Chapter 2: Unattainable Memories
---
It seemed that the King had scarely moved more than twenty paces past the
doorway when he was already upon his destination. In the Void, distance, like time, was
something that could easily be magically negated. He made short work of the lock barring
his entry, and stepped inside.
Naugus's workshop was empty.
Max was in a large, cavernous room that was at least twice the size of his own
imperious throne room. Most of the space was simply empty, though, with nothing but
craggy gray rock walls for decoration. Occasionally, though, a table filled with various
artifacts dotted the floor's expanse, and there were bookshelves scattered across the walls
at seemingly random intervals. Each shelve was nearly full, and the books contained there
were not placed in the neatly arranged order of someone who possessed the tomes just for
show, in the sloppy, half-exposed manner of someone who was too busy using those
books to make them look tidy.
A tunnel snaked away from the workshop on the opposite end of the chamber,
leading into a solid rock wall. It was from there that Naugus would usually open the
Void's portal during his experiments.
Most of the tables and twisted bits of machinery were clustered near the doorway
that Max had entered through. He deftly weaved between them, moving towards a larger,
more complex structure.
The scrying device that he and Naugus had invented looked deceptively simple. It
was a single blank video monitor suspended above a bench, with a large chair perched
nearby. The King sat down, feeling uncomfortably small in a chair sized for Naugus's
much larger form.
There were no buttons, levers, or switches. Naugus distrusted technology and
electronics, and believed that anything that they could accomplish could be done better
with magic. The surveillance device's only interface was the user's mind. Thankfully,
having acquired a modest amount of Naugus's own magic skills, Max could use it.
He drummed his fingers on the desk for a moment, staring at the inky black of the
empty monitor. A sigh escaped his lips.
Time really was no constraint in the Void. A micro-fissure could be opened
anywhere, and at any time.
**Show me my daughter's life. **
---
3224. The outskirts of Mobotropolis.
"Where are we going, Rosie?" A walrus tugged at the nanny's bright red dress.
Several pairs of small feet, mostly barefoot, were running as fast as they could manage
down the dimly lit red passageway. Except for the nanny, they were all children, none of
them any older than six years. Most of their eyes were wide with fear; it was clear that
none of them could really comprehend what was happening to their city. Three of them
the King recognized immediately. The blue-quilled hedgehog was there. One of them
also had the light brown fur and long, pointed noise of the french-accented fox that the
King had seen die in the corridors of the warehouse.
Sally Acorn was also there, running alongside the hedgehog. Of all the children,
hers was the only face that wasn't twisted in some form of helpless distress. She was
silent, her mouth pursed into a tight, thin line. There wasn't any detectable fear in her
eyes, only a slight twinge of sorrow and regret overshadowed by simple determination to
get where she was going.
"To somewhere safe, Rotor," Rosie answered between pauses for breath. It was
clear that they had been running for some time. The King smiled when he saw the old
nanny, one of the few genuinely pleasant people he had met during his tenure on the
throne. The Void had never given him a chance to remember her.
"When can we go back home?" another child, a long-eared female rabbit, solicited
anxiously.
"Soon, I hope." Rosie said, still reassuring despite all that had happened. "I'm
sure the Royal Army will be able to sort this mess in no time."
"Is what happened to Uncle Chuck happening to everyone in the city?" the
hedgehog asked tearfully, voice pleading for the right response.
Rosie didn't answer.
At last, the group of children reached the end of the corridor. Rosie's palm hit a
button concealed from the King's limited camera view. A door hissed open, and bright
natural sunlight flooded into the corridor. Almost as one, the children all raised their
hands to block out the light as their eyes adjusted to it. Not allowing for any time to rest
or pause, Rosie quickly herded them all out into the door. The King willed the camera
view to change.
They were standing outside in the forest, on a hill overlooking the suburbs of the
great city. Mobotropolis's towering spires were just visible in the distance. Some of the
children paused as they gazed towards the skyscrapers, their breath catching in their
throats. Rosie kept trying to move them onwards, fighting against stubborn legs that
didn't want to move.
"Please, move quickly, children," she implored, giving them gentle shoves in the
right direction, "we're going to a retreat out in the Great Forest. We'll all be safe out
there; it's one of Sally's father's hidden hideaways. He and Sir Char-" Rosie's eye caught
the distant city, and the shock stopped her in her tracks. "Oh no!"
A vast, dark cloud of boiling smog loomed over the city, as still and silent as a
child's nightmare. Vast tendrils of smoke coiled upwards from the massive fires that raged
throughout the cityscape, curling upwards and joining the ash and debris that would soon
grow large enough to blot out the sun. From this distance, both the bright blazes and
smoke appeared motionless.
Many of the city's pristine white-tinted structures had been painted over by the
smog and ash into a cruel, metallic gray. Other buildings had changed in the most horrible
ways, either collapsed in on themselves, or bent into new shapes by a technology that
Rosie couldn't begin to imagine. She couldn't even make out the silhouette of the King's
pyramidal place: usually, its size made it the first building visible when approaching the
city. Now it was simply... gone.
The group was silent for a long moment. After glancing once at the city, Sally's
gaze fell slowly to the ground in front of her. The corners of her mouth curled
downwards, her eyes gleamed with loss.
"Rosie," the rabbit asked, voice trembling, "the Royal Army isn't gonna be able to
fix this. Is it?"
"I-I..." For a moment, Rosie didn't know how to even begin answering. "We'll
find out. Come on, children! We have to get to Knothole!"
Her voice spurred them all into action. Sally was the last to start moving, but
when she ran, she ran with a vigor and resolve that not even Rosie could match.
Later in the afternoon, the group progressed further and further into the wilds of
the Great Forest, following ancient animal tracks and unused trails. Time had worn down
most of the day's earlier panic. The children now followed Rosie at a leisurely pace as
they moved through the trees. Sally still hadn't spoken a word since leaving the city
behind.
Mobotropolis was no longer visible past the horizon, even when trees didn't block
it, but the ominous cloud of smoke and ash continued to grow in the sky.
