Shenandoah Valley

September 24, UC 0079

1003 Hours

Smoke still billowed from the battle, now in the past. New Mobotropolis—the "Shenandoah Anomaly" as Zeon termed the structure—stood firm, as if nothing had happened over the past few hours. Right beside her, the White Base—the "Trojan Horse" which haunted the Zeon war effort—had touched down.

Had Sonic, Sally, and Bunnie been told that the return home would involve having to fight off a military power that could rival anything Eggman could throw at them, it would be hard for them to believe. Yet here they were, in a now-silent battlefield right in their own backyard. Wreckage of aircraft, mobile suits, and armor littered the area; the ridges were blanketed in black fumes.

Despite this small victory, Reed was still not happy as he looked down at the ruin below. "Wound up fighting tanks that were bought out of our own pockets," he grumbled.

Amid all this new calm, no human on the bridge expected what was about to occur: a purple cube appeared in the air right behind Sayla's chair. It sporadically got bigger and gained more sides, before abruptly taking the form of a Mobian Lynx. The guest came in sort of clumsily, faceplanting on the floor.

The three ex-Freedom Fighters knew who it was, though her entrances were much more graceful. "NICOLE!"

Sally was the first to get to NICOLE, and tried to help her straighten up. "NICOLE, is something wrong?"

"Another one!?" Reed shouted, "Bright, what the hell is going on?"

"How would I know, Lieutenant?"

"Hey, we just got done cleaning out Zeon's desk," said Sonic, "I don't wanna see you two go to Fist City. That's NICOLE, she's the supercomputer who runs the city. She's been with us since Robotnik War I."

NICOLE was raised to her feet, supported by Sally, rubbing the sides of her head with her right thumb, index, and middle fingers.

"Headache?" asked Bunnie. "All them Zeon fireworks and stuff musta whittled her down somethin' good."

"N-No," said NICOLE, in a little pain. "These headaches didn't really start until this ship started fighting. There's been… a lag in the nanites."

"Sounds like an effect from Minovsky radiation," said Marker. "It's harmless, but tends to affect electronic devices like radar."

"Minovsky radiation? Never heard of it," said Sonic.

"Hm. Sounds like another science gets lost to time," Bright said.

Mirai pointed out something on the ground, advancing from the city toward the ship. A column of at least a dozen Mobians in blue uniforms, with another at the head. Eventually, the got in front of the bow and formed a single line, looking like a firing squad ready to kill. The leader was in the center of this line at this point, and made a few steps forward.

"This is General Amadeus Prower, commander-in-chief of the Royal Army of Acorn," he announced, through a megaphone, "identify yourself immediately!"

Bright had to switch to the external speakers he had previously used for Sally. "I am Lieutenant Junior Grade Bright Noa, acting captain of the Earth Federation Space Forces warship White Base. We come in peace."

"A mere Lieutenant J. G. in the captain's chair?" said Prower, a bit incredulously. "Difficult to believe."

"Believe me," said Bright, unfazed, "the truth is stranger than fiction."

"Princess Sally is aboard, am I correct?"

"Yes, and a handful of others: Sonic the Hedgehog, Bunnie D'Coolette, and Matilda the Armadillo. Your computer, NICOLE, has also phased inside our bridge, but it seems your civilization has yet to encounter the Minovsky particle."

"I request an audience before your vessel, Lieutenant," said Prower.

"I will grant it."

"Good Lord, what are you doing, Bright?" Reed demanded.

"Diplomacy," he said. "This is a neutral zone at best. We need all the help we can get. You, after all, have been saying we've been as good as dead since reaching planetside."

Right on the nose. "You'll regret this," he mumbled.

The large gangplank hatch to the central garage opened like a drawbridge. At the foot stood General Prower, a brown Fox missing his left eye, with his subordinates behind him and the ship ahead.

A group, mostly composed of humans, descended. The only face the general recognized was that of the red-haired Chipmunk in blue and a somewhat rattled AI Lynx with her. The young man in the front stopped about three yards away and saluted. "Lieutenant Junior Grade Bright Noa, EFSF."

