Hello everyone, hope you're having a good day. Little stressed down here, but three exams down, two more to go. I've got em tomorrow, and they're probably going to be my hardest, so wish me luck.
As always, thanks to everyone who's read the story, and I hope that I've answered the reviewers questions adequately.
Lawyers: insert random previous disclaimer here.
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Home Sweet Home
The elevator door swished open, and the group poured out into the medical wing of Stonehenge. Sally gently cradled her daughter in her arms and headed straight for a row of bacta tanks that were lined up along the wall. Norrack was right beside her, and he began punching in a numeric code as soon as they were next to one of them.
An oxygen mask dropped from the ceiling as the elder princess climbed the stairs that led up to the top of the tank. Saria opened her eyes halfway, and glanced over at her mother as the mask was strapped on. Then the emerald orbs drifted down to the armored cyborg at the base of the tank. As if he sensed her eyes upon him, he looked up. His remaining hand formed a thumbs up as the tank began to fill with blue liquid.
Sally put her child onto the metal grating that sat over the top of the tank. The machinery whirred to life, and lowered the young girl into the bacta. The substance would go to work on her wound immediately, and hopefully heal it before permanent damage could be done.
Kotyo painkiller had also been added to the mix, and Saria was asleep shortly afterwards.
"Think she'll be alright?" Bunnie asked as she walked up behind the two.
"She should be," Norrack responded. He started to say something else, but a coughing fit took him over.
"Are you okay?" Sally asked, and surprised herself by the caring in her voice.
"Just messed up inside a little bit, nothing a soak in one of those wouldn't cure." He nodded towards the tank that her daughter was in. "I need to wait for some tech droids to get here, though. I need to get my arm and armor patched up."
The princess couldn't keep her eyes off of the ARC trooper. He was messed up pretty badly. His armor was scorched and blackened, an arm rendered useless, and what seemed to be some fairly serious internal injuries. She had seen him fight, had taken him on after she'd watched him cut down Freedom Fighters by the score. Yet the fight between him and Shadow appeared to have been one sided. She was unnerved to say the least.
A flash of images filled her mind. A black armored figure slaughtering Mobians left and right, an unstoppable killer far beyond what the cyborg across from her had ever been.
She shook the thought from her head and looked around her. It was still difficult for her to take in this marvel. A multi-kilometer fortress hidden deep within the bowels of the planet, able to service what looked to be several score thousand people with ease.
"Why was this place built?" she asked aloud.
"As a fortress of last resort during the Great War, in the event of… escalation." Norrack said as he looked over towards her. "Your father didn't want to take the risk of getting caught flatfooted, and so Stonehenge was constructed." He pointed up at the ceiling. "There are five kilometers of rock and half a kilometer of solid ferrosteel on top of this place. You could hit it with enough firepower to turn the entire surface into a ball of molten slag and still not get down here. It was supposed to be the original fallback point in the event of national emergency, but knowledge of its location was a strict secret. I don't think anyone outside of the people working on the ARC project knew of this place yet, probably why you were taken to Knothole rather than here."
Sally remained silent, contemplating what the cyborg had said. This was where she had originally been supposed to come? How might things have been different here, growing up underground rather than in the forest? The arsenal of weapons and vehicles here meant that the war might have been over sooner, but would things have been as they were? Would Sonic have found Tails? Would any of the other groups have learned of them and banded together?
"How did this place get built and nobody know about it?" Bunnie scratched her head in confusion.
"It was mostly constructed with droids and techbots, working with materials that had been 'lost' due to 'production errors' and the like," Norrack said. "They were left here after the construction was finished, to ensure the upkeep of the place and to help the scientists working on the ARC project."
The doors hissed open and she looked up to see what it was. There was a trio of small tech droids waiting at the threshold of the entrance, chirping amongst themselves. Norrack grunted and moved over to grab his arm. As he slung it over his shoulder, he stared at Saria, floating peacefully in the tube, her leg wound slowly starting to put itself back together. He then turned his attention towards her mother.
"If you need to use the freshers, they're this way." He gestured with his head.
Sally seemed torn for a moment or two, her gaze shifting between her daughter and the doorway.
"You get yourself cleaned up, Sally-girl," Bunnie waved her onwards with her robotic hand, "I'll make certain that Saria's got company."
The elder princess nodded, and then followed after the cyborg out to where the subway was.
