Googolov
I see her as her head silently rests on the pillow. It is like heaven in dormancy to me. Her golden hair spread around her and the couch like wings, her soft face in sweet sleep, her body sunken into the cushions. I see something in her that I have never seen in anyone before. I can't quite put a finger on it. Neither can my father. But my father isn't here because of her, even though he asks of her.
He is dressing my wounds from the riot, which he dragged us out of. My cuts could have been worse, but judging by the sore condition I am in, as well as the feeling that my father has been bandaging me for quite some time, it could be much better. What's worse, the pain of my arm malady seems to have amplified because someone had stepped right where it hurts most. But I make no mention of this as my father questions me.
"(She only knows of your name, Locke?)"
"(No…that's not all that she knows of, Father.)" I shake my head as I stifle a wince. "(She has seen me.)"
"(Well, of course she has seen you.)"
"(No….)" I am not quite sure how to put it. "(I mean…she has seen me.)"
"(She has seen…)" It comprehends on my father. "(Oh. I see.)"
I give sigh as I rub my nose. Her body rises slowly as she sleeps in her comatose state. Her face is marked by a gash - no doubt given to her by the rioters outside. If it hadn't been for my father, I am not sure that either of us would have survived.
"(You must tell her how you came to be here, Locke.)" My father stood up and paused on the bandages, pacing to the front of my view. As a human, I suddenly realize just how short our race truly is. "(About everything.)"
"(I don't know how to,)" I confess. "(I am not sure how I came myself. But that is why I came here. To this man's house.)"
"(Well, what do you remember?)"
I pause. It is very hard for me to remember. Mainly because I don't wish to remember.
"(I remember…)" I finally speak. "(Death.)"
----------------------
We had just been freed from the confines of the mysterious blackness from which we had been imprisoned. I think that we had not been able to move, or speak, or see in the zone. This is because I remember nothing of my imprisonment. It was as if I had been cyrogenically frozen, with only darkness to comfort me, and cold to touch me.
When I had come to, we were all in Haven, and I felt what could have been Knuckles' power, communicating to me. I went to meet him out on the Island to see what happened. I remember that much. Then I remember seeing the entire Dark Legion in front of us. They had been sent to the zone as well, yet they had regrouped quickly. I had begun to wonder where Knuckles was. I had scanned the group - all of the city had been taken - and I saw Knuckles' friends, then Lara-Le, then…..
I could not believe it myself. But I knew it was him. And he was fighting for the enemy. That is when the trouble started.
I was so angered I can't really remember the days of war which ravaged our island. I remember sending the Chaotix out to get help….and I remember sending Lara-Le and Wyn with them, in order to help the point we were trying to make: we were desperate. They could be alive, though it would be useless to ponder on it now….But little else of the days I really recall.
Yes, those days are blurry to me, but I remember the last day. That was the day I went to find my son on the battlefield, to tell him the fruitlessness of what he was doing. Then it happened.
They came from a bright flash of light….I suppose you remember, father. We were all on the front lines as we fell. I saw shadows of Overlanders…but they were not Overlanders. They were beings far more terrifying than that. The leader of them held up a hand, and the Master Emerald was behind him.
I remember seeing the shock in your eyes…and in Knuckles'. But they had the one thing that allowed the island to float.
I can still feel my flesh tingling as the velocity of our descent caught me by surprise. It had caught you by surprise, and so did the bullet that took your life. I can remember blood….so much blood…..not just yours….but everyone's….including mine……the bullet is still lodged in my arm to this day…..but in that bloodbath I lost my son….somewhere in that.
Then there was silence. The men who committed this heinous crime disappeared once more in a flash of light, and I was alone. Alive, but alone. Everyone was dead. The Master Emerald floated lazily away from the island as it had begun to sink. Despite the bitter mercy that these cruel humans had left the Emerald, not all of the gem's power could restore the lost souls who died. I lost hope. There was nothing. Not even evil was spared…..
But the other light…..it came then. That time, I saw it.
