Chapter 7

Fiona lay on her bed, sniffling noisily as she tried to get her rampaging emotions under control. That had been utterly humiliating! Why had she let herself lose control like that? It's not like she meant to. She just hadn't expected to hear that song again. That stupid, stupid, horrible song. Why did that have to be the one thing those brats and that noisy hybrid had to play? There were hundreds, thousands, millions of better songs they could have been doing that didn't have to be that one! So, it wasn't her fault that she went into a tizzy. It was the their fault! She didn't do anything wrong! She didn't…do…anything…

She squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face in the pillow, screaming into it with every ounce of breath in her lungs. Maybe if she was lucky, she would just suffocate right then and there and that could just be the end of it all. It's not like anyone would actually care if she was gone, and, the truth was, it was her own fault and she knew it. That's what made it all the worse. Why had she let Scourge to sweet talk her like that, to take advantage of her pain and turn her against the others? Sure, she hated Sonic, probably always would, but Tails hadn't deserved it. Bunnie hadn't deserved it. Antoine had even tried to talk her back onto their side once. Why hadn't she listened?

Just then, there was a soft knock at the door. Fiona ignored it and slammed her pillow over her head, though still the knocking persisted. It continued for the next few minutes, steady growing louder before it finally stopped. Fiona figured that whomever it had been had given up, but she groaned when she heard a voice.

"Fiona?" came the voice of Mask. "You in there, girl?"

"Go away!" she rasped, pulling the pillow tighter around her head and trying to block out his insistent knocking.

Eventually, she heard the sound of a key entering the lock, followed by the click of the door coming open. Fiona had forgotten that Nicolette owned this place, so it only made sense that she had a key. The traitor.

She remained perfectly still as she heard Mask enter the room and shut the door behind him. Then came his footsteps, followed by the foot of her bed sagging as he sat down. She entertained the thought of kicking him, but she resisted. If she just ignored him, surely he would just go away. So she waited…and she waited…and she waited…and by that time half an hour had passed and the old man hadn't so much as moved. She growled in her throat, and then at last she tossed off the pillow, sending it Mask's way. The old soldier blocked it effortlessly, and he waited for her to move around so that she could see him better.

"What do you want?!" she hissed, sounding like a wounded cat.

Mask shifted his weight, and he leaned against one of the posts supporting the upper bunk of the bunkbed. His expression was ultimately unreadable, though there was a hint of an apologetic spirit twinkling in his eye.

"I get the hunch that you're angry at me about something." He said, trying to come off as coy. Fiona wasn't amused.

She sat up straighter, and she leaned up in her bed.

"You really got a lot of nerve. Who do you think you are lecturing me, you lying, two face, tailless old fart!"

Mask's expression soured.

"Oh, sure, go for the tail." He grumbled dryly. "It's not like I don't have traumatic issues surrounding it's loss or anything. As for that lying bit, I don't recall you ever asking me who the founder was."

"I told you about what happened to me and my mother!" Fiona snapped.

"And that's supposed to mean something?" Mask retorted in kind. "Mind you, Fiona, you aren't the first fox to come down here with a missing mother and some sob story about a hard life. It had to check your story before I was certain. I also figured Nicolette would know better than me, seeing as she used to travel with you, so I left it to her to give the news. Clearly, I am not the best judge of character."

"Obviously not." Fiona scoffed, turning her face away from him.

They fell into silence, and it seemed that Fiona was quite done with company. But Mask still remained, much to her chagrin. He just stared at her for a long time, his eyes searching her every feature like a laser pointer and etching out every feature. After a while, he hummed in a thoughtful manner.

"My judge of character may be in question, but my ability to read body language sure isn't. You're more porcupine than fox, missy. Upon even the tiniest provocation, you prickle up in your best attempt to force people away. But, if a person is willing to stand a stabbing or two, they can see the soft underside lying just beneath, and the many, self-inflicted scars you try to hide. So, enough with the shell games, girl, and be honest with yourself for once. Is it really me you're mad at?"

Fiona twisted neck ever further, doing everything she could to hide her face from him. Her eyes were starting to sting now, and her breathing was becoming heavier and much more noticeable. Eventually, her neck had become sore, and she was forced to look back at him. Mask could almost count every single large, red veins that were cracking her eyes, and he also noted the damp streaks running down the sides of her face.