The tram ride was as swift as it had been the first time, and they were soon in another region of the massive fortress. There was something about this place that seemed… odd, she thought as she stepped off of the train. It wasn't as cold, for lack of a better term. The walls had some decorations, old paintings and the like hanging upon them. Her eyes wide with curiosity, she gave Norrack a look.
"The quarters of the scientists responsible for the creation of the ARC project." He kept walking down the hallway as he spoke. "Little more comfortable, and a little more private. I thought you might prefer that to the barracks' refreshers."
The girl remained silent. She didn't really care much about that sort of thing right now; she was more worried about her daughter. Still, she appreciated the gesture. The gears of her mind began clanking together again as she began another attempt to figure the cyborg out.
He stopped at one of the doors in the hallway, and quickly punched in a key code. The ground squirrel looked up at him one more time.
"You have a skeleton key to this place?" she asked as she crossed her arms.
"I did have to use my universal lock pick until I figured out how to get access to the codes, if that's what you're asking." He turned his head slightly towards the energy blades strapped across his back.
He turned and started walking further down the hall after that. Sally stood where she was, watched him enter the final door. Squinting, she was able to make out the name etched next to it: Charles H.
The droids entered the room behind the ARC, and then the door closed. The princess sighed, and then entered the living quarters.
From where he was in the room of his creator, Sonic sighed and popped his helmet off. She was here, so close that he could have reached out and touched her. He wanted more than anything in the world to cast off this shell that he had been trapped in for so long, embrace her and Saria, and hold them both until time became meaningless.
A flash of pain, an image. The battle on the cliff top. He saw it again in his mind.
With a wretched sob, he began to shuck his armor, while his personal bacta tank was readied. Off to the side, sparks could be seen as the tech droids went to work on fixing his arm.
Sonic ascended the stairs as the tank filled, attached the oxygen mask around his face, and then immersed himself in the healing substance. His body's wounds were soon on their way to being healed.
But the bacta could not heal the wound his spirit suffered from.
The water beat down upon her as she vigorously scrubbed herself. It felt good to finally rub herself clean, at least as best as she could. Shadow hadn't hurt her, not physically any way. Still, she felt… tainted, for lack of a better term. He had gone around inside of her mind, probed her innermost secrets and the private moments from her past that she'd treasured so much.
Her blood began to boil again, and she grit her teeth, promising to herself that somehow, in some manner, she'd make the black hedgehog pay for what he'd done.
Her thoughts drifted to the Mandalorians, both the Clones and their templates. Why were they doing this? What was in it for them? She remembered Jaster's smile and his handshake, the look in his eyes. The respect, even admiration, that had shone in them. Brianna's look of horror as she realized what she'd done.
Clearly, she wasn't dealing with sociopathic monsters in those people, so why then would they work with Shadow? Or for that matter, Snivley? What was so important to them that they were willing to make that Faustian bargain?
She continued to stand under the showerhead, let the water run over her as she tried to put everything together.
She must have spent nearly thirty minutes in their before she emerged, shaking the last bit of water from her crimson hair. As she stepped out, she noticed some green and black military clothes sitting on a bench. She stared at them for a second, and blinked as she realized that Norrack must have been out and about already.
Sure enough, as she exited, he was there, his back to the room. His armor was as pristine as they day it had been forged, and he had a duffle bag slung over one shoulder. Had he been waiting for her?
"Feeling better?" he asked as he turned around.
"A little, thank you." She started to walk back down towards where her daughter and Bunnie were. "You're out awful fast."
"Little something I picked a couple of years ago," he said as he fell in beside her. "Snivley was working on something for Shadow, something called a bacta processing implant. It directs the bacta directly to the sites of the injuries, doubles the healing factor."
"You stole it from him?" she sounded surprised.
"Just like I stole this armor. The two of them were rather upset, to say the least."
"Just how long have you been, well…" she paused, searching for the right word. "fighting for our freedom?"
"Five years, ever since I found out about Shadow and his plans." He sighed. "I don't know how much headway I've made though. I've taken down convoys, patrols, and even an entire base, but there are more Clones than I can deal with. And Shadow… he's a true ARC trooper. He's beyond me."
They had reached the tram by now, and the doors opened again.
"Who were you?" she asked abruptly.
"What?" he cocked his head and she could tell there was a baffled look on the face on the other side of that helmet.
"Who were you, before Robotnik got a hold of you," she said as the train shot off.