A creature that our world could not have created
Its beautiful hair cascaded down to the ground. Its pale peach body was unclothed, save for a pair of wings which adorned its back. The most stunning attribute was its blue eyes, which danced with life that I had never seen in any mortal being I had met.
"(What....are you?)"
"Do not be frightened." The its voice was like silk, a choir from heaven, to me. "I have found you. You must help me."
That was when I realized that it was one of them, one of the god-like beings which descended from another world when crisis approached. They called themselves human. I had heard of them, but I had never seen a human. Never mind a female one as beautiful as this one. They had been what legends were created of.
"I have finally found you." The human continued. It's voice.....I realized that it was a her that was addressing me. "We must hurry. The coldness of space beckons."
And……suddenly…..she came over to me…..and kissed me.
Father, I can still feel the sensation of her lips on mine. It was a warmth I had never felt before. Or I had felt it before, but could not believe that this girl could possess it on her own. I can still feel it in my body. I could feel a cold wind pulsing against my back….I realized I was inside some sort of warp. A warp in space, a warp in time, it made no difference. I knew I was safe in her arms. For the first time, I forgot Lara-Le. It was only her, this girl who seemed to have magic emulating from every pore of her pearl skin.
It was an eternity before her lips parted from mine, but it was an eternity that I didn't want to end.
"It is up to you now," she said in the voice I had fallen in love with. "You will not be alone. I shall be with you, in more ways than you can imagine, in your heart, and by your side. But I beseech you to stop the carnage that you alone have witnessed as a result of the corruption of absolute power. Your world is not the first to have seen it, for I am a witness as well to hell upon the mortal masses. But it must end here."
I was about to reply to her delicious words, father, but before I could, I looked at my surroundings. I was in a place that could not have been on Mobius. It was vast desert, like Sandopolis, but with civilization as well, only it was far into the distance. I looked up at the sky, and found the view of it to be clearer than in any place I had ever been to. That was when I realized that I was no longer on Mobius; that we had followed the men to their world.
"(I know,)" I finally managed to reply to her in Mobian. "(But how am I going to stop them? Are there Chaos Emeralds here as well?)"
"They are not known as such; but yes." The girl turned around and began to walk. I followed. "But the people of Earth are not accustomed to their power. You must gather them and keep them from the dark creature from the past who wishes to use them in order to blot out the future!"
Her words were so determined, I felt a religious devotion. It was then I noticed…..that I had changed. I could feel and see that my body and mind, and perhaps even my soul, was completely different from before. Her magic kiss had made me into one of the creatures which walked on this Earth. I had almost been positive that she possessed a Chaos Emerald herself, but something was there within her that could not have been in the power of any Emerald.
"I must leave, Locke." The girl began to glow again. Her wings spread like a rainbow spectrum. "But we shall meet again. Good luck in your quest for this world."
I wished to thank her in her language, for in her kiss she has somehow given me the power to understand the human tongue. But she was gone before I could.
-------------------------
"(And I have met her again.)"
I look at Usagi again. The feeling I had when I had been given my mission seems to stir up within me upon every glance on her. If it was not Usagi, or at least the spirit of Usagi, that did not visit me that fateful day, she looks so like her that she could fool me. But I am positive.
"(Yes, that is good…)" My father looks uneasily towards the door. "(But you do realize that he is here?)"
"(He….)"
My father suddenly disappears in a flash of light as the door opens. I stand up and I see him, the man from whom I must have some of my answers from. Andrei Googolov.
------------------------
"……Yes."
Vanguard looked at Atrava, his eyes dancing with happiness. The two were inside a white walled laboratory. A large tank lay in the corner of the room, connected to various tubes, a black mass floating inside a sea of red. But neither man paid attention to it; neither man was concerned with it at the moment, though it had been their concern before the call from one of their informants.
"It has been confirmed. Locke is at Googolov's."
"That old rat." Atrava muttered. "No wonder he would go to him."
"Not only that," Vanguard's eyes became brighter at the following, "We think we have found the location of the last Emerald."