"This place is perfect." She finally said, her voice cracking. "I mean, all this close togetherness, buddy buddy lifestyle makes me want to puke, but everyone is just so…happy. Sure, there's a world overhead, but they don't need it because they've built a life down here that's perfectly self-sustaining, and it was all because of my mother. Just look at all the hard work those people are putting out there for that festival tomorrow. She's like some kind of goddess, and I'm…I'm…"

Her voice trailed off, and fresh tears started to roll down her cheeks.

"I must've crossed by that stupid cottage of yours a hundred times when I lived in Knothole. I could've found this place before it all went wrong. Maybe then…Oh, good grief! What would she think if she saw me now? Saw the stupid, idiotic, boneheaded things I've done? What would she do? What would she say?"

Mask remained silent, though his features softened a bit as he listened.

"I should leave." Fiona resigned. "Boris, Blade, Aqune: they're all good people. They've done nothing wrong, and they don't deserve the trouble I tend to bring along. It's my own fate, I guess. After all, girls like me don't deserve happily ever afters."

Mask stared at her for a long moment. Then, his face broke into a smile. He snickered, then he snorted, and before long he was laughing so hard that he actually fell to the floor, clinging to his sides as he fought for his breath between giggles. Fiona's face changed form solemn to wrathful as she turned on the old raccoon.

"Hey, you sorry old coot, what's the big idea?! Is bearing out my heart and soul that entertaining to you, you sorry hick?"

Mask held up a hand for a momentary silence, and he tried hard to get a hold of himself as his chest began to ache and his ribs became sore. Eventually, he had to brace himself against the other bunkbed, and he held a hand over his chest.

"Real sorry about that, missy. Really, I am. Hoo, boy! That's the biggest jolt my ticker's gotten in the longest time. Thanks for that."

"I'm so glad my suffering is amusing to you." Fiona growled.

"Oh, don't be so critical." Mask said. "I mean, seriously, girls like me don't deserve happily ever afters? What kind of messed up fairytale did you dig that up from?"

Fiona's ears flattened, and she gritted her teeth.

"If this is your idea of cheering me up, old fart, you're really missing the whole point of the process."

Mask shrugged.

"Give me a moment. I'm kinda rusty at it. To start off, I think you need to take a step back. This is a pretty good place, and the folks count their blessings every day. Also true, your mom may be credited with making this town, but she was certainly no angel. More like a selfish old shrew that had a one track mind."

"Hey!" Fiona snapped, rising to her feet and ignoring the pain in her leg. "That's my mom you're talking about, jerk! Who do you think you are to say such horrible things about her?"

"I think I'm the last one to see her alive." Mask said flatly.

Fiona stiffened, her eyes wide and her cheeks still damp. Mask shifted upwards until he was sitting on the other bed, and he motioned for Fiona to do the same on hers, which she complied.

"There's a lot more that's gone on here than you realize, Fiona, and I'm sorry it took me this long to bring it up. But, I had to be sure you were the right Fiona. Like I said, there have been plenty of foxes down here, and I wanted to keep my promise."

"Promise?" Fiona asked.

Mask nodded, and he leaned back as he began to regale her with a story that he had been keeping for well over a decade. A story of his own making, and that of his fellow lower mobians as well.

………………………………………………..

I was once a drill sergeant in the Royal Acorn Army back in the days before Robotink turned on us. Even then, I never trusted him, so it should stand to reason that I was the first to fight back. Sadly, I was no match for his swatbots and buzzbombers, and like the good boys I was training I was captured. My cadets and students were taken for immediate robotisization, the lucky stiffs, but I was reserved for a much more special punishment. Robotnik had me shipped to a small prison that was little more than a hole in the ground that was shrouded in absolute darkness. The idea was that Robotnik would watch over us with spy drones, and he would wait until we were hungry enough, thirsty enough, and desperate enough to cry and beg for release, either in the robotisizor or by firing squad. I'll admit, I had come close to such feelings after the first few days. After all, my home, my kingdom, even the liege I had sworn to protect with all my mettle: they were all gone, and I couldn't do a dang thing to save anyone.

