Sally walked back into the hut, where the topic of conversation seemed to be what she thought Robotnik did to Xelphene. As she came in, they looked to her expectantly.
She’d have to disappoint them. Unconsciously she took a deep breath. "I have some bad news, and some bad news," she began.
"Well, why don’t we start with the bad news?" Quipped Sonic from his position by the desk. Sally noticed that he had brushed most of the microchips out of his fur.
"Okay." She said. "One, Aris is gone."
Startled exclamations met her pronouncement. "What? Whaddya mean, gone?" Asked Sonic, loudly.
"She’s left to do business in another dimention. She’ll be back in a few weeks at most." She took another deep breath. "Two, although I think I know what’s happening with Xelphene, I want to make sure. I’m going to plan a mission to find out."
Nobody spoke for a few seconds. Then Sonic spoke up. "Right. Who’s going?"
"I am." Said Xelphene. "I want to find out who I am. What happened to me."
"All right." Said Sally. "Any more volunteers?"
"You aren’t leavin’ me out, Sally-girl." Said Bunnie, who had somehow managed to get swept into the hut with the rest. "You've been leavin' me in th' dark so far, but I'm gonna find out what's going on."
"I’m going too."
Everybody turned to look at Daniel, standing in the doorframe, looking gaunt and sick. He had a determined look on his face.
It was the same look that any of the Freedom Fighters had when they spoke of destroying Robotnik. The same hard look.
Sally nodded.
In the end, Sally, Bunnie, and Daniel were chosen to hack into the computer systems, and Sonic, Knuckles, and Xelphene were to provide a distraction. They were about to leave when Dulcy arrived, with her own style of landing. Crash landing, that is.
"Unhhh..." Said the dragon as she picked herself up. "I'll be fine, ma."
"Hi, Dulce! Just in time!" Sonic said. "We're about to go off to roboville to do some damage. You in?"
"Sure!" Said Dulcy. "Sounds more fun than a quest for magic rocks!"
"Speaking of magic rocks, Dulcy, did you get-" Asked Rotor before the dragon cut him off.
"Nope. Sorry, Rote, but I couldn't find it. My parents' horde might have what you're looking for, but they..." The dragon dipped her snout to the ground in sadness, and Rotor consolingly patted her on the neck.10
"Anyway, Dulcy," said Sally, and the dragon perked up a bit, "you'll help us with transport a lot. If you could... Daniel, Bunnie and me need to be carried, and Xelphene, Knuckles and Sonic can run-"
"Wait a sec, here," said the dragon. "Who're these two?" She pointed at Daniel and Xelphene with the tip of one wing.
There ensued a briefing of Dulcy about what had happened with Aris, the deroboticizing, Daniel, and Xelphene. Basically, Sally, Sonic, and Knuckles talked, and Dulcy nodded in appropriate spots.
"So, that's basically why we want to go to Robotropolis." Finished Sally. "You up to it?"
"You kidding?" Asked the dragon. "I'm definitely coming. I want to know all of the answers too."
"Okay." Said Sally. "You drop us in the old plaza district, where a lot of those abandoned buildings are, and meet us afterwards in the regular spot at the edge of the forest."
"Got it, Sal." Dulcy waited while the three passengers climbed onto her back. "But, don't you think you should be doing a little more planning?"
Sally got herself settled. "Dulcy, I have a feeling about this, and I want to find out if I'm right." She balled her fists at her sides. "And if I am, Robotnik is going to pay."
A scream pierced the air.
"Dang, what was that?" Asked Sonic.
"It sounded like a cat getting it's tail run over mixed with some really bad electric guitar improv," suggested Knuckles.
Xelphene's eyes unfocused. "It was someone screaming," she said.
"Huh?" Asked both Sonic and Knuckles.
"A scream, from-" everything went black, then glowed, then hurt. "Ahh- pain, pain, pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain pain painpainpainPAINPAINPAINPAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"
She blacked out.
"Hear what?" Yelled Sally into the wind.
"That sound... there it is again!"
Sally could hear what sounded like an animal scream of rage, a firey, burning, sound, and it was loud.
"It was closer that time." Said Dulcy helpfully.
Sally gasped. "He must be using it again." She said softly. Louder, she yelled, "go as fast as you can, Dulcy!"
The squirrel, now a robot, was released from the Roboticizer. After receiving his own information, he sped from the room to hunt down the intruders.
"Why'd ya scream like that?" Asked Sonic. "And right in my ear, too. I've never heard a sound like that."
The world blurred again, and she gasped as she saw the world through two sets of eyes. "Marcus?" She asked.
"Huh?" Asked Knuckles, and she was drawn back to herself again.
