Author Notes - And as a reward for your patience...here's the long awaited Zero scene!! It really should have taken place at the end of Chapter Eight...but hey, what can ya do? By the way...I just realised that The Freedom Fighters were in Robotropolis for five chapters!! Talk about what must've felt like the longest mission ever...

Enjoy!!

Interlude The First

Ascending the stairway would have proven far too great a task for legs so stiff – equally unthinkable would have been the mere notion of stepping into the nauseatingly cramped enclosure of one of those infernal 'boxes of elevation' as he believed them to be called. Of course, his mastery over the mystic arts rendered utterly nonexistent the necessity of such purely physical fetes – all the same, such enforced reliance upon magic wracked his crusty old heart with dark ire. Well…the darkest ire it was able to contain without failing him altogether.

As went without saying, were either option practical or comfortable he would have disdained them still – the mere suggestion that one such as he resort to crawling like an insect through the branches of a tree, the sorcerer would have taken as an unforgivable insult. So he would ensure to remind himself whenever confronted with the plain and simple fact that his age rendered him utterly unable to do so...

Rancorous displeasure fading like mist from a pane of glass, Ixis Naugus materialised within his destination; the highest peak of ascension…the pinnacle from which The Goddesses themselves may have sung the song to bless the lands with life…the zenith of absolute power. And as those narrowed eyes silently swept Command Central, the sorcerer's teeth were bared in a ghastly grin.

Ah…there you are!

Two SWATbots stood in motionless silence, their backs turned obliviously upon him – hands clasped behind the very same, the cybernetic duo seemed quite at ease. An outward appearance which was in stark contrast to their actual readiness to act swiftly and lethally, should the figure they flanked happen to make the merest of sudden moves.

Clad in his flesh alone, the figure stood between the pair of android wardens – with bare arms lowered to his sides, he silently viewed footage of the recent epic conflict as the surveillance-monitor replayed it for a fourth time.

Like a crafty old scorpion, Naugus backed toward his throne of crystal – and as he moved, his eyes were so sharp as to halve diamonds straight down the middle. Once again, the sorcerer marvelled at the superficial similarities this man shared with his lackey - 'superficial' being a word that really could not have been emphasised strongly enough.

The man who had 'hatched' from that strange cocoon seemed honed to the point of physical perfection…or as close to it as any mortal can ever hope to reach. Those muscles…so taut, so powerful! Why, they seemed contained not by a layer of simple skin but a shell of burnished bronze! And most of all, the truth that Naugus had immediately seen…

Doctor Robotnik had been a tyrannical overlord, his mechanical empire safe-guarded by a vast army of robots. The man awakened only recently from a slumber of uncounted eons…was a warrior.

His eyes deeply speculative, Naugus greeted the only figure with whom he shared the oxygen-supply of Command Central. "You observed all that transpired, I take it?" the sorcerer's manner was akin to that of a great theatre lover asking for a fellow aficionado's opinion regarding the performance both had recently witnessed, "Would it please you to share whatever thoughts are yours?"

Though his manner seemed the very epitome of gracious hospitality, that which went on between the sorcerer's pointed ears was an altogether different tale – his true motive for extending that invitation was to test the water as it were. By the answer he received, Naugus would gauge the extent of his guest's compliancy. And by the results of this subtle experiment, the sorcerer planned to decide whether it would be more profitable to retain his present geniality…or to become somewhat forceful.

If the man was at all startled by that wheezing voice, not even the slightest twitch betrayed him – so great was his self-mastery, in fact, that not an inch of bare flesh shivered in the chill atmosphere of Command Central.

Yet his eyes…as the mind behind them became aware to the presence of another living breathing being, they narrowed.

Whether due to a realisation that he had little reason not to do so or a realisation that that his present situation gave him little choice not to do so, he decided to honour the request of his esteemed host. After all…there was so much he did not know about this world in which he had woken.

