Chapter 54: End of the Line

We entered the store, and the Empress awaited us with a skeptical look as we made our way to the counter where she stood.

"You're back. And this time, I haven't been given a Time Piece," She hissed.

"Yes, your goons never showed up to take the Time Piece," I stated, then plopped the Time Piece on the counter. "So there you go. Express delivery."

A sly grin crept onto her face and she took the Time Piece.

"Well, well, well," She said, "I must say I'm impressed with your loyalty. I can't even begin to say how often an employee tried to pull a trick on me."

I scratched my head uncomfortably.

"And we saw firsthand how much you hate betrayal," I muttered.

"Indeed," She agreed, tossing me another stack of cash, "Are you enjoying your stay in my metro? There's people from all over here. It's the perfect place for a little lying, a little cheating, a little stealing."

"It is quite a fascinating place, and beautiful too. Although not exactly the safest place I've ever been," I muttered.

The Empress chuckled.

"There's a place for you here, both of you, once this is over. You've proved to me your usefulness and your loyalty. I'd be willing to let you in on my biggest operations, and there's one coming up soon that I will have to leave to attend to," She said, "However, there's still one station left for you to search before I let you in on the action."

"The pink station?" I guessed.

"Yes, the Pink Paw Station. Now that you've explored the other stations, you should have all the metro passes you need to get there, well, at least the long way. Once you've finished, come back here and wait for my return. Then we can talk about your place here."

"Alright, sounds like a plan," I said, then turned around and exited the story, kid following behind.

We quickly found the way into the pink station and entered, but I was stopped by the kid clearing her throat in an annoyed matter.

"Something wrong?" I asked her.

"I feel like you're forgetting why we're here," She whispered, "We're here for the time pieces, not a job."

I shook my head.

"I get that. The Time Pieces are the priority. But I'm trying to say what pleases her. The more she trusts us, the better our chances of getting the Time Pieces back from her. Who knows? Maybe she'll reward us with Time Pieces for doing jobs for her," I suggested quietly.

"That'll take too long," She muttered.

"Ok, then what should we do?" I asked.

"I know what we should do," She said smugly.

"Well, I'm all ears, kid," I stated.

"I won't tell you," She taunted.

"Why?" I questioned.

"You won't like it," She said.

"Why don't you tell me and I'll decide that for myself?" I grumbled.

"Nope," She said, "I made up my mind, and you said it yourself, I'm your captain, you gotta follow my orders!"

I stared at her blankly.

"You'd better not get us killed, kid," I deadpanned.

"Don't worry," She reassured, "I have it aaaaallll planned out."

I sighed.

"Well, I guess I'll take your word for it," I muttered.

We continued down a vent and stopped at set of two train tracks.

Remember back in the Bluefin Tunnel where we had to weave between two sets of trains to get to the other side? Well, that' exactly what this was except the trains were shorter and they were coming at us faster.

But we made it to the other side without issue. Neither of us had gotten hit by a train yet, that's a record we wanted to upkeep.

When we made it to the other side, we hopped up a vending machine to get up to a ledge, then we saw, you guessed it, more train tracks waiting for us. We waited for a train to come then climbed on top of one...

Then quickly had to jump over to another train to avoid being hit by a giant sign, and then hop over a couple smaller signs.

Then we had to jump back to the first train, hop over another sign, then quickly dive into another vent or else we'd faceplant into a giant sign... which was pointing toward the vent.

Very strange.

"I'm beginning to think this place was intended to be this dangerous," I grumbled, "Well, at least we're almost done here."

We hopped onto a cat rumbi and emerged in the actual station. To the back, I saw some pink holographic walls that seemed to connect the station to the main station.

"So that's the short way," I muttered, "Well, you know what to do."

I waited as the kid scanned for Time Pieces with her hat, and I saw a frown emerge on her face.

"What?" I asked.

"I was hoping we'd get to stick together again, but no," She whined, "There's one in a manhole and one at the end of the station, soooo..."

"Oh well, we'll have all the time in the world to explore together later," I muttered, then walked over to a food cart and hopped on top of it. "We'll meet back here, right?" I asked.

She nodded.

"Alright. Well, good luck," I wished. She nodded again.

With that out of the way, I hopped onto a train passing behind the food cart, then another one passing right overhead of that train.

I then hopped off of the train onto a ledge, and I saw a cat rumbi stuck to the wall, although there were some trains I had to dive between to get to it.

I was bounced up to another ledge, this one had an unused train track on it weirdly enough, and I saw a small purple dimensional cube and a larger green one at the edge of the ledge.

"Real good thing I have that charm," I muttered to myself, "Although I wonder how these kinda things get here."

I activated the charm and hopped onto the green cube, then jumped off and swung toward a hookshot clamp suspended in the air... well, actually, all of these 'clamps' were just floating signs telling train arrival and departure times with hooks on the bottoms of them, but oh well... wait, where was I?

Oh right... I waited for a train to pass then swung off, dove past another train, swung across another sign, and landed on a larger section of the station.

Ahead, there were some purple bars blocking the path, but that didn't stop me with my charm.

I activated the charm again and jumped onto the back wall, landing on a cat rumbi which bounced me up higher.

I smirked.

Honestly, now that I wasn't so afraid of heights, exploring these places was honestly a blast. I could do it all day.

It was just so satisfying!

