Fallen Angel
Subchapter 2
Nic's Perspective
Author's notes: Please read Fallen Angel subchapter 1 before reading this. Do it! for the weasels!
There is a spoiler for Chapter 8: Rain of a Thousand Flames at the end of this s-chapter. If you hate
spoilers, don't read it! I added spoiler tags for ya...
There is also a foreshadow of Chapter 10: Dawn of Victory in here somewhere... you probably won't
find it... remember this sub chapter, and after reading chapter 10, come back, read this, and PH34R
my 1337 WR1771N9 5K1llZ... um... no, I'm not that 1337...
To the fic!
~Nick "frwl" Byrd
Death-day's eve; two and a half months after Nack's "little accident" in the mines. He had
healed up well, though it was quite annoying to me to have to help him with every little thing that
came up. But, like I said, it was worth it that he was alive.
His rustling around in the kitchen woke me up. I picked myself up out of bed and made my
way to the kitchen. When I got there, Nack gave me a depressed little look and sighed. "What's eat'n
you?" I yawned as he began playing with his food a bit.
"Nothing," he returned. "Just a dream..."
"Aw, Nackie had a lil' nightmare?" I interrupted with a laugh.
"No, it wasn't a nightmare. It was about... Mama."
"Oh." I was done playing with him for then. Our mama, Mary Weasel... She was the
sweetest woman you'd ever seen or heard of. She had only made one mistake, and that was who she
chose as her husband. Tecumseh, who Nack got his middle name from, was very abusive to all of us.
I always wondered if there was ever love in him; one could never make a real call on that since he
was usually drunk... that is until it was too late for it to matter for me. Mama would always do her
best to shield us from his fierceness, often resulting in her getting beat up. We couldn't have made it
along if she were any less than the perfect mother... But I'll always remember the day she died... Nack
and I were only eight years old, and it was so sudden...
***
"Mama," I cried softly as I stood at the side of her deathbed. I didn't know what else to say. I
knew that there was so much that had to be said, but we could tell that there was so little time.
"It's ok," she said with a smile that pierced through her pain. "My baby, my Nicolette, it's ok.
You know, we all have our times. I may die tonight, but we'll see each other again one day..."
"But I won't be able to wait!" I cried, "Please don't leave us! Don't die..."
"Shh... Don't worry, the Lord will be with you, and that's more than I could ever do for you
in my earthly body... And remember that, when I'm 'gone,' I'll still be with you." All I could do was
nod. Then she continued: "And you'll still have Nack. I know that if you two stick together that you'll
be fine. Even though he's your big brother, watch out for him. In a way, you are like his big sister!"
She laughed for a few seconds, then let out a painful, raspy cough. I could hardly look at her, it was
so painfully odd to see her laying there, dying, when all my life, up to this very hour, she had been so
full of life.
"I'm sorry," she started again in a more solemn tone. "I would love to talk to you more, but I
don't have time enough to now. It's Nack's turn... I love you Nic..."
"I love you, Mama!" I cried as I took her hand and held it for a few seconds. She slowly
pulled it away from me and, just as I was about to leave, wiped a tear from my cheek with the back of
her index finger...
***
They said that she died in front of Nack's very eyes that night. I don't know how he could
have lived through that, I didn't know how I could go on after my conversation with her. It did totally
change his personality though. Ever since the funeral, which he did not take well, the topic of Mama
was very sensitive to him; that dream he had must have touched him in some way. "What
happened?" I asked.
"I don't know really. We were talking in some metaphysical state... ya know, something
like... heaven maybe?"
"Heaven..." I thought about that. It made sense, why would she be elsewhere? "Ya really
think Mama's there?"
Nack downed a mouthful of toast and eggs before answering, "I hope so." Boy, did I hope so
too. I stood there quietly as Nack called for a taxi. He needed to meet with Eggman so we could be
ready for our next mission. I would have driven him there, but Ivo said that Nack was to come alone.
"So, what did you talk about?" I asked as he hung the phone up.
"Hmm?" he hummed with a raised eyebrow. "Oh, yeah... I'm not really sure... She said that it
wasn't my 'time;' that I had to go back... As if I..." He paused for a second, running his tongue on the
back of his fang, as he had just some sort of revelation. "As if I had died..." What do you say to that? I
don't know, so I kept my mouth shut. But one can put two and two together. "Y'know? maybe it
WASN'T a dream..."
