Auld Lang Syne
The trees were buck bare with not a hint of green. The grass stood petrified by early morning frost while fog, thick and heavy swept in from the Eastern Seaboard. The sort that shrouded the view of the towering skyscrapers, skeletal remains of gutted robofacs and the sprawl of cheap cookie cutter housing that lay in-between.
Despite the weather, the New Mobotropolis Hall of Justice had drawn an immense crowd. Traffic had stopped. Public life in the recovering city had ground to a stop. Every corner it seemed there was someone representing a magazine, book, periodical, or some other media outlet. Truth be told, I don't mind the attention. What was important to me was whenever I talked with other Robians, there were inevitably several who shared the dream I had. They said I gave them hope to return to normal and feel the warm touch of the sun once again and even if that was impossible the fact that I had come to terms with it meant that they could in time make peace with their robotic forms.
There was a Robian in front of the crowd, like all her brethren she had been a victim of the roboticizer. Somehow, the roboticized badger had forced her way to the front of the procession. She had been old, maybe sixtyish when she was roboticized. Her exterior, unlike my nearly pristine form, was marred with dings from years of servitude with Robotnik. Her eyes were mismatched. One of them was olive and the other a deep aquamarine mostly likely a replacement for damage received years ago.
She was holding what looked like a photo album, its exterior almost entirely held together by masking tape. The freed Robian held it out as if she wanted, no needed me to have it. Curiosity piqued, I strode over, past the guards cordoning off the massive but cordial crowd let me through. I already had a marker in hand, ready to give an autograph or some other fair when the Robian promptly recoiled away.
"What's this?" I asked.
"Your evidence for the trial. The one against Lien-Da."
The Dark Legion was one of Robotnik's greatest allies and accordingly, they had tried to erase every trace of their involvement in a frantic orgy of destruction. But there was no hiding. Not when we possessed Robotnik's records through the Death Egg's database. Still, the urgency of the Robian warranted respect. As gently as I could, I replaced my marker and flipped the album it open. It was, as suspected a photo album. The photos depicted a large family of badgers, three generations. No one I recognised.
I looked down at yellow-bordered photographs which had somehow stayed intact after all this time. I looked up at the Robian who was clasping its digits as if held in prayer. I tried to associate the Robian with the family in the images and eventually, I recognised her as the family matriarch doting over what could only have been her grandchildren.
"I…I don't understand."
"This is your evidence," the Robian repeated.
Then it hit me, then I understood. I was fighting to stop Robotnik's victims from dying a second death; by being forgotten.
"You're a hero. You fight for us, don't forget," the Robian disappeared back into the crowd. I considered plunging into the crowd to catch up with her but truth be told it was too late.
Truth be told, I didn't feel like a hero. I hadn't gone through all this hassle of passing security checkpoints and verifying I was in fact who I said I was because I was doing someone a favour. To me, it was closure to the year-long effort of organising the trial and a chance to meet the Freedom Fighters who were willing to attend bar Tails who had another pressing engagement. There would be no death sentence admissible in the war crime tribunal, just prison sentences. It's poetic in a way, no life taken could make right the damage wrought by Robotnik and his allies. Rather than having their necks wrung in the gallows, Robotnik's close inner circle would languish in prison, watching as their twisted version of Mobius was torn down around their heads and rebuilt better than they could ever conceive. The panel of judges presiding over the trial came from a broad selection of Mobius: Echidnas, Overlanders, and Mobians.
The building was ringed with security. Within the senate hall, itself were dozens of special operation soldiers. And that wasn't even counting the overt security that stood in the assembly room. People were very determined Lien-Da would not escape. I took my place in the witness stand, just in time to see Rotor Walrus reading the indictment.
"...conspire to subjugate Mobius through subversion, terror, and violence. Four. That the defendant did conspire to overthrow the government of Angel Island through subversion, terror, and violence. Five. That the defendant committed acts of massed murder..."
Sonic was sitting just beyond him. We had exchanged smiles and awkward hugs outside for the cameras. I had dreaded this public meeting for months. I don't know what to say. I don't know how to tell him I had no intention of ever returning to 'normal'. I didn't seem to know what to say to anyone lately. Maybe I was getting senile or something. Part of me wanted to pretend that six months had never happened. Part of me wanted to pretend I had never become roboticized. Part of me wanted to return to what we'd had in the old days, Sonic and me.
