Author's Note: I did successfully write a handful of chapters, but also, semester meant that I couldn't really go through and start to iron them out. I've started back in classes, I have free time for sure every other weekend, potentially more, that I'll be working on editing stuff and putting it together for publication over the two weeks until I have that opportunity again. So, without further ado, here's the next chapter.

–

My expression turned sour too, a thousand things running through my head because my reaction in the end wasn't fitting to a stealth mission. I had more or less guaranteed that I was on the front page of the news as a massive criminal, but as I searched that violet eye for some sort of sign, I didn't see disappointment, just the blank stare that accompanied the rising scent of guilt and anxiety in the room. "Wolf. . ." I started, looking at him. Even though I had leaned up to try and move, he hadn't completely let go of me, his arm hooked to my waist and refusing to let go. "What do you want to talk about?"

"It's not the mission, Fox," he started, and I expected more words to come, but they weren't coming and I found myself staring just as blankly back at him. The silence crept and I could feel the periodic clench of his digits against my hip as claws dug against scarred flesh and my mind couldn't help but drift to other thoughts at just his touch.

I couldn't keep pushing him, he wasn't budging, "How long was I out?" He looked me over for a second, and I knew it had to have been longer than a few hours since the other male smelled a mess. "I can tell it's been at least one day, you either haven't showered or you've worked yourself into a frenzy," I murmured. The scent signals weren't as distinct as a feral animal would be able to pick up, but Wolf was giving it off in spades that he didn't seem to offer up verbally. I could practically taste the scream on his lips, but I knew he wouldn't yell at this point.

"You've been out for 3 days," he said, looking away from me, "The mission went well, all things considered, and our job was executed correctly for the information that we were given. We received full pay if not a little bit of. . . well, he seemed to enjoy the idea of you going Tarzan above multiple lanes of traffic," he said, and he broke from the embrace. He turned and grabbed a box off the table, "I finished getting you a proper badge for being here."

I watched him a moment, trying to make sure he wasn't fucking around with me. I had royally fucked up, I killed the guy then lost control of myself and jumped through multiple windows just to find salvation. "It's not just that,' he murmured, though, breaking my rapidly-spiraling train of thought as I stared at him

"What is it, Wolf?" He stared again, but the words were on the tip of his tongue. He seemed to be ready as he'd ever be, and the sight of him afflicted by nerves wasn't expected.

"Venom."

"Venom?"

"Venom." We held eye contact, I needed more information, but he didn't seem to offer it immediately. Instead, I saw something I had never expected from the renegade leader—a tear. His eyes were glassy and he started to lose it in his own way, a sullen face decorated by the periodic line of a tear trailing down along his jaw. "I have to tell you about Venom and what happened there. I can't handle you being on the team with us if I don't be honest with you."

I had held myself back for a second, but I couldn't resist, "What could you tell me about Venom that I don't know already?" To be fair, it was probably a lot, but Wolf disappeared after we'd had our dog fight above Andross' base. Wolf stared at me a moment longer, his mouth periodically opening but the words didn't seem to come so easily.

I turned a bit to glance at his hands, his claws prodding a bit at my skin. I could see the faintest trail of blood there and I don't even remember the puncture. I had to be on painkillers still, and I looked back at him, his ears flagged in an apology. "There's a lot I don't think you remember," he admitted.

"Like what?"

"It wasn't your dad that saved you, Fox," he said, "I don't want to take away the dream, but it wasn't your dad that saved you."

"What the fuck do you mean, Wolf?" I started, and I could feel my hackles rising, I could hear Peppy's words drifting lazily at the back of my mind. "I thought you believed me?" and I had drifted so close to his face in the rising scream that I found myself stuttering at the warmth, "W-what do you mean?" and my voice fell. This topic, every time it came up I tried so hard, but I just fell apart again.

"After you had gone in on Venom, your team recovered us from the ground," he started, "They were desperate to find a way in and they knew that we would know that information. . ." his voice was soft, and I forced myself to back away. I nearly fell from the bed in the process, but it wasn't terrible. "Oikonny and Dengar had already fled at that point, God knows how they got off the planet, but Leon and I were still down there."

