Chapter 3: Destruction
"Yeah, where am I?" Sonic asked. Dice stopped and bent over. Confused, Sonic gazed at his surroundings and realized that he was in the same battlefield that he found Dice in earlier. She cursed and dug her hands into the mud. Sonic asked another question, "What are you doing? Again, where am I?" Silence. Sonic then remarked, "Wow, you have great conversational skills." A little pissed, Sonic strolled around the wreckage. Even with the rain, the blood refused to wash away from the bricks. When Dice finally thrust her hands out, she revealed a tattered rope. Sonic walked back in curiosity, but Dice didn't pay attention. After tugging on it, a wooden board flung off a tiny hole that could only fit one person at a time. She crouched next to it and then scanned the horizon for spies. Sonic then broke the silence, "Um, I kind of have a bad thing about holes. The last one I was in nearly made me drown." Dice raised her eyebrow with skepticism and motioned him to go into the hole. "Ladies first," Sonic joked. Dice hastily jumped down the hole. Sonic followed.
After a quick drop, Sonic fell to the ground. It was pitch black in the hole. Sonic cautiously walked around until Dice flipped several switches, lighting up an underground room. She then closed the entrance as Sonic wandered around the tables of ammunition. "Where am I now?" Sonic questioned.
"What is with all the questions? I am the one who should be questioning you. You're the mysterious one."
"Sure I am," Sonic smirked in an amused fashion. "How about this: I ask a question then you ask a question." Dice remained silent while looking though some cupboards with her good arm. Sonic assumed she agreed and asked again, "Now, where am I?"
After finding several torn towels, she walked towards a leaking pipe overhead. She placed the towels under it until they were relatively damp. "Specifically, you are standing in a rebel underground base, but generally, you are under the ruins of Station Square," She casually replied and then handed one towel to Sonic. "Now, why did you help me earlier?"
"Ruins?!" Sonic exclaimed. Dice said nothing, waiting for the answer to her question, and then began to wipe the mud off her body with another towel. Sonic sat on the table and began to do the same. The cold towel made a scratch on his forehead burn. He rubbed the slime out of his ears with disgust. He wanted to wipe the dirt off quickly, but the quicker he rubbed, the more his scrapes burned. When his muzzle was finally dirt-free, he replied, "Well, I am a good guy. That's what I do: help people." Dice frowned.
"Good people save the weak, the innocent, and other good people." She mocked. "I am none of those."
"Well, when you were bleeding and unconscious on the ground in the rain, you looked pretty innocent and weak to me." Sonic mocked back and then laughed. Dice grimaced at the remark in disgust.
She finished cleaning her face, revealing a sad empty expression, and then dropped the drenched towel on the ground as she rubbed her forehand in thought. Sonic, then, stopped his chuckles to get a good look. Her long eyelashes complimented her black eyelids. The gothic black and white appearance looked appropriate for her expression. The rest of her white face appeared dull and worn. Her eyes were glazed over with sorrow. Sonic then stared at the peculiar alignment of her spikes. It was like a cross between a hedgehog and an echidna, with the coloring of a panda. The thought sounded familiar and Sonic blurt out, "Who or what are you?"
Dice eyed him back. "Are you making fun of my black and white skin?" Sonic smirked and looked away. "My name is Dice, just like real dice, I am black, white, and unpredictable. So watch out for some snake eyes buddy, 'cause your luck might run out." Sonic tried to force a frown but an ear-to-ear smile could not be helped.
"You must have a lot of time on your hands to come up with a line like that!" Sonic laughed. He grabbed his sides as he chuckled uncontrollably. Tears of laughter leaked out of his eyes, and when he wiped them off, more came.
"I am glad you find that so hysterical. Now let's get going, I have somewhere to be." Sonic gradually stopped laughing and stood up. Sonic was done wiping all the mud off his face and prying the dirt off his shoes. While stretching, he yawned.
"I really could use another vacation right now," he thought. All of his energy returned to Sonic's legs and he was ready to leave the moment he arrived here. He, also, had places to be. Sonic yawned, "What about your arm?" Dice held it up, while tying her new boots that she found under the table. They were clean and much more comfortable.
