A Few Home Truths.
There was only one person present who actually understood what Seraph meant by that and much as he didn't want to admit it, he had no choice; an arm around the neck was a great incentive to be truthful, especially when you knew for a fact the mind controlling the arm was more than ruthless enough to snap your neck like a twig without a second thought. Heaving a deep breath into his tortured lungs, Eggman looked up at them all, his eyes strangely maroon as his normal black glasses had been smashed by a blow to the nose.
"I had just discovered about the Chaos emeralds and had caught my first glimpse of you and your meddling fox helper", the fallen dictator snarled at Sonic before an ungentle tap on the top of his bald head informed the doctor in no uncertain terms it was time to carry on, "but I was unsure of what exactly to do; I wanted to ensure potential rivals didn't catch up to my level of technology, but at the same time wanted the best scientists to work for me, indirectly at least; I wasn't stupid enough to reveal myself, so I had to go behind the scenes. On top of all that there was this new potential of the Chaos emeralds. I had a lot of options on my plate, so I decided to use them all".
"I had one of my traditional brainwaves and came up with a suitably brilliant plan; I hacked into the government's computer systems, the firewalls were nowhere near what they are now, and I can still get through them like it's nothing. You should try it foxboy; it's the mark of a real programmer". Eggman smiled sickeningly as Tails as the fox shook his head, completely put off with the man's warped sense of brilliance.
"I use my skills for the good of all Eggman; knowing that's a better sense of satisfaction than anything you'll ever get".
"Typically heroic nonsense; you've been hanging around that moronic hedgehog for too long. A shame you weren't born earlier, I could have used you, argh", Seraph gripped a badly bruised portion of the maniac's shoulder, causing him to cry out and return to the story. Trying to fight down the residual ache Eggman continued,
"I got the info I needed; there were a large number of people out there I could use, but I wanted the best and I found them. A short while later, having decided the order I wanted things, I sent for you all". He pointed at all the treasure hunters bar Rouge, a smile on his face as Jessie narrowed her eyes.
"When was this?" Eggman leered forwards; he was going to die, so he was going to enjoy the last moments of his life by making others miserable, prolonging the torment.
"Nine years ago". The mouse took an involuntary step back, supported by one of Chalkie's massive paws as tears of horror started to form in her eyes. The fox-cat looked down at his smaller friend as concern rose in his now rumbling tone,
"What is it Jess?"
"He means", Razzy was looking squarely at the evil human as his intelligence allowed him to share Jess's insight, "that he got in touch with us and set us up royally", turning to face he others, tears unashamedly leaked from the roosters eyes as he clasped his hands, "don't you see; he planned it all; the guild, our missions, everything – he's the Benefactor".
There was a shocked silence as everyone looked at the rooster, the guild members themselves trying, trying desperately, to absorb this mind shattering information. Razzy was crying openly now, Jess was about to follow suit and Nack and Chalkie were looking at Eggman with potential murder in their eyes, the fox-cat unsheathing previously concealed cat claws with a growl. A low chuckle, dark and ominous, filled the air as Eggman saw the damage his statement had wrought.
"You mean…"
"Oh yes; I planned it all – you'll find a lot of people don't ask questions when you wave a large amount of money in their direction", the dictator looked from Amy Rose to the five guilders, a malicious grin on his bloodied lips, "how does it feel to know you've been working for the 'most evil man' in history, hmm?"
"The, the others, they paid us…" Jess tried to squirm out of this, tried to lessen the impact of this bombshell, but Eggman quashed the attempt.
"Assumed names; face it, for two years you were under me and me alone; all the stealing was done on jewels that could have been Chaos emeralds, the espionage destabilised any competition I felt under threat from and the hacking and other technological works were done to get information I wanted. You helped me immensely; without your help I'd probably never have been able to build the Death Egg". The madman chuckled until a chop to his wounded shoulder checked the noise with a shout of pain. Seraph had his target hush until the impact of these blows was absorbed by a small amount; he needed the others to be ready for this as it was probably going to hurt them again, especially Nack. The emotion of pity had long since been exercised from Seraph's cold soul but he understood the logic behind the wait. He needed all present to witness his vindication.