"Very... interesting..." Well, those words of mine didn't amount to much more than a drop in
the ocean, but they did reflect how I felt: interested. Nack left me alone then as he got ready for his
briefing with Eggman, so I made myself some breakfast. It didn't amount to much more than a bowl
of cold cereal, but it does keep a body running.
So I locked myself in my room while Nack left. I flipped my boombox on to listen to my CD,
Eternity, while I lay on my bed as I tossed a small rubber ball up at the ceiling, seeing how close I
could get without touching it. But I was still thinking about Mama... So Nack got to speak with her
face to face? "Lucky," I said outloud to myself. "When will I get my turn again?" I had no idea...
By and by I got to thinking about or new mission. Eggman always means big missions, and
he was pulling both of us in on this one? He must have been planning something big, but he didn't
hint on what it was yet.
The end of the CD was playing... Best song on the disk: Turn Back Time. I couldn't help but
sing with them, and I guess I was pretty into it cause I didn't know that Nack was home until I heard
him knocking on my door. "I didn't hear you pull up!"
"Ya know," he started, walking into my room and placing his bag on my bed (which, under
normal circumstances, would have been certain death for him). "I hate to admit it, but Robotnic ain't
such a screwup after all." He explained everything to me, the mission, the objective, his jetbike's
enhancements... indeed, this was a large mission.
"A stealth mission?" I looked the blades over. Double edged and dagger tipped... not your
ordinary dining utensil. "These are pretty nice." Then he showed me his weapon. I was a bit jealous,
as he had a Walther P99, known worldwide as the pistol of a very famous M16 Double-0 agent.
"That's nice too. Keep it, those are hard to come around nowadays I hear."
"Tomorrow night. Remember, this is our best shot at this." So he left my room. I spent a bit
of that day and all of the next day practicing with my new knives. With my throwing, I could get
pretty close to a target, but I could never hit the mark perfectly. That never was my best combat
situation; I preferred to get in nice and close to a target and then get to the point.
"Does this make me look fat?" I asked Nack, stepping out into the warm Texas air, fully
decked out in the stealth suit that Ivo got for me.
"This isn't a fashion show," he said dully as he took a seat on the Queen. I sat behind him
and we sped off. "Don't joke, we have to be careful this mission. The echidnas of that Island are so
dangerous..." I didn't need him to tell me that.
It didn't take us long to land on the Island once we found it. Quite a sight really; for such an
advanced culture, their tribal customs kept the place fun just looking at it. After hiding the bike, we
ran quickly and quietly from shadow to shadow, avoiding the many eyes of the island. We would
have to wait for minutes on end at times until the coast was clear, so what would have taken us
maybe twenty minutes to go through took over an hour. But rest assured, we made it to the temple.
Being inside didn't make the mission any easier. Sentinels walked the halls and kept a close
watch. There were several close calls, but we managed to go a good while before anyone caught on to
us.
We rounded that one corner just too fast. Some kid was roaming the halls and spotted us, but
he didn't know what to do. Heck, I didn't know what to do, and neither did Nack. But when you are
on a mission, you don't act like you don't know what you are doing or else you are done for sure; you
always let on that you are the smartest one around for a good twenty miles. So, I did what came to
mind first. "Don't worry," I started softly, "We don't want to hurt you..." Nack and I were slowly
walking towards the echidna, but he had his eyes fixed on Nack, as he was showing the only weapon,
that durn P99.
We were about ten feet away from the kid when he shifted his weight; it was obvious that he
was gonna bolt. Nack leapt forwards and clapped his hand over the boy's mouth; perfect timing cause
that kid would have screamed his head off right then. Well, he was trying to anyways, and making
quite a bit of noise. Without much thought, we pulled him into a dark corner and sat there untill the
sentinels passed. So what did we do with the kid? No, we didn't kill him, though that would have
been very easy. We did the next best thing and left him knocked out cold in the shadows.
We doubled our pace from there; for all we knew, the kid would wake up any second and
compromise our mission. We really didn't need to go all that much faster though, cause in a few
minutes we were there. There was no doubt about it, the room was so well decorated. We entered the
northern side of the room and another gate was at the southern side. Both of the eastern and western
walls were lined with pillars, and at the very center of it all was a single large pillar. We looked
around for a while, stumped as to where the Emerald could be. It didn't take me long to realize what
the central pillar was for, though. I looked up, and sure enough, there was the Master Emerald.
"Nack, look!" I pointed the Emerald out to him.
