Remastered 28/07/2014

"We're leaving." Slippy stated as Amanda finished putting his arm in a sling.

"What about the plan?" Amanda asked. "We can't just abandon Beriul here. Fox will kill him for sure!"

"Better him than us." Slippy snapped. He led her towards an emergency elevator, scanning his hand as they got inside. "Beriul's plan is a complete bust. Peppy has put a bounty on our heads that is at least triple what is on Star Wolf's. I know we promised Beriul loyalty but I'd rather let him take the fall, and switch to plan B."

"Well." Amanda sighed, despite how badly Slippy corrupted her she still hated breaking a promise. "If you insist." She pulled Slippy into a hug holding back tears. "I can't help but miss them. Even though I knew what was planned, Star Fox was our family."

"Key word there is was. Fox will never forgive us for what has happened but I'll be damned if he'll make it another year alive." Slippy stepped out of the elevator. "That's if they make it out of the last trap I've set for them." As they made their way towards the exit, all that could be heard was Slippy's maniacal laughter.

"Yo Fox, we're almost at Peppy's office but we're facing heavy resistance." Falco yelled into his comm."Bill went to secure our emergency exit." He motioned to Katt to move forward. He quickly checked behind them before following the feline to the next hallway. "I never liked the color in here… Think Beriul will mind a little redecorating?" Falco could almost see Fox's grin.

"I don't see why not." Fox rounded a corner on his way to Beriul's office. "Tell you what, I'll ask him when I see him next." Falco's whoop of approval was the last thing they heard before cutting the link. "Beriul's office is only a few more flights up. Ty, I want you to get to the roof, cover his escape."

"Right." Tyronos replied. "Try not to get yourself into too much trouble, I'm not a superhero, I can't just smash through the roof and save you." Fox laughed, looking back at Krystal.

"Sense anything?" He asked stopping to check an empty hallway.

"I sense a few minds coming towards us. They seem to be on the level below." Krystal turned around, trying to pinpoint their exact location. "It's hard to tell with all this metal around and they might all be brainless too."

"Dumb, ignorant, and armed." Tyronos sighed. "Basically a uniformed thug. Awesome!" The three foxes jogged towards the stairwell, keeping their ears strained for the soldiers making their way towards them.

"Attention all military personnel." Jack's voice boomed over the PA. "Star Fox has been reported on site. It is imperative that we apprehend them at all costs. Failure to do so will forfeit our lives. So, assume them as armed, and dangerous. K.O.S."

"K.O.S?" Tyronos cursed under his breath. "That's just perfect. They must have used stun before."

"Not that their aim is up to standard." Krystal pulled out her blaster, the two vulpines quickly doing the same. "We need to get to a position to throttle them. It'll make it easier for us to defend."

"Right. Ty, head up to the roof. If memory serves me correctly; you should be able to cover all four sides with ease." Tyronos nodded and took off up the stairs, leaving Fox and Krystal alone. "Hey Krys."

"Hmm?" Krystal replied she sensed his thoughts. "You are going to make it out of here."

"In case we don't." Fox pulled her into a quick kiss, rubbing his muzzle against hers as they broke. "I love you."

"Love you too." Krystal smiled pulling Fox towards the stairs. "Two more levels and we're there."

Fox nodded, taking two steps at a time. He kicked open the door, waiting a second before diving into the hallway. "What?" The emptiness he saw was unnerving. "Where are all his guards?" A sudden sharp pain in his neck cause him to fall to one knee. He turned to call to Krystal to stay back but notice she was already out cold. A hard kick to his gut caused Fox to roll over. He tried to focus on his attacker, but could only see a blur of colors. "Why..."

"Why?" Came the echoing response. "Because you turned me into this. Goodbye McCloud."

"S-slip...py." Fox tried to finish his sentence but finally fell into nothingness. The green blur of Slippy disappearing into the stairwell.

"In position." Tyronos brought out the sniper rifle, quickly looking around for any vessels, or getaway vehicles coming towards the capitol building. "Falco, Katt. How are you guys holding up?"

Katt ducked behind a wall before answering. "They just keep coming Ty. How are Krystal and Fox?"

She blind fired a few blaster shots as she waited for Tyronos's response. As he did, Falco shot a rocket causing temporary deafness. "What was that? Falco decided to redecorate an entire wall."

"I said they should be in Beriul's office now. I'm covering from the roof, I'll let you know if I see anything. Ty out." Katt looked up at Falco who seemed to be enjoying his new job as an interior decorator . After a final shot from the Homing Launcher, Falco had forced Beriul's troops to retreat enough so they could get to Peppy's office door.

"Let's move!" Katt yelled as she made her way to the door. She ripped open the hand scanner and began to hot wire the panel. "Fox, we're opening Peppy's office door now." As she finished the door snapped open, nearly causing Fara to fall right onto the floor.