"Sally?" Rosie asked cautiously. "Are you all right? You've been awfully quiet so
far."
Sally looked up at Rosie, and nodded. "I just miss my dad."
---
3228. The Great Forest.
"I... I just found him there, Sal. Alone. I couldn't just leave him."
"I know, I know, but..." Sally trailed off, moving her gaze from the hedgehog to
the small cub. He couldn't have been more than a toddler. He was standing, watching
them from the other side of the clearing. She lowered her voice so that the cub couldn't
hear her, feeling guilty for do so all the while. "It could be a trap, Sonic. We know that
Robotnik's still on the lookout for survivors of the coup."
The nine-year-old hedgehog scratched his head. "A trap? This little guy? C'mon,
get serious, Sal."
"I am serious. If his village was destroyed, then how did he survive? Did he ever
tell you?"
"Well, no..."
"Robotnik could've planted a tracking device on him, hoping that someone
charitable enough would take him back to their village. Then he'd just have another
target."
"Yeah, that does sound like something Robuttnik would do," the hedgehog
relented. "But it still seems far-fetched."
"Well, where did you find him?"
"He was out in the open, wandering around the rubble of the village. I heard him
crying."
Sally frowned. "If he was out in the open during the attack, do you think that
there's any way the SWATbots could've missed him?"
"No way! They would've spotted the little guy, all right." Sonic glanced back
over at the cub. "But here's how I see it, Sal. We have two choices: we either take our
chances and bring him back to Knothole, or we leave just leave him out here." His eyes
glistened. "Sal, if we just leave him out here, you know he'll die. He's too young to
survive on his own."
Sally's face sagged, and there was a long silence. The cub watched them
curiously.
"We're too young to be making these kinds of decisions, Sonic," she said softly.
"Robuttnik forces everyone to grow up fast." The hedgehog's fists clenched and
unclenched.
"But with options like those, what choice do we really have?" Sally asked, and
sighed. "We just have to hope for the best. I'll walk with the cub back to Knothole.
You'd better go on ahead, tell Rosie what you found."
"You got it." With that, the hedgehog was gone. A trail of dust marked his
passage southward.
"Whoa!" the cub exclaimed, watching him go, clearly impressed by the speed. He
ran over to Sally's side of the clearing to see the hedgehog receding into the distance.
Sally studied the fox cub carefully. Two bright orange tails peeked out from
behind his back. For the past four years of her life, she had been isolated from everybody
but the people who had found their way to Knothole. She had never had to deal with
children younger than herself, and for a moment, wasn't sure what to do.
"Are you ready to go, honey?" she asked cautiously. **Honey? ** she thought to
herself, mildly disgusted. **Not even Rosie is that corny anymore. **
"Go? Where are we going?"
"To a place called Knothole village. It's safe there."
The fox cub looked angry for a moment. "That's what they said about home.
They said that it was safe there, but they lied."
"I'm sure they didn't lie," Sally said, reflexively.
The cub looked up at her. "Then why did the robots come and turn everybody to
metal?" He looked like he was about to burst into tears. Sally found herself resting a
comforting hand on the cub's shoulder, although she was sure that she never told her hand
to do that in the first place. She honestly didn't have an answer for the cub.
"Do you, um, do you have a name?"
The cub sniffled for a moment before answering. "Yeah. My parents call me
'Miles', but I hate that name. Everyone else calls me 'Tails'."
"That sounds like a fun name," Sally said hopefully. "How old are you?"
The fox was still downcast, but he seemed to cheer up a little when Sally asked
this. "Three-and-a-half," he recited.
An idea struck Sally. "Tails, do you enjoy… stories?"
He nodded slowly, warily.
Sally leaned down to the cub's height, pointing over his shoulder. His eyes
followed to the point where her finger was tracing. "Well, just over that hill right there, is
the village where me and my friends live. There are a couple old storybooks sitting in my
hut. I could read some of them to you... if you'd like."
The fox cub looked up at her, smiling warmly. It was the first time that she'd ever
seen him happy.
---
3233. Knothole Village.
A quiet breeze picked up fragments of dust and dirt, kicking them gently along in
its relentless quest eastward. Tree branches rustled, mimicking the sounds of sandy ocean
surf. Small piles of stone were scattered about in the clearing. For a moment, Max
thought that he'd accidentally opened the camera micro-fissure in the wrong place and
time, for there was no other movement.
Then he spotted it. A small bundle of brown fur huddled underneath one of the
numerous trees, the fur color camouflaging nicely against the tree bark. Sally was sitting
on the ground, hugging her knees, staring at one of the larger piles of stone. Her
expression was unreadable.
A distant stream trailed off into the forest, its passage leaving a clear line of sight
through the otherwise impenetrable wall of foliage. The King could make out far-away
thatched-roof huts down close to the water's edge. Voices, muted by distance, carried
across the forest: children, some Sally's age, some younger, playing.
Sally paid them no attention, only staring at the stone.
The King peered at one of them, squinting to try and make out the writing etched
into some of the stones' surfaces. On one, carved into the flat side of a rock, he saw the
name "Julayla".
Julayla? The King recognized the name instantly. She had been Sally's teacher
and mentor in Mobotropolis.
It suddenly dawned on him that Sally was in a cemetery.
He peered at the stone that had so absorbed his daughter's attention. It read: "To
the Memory of Alicia and Maximillian Acorn."
Still Sally didn't move.
---
3235. Robotropolis, Ivo Robotnik's castle.
"I hate decisions like this..."
Sally peered through the airshaft's grate, down at the distant floor of the room
outside. The now-familiar echo of SWATbot boots rang from somewhere far below, out
of sight. Other than the slight glow of flickering computer monitors, the room was
motionless and empty.
The room suddenly snapped into place in the King's mind. This had been his own
throne room once, his real throne room, in Mobotropolis. But it had changed in the most
horrible, unnatural fashion; it was as if somebody had ripped out the pristine marble walls
and replaced them with solid metal.
Gradually, Max became away of a curious, high-toned chiming in the background,
like a parlor arcade game.