Atrava's eyes widened as he looked at Vanguard.
"This is true?"
"Yes." Vanguard smiled crookedly. "All I need is the word, and I will wipe out what is left of our pithily resistance."
The room became silent as Atrava silently pondered Vanguard's words. Finally, Atrava looked up at Vanguard.
"Get them. Alive. Remember. Bring her unharmed."
"No problem, sir." Vanguard's face became wicked at the words. "You will get what you paid for."
Marching triumphantly out, Vanguard hardly paid attention to the Green Monster, who simply glared at him as he passed by.
"(Traitor!)"
"(Heh.)" Vanguard scoffed as he walked by.
"(How dare-")"
"(Forget him.)"
The Green Monster turned to face Atrava, who also now had a mischievous expression on his face.
"(Your master will let you kill Locke.)" Atrava looked up at the monster. "(Or else.)"
"(Or else?)"
"(You are becoming tired of his foolishness, I can see. I say that if he does not let you kill Locke….you can kill him. How does that sound?)"
"(Kill my…master?)" The Green Monster's face became clouded. "(Would….would I be able to?)"
"(My boy.)" Atrava walked up to him and patted him on the back. "(Your master works for me now, and whatever I want him to do, he must do. If he doesn't…..then he deserves to die. Wouldn't you agree, dear boy?)"
"(Yeah……I guess if that's how it works…)"
"(And that is how it works, my boy.)" Atrava smiled again. "(You master fails to see that. That will prove to be very disadvantageous to him in the end, by boy. In the end.)"
With another pat, the two walked out of the room, leaving the mass and the tube to itself.
----------------------------
The scientist was at least sixty years old, a portly, short, bald man whom wore a business suit and a hat. He also carried a briefcase on his person. The last item, however, fell to the ground upon entering his abode, specifically when he saw what was in his living room.
"Who are you?!?"
The man stood up. He was relatively taller, with red hair tucked under his hat and shirt. He also donned several bandages. But the fact that such a man was even in his home made the old scientist want to shudder in fear for what the stranger wanted. However, he simply smiled and crossed his arms.
"What are you doing here?!?"
"Forgive me." The man, while obviously not of the scientist's country, spoke Russian like a native. "You are Andrei Googolov? The renowned, or perhaps renowned but not well known, scientist who discovered multiple properties of atomic structure and fusion?"
"Y-yes, that is me." Googolov forced an indignant smile. "As I asked, who are you?"
"I have come to inquire about an earlier project of yours." The man did not smile back. "One that is known within the ring of the Russian Mafia."
The old man's face fell. How could it be...
"What....project?" he stammered.
"A project concerning a spot in Egypt."
"I know nothing of what you are talking about. How did you get into my house?!? I'll have the police on you!"
The man was up the instant Andrei had uttered the words. But instead of leaving, as he had hoped, he simply took out a brown staff and swung it towards the phone, which was situated on the wall. The phone shattered with the swing.
"You will, will you."
"You.....what do you want with me?!"
"You know what I want. I want to know more about a spot in Egypt that might have been of interest to you in one point of your life." The man's voice became more menacing. "You can either give me the information on your free will, of I can make you."
It was at this point that Usagi began to wake up. She looked up to see Locke pointing his staff at Googolov.
"You have no way of escaping, old man." Locke's eyebrows furrowed. "You do not want me to be angry, do you?"
"Locke?!?"
He turned to see Usagi, whose face showed all of her confusion.
"What....what are you doing?!"
"What?! Who are you?!" The old man demanded.
"My companion." Locke replied. "One who is going to find out, along with myself, a little bit about a warp that you researched on."
"I don't know what you mean-"
"You know well what I mean." Locke's voice went even lower. "You were working on a project concerning a spot of warped space in the Egyptian Sahara. You were the main scientist on it. And I want details on what you know about it."
"You are ins-"
"God damn it." Locke's anger was masked through gritting his teeth. "I was in Egypt. I went through the warp! I didn't know it was that until I overheard Mafia sympathizers talking about it. Your name came up in the same sentence as being the man responsible for the information they had for it! These were the same men who massacred thousands within the warp! Are you going to deny me my demands when you are the one who made their killing spree possible?!"