The Fox saluted in kind. "General Amadeus Prower. You seem to be Human."

"Yes," said Bright, "we are."

"Humans are a bit exotic on Mobius," he said.

"I don't know how to tell you this," said Bright, a bit solemnly, "but after what your friends have told me, this world's no longer Mobius, or at least not in the fashion you're familiar with."

Prower took notice of the opening: Sonic was leaning against the frame, watching the whole show. He turned his attention back to Bright. "You say you're a Lieutenant J. G.," said Prower, "how did you wind up commanding your ship?"

"Our original captain was wounded in a battle and died from his wounds a few days later," he explained. "He gave me command of the ship until we reach our home port at Jaburo. It was by happenstance that we came in contact with the princess."

Prower took a look at Sally. She appeared to mentally be bearing the weight of one of the surrounding mountains. Her face said it all.

"General Prower," she said, "we need to have an emergency Council meeting. There's too much at stake and what all happened this morning is only a foretaste of what could be."

"It seems our friends from earlier tuckered out NICOLE, here," said the Fox.

"Bunnie thought the same thing," said the holo-Lynx. "It's these Minovsky particles. If they can disrupt my systems, they could probably do the same for her cybernetics." Her eyes widened at this—she realized that she allowed something confidential to slip out.

"Cybernetics?" said Prower. "But the king restored her limbs. How did she do—no…" The officer froze, his heart sinking to his stomach.

"What are you talking about?" Bright asked.

Sally was cornered, her demeanor that of a defeated gambler. No other options, time to confess. "After the explosion that hospitalized Antoine, Bunnie ran off to the Desert Chapter of the Dark Egg Legion. Her uncle was the Grandmaster and she had him legionize her in order to get robot parts back because of what Eggman did. He was killed by a hitman shortly after we found her. Later, Zeon attacked the area, destroying Sand Blast City and the remains of the Desert Chapter, save for one survivor. A young girl. Thankfully, Eggman somehow hasn't noticed them, and the bombs in their parts haven't gone off. We need to get them removed as soon as possible."

A stark revelation that had the crewmen murmuring amongst themselves, save for one rather distressed officer. "Those two have bombs in them!?" he screamed. "Bright, you fucking dumbass!"

"It's not his fault, Lieutenant Reed," she said, her eyes watering. "I told you the truth about coming here, but I withheld that information because otherwise you wouldn't have gone through with it. We needed to get home because our friends can get those bombs taken out, and ever since we reunited with Bunnie, I've been worrying myself bald that she and Tilly would blow up on us on the way back. Words cannot express how thankful I am that they didn't detonate and that Lieutenant Bright selflessly decided to come this way. Did you see what all you were up against this morning? We've seen already seen enough of it over the past few days, and they were our best chance of getting here alive!" She dropped to her knees, finally broken down.

Bright approached her, placing his hand on her back. "I understand," he said, "you were in a bad position."

Sonic concurred with Bright. He couldn't blame her either, he would have probably done the same. He didn't utter a syllable the whole time, but after everything that happened between there and Red Rock, his mind couldn't turn away from one fact: Eggman did nothing.

Sally got deroboticized. No Eggman.

Bunnie got legionized. Nothing.

He and Sally had visited Oil Ocean and Red Rock, two DEL strongholds. Zilch.

Had two walking bombs with them for an extended amount of time. Nada.

He even lost an entire DEL chapter to Zeon. Crickets.

Eggman, as well as Robotnik before him, never gave up. What happened? Even though most people would have been happy if this were to happen, the Hedgehog was left brooding.

He knew Bunnie and Tilly had to leave the ship sooner or later anyway, so everyone was going to find out eventually, robot limbs are pretty tricky to hide. Even though NICOLE had inadvertently opened a pretty ugly can of worms, it was preferable to have those two alive instead of in bloody bits.

A spruce-hulled tandem helicopter eased down in Carillon Park as noon crept ever closer.