But then, there was Stella. The young fox was a sturdy woman, a physique that could only have been made from the hard life of a single mother. She was determined to break out of our little prison, and never once did she entertain the notion of surrender. Her determination was infectious, first spreading to me and then eventually our fellow pit mates. Before long, we had become a tight unit, and she was our commando leader. We burst out of our cell, and we made a beeline for the exit of Robotropolis. We lost a lot of good folks that day, but we still managed to move forward, eventually reaching Knothole forest and the spot where my cottage would eventually be built. How we missed Princess Sally and her freedom fighters fully evades my understanding, but, suffice to say, we were quite busy. As me and a few of the other survivors got to work building the cabin, Stella was quite intent on going back to Robotropolis. She claimed that she would not rest until she had personally destroyed Robotnik's entire operation, and she was like a firebrand at a convention.

For a time, I encouraged it. Morale was incredibly low, and hope was all but nonexistent. But Stella's endless courage, coupled with a flair for the dramatic, inspired us to take the fight to Robotnik. It was actually her that found Diggums and his crew, and we all struck a deal. We'd provide food and tools to the moles, and they'd give us a place to stay. That's kinda how the barter system got started down here. With Diggum's help, a tunnel from my cottage was made to what would become Lower Mobius, a subterranean refuge to any and all that were persecuted by Robotnik's prejudice.

With Stella at the forefront, we led several successful raids against Robotropolis. With every run, we liberated more folks, gathered new supplies, and made a real name for ourselves as freedom fighters. It was great.

That is…until it wasn't.

Even then, I could tell Stella was looking for something specific. She was very systematic in her approach, targeting key points where Robotnik kept folks either pending robotisization or torture. But, with every successful mission, she steadily became more and more careless. Unhinged, even. She started to get more aggressive in her tactics, and she would often berate good folks for how things didn't go the way she had envisioned, even though everyone was doing their darnedest. But there just wasn't any pleasing her. I did my best to be supportive, having become her second in command and confidant ever since we had escaped, but it all came to a head when the bodies started dropping. After a careful analysis of her battleplans, I found out that she had started to willfully sacrifice some of our own in order to do some solo missions in more heavily guarded areas. That had been the last straw for me. Something had to give, and I was going to let her know about it…

………………………..

Mask made sure that he was very careful as he opened the door. It was late in the evening, and all of Lower Mobius was asleep. Well, all save two. With no real surprise, he found Stella Fox pouring over a series of scrawled up battle plans. They were supposed to be brilliant, he was sure, but they looked like a four-year-old had been turned loose on a bunch papers with a permanent marker. Stella, for her part, looked like a wreck. It was clear that she hadn't changed her dress in the last three days, and her hair was an utterly unruly mess. It was also quite incredible that she was able to even lift her head with the heavy, black bags under her eyes. He shut the door behind himself with a click, and that seemed to get her attention.

"Ah, Mask!" she said. Gosh was her voice screechy. Used it, it sounded so melodious, especially when she sang her song. Now, if she dared to even try, every baby in Lower Mobius would surely wail. "Come here! You've gotta see what I've made. It's a real doozy, and I think it's a real winner."

Mask sighed, and he made his way over to the table. As he drew closer, Stella began to ramble.

"Ok, last time we hit a bit of a snag when we went through the industrial zone. A bit of a hiccup, I know, but it's a process. So, after going over the maps Diggums dug up-hah! Dug up, get it?-I found a weakpoint in the defenses inside of the trashcompactor in level three. Admittedly, there is only a three second window to use it before you're smashed flatter than a hubcap, but if we get one of the burlier guys we've got down here to act as a sort of fulcrum or a column, maybe we could hold it up just long enough for our army to slip through and…"

Mask bent down, snatched the plans up, and then he began to systematically rip them up until they were nothing but strips of paper lying on the floor. Stella looked utterly flabbergasted.

"Mask, you…what are you doing?! Those were the plans for the raid tomorrow morning!"

"There isn't going to be a raid tomorrow, morning!" Mask snapped, his tone surprising her, and even himself. "Stella, you know that I'm your friend, and I've followed you in and out of the worst spots imaginable. But this has got to stop. Look at you! I can't even recognize you anymore. You have to let this go."

Stella's eyes became hard, and she slammed her hands on the table.