"Matter of fact…"

The man called Zero at last broke his silence, his voice sounding rough as a sun-scorched rock and low as a king cobra slithering through an arid desert – as he turned from the surveillance-screen, it was with a fair degree of relief. Fascinating though the spectacle of a tattered yellow cape becoming wrapped around a furious face undeniably was, it seemed overwhelmingly like a scene out of some Saturday morning cartoon show.

"…I've been thinking; how in hell did a hedgehog get that fast anyway? And that's overlooking his uncanny proficiency in the sacred arts of strolling around on two feet and enunciating like the guest waffler of some cheesy daytime chat-show."

His shoulder bumped against that of the SWATbot to his right – as the affronted android turned a silent stare upon him, he passed the incident off without visible acknowledgement. Neither posturing nor bravado seemed to be involved – here was man who possessed either inordinate idiocy or a will of tempered steel.

"Now I think about it…I might have come across a word that would describe those walking talking fur-balls to a tee. An…anthro…was it 'anthropoid'? Nah…I'm sure that word's got more connotations with monkeys. Still…" a quiet chuckle – for the first time since his awakening, Zero displayed humour. "…I think you'll have to admit that 'Planet of the Anthropoids' has itself an ominous ring!"

Revealed was the series of muscles which fit together to comprise that breath-taking physique – since he preferred his liquid refreshments be served in a crystal goblet, the sorcerer's vocabulary simply did not include the phrase 'six pack' which would now have been of inestimable use to him.

A chin so well formed as to have been the result of an army of miniscule chisels worked by expert hands – above it, a mouth that may well have reflected the shape of its owner's soul. The middle was set in a line of discipline, the left corner twisting down in a dark grimace while the right curled up in a sardonic smirk. Above that mouth, a pair of blade-like cheekbones which served to frame the nose.

And above that nose…those eyes.

Whites, pale as two spheres of exquisitely sculpted ice…green irises, intense as wreathes of emerald fire…pupils, dark as twin gateways to the cold emptiness of complete oblivion.

The mere sight of this man chilled Naugus right down to the brittle bone, fiendish devil though he was – had the face of Zero been on exhibition at a museum, the accompanying plaque would most surely have read; 'Man – Nature's Most Savage Son'.

Naugus nodded vaguely, his forehead creasing – in truth, the sorcerer hadn't the foggiest understanding of what the man had just said. Such enigmas, he speaks of! Or does he merely seek to mock me? "Yes…" he wheezed, rather at a loss for what on Mobius to add to these frankly bewildering sentiments. "…I quite agree! Yet the true meaning of what you have witnessed is not lost upon you, I trust?" the sorcerer's eyes glittered with unmistakable scorn as he cut straight to the heart of his lecture, "Science and technology; 'stones which pave the road to a greater future' these things are called. The tools by which a perfect civilisation shall be shaped and formed." A rasping hiss emerged from that barren throat – for an instant, the sorcerer seemed on the verge of rearing back and striking at this loathsome sentiment. "Pah! What you have just seen is irrefutable proof of the sheer folly of such things! Mindless rot, entirely too limited! That which the mindless masses consider the greatest of assets is in truth the greatest of liabilities! The more dependent people grow to become upon such infernal contraptions, the narrower do their minds! By relying upon the labour of lifeless automatons as opposed to the strength of their own backs, by turning to these so-called 'automatic intellects' rather than their own wits…they would set the course for the generations to come. Survival would be theirs, yes indeed, yet at the cost of their very souls. And so the river of time stagnates…for though they know not the insidious truth, the people have allowed themselves to become enslaved forever to science and technology." The sorcerer raised his gloved hand, clenching it in a gesture of defiance. "That bleak future I shall change before it comes…thus bringing an age of sharp order to this world."

