Chapter 21 – The Plan
"So...this is the famous Master Emerald then..." Rouge mumbled, hers eyes glinted as he scrolled down the search page. "I must say, it's a beauty all right. It must be worth a truckload, and it would be a very nice centerpiece..." The bat grinned, clicking the most promising website, and devouring the information with her eyes.
Before the bat could get any information on the red echidna that guarded the huge gem, the doorbell rang for a few seconds.
The bat spun around, cursed, shutting off the monitor. "Blasted idiots. I told them I was taking a vacation; can't a girl get some time off in this town?!" She glided to the door, peering down at the guests on the other side of the door, through the peephole.
The only thing that she could see was a young woman and two orange pointy ears next to her; she sighed and opened the door by a crack, "What do you want?" She asked a little pissed off.
A hand, which had previously not been in sight, since its crimson furred owner had been standing off to the side of the door, shoved Rouge backwards, hard. The two people she'd viewed through the peephole rushed in, followed by the male who'd pushed her down. He had already slammed the door shut behind them.
The white bat stood up on her feet, shocked for being thrown to the ground by unknown people, but more shocked to see the Guardian of that lovely jewel stand in front of her; she raised her right hand and pointed him, "AH! You're the Guardian of the Master Emerald!" She exclaimed even before her mind could tell her to not say it.
The echidna's eyes narrowed, and he glanced at the orange kit for a moment, half amused and half angry. "That's Knuckles to you. And stop screaming." The human girl was already checking along the apartments walls for any bugs, and the fox scampered at her feet, turning off the computer as he passed it, much to Rouge's dislike.
The bat started to tap her foot on the tiled ground, "Ok, what you want? I did nothing against you, did I?"
"We'll tell you what we're here for as soon as we're sure we can trust you to sit down and be quiet, Rouge." Knuckles growled, bristling as he moved past her to speak to the fox for a moment, nodding slowly at whatever the child had said.
The spy rolled her eyes, "You barge into my home, throw me to the ground without a ceremony and you expect me to follow your orders? Forget it." She said crossing her arms and looking away and slightly up towards the ceiling.
"Don't mind Knuckles." The fox hurried over to console Rouge. "He's just been stressed. We got attacked twice on the way here, and it's kind of taking its toll on his nerves. I'm Tails, by the way."
Rouge looked at the echidna, then at the fox, "Ok," She said as she stepped forwards, "Hold your horses. What the hell is happening around you three and why the hell you need me?"
"To make a long story short, we have some friends who've been...kidnapped more or less, by the government." Tails tried to put the words as delicately as possible, so that he wouldn't sound completely insane. "We need your help to get them out of there, preferably alive and in one piece. And to stop the madman who took them in the first place."
The bat raised an eyebrow, "And you expect me to believe you and turn against the government? You're crazy, kid."
Knuckles let out a soft growl and Tails' ears folded somewhat at the sound. "Look, we're desperate, okay? It's only a matter of time before our friends get turned on the general public! With the state they're in now, no one would survive!"
Rouge sighed deeply, "Give me a good reason to believe you."
Mary turned and looked at her, "Do you know about a project called 'Project: Shadow'?" She asked sitting on the couch and reading her computer.
"I heard something of the sort. GUN reported that the project went 'mad' or something like that. There's not much information about that..."
"Well, he's one of the people we're saving." Mary replied. "The man who has him is planning on letting him out on the masses. To kill people. And our other friend is in there too, under the exact same influence."
She was interrupted by Knuckles strained voice. "If you don't believe us now, you will when Sonic the Hedgehog comes in here and rips your head off."
The white treasure hunter looked at him, then at the fox and woman on her couch; she sighed and sat next to Mary, "Very well. What I have to do?"
The human girl sighed. "Well, we have to visit someone else first, before we get started on the rescue. Knuckles believes a relative of mine might have more information on the commander's whole operation. To get Sonic and Shadow out, we need to get them back the way they once were."
Rouge nodded, "Do you know how he managed to get them under his control?"
"We think it's some sort of mind-controlling device. When we got to them, there was a large machine, with an open pod-like chamber." Tails was frowning. "How it works isn't really something we know yet. That's why we're going to speak to Mary's grandfather."
Knuckles was moving toward the window, eyes flashing brightly. "I think it's time we moved again. It looks like they've caught up again..."
The bat stood up and walked to the window, "GUN?" She asked to him, "Oh dear jewels! You HAVE GUN after you? You told me the government, not GUN!"
"We didn't specify. Let's get going." He said to the others, then looked down at Rouge. "If you're pulling out of the deal because it's GUN, I'd advise you to get out of here. They'll want to speak with you as soon as they find out it's your house we were hiding in."
Rouge rolled her eyes, "This seems interesting. I might be able to get something out of this for my own account. So, yes. I'm following you." She said as she made her way to the door.
