Chapter 13

Fiona moaned softly as sense returned to her, only to start coughing violently. The familiar acidic stench of smog strangled her lungs, and it took her several long minutes to gather enough breath to function properly. With a groan, she rose to her knees, and then to a full standing position. Her everything hurt, and thinking didn't come easy.

What had happened?

Where was she?

Slowly, she remembered the string of events that preceded her blackout: Lower Mobius, Scourge attacking, Anarchy Beryl, Time Stones. She recalled the struggle as well as the beating her body had taken, the last part all too well, and it all ended with a bright flash of light. Had the Time Stones and the Anarchy Beryl collided with one another, opening a rift of some sort? That…sort of made sense. In that case, where was she? Or, perhaps more terrifying to consider, when was she?

She coughed again, tasting smog, and all around her she could hear industrial equipment at work. To one side, she spied a set of scaffolding, and she made her way over to it. She was certain that one or two of her ribs had been broken, so climbing was a chore, but she eventually made it to the top. Here, she beheld a nightmare landscape coated in metal for as far as the eye could see with towering smokestacks spewing noxious black fumes into the clouds, giving the whole area a sickly lighting and color. But, perhaps the most striking feature of this entire establishment was the large monument made in the shape of a human with a large belly and an outlandish mustache that stretched out for miles on either side of its face.

"Robotropolis!" Fiona gasped with no small amount of terror. "I'm in Robotropolis! Old Robotropolis! Robotnik's Robotropolis!"

Several nightmares and vivid memories she had buried into the deep annals of her memory bubbled to the surface of her mind. She recalled that dreadful day when Robotnik swept across Mobotropolis, snatching up anything with blood in its veins and ferrying them away into the darkest recesses of his growing empire. For over a decade, she had been his prisoner, locked away in a small, dark box with little to no hope of escape.

She forced herself to look away, giving herself a small slap to the face.

"Settle down, Fiona! You are not that helpless little girl anymore! As stupid as some of your choices might have been, you've grown a lot stronger than then. You'll be fine."

Though the words left her mouth, she found them to be rather hollow as the wind whisked them away and sprayed a fresh burst of smog into her face. She scrambled back to the base of the scaffold, and she put a hand to her forehead as she started to think.

"Ok. So, I'm trapped in the past, and I am in literally the most dangerous place on the entire planet. The chances of me being robotisized, serving Robotnik's regime blindly for several decades, only to, hopefully, be found by the freedom fighters, returned to my true self, and create one of the most bizarre reunions in the history of the multiverse and likely meet my past, or rather future, self. A confusing but most probably worst case scenario. Not exactly a fun pastime, but I suppose it could be a lot worse."

She looked about.

"On the plus side, Scourge is nowhere to be found. If I'm lucky, he was hurled to the dawn of time, and I'll never have to worry about seeing him. Or, he'll completely wreck history and I'll eventually cease to exist. Not gonna think of that any further than I need to. At least things can't get any worse."

The words had barely left her mouth when a trio of dome shaped robots rounded the bend, and they locked their sights on her.

"Swatbots?!" Fiona gasped. "Oh, brother, me and my big mouth."

The swatbots studied her a minute, and then they raised their arms, brandishing their wrist mounted lasers.

Priority one target detected! they chimed in perfect union.

Fiona blinked, and she looked around. There was no sign of Sonic anywhere. She was alone in the alley. She turned back to the swatbots, and she pointed to herself.

"Wait! You mean me?"

Affirmative! the lead bot declared. Exterminate! Exterminate!

They opened fire, and Fiona bolted. With laser blasts sailing over her head and past her ears, Fiona dashed through the empty city, looking for a safe place to hide in. However, every route seemed to lead her to another team of swatbots, and then another and another until an entire platoon was after her head. It was utter chaos, and it didn't make any sense. If it was just the first three that were doing this, she would have chucked it up to faulty programming, but every bot in this city wanted her, and her explicitly dead?

"Oh please don't tell me this is a completely different universe altogether." she muttered to herself in aggravation.

