AN: Yes I'm still alive.
And yes, there was a plot related reason Fiona was mentioned in the previous chapter beyond Scourge.
EDIT: Mild update to clarify some events that in retrospect were poorly explained.
How the hell I missed those line breaks I have no idea.
Sigh. Another update to better work the Mark Nemo in.
C.C. kicked her feet idly as she sat in Freedom HQ eating Pizza, Tails working on T-Pup's internal circuits as they waited for Sonic and Sally to return from Mina's second concert, Freedom HQ's relative isolation from the city providing them with a measure of security that the immortal enjoyed.
"So, how long have you been around?" The Kit asked.
"Longer than Mobians have existed." C.C. sighed, she hadn't expected them to figure out her immortality so quickly, but between Sonic's sharp eye and NICOLE's scanners... Sally wouldn't take Silence for an answer she felt was vitally linked to Eggman's plans, especially when she'd already outed the fact Eggman might be after immortality by extension of whatever he planned for the 'Power of Kings'.
So far they had no inkling about Code, nor about the true nature of the collective unconscious.
Which suited her fine, the less trying to get it the better, one madman was enough for C.C.'s taste.
"Wait…"
"I was human before the genetic bomb was deployed." She clarified.
"Oh…" Tails let the conversation drop before starting a new one.
"So you have any idea what those new mechs Eggman is deploying are? I sent some stuff to my dad and Rotor but when they asked GUN everyone clammed up."
"They're Knightmare Frames, based on technology from before the Xorda attack, although using a different power source."
"Probably chaos drives, they're basically lower output artificial chaos emeralds. Cheap and easy to manufacture if you have the knowhow and equipment." Tails mused. "Who used these 'Knightmare's anyways."
"The Holy Britannian Empire was the primary user Knigtmare Frames, at its peak… It controlled the entire surface of the planet."
"What happened to them…?" Tails asked hesitantly, already figuring a few possible answers.
"The Xorda." C.C. stated simply.
The conversation hung in awkward silence, awkward for Tails as C.C. seemed indifferent.
["Tails?"] Sonic's voice cracked over the speakers.
Jumping up and rushing over the Fox clicked the button to open the two-way link. "I read you Sonic!"
["You two get over here ASAP! Ixis Naugus is in the city!"] Sonic chattered without missing a beat.
C.C.'s face hardened while Tails's turned to one of mild panic.
"We should get to the Tornado…" He mumbled before running off, C.C. following him.
C.C. sat down in the rear seat while Tails fired up the engine, having kept it warmed up for an emergency.
"Why'd he ask for both of us to come… Wouldn't it be safer for you here?" Tails realized as he taxied the Tornado down to the end of the airstrip.
"Only if one of you is guarding me. Eggman knows where you live after all."
"Oh right… That makes more sense now…"
The Biplane rumbled into the sky and headed off in the direction of New Mobotropolis.
"I'm not even gonna say it because someone has already jinxed us…"
"Ah yes, that infamous phrase…" C.C. mumbled more to herself than Tails as she focused on something Tails wasn't looking at due to his focus on piloting. "I believe it already has…" She pointed past Tails at something in the distance while the latter gaped in horror upon gazing in the direction the immortal was pointing in as dozens of Egg Fleet vessels including assault landing ships converge on the location of New Mobotropolis. The largest concentration anyone had seen since the most recent Enerjak had blown up the main force some time back.
"Oh boy… Maybe we should call GUN for some help…" Tails gulped.
Sonic stared incredulously as the council bickered endlessly, all Rosemary had done mere seconds ago was point out that the constitution never said the King, or Queen should that be the case, be an Acorn to qualify as ruler, given that nobody had paid Naugus any heed for a while this wasn't seen as vital, and then Rotor and his uncle had flipped out on her.
"Will all of you snap out of it! Naugus is clearly using his magic on all of us!" Sonic had initially thought it was only on the council but he himself had been growing agitated more easily than usual.
