Blood and Water II
A follow up for all of Blood and Water, for all who asked for it.
I don't own any character in this story, except of Desiree. The rest belong to Sega, Dic, and Archie. More to come soon, Enjoy.
"Hey, where's Sonic?" Tails asked as he bound into Sally's hut, his pack slung over his shoulder and a wide smile on his face. Sally looked up from the scrap of cloth she had been cutting, sitting her scissors aside and standing, walking over to the kitchen.
"I made some lemonade. Want some?" She asked, pulling two cups from her cupboard.
"Nah, I don't have time. We'll be leavin' any minute."
"You have time for a cup Tails." Sally told him, pouring him a cup and handing it to him. She sighed, pouring herself a large cup and sitting the pitcher aside.
"Has the mission been delayed?"
"No. They're . . . they're already gone Honey."
"Gone! Aunt Sally . . . I was supposed to go too!" Tails sat his cup on the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. "Sonic forgot me?"
"No. I . . . I thought it would be best if . . ."
"You told them to go." Tails eyed her angrily, tapping his foot impatiently.
"Tails . . . Honey, this mission it's . . . it's dangerous and I don't want to see you get hurt."
"You said I could go." He reminded her, frowning sharply.
"I know I did. But Uncle Chuck sent some new information and it's just . . ."
"It's always dangerous you know! It's always gonna be dangerous."
"Tails, you can go next time, I promise."
"It isn't fair! I'm thirteen now ya know! I should be goin' on every mission, every time!"
"Calm down." Sally told him sternly, but he stomped his foot, angry.
"I'm not a little kid anymore! Just because you got hurt and are scared to go back doesn't mean I shouldn't get to go!" There had been an accident in the city three months prior and Sally had broken her arm. Though she seemed to be completely healed and had been for weeks, she had not started to go on missions again.
"I have broken bones before Tails. I'm not afraid to go back." She told him hotly, her eyes hardening some. To her surprise Tails didn't back down, but puffed his chest out a little, standing up as straight as he could.
"Then why haven't you gone back?" Sally didn't reply and Tails nodded, smirking in much the way Sonic did when he was sure he was right.
"It doesn't matter why I'm staying behind. The point is you aren't going on missions that are too dangerous for your level of experience."
"How am I supposed to learn if I don't go on more difficult missions!" He yelled at her, showing her his teeth in aggravation.
"Go to your hut!" Sally demanded, not backing down from the adolescent fox. "We'll talk about this later."
"No."
"What?"
"I said no! I'm not goin' to my hut."
"Tails you will . . ."
"No! You can't tell me what to do! You're not my mom! You aren't even really my aunt! You aren't anybody!" Sally's eyes opened wide in shock and she took a step backwards, knocked off balance by the sudden declaration. She gulped, hurt and fighting against tears. She blinked rapidly, shaking her head slightly.
"You . . . you're right Tails. I'm not . . . kin to you. I'm not your blood. You aren't my blood. It never mattered to me that . . . that you aren't . . . aren't . . . mine. I guess it matters to . . . to you. And that's, if that's the way you feel . . . then that's . . . ." Sally trailed off, licking her dry lips and pushing her hair away from her face. "Regardless. I am the leader of Knothole and you will not . . ."
"Well maybe I don't wanna live here anymore." Tails spat, whirling around and storming out of her hut. Sally began to race after him, then stopped, watching him walk away, toward his hut. It was probably best to let him cool off a bit and Sally's stomach was churning in the most nauseating way. She sighed, shutting her door.
Two hours later Sally stood at the entrance to Tails' hut, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, waiting a little impatiently for him to answer the door. She knocked again, louder this time, but still there was no answer. She tried the knob, it was unlocked and she pushed the door open slowly, peering inside. Tails wasn't there. His pack and his pillow were gone as well. On the bed a yellow piece of paper lay. With mounting dread Sally walked over to the bed, scooping the paper from the crumpled quilt it sat on.
I'm tired of being treated like a kid. I'll go where I'm needed. Later.
Tails.
The letter was short, but minutes ticked by and Sally still could not absorb the meaning of one line of words. She read it twice, then a third time, shaking her head, a hand rising first to cover her open mouth and then to shove trembling fingers through her bangs in quick, repetitive stabbing motions. She sat the note down on his dresser, then picked it up again, shoving it into her vest pocket. The sun seemed too bright as she stumbled back out the door, her eyes closing for a moment. Where would he go? To the city, was her first thought, but no if he headed to the city there was a good chance he would be found by Sonic and of course Sonic would bring him home. Another Freedom Fighter group perhaps? But still she doubted it. Any of the groups would contact her the moment he showed up and he knew it. So, where in all of Mobuis would he go?
Tails paused, glancing at the compass he had gotten last year for his birthday. The needle told him he was moving south and he supposed that was alright. He wasn't exactly going anywhere in particular. Let them worry. Let them think he was gone forever. He'd camp out in the forest and then they'd be so happy when he showed up tomorrow they'd be sorry they hadn't included him. They would be sorry they had been treating him like some stupid kid. Aunt Sally would probably beg him to go on every single mission after this. He smiled, then paused, his large ears flickering. He had heard something in the leaves behind him. Cautiously he turned, his eyes scanning the forest behind him. He saw nothing and mentally fussed at himself for being a big baby. It was probably just a bird, he told himself. He was about to begin walking again when something sounded from his right. There was a flash of light color, a grunt, and then only darkness.