"Great..." he moaned, scratching his head. He thought for a few seconds before pulling out
some rope from his bag and making a loop out of it. "Do ya think you can get it?" he asked as he
handed me the rope, but I didn't have time to respond as something stuck out at the corner of my
vision. Movement in the upper corner of the room, a flashing red light... I told you that the echidnas
of Angel Island weren't a low-tech group, and we were fools to think that there wouldn't be a security
camera somewhere nearby.
A loud alarm blew through the night air. Cursing under his breath, Nack turned and ran for
the exit, but I stood my ground. "Cover me!" I shouted to him, determined to get that Emerald. I
tossed the rope up once and missed. As I pulled the rope back to me, I looked back to see that Nack
wasn't there. I honestly thought that he had abandoned me. 'Fine!' I thought, 'That makes double the
pay for me and none for him!'
I didn't get a second chance to throw the rope. A small group of echidnas entered the
southern gate of the room, lead by none other than Knuckles himself. "Stop!" he yelled at me.
That echidna had cause me so much trouble in the past. At the time, it would have been my
pleasure to kill him, so I tried. I threw the rope down and pulled out my combat knives. They were
still too far away, so I decided to throw a knife at them. It would have worked... that is if I didn't drop
it when pulling back for the throw.
Suddenly, as the group was running to me, a pink echidna dropped dead to the floor. "No!"
Knux yelled, stooping down for a second to try to help her. Then a second echidna dropped. It was
then that I knew that Fang the Sniper was still with me. Upon seeing his comrades fall, sniped and
killed (at least one dead so far), Knuckles ran at me with a shout of pure rage. As he came in range, I
took a swing at him with my final knife. He blocked me perfectly; it felt like someone had hit my arm
with a baseball bat, but, at the same time, there was numbness. I tried to shake it off and take another
swing, but the knife was gone; I guess I dropped it. Before I could do anything, I found myself
suspended in air by Knuckles' arm while he held me by the collar of my stealth suit. I could tell that it
I didn't do something right then and there that I was going to be killed. I managed to land one kick on
him, just a few inches above his groin.
Nack was waving and shouting at Knuckles, telling him to drop me and fight him instead.
Knuckles recovered from my kick and finished me. One punch with his spiked knuckles strait to my
midsection... Body armor wouldn't have helped me. It was like being rammed and stabbed at the
same time; the pain was unbelievable. I tried to stand when Knuckles let me go, but it seemed
impossible, and I fell. Besides my own gasps of pain, the only thing I heard was Knuckles' voice: "She
will pay for your sins."
Nack ran to my side. "Nic! Don't worry Nic! I'll save you. We can fix this, if we are fast..."
He picked me up and headed for the exit, but before we got there, metal bars shot up, blocking the
doorways at both ends of the temple. "Hey! Open up, durn it!"
"N... Nack!" I tried crying out to him in my pain, but he silenced me from continuing.
He ran put me down and ran over to the bars. He put some of his blastcaps on the bars and
stood back. They detonated but left not so much as a mark on the bars. "There is no way out," I cried
out.
"Sis..." He looked at me, and I could see that he was crying. He tried to stop my bleeding, but
he couldn't. It was then that we both realized that we were being watched from behind the bars.
"Please!" he pleaded, running up to the bars. "Open the gates! I can save her! She doesn't deserve
this... You have no idea what this is like..."
"I do," one of the echidnas answered. "My sister was with Knuckles when he came to get
you..." I felt sick to my stomach. It really was my fault that they were killed; if I had done the right
thing and run, this wouldn't have happened at all.
"Please!" Nack continued, "I will sacrifice myself if I have to! This isn't fair, she didn't hurt
noone!" They didn't accept his offer, but I couldn't believe what he said. He would really sacrifice
himself for me? How could anyone care so much? Nack proved himself to be a true big brother then...
He pleaded a third time. "If it weren't for her, I would be dead! I did die once, but her
quickness, her care brought me back to life, I owe it to her!"
"Nack," I called out, raising my head up a bit through the pain. "I didn't save you so that you
would pay it back later."
Nack was about to respond to that, but one of the echidnas broke in. "I can't offer much...
Have her drink this, it will ease her pain..." Nack walked over and came back with a small cup. I
drank it; it had some sort of drug in it but I couldn't tell what it was, but within a few seconds, the
pain didn't seem so bad.
"Sis, I am so sorry..."
"Why are you sorry?" I asked. "This isn't your fault, I should have listened..."
"I shouldn't have accepted this mission! I should have known that it was a bad idea..." He
paused a moment and cried quietly. "If... If I could turn back time... ease my desire..." He was trying
to sing to me, but he couldn't through his tears... until one of the echidnas began playing a guitar to
the exact tune of Turn Back Time... Told ya the echidnas were smart; they too know good music
when they hear it.