A dark shape stirred behind Sally, and a scaly tail was briefly visible in the sparse
light cast from below the vent. "What are we gonna do?"
Sally shook her head. "I don't know, Dulcy. What can we do?"
"Well, I can-"
A sonorous laugh resonated throughout the room below, interrupting the dragon.
The pinging noise had stopped momentarily. The King scowled when he recognized
Julian's voice. "One small step for the rodent, one very large *stick* for me!" The
pinging noise resumed.
The dragon's eyes blazed in the darkness for a moment, and when she spoke again
she was quieter. "I can drop down, take 'em by surprise, and put the freeze on those
two." She paused for an adolescent giggle. "Literally."
"It's too risky. What if one of the guards manages to shoot you before you can do
anything?"
"Well... I dunno. But what else can we do?"
"We can get out of here, and save ourselves," Sally hissed.
"But what about-"
Sally cut the dragon off before she could continue. "He's the one who sold us out.
He's the one who trapped Sonic and just gave him to Robotnik. Do you really think that
he's worth our own lives?"
The two Freedom Fighters were silent for a moment. Julian spoke to someone
again, still out of the King's field of view.
"I admire your spirit, rodent, but this game's far from over." A roaring sound
momentarily drowned out the unceasing jingling.
"What's he doing to Sonic?" Sally asked anxiously, a bitter twinge of helplessness
locked in her tone.
The frail human, Julian's lackey, appeared in the corner of the room. He stepped
over to the array of computer consoles. "Sir! Our guest has arrived!"
Julian stepped into view, ridiculous cape sweeping through the air behind him. A
smile was almost cracking his face in two, and it was growing deeper by the second. He
heaved his colossal form into a pale green chair. "Invite him in, then, Snively."
The dragon looked at the Princess. "Uh-oh. It's decision time, Sally. What are
we gonna do?"
"It isn't worth our risking ourselves," Sally repeated to herself, like a mantra.
"He's the one who sold us out. We don't owe him anything, least of all this. We're not
going to lose our lives over him."
Snively frowned at the monitors. "It, uh, appears that he's showing himself in,
sir."
The doors at the end of the hallway threw themselves open, and like a force of
nature, a ram stormed into Robotnik's throne room. SWATbots immediately came to
attention, laser-augmented wrists at the ready. The King's eyes widened.
It was Ari!
The ram's voice was angry enough to act as a weapon of its own. "All right,
Robotnik! I delivered Sonic. Now release my Freedom Fighters!"
"Of course, dear boy, I always keep my promises. Snively, bring in Ari's...
friends."
Doors at the far end of the room hissed open, and a troupe of metal-skinned
roboticized Mobians marched through. They all stopped as one, and the sound of their
steel heels clacking against the floor filled the room. "What is this? Robotnik! We had a
deal!"
"Deals only exist to be broken, dear boy."
"Sally!" Dulcy whispered urgently. "What are we gonna do?"
"Freedom Fighters don't risk their lives to save traitors," Sally said. A resigned
sigh escaped her lips. "But..."
"But what?"
"I-I remember something from my childhood. An old phrase that my father taught
me. A life is a life is a life. And right now, there's a life we can save. That's all that
matters. Get ready to break him out, Dulcy."
---
King Max Acorn slumped down in the chair, watching the scene unfold on the
monitor before him. The corner of his lip trembled momentarily. When he had first turned
on the monitor he had expected, like a child, that gaining a better understanding of what
had become of Sally in the years in his absence would make mourning her death easier.
He wanted to switch off the monitor and kill his memories, but could bring himself
to do neither.
Naugus's words came back to him, suddenly and without cause: "Time is
something that happens to other people."
So much had changed, in so little time.
It was so helplessly infuriating, being able to see it all happen but unable to change
anything. The Void existed outside time and would let him watch his daughter's life and
death occur over and over again, but that was the extent of its powers.
Perhaps one day, when he and Naugus had finally figured out a way to escape the
confines of the prison dimension, he could open a portal to a date just before Sally's death
and change history himself.
Max shook his head. He couldn't live with himself if he just gave up, waiting for a
day that might never come. It was already maddening knowing what had happened, but it
would be worse being forced to live with himself afterwards, knowing that he had just
*given up*. Whenever his daughter was concerned, there was no more foul word than
'surrender'.
"No," the King said to himself, feeling the muscles in his fist tighten. "There must
be something that can be done." The fist trembled, overcome by powerless rage.
"*Something*."
On the monitor that was his only connection to the outside world, the King
watched his daughter march unknowingly into the future, and to the bleak aspect of being
just another mindless servant. From the time that the camera was currently watching, it
would only be another eight months of Sally's time before her roboticization.
The figure on the video monitor seemed so tauntingly real. Max held out his hand,
reaching towards the video monitor, hoping against hope that his hand would pass through
the screen and be able to touch his daughter. His fingers met the cold, smooth surface of
the monitor instead.
"I can't just sit back and watch!" he cried.
As he spoke, Naugus's words came to the forefront of his mind again, and Max
didn't know why: "Time is something that happens to other people."
The only thing that the King could do from the Void was open the micro-fissure
portals that acted as the scrying device's camera.
Open the portal...
The King's eyes widened as a sudden, terrible thought struck him. He couldn't do
that to Sally, not even to save her life. Could he?
He could open the portal micro-fissures... which meant that he could open a larger
portal as well. If it worked, he could save her life, even though he would remain trapped
in the confines of the prison dimension.
But the cost would be horrific.
---
3235, two months before Sally's roboticization. Knothole Village.
The sun had disappeared below the horizon hours ago, reducing the forest's
illumination to the ethereal white glow of the stars and crescent moon. Treetops stretched
out into the distance until they became indistinct, colorless shadows. Sally Acorn sat
underneath one of the tree trunks, staring up at the listless nighttime sky.
Knothole village was almost invisible in the darkness; most of the thatched-roof
buildings were dark and languid, save for the golden glow of a few working lightbulbs in
the sleeping town. Their light seeped out of windows and cracks in doorways, spilling
across the ground in an odd assortment of shapes and sizes. The gentle splashing noise of
Rotor's waterwheel was the only noise in the village, but even it too seemed lethargic.