"You know I was just about to get that open myself." Fara laughed taking Falco's hand to help herself up. She gave them both a quick hug before leading them to Peppy. "Hey General look who decided to drop by our neck of the woods!" Peppy turned around in his chair with a wide smile on his face. Falco and Katt returned the smile.

"Well, I would normally ask what brings you two here. But I'd be an idiot to do so now." Peppy stood up and walked around his desk. "Tell me how goes everything outside."

"Hell, and thats putting it nicely." Was Falco's quick response. "Yo, Peppy is secure guys. Report when you've got Beriul." Katt hugged Peppy hard.

"I feared the worst when you signed our arrest warrants." Katt felt Peppy pat her back. She released him to keep her emotions in check. "Bit of a dick move if you ask me."

"I'm sorry you two. Honestly I am." Peppy shook Falco's hand firmly before walking over to Lucy. "But she is all I have left in this world. Once I left Star Fox, she was my only family."

"C'mon, we're still family." Falco grinned, folding his arms. "Unless you don't want to be hanging around with wanted criminals that is."

"The only people who is are criminal in all this is Slippy and Jack." Peppy said bitterly. "If those two hadn't have met then none of this would have happened."

"The Star Fox team had become corrupted by one of its own." Fara stated. "Slippy was a great asset to the team from what I know." Falco sighed looking out the window. "I know you two never really played very nice, but you cannot just pretend you never love him as a brother."

"I'll miss the little guy." Falco whispered. He felt Katt wrap her arms around him. "But if we end up having to hunt him down then at least I'll know he'll get a proper death."

"Mercenaries believe in a proper death?" Fara didn't get an answer not that she needed one. Their part in this mission was done, now all they had to do was wait. Peppy looked over at Falco before bringing out his laptop.

"Computer send out a new bounty to the board. High priority names Slippy and Amanda Toad. Wanted alive only. The reward will be nine hundred thousand credits. Post in two weeks." Peppy sighed as the posters appeared on his screen. "Two weeks should give you guys enough time to settle this internally." With that he closed his laptop, and brought out his scotch once more.

Fara scoffed. "A two week heads up won't stop anyone else swooping in to take the bounty."

Falco glared at Fara. "We'll settle this ourselves. Don't worry about that."

"Who do we have here?" Tyronos grinned as he saw both Slippy and Amanda walking quickly away from the building. They didn't seem to be walking towards anything in particular, but they did keep a straight line.

"Just where are you going?" Tyronos increased the zoom on his sniper and looked above his targets. They were headed for an old abandoned warehouse the roof looked like it was removable. "Damn it."

Thinking quickly he set his weapon to stun before taking aim at Slippy again. He held his breath before squeezing the trigger. The shot barely missed it's mark. It had still hit Slippy but not enough to keep him still.

"Shit." Tyronos went for another shot, aiming at Amanda this time. He held his breath and went to squeeze the trigger. A small fighter flew overhead, causing him to completely miss his shot. By the time he could focus on his target they had managed to get out of his line of fire. "This is Ty, Slippy just escaped it looks like he's headed to an old warehouse. Likely to a back up ship. Amanda is with him as well. We might not get another chance at this!"

"Let them go Ty. We'll get them." Falco replied. "Any word from Fox or Blue?"

"Negative, I'm going back to check on them. I'll keep you posted. Ty out." Tyronos dropped the sniper looking at the building Slippy fled to. "I don't know what happened. I'm sorry I couldn't fix your past." Tyronos sighed heavily before retreating back into the stairwell. "Why the hell didn't Beriul put an elevator up here?"

"T...nos..." Tyronos looked down at his comm as he continued down the steps.

"Repeat." He said his only answer was static. Tyronos brushed it off as interference. "Damn old technology."

Fox awoke to the feeling of a fist in his muzzle. "Morning sunshine!" A voice said before another thunderous hit to his jaw. "I suppose it's hard to fight back when your hands are tied."

'Fox?' Krystal's voice entered his mind, it soothed the fresh pain, but didn't help the taste of blood. 'Please Fox, answer me.'

'I'm ok Krys. What happened?' Fox tried to local Krystal but still couldn't focus. He shook his head a few times and opened his eyes. The room was new to him, he had never stepped foot inside of it as far as he could remember. No less than ten armed guards were occupying the room. Krystal was on the opposite side of the room, her arms had been bound and forced above her head. She smiled at him despite the situation at hand.

"Good evening Fox McCloud." Fox snapped his head towards the voice coming face to face with Jack Beriul. He narrowed his eyes and growled defensively. "No need to get upset."

"Let her go." Fox barked as he fought his restraints. "I'm the one you wanted! She only played a part in your stupid game."