But that wasn't possible. I had come to accept that. I had come to accept that all I'd had with Sonic and the others, Rotor, Tails, even Bunnie, all of those things lay "in the war." It's as if my time in the war was written in some incompatible computer languages that just wouldn't translate into the here and now. I still cared for Sonic obviously, he and I would always be more than just friends. I still cared for all of them.
You could say my life was divided into three parts: before, during, and after the war. It's just that the middle section was so overwhelming, so big, so intense, it made the other two portions seem dull by comparison. Okay, maybe not the later of the three; mentoring a nation of freed Robians stationed aboard the Death Egg was pretty important. But truth be told they didn't need me anymore.
They knew all that I knew and the gap between them and me. Well, there were no longer intellectual gaps anymore. That's mostly how I felt now. Obsolete. Not moving with the times, Slow and stupid. Distracted, like there was something else I ought to be doing but I couldn't recall what it was.
As befitted a high-profile defendant of her stature; Lien-Da was allowed legal counsel of her choosing. She had handpicked half a dozen lawyers. They looked slick. They looked professional and looked like they knew they had no chance. I took the moment to savour it. To send the mental image of our cowed foes to the rest of my people. The act of transmission via the link was almost immediately responded with a chorus of approval that matched my distinction between mind and the chorus of voices seemed to blur with each passing day, to the point where there was no distinction between the two. If there was something I didn't know it was reflexive to simply ask.
With everyone gathered, two of the Mobian security officers proceeded to close the heavy-bronze doors leading from the courtroom. As soon as they shut, the voices of my children went silent. All the voices that had beckoned and accepted me as one of their own were abruptly cut off. Some of my children, specifically trained for ground missions without ready access to the link for months might have withstood the isolation better. Not me, the sudden void left with a migraine that made me want to pass out. Without memories of a time when I was flesh and sinew, I would have been a gibbering mess on the floor.
it's only a filter. You are still one with the link. You can do this. You got through life without it just fine, you can handle half a day without. Just focus, you need to focus!
"Eighteen: The defendant performed medical procedures upon unwilling test subjects."
The reading of the indictment was over. The prosecution was ready to call its first witness. "We call Sally Alicia Acorn." I stood up and sat in a little booth so that I faced the judges and the defendant.
"We object to this witness." Lien Da's head lawyer somehow managed to look smug even as she wrung her hands nervously at the same time.
Knuckles the Echidna leaned forward. "What is the nature of your objection?"
The defending lawyer looked smug. "This witness herself should be under indictment as a war criminal, " there was dead silence at that accusation. I knew this was coming. "If the alleged war crimes of my client, Lien-Da as head of the paramilitary group known as the Dark Legion are to be tried in this court, it must be in the pursuit of impartial justice. Justice, impartial cannot only be applied against one side of a conflict. All its participants must be tried."
The objection was denied. My testimony was allowed to proceed. But I found myself freezing, unable to speak. Millions watched my reaction. Millions thought: This is the famous Princess Sally? The one who had slain Robotnik? She doesn't look like much.
"Apparently the witness is having some sort of malfunction," Lien Da's lawyer said with a smirk.
"The witness is disconcerted by this unjustified and vicious assault," the presiding judge asked if I needed a moment to compose myself. "No," I said. "I'm ready."
"State your name and occupation, for the record."
"Urn, Sally Alicia Acorn. My occupation? I'm not a princess anymore. Not since my roboticization. My father's return from the void might change that but I guess you could say for now I'm unemployed."
"Are you a student?" Rotor suggested helpfully.
"No. Not really."
"For the record, please tell the court how you started the fight against Robotnik "
Memories, sharp and intense flooded my headspace.
Smoke, ash. Feeling the city burn. Couldn't stop running. Couldn't stop to save anyone else. Just yourself and the other kids. Not even Aunt Rosie. Not even...
"Officially, the fight started when Rosie Woodchuck led a bunch of us kids to the Royal Retreat in the Great Forest, Knothole. She wound up staying behind and got caught. That's when all of us were aware of just what we were fighting.."
More memories came, just as painful as the last.
Rosie smiling. At the fairgrounds biting into cotton candy. Happy, the first time I was happy since mother passed. I'll think of that. Not her roboticized form. If I find her again. I don't know if I can do for her what I expect the others to do for me. Don't know if I can bear it.
