only to see that the aforementioned cat was nowhere in sight! Fifi started to worry, "did 'e just leave moi?!" she asked herself, "or did 'e just go after Li-"

"You cannot be serious!" yelled Furrball from another room in the house.

"Non, non, 'e's still 'ere," Fifi sighed as she opened the door and went downstairs to see what was going on.

…

Lious awoke as the morning sun hit his face through the broken windows. He still felt the sting of the wound Furrball gave him on the shoulders yet he got up anyway, in pain and all. Now standing, there he was, all alone in that abandoned warehouse. His crew had been slaughtered, his toughest lackey was bested by a kiddy pool and most recently his second–in-command became a pancake. Worse, the problem was still out there and his life count was decreasing rapidly.

"Tonight…Furrball…" it was all the big orange cat could say, wincing at the pain and limping throughout the warehouse, "this warehouse…has everything…"

...

Fifi came downstairs just in time to see Furrball spit out what was apparently Sweetie Bird. The little bird fell to the ground with her wings crossed and an unimpressed look back up to him. The Coyotes and Concord Condor were down there with them since it was Calamity who gently forced the bird out of his friend's mouth.

"Get out of here, Sweetie," Furrball warned her, "I don't want to have to deep-fry you and Concord and put you both in a bucket."

"You know," Sweetie said as she got up, wiping herself clean from the drool, "of all the times your confusion with reality made you try to eat me, you didn't even try this time."

"What?"

"You hesitated to put me in your mouth, also, when you did, you just stopped before Calamity helped me, like I was some casual snack instead of the main course."

Calamity put the voice box to his jaw, "it's that crow effect, isn't it?" he asked, "the theory states that you don't taste either."

Furrball looked down to the ground and then back up, "why is she here?"

"I called and informed her, Sweetie's the bird expert Camilla was conversing to you about."

"Why?"

"Who better than a bird herself?"

"What, you couldn't get Shirley to come over?"

"There is an actual bird, Furrball, a bird who's seriously hurt."

"No, it's a magical crow who brought me back after years of unexplained torment that only Shirley the Loon could explain."

"Vous talking about zhe' same Loon who couldn't get zhe' visions about vous right, no?"

Everyone turned around to see Fifi walking down the last bit of stairs and joining them, "iz' zhat' who vous vants' to work wiz'?"

"But-"

"Z'weetie, Eric's in zhe' ozther' room, vous may go check on 'im, 'e's got a big night tonight."

…

Hamton woke up on the couch to find that Fifi still has not yet returned, he couldn't call the police nor could he call up anyone else. Shirley wasn't in the mood to even look at him, he knew she wouldn't even let him see Plucky, the Bunnies were busy with the new child, he didn't want everyone else to get involved since there was enough involved already. There was May, but even so, what could she do? Like all the other times, whenever he was out of options involving Fifi, he called her anyway. Unfortunately, she didn't pick up so he left a voicemail.

"May, it's Hamton," he said, "I need your help, Fifi's missing and I don't know what to do, please call me back…I need you."

Hamton started to worry, he paced around the house mumbling to himself about what would happen, if May couldn't help him then he'd have to go to the police…and risk turning himself in. Just as he was ready to explode with random thoughts of paranoia, his phone rang. He rushed over to it and saw the caller i.d.

May.

"Hello?"

"Tell me what happened and we'll get right on it."

…

Sweetie felt Eric's wing and examined the stab wound, she couldn't bear to see it in this condition, it almost hurt her just as much. As the bird kept examining and trying to figure out a way to heal its injured wing, she couldn't help but sigh as the marks were too subtle.

"Poor bird," she sighed, "and to think, it's ironically connected to Furrball, wonder how that connection is made."

Just then, she heard the door creak open, Sweetie turned around to see the aforementioned cat slowly walking in. Even Furrball's painted grin looked expressionless. He moved closer to her, he was alone with his eyes deadlocked on both birds.

"I was right," Sweetie scoffed, "even when you're sneaking up on me you're not even trying, something's definitely wrong with you."

"…I can feel your wings on my paws," Furrball stated bluntly, he didn't want to be there but he knew he might never see Sweetie again after tonight so one more time wouldn't hurt since he would finally confront her, "I take it the progress is going…?"

"Depends, whose progress are we talking about?"

"Eric's."

"So not yours?"

"Is he going to be ready for tonight or not?!"

"Don't yell at me, Furrball, you get hungry when you-"

"Shut up!"

"Quiet! You'll disturb the crow."

Furrball softly growled, "I'm not going to eat you."