"Yes but she failed. You see she was supposed to be the one that did the deed, so to speak. She was supposed to either poison your food or kill you quickly." Jack laughed, walking over to Krystal and grabbed her jaw roughly. "But you women are so unpredictable!" Jack quickly back handed Krystal, causing her to yelp in pain. The smile on Jack's face grew as he heard Fox struggle to protect his vixen. "Not that it matters this will all be over soon for you."

"Damn it Beriul. Let her go!" Fox yelled. He stopped fighting against his bindings, trying to save his strength.

"I plan on it. But first she will have to finish what she started." Jack took a blaster from one of his officers. "She'll have to kill you to earn her freedom. If she refuses then she'll watch me do it. Then I'll kill her."

"Fine." Fox bowed his head. He didn't want her to die. "I'd rather die at her hands than yours." Jack turned to face Krystal.

"You see Krystal? The heart is not so hard to break. Your little boyfriend here would rather you kill him than me. Is this true love? How I've wished to see its wonders at work." Jack laughed, sitting down on his desk. HE looked back and forth between his prisoners. "I told you love never lasted Krystal. I told you that it was easily broken."

Krystal didn't know what to do. She looked up at Fox, trying to connect to his mind. Fox had already given up so quickly when it came down to her life or his. It wasn't in his nature to give up that fast. 'Fox. Listen to me.' Fox forced himself to look up at his love. 'I will not go through with Beriul's wishes, I will not kill you.'

'If you don't then he'll kill us both. I don't want you to suffer because of a vendetta against me.' Fox lowered his head back down. 'I don't want to put you through this but I can't stand the idea of him hurting you.'

'You always were so damned stubborn.' Krystal sighed. 'I'm sorry Fox. I love you too much to do that. If he kills us both than at least we'll still be together.'

"Had enough time to think it over guys?" Jack walked over to Fox, placing the blaster on his throat. "Krystal? Speak up if you want to take over for me." Jack chuckled as he began to charge the blaster. "I'm waiting?" Suddenly the door to Jack's office opened. A barrage of laser bolts rained into the small room. Jack turned his head to see who had ruined his conversation. "Don't just stand there! Destroy whoever interrupted me!" The officers ran out into the hallway, weapons drawn. Once the last one had left the door slammed shut. "What the hell?"

"I can see why Slippy and Amanda abandoned you Jack. You really are stupid."

"Who are you?" Jack yell pointing his blaster at the new target. A new hum of a blaster could be heard, the light revealing another fox.

"You might know me as Hopeless." Tyronos grinned, releasing the shot that went just wide of Beriul's head. "I fix problems deemed uncorrectable for some friends of mine."

"Let me guess Fox is one of your friends?" Jack laughed. "A mercenary that gets paid to murder innocents for money?"

"More like a defender of the peace." Tyronos recharged his blaster, aiming it for Jack's weapon. "I'll give you ten seconds to release these two before I get mad. Ten... Nine..." Jack growled firing his shot at Tyronos who jumped out of the way, he shot his own bolt, this time singeing some fur on Jack's arm. "Alright, everyone hates a cheater."

"Call me what you want." Jack blind fired from behind his desk at Tyronos, missing him horribly, but keeping him on his toes. "History is written by the victor!"

"History is full of liars." Tyronos managed to get to Krystal undoing her bindings and helping her to the floor. Jack took advantage of his back being turned and got a good shot on Tyronos's calf, causing him to fall on top of Krystal. Tyronos muttered an apology before passing his blaster to Krystal.

"I'll keep him distracted try to immobilize him or something." Krystal nodded, firing a few shoots at Jack almost instantly after Tyronos got out of her way.

"Jack! You're outnumbered two to one. Give this up and we might be peaceful." Fox yelled as he watched Krystal open fire.

"You of all people are not in a position to be giving orders." Jack shouted. "I can still kill you without a second thought! In fact!" Jack charged his blaster and aimed at Fox. Releasing the shot before Krystal could disarm him with a blast of her own.

"Fox!" Fox closed his eyes bracing for impact. What he felt was a sensation similar to falling. It wasn't how he had thought getting shot with a fully charged blaster would feel like. He opened his eyes, expecting a rather large wound in his abdomen, but what he saw was another fox in front of him, one that he quickly recognized. "Tyronos?"

"What good is a reflector if you can move your arms to get it?" Tyronos coughed before falling silent. Fox forced himself to stand up, looking down at the grey fox.

"Thank you." He whispered before looking up at Beriul. The wolf held a blaster in his weaker hand trying to aim at Fox. "Give it up Jack."

"You were supposed to die on Fichina!" Jack yelled. "Slippy said that once I got blackmail on everyone things would be simple!" Jack howled in frustration. "You weren't supposed to get this far!"