"While you were laughing, I was wrapping it." Dice replied. "Come on, this way is fastest." She flipped a switch, turning on a stream of endless lights and revealing a huge pathway. "Hey hedgehog, it's this way. You have more questions right? Well ask them as I meet up with someone. No matter how hard I try you keep following me, so just get your questions answered and let me be." Sonic smiled and walked with her down the moist path. The hall was clammy but more superior than walking in the thunderstorm.
"I guess I do have a lot of questions." Sonic replied. "Well, I want to know what you meant by Station Square ruins, who were those people earlier, why are you the villain, who are we meeting, and what is going on here?"
"You really aren't from around here." She smiled, looking straight ahead. Her smile quickly vanished. "I never smile." She added in a whisper and stared away from Sonic, so that he couldn't hear her and so she couldn't see his expression. "Anyway, which one do you want me to answer? At the rate we walk, I won't have time to answer all of them."
Sonic paused, debating which would be best to ask. At last he decided what he wanted to know most, "What did you mean by ruins? What has happened to Station Square?" They continued walking down the seemingly endless hallway. Even with the dim light, Dice could see Sonic's bright blue skin. She delayed in answering the question as she looked at the shade of blue.
"You know that blue hide of yours, it reminds me of something, but ...I am not sure what." Nervous, she shook it off immediately. "Anyway, since you are not from around here, I might as well start from the beginning. There is this evil genius, Dr. Robotnik. Of course, everyone calls him Eggman. Many years ago, he overheard from a fox named Tails, that there was another untapped force involving the chaos emeralds. As usual, he wanted to harness it. This power, the chaos blade, was a key that fused the energy of the chaos emeralds and--"
"Yeah I heard this part." Sonic interrupted.
"Ok then. Well, then you know with the power to tear space and time, Eggman could easily take over this world as well as others."
"And this is one of those other worlds?" Sonic impatiently asked, hoping that this was a parallel universe and not his home.
"What? You're not from around here, so I guess you could be from a different world. So, maybe yes?" Dice suspiciously answered. The tone of voice Sonic used made Dice uneasy. When Sonic calmed down, she continued, "Anyway, Eggman came to steal the chaos emeralds and the chaos blade from the fox Tails, an echidna named Knuckles, and another fast hedgehog like you, named Sonic. During the battle, Eggman...shot...Sonic." Dice said slowly, as if reliving it. "He died quickly after. At first Knuckles came after Eggman. He had the upper hand, but when he saw Tails in the corner of his eye, Knuckles retreated. Tails needed extreme medical help. Although the broken ribs would heal, one of his tails was bleeding immensely and infected. It was amputated. Meanwhile, Knuckles only had a couple of skin-deep scars, as well as some guilt over Sonic's death. While Tails was healing and Knuckles searched for some help, Eggman found the remaining chaos emeralds. You see, when all emeralds are put together with the master emerald, the user gets his wish granted. Of course, Eggman wished for world domination. To answer his desire, the master emerald then forced the chaos blade and its wielder to become Eggman's servants."
Reminded of something like a sudden hit on the head, Dice stopped. The word 'serve' seemed to trigger an intangible thought in her mind. She, then, quickly glanced at Sonic to see if he was still paying attention. Next, she briskly walked slightly ahead of him, so that she could place into words what she began to remember. After pondering for several seconds, the words just flew out of her mouth in a monotone voice, "The servers," She began, and then cautiously went on as though she might say something wrong, "... are the seven ...chaos. Chaos is power: power that...is enriched by the heart. The controller ...is the one that unifies ...the chaos-"
"That incantation," Sonic hastily interrupted and ran up to her, "was known by a friend of mine, how do you know it?"
