Chapter 4: Discovering Spirit
---
By Naugus's artificial clock, it was late evening, almost on the verge of becoming
early morning again. The wizard's sleeping cycles were anything but predictable; however,
now was usually the safest time to assume that he was unconscious. Still, the fact that he
didn't know Naugus's whereabouts only heightened the King's apprehension.
An involuntary shiver rippled down his spine as he stood in the doorway of the
empty workshop. He was truly terrified of the consequences of Naugus catching him in
the act. Almost instinctively, he began to back away, but stopped himself just before he
crossed the doorway's threshold again.
He forced himself to concentrate of the comforting weight of the holographic disk
in his uniform's chest pocket, and set to work. Focusing on one task at a time helped to
somewhat allay his fears, if not stifle them completely.
First of all, he had to find a point where he could easily reach his daughter. She
would have to be tapped into to the remnants of the old Mobotropolis computer network.
Using the scrying device, Max began backpedal through time, searching for a point, any
point, where he could get a message across to her. It didn't take him long to find it.
Almost a year before her death, she and her friends were on a foray in Robotropolis. For
a brief moment, a shining window of opportunity, she was connected into the city's
computer network. A message transmitted to that terminal would go directly to her.
And then Max realized that he had reached the point beyond which he had no plan.
There was nothing he could think to do. He had done all he could. He knew how,
when, and where to transmit the Sub-Ter file, and at long last save his daughter's life, but
none of that changed the damnable fact that *nothing* could escape the Void. The Sub-
Ter file was as trapped in this dimension as he was.
He walked over to the empty rock tunnel, where the Void's useless portal could be
opened, and stood there, staring at the blank stone. His palm slipped across the disk
concealed in his uniform's pocket; its weight felt depressingly hollow. He didn't know
how long he stood there, motionless. For all Max knew, it could have already passed into
the next day's morning, or afternoon. He only became aware of the passage of time again
when the workshop's door squeaked open behind him. The clacking sound of heavy boots
against the floor marked Ixis Naugus's entrance. He made no comment as to the King's
presence in his workshop.
Max stood shock-still as the footsteps drew closer. They stopped only two meters
away.
"Did you really think I wouldn't catch on to this?" Naugus's raspy voice asked.
The undercurrent of his tone was thick with seething anger.
"That was an illusion I never held."
"Then it's been outnumbered by the ones you do," Naugus interrupted harshly.
"About a month ago, I set up a passive surveillance system by my scrying device. You
were obviously unaware of it." Max felt the yawning pit growing in his stomach grow
deeper. It threatened to swallow his soul whole. "I've been watching you come in here
ever since then, creating maps. I know what you've been doing… I was beginning to
wonder how long it would take before you would finally act."
The sorcerer's words jabbed into the King like a thousand needles in his chest,
worse than any physical torture he had ever inflicted. This game had been won by Naugus
before it even began. Max had set out expecting failure, but even this was almost too
much for him to handle. The only thing that allowed him to keep his composure was a
determination to not die weeping.
"If you're going to kill me, then make it fast," Max snapped bitterly.
"I'll do no such thing," Naugus's voice quivered with hostility. There was a pause,
as if the wizard had to stop keep himself under control. "You… you haven't just outlived
your usefulness as my servant. Oh, no, that would be too simple. You've… *angered*
me."
Max finally turned around to face Naugus, freezing when he saw his eyes. A
madness deep enough to be called insanity burned in those dark pits.
"I'll make sure you take days to die," Naugus hissed.
Once again, the King saw his life spiral out of his control. The same feeling that
shivered down his spine when Julian exiled him to the Void struck him again. Except this
time he wasn't going to lose control of not only his life, but his death as well. Back before
Julian's betrayal, he had always known that he would die an old man, happy and loved.
The perfect ending to a perfect life. He had never imagined that reality could be so cruel.
"Then get it over with," Max spat.
Naugus's cracked and parched lips twisted upwards in a terrible smile.
The first bolt brought Max to his knees, as if some titanic force had nearly sheared
away his ankles. Bright light flashed as another bolt fired, and he felt the first of Naugus's
torturous magic seep their way into his body. It felt as if the flesh had been flayed from
his arms and his ribcage shattered into a thousand tiny shards. He couldn't keep the
scream from escaping his throat.
"Silence! Your only purpose is to die at my feet-"
A third voice splintered the fray, stopping Naugus's words before they left his
mouth. "No!" The magic ceased cackling around Naugus's fingertips as he took a step
backwards in surprise. The sorcerer's cape whirled through the air as he spun around.
Someone else flew leapt into the air, slamming into Naugus's stout form and tackling him
to the ground. A gasp of shocked air was forced from the wizard's lungs when his back
connected with the stone. Max's vision was distorted by pain; he only saw the interloper's
two curled horns. The burly ram held Naugus pinned to the floor.
"What is this?" Ixis screeched. Almost immediately recovering from the surprise
attack, more magical energy began to form around his hand, getting ready to strike back.
"You'll all pay, I-"
"Shut up!" Ari bellowed.
An instant before a bolt of pure energy would have leapt from Naugus's hands to
strike the newcomer, the ram's fist drew back and smashed into the sorcerer's face.
Naugus's neck snapped backwards; there was an audible *crack* as his skull nearly
shattered open against the workshop's stone floor.
No time for pleasantries, no warm greetings. Even a strong blow like that would
only keep Naugus disabled for a few seconds at best. Ari waved frantically towards the
rock tunnel, where the unopened portal could be opened. "Go, sire! Go now!"
Without thinking, Max rose to his feet, dashing over to the tunnel. For a moment,
he was conscious only of the ground slipping past underneath his feet. It was all too
unreal: in under five seconds, he had been dragged to the gaping maw of utter failure only
to be brought back again. With *still* no way to escape the Void and get his message to
Sally. But now he had no choice but to try.
He let magic flow through his bones, concentrating on nothing more than his goal
of summoning the gateway between dimensions. In the real world, the portal would open
a year before Sally's death, just before she would log into Robotropolis's computer
network. Where didn't matter so much, just so long as it was near a terminal that could
transmit the data he needed. A second later the portal's swirling purple and yellow
exploded into existence in front of him, blowing wind towards him in a strong outwards
gust.
Behind him, he heard Ari's scream of pain as Naugus recovered enough to fully
direct his powerful offensive magic at the ram. There wasn't even any time to feel
sympathy for him. The same thing would be in store for Max if he waited but a second
longer.
In the instant before he leapt, he was struck by a twinge of sorrow for the
overwhelming futility of his plight.
King Maximillion Acorn hurled himself into the portal.
---
Almost immediately, the titanic energy field surging inwards nearly shoved him
back into Naugus's workshop. It took all of his strength to merely remain in the yawning
lip of the portal, suspended in limbo in the disorienting no-man's land between the Void
and reality. Just behind him, the workshop loomed threateningly close, while ahead, the
distance between himself and the real world seemed nearly infinite.
Light and sound flashed past him, both caught in the Void's pull and streaming
towards the end of the portal. It seemed that the only thing solid was his own body;
elsewhere in the portal, it was almost as if each of his five senses had merged into a pool
of disconcerting liquidity. Nothing was a constant except for the distances between both
portal entrances.
Sally's last few words came back to him. "Sonic. His speed can fight the Void's
pull long enough to escape." His mind relaxed, concentrating on the goal of giving his
legs the same power as the hedgehog's. If speed and speed alone could allow escape from
the portal's inexorable pull, then perhaps the effect could be magically recreated.
