Chapter Forty-Nine

"You're going home."

Tails, Kat, Shine, Shadow, and Sonic all gave Mortuus dry expressions through the energy field that kept him pent up in his makeshift cell, where he stood casually. Kat crossed her arms, Shine nearly mirroring it, quickly uncrossing them when she noticed. Though everyone was thinking it, Shadow, as per the usual, was the first to point out the obvious. "You expect us to go back to a planet that still has some semblance of population so you can… what? Draw Virgo there? Finish the job yourself?"

"I want to go back there because I have a theory."

"Oh, how nice," Tails shared a grin with Kat, "a theory. That's helpful."

A look of annoyance ghosted across Mortuus' face. "Laugh it up, chucklenuts, we both know what the foundation of science is." Tails and Kat gave an indifferent shrug. That was enough for the experiment to feel like he could continue. "Eggman had to create a special tool to power me, a man-made chaos emerald." At that, ears perked. "He wasn't highly tactful, that man, but he wasn't an idiot. He didn't bring that emerald with him when he left your planet. Trust me, I… checked. Which means the old man left it in his laboratory."

Before they could prompt him with questions, Mortuus continued. "My theory is that whatever Virgo did to me was like putting a cap on a bottle, or a dam in a lake. It cuts off my powers and bottles up whatever's left. I only think that 'cus I can still feel power bubblin' around inside me somewhere. With the chaos emerald Eggman made, I think I can break the dam with a surge of energy, to keep with the metaphor." He paused, then added "That, or it'll destroy me from the inside out. Either way, you guys win; one of your enemies will be permanently dealt with."

"That's pretty funny to hear from someone who keeps saying they want to survive for those humans…" Shadow muttered, although part of him could understand it. He'd never admit it.

"Their lives are at risk with Virgo running free." Mortuus answered simply. "We might be safe for a while, but who's to say Virgo won't track me down come 15 years? I know where she is now. I wanna get it over with, no surprises later down the road."

That was a level-headed enough response. It got Tails thinking about who or what, exactly, changed Mortuus' thinking so much. He'd say chemical shifts in the brain or something, but he wasn't even sure if Mortuus had a brain. He was, as far as Tails could tell, just a connection of energy bursts. If anything, his entire self was as close to a brain as he'll ever get. But that wouldn't explain why he was suddenly so invested in doing 'the right thing.' He thought back to his theory about the host's mind diminishing, wondering again if Mortuus was inexplicably treating it as free real estate for personal development.

"This is a huge risk we'd be taking." Tails broke out of his thoughts. He peered past the others to look at Sonic with earnest eyes. "It's an easy way to get everyone cornered."

"And anyways, why should we even bring you that far?" Sonic tilted his head at Mortuus. "What's stopping us from using you as bait instead to draw Virgo out? Something tells me it'd work. Either way, we'd get the upper hand."

Mortuus laughed heartily. "For a group of people who've been in the game as long as you have, I'm surprised at your naïveté every time you open your mouths. You've seen her. You've experienced her. You know she's not just your friendly neighbourhood supervillain. She's a whole other beast, and she doesn't play nice when she wants something to get done." He hooked a thumb at his chest. "I'm your secret weapon. If my theory is right, not only will I bust through that cap, but I'll keep going – I'll be one extra-charged battery."

"That doesn't sit right with me…"

"Nothing sits right with you, Mr. Sunshine. You know what doesn't sit right with me? Your lack of eye-contact, sir. I know you only have one left, but please make an effort." Mortuus snapped at Shadow. He caught himself before he could say anything more, righting himself. He was obviously starting to lose his patience. Seems eleven years trapped in his own mind didn't teach him a lick of patience. "Look, I get it. I'm the bad guy, I'm the villain, your reactions are justified… But please don't try to be smart right now. Just be your regular old idiot selves and accept what I say with your usual minor reluctance. I'm the lesser of two evils, here, and I'm willing to help you. All I need is a little help in return – which, in the long-run, will only serve you in your fight against Virgo."