"Personally, I would say our fighting didn't truly begin until months afterwards when we were running out of essential supplies and had to mount our first forays into Robotropolis."
I froze up.
"C'mon Tails, just try a sip." Bunnie tried to coax Tails into accepting a spoonful of soup. But he would have none of it, shoving the spoon away and spilling its contents. Bunnie sighed and picked a sliver of carrot from the soup. "How bout this?" Bunnie urged as she carefully guided the vegetable to the infant's mouth. "Whhhrrrrr, here comes the aeroplane—" Tails slapped the offending vegetable from Bunnie's mechanical hand.
"Tails." My stern order caused the infant to recoil and wail.
"Sally Girl! Don't yell," Bunnie said as she hugged the kit tightly with her other arm. "He's still getting used to the metal. We all still are."
"I didn't," I insisted.
"Ya raised yer voice."
"Barely," I defended. "And that parenting book said it's important to set boundaries. You have to tell babies no when they misbehave."
"You could have been nicer about it." We stared, then found that we couldn't stay mad at each other.
"I'm sorry Tails. Okay?" I gently lifted Tails from Bunnie. "I'm sorry I raised my voice," the soothing tone seemed to ease the infant's mood for his sobs grew subdued then ceased altogether. "He's supposed to be weaning him by getting him to take solids. Yet he won't," I protested. "We wouldn't be in this situation if Tails weren't such a picky eater."
Bunnie was silent on her task of preparing the bottle and not spilling so much as a single granule of formula. "But yer were such a picky eater. Yer would only ever get an appetite for what Rosie would..."
I looked away.
"Ah, ah'm sorry. Ah miss her too. Still, we've got baby formula ta tide us over for a bit. We can try again tomorrow,"
"We're down to a two weeks supply of formula Bunnie and we've got a couple of months of food. We have to go back to the city for more supplies to tide us over before we're down to eating raw rice.
Bunnie stared at her mechanical appendages. "Okay, Sally Girl. If everyone can trust me not ta turn on them suddenly."
...
Rotor Walrus shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Maintaining as best he could a neutral expression he leaned forward. "The prosecution asks for the witness testimony in relation to biological experimentation conducted under Lien-Da's purview. Would the witness require time to prepare?"
"No, I'm ready," I muttered.
Maybe the others could forget. Being a machine I couldn't. I remembered every detail.
Every detail.
It was late when I first heard Doctor Quack voice flooding through NICOLE. I ran to the clinic. Hushed voices came from within the hut. Low and worried. When I burst through, the former royal physician greeted me. "This is a terrible thing that's been done."
I didn't answer. I didn't understand, yet.
Doctor Quack knelt by the side of a Mobian beaver. He could no longer speak. He could barely breathe. His long paddle-like tail was pressed flat against the table. He was clearly a beaver. Just as clearly he was something else.
"Sal?"
Sonic looked up at me from where he sat on a hale bale. He looked exhausted. His eyes were dull and gloomy. I turned to Doctor Quack who quickly filled me in on the situation. "Sonic brought him in about an hour ago. He can't get enough air," he said pointing to his patient.
"Who?" I gasped, panting from the exertion. "Who did this?"
"Robotnik," Sonic muttered. "Who else?"
"What happened?"
"This is Hahn. He ain't one of us but he and a bunch of others got caught. He was spared from the roboticizer but Robuttnik had something worse in store," Sonic paused before going on. "Hahn and forty-nine others were experimental subjects in a death lab."
"Okay," I said, watching as Doctor Quack wiped a cool cloth over Hahn's forehead, "Go on."
"Robotnik was attempting to produce an amphibious creature. To aid in the conquest of Deep Sea One: an underwater city built by humans. He failed. When he realized the test subjects were useless to him, he ordered them disposed of like...like garbage. We found Hahn still alive... the others. The others were already dead."
I tried to slow my racing heart. Swallowed back the bile bubbling up in my throat. Sonic knelt by me and pointed to Hahn's left shoulder - a gill. I'd already seen it. The webs between the fingers, too. "Sally, Robotnik just grafted those," Dr Quack whispered. "It's as if he and his medical team had no idea of Mobian physiology. It's all wrong." Doctor Quack seemed exhausted. " He can't breathe. I don't know what they did inside, to his lungs . . ."