Sally was the only thing that dared move in the stillness. Her face was screwed up
in concentration, still staring at the sky. Her fingers strummed against the tree trunk
absentmindedly.
"Stars swirled around the blank canvas of the murky sky, dancers frozen in the
eternal pirouette of a playwright's static template," she said, never moving her eyes from
the scene above her. She frowned to herself, and shook her head. "Nah..."
"Eternal piro-what-now?"
Sally flinched, and glanced back at the darkness behind the tree trunk. The
hedgehog's outline was silhouetted against the shine of Knothole's few lightbulbs. He
stepped forward, eyes quizzically looking at her.
"Pirouette," she said, smiling slyly. "You know. A spin, or a turn. A dance."
"Uh-huh," Sonic said doubtfully, glancing up at the stars and then back down at
Sally. "It's getting late. Is the sleep deprivation starting to get to you, Sal?"
"I feel fine," Sally insisted, patting the ground to the left of her. Sonic obediently
took a seat.
"Then why are talking to yourself?" the hedgehog asked, eyebrow raised.
"Especially goobledy-gook like that?"
"It's just a little exercise I like to try occasionally," she said. "Just come out here,
late at night, stare at the stars, and think of different ways to describe them." An
embarrassed grin snuck involuntarily across her face. "The one you heard wasn't very
good."
"Are you practicing to be a writer, or something?" Sonic nodded in the direction
of Robotropolis. "I hate to break it to you, Sal, but with Robuttnik in control of the
planet you're not going to have much of an audience."
"No, no, I'm not – it's just something I enjoy doing. For myself."
"Uh-huh," he said again, even more skeptically then before.
She shrugged, still smiling, stroking her chin. "Though I'd never thought about
that before. If we do take back the planet, someone's got to write the memoirs of the
war. Why, it could top the best seller lists for years to come..."
"Don't get too far ahead of yourself, Sal." Sonic stared up at the sky that had held
her so transfixed. He sighed. "So what else have you got besides the one I heard?"
"How about these," Sally said, surprising herself with an unexpected reluctance to
share the prose she had composed in private. " 'A crescent moon lay poised as a thief's
cloaked stiletto, ready to split the air and impale the landscape at a provocation that never
arrives.' 'Tousled treetops fluttered in the bleak midnight breeze, a barmy painter's
dilapidated brush streaking across the sky in a futile quest to produce art."
"They all made about as much sense as the first one," Sonic admitted.
"I don't know why I enjoy doing this, I just do." Sally glanced at him. "You
should really try it sometime."
"What? Me? Get serious."
"Go on, try it. You'll like it."
The hedgehog sighed in resignation, giving up. He stared at the dark, somber sky
for a moment, eyes focusing on the sliver of a moon. "All right, I think I've got one. It's
good, too."
She leaned towards him, attentive. "I'm waiting."
Sonic held his hands up to the air, gesturing towards the lunar crescent. "Here
goes: 'The moon hung in the sky like a big ball of rock.' "
Sally stared at him, blank-faced.
"You like it, don't you?" the hedgehog grinned.
"Sonic, that wasn't even – you're not supposed to describe it *that* way."
"What?" Sonic threw her a look of genuine confusion. "But that's exactly what it
is!"
"The point of this exercise is to create," Sally said, exasperated. "Invent."
"Uh-huh." The skepticism had returned. "So you're saying that Rotor would be
really good at this, right?"
Sally theatrically buried her face in her hands. "Never mind." She looked up, and
sighed. "You just need some practice at this. That's all."
"I don't know if I want the practice," Sonic said bitterly.
She gave him a playful punch in the arm. "C'mon, it is getting late. We'd better
head back to the village, and get some sleep before we faint."
"Hear, hear," Sonic agreed, getting up and graciously extending an arm to help
Sally to her feet.
"But we're coming back out here tomorrow night," Sally insisted. "And you're
working on some more prose."
"Oh, no, Sal. Have some mercy."
"You're coming. That's an ord-"
A thunderclap of light and sound burst through the village, tearing through forest
and wooden structures like a supernova. Instinctively, Sally reached out to grab Sonic's
hand. She felt a force, like a shockwave of compressed air slam against her lithe form.
For a moment, there was nothing underneath her feet. Then the ground came up to meet
her.
It was over in an instant.
When Sally looked up, she found herself on a patch of dirt more than five meters
away from where she and Sonic had been standing. The hedgehog himself was just
getting to his feet, having been tossed in the opposite direction.
"...the hell was that?" he was saying, voice barely audible over the ringing in
Sally's ears. She glanced in the direction of Knothole village, fearing only the worst.
To her relief, the town was still standing. Only a few wooden beams had been
knocked over in the split second maelstrom. A storage shed had collapsed, but that was
the extent of the damage. Whatever it was had severed Rotor's power cables or damaged
the waterwheel; the light bulbs that had been left on had been extinguished. Some of the
town's inhabitants had emerged from darkened huts, looking around in panic and
confusion.
A strong wind began to pick up, and an eldritch violet light shone from behind
Sally. She quickly turned around to stare at the source, expecting to see an armada of
Robotnik's ground troops poised and ready to invade Knothole. Her eyes widened when
she saw the glowing purple and yellow portal that had formed just beyond the tree trunk.
"Oh, no!" she turned to Sonic, eyes wide. "That's the Void!"
The wind immediately amplified in strength to a gale-force gust, knocking Sally's
feet out from under her once more. The strength of the squall was amazing. Sally's hands
clawed at the ground, vainly trying to grab a handful of grass.
Sonic barely managed to outpace the wind, revving up his legs and running as fast
as possible away from the portal. His outstretched hand reached towards Sally. She tried
to grab it, but she couldn't fight the wind long enough to take her grip off of the clump of
grass.
She felt her fingers falter - this was it, she knew - and suddenly there was nothing
there for her palm to clasp around. There wasn't any earth underneath her.
"Sally!" the hedgehog screamed. His voice was further and further away.
The world vanished around her in a burst of purple and yellow.
