"Okay, it's been a week since we've seen Leon." muttered Bill, "I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing."

"Good." groaned Fox from his cell. "We gotta count what few blessings we get." Since Mariko's escape Leon had been concentrating his efforts on Fox and Bill. Neither were too happy about it, but they had learned a few things from Mariko, as a result Bill was faring a bit better than he did during his first session with Leon, though not by much.

The heavy metal door clattered open and shut and a familiar set of footsteps walked down the stairs, they were followed by a set of lighter footsteps. "Spoke too soon." whispered Bill as Leon's grumbling reached his ears. Sure enough Leon came into view carrying his black bag. An off-white cat with red hair and a black tattoo over her eye identical to Mariko's followed him.

"Methinks that's what Mari called a 'Rogue Knight'." muttered Falco as she walked by. His only answer was being rammed into his cell's wall.

"Falco!" yelled Katt.

"Quiet Little Girl, or your next." hissed the other feline. Katt cowered in the corner of her cell, something about the other woman's eyes made her flesh crawl. Falco slowly got to his feet after the Rogue walked by.

"Who is she?" he muttered.

"Trouble." Katt whispered.

By this point Leon had Bill clamped to the wall and was pulling out some of tools. "Do you have any idea what that brat of a sister of yours has done!?" he hissed.

"No, but your going to tell me anyway." muttered Bill. His answer was the hand held table-saw cutting into him arm. Bill's yowl of pain didn't improve Leon's mood.

"Oh dear." murmured Vixen, "I'll hate to be you in the morning Commander Gray, if you survive tonight that is." She then pivoted, "Now now, I wouldn't let your guard down yet Mr. McCloud, just because Leon is busy with Commander Gray doesn't mean that you get off easy today."

Fox swallowed nervously as the woman strolled to his cell and keyed in the code that would temporally shut down the laser bars until she entered. Fox had heard stories from Mari on how Rogue Knights worked. He really didn't want to know their tactics first hand.

"By the way, we haven't formally introduced ourselves, you have no idea who I am but oh, I do know about you." her smile had a sinister air to it, it scared Fox more than Leon in a bad mood. For some sick reason, he felt that today Bill would be the lucky one.

"My name is Vixen, and yes I do know Mariko, we have clashed a few times in the past, and yet I know almost nothing about her," she paused, by now she had entered the cell. "I'm hoping you could fill in the....details....of her life."

"Like Hell." he muttered, trying to put up a brave front.

"McCloud, by the time I'm through Hell will seem to be a blissful Paradise." With a motion quicker than he could follow, she seized either side of his head. "Now what is in your mind?" She hissed in his ear.....

Leon was trying to get more info on Beatrice Gray out of her older brother. The plus to this was Bill didn't know his sister well enough to give the information Leon wanted. Leon was not happy.

"Now," hissed the frustrated chameleon, "Where would your sister hide?" He held a bloody knife in his hand and a dangerous look in his eyes.

"No clue." gasped Bill, "Could be anywhere in Lylat, .....top of her class at the Academy, .....her specialty was in ground maneuvers.... GAH!!!" he yelled again Leon had slashed at his leg.

"Tell me something I don't know." snarled Leon, "Like about that weapon her ship carries...what is it and where did it come from?" The point of the knife was under Bill's chin.

Bill had a sick feeling that Leon was referring to the E-M Pulse, "What weapon?" Leon then grabbed the table saw.

Fox wasn't faring much better against Vixen. His back was to the wall of the cell and sweat was pouring off his forehead, she still had a hammer hold on his temples. Every now and then he let out a strangled gasp and the determined Knight destroyed his mind's defenses one by one. "You are stronger than you appear McCloud," she murmured, "No wonder Mariko was attracted to you, who knows you may have a Knight or two in you bloodline somewhere, but the majority of the power has faded over the years. You could just give up, let me in.." her voice softened to a purr.

"Never." he choked out.

Vixen sighed, "So be it. Such a pity." She then focused her powers and whispered, "Let's see how strong you are when I fire every nerve ending in your body that is capable of registering pain at once....."

Fox's scream could be heard two levels above.