"See, I'd like to believe that but after our first encounter since forever downstairs, you're not making good on that claim."

"You haven't changed a bit, have you? You're still the same conniving, manipulative, antagonizing little bi- "

"No…I'm not."

The cat looked at her confused, that one simple answer just stopped him, just like that. Sweetie's denial of this claim was about to be backed up.

"Not all of us showed our true colors on the old show," the bird started, "Hamton, Plucky, the Bunnies, Calamity, you…they were main characters."

Furrball didn't let his guard down, he didn't trust the pink bird but his bird was there too so she must have been sincere.

"They already had great personalities and that's why they weren't changed for the show because they already had it, that special personality talent…and what did we, the minor characters have? Nothing. Nothing special…so I had to take on the role of a conniving, manipulative, antagonizing bitch."

"…W-what?"

"Me and Sneezer told you time and time again that when the cameras stopped rolling, you'd at least stop slobbering at our presence. You were very popular among fans so you should remember that you had cameras following you a lot way before those cat videos on the internet were made."

"Sweetie…"

"I'm more surprised that I wasn't your…you know, seeing as how the way we portrayed ourselves on the screen I can see it making sense…

The little pink bird started to softly shudder, "fans hated me, for a long time, you know. There was maybe one or two of them who saw me on the street and accused me of trapping you somewhere just for 'my amusement', that sounds so sick, can you imagine that?"

"My memory kinda' gives me that."

"Then you know, no one really liked me, my on-screen character had been bashed for so long that I couldn't even show my face in the acting world anymore, I was lucky enough to have stuck with Concord the whole way…Babs and Buster were pretty much our role models for the relationship, just like how they were on the show."

Sweetie didn't feel it but Furrball could've sworn he saw a tear coming down from her but as soon as it trickled lower, she took notice and quickly changed the subject.

"So uh-um, Eric's wing is still pretty dinged up but if he has enough rest then he should be decent by tonight."

Furrball walked up to both birds and placed a paw on Eric's wounded wing. His powers didn't seem to be working, he had a feeling it wouldn't work, it'd be like he was performing surgery on his own self, it couldn't be done. With that, he decided to leave.

"Watch him for me, Sweetie," he looked back at the pink bird, "you're the expert, give him all that you can."

"No problem, Furrball."

...

Night was coming, the sky was getting darker and the streets were almost empty, but only a few were awake for what would inevitably transpire. Furrball spent the majority of the day in the room the Coyotes lent him and Fifi, staring out the window, watching the sunset. The skunkette would occasionally come in just to check on him and he would still be in the exact same spot, not even looking at her, much less said a word. She wanted to speak to him, at least about their prior night but she didn't want to make things awkward. Fifi knew the cat had a lot on his mind, the condition of Eric, the safety of her and everyone else, as well as settling his score with Lious for good. That was his main priority and taking care of most of that problem last night took a lot out of him. It was only natural that Furrball rested up while his crow did the same since Eric was obviously not going to be fully recovered but the revived cat hoped that weakening Lious would make it easier and not take too much of a toll on the black bird. All Fifi could do was watch him from behind and rethink about last night, then walk out of the room with a half-pitiful and worried look.

The skunkette went up to Camilla and she revealed that her husband had already left for work. Fifi asked for a phone to call everyone to let them know that she was okay, the female coyote obliged, leaving her with her call.

"Like, hello?"

"'Ello? Shirley?"

"Fifi?! Like, oh my God, where are you?! Everyone's looking for you!"

"Je iz' at zhe' Coyotez' vith' Furrball."

"Ohh, like, that's a relief, guess Hamton was right."

"'Amton?"

"Oh yeah that's right, he called me last night looking for you, we met up at Elmyra's old house to like, investigate your whereabouts."

"'E vas' vorried' about moi?"

"That, like, I don't really-I can't really say…"

"Hmm? Vhat' does zhat' mean?"

Shirley sighed on the other line, she didn't know how to break to her the news Hamton seemed to have shamelessly revealed.

"Fifi," the Loon started, "Hamton…slept…with May last night."

Hearing those words almost made the skunkette drop the phone, "…'ow…'ow does vous know?"

"He like, told me when I asked him where he was instead of being with you in the first place, said something like you guys were on a break cuz' of like May, and Furrball…you know what he did to Plucky at the hospital last night?"

"'E vas' at zhe' 'ospital?"

"Fifi…it's only been a night but we like, have a lot to talk about."

