Chapter 9 – Farewells
"Your poor island," said Hannah.
"It has fallen before. My people will survive."
From the coast, Great Forest behind them, the Seven contemplated Floating Isle, which was indeed floating on the deep blue sea under midday's sun. One could only imagine the confusion among the inhabitants of either half, dealing with the division and unexpected re-uniting in the water.
"Tornado's been destroyed! What now?" came the voice of Tails. Knuckles rubbed his forehead and growled under his breath.
"Have to get out of this damn sun."
"And when did the sun begin to bother you, Red?"
"Ever since I was stuck in the desert with no food except a fire-ant, Blue," Knuckles grumbled, walking to the shade of the nearest palm tree. When the others followed, he dismissed them with an irritable wave of paws.
"Well, what do you want from me? Go say your farewells, eat your last meals, just go!"
They stopped short but Sonic charged forward.
"What, you don't have any plans?"
Knuckles sat under the tree and glared.
"O course I do, you ignoramus hedgehog. Leave the Servers with me. We meet at Althair's lighthouse at six o'clock. Do not be late."
"Don't worry," Sonic huffed, and was gone with Tails in tow.
"Excuse me, where is this lighthouse?" the dark feline queried. Knuckles clenched his paws in anger but let them fall. It was useless.
"To the east of Lava Reef, at the very edge of the island."
Hannah bowed elegantly and vanished with a swirl of her cape. Emess, Lazer and Kootan left the sullen Knuckles with his Servers and walked awhile down the beach. Emess breathed and stretched his arms.
"I've never seen the ocean, or walked on a beach. Beautiful."
"Kootan, what will you do?" asked Lazer, quills bending with the sea breeze.
"I shall accompany Emess to his village. Alone, he cannot make the journey before we must go to this lighthouse."
"Very well. Six o'clock, then."
Lazer forsook the earth and R'Thrys followed. Emess considered his amphibian companion.
"What manner of fantastic transport do you possess, friend?"
"Transport, it is not. It is a state of being. If I am one place, I cannot be in another. Therefore I move, without moving."
"Then show me, for I do not understand your words."
Kootan's leathery palm touched the arm of flesh. Unlike Chaos Control, there was no flash of light, no dizzy rush of movement. Emess felt his sight being stretched, across green forest and gray mountains, alighting in Freedom City Hall. The rest of his body was pulled along with his sight, shifting from the sand of the beach to the grass of the courtyard.
"Most remarkable," he said when his voice arrived. He would find Jubel and the others, and then go back to the village. There he would change out of these damned tight clothes, into the casual wear he was accustomed to. When that was taken care of, there was a story to be told.
***
Rebecca would understand. She was in the final months of childbearing, and her husband with six of his friends had to save the world from an evil god. She would understand, he kept on thinking, while skimming just above the treetops.
For the past few miles his pulse had begun to throb at his temples. The feeling of 'something wrong' moved down to his stomach, as the distance between he and his wife closed. He stopped abruptly, more than ten miles away, his stomach churning.
"Thanatos. He is here… no!"
The living, evil aura was both a psychic and a physical force spreading its fingers throughout the forest. Trees were dying here and there. Bare barren patches of ground were appearing too often in the forest like open sores.
Thanatos had found Cridon, and the mother of his child.
"Rebecca… Ashlar…"
He must repeat their names, he must have righteous fury; if he had any other sort of anger, Thanatos would win.
He was in Cridon, and was certain that without R'Thrys he would suffocate in the black air. Everywhere he saw people laughing. Some of them were engaged in acts of lust right there in the streets. Intoxication of the mind and body: Thanatos was becoming more efficient.
"Rebecca… Ashlar…"
Shoving aside several of the dark partygoers he burst into the dojo. She was alone, an undead grin on her face but she was not laughing.
"Lazer honey baby darling why aren't you smiling dear?"
He kept his jaw rigid while he walked nearer. R'Thrys was a still, silent companion hovering just within reach.