Magic flowed through him, into his legs, and they began moving fast enough to
become a blur, gaining traction where there was no visible ground. The workshop started
to fall into the distance behind him. He allowed himself a brief, shining moment of hope:
he was gaining!
Yet, as he draw further and further away from the Void's magic-friendly
environment, the energy that powered his legs began to dissipate. Each step became more
and more difficult, while the exit to the real world was still frustratingly far off. Max
began to tumble backwards, barely able to catch himself from falling back into the
workshop.
Body and mind aching, he glanced up towards the impossibly distant portal
opening. The real world lay just beyond there, tantalizingly visible for the first time in
more than two years. But it couldn't be reached. All that the King had gone through, all
that he could hope, didn't change the horrible fact that there was *no* escape from the
Void.
It was sorely tempting to just let go, fall back into Naugus's workshop, and face
the death that was coming to him.
Max's muscles were strained with the massive effort needed to just keep him
suspended in the portal's entrance. He was almost an old man; they would give, soon.
There could only be one more try.
The King flexed his mental muscles, letting magic flow through him once more,
and instead of focusing on the goal of forcing his tired legs to move faster, he focused on
nothing more than reaching the other side of the portal. That was his only goal.
Magic energy cackled uselessly around him, fading away. Still no effect.
His goal, his goal. He needed to reach the other side. This was more than just a
goal, a needless purpose. Reaching the other side, landing in the real world, meant more
to him than anything he'd ever done before. His daughter meant more to him than the sum
of Mobotropolis. He couldn't just concentrate on his goal and let his magic take him
there. It had ceased to become a goal.
It had become his life.
His…
The missing symbol clicked into place.
It had never been anything that Naugus could teach because Naugus *didn't
possess it.* The symbol had represented an essential component of magic, an ingredient
that was the strongest of powers. It was something that was incredibly simple yet
incredibly difficult to achieve. There was more to magic than merely visualizing your goal
and waiting for it to happen, so much more. Such things seemed impossibly shallow by
comparison.
Visualizing your goal was only part of the process, the very beginning. Not even
Naugus had recognized this. To truly become powerful, you had to almost become a part
of your goal. Merge with it.
The missing symbol represented spirit.
Max's shout breached both sides of the portal, spilling over into the workshop and
the real world, triumphing over even the sensory-skewed zone that was the portal itself.
Max Acorn became a part of his goal, wanted to save his daughter's life badly
enough to give his own. Flush with dawning triumph and screaming a wordless cry, he
surged through the impossible boundaries of the portal fighting as best as he was able, and
surged out the other side, and into the real world.
---
He landed in an environment almost as cold and unforgiving as Naugus's workshop
in the dimension he had left behind, and barely managed to avoid cracking his head against
a stone wall. The first thing he was cognizant of, though, was the portal and its pull.
The open purple and yellow vortex swirled nearby, sucking in air with speeds
approaching gale-force. Dust and debris from his dismal surroundings flew into the Void.
But the pull Max felt was more than just wind.
It was almost a magnetism trying to draw him back inside, a pull that was more
than even the newfound power of his magic could fight. He got the unnerving impression
that the universe itself had cast aside its cloak of physical laws and said to him, "You don't
belong here." Instantly he knew that he could only remain in the real world for no more
than a few minutes at best. The pull would overpower him soon.
Even now, in the real world at long last, true victory was impossible. He couldn't
remain.
This bothered him little. His only real goal lay in saving his daughter's life, not in
escaping the Void itself, and now he had a golden window of opportunity in which to
accomplish it. He reached inside his pocket, making sure the holographic disk containing
the Sub-Ter file hadn't slipped out in the maelstrom. A reassured smile crossed his face
when he felt its presence.
Max glanced quickly about, searching for a computer terminal of any kind. There
were none in sight. The room he had landed in didn't seem like it would contain any,
either: it was dusty and unused, the walls and floors made from primitive stone masonry.
Where had he landed?
In his panic to open the portal, he had only instructed it to open somewhere near a
functioning computer terminal, but hadn't been any more specific with his instructions. He
prayed that wasn't an oversight that would cost Sally her life.
There was but a single door at the far end of the small room. Max stumbled over
to it, the portal's pull making him fight for every step. It was locked. He furrowed his
brow, and let a bolt of energy fly from his fingertips and blast the door open.
Outside was an empty stone corridor filled with row upon row of countless
doorways, each identical to the last. The King finally realized that he had landed in a
prison cell.
Memories long since abandoned ever since his exile came back to him with a rush.
There was only one such complex this ancient, and this dilapidated, anywhere near the
boundaries of his kingdom. This was Ironlocke Prison, an antique structure that had lain
abandoned for over a century. It was far removed from Mobotropolis itself, in an
uninhabited region of the Dark Swamp.
The portal's pull had been growing stronger. He hobbled blindly down the open
corridor, hoping with each step that it wouldn't be his last. Max felt his cloak catch on
something and tear, but he paid it no attention. There had to be a terminal around here
somewhere. In the warden's office, maybe. There *had* to be.
The world would no longer be a place the King wanted to live in if there wasn't.
Almost as soon as he had thought it, Max lurched into the warden's office, and
spotted the computer. It was archaic, like everything else in Ironlocke, but if it only had a
connection to the old Mobotropolis computer network, it would serve his purposes.
He switched it on.
"Access code, please," A rough, electronic voice grated through aging speakers.
He didn't have time for this. "Override by order of the Royal Throne of
Mobotropolis." More memories surged back to him; supposedly, each computer ever
commissioned by the royal government would have this feature. The family credo, known
to nobody but the royal house would override anything. Supposedly. "Code: 'To Rule
With Honor'."
"Access approved." The computer's worn-down speakers had an irritating reverb
effect, but at least the voice recognition circuits were functioning.
"Connect to the Mobotropolis data network."
"Connection established."
Max resisted the urge to jump up and cheer. The Void's pull was getting stronger,
and his time in the real world more and more limited. Instead, he pulled the holographic
disk out of his pocket and shoved it into the terminal.
This was it: the critical moment. Would it work or wouldn't it? "Upload the Sub-
Ter file to the following terminal: StealthBot Hangar 2A, Plane 5."
"Insufficient bandwidth," the terminal buzzed.
The King's jaw dropped open. "No!" he shouted. "You have to be able to send
that file!"
The computer didn't answer.
"Why can't you upload it? Diagnose." Max was once again cognizant of the
Void's continual pull on his body. A minute or two remained to him, at most.
"The file is too large to maintain a stable connection rate."
"Then send the terminal a message. A simple one."
"Enter message."
The King frowned. What would get Sally's attention faster than anything else, he
pondered. Thinking fast was critical.
"Bean."
---
"Man, what is all this stuff?"
"It's the brains of the plane," Sally replied, eagerly looking over the Stealth Bot's
internal components. It looked exactly as the stolen schematics said it would. Unless
Robotnik had left any hidden traps inside the computer itself, hacking into it would be less
than a problem.
Sonic had to peer into the interior of the plane from the open grate below. There
wasn't room enough in the control pit for more than a single person, and besides, it was
his job to make sure no maintenance or security robots got too close. "And you're gonna
do a little brain surgery, right?"
Sally's hand traced across the control panel, finding an input jack that would fit her
hand-held computer. "More or less," she said, glancing down at the hedgehog. "First I
have to break the access code, get into Robotnik's mainframe computer, and reprogram
the launch data." Her gaze fell back to the controls in front of her, and she unclipped
Nicole her boot, setting her idly on the console.