---
It seemed that the King had scarely moved more than twenty paces past the
doorway when he was already upon his destination. In the Void, distance, like time, was
something that could easily be magically negated. He made short work of the lock barring
his entry, and stepped inside.
Naugus's workshop was empty.
Max was in a large, cavernous room that was at least twice the size of his own
imperious throne room. Most of the space was simply empty, though, with nothing but
craggy gray rock walls for decoration. Occasionally, though, a table filled with various
artifacts dotted the floor's expanse, and there were bookshelves scattered across the walls
at seemingly random intervals. Each shelve was nearly full, and the books contained there
were not placed in the neatly arranged order of someone who possessed the tomes just for
show, in the sloppy, half-exposed manner of someone who was too busy using those
books to make them look tidy.
A tunnel snaked away from the workshop on the opposite end of the chamber,
leading into a solid rock wall. It was from there that Naugus would usually open the
Void's portal during his experiments.
Most of the tables and twisted bits of machinery were clustered near the doorway
that Max had entered through. He deftly weaved between them, moving towards a larger,
more complex structure.
The scrying device that he and Naugus had invented looked deceptively simple. It
was a single blank video monitor suspended above a bench, with a large chair perched
nearby. The King sat down, feeling uncomfortably small in a chair sized for Naugus's
much larger form.
There were no buttons, levers, or switches. Naugus distrusted technology and
electronics, and believed that anything that they could accomplish could be done better
with magic. The surveillance device's only interface was the user's mind. Thankfully,
having acquired a modest amount of Naugus's own magic skills, Max could use it.
He drummed his fingers on the desk for a moment, staring at the inky black of the
empty monitor. A sigh escaped his lips.
Time really was no constraint in the Void. A micro-fissure could be opened
anywhere, and at any time.
**Show me my daughter's life. **
---
3224. The outskirts of Mobotropolis.
"Where are we going, Rosie?" A walrus tugged at the nanny's bright red dress.
Several pairs of small feet, mostly barefoot, were running as fast as they could manage
down the dimly lit red passageway. Except for the nanny, they were all children, none of
them any older than six years. Most of their eyes were wide with fear; it was clear that
none of them could really comprehend what was happening to their city. Three of them
the King recognized immediately. The blue-quilled hedgehog was there. One of them
also had the light brown fur and long, pointed noise of the french-accented fox that the
King had seen die in the corridors of the warehouse.
Sally Acorn was also there, running alongside the hedgehog. Of all the children,
hers was the only face that wasn't twisted in some form of helpless distress. She was
silent, her mouth pursed into a tight, thin line. There wasn't any detectable fear in her
eyes, only a slight twinge of sorrow and regret overshadowed by simple determination to
get where she was going.
"To somewhere safe, Rotor," Rosie answered between pauses for breath. It was
clear that they had been running for some time. The King smiled when he saw the old
nanny, one of the few genuinely pleasant people he had met during his tenure on the
throne. The Void had never given him a chance to remember her.
"When can we go back home?" another child, a long-eared female rabbit, solicited
anxiously.
"Soon, I hope." Rosie said, still reassuring despite all that had happened. "I'm
sure the Royal Army will be able to sort this mess in no time."
"Is what happened to Uncle Chuck happening to everyone in the city?" the
hedgehog asked tearfully, voice pleading for the right response.
Rosie didn't answer.
At last, the group of children reached the end of the corridor. Rosie's palm hit a
button concealed from the King's limited camera view. A door hissed open, and bright
natural sunlight flooded into the corridor. Almost as one, the children all raised their
hands to block out the light as their eyes adjusted to it. Not allowing for any time to rest
or pause, Rosie quickly herded them all out into the door. The King willed the camera
view to change.
They were standing outside in the forest, on a hill overlooking the suburbs of the
great city. Mobotropolis's towering spires were just visible in the distance. Some of the
children paused as they gazed towards the skyscrapers, their breath catching in their
throats. Rosie kept trying to move them onwards, fighting against stubborn legs that
didn't want to move.
"Please, move quickly, children," she implored, giving them gentle shoves in the
right direction, "we're going to a retreat out in the Great Forest. We'll all be safe out
there; it's one of Sally's father's hidden hideaways. He and Sir Char-" Rosie's eye caught
the distant city, and the shock stopped her in her tracks. "Oh no!"
A vast, dark cloud of boiling smog loomed over the city, as still and silent as a
child's nightmare. Vast tendrils of smoke coiled upwards from the massive fires that raged
throughout the cityscape, curling upwards and joining the ash and debris that would soon
grow large enough to blot out the sun. From this distance, both the bright blazes and
smoke appeared motionless.
Many of the city's pristine white-tinted structures had been painted over by the
smog and ash into a cruel, metallic gray. Other buildings had changed in the most horrible
ways, either collapsed in on themselves, or bent into new shapes by a technology that
Rosie couldn't begin to imagine. She couldn't even make out the silhouette of the King's
pyramidal place: usually, its size made it the first building visible when approaching the
city. Now it was simply... gone.
The group was silent for a long moment. After glancing once at the city, Sally's
gaze fell slowly to the ground in front of her. The corners of her mouth curled
downwards, her eyes gleamed with loss.
"Rosie," the rabbit asked, voice trembling, "the Royal Army isn't gonna be able to
fix this. Is it?"
"I-I..." For a moment, Rosie didn't know how to even begin answering. "We'll
find out. Come on, children! We have to get to Knothole!"
Her voice spurred them all into action. Sally was the last to start moving, but
when she ran, she ran with a vigor and resolve that not even Rosie could match.
Later in the afternoon, the group progressed further and further into the wilds of
the Great Forest, following ancient animal tracks and unused trails. Time had worn down
most of the day's earlier panic. The children now followed Rosie at a leisurely pace as
they moved through the trees. Sally still hadn't spoken a word since leaving the city
behind.
Mobotropolis was no longer visible past the horizon, even when trees didn't block
it, but the ominous cloud of smoke and ash continued to grow in the sky.
"Sally?" Rosie asked cautiously. "Are you all right? You've been awfully quiet so
far."