So Nack sang, and it seemed so appropriate. His made the song sweeter than I had ever
heard before. I did wish that he could turn back time, but at the time I thought it was impossible.
"I'm sorry sis, this is all my fault," Nack said as the song was finished.
"It's like you said," I began, looking up to him, smiling one last time. I knew that this was it, I
could feel my life departing. "Dying, it isn't that bad."
He smiled back down at me. "But I would give anything to undo it."
I started to cry again. It was times like these that made me want to stay with Nack more
than ever. He wasn't a heartless assassin like everyone said. He killed innocent people sometimes,
true, but when you look at his own death, how he killed even when dying himself, he knew when
killing would be the right choice. But he wasn't perfect, and maybe he did make the wrong choice this
time, and he understood that. When someone who seems cold shows love in such manifest, it feels
like there is more in him than there ever was in a person. "I think it's time to go, Nack," I said softly.
"Would you like it if... if I told Mama 'Hi' from you?"
"Sure," Nack whispered.
"Ok... I love you... Goodbye, big brother."
So I died, right then and there. It's only in that instant that you figure out the good in dying...
the almost overwhelming peace that transcends all other emotions that were with you in your 'final'
moments...
The next thing I knew, I was standing next to Nack, watching him mourn over my corrupted
and empty body. But I could see more since I was in my true form, because, there with her hand on
Nack's shoulder was Mama! "It's ok, my Felix, you'll see." Then she turned to me. "If only he knew
how alive we really are!"
I smiled back: "You're right." But then I looked at Nack again; he was miserable and in so
much pain. I placed my hand on his other shoulder. He was drawing strength from us. "I guess I'll
always be with you, too, Nack."
***
So how do I know how all of this happened? True, Nicholas fulfilled Nack's request and
turned back time, and I couldn't recall any of it when I was "alive" afterwards. But certain things are
revealed to you when you are out of your earthly body...
*****spoiler start*****
I stood there in that room back in my hometown of Houston, July 2039, holding the gun to
my body. My husband, my brother, my father, and my teenaged children, along with Nick... they
watched me from across the room.
"Put my gun down!" Nick yelled at me, not with anger, but with concern.
"Yeah, listen Sis!" Nack followed up.
"Don't do it, listen to me for once as your father," Tecumseh continued.
"Please, Nicolette!" Andre pleaded. "It doesn't have to end this way, I'm sure that there is
some way we can help..."
"No! Don't you know that there is no other cure for my condition?" I cried out through my
dual fangs. "You don't know what it's like to be one minute sane and the next driven insane by those
evil forces!"
"Is it worth suicide?" Nick asked calmly, taking a few steps forward. I aimed and fired over
his shoulder, making him shrink back.
"Mama, please!" Malik cried out. "I don't want you to die this way!"
"I'm sorry, my dear," I said softly to my firstborn, "I know how you must feel... I lost your
grandma when I was even younger than you..."
"Mama didn't commit suicide, Nic!" Nack yelled at me. What could I say? He WAS right
about that.
Gracie broke in: "But what if the curses were uplifted when this evil war is over? Wouldn't
that be worth it?"
"The war won't be over until I am dead," I explained, "THIS is the ONLY WAY to end this
curse..."
"Please, Nicolette!" Andre called out, "This... killing yourself... you know that it isn't the
right thing to do..."
"Then to live is the right thing? Don't you know? To do the 'right' thing when you know that
it will only work out more trouble and evil is the worst of wrongs... And I don't want to kill myself; I
am doing this to destroy the evil that has been planted in me before it corrupts others..."
"My Nicolette..." Daddy started, but cut himself off when he finally realized that he couldn't
convince me otherwise. After bringing the brim of his hat down and hiding his eyes, he turned and
left the room with the following words: "I pray that we will meet again someday... under better
circumstances... in a better world."
"Nic," Andre began, tears streaming down his face. "I swear that I will avenge you or die
trying."
"Thank you..." Andre finally found bravery after the worst of his nightmares came true... I
hoped at the time that he was right about avenging me... "Everyone, I thank you for being my friends
and family. It's time to end the spread of this curse before it starts though, and once I am free from the
curse... I will always be with you."
I turned the gun to my heart and pulled the trigger.
*****spoiler end*****
But don't you dare think I was done yet...