She continued down the back alleys and made a beeline for a specific part of the city. If memory served her, Sonic's Uncle Chuck, then a robot, was living in the junk yard where Robotnik ditched his failed projects. Since this was before she became an enemy of the state, perhaps he would be genial enough to let her stay with him until she could figure out something smarter to do. Sure enough, she found the junk yard. However, she was disappointed not to see the aged robian anywhere in sight. Not one to be quickly discouraged, Fiona zipped into the yard and made herself scarce amongst the refuse. Of course, that didn't get rid of the killer death bots marching through the yard and blasting anything that moved. Fiona crouched down and quietly navigated the maze of towering scrap. So long as she kept quiet as a mouse, she would be able to…

Suddenly, a tower of trash started to fall over.

Evacuate! the swatbots roared in unison, and they all started to scramble to escape, only for several to be crushed as a result.

Fiona wasn't much more fortunate. She ran as fast as she could only for the column of trash to catch her and bury her. She barely managed to let off a scream before she was completely covered. In time, all was still and quiet again. The remaining swatbots were quick to assess the sight, and, when they didn't spy their quarry, they left to resume their duties. For the third time in so many weeks, Fiona was alone, and this time, in this time, she had no friends to turn to. She struggled and strained, fortunately not having been skewered in any places, and it didn't seem she broke anything for a change. Perhaps the first bit of good news she's had all day. She fought against the heavy debris, and she screamed out for any sort of aid. Even robotisization sounded better than dying in a place like this, under a heap of steel and refuse. She tried moving again, spotting a small sliver of light that dangled freedom just a few inches from her nose. She eased herself forward, but the junk over her started to quake and she had to stop. Not only was she buried now with freedom laughing in her face, but she was the linchpin that, when removed, would put an end to all her worries once and for all. Frustrated, she screamed out an aggravated cry.

"Really, karma?!" she squealed with outrage. "This is when you decide to pay me back! When I had finally figured things out and was trying to be a better person! Your timing is horrible!"

She banged her forehead against the floor, but it did her no more good than that sliver of light that only succeeded in illuminating how bad her situation had gotten. If and whenever Robtonik finally cleaned this mess up, there wouldn't be much left of her, and he would just throw her out with the rest of the trash. That would be the end of Fiona the Fox. She had said from the start that girls like her didn't deserve fairytale endings, but even this was cruel and unusual. Resigned to her fate, she could only lay her face down, close her eyes, and cry.

"Help." she whispered, though she doubted there was anyone to hear. "Someone, please, help."

Then, she heard it. The sounds of metal being tossed aside. Little by little, that tiny sliver of light grew wider and wider, and soon Fiona could see the sky again. A moment later, the end of a rope landed in front of her.

"Grab hold!" a voice shouted. "Tie it around your waste if you can. I'll pull you out quickly."

The cynical part of Fiona's mind asked the question of whether or not this stranger could be trusted, but her sense of self preservation told that part to stuff it and she tied the end of the rope around herself. She gave it a tug to show she was ready, and it suddenly went taut. Fiona held on tight, and she was suddenly yanked out of her prison. Behind her, she could hear it caving in on itself. Fiona gasped for breath as she pushed herself up onto hands and knees. Her eyes were wide and bloodshot, and her throat felt cracked as the adrenaline ran its course.

"So many brushes with death lately." She muttered to herself. "Mr. Grim Reaper, when're you gonna learn that a girl just isn't interested."

She pushed herself up to address her rescuer, expecting Uncle Chuck. Instead, she was greeted by a stranger in a cloak. The angle of their hood made it impossible to see their face, but the lack of diesel fuel in the air told her that this stranger was flesh and blood just like her. Perhaps it was one of Robotnik's prisoners having escaped.

"Man, am I glad you came along." she said. "I've heard of having your bacon being pulled out of a fire, but you gotta admit that this is…kind of…ridiculous?"

The stranger had drawn closer. They stopped short, and then they raised a hand to Fiona's face, taking her cheek into their palm.

"Uh," Fiona began as the awkward moment continued, "is there…something I can help you with?"

She found that she was now looking the stranger in the eye, the shadow of their hood still blocking her full view. Then, the stranger spoke.

"I-it can't be. It just…it couldn't be, could it? Fiona?"

Fiona jumped back, her heart rate skyrocketing.

"And that cinches it! Who are you? How do you know my name?!"