This prompted a statement about NICOLE from Dylan and then the council exploded into bickering again.
Sonic admitted internally his own comments didn't help either, but he was too aggravated to say so in front of a bunch of adults who were behaving far worse than actual children who had thrown themselves into the line of fire against Eggman time and time again.
"Don't you think the King should have a say in this matter?" Naugus smoothly questioned, causing Elias to flinch before building his resolve.
"Naugus… If I give you the crown do you promise to respect the council…?" Elias asked.
Sonic snorted, any guarantee Naugus made was only viable as long as it benefited him.
"I think that's about enough of that! I'm putting an end to this before it gets out of hand" He snarled.
"Sonic stop!" Elias roughly grabbed the hedgehog's arm. "We have a chance to end this peacefully."
"Why!? After all the fighting to hold the crown, why give it up so easily!?"
"Listen to me, Naugus is too powerful, the people are jumpy, we deal with this peacefully and figure it out later, besides, Naugus has had time to plan this, you continue this and previous victories be damned he'll turn most of the city against you and the rest of the Freedom Fighters, moreover this isn't like you, even with Eggman you're more restrained." Elias stated.
Sonic stared at the smirking Ixis Naugus and then over at the council, looking at his Uncle's pleading eyes and the disapproving looks of Penelope, Hamlin, and Dylan, while Rosemary's head injury was tended to by one of the Guards and the repentant looking Rotor, the Walrus had punched her following the statement about the constitution's provisions, probably prompted by Naugus's magic to remove possible obstacles to his rule, any internal divisions between the Freedom Fighters and the Prower family was beneficial to him due to how influential they were in the government and military, not to say how Tails would react.
As much as he wanted to wipe that smug grin of Naugus's face, he had to admit, Elias was partially right, things were getting way out of hand. "Tsk… Fine, but if he tries anything I'm coming down on him hard." Sonic handed the Sword back to Elias as the ground shook violently.
"What the! Is this your doing too!" Sonic accused.
"No, and this is no quake, something far away shook the ground with great force as it emerged or moved…" Naugus stated.
"Do you think it could be Eggman…" Elias questioned.
"Probably. Alright let's forget the dispute for the moment while we figure out what is going on. Naugus bring down that wall so we can see what's going on outside."
"Don't order me around rodent!" Naugus snarled as he removed a bit of crystal with his magic and walked out with Sonic and a couple guardsmen, the hedgehog bickering with him the entire way.
Opening the main doors, they all looked up and stared in shock at the looming form of the Death Egg mark II.
Inside the council chamber Elias and the still recovering Rosemary stared in mute horror.
"He's done it, he's rebuilt the Death Egg…" Rotor breathed.
Outside the Freedom Fighters, minus Tails, and Geoffrey stared at the Death Egg Mk II as it hovered over the city, bickering lightly while formulating a plan after Sally managed to get Naugus to agree to help, the wizard having literally leapt into the sky to try and engage it, only to find his magic suppressed by the power rings integrated into the fortress's hull.
"If Tails were here we'd have the Tornado to help out…" Mina murmured.
"There's no time, we need to board the Death Egg ASAP!" Sonic responded.
"Sonic's right, Mina, get Rotor and go help the army stem whatever ground forces Eggman is deploying, the rest of us will go aboard and stop the madman ourselves." Sally announced.
"Yeah, I think the army is going to need a lot of help…" Mina stuttered as she pointed out the encroaching Egg fleet, which was moving to attack the airfield and defense facilities in order to better protect the Death Egg.
"Doctor the estimated losses for this are expected to be quite high…"
"That's quite alright, for this, these are acceptable losses." Eggman said as he grinned madly.
"Doctor! The Tornado!" Decoe announced as he manned a Console while Bocoe slapped away Cubot again.
Eggman's face contorted as he stared at the feed of C.C. and Tails in the biplane, dodging a group of interceptors before he grinned as he remembered something.
"Lien-Da?"
"Yes sir…?"
"Do we have any Egg Grapes left?"
