After getting rid of another Robotnik together, Scourge and Fiona were on their way through an alternate Mobotropolis in the middle of winter when they encountered some civilians in an alley mentioning the name Antoine in their conversation. Out of curiosity, they stopped to eavesdrop, and heard a rat Mobian in a black jacket say, " I mean come on. Antoine, going to fight Ixis? I know he's mad because of what happened to Bunnie, but still! " A snake Mobian with glasses replied, " I saw him holding some Super Emeralds, at least. He may not be thinking straight, but he's still got a chance. " Scourge said to Fiona out of earshot, " Oh, this ought to be interesting. Come on, let's go find him, " and she nodded immediately, relieved at his suggestion.
Eventually, they came across an alternate Antoine wearing green instead of blue, collapsed unconscious in the snow just barely under the rubble of a destroyed building on the outskirts of the city. After Scourge pulled him out from under it, Fiona examined his condition sitting down beside him, and she revealed while holding his wrist, " He's alive, but ice cold and his legs are so badly bruised, it's a good chance they're broken. "
Scourge and Fiona jumped in alarm at a blue blur rushing up to and stopping in front of him, exclaiming, " 'Twan?! Fiona?! " To their relief, though, it wasn't the Prime Sonic, but an alternate version of Sonic wearing a crown on his head like a king. He checked his pulse frantically, and questioned, " Fi, who's this dude, what'd he do to him?! And why are you WITH him?! "
Scourge saw Fiona looking awkward about the situation, and corrected him looking annoyed, " Hey moron, you got the wrong girl. We're from another dimension. And I didn't do nothin' to him. " King Sonic, after turning his Antoine over on his back, said angrily, " Yeah, right, with your leather jacket and stuff? You're obviously bad news! " Feeling like he was being treated unfairly, Scourge complained, " If I was the one who roughed him up, don't 'cha think I'd be braggin' about it? No pride in braggin' when I didn't do nothin'! I heard someone saying he was goin' after some Ixis dude. Well, that Ixis must have got to him. " King Sonic gasped and exclaimed, " That must be why the building collapsed! Oh man, 'Twan, how long were you out in the cold like this? And, wait, what were you guys about to do to him, anyways? "
Scourge looked embarrassed from knowing the answer, with Sonic's taunt of him echoing in his mind as he remembered his smug face coming back to haunt him, saying in his thoughts, " …a little selflessness, a little decency, and you'd be just like me. " He shuddered a little at the thought that he was less of an individual because he was considering helping him for the heck of it, that his entire worth and foundation of his ego was put into question, but before he could say anything, Fiona screamed at feeling something whipping her in the back.
The two hedgehogs immediately turned to face her in alarm, and as she held onto her back in pain, the back of her black shirt cut in a thin vertical line, the one who hurt Fiona was revealed to be a spider Mobian wearing a ninja costume and holding a whip. Scourge immediately growled and punched him in the chest making him collapse, and brought his shoe down just below his chin at the speed of sound, and bounce-attacked him out of commission. But while he and everyone else were distracted, Fiona screamed again at something suddenly jabbing into the back of her arm, only missing something vital because she had moved. It was an icicle.
Some roaring laughter alerted them to the attention of a blue-robed menacing Mobian flying up to them from behind, sitting on top of a tornado. His hands were turned upwards with some icicles floating around him and his face was contorted into a creepy smirk, with a noticeable eye-patch above it.
Enraged, Scourge shouted, " What'd you do that for?! You're gonna pay for this! " He received the reply, " As if you didn't know who gave THIS injury to Ixis Naugus! " from the wizard pointing at his own eye-patch. With a strained voice, Fiona managed to talk despite the stinging pain, complaining while sitting with one knee facing the alley's pavement, " You got the wrong girl! Black clothes, he's my boyfriend! Get a clue! "
King Sonic quickly ran in a tornado around the alternate Ixis Naugus saying angrily, " I drained some of your power, remember?! You're not immune to these anymore! " taunting him about his loss of the air element, and watched as he fell crashing to the pavement from the top of the tornado. Of course, he survived the impact, and Scourge, still angry about what just happened, shouted, " I'm not lettin' you get away with that! " and kicked him so hard running at him that he sent him flying across the road in front of him.