"Come back to me, Becky, please try to come back."
"I hate that name," she murmured and rested her body against his. Her warmth, and the maternal warmth of her belly, was all present, all correct, and yet… he saw beyond her flesh.
Beyond emotions, past the mind, deeper than thought - still further penetrated his psychic gaze! Her soul, the divine reality of a person, was naked before him. And further down, in her womb… a new soul was already there, waiting. The fingers of Thanatos were creeping around both mother and child. Lazer pulled his sight away from Rebecca and took in all of Cridon base in a single vision: Thanatos was trying to possess the souls of other beings.
"The soul of another is not yours. You can ensnare the body and even the mind, but how can you hope to own something not even you understand, Thanatos?"
Rebecca had pulled away from Lazer and was looking at him.
"Time, Lazer. All he needs is time, and experience. In time, he will unlock the secret of existence itself, Lazer. Then, time will become meaningless, and there will be no other gods."
A change darker than thunder came over Lazer's face. R'Thrys sensed him and allowed itself to be gripped.
"She is not yours. They are not yours!"
"We will become a part of the All! I will become a goddess. A goddess, Lazer! Greater than Destiny!"
Lazer held R'Thrys high! With a full-throated roar he commanded, "LEAVE THEM!"
A soul-freezing scream escaped from Rebecca and she fell to her knees. The fires of R'Thrys moved over her, licking the wooden floor, walls and ceiling of the dojo. They burned but were not consumed. In fact, the flames spread outside the dojo, growing, exploding until all of Cridon was beneath a dome of living fire. In the midst of this tremendous inferno laughter became screams, as Thanatos felt pain, and withdrew.
Then R'Thrys fell forgotten, and Lazer took Rebecca into his arms, crying her name, kissing her, and saying, Thank Destiny, Thank all the gods that not one hair on her sweet head was harmed.
***
Sonic watched the fireplace in sleepy content. He had forgotten how cold it was outside ever since Floating Island was cracked in two like an eggshell, and the threat of dark destruction gained priority over his worries. Winter was close to clutching the forest in its snowy grip. The cold set in long before that happened.
But now, with his lunch resting as a warm weight in his stomach, with Sally, Paula and Tails seated around him, he let his mind and body drift to some quiet, distant place, to forget the war he was fighting.
An insistent poking to his ribs awakened him.
"Sonic. Sonic!"
"Mm?"
"It's five o'clock. We gotta go to the lighthouse."
"Oh, Destiny," he swore and shrugged the sandman off his shoulders. He had burrowed a soft warm hole in the couch that invited more sleep. But duty called. And it wasn't the lighthouse.
"Sally?"
"She's upstairs with Paula."
Sonic dragged his weary body to its feet and became businesslike.
"Go start the Tornado. I'll be out in a minute."
"Sonic," Tails sighed, "Tornado was destroyed along with Corona Den."
"Oh, right. Damn. Well, I dunno, hang around here awhile. I gotta show Sally her gift."
"What…?"
"Don't bother," Sonic said, cutting the question off at its source, "If we survive, I'll show you, too."
He crept upstairs to the second floor of his home. Moving silently had become second nature to him since Paula began living here ("Shh, you'll wake her"). Sally was crouched over the baby's crib, watching their child with tender blue eyes. Her hair and fur were radiant with sunlight that poured in through the single-pane window. This goddess, he thought happily, this was the squirrel he had married.
"Asleep?"
"Yes," came the soft reply. She turned slightly, her body facing him, her eyes still watching their precious daughter. Sonic went to her and touched her face and kissed her, it felt so right, and who cared if the sun saw them?
"What was that for?" she asked, her paw resting lightly behind his head, small delicate fingers interlaced among his hard sharp quills.
"For not giving you your anniversary gift earlier. I'm going to show it to you, now."
"Whoa, soldier, not in front of the baby."