"Then *kaboom*!" Sonic triumphantly raised his fist in unnecessary emphasis.
"These Stealth Bots are lunchin', yes?"
"They're… lunchin', yes," Sally confirmed, nearly stumbling over the hedgehog's
unique vocabulary. With a single motion of her wrist, she deftly flipped Nicole's case
open, and plugged her into the waiting console. "Nicole?"
"Ready, Sally," the computer confirmed, faithful as ever.
"Access main database."
"Password, Sally."
Such routine obstacles had been expected, and the Freedom Fighters were more
than capable of dealing with them. "Run decoding program for 'X'." A dormant
holographic projector hummed to life, spewing light into the air. A three-by-three grid
appeared in mid-air, flashing letters past too fast for the eye to read. Slowly, carefully, the
letters resolved themselves into a single word. Sally bent forward to read it: the password
was "Meteor".
Without being asked to, Nicole used the password to infiltrate Robotropolis's
computer network. As far as any monitoring programs were concerned, they were just
another user out of thousands of connected worker and security bots. It would only take
another few minutes to complete their work here. Then the Stealth Bot would be history,
and Ivo Robotnik's plans set back another day.
Someone, though, thought that a few minutes was too long to wait. Sally's
concentration was broken by the strumming of gloved fingers against the metal interior of
the plane.
"Sonic, do you mind?"
The hedgehog shot her his best "Who, me?" look. "Not very well. Dogs mind,
not hedgehogs."
"Well, show a little patience," she suggested.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey," Sonic said quickly, "Patients are for hospitals. We're in
Robo-country, and that makes *me* itchy." He glanced quickly towards the hangar bay,
but before he could launch into another tirade, something else attracted his attention.
"Whoa!" When he looked back up at her, his eyes were widened with alarm.
"Hurry it up, Sal!" He pointed urgently across the hangar bay to something Sally
couldn't see. She could hear the grinding of the security bots' treads, though. "Party-
crashers comin'!"
Sally glanced quickly back at her computer, but was interrupted yet again, this
time by Nicole. She was hit completely by surprise by what happened next.
"Incoming message," Nicole reported emotionlessly. The hologram message
disappeared, replaced by glowing red text and a single word. A word that hadn't held any
meaning for her for almost a decade. She blinked, eyes focused entirely on the display.
"Bean?" Sonic asked, confused.
She overcame her surprise long enough to force words from her mouth. "Oh my
gosh. Sonic, my father called me 'Bean' when I was little." She turned back to the
console, security bots forgotten entirely. "Nicole, give me message origin."
Sonic bent down to peer at the hangar bay again. The bots were getting
dangerously close. He wondered if their intrusion into Robotropolis' computers had been
detected. "Sal, we gotta put the pedal to the metal!"
"I have to check this out," she insisted, fusing with the plane's controls. There had
one been a single message, and just one word. Yet the meaning it conveyed was
unmistakable. "It may be from my father!"
The hologram display lit up, zooming into focus a map of badlands far beyond
Robotropolis. Nicole began charting coordinates and listing numbers. "Message origin:
Area 12, Sector 9, Quadrant 32."
The breath caught in Sally's throat. "The Dark Swamp?"
---
"Message received."
Max didn't dare so much as exhale in relief, for fear that taking his mind off
fighting the Void's encroaching pull for a single moment would enable it to overtake him.
His daughter's life wasn't out of jeopardy yet.
"Copy the Sub-Ter file to hard drive," he ordered, urgently. When the computer
was finished, he wasted no time with his next command. "Password lock, combination
'Bean'."
"Locked," the device confirmed.
Even though the gaping portal was several dozen meters away, it felt as though it
were but an inch away from his forehead. The Void *wanted* him back; it wouldn't allow
for any escape. Max gave himself less than half a minute before the sheer strength of it
would overwhelm him.
He ran through a mental checklist. Hopefully, the message had reached Sally and
alerted her to his presence. If it hadn't there wasn't anything he could do now. With any
luck, she would come here and find the Sub-Ter file. Only one thing left to do.
Max's hand fumbled for the handwritten message still tucked into the pocket of his
uniform. As soon as he removed the slip of paper, the hurricane-force winds wrenched
out from between his fingertips. It tumbled end over end down the corridor, disappearing
at last into the whirling portal.
It didn't matter, the King told himself. He had memorized the letter anyway.
His grip on the real world began to slip. Even his newfound powers could only
stay the Void's confounded power for a few more seconds at best. He would have to
shorten the message.
"Begin recording a message for playback when the Sub-Ter file is accessed," Max
demanded.
"Voice recognition ready. Recording."
"Bean. Check Sub-Ter file. Impossi-"
Then the Void claimed him.
---
Max tumbled helplessly down the portal, even his newfound powers unable to slow
his descent. The universe really was against him, again, saying that even though he had
been able to break free for a precious moment, he still couldn't escape.
He didn't even get to see sunlight.
Max had little time for reflection or sorrows at the conclusion of his forced flight
into the portal. The Void tossed him roughly the ground of Naugus's workshop, moving
so fast that he almost gave himself a concussion on the same wall that Sally's head had
struck months ago. Almost as soon as he landed, the portal collapsed and sealed itself
behind him.
He, Naugus, and Ari were alone.
The King rose unsteadily to his feet, eyes locking with Naugus. A hiss of angry air
escaped his lips, traced with a subtle hint of satisfaction. It didn't take long for Max to see
why: Ari lay huddled at the wizard's feet, reduced to little more than a quivering ball of
whimpering fur. Naugus took sadistic pleasure from reducing strong, healthy individuals
into useless, sobbing lumps of flesh.
"Do what you will, Naugus. I did it. I changed history, and now there's nothing
you can do about it."
"Changed… what?" the sorcerer chuckled, somewhat light-heartened by Ari's
torture. "From inside the Void?" His lips curled upwards in amusement. "I don't doubt it
in the least."
King Acorn didn't answer, staring resolutely at the horn on the wizard's forehead.
Without warning, Naugus's face darkened. "It's your turn, now, Sire. It was wise
to hide this one from me, but all that means now is that you'll die together. On your
knees, lackey."
Max remained standing.
"So then die on your feet." Naugus held out his hands, and with a single flick of
his wrist, flung a magical bolt of pain towards the King.
Max observed him casting it, watched the bolt fly towards him with detachment.
He could see it all, now. Things that had been invisible to him before he had discovered
the meaning behind the missing symbol. Naugus's magic was almost deceptive in its
power; in truth, it was acutely simple. Naugus only visualized his goal and let it happen.
He didn't part any part of *himself* into the magic. He lacked spirit. It was as if the
vessel firing the magic was little more than a living corpse.
He harmlessly absorbed the offensive magic into his body, barely working up a
mental sweat in counteracting it.
Naugus frowned, startled and more than a little unnerved that Max hadn't doubled
over in unbearable pain. He flexed his fingertips again, and shot another blast of magic in
the King's direction, this one a little stronger.
Max watched, uninterested by Naugus's display of power, and calmly shrugged off
the magic. He thought it remarkable that he had actually been fearful of the wizard's
power before, when all he needed to do to defend himself against it was put his spirit into
it. Spirit was one thing Ixis could never have.
"What is this…" Naugus frowned, and prepared to fire yet another bolt. His hands
began to glow with energy that, if released, would instantly kill an unprotected furry.
"ENOUGH!"