" Stop! At least get your girlfriend some help first! " King Sonic called out to him, rushing to standing in front of him with a placating hand gesture. Scourge was livid at first from being told what to do, especially by another Sonic, and didn't want anyone to keep him from taking his revenge on him, but soon he looked worried at hearing the second sentence, and turned to face Fiona, who was still very much in pain with the icicle in the back of her left arm. He remembered when she had destroyed all those missiles of Finitevus and he was expected to punish her for it, and he became very worried that this was going to be another time when he was going to have to choose between Fiona and something else. While taking his revenge would be standing up for Fiona, it was clear from her pleading look that she would consider him doing that first as a betrayal, and that he wouldn't have her safety in top priority and didn't really care about her. Not wanting anything like that to happen, and afraid of her potentially bleeding out, he said, " Don't worry, Fi, I'll get 'cha to the hospital. And hopefully I'll find him again later. "
Fiona, with a grateful smile, put one arm around Scourge's upper back to keep herself held closer to him as he lifted her into his arms being careful not to touch the sensitive part of her back. She would've put the other arm around him, too, but it was in too much pain for her to bear moving it. He brought her to the hospital in a green blur seconds later, and ran up to the clerk rat Mobian lady who was confused and alarmed at seeing a hedgehog moving as fast as Sonic show up. He said to her frantically looking serious, " My girl's got a shard of ice in her, she needs a doctor! Now! "
Once Fiona was finally brought to a room to get treated for her injury, Scourge reassured her in the doctor's room, " Don't worry, babe, I won't let him get away with this. I'll find a way to completely ruin him! Just wait here for a few hours, I'll be back. " As she smiled in contentment, Scourge kissed her on the forehead and cheeks as she was sitting on the patient's room sofa, and then couldn't help but kiss her on the lips as well, before leaving the room through his zone-link teleporter. Fiona cringed and grimaced as the icicle was carefully removed and she was given stitches, clenching her fist and wishing Scourge was there to comfort her, while understanding that he wouldn't have appreciated her squeezing his hand to deal with the pain, and probably left to avoid seeing her suffer like that. She was both annoyed with Scourge for not being there for the worst of it, and wondering if she deserved the suffering she was going through, after the pain she put Tails through. Out of all the things she did with Scourge, that was the one that always stuck out to her as the hardest to justify.
Scourge tried to go searching for the Ixis that had attacked Fiona, but to his immense frustration and disappointment, he couldn't find him anywhere. He ran out of the city after cursing his luck, and before he knew it, he was standing alone in the woods near the alternate Mobotropolis' outskirts, using his zone-link generator's portal to try to find out where Ixis was. His greatest enemy was his lack of patience, as there were so many different parts of the world that he could've been hiding in, that he quickly started searching in other dimensions looking through the portal. With his lack of experience with magicians, of course, he failed to take into account the idea that Ixis turned invisible. He scrolled through the list of dimensions with a light golden portal in front of him showing him what they looked like thanks to the zone-link generator. He held down some additional arrow buttons trying to see all sorts of different places in the various dimensions, stubbornly searching for any kind of information he could find on Ixis Naugus with no real plan in mind.
Eventually, the portal to Mobius Prime showed him the Scepter of Sealing, hidden in Rotor's lab, through sheer dumb luck on his part as he was hoping he might see Ixis attacking the heroes at the moment to get information on his weaknesses. Unfortunately for him, the Scepter was hidden inside of a very tight space, being inside of a compartment shaped like itself within a shelf. Scourge complained, " If it was in a closet or somethin', I could just warp in and out. Instead, I can't even reach my hand into a portal and grab it 'cause there's no room for it. Wait a minute… "
He noticed that there was a numbered dial on the shelf, meaning that there was a combination lock. He then sighed in exasperation when he realized that the chances that he could actually find out the combination through trial and error in less than 10 years were very slim, and he'd be better off destroying the entrance to the shelf. He noticed a blowtorch and welding mask nearby, and said, " I got an idea… "
He then stubbornly and persistently looked through the entirety of the planet he was standing in by using the portal, and eventually managed to find where the alternate Ixis was hiding, in a crystal cave near a coral reef in Downunda. " Got 'cha! " he said to himself with a smirk, relieved at finally finding him.