"I…" he frantically searched for a lie, something that might be believable. "I don't know. I remember being a soldier, but that's about it." He prayed she would buy it.
"Really?" She sounded skeptical, and he was grateful she couldn't see his face.
"Yes. Whoever I was before… before this, is dead," he said, and he had to force himself to hold back the pain that tried to well itself up inside of his heart.
The tram slowed to a stop a moment later, and he hurried off. He was anxious to leave that particular bit of conversation behind him and to check up on Saria. The girl would probably be waking up soon, and he wanted to be there. He could not be the concerned father that she should have had in her life, but he could play the role of a concerned friend.
"What's in the bag?" Bunnie asked as the two of them entered.
"Combat rations," the ARC responded, reaching into it and pulling out an energy bar, which he tossed to her. "I figured you could use the nourishment."
"I'm famished myself," the rabbit said as she got up took it off his shoulder.
Both he and Sally took a moment to check on Saria. She was still out cold, but the bacta was doing its job, and the wound on her leg was already noticeably less severe. Most of the flesh had knit itself back together, and with luck she might not even have a scar left to remember the incident with.
Sally let out a sigh of relief, and placed her hands upon the tube. It was hard to believe it, that she was not much older than she had been, and she was already being exposed to the horrors of war.
Why was this happening all over again?
"Is mom going to be okay?"
Jaster looked down at the boy, at his son. A small smile teased at the edges of his mouth.
"She'll be fine, Cado," he said as he knelt down to look into the eyes of his child. "She's just had a rough night. Now go back to bed, you need your sleep."
The boy nodded, and then retreated to his room. The wolf stayed where he was, and leaned back against the wall of his bedroom. Brianna had fallen into a fitful sleep. She would thrash back and forth occasionally, mutter something, and then turn over. What had happened tonight would haunt her for some time. He frowned and placed a hand to his muzzle. Better send a Clone intel unit to check out on the younger princess' condition tomorrow.
He placed a hand against his chest, felt his scars.
Malachor.
The memories filled his mind like a bitter potion. His people slain, cut down by overwhelming numbers, by artillery fire and grenades. His father fell back, shot through the head. Tinian's smirk as the handgun settled over his chest and fired. The pain, Goddess, the pain. He felt as if a lightning bolt had struck him.
He heard Derrick scream in rage, a scuffle before all had faded into blackness.
He looked back down at his wife. How that must have torn at her. Her mother dead, her father captured, no doubt publicly executed to satisfy the whims of a bloodthirsty population.
Among his kind, there could not be a worse death.
A sigh left him and he sat down on the edge of the bed. There was a holopicture on the nightstand. It was a picture of the gang right after Station Square had been taken. Smiles were upon the faces of everyone, and people could be seen rejoicing in the background.
Those had been good times. Victory seemed near and they had dreamed that they would be accepted with open arms by their comrades. They would march forward into a glorious future, perhaps even begin raising more of their kind, teaching others the way of the Mandalorian.
Reality had swiftly crushed such high hopes and naïve dreams.
They had found no such refuge. Exile had been their only option after they had revealed themselves for who they were. Lives that they had saved were forgotten, missions they had undertaken in the name of Freedom were ignored; all that mattered was the blood that ran in their veins. The blood that they refused to be ashamed of.
The armor stand in the corner of the room drew his attention, and a weary smile came to his face. The silver suit had been made from his father's, melted down and combined with the newly discovered alloys that Snivley had developed. It had been reforged, better, stronger, and tougher then it had ever been before.
Just as his people had.
They were few in number, relatively speaking, only a few hundred thousand right now, and all of them Clones. But soon, soon the time would come when their ranks would swell once more, when his people would again live and thrive, rather than teeter precariously upon the edge of extinction.
"I will make you proud, father." His whisper broke the silence of the room, and he had to fight back a tear as the image of his beloved old man appeared in his mind. "I will save our people… no matter the cost to myself."
A leader needed to be prepared to go to hell for those he ruled, for the sake of those underneath him. Goddess as his witness, if he had to damn himself to save the Mandalorian race, he would do it.
He crawled into the bed and cuddled up next to his wife. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close once more, before he shut his eyes and allowed for sleep to take him in its embrace.
The deck hummed beneath their feet as they shot through the sky, the snow covered terrain below passing by in a blur. Saria watched it intently, as this was the first time in years that she'd been up in a flying transport where she wasn't drugged and paralyzed.