The stranger went stiff, and then they reached up and pulled back their hood. The stranger was a mobian, alright, a middle-aged mobian fox as a matter of face. A female no less. Her features were rugged and weathered, shaped by several hard years of fighting and loss. But these features did little to wash away the sense of familiarity that bubbled up in Fiona's stomach.

"Who would know you better?" the woman asked. "None more than your mother."

She started to approach again, only for Fiona to back away. A fresh terror had snaked its way up the younger fox's spine as she stared incredulously at the woman. Her mind erupted with an infinite number of thoughts as she tried to comprehend what was happening.

"You're my…NO! That's not…you can't be…Mask said…and the time stones…Scourge and the…did Robotnik make a double like he did of me to trick…"

Words failed her. It was just too much to comprehend. These things didn't just happen. Well, actually, they kind of did when one considered the other freedom fighters and their families, but what were the chances that she herself would run into the one and only person that ever truly mattered in her life. Was it some sort of trick? A dream? An illusion? She needed to be sure. She had to make sure! But what could she do?"

"Sing your favorite song?"

The woman blinked.

"I…beg your pardon?"

"Sing your favorite song!" Fiona repeated. "The one you were singing in Lower Mobius all the time. The kind of song that gave people hope and reason to follow you. Sing me that song right now!"

The woman cocked her head, confused, but then her face softened, and a smile parted her lips. She closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and she started to sing.

The sun'll come out

Tomorrow

Bet your bottom dollar that

Tomorrow

There'll be sun!

Just thinkin' about

Tomorrow

Clears away the cobwebs

And the sorrow

'Till there's none!

Tomorrow, tomorrow!

I love ya tomorrow!

You're always

A day

Away!

As she drew her song to a close, the woman opened her eyes, tears trickling down her face as she looked into Fiona's eyes.

"Satisfied…button?"

Fiona stood there petrified, awestruck, and with tears of her own rolling down the sides of her cheeks.

"Button." She gasped. "You called me…"

Suddenly, her heals had sprouted wings, and she leapt over to the woman, wrapping her arms tightly around her neck.

"Mommy!"

"Oh, my precious button! It is you!"

The two collapsed to their knees, holding one another tightly, crying and laughing. Fiona took in every detail: the touch of the callouses on her hands, the stench of a once delectable perfume now overpowered by oil and grime, and even the sound of her mother's breathing. This was real. Her mother was alive again, and they were finally together. Soon, they parted, and Fiona's mother brushed back the damp whiskers on her daughter's cheek.

"Just…just look at you." She breathed. "You were a child, and now you're a young lady. How did that monster rob you of your literal years?"

Fiona was certain she was a sight when she started laughing like a maniac. It took her several minutes to calm, and her mother looked utterly terrified.

"Sorry." Fiona said with a cough. "It's…well, it's just too much to explain. But I will explain. There's just…so much I want to tell you. So many adventures I've had."

She paused, and she looked down.

"B-but…there's some bad stuff, too. Like a lot. Ok, a whole bunch. You're going to be disappointed, and I'm sorry for that."

Her mother smiled.

"I'm not exactly guiltless myself. It doesn't matter what you've done. I love you, and that will never stop. Even when you're one hundred years old."

Fiona basked in an overwhelming sense of relief. How good it felt to hear those words, and from her true mother. It was better than words could describe.

"Alright then. Let's beat it! I know about Lower Mobius and Mask, and he's probably gonna have a few thousand choice words for you after tonight."

Stella rolled her eyes to the sky.

"You've got that right. I can almost hear him now chewing me out for making him worry."

With that, the two women made their way out of the junkyard and up to the rooftops. There, Stella looked about until she spied a particular wall.

"There!" she said, pointing. "That's where I came in. Provided they didn't find it, the little hole should still be there, just big enough for the two of us to slip out. Hopefully the swatbots aren't on high alert as a result of your little chase."

Fiona studied the spot.