With that, he warped back to Fiona, who smiled at seeing him, although he noticed it was a strained one since she was still in a lot of pain. He asked looking worried, " How well can ya hold something with that arm? Can you still use a blowtorch? " Fiona, confused, briefly thought back to when she was working with Rotor, Tails and Tommy in the lab as a minor lab assistant, and said, " Yeah. I can hold it with my right hand and support it with my knees. The left one'll just slightly support it from below. As long as that thing I'm blowtorching is on the floor, I mean. Why? "
Scourge explained as she started holding his hand, " I was lookin' around dimensions with my portal when I found some sort of blue sceptre with some emerald shards in it hidden in a shelf in Rotor's lab. Problem is, I can't warp to it since the shelf's too small a space, can't even reach into the portal with my arm, so we'll have to blowtorch the shelf to get rid of it, or at least the combination lock. So you're gonna do that while I use my portal to show you where you SHOULDN'T be blowtorchin'. We can't risk damaging somethin' like that. Chances are, it'll be the perfect thing to use to get our revenge. " Fiona hesitated at first before saying nervously, " Alright, " and Scourge asked, " What's wrong? " looking annoyed.
" We're going to Mobius Prime so soon? What if the zone cops spot us, what if a fight with Sonic attracts their attention to us? I mean, I know you wanna go there eventually, but risking it twice? " Fiona asked nervously. She remembered what it was like when Scourge was in prison, all those long lonely nights. She missed him more than anything, and the worst part was the nagging feeling that leaving the Freedom Fighters had been a mistake purely because she lost Scourge, the only person who liked her for who she was, so quickly and might never get him back. She chose Scourge to get a more stable source of support and ended up alone anyways. Looking depressed, she admitted, " I don't wanna lose you again… " hoping that he wouldn't start a huge argument with her accusing her of overprotectiveness.
Scourge sighed heavily, and reasoned calmly, " Fi, I've escaped from Zonic way more often than not. He just got lucky last time! They're not depowerin' me this time. And besides, it's JUST for a couple of minutes. Seconds at best! I won't even talk to Sonic. It's too damn early, there's not enough to brag about yet. " He hoped she wouldn't notice the anxiety and discomfort in his voice towards the end; he didn't want to admit that he was afraid of Sonic getting him sent back to prison, to her or himself. It was the most miserable couple months of his life, and he still had nightmares. He didn't know if he'd be able to handle going back, as the last time almost broke him, making a scared and paranoid shadow of his former self until the one he loved the most snapped him out of it.
Fiona could notice that even he was nervous, the most fearless person she knew, someone she normally didn't even think of as being able to experience fear, but he noticed the slip-up and grinned before giving her a kiss, and reassured her with a smile, " We'll wait until nobody's in the lab or even the base. Like after dinner. Then we'll go in, nab the sceptre and get out. Come on, babe, let's get outta this place. I promised Frost I'd play frisbee with him today, " Frost being their nickname for the alternate Tails with ice powers that they introduced to the detective Sonic. Fiona smiled and nodded relaxing her shoulders, at least as much as she could when she had a stinging injury just below the back of one of them with bandages around it.
With that, Scourge used a portal to warp the two of them to another dimension. Scourge spent the rest of the day spending quality time with Frost Prower and then running at the speed of sound to rough up some random thugs for fun, while Fiona spent the day hanging out with the alternate versions of the Freedom Fighters from that dimension, who with their version of Robotnik defeated by Scourge and her, had nothing to worry about in terms of villains for the moment. They had taken back their castle from him and renovated it to no longer look like it belonged to Eggman, as the rogue couple found out right away when they were invited to it for dinner with the rest of the Freedom Fighters as honoured guests.