–

The Wolfen had caught fire around me, trying to explode with me in it. I tried to open the canopy but the crash had broken the audio control of the ship, I would have to break it to get out and I couldn't do that to this ship. I lost, so I guess I would die here too. Instead, I started to engage the emergency systems, taking a deep breath as I felt a blast of warm air. The ship had been equipped with CO2 extinguishers in case the interior caught fire, and I could definitely feel the fire behind me. After a minute, the entire canopy would be loaded with it, and then it would vent oxygen back in.

Once the interior fire had subsided, the heat crawling away from my back, I could feel a cooler air start to push through again and I let out a choked gasp. The electrical system came back online, shakily, but I murmured, "Hatch unlock," and I felt the click of it before I pushed the glass away. The rest of the ship was still burning a little bit, but the emergency systems had managed to put out the more dangerous locations. It wouldn't blow up so long as they kept running.

I slipped from the ship, literally as well as I fell onto the surface of Venom. I tried to pull myself up, but I found myself being pulled up instead and the cool, telling touch of metal against the bottom of my chin as I was held against someone's front. They were heavier, and if I could turn, I'm sure I would see Peppy. "Fox just went into the planet and you're gonna tell us how to follow him. That blast door is closed and there's no way a base like that only has one entrance."

My voice hurt from the bit of smoke I had breathed and I could feel the rasp on my tongue as I said, "You don't need a gun to get that out of me," I said, "Andross told us the next time we go down in his employment will be the end of our employment by him." We weren't members of the military that Andross had anymore. "Where's Leon?" Even if Dengar and Oikonny were here, I didn't care to see them all that much anyways.

"Falco has him," and I turned a bit and bared my teeth.

"That jackass better not shoot him," I said. Peppy laughed, but it was probably just to diffuse the situation a little. I twitched a bit, wanting to take the gun and turn it on him, but I opted to not make the situation worse and just relaxed a little bit. "Only other entrance will shoot you down," he said, "Ships in his fleet are marked with an ID that allows them in. Any unapproved entry is hit by the sentry guns just inside and no, there's no way to avoid them.

"We can take your ships then."

"You can't fly my ship, it's adapted to work with my eye," I said, and he grimaced but seemed to accept the explanation.

"One of us can fly Leon's, then," he said.

"Still a no-go. I know the base inside and out and I know how to get to where that blast door led. There needs to be two people that know it inside and out because someone has to open that blast door too. That's the only way Fox can leave that base."

The insistent chill of the gun twisted and pushed against the underside of my jaw. It was a strange pain and it made me cough. Slippy walked past me and opened the hood of my ship, going right at it with the tools he had been carrying with him. "Leon's ship is as repaired as it's going to get on the ground, if you give me a minute, I can fix Wolf's too," he said.

"Why were you fixing their ships?"

"I had a feeling that their security wouldn't really let us be going in with ours. Andross didn't get this far into the war for lack of intelligence," he said, and I could hear him cursing under his breath. At least the fire seemed to be gone from what I could see, or Slippy was just working directly in the fire. Probably the former, but the toad seemed determined.

Only a few minutes passed, and in that span, Peppy had lowered the gun from me. I turned and found Leon in a similar situation before Falco let him go too. They seemed to be in agreement, if not at least a little bit bitterly about it. "You trust me?" I asked.

"No, but if that blast door really is gonna stay closed without someone going in and opening it, then there's no choice. Even if you betray us, Fox would be dead anyways. It's better a small chance than no chance at all." He paused a second, but the gun was against my throat again, "But you better believe that if Fox doesn't come out of there and the two of you do, that the next time I see you, I'm killing you both." I nodded, and the gun was pulled from me again.

The ships were in good enough shape. Slippy had stepped aside from my ship, not immaculate but definitely better off for the attention. I looked towards Leon, and gave a slight nod before he turned as well and started his way towards his ship. As I slipped back into the cockpit, I could feel my hands shaking and I knew that there was nothing good to come out of this, but we had made a deal. Mercenaries kept their word until someone could pay them something more. Maybe this could pay us in our dignity.