Next subchapter:
I Call for the Master
Nack's direct perspective
Subchapter 2
Nic's Perspective
Author's notes: Please read Fallen Angel subchapter 1 before reading this. Do it! for the weasels!
There is a spoiler for Chapter 8: Rain of a Thousand Flames at the end of this s-chapter. If you hate
spoilers, don't read it! I added spoiler tags for ya...
There is also a foreshadow of Chapter 10: Dawn of Victory in here somewhere... you probably won't
find it... remember this sub chapter, and after reading chapter 10, come back, read this, and PH34R
my 1337 WR1771N9 5K1llZ... um... no, I'm not that 1337...
To the fic!
~Nick "frwl" Byrd
Death-day's eve; two and a half months after Nack's "little accident" in the mines. He had
healed up well, though it was quite annoying to me to have to help him with every little thing that
came up. But, like I said, it was worth it that he was alive.
His rustling around in the kitchen woke me up. I picked myself up out of bed and made my
way to the kitchen. When I got there, Nack gave me a depressed little look and sighed. "What's eat'n
you?" I yawned as he began playing with his food a bit.
"Nothing," he returned. "Just a dream..."
"Aw, Nackie had a lil' nightmare?" I interrupted with a laugh.
"No, it wasn't a nightmare. It was about... Mama."
"Oh." I was done playing with him for then. Our mama, Mary Weasel... She was the
sweetest woman you'd ever seen or heard of. She had only made one mistake, and that was who she
chose as her husband. Tecumseh, who Nack got his middle name from, was very abusive to all of us.
I always wondered if there was ever love in him; one could never make a real call on that since he
was usually drunk... that is until it was too late for it to matter for me. Mama would always do her
best to shield us from his fierceness, often resulting in her getting beat up. We couldn't have made it
along if she were any less than the perfect mother... But I'll always remember the day she died... Nack
and I were only eight years old, and it was so sudden...
***
"Mama," I cried softly as I stood at the side of her deathbed. I didn't know what else to say. I
knew that there was so much that had to be said, but we could tell that there was so little time.
"It's ok," she said with a smile that pierced through her pain. "My baby, my Nicolette, it's ok.
You know, we all have our times. I may die tonight, but we'll see each other again one day..."
"But I won't be able to wait!" I cried, "Please don't leave us! Don't die..."
"Shh... Don't worry, the Lord will be with you, and that's more than I could ever do for you
in my earthly body... And remember that, when I'm 'gone,' I'll still be with you." All I could do was
nod. Then she continued: "And you'll still have Nack. I know that if you two stick together that you'll
be fine. Even though he's your big brother, watch out for him. In a way, you are like his big sister!"
She laughed for a few seconds, then let out a painful, raspy cough. I could hardly look at her, it was
so painfully odd to see her laying there, dying, when all my life, up to this very hour, she had been so
full of life.
"I'm sorry," she started again in a more solemn tone. "I would love to talk to you more, but I
don't have time enough to now. It's Nack's turn... I love you Nic..."
"I love you, Mama!" I cried as I took her hand and held it for a few seconds. She slowly
pulled it away from me and, just as I was about to leave, wiped a tear from my cheek with the back of
her index finger...
***
They said that she died in front of Nack's very eyes that night. I don't know how he could
have lived through that, I didn't know how I could go on after my conversation with her. It did totally
change his personality though. Ever since the funeral, which he did not take well, the topic of Mama
was very sensitive to him; that dream he had must have touched him in some way. "What
happened?" I asked.
"I don't know really. We were talking in some metaphysical state... ya know, something
like... heaven maybe?"
"Heaven..." I thought about that. It made sense, why would she be elsewhere? "Ya really
think Mama's there?"
Nack downed a mouthful of toast and eggs before answering, "I hope so." Boy, did I hope so
too. I stood there quietly as Nack called for a taxi. He needed to meet with Eggman so we could be
ready for our next mission. I would have driven him there, but Ivo said that Nack was to come alone.
"So, what did you talk about?" I asked as he hung the phone up.
"Hmm?" he hummed with a raised eyebrow. "Oh, yeah... I'm not really sure... She said that it
wasn't my 'time;' that I had to go back... As if I..." He paused for a second, running his tongue on the
back of his fang, as he had just some sort of revelation. "As if I had died..." What do you say to that? I
don't know, so I kept my mouth shut. But one can put two and two together. "Y'know? maybe it
WASN'T a dream..."