As the two were heading to the rather impressive-looking dining room of the castle where the recently crowned Queen Sally was waiting for them, they both had different feelings on the matter. Fiona was anxious about being judged by her for assisting in killing someone, even if it was her Robotnik, and thought her time would be dreadful, and Scourge was anticipating the same judgment, expecting her to be a nag, but looked forward to the no-doubt delicious meal he was going to be served, and the experience of smirking with absolute pride at the FN Sonic from the fact that he, not him, had beaten Robotnik. In his mind, he had proved his superiority to him, without even needing to beat him in a fight first.
When they took their reserved seats, with Scourge sitting between Fiona and Queen Sally while Fiona had Frost sitting beside her with a nervous smile, they were surprised at the expression on the young queen's face. It wasn't judging at all. Instead, it was more polite, regal and queenly as the chefs were finishing up making their lobster dinner.
Trying to stop the awkward silence that dragged on for a few seconds after all of the Freedom Fighters had taken their seats at the table staring at them, Fiona said to make conversation, " S-So, uh, you're a queen already? On my planet, the princess can only become the queen if she marries someone. My Sally almost got forced to marry Antoine just to get that position – or rather, Evil Antoine who replaced him without anyone knowing. "
To their surprise, Queen Sally had a pleased smile at them, stunning Fiona as she saw a Sally looking sympathetic instead of judgmental for the first time in over a year, as she replied, " Well, things are different here. Obviously, " and chuckled at herself stating the obvious. Fiona was so speechless at the pleasant treatment by a Sally that Scourge ended up saying something before she could, saying casually as the chef brought everyone their food, " A smile, huh? It's nice to see you appreciating us for what we did. Lotta people out there are judgmental. Especially some alternate versions of you! Why the warm welcome? "
Fiona looked at him in alarm, convinced that this brash way of speaking would offend her, but instead, Queen Sally replied looking like a reasonable authority figure, " Because while I personally wouldn't have felt like trying your harsh methods, you got the job done. There's peace, and that's commendable all by itself. You both should be very proud of yourselves for freeing our world from that madman, no matter how you did it. "
Fiona was still too stunned at the pleasant and warm treatment to say anything, while Scourge simply smirked looking proud and said, " Already am! " lapping up the praise with his arms crossed purely because he was getting praised at all. He also couldn't get enough of the fact that a certain Sonic wearing a gray detective hat was glaring at him resentfully with his arms crossed. " I could've taken him down, too, y'know, and without that kind of grisly violence, " Sonic-FN pointed out with his eyes looking away from him irritated, finding the whole thing to be a bittersweet resolution. Scourge quickly responded with an amused smirk, " After ten years, " and leaned forwards a little saying, " My way's faster, " pointing to himself with his thumb.
Sonic-FN sighed in exasperation rolling his eyes full of resentment, as well as wounded pride at not only being beaten to the punch, but in being too slow at something. A Koala Mobian chef and some other chefs like him carried some plates with lobster, mashed potatoes and pork chops on them to everyone, making Scourge perk up excited at the thought and say, " Awesome, I love this! Let's dig in! " proceeding to start eating enjoying the food without waiting for Queen Sally to start eating her own first. Fiona was expecting this to be a faux pas, but Queen Sally let it slide, and explained still with that pleased smile,
" I fully understand why someone would go to such lengths to end Robotnik's tyranny once and for all, and while I'm glad I wasn't there to see it, I can't argue with the results. You're liberators of Mobius! That's why I'm ordering a statue to be made in your honour. Right outside the castle, to forever commemorate what you did for us! " Sonic-FN dropped his fork looking shocked and exclaimed, " A what?! " as Fiona looked stunned and dumbfounded, and of course Scourge was absolutely giddy at the idea of being praised and loved that much saying, " Awesome! Perfect, man, beautiful! About time people recognize me! Never got that kind of respect back in my own dimension. "
Sonic-FN replied angrily as the alternate Antoine, Tails, Rotor, and Bunnie all looked awkward at the argument and Sally seemed irritated, " That's because you mugged and beat up people on the streets! What do you expect when you're a criminal? That people are gonna just welcome you with open arms? "
Scourge retorted, " Most of those people are punks. Y'know, drug dealers and the like? They're askin' for it, " and said with a laugh at first, " and besides, you don't know the HALF of my rep, Sonic. I took over a whole planet, once! And the only reason I didn't stick with ruling it is 'cause it was boring doing the actual king stuff. The actual getting there was the fun part and I did that all on my own, in a day, without breakin' a sweat! But screw actually runnin' the place, I mean, I don't even KNOW who's taken up the mantle now, and I don't really care. He'll be easily dealt with years from now when I go back to the place. "
