Author Notes: Phweee, here we go.. Part three! ^^ I wrote most of this at the campus library, when I had my laptop and three hours between classes. ^^; Enjoy!
Legal Notes: I don't own anyone. At all. I just play around with them for a while.. ^^;;
Special thanks to Alba Aulbath, Nokiasama03, and Katwarrior for their inspiration and help and all that other stuff for all this. :D
By the way, I have a companion picture for this fic. Take a look at www.callykarishokka.deviantart.com for it. That's my art. Yup. ^^;
Encased Relations: Part ThreeFather! Father! Father! Father!
Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit
Father, into your hands
Why have you forsaken me?
In your eyes, forsaken me?
In your thoughts, forsaken me?
In your heart, forsaken me?
Oh..
-- 'Chop Suey!', System Of A Down
"What the hell just happened?!" The furious query was aimed towards over two dozen smaller beings; had this been any other situation, one would have thought the smaller beings to be afraid. As it stood, they were merely cautious. "Why did I just loose contact?!"
Several of the small fire ants held their heads in remote pain; a headache after telepathic communication was not uncommon. One, wearing a hat bearing a status sign, became a voice of reason. "We couldn't keep contact. We sensed Enerjak at the boarders of it. He knew what we were doing."
"How?" The information brought a disturbing calm to voice of the ex-Guardian Spectre. Somehow, it frightened his allies worse than if he had shrieked. "You told me he wouldn't even know I was there."
Silence passed momentarily, as concerned glances were passed along the various fire ants. The one bearing the hat, Archemedes, spoke again. "Perhaps Enerjak is more powerful than we originally thought."
Spectre's gaze wandered into nothingness as silence reigned anew; worry nearly hidden by a stoic exterior was visible to few of the fire ants. Archemedes opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted before any sound could be made. "Sojourner is being tortured in there. I've never seen him like that before, not even when he was a child." A moment's pause gave clear sign to fear that was not expressed. His query came soft spoken, nearly whispered. "What in all the hells is happening to him?"
None of the fire ants knew what to tell him.
No matter how long the cries filled the air, each second was just as excruciating, if not more so, than the last.
After Enerjak's attempted interrogation, the captive members of the Brotherhood had been separated; back within the cells they had started in. Had it only been two days since their capture? It seemed to be so much longer.
Sabre folded his arms against his body, shivering against a cool, chrome wall. The disturbing silence that had followed the interrogation, if it could have even been called that, had been ended by an even more disturbing scream. It was not difficult to find familiarity within the cries; Sojourner had been the only victim of Enerjak's cruelty thus far.
Why? Why was Enerjak focusing solely on Sojourner? Sabre could not find any sense to answer his own query. A shudder wracked his frame at recollection; they had all been forced to watch the cruel torture, unable to help their relative in any way or form.
The cries turned to pleas, even as Sabre found himself unable to move. The green glow that he had quickly learned to fear and loathe filled the cell. Enerjak, bearing his full armor, stood smugly at the other end of the small room; Sojourner, sobbing and bleeding, struggled halfheartedly within their captors' grasp. After a long second, the tortured echidna was dropped, seemingly without care, to the hard ground. A cry of shock could not be restrained.
Enerjak vanished without a word. As soon as Sabre had use of his body, he rushed to his ancestors' side. Once the exterior of the damage was visible, Sabre gasped; bruises of multiple shades became a stark contrast against red fur and pale flesh, swelling in size even as blood pooled along the ground. Half of his green vest was simply gone, ripped apart by what appeared of its remainder, and his wrists had been bound behind his back with the bands formerly worn around his dreadlocks.
Sabre, once shock had worn down to a manageable level, had unbound Sojourner's hand. Without uttering a sound, there was an attempt to help his ancestor sit against the wall; cries of agony were all that prevented this, signaling that pain came from movement.
Sojourner kept his eyes tightly shut, an obvious attempt to forget the world around him, and had not spoken a word even as his sobs winded down. Sabre frowned at this, knowing that his relation had obviously been assaulted again, had been sodomized again.
A strange shock had entered Sabre's mind, as the term came into thought. Sodomy. Rape. This was truly happening, was beyond their skills to stop, and it was happening to one of their own by a creature that had been thought of as legend only half a decade prior. How could this be happening?