Sorcerer and soldier were interrupted by a sudden commotion – Doctor Robotnik was attempting to enter the room. Something he had done practically every day for the last decade yet now seemed to give him significant difficult – the source of obstruction was the thing which protruded like the trunk of a palm-tree from his irregularly loosened collar. Whatever it could be had inadvertently collided against the top of the arching doorway, sending the good Doctor staggering back out into the gloomy corridor – after a while in which he swayed in a daze, Robotnik stepped back and slowly hunched over.

The head supported by that long neck, Zero mistook at first for that of a reindeer – it was the bright-red nose. Another second was all he took him to recognise the head as that of a giraffe. Oddly enough…the head was not what struck him most about The Doctor's appearance.

"Boy…" plain disbelief was etched into Zero's hard-featured face, "…are you fat! I mean…my last year in high-school? There was this one guy who had some gland or something. But hey…" he shook his head slowly, unable to accept the reality before him. "…man!"

Robotnik had been in the process of entering the room, his back stooped at an excruciating angle – as that observation reached his detestably furry new ears, he raised those beady black eyes to stare ominously at the non-transmogrified man. Or at least attempted to do so – while it would have benefited him greatly in the pursuit of fresh and tasty leafs, the presence of his elongonated neck proved to be of immense detriment within the context of an indoor environment such as this. As that length of magically transformed flesh and bone connected by accident with the metal arch, The Doctor lost his balance with a bleat of anguish.

As the human slammed into the ground like sack of potatoes, that creaking cackle was the icing upon this humiliation-flavoured cake – intentionally or not, Zero had just succeeded in ingratiating himself with Naugus. "Oho! How succulently scrumptious! It would seem our guest possesses an eye most keen! Be still, my belaboured heart!" with the most casual snap of finger and thumb, the sniggering sorcerer restored his lackey's true form. "Yet what say you, Doctor? Does the arrow of our new friend's observation fly true?"

Robotnik was grunting and snorting as he struggled back to his shaking feet – though the human's head and neck had returned to their natural shapes, his nostrils remained raw and blistered as a result of their recent prolonged dalliance with hard concrete. The Doctor had raised his gloved hand to massage his incredibly sore nose – as he heard the question his master posed so slyly, it stopped as though frozen.

Moving so slowly that it was as though the sorcerer had transformed him into a life-sized marionette, Robotnik lowered both chunky arms down by his sides – his lips dry as a pair of salted pork-rinds, he sank to a level of cringing servility as would have put Snively out of a job. "Oh I assure you sincerely, My Lord; never have these ears been privy to words of such ringing truth!" he stammered, reaching a state that would have made the description 'nervous wreck' sound like a sarcastic understatement. Those eyes of yawning darkness stared at the surveillance-screen as though fascinated rather than repulsed by this endless replay of his most recent hour of failure – he looked the perfect picture of a servant too terrified to meet the gaze of one of his betters. "So lost a soul was mine before hearing them that I cannot comprehend how I was able to fumble my way through the darkness of a life that knew not the guiding light of such golden wisdom!"

Zero cringed as he witnessed this truly painful display of fawning. That's just…pitiful. The warrior thought with pure contempt – wild dog though he was, even he would sooner have died than crawl as his fellow man had just done. (It brought him little pride to acknowledge that he and Marshmallow Ass belonged to the same species…)

Naugus indulged in a petty chortle, "But such a lamentable host, am I!" he exclaimed, in his eyes an unnervingly playful glimmer. "Pray allow me to introduce you to my rotund-man…oho! That is to say, right-hand man; Doctor Robotnik! It is my fervent hope that the two of you shall get along!"

Zero felt his mouth twist to form an especially black scowl. Why, he knew not for certain – yet all of a sudden, he was getting the weirdest feeling. It was akin to that of an itch he couldn't quite reach…only in this case it was not his back but his brain which felt irritated.

Great Weight's name…something about it just bothered him.

When concentrating deeply on this strange riddle yielded no solution, Zero decided to try something a scosh less orthodox – one of many things life had taught him was that there was always more than a solitary perspective from which to look at something. Given that the bone of contention happened to be a name, there was really only one other angle from which it could be looked at – and as he began to read it backwards from the whiteboard of his mind, Zero knew just how damn stupid this was.