The overriding feeling in that small room was a feeling of violation; whatever could have been expected here this was about as far out of the bathtub as it was possible to get. Razzy and Jess were leaning on each other while Sonic and Shadow were gearing up to try and restrain Nack and Chalkie; if they had been mad before they were virtually incandescent with rage now. The weasel let out a snarl as Chalkie felt a small paw on his thigh; he clamed slightly as he saw a small fox say,
"Calm down big guy; there's nothing he can do to you now; he's at your mercy". The fox-cat went to one knee, looking Tails in the eyes and letting the kit see his elongated cat nose and brown eyes,
"Don' worry kid; gave me word not to kill, so I won't. 'Sides", Tails echoed the larger Mobian's smile, "looks like Seraph'll do that for us". As if the mention of his name had stirred him into action, the room fell silent again as the vampire bat again looked down on his helpless captive and uttered a second decree.
"And Seraph?"
Still high from his previous, if only fleeting, victory against the guild, Eggman made an uncharacteristic mistake; he answered the bat back.
"Surely you're in a better position to answer that than me?" The reaction was swift, final and extremely painful; one second Eggman was giggling deliriously, the next he was screaming in pain as just one of Seraph's hands had moved. Looking at what had happened more closely and the splash of colour now adorning Seraph's normally matt black leather, even Sonic couldn't help but shudder as he pieced together what had happened in the space of microseconds. One half of Eggman's trademark moustache, and a large portion of the skin of his upper lip, dangled in the assassin's hand as Eggman stopped blubbering at his repeated question.
"And…Seraph?" This time the words spilled out in a torrent; the last act had been enough to break whatever resistance the doctor had left.
"Seraph was a problem right from the start", Eggman sucked the blood from his lip before continuing desperately, "he always double checked targets, thought about things in triplicate and always, always wanted to know why he was doing the missions; you lot could have learnt a lot from him. But anyway", Eggman's desire to heap more misery on the guild was extinguished as he saw a black hand move out the corner of his eye, "he managed to track down who I was and he could have told you all. Well, I couldn't have that, not after all the good work you'd been doing for me, so I had to put my back up plans into action". The dictator fell silent; he was going to make them ask him what the plans had been and, it seemed, Seraph appeared content to let him have that privilege. When the question was asked though, it was from an unexpected source; Shadow, eyes almost burning crimson, looked ready to reduce Eggman to scrambled Eggman as he growled,
"And what were these plans of yours?"
"The same plans I use every time; if it isn't broke why fix it?" Eggman didn't dwell as Seraph had the back of his neck in an equivalent of the Vulcan death-grip and didn't seem afraid to increase the pressure, "I found something important to him and took it; ever wonder why I always kidnap rather than kill – it's so I can get people just where I want them".
"And what, what was Seraph's weakness?" Nack this time, curious as to what would govern the seemingly emotionless monster before him. Eggman rolled his eyes up as far as was possible in his position.
"You never did tell them, did you?" the increase in grip pressure was answer enough, "if any of you had bothered to do the research, you'd have realised that Seraph wasn't alone; he had a single member of his family left in the world. He had a son".
"I knew you were sick Robotnik", Sonic's eyes were jade stones as he spoke every word with menacing deliberation, "but taking kids is low, even for scum like you". The human gave a small shrug, as though such piffling things as morals were beneath him.
"Whatever gets results. My robots managed to take the little brat and leave a polite invitation; Seraph would show up, unarmed, if he wanted to get his son back. Just as well he did turn up, the little devil was far more trouble than it was worth. Sure enough, the idiot actually came and we made a deal; he'd field-test a piece of technology I'd developed and I'd give him his son back. The deal went smoothly, though I don't think he'd have been much of a father after the technology took hold, if you catch my drift". Amy saw the doctor's eyes move and followed them; her blood boiled as he saw what Eggman had meant. Before anyone could stop her she had thrown herself at the mad doctor, hammer arcing towards the dictator and cracking him directly in his bloated belly, stealing the breath from his lungs; if he hadn't been held up by Seraph he'd have collapsed. There was a cry of agony as the hedgehog screamed at him,
"You monster! You destroyed him. You took away that little boy's father. All of this is your fault. You, you…" she tailed off, tears streaming down her face as her anger went beyond the power of words. Aware of eyes on her, she stormed backwards and seized something from the floor, thrusting it skywards and she raged,
"This. Mind control; he used one of these on Seraph, he was nothing more than another robot". In her hands, tail dangling uselessly, was one of the fallen mind control units.
There was a few seconds of silence before ten pairs of eyes locked onto Eggman and he quailed as he saw violence in every single one of them.