The whole time Scourge was talking openly about what a villain he was in front of a bunch of Freedom Fighters, Fiona was incredibly awkward dreading the irritating and uncomfortable wave of judgment that he was bringing forth, and wished she could just sink into her chair and disappear. Frost said sounding hopeful, " So you're never gonna take over our planet because you'd find it boring trying to rule it? " Then Queen Sally said to them, " All the more reason to be thankful. My subjects have never been happier thanks to you. Although that's not to downplay the accomplishments of my group as a whole. A lot of robots needed to be destroyed and plans needed to be stopped. But you were the brave people who took down that madman for good! "
Sonic-FN complained, " Translation, I did most of the work. While they get all the glory. " Scourge smirked in amusement at the sight as he and Queen Sally argued, with the latter looking only mildly annoyed at him, being strikingly more calm and good-natured than the more battle-hardened Sally that Fiona was used to, to say nothing of her sadistic evil twin.
Queen Sally reasoned as everyone had their dinner, " You're still a hero, Sonic, people still really respect you. No one's ignoring any of that. " " But they're getting a statue outside City Hall! " Sonic-FN complained outraged. " You already have 8 statues of you in the castle. " " Six! " " You should be better than this, letting petty jealousy- " she replied looking fatigued with him, and was interrupted by an indignant and sad reply, " But they're criminals! It's not right! We're lucky they don't go on regular crime streaks on this planet! "
" Well, even if they did, I can't think of anything they could do that would invalidate liberating billions of people from oppression. Grow up, " Queen Sally deadpanned. As Fiona looked stunned and conflicted, she finally said getting increasingly more stressed out, " He's right, though. We don't care about laws. We both are pretty much daily criminals, and not just in the vigilante sense, I mean, I used to have to steal a lot to survive, like food and water and treasure for the sake of the cash, I even joined a gang and won an illegal fighting tournament! Why would you honour me with a statue? "
Feeling sorry for her as well as confused and dumbfounded that she wouldn't appreciate it, Scourge said to her, " Hey, you should appreciate it, babe, don't be so hard on yourself! Why say no to a free statue? Relax. " " He's right, " Queen Sally said, causing Fiona to drop her own fork looking at her completely stunned and blown away at it.
She continued, " Normally I wouldn't approve of criminals like that, but I'm reasonable enough to make an exception and recognize the great thing you did for our planet. Including you, Fiona. You were just doing what you could to survive, and the fact that you were humble enough to say all that just proves my point about you. You may not have been one of us, but you were always Freedom Fighters. "
Hearing that immediately brought back a depressing tearjerking memory of the bitter and resentful way her own Sally had spoken to her. " You may have once been one of us, but you were never a Freedom Fighter, " she remembered her saying in a tone full of disapproval, bitterness, and disappointment in her. It had always stood out in such stark ugly contrast with the way Sally had always been polite to her, respectful and even slightly warm and friendly at the best of times, and shone as the perfect example of how things had changed, and why she couldn't see her as a friend to be missed anymore. But this alternate Sally stood out as a complete contrast to that shunning speech, and it made a combination of sadness and absolute joy completely overwhelm her as her eyes welled up with tears of joy, and she blurted out with a sad quivering smile, " You're the nicest Sally Acorn I've ever met! "
Everyone in the room stared at her surprised and sympathetic at her sudden outburst of emotion, especially Scourge, which made her feel even more self-conscious and embarrassed than when Scourge had been bragging about what she normally considered his most admirable feat. Once again she found herself wishing she could just sink into her chair under the desk and disappear, escaping all of the stares and concerned whispers. Wanting to put an end to the awkward silence, which really wasn't the big deal she made it out to be as Sally had the biggest smile on her face from that compliment, she explained, " I-It's just that, wow that just came out of me, I'm not normally like this. I'm just not used to a Sally Acorn being that way to me. So accepting of who I am. Even though… I…. disappointed… "
Her thoughts wandered again as she looked back at her almost finished lobster sadly, with a nagging voice in her head sounding like Sally reminding her, " Stop with the victim complex. You're a traitor, you moron, why do you THINK she hates you? You slapped Tails! You ditched them all! Sonic was accepting of your past, stood up for you in front of a whole bunch of his friends, even though she was giving you a death glare. Everything would've been fine if you hadn't fallen in love and screwed things up. And now they all hate you, and you'll never get any kind of friendship like that back. " Fiona tried to think in response, " Good riddance. If they didn't want me to follow my heart and be true to myself, then they weren't right for me, the judgmental traitors. They're the ones who let me down. Good riddance! " But she couldn't make herself form the bitter expression, because she was too overwhelmed by a feeling of melancholy at the undeniable absence and emptiness.