Sally looked up at Rosie, and nodded. "I just miss my dad."
---
3228. The Great Forest.
"I... I just found him there, Sal. Alone. I couldn't just leave him."
"I know, I know, but..." Sally trailed off, moving her gaze from the hedgehog to
the small cub. He couldn't have been more than a toddler. He was standing, watching
them from the other side of the clearing. She lowered her voice so that the cub couldn't
hear her, feeling guilty for do so all the while. "It could be a trap, Sonic. We know that
Robotnik's still on the lookout for survivors of the coup."
The nine-year-old hedgehog scratched his head. "A trap? This little guy? C'mon,
get serious, Sal."
"I am serious. If his village was destroyed, then how did he survive? Did he ever
tell you?"
"Well, no..."
"Robotnik could've planted a tracking device on him, hoping that someone
charitable enough would take him back to their village. Then he'd just have another
target."
"Yeah, that does sound like something Robuttnik would do," the hedgehog
relented. "But it still seems far-fetched."
"Well, where did you find him?"
"He was out in the open, wandering around the rubble of the village. I heard him
crying."
Sally frowned. "If he was out in the open during the attack, do you think that
there's any way the SWATbots could've missed him?"
"No way! They would've spotted the little guy, all right." Sonic glanced back
over at the cub. "But here's how I see it, Sal. We have two choices: we either take our
chances and bring him back to Knothole, or we leave just leave him out here." His eyes
glistened. "Sal, if we just leave him out here, you know he'll die. He's too young to
survive on his own."
Sally's face sagged, and there was a long silence. The cub watched them
curiously.
"We're too young to be making these kinds of decisions, Sonic," she said softly.
"Robuttnik forces everyone to grow up fast." The hedgehog's fists clenched and
unclenched.
"But with options like those, what choice do we really have?" Sally asked, and
sighed. "We just have to hope for the best. I'll walk with the cub back to Knothole.
You'd better go on ahead, tell Rosie what you found."
"You got it." With that, the hedgehog was gone. A trail of dust marked his
passage southward.
"Whoa!" the cub exclaimed, watching him go, clearly impressed by the speed. He
ran over to Sally's side of the clearing to see the hedgehog receding into the distance.
Sally studied the fox cub carefully. Two bright orange tails peeked out from
behind his back. For the past four years of her life, she had been isolated from everybody
but the people who had found their way to Knothole. She had never had to deal with
children younger than herself, and for a moment, wasn't sure what to do.
"Are you ready to go, honey?" she asked cautiously. **Honey? ** she thought to
herself, mildly disgusted. **Not even Rosie is that corny anymore. **
"Go? Where are we going?"
"To a place called Knothole village. It's safe there."
The fox cub looked angry for a moment. "That's what they said about home.
They said that it was safe there, but they lied."
"I'm sure they didn't lie," Sally said, reflexively.
The cub looked up at her. "Then why did the robots come and turn everybody to
metal?" He looked like he was about to burst into tears. Sally found herself resting a
comforting hand on the cub's shoulder, although she was sure that she never told her hand
to do that in the first place. She honestly didn't have an answer for the cub.
"Do you, um, do you have a name?"
The cub sniffled for a moment before answering. "Yeah. My parents call me
'Miles', but I hate that name. Everyone else calls me 'Tails'."
"That sounds like a fun name," Sally said hopefully. "How old are you?"
The fox was still downcast, but he seemed to cheer up a little when Sally asked
this. "Three-and-a-half," he recited.
An idea struck Sally. "Tails, do you enjoy… stories?"
He nodded slowly, warily.
Sally leaned down to the cub's height, pointing over his shoulder. His eyes
followed to the point where her finger was tracing. "Well, just over that hill right there, is
the village where me and my friends live. There are a couple old storybooks sitting in my
hut. I could read some of them to you... if you'd like."
The fox cub looked up at her, smiling warmly. It was the first time that she'd ever
seen him happy.
---
3233. Knothole Village.
A quiet breeze picked up fragments of dust and dirt, kicking them gently along in
its relentless quest eastward. Tree branches rustled, mimicking the sounds of sandy ocean
surf. Small piles of stone were scattered about in the clearing. For a moment, Max
thought that he'd accidentally opened the camera micro-fissure in the wrong place and
time, for there was no other movement.
Then he spotted it. A small bundle of brown fur huddled underneath one of the
numerous trees, the fur color camouflaging nicely against the tree bark. Sally was sitting
on the ground, hugging her knees, staring at one of the larger piles of stone. Her
expression was unreadable.
A distant stream trailed off into the forest, its passage leaving a clear line of sight
through the otherwise impenetrable wall of foliage. The King could make out far-away
thatched-roof huts down close to the water's edge. Voices, muted by distance, carried
across the forest: children, some Sally's age, some younger, playing.
Sally paid them no attention, only staring at the stone.
The King peered at one of them, squinting to try and make out the writing etched
into some of the stones' surfaces. On one, carved into the flat side of a rock, he saw the
name "Julayla".
Julayla? The King recognized the name instantly. She had been Sally's teacher
and mentor in Mobotropolis.
It suddenly dawned on him that Sally was in a cemetery.
He peered at the stone that had so absorbed his daughter's attention. It read: "To
the Memory of Alicia and Maximillian Acorn."
Still Sally didn't move.
---
3235. Robotropolis, Ivo Robotnik's castle.
"I hate decisions like this..."
Sally peered through the airshaft's grate, down at the distant floor of the room
outside. The now-familiar echo of SWATbot boots rang from somewhere far below, out
of sight. Other than the slight glow of flickering computer monitors, the room was
motionless and empty.
The room suddenly snapped into place in the King's mind. This had been his own
throne room once, his real throne room, in Mobotropolis. But it had changed in the most
horrible, unnatural fashion; it was as if somebody had ripped out the pristine marble walls
and replaced them with solid metal.
Gradually, Max became away of a curious, high-toned chiming in the background,
like a parlor arcade game.
A dark shape stirred behind Sally, and a scaly tail was briefly visible in the sparse
light cast from below the vent. "What are we gonna do?"