"I can only answer one question at a time!" She nervously replied. "Let me finish just this once, ok? With immense, infinite power at his disposal, Eggman sent the blade's wielder across the universe to conquer lands. One by one, each world fell to the power of the master emerald's chaos blade. Every universe was connected in destruction, death, sorrow, gore, and ruined cities. When at last it was this world's turn, the blade's wielder searched for Sonic's friends, knowing that they would pose the largest threat. Using chaos control, the blade turned to rubble each town one by one in hopes that it would lure out the heroes. However, they did not attack without Sonic's leadership. Instead, they attempted to strengthen their forces. The close friends of Sonic: Amy and Tails were too distraught from Sonic's death to help at first. Knuckles, now the new leader, called upon the aide of Tikal, Princess Sally, Team Chaotix, along with hundreds of others. Everyone came to the rebellion in the name of Sonic's memory. At last, all that remained in Eggman's way was Station Square. Knuckles' main resistance was positioned there, and thus the rebels were forced to finally make a stand. We are actually in one of their bases now. Anyway, every creature, man, woman, and child stood with firearms as the warrior approached. The warrior, then, used the blade to fuse with the emeralds. It made seven copies of the warrior, one for each emerald, so that the warrior could take on Knuckles' forces. At first it appeared that the rebels were winning due to their sheer numbers. However, the real wielder easily found an entrance to the underground base while the blade's copies attacked the rebels. The warrior placed dynamite under certain pipes throughout the tunnels. When the blade's wielder detonated them, thousands of the rebels died as the ground beneath them exploded upwards. With only a fraction of the forces left, the warrior eliminated his copies and faced the leftover rebels. Several of those remaining were Espio, Vector, Amy, Rouge, Tails (all of whom had hid in a tower because they were assigned to the position of long range missiles. Because of their location, they were thus safe from the base's destruction), Knuckles, and a couple others. All of them shot waves of lasers at the warrior but the blade was too powerful for them. The warrior, against the laws of gravity, then flew into the sky. The swordsman activated the blade's ultimate attack, a chaos control that ripped through space. The whole world became unbalanced, and ultimate chaos tore apart at the fabric of time. Obviously, when the warrior called off the attack, the city lay in ruins. The ones known as Amy, Tails, Knuckles, and Shadow were the only ones of the rebel heroes who escaped. It is actually quite remarkable that they survived. I mean, dodging rips in space and then with pure luck surviving holes in time is basically impossible. It has been a year, three months, and... eleven days since then. Anyway, the two people you encountered earlier were Amy and Tails."
Sonic froze in his tracks; the whole story was too much to swallow. The death of his friends, the destruction of his town, and the casual tone of voice that Dice explained it in made him want to throw up. Also, how could he be dead if he was breathing right in front of her? Did the laser gun he was blasted with send him to a parallel universe where Shadow was alive and Tails was older? It was even a larger shock to think that the fox and hedgehog from earlier were his friends. He had a feeling that they were but had not believed it at the time, or maybe he did not want to. Quickly, he began walking again so that Dice would not suspect anything.
"Shadow? Alive?" Sonic asked.
"Oh, well you interrupted me before I could explain that part earlier. Eggman wanted to test the chaos blade before he made his wish. He ripped through time and space, and found Shadow floating in some void. At first Eggman wanted Shadow to wield the blade, but Shadow refused and left. However, he shouldn't have. He had the perfect opportunity to take Eggman down." Dice closed her eyes and sighed. "With Shadow's refusal, Eggman made his wish, and well you know the rest: the warrior's forced obedience, the destruction of other worlds, the huge battle at Station Square, and the inverted chaos control. The result is none other than the ruins that stand before us." When Dice finally finished her long explanation, there was a long silence between the two of them.
This raised even more questions. Guilt flooded Sonic's mind. All his friends except four were dead, and it was entirely some warrior's fault. Whoever this blade wielder was, Sonic wanted a piece of him. At last Sonic knew what he wanted to ask but hesitated and decided to ask a different one.
"How do you know all of this? I mean, what role did you play throughout this whole dystopia? You said that you are not a good guy, so what does that make you?" Sonic had a feeling about the answer but knew that if he was right, Dice would probably lie.
Dice put her head down, closed her eyes, and continued walking with her hands in her pockets. Sonic waited patiently for a reply. He noticed tears streaming down her face, but didn't say anything. When the salty tears finally stopped, Dice opened her eyes, thinking that Sonic had not seen her, and opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came.
At last she mustered the energy and whispered just loud enough for Sonic to hear, "You ...don't want to know." Then she thought to herself, "Hell, I wish didn't know."
A/N: Thanks for reading Chapter 3 of my first story. If there is anything at all you want to comment, compliment, or constructively criticize please do so! Oh also, thanks to the people who reviewed my story already! On a final note, Shadow will appear, but I need to lead up to the scene so please be patient fellow Shadow fans!