Naugus staggered backwards, into the workshop's craggy rock wall, clutching his
ears, his mouth open in a silent shout of horror. Ari, still huddled on the floor, only
flinched. The brunt of Max's power had been directed solely at the wizard.
"Why, Naugus, you were right. It is my turn, after all."
The King idly snapped his fingers. Exactly on cue, breath rushed out of Naugus's
lungs as he doubled over in pain. He fell to his knees.
"Just not in the way you were expecting."
Naugus gasped for air. The only thing that emerged from his throat were squeaks.
His vocal cords were suddenly incapable of functioning. For the first time since Max had
returned from the real world, a pair of horns poked upwards from the trembling mass that
Ari had been reduced to. He finally had gathered the strength to look upwards.
"Ari," Max said, magic leaking out into his voice, lending the injured ram strength.
The thought that magic could be used for healing had never occurred to Max before,
simply because he had never seen Naugus use his powers for anything except pain and
punishment. "Time to get up," he prodded gently.
Slowly, shakily, Ari rose to a sitting position, and then his feet. He hobbled over
to the King without saying a word, and gladly accepted the supporting arm when it was
offered. Max's magic hadn't cured him to the point where he was able to walk steadily,
but that would come in time, as he recovered. Max had had enough experience with
Naugus's tortures to know that he eventually would.
Ixis Naugus cowered on the workshop's floor, moving only to paw uselessly at his
throat. At last, a word escaped the formerly-powerful wizard's parched and cracked lips.
"How?"
"Doesn't really seem to matter now, does it?"
Naugus nodded, doing his best to appear subdued. Max saw right through the
deception; the wizard's mind was transparent. He could see the plans and the seething
fury boiling within. Naugus's hand shot up almost immediately, and shot one last bolt of
magic at Max. It struck him dead-on in the chest, but Max never felt it. It was simply that
easy to nullify.
Almost wearily, Max's magic slapped Naugus's hand to the ground. Once more,
Naugus shuddered in pain as the King flexed his offensive power.
It would be incredibly easy simply snuff out Ixis Naugus's life, right here and now.
For every bit of injustice and torture the King had been forced to put up with for the past
two years of his life. If he concentrated hard enough, Max could even see Julian
Kintobor's fat, grinning visage over Naugus's face.
But… no. He had vowed years ago, before he had even taken the throne as the
monarch of Mobotropolis, to never submit to petty revenge.
"I'm not quite sure what to do with you," Max confessed. "As much as I've
grown, you're still a threat. If I don't kill you right now, it's possible that you could learn
how to counteract my defenses, maybe even catch me by surprise, and finish me.
"I won't force you to promise to stay away, won't torture you like you did me.
Because, if you still haven't figured it out, those methods just *don't* work." He ignored
the slight smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "So how about a proposal. Simple,
straight, logical. We're both quite capable of killing one other. I'm very sure neither one
of us wants to die. So in order to prevent any unnecessary bloodshed… we both stay as
far away from each other as possible. You stay near your workshop, I'll stay near my
castle, and we won't exchange another word until we can escape this prison."
King Acorn's form towered over the crumpled Naugus, making it very clear what
would happen if he dissented. "Agreed?"
Naugus croaked something that Max could only assume was a reluctant
affirmative.
"You can't imagine how difficult it is to see you lying there, so vulnerable. You
really don't know how tempting it is to do to you exactly what you did to me. Shoot pure
pain into your body, wrack it with magic until you're reduced to little more than an empty
shell." Max leaned in closer. "And that's exactly what will happen if you try *anything*,
wizard. That's a promise."
A word tried to escape Naugus's mouth, but it got caught in his throat and died.
"Glad to see we can finally come to an understanding after all these years."
---
A year after King Acorn's abbreviated return to Mobius, another one of Ivo
Robotnik's armories disappeared behind a curtain of roaring flames. One after one,
explosive charges detonated inside the warehouse, setting fire to stockpiles of volatile
ammunition and weaponry, which exploded in even more grandiose fashion.
An investigation into the matter, heralded by the dictator's nephew Snively, could
only postulate that the Freedom Fighters had entered the facility through maintenance
tunnels, until then, Ivo had been confident were hidden. The Freedom Fighters had a
knack for surprising him like that. Robotnik's plans were set back yet again as new
facilities had to be constructed, and new weaponry manufactured, to make up for the
losses.
Such raids were almost commonplace in Robotropolis. As far as both Snively and
the Freedom Fighters were concerned, it had been just another routine raid.
Only three people alive knew its significance.
For Ari and King Acorn, after finally finishing the construction of their own
scrying device, months of self-torture and regret had come to a close. Sally was alive. It
had worked. For a brief, shining moment they had beaten the impenetrable boundaries of
the dimensional prison, and had done far more good than they ever thought possible. Not
only were the lives of Sally and her friends secured, at least temporarily, but now she
could keep fighting against Julian, keep saving lives, and hopefully even help bring an end
to the decade-long reign of terror.
There was still more work to be done, however. Sally's words, even though for
she herself would never remember them, were not lost on the King. At some point in
Max's future, Sally would return to the Void.
That would be when, according to her, he would give her a list of other Freedom
Fighter groups. Already, he had the list partially assembled. With the scrying device, he
had located dedicated bands of refugees scattered in the forests to the south and east of
Robotropolis, as well as a pack of wolves based in the Great Unknown. When Sally
finally arrived, he would be more than ready to play his role.
He and Naugus had only seen each other a few times since Max's triumphant
return from the real world, usually just in passing through the Void's numerous rock-lined
corridors. They regarded each other with nothing but wary glances, but Naugus didn't
seem to be confident enough to risk attacking him again. At least, not yet.
All in all, the past few months had granted Max the peace and serenity he had
never been able to attain while living under Naugus's bootheel. Yet he was never truly
content with his new position, no matter how much better it was then before.
His daughter lived, and Naugus's cruelty had been contained. None of this had
changed the fact that he was an exile from his own kingdom, trapped in a tyrant's prison,
with everything he had truly cared about in life stolen away from him.
No, true satisfaction would have to wait until Julian was dead.
---
There was no point, Ixis Naugus thought to himself, in wasting valuable time on
piddling regrets. So long as he was still able to continue his work and escape the Void, it
hardly mattered that his former servant still lived. Naugus was determined to not waste
his anger fuming over the situation, and instead learn from it.
Long before King Acorn had even landed in the Void, Naugus thought that he had
exhausted almost every possibility of escape from the prison. It wasn't as simple as going
backwards in time long enough to keep the portal he was sucked into from opening. Such
an action, if it were taken, would not only not free him, but split the universe in two in a
classic example of temporal paradox. He had thought himself doomed.
But then, King Acorn had done something that had simply never occurred to him.
Used his magic to give himself speed enough to physically fight the Void's pull. Naugus
had long ago relegated all ideas of escape to the confines of mathematical equations and
guesswork. Brute force had never occurred to him.
Yet even King Acorn's attempt to break free eventually failed, because his escape
had been rooted in magic, and his magic had been based in the Void. So speed was the
key, but it had to be something non-magical and mundane.
The blue-quilled speedster he had seen accompanying the King's daughter had
instantly leapt to mind. If the hedgehog could somehow be dragged into the Void and
convinced to take him out, then Naugus's own escape became a definite possibility.
The hedgehog and his friends, including the wretch's daughter, Sally, were now
displayed on the screen of Naugus's scrying device.
"Such superb speed," he mused, "and such a fine mind…"
Naugus's gnarled fingertips idly tugged on the coarse strands of his beard.
There *had* to be a way he could take advantage of this situation.
