In the middle of the corridor they were in, Addy came to a halt. A frown crossed the naturally happy face of the child and she wrinkled up her nose in thought. Ryo stopped behind her in mid-stride, inches from running her over. She held up her hand, telling the rest of them to stop as well.
"Wait... I can hear something and I want to go investigate it," Addy whispered quietly, her finger pointing down another corridor.
Ryo shook his head, obviously not keen on separating the group, especially when it came to his baby sister. He wanted to continue on towards where Maren and Sonic could smell the scents of Jessica and Robotnik, but Addy remained in one place, determined to get her way. Finally after letting out an exasperated sigh, Ryo nodded in defeat.
"Fine, you investigate but don't dawdle around. We're getting Jess and then getting out of here, quickly. Understand?" Ryo seemed to emphasize on the 'don't dawdle ' part and with a grin, Addy nodded her head before running down the corridor. However, she paused in mid-stride and turned around, running back to the others. She was going to investigate after she knew Jess was safe.
The rest of the group continued on their search for the missing Holy Grail. No wait, wrong story. They continued on for Jessica and on the way, thought of a way to destroy Robotnik without Jessica being hurt in the process. Every time they ran into guards, they quietly took them out knowing that they were nearly to the main chamber. Sonic was the first one to reach the big chamber, almost slowing to a stop when he spotted the very machine that had mutated him. In a cage not very far away from the machine, the remaining Freedom Fighters stood up at the sight of Sonic, hollering his name. And right next to Robotnik sat Jessica, gagged, tied hand and foot and threatened with a laser gun.
"Jessica!" Ryo yelled when he and the others entered the room. Eggman laughed. "Let her go, Eggman!" Addy growled and brought forth her trusty dagger.
"Why should I?" the mad scientist replied, grinning widely and menacingly. Jessica glared up at Robotnik with a deep growl, then tried to see if she could chew through her gag. Robotnik pressed the laser gun at the side of Jessica's head. "Don't move. Put down your weapons and she doesn't get hurt." They all did as they were told, except for Addy, who merely hid her dagger somewhere in her clothes before holding up empty palms. Eggman grinned. "Good, good."
With a single nod to another robot, it and several others took hold of the rescuers, including Sonic. The hedgehog turned human merely stood in place, letting the robots shackle his wrists as he stared at Jessica. She stared back, wanting to find a way to tell him or the others to go ahead and attack. She glanced to her husband, then noticed Addy's confident posture and expression. What could she be thinking...?
"Take that group of pests and imprison them," Eggman ordered. He turned to face Sonic and grinned sinisterly. "As for you, I'll make you watch the mutation of your friends one by one, starting with Tails!"
"No!!" Sonic shouted as one of the guards went to the cage to fetch Tails. The little fox yelped and began to struggle, trying to fly out of range of the robot's grasp. The guard managed to grab onto his two tails, then restrained him tightly. "No, you can't do this!! Don't!!" Sonic watched Tails be taken to the machine as Robotnik started it up, then glared intensely in his rising anger. With one jerk he broke free of his shackles and took out the guards.
Addy saw the opportunity, taking her dagger from its hiding place and freed the others while taking down the guards. Ryo led the rest of the Ronins to the cage, having Shu break the lock. After that he ran to Jessica and removed her gag. As Ryo and the others were freeing Jess, Addy again ran down the corridor, heading down the stairs to investigate.
"La La La..." Addy hummed under her breath as she skipped down the corridor, heading towards the dungeon area of the building they were in. What guards there were, she took out rather easily and after a few leaps down the stairs, found herself staring at a cell with a female inside, a princess looking female.
"Please don't hurt me anymore, I don't know where Sonic is!" The female spoke softly, fear apparent in her voice.
Blinking, Addy tilted her head wondering what on earth this creature was talking about. She wasn't here to hurt anyone and... It hit Addy like a sack of bricks hitting the pavement. She must think Addy works for Robotnik and since the girl mentioned Sonic, she must be a friend of his. Someone, she could rescue on her own without any trouble. Bonus!
"I'm here to get you out! My brother and the rest of the Ronin Warriors along with Sonic are upstairs, rescuing my sister in law. Hang on tight, I'll have you out in a jiffy." Addy grinned as she ran over to one of the unconscious guards, grabbing his keys. Within a few seconds, she had the door unlocked and stepped inside it to usher her out.
"Destroy that machine!!" Jess yelled still upstairs, that being the first thing out of her mouth.
