Chapter Twelve: Secrets Revealed
Shadow and Rouge sat cuddled on the bed in Shadow's temporary room. Due to G.U.N.'s advanced medical treatments, Rouge would be back to active duty in two days now. She now slowly stroked Shadow's chest fur, smiling to herself as Shadow ruffled her ears, stroking her back soothingly.
The two of them had not felt this comfortable since before their honeymoon had been interrupted.
Shadow, smiling slightly, now gently nuzzled Rouge's cheek and kissed her, making Rouge coo and snuggle up closer to him.
Shadow kissed Rouge's forehead, and sighed contently. "How shall we make up for our honeymoon, my love?" he whispered, now looking into Rouge's large aqua eyes.
Rouge smiled back and licked Shadow's lips lightly. "Hmm... we could always do it here..." Rouge gave him a sly, almost evil smirk. "Right now..."
Shadow grinned mischievously. "Certainly..." he purred, and locked lips with Rouge, slowly letting his caring, love, and lust all slowly reach their boiling point before Shadow released himself upon the one he loved more than anything.
Rouge moaned softly in anticipation, now on her knees and caressing Shadow's arms and slowing her hands to feel his muscles.
Shadow purred and caressed Rouge's neck with his tongue, making her moan a little louder. Shadow slowly pushed Rouge onto her back and climbed on top of her...
But the door suddenly swung open and Shadow did a sort of half-backflip to get off Rouge and fell off the bed and onto his head.
Moonlight and Jewel (Rouge's sisters, if you recall the wedding) now stood there. Moonlight was smirking mischievously at Rouge, and Jewel was heaving with laughter at Shadow.
"Hey, sis..." Moonlight said hesitantly, trying hard not to giggle as Rouge blushed and Shadow rubbed his head, muttering the darkest of curses. "We were still in town when we heard about... you know, the accident... so we were granted access here to see how you were..."
"She's fine" Shadow growled and stormed out of the room.
Moonlight was now grinning. "Were you two...?" she asked Rouge with a questioning look in her eyes.
Rouge's blush became slightly deeper. "Er... y-yeah..." she said, rubbing her shoulder in embarrassment.
At this, Jewel laughed even harder. When she finally caught her breath, she said; "Well, sorry sis, but we had to see if you were doing okay... oh, and something else!"
Rouge stood up, her cheeks regaining their normal color. "What? Did Kaynyx find the fortress?" she asked urgently.
Moonlight cast an angry look at Jewel, apparently not wanting Rouge to know that just yet. "Well, Rouge... er, yes and no... come with us..." she said uncomfortably.
The three of them walked to a room where the commander, two bodyguards and two guard drones, and Kaynyx stood. Kaynyx looked a bit tired and ruffled, but still managed his sad smile at them.
"Please, be seated" the large wolf said kindly. "It's better that you're here... sir, may her sisters hear this as well?"
The commander nodded. "Just as well, Agent Rouge would probably tell them anyway" he said with a grim smile at Rouge.
"Not if you asked otherwise, sir" she said, slightly offended.
"Heh, yeah rig-" Moonlight started but Jewel elbowed her sharply in the ribs.
"Of course, I'd like Shadow here as well... I'll contact him" the commander said, walking over to a nearby terminal. "Kaynyx, carry on."
Kaynyx nodded, and faced Rouge and her sisters. "Well, as you know, I was sent with Sonic, Knuckles, and the Chaotix to search for Mephiles' fortress..." he began.
Rouge nodded, but Jewel's eyes widened and Moonlight looked confused.
"Who's Mephiles?" Moonlight asked.
Jewel rolled her eyes. "Damn sis, he's the one the paper declared the most dangerous enemy of the government!" she said.
Moonlight's eyes widened slightly. "Oh... right... even more dangerous than Eggman?" she asked.
"ANYWAY..." Kaynyx interjected, "We followed the path that supposedly was covered in hints to their whereabouts, and we ran across a most interesting person..." Kaynyx said, his gaze lingering on Rouge.
"What, who?" Moonlight asked. "Santa Claus?"
"Goddamn sis" Jewel muttered, slapping Moonlight upside the head.
Kaynyx's smile grew slightly more cheerful, but then he became serious again. "No, it was Shadow."
Everyone else's eyes widened except the commander's. "Wh-what?!" Rouge stuttered. "But Shadow's been here the whole time!"