"You can't be serious. After all this, you decide now to get cold feet? We're close, I can feel it. Just a couple more goes and…"

"And what!?" Mask roared in outrage. "You don't fool me fore one second, Marina. Unlike these pitiful waifs and strays that you surround yourself with, I'm not ignorant of your abilities as a leader. Or, rather, your lack therof. You have no idea what you're doing. Robotnik isn't on his last legs. I doubt we're even that much of an annoyance. What's more, I know about your little Queens Gambit you've been pulling, needlessly sacrificing our own people just so you can run off and do Aurora knows what. How well do you think everyone will follow you when I tell them the truth, and I am telling them the truth. It's time to put down the sword and put up roots. We fought our fight, but its time to look after our own."

"I am looking after my own!" Stella insisted angrily.

"Balderdash!" Mask retorted. "You've become infatuated with delusions of grandeur, is what's happened, and you're only going to get people killed! I already had to watch one group of brave souls throw their lives away purposely, and I refuse to just sit around while you do the same with these people!"

"I WON'T ABANDON MY DAUGHTER!!!"

Stella's voice echoed throughout the cave, rousing many, but leaving them confused and scared. Back in the room, Mask stared at Stella as she crumbled to her knees, burying her face on the table as she began to weep openly. Mask blinked in utter surprise, never once having even heard of her daughter. Was it that she didn't think anyone would help her if they knew the truth? That did seem the most logical given what Mask had found. His lips drooped into a frown, and he gave Stella few moments to collect herself and let her tears fall. When she was done, she stood, straightened out her dress, and she dropped her voice back to a more suitable level.

"I have a daughter." She said, her voice cracking. "She'll turn four tomorrow. It'll be my little girl's birthday, so imagine the surprise of seeing her mommy coming to rescue her."

Mask felt his heart ache. So this had truly been what it was all about all along. Stella really wasn't a leader yearning for justice. She was just a mother that was scared and wanted to give her child a hug. He breathed a heavy sigh, and he dabbed at his brow with a handkerchief.

"Stella…"

"I don't want to hear it!" Stella cut in. "I know what you're thinking, but she's alive. My little Fiona is out there, cold, scared, alone, and hungry. She needs me. I have find her and keep her safe. I'm her mother. That's my job."

"I'm not saying it isn't." Mask said evenly. "But, Stella, you gotta see it from every angle. You're not the only one with family missing. In just Lower Mobius alone, there are many folks mourning missing loved ones, and most of them are good folks that followed us into Robotropolis. We can't keep doing this. I'm literally the only one with military training down here, and, while I do my best to teach these people, they're not soldiers. They only follow you because you inspire hope, but rather than living up to their faith you're exploiting it for your own purposes. Speak honestly, is that what you would want from your daughter?"

Stella didn't answer that. Instead, she walked around her table and gathered up a backpack stuffed with supplies. Mask stared at her with confusion, and he watched as Stella made her way for the door.

"Where are you going?" he demanded.

Stella stopped, and she opened the door.

"I'm going back to Robotropolis. I'm going to find my daughter."

"You are doing no such thing!" Mask snapped. "Stella, old girl, I get that you're hurting, but if you think for one mobian minute I'm letting you drag more folks to the surface just to throw them in the maw of the dragon…"

"I'm not." Stella said, cutting him off. "You're right, Mask. I am being selfish. I should never have let things go so far. I should have just done this from the beginning. This way, the only life I'd cost is my own."

Mask was totally aghast, and he was frozen to the spot.

"Hey, now, wait a minute! That's not what I meant!"

"I know, and I don't care. I know my daughter is alive, and I'm going after her. It's my life, and my choice."

Mask wanted to move. To stop her! To make her stay! But his legs refused to advance.

"What about the people? They look up to you. They turn to you for guidance. What am I supposed to tell them?"

Stella spun around the door, and she gave Mask one last look.

"You tell them the truth. You tell them about my queen's gambit, and the horrible, selfish decisions I have made. You then tell them that I want them to live their own lives with their families. To enjoy this paradise that they have made and to honor the sacrifices that were made to make it all possible. If I am to be remember poorly, then that is an account for my own weak character. The rest, as they say, is silence."

With that, she closed the door, and Mask was alone.