Googolov's eyes grew wide in shock.
"Massacre?!"
"I see I've gotten your attention." Locke used his staff to point to a chair across from the couch where Usagi sat. "Why don't you sit and you can tell us about it."
"I...I don't believe it.....you're from the other side...?" Googolov stammered. "I didn't think it was possible....The wa-"
"Sit and talk."
Slowly, and quietly, Googolov sat down in the chair that Locke pointed to. After he sat down, Locke sat down next to Usagi.
"Warp?" Usagi's voice whispered into his ear. "I don't understand..."
"That is how I came to this world," Locke whispered back. "Someone.....someone led me through a warped space on my planet....and it somehow connects to your world. When I went to.....investigate the first Emerald......I heard several of the Mafia workers talking of the warped space, and of this man, the scientist who led something called Project Emerald, which related to the warp."
"Oh....but..."
"I must find out what he knows of it, and how the information got into the hands of the Mafia." Locke turned back to Googolov. "You may begin." To Usagi, it was as if Locke was putting the scientist on trial. "At the beginning."
"The beginning?"
"Whenever it was that your research began." Locke's voice, while calmer, was not without a sharp hint to it. "How you came upon the idea to research the warp."
"It is long..."
"We have time."
For a moment, it was as if Googolov was simply trying to recollect his thoughts. After two minutes, Usagi was afraid that she would see Locke angry - something which, instinct told her, was not something that was very pretty to behold.
"It started in 1942." Googolov finally started. "We....there were some Russian reconnaisance troops that were helping the Allies during the battle in El-Alamein. Upon scouting several remote outposts for Nazi troops separated from the fight, our troops...found a caravan filled with Nazi troops, and what we thought was ammunition for the front line. They had a skrimish, our troops killed all of them. But when we looked for the ammunition all we found was a gem. It had originally been set up as bait for a trap. Though it wasn't much of a trap when the boys were finished with them."
Googolov couldn't help but chuckle at the thought. Locke's expression did not change.
"But...." Googolov continued when he saw that Locke's expression had no trace of humor on it, "They also found something they couldn't really describe - for, when they started walked towards....well, according to the troops, it was when they started walking west of the caravan they found themselves looking at something that should never have been in the desert - or on this earth - an animal that they had never seen before. Or, upon further thought, an animal that had not been heard of since ancient times - a god-like anteater. They wrote down the coordinates of where they had found it and telegraphed it to the KGB, who sent several spies down there to investigate. Then when the spies couldn't explain what it was, I was sent with a team of scientists to look into it. Our results, as well as our eyes, concluded that we had come upon some sort of ripped matter - a warp. It had been nothing like we had seen before.
"In later years, I formulated how the warp copuld have been created - it was due to some sort of cold fusion which happened upon the impact of a metoer which struck our earth millions of years ago - long after it formed, but long before the dinosaurs - it was at some time when the Moon had been trapped into the orbit of the planet. It also destroyed any fertile vegitation that might have been growing in the area, sucking out all of the water molecules and rendering the area which it hit unable to sustain life. It is my theory as to how the Sahara Desert was created....though it is still being debated. But if my theory is true, then that is how the warp came into existance. And for millions of years, I can say that perhaps thousands of people, including, I believe, the creatures of the Controller legend of Egypt, might have stumbled upon it - though they were never to return for many reasons...
"However, when we discovered the warp, we realized that it could be used for our purposes. As long as no one else knew about it, of course. But we felt that its position in the desert was relatively safe - no civilization, far away from well known trade routes and such. If we sent people through to the other side, no one would wonder about it - no one would know we were working there. And that is how Project Emerald was born. To oversee what was on the other side of the warp, using a combination of our own soldiers and umanned probes - relying more so on the unmanned probes, of course. We had a lab in Kozyecha, in northern Georgia, where we conducted lab research on what the umanned probes found. We found that the warp led to another planet - your planet (if you are to be believed) - with conditions similar to ours, with some alterations, which included a decreased population of some sort. But such a place could still be used strategically in some way, shape or form, be it for colonization or military operations, especially against the Allied bases in Turkey. However, it was only if we could overcome several problems we found, su-"
"Right." Locke interrupted. "But how did you get the name for the project?"