"He left me." The silence was broken, startling Sabre out of his thoughts. Sojourner continued to keep his eyes closed, and had begun to shiver against the temperature of the cell. "He didn't even try to help me."
To say that Sabre was confused would have been a stark understatement. The words were alarming in a way that Sabre did not immediately understand. "Who did?"
A choked sob escaped the broken ex-Guardian. "My father.."
Spectre? He had escaped from captivity and, as far as Sabre knew, had not had any contact with the captive Brotherhood. Not unless.. "Spectre contacted you?"
"This morning, I think." During the interrogation? "He was in my mind, saw what was happening, and.." Sojourner sobbed again. "He left."
That did not sound like Spectre at all. A hundred possibilities ran along Sabre's mind, each as probable as the next as to why Spectre could not hold contact; the knowledge came that Sojourner would have rationalized it himself. It was what they had always been taught to do, as Guardians. Something was obviously, terribly wrong.
Sabre could not stop the query from escaping, half whispered in horror. "What happened to you?"
It was entirely the wrong question to ask. "You know what happened!" Anger carried Sojourner's cry, shocking Sabre completely. "You saw what happened!" Anger died, and depression reincarnated. Sojourner trembled. "I'm filthy, I'm filthy.."
Sabre stared at his ancestor in stunned silence. Insanity bordered on the edge of Sojourner's tone; how many times had he been assaulted in the past two days? How badly had he been tortured to bring this about? He had been raped once during that torturous interrogation, once afterwards and, as recollection of his appearance directly before the interrogation surfaced to mind, at least once beforehand. What else could have happened?
Decision came not to ask. Sabre did not want to bring more turmoil to his ancestor's mind, did not want to drive his ancestor deeper into insanity. He had to bring him out of this; he simply had to!
Sabre grabbed hold of Sojourner in an embrace, lifting his ancestor off the cold ground and into a hug. "Grandfather Sojourner, listen to me. Grandfather Spectre would not have left you on his own, would not have abandoned you on his own decision. You know him better than that!" Sobbing accompanied the trembling. "I don't know what Enerjak told you, but you can't listen! I don't know why he's doing this to you – "
"I look like his brother." The interruption, half sobbed, was wholly unexpected. Before Sabre could express a query in response, explanation was delivered. "Enerjak claims I look like Edmund."
Shocked silence reigned, as descendent held ancestor in an embrace of comfort. "He's insane." It was all Sabre could think to say, disturbed by this new information.
Nothing else was said for a great while, even as Sojourner was placed back upon the ground some time later. For the moment, emotion was enough.
"Do you get the feeling that he's pissed off, too?"
The not completely serious query was enough to bring a wry grin to the current Guardian of Angel Island. "Mm. At any rate, how long will it be before he's here?"
"An hour. Two, tops. You know, I've never seen him like this before."
"Good. We need as many angry people as we can get."
Sonic the hedgehog, frowning on his end of the video screen, had contacted Knuckles on what they all believed to be a secure line, after word of the Brotherhood of Guardian's dilemma had reached the prince of Mobius. Elias, to say the least, was upset.
Words passed with little care from the two proclaimed protectors of the planet, connection soon dieing down to a close. Thoughts passed along Knuckles' mind, trimmed with the lining of hope.
Prince Elias had been raised by the Brotherhood. He was a fighter and protector by upbringing. Athair had arrived quite some time ago, livid at the thought of his fathers and sons at the mercy of a meglomaniacal madman. Spectre's failed contact and Archemedes' warning that their enemy might be more powerful than originally perceived did little to bring down the hope and anger within their minds; on the contrary, it only increased their stubbornness against the situation.
They would free their friends and relatives, no matter what it would take.
Author notes: ..And that's a wrap for this chap. Alba, the Elias addition is for you. Bwahaha. ^^ You'll like it, I think.
Sojourner: ….You know, I have the great desire to kill you right now. What the hell are you doing to me in this thing?!
Sabre: Making you insane, by the looks of it.
Thunderhawk: Hey, where the hell am I? O.o
Author: Hehe.. Uhm.. Viva la feedback! ^^;
