Jun Yabriel: Hallelujah, I'm alive! *choir singing in the BG* Derp! *noodle-arm flail*
Hey, awesomers! It's Triple 7, signing back on for the new year! My 2017 sucked, but I hope yours didn't! I'm starting off 2018 the same way I did 2017. LATE. But it's a good kind of late, because I have a one-shot series for y'all. The focus is, since Sonic Forces' big plot was a big flop, what would've happened if I got a hold of the script (more or less) and made Eggman and Infinite's victory even more of a win. Hope you enjoy! I have to warn you, though, so here goes:
WARNING: Explicit depictions of violence/genocide, sexual perversion, physical/psychological torture, and some heavy swearing ahead.
CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
From Zero to Infinity
Xibalba
"Unngh…hurk!"
Knuckles had vomited. He hadn't eaten anything for a long while, so all that came up were stomach acid and bile. His abdomen was severely bruised; he was sure a rib or two had been cracked. His body broke into a fit of coughing. Without reprieve his lungs rattled, his throat tightened, and his body shook.
I've lost tracked of time…what day is it? What season, what month, what hour or minute? How long have I been gone? What about the others? Tails? Amy? Rouge? Silver? Even, the Chaotix? …Dammit, what about the rookie? Where the hell is Shadow? What the hell did they do to Sonic? I haven't heard anything since I got here.
Since the Resistance fell.
Since Eggman took over the world. That bastard finally won in the end? Feh…
That idiot. I told him not to get in over his head. He always did, and always won somehow. But now, that legacy is dead.
Welcome to our world—a world fresh out of heroes.
He huffed for air, but it was so thin that he only felt tiny gusts instead of heaves. His pupils went in and out of dilation; his head swirled, and he could feel his face suddenly go cold.
"Aww, already winded?" a vindictive female voice cooed. "Playtime's just started, weakling. Master Infinite hasn't even returned yet."
Knuckles was able to catch himself from slumping over. The chains that held him in place should've shattered at one tug, but Dr. Eggman had concocted a type of "Kryptonite" that kept the echidna's full strength in check. The hauntingly miraculous new gem—the Phantom Ruby—had played a major role in the mad scientist's ascension to power. It had various configurations and properties that could be experimented with. Its original purpose was to be a limitless power source for the Doctor's robot army. A new one being a multipurpose inhibitor, proven to debilitate functions ranging from physical strength to mental hampering, and even induce psychogenic disorders, especially over time. Dr. Eggman's conduit was a sentient life-form—one created to be his right-hand man as well as a model to surpass his grandfather's magnum opus, Shadow the Hedgehog.
His name is Infinite, and I can see why. I can't remember the last time I've felt so much…pain. He's prided himself by adding the title "Tormentor" to his name. Not that it amuses me. Shadow was already sorta ruthless, but this guy…?
Let me just say, at least Shadow has a conscience.
Magenta rings lauded a resonance that made Knuckles's heart sink. The bracers that held him in place were the enhanced shackles Eggman built, with Knuckles in mind. They encircled the echidna's wrists, ankles, neck, and torso. Tethered down like a beast, Knuckles couldn't overcome the draining straits of those Phantom Irons. Regular chains somehow kept him bound to the floor and wall; without much reservation, he snarled at the magenta twine interwoven through each link. He couldn't free his hands. He couldn't free his legs, forced to kneel. His flesh had bled, healed, scabbed, and bled again. Over and over and over again.
He huffed for air as he continued to struggle against the ultimate restraints. He threw his gaze at the woman who'd been battering and teasing him.
"Aww, you look so cute when you make that face. You look so beaten and utterly defeated, I can't help but laugh."
"But, Rouge…why?" Knuckles rasped.
Even so, before she could answer, a certain darkness came over her features. Not the typical "darkening"—it was more akin to a moral one. There was no feeling or empathy in her normally mischievous eyes. Her eyelashes weren't long out of feminine coyness, but scorn. They were cold. They were lightless. As if she'd lost all humanity in her. Scantily clad in dominatrix leather, only in a halter top and matching micro-skirt, mismatched knuckle-bradded gloves—one up to her elbow and the other cuffing at her wrist, thigh-high boots, and she was adorned with a very stately necklace.
Well, it was more like a collar disguised as a necklace. Bright magenta, like his cuffs.
"Rouge, wake up! Don't you see you're being manipulated? Mind-controlled?!" The excitement triggered another coughing fit.
Her gaze didn't change, though. In fact, she smiled.
WHAP!
Wickedly.
