SEASON 2 CHAPTER 3:
Tails laid down on his bed, ready for a good night's sleep. The day had passed in relative normalcy, mostly working on the Zero replacing body panels, engine tuning, polishing, and painting the new panels, with a little bit of practicing new swordplay skills with Saito and more reading practice with Tabitha. To top it all off, he built a small, simple collapsible cot made of wood and canvas for when Louise had required him to sleep in her room. "All in all, a successful day, I'd say," he thought.
Saito finally entered the room after finishing a late dinner and bath, flopping down on Louise's bed – a privlege she recently decided he had earned for not leaving for home during the eclipse. "Thank god for beds and sleep," Saito said. "I don't think anything could ever feel as comfortable as a hot bath and a warm bed. You know what I'm saying, Tails?"
"Yeah," Tails said, nodding in agreement. "Hey, just curious, what did you do to the Queen while you were in that cell? Ring was laughing as he read your thoughts for a moment."
Saito sat up in bed, shaking his hands. "Nothing! Tell Ring to keep to himself from now on! He's going to get me in more trouble than I'll be able to stay alive through!"
The door slammed inwards, yielding a furious Louise who had just overheard their conversation. "Ring, do you care to tell me exactly what Saito was thinking at the time he was in the cell with Her Majesty?" she asked, a disapproving frown on her face.
"Sure!" Ring said, eager to cause some mischief as he slid out of his sheath to speak. "Se was thinking about asking if he could touc-" Ring began. Tails rapidly slammed him back in his sheath, blocking his speech. "Not now, Ring. If she gets mad, we'll never get any sleep. You know that," the fox thought.
"You making that an order to shut up?" Ring thought back.
"Make it a combo, don't tell her telepathically, either. Large fries and a drink while you're at it."
Louise stomped over and pulled Tails out of bed, shaking him by the shoulders. "Don't you keep the truth from me or I'll beat you both!" she yelled, glancing over to Saito. She grabbed at Ring and drew him from Tails' sheath, giving him a shake. "Tell me!"
"Sorry, under orders from Tails not to tell. He's also asking for some food, while you're taking instructions," Ring stated in a deadpan voice.
Furious, Louise threw Ring against the wall by Tails' cot and rushed to her drawer, reaching for her riding crop. She immediately lunged for Saito, screaming as she swung her weapon. "You dogs! Conspiring together, thinking of the Queen like that!"
Saito leapt off the bed, narrowly dodging a blow to the head. "Hey, let's all go to bed and forget about it! It's passed, and Henrietta said its okay!"
"IT'S NOT OKAY!" Louise barked, catching him square across the face with the sturdy riding crop. He tumbled back across the room, slamming into Tails and knocking them both over. Tails was the first to recover, sliding out from underneath Saito and scuttling back by Louise's bed to retrieve a pillow to defend himself with. As Louise laid into Saito with her crop, Tails saw his chance and quickly got into bed, making himself as inconspicuous as possible.
"I figured it'd end this way," Derflinger said, sliding out of his own sheath.
"No kidding," Ring added. "If there were ever a couple that loved each other by fighting, this is them."
"I wouldn't call it love, Ring," Tails said, his voice drowned out by Saito and Louise's one-sided verbal and physical sparring. "More like physical abuse. Only one person is being aggressive here. Anyways, I'm gonna try to get to bed before Louise is through with Saito. Maybe she won't wake me up." Silently yawning, he clasped the pillow he "confiscated" from Louise's bed over his head to drown out the noise, slowly slipping into sleep.
*KERBLAM*
The door slammed open, startling Tails out of his uneventful sleep. His eyes focused to the morning light streaming through the window, staring at Louise sitting on top of a beaten, topless Saito. Tails could see Agnès' head in the doorway, a look comprised of surprise, confusion, and slight fear across her face.
"Uhhh… I'll come back another time…" Agnès said, slowly withdrawing from the room. She shut the door but didn't let the handle go, confused as to what to do. Moments later, she slammed the door back open again, having overcome her confusion. "Sorry, but this can't wait. Her Majesty the Queen's been kidnapped!"
