30 Days of Sonic Prompt 22: Betrayal
Media: Pre-Reboot Archie Sonic the Hedgehog Comics
In Twilight We Fall
Voices surrounded her. Screams of terror and cries of anguish intermingled. As if she was in the middle of a thunderstorm, chaotic, kinetic energy struck around her, sending her heartbeat racing a mile a minute.
Julie-Su peeled her eyelids apart. She choked down the lump in her throat. The back of her head ached, beating like a bass drum, but she forced herself to sit upright. Dark colors swirled in her vision, blurring the others and her environment, and she rubbed her eyes, groaning, only to gasp when a hand snatched her shoulder.
"Julie-Su!" Saffron cried, tears welling in her eyes. "Where are we? What is this place?"
Confusion crossed her expression, but when she turned her head, she froze. The atoms comprising her body chilled. Her eyes widened as far as they could go, taking in everything around them.
Echidnas of all factions shrieked and sobbed. The Dark Egg Legion and denizens of Albion wept together, their mutual distrust and hatred set aside for the sake of their sorrow. Children clung to their parents, burying their faces into their tattered clothing, but nothing could be said to quell their tears.
Laser fire rang out into the emptiness, extending until they fizzled out in the black swathe of the abyss. Fiery balls of energy flew through the sky. Humid air wafted in from the east and clashed with a chilly breeze from the west. Twinkling stars blinked in and out from all around them, illuminating their prison with pathways and twisted geography. Mountains that seemed endless in the distance capped with snow, planets appearing just over the horizon, and foliage in various stages of decay leaving a fungal scent around them baffled Julie-Su.
"I-I mean, this place-" Julie-Su rose to her feet, slowly bringing her head up to stare at the darkness. "No, no, this place couldn't be-"
Saffron clung to her hand. "Couldn't be where?" she asked, wishing she hadn't.
"The Twilight Cage! It can't be!" a legionnaire wailed.
"Haven't we already suffered enough because of this place?" another cried, tearing at her cloak.
"I can't do this again! I can't! I can't! I can't!" one more legionnaire screeched, frightening nearby mothers with their children.
Madness swept over them all. Arguments devolved into brutality as fists flew and shots fired. The ordinary echidnas blamed the Dark Egg Legion, attacking them with renewed vigor. The legionnaires, embracing their hopelessness, failed to defend themselves, or they lashed back with such fury that Julie-Su paled, watching as one struck a boy with enough strength to break his front teeth.
And yet, she stood still. She couldn't reach for her blaster or take a single step toward the insanity. Ringing filled her ears, blocking out the noise and Saffron's frantic questioning. She stared ahead, taking every instance of cruelty and cementing it to her memory, her understanding of the situation dawning on her like a malicious joke.
The Twilight Cage was a location for punishment. And the countless sins committed by the echidnas, regardless of intent, had finally broken the proverbial camel's back. Thrash had them imprisoned for their crimes against humanity, which had occurred over several centuries from the beginning of Mobius' history to mere months before their sentencing.
"Julie-Su," Saffron crooned, hiccuping, tears spilling down her face, "what's going to happen to us?"
She dipped her head. The truth whispered sinister thoughts to her. The Twilight Cage was inescapable without the proper technology, and the Dark Egg Legion lacked the resources that had once emboldened them. Only their firearms remained, and they certainly could not penetrate through the fabric of space-time with their meager spirals of concentrated energy.
"This is your fault! It's all your fault, you false Matriarch!"
She snapped her attention over her shoulder and ran to the voice. A crowd parted as she raced through them, Saffron hot on her heels. She gasped, her hand clapping over her mouth, Saffron uttering a short scream.
Lien-Da's hands squeezed Lara-Le's throat. She pressed her knee into her chest, snarling with such fury that spittle flew from her mouth. Lara-Le endured the abuse, gripping Lien-Da's wrists and struggling with every ounce of her strength, as the echidnas she once guided helplessly watched, the Dark Egg Legion keeping them at bay with their weapons.
"Stop!" Julie-Su bellowed, pulling out her blaster.
Lien-Da flinched, relinquishing her grasp. It was enough for Lara-Le to shove her off and scramble to her feet. Lien-Da hurried as well, slapping away the foolish footsoldier who offered his hand. The women scowled at each other before slowly bringing their bloodshot gazes over to Julie-Su, and the Grandmaster cackled.
"Well, well, if it isn't Father's favorite wretch," Lien-Da spat, "I suppose an eternity with you is my penalty for siding with Robotnik."
"Keep those hands where I can see them, sis," Julie-Su ordered despite the numerous firearms aimed at her.
Lien-Da scoffed, gesturing at her loyal subjects. "As if you can threaten me."
"Even if I'm gone, the people won't bow down to your treachery anymore," she countered, cocking her head.
Chaos waged behind her. Violence exploded, again and again, unable to be stopped with diplomacy or conquest. The nearby echidnas winced, some lowering their weapons. They glanced at one another, seemingly stupefied on what to do next or who to obey, and they chose silence.