"So I supposed" Kaynyx said. "And the commander confirmed it. I didn't know it was an imposter until too late... because of my folly everyone else now lies in the infirmary" Kaynyx added with an angry look in his face.
"It's not your fault" Rouge said somewhat hastily, patting Kaynyx on the shoulder.
Kaynyx smiled at her grimly. "Rouge, no need to reassure me" he said. "My anger can only trigger my power if I wish to harm my enemies; no one here is in danger."
Rouge, now looking a bit calmer, sat back down with her sisters.
"Anyway, if not for another strange encounter, we may not have found out until half of us were already dead" Kaynyx said. "Tikal the Echidna was found by us, wounded and claiming that the Shadow imposter attacked her..."
Before any questions to this peculiar statement could be asked, however, a blue flash announced Shadow's arrival.
"I miss anything?" he asked, leaning up to the wall nearest where Rouge sat and folded his arms casually.
Rouge quickly filled him in (occasionally interrupted by her sisters), Shadow nodded without question, and Kaynyx continued his story.
"The imposter Shadow wounded the others badly... I was only able to get to it in time to save them from death" Kaynyx said. "Knuckles got the worst of it, but it was a glancing blow, so there won't be any permanent damage other than some scars. Espio's head-shell will always have a gaping hole in it now, but at least it didn't hit anything vital. Tikal will be okay too, she just needs some rest. Everyone else should be back on their feet in a few standard days."
Everyone nodded.
"Now, Kaynyx, if I may return to the main point..." the commander said, he and his guard stepping forward. "I would hope that you managed to locate Mephiles' fortress during this catastrophe? I would not have wanted all these people hurt for a lost cause" he added sincerely.
Kaynyx smiled slightly in spite of himself. "Yes sir, I think you'll like what I'm about to show you..." he said, standing up.
G.U.N. Infirmary
Tikal the Echidna lay on her bed, feeling rather confused...
How long had she been gone, she wondered? She had seen Sonic battle that giant, blue monster and then... she just went her own way, to Angel Island to visit Knuckles, and then left to try and find her original home... and found another island...
The place had been older, far older-looking than even the relics on Angel Island said to be connected to the ancient civilization that built the Gizoid... or was it on Angel Island? The place she had found was a large temple... and then she had met someone, but Tikal couldn't remember who...
They had been somewhat shaped like a hedgehog, though...
Then everything had gone dark, and she remembered snippets of people whispering words of comfort to her... then suddenly turning hissing and gnashing curses at her...
Tikal had then awoke, far from the island, far from Knuckles or anyone else...
So she started a journey to find them all again...
And now, here she was.
The door opened, and in limped Knuckles, smiling softly at her.
"Hi... how are you Tikal?" he asked slowly.
Tikal chuckled. "Well... better than I was, all things considered" she said. "Sorry we couldn't have met on happier circumstances..."
Knuckled shrugged. "Hey, it's cool" he replied and approached Tikal.
She looked out the window briefly, and looked back at Knuckles. "Knuckles... what's going on?" she asked quietly.
Knuckles sighed. "Tikal, I'm not sire I could tell you that..." he said. "Except that there's this really freaky dude named Mephiles who's, like, obsessed with chaos and destruction. He has a bunch of baddies in his pocket, including someone who related to Eggman somehow and... you know that Shadow guy that's with us?"
Tikal nodded, frowning as she also remembered the Shadow Android.
"Well, Mephiles has another echidna that looks kinda like Shadow with him, too. Same powers and everything as Shadow, and two blade-things that come out of each hand... I fought him once and won" Knuckles boasted (this being untrue).
Tikal smiled a little. "You always were a tough one" she said casually.
"Heh... yeah, I guess" Knuckles chuckled. "Hey, I had a question..."
"I don't doubt it" Tikal replied, smiling a little more.
"Yeah... well, where are you staying, anyway?" Knuckles asked.
Tikal's smile vanished. "Nowhere... I... I was looking for a permanent place to stay when I left Angel Island, but... I can hardly remember that now..."
Knuckles face looked serious and concerned now, and he put a hand on Tikal's shoulder.
"Well... um... you know, you could always stay at... er, that is... my place, y'know..." Knuckles said, now feeling a little squeamish and he didn't know why. "I... I have a stone hut I built out of some ruins... G.U.N. managed to get some satellite and electricity going there for my services to them, it's not too bad... you can sleep on the couch until we get you a bed... that is... um..."