…………………………………………..

Fiona was utterly speechless when Mask drew his story to a close. Tears of his own had begun to trickle down the old raccoon's face, and he gingerly wiped away at them with a handkerchief.

"Not a day goes by that I don't wish that I had stopped her. That I had ripped that door off the hinges, tackled that crazy, stupid woman, and begged her to stay. But I guess it just wasn't written in the stars. I gave her an entire week before I broke the news to the people. Understandably, there were many that didn't believe me, cursed her out for her selfish actions, or just fell silent. It was perhaps the most tense moment in my life, even paling the loss of my tail back in the war. But, eventually, life had to move on. There were babies to feed, crops to water, and blankets to knit. I got to living in my cottage rather than down in the cave. As the last person that saw her alive, I wasn't exactly the most popular person in the cave. Some even accused me of doing something to her, but they were eventually silenced. In time, the cave returned to a sense of normality, and eventually Lower Mobius became the inner world you see now."

Fiona wiped away a few of her own tears, looking down at the floor and trying to keep her emotions in check. She thought back to when she grew up about how no one seemed to care that she was suffering. That she had to rescue herself from Robotnik's prison after Might, Ray, and Sonic had made their own getaway. It had always made her bitter and angry. To think that her mother had gone through all that, had tormented herself as well as others and no doubt died just for her, it just made all of Fiona's complaints seem…arbitrary. Meaningless, even. It certainly made her last few years of work look even worse.

"Do you…have a point you're trying to make?" she asked while keeping her red eyes out of sight.

Mask got up, walked over to her, and her put a hand under her chin to make her look up at him.

"It's like this, Fiona. What your mom did, justified though her reasons were, was selfish. She put a lot of good folks in harm's way, and, at the expense of sounding like a cad, she didn't show much in the way of remorse. She just did what she felt she had to do. But, in spite of all that, she did found Lower Mobius. She just may have needed a place to store her army, but she created a community where folks could gather in safety and make a new life. That's what this place is about, Fiona. New beginnings. We don't care where you came from, what you've done, or what kinda baggage you're carrying. If you're here, you're family, and that's all any of us care about. This is our home, and it can be yours, too, if you want it."

Fiona gave him a blank stare. He was really serious? He wanted her to stay? He knew what she had done, she had left out very few details, and he must've known the possible dangers she could bring with him. The zone patrol was one thing, but Finnetivus was out there somewhere. If he got up the gumption, he would probably come looking for her to get back at her for her and Scourge standing him up. Then of course there was Scourge himself. He would eat these folks alive if he ever found this place. Was the old fart really ok with that?

"Fiona?"

The voice was soft like the coo of a dove, and it turned Fiona's attention to the door. There was Gabby peaking her head inside with Nicolette's hand on her shoulder, no doubt about to pull her back out. A second later, the door came open completely, and the two stepped inside. Gabby trotted over to where Fiona was sitting, and she looked up at her with the biggest pair of moon eyes no child should be capable of making. It made Fiona feel like she was having a toothache.

"Please don't leave." she begged with a cooing voice. "I hate it when people say goodbye. You could at least stay until my brother comes back. Please?"

The sight of the tiny girl's lip quivering was enough to make Fiona's heart melt. She bent down and helped the young thing onto her knee, minding her own leg.

"Gabs, you're a really good kid." She said softly. "It's just that…well…I'm not sure if you're old enough to understand…"

It was the darndest thing. For years now, Fiona had made hundreds of excuses and reasons why she couldn't stay in one place for too long. But, for the life of her, she couldn't think of a darn thing to say. As the silence became deafening, Nicolette cleared her throat.

"Mask, could you give us girls some privacy? I'd like to talk to Fiona alone, if you don't mind."

Mask nodded, and he got up and started out. He stopped at the door, and he nodded to Fiona.

"I'll be in the cottage."

With that, he was gone. With the door shut and the three of them secluded, Nicolette made her way over, and she sat down next to Fiona. Perhaps it was an odd trick of the light, but there seemed to be a bit of age around the weasel that Fiona hadn't noticed before. Sure, she was six to ten years older than herself, but Nicky had always been a vibrant woman in her own right and never seemed to show signs of slowing down. Nicolette then leaned back and let the back of her head rest against the wall, looking up at the underside of the upper bunk as she searched her thoughts for what to say.