"WHAAAT?" Saito and Louise stated in unison.
"Yeah. Get cleaned up, then meet me downstairs by the gate. We need you in the air with your dragon to help get her back, as soon as possible." Agnès shut the door and ran down the dorm hall, footsteps fading into background noise of waking students.
Louise removed herself from Saito's chest and began changing into fresh, undamaged clothes while Saito donned his white t-shirt and blue hoodie. Tails rolled out of bed, tossing his pillow back onto Louise's bed. "Jeez, were you two fighting all night or something?" He asked, looking back and forth between the two as he secured Ring's sheath to his hip.
"Yeah," Saito nodded, yawning from the lack of sleep. "Looks like you missed out on the fun…"
"Shut up," Louise snapped. "I'm just as tired as you and it's your own fault."
When Saito and Louise were fully dressed, Tails slipped on his shoes and gloves and took off down the hall to the stairs. The peach-haired twenty-year-old lady was waiting patiently by the perimeter gate on her horse, checking over the edge of her saber as she waited for the others to jog over.
"From now on, we will refer to you three as callsign 'Zero', as is the reported name of the dragon," she said as Tails and the others approached. "We need you airborne and headed to Lake Lagdorian, as that is the last heading my squad gave me before I came here. See you there." With that, Agnès stowed her blade and tapped her mount's sides with her heels, taking off down the dirt road away from the Academy at a breakneck gallop.
Saito turned to Tails. "Did you finish the repairs on the Zero yet?"
"Yeah, for the most part. She's airworthy, as far as I can tell."
"Good. Louise and I will fly in the Zero then. You can fly your own X Tornado. Louise knows the way, so you can just follow us."
Tails nodded. "Right. Let's get airborne."
Saito and Louise jogged over to where the Zero was resting outside the perimeter wall, the faint, acrid scent of freshly dried paint hanging around the craft in the still morning air. Helping Louise up into the craft, Saito climbed up onto the wing and took a seat, with Louise sitting sideways on his lap.
"I had Professor Colbert help me clean and refill the fuel tanks when I fixed the fuel line," Tails said, waiting by the plane's propeller. "Ready?"
Flipping a switch to open up the fuel lines, Saito gave the fox a thumbs-up. His hand gripped tightly around the control stick as Tails gave the propeller a good spin, the radial engine sputtering to life once more. Pushing the throttle lever forward turned the sputter into a roar, the rush of air over the fuselage howling in his ears until he reached behind him to shut the canopy. The craft lurched forward, slowly picking up speed as it rolled over the grassy field. A sense of excitement began to build in Saito's chest as the craft began to take to the air after each bump, struggling to get to the air.
Intently focused on the horizon, a sudden jolt of the craft gave Saito a brief scare as the plane took to the air. Glancing up at Louise, he noticed her gaze transfixed on the left wing of the craft; to his surprise, Tails was crouched on the wing, resting his right hand on canopy's glass top. How he was able to stand against the ferocious wind rushing past the craft was beyond him.
"He really is something else," Louise remarked. "I'm surprised he isn't dead by now, pulling stunts like that."
"Yeah, really. Good thing he's on our side, though. Hell, it's a good thing YOU'RE on our side," Saito replied.
"I suppose…" Louise said, blushing at the compliment.
The three flew in silence for a ways, constantly on the lookout for either the kidnapper or the queen's squad of cavalry giving chase as they headed for the lake. The sunny skies above slowly gave way to dark clouds with a light, bone-chilling misty rain that spattered against the windscreen.
"Can't we go any faster? This is super cramped," Louise said, shuffling around on Saito's lap. "My back's killing me."
"Yeah, we can, but I don't want to knock Tails off out there," he replied, looking over to the fox. "Also, with him on the wing, it's unstable as it is. Going faster would be even harder to control."
Suddenly, a loud series of pops rang out from the engine. Thin black smoke began to waft out of the engine compartment from every crevice, spurring Saito to pitch the craft down to drop altitude in a moment of panic.