"The project was named after the other thing we found, the gem under the car of the decoy caravan. A large emerald, whi-"
"I should have thought as much," Locke shook his head. "And you were going to attack our planet after you gathered enough information, weren't you."
"Perhaps. But that was not our concern."
"But I'm sure that your government would have been thrilled that there was another world just ripe for the taking - and that the gateway to it had been there since the beginning of time. I'm sure that hundreds of people found the warp and used it to their advantage, just as you would have."
"Like I said, we knew of the distortion since the time of the war," Googolov protested. "Anytime before that, we know nothing of it."
"Perhaps so," Locke turned to the old man. "But don't deny that you were planning on attacking innocent people on my planet for the sake for your Marxist doctrine."
"It was not my Marxist doctrine, sir." Googolov's eyes flashed at the insult. "It was the government's."
"Whatever." Locke shook his head. "What happened after the plan was classified?"
"It was 1962, Mr. Locke." Googolov replied. "We found ourselves in the missile crisis three weeks after the final plans were drafted."
"Missile crisis?"
"It was the closest our planet ever got to nuclear war," Googolov quickly reiterated. "It was a terrible time for both the Russians and others around the world. We had planted missiles in Cuba - only about one hundred miles away from one of our enemy countries. We almost went to war. But Premier Kruschev relented and took down the missiles. His popularity sunk, his regime was overthrown with that of Brezhnev's and Operation Emerald ceased to exist. At least in the higher parts of the obligarchy. The plan still existed in several places until the fall of the USSR."
"Such as…?"
"The military, of course." Googolobv thought. "And in the Treasury. The Assistant Party Treasurer Papu Atrava wished to implement the invasion as a way to efficiently grow our economy through neo-colonist means…but, fortunately, his suggestion was overturned. For…..geographical reasons. And the issue of losing good soldiers to….possible superior forces that might have been faced. Several tests had been conducted with direct use of the warp - seven men, entering the warp, never to come back. And the warp itself was too small for any type of object bigger than three feet by eight feet to fit through without causing distortions and other unimaginable things that our technology and scientific knowledge have frankly no comprehension of. There was also…an unknown element, if you will which also would have affacted our findings, but we…never figured out what the unknown element was…"
The name of the Assistant Treasurer once again stirred something within Usagi, but she could not quite figure out exactly what it was.
"But…" Googolov looked down. "It still exists with me. All of the plans and data. Of course, Atrava still persisted in using it up until Yeltsin came to power, and from what I know he still does. But in recent years he has become….affiliated with…some shadowy organization, I suppose you can call them.Which is why I live in secrecy"
"And one of those organizations would be the Russian Mafia, right?"
The unexpected quip came from Locke, who simply looked at Googolov as he said it.
"Well, I……" Googolov stopped.
"You don't need to lie." Locke shook his head. "I figured as much. Incre-"
"Locke!" The name finally became clear to Usagi. "Atrava….the guy running for the Russian presidency!"
"Yes….." Locke looked at Usagi. "So you remember from the train…"
"Mr. Locke…." Googolov stood up. "I'm sorry, but I am supposing that if you know of the warp then you would know of the Emeralds?"
"Yes." Locke looked at him. "How do you know of them? Were you planning on using them for your plan?"
"Well….yes." Googolov paused. "We had used the Emeralds that we had discovered during World War II-"
"Hold it." Locke stood up again. "Emeralds? Discovered? But you just said your government had only one."
"Well…" Googolov slowly replied. "With the existence of the warp we had discovered two - the one which Hitler had under cartel…. And one that had naturally been there. Or at least had been there to the best of our knowledge. We brought both back to Moscow, to Kozyecha, but after several years one of them was returned to Egypt. The other….."