"I, I don't know," she said. "I can't remember."
The squirrel paused for a moment in its hurried flight, feeling something that his CPU could not make sense of. Shrugging it off as a glitch, he continued on his mission.
Sally, Bunnie and Daniel ducked around the last SWAT-bot patrol and entered the computer room. Sally plugged Nicole in as Daniel sat down at the keyboard.
"Daniel, check for files on any new type of Roboticizer that Robotnik might have created." Sally asked as she told Nicole to do the same.
After ten minutes of scrolling through encrypted databanks, they found a file. Sally read it over with a grim expression. "I thought so," she said as she finished. "DNA stripping."
Xelphene shook her head. There was something going on, something that she knew she should know about, something she couldn't remember.
"Who's Marcus?" Asked Sonic, staring at her with a confused expression on his face.
A memory came flooding back. Green fields, running with her brown playmate on a sunny day, the air shimmering with light patterns that-
The memory ended, and she was brought back to cold reality.
"I think-" she started, then paused. "A friend, maybe? I'm not quite sure..."
"You mean, you know someone named Marcus, but you aren't sure who he is?" Knuckles asked.
Xelphene nodded hesitantly. "I just can't, can't, I don't know." She cried out. "I don't know!!"
Then, suddenly, they were under attack.
"DNA stripping?" Asked Bunnie.
Sally turned to the cyborg. "It's a highly dangerous process in which the actual amino acids are stripped from the chromosomes, deleting the code for growth of new cells. It's useful if you don't want a certain type of cell to grow, but it's not a very refined process. Obviously," Sally growled, "Robotnik has found a new use for it."
"Making a derobotisization-proof robot?" Asked Daniel.
Sally nodded. "If Robotnik stripped the genetic code from the organic residue left in a robot, the robot wouldn't have enough genetic code for a derobotisization process. No matter how it works, I'm sure Aris' way of turning people back into organic matter takes knowledge of the person's DNA."
Daniel and Bunnie exchanged glances. "So, Xelphene..." hazarded Bunnie.
"Was probably the first." Sally clenched her fists in anger. "Destiny only knows what other poor souls Robotnik has used this machine on."
Xelphene and Knuckles had minor shielding when the first wave of electric energy swept over them. Sonic had no such luck.
The hedgehog's world spun as he was knocked off his feet. He smashed into a wall, dazed, bleeding, and in considerable pain.
Knuckles and Xelphene were not that much better off. Even though they didn't sustain quite the level of damage that Sonic did, they were buffeted about like leaves in a hurricane. Knuckles was plastered against the side of the alley and Xelphene was rolled into the back wall, as she had taken the split-second warning she had gotten from her Emerald to curl up into a ball. Steadying herself, she shot a wave of black chaos energy back at their assailant.
And gasped as it hit, stunned by what she found.
"Destroy the file." Sally said in a menacing tone. Daniel nodded, snarling, and erased any mention of the DNA-stripping process from the Robotropolis main computer.
"Uh, Sally-girl," cautioned Bunnie from the doorway, "we might want to get out of here as soon as possible, if you take my meaning."
Sally glanced up to the slight sound of metallic boots on metal from the corridor. "Great idea." She pulled Nicole from the slot on the side of the computer interface and slipped her back into the pouch on the inside of her boot. "Daniel?"
"Don't worry, we can go. I left a worm virus that should make hash out of some other files, and I deleted the DNA-stripping one completely. Backups and all." He pushed himself up out of his chair and followed Bunnie and Sally into the air duct, closing it shut only thirty seconds before the SWAT-bots came in to use the terminal.
Sally pushed herself backwards down the tunnel, inch by slow inch, trying not to make a sound. She gritted her teeth at the muffled clink when her foot struck something. Backing up some more, she found that what she had hit was a block of some sort of metal, a plug for the duct.
They were trapped.
Xelphene gasped, holding her head as the strange double vision came again. Only this time, as she looked through the other pair of eyes, she saw herself, there in the alley. She shook her head to clear it, and the twin-sight left her.
The robotic squirrel in front of her held its head and screamed. Xelphene caught the shock, the pain, the agony through her chaos emerald, and gritted her teeth against it. Then, after the pain subsided, she reached out tentatively for the other’s hand.
"Marcus?" She asked him, sure she would be right.
His eyes fluttered open. "Xelphene..." He said, disbelieving. "It is you... What happened to you?"
"I- I..." Xelphene started then paused. There was no reason that she shouldn’t look like she was supposed to, was there? With a thought, her spines shortened and her eyes changed from red to teal. Her fur took on a pattern of gold stripes, and her red-white sneakers, borrowed from Sonic, turned into high-topped athletic-shoe type footwear. She stood up, remembering more of herself with the transformation. Knuckles whistled appreciatively and Xelphene spared him a glance before turning her attention back to Marcus.