"Very... interesting..." Well, those words of mine didn't amount to much more than a drop in
the ocean, but they did reflect how I felt: interested. Nack left me alone then as he got ready for his
briefing with Eggman, so I made myself some breakfast. It didn't amount to much more than a bowl
of cold cereal, but it does keep a body running.
So I locked myself in my room while Nack left. I flipped my boombox on to listen to my CD,
Eternity, while I lay on my bed as I tossed a small rubber ball up at the ceiling, seeing how close I
could get without touching it. But I was still thinking about Mama... So Nack got to speak with her
face to face? "Lucky," I said outloud to myself. "When will I get my turn again?" I had no idea...
By and by I got to thinking about or new mission. Eggman always means big missions, and
he was pulling both of us in on this one? He must have been planning something big, but he didn't
hint on what it was yet.
The end of the CD was playing... Best song on the disk: Turn Back Time. I couldn't help but
sing with them, and I guess I was pretty into it cause I didn't know that Nack was home until I heard
him knocking on my door. "I didn't hear you pull up!"
"Ya know," he started, walking into my room and placing his bag on my bed (which, under
normal circumstances, would have been certain death for him). "I hate to admit it, but Robotnic ain't
such a screwup after all." He explained everything to me, the mission, the objective, his jetbike's
enhancements... indeed, this was a large mission.
"A stealth mission?" I looked the blades over. Double edged and dagger tipped... not your
ordinary dining utensil. "These are pretty nice." Then he showed me his weapon. I was a bit jealous,
as he had a Walther P99, known worldwide as the pistol of a very famous M16 Double-0 agent.
"That's nice too. Keep it, those are hard to come around nowadays I hear."
"Tomorrow night. Remember, this is our best shot at this." So he left my room. I spent a bit
of that day and all of the next day practicing with my new knives. With my throwing, I could get
pretty close to a target, but I could never hit the mark perfectly. That never was my best combat
situation; I preferred to get in nice and close to a target and then get to the point.
"Does this make me look fat?" I asked Nack, stepping out into the warm Texas air, fully
decked out in the stealth suit that Ivo got for me.
"This isn't a fashion show," he said dully as he took a seat on the Queen. I sat behind him
and we sped off. "Don't joke, we have to be careful this mission. The echidnas of that Island are so
dangerous..." I didn't need him to tell me that.
It didn't take us long to land on the Island once we found it. Quite a sight really; for such an
advanced culture, their tribal customs kept the place fun just looking at it. After hiding the bike, we
ran quickly and quietly from shadow to shadow, avoiding the many eyes of the island. We would
have to wait for minutes on end at times until the coast was clear, so what would have taken us
maybe twenty minutes to go through took over an hour. But rest assured, we made it to the temple.
Being inside didn't make the mission any easier. Sentinels walked the halls and kept a close
watch. There were several close calls, but we managed to go a good while before anyone caught on to
us.
We rounded that one corner just too fast. Some kid was roaming the halls and spotted us, but
he didn't know what to do. Heck, I didn't know what to do, and neither did Nack. But when you are
on a mission, you don't act like you don't know what you are doing or else you are done for sure; you
always let on that you are the smartest one around for a good twenty miles. So, I did what came to
mind first. "Don't worry," I started softly, "We don't want to hurt you..." Nack and I were slowly
walking towards the echidna, but he had his eyes fixed on Nack, as he was showing the only weapon,
that durn P99.
We were about ten feet away from the kid when he shifted his weight; it was obvious that he
was gonna bolt. Nack leapt forwards and clapped his hand over the boy's mouth; perfect timing cause
that kid would have screamed his head off right then. Well, he was trying to anyways, and making
quite a bit of noise. Without much thought, we pulled him into a dark corner and sat there untill the
sentinels passed. So what did we do with the kid? No, we didn't kill him, though that would have
been very easy. We did the next best thing and left him knocked out cold in the shadows.
We doubled our pace from there; for all we knew, the kid would wake up any second and
compromise our mission. We really didn't need to go all that much faster though, cause in a few
minutes we were there. There was no doubt about it, the room was so well decorated. We entered the
northern side of the room and another gate was at the southern side. Both of the eastern and western
walls were lined with pillars, and at the very center of it all was a single large pillar. We looked
around for a while, stumped as to where the Emerald could be. It didn't take me long to realize what
the central pillar was for, though. I looked up, and sure enough, there was the Master Emerald.
"Nack, look!" I pointed the Emerald out to him.