"The other?"
"………….no one knows where it is."
"Is that so." Locke's face darkened at the scientist's words.
"But what about Atrava?" Usagi looked at Locke. "Has he inquired recently about the project? It just…it just seems like….he wants to rejuvenate the project no matter what, for some reason."
"If you truly must know," Googolov stood up. "He has not inquired me recently. Now, if you will excuse me…."
Suddenly, Locke jumped up, hellfire in his eyes as he glared at Googolov. Usagi jumped up as well, but was too late; Locke leaped onto Googolov, taking him with a grip of steel.
"You haven't seen him…..ASS!" With a strength and deftness unmatched by any body builder, Locke threw the portly scientist to the wall. "That is fresh, old man. Don't you dare think you can escape so easily."
"Locke?!?!?" Usagi gasped. "What are you doing?!?"
"Police!!!" Fear sprang into Googolov's eyes once more. "What are you talking about?!
"You are still keeping secrets from me!" Locke slammed the old man's head into the wall. "I will not let you get away with lying to me!"
"I know nothing more!!!"
"Locke!!! Stop!!!!"
"LIES!!!!!" Locke screamed. "You are lying. He saw you recently, didn't he?!? And you gave him something!!!!"
"No!! I didn't!!!" Googolov screamed back.
"LOCKE!!"
"NO!!!! WRONG ANSWER!!!" Locke's hand went to Googolov's neck. "WHAT DID YOU GIVE HIM?!?
"HE ASKED ME TO GIVE HIM THE CALCULATION OF A POSITION!!!" Andrei screamed.
"WHAT POSITION?!?"
"THE POSITION OF THE WARP'S LOCATION ON THE OTHER PLANET!!!"
Locke froze, and his hands let go of the scientist. Gasping, the scientist gasped, catching his breath.
"The position. Of the warp."
"Yes, the position of the warp!" Andrei shouted. "But I didn't think it would come to anything! You fool, I've been trying to tell you!! The real reason why we were unsuccessful in our tests! The position where the warp is situated several thousand feet….over water. I told Atrava the same thing, even when he kept mentioning the 'unknown factor' and how it would prevent him from dying. For forty years, more, I have told him that it is impossible to go through the warp and come back out alive - he would drown!!"
The look on Locke's face reflected the horror on his face and in his heart. Usagi looked onto the scientist as well. My god. What an ugly, old man…
"Then….you knew."
"Knew what?!"
"Then….you don't know…the unknown factor….was my island." Locke began to pound the palms of his hands into his face. "My god, man! But you knew of his intentions! You idiot! Why?! WHY did you GIVE him those formulas?!?!?"
The Mobian slumped onto the couch, his face in his hands. Usagi watched as his body shuddered in order to fight the urge of simply ripping Googolov's head off of his shoulders. She clenched her fists, bringing her head down.
"I swear to you on my life, I knew nothing of this Island you speak of!" Andrei repeated, his voice back to a lower tone. "I did not know that was the unknown factor Atrava spoke of. And even if I did, and didn't tell him anything, Atrava still has well-laid connections to the government. He's a presidential candidate, for God's sake, man! Anyone who runs for that position has the money and power to get almost anything he wants from the government…whether or not he wins."
"Wait…." Usagi's head snapped back up. "Locke! If Atrava knew of the unknown factor being the island you lived on, that floating one, then…he must have visited the island at one point and known that it passed over the warp!!"
"No." Locke's hallowed voice came from his palms. "I…….recall nothing of any type of human or Overlander visiting the Island before….the attack. Someone……from my people……..told him."
"Locke?"
"I do not understand what you mean," objected Googolov. "I had the conclusion that you knew nothing of the warp's existance before coming here."
"No…..I knew nothing." Locke looked back up. "But someone else on the Island did….or does."
"And this someone," Usagi continued, "must also be in the Mafia, helping Atrava with his plans to capture the Emeralds and rule the world!!"