He laughed, but not too loudly, for the baby's sake.
"I'll take you there. Will you run with me?"
"I shall run with you," she said, and smiled. He bent, swept her feet off the floor, while her arms wrapped around his neck. She was heavier, with the second child, but light as a willow leaf in his arms.
Tails heard a bump on the roof and didn't realize the house was empty until they came back half an hour later.
***
So he ran. He chose the easiest path, lest a stray twig mar her perfect face or tear at her maternal dress. Trees, rocks and ground were all a blur because only she existed. His feet knew the way, so his eyes could occupy themselves with her. All the trashy romance novels Bunnie read were true: your lover became the centre of your existence. Day and night, waking and sleeping, in joy and in pain, love followed you and vindicated all the dewy romantics that had set pen to paper.
Sand was but a memory under his feet when they hit the water, and kept going. Sonic was going to the fallen Isle: Knuckles saw a fine spray of mist cutting its way among the waves, and suspected as much. In the arms of Sonic, not a drop touched Sally's hair or fur.
It was only when she was set carefully down in Marble Gardens that Sally questioned him.
"Where is it?"
Keeping his silence, he held her paw and walked toward the Western Temple. The old, old columns had held their strength, even after the shuddering splashdown of the island. He led her up the smooth carved steps, under the eaves to a place where the ceiling was partially collapsed and sunlight shone through.
Sally stood there in marble glory. Sally of flesh and fur gasped.
She stood there, a gentle smile gracing her face. Blank eyes turned to the paw she held upward, open-palmed to the sunlight, as though to catch the sun's rays in her smooth white hand.
Sonic waited.
"You had this done for me? She's… oh, Sonic," Sally managed to say before giving him a mighty hug. She was the one who kissed him then, as sunlight played about her sculpted image that seemed to smile at the lovers.
"You like it, then."
"I love it, but…"
There is always a 'but', Sonic thought.
"Why is she… why am I naked?"
"Clothes don't do you justice," he replied honestly.
"But would it be appropriate? I mean, won't hundreds of people walk into here over time and see me…?"
"Yes, they will, and we'll be damn proud of it, too," Sonic said. Her blue eyes fluttered, but she nodded, suddenly defiant.
"Yes. You're right! It's me, to hell what people think about clothes…"
"That don't do you justice," Sonic reminded her.
"Right."
She blinked, and flushed deep red under her facial fur.
"Dear Goddess, what will Knuckles say when he…"
"If he says anything other than you're beautiful, I'll knock his lights out."
She giggled and kissed him again.
***
"Can't I stay a little longer?"
"No, you will leave now."
"I'll do anything… anything for you!"
"Out!"
Gary was flung half naked into the corridor with his fly open. His shirt followed and flopped onto his face while the door slammed shut.
Hannah dressed carefully, smoothing each item of clothing as she put it on. Her shiny black cape swirled about her shoulders. The platinum pendant was clasped closed around her throat, its seven blue diamonds ringed about a graven image of the Black Emerald. Her only other jewelry was a single pearl earring for her left ear.
Hannah leaned out her apartment window to watch the city trundle by. She admired it: although damaged by Thanatos, it now seemed more alive than ever. Dusty, tired people were talking to each other in the torn roads. Children laughed and played among the rubble. The injured were given places to rest. None of these would have happened if the city was untouched, unchanged by crisis.
"See what a little chaos can do," she remarked, "It seems that life is more strongly affirmed when faced with death."
But turning away from the window, and back to the matters at hand, what did she have to say farewell to, except this room? This room, where she had bedded a lucky few? This room, that was her only home now the isle called Dark Jewel was no more? She missed having someone to relate to. Even the old, old Elders were better than this silent four-room apartment. Even after she came back, would there be anyone to welcome her back except the random lovers?
"Isn't there anyone for me…?"
The room had nothing to say. Her whiskers twitched angrily, she muttered the arcane words and was gone with the flash of her cape.