"Interesting…"
---
By Naugus's artificial clock, it was late evening, almost on the verge of becoming
early morning again. The wizard's sleeping cycles were anything but predictable; however,
now was usually the safest time to assume that he was unconscious. Still, the fact that he
didn't know Naugus's whereabouts only heightened the King's apprehension.
An involuntary shiver rippled down his spine as he stood in the doorway of the
empty workshop. He was truly terrified of the consequences of Naugus catching him in
the act. Almost instinctively, he began to back away, but stopped himself just before he
crossed the doorway's threshold again.
He forced himself to concentrate of the comforting weight of the holographic disk
in his uniform's chest pocket, and set to work. Focusing on one task at a time helped to
somewhat allay his fears, if not stifle them completely.
First of all, he had to find a point where he could easily reach his daughter. She
would have to be tapped into to the remnants of the old Mobotropolis computer network.
Using the scrying device, Max began backpedal through time, searching for a point, any
point, where he could get a message across to her. It didn't take him long to find it.
Almost a year before her death, she and her friends were on a foray in Robotropolis. For
a brief moment, a shining window of opportunity, she was connected into the city's
computer network. A message transmitted to that terminal would go directly to her.
And then Max realized that he had reached the point beyond which he had no plan.
There was nothing he could think to do. He had done all he could. He knew how,
when, and where to transmit the Sub-Ter file, and at long last save his daughter's life, but
none of that changed the damnable fact that *nothing* could escape the Void. The Sub-
Ter file was as trapped in this dimension as he was.
He walked over to the empty rock tunnel, where the Void's useless portal could be
opened, and stood there, staring at the blank stone. His palm slipped across the disk
concealed in his uniform's pocket; its weight felt depressingly hollow. He didn't know
how long he stood there, motionless. For all Max knew, it could have already passed into
the next day's morning, or afternoon. He only became aware of the passage of time again
when the workshop's door squeaked open behind him. The clacking sound of heavy boots
against the floor marked Ixis Naugus's entrance. He made no comment as to the King's
presence in his workshop.
Max stood shock-still as the footsteps drew closer. They stopped only two meters
away.
"Did you really think I wouldn't catch on to this?" Naugus's raspy voice asked.
The undercurrent of his tone was thick with seething anger.
"That was an illusion I never held."
"Then it's been outnumbered by the ones you do," Naugus interrupted harshly.
"About a month ago, I set up a passive surveillance system by my scrying device. You
were obviously unaware of it." Max felt the yawning pit growing in his stomach grow
deeper. It threatened to swallow his soul whole. "I've been watching you come in here
ever since then, creating maps. I know what you've been doing… I was beginning to
wonder how long it would take before you would finally act."
The sorcerer's words jabbed into the King like a thousand needles in his chest,
worse than any physical torture he had ever inflicted. This game had been won by Naugus
before it even began. Max had set out expecting failure, but even this was almost too
much for him to handle. The only thing that allowed him to keep his composure was a
determination to not die weeping.
"If you're going to kill me, then make it fast," Max snapped bitterly.
"I'll do no such thing," Naugus's voice quivered with hostility. There was a pause,
as if the wizard had to stop keep himself under control. "You… you haven't just outlived
your usefulness as my servant. Oh, no, that would be too simple. You've… *angered*
me."
Max finally turned around to face Naugus, freezing when he saw his eyes. A
madness deep enough to be called insanity burned in those dark pits.
"I'll make sure you take days to die," Naugus hissed.
Once again, the King saw his life spiral out of his control. The same feeling that
shivered down his spine when Julian exiled him to the Void struck him again. Except this
time he wasn't going to lose control of not only his life, but his death as well. Back before
Julian's betrayal, he had always known that he would die an old man, happy and loved.
The perfect ending to a perfect life. He had never imagined that reality could be so cruel.
"Then get it over with," Max spat.
Naugus's cracked and parched lips twisted upwards in a terrible smile.
The first bolt brought Max to his knees, as if some titanic force had nearly sheared
away his ankles. Bright light flashed as another bolt fired, and he felt the first of Naugus's
torturous magic seep their way into his body. It felt as if the flesh had been flayed from
his arms and his ribcage shattered into a thousand tiny shards. He couldn't keep the
scream from escaping his throat.
"Silence! Your only purpose is to die at my feet-"
A third voice splintered the fray, stopping Naugus's words before they left his
mouth. "No!" The magic ceased cackling around Naugus's fingertips as he took a step
backwards in surprise. The sorcerer's cape whirled through the air as he spun around.
Someone else flew leapt into the air, slamming into Naugus's stout form and tackling him
to the ground. A gasp of shocked air was forced from the wizard's lungs when his back
connected with the stone. Max's vision was distorted by pain; he only saw the interloper's
two curled horns. The burly ram held Naugus pinned to the floor.
"What is this?" Ixis screeched. Almost immediately recovering from the surprise
attack, more magical energy began to form around his hand, getting ready to strike back.
"You'll all pay, I-"
"Shut up!" Ari bellowed.
An instant before a bolt of pure energy would have leapt from Naugus's hands to
strike the newcomer, the ram's fist drew back and smashed into the sorcerer's face.
Naugus's neck snapped backwards; there was an audible *crack* as his skull nearly
shattered open against the workshop's stone floor.
No time for pleasantries, no warm greetings. Even a strong blow like that would
only keep Naugus disabled for a few seconds at best. Ari waved frantically towards the
rock tunnel, where the unopened portal could be opened. "Go, sire! Go now!"
Without thinking, Max rose to his feet, dashing over to the tunnel. For a moment,
he was conscious only of the ground slipping past underneath his feet. It was all too
unreal: in under five seconds, he had been dragged to the gaping maw of utter failure only
to be brought back again. With *still* no way to escape the Void and get his message to
Sally. But now he had no choice but to try.
He let magic flow through his bones, concentrating on nothing more than his goal
of summoning the gateway between dimensions. In the real world, the portal would open
a year before Sally's death, just before she would log into Robotropolis's computer
network. Where didn't matter so much, just so long as it was near a terminal that could
transmit the data he needed. A second later the portal's swirling purple and yellow
exploded into existence in front of him, blowing wind towards him in a strong outwards
gust.
Behind him, he heard Ari's scream of pain as Naugus recovered enough to fully
direct his powerful offensive magic at the ram. There wasn't even any time to feel
sympathy for him. The same thing would be in store for Max if he waited but a second
longer.
In the instant before he leapt, he was struck by a twinge of sorrow for the
overwhelming futility of his plight.
King Maximillion Acorn hurled himself into the portal.
---
Almost immediately, the titanic energy field surging inwards nearly shoved him
back into Naugus's workshop. It took all of his strength to merely remain in the yawning
lip of the portal, suspended in limbo in the disorienting no-man's land between the Void
and reality. Just behind him, the workshop loomed threateningly close, while ahead, the
distance between himself and the real world seemed nearly infinite.
Light and sound flashed past him, both caught in the Void's pull and streaming
towards the end of the portal. It seemed that the only thing solid was his own body;
elsewhere in the portal, it was almost as if each of his five senses had merged into a pool
of disconcerting liquidity. Nothing was a constant except for the distances between both
portal entrances.
Sally's last few words came back to him. "Sonic. His speed can fight the Void's
pull long enough to escape." His mind relaxed, concentrating on the goal of giving his
legs the same power as the hedgehog's. If speed and speed alone could allow escape from
the portal's inexorable pull, then perhaps the effect could be magically recreated.