"All I can say," Sonic started, raising his hands definitively, "is that this is a dangerous idea and I think we should find another way."


"'Don't do the thing' Sonic said, 'it'd be dangerous,' he said, 'let's figure out a safer way to do this,' he said…" Sonic whinged under his breath from Shine's side. He crossed his arms as the Blue Typhoon let down it's boarding ramp. In front of them, Shadow tensely stood beside Byrch, who was just as uncomfortable. He was bound with a special pair of cuffs, their restraints moving beyond the physical to suppress as much of what remained of his powers. He was also tagged with two trackers (one which Tails had secretly placed on the back of the host's neck.) Mortuus waited in front of them, tapping his foot rhythmically to an unheard beat while he waited for the ramp to finish lowering. Tails and Kat tentatively took the lead, lugging gear with them to help their search for Eggman's laboratory.

The fires that had scorched the land from the attack months ago had died out, probably with the help of the remaining citizens on the planet who didn't need to be evacuated. Ash still covered the earth, but plants had begun poking out of the soot, restoring what once was. Mortuus didn't acknowledge the damage that he caused, acted as though it wasn't even there. That clearly rubbed a few people the wrong way, especially Sonic. This was his home, born and raised. Seeing it in ruins was painful.

They brought themselves down as close to the location of the laboratory as they could get, but they'd have to travel a couple miles by foot to reach the entrance to a cave system that apparently held Eggman's property. Tails was forced to leave Simon and Willow in charge of the Blue Typhoon again, only hoping nothing drastic happened.

The entrance itself was unassuming, lichen overgrowing a path that hadn't been travelled in a long while. Shine narrowed her eyes at Mortuus suspiciously, but he confidently ensured that this was the way. Shine made the group wait a few seconds while she popped in ahead, making sure this wasn't a trap. When she nearly ran into a large metal door after a few twists and turns, she returned to the group and led them to it.

It was painted with the signature mustachioed grinning face they all knew too well. Some of the paint was wearing away, unsurprisingly after so much time has passed of disuse.

"There you go, Heroes." Mortuus smugly pointed with both bound hands. "I wasn't lying. How's that feel?"

"Disconcerting." Shine growled, glaring at the back of the experiment's head while Tails and Kat worked to get the door open. Within a minute, it jerked and stuttered open, slowly retracting into the ceiling and ground of the cave.

"Well, get used to it." Mortuus half-heartedly muttered back at her as they cautiously entered what appeared to be an airlock of sorts. After being assaulted by a rush of air, the second door opened, this one more smoothly.

Inside, they found the laboratory was an expansive room filled with test chambers, tables covered in papers and tools, boards pinned with schematics and plans, half-finished projects, and a film of dust. The place hasn't been touched in a long time.

The door behind them barely closed and the lights flickered to life when an image was projected in front of them from several lights gathered at the ceiling. The image was of Eggman himself, looking somewhat bedraggled and stressed, just as they saw him in the little robotic body he'd last been using to help out the cause in. He still had that same vigor as always. For a minute, it seemed they were actually talking to him, but it quickly became apparent that this wasn't the case.

"Team Sonic," he drawled with distaste, lifting his nose, "how nice of you to drop in." He balked, clenching his jaw. Then he said "If you're seeing this video message, then I am, unfortunately, dead. I'm not lucky enough to have the expanded lifespan you share with your little friends. Faced with my own mortality, I've decided to make a few preparations. I've realized that my own creations will outlive me." His tone darkened. "One way or another. In any case, I've tried distancing myself from them, but what is coming is inevitable. As of this recording, Mortuus has attacked this planet. I'm not safe – no one is – for long. And if I'm dead, I have no doubt in my mind that he is the cause."

All eyes suddenly fell on the experiment, whose only indication of nervousness was a sudden shift from one foot to the other.

