Chapter 11: Maria re-unites with her beloved cousin.
Special thanks to Momijifan Low-Ki.
Frances POV
The sound of a low, mechanical hum got louder as we stepped closer to the big, metal doorway that Chris stated would lead to the innermost bowels of Mt St McEggman.
It was not a pleasant sound. Even with a loaded gun in my hand and my finger on the trigger, I felt no security. Chris was clearly not feeling much better either, as he pushed Helen in her wheelchair himself so that I could stand guard as we walked forward.
Our nightmares came into reality a split second later, when a legion of various robots of all-shapes and sizes crested us with their gigantic weapons. Chris immediately reached for a grenade, while I took careful aim at the ladybug shaped robot closest to me. But we knew these gestures to be of utmost futility. Even if we could destroy one of Eggman's robots, the rest would still swarm us to certain death.
Coming here was a grave mistake. We had all just dug our own graves. Eggman was truly a heartless bastard, willing to shoot his own lovely cousin without a second thought.
But then the unthinkable happened. The truly immeasurable. The most surprising of surprises.
Maria in Helen's body, wheeled herself a few inches forward and raised her shaking hands.
"Dearest robots. I am Maria Robotnik. Third executive of Robotnik enterprises, and your caring leader. Stop this madness, and remember where your true loyalties lie."
The robots immediately halted in their menacing advance, even as I stood ready with my grenade and Frances anxiously kept her gun up. But then they seemed to focus their scanners completely onto Helen, who had dressed herself in the same blue dress and jacket that Maria wore in her previous life. Then they lowered their weapon systems in perfect unison, and bowed to her.
Maria for all her goodness, kindness and lovingness, was still another member of the Robotnik family. She was the one good Robotnik, and the proof that people's names were just that: names. We were beyond lucky to have her on our side.
Something deep within my soul told me that today would be the end of our war with Eggman, and there would be justice and lasting peace. As unnatural as it was, a part of me felt glad and relieved that Eggman would finally see his lovely cousin again after so long. He was an evil man who did heinous things, but that did not lessen my desire for him to reunite with a lost member of his family.
But I still could not be too happy. The robots had bowed to Maria and did not dare threaten us so long as Maria stood in their line of sight keeping us guard. But Eggman himself was a different story. Even as Maria led us to the metal doorway with the now peaceful robots no longer bothering us, I kept my gun primed as did Chris with the grenade he was still fingering nervously in his trembling hands.
For all her sickness, Maria was somehow able to wheel herself in Helen's wheelchair to the speaker system beside the tightly closed metal door. "Ivo. It's me. Your dear cousin Maria. I've come back to visit you again." She whispered, with a frail cough. "It's a pleasure to see you once more."
We stood silently, fearing the worst. Eggman had a beastly temper, and we knew that it was very likely that he would take Maria's kind greeting for a practical joke, and lash out madly. We thought that Eggman had not heard Maria at first, but then a thundering roar rumbled back, which nearly deafened our ears.
"You can't be Maria. Maria died 50 years ago on the ARK in space. If this is a joke, then it's not funny and you had better clear off whoever you are, before my robots decimate you into a smoking heap of ashes." Eggman furiously shouted back to us, from deep within his lair. "I will not have anyone taking Maria's good name in vain. Now go!"
"Take a look through the camera system and see for yourself. Dearest cousin Ivo. It is I, Maria. I am (cough) I am here. Please believe me."
A few more tense seconds passed, as a small round digital lens flickered into life above the doorway and made a few buzzes as it made a few spins from side to side. We all feared the worst, even Maria herself: since even with her changed outfit, she still had a few differences from the photographs she once showed me of when she was still alive on the ARK. As had been stated time and again, Helen was similar but not identical to Maria.
We could only pray that "similar" was similar enough to make Eggman re-think his desire to obliterate us on the spot. Maria's weak voice that was only getting weaker with every syllable she uttered, reminded us that Helen's body had nearly destroyed itself through Maria's soul occupying it for far too long. Maria and by extension Helen, needed those two chaos emeralds right here and now or they were both goners.
Yet we all knew that Eggman loved his prized emeralds more than anything else. It was a foregone conclusion that we would need to beat the emeralds out of him.
But finally the speaker buzzed back into life, and Eggman's deep and gutteral voice came back. Except that when it did come, it came in shocked and stuttered gasps of pure pain and fright. Eggman the evil genius, was affrighted. Which was Shakespearean for frightened.
"M, M, Maria. C, Cousin. B, but. You died. You're dead. You were killed by G.U.N. How?"