Captain Schultz was on edge. Being the passenger of the jeep taking him to the vehicle meant he was freer to worry about what the commissar was going to say. They fought that Anomaly for almost three hours and got nowhere, but then that Federation ship appeared. After the guns went silent, more intel trickled in. Hopefully that would soften whatever blow was going to be given to the nervous officer.

Parked near the bell tower accentuating the area, the transport's rotors slowly stopped spinning. The door opened and a short flight of steps extended.

Out the door came Garma, saluting the small band of grunts lined up the side. Char followed close behind. Three other officers followed.

Schultz approached his younger superior, his heart racing. He was nervous, but he remembered to salute.

Garma gave no quarter. "I find it funny that the mighty hand of the Spacenoid could wrest half the planet out of the Feddies' grip, but not be able to stamp out a single alien hive."

"Commissar," said Schultz, "I'm telling you we did everything we could, but a Federation ship got involved—!"

"A Federation ship?"

"A fragment from Lieutenant Ulmer was sent to me before the Minovsky particles covered the valley," the captain whipped out his phone and brought up the video message.

Ulmer was in a bit of distress, reporting that all contact with Ricci at Hazeltop was lost. The ship in question was a white, boxy, horse-like craft and below her, red mobile suits assisted her in fighting their tanks and aircraft. Abruptly, a white mobile suit with a colorful torso appeared and fired off its weapon. At that point, the video quality took a nosedive: it became more pixelated and jittery, with the sound having a bit of a stringed-instrument vibe to it. The video ended on a grizzly still of that white suit towering over the ridge, firing off its Vulcan guns, beheading one unlucky soldier.

"The 'Trojan Horse' is here," said Garma. "I encountered that ship yesterday out west. What's it doing in Virginia?"

"I don't know," said Schultz, "but most recent Luggun probe sent me this aerial." He showed Garma a picture of the battle-pocked area. The Anomaly still stood, but the "Trojan Horse" was resting right beside it. Were the Feddies going to strike an alliance with the aliens?

Amy Rose didn't hesitate to wrap herself around Sonic when she finally saw him again after several days. Tails was also happy to see everyone again as well, but the sobering situation dampened the reunions.

Everyone's attention was shifted to the two stretchers brought out of the visiting vessel. Bunnie and Tilly had since been stripped of their clothes for an operation that needed to be done for the sake of everyone. The anesthesia Sayla administered did its job and the two quickly went to sleep.

All they could do was expect the worst and hope for the best.

No sooner did their limbs become disassembled did they find the bombs—not a very difficult task, considering they all had Eggman's logo on them.

Omur Fang, in addition to being a mechanic, was also an explosives expert. Bright had him brought in to give his thoughts on the situation. The most he could gather from the way they were set up was that they weren't time bombs. If someone had the remote to them, they'd go off with the press of a button.

"Tails," said Sally, "can you tell us anything from the ship's x-rays that might be of any use to us?"

"Well, it doesn't tell me a lot," he admitted. "But from the way these are placed, if we tear off the plastic explosive from the magnet, we'll set it off, right, Mr. Omur?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"We've got not choice but to remove them manually," Tails concluded.

He went to work, leaving his friends to watch from a good twenty feet away, fingers figuratively crossed that nothing sets the bombs off.

"Poor Bunnie," said Rotor, "to do something that desperate…"

"I can forgive Bunnie," Amy told him, "but I'm pretty iffy about that new girl."

"Sonic said she's Mighty's little sister," said the Walrus, "she may have been with the DEL, but she could join us."

Amy didn't budge. "Remember Fiona?" she asked. "She quit being a bounty hunter to join us, but then threw her lot in with Scourge. How do we know that's not going to happen with Tilly?"

"Well, Fiona blamed the Freedom Fighters for leaving her at Robotnik's mercy," he explained. "That's why she became what she is now. Tilly's story's different."

The Hedgehog wanted to believe Rotor, but right now she just didn't know. Her eyes shifted back to the open-air operation.