The recording of Eggman continued. "If indeed Mortuus is free and presenting himself as a major threat, I'm sure you've visited my lab in an attempt to nullify him. Unfortunately, I can't offer you viable options to destroy him. And if, by chance, it is you, Mortuus, who has ventured into my lab… how dare you?" Eggman's face moved closer to the screen and his brows furrowed. "Some gall! I shouldn't be surprised, but somehow I hoped you'd be better than to ransack a dead man's life's work. And what you're looking for? It isn't here."

"Oh, it's here…" Mortuus huffed quietly, waiting impatiently for the video to end.

"Mortuus must be stopped," Eggman continued, "and if it is Mortuus listening to this then I'll say, with confidence, that you will be stopped." His face fell gravely serious. "If there's any regret I could name as my heaviest, it's the creation of Mortuus. The cataclysmic havoc and pain it caused is irreversible and damning, and it weighs on my shoulders every day. I hope a way to stop him can be found before it's too late."

With that, the video cut off, the projection disappearing. Everyone turned to look at Mortuus, who tried to stand his ground with a straight back. He crumpled a little and gestured to the laboratory. "Can we just get this over with, please?"

"Did you…?" Sonic breathed, unable to ask the question to which the answer he knew would hit him with a strange sort of mourning. Eggman was his lifelong enemy, sure, but to so unceremoniously hear he was killed was a shock to the system.

"What does he matter if he's dead anyways?" Mortuus deflected sharply. The energy in the room became charged with fury and he flinched away from his own words. He must have realized they were too callous for the already sensitive group he was snapping at. He changed his tone to something resembling civil, though he couldn't hide how defensive he felt. "I cleaned up loose ends, alright? He was getting in the way, I needed him gone. And, to be fair, I thought I'd be in operation a little while longer. I just…" He trailed off when Sonic's face turned icy and Shadow took an aggressive step towards Mortuus with his fists clenched.

"Guys!" Tails quickly interjected. He was none too happy either, but it wasn't the time to dawdle. In any case, he wasn't eager to watch Shadow take his aggression out on someone in handcuffs. "We can clear that up later, OK? Right now, let's find what we have to and get out of here before Virgo decides to pay us a surprise visit. The last thing we need is to be trapped in a dead-end when she's got unlimited resources to flush us out."

"I agree," Kat added dryly, more annoyed that they were taking so much time to dwell on this than anything. "Right about now is when things start to go belly-up in all of our plans, so I'm not looking to double our odds at that. Let's get a move on and discuss this later. It's not our pressing issue."

"Alright, alright…" Sonic waved them off. He standoffishly gestured toward Mortuus. With an edge to his voice, he said "She's right. We can talk about it later. Just tell us where this thing is and we can get out of here."

"I don't know where, exactly, 'this thing' is." The parasite retorted dully. "Knowing that old man, it could be anywhere. But I know for sure it's in Eggman's base."

Shine narrowed her eyes. "What?"

Mortuus was quick defend himself, already knowing that they were going to accuse him of dragging them along on a wild goose chase. "When I came here to take him after I attacked, he came willingly. No traps, no fighting, nothing. And then, while I had him, he made no attempt to escape. He tried to help your cause vicariously. To me, that sounds like he wanted you to go looking for him. And nine times outta ten, this woulda been the first place you'd check. That message was meant for you, he wanted you to know there was something in here that could stop me. He probably thinks that the chaos emerald he made could be reverse engineered or something, who knows. But it's gotta be here."

"He's not lying at that…" Kat had her nose buried in one of the tablets from Tails' arsenal. Shine peered over her shoulder at the small handheld device Kat was playing with. "There is something here. Whether it's what he says it is or not remains to be seen, but I am getting readings for something with energy levels not unlike that of a chaos emerald."

Tails turned to his own device, a larger tablet that gave him a more specific reading. Mortuus smugly watched as Tails' face twisted in confusion. "Whatever it is," said Tails, "it's below us."


"I found it!" Kat announced triumphantly across the communicators each of them had. A moment later, Sonic arrived in the study that Kat and Tails had been scouring for any sort of secret entrance. Seconds later, Shine and Shadow arrived with Mortuus in tow.