"You got caught too?" She asked warily.
"Caught?" He asked incredulously. "Caught? Xelphene, don’t you remember?" He stood up, shaking his head in bitter amusement. "You don’t remember? Oh, isn’t that just wonderful." Marcus’ tone changed to anger. Xelphene took a step back in surprise.
"No, I- I lost my memories, it only comes back in fits and starts... I don’t know." She fumbled for an explanation.
"Then you don’t remember." The squirrel’s tone was harsh. "You don’t remember how you betrayed us, Queen Astra-Xelphene."
"We’re trapped." Sally whispered to Bunnie. "I can’t go back any farther."
"Back up! They’re scanning!" Called Daniel to Bunnie. "We need to get out of range!"
"No room; we’re stuck." Relayed the cyborg.
"Great." Whispered the hedgehog sarcastically. "So, we fight our way out?"
"Looks like the only option." Call-whispered Sally.
Bunnie leaned up beside Daniel so she could almost whisper into his ear. "On three, curl into a ball, and I’ll catapult you out. I’ll be on your tail. Okay?"
Daniel nodded. Bunnie braced her legs on either side of the duct. "One, two, THREE!"
Bunnie pushed with all her cyborg strength and sent Daniel spinning out at the SWAT-bots. Though he may not be Sonic, the sandy-brown hedgehog managed to rebound from the robots and deal considerable damage. Bunnie leaped out after him and started applying her robotic arms and legs to the business of dismantling the SWAT-bots - permanently.
Sally crawled back out of the duct as Daniel and Bunnie together destroyed the last robot. The three exchanged glances and bolted down the corridor. Sometimes revolutionaries don’t need vocal communication.
"WHAT?!" Yelled Knuckles into the silence.
Xelphene took an involuntary step back. "No- no! It can’t be- I wouldn’t- I didn’t..."
"It could, you would, and you did, my liege." Marcus spat the last word out, his eyes flaring as well as his voice. "That treaty renewal that you went to here, when you voluntarily revealed our Chaos Emerald’s position in exchange for robotic guards- tell me that wasn’t betrayal. Oh, and later on, when you sacrificed half of our fighters as well as yourself to him, coming to live in Robotropolis... you were mad for power, Xelphene. But your worst came when you addressed the Council, telling us that you had agreed to turn over our Chaos Emerald in exchange for half of the rule of the ‘improved’ Mobius when Robotnik was done with it... You don’t deserve your title, Queen." He snarled at the hedgehog.
Xelphene stared back at Marcus... and the memories came back. She was astonished- ashamed! At the things she had done. Working with Robotnik for power- and then, through the Chaos Emerald, she was shown what had happened. Not just through memory fragments, but through the magic of the Emerald itself...
*Flashback- Raldinia Council*
Marcus fingered the stiff formal collar on his tunic restlessly as he waited for the Queen to show. As was procedure, none of the Councilmembers could be seated before the Queen had taken her place, and Xelphene was noted for being late to almost every occasion. Astra-Xelphene, he reminded himself. Xelph had taken on the pre-name at her coronation six years before.
Once again wishing in vain for the sweltering heat to cool off, he glanced out the window over the lake. Surrounded by hills, Raldinia was usually a cooler temperature, but today it seemed that the air itself burned your fur without help from the sun. And standing for - he checked his watch again - forty-five minutes in the boiling councilroom in stuffy formal garb didn’t help either. Marcus wiped the sweat from his eyes and hoped that the air-conditioning was fixed soon. Heat was a bad omen in Raldinia, and with the AC off it was an uncomfortable one as well.
The ornate doors at the end of the hall swung open and an almost audible sigh of relief swept through the room as Xelphene stepped out, flanked by two of her robotic guard, to sit at her place at the table.
*Robotic guards. More signs of that ruler to the west - Robotnik. We really should cut connections to a ruler with no respect for organtic life, but I dare not say so aloud. Those robots are probably sending everything back to him right now.* Marcus risked a glance at Shanal and saw disgust emanating from the elder badger. Shanal was the Head Priestess of the Serpent, one of the only two who could control the forces from the Chaos Beryl well enough to use its magic. The other one was Astra-Xelphene.