"Seems like an easy enough target." She said. "Hopefully we can get out of here before something else can go…"

Suddenly, there was an earsplitting scream. Fiona nearly jumped out of her own skin, and she rushed over to a corner of the roof, squinting for a better look. In a small little corner of the city, a band of the swatbots that had fled from the junkyard had stumbled upon something. Specifically, it was a small child, perhaps eight years old, dressed in what had once been very expensive garments and a gold tiara. She appeared to be a chipmunk, and there was a very familiar looking red mane atop her head.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me!" she gasped in her throat. "Sugar Queen?! In tot form?! What's she doing here? Mask didn't say anything about…"

But then it hit her. She was back in the time when it was her mother that was cause Robotnik trouble. Sally wasn't even old enough to kill a fly, let alone wreck his stuff. That must've been why Sally never got caught in the first place. Those swatbots were supposed to catch and possibly kill her mother. Thanks to her almost uncanny likeness to her mother and the fact that Fiona wasn't even supposed to be here, those dunce buckets had followed her, got spooked by falling garbage, and now Sally was caught in the crosshairs and likely on her way to being robotisized.

"That poor child." She heard her mother say. "But this is an opportunity we can't afford to pass up. Let's go, Fiona."

"Wait, what?" Fiona said.

"While they're busy with her, we can flee." Stella said. "I pity her plight, but her problems are her own. We have to look out for ourselves."

Stella took off, clambering down a scaffold and calling her daughter to follow. Fiona started to comply, even making it to the ground level before she stopped again. The exit was just a few yards ahead in clear view. No swatbots, no spy bots, not even those robo rats she had heard tale of: it was just a straight stretch to freedom undaunted. For once in Fiona's life, escape was easy. For her entire life, she had been looking for the easy way out of her problems, and yet for some stupid reason she couldn't bring herself to take it. The age old excuses were ringing through her head,

"She hates you."

"She doesn't care."

"She doesn't understand you."

"She deserves this."

Decades of pain and sorrow had hardened Fiona's heart and made her oblivious to the problems of others. But with every step forward she made, Sally's screams seemed to get louder. What was more, the further she went, the more the screams started to sound like Gabby's. Then Judah's. Then Aqune's. Then Nikki's.

She stopped just short of the hole.

Then, she grabbed a hold of her mother's cloak. Stella stumbled and was spun about by the cloth being removed from her throat, and she shot her daughter with a confused look.

"Fiona, what are you…"

"Go on ahead without me."

"What?!"

Stella rushed over to her daughter, and she grabbed a hold of her arm.

"I don't know what you're thinking but you are not going back in there! We are going where it is safe, and that's final!"

She yanked and she tugged and she put every ounce of weight she had to try and pull her daughter back to the safety of the other side of the wall. But no matter how hard she pulled Fiona would not budge.

"Why…are you doing this?!" Stella grunted as she pulled harder. "You owe…that child…nothing! Do you even…know her?! There's…nothing…you can do…anyway! If you go back…"

Suddenly, quick as a whip, Fiona wrenched her hand free and wrapped the cloak around her shoulders in one swift movement. She pulled up the hood, and she looked back to her mother. That look of horror. That show of motherly instinct taking over everything else. As strange of a thing to think, she had missed that most of all. That there had been someone that cared so much for her was something she had desired more than anything over the years. Now, she had it again, only she had found it long before she had seen her mother again.

"You really are my mom." She said. "I can tell you that the apple didn't fall too far from the tree. I'm just as selfish as you are."

"I'm not selfish!" Stella snapped angrily. "I'm just a mother. I don't know what that old fart Mask has told you but…"

"He told me the truth." Fiona told her flatly. "That you sacrificed a lot of people just to try and find me. That makes you a good mom, but a very selfish person. But I'm selfish, too, and I've hurt people in just about the same way. Admittedly, the weight of my sins is probably worse than yours, but we really are two peas in a pod, you and I."

She offered her mom one last smile before she started to edge away from her.

"Go back to Lower Mobius, Mom. Just wait for me there, and I promise you'll see me again. It may be ten hours, or maybe it'll be ten years. I can't be sure, but I promise you'll see me again. Goodbye, momma. I love you."

With that, she ran. She ran as her mother called her name. She ran as her tears poured down her face. She ran as her heart shattered into a million pieces. Once again, Fiona was running away, but for the first time in her life it wasn't to get away from her problems. Fiona Fox had made a mess, and it was time that she cleaned it up.

,

Princess Sally Acorn screamed and hollered until her voice was hoarse as the large robots ferried her to a hover transport. Her protests against her capture went unheard by the cold, heartless machines as they strapped her down into a chair. The lead swatbot slid into the driver's seat, and he switched on the coms.