I shifted my foot. It brushed against something lying beneath the bed. I reached below, grabbed the oxygen mask from the ground where it laid forgotten. Found the oxygen tank it was connected to then dragged the oxygen tank by its dolly.
"Sal! You can't. . . it's too late!"
Pushing past Sonic, I mustered the oxygen tank in place, twisted the knob till I heard the precious gas then held the mask to Hahn's mouth. I stood, listening as the dying Mobian gasped trying to process the life-giving oxygen.
"Princess, you're doing not doing him any good. You can't help him. No one can." Doctor Quack yanked the oxygen mask away. This time, defeated. I let him.
A horrible gurgling arose.
"Something's caught in his throat! Quick, we need a tube. Something to bypass it," I overturned the medical tray. Looked for something, anything that would help. Doctor Quack didn't move. The Mobian was dying.
"A valve of some sort," he said. "It's malfunctioning. I tried to keep it from closing. But, I couldn't."
Beep! Beep! Beep! The heart rate monitor went wild. Then, the gurgles stopped. One fewer breathing creature in the clinic. I craned my stiff and weary neck upwards. The sky was beginning to brighten. A new day. A day Hahn and the other test subjects wouldn't live to see.
I stepped outside.
"Sal?" Sonic followed me outside. I turned toward him. He stared back crestfallen. "We couldn't save him back there. But we can sure as heck can avenge him. You need to pull yourself, Sal. We'll-"
I held him and pressed my muzzle against his shoulder. We held each other even as Hahn's body was wrapped in blankets.
The prosecution prodded me with more questions. Lien-Da for one seemed genuinely shocked. When the time came for her defence To her credit, the former didn't attempt to deny the atrocities occurred or that but rather claimed she was acting under orders. No dice.
The longer the cross-examination went, the more memories filled my headspace. By the time the meeting was adjourned I'd taken the stand for just over an hour, I felt nauseous and immediately felt relieved when the security doors clicked open. Outside, the chorus of voices flowed back into me. I felt whole again. I don't know how long I spent holding my head in my hands and staring and trying to reacclimatize myself to the link.
I told everyone I wasn't well and skipped out of the after-trial reunion. Maybe the whole affair had been a bad idea altogether and that I should head back up to the Death Egg as soon as the trial was over. I don't know.
It was when I had returned to the hotel when I found Amy sitting on my bed.
Her piko-piko hammer was sitting on her lap and I knew she meant business. As soon as I entered her eyes narrowed and she arose before snapping her hammer out of existence. "You ruined it," she said at last.
I stared confused then motioned or Amy to go on.
Not everyone's lucky enough to have such devoted friends, princess," The final word has been tainted with venom. "Even after you 'died', you had such a whole over Sonic. He went to your memorial almost every day, late. The guards just let him in. He sitsthere like he's hanging out with you. Watches the sun go down. Then leaves."
I had known that my actions would've hurt everyone emotionally, but until now I didn't know just how bad it had been. A sharp spike of guilt flooded my headspace. Somehow, I had to make it right. Apologizing was the obvious course of action, but equally it couldn't just be seen as a knee-jerk reaction. Somehow, I had to make this right.
"He didn't speak to me again. And I was left alone." Looking to me at last," Amy's eyes narrowed. "He and I we had a thing going and you...you ruined it!" Taking a menacing step forward, Amy glared angrily at I. "Don't you understand, princess?"
But I stood there, looking utterly unfazed by Amy's words. Amy looked more than a little confused, having clearly expected some other kind of reaction. When I did finally speak up, her expression and tone were, for lack of a better word, incredulous. "...Is that it?"
Amy, hearing that, stood motionless, her eyes darting left and right as my words sank in for her.
"That's the whole story behind your home invasion? No heated words? No hurtful rejection?" Amy opened her mouth, attempting to reply, but all she could manage under such questions were false starts. After a while, and after a great deal of impatience on my part, the angry hedgehog finally managed to say something. "But...don't you get it? He left and never came back!" Hearing that, I began to frown. Taking a step back, Amy was growing increasingly frustrated now. "Look here, princess! Don't you dare look down on what I've gone through!"
I started, blinked. "What you've gone through? Sonic's an introvert...he needed a moment to himself. That's it." I put my hands up on my hips and shook my head. "I'll admit. I'd some reservations when you showed up here unannounced. But for this? I have to say...I am immensely disappointed."
