BANG!
The Chapel doors burst open, the locking bar destroyed, and a familiar noise reached Fox's ringing ears:
The sound of a fired blaster.
"Arg!" Andross yelped in pain, dropping Fox to the ground in a clatter of metal and clutching at his wounded arm, as in charged the real Sir Fox, Lady Krystal, Alchemist Slippy, with Skye and Pilot Peppy.
"Back away, Warlord!" Sir Fox commanded, gun aimed the villain's way. "You've already felt how much this hurts, so I'm sure you'd rather not find out what it can do to your head."
"How - ?" Andross growled in pain, backingg up to lean against a nearby pew. Reverend Peppy darted to Pilot Fox and used some of his healing magic. Fox coughed as his throat healed up. Scales was now bombarded by blaster shots and psychic attacks from Lady Krystal, but scarcely seemed to feel it as he continued to fight. Andross growled again.
"I'll not be defeated to easily!" he screamed, holding out a hand at Scales. The Sharpclaw leader shrieked and jerked, twisting in ways only intense agony could produce, before he dropped, dead, to the marble floor. With horror, the two groups of heroes saw Andross' arm wound heal, and his muscles seemed to bulge. He lunged, but not at anyone in particular, but rather towards the door. He ran outside, shouting battle cries to inspire and rally his troops, to encourage them to unify and defeat the intruders...
...only to have a single, blue-fletched arrow fly down from above as if from the heavens to bury itself deeply into his skull. For a few moments, he stood perfectly still, as if not comprehending what had happened, before he too fell face-first down, into the dirt.
"Are you okay?" Reverend Peppy asked Fox, who nodded, rubbing his throat as he stood and faced Sir Fox, and the reverend went to tend to the reviving Krystal.
"Now I know you're another version of us," Fox said with a grin. "Dramatic yet timely heroic entrances." Sir Fox laughed.
"We saw the orb that was the king's soul. You have completed the quest. Thank you. I only wish I could have seen it."
"It came at a cost, I'm afraid." Fox nodded at the shattered Archwing, as Krystal came to stand at his side and slide her hand into his again. Sir Fox looked at the broken metal, and blinked.
"What happened?" Now it was Fox's turn to laugh.
"A little ploy I set up the night before we went into the town for the reverend's message, with Slippy's help of course. I was thinking about how Andross might prepare for us, and I realized he would target the biggest threat first, namely whoever had the sword. So Slippy and I rigged a switch."
"We used the bag," Slippy picked up, "to give us a device to extract and return the ruby without harming either it or the sword. It gave us this." He pulled out a wand. "Then we asked the bag for a double ruby, made of glass, and put it in the pommel."
"We figured I could use the sword to distract Andross, or as a bargaining chip if it came to it - which it did - or if things went smoothly I'd just ask Slippy for the real one." Fox sighed. "I didn't really want to let him destroy it, but he had Krystal hostage." The vulpine knight smiled.
"The Archwing is not destroyed, my friend. It has been in my family's line from the beginning; do you not think it has been damaged before?" He strode over and knelt to touch the hilt with his bare hand, and it began to glow, as did the pieces before they seemed to liquefy and flow together. Within moments the Archwing was whole again, save for the pommel. The ruby had not reformed, the metal prongs which had once help it in place rather curling inwards to touch the hilt, like a flower. Sir Fox stood and faced them, slashing the air to show the blade was good as new, before raising it in salute. "As long as a knight of the McCloud blood line lives, the Archwing it ready to serve him. And now there is a new legend for the Archwing's legacy." Fox smiled, sincerely glad, and removed the armor, handing the bracelet back to its rightful owner.
"Seems like the fighting is dying down," Lady Krystal said, listening and using her talent. "We should check on out allies."
"And they should know who is responsible for our freedom," Sir Fox said as he drew Fox to walk beside him, and the rest gathered to the side of their Fox to head outside.