"Attention, Dr Robotnik. We have captured the Priority Two Target, Princess Sally Alicia Acorn. Preparing to escort to the palace."

Excellent! came the deep, wispy reply of the despotic dictator. What of the renegade? Did she fall into the clever trap I laid for her?

"Negative." The swatbot replied flatly. "Priority One target was spotted by squad D and fled into the refuse removal site. There was a collapse, and the visual was lost after the subject was buried in debris."

Is that so? Pity. Well, I'm sure I can find some use for that android somewhere down the road. A real shame, too, as it was some of my better work. But it is what it is, I suppose. Now that she is out of the way, and the princess is in my grasp, I can finally place my mark as the unchallenged ruler of this land.

The swatbot disconnected just in time to cut off the doctor's maniacal laugh. Even without personality circuits as a mass-produced enforcer droid, something about that laugh just left it unsettled.

The hover vehicle began its ascent, and still the princess was screaming her little lungs out, begging for some sort of release from her predicament. It was noisy, but it made for an excellent distraction. Fiona had returned to the rooftops, and she perched herself on a gargoyle as she awaited the hover transport to pass. At the last possible section, she jumped, and she held on for dear life as she landed atop the roof. Her sudden weight was enough to make the vehicle lurch downward before righting itself. Fiona flipped over the side, only barely clinging to an antenna, and she spied Sally inside the transport. The two of them locked eyes for a moment, and Fiona put a finger to her lips for silence before she started edging her way to the driver's compartment. Her only chance was the manual override on the outside of the door to slip in and execute her plan. She hit the switch, and sure enough the door slid open. The swatbot turned just in time to meet her foot, its head now smashed through the window. Fiona acted quickly, grabbing its right arm as the swatbot began to fire its laser wildly. With a feral grunt, she tilted the continuously firing laser into the robot's face, effectively destroying it. The swatbot went limp, and she tossed the remains out of the still open door. She then assumed the driver's seat, and she turned it about.

"Hang tight, princess!" she called to her new passenger. "Next stop: Knothole Forest!"

She pulled on the stick, and the hovercraft wheeled around towards the wall surrounding the city.

"Huh." Fiona mused to herself. "That was easy."

Hello, my dear.

Fiona froze as a voice came over the radio.

"Nevermind."

I know it's you. The one that's been sabotaging my wonderful inventions and beautiful city.

"I hear you knocking but you can't come in." Fiona replied over the com, doing her best to mimic her mother's tone.

Oho! She speaks. How interestingly bold. However, it seems to me that you and I are at something of an impasse.

"I don't see how. The only thing I want right now is to get out of this stupid city and never have to look at it again."

So you say, my dear. But I wonder if you listen as well as you speak.

He fell silent for a moment, and a new voice came over the radio.

Mommy? Mommy, help!

Fiona flinched. That sounded like…herself? Only younger.

As you can see, my dear, I have something you want, and you have something I want. It's very simple. You bring me the princess, and I give you back the daughter you have been fighting tooth and nail to reclaim. Meet me at the plaza in the main square, and we shall work out a trade.

Fiona couldn't believe it. She had heard that Robotnik had made a robotic duplicate of herself when she was a kid. He had used it against Tails when he flew solo that one time, and it was where his crush for her started. So this was why that Auto-Fiona was made. It was the lowest of low things to pull.

"Sorry, Baldy-Mcnosehair! No deal!"

She drove her fist into the radio, effectively disconnecting it, and she punched down on the accelerator. The hovercraft rocketed through the air towards the exit, but it didn't take long for a squadron of hovercrafts to take off after her, opening fire. Fiona wasn't a perfect pilot, but she was certain even Tails would be jealous as she navigated the stoutly designed hovercraft through the narrow alleys of Robotropolis. Unfortunately, it was an entire city against one pilot, and Fiona was only so capable. Before long, an entire swarm was hovering over her, raining down fire with only a narrow margin to dodge with. Eventually, she spied the large entryway gate of the city looming up into view.

"Alright boys." She mumbled. "Let's see if you know how to play chicken."