Tails noticed the smoke and worked his way over to the engine compartment. Saito watched as he casually popped open the service hatch, letting the wind clear out a large volume of black smoke. After a moment's inspection, Tails signaled to Saito to kill the engine, which Saito did gladly.
The fox shut the service panel and worked his way back to the cockpit, sliding open the glass canopy to give Saito the news. "Multiple ruptured gaskets," he said. "They must've been pretty worn out, but my HUD didn't pick up on them. Besides getting awful compression and wasting precious oil, the engine would eventually seize, which is more repair work than I care for. Just set her down somewhere."
"Hey, look!" Louise called, pointing over the right side of the silently gliding plane. Saito put the plane into a slight bank in order to get a better view, catching sight of a horse and its rider at full tilt.
"That's got to be them. And hey, there's the lake!" Saito said, straining to be heard over the rushing wind. He pointed the craft toward the glistening water and began maneuvering around the lake, looking to land near the edge. He brought the landing gear down and maneuvered for the lake's edge, but the Queen's captor, had other plans, stopping his horse right in the plane's path. Saito pulled back up and retracted the landing gear, deciding to take the next best approach. He didn't have enough momentum to get back around the lake for another attempt, so he cut it short and landed on the surface of the water belly-first. With the soft rush of water filling the still air, the craft glided across the water, coming to a stop as the belly of the craft ran up against the bottom of the lake's pebble-filled edge with a soft crunch.
"Smooth as silk, Saito. You sure this is only your second time flying?" Tails remarked.
The Japanese boy held up his left hand, showing off his glowing runes on the back of his hand."Gandalfr powers, remember?"
"Oh, right. That's cheating," the fox replied with a laugh. Shutting down his rocket shoes, he walked the length of the wing and leaped to shore, his shoes sinking ever so slightly into the soft, wet grass.
Tails killed his rocket shoes' reverse thrust and hopped off the wing of the plane onto solid ground. A few feet ahead of him stood a familiar-looking blond-haired man in a blue jacket, his arm wrapped around queen Henrietta's shoulder as he held her tight to his side.
Finally, the thought clicked in Tails' mind. "Prince Wales? Is that you?" Tails asked, in shock. "I thought you were dead! How…"
Wales shrugged and gave the fox a short grin. "Well, here I am, aren't I? Now if you don't mind, step aside from the water. We have a promise, a marriage, and a life to fulfil," he said with confidence. Behind him, the horse he had ridden whinnied nervously.
Saito and Louise scrambled to their feet, leaping to the grass. "Henrietta! That man's a fake! I saw Wales die with my own two eyes!" he said, pointing at the blond-haired man.
"No! It cannot be!" Henrietta cried, trembling with emotion at the accusation. "See? He has the other royal ring, the Ruby of Wind! No one but the true Prince could have such a ring." She held up his hand with hers, revealing the matching set of rings they shared. Each stone gave off a faint glow, purple and blue.
Out of the corner of his eye, Tails watched as an icicle the size of his head streaked through the air, exploding into icy dust only a foot from Wales' head as he intercepted it with a spell from his own short, black wand. Not daring to look away from the potential imposter, Tails glanced over to see Tabitha and Kirche dismount from Sylphid.
"Give it up, your majesty. He's a fake, being controlled by magic," Kirche called. "We did our research. Well, Tabitha did, on the way here. It's the Ring of Andvari."
Glaring at the two girls, Wales raised his wand and let loose a wordless spell. With an deafening roar, a concussive blast of air erupted from his wand, throwing the two girls to the ground with incredible force. The world went silent for a moment as the ringing sensation in Tails' ears subsided, the gentle hiss of rain falling into the still lake like snakes constricting around his stomach in fear.
"No!" Tails yelped, turning to sprint to his fallen friends, but was stopped by Wales as he turned his wand to the fox. "Do not touch them," Wales ordered, scowling fiercely. "I only gave them what they intended to do to me."