Mariko awoke with a start and a scream that built deep within and died when it reached her lips, it took her a few minutes to aquaint herself with her surroundings. She was in one of the bedrooms on the New Atlantis, she had gone to bed early, and they had just completed a raid on the outer limits of MacBeth. Unlike the previous raid this one was ground based rather than the air based raids they have done so far. Despite her rapid recovery after escaping Venom, she wasn't up to her usual fighting levels. Informing Wolf on that little detail and watching his jaw drop was a pleasure. So she turned in early, she then focused on what disturbance woke her. A few minutes of focus had taken her to the room's viewport, it gave her a perfect view Venom far in the distance. "Oh lord," she whispered, "Fox." she shook her head, to clear it from the disturbing images that began to plague her. No way she was going back to sleep now. So she walked along the hall till she reached the rec area to get something to drink, for some reason she wasn't surprised to see Boomer already there nursing a cup of tea.

"Pot and cup is over there." she motioned, "I kept it warm."

"Are we this predictable?" whispered Mariko. Boomer nodded.

Elsewhere on the ship, Ariel and Wolf were having one of their "friendly discussions". The yelling match could be heard in the rec area. Boomer groaned, Mariko rolled her eyes. "At least we can keep our mind off things with those two around." muttered Boomer.

"One of two things will happen before this whole thing is over." stated Mariko, "Those two will either kill each other, our they'll end up sleeping together." Boomer choked on her tea.

"No way." she choked, "I'd lay my money on killing instead of uh.....other activities..."

Mariko smiled, "Boomer, let me share with you a little secret. The lines between love and hate are very vague, it's amazing how often the line is crossed...."

Back on Venom Leon paused his torture on Bill when he heard Fox's scream. "Now how'd she do that?" he muttered.

"I simply fired all his nerve endings at once with pain." stated Vixen, she then let go of Fox and he collapsed to the floor of the cell, gasping.

"Interesting." muttered Leon, hiding a shiver. "Now Bill, about that weapon?" Bill swallowed.

"What about it?" he muttered.

"Would you like to tell me about it now or would you like a few rounds with Vixen here?" Leon's smile was more sinister than normal. Vixen chuckled, fear was a very good incentive, since Fox's scream there hadn't been so much as a peep from the other members of StarFox.

Bill nodded, no harm if it was the E-M Pulse there wasn't much they could do about it, "From what you told me it sounds like the Electric-Magnetic Pulse weapon." Bill began, "My sister was the head of development on that project, due to problems the project was scraped and the prototype put into storage."

Leon smiled, "Very Good Commander. Now how do we defend against it?"

Bill winced this answer was going to get him hurt. "You can't." A heavy shock from the tazer caused him to yelp.

"What is that suppose to mean?" hissed Leon.

"That was the reason....it was scraped." Bill gasped trying to catch his breath, "Couldn't adapt Cornerian ships using it to be resistant to the E-M feedback, Shockwave was the only one....shields unique, her own design...."

Leon snarled in frustration, and gave Bill another heavy shock. Vixen smiled and turned back to Fox, who was slowly coming back to reality. "Are you ready to talk? Or do you want another round?"

Fox swallowed, "Can't tell you what I don't know." he whispered. Vixen didn't buy it, she grabbed his temples again and smiled.

"Personally, I'm glad your fighting back McCloud, it'll make the end result so much more enjoyable." she began to probe again, this time into memories.....

A few weeks before the takeover....He was spending the evening with Mari.....walking on the beaches on Corneria....they began to kiss....it actually didn't go much farther....but the scene was changing.....Mari was trying to stop...he was continuing....

"No!" hissed Fox trying to break the grip Vixen had on him, "That didn't happen! I would never do that!" Vixen just smiled.

"This is just a taste of what I can do to you." she purred, "Of what any Knight can do, if they so wished, even Mariko herself, for all you know this could be true and she changed your memories..."

"No." he whimpered. "Why would she do that? Why would I do that to her?" He was trying to convince himself more than convince Vixen.

"Because she can, and maybe because you did…" purred Vixen.

"No." whispered Fox in despair.

"Yes." Replied Vixen, and the torture continued.

Memory after memory was changed altered and twisted to the point where Fox McCloud couldn't tell which were the real memories and which were the false, or for that matter who had changed them....Vixen? Or Mariko?