Magic flowed through him, into his legs, and they began moving fast enough to
become a blur, gaining traction where there was no visible ground. The workshop started
to fall into the distance behind him. He allowed himself a brief, shining moment of hope:
he was gaining!
Yet, as he draw further and further away from the Void's magic-friendly
environment, the energy that powered his legs began to dissipate. Each step became more
and more difficult, while the exit to the real world was still frustratingly far off. Max
began to tumble backwards, barely able to catch himself from falling back into the
workshop.
Body and mind aching, he glanced up towards the impossibly distant portal
opening. The real world lay just beyond there, tantalizingly visible for the first time in
more than two years. But it couldn't be reached. All that the King had gone through, all
that he could hope, didn't change the horrible fact that there was *no* escape from the
Void.
It was sorely tempting to just let go, fall back into Naugus's workshop, and face
the death that was coming to him.
Max's muscles were strained with the massive effort needed to just keep him
suspended in the portal's entrance. He was almost an old man; they would give, soon.
There could only be one more try.
The King flexed his mental muscles, letting magic flow through him once more,
and instead of focusing on the goal of forcing his tired legs to move faster, he focused on
nothing more than reaching the other side of the portal. That was his only goal.
Magic energy cackled uselessly around him, fading away. Still no effect.
His goal, his goal. He needed to reach the other side. This was more than just a
goal, a needless purpose. Reaching the other side, landing in the real world, meant more
to him than anything he'd ever done before. His daughter meant more to him than the sum
of Mobotropolis. He couldn't just concentrate on his goal and let his magic take him
there. It had ceased to become a goal.
It had become his life.
His…
The missing symbol clicked into place.
It had never been anything that Naugus could teach because Naugus *didn't
possess it.* The symbol had represented an essential component of magic, an ingredient
that was the strongest of powers. It was something that was incredibly simple yet
incredibly difficult to achieve. There was more to magic than merely visualizing your goal
and waiting for it to happen, so much more. Such things seemed impossibly shallow by
comparison.
Visualizing your goal was only part of the process, the very beginning. Not even
Naugus had recognized this. To truly become powerful, you had to almost become a part
of your goal. Merge with it.
The missing symbol represented spirit.
Max's shout breached both sides of the portal, spilling over into the workshop and
the real world, triumphing over even the sensory-skewed zone that was the portal itself.
Max Acorn became a part of his goal, wanted to save his daughter's life badly
enough to give his own. Flush with dawning triumph and screaming a wordless cry, he
surged through the impossible boundaries of the portal fighting as best as he was able, and
surged out the other side, and into the real world.
---
He landed in an environment almost as cold and unforgiving as Naugus's workshop
in the dimension he had left behind, and barely managed to avoid cracking his head against
a stone wall. The first thing he was cognizant of, though, was the portal and its pull.
The open purple and yellow vortex swirled nearby, sucking in air with speeds
approaching gale-force. Dust and debris from his dismal surroundings flew into the Void.
But the pull Max felt was more than just wind.
It was almost a magnetism trying to draw him back inside, a pull that was more
than even the newfound power of his magic could fight. He got the unnerving impression
that the universe itself had cast aside its cloak of physical laws and said to him, "You don't
belong here." Instantly he knew that he could only remain in the real world for no more
than a few minutes at best. The pull would overpower him soon.
Even now, in the real world at long last, true victory was impossible. He couldn't
remain.
This bothered him little. His only real goal lay in saving his daughter's life, not in
escaping the Void itself, and now he had a golden window of opportunity in which to
accomplish it. He reached inside his pocket, making sure the holographic disk containing
the Sub-Ter file hadn't slipped out in the maelstrom. A reassured smile crossed his face
when he felt its presence.
Max glanced quickly about, searching for a computer terminal of any kind. There
were none in sight. The room he had landed in didn't seem like it would contain any,
either: it was dusty and unused, the walls and floors made from primitive stone masonry.
Where had he landed?
In his panic to open the portal, he had only instructed it to open somewhere near a
functioning computer terminal, but hadn't been any more specific with his instructions. He
prayed that wasn't an oversight that would cost Sally her life.
There was but a single door at the far end of the small room. Max stumbled over
to it, the portal's pull making him fight for every step. It was locked. He furrowed his
brow, and let a bolt of energy fly from his fingertips and blast the door open.
Outside was an empty stone corridor filled with row upon row of countless
doorways, each identical to the last. The King finally realized that he had landed in a
prison cell.
Memories long since abandoned ever since his exile came back to him with a rush.
There was only one such complex this ancient, and this dilapidated, anywhere near the
boundaries of his kingdom. This was Ironlocke Prison, an antique structure that had lain
abandoned for over a century. It was far removed from Mobotropolis itself, in an
uninhabited region of the Dark Swamp.
The portal's pull had been growing stronger. He hobbled blindly down the open
corridor, hoping with each step that it wouldn't be his last. Max felt his cloak catch on
something and tear, but he paid it no attention. There had to be a terminal around here
somewhere. In the warden's office, maybe. There *had* to be.
The world would no longer be a place the King wanted to live in if there wasn't.
Almost as soon as he had thought it, Max lurched into the warden's office, and
spotted the computer. It was archaic, like everything else in Ironlocke, but if it only had a
connection to the old Mobotropolis computer network, it would serve his purposes.
He switched it on.
"Access code, please," A rough, electronic voice grated through aging speakers.
He didn't have time for this. "Override by order of the Royal Throne of
Mobotropolis." More memories surged back to him; supposedly, each computer ever
commissioned by the royal government would have this feature. The family credo, known
to nobody but the royal house would override anything. Supposedly. "Code: 'To Rule
With Honor'."
"Access approved." The computer's worn-down speakers had an irritating reverb
effect, but at least the voice recognition circuits were functioning.
"Connect to the Mobotropolis data network."
"Connection established."
Max resisted the urge to jump up and cheer. The Void's pull was getting stronger,
and his time in the real world more and more limited. Instead, he pulled the holographic
disk out of his pocket and shoved it into the terminal.
This was it: the critical moment. Would it work or wouldn't it? "Upload the Sub-
Ter file to the following terminal: StealthBot Hangar 2A, Plane 5."
"Insufficient bandwidth," the terminal buzzed.
The King's jaw dropped open. "No!" he shouted. "You have to be able to send
that file!"
The computer didn't answer.
"Why can't you upload it? Diagnose." Max was once again cognizant of the
Void's continual pull on his body. A minute or two remained to him, at most.
"The file is too large to maintain a stable connection rate."
"Then send the terminal a message. A simple one."
"Enter message."
The King frowned. What would get Sally's attention faster than anything else, he
pondered. Thinking fast was critical.
"Bean."
---
"Man, what is all this stuff?"
"It's the brains of the plane," Sally replied, eagerly looking over the Stealth Bot's
internal components. It looked exactly as the stolen schematics said it would. Unless
Robotnik had left any hidden traps inside the computer itself, hacking into it would be less
than a problem.
Sonic had to peer into the interior of the plane from the open grate below. There
wasn't room enough in the control pit for more than a single person, and besides, it was
his job to make sure no maintenance or security robots got too close. "And you're gonna
do a little brain surgery, right?"
Sally's hand traced across the control panel, finding an input jack that would fit her
hand-held computer. "More or less," she said, glancing down at the hedgehog. "First I
have to break the access code, get into Robotnik's mainframe computer, and reprogram
the launch data." Her gaze fell back to the controls in front of her, and she unclipped
Nicole her boot, setting her idly on the console.