She slammed her foot down on the accelerator to the point that the lever was close to breaking. The other hovercrafts sped up in kind, and now they were all racing a hundred miles an hour towards a tall steel door. Fiona had to control her breathing, knowing fully well that one little slipup would mean the end of the Freedom Fighters before they even had a chance to assemble. Five feet…four…three…two…

She suddenly pulled back on the stick, and the hovercraft vaulted upwards. The G-forces pressed down firmly against her, leaving an impression in the seat as the sight of steel gave wave to a wall of smog, and then clouds, and then a sheet of stars. Down below, there was a barrage of thunderous explosions as the swatbots missed their timing, and several hovercrafts crashed at once against the gate. Fiona pried her foot from the accelerator, killing their forward momentum before the hovercraft did a complete one eighty. Fiona tested the accelerator. Nothing.

"Oh no."

She tried it again. Nothing.

"Oh no!"

She pumped it. She kicked at it. She screamed at it. Still nothing.

"OH…NOOOOOOOO!!!"

The hovercraft went careening back down to earth at high speed. Fiona continued to slam her foot against the accelerator, doing everything she could to get it going again, but nothing was working. The burning pile of wreckage from the other hovercrafts was quickly zooming in on them, and Fiona and her oblivious passenger was about to become part of it. Finally, at quite literally the last minute, she pulled hard on the stick and slammed the accelerator. The hovercraft chugged, and it suddenly lurched in a straight direction. But, with gravity switching to inertia, Fiona had little control, and the hovercraft crashed into the wall of a building. There, it would lay, never to fly again.

Fiona groaned softly as she forced her head upright. She had likely suffered a concussion judging from the double vision, throbbing head, bloody brow, and the crippling need to hurl. Nevertheless, she knew she had to keep going. Forcing her way out of the still open door, she staggered to back half of the hovercraft, and she pried the door open with a piece of rebar. Inside was Sally, slumped over, unconscious, but ultimately none the worse for wear. It took Fiona a minute to get her unhooked from her seat, but she was able to carry her away from the wreck bridal style. But, unfortunately, there was nowhere to go.

Swatbot reinforcements had arrived, and several hovercrafts were positioned overhead with their spotlights all aimed on her. Fiona pulled her hood down as best as she could, but there was really no need for secrecy. She was caught, and there was no hope for escape. One of the hovercrafts then landed, and Fiona's blood ran cold as Doctor Robotnik emerged from within. While even fatter than his alternate universe counterpart who took up his regime, the original doctor was without a doubt a much more menacing figure, especially when surrounded by his merciless, soulless army of robots swarming about him and ready for the kill. Behind him, she could see Snively, his chief flunky and yes man. Even he seemed pleased about her imminent capture, though that wasn't too surprising. He enjoyed the torture of innocent animals almost as much as his depraved uncle.

"So at last, we meet face to face, my dear." The doctor chuckled cruelly. "I have to admit, I'm a tad surprised that you were able to refuse my trap. I don't know how you knew that wasn't your child, but I must commend you for snuffing out your motherly instincts. How simply…mechanical of you."

Fiona said nothing.

"Oh, have you nothing for me? No demand for your actual daughter? No begging for your or the princess' life? No bartering for a means to avoid the robotisizor?"

Fiona said nothing.

"I dare say, this is a tad of an anticlimax." The doctor went on, sounding genuinely disappointed. "My conquest of mobotropolis was all but flawless. As annoying as your efforts proved, it had been fun to be actually challenged for once. You and I are a lot alike, actually. You used your pawns masterfully, and they still followed you mindlessly. You didn't even have to program them to do your bidding, and that, I confess, takes actual talent."

"Will you just get on with it already?!" Fiona finally snapped. "Shoot me, robotosize me, lock me away forever: see if I care! Just spare me your senseless prattle. I know you're a windbag, but I can smell your breath from here and over the smog."

Robotnik gave a small laugh.

"There's the spirit, and just the way I like it. Broken."

He raised a hand, signaling his robots to seize her. Fiona could only cradle Sally close, close her eyes, and wait for the inevitable.

"I'm sorry, Sugar Queen." She whispered to the child. "I know you don't know me yet, but I end up causing you a lot of trouble in the future. Far more than you needed at the time. I was selfish, and the truth is I was kinda jealous. I was just the rebound girl. Sonic still loved you. He'll always love you, and I wished I knew what that felt like. I'm only sorry I won't get the chance to tell you all that in context. If only…"

Suddenly, one of the hovercrafts did a swift about face and crashed into the ship next to it. This created a domino effect as they crashed one into another. Before they hit the ground, a figure leapt out, and there was Stella landing in front of her daughter and the princess, resembling a lioness guarding her cubs.