"Good. We left five minutes ago." Knuckles said briskly, ushering Tails and Mary to the door. "Mary, sit up beside Tails again, we'll need you to direct him to the home you're grandfather's in." He looked at Rouge. "I'll assume those wings are more than just pretty decorations? You and I are gliding."
The young woman nodded and scribbled an address on a piece of paper, "My granpa lives here. You can't miss it. It's a yellow house."
Tails climbed into the pilot seat quickly, and helped to pull Mary up after him, while Knuckles and Rouge stood on the plane wings. Within seconds, the plane had roared to life and taken to the skies. The moment it reached a preferable height, Knuckles released his hold and a settled into a glide beside the plane, watching their pursuers. Not wishing to be outdone, the bat vaulted outward into the sky, pulling up beside the place to cast the Guardian a dirty look.
After several minutes of gliding, the unusual pair finally came to the yellow house of Mary's grandfather. It was small and had a nice garden with a lot of flowers.
Dropping quickly from the skies, Knuckles landed first, amidst the flowers, a few of them crushed beneath his shoes. Rouge landed much more gracefully, taking a stuck-up pose to show off.
The bat looked at the Guardian, "Such an ungraceful echidna, you are. Look! You even stepped onto the flowers."
Knuckles frowned and peered at her, before a smirk appeared on his face. "At least I didn't land on the sprinkler." Almost as if on cue, the head popped out of the grass, with the bat still on it, and started spitting out water.
Rouge screamed and quickly ran out of the sprinkle's range of action, then she regarded him with a hateful glare.
Knuckles grinned at her, obviously repressing laughter, then walked to the door and entered, knowing that Tails and Mary were already inside by now. "C'mon, we'd better hurry."
The bat growled at Knuckles, but followed nonetheless; after all this ended, she would have that huge jewel in her hands to repay her off.
Inside the house, Tails poked his head from the living room, "Welcome Knuckles, Rouge."
"I take it the old man reacted well?" Knuckles asked, turning into the room as the kit nodded to him. Mary was sitting beside an elderly man in what looked like an old, old uniform of sorts, GUN scrawled across the shoulder. It was far older, and more out of date than Mary's uniform.
"So, Maria...these are your friends."
Mary sighed again, "Grandpa, how many times I have to tell you that I'm Mary. Ma-ry."
At that, both Guardian and bat looked at Tails for explanations
Tails sighed, and raked a hand through his headfur. "Mr. Lannyah was one of the soldiers who participated in the ARK Incident, the first attempt at capturing Shadow. While the soldiers were there, supposedly there was an 'accident,' which killed some of the scientists, and a young girl, named Maria."
"Oh, SHIT!" The echidna cursed under his breath.
"In so many words..." Tails nodded, continuing. "The accident was a cover-up; the scientists and girl had been...resisting. GUN wanted them out of the way, so it had the soldiers shoot down anyone who fought back."
Mary cut in. "My grandfather had been ordered to patrol the halls, and help keep the prisoners away from any switches or experiments, so they couldn't sic anything on GUN. And he saw the girl run into a room and try to help a hedgehog escape, and well..." The man was holding his head in his hands, shaking slightly, as though he was trying to block out the re-telling of his crime.
Knuckles looked at him, "You were the one who shot Maria down, right? You're the one that caused all this sorrow, hate, rage and pain to Shadow. Am I right?" He asked softly.
"I was so confused at the time.." The old man whispered, his voice cracked. "My officers were screaming in my headset to take the girl down, and I wasn't thinking. Before I could stop myself...and she was falling..." He broke off, and Mary placed an arm around his thin shoulders.
"Did they want Maria out of the way only because she was protecting Shadow or for some other motive?" The Guardian questioned.
"We don't know.." Mary shook her head. "From what Grandpa saw, they were really close. After Maria fell, the hedgehog was screaming and crying, trying to help her...He sounded like a little kid, he told me once." She sighed, hugging the old man.
"And then the rest is mostly what we know." Tails took the story up again. 'Maria had enough left in her to launch Shadow toward Earth, and later got listed as a casualty, dying from a chemical leak on the colony."
Knuckles sighed, then he kneeled in front of the old man, "There is still a possibility to find happiness for Shadow, but to do so, you have to tell us everything you know. GUN's plans for him, where they might have the main headquarters. Everything you know."
"Shadow..?" The man's gray head lifted slightly. "That hedgehog? Project: Shadow? He's awake?"
"Yes." Knuckles answered and stood up again.
The old man bit his lip. "It's been fifty years, but the last headquarters I remember was a large bland building, in the capital city. Close to the main one, so it looked like they were completely under his thumb."
"Before I left the military, I remember that Shadow was to be reverted into a government weapon, because without it, according to our superiors, he would be uncontrollable. The poor little thing was still a sobbing wreak when they found his crash site..."