Suddenly, Googolov stomped to his desk. He threw open a drawer, throwing things out as he did.
"If this is so," the old man muttered, "then you must prevent him from completing that mission!"
"Sir?!"
"I suppose that with all of the admissions you have given me, you should have this!" Googolov gave a gasp and lunged into his bottom drawer. "A-HA!!"
Usagi's eyes widened in shock when Googolov produced what was in the drawer.
"That….!!!"
The green gem that Googolov held in his hands glowed brilliantly within the sheet it was wrapped in. The clear cut of the gem, as well as the presence of the shelved Heart of Hestia, which began to react as the seventh stone, further radiated it and lit up the room with a bright green glow, easily outshining the artificial lights in the room. Locke looked up to see the Emerald, and his mouth dropped in shock.
"The last Emerald?!?"
With a reluctant sigh, Googolov set the gem on the coffee table in front of Usagi. The sailor picked it up, examining it. Locke's shocked expression did not change.
"So beautiful…."
Usagi turned the gem onto its side. The Emerald was partially opaque, as she could see the floor through it. However, the tint from which she could see through the talisman was green. As she turned it over more, the gem seemed to glow with a light within, and reflecting light, colored in different shades of green, danced across the ceiling and her face as she kept turning the gem over.
Strange…. Usagi silently put a hand to her chest. Something seems to welling up inside me. An internal heat from contact with this power that is contained within. My crystal. I don't know why, but it feels like, with every second passing in my hands, I feel safer with the gem in my possession….yet there is great power within the Emeralds……but it feels like that great power is waning even as I look at it….
"Please, madam." Usagi's strange feeling was wrested from her as Googolov took the Emerald from her hands. "Only handle the gem with a cloth, or gloves. The power emitted is dangerous if used improperly. It is equal to at least five hundred thousand times the power of all of the world's nuclear capability. No human could withstand that."
"That is the Emerald we are looking for." Locke's voice came back to him after several moments of silence. "How did you keep it?"
"If you must know," Googolov shook his head. "It is the only physical piece of evidence left of Project Emerald other than the formulas and classified documents. Everything else was destroyed by marauding capitalists when Yeltsin took over in Moscow. He ordered that the evidence of our discoveries be found and destroyed; he didn't want the United States to get the information and he could frankly care about them himself. But I was able to get to Kozyecha before the destruction started and I retrieved this - the power which we used to obtain limited information and stats on the warp in Egypt. We did once harness more than fourteen thousand watts of energy on a living being to see what would happen - but it was on a rat, and after it failed miserably it was never attempted again."
"Then you knew all along." Locke's voice was once again menacing. The look of shock was gone from his face once again. "If you knew all along about the location of the Emeralds then why didn't you simply state that you had it?"
"I didn't," Googolov replied, "because of what you first told me. I had thought that you were an agent of Atrava's; coming back to scrounge for whatever I might have had left of the original project. I didn't want to take any chances, especially if he was looking for the Emerald!"
"If we had been agents," Locke muttered. "We would have killed you by now, wouldn't we?"
"Well," the old man stood up, his demeanor from twenty minutes ago returning. "If you had not been so arrogant and aggressive in your interrogation of me, I would not have perceived you as such."
"Arrogant?!?!" Locke's fury returned. "Fuck you, you Cossack Earthian!"
"Locke-"
"How was I going to get anything out of you by just tapdancing?!?" Locke completely ignored Usagi and kept going with his angry shouting. "What did you expect me to do?!?! Be nice about something this pressing?! God dammit!! Your world is in danger, and all you can think of is yourself!!! If you weren't so interested in what would happen to you and had instead simply done something to get the Emerald out of harm's way especially if you knew that Atrava was going to one day partake an interest in them, then why didn't you try to stop it before………it happened…….."
Locke stopped himself, totally dumbstruck. Googolov's demeanor changed, becoming confused. Usagi stood up and looked into Locke's face.
"Locke…..?"
"My god." Locke sounded as if he had realized something horrible. "I was wrong too……"
"Locke?!?"