"Mom?!" Fiona gasped. "What the…what're doing here?! I told you to run!"

Stella looked back to her daughter, and she gave her a motherly smirk.

"I'm the momma here, button. You don't tell me what to do. It's the other way around."

She turned back to the recovering Robotnik, and she snarled.

"Butt-Nik! I've been fighting too long to get my daughter back, and I'm not leaving this city without her. So either clear outta the way, or you're gonna get hurt."

Robotnik shook himself to clear his head, and then he glared at the two foxes.

"Snively," he hissed to his assistant, "didn't you say that the daughter was a child? Barely a toddler? As in not a full-grown adult?"

"I-I-I merely read the royal records, sir." Snively sniveled. "Someone must've gotten something wrong."

"I've got a good idea of that someone." Robotnik sneered, causing Snively to shrivel up. Nevertheless, the bad doctor remained undaunted as he turned back to his foes. "I must admire both your grandeur and your tenacity, miss. I can see now that I was mistaken and that you are truly the thorn in my side I shall promptly remove. I must sadly inform you, though, that you have absolutely no hope of escaping me this time. Though your little stunt managed to rout at least half of my assembled troops, I should point out that I still have a battalion's worth of swatbots. What can two meager fighters do?"

"Make that three!"

Robotnik heard the sound of something sharp slicing through metal, and he watched as three of his swatbots split apart into a mess of scrap. Standing over the remains was a black mobian in a large coat and armed with a pair of katana, his bright green eyes flashing. Fiona looked his way, and the largest grin found its way across her face.

"Blade!"

"Hey, you miscounted, sword boy! I make four!"

There came a roar, and Judah came barreling through several more swatbots, throwing parts everywhere as he claws cleaved through the swatbots like a hot knife through butter. He skidded to a stop. A moment later, something came soaring over him, and spoils of silk stretched out and snagged more bots, twining them together as Aqune started to wrap them into a cocoon.

"I m-make five." She squeaked boldly.

When she had jumped away, here came Boris, complete with his luchador mask, and he grabbed the cocoon by a loose thread, and he started to spin it around like a wrecking ball and smashing more and more of them. When he let go, the cocoon sailed upwards into the air, vanishing in speck.

"I ya delayu shest'." He boomed while raising six fingers to the sky. "Si-Bear-ia forever!"

Robotnik suddenly found himself very confused, and horrifically outnumbered as the little band convened around his would-be prisoners, forming a barrier in front of the foxes. Judah snickered at the despot, and he flashed him his fangs.

"Your move, stache-face."

Robotnik was quick to remember his anger, and he switched on his communicator.

"Attention, all security bots! Lock onto my location!"

"And that's our cue to leave." Blade said, taking out a radio of his own. "We're ready. Come and get us!"

A spotlight shone overhead, and Fiona could see another hovercraft, this one being more reminiscent to a police vehicle with the word ZONE printed boldly on the side.

"The Zone Cops?!" she shouted over the noise. "What're they doing here?"

"How else do you think we found you?!" Blade replied. "It's not like the timeline has a directory I could cross reference to find you. Suffice to say there were…conditions tied to them helping us find you."

Fiona rolled her eyes to the sky, and she let the air out of her lungs.

"Yeah, well that makes sense. Still, I'd rather go to prison for the rest of my life than become a robian working for chromedome."

"Wait what?!" Stella squeaked.

"I'll explain in a minute." Fiona said as she grabbed a rope. "Let's beat it!"

"Music to my ears." Judah added as he joined her.

"Onward and homeward." Boris said resolutely as he gathered up Aqune and seized his own rope.

The zone patrol cruiser took off, rising to a higher altitude as the group was being reeled into the vehicle. Robotnik watched them shrink into view, his jaw slack as he tried so hard to figure out how his certain victory had suddenly spun around on him.

"Snively! Where are my swatbots?! We cannot let them escape unchallenged!"

"I'm trying sir!" Snively squeaked as he jabbed his finger at his handheld computer. "But something is wrong! That vehicle seems to be producing a signal that is interfering with the radio array used to contact the swatbots. I can't even tap into the loudspeakers placed throughout the city."