Maria coughed, splattering her lifeblood onto her beautiful blue dress to stain it crimson. "J, just let me and my friends in cousin. Let me in and you'll have the whole story. I need your help and I need it now. Please."
Another tense pause in which seconds seemed like centuries. "Fine. You can come in. But your so-called friends had better keep their weapons down if they know what's good for them. And don't you dare think I'm going soft. This is only for you Maria. You and you alone."
Then an electrical whirring assaulted my fragile eardrums, as the doors to Mt St McEggman shifted open slowly, throwing a plume of asphalt toward us as it did.
We looked to one another, before very cautiously venturing inside while pushing Maria inside Helen's body in her now very worn wheelchair, which was really beginning to show the signs of wear and tear from how much we had been shoving it roughly around. More robots of all shapes and sizes regarded us coldly from behind their glassy eyes, but thankfully allowed us to go onward without further delay. This was the least romantic family reunion I had ever had the displeasure to attend. Knowing Eggman as Chris portrayed him, we knew this was most likely another trap that we were swallowing hook-line and sinker and fisherman and bone.
We arrived in Eggman's throne rooom after several minutes, as the evil tyrant sat on a gigantic chair with his two robotic assistants on either side of him. His face had been mangled in a very brutal manner, and I swore that there was a nasty bruise on his forehead that looked very needing of immediate medical attention. His eyes seemed more bloodshot than usual too. It made him look more pitiful than Chris and I ever thought possible of someone as shady as Eggman.
It was Maria in her wounded state who broke the silence, huffing and puffing as she smiled at her long-lost cousin and waved. "It's good to see you, cousin Ivo. I've missed you so." She muttered, trying to sound as strong as possible despite her evident weakness.
It was difficult to tell the emotion in Eggman's scrunched up face. Confusion? Doubt? Certainly not anger or hatred. As hard as it was to say this, it seemed that Eggman really was the devil on his day away from sin and evil. For it was with great unease that the overweight tyrant was able to stand from his throne, and wade anxiously over to the small, thin blonde wheelchair girl he towered over with both his immense height and girth.
He reached out a madly trembling hand, and I could not help but put my hand to my gun while Chris's hand went to his grenade belt. We both feared the worst. Even Eggman's robots were obviously frightened as they covered their ears and looked away. But then my eyes went as wide as saucers, as Eggman's giant hand gently touched Maria's and by extension Helen's right cheek with the utmost delicacy.
At first we were completely confused, but then we realized that Eggman was just making sure Maria was real and not just his imagination. "I assure you, dear cousin. I am very real." Maria reassuringly soothed as Eggman allowed himself to uncharacteristically weep gently before his worst enemies next to Sonic and Tails. "I never thought I'd find a way to come back to life, but now we are together."
Eggman took a step back, hand over mouth. It was obvious that he was still very afraid that this was all just a dream, and that to touch Maria for much longer would poof her from existence once again. I looked to Chris and he to me. As much as we hated to say it, we were honestly glad for Eggman's sheer bliss at this loving moment where he appeared to have truly changed for the better. His gestures were far too exaggerated for this to be just another one of his nice acts.
"Come closer. Let's smile together." Maria pleaded with a faint smile, as her cousin recoiled in fright from her side. She knew as well as we did that her remaining time was limited, and yet was still determined not to rush this sacred reunion. Maria was truly a family girl that put her own flesh and blood first. The complete opposite of Chris's mum and dad, and Chris himself during his insane state: where his unrequited attraction for Sonic made him mindless.
Eggman's face went white, and he mumbled out a few unintelligible slurs. He clutched his bruised head with both hands. But finally, he relaxed himself as he returned to his cousin's side and did exactly as she asked.
Then, they smiled together.
As Chris and I did likewise.
The difference in their ages didn't matter, nor the fact that Eggman was now unbeknownst to Maria: a wanted felon who was owed life in prison for his dreadful misdeeds that endagered the planet countless times.
All this was ruined however, when Maria wheezed uncontrollably once again, this time splatting bloody saliva onto her cousin's red jacket so that her coughed up blood was thankfully less visible. "Please give me the emeralds. Two will be enough." She begged, with but one ounce of her breath remaining. "I know you have them both Ivo. Give them both to me, or it won't just be me who dies but Helen too."
"W, what do you mean?" Eggman asked, once again recoiling back from shock.
"This body isn't mine. This body belongs to a very kind, sweet young girl named Helen Priestly who was kind enough to lend me her body. Grandfather's device allowed me to enter Helen's body, but now Helen's body is rejecting me. If I stay in Helen's body any longer, we will both die. For real this time, with no return. The Chaos emeralds bring destruction and grief, but they can also bring life and vitality. Grandfather was arrested because he wanted the emeralds to treat my disease, but everyone thought he only wanted to take over the world with them, instead."