Lien-Da looked between the Screen and the Doctor before rapidly realizing his idea, as sickening as it was. "Yes, we have a few units left along with the standard construction template."
"Good, hook a single sub-pod up to a set of power rings, enough to supercharge someone. Just as a backup plan"
"It'll take time to prepare but we can do that sir."
"Good, do it."
Lien-Da nodded as she gave the orders discreetly while Eggman took charge of the combat operations.
Amadeus fired another shot down the hallway of the Royal Army's HQ nailing an Egg Gunner in the head unit, disabling the machine
He fired again, covering an MP dragging a wounded staff officer to safety, once again cursing his lack of depth perception, his first kill had been pure luck rather than aim.
More Egg Gunners continued to spill in.
"My Kingdom for a modern army!" someone shouted as Amadeus reloaded and fired his pistol down the hall once more, many reserve soldiers were still using swords, maces, crossbows and other forms of medieval weaponry, utterly useless at range and against more modern robotic opponents without serious changes that simply weren't as viable as simply getting guns as well, it had been the extensive usage of powerful, and dangerous, homemade bombs that had let them disable Overlander armored vehicles during the great war, and only Ixis Naugus's magic had kept the Overland from simply carpet bombing Old Mobotropolis into a massive crater or blasting it with superheavy siege artillery.
If only they had modernized sooner, Amadeus thought, preserving nature by not adopting modern weaponry was a good principle, but they couldn't exactly do that when the Royal Army was little more than a speedbump for practically everyone who threatened the Republic of Acorn.
That'd change. Amadeus promised. A rocket flashed by him and blew up down the hallway.
If they survived that is.
Amy dodged a rocket fired by an Egg Knightmare, the machines were swarming the area around the airfield and just generally shooting everything that moved.
She tossed a hammer into one of them, noting that its ability to track her degraded when she hit it in the dome at the center of the forehead.
"That's gotta be the main sensor!" Amy exclaimed.
"Good going Ames!" Mina shouted as she sped around another one while Bunnie opened fire with her arm cannon while it was distracted.
"We're still gonna need a bit more firepowah even with that knowledge hun!" Bunnie yelled.
"Sacrebleu! Zis is getting out of hand!" Antooine yelped as he ducked under a slash harken.
"We just need to get to the Freedom Fighter Special!" Sally shouted as Geoffrey turned an Egg Gunner's upper torso into crystal before Bunnie shot it.
A hail of gun and laserfire rained down, distracting the robots, which were destroyed by a strafing run from the recently arrived Tornado.
"We'll hold them here!" A Soldier shouted as he and a squad of troops moved up. "Get up there and take Eggman down!"
The Army, unlike the people, knew just how dangerous Eggman was and how needed NICOLE was as nobody beyond her, Tails, and Rotor had the technical know-how to keep the city's advanced defense systems in line.
"Alright, lets go! Amy! Antooine! Bunnie! You take Geoffrey and the Special!" Sally ordered as the group rushed to the Freedom Fighter Special, the Tornado swooping down to pick up Sally and Sonic the two jumping on the wings as C.C. nodded at them while she worked the plane's EW suite to prevent the Egg fleet from swatting them out of the sky with AA guns or Missiles.
The Tornado rocketed up towards the Death Egg, dodging fire from defending airships, flying robots, fighters, and the massive air fortress itself.
"We're out of countermeasures and the EW suite won't hold for much longer." C.C. stated calmly.
"Then we'll have to go in the old-fashioned way!" Sonic shouted as they sped towards a docking port on the port side of the airship. The hedgehog jumping into the air and launching a homing attack into the weak point, Sally jumping in as the Tornado passed by.
"Alright it's just you and me C.C." Tails said.
There was no response in return.
"C.C.?" He turned to see the rear seat empty.
"Oh, for crying out loud… And she calls Sonic foolhardy…" Tails sighed and rolled the Tornado to avoid a head on with an Egg Fleet Fighter that had overtaken him and come back around.