"With pleasure," Sonic growled, turning to his newly freed friends. "C'mon, everyone!"
"Right behind you, Sonic!" Knuckles replied, his fists up and ready to deal a good bashing to the horrible thing that permanently altered his best friend. Just then Sonic noticed Robotnik trying to slip away, then pursued his enemy. He cleared the distance with a single leap, his green eyes alight with his fury.
"Damned hedgehog!" Robotnik cursed, reaching for his laser gun. Sonic kicked it out of the doctor's hands.
"Prepare to meet your fate," Sonic grimly stated. He then leapt behind Eggman, locked his head between his arms, then promptly broke his neck. The scientist's lifeless body flumped down to the floor just as the mutating machine spurt sparks and exploded. The Freedom Fighters cheered, glad the evil reign of Robotnik was finally completely over. Tails flew straight for Sonic and gave him a hug around the neck, who smiled and hugged back.
As the machine exploded, it caused the entire building structure to shake violently. "Wh-what was that?" The terrified girl who had identified herself as Princess Sally asked, as she moved out of the jail cell.
Addy shook her head, not really having much of a clue since obviously she wasn't up there to see all the action. Figuring they destroyed Robotnik and his machine, she shrugged a little bit.
"I'm sure it's nothing to-- watch out!" Addy yelled moments before pushing Sally out of the cell, the ceiling caving in around it.
Sally cried out as Addy became buried in the rubble, the sink in the cell bursting open, flooding it with water. Gurgling as the water quickly filled up the area she was buried beneath, Addy tried desperately to move the pieces off of her body. Panic set in and as her entire body became covered in water, it took most of her energy to keep her head above the level of water. Screaming loudly, she inhaled a deep breath before her head was covered by the quickly rising water. The others were trying to get down to Addy, the building structure making it most difficult since parts of it had collapsed.
"..........." Addy was quickly running out of air, her chest was beginning to tighten and she knew she would need to take another breath very soon. The only problem was, she had no more air to inhale. There was nothing but water around her and as her eyes began to blur, she flashed back to the days she spent trapped in the tank before she escaped. She didn't want to die, she didn't want to give up and as a last plea, she reached deep down inside of her body and grabbed whatever she could have. Her entire body began to glow bright red and for a moment the water was the color of blood.
"What the?!" Ryo exclaimed as his Wildfire armor disappeared from his body, leaving him in his regular clothes. As he and the others reached the dungeon, they all crowed around the cell where Addy was buried in.
Before they could even begin to move the pieces of cement, the entire area again became bright with energy. Not even a minute later, the entire area started to shake before the pieces were shifted off of her body as it floated into the air, dropping down to the ground at the feet of Ryo. The armor that had been on Ryo's body was now on Addy's body and it shone for a moment before appearing back on Ryo.
"Addy...?" Ryo whispered as he kneeled down beside her, patting her back.
Coughing up water, Addy groaned as she woke up, her entire chest sore and still tight. Nodding her head, she confirmed that she was okay, or as okay as one could be after surviving what she just survived.
"Are you okay, Jess?" Seiji asked, armoring down to his undergear and kneeling in front of his lifemate. Jessica nodded and hugged him, then turned to Sonic.
"What about you, Sonic? I mean ... you actually killed Eggman," she asked. Sonic walked up to the group with a sigh, Tails seated on his shoulder.
"It's all right. The man was evil incarnate," Sonic replied. Princess Sally then stepped forward towards the Ronins and Addy with a smile.
"I want to thank you all for helping Sonic free us and destroy Eggman," she stated, smiling when they all nodded.
Tails and the rest of the group from Mobius said their goodbyes and even after learning that Sonic wasn't going back with them, headed back home. The exhausted group headed back to Ryo and Jess's place and collapsed on the couch, chairs and floor. Smiling down at his sister, Ryo took her upstairs to let her change and crawl into bed to get warm.
"I love you sis, you were so brave today.." Ryo whispered into Addy's ears, smiling as her eyes closed slightly, sleep overtaking her.
"I love you too Ryo... I'm a Wildfire just like you...." Addy grinned when she said that, her fingers gripping the sheets before relaxing on her stomach.
Ryo nodded, smiling although Addy couldn't see it. He was proud of her, that much was true but he was also very worried for her sake. He didn't know how she called upon the armor and that terrified him more than anything. Watching over her as she fell asleep, Ryo kissed her forehead before walking back downstairs to check on Jessica and to rest like the others were already doing.