"My team, no matter how famous, is as strong as it's weakest link." Fox said calmly, hitting the gun out of Jack's hand easily. Krystal walked over, using her old bindings on Jack before helping Fox out of his. "Slippy proved to me that my team is far from perfect. I'm sorry he drug you into this Jack."

"You're sorry? YOU'RE SORRY?" Jack went to tackle Fox but was stopped. Fox moved his leg behind Jacks and pushed on his chest forcing him to the ground. "How could you be sorry? You're just a mercenary! You don't feel emotion, you should have killed me by now and gotten paid by whoever it is that hired you."

"My team isn't like most Jack. I don't go out of my way to kill for money. I'd rather take a mission that will help Lylat. I never claimed to be a hero, but my loyalty has been, and always will be to this system." Fox took his blaster and hit Jack in the head with the butt of it, knocking him out. "Falco, this is Fox. We've got Jack."

"Mission accomplished!" Falco declared. "We'll be up asap."

"Bring a stretcher. Tyronos is down. Fox out." Fox moved to sit beside Krystal who was trying her best to bandage the wound on his back. "How is he?"

"Not good. I'm not sure if he'll make it." Krystal leaned on Fox, a tear rolling down her cheek. "He said he'd give his life to save yours, but I never thought it would come down to that."

"Neither did I." Fox wrapped an arm around Krystal. "The item he gave me to save my life.. I never got the chance." Fox pulled out the deflector, activating it. The blue beam gleamed proudly, as if to mock him. "Damn it Ty."

"I never thought I'd get to hear the great Fox McCloud cry." Fox and Krystal jumped at the sound of Tyronos's voice. Tyronos turned his head to face the couple. "Don't worry about me. If this is my time to go, then so be it. I can finally find peace."

"You didn't have to do what you did." Fox patted Tyronos's shoulder, not sure of what else to do or say.

"It's my job. Hopeless situations are my speciality and I did what I had to. You are still needed here Fox, I'm a drifter. If I survive then I'll be off to my next mission." Tyronos coughed a few times, spitting up blood. "I'd forgotten what that tasted like."

"Ty..." Krystal sobbed. "Thank you." Tyronos chuckled before slumping to the floor. The vixen couldn't tell if he had passed out or passed on. Death wasn't a new thing to either fox, but it didn't help numb the pain of losing a friend.

"We're is he?" Katt asked as he burst through the door, panting as she walked towards Fox and Krystal. "Oh god. Fox stood up, letting Katt take his place. He waited for Falco to come in before putting Beriul onto a stretcher. "Falco... I think he's..."

Falco took Katt into his arms, running his hands through her hair in an attempt to calm her. "Damn it."

"Let's get him out of here." Fox said. The team went into action, Fox and Falco lifting Tyronos onto the second stretcher. Katt pushed Jack while Fox pushed Tyronos. Krystal and Falco took up guard, ready to take down anyone who tried to attack them. Most of the guards dropped their weapons at the sight of their president in custody. The ones who didn't just stared at the group, watching as they called the elevator. "Fara and Bill are waiting for us. We'll split up, Krystal and I will go with Bill. Falco and Katt, you will go with Fara and Take Beriul to Pepper, he'll know what to do."

"We'll get Tyronos to the hospital, maybe he can be saved." Krystal looked down at the vulpine who had saved their lives, praying that everything would work out.

-7 months later-

"We now return to the live interview with General Peppy. General, everyone is talking about the recent marriage of Fox and Krystal McCloud. It was rumoured that Fox was going to retire Star Fox once he settled down, is this true?"

"Where I'm not Fox McCloud, I cannot say anything for sure."

"But isn't it true that Fox barely reformed the team for a third time?"

"Yes the Star Fox team was shaky for sure. But it is still the strong team everyone knew of back in the Lylat wars if not stronger now."

"What happened seven months ago. Jack Beriul declared Star Fox enemies of the state, how did they get pardoned so quickly?"

"The ex-president can answer to his actions. This interview is between you and myself. If you have some questions, I recommend it be within my knowledge and not speculation."

"Very well. Tell us, General. What happened to the solo mercenary, Tyronos?"

"Well, Tyronos was wounded during the last few hours of the battle. During that time a number of soldiers and other important military personnel were injured as well. As for how he is doing well.. it think that-"

A groan of disapproval could be heard as the T.V. turned off. Fox sighed tossing the remote on the couch. "Look, if I wanted to relive the past I would by a time machine. Besides we've got a mission to do don't we?"

"We already know what happened to Ty anyway." Krystal smiled before heading towards the bridge, stopping at the door.

Falco looked over at Katt, who turned to face Fox. "Ready when you are captain." Fox smiled and looked back at the T.V.

"And how about you?" He asked.

Everyone looked down at the couch, a familiar set of grey and black ears twitched a few times. "Another mission with Star Fox?" The fox stood up and faced the team. "How Hopeless is it?"