"Henrietta! Can't you see what he just did?!" Saito called. "He hurt your friends! The real Wales wouldn't have done that!"
Wales now turned to Henrietta at his side, a sickening smile on his face. "Come, my Queen. Let us show them true magic so I may prove myself," Wales said into Henrietta's ear, holding her trembling hands as he helped her raise her ceremonial mace against Saito, Louise, and Tails. With a silent chant the two nobles shared, a frigid swirling gust of wind filled the air. Like a geyser, a vortex of rainwater sprung out of the ground, clawing to the sky high above as it approached its victims.
Overhearing some muffled conversation, Saito drew Derflinger and leaped forward, sword held in front of him. His blade seemed to halt the tornado's path, but only with immense effort from Saito as he dug his feet into the soft dirt. "Hey, I need some help here!" Saito called.
Tails only stood in shock, looking over at Tabitha and Kirche in their fallen state. Time crawled to a standstill, the world's colors now muted and lackluster as he watched - he knew what was about to happen, and yet didn't know what to make of it. Two voices took over his mind, neither one of them Ring or his own; one urged him to accept something, the other to reject it. It was the voices of the Chaos Emeralds, voices he'd heard before, but he couldn't quite put it in words as to where.
"Are they dead?" he thought, watching Tabitha and Kirche with total disconnect, perhaps from the sudden shock. One voice told him yes, the other, "maybe". Both led to the same response in Tails' mind. Together, the voices urged him to act, and fast.
Tails' perception of time snapped back to reality, but he felt different. Looking down at his hands, he found his body coursing with a dark energy that seemed to fill him with anger, with power. "You wanna play, you sonovabitch?" he muttered, looking up at the tornado that Saito struggled to resist. Glancing back at Louise, he watched as she recoiled in surprise at his near instantaneous change, shocked by his new appearance.
"I've got this," he said, receiving a quick, frightened nod from the girl. He turned back to Saito and strode past him, stepping into the spell. Speeding clods of dirt ripped from the ground by the tornado harmlessly bounced off of him as he walked, stepping out on the other side. Henrietta could only watch in horror as Tails ripped the mace from her hand, flipping it around and planting its bulky metal head deep in Wales' stomach as the tornado dissipated. As the man buckled in half from the blow, Tails removed the bloodied mace and raised it high, ready to snap him in half with a blow to the spine, but Henrietta cried out and threw herself at Tails, staggering him and forcing him to halt his attack.
Henrietta locked eyes with the fox, speechless as she gazed into his empty eyes – his pupils and retinas had faded, leaving nothing but a white void that chilled her to the bone. She tried to speak, but no words would come out as she wept, tears streaming down her face. "Don't," she managed to say.
Nodding, Tails lowered the mace, handing it back to her before gently pushing her aside. He stepped over to where Wales lay, quietly coughing up blood that stained his white clothes underneath his jacket. "If you ever touch my friends again, I will put my fist through your chest and rip out your heart," Tails growled. Henrietta rushed over to the fallen man's side, clasping his hand in hers.
Wales let out a bloody, gurgling cough before looking over to the purple-haired queen. "My Princess, my time is short. I am already dead, and must return," Wales stated, gently but matter-of-factly. "I want you to promise me something before I go."
"Anything!" Henrietta sobbed.
"Forgive me, and find someone else to love. Forget me so that you may move on, and love again."
Henrietta seemed surprised. "But what of our oath? I can't make a promise like that!" she said, shaking her head.
"You must. I want to hear those words," Wales insisted. "Make a new oath, with the Water Spirit of Lake Lagdorian as witness."
"I can't!"
"You must."
"No! I will have you make an oath to me. Swear that you will love me for eternity!"
"I'm sorry, Henrietta. A dead man cannot make an oath of eternity."
"Please!" Henrietta pleaded.
"Henrietta. I couldn't say these words before, due to a fate I thought would happen. I love you, and always will. Goodbye."
And with that, Wales gave a final sigh and passed away.