Mortuus let out an impressed whistle. "Good job, kid. That didn't take you long at all."

Kat ignored him. She nodded toward the large elevator that had been previously concealed by a bookshelf covered in textbooks and schematic books. "It goes down."

Shine approached the elevator, shrugging casually. "Then so too shall we."

Shadow wasn't so quick. "And if it's a trap?" He growled pointedly.

"There's only one way to find out, Sunshine…" Mortuus purred, following Shine into the elevator.

Reluctantly, Sonic followed him in. When he turned and saw the piercing look he was getting from Shadow, he lifted his shoulders. "What else are we gonna do? Dig?"

Shadow only grudgingly joined them in the elevator when Kat and Tails entered and stood waiting for him. He kept his distance from Mortuus. It reminded him of the last time they were in an elevator with Mortuus, and that was a memory he'd rather let alone.

They descended what felt like more than just a floor. When the elevator slowed to a stop and the doors slid open, the group was greeted with an unexpected visage: a natural cavern, fitted with floor lights. The lights refracted off of natural gems and shiny cave rock, lighting the room up brilliantly. The large, dome-shaped cavern was also surrounded by a moat of water that gently lapped at its stony confines.

"Whoa…" Mortuus breathed as they tentatively stepped out of the elevator. Their voices echoed in the tall-ceilinged cave. "I could live here. This is beautiful."

"Keep it up, we might just leave you here and cut off the power…" Shine warned lightly. Mortuus chuckled, not bothering to shoot a retort back at her. Shine didn't have the heart to tell him she was only half-joking.

In the center of the cavern was a large, metal pedestal, on which sat a black chaos emerald nested in a special metal stand.

Mortuus' eyes locked onto it. "There it is…" He seemed utterly pleased with himself.

"Why is it black?" Sonic frowned as they drew closer to it. He stuck to the middle of the stony walkway, away from the water. "Has it been exhausted?"

"That's just it's hue…" Mortuus absentmindedly responded, not taking his eyes off of it.

The emerald itself looked like it was cut from a smoky gem. It was too dark to see through. It really did look like an exhausted chaos emerald, but just being so close to it was enough to say that this emerald was, in fact, nowhere near that.

"Tails, is that thing… dangerous at all?" Shine looked to the young fox, not wanting to touch the thing before they knew for sure whether it was safe or not.

"It's hard to say. I don't see any immediate issues, but who's to say—"

Before Tails could finish, Mortuus reached out and snatched the emerald off its little cushion. Everyone flinched away from him, eyes wide, suddenly on the defensive. Mortuus ignored them, gripping the emerald close.

"Oh yeah," he tittered happily, turning to the group with a toothy grin, "this is it. It feels right." He cooed "Come to momma…" to the gem, and, before they could stop him, he activated it.

His eyes glazed over and went dark. A surge of light blinded them. Shine stumbled back and held her hands over her face in and attempt to keep the glare from searing into her vision. She felt someone, Sonic from the sounds of it, bump into her. Or maybe she bumped into him. It was hard to tell.

They blinked away the temporary blindness, the visage of the cavern returning in full… as well as the visage of a ten-foot-tall eyeless creature straightening itself upright.

Mortuus, no longer in his host, stretched out his nightmarishly long limbs. He let out a satisfied hum, looking down at himself in surprise when he realized he was no longer confined to a human body. Likewise, everyone had quickly backed away from him. Shadow, Shine, and Sonic dropped into a ready stance should Mortuus attack. Tails and Kat moved slightly closer to each other, letting Shadow put himself between them and the parasite. Kat reached for the gun she'd forgotten she lost on the highway.

The creature just grinned at them, lowering his head menacingly. "Thanks for the help, Heroes…" he purred, holding out a hand and letting a handful of chaotic energy dance along his grey, leathery skin. He snapped his hand shut, cutting the display of power short. "You have no idea how good this feels. You're such precious little lambs…" He leaned forward with a grin that seemed to widen impossibly. "And now that I've herded you all into the same room…"