"We used to have a lot of fun back then, didn't we Fi?" she finally said. "You and me and all the little treasures we hunted down in those old tombs and what not."

"Yeah, I remember." Fiona said, curious where she was going with this.

Nicolette sighed.

"I gotta be honest with you, Fi. When you first came to me back then, I really wasn't that hot on the idea of having a sidekick. Me and Nack had just had a bad falling out, ironically one worse than what led to me getting this thing," she tapped her metallic leg. "But you grew on me. You were like the little sister I never wanted with how you always tagged along, pestering me with questions and looking at me like I was some sort of treasure hunting genius."

Fiona tried her best to hide her blush.

"Aren't you exaggerating just a little bit?" she grumbled. "I mean, I wasn't that starstruck."

"Oh, yes you were." Nicolette affirmed. "But that was fine. You were a kid, after all, and you had been through a lot. It's why I kept you around…at first. Honestly, those were some of the best years of my life: you and me against the world, going to places where we really had no business being, securing fabulous and lost riches and doing our best to outwit that stupid bat!"

That made Fiona laugh. If there was one thing that she did remember from the old days in broad detail it was the staggering rivalry between her and Rouge the Bat. It hadn't been uncommon for the rival treasure hunter to manipulate the two of them to do the hard work before she could swoop in and steal the prize for herself. It was infuriating, but there was a certain kind of fun to it all. Besides, what was the point of hunting something down if you didn't have some competition for it?

"Those were the days." Fiona said with a dreamy sigh. "Though, and I don't mean to sound rude Nick, what does that have to do with right now?"

Nicolette sighed, and she looked back to Fiona.

"You remember when we went our separate ways, right? You joined the freedom fighters, eventually dating the blue blur himself, and I had that fancy little ship to go about and do whatever I wanted."

"Yeah. So?"

"Well, if I'm perfectly honest, it got lonely after that. I tried to keep up the whole treasure hunting schtick, and I had even obtained quite the horde after a while, but something was just…missing. I guess I had just gotten used to being around someone after years of solitude. So, I tried taking jobs where I got new partners. I tested several rookies, my own brother and his crew, and I even worked with Mighty and Ray on a job along with Rouge. Yeah, I don't believe it either. But, it just didn't feel fulfilling. Eventually, Mighty, Ray, and I went our separate ways once again, and once again I was alone. Before long, Nack came a knocking with a past grievance he had decided to get around to, and I was all on my own. He blew up my air craft, robbed me of a leg, and he all but left me for dead out in the woods. I was all but certain it would be the end of me, and it almost was."

Fiona blinked. So that's what had happened? If she had of known…

She felt a tug on her arm, and she looked down to see Gabby smiling at her.

"Don't worry, Miss Fiona. This is where me and my brother come in."

Nicolette nodded.

"That's right. It was Gabby's brother, Sherman, that found me. They were just having a little walk in the woods when they found me lying there on the forest floor. Without asking, without even figuring out who I was, they brought me here, and Mask and Diggums spent the next few days tending to my wounds, replacing my leg, and just overall nursing me back to health."

"I helped too!" Gabby piped in, to which Nicolette chuckled.

"Yeah, you certainly did, kiddo. You were a big help."

She looked back up to Fiona.

"Kid, what I'm getting at in a roundabout way is that I've been right where you are. Sure, I didn't work with some extradimensional conqueror, but I did work for Robotnik and Eggman several times. I've made more than my fair share of enemies, too. When these people knew about my past, I was all but certain they would throw me to the wolves first chance they got."

She smiled.

"But they didn't. A week before you arrived, Nack and his boys came a calling, having found this place by accident. Something about one of Bean's bombs going off and dumping them in the underground river or something. Naturally, when he found out I was alive, Nack wanted to rectify that mistake. But, he and I both received a startling surprise. Every able-bodied person in the city turned on them and stood in my defense. They didn't ask. They didn't question. They didn't even consider the consequences of what they were doing. They just protected me, and the last I saw of Nack was his tail being shorted by a few feet as Mask took potshots at him, even blowing up his stupid bike for good measure."

She put a hand on Fiona's shoulder.