What dark secret did he expect to learn from this? That Fat Man's secret identity was in fact that of Count Dracula? If such was the case then the Prince of All Evil had really…

Kintobor…!!!! Zero felt his body tauten, this revelation searing him from within – hidden though they remained behind those set lips, his teeth clenched in silent savagery. That guy...could he be Julian Kintobor? The President's…?!!

Like an untamed stallion, he reined in that vast influx of fury – for the present at least, he would remain the unquestioning living weapon. The Hunter Executioner. It looked as though things were going to get interesting...and given everything the Spy Eye had already shown him, that was saying much indeed.

Like shards of shattered glass, Naugus' eyes gleamed – they had perceived the disturbance of his guest's disposition. Subtle as the forming of mountains and significant as the shifting of seismic plates, the sorcerer was certain that it had been triggered by the mention of his lackey's name. Evermore does this web of intrigue expand…yet which of them is the spider? "A fathomless mystery is the force that guides us to our destiny - yet see how it has united we three beneath the sky of Mobius. Doubtless the hand of fate has some purpose for transcending time and space in order to bring us together – great or small though it may or may not be, I would learn more of this. Yes…much there is that I would know." Naugus stroked that bearded chin, his eyes seeming not to blink – pale and reptilian, they gazed at the human as though seeing a hitherto untouched realm of possibilities. "Much we shall discuss, you and I. And after…" into two sharp points, the corners of that dried up mouth curved to form a grin of cruelty. "…I shall have a task for you."

As he teased this conversation toward the topic which most interested him, Naugus thought again of the crux of that same matter; the child whom fate had both dangled before him and then snatched away on that very evening. The cub of whom The Princess had been so fiercely protective…the fox whom the sorcerer knew was not at all what he seemed.

Being so enlightened, Naugus alone had seen the fox-cub for that which he truly was. A spirit of magic bound in mortal flesh, a gift from the Goddesses of the heavens to a weary world, the mythical being itself. The Kitsune Fox.

Naugus felt his features drift into an expression of childlike joy as he tried to remember everything he could about that magnificent creature – the sorcerer simply could not wait to dissect it!

It had cost Robotnik an immense exertion of self-control in order to remain a blank slate under the gazes of his companions – when at last his gut decreed the coast to be clear as it ever became for him to lower his guard, the downfallen dictator's face contorted into a gorgon-like glare. No longer frozen like a mouse afraid of feeling the cat's paw upon him at any moment, The Doctor allowed his eyes to stray from the repeating images of today's utter debacle – he had refrained from dragging his heels in returning, the thought of going anywhere near Naugus so soon outweighed by the thought of seeing more of the night prior's 'discovery'.

Having spent ten years considering himself the last one, Robotnik could barely begin to believe that he stood now in the presence of another human – his nephew had never counted. On the evolutionary scale, The Doctor had always placed Snively on the level of 'parasitic growth' rather than 'homo sapien'.

Robotnik's hulking shoulders had been steady as he turned to study Zero – as he received an unpleasant surprise, they heaved.

For a fleeting second, Zero's eyes had been upon him – and whether it had been the most inconsequential of glances or a scrutinising stare, The Doctor felt as though two shards of glass had sliced into the tissue of his brain.

Just as quickly as it had arrived, the moment of silent intensity passed – yet as Zero gave at least the appearance of attention to the words of Naugus, Robotnik was left shaken.

Left to stand unnoticed until required to perform some predictably demeaning task, Robotnik was haunted by the memory of those piercing eyes - failure to understand what had disturbed him so brought him swiftly to frustration which led in turn to inevitable anger.

This man…who is he? I had never seen him prior to last night...why did those eyes burn so vengefully as they pierced my soul?

End of Interlude

Author Notes - I'll start work on Chapter Nine soon.