"I can't give up my precious emeralds." Eggman growled viciously, as he wiped the blood now staining his clothes. "I WON'T!"
Maria was neither fearful at the prospect of her imminent demise, nor angry in the slightest at Eggman's callous refusal to save her life. She was perfectly calm when she next spoke, her dying voice hardly louder than a whisper, so that I had to strain to hear what she said. It was also obvious from the way her sweet voice echoed, that she was speaking for both herself and Helen at the same time. Not one, but two innocent young girls were trying to reason with this demented, diabolical mastermind.
"But you once spoke to me about intelligence Ivo. That it was a gift to be used for the good of all mankind."
Eggman could not help but nod, as a lone tear seeped from his usually desert-dry left eye. He shivered, as a chill went up his spine at his own words being used against him.
"A privelege" He shakily replied.
"Doctor?" The yellow robot nervously gulped, as it seemed to sweat profusely on its metallic brow.
"These robots have turned you into something you're not. Please don't listen to them. I see your thoughts Ivo. I know you. You first turned to destroying the world when you thought I was dead, but now as you can see: I'm still perfectly alive and kicking. Or at least I will be, once you give me and Helen the chaos emeralds."
Maria now began to break into weeps herself, as her own tears poured down her beautiful face like rivers. "I'm prepared to face whatever consequences you have in store for me, Ivo. I deserve to be punished after I failed you as your beloved cousin. But Helen shouldn't die because you're angry with me. She's nothing but an innocent bystander, and it's not right that our family feud kills her too. I know that you desire revenge Ivo, but I also know that you would never go so low as to drag down an innocent victim."
Then Maria's eyes closed, too weak to stay open any longer. She was silent, her shallow gasps the only thing that proved she was still alive but barely. She was almost dead.
Eggman yowled a desparate cry of primal horror, loss and regret as he held his unconscious cousin in his arms. His big, thick arms.
It was then that the S hit the fan, as a soft but furious snarl rang out from a nearby doorway.
For there in the frame of the door we came into the room through, stood a jet black hedgehog with two gold rings, one on either one of his wrists. He had a faint likeness to Sonic but none of his niceness. The decietful framer that nearly put Sonic behind bars for his own heinous crimes against humanity. The tragic hero detailed in Maria's heart-wrenching ballad, who she believed could do no wrong.
But he had done wrong. Very wrong. He had the power to end the existence of all life on Earth with a snap of his fingers, and he looked very eager to do so right now.
"What are you doing with my only friend Maria?" He demanded, as he immediately pulled both golden rings from his two thoroughly reddened wrists.
Then he conjured up two yellow bolts of crackling thunder in his two palms, causing all of us including Eggman's two robots to shiver in utter horror, too threatened to move. The fact I carried a gun and that Chris had a belt of grenades, probably did nothing to help our case.
"Oh. Crap." I sadly moaned, tears blurring my own vision as Shadow looked at me, Chris and Eggman with a look of pure hatred. His heart was as black as his jet black fur.
Scarlet POV
"Where's the rebel base? Talk!" I shouted once more, as I looked at the tied up Rouge in a chair in the small supply closet Stewart and I had chosen as our temporary base.
Rouge said nothing. The silent treatment. Typical of the unpleasant criminals such as herself.
"I can see your will is strong, Rouge. Well don't worry, we have other ways of making you talk." I sadly stated, as I pulled out a small but ornate bottle of perfume that I took special care to spray all over myself before each news report. Stewart looked uneasy, but said nothing. Both of us had studied enough chemistry classes to know what happened when this fragrant spray that delighted the nostrils, came into contact with one's fragile eyes instead.
I shook the bottle well, before spraying a hissing cloud of the stuff into the face of the grumbling white bat, who tried to close her eyes but was far too slow. It smelled so nice that it was...horrible! The fragrance of a delicate rose captured in a tiny bottle, sponsored by the up and rising new hedgehog beauty model: Amy Rose.
"Where are your rebel friends now?" I called out, as Stewart played his part by tickling Rouge's feet. It was amidst giggles and guffaws of pure agony, that Rouge finally softened her gaze of hardness.
"Okay. Okay. I'll talk. What do you want to know?" Rouge reluctantly spat, looking away from me. Once again, I was deeply apolagetic to have to reclaim the emeralds from her. But Sonic needed them too badly, and the world was in too much danger without the emeralds in Sonic's hands. I made a mental note to myself that once things had calmed down, I would bestow upon Rouge another jewel of some sort.
