Chapter 14
"Well, I'm back," he said.
-Tolkien, Return of the King
_______________________________
The coughing lessened and I lay on my face, spent. The roaring of the water was softer now, and I could hear it slapping the shore. It reminded me of the sound of the sea. I heard someone ask, "Is she all right?" The voice had trouble forming the words, as if the person were at the end of their strength.
A voice above me said, "She's alive. That's all that matters."
"She was down there an awfully long time," said a third voice. "What if her brain's been damaged?"
"Shut up, Tails," snarled the voice above me. "She'll be fine if she can just rest."
I felt a small paw on my face, and through half-open eyes I saw Zinc peering at me, his black eyes full of worry. "Zephyer?" he whispered. My lips formed his name, but I could not speak. It was enough to lie there and breathe. "She looked at me," said Zinc. "I saw her eyes move."
I heard movement, and Kita's face appeared, tear-streaked and distraught. "I'm sorry I dropped you, I just couldn't hold you any more!" She broke into fresh tears.
I struggled to lift my head--it disturbed me to see her cry. "It's okay," I rasped. "I'm alive."
I heard Knuckles draw in his breath above me, then he lifted me to a sitting position. My body was stiff and unresponsive--that it worked at all was a miracle, seeing as my metal had been scoured clean by the water. I looked at Knuckles, who was kneeling beside me with an infinitely tender expression. It embarrassed me to see him look like that, so I looked away. Kita was sitting nearby, sniffing. Tails was crouched beside Sonic, who was lying on the ground, and for an instant I thought he was dead. Then his head turned and he looked at me.
"What's with you?" I croaked.
Tails said, "He ... saved you."
I looked at Knuckles, who smiled. "Sonic and I were so upset that between the two of us, we generated enough Chaos energy for him to become Super Sonic. But he used too much pulling you out, and I--" His voice cracked, and he coughed and cleared his throat.
I looked across the surface of the lake of Diamonda to the dam, which was now a few remains of concrete standing in calm water. Here and there the tip of a crystal protruded from the water. It must be fifty or sixty feet to the bottom, and it seemed preposterous that there had been a city down there.
Suddenly I recalled Devan Shell and Jazz. Had they escaped? "Where's Jazz and Devan?" I asked.
Everyone looked at each other. "Why, did you see them?" Tails asked.
"Yeah," I said. "They were fighting, but we left them behind, then the dam broke, and..."
No one answered me, and we all looked out at the glittering, muddy lake. A sense of unreality crept over me. Jazz couldn't be dead--he was too aggressive. And he could run as fast as Sonic. He had probably made it out at a different point, that was all.
I was too weary and in too much pain to worry about it. I closed my eyes and sat still as my tortured nerves relayed waves of pain to my brain. All I wanted was to go home and sleep. I opened my eyes and gazed at the horizon, westward, watching the rain stop and the clouds lighten. As I sat there, I saw someone appear out of a dip in the ground and move toward us in a sneaking, sideways motion. A turtle. I watched him as if he were an image on a television screen. I watched as he slunk toward us, a pistol in one hand. Everyone else was gazing across the lake, and had not seen him.
As I watched the turtle's progress, I saw a red, scruffy-looking rabbit sidle into view, following the turtle with a crazed expression. It carried a gun that looked like Jazz's, and it kept behind the turtle.
The turtle was Devan Shell, although he had lost his glasses, and he kept coming. His squinting eyes were fixed on Kita. I could only sit and look, apathetic and numb.
Chimera saw him first. He had been standing beside Knuckles, watching everything in his usual way, and noticed the oncoming turtle. He bared his teeth and hissed like a cat. Everyone turned to see Devan sneaking up on us. "Hey!" said Knuckles. "What do you think you're doing?"
The turtle stopped, and so did the red rabbit behind him. "I..." Devan noticed his pistol, and hid it behind his back. "I was coming to see if you were all right."
Everyone glared at him. Kita slipped behind Knuckles and me, and for an instant I was reminded of Talon. She knew as well as I did what he wanted.