Norrack was up in the cockpit, carefully dodging the pockets of turbulence and gusts of the crosswinds that occurred at this altitude.
"How much further?" Sally asked as she walked up behind him.
"I'm going to put us down in a couple of minutes. I don't want to risk getting picked up on the sensors," he answered. "For starters, they'd be just as likely to shoot us, considering all that's happened. Secondly, I don't want the fact that I'm still drawing breath to be a widely advertised fact. I'd rather not have bounty hunters running all over the place, looking for me."
"But when Elias and my father—"
"The people will not be so quick to forget what I did, princess. Just look at the Mandalorians. There was a taboo and prejudicial hatred towards them for years after Malachor. How do you think they'll react to me?" He looked up at her, his head cocked quizzically.
"I… see…" she said slowly as a frown came over her face.
Behind his visor, the ARC trooper's eyes widened. Was she upset by this knowledge? Had she… did he dare to hope… forgiven him? Had his actions the previous night made up for his past transgressions?
He let the question go unanswered, and sat back in the piloting chair. The next couple of minutes went by in silence, and he couldn't bring himself to strike up further conversation. When he finally reached their destination, a short distance from the sensor boundaries, he put the LAAT into a hover and slowly guided it down towards the ground. The craft settled to the ground with a thump.
He rose from the chair and moved towards the main hold and pressed the switch to open the side doors. Sunlight and chilly air seeped into the ship. The three Mobians without a sealed combat suit to shivered slightly.
Bunnie and Saria got up. The rabbit went to get the two hover bikes they had brought ready to depart, while the child threw her arms around the cyborg one more time. As he had before, the ARC trooper reached down and ruffled her crimson hair.
"See you around, squirt," he said, a hidden smile upon his face.
"Take care of yourself."
He turned around to see Sally walking by him. The ground squirrel paused for a second, stared him in the eyes.
"Thank you, for everything." Her tone was soft, barely audible.
"I should be thanking you…"
She cocked an eyebrow at him, and he had to scramble to recover.
"You freed me after all, " he said with a frown, and decided to change the subject. He reached down and pulled out a holodisc casing from his belt. "Take this. It's all the intel I've been able to gather on Shadow's forces. I still don't know about his airpower or armor support, but light and heavy infantry and their small arms are all recorded on this thing."
"Thank you." She nodded her head.
"Just tell your people to step on it. I don't know how much time you have left before they're ready. They've lost the element of surprise, but they still have enormous war potential. They'll steamroll you if you're not careful." He couldn't stress it enough.
"I'll let the others know." She paused for a beat, her eyes staring through the black visor on his helmet. "You've done..."
"Only that which I should. I have a lot of bad karma to pay off, remember?" His voice come out more bitter than he expected, and he turned to head back up. "Just remember though," he called to her as she stepped off. "I'm still on your side. If you need a hand from the shadows, you know where to find me."
She nodded once more, and then hopped onto her bike. She placed her daughter in front of her, and the two of them sped off as the LAAT lifted into the air.
Her thoughts were still firing back and forth within her mind as she tried to think of all that had just happened. How the outlook of life could change in less than the course of a day.
His legs were crossed, his hands folded, palm side up. His breathing deep and even as he tried to control himself.
Again.
He'd done it again. Sonic had escaped him again. How did his brother keep managing to do it? He was inferior to him. He made himself weak, refused to accept his gifts to their fullest potential.
A brief flash in his mind. A female, an Overlander. She screamed, shouted for him to run. Blaster fire filled the air. She dropped, the stench of roasted flesh and cauterized blood filled the air.
"Apprehend target Omega!" a mechanized voice said.
Swat Bots closed in on him, their blasters raised. Rage, another scream, a feeling running through him, something foreign and alien. Power, unlike anything he'd felt before.
With a growl he banished the memory of the coup. He had learned a valuable lesson that day. To survive in this world required one to be as fierce and cunning as a predator. He had risen to the challenge. He was the supreme being on this planet, the pinnacle of his kind. And he would have his due.
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Okay, hope that one was up to snuff. The next chapter will be some conferencing and techie discussion, as our heroes attempt to figure just what their new enemies will be able to throw at them.
As always, advice, feedback, constructive criticism and the like are all welcomed with open arms. Ideas and weapons are also well liked, so if you have one, let me know about it.
Until next time, I'm signing off, and wishing you all have the best possible week.