He was seriously considering just building a jet next time.
Maybe with a walker mode and a high-speed cart mode integrated in it.
Deep in the New Mobotropolis Detention Center, Fiona looked up as the room shook again.
"What the hell is going on out there…"
An explosion rocked the center, collapsing the main entrance, the sounds of battle and sirens were now audible to the imprisoned vixen.
Fiona curled into a ball as she realized what was going on, regrets about everything she'd done surfacing.
She'd betrayed her friends, her nation, her planet, and just about everyone else she could betray really and for what?
Power? The love of someone as unstable as Eggman? Survival?
A section of ceiling in the hall began to crumble and most of the lights died, leaving Fiona in the red glare of emergency lighting
And now she was going to die alone, buried under rubble, nobody would bother searching for a traitor like her until long after she'd died of starvation or more likely asphyxiation, that's if the collapsing structure didn't crush her first.
"Maybe I can change that?" A voice whispered after the latest explosion related rumble faded.
Fiona looked up to see a white and very primitive looking doll sitting there, a birdlike sigil on its 'head'.
And no sign of how it got there in the first place, which set off Fiona's gut instincts that someone had placed it there and teleported away.
Using a warp ring for long enough tended to give someone that kind of sense.
"How…" She asked as she sat up.
"Getting here or the talking? Either way it doesn't matter, but I have an offer for you. One that benefits both of us"
"I know enough about Mammoth Mogul and what he did to Tails, Mina and Mighty, to know this offer has a price tag I might not be able to afford." Fiona said, narrowing her eyes.
"Well the alternative is death, do you really want to die, alone, in a cell?" The doll questioned as the ground shook yet again, dust falling from the ceiling.
Memories of her imprisonment by Eggman during his Robotnik days resurfaced, how the only indication she was even remembered was a SWATbot or Robian bringing food to her three times a day, how Sally left her, Mighty and Ray to rot, and how nobody bothered to come back for them, the other two eventually breaking free while she escaped in the confusion.
"No…"
"Be wary that the power of kings will condemn you to a life of solitude, but then again, I guess someone like you is used to being a pariah."
The ceiling above Fiona began to crumble, the guards having long abandoned their post, and prisoner to their fate, probably feeling a traitor was worth less than their own hides even if they risked a court martial for it.
The Vixen stared at the doll, accepting one fact about herself in the process, her own survival was paramount over anything else. "I accept your contract!"
"Then let's get out of here shall we?"
The Geass sigil on the Doll's head glowed as the contract was made.
Fiona's own left eye glowed with the symbol of Geass in turn as the complex totally collapsed under the bombardment of the Egg Fleet.
"The Prison complex just went down!" Mina shouted into her radio.
"Mon Dieu… Even Fiona does not deserve zat!" Antooine responded as he and Bunnie swerved the Freedom Fighter Special to give Tails a shot at the automated VTOL gunship chasing them, still trying to get close enough to deploy Amy and Geoffrey into the Death Egg Mk II.
Suddenly, a swarm of six slash harken-like projectiles whizzed out of the rubble, each piercing an Egg Knightmare through the power core as something burst from the ruins of the detention center.
Everyone gaped at the newly emerged Knightmare Frame, Mina tensing as she wondered whose side it was on.
Inside the 'cockpit' of the Mark Nemo, Fiona grinned ferally.
"Time for some real payback for all the pain you caused me Eggman!"
"These guys look like Gloucesters, but they're just mindless drones, though given how some Britannians were if I was told correctly, that's actually an upgrade…"
"Enough talk, let's crack us some Eggman."
"That was so horrible it hurt just thinking about it."
"Blame Sonic, he's the one who comes up with these."
"Can we just smash these metal dolls already?"
"I thought you'd never ask. These drones have no place in the future anyways." Fiona smirked as her Geass showed the temporal threads of the machines cut off in various manners.
Then the nanite-born Knightmare drew its Katana and leapt at the closest cluster of Robots.