"There was a machine they were going to use, to help 'clear his mind'. It was supposed to start him over, more or less, and insert only the information he needed to survive and carry out his orders with. No memories of ARK or what we...I...did to him..."
"Is there any chance to revert or break this process?"
"I don't know...There was a bug in the system last time, it only work half-way." The man shook his head. "But I could tell it hurt the hedgehog. And drove him to the very brink of madness; he attempted to slaughter everyone in the room, to pay us back for harming his best friend.."
"I left the military before they tried again. I couldn't stand being there anymore..."
"So that's what made him so emotionally unstable..." The echidna commented, "And it ended with a split personality..."
Mary was gently consoling her grandfather, but watching Knuckles intently. Before she could voice the question on the tip of her tongue, Rouge, who'd been taking all this in, spoke up.
"What are you thinking, echidna?"
"I was pondering what would happen if someone with two different personalities was put into that machine..."
Tails' eyes brightened. "You mean that maybe one of Shadow's personalities ISN'T under their control?" Mary looked pleased with the idea too, though skeptical.
"Didn't he attack us? Just like Sonic? If he was still in control, wouldn't he have attacked the commander instead?" The redhead pushed some of her hair from her face. "Or at least protected us from Sonic?"
The Guardian sighed, "Well, the killer personality was in control when they were trapped into that room, and if I know THAT Shadow enough, as soon as he felt himself and Sonic in danger, he would have gone into a berserk status. Whenever this happen, the innocent Shadow is totally put to sleep."
The small fox looked at him confused, "So, what you're trying to say?"
"What I'm saying is, that IF the innocent Shadow is not under that human scum control, he's in a deep sleep..."
"So how is that going to help us?" Rouge asked, crossing her arms. "I mean, if you're saying this Shadow person has two minds, and only one is in control right now, how do you wake the other one up?"
"Shadow is based on Chaos Energy. Maybe him getting in contact with a Chaos Emerald will make the latent personality wake up. Hopefully, this is not a problem. I'm sure that the scum will send Sonic and Shadow after the emeralds. However, this is only a theory. That is why we need you help Rouge. You have to get into that base somehow and get info on how to revert or break that mind control."
Rouge gave him a surprised look. "Are you sure they'll even keep information on that? After all, they sound like they've been trying to get a hold of your friend for years. Why record how he can be saved?"
"Insurance." Mary answered, before the others could. "GUN wants to be prepared. If something goes wrong, they'll want to be able to reverse the process and fix it. They're picky about these things."
The echidna turned to face the white female, "Will you accept this challenge, or is a top spy like you not enough to help two hedgehogs?"
Rouge snorted, and crossed her arms, her nose in the air. "Anything you can do, I can do ten times better, faster, and look better doing it too."
"Very well, then." He said curtly.
Rouge seethed at the echidna, but spoke only to announce that she was getting some fresh air, and that they could tell her what she missed later.
The old man looked up at the Guardian, "Please. He deserve to be happy. Nothing else..." He said as old pent up tears fell down his cheeks
"Don't worry, Grandpa. Everything will be okay-" Mary's words were cut short by Rouge's head popping in the doorway.
"Hey guys, your buddies are coming again! You might want to wrap this up!"
Tails sighed and stood up from his spot on the ground and Knuckles growled and cursed under his breath.
"Knuckles... were should go now?" The fox asked tired of all this running.
The Guardian shook his head. "We've exhausted most of our hiding places, there's no where left to go that we can be sure is safe..."
"There is a place!" Mary exclaimed, pointing at a picture of herself as a child on the fireplace mantle nearby. The background featured an expanse of grass, surrounded by mountains. "I use to go there when I stayed over Grandpa's house It's not far, we could make it in minutes!"
Knuckles nodded, "Good. Take the picture away, or GUN, if they get into this house, might understand where we are." He said leaving the room.
Tails turned around and smiled at the old man, "Thanks for your help."
The old man nodded, clutching his granddaughter's hands for a moment, then letting go. "Just...let Shadow know...how sorry I am, for my part in his troubles..."
The young fox nodded and followed his older friend; the woman was going to follow him, but she was stopped by her grandfather, "Before you go, will you give this," He stood up shakily and walked to the fireplace, taking a small object from it.
He turned around and placed it on his granddaughter's right hand, "Will you give this to Shadow? Maria's last words were to give this to him... "
Mary opened her hand, and stared down at the little trinket. A pendant of sorts, more an old fashioned locket. She resisted the temptation to try and open it, instead nodding to her elderly relative, and throwing her arms around him in a brief hug.
"I will. Love you Grandpa." She whispered, the way she always used to say it when it was time for her to return to her parents' house, after a summer visit. Then she rushed after the others.
The old man watched as she ran out of the door, "Good luck, and may you help Shadow find happiness once and for all."