"Like you care," spat Knuckles. "You Shellizaas have been after us since day one."
"You are the ones who dabbled in our affairs," said Shell, looking affronted. "Anyone could tell you that Shellizaas dislike outlanders."
Sonic struggled to get up, and Tails hoisted him to his feet. Sonic stood there, leaning on Tails and looking faint. "Go away, turtle," he said. "I hope Jazz finds you in a dark alley someday."
"Jazz is dead," said Devan, his eyes smoldering at the word 'turtle'. "I left him unconscious in the street before the flood hit. And you shall die the same waaaaaaaagh!" His words melted into a scream.
During this exchange, the scruffy red rabbit was crouching behind Shell, out of his range of vision, fingering his gun. The longer Shell spoke, the twitchier he became, ears pinned flat. But when Shell mentioned Jazz, the red rabbit snapped. He flung his gun aside, jumped on the Shellizaa's back, grabbed Devan's skinny neck, and began to throttle him.
Knuckles leaped forward, Chimera on his heels. To my surprise, Kita followed them. I watched as they jumped on Devan Shell, took away his gun, and pinned him down. Kita kicked Devan until he withdrew into his shell, and she kept reaching in and pinching him. Knuckles, on the other hand, had a terrible time subduing the red rabbit, which was fighting to get at Devan, screaming and struggling. At last the rabbit sagged and went limp, and Knuckles let him slide to the ground. The rabbit pulled his ears over his face, and we heard him sniff.
"Who is that guy?" Sonic asked. He was sitting now, still looking drained.
"No idea," said Knuckles, watching the rabbit as one might watch a ticking bomb. "But he's absolutely nuts."
"I'll say," said someone from a distance. "And I'm his brother."
We turned to see Jazz plodding toward us along the shore, using the butt of his T-D-1 as a cane. One of his ears drooped sideways as if it had been hurt, and he was soaked. At the sound of his voice, the red rabbit jumped up and ran to him, hugged him, jumped up and down, and babbled something that might have been language. Jazz understood him perfectly. "No Spaz, I'm fine. Where's Shell?"
The aptly named Spaz pointed toward the turtle shell on the ground. Jazz limped to it without a glance at us, and hissed something into the hole where Devan's head was concealed. Devan's head popped out and he snapped at Jazz, but was slapped in the face by Kita.
Only then did Jazz turn to us. "I'd like to thank you on behalf of Carrotus. We're going to drag him back there and make him stand trial. You'll all receive rewards for helping me, of course." Seeming to see us for the first time, he looked at me and Sonic, too exhausted to move. "Um. You guys want to fill me in?"
Knuckles and Tails were the only ones up to explaining, and they did the best they could. They had seen Kita and I flying toward them across the flood as the dragon was breaking the dam. Knuckles and Sonic had been so upset--I gathered that Knuckles had been the worst--that Sonic's residual charge flamed up into full-blown Super Sonic. He had dove into the water and gone looking for me, and found me jammed between two crystals. By the time he had pulled me out and towed me to shore, Sonic's energy charge had worn off, leaving him exhausted and half-drowned. I watched Knuckles throughout this account. He avoided my eyes and slowly blushed crimson.
Jazz reciprocated with his own tale. He had been combing the city for Devan when he saw the dragon grab a Ghost out of the sky. He made for that point and wound up pursuing Shell through Diamonda as the dam was breaking. Devan had hit Jazz in the head with his pistol, then made his escape. Jazz was out for a few minutes, then awoke and recovered enough to run for safety. He nearly made it, but a wave caught him midway up the hill, and he had been swept along the shore for a mile until he fetched up on a crystal and was able to make his way to shore.
They fell to discussing what to do next. I lay down on the damp earth and slipped into soothing, velvet slumber.