"Great..." he moaned, scratching his head. He thought for a few seconds before pulling out
some rope from his bag and making a loop out of it. "Do ya think you can get it?" he asked as he
handed me the rope, but I didn't have time to respond as something stuck out at the corner of my
vision. Movement in the upper corner of the room, a flashing red light... I told you that the echidnas
of Angel Island weren't a low-tech group, and we were fools to think that there wouldn't be a security
camera somewhere nearby.
A loud alarm blew through the night air. Cursing under his breath, Nack turned and ran for
the exit, but I stood my ground. "Cover me!" I shouted to him, determined to get that Emerald. I
tossed the rope up once and missed. As I pulled the rope back to me, I looked back to see that Nack
wasn't there. I honestly thought that he had abandoned me. 'Fine!' I thought, 'That makes double the
pay for me and none for him!'
I didn't get a second chance to throw the rope. A small group of echidnas entered the
southern gate of the room, lead by none other than Knuckles himself. "Stop!" he yelled at me.
That echidna had cause me so much trouble in the past. At the time, it would have been my
pleasure to kill him, so I tried. I threw the rope down and pulled out my combat knives. They were
still too far away, so I decided to throw a knife at them. It would have worked... that is if I didn't drop
it when pulling back for the throw.
Suddenly, as the group was running to me, a pink echidna dropped dead to the floor. "No!"
Knux yelled, stooping down for a second to try to help her. Then a second echidna dropped. It was
then that I knew that Fang the Sniper was still with me. Upon seeing his comrades fall, sniped and
killed (at least one dead so far), Knuckles ran at me with a shout of pure rage. As he came in range, I
took a swing at him with my final knife. He blocked me perfectly; it felt like someone had hit my arm
with a baseball bat, but, at the same time, there was numbness. I tried to shake it off and take another
swing, but the knife was gone; I guess I dropped it. Before I could do anything, I found myself
suspended in air by Knuckles' arm while he held me by the collar of my stealth suit. I could tell that it
I didn't do something right then and there that I was going to be killed. I managed to land one kick on
him, just a few inches above his groin.
Nack was waving and shouting at Knuckles, telling him to drop me and fight him instead.
Knuckles recovered from my kick and finished me. One punch with his spiked knuckles strait to my
midsection... Body armor wouldn't have helped me. It was like being rammed and stabbed at the
same time; the pain was unbelievable. I tried to stand when Knuckles let me go, but it seemed
impossible, and I fell. Besides my own gasps of pain, the only thing I heard was Knuckles' voice: "She
will pay for your sins."
Nack ran to my side. "Nic! Don't worry Nic! I'll save you. We can fix this, if we are fast..."
He picked me up and headed for the exit, but before we got there, metal bars shot up, blocking the
doorways at both ends of the temple. "Hey! Open up, durn it!"
"N... Nack!" I tried crying out to him in my pain, but he silenced me from continuing.
He ran put me down and ran over to the bars. He put some of his blastcaps on the bars and
stood back. They detonated but left not so much as a mark on the bars. "There is no way out," I cried
out.
"Sis..." He looked at me, and I could see that he was crying. He tried to stop my bleeding, but
he couldn't. It was then that we both realized that we were being watched from behind the bars.
"Please!" he pleaded, running up to the bars. "Open the gates! I can save her! She doesn't deserve
this... You have no idea what this is like..."
"I do," one of the echidnas answered. "My sister was with Knuckles when he came to get
you..." I felt sick to my stomach. It really was my fault that they were killed; if I had done the right
thing and run, this wouldn't have happened at all.
"Please!" Nack continued, "I will sacrifice myself if I have to! This isn't fair, she didn't hurt
noone!" They didn't accept his offer, but I couldn't believe what he said. He would really sacrifice
himself for me? How could anyone care so much? Nack proved himself to be a true big brother then...
He pleaded a third time. "If it weren't for her, I would be dead! I did die once, but her
quickness, her care brought me back to life, I owe it to her!"
"Nack," I called out, raising my head up a bit through the pain. "I didn't save you so that you
would pay it back later."
Nack was about to respond to that, but one of the echidnas broke in. "I can't offer much...
Have her drink this, it will ease her pain..." Nack walked over and came back with a small cup. I
drank it; it had some sort of drug in it but I couldn't tell what it was, but within a few seconds, the
pain didn't seem so bad.
"Sis, I am so sorry..."
"Why are you sorry?" I asked. "This isn't your fault, I should have listened..."
"I shouldn't have accepted this mission! I should have known that it was a bad idea..." He
paused a moment and cried quietly. "If... If I could turn back time... ease my desire..." He was trying
to sing to me, but he couldn't through his tears... until one of the echidnas began playing a guitar to
the exact tune of Turn Back Time... Told ya the echidnas were smart; they too know good music
when they hear it.
