"My apologies, Lord O'Donnell," IG-N 96's scratchy voice informed Wolf, "But your replacement optical implant won't be ready for some time. In the meantime, I'm afraid you'll have to wear your old eye patch."

"It's not like somethin' I haven't done before," Wolf growled, fitting the patch over his empty left eye socket.

Looking at himself in the mirror in his quarters on the Lone Wolf, it was plain to see that Wolf had some damage to heal. With the bandages on his face from where Falco had pecked him, along with the replacement tooth he'd gotten from Fox's right hook, Wolf had to say that the two of them had put up a pretty good fight. The idea of being prepared for a rematch made the thought of loosing his first all-out physical brawl against them more palatable.

The dark, rusty red interior of the Lone Wolf looked somewhat unsettling, but Wolf found that the color helped him focus. It also complimented the stars, whenever there was a view port in one of the walls. Wolf almost lost himself, looking out at the infinite stars from his window view port, when he realized that IG was still in the room.

"IG, what's Leon up to?" Wolf inquired, trying to find out why the robot was still there.

"I believe he's cooking and killing a small creature, in that order, in the galley, Lord O'Donnell," IG offered.

"What about Panther?" Wolf continued.

"Chatting with a young female on the InterLink. I believe he is asking the young lady her sizes at this point," IG responded.

After a brief pause, Wolf inquired, "Is there somethin' else, IG?"

"I was simply wondering, Lord O'Donnell, if you are still feeling like you truly need to duel Fox McCloud in order to prove something to yourself," IG asked.

Wolf thought for a second and responded, slowly, "No. Not really, IG."

"Yet it cannot really be said that you emerged victorious, Lord O'Donnell," IG pointed out.

"Hm," Wolf said with a smile, "Why do you think that is?"

"If I may offer the opinion of a simple robot, sir," IG stated, "I believe that you have always harbored some hard feelings towards Fox McCloud, granted. However, it is my belief that, recently, since Team StarFox essentially disbanded, you began to feel that perhaps, that question of which of you is truly better might never be answered. You are not the most trusting of beings, sir, however, you feared that we might think you inferior to McCloud, and you would be unable to prove us wrong. So, you became obsessed with defeating Fox McCloud, alone and permanently."

Raising an eyebrow, struggling to keep an open mind, Wolf asked, "Why don't you think I feel that anymore, IG?"

"Because, sir, I believe that this experience has taught you three things: First, that, for better or worse, you are not Fox McCloud. I believe that you also realize, however, that Fox McCloud is not necessarily better off than you. Second, I think you may be slowly coming to realize that, though we may express it differently, we all have our own respect and affection for you, Lord O'Donnell. It matters not to us which of you is better, Fox McCloud or you, because you will always be the greatest soldier and pilot in the galaxy to us, Lord O'Donnell."

Wolf smiled condescendingly. "Do me a favor and don't be sugarcoatin' it all like that. Ya' don't have to lie to me, IG," Wolf mumbled.

"My programming, Lord O'Donnell, renders me quite incapable of lying. Unless of course, you ask me to, sir," IG answered, his synthetic voice having just the slightest touch of warmth for a moment.

Wolf gave a half-smile, not quite sure how to deal with it. He wasn't used to the idea of people caring about him. Even if it was Leon, Panther and IG's way of caring about him.

"What's the third thing ya' think I learned, IG?" Wolf interrogated quietly, changing the subject.

"Simply sir, that if Fox McCloud puts his life back together and re-forms Team StarFox, they will always be there should you wish to challenge them. From my observations of sentient being's behavior, I believe that Fox McCloud will not go without his former comrades for much longer, given the events that have occurred. You no longer have any need to worry, Lord O'Donnell, since we can probably expect Team StarFox to 'keep you on your toes' as you so eloquently put it, for quite some time, sir," IG lectured.

"So, you're sayin' that by puttin' McCloud through the hell I put him through, I pushed him to do better, which is gonna push me to do better," Wolf reasoned.

"As always, Lord O'Donnell, my point is firmly in your grasp. Now, if you don't mind, sir, I'd like to retire. I believe this has been quite enough excitement in a twenty four hour period for this robot," IG saluted.

"Alright. 'Night, IG," Wolf nodded.