Vixen left Fox's cell well after Leon was finished with Bill. After she left the cellblock Bill looked over at his friend, "Fox?" he asked carefully, "You okay?"

"No." came a weak, yet terse reply. He then added in a whisper that Bill couldn't hear. "I'll never be okay again...."

Back on the New Atlantis, Ariel was just about fed up with Wolf. Wolf thought Ariel was insane. Both were right, to a degree. "You are nuts!!" Thundered Wolf, "No way we are ready to attack Venom, we will be slaughtered!"

"Not if we do it right!" roared Ariel in response, "Yes Venom is our next target, but the actual attack will not be for at least a week, maybe longer!" She threw up her hands in frustration, rational discussion with Wolf on how they were going to raid Venom had gone out of the window about and hour and a half ago, she had resorted to yelling and screaming, again. "If you can't take my orders and you don't like how I run my ship you can get off!!!" She then turned to leave the room before she killed him, or her killed her, whoever got to a weapon first.

"Oh no you don't!" hissed Wolf going after her as she stalked out of the door. "We ain't done yet! You are planning something other than a simple raid on Venom, why else would you split us six ways from Sunday on the surface? One way or the other Triton and come Hell or high water you are going tell me what you are really planning!"

"Why the devil should you care? All you care about is getting your revenge! I'm letting you take it…." She roared back.

Wolf's answer was muffled a bit too much to be heard clearly by Mariko and Boomer as their teammates continued their argument through the corridors.

Mariko rolled her eyes, "How long have they been at it this time?"

Boomer looked at the time, "About three hours, Ariel must have run the plan to raid Venom past Wolf. Doesn't sound like he was too thrilled."

Mariko replied "You think? I know the plan is a bit odd to say the least, but it might work if we can act as a team to pull it off." As yelling grew louder, she winced. "Oh boy I think it's coming to a head Boomer, before this night is through something is going to happen to resolve it, one way or another."

"Maybe we should go out there and stop them? I mean I may not like Wolf much, but we still sort of need him for the attack on Venom. We also need Ariel to keep New Atlantis running if Wolf is lucky enough to kill her first…" Muttered Boomer as she stood up and headed for the door.

"You are pushing your luck Triton! One way or another this is going to be settled tonight!" Bellowed Wolf.

"Let's hurry." Agreed Mariko. "I can't remember if either of them were carrying their side arms today, don't wanna know either…"

"And what do you plan to do about it Cyclops?! Glare me to death? Or are you actually going to do more than huff and puff!" Snarled Ariel in response. Wolf began to growl, then he acted.

Boomer and Mariko began to run at the sound of Wolf's growls of anger and a slight tussle. When they reached the corridor it was empty. "Where?" muttered Boomer.

Mariko looked around, they were in the section of the ship where the crew's private quarters were located, next to Ariel's rooms to be precise. "If they'd killed each other I think they'd be a sign of carnage or something." Grumbled Mariko. She then heard something from Ariel's room; Mariko leaned toward the door to listen better.

"Are they in there?" whispered Boomer. Mariko gave her a signal to be quiet, after a minute Mariko's eyes got huge. "What?" stated Boomer.

"Oh my…" whispered Mariko as she kept listening, "Oh my Lord!" she gasped, stepping away from the door."

Boomer couldn't stand the suspense any more and moved closer to the door and tried to listen. It didn't take long or much effort to hear exactly what was happening. "Oh my…" muttered Boomer. She and Mariko darted out of the corridor and back to the rec area.

"This is … interesting." Swallowed Boomer. "Were those two doing what I think they were doing?"

"Yep, if the noise didn't give it away, the vibes I was picking up did, they ain't fighting that's for sure. Don't wanna be around that room with reality checks in with those two." She sighed, "Interesting is an understatement Boomer," grumbled Mariko, "Nothing like this ever happened on the Great Fox."

Boomer hid a grin, "Never?" giving Mariko a glance.

"Well…" muttered Mariko, "never under these conditions. I mean most of the couples on the Great Fox at least liked each other before uh… pouncing on each other" She hid a blush. "Anyway this answered the kill or not kill question."

Boomer nodded, "But why do I have the sick feeling that I'd rather have them trying to kill each other?" Mariko nodded in agreement.