Xelphene put on a courtly, dignified smile as the rest of the Council sat, relieved, into the seats around the oval table. *I taught her that. When we were still young, I taught her the court manners that my mother and father taught me, when we were still friends...* But lately, their relationship had been slipping. Xelphene had become Astra-Xelphene, and all traces of the open, friendly child he had loved as a sister had vanished under a mask of impassive court formalities. *Serves her right she was betrothed to that horrid lug. Jemal probably can’t even spell his own name without looking it up, while I’m one of the scholars at the Chattoway Institute, and a Councilmember nonetheless.*
The Queen cleared her throat quietly, still keeping the courtly half-smile on her face. "I have been discussing the treaty we keep with Doctor Robotnik, the ruler of the city now known as Robotropolis. Until now, it has been only a slightly different one than the treaty we kept with the former rulers, the Kings of the Acorn line."
*And it should have been kept the same. We didn’t need to tell him that the Eye Beryl of the Serpent is kept in the Vault of Kings to the north of the valley, and we didn’t need to accept those horrid robot guards. Spies would be a better word.* He noticed similar emotions on Shanal’s face, and counted her as an ally against whatever stupid modification Robotnik and Xelphene wanted next.
"However, a newer treaty is needed, and a basic plan has been drawn up for one by myself and the esteemed doctor." The Queen lay her hands on the table in front of her.
*Oh, no. Now it’s esteemed doctor. She’s going to force us all into this whether we like it or not, no matter what it takes.*
"In exchange for the Eye Beryl of the Serpent, or the Chaos Emerald as he calls it, plus one hundred foot soldiers, Robotnik will give us full immunity from his power, plus half of the ruling power of the new Mobius when he has defeated the small rebel groups trying to defeat him. Our troops will help him see to that." Xelphene’s smile widened, as if the request was perfectly reasonable.
With a gutteral creak the air-conditioning turned back on, adding to the mental chill that Xelphene’s idea had sent around the room.
"That’s impossible." General Dumitral, a sharp-looking fox and commander of the standing army, leaned forward in his seat as he objected. "One hundred foot soldiers is one-third of our standing army. If you propose something like that..."
"Robotnik will happily supply robot replacements for..."
"I refuse to command robots!" Dumitral exclaimed, pounding his fist on the oaken table with a hollow sound. "I have said that time and again! There are too many things that could go wrong with them. I will not comply with this scheme of yours, your highness. Not if it means sacrificing more living troops for those emotionless... things."
"And you can’t turn over the Eye of the Serpent." This from Shanal, her grating voice ringing into the chamber. "It is the center for the Serpent’s focus in Raldinia. If you remove it, the magic will leave our temple."
Xelphene smiled sweetly at the Priestess. "But your temple can use the magic of the Beryl from a distance. I have to be in contact with it, but since I’m going to stay in Robotropolis anyhow, it might as well come with me."
Marcus was astonished. "You’re going to live in Robotropolis?" he asked, leaning forward in disbelief.
"How better to oversee our share of the rule of Mobius?" she asked innocently. "It’s settled then. I shall be leaving..."
"It’s not settled!" General Dumitral cried out, most of the Council rumbling agreement with him. "Haven’t you listened? This so-called treaty..."
Xelphene silenced him with a glare and pushed a button on the arm of her chair. Immediately, more robot guards filed into the chamber, weapons drawn and held ready. Dumitral stood to protest, but silver clamps shot out of the chair and forced him back into it. One of the robotic soldiers held its laser weapon to his head.
"I think," Xelphene’s voice was deadly quiet and cold as ice, "it’s settled." She nodded to the robot behind Dumitral.
The robot fired its weapon. The smell of charred skin and fur filled the room as the general’s head dropped to his chest at an odd angle, spilling blood over the front of his white uniform. The rest of the Council stared, speechless. Xelphene stood.
"I shall be leaving for Robotropolis immediately. Robot, you with designation TK-42111," She pointed to the one who held its still-smoking weapon in a ready stance, "you take over the standing army. Inform the troops that Alpha Squadron will be accompanying me to Robotropolis." She turned to Marcus. Her smile was nonexistent, now. "You had better come with me, too."
Marcus opened his mouth to protest, then thought better of it. The situation was not good, but he needed to live more than he needed to become a martyr. At least for the moment.
Heat in Raldinia was a bad omen, indeed.
Xelphene gasped at the revelation, not noticing Knuckles doing the same behind her. "No- I couldn’t have.." But deep inside, she knew that she had.
*I’m a monster.*
The thought was all the more frightening because it was true.
Author's notes:
10. This was a sad excuse to get Dulcy out of the picture until now, and was going to be a plot point until I totally rewrote Chapter 10. This clarifies the rest of the story, but loses the magic rocks.<
11. Just because I watch Star Wars twenty-two hours a day doesn't mean I'm obsessed! I'm not obsessed!<