I looked to Stewart, to gesture that it was his turn to speak.
"Who's the leader in charge of G.U.N at this point in time?" He patiently, but urgently asked Rouge.
"I don't know who he is. His stuff comes in the mail." Rouge hoarsly croaked, still short of breath from the tickle torture she had just endured.
Ironically enough, this was very useful information. We now knew that the dangerous mastermind we were tracking, was a man. That already ruled out one half of the human population. We also now knew that he liked to write mail.
"Where does the kind gentleman live?" Stewart asked next, still ever so gently and affably. I wish I had his level of calmness from time to time.
"I refuse to tell you about the secret bunker underneath Maple Street." Rouge defiantly retorted.
"You just did, I'm afraid." I apolagetically noted, sad that Rouge would go home with no Chaos emeralds despite her part in saving the world with Sonic. Perhaps Lindsey and Nelson Thorndyke could spare a small part of their fortune for another nice gem instead? It was a thought I would have to keep in mind.
"Your information is excellent, Rouge. We thank you sincerely" Stewart very gratefully said with a small bow. "Here. Take this tasty bag of Chilli Doritos to show that there are no hard feelings."
He then brought out a delicious red bag of corn chips, and had to tip the contents into Rouge's mouth since she was still tied up, and not able to move her arms or legs or wings to fly away.
"That's tasty and hot." The white bat happily noted upon crunching the chips and swallowing, far less hostile than she had been before.
"As are you." Stewart just as quickly shot back. I could see why Chris liked him as a teacher.
"Flattery will get you everywhere. Mr Sir. Now, are we going to stand here all day or are you going to actually put me to some use."
This was the beginning of a strange, yet sweet friendship. The one difference between Rouge and Eggman, wasn't that Rouge was kinder, or less greedy or even less bloodthirsty or violent. Rouge was negotiable, while Eggman was non-negotiable.
I did not like people who pretended to be generous, only to pick your pocket when your back was turned. I had no positive regard for charities that siphoned vital resources out of the very saps they were sworn to represent.
What I liked was people, and other animals who were negotiable. Rouge was negotiable.
"Mother, how can I be succesful and happy when I grow up?" Asked Frances.
"By being negotiable. Frances dear." I answered, not beating around the bush.
Amy POV
It was funny how one thing led to another. We had been trying to beat a G.U.N agent into giving us Sonic's location with the help of my Piko Piko hammer, but then he instead spoke of there being another group of agents who would infiltrate Eggman's base and take all it's weaponry for themselves.
It was here that I made the sad realization that my beloved Sonic had to wait. Eggman may have been our sworn enemy, but even he didn't deserve such a cruel fate as that which G.U.N had in store for him. But more importantly, G.U.N could not get access to his vast store of technology.
They would be unstoppable if they armed themselves with Eggman's vast arsenal, and Tails knew this best of all.
Me, Tails and our human ninja ally Sakura were now creeping as quietly as we could through a set of woods that would lead us unseen to Mt Saint McEggman.
It was as I reflected back on the furious battles that brought us three to this place and time, that I finally found the link which connected us as an effective team. The reasoning behind why Sonic never found either me or Tails or even Cream to be liabilities or nuisances, despite us not being able to keep pace with him as the fastest hedgehog around.
We were all "medium fast". Tails was certainly not slow, and I was no slouch in the speed department either, especially when I was enraged. Sakura needed short breaks every now and again, but she still easily kept up with me and Tails despite only being human.
A harsh truth that I never had the heart to get out, was that I desired an end to our endless war with Eggman. Not because I liked him. Simply that this war was pointless and of no benifit to either us or Eggman. While the times we united against a common threat that threatened us both, were very heartwarming memories that I shed tears remembering.
But these were just superflous thoughts with no bearing on reality. I had seen for myself how Eggman usually held up his empty promises, which he was all too eager to break before us. Deep down though, I wondered if a peace treaty really was possible. Nevertheless, we needed to go and help Eggman right now. For the sake of the world if nothing else.
Not to mention that he had two emeralds when we last saw him, and Sakura needed all seven emeralds to go back to her own universe where her own good friends were waiting with bated breath.
Speaking of Sakura's friends, even more similarities were identified between them and us.
Naruto liked to eat Ramen, which was chilli noodle soup with a very spicy taste. Sonic's favourite food was Chilli dogs, which had the same hot and edgy flavour.
This was further evidence that our world and Sakura's world existed in parallel universes, alongside this world. Where the welfare of one world would affect its parallel counterparts.
...
Thank you for reading. Please review if you like this story and want me to continue.