Sally shook her head. "I don't know, Dulcy. What can we do?"
"Well, I can-"
A sonorous laugh resonated throughout the room below, interrupting the dragon.
The pinging noise had stopped momentarily. The King scowled when he recognized
Julian's voice. "One small step for the rodent, one very large *stick* for me!" The
pinging noise resumed.
The dragon's eyes blazed in the darkness for a moment, and when she spoke again
she was quieter. "I can drop down, take 'em by surprise, and put the freeze on those
two." She paused for an adolescent giggle. "Literally."
"It's too risky. What if one of the guards manages to shoot you before you can do
anything?"
"Well... I dunno. But what else can we do?"
"We can get out of here, and save ourselves," Sally hissed.
"But what about-"
Sally cut the dragon off before she could continue. "He's the one who sold us out.
He's the one who trapped Sonic and just gave him to Robotnik. Do you really think that
he's worth our own lives?"
The two Freedom Fighters were silent for a moment. Julian spoke to someone
again, still out of the King's field of view.
"I admire your spirit, rodent, but this game's far from over." A roaring sound
momentarily drowned out the unceasing jingling.
"What's he doing to Sonic?" Sally asked anxiously, a bitter twinge of helplessness
locked in her tone.
The frail human, Julian's lackey, appeared in the corner of the room. He stepped
over to the array of computer consoles. "Sir! Our guest has arrived!"
Julian stepped into view, ridiculous cape sweeping through the air behind him. A
smile was almost cracking his face in two, and it was growing deeper by the second. He
heaved his colossal form into a pale green chair. "Invite him in, then, Snively."
The dragon looked at the Princess. "Uh-oh. It's decision time, Sally. What are
we gonna do?"
"It isn't worth our risking ourselves," Sally repeated to herself, like a mantra.
"He's the one who sold us out. We don't owe him anything, least of all this. We're not
going to lose our lives over him."
Snively frowned at the monitors. "It, uh, appears that he's showing himself in,
sir."
The doors at the end of the hallway threw themselves open, and like a force of
nature, a ram stormed into Robotnik's throne room. SWATbots immediately came to
attention, laser-augmented wrists at the ready. The King's eyes widened.
It was Ari!
The ram's voice was angry enough to act as a weapon of its own. "All right,
Robotnik! I delivered Sonic. Now release my Freedom Fighters!"
"Of course, dear boy, I always keep my promises. Snively, bring in Ari's...
friends."
Doors at the far end of the room hissed open, and a troupe of metal-skinned
roboticized Mobians marched through. They all stopped as one, and the sound of their
steel heels clacking against the floor filled the room. "What is this? Robotnik! We had a
deal!"
"Deals only exist to be broken, dear boy."
"Sally!" Dulcy whispered urgently. "What are we gonna do?"
"Freedom Fighters don't risk their lives to save traitors," Sally said. A resigned
sigh escaped her lips. "But..."
"But what?"
"I-I remember something from my childhood. An old phrase that my father taught
me. A life is a life is a life. And right now, there's a life we can save. That's all that
matters. Get ready to break him out, Dulcy."
---
King Max Acorn slumped down in the chair, watching the scene unfold on the
monitor before him. The corner of his lip trembled momentarily. When he had first turned
on the monitor he had expected, like a child, that gaining a better understanding of what
had become of Sally in the years in his absence would make mourning her death easier.
He wanted to switch off the monitor and kill his memories, but could bring himself
to do neither.
Naugus's words came back to him, suddenly and without cause: "Time is
something that happens to other people."
So much had changed, in so little time.
It was so helplessly infuriating, being able to see it all happen but unable to change
anything. The Void existed outside time and would let him watch his daughter's life and
death occur over and over again, but that was the extent of its powers.
Perhaps one day, when he and Naugus had finally figured out a way to escape the
confines of the prison dimension, he could open a portal to a date just before Sally's death
and change history himself.
Max shook his head. He couldn't live with himself if he just gave up, waiting for a
day that might never come. It was already maddening knowing what had happened, but it
would be worse being forced to live with himself afterwards, knowing that he had just
*given up*. Whenever his daughter was concerned, there was no more foul word than
'surrender'.
"No," the King said to himself, feeling the muscles in his fist tighten. "There must
be something that can be done." The fist trembled, overcome by powerless rage.
"*Something*."
On the monitor that was his only connection to the outside world, the King
watched his daughter march unknowingly into the future, and to the bleak aspect of being
just another mindless servant. From the time that the camera was currently watching, it
would only be another eight months of Sally's time before her roboticization.
The figure on the video monitor seemed so tauntingly real. Max held out his hand,
reaching towards the video monitor, hoping against hope that his hand would pass through
the screen and be able to touch his daughter. His fingers met the cold, smooth surface of
the monitor instead.
"I can't just sit back and watch!" he cried.
As he spoke, Naugus's words came to the forefront of his mind again, and Max
didn't know why: "Time is something that happens to other people."
The only thing that the King could do from the Void was open the micro-fissure
portals that acted as the scrying device's camera.
Open the portal...
The King's eyes widened as a sudden, terrible thought struck him. He couldn't do
that to Sally, not even to save her life. Could he?
He could open the portal micro-fissures... which meant that he could open a larger
portal as well. If it worked, he could save her life, even though he would remain trapped
in the confines of the prison dimension.
But the cost would be horrific.
---
3235, two months before Sally's roboticization. Knothole Village.
The sun had disappeared below the horizon hours ago, reducing the forest's
illumination to the ethereal white glow of the stars and crescent moon. Treetops stretched
out into the distance until they became indistinct, colorless shadows. Sally Acorn sat
underneath one of the tree trunks, staring up at the listless nighttime sky.
Knothole village was almost invisible in the darkness; most of the thatched-roof
buildings were dark and languid, save for the golden glow of a few working lightbulbs in
the sleeping town. Their light seeped out of windows and cracks in doorways, spilling
across the ground in an odd assortment of shapes and sizes. The gentle splashing noise of
Rotor's waterwheel was the only noise in the village, but even it too seemed lethargic.