"Is this true?" Knuckles was almost breaking his teeth from gritting them so hard, fists clenched as though Eggman's throat was caught in them. Startled by the ferocity of this, the human stuttered,
"Yes, that is what I did; I discontinued production when I saw they were imperfect – he could still fight against the control. He did that when the end came after you hunted him down; he didn't fight, just let himself go. I see you fixed the bugs?" The question was meant to deflect some of the wordless rage to Seraph; after all, Robotnik reasoned, he used those things as well, but it didn't work as Nack stared straight through him.
"So it was all your doing? You forced him to do the beat ups, and the murders beyond them…" the weasel fell silent suddenly, dread etched in his face as he realised what the human's words meant for him, "oh my God". He trembled as Razzy, cheeks still wet, nodded and put his hand on Nacks' shoulder, speaking quietly.
"It wasn't your fault Nack; none of us could have known".
"Doesn't matter", the guilder's voice was choked and strangled, "I shot an innocent man; he couldn't stop what he was doing. I'm a murderer", the others moved toward the weasel but stopped as he lowered his hands; his face was a mask of ire. Pointing a shaking finger at the man responsible for six deaths, murders he corrected himself, Nack spoke the honest truth.
"You better pray he kills you; I'll show you there are worse things than death". Robotnik had enough sense left to act ashamed as he spoke next.
"Yes, I used Seraph to do jobs I knew you wouldn't touch without getting suspicious. I knew you'd twig eventually but I decided to use it for as along as possible; I was just lucky he always wore that mask, it hid the unit. The killing was an accident…"
"No it wasn't", Sonic cut him off, "I've been fighting you for too long to not recognise you lying. Why?"
"Because the stupid woman wouldn't take a hint", the human had realised his last gamble had failed and decided to die as he had lived; full of spite and malice, "I'd tried bribes, money, threats and violence; I needed her work to get the particle accelerators for the Death Egg's main weapon systems online, but she wouldn't have it. The only choice was to make sure she couldn't get her research to others. Unfortunate, but I didn't have an optiaahhh". The grip on the back of his neck slammed on full, stopping him continuing as Seraph's blank face moved to see the others.
Grudge settled. Pain repaid and secondary targets now aware of circumstances.
Seraph looked over every single Mobian present and saw what he had expected in the face of each of them; anger at his primary target and shame mixed with forgiveness for him. As he finished his inspection, he was about to put his final plan into action but before he could, a voice stopped him; it was Chalkie, the fox-cat's eye truthful and sincere.
"Seraph", the eyes flicked down at the primary target, "kill him". He was backed up by Rouge; the bat had her fangs bared at Eggman and looked ready to rip his throat out, with her teeth if needs be.
"No-one here would condemn you if you did". Seraph looked around the ten faces and saw assent in every one, save a single one. Nack approached him, arms wide and eyes downcast.
"If you want me dead, I won't blame you. I killed the only one you had", before the others could ask, the weasel had answered without turning around, "you're not Seraph, I can see that now; he died in that apartment, seven years ago", looking up the weasel gave a strange, wistfully wise expression, "you're Seraph's son, aren't you?"
No disadvantage in disclosing that information.
"Yes", the voice never changed, not even when he pointed at Nack and then at the others, "there is no grudge". Rouge was able to figure it out first and whispered at him desperately,
"Nack, get over here; he doesn't want you".
"Is that really what you want?"
"There is no grudge". The weasel nodded and slowly shuffled backwards, mind numb as Seraph pointed directly at Knuckles; the guardian, for once, felt no rage at the emotionless form of the, wait, he wasn't a killer, or an assassin, or any of those terrible things. What was the son of Seraph, in comparison to the unwilling puppet his father had become to save his son's life?
"I owe you". The echidna shook his head,
"You owe me nothing".
"Unlawful trespass", he continued as though he hadn't heard the guardian, "property damage and theft. I owe you". The vampire bat looked down as though making a decision, after relieving his target of something that would help pay off his grudge; from the way both hands suddenly gripped Robotnik's head it appeared he had settled on vengeance. The human whimpered, pleading for help, but none was forthcoming as Seraph sank down to his level and hissed in his ear.
"It ends". There was a sudden twist and a wet, crunching noise as three things happened at once, starting with Eggman fainting.
The other Mobians present stood still; shocked by what had just happened even though they had been expecting it.
Seraph sprang backwards, propelling himself through the sliding door and hitting the activate button before he'd touched down. The lift shot upwards, taking him away from here, a grudge settled and a debt gained.