But before he could stutter another word, Tikal tightly embraced him. Knuckles froze for a while, his face starting to match his fur.
"Thanks Knuckles..." Tikal said quietly, and nuzzled Knuckles' shoulder a bit.
"Er... duh... um... y-you're welcome..." Knuckles said, lamely patting Tikal's head.
Tikal was grinning now, feeling the warmth of another person that had felt so lost and forgotten just moments ago...
With Shadow, Rouge, Kaynyx and the others
"... So it's still being tracked, then?" Shadow said, feeling slightly elated since their defeat at G.U.N. Headquarters seemed about to be compensated ten-fold.
"Yes, Agent Shadow" Kaynyx said, smirking. "Once I had a visual, I was barely able to upload the image onto my optical-camera and then send a homing-beacon to the image..."
"Which means we should be able to track it here, far from their eyes..." Rouge murmured, now grinning as she locked onto the Aero Fortress's signal.
"Gotcha!" Rouge said triumphantly and with a somewhat eager smirk.
She began uploading the fortress's schematics, security data, and anything else she could get her hands on.
"Always the one to jump to nerd-hack things, aren't ya sis?" Moonlight joked, playfully slapping Rouge on the back.
"At least I don't run into poles and damage my brain as a kid" Rouge muttered, making Moonlight laugh.
The commander smiled slightly at Kaynyx, which was a very small fraction of the gratitude he felt.
"Well done, Major Kaynyx" he said. "Now we can hit Mephiles, and we can hit him hard..."
"Sir, an aerial strike would be... er, costly..." Rouge said, suddenly frowning. "This 'Aero Fortress' as they call it is armed to the teeth with missile launchers, top-of-the-line laser turrets that could cut capital ships into slivers, magnetic force-propulsion cannons that can send capital ships spinning at a 360 degree angle and disintegrate fighters and bombers... and machine and laser turrets that are capable of taking down dozens of fighters before they're even in firing range of this place... Mephiles has obviously been working hard on this for a VERY long time..."
"What if we landed a group inside the fortress, and destroyed it from the inside-out?" Kaynyx suggested.
"No..." Rouge muttered. "It would take twice as many ships as G.U.N. has in its global fleet to take this thing down... a small carrier-shuttle wouldn't even get past the first line of guns; I even ran a simulation on it."
Shadow cursed, not seeing a way past it either... if the fortress was armed for any kind of aerial assault imaginable, how were they to enter it? Chaos Control couldn't get them all the way up there, either...
"Hey, sis!" Moonlight said suddenly. "Could you fly a ship close enough to actually SEE the fortress?"
"Uh... yeah... but not much closer than that..." Rouge said slowly.
"What if Shadow came, and used that warp-thingy he does to get you past all the guns and in the fortress?" Moonlight said.
Rouge considered for a moment, looked at the schematics again, and her mouth slowly split into a grin.
"Yes... yes, that might work!" she said happily, and Shadow smiled slightly.
Jewel shook her head and approached her sister. "Sometimes you amaze me girl" she laughed.
The commander smiled too. "Good, very good... Shadow, Rouge, Omega has been reactivated and given safeguards so that Mauve cannot shut him down in a similar fashion. I'd leave it to you three, but you'll need more help than that... Kaynyx will accompany you, as will Sonic and Knuckles... hopefully I can convince Tails to accompany you as well, he'd be useful in an infiltration."
"With respect sir, so am I" Rouge said with a smile.
The commander almost chuckled, nodded, and said; "Very well. All the same though, once you get inside, link up with Tails so we can help from here."
"Very good sir. Shall we set off now?" Kaynyx asked.
"Negative. Sonic and Knuckles still need some mending. And you could use some rest" the commander said.
"Should we at least form a plan while we can, sir?" Shadow asked.
The commander was silent, looking troubled. Finally he said; "Shadow, Kaynyx, come with me. Rouge, get some rest. When we return, we'll formulate a plan."
Confused as they were, Shadow and Kaynyx nodded, Rouge saluted and left. Moonlight and Jewel looked at each other, shrugged, and decided to go home. Shadow and Kaynyx followed the commander out of the room.
They walked down a long, dimly-lit hall, and Shadow knew the commander was taking them to an interrogation chamber where no one else could hear their conversation. They arrived at large, black steel door, and the commander told the two human guards to wait outside while the guard-drones, Shadow and Kaynyx followed.