We pulled straight to the sky before looping back towards the surface. The Wolfen kissed the grass and trees as we pressed over the tortured land beneath us and I could see the water on the horizon. As we approached, we submerged immediately and my ship rocked with the pressure that suddenly surrounded us. It was only 100 feet down before we veered and slid into a tunnel beneath the water's surface. We were suddenly surrounded in pitch black darkness. There was emergency lights here before but the base must be in such bad shape that it doesn't even have power routed to those. "Be careful."

"We've flown this plenty, Wolf," Leon said. He returned to silence, and we drifted through the tide. I counted under my breath. Each second that passed drew my hackles up, I was anxious that we'd hit a wall or that something may have blown up and we'd crash into an unseen object. We could turn the lights on on our ship, but the chance of a security drone being in there and willing to shoot us was just the same problem.

Eventually, I could see a light flickering from a corridor above us in the distance, and I knew we'd found our exit. I veered up as we reached it and the water parted as we were suddenly in a shaft and I was just glad that I wasn't dead. I looked around. "You know where the blast door controls are, right, Leon?"

"Going after Fox?"

"Yeah. He'll be suspicious of me, but I think he'd shoot you without questioning it." Leon hummed in acknowledgment, and he veered off towards the blast door controls as we passed that corridor. Soon after, I veered into the complex as well. This was a docking port, sure, but it wasn't designed for flight. Pillars veered in my way and I wove between them, the periodic banner threatening to catch over my glass and blind me. Andross had built an empire underground and I could see the deserted streets below. They had either flown into combat against Star Fox's campaign or they had evacuated.

Another turn brought me into a series of long metallic corridors, taking a sharp right at the first one before I veered back and forth, navigating the tubes. I could hear explosions from the interior, I could feel the base beginning to shake around me. A jet of fire suddenly engulfed my ship and I flinched as I slid into a barrel roll to try and keep some of the heat from me. I emerged without blowing up, but it was into a massive chamber. Fox's ship was descending slowly to the ground below and Andross was nowhere to be found.

"Fox, are you alive in there?"

I was met with silence, I stared at his ship. I hit my comm channel, I could see he was on the frequency.

"God damn it, Fox, move," and I flew closer.

I still didn't get a response, but I was entirely in the lab. There were a few seconds before the ship started to jerk back to life.

"Fox, we have to get out of here!"

"Father!?" I flinched. What did he hear?

I wanted to say no, but I didn't want him to be any more disoriented than he would be. "Stay close, I know the base. The defenses blew out certain corridors." I closed the comm link with Fox for the time being, isolating the link with Leon. "Leon, how long is it going to take to get those doors open?"

I heard a grunt from the other side of the line, "It's fine, just a few seconds longer. I'm getting out of this base once it's open. Everything here's catching fire."

"Be careful."

I turned back towards the ship behind me. I had to weave through the corridors, and each time I looked I found that one of them was erupting in flames. I turned, barely clearing some of the turns but I was getting out. Fox was muttering something in the ship behind me and I let out a soft huff.

After a little bit, I saw the opening of the blast door and I broke into the open sky. Now I could leave and Fox could return to his life.

–

He finished speaking and I found myself just staring at him. "Wait. . ." I said, and I tilted my head. I could feel it heavy in my throat, the words refused to leave, if they were words at all. I actually felt like I was going to puke, like something had been ripped away from me and I stared at him and he was crying. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you told me that you saw your dad," he said, and he let his eyes dim down, "You saw me as him again, when I found you at the dock on Zoness." His voice was soft, choking under the weight of the guilt that the other male hardly deserved to feel.

I didn't know what to say, but I knew what my body was telling me to do, and I found myself pressed so close to him I could feel every line of his body. I was screaming internally, the memory shattered by the admission, but I was scared to pull away. I could feel his heart racing against my chest and I was pressed against his body so close. This kiss was different, like it had gained some honesty behind it that hadn't been there before and I liked it. I let out the softest exhale before catching my breath. I pressed deeper with my tongue, and he let out a soft groan.

Some part of me felt the strongest bond with Wolf in that moment, and the closer I got to him, the more electric that feeling was. I thumbed at the zipper of his pants, "What are you doing, Fox?"