…

It was time, Furrball got up from the window and slowly headed to the room where Eric was being taken care of. On the way there he saw Concord Condor with that laid-back goofy expression and Camilla standing by the room's doorway. The female coyote opened it up for him and the revived cat entered, only to see the black bird just getting up and Sweetie with her wings on his body. The pink bird turned to Furrball and started massaging the crow's wing.

"He's not a hundred percent," she said, "so I wouldn't let him fly too much tonight, if he flies then it should only be to get there, back, and-or away, he uses this wing too much then you're both as good as gone."

Furrball said nothing, he just went up and gently picked up his crow. He looked at Eric in the eyes and then back at Sweetie. They stared at each other for a few seconds but neither felt any tension between them. The look Furrball gave her wasn't a glare, it was more like a plain expressionless look. Sweetie took that stare as his new way of thanking her, it was the closest she'd ever get from him and it was the closest he'd ever give her.

The cat walked out of the house with Eric still in his paws until he was halted by Calamity in front of him.

"I take it your feathered companion hasn't made a full recovery?"

Furrball just looked back down at his bird, implying that the coyote was right.

"I suspected as much," Calamity stated, "that's why I went to the lab today, here."

Furrball heard a jangling sound that almost made him jump until he saw that it was coming from his friend dangling keys in front of him. Calamity dangled them a little harder this time, implying for the cat to take them which he did. As his paw obtained them, Calamity took out another device and pushed the button that opened his garage door, revealing a dark-colored motorcycle with Fifi in Furrball's coat leaning on it.

"I took the liberty of making this for you," Calamity said to his friend, "Sweetie informed Camilla and she in turn informed me that Eric won't be taking flight as he did the past night so I figured that you both could use a break from flying and jumping on rooftops."

Furrball could only stare at the two-wheeled vehicle before him, Eric managed to flap his wings enough to make it on the cat's shoulders.

"Thank you," Furrball softly said, "thank you…for everything."

The coyote stepped closer and hugged him, "you are my friend, there is no limits to my intellect that I wouldn't do for anyone in my heart."

They slowly separated from their embrace and Furrball paced over to the bike with Fifi lifting her backside off of it. Their gaze met, she slowly stripped herself from his coat and put it on him. Her tail wrapped around one of his hind legs while she did it and once she was done, she turned Furrball back around to face her while she adjusted him.

"Furrball," the skunkette started to speak, "last night-"

"Shh," Furrball hushed her, placing an unsheathed claw on her lips, "you've been through enough, so the last memory of me that I want you to remember is that, and only that, we don't have to talk about it."

He hugged her as well and turned to his bike but before he could take another step, he was turned back around with the skunkette's lips pressed up against his. Furrball was at a loss for words, he actually felt her emotions through that one kiss, and they were telling him that she didn't want him to go…for he might not come back.

"Please come back, mon amie."

"I…I can't promise that, all I can promise you is that Lious will pay…one last time."

Fifi hugged Furrball once more and squeezed him tightly, she really didn't want to let him go. She embraced him so tight that if he wasn't already lifeless then that's exactly what she would've squeezed out of him. His eyes were nearly popping out of his skull but he gently struggled out of her grasp and turned back to the bike. He started the engine and Eric placed himself in one of the coats' front pockets. Furrball turned back to face his friends one last time, it was almost as if they went back in time and were never separated.

With that, he drove off.

"'E vill' return, no?" Fifi asked Calamity.

"Fifi my dear," the coyote responded, "we know exactly what will happen…so it's best we don't witness it, it's heartbreaking enough as it is."

"'Ow so?"

"We will be there in spirit, it sounds cowardly yes, but this is still Furrball's battle, it's ours since we were separated from him but this is something only he must do on his own."

Fifi looked back at Calamity, upset about his choice of "words of wisdom," "'ow could vous zay' zhat'?! ve' are jus' going to let 'im go like zhat?!"

"Fifi…have I told you about…the 'Crow theory?"

…

Furrball liked the bike Calamity made for him, made him feel a little relaxed since he was riding there as opposed to running back to the warehouse to the awaiting Lious. He knew Eric was okay with it, but there was a question he just couldn't help but ponder on: how did Calamity know he could drive?

"Toon logic," Furrball reassured himself as he shifted back into focus, revved up the engine and speeded up.

"One crow, sorrow, two crows, joy…"

To be continued…

A/N: Thanks for reading everyone! And thanks again for being patient, this story is almost done so be sure to stay tuned as we continue further to see how everything unfolds. Be sure to review and ask if you're confused in any parts of the story. Thanks again and I'll see you in the next update next week!