The commander shut the door, hit a series of lock-codes and triple-confirmed it with several body checks.
Shadow and Kaynyx took a seat as the commander turned on the only light in the room, and pulled out a laptop.
"Agent Shadow, Major Kaynyx, there's something you should know..." the commander said gravely. "About Mephiles the Dark."
Shadow and Kaynyx exchanged a quick glance, and nodded at the commander.
"Apparently... we're dealing with a hell of a lot more than we thought we were" the commander said with a heavy sigh. "A hell, HELL of a lot more than we thought..."
Shadow nodded slowly, Kaynyx simply looking mildly confused.
The commander clacked away at his laptop, and pulled out a hand-pad to gain clearance to something. A little device extended from the top and examined the commander's retinas, and then the commander sighed again as he clicked on something.
"When Mauve the Bat hacked into a file during the attack, he luckily didn't bother with the other file... one which we completed only an hour before you returned" he said, nodding at Kaynyx. "The file Mauve recovered forced us to reinforce a position that guards something he wants... We gave them six times as many troops, an agent squad, gave them heavy armor and light-reconnaissance vehicles, turrets, even a few recon fighters. I was going to send you there, Kaynyx, but the mission to destroy the Aero Fortress could prove that unnecessary if you can defeat Mephiles."
"What is that place? And why is Mephiles interested in it... sir?" Shadow asked.
"A large temple built by the ancient civilization" the commander said. "Archeologists we hired said it's only ten years younger than the Gizoid itself, which makes it the oldest ruin of their time we've managed to find so far, and yet it is almost fully intact. We cannot enter it though, so we can only speculate what it is about it Mephiles wants so badly. All I can say is that it must be a weapon that can rival the Gizoid at full power even. But that's not why I called you here..."
Shadow leaned forward a little in his chair, and Kaynyx's ears perked up.
"Mephiles... we've found overwhelming evidence of this..." the commander sounded graver than ever. "Scientists, historians, prophets, popes, everyone we've managed to talk to about it agrees..."
The commander turned the laptop to face Kaynyx and Shadow, and pointed to an icon labeled "DARK ORIGIN AND RELIGIOUS CONNECTIONS."
"Have either of you two read the Bible?" the commander asked.
Shadow and Kaynyx both nodded, though Shadow did so reluctantly, having only read a few chapters here and there.
"Have you read about how Satan was cast out of heaven?" the commander asked, his voice so grave he might have been dead.
Shadow and Kaynyx froze as they started to realize what the commander was getting at.
"The journey from heaven to hell would have been rigorous, to say the least..." the commander went on darkly. "And Satan likely would have had to journey the mortal plain for a time... Maybe not all of him made it to the underworld..."
The commander met the eyes of two of his best men.
"Mephiles is a bit of Satan's essence left on the mortal plain during Satan's descent to hell" the commander concluded.
Shadow and Kaynyx simply stared.
"Sir, do you... do you... HONESTLY..." Shadow stuttered.
"Yes, Agent Shadow, I do believe this" the commander said sternly. "You've seen Mephiles, the demonic shape he takes, his pure hatred for life, his lust for destruction... that's the ultimate evil, something that craves only death and chaos. And Iblis, we know for certain is also an essence of Satan, which is why Mephiles and Iblis are always seeking to reunite... they are one. Together, they create Solaris, which was a figure that represents a stronger, more accurate portrayal of Satan."
Shadow shook his head further. "That... that doesn't seem possible..." he mumbled.
"Well, who'd have thought that anything divine or on that level could co-exist with us flesh-and-blood creatures?" the commander added. "Nevertheless, Agent Shadow, this WOULD explain why normal means of killing Mephiles aren't working."
Shadow merely stared at the laptop, saying nothing.
Finally, Kaynyx spoke. "Then sir, how could we stop him?"
"By either sealing him once and for all, or finding something that can do more than injure or weaken him" the commander replied. "An overwhelming amount of Chaos Energy in either the form of Chaos Control or a Chaos Lance would do the trick for both options, probably."
Shadow finally came to, seeing that Mephiles might not be invincible.
"Then, sir, I propose we start planning a way to chase Mephiles out of his Aero hole" he said darkly.
The commander cracked a smile. "Too right, Agent" he agreed. "We'd best get started soon."