She thought sadly, " Oh, who am I kidding? While I don't regret being with Scourge, since he's made me so happy, I still got used to having so many friends, and now there's a stupid, dumb void in my life that should just go away, but… " She sighed, and Queen Sally reassured her, " It's okay. You're clearly a nice person, more humble than your boyfriend here, and you did what was best for a planet that I wouldn't have expected you to care about. That means a lot to me that you'd do such a thing. You're being too hard on yourself. Criminal or not, for what it's worth, you'll always have a welcome place in my home. " She got up from the table finished her meal, carrying her dirty dish in one hand to save her servants some work, and Fiona had to fight back the urge to hug her, because she knew Scourge was watching, and she already felt self-conscious enough. She wanted to be a bad girl, who did what she wanted no matter what, but sometimes she couldn't be both, and wasn't sure which to choose.
When Queen Sally was walking back to her throne at the dinner table, Scourge said quietly, " Go ahead, Fi, " looking into her eyes with sympathy and understanding, and even taking care to put his hand on the shoulder that wasn't nursing a wound near it. She was shocked and speechless, still not used to the fact that Scourge accepted her so much for who she was, even the side of her that was the most like a Freedom Fighter. Even though he gave her his blessing, if only to humour her in what was clearly deep emotional turmoil, she still had to force herself to nervously get off her chair as Queen Sally walked up to her. But the minute she turned to face her and saw that happy smile, the emotions all just rushed back and she hugged her in a tearful embrace, which was returned immediately. Scourge looked around as a curious observer with his hand on his chin and noticed that aside from Sonic-FN, who looked just as stunned and conflicted about it as he did, everyone in the room was smiling finding the situation heartwarming.
With the hug ended at last, Queen Sally said, " Thanks, Fiona! And hey, even though Robotnik's gone, there's still a lot of work we have left to do. My father's still in the Zone of Silence, for one, and the world still has Robotnik's underlings ruling various countries of it. You can come here for a visit any time you want with him. " Fiona, after a brief silence, asked with a smile, " How 'bout for lunch? " and was told, " Sure, why not? And again, you can even bring your boyfriend along. He's the one who defeated him. No telling what he's capable of!"
Scourge said proudly, " You got that right! If ya ever want a big strong man around to accomplish stuff since Sonic doesn't cut it, the superior Sonic could always pop by for a visit, " with his arms behind his head satisfied at trolling the Sonic in front of him. To truly one-up him, he interrupted him preventing him from getting any sort of comeback, saying, " Fi, the clock up there says it's time, we gotta get goin'. We've gotta make that Ixis fellow pay for the way he hurt you! "
As Fiona took a few seconds to snap out of it and realize what he meant, everyone else in the room looked shocked at what he said about Ixis. And wanting to avoid any long-winded explanation, he quickly pressed the button on his teleporter for the portal and Fiona said, " Oh, right, " jumping into it with him.