…Hold up. Did she just whip me? Like…with a switch? I…I don't…I can't even…
"I don't mind it, honestly. This is the most fun I've ever had. As long as it's what my Master wishes, I can have all the fun I want…with you," she pressed, licking her lips.
The fresh welt on his cheek had turned red. "Rouge, c'mon, don't give me that 'Master' bullshit! You wouldn't fall for that! I…cough, cough…I know you…wheeze…better than that."
"The 'Rouge' you know is gone, little man."
Knuckles couldn't believe his ears. "Gone" she said? As in, dead? What in the world was she talking about?
"I'm a new woman, and Master's personal assistant. He's the only man I answer to, weakling. I'm stronger and more ruthless now, because he encouraged me to let you go. To let go of everything and everyone. Thinking back now…"—her giggle pierced his heart—"it was silly of me to fall for a knucklehead like you." It continued, more scathingly, without an ounce of self-control. "Isn't that right…Master?"
"Yes, indeed. That is exactly right, my belovèd."
A crystal-clear malevolence shuddered down Knuckles's spine. In his current condition, there was no way to combat the person who entered—in the presence of a woman, no less. Whatever magic or mind control he'd worked on her, there was no way to stop it, now. He had no strength left. He could barely breathe, and his injuries remained untreated. All Knuckles could do was watch the bat-woman hike her thigh into the malevolent being's palm.
He gave it a squeeze, looking down at it. To her giggle, he nodded. "It seems to have healed well. It gladdens me to know you like it."
"I don't like it; I love it!" She nuzzled him in an affectionate manner, like a kitten purring against its mother, wrapping her arms around his neck. His talons tickled her back; to it, she let out a sensual, teasing coo.
"Rouge, my belovèd, would you be so kind as to take my place for the collaboration experiment? It was set to begin at 23:00, but I'll be a bit preoccupied…"
Then, shock coursed through the echidna's blood. His eyes couldn't believe what they were seeing.
No…? No, she didn't…! She wouldn't have! She let that bastard brand her?!
And yet, there it was: Brightly glowing, attuned to the Phantom Ruby's resonance, was a fairly new laser burn. It was in a stylized shape of the infinity symbol. Like an artificial birthmark, Rouge seemed to flaunt it wherever she went. She didn't mind the leers she got from male personnel, Jackal Squad members, or even the prisoners. She liked the attention, even if it was pinpointed to her new "beauty mark." In response, she'd licked her fingertip and poke her thigh, teasing the ogler with a "Szzz!" sound.
It sounded like something Rouge would do, but to think she'd forgo her dignity just to get a rise out of them… The realization made Knuckles's stomach catch. Had Infinite been treating her like a toy this whole time? She was wily, but highly intelligent. Techno-savvy, but down-to-earth at the same time. Where had Rouge the Bat gone?
The one…I fell for?
She waved as she moved to depart. "Consider it done, Master. Have fun, while I go and find out if the Doctor finally finished that "Phantom Chip" for E-123 Omega. Then, the collection will be 91.6% complete!" She snickered between the closing doors. Through the haze she murmured hauntingly, "Now, be a good knucklehead and do as Master says, or else…"
All that Knuckles could pick up was more baleful snickering. Hers bled into the one coming from her Master. Knuckles screamed his heart out: "Rouge, no! Come back! Come back!"
From what I understand, it sounds like Eggman captured…everyone. But what about Sonic? And there's no way he caught Shadow…right? The rookie, is he okay? Dammit, what is going on?! I…I let him down. I let Rouge down, too. How could this happen?
W-…Where did it all go wrong?
A dissonant hum sounded at the doors' closing. All that was left was Knuckles, the malefic Infinite, and the poisonous glow of the Phantom Ruby's influence.
"Surely you must know what happens now, correct?"
Shit…I can feel it, motherfucker. Just get it over with, so I can die in peace.
Infinite's mask held no contentment or contempt for the fallen Resistance commander. His face spoke no emotion, though Infinite himself breathed it like air. He became intoxicated from the wails and screams of those he tortured. He was drunk off the power he'd acquired from that inelastic yet ironfisted alliance with Dr. Eggman. He was able to keep a level head, until his "Prisoners" came into the picture.
He'd made Knuckles into one of his many "model" Prisoners.
However, now, the Phantom Ruby's light swallowed Knuckles's mind and Infinite's voice…
"Accursèd…
Accursèd…
Accursèd…
Accursèd…!"