Sally was the only thing that dared move in the stillness. Her face was screwed up
in concentration, still staring at the sky. Her fingers strummed against the tree trunk
absentmindedly.
"Stars swirled around the blank canvas of the murky sky, dancers frozen in the
eternal pirouette of a playwright's static template," she said, never moving her eyes from
the scene above her. She frowned to herself, and shook her head. "Nah..."
"Eternal piro-what-now?"
Sally flinched, and glanced back at the darkness behind the tree trunk. The
hedgehog's outline was silhouetted against the shine of Knothole's few lightbulbs. He
stepped forward, eyes quizzically looking at her.
"Pirouette," she said, smiling slyly. "You know. A spin, or a turn. A dance."
"Uh-huh," Sonic said doubtfully, glancing up at the stars and then back down at
Sally. "It's getting late. Is the sleep deprivation starting to get to you, Sal?"
"I feel fine," Sally insisted, patting the ground to the left of her. Sonic obediently
took a seat.
"Then why are talking to yourself?" the hedgehog asked, eyebrow raised.
"Especially goobledy-gook like that?"
"It's just a little exercise I like to try occasionally," she said. "Just come out here,
late at night, stare at the stars, and think of different ways to describe them." An
embarrassed grin snuck involuntarily across her face. "The one you heard wasn't very
good."
"Are you practicing to be a writer, or something?" Sonic nodded in the direction
of Robotropolis. "I hate to break it to you, Sal, but with Robuttnik in control of the
planet you're not going to have much of an audience."
"No, no, I'm not – it's just something I enjoy doing. For myself."
"Uh-huh," he said again, even more skeptically then before.
She shrugged, still smiling, stroking her chin. "Though I'd never thought about
that before. If we do take back the planet, someone's got to write the memoirs of the
war. Why, it could top the best seller lists for years to come..."
"Don't get too far ahead of yourself, Sal." Sonic stared up at the sky that had held
her so transfixed. He sighed. "So what else have you got besides the one I heard?"
"How about these," Sally said, surprising herself with an unexpected reluctance to
share the prose she had composed in private. " 'A crescent moon lay poised as a thief's
cloaked stiletto, ready to split the air and impale the landscape at a provocation that never
arrives.' 'Tousled treetops fluttered in the bleak midnight breeze, a barmy painter's
dilapidated brush streaking across the sky in a futile quest to produce art."
"They all made about as much sense as the first one," Sonic admitted.
"I don't know why I enjoy doing this, I just do." Sally glanced at him. "You
should really try it sometime."
"What? Me? Get serious."
"Go on, try it. You'll like it."
The hedgehog sighed in resignation, giving up. He stared at the dark, somber sky
for a moment, eyes focusing on the sliver of a moon. "All right, I think I've got one. It's
good, too."
She leaned towards him, attentive. "I'm waiting."
Sonic held his hands up to the air, gesturing towards the lunar crescent. "Here
goes: 'The moon hung in the sky like a big ball of rock.' "
Sally stared at him, blank-faced.
"You like it, don't you?" the hedgehog grinned.
"Sonic, that wasn't even – you're not supposed to describe it *that* way."
"What?" Sonic threw her a look of genuine confusion. "But that's exactly what it
is!"
"The point of this exercise is to create," Sally said, exasperated. "Invent."
"Uh-huh." The skepticism had returned. "So you're saying that Rotor would be
really good at this, right?"
Sally theatrically buried her face in her hands. "Never mind." She looked up, and
sighed. "You just need some practice at this. That's all."
"I don't know if I want the practice," Sonic said bitterly.
She gave him a playful punch in the arm. "C'mon, it is getting late. We'd better
head back to the village, and get some sleep before we faint."
"Hear, hear," Sonic agreed, getting up and graciously extending an arm to help
Sally to her feet.
"But we're coming back out here tomorrow night," Sally insisted. "And you're
working on some more prose."
"Oh, no, Sal. Have some mercy."
"You're coming. That's an ord-"
A thunderclap of light and sound burst through the village, tearing through forest
and wooden structures like a supernova. Instinctively, Sally reached out to grab Sonic's
hand. She felt a force, like a shockwave of compressed air slam against her lithe form.
For a moment, there was nothing underneath her feet. Then the ground came up to meet
her.
It was over in an instant.
When Sally looked up, she found herself on a patch of dirt more than five meters
away from where she and Sonic had been standing. The hedgehog himself was just
getting to his feet, having been tossed in the opposite direction.
"...the hell was that?" he was saying, voice barely audible over the ringing in
Sally's ears. She glanced in the direction of Knothole village, fearing only the worst.
To her relief, the town was still standing. Only a few wooden beams had been
knocked over in the split second maelstrom. A storage shed had collapsed, but that was
the extent of the damage. Whatever it was had severed Rotor's power cables or damaged
the waterwheel; the light bulbs that had been left on had been extinguished. Some of the
town's inhabitants had emerged from darkened huts, looking around in panic and
confusion.
A strong wind began to pick up, and an eldritch violet light shone from behind
Sally. She quickly turned around to stare at the source, expecting to see an armada of
Robotnik's ground troops poised and ready to invade Knothole. Her eyes widened when
she saw the glowing purple and yellow portal that had formed just beyond the tree trunk.
"Oh, no!" she turned to Sonic, eyes wide. "That's the Void!"
The wind immediately amplified in strength to a gale-force gust, knocking Sally's
feet out from under her once more. The strength of the squall was amazing. Sally's hands
clawed at the ground, vainly trying to grab a handful of grass.
Sonic barely managed to outpace the wind, revving up his legs and running as fast
as possible away from the portal. His outstretched hand reached towards Sally. She tried
to grab it, but she couldn't fight the wind long enough to take her grip off of the clump of
grass.
She felt her fingers falter - this was it, she knew - and suddenly there was nothing
there for her palm to clasp around. There wasn't any earth underneath her.
"Sally!" the hedgehog screamed. His voice was further and further away.
The world vanished around her in a burst of purple and yellow.