Tails awoke slowly, his head pounding. He was laying on a pallet of musty blankets, staring up at a poorly constructed roof, the bamboo slats too far apart and Tails could see the dark night sky through the bigger gaps. Slowly he sat up, rubbing at his temple. He shifted, stopping short when he heard the loud click of metal. His left ankle was ringed with a tight fitting chain, a padlock holding it together. The chain trailed along the bare, dirt floor of the structure to a large slab of concrete, possibly the remnants of another building, long ago lost to time. There were metal bars jutting from the slab in odd arches and the chain was attached to one, another padlock holding it in place. Tails wrapped his hands around the chain, pulling at the metal, but it was strong and unyielding. It was dark in the poorly built structure and Tails felt along the ground, hoping to find a rock to try and break the lock with. He only found a bowl, full of water and a pillow that smelt vaguely of vomit. He was trapped and frightened he called out for help, his voice cracking, nearly hysterical.
"You're awake." A female voice commented from his far right. The voice was wispy and vaguely familiar, like the voice from a dream. Tails strained to see, but he could not make out the owner of the voice. "There's water if you want it."
"Where am I?" Tails asked, trying to regain some of his composure.
"Home. What do you think Miles?" The voice replied after a moment and the memory of the voice tickled the back of Tails' mind briefly before becoming sharper and in foucus. He recalled this voice, could even remember the face it belonged to.
"Desiree?" He questioned, still trying desperately to see her in the shadows of the room.
"It's very disrespectful to call me that Miles." She told him gruffly and he could hear her moving closer. Suddenly she immerged from the darkness. She was dirty, her fur matted in places and gone in others, perhaps from mange or heavy flea infestation. She was gaunt, her cheekbones seeming to jut out from her face, her arms willowy and frail looking. The only thing about her with any fullness at all was her middle, which was swollen and round in the later months of pregnancy.
"Why did you bring me here?" He questioned angrily, again pulling at his chain.
"I need you. Momma needs her little boy, Momma loves her boy." She told him, her eyes seeming distant and glazed.
"You don't care about me. If you cared you would have stayed in Knothole and gotten help."
"I care. Of course I care Miles. I missed you so much. Didn't ya miss me?"
"No." He answered angrily, but truthfully. "I pretty much forgot about you."
"Forgot? How could you forget your Momma?"
"I didn't want to remember you. Who would?" He sneered at her, then turned away slightly.
"But . . . but I was coming back for you . . . I just had to get some things ready." She protested, sounding amazed he held such hostility toward her.
"I'm glad you didn't. I was afraid you'd come back for a while. I thought you were dead by now, I hoped you were dead!"
"Dead? Why . . . why would you think I was . . . dead?"
"It's been three years since ya were in Knothole. I figured ya would 'ave come back to harass us at some point if you were still alive . . . or coherent enough to remember how to get there." Desiree was silent for a long time, her eyes seemingly focused on nothing, her lips slack in a strange pout. She seemed to snap back to herself after a time, blinking rapidly.
"It was them wasn't it? They poisoned you against me." She looked like she might cry for a moment, then her fist clinched and she sneered.
"What are you talking about?"
"That princess. She did it. She told you not to love me, didn't she! Didn't she! She told you she was your Momma, she took you from me!"
"Sally told me I should pray for you. She told me I ought to feel sorry for you when I said I hated you. She never told me she was my mother. But she is. And she's a better mom than you could ever dream ta be." Tails remembered the hurtful words he had spoken to Sally earlier, regretting immensely what he had said to her. He looked down for a moment, then looked up when the fox in front of him shifted, watching Desiree closely, guardedly, half expecting her to attack him. Instead she lowered herself to the ground, just beyond his reach.
"I knew that's what happened." She muttered, stroking her middle for a moment before looking up at him again. "That's why I've been hiding. I knew she'd come an' take the baby . . . just like she took you away from me. I've been hiding from her. She sends that blue demon out to look for me . . . so they can steal the baby when it comes."
"You're out of your mind." Tails shook his head, staring at her in disbelief. "No ones been looking for you. No one knew where you were and certainly not that you were pregnant. You're crazy."
"Crazy?" She laughed, the sound strangely strangled and harsh. "I'm crazy . . . is that right? I saw him! I saw him running an' looking for me!"
"If Sonic has gone through this area it wasn't ta look for you! You live near the swamp and we salvage parts there sometimes. It gets foggy and HoverUnits crash all the time."
"To make a satellite! To find me!" She shouted, looking like she had just had the most dreadful epiphany.
"No, to build a derobotisizer. To find things to help us fight 'Buttnik."
"I figured it out!" She declared as if she hadn't heard him. "They thought they were so smart. The Acorns are so greedy. They're so greedy that they're inbred! An' she's so inbred she can't spit anything but nasty little bits a' nothin' from her lady parts. I make good babies. I make beautiful, good little babies. That's why she picked me. That's why she takes my beautiful . . . good . . . babies. I know now. I understand."
"Desiree, you left me. Abandoned me. Sally did not take me away from you."
"I was comin' back Miles! I was gonna come back for you!"
"It took you ten years to come for me. Ten. You knew where you left me an' you didn't care. You're too sick to care."
"I'm better now." She told him softly, blinking rapidly.
"Let me go, please."
"I want you to be happy."
"Then please . . . let me go home. Let me go."
"I dunno." Desiree pulled a key out of the pocket of the very tattered shirt she wore. "I want you to be the best you can be Miles."
"Let me see the key." He held out his hand and it seemed for a moment she was going to hand it to him. She reach out a little, pausing just beyond his outstretched fingers. "Please. I'll . . . I'll get us help."
"You'll tell them where I am!" She snatched the key away, her eyes narrowing in anger. "You want them to take my baby! You want them to turn it against me, just like they did with you. I knew it. I knew you would."
"No . . . I won't! I won't tell 'um anything . . . just please . . ."
"I don't believe you! You're too much like that Sally. She's made you her child. She's made you like her. You'll tell. You have to stay here now. I'll fix you. I'll wash her off your mind. I can."
"Please . . . I just want ta go home."
"You are home."