The strange revelation was quickly forgotten as the clicking sound of several guns being cocked filled the room.
"DUCK!!!!!!!!!!"
With a scream, Locke instinctively turned around and threw Usagi to the ground, covering her with his body. The sound of windows shattered, followed by the whizzing
Suddenly, Googolov's face stiffened in the midst of the noise as his body began to shudder.
"GOOGOLOV!!" Locke screamed.
Riddled with bullets, and covered with blood, Googolov fell even though the bullets never let up. Usagi covered her face with her hands, crying as she did so.
"(FREEZE!!)"
The Mobian word was spat out to Locke as one smocked figure suddenly appeared in front of him and kicked him. Another took Usagi by the hair when he picked her up.
"AAAAAAOWW!!"
"STOP!!"
"(I SAID FREEZE!!)"
The shouting froze both Locke and Usagi, who turned to try to face the man who led the raid. However, hands suddenly forced their faces to look the other way. Usagi's memory suddenly sent flashes and bits of voice, the same voice, to Usagi's ears, only the voice had been in Japanese, and the man who said it had claimed to be an American.
This voice…..
"(Locke….)"
A black-haired man, clothed completely in black, slowly walked over to them, the Chaos Emerald from Googolov's dead body, flashing blood and gemstone in his hand. He held it in front of Locke, a sickeningly satisfied smile on his face.
"(We meet again, Locke…..it has been awhile.)" The black-haired man turned to several of the men. "Bag the body in Russian."
"Da."
The men picked up the old scientist's bullet-riddled body and carried it into another room. The horror in Locke's face only deepened as the black-haired man turned to face them once more.
This man…. Usagi's memory kicked in. The man from the dedication ceremony back in Juuban!!! It's HIM!!!! But how?!?
"(……………It cannot be….)" Locke's voice was barely above a whisper. "(…………………………………………..Vanguard?)"
The sound of Googolov's body being thrown to the ground was the only other sound Usagi could hear. She gave a shudder as she looked at the destruction caused by the surprise attack
"(What's wrong, Locke?)" Vanguard's smile became more menacing as he stepped into the shadows, further darkening himself. "(I would be happier to see your brother if I were you…)"
Suddenly, as of the words were a cue, one of the men punched Locke directly in between his legs, while another decked him in the head with the but of a semi-automatic rifle, and yet another grabbed his arm and bit into a portion near his shoulder. With a scream from the bite, followed by startled grunt of pain when he was hit in between, Locke doubled over in pain, and the men proceeded to drag him towards the door of the house.
"LOCKE!!!!!!!!!" Usagi screamed.
"(We'll have much to talk about at my place…)" With a chuckle, Vanguard turned towards Usagi, giving her a look of victorious contempt. "So much for your new friend, princess," he sneered in Japanese. "Let's go."
"Wha…."
Usagi's reply was a rough pull of her hair by her captors. The sound of a struck match came from the room where Googolov, and all at once flames leaped out of the room, creeping out into the living room and the kitchen. Usagi could only watch, and think, in horror as she was pulled out of the house and dragged to the back seat of a black car, the second in the line of five, the house left to burn on its own accord when the cars screeched away.
No…..how……
She was sat next to Locke, whose body slumped towards the window. Blood oozed from the spots where he was bitten and attacked. She grabbed his hand, and pressed it against her face.
I'm sorry…..no matter what, no matter how inconceivable it seemed to have been…..I have somehow dragged yet another person into my own problems… Usagi's heart sunk, both in despair and confusion. But how could that man have-
Usagi's thoughts were interrupted by the loud popping sound of Googolov's house exploding. Turning, she saw in the distance a flaming inferno, which grew smaller as the cars drove further away. Yet, even in the distance, Usagi could see the flames tower from the wreckage, despite that the fuel was nothing more than a small house surrounded by nothing. It was almost as if the tower of flames was so tall that it touched the moon itself in the black sky, looking to set it on fire with the flames of a retribution that couldn't happen.