"I know you're scared. Not just with yourself, but with the evil you think you'll bring down on these people. Don't both denying it and saying you don't because I know that would be a lie. These people…they're not like anything I've ever seen before. They stick up for one another, and that's what makes them strong. They don't care about where you come from. Only that you're here and you probably don't have anywhere to go. Fi, you can live here. I mean it! You could start from scratch right here, and I'll help you, like I shoulda back then. Mask will help you, too. He can be a bit of a grump, sometimes, but he's a good old soul with a heart of gold. That lion guy you came with; he seemed pretty attached to you, so I'm sure you can count on him."

She then adopted an impish grin.

"What's more, I noticed that you had eyes for a certain deputy with dark locks and bright, green eyes. I'm sure he could help you settle in."

Fiona's ears burned, and she didn't make eye contact for a long moment as she tried to keep her emotions in check. After a long moment, she looked back at Nicolette, and for the first time in a long time she let her walls down, revealing just how small and vulnerable she truly felt. She was just so tired of running. She was tired of picking fights with people she had no business with, and she just wanted to find a nice place where she could rest her head and just tune everything out.

"I can…I can really do that?" she asked, her voice soft. "I can really stay here? I…I don't have to worry."

Nicolette grinned at her, and she pulled her into a motherly hug, accidently pulling Gabby in as well. Not that she minded.

"You can stay here as long as you want. These are good people. Don't be afraid to depend on them when you need something. You just have to have the courage to ask for help. If I could find a place here, I know you can."

She released her, and she got back to her feet.

"At least stay till Founder's Day. Take the time to see what your mother started. Sure, she wasn't a saint, but, in a way, she made this place just for you. It almost seems like a waste if you don't stick around."

She started for the door, and then she whistled for her ward.

"Come on, Gabby. There's still stuff that needs done, and you need to get back to choir practice."

"Ok." Gabby called as she hopped up. She looked back up at Fiona, and she grinned. "I hope you stay, Miss Fiona. I really, really like having you here."

With that, she went skipping after Nicolette, and she shut the door behind her. Fiona was alone again, though the loneliness didn't seem to creep on her like it had before. Outside, she could hear the people working busily, and she could even hear Judah chatting with Nicolette, likely asking if she was alright. Fiona lowered her gaze to the floor, towards her injured leg and thinking back to the day that Judah had saved her from those wolves. That almost felt like a lifetime ago, now. Judah, Mask, Nic, Gabby, Blade: they all knew about her past, some in better detail than others, but still they had gone out of their way to care for her and to look after her. They hadn't asked anything of her, not that she had anything to give, and they were sticking by her regardless of the harsh treatment she had offered in return. Then, there were Nic's last words that struck a particular note in her heart. That piece she had said about her mother.

Sure, she wasn't a saint, but, in a way, she made this place just for you. she had said. It almost seems like a waste if you don't stick around.

How many mobians had given their lives for her mother's sake, she wondered. They had been so trusting, offered up their hopes. It was foolish, but, at the same time, that was all they really had, especially back then. Just how different was Fiona now to the mobians that had first come here? She was lost, alone, and there was just a whole lot of bad that was following her and promised to destroy her. But here she was, miles underground and surrounded by people that only wanted to help. The very notion sounded insane, too good to be true even, but here she was.

"Is it true?" she asked herself. "Could I really just start over? Do I even deserve a second chance?"

She didn't have an answer for that. What's more, all she had to go on was Nic's work. Not that she was lying, Fiona just wasn't sure if the people of lower mobius were as trustworthy as her friend made them out to be.

She looked down to her leg, then she got up and tested it. It still hurt like the dickens, but when she focused hard enough she found that she could actually walk on it without the cane. It was healing up better than she had realized, and she could probably leave right now. But, as soon as that thought entered her head, it seemed to form a rock in the pit of her stomach, and she sat back down. She took a deep breath to settle her nerves, and then she let it out again.

"One more day." she finally said. "I'll just stay one more day, and that's it! I'll leave, and I'll do it in a way that none of those losers will follow after me. Just…just one more day."

With that, she got up, gathered her cane, and she started back out. If she was going to leave, then the least she could do was clean up the mess she had caused earlier. Just one more day was all she needed. Only one. Just one