The next morning, back on Venom:

Fox was silent the rest of the previous night, despite the best efforts of Bill and the rest of StarFox they could barely get a response out of him. Bill inwardly quaked, he thought a week of Leon's undivided attention was bad, one session with Vixen had done more damage to Fox then when he went through with Leon and the following recovery time.

Fox was backed into the corner of his cell sitting on the floor with his head resting on his knees. He was attempting; in vain to sort out his memories, it wasn't working. Every time he tried to focus on a happy memory, his childhood, or anything else remotely uplifting he either couldn't remember it or it was twisted to the point where he barely saw it as one of his memories.

Soft footsteps echoed from the door and walked down the hall, the soft chatter from his teammates was silenced as the figure strolled toward his cell, he didn't even look up until Vixen was inside his cell and staring down at him with a sinister smirk on her face.

"Good morning." She purred, "Did you sleep well?"

Fox just glared at her.

"I thought not." Vixen drawled, "Now are you going to be more cooperative today or will I have to turn the heat up?"

He continued his stare.

"Why am I not surprised?" muttered Vixen, "You Mr. McCloud are either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid." She grabbed the scruff of his neck and dragged him to his feet. Fox tried to dodge her hand as it reached for his temples again, no luck she had too tight of a grip on his neck for it to do much good. He gave a pitiful yelp as she made contact with his mind.

"Now let's see what we can do today." She murmured into his ear.

"I don't know anything about Mariko's past, I never asked and she never told me." Hissed Fox.

"You haven't figured it out yet have you Mr. McCloud." Sighed Vixen. "The information on Mariko is only my secondary objective," her voice dropped to a low whisper, "despite what Andross thinks I have my own objective and plans for you and Mariko."

Fox just swallowed as his world perspective dropped to two things, pain and even more pain. Vixen continued to apply more and more pressure to the vulpine's already weakened defenses. It soon became apparent to Bill and the other members of StarFox that, like Leon, Vixen's objective was no longer to gain information from them. The only gain was the pleasure the feline and the reptile felt in causing suffering on another. The only difference between the two was that Vixen was more skilled in mental torture than Leon was.

And it continued, and Fox became more and more withdrawn as Vixen showed him what a Knight, any Knight, good or Rogue was truly capable of.

The same morning; back on the New Atlantis

Boomer slowly woke up, not to find herself in a nice soft bed but slumped on one of the worktables in the repair bay. She yawned. "Dang did it again, I fell asleep while working." She glanced down at her work; all the items that were needed for the raid on Venom were about ready. Some, like the portable bombs were expected, others were a bit odd, but Ariel hadn't led them wrong yet, so Boomer went ahead with the plans and built the devices. The only hitch now was if the previous activities by Ariel and Wolf would help or hinder the team's plans.

"Team's plan, now that's a weird thought." Muttered Boomer, "About a month ago I was just a typical Lieutenant stationed on Corneria. Now I'm teaming up with a member of StarFox, and unknown mercenary who was associated with James McCloud, and one of Lylat's greatest terrors in order to free Lylat from an insane ape." She shook her head; "Life is weird."

A few floors above:

Mariko had purposely woken up extra early and stationed herself outside Ariel's quarters. Despite what she told Boomer last night there was no way she was missing this opportunity, besides she needed something to distract her thoughts from what was happening to Fox on Venom. After a few hours she was finally rewarded with the sounds of movement from inside the room.

Ariel woke up to the sound of Wolf getting dressed, no easy feat, it seemed like various articles of clothing were scattered all over the room. He had at least found his pants. "Denial or some sort of acknowledgement?" grumbled Ariel from the bed.

Wolf froze, he was hoping she was still asleep. "None of the above." He muttered.

"With the other two on this ship? No way." Replied Ariel looking for her own clothing, where ever it wound up.

"It's none of their business." Hissed Wolf as he gathered the rest of his clothes and hurried out the door as if his tail was on fire. As he left the room he came face to face with Mariko who had the biggest smirk on her face. After his initial shock had worn off he growled, "Not one word Mutton, not one … single … word…"

As he stalked off Mariko hid the chuckles.