* * *
My memories of the return home are hazy. I remember a lot of human cars and trucks, and the grins on the faces of the slaves we had freed. I was inside a car for a long time, and was bounced and jostled until my injured body screamed with fresh pain. Then I recall being in a hospital somewhere, surrounded by humans. Then a Mobian doctor came in--a raccoon, because I remember the black mask over his eyes--and repaired my poor arm. He was an expert on robian injuries, I found out later.
I slept so much I wonder if they had me sedated. They let Zinc stay with me, and he slept a lot too, usually beside me on the bed. Knuckles moved in and out, and Sonic did, too. Sonic recovered a lot faster than I did.
The sleeping wore off, the pain subsided, and I was released from the hospital after a nurse came in and found me playing ping-pong with Tails on a board he had smuggled in. I suppose it also had something to do with my attempt to maim the nurse for confiscating the board.
A bunch of humans went out to see the lake, and they found the dragon still hanging about. Apparently he had been eating any surviving Shellizaas. When the humans arrived he turned shy, for some reason, and flew away toward the mountains. We think he went home at last.
After I was released, I visited the chao garden with Knuckles and Kita, and Kita's parents came to thank us. Her father explained that Kita had disappeared one day, and the police had refused to look for her, saying that runaways usually came home on their own. Then a body turned up on the beach, probably planted there by corrupt officers, and her family had been assured that Kita was dead.
Kita had had the chaos-drive removed from her back, as had all the former slaves. The devices were under extensive study by fascinated human scientists. Kita's family (and Kita) told us we were welcome at their house whenever we visited the human colonies. She gave me a chip of one of the Diamonda crystals, which sits beside me as I write, flashing brilliant blue.
Then Knuckles and I tackled the labyrinth of red tape at the Chao Company to 'adopt' Chimera and Zinc. The only reason we got them at all was Knuckles's final 'false ruby-emerald', which, powerstone or not, was worth thousands of human dollars. We wanted to adopt all seven of the chao, but the proper owners had to be there, and a lot of money was required. Sonic and Tails didn't have it, and we departed the Chao Co. in a snit.
Before we left for Knothole, two things happened. The first was that a large number of human police were sent to jail for being in the pay of the Shellizaas. The second was that we received a letter from Jazz Jackrabbit, along with three golden medals emblazoned with a carrot. The letter was postmarked from the Military Special Division of Carrotus, and was written in a loose, sloppy hand.
"What's up, Freedom Fighters? Thought you'd like to know that Devan Shell has been given a 350-year sentence. His crimes include atrocities committed against another race, kidnapping, conspiracy to treason, murder by time-travel (long story behind that one), and other good stuff. I've been on his trail for years.
Spaz always tags along as my backup, although he's not supposed to. He's too scary to train as a commando, ha ha. Give Sonic a punch for me. He was asleep when you guys left and I didn't get the chance. Tell him I want a formal race so we can see who's the fastest. Not that I'm worried. I'll bring Spaz when I come, and he'll sabotage everything in my favor, ha ha.
Signed, Jazz Jackrabbit
Footnotes:
Zephyer gave me this manuscript to check for errors. Fat lot I know about writing--guarding an island, yes. Working with power crystals, yes. Editing, no. But here goes.
She completely left out her crush on Jazz. She swears up and down that she had no feelings for him, but I saw her look at him sometimes, and she liked his gun. It's good that he lives on the other side of the world or I
I broke my pencil, and I have to use a pen. Chimera otiaed shortly after I took him back to the Floating Island. He picked up the worst swear words from somewhere, and I'm always on his case about his mouth. He likes being an only chao. He 'inherited' a liking for water from Max, who 'killed' him in the first place, and spends hours in the stream in Chaotix Central. He and Zinc are friends and fight all the time.
Zephyer also left out that she was in a delirium in the hospital for four days. I think it was caused by that frigging Ghost she stole against my orders. She kept repeating my name over and over, and would only quiet down if I sat there and talked to her. I wish she'd marry me and get it over with, the stiff-necked [large ink blotch]
Dang pens, they're too flimsy. Anyway, that's all the footnotes. Goodbye.
--Knuckles the Echidna