Homes burned, despite the incoming deluge. The wrath of a god had been incurred by the warmongers, and they were the firsts to perish. Screams from their women and children pierced the firmaments. No rainfall, but tears of hysteria coursed from the goddess's cheeks. It was a horror-stricken hysteria.
Knuckles, the sole descendant left to her divine line, could see the terror in her eyes.
Total anarchy ravaged the famous Echidna Clan. Elder Pachacamac succumbed to the god's anger; his fellows, soon following. The trampled girl had risen to a cursed divinity: She'd become the "Restraint" to the god's "Instinct".
"Accursèd…! You Accursèd…!"
Alas, the god's rage negated the goddess's mercy. And together, they left no man, woman, or child alive….
Outside of Knuckles's purgatory, Infinite feasted on his fear and vulnerability. For someone who'd offered his imprisonment to give his comrades a fighting chance—a "steamy plate of self-sacrifice"—the imperial illusionist licked his lips to the echidna's uncharacteristic whimpers and groans.
His mask, removed, so he could savor every orifice with his own.
He whispered in the goddess's maniacal cadence and the god's thunderous roll.
Knuckles had no idea what was happening or why. This was Infinite's signature style of torture, especially for high-rank offenders. He didn't think the mastermind could tap into his subconscious mind and whip up such a horrific phantasm. So real, yet with so much of Infinite's influence. Weren't this God of Wrath and Goddess of Mercy supposed to be two different entities? Why did their sentiments mirror each other's? He'd thought that the ancient manuscripts named the wrathful God "Chaos" and the deified guardian "Tikal".
That was all, in fact, true. Although, Knuckles could no longer tell fact from fiction.
Knuckles watched the heavenly girl's tears encase her body. Giant globs of transforming energy began to cloak her feet, legs, torso, arms and hands…all the way up to her face. Her tears fed the watery armor; her body began to disintegrate inside of it.
"Accursèd heathens! You will all pay for your insolence! I will rectify your sins by exonerating the innocent and damning the blasphemers in my holy name!"
The God, Chaos, and the Goddess, Tikal, shed tears of agony for those they'd been forced to slaughter. Knuckles couldn't avert his eyes. He couldn't help them. He couldn't save them. He couldn't pray for them, for it'd already happened in this twisted retelling of the past. No less real than what'd originally happened, yet so unbelievably vivified. The lone survivor had no words or thoughts.
Just. Tears.
"What in the world…? Why? Why is this happening? This isn't…This isn't…!"
Infinite had fanged Knuckles right in the neck. The echidna's consciousness was so far gone, his body couldn't react to the painful stimuli. The jackal's single canary quivered with lascivious anticipation.
"Your fear, your panic, your trembling heart and cracking soul…" He lapped at the blood squeezing between his teeth and the echidna's flesh. His tail wagged, snapping back and forth from the excitement overloading his senses. "Yes…! This ecstasy, from such an unexpected source?! Mmm—delicious! So delicious!"
"No…No, this is wrong. This has to be wrong…!"
The Serpent God's screech rocked the heavens. Angry beams of light rent the earth. The Goddess's hollowed heart watched the destruction unfold. With vacant eyes, she disregarded the death that ravaged her brethren. The Master Emerald's altar, now devoid of Chao and benevolence, stood as her only opposition.
There, Knuckles stood. With eyes agape and weeping.
"Ti-Tikal? No…! No, this isn't how it happened!" Knuckles cried out to her. "Don't let this be! Let me help you!"
As if to counter that very sentiment an empty, but heart-rattling, resonant voice boomed from the Goddess: "The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power… Power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos."
Suddenly, at her prayer's end, the Chaos Emeralds came away from it and slowly gravitated towards her.
"Wait! No, stop!"
At Chaos's shriek came a momentary calm. All had fallen, and his rage had quelled. The Goddess reached out to the seven gems and gave them a smile.
It was a serenely dissonant smile. And it made Knuckles' heart drop to his feet.
"No…No! She can't—she wouldn't!" Knuckles' desperate pleas were still unheard. Prismatic beams of light threaded into the soil just before his feet; more explosions tore the ground beneath him to shreds. It catapulted him into the crumbling altar. "Gack!" His back was embedded into the debris. Slivers of blood streamed from his nose and mouth. His eyes, beholden to the sight of the Goddess's unnerving serenity, saw a distance in hers that made them resemble a psychopath's. Had she lost her mind? Amalgamated with the God of Destruction, had she lost her will to stop him? Couldn't she console him? Or…did she share a mind with him, now?