"Thanking you," I said, and I smiled. His ears pinned, he blushed, but he didn't protest a moment. Unlike with Fara, making love with Wolf was electric. We cried out in unison and I crumpled to his body just to feel it against mine.

I was pinned to him letting my muzzle pepper his jawline in kisses laced with an afterglow, and I murmured a soft, "I'll love you yet," and he laughed softly for a moment.

"We'll see about that. I could always reveal some secret about me and you could run away."

"Didn't you think I'd do that with this?" He nodded, I smiled, and he slipped up to get back into his clothes. I slipped back into my own, whatever I had shed onto the ground next to the bed to serve as clothes, and I wrapped my arms around his hips as I slipped next to him. I swung to his front and planted another firm kiss on his lips, and I could smell the pheromones that had bore down over the room. "Maybe this will make the nightmares stop," I said.

"What'd you dream about when you were out anyways?" I felt heat hit my cheeks. They were hazy, sure, but I knew what I dreamt about clearly.

"Some dreams, some nightmares," I said.

"Like what?"

"Like what we just did," I said. He looked at me, trying to gauge if I was serious, but he just smiled a moment. There were bits of the jackass persona that Wolf had put on chipping away, and I was glad for it at the very least.

"Not a nightmare, right?"

"No."

Something at the back of my head still burned. I was trying to piece back together my memory according to what he had told me. The image had felt hazy to begin with, I was concussed at the very least from the explosion. It was understandable that I'd hallucinate, but I wanted to believe that my dad had been there, though, even if he hadn't been, I was less upset to think that it was someone else than to be no one at all.

I ran my fingers through my hair and stood, the first time since I'd been back from the mission and every part of my body immediately screamed louder than the painkillers could silence them, "What the hell," and I started to tip forward. Wolf skirted the bed until he caught me in one of his arms.

"We haven't had the opportunity to repair any of the internal damage since you've been back. You kinda need to be awake to consent to the procedure and stuff," he said. "You probably didn't feel it on the bed, since you didn't put pressure on it, but you have some hairline fractures in your legs and ankles from the impact." I nodded and he just scooped me up and set me back in the bed.

"What would you do to fix it?"

"We have some more advanced medical technology on board. The most efficient is a nanotech approach. We inject your body with nanotech, they're able to synthesize bone tissue locally and repair it. You might grow an eighth of an inch in the process, or whatever, but it's fast and you'd be back on your feet in 30 minutes."

"Or?"

"Splint and painkillers. We can put you in crutches or a boot to get you around. We didn't really bother with anything in between since no one had a real issue with the nano stuff."

"Then yeah, I can try it." He nodded and stepped across the med bay. It wasn't unlike the Great Fox, it felt like home in some good ways and Wolf.

"What else did you end up dreaming about? You said there were others, right?" he said, rummaging through the drawers on the opposite side of the room. My ears pinned a moment, because several of the other things were nightmares.

"I think I was starting to remember that it was you, not my dad," I started.

"Hmm?"

"Well, when you were telling me the story, when you were there in the base, those were the words I heard in the most recent dream. When it was my dad, it was 'Never give up, my son,'" and I felt my ears pin again as a wave of grief started to hit me again. I'd heard those words from him so many times, it felt so nice to hear them again.

"I'm sorry, Fox," and the rummaging stopped. He had found whatever he was looking for and started walking back towards me.

"It was nightmares, though, for the most part," I said, "I saw Fara, I saw. . ." I paused for a second. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, "I saw a fox kit that looked a hell of a lot like me. Fara used to talk about how much she wanted to have kids. She really liked the name Marcus, and that was his name. I got to see him, I got to hold him but he was like air in my arms," I said, "And I knew that when I said goodbye to Fara after that that it'd be the last time I'd see them."

Wolf was pausing a second, looking at me as he held one of the most terrifyingly long needles I'd ever seen. Blood drained from my face, and I felt clammy, but I gave a firm nod to betray that bit of anxiety. He lifted my leg gently before puncturing just below the back of my knee as I felt molten-hot fluid flowing into me. I writhed a bit, trying to keep from kicking my leg, but Wolf's hand held me down firmly through the process. "It only takes a few seconds," he said, and soon, he pulled the needle free from me as I felt my blood starting to spill again. He pulled a wrap of gauze from his pocket and quickly wrapped my knee.