So Nack sang, and it seemed so appropriate. His made the song sweeter than I had ever
heard before. I did wish that he could turn back time, but at the time I thought it was impossible.
"I'm sorry sis, this is all my fault," Nack said as the song was finished.
"It's like you said," I began, looking up to him, smiling one last time. I knew that this was it, I
could feel my life departing. "Dying, it isn't that bad."
He smiled back down at me. "But I would give anything to undo it."
I started to cry again. It was times like these that made me want to stay with Nack more
than ever. He wasn't a heartless assassin like everyone said. He killed innocent people sometimes,
true, but when you look at his own death, how he killed even when dying himself, he knew when
killing would be the right choice. But he wasn't perfect, and maybe he did make the wrong choice this
time, and he understood that. When someone who seems cold shows love in such manifest, it feels
like there is more in him than there ever was in a person. "I think it's time to go, Nack," I said softly.
"Would you like it if... if I told Mama 'Hi' from you?"
"Sure," Nack whispered.
"Ok... I love you... Goodbye, big brother."
So I died, right then and there. It's only in that instant that you figure out the good in dying...
the almost overwhelming peace that transcends all other emotions that were with you in your 'final'
moments...
The next thing I knew, I was standing next to Nack, watching him mourn over my corrupted
and empty body. But I could see more since I was in my true form, because, there with her hand on
Nack's shoulder was Mama! "It's ok, my Felix, you'll see." Then she turned to me. "If only he knew
how alive we really are!"
I smiled back: "You're right." But then I looked at Nack again; he was miserable and in so
much pain. I placed my hand on his other shoulder. He was drawing strength from us. "I guess I'll
always be with you, too, Nack."
***
So how do I know how all of this happened? True, Nicholas fulfilled Nack's request and
turned back time, and I couldn't recall any of it when I was "alive" afterwards. But certain things are
revealed to you when you are out of your earthly body...
*****spoiler start*****
I stood there in that room back in my hometown of Houston, July 2039, holding the gun to
my body. My husband, my brother, my father, and my teenaged children, along with Nick... they
watched me from across the room.
"Put my gun down!" Nick yelled at me, not with anger, but with concern.
"Yeah, listen Sis!" Nack followed up.
"Don't do it, listen to me for once as your father," Tecumseh continued.
"Please, Nicolette!" Andre pleaded. "It doesn't have to end this way, I'm sure that there is
some way we can help..."
"No! Don't you know that there is no other cure for my condition?" I cried out through my
dual fangs. "You don't know what it's like to be one minute sane and the next driven insane by those
evil forces!"
"Is it worth suicide?" Nick asked calmly, taking a few steps forward. I aimed and fired over
his shoulder, making him shrink back.
"Mama, please!" Malik cried out. "I don't want you to die this way!"
"I'm sorry, my dear," I said softly to my firstborn, "I know how you must feel... I lost your
grandma when I was even younger than you..."
"Mama didn't commit suicide, Nic!" Nack yelled at me. What could I say? He WAS right
about that.
Gracie broke in: "But what if the curses were uplifted when this evil war is over? Wouldn't
that be worth it?"
"The war won't be over until I am dead," I explained, "THIS is the ONLY WAY to end this
curse..."
"Please, Nicolette!" Andre called out, "This... killing yourself... you know that it isn't the
right thing to do..."
"Then to live is the right thing? Don't you know? To do the 'right' thing when you know that
it will only work out more trouble and evil is the worst of wrongs... And I don't want to kill myself; I
am doing this to destroy the evil that has been planted in me before it corrupts others..."
"My Nicolette..." Daddy started, but cut himself off when he finally realized that he couldn't
convince me otherwise. After bringing the brim of his hat down and hiding his eyes, he turned and
left the room with the following words: "I pray that we will meet again someday... under better
circumstances... in a better world."
"Nic," Andre began, tears streaming down his face. "I swear that I will avenge you or die
trying."
"Thank you..." Andre finally found bravery after the worst of his nightmares came true... I
hoped at the time that he was right about avenging me... "Everyone, I thank you for being my friends
and family. It's time to end the spread of this curse before it starts though, and once I am free from the
curse... I will always be with you."
I turned the gun to my heart and pulled the trigger.
*****spoiler end*****
But don't you dare think I was done yet...
Next subchapter:
I Call for the Master
Nack's direct perspective