"Then *kaboom*!" Sonic triumphantly raised his fist in unnecessary emphasis.
"These Stealth Bots are lunchin', yes?"
"They're… lunchin', yes," Sally confirmed, nearly stumbling over the hedgehog's
unique vocabulary. With a single motion of her wrist, she deftly flipped Nicole's case
open, and plugged her into the waiting console. "Nicole?"
"Ready, Sally," the computer confirmed, faithful as ever.
"Access main database."
"Password, Sally."
Such routine obstacles had been expected, and the Freedom Fighters were more
than capable of dealing with them. "Run decoding program for 'X'." A dormant
holographic projector hummed to life, spewing light into the air. A three-by-three grid
appeared in mid-air, flashing letters past too fast for the eye to read. Slowly, carefully, the
letters resolved themselves into a single word. Sally bent forward to read it: the password
was "Meteor".
Without being asked to, Nicole used the password to infiltrate Robotropolis's
computer network. As far as any monitoring programs were concerned, they were just
another user out of thousands of connected worker and security bots. It would only take
another few minutes to complete their work here. Then the Stealth Bot would be history,
and Ivo Robotnik's plans set back another day.
Someone, though, thought that a few minutes was too long to wait. Sally's
concentration was broken by the strumming of gloved fingers against the metal interior of
the plane.
"Sonic, do you mind?"
The hedgehog shot her his best "Who, me?" look. "Not very well. Dogs mind,
not hedgehogs."
"Well, show a little patience," she suggested.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey," Sonic said quickly, "Patients are for hospitals. We're in
Robo-country, and that makes *me* itchy." He glanced quickly towards the hangar bay,
but before he could launch into another tirade, something else attracted his attention.
"Whoa!" When he looked back up at her, his eyes were widened with alarm.
"Hurry it up, Sal!" He pointed urgently across the hangar bay to something Sally
couldn't see. She could hear the grinding of the security bots' treads, though. "Party-
crashers comin'!"
Sally glanced quickly back at her computer, but was interrupted yet again, this
time by Nicole. She was hit completely by surprise by what happened next.
"Incoming message," Nicole reported emotionlessly. The hologram message
disappeared, replaced by glowing red text and a single word. A word that hadn't held any
meaning for her for almost a decade. She blinked, eyes focused entirely on the display.
"Bean?" Sonic asked, confused.
She overcame her surprise long enough to force words from her mouth. "Oh my
gosh. Sonic, my father called me 'Bean' when I was little." She turned back to the
console, security bots forgotten entirely. "Nicole, give me message origin."
Sonic bent down to peer at the hangar bay again. The bots were getting
dangerously close. He wondered if their intrusion into Robotropolis' computers had been
detected. "Sal, we gotta put the pedal to the metal!"
"I have to check this out," she insisted, fusing with the plane's controls. There had
one been a single message, and just one word. Yet the meaning it conveyed was
unmistakable. "It may be from my father!"
The hologram display lit up, zooming into focus a map of badlands far beyond
Robotropolis. Nicole began charting coordinates and listing numbers. "Message origin:
Area 12, Sector 9, Quadrant 32."
The breath caught in Sally's throat. "The Dark Swamp?"
---
"Message received."
Max didn't dare so much as exhale in relief, for fear that taking his mind off
fighting the Void's encroaching pull for a single moment would enable it to overtake him.
His daughter's life wasn't out of jeopardy yet.
"Copy the Sub-Ter file to hard drive," he ordered, urgently. When the computer
was finished, he wasted no time with his next command. "Password lock, combination
'Bean'."
"Locked," the device confirmed.
Even though the gaping portal was several dozen meters away, it felt as though it
were but an inch away from his forehead. The Void *wanted* him back; it wouldn't allow
for any escape. Max gave himself less than half a minute before the sheer strength of it
would overwhelm him.
He ran through a mental checklist. Hopefully, the message had reached Sally and
alerted her to his presence. If it hadn't there wasn't anything he could do now. With any
luck, she would come here and find the Sub-Ter file. Only one thing left to do.
Max's hand fumbled for the handwritten message still tucked into the pocket of his
uniform. As soon as he removed the slip of paper, the hurricane-force winds wrenched
out from between his fingertips. It tumbled end over end down the corridor, disappearing
at last into the whirling portal.
It didn't matter, the King told himself. He had memorized the letter anyway.
His grip on the real world began to slip. Even his newfound powers could only
stay the Void's confounded power for a few more seconds at best. He would have to
shorten the message.
"Begin recording a message for playback when the Sub-Ter file is accessed," Max
demanded.
"Voice recognition ready. Recording."
"Bean. Check Sub-Ter file. Impossi-"
Then the Void claimed him.
---
Max tumbled helplessly down the portal, even his newfound powers unable to slow
his descent. The universe really was against him, again, saying that even though he had
been able to break free for a precious moment, he still couldn't escape.
He didn't even get to see sunlight.
Max had little time for reflection or sorrows at the conclusion of his forced flight
into the portal. The Void tossed him roughly the ground of Naugus's workshop, moving
so fast that he almost gave himself a concussion on the same wall that Sally's head had
struck months ago. Almost as soon as he landed, the portal collapsed and sealed itself
behind him.
He, Naugus, and Ari were alone.
The King rose unsteadily to his feet, eyes locking with Naugus. A hiss of angry air
escaped his lips, traced with a subtle hint of satisfaction. It didn't take long for Max to see
why: Ari lay huddled at the wizard's feet, reduced to little more than a quivering ball of
whimpering fur. Naugus took sadistic pleasure from reducing strong, healthy individuals
into useless, sobbing lumps of flesh.
"Do what you will, Naugus. I did it. I changed history, and now there's nothing
you can do about it."
"Changed… what?" the sorcerer chuckled, somewhat light-heartened by Ari's
torture. "From inside the Void?" His lips curled upwards in amusement. "I don't doubt it
in the least."
King Acorn didn't answer, staring resolutely at the horn on the wizard's forehead.
Without warning, Naugus's face darkened. "It's your turn, now, Sire. It was wise
to hide this one from me, but all that means now is that you'll die together. On your
knees, lackey."
Max remained standing.
"So then die on your feet." Naugus held out his hands, and with a single flick of
his wrist, flung a magical bolt of pain towards the King.
Max observed him casting it, watched the bolt fly towards him with detachment.
He could see it all, now. Things that had been invisible to him before he had discovered
the meaning behind the missing symbol. Naugus's magic was almost deceptive in its
power; in truth, it was acutely simple. Naugus only visualized his goal and let it happen.
He didn't part any part of *himself* into the magic. He lacked spirit. It was as if the
vessel firing the magic was little more than a living corpse.
He harmlessly absorbed the offensive magic into his body, barely working up a
mental sweat in counteracting it.
Naugus frowned, startled and more than a little unnerved that Max hadn't doubled
over in unbearable pain. He flexed his fingertips again, and shot another blast of magic in
the King's direction, this one a little stronger.
Max watched, uninterested by Naugus's display of power, and calmly shrugged off
the magic. He thought it remarkable that he had actually been fearful of the wizard's
power before, when all he needed to do to defend himself against it was put his spirit into
it. Spirit was one thing Ixis could never have.
"What is this…" Naugus frowned, and prepared to fire yet another bolt. His hands
began to glow with energy that, if released, would instantly kill an unprotected furry.
"ENOUGH!"
Naugus staggered backwards, into the workshop's craggy rock wall, clutching his
ears, his mouth open in a silent shout of horror. Ari, still huddled on the floor, only
flinched. The brunt of Max's power had been directed solely at the wizard.