"Then I had a nightmare of my own death," I said, "But it wasn't bad. I could hear Pepper and Peppy and everyone talking about how I'd done well, how we'd done well. It sounded like they'd forgiven me for what I'd done." Wolf looked at me for a second, nodding as he taped the gauze. He rubbed easily over the bare part of my knee just above the dressing before he turned again. There was one dream left, but I had a feeling in my gut that I had had a nightmare about going to Wolf's funeral, not Marcus'. I held that panic at the back of my mind.

"Sounds like a lot to experience, but you were out for a while, so it makes sense," he said, then he looked towards the door. "I'm gonna go take a shower really quick. I'll be back in about 20 minutes, and about then, you should be about good to start moving around if you want to get one yourself." I gave a shake of my head at that.

"I'm gonna need help getting cleaned up, Wolf, and you've already seen me naked," I said, and I grinned easily at that. He just looked back at me, taking it completely seriously as he just gave the slightest nod.

"I'll be back in a few seconds, then."

He vanished, returning soon after with two large, incredibly comfortable looking towels and a little basket with toiletries. He gestured towards the opposite side of the room, and there was a small door there, "There are showers in there that we can use, but the med bay also has a couple of tubs as well, which is probably better considering your condition."

"I don't want a sponge bath, Wolf," I said, peering back at him.

"I wasn't offering," he said, "But you can't take a shower with all your stitches. You'll probably get an infection just from the bath but you need one."

I glared at him for a moment, but he just grinned back. "Can't you just adjust the shower head to have a lower pressure? I'm not gonna get clean enough from a bath." He shrugged a moment.

"I've never tried to change the water pressure in those. You're free to try it, and if you figure it out, sure," he said. I grinned, but rather than waiting the 30 minute, he seemed to want his shower now and scooped me up. I winced as his hand caught behind my knee, right against that puncture wound from the so-called needle before, but he seemed to have no issue carrying me.

I just turned and relaxed against him, trying to keep myself calm for the time being. I had a tendency to lose my shit at the drop of a hat, so it was nice to just have a really pretty view of a rather muscular wolf carrying me across the room. He looked down, making eye contact with me before laughing as my eyes drifted back towards his chest. "You never told me if I'd fucked up the mission on your standards, by the way."

"First missions are tough. You had a lens in way, way longer than you should've had it in. Leon should've taken it over instead of letting you keep at it, but you should've also stopped when you hit your limits," he said, giving a slight shrug as we pushed through the doorway. I peered out towards the showers, and plenty of them had chairs for the vertically challenged individuals like myself, and he set me down in one and stripped me before he started fiddling with the shower head.

"I'm still a mercenary though. That wasn't my first mission, I should've done better."

"The only thing that matters for a mercenary is to do their job and to not get caught if the job isn't quite to legal standards." I nodded, he was right about that much at least, "You did your job, you proceeded to jump out of the building through the window, and in some adrenaline-fueled panic, you sprinted nearly a full mile and dove into Zoness' ocean. I wouldn't have found you if it weren't for the terrifying trail of blood but we got out of it a little richer and a little more cohesive."

"Next mission will be in the sky, right?"

"Probably. No promises, though, and you wouldn't go on a ground mission until you recovered anyways." He got the shower on and the water pressure was like having someone spit on me. I liked a firm jet of water but this would have to do, and he nodded. "Looks like you were right, though. Not a fun speed, but it'll do to get you clean. Do you need help or can I leave you with some shampoo and get to it?"

I gave a little shrug, "If I have issues, I'll tell you," I said. He nodded and left me a bottle before he stepped to the opposite side of the line and got in the shower opposite of me. I peered back as he stripped. He had hung the towels outside of our doors as well, and I just admired him there for a moment before I started cleaning up.

–

Author's Note: Something about being back in classes is emotionally draining, but hey, I got some writing done. This was originally a lot longer but I'm splitting this chunk into two chapters so it's a little less aggressively long. That part just needs to be edited and cleaned up and I should hopefully get an opportunity to do that this weekend. Hope you all enjoyed.