"That's impossible!" Robotnik roared. "I set up that array myself! Ever ounce of my genius went into its development! There is no one on this planet with an intellect high enough to counter it!"

"Clearly, sir, that is not the case. I'm sorry."

Robotnik's red eyes flashed white with rage. He grabbed Snively by the collar and hurled him into a nearby dumpster. He then threw up his hands, and he cut lose with a loud cry as the zone patrol cruiser vanished from sight.

………………………………………………..

Mask paced anxiously across the front lawn of his cottage, his eyes pointed down and his arms folded across his back. A sizable crowd had formed as a mess of residents from the safety of the underground, if anything just to support their marshal as he tensely waited. It had been an hour now since Blade and his group had left to reclaim the time tossed Fiona. An hour. Shouldn't time travel be instantaneous or something? That certainly sounded right. Sure, he was no expert, but darn it all it shouldn't be taking this long. Why in the sam hill hadn't he gone with him? He was old, but he wasn't worthless! If anything had happened to that young lady, he swore up and down that Blade would be digging the latrines for the rest of the millennium!

Just then, there was a loud pop like the clap of thunder, and then a white hole appeared in the sky. The front yard was assailed by gale-force winds, blasting several shingles off of the roof in the process. The zone patrol cruiser emerged from within, and it gently set itself down on the front lawn. Mask wasted no time to run over to it as the door opened. Blade was the first to stumble out, and Mask latched onto him like a rabid pitbull seizing a ham bone.

"There you are, you smug piece of cow pucky! What took you so long?! Went to go watch a movie?! Needed to do your laundry?! Dental appointment?!"

Blade rolled his eyes, and he wiggled himself out of the man's grip.

"Will you not go episodic on me, Mask?!" he said as he straightened out his coat. "Time travel isn't exactly a straight line. You have any idea how many wormholes we had to jump through just to get to the right time zone? And that's all one way."

Mask rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, sure, excuses. Whatever! Did you find her or what?"

"Heya gramps!"

Mask stiffened, and out came Fiona leaning on Aqune and Judah. The old man rushed over to her, and he took her by the shoulders.

"Missy, I don't know whether to kiss you or kill you! You gave my ticker way too much of a jolt! I swear kid, if this is gonna be a regular thing…"

He took a deep breath, and he let it out.

"Just…just promise me no more secrets, lass. I don't think I could take any more of them."

He wasn't sure why, but the smile she flashed him made him uncomfortable.

"Sorry, gramps, but there's just one more. You'll just have to grin and bear it soldier."

Mask scowled at her, and he folded his arms across his chest as he narrowed his eyes to slits.

"Now, Fiona, it's been a long couple of days, and Lower Mobius is still a mess. I've got a million and one things that need to get done, so why don't you just spare me the mystery and…"

By then, Boris had hopped out of the vehicle, the sudden loss of weight making it shake, and now Mask had an unobstructed of the final guest arriving on his lawn. The old man gaped at her as Stella marched out of the vehicle. She sauntered over to him, and she offered him a sweet, but also tear stricken, smile. Lucile actually fell loose from his grip, and he stepped over to her and looked her up and down. He reached out a trembling hand, but he couldn't bring himself to touch her. Instead, Stella took his hand into her own, grasping it tightly as she looked the raccoon in the eye.

"You got old." She said.

"You haven't aged a day." He replied in kind.

Then, the two embraced, holding one another tightly. They parted at the sounds of thunderous applause, and they turned to see everyone from Lower Mobius in a boisterous uproar.

"The founder has returned!"

"Welcome home!"

"She's even prettier in person!"

"Wonder if she's single?"

There were even more cries of gladness and welcoming, and it was enough to make Stella blush.

"You…did tell them what I did, didn't you?" she asked sheepishly.

Mask nodded.

"Of course I did, but this is Lower Mobius, don't forget. We don't care about what you did. We're just glad that you came."

He walked up beside her, and he offered his arm.

"Come on, then. Let's go home."

Stella looked up to Fiona, whom was already being tended to by a little gazelle girl as a weasel and the lion from before doted over her. Everyone seemed happy, and her daughter had made some good and trustworthy friends. She mustered up a large smile, and she looped her arm through his.

"Yes. Let's go home."