"Why, Naugus, you were right. It is my turn, after all."
The King idly snapped his fingers. Exactly on cue, breath rushed out of Naugus's
lungs as he doubled over in pain. He fell to his knees.
"Just not in the way you were expecting."
Naugus gasped for air. The only thing that emerged from his throat were squeaks.
His vocal cords were suddenly incapable of functioning. For the first time since Max had
returned from the real world, a pair of horns poked upwards from the trembling mass that
Ari had been reduced to. He finally had gathered the strength to look upwards.
"Ari," Max said, magic leaking out into his voice, lending the injured ram strength.
The thought that magic could be used for healing had never occurred to Max before,
simply because he had never seen Naugus use his powers for anything except pain and
punishment. "Time to get up," he prodded gently.
Slowly, shakily, Ari rose to a sitting position, and then his feet. He hobbled over
to the King without saying a word, and gladly accepted the supporting arm when it was
offered. Max's magic hadn't cured him to the point where he was able to walk steadily,
but that would come in time, as he recovered. Max had had enough experience with
Naugus's tortures to know that he eventually would.
Ixis Naugus cowered on the workshop's floor, moving only to paw uselessly at his
throat. At last, a word escaped the formerly-powerful wizard's parched and cracked lips.
"How?"
"Doesn't really seem to matter now, does it?"
Naugus nodded, doing his best to appear subdued. Max saw right through the
deception; the wizard's mind was transparent. He could see the plans and the seething
fury boiling within. Naugus's hand shot up almost immediately, and shot one last bolt of
magic at Max. It struck him dead-on in the chest, but Max never felt it. It was simply that
easy to nullify.
Almost wearily, Max's magic slapped Naugus's hand to the ground. Once more,
Naugus shuddered in pain as the King flexed his offensive power.
It would be incredibly easy simply snuff out Ixis Naugus's life, right here and now.
For every bit of injustice and torture the King had been forced to put up with for the past
two years of his life. If he concentrated hard enough, Max could even see Julian
Kintobor's fat, grinning visage over Naugus's face.
But… no. He had vowed years ago, before he had even taken the throne as the
monarch of Mobotropolis, to never submit to petty revenge.
"I'm not quite sure what to do with you," Max confessed. "As much as I've
grown, you're still a threat. If I don't kill you right now, it's possible that you could learn
how to counteract my defenses, maybe even catch me by surprise, and finish me.
"I won't force you to promise to stay away, won't torture you like you did me.
Because, if you still haven't figured it out, those methods just *don't* work." He ignored
the slight smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "So how about a proposal. Simple,
straight, logical. We're both quite capable of killing one other. I'm very sure neither one
of us wants to die. So in order to prevent any unnecessary bloodshed… we both stay as
far away from each other as possible. You stay near your workshop, I'll stay near my
castle, and we won't exchange another word until we can escape this prison."
King Acorn's form towered over the crumpled Naugus, making it very clear what
would happen if he dissented. "Agreed?"
Naugus croaked something that Max could only assume was a reluctant
affirmative.
"You can't imagine how difficult it is to see you lying there, so vulnerable. You
really don't know how tempting it is to do to you exactly what you did to me. Shoot pure
pain into your body, wrack it with magic until you're reduced to little more than an empty
shell." Max leaned in closer. "And that's exactly what will happen if you try *anything*,
wizard. That's a promise."
A word tried to escape Naugus's mouth, but it got caught in his throat and died.
"Glad to see we can finally come to an understanding after all these years."
---
A year after King Acorn's abbreviated return to Mobius, another one of Ivo
Robotnik's armories disappeared behind a curtain of roaring flames. One after one,
explosive charges detonated inside the warehouse, setting fire to stockpiles of volatile
ammunition and weaponry, which exploded in even more grandiose fashion.
An investigation into the matter, heralded by the dictator's nephew Snively, could
only postulate that the Freedom Fighters had entered the facility through maintenance
tunnels, until then, Ivo had been confident were hidden. The Freedom Fighters had a
knack for surprising him like that. Robotnik's plans were set back yet again as new
facilities had to be constructed, and new weaponry manufactured, to make up for the
losses.
Such raids were almost commonplace in Robotropolis. As far as both Snively and
the Freedom Fighters were concerned, it had been just another routine raid.
Only three people alive knew its significance.
For Ari and King Acorn, after finally finishing the construction of their own
scrying device, months of self-torture and regret had come to a close. Sally was alive. It
had worked. For a brief, shining moment they had beaten the impenetrable boundaries of
the dimensional prison, and had done far more good than they ever thought possible. Not
only were the lives of Sally and her friends secured, at least temporarily, but now she
could keep fighting against Julian, keep saving lives, and hopefully even help bring an end
to the decade-long reign of terror.
There was still more work to be done, however. Sally's words, even though for
she herself would never remember them, were not lost on the King. At some point in
Max's future, Sally would return to the Void.
That would be when, according to her, he would give her a list of other Freedom
Fighter groups. Already, he had the list partially assembled. With the scrying device, he
had located dedicated bands of refugees scattered in the forests to the south and east of
Robotropolis, as well as a pack of wolves based in the Great Unknown. When Sally
finally arrived, he would be more than ready to play his role.
He and Naugus had only seen each other a few times since Max's triumphant
return from the real world, usually just in passing through the Void's numerous rock-lined
corridors. They regarded each other with nothing but wary glances, but Naugus didn't
seem to be confident enough to risk attacking him again. At least, not yet.
All in all, the past few months had granted Max the peace and serenity he had
never been able to attain while living under Naugus's bootheel. Yet he was never truly
content with his new position, no matter how much better it was then before.
His daughter lived, and Naugus's cruelty had been contained. None of this had
changed the fact that he was an exile from his own kingdom, trapped in a tyrant's prison,
with everything he had truly cared about in life stolen away from him.
No, true satisfaction would have to wait until Julian was dead.
---
There was no point, Ixis Naugus thought to himself, in wasting valuable time on
piddling regrets. So long as he was still able to continue his work and escape the Void, it
hardly mattered that his former servant still lived. Naugus was determined to not waste
his anger fuming over the situation, and instead learn from it.
Long before King Acorn had even landed in the Void, Naugus thought that he had
exhausted almost every possibility of escape from the prison. It wasn't as simple as going
backwards in time long enough to keep the portal he was sucked into from opening. Such
an action, if it were taken, would not only not free him, but split the universe in two in a
classic example of temporal paradox. He had thought himself doomed.
But then, King Acorn had done something that had simply never occurred to him.
Used his magic to give himself speed enough to physically fight the Void's pull. Naugus
had long ago relegated all ideas of escape to the confines of mathematical equations and
guesswork. Brute force had never occurred to him.
Yet even King Acorn's attempt to break free eventually failed, because his escape
had been rooted in magic, and his magic had been based in the Void. So speed was the
key, but it had to be something non-magical and mundane.
The blue-quilled speedster he had seen accompanying the King's daughter had
instantly leapt to mind. If the hedgehog could somehow be dragged into the Void and
convinced to take him out, then Naugus's own escape became a definite possibility.
The hedgehog and his friends, including the wretch's daughter, Sally, were now
displayed on the screen of Naugus's scrying device.
"Such superb speed," he mused, "and such a fine mind…"
Naugus's gnarled fingertips idly tugged on the coarse strands of his beard.
There *had* to be a way he could take advantage of this situation.
"Interesting…"