A few hours later everybody was in the rec area going over the final plans for the raid on Venom. "Okay here's the plan." Began Ariel, Boomer was on her right Mariko on her left as they looked at the plans for Venom's main base laid out on the table, Wolf was as far away from Ariel as he could and still be physically in the room. Ariel raised her eyebrow, "Wolf." She asked, "Are you sure you can see everything from the other side of the room?" He just glared, Ariel shrugged and continued.

"Over the next week will be secretly re-conning the base planting some of Boomer's special bombs in key areas around Andross's main base. I chose this one for two main reasons. The first is that's where all the most important and valuable prisoners are being kept, including General Pepper, Bill Gray and StarFox. The second, per Wolf that's also where Andross keeps his personal treasures, if we rip that off, no way he can continue the war."

"Good in theory, but how are we going to do that?" growled Wolf. Ariel raised her eyebrow.

"I'm getting to that part." She replied, "Keep you pants on…" The look on Wolf's face was priceless. After Boomer and Mariko stifled their giggles Ariel continued despite Wolf's reddened face. "Now after we plant the bombs, we'll take off in our jets and detonate a group of bombs at the front of the base before we land at the back area. Hopefully everybody will too busy with the massive explosions to notice us breaking into the back of the base." She paused to point out the most likely areas for their entrance. "Once inside the base we will split into two teams Boomer and Mariko will head for dungeons and free everybody there. Get everybody to the Great Fox and get out of Venom as fast as it will fly. Head for Corneria, that's where the freed slave camps are located, they should have the facilities you need to treat whoever you rescue. Detonate the rest of the planted bombs to cover your escape. The New Atlantis will cover for the Great Fox when it blasts through the defenses."

"No problem." Replied Mariko, "What will you and Wolf be doing?"

"Causing as much chaos in the base as physically possible." Replied Ariel; "Along with finding and raiding Andross's little treasure trove. This should provide extra cover to get the prisoners out, as well as plant a few more bombs to blow that base sky high."

"Right." Muttered Wolf to himself. He was laying bets that Ariel would try to ditch him as soon as they did some major damage to the base. If she was going to show her own agenda. The Raid on Venom would be a prime time to show it.

Later that day;

Boomer had stashed herself on a transport enroute to Venom; she was dressed completely in black and had a bag full of her own special bombs. Her mission was simple; plant the bombs and gather as much information on the goings on at the base as possible. When it came to sneaky stuff, Mariko was the best, but when it came to explosives, Boomer won hands down. She would have preferred to take the Shockwave, but it was a bit too flashy for this mission.

Boomer successfully made it to Venom's surface and had planted the bombs outside the base, it was fairly easy to hide them, the whole façade of the base was covered with ornate depictions of Andross himself. The young dog knew better than to be fooled by the fancy exterior, under the stone decorations was heavy metal plate, therefore they required shaped and concentrated charges in order to make even a dent into them. Luckily Boomer just the right explosive to do the job needed. After she was done on the outside, she found a sleeping guard and snuck past him to get into the base, the bombs planted here would provide the much-needed distraction for the Great Fox's escape.

What little info she could gather wasn't anything they already didn't know. The only piece of remotely interesting information was an escapee making off with Pigma's Wolven II, and she also spied a female off-white cat making her way to the dungeons. "Wonder who that is." Muttered Boomer to herself.

As Boomer was planting the last few bombs in the base's armory she spied a few soldiers walking by, as she hid behind a crate she peeked over the top and tried to listen what they were saying. To her shock these were not the ordinary soldiers she thought they were. They turned out to be StarWolf themselves. She stayed silent, she was too far away to hear but it appeared that Andrew, Leon and Pigma was in heavy discussion, she slowly pulled out her side arm, she had a high magnification scope on it, it would be child's play to blow their heads off from this distance. She took careful aim and the first to enter the scope's sight was Leon himself.

Boomer swallowed finger on the trigger, it would be so easy, to get rid of the monster once and for all. To make him pay for all the suffering he has inflicted on her, on Bill and on countless others. Leon and StarWolf moved away out of range, Boomer put the pistol away, she couldn't pull the trigger.

"That would not be justice." She murmured softly, "It would be vengeance, and make me no better than that monster in chameleon's clothing." She slowly picked up her now empty bag and made her way out of the base to meet the New Atlantis.

On to Chapter Six
Back to Black Dolphins Rising Index

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