Knuckles had every reason to be afraid. The God's rage had rekindled and begun to blaze fiercely. With the Master Emerald shattered, there was no way to counter them. The Goddess's smile remained affixed to her face, despite the tears she relinquished.
"No! I can't die here! Not without a fight!"…
Infinite fondled Knuckles heavily. Gloved palms stroked the echidna's neck, shoulders, upper arms, and chest. His cape, vivified due to its master's energy spike, floated quietly in the air. With that same energy, it grew longer—curling and wafting, defying gravity itself. Half of Infinite's mask had illuminated; it remained throughout the morbidly intimate encounter. That single golden eye stayed on Knuckles. He clung even closer to him, like a cunning serpent, and snapped up some blood with his thumb. "Ahh, this power…So much that his body's been tricked and registers it. Yes…" He gave that thumb a sensual lick; from those lips followed a seductive, "This power is strong, indeed. And it is mine to do what I will…"
The God's wrath pooled into his jaws. The Goddess sent the seven Chaos Emeralds to encircle the energy gathering within. Their murderous intent was amplified by the prismatic colors given off by the gems' hastening.
"I…I have to do something! I can't let it end like this!"
His mind was mind up: Knuckles gathered the very last of his strength to pry himself out of the altar's wreckage, trudged through it, and hold his ground. Most of the Island had been decimated. Gigantic clods of terra firma had already fallen into an invisible void. Nature wept all around him, just like the souls of the dead. He could hear them—"Please forgive us!" "Don't take me! I don't want to die!" "Damn that Pachacamac!" "It's all that heathen's fault!" "Why must we die like this?!"—
Knuckles threw his arms out to his sides. He wanted to protect what was left.
"Mama…? Papa…?"
He wanted to protect the memories that clung to it, despite there being nothing.
"Did…Did I do this?" This time, it was a child. "I broke the urn, so…is this my fault?"
Tears flew from Knuckles' eyes. "Chaos! Tikal! Listen to me!" He kept his hold and pleaded from his heart. "Look at this! This isn't right! This isn't what either of us wanted! Look at all this destruction, this—this senseless violence and bloodshed! You killed them, all of them—your own people! Just…" Even more pooled into his eyes. "Just tell me why. Why are you doing this? I thought you were the Goddess of Mercy! I thought you embodied the will of the Master Emerald! So why?! Tell me!"
Fssht!…
Knuckles' heart stopped. "Wait a minute…?"
The God and Goddess prepared to fire their joint attack, and blast what was left of the Island to bits. "The servers-rvers are the-the-the seven-even Chaos. Chaos is-is-is-is… Power enriched by the—by the—hear-ar-ar-art. The controller is the one who u-u-u-u-unifies the Chaos."
The Goddess sounded like a cracked CD. Even the God's shrieks sounded the same. However, that didn't seem to stop their attack. Red static made the God, Goddess, Emeralds, and the environment itself destabilize. Knuckles' thoughts raced. He became confused. "There…There wasn't a 'Goddess of Mercy'. There was never a 'Goddess of Mercy' mentioned in the ancient manuscripts!"
Fzz-zzzzzzt…
Her smile stayed, nevertheless. Her eyes remained distant, but had turned a searing soulless yellow. "Too little, too late, my dear Prison Cardinal," she spoke in a man's mocking baritone.
Chaos shrieked one last time. An auroral beam incinerated his nerves, his flesh, his sense of self, his very soul, the very last of his home, and the reality they'd all been swallowed by…
"Hraaaaaggghh!"
"There, there. Hush now."
"Graaah! Haaaah! What are you doing to me?!"
"I'm making you mine, my model prisoner…Why such strong dissent?"
"Damn you! Stop it! Hands off, dammit!"
"Mm-hmph…you look even more desirable when you reject me. I'm going to destroy you from the inside out."
Hypnotic eyes gleamed. His power surged. Minutes, hours, months, and seasons spawned from that endless world of domination. He'd lost his will to fight back. He'd forgotten about Rouge, Sonic, Shadow, the Rookie, his comrades, and any possibility of escape. Shocks of false imagery rippled across Knuckles' brain whenever Infinite spoke to him. Seeing that 'Goddess' and her out-of-place smile made his fur stand on-end. Very different shocks shingled up and down his spines every time Infinite lapped at his cheeks, neck, chest, or groin. By now, Infinite had become not only Rouge's master, but his master as well.
There was no denying it, now. The Phantom Ruby's influence was merciless.
Just like that Goddess.
Just like Infinite.
Just like the world he and Eggman ruled.
"Welcome to my Infinity Void, Prison Cardinal."
Xibalba Ascends.