"Good night, sir," IG-N 96 responded with a curt bow, then exited Wolf's quarters.

As soon as he was gone, Wolf let out a smile, this time for no one but himself.

Perhaps IG was right.

Perhaps he did have people that cared about him, too.

Perhaps it didn't matter to him about winning the contest between him and Fox as much as the idea of there always being just a contest. The idea of there always being a rematch.

If that was true, then Wolf had done exactly what he'd set out to do.

Fox McCloud was back from the dead, so to speak.

Which meant that, in his own way, so was Wolf O'Donnell.

"ROB, have you entered the navigation data for the warp engines?" Fox requested from the captain's seat on the bridge of the Great Fox.

"Affirmative. Engines primed for maximum warp. Coordinates entered for Corneria. Awaiting jump clearance," ROB-64 responded.

As the robot turned towards the navicomputer, Fox noticed the series of deep scratches and the multitude of dents that had resulted from ROB's apparent fight with Wolf.

He gave off a quiet laugh to himself. He wasn't sure if he wanted to repair the scuffs and dents ROB had received, or maybe keep them to give the robot a bit more character.

Behind Fox, the doors to the bridge opened with a hiss, and Falco strode onto the bridge, coming to a stop by Fox's chair.

"Now, ya' sure ya' wanna do this?" Falco inquired, "Might be kind a' hard afta' six months. Not ta' mention how hard it's gonna be ta' find Krystal."

"Yeah," Fox nodded, "I have to do this. The galaxy needs Team StarFox. So do I."

"Yeah," Falco admitted reluctantly, "Me too."

"We're gonna get the team back together and make everything right again," Fox said quietly, "With everyone."

"Well, it's not gonna' be tha' greatest time a' ya' life doin' it, but I guess it's worth it," Falco smiled, patting Fox's shoulder.

Fox looked squarely ahead out of the panoramic view port of the bridge, as the stars twinkled in the vast, infinite, empty space before them.

Before, Fox had felt lost in the emptiness, in the quietness.

Now, it filled him with a sense of relief to know that, somewhere in that vast nowhere was Peppy, Slippy, and Krystal. All that he had to do was just find them again.

And though it was little more than a simple feeling, it made all the difference in the universe, because, instead of a feeling of nothingness and lack of purpose, there was the overriding feeling that Fox was going to be alright.

Because, somewhere, out there, he had people that loved him.

"Jump clearance granted. Receiving warp gate broadcast from Beltino Orbital Gate," ROB announced.

Ahead of the Great Fox, space seemed to bend inwards into itself, forming a slowly-widening tunnel in space that would take them to Corneria in less than a matter of hours.

"Make sure ya' safety bars are down an' please keep ya' arms an' legs inside tha' ride at all times," Falco joked, "The exits are located here and here, howeva' in the event of an emergency at fasta' than light speeds, ya' more than likely shit outta luck."

Following some of his own advice, Falco sat down at a workstation seat in order to secure himself for the warp jump.

"Warp gate broadcast received. Gate fully formed and stable. All systems are go," ROB announced, "Great Fox making jump to maximum warp in T-minus five, four, three, two, one. Ignition."

With that, the Great Fox began to rumble as her plasma warp engines fully engaged, propelling her forwards and into the wormhole.

Meteors, planets, star systems began to whiz by the Great Fox' s view port so fast that they were a mere white blur amongst the black background.

"Great Fox has achieved maximum warp stability. ETA at Corneria is four hours and forty minutes," ROB informed them.

As the whole galaxy rolled by, with all of its endless nothingness amounting to just that, nothing, as long as he had people like Falco and Peppy and Slippy and Krystal close to him, Fox felt a feeling of thankfulness, of gratitude for the first time in a long time for all that he truly had, regardless of the fact that now wasn't the greatest day of his life.

Indeed, it was not the greatest day of Fox's life.

But it was still a great day to be alive.

The End. Cue "Message in a Bottle" by the Police, or "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane, both of which were heavily listened to during the writing of this story, and both of which have some thematic parallels with this story ("Message in a Bottle" is about loneliness and isolation; "White Rabbit" is about hallucinogenic drugs). I thank all of you that have reviewed this story, and I encourage you to review the story in its entirety. Thank you and good night, ladies and germs, you've been a WONDERFUL audience!!