I jumped ahead and swung across two more floating signs, activated my charm to land on a green dimensional 'metal' plate, then hopped onto an actual metal plate, then climbed up onto a wall.

I heard whirring, and I looked to see a cat rumbi going back and forth on the back wall. Still didn't know how they were doing that, but it didn't matter. Nothing made sense in this strange world.

I waited for it to come close then bounced off of it. I landed on a ventilation... thingimajig, you know, the units that actually blow all the air through the ventilation systems, then jumped off and bounced off a couple more cat rumbis.

I landed and saw a ticket vendor right in front of me.

With a smirk, I bought two more metro passes. Now we'd be able to get to this station easily, too.

I saw yet ANOTHER cat rumbi on the back wall and bounced off of it, landing up on a higher ledge.

I saw the Time Piece dead ahead, but... there were three train tracks blocking the way, many trains coming through from each one.

"Just can't make things easy, can you?" I grumbled to no one in particular.

Fortunately, I saw a pattern and followed it. I just barely avoided getting clipped by a train as I swung off of one final sign and landed on the platform where the Time Piece laid.

I picked it up with a grin.

"Safe and sound."

I pocketed it, then looked down.

The station seemed like it was basically vertical, so I reckoned that I could jump down and make it all the way back to the start.

I quickly made sure I had my hover badge on. Good thing I checked, cause I didn't. I'd forgotten that I'd taken it off to equip the Shadow Badge. So, I unequipped the Megaton badge to put the hover badge on, then dove all the way down to the bottom with a rebel yell towards common sense.

Sure enough, I landed right back where I started as a cushion of air blanketed the fall.

I looked around for the kid. Sure enough, I saw her pop out of the manhole with a Time Piece in hand.

"Perfect timing!" I shouted as the kid meandered over.

"Perfect timing is right," I heard a familiar, annoying voice chuckle, "You know the deal, hand them over!"

"So you're back? I was wondering why you never showed up in the tunnels," I wondered.

"None of your business!" The cat hissed.

"If you say so," I muttered, handing over the Time Piece as the kid did the same.

They walked away, leaving us annoyed.

"Well, that's that," I said, "Let's go back to the Empress' shop, I guess. I got you a Metro Pass, by the way."

I gave the pass to her, and we took the easy exit to the main station.

We made it to the store, and the Empress was standing there.

I walked up to the counter.

"Something happen to your operation?" I asked, "Cause I thought you said you were leaving."

"Well, you two just so happened to be far quicker than I was expecting. Eight Time Pieces, all of them mine. I promised I'd make you rich, and I wouldn't lie to my own," She said, tossing me a final stack of cash, "However... I do have to leave right away. I will be back in a few hours. Don't go far."

I nodded, and she walked out from behind the counter, stepped outside, gathered a few of her goons, then walked out of sight.

"Psst," The kid whispered, "She left her vault open. Now's the perfect time to put my plan into action."

"Now's the perfect time to tell me what your plan is," I grumbled, "I really don't like the idea of stealing from her, kid. She isn't stupid. She'll find out."

"And we'll be long gone by the time she does," She said, "This is the perfect chance! I'm going."

She hopped over the counter and ran into the vault.

Oh nonononono...

"Kid!" I hissed, vaulting over the counter and running inside. "This is not going to end well!"

"Too late now," She said.

I fumed.

"Fine. Just hurry it up," I grumbled.

She quickly gathered the eight Time Pieces, and I turned around to leave, only to find the door closed.

"Did you close the door?" She asked.

"Maybe?" I said.

I opened the door and froze in place.

She was standing RIGHT THERE!

And if looks could kill... we'd both be BEYOND dead.

I would've said something... but I couldn't find anything to say.

She grinned maliciously as she pressed a button, which caused a mic to raise from the counter.

She tapped the mic, causing a noise to boom over the entire metro it seemed!

"Catch her. Make it quick," She ordered over the mic, "Reward... is one million!"

Her?! Why not me?!

I turned around to the kid.

"We gotta get outta here!" I yelled, and she hopped over the counter and ran out the store as I vaulted over it and ran as well.

I felt a hot, searing pain shoot through my leg.

"Agh!" I shouted, collapsing to the floor. I felt the back of my leg, only to find a dagger sticking out of it!

"YOU'RE not going ANYWHERE!" She yelled, stepping on my back.

Oh, so that's why I wasn't given a bounty! She didn't expect me to make it out of the store!

I looked at the kid, who was staring in shock.

"Why are you standing there?!" I screamed, "RUN!"

"B-but..."

"Don't worry about me! If you don't go now, you'll never get out alive!" I roared, "GO!"

"You heard him, child," The Empress mocked, "Run, as fast as you can. You'll both be reunited soon anyway!"

She looked back and forth for a few seconds, then ran.

The Empress cackled.

When it died down, I felt my rage build.

"What the hell do you want with me?" I hissed.

"Well..." She asked, "We have MUCH discussing to do."

A/N: Well. Quite a situation our heroes have gotten themselves into. A gigantic bounty on our favourite kid's head, and our protagonist has fallen into the clutches of the cruel, merciless Empress.

What will she do with him?

Well, I guess you'll just have to wait to find out! Ahahahaha...

(Also, kinda funny how they both gained Empress' trust and blew it in the same chapter, lol)

Now for a... belated response to a review...

purple1984: Thank you very much! It means the world to me to hear things like that, honestly. So, again, thank you!

Next chapter... well... it's gonna be fun, that's for pecking sure.