Of all the things Amy expected to happen to her during this confrontation with me, this was most definitely not one of them. But, she hadn't had the chance to respond. I kept on going. "You know, of all the villains I fought. All the injustice I sought to correct, I at least understood why they acted the way they were. Lien-Da? She was born into it. The pulpits, her schools, every aspect if her society brought to believe the Echidna race above all else. Robotnik? He's a criminal, on the run, he had nothing but his genius and will. Snively? Trapped in a hell of his own making."
"But this? This...this is nothing compared to all that!"
Amy's shock remained, and it was a feeling very much reflected in her voice as she stammered. "But don't you see how terrible it was?"
"Yes...you lost touch with your friend. And I'm sorry it happened," Amy narrowed her eyes. "But don't you think you've been taking a problem with your life and making it everyone else's problem. And it wasn't even that bad of an experience!"
Hearing that, Amy looked just as angry as she had been before. "You...you dare say that to me?!"
I give a single, weighty nod. "I do. And do you know why? Because your reaction isn't about one who tried to fight against injustice." I drew closer, "They're the actions of...of a child. A child who never learned to grow up!"The once-enraged hedgehog stood there, mouth hanging open over what had just been said to her.
I kept going. "A child loses contact with a friend, and in response, she shuts herself away. She tells herself, whatever happens, is someone else's fault. She never stops to consider the prospect of making new friends, or by trying to contact her old one. She brings misery and isolation on herself. "I frowned before adding on. "She tried to make everybody feel worse, just to make herself feel better."
Here, at last, Amy tried responding. "No... But don't you see. I couldn't! I..."
But I raised a hand to silence "Did you try talking to him?"
Amy fumbled for a bit, unable to reply, and that silence alone gave me all the information I needed. So, I started, waited while Amy finally got her thoughts together. "He wouldn't have talked to me!"
I shook my head. "Amy...he saved your life. Don't you remember? Do you really think someone who cared so much for you...who would risk life and limb for you would ever look down on you like that?"
Amy opened her mouth to speak, only to find that she could not. It was a question that, perhaps, she had never considered until now. But, now that it had been asked, she found she had no answer.
"Did you try reaching out to the others? Being all alone as you were, I can imagine you wanted support?" Amy looked away."Could you not have found common ground with the others Freedom Fighters?"
Amy turned to me with a frown. "What do you know? How can you possibly know?"
To that, I gained a wry smile. "Let me tell you about Tails "
Amy raised an eyebrow but nevertheless remained silent as I carried on. "He too was very close to Sonic. But then Tails found his calling after the war. And even today...Tails had hardly ever seen him, largely because of all the work he's doing since discovering his talent."
Hearing that, Amy's expression softened. "Then what happened?"
I frowned, then gave my answer. "He moved on, Amy. He found other people he could help. People who needed things repaired but couldn't afford to pay in cash. He spent time with people who would appreciate his talent. Tails didn't become bitter or angry that Sonic couldn't be with him." I locked eyes, squarely with Amy. "Despite being a child, Tails dealt with it like an adult and the best part of all was…he didn't even realise it."
Silence was all Amy could muster, and as she tried desperately to avoid my gaze."Amy...I'm sorry that you lost touch with a friend. But...truth be told. It isn't so bad."
"I...I hadn't...hadn't thought of it like that."
I nodded, but, in the moments that followed, she grew thoughtful, which culminated in yet another question from me. "Tell me...why didn't you comfort him?" Amy looked at me confused with confusion. "Sonic saved your life. So why weren't you there with him when he needed it?"
Amy said nothing. That gave me all the information I needed. "I see. You felt your friendship was over at that point, just because he needed a moment. Am I right?" Again, Amy said nothing, leaving I to exhale deeply before continuing. "Sorry for saying this, Amy...but I think it was you that was being a bad friend at that point."
Amy had anger in her eyes, but, she did not say anything. "So, what are you going to do now?"
To say Amy was feeling uncomfortable right now would have been about as big an understatement as you could get. But, after a long while, she slowly, and very reluctantly, gave a softly-spoken answer. "Um...I think I should...get out there and apologize?"
I motioned indicating for Amy to speak on.
"I should follow my dream and chase Sonic to the ends of Mobius until he agrees to marry me?"
To that, for the first time ina very long time I smiled.