Tails was toiling away on the bombs in Bunnie's right leg. A mess of wires trailed from them, rigged to detonate manually if a Legionnaire ever decided to defect. Before a single one could be removed, they need to be disarmed. It was like kudzu, but with plastic-coated copper.

As Tails slaved away to save his old friend, Bunnie's mind was haunted by an army of memories. Bad ones…

I remember this, this awful day again. The day Elias and Megan went into exile. Sonic was escortin' the ex-king to Mobo-Cruiser, tryin' to lighten up the mood the best way he could. Nevertheless, there was little to be happy about.

It-It's the Death Egg! It's droppin' pods! Looks like Eggman's got some fancy new 'bots. Oh well, let's whip 'em—wait… I forgot. Naugus deroboticized my limbs! How can I fight!?

Somethin' came out of the Death Egg! It's Metal Sonic and… SALLY!? What'n the hell'd they do to you!?

D-Did you just cut through the Tornado like it were made of paper!?

Oh, no. Sonic! I need to help you.

NO! They're too dang strong, I need my cybers!

Wait, where's Metal Sonic goin'? He-He's headin' for the Mobo-Cruiser… and Antoine's followin'! You ain't much stronger than me now and I got tossed aside like a bag of moldy potatoes! Are you loco!?

ANTOINE! NO!

No, no… I let you down Antoine. If I'd still had my cybers you'd be just fine!

Uncle Beau? You'll give me my parts back? I don't care if it makes me a bomb, if Antoine lives, I ain't lettin' him down ever again. I don't care, I don't care, I don't care…

Sonic? You saved Sally! This is great! Now if only Antoine can pull through—w-what was that!? UNCLE BEAU!

"You Freedom Fighters are a bunch of pussies. If we'd switched places, Eggman would be long dead."

You're Sapper the Mole! You shot Uncle Beau!

"He worked for the guy who killed your husband. You got everything you need now. Do what you need to do now or forever be a little kid."

Antoine's… no, I don't believe it!

"You know deep down he is."

No, liar! Damn liar! I'm gonna stab you in the face!

Now sleep, for good.

Eggman… EGGMAN! That son of a bitch! You're next! You can't run away from me!

A black forest. Turns to white. Back to black, and back to white.

This is a weird place, but I can still follow you. Smaller… bigger… the walls are tiled. So many shadows…

Cornered at last. No robots. No gadgets. Just you, me, and my new cybers.

"Please, no! Spare me!"

Y'all didn't spare my husband. Die Eggman.

I blew your head to pieces… like an egg. A mess of blood and brains.

More. There's more people like you. As long as your toadies live, the world can't be safe. I'll kill them all. I'LL KILL THEM ALL! Lasers, missiles, the whole nine yards! I'm not gonna stop till you're all dead, y'hear me!?

"Bravo. You did well. The Warlord Julian's legacy is a ruin, the world will never again relapse into the virus he unleashed."

Sapper? It ain't possible! I killed you too!

"I'll always be with you, Bunnie D'Coolette. In a way, we're family, you and I."

That ain't true.

"Your Dad became my Dad. He taught me everything he knew… and I will live on within you. Congratulations: you lived my dream. You killed Eggman and saved the world. All you had to do was kill."

This ain't right. We can't kill. Not by choice.

"You did it easily. The old Mobian habit of sparing your enemies must die for the sake of peace. Evil will only die through force of arms."

What are you?

"A man whose very life is death."

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Big thanks to the awesomeness of SonicEvan and HyperionGM for the assist with much of what happened before Bunnie's nightmare. With this chapter the issue of Bunnie and Tilly's bombs had to be addressed, in this case influence came from the original 1979 anime's episode, "Time, Be Still". In that one, a backwater Zeon unit uses a bunch of Wappas to plant bombs on the hull of the Gundam... and then waited thirty minutes as Amuro took them off! Here, I wanted to make a plot like that work. With the current situation with Bunnie and Tilly's Legion parts, there was something there that could salvage it.

Bunnie's nightmare stemmed from a loss of how to portray the removal process, so I decided on a trippy dream involving what led up to this point and a seed of revenge originally planeted in the Great Desert.