Lara-Le rubbed her neck and stepped next to her. Julie-Su almost dropped her weapon, her lips quivering as the woman who could have become her new mother smiled at her. Lara-Le cupped her shoulder, quietly thanking her, before staring at Saffron with unblinking eyes.
"Wait. You're my son's friend," she stated, the others eyeing with Saffron with equal curiosity. "Why are you here, dear?"
The bee nodded, fiddling with the hem of her jacket. "Th-the monster who threw us in here wouldn't stop hurting Julie-Su. I had to stop him, but he-he overpowered us both."
"Oh, whatever. One girl's life doesn't triumph over the echidnas," Lien-Da growled, but Lara-Le met her glare with equal passion.
"Our struggles are the same, Lare-Le. We are all trapped here." She pointed at her chest, driving in her finger. "We're left with no choice but to cooperate. Get your minions under control."
"Ha! I thought the Matriarch was supposed to unify us, but it sounds like you're handing the role over to me." She swatted Lara-Le's finger aside. "Don't mind if I do, you ignorant woman. You're a housewife, unfit to rule, and I'm glad you've remembered your position."
"She never ruled anyone! She's trying to keep the peace, unlike you!" Julie-Su roared, throwing her arm out. "Listen for a minute! Take a gander! Use your senses, Lien-Da, and understand the bigger picture!"
The echidnas followed her instructions. Although Lien-Da shouted at her soldiers to shoot her as her back faced them, none of them listened. They looked at the sky, smelled the smoke, and heard the despair in everyone's scream. It all seemed to sink in for them, as some dropped their guns and others bitterly wept, using the shoulders of the ones they once conquered for comfort.
For a brief moment, Julie-Su thought a flash of pity crossed her sister's eyes. It vanished as soon as Lien-Da seethed at her. She raged that Julie-Su had no right to speak as she had abandoned the Dark Legion and her fellow echidnas, her status as a traitor to their cause well-known among the legion.
"And remember, there is no guardian here to save you," she hissed, her lips curling into a smirk.
The title of her beloved crashed down onto her. She kept him in the back of her mind to focus on her people but as soon as she invoked him, Julie-Su imagined him. What would he do? How would he react to her sudden departure, never to see her again for the rest of his days? The girls had been protecting the Master Emerald when Thrash ambushed them, and all of her thoughts turned to him the moment his fist collided with her face, sending her through the Warp Ring.
They couldn't escape. An unfathomable distance separated her from Knuckles. Her heart yearned from him, and she wanted to cry out his name, scream it to the heavens, as her soul felt like Lien-Da crushed it in her palm.
But she refused to give her sister the satisfaction. Instead, she raised her blaster between Lien-Da's eyes. The echidnas gasped, none moving to protect the Grandmaster. Slowly, she shook her head, breathing so heavily that her nostrils flared, and her finger curled around the trigger.
"You listen to me, Lien-Da. I know Knuckles isn't here, but he wouldn't want me moping when there are people to protect," she growled. "If you want to live, you better back off."
"Julie-Su, violence isn't the way," Lara-Le pleaded, but Julie-Su raised her hand.
"This is how we communicate in my family. I'm sorry you have to witness this, but it's how legionnaires do business."
Lien-Da focused on the blaster. Her reflection shined along the sides, distorted and elongated. Neither sister moved a muscle as years of enmity flowed between them, both desiring nothing more than the other's destruction.
Lien-Da blinked first.
She called for her soldiers to follow her. They marched toward the violence, Lien-Da commanding them to end the fighting by any means necessary. As they marched off, some stayed with Lara-Le, and Lien-Da made no move to claim them when they dropped their hoods.
Julie-Su released her tension with a sigh. She dropped her blaster and gripped her brow, her headache returning with a vengeance. Saffron huddled next to her, offering any aid, but Julie-Su brushed her off, insisting she would manage and steadied herself.
Lara-Le clutched her hands, speaking in a voice riddled with desperation. "No, my child, you're not okay. You need to lie down. We can think of a plan after you rest, and I will check on the situation."
"You don't understand," Julie-Su flatly replied. "The Twilight Cage is a zone made for exiles. The Dark Egg Legion only escaped because of their technology, but we don't have access to any of it."
"N-no, no, that-!" Saffron shook her head, her voice pitching in fear. "There must be something we can do! Something we can build or use to escape if we-!"
"This zone has no concept of time. It could take an eternity to make something out of nothing," Julie-Su interjected. In the hollowness of her voice and the vacancy of her expression, the truth slipped from her mouth. "I don't think I'll ever see Knuckles ever again."
She cried until she had no more tears to shed. Lara-Le and Saffron embraced her, their words muffled, comfortable courtesies and sympathy not what she wanted in the slightest. She wanted to have hope, but she was a pragmatist, someone who trusted reality over fantasy, and Julie-Su saw only a life of darkness ahead in the depths of the Twilight Cage.
But when a brilliant white light came at an indeterminate amount of time later, Julie-Su thought it was salvation until it wasn't.