Chapter 14 End of the ten-year siege
"Wait! Where'd Sonic go? Geez, he was in the building when it disintegrated! Split up and begin searching for him." Sally ordered. They ran back to Knothole and got the rest of the Freedom Fighters together so they could cover more territory at a faster pace knowing that it could be quite a search with just the three of them. They searched for about an hour and did not find anyone. Finally, as they were leaving the city, Sally caught sound of crying coming from up in a tree.
"Hello? Who's up there?" Sally called up into the tree.
"It's safe. Please just come down. We're here to help." Aaron added. There was a rustling as the person in the tree came down.
"Hershey! What's wrong?" Samantha asked. It took a few seconds for her to find her voice.
"I know about everything that has taken place that led up to now." Hershey told Sally and the two humans before breaking into tears again.
"Come on, let's get you back to Knothole and then we'll talk. You haven't seen Sonic around here, have you?" Sally asked as they slowly walked back towards the village.
"As Robotropolis vanished, I caught a glimpse of him as he ran out of there. So, Robotnik's dead? He's really finally gone?" Aaron nodded at Hershey.
"And, Sally got her parents back. After ten long years, it had all fallen back into place. Now, all we have to do is find a way to separate the planets and get everything back to normal." Sam added. As Sam said that, Sonic came running up to them looking slightly disheveled.
"What's shakin'? You guys miss me?" He asked as he skidded to a stop. Sally ran up and gave Sonic a big hug and kiss.
"Now what happens? Where do we go from here? How do we get back home?" Sam asked.
"According to Quantum Theory, there is a copy of everything someplace in time and space. It's just a matter of locating exactly where one would go within time and space to get back there. If the theory holds true, maybe we can still get back to our Earth." Aaron explained.
"As for us, we'll start rebuilding the Kingdom and hopefully, someday, get back to where we were before this all started without it happening again." Sally said. They arrived back at Knothole with Aaron's car in tow. Aaron and Rotor built a makeshift garage to store the car in so Aaron could work on it if needed. With a quick check of the car, the garage proved to be a good idea.
While parked outside the city before its destruction, much dust and debris had accumulated in the engine compartment mainly around the turbine for cooling. The cooling system also had blown several of the fuses, which needed to be replaced before any further driving would be possible. That night, as the village slept, Aaron was wide-awake working on repairing what needed fixing on his car. By about three in the morning, Aaron had dozed off in the garage. Morning came and with it the bustle of the citizens getting ready for the new revolution in the village.
"Aaron! Time to get up! You have a big journey today! Sam whispered in his ear. Aaron woke up and to his surprise; he found that the car had been loaded with foods and vegetables.
"Ohhhh! I forgot about today! Come on! We have to go before the sun sets!" Aaron urged Sam.
"Not we, just you. They need my help here and I want to help them." Sam explained.
"But… but… will I ever see you again?" Aaron stuttered.
"I don't know. I'll be fine. I can take care of myself. Don't worry about me, just get back to Earth, and straighten everything up there." Aaron was having a hard time fathoming something like this. 'I'll be fine, don't you worry. I'll possibly see you again in the near future. Go now and don't look back. Remember, I love you." Sam called after him. The Freedom Fighters had gathered around to say their goodbyes and then Aaron started the car up and began his journey. As he sped away from the village, he started crying as he thought about how much he would miss Sam and the Freedom Fighters. He sped the car up as he programmed the coordinates and estimated distance into the onboard computers and let the car do most of the driving while he took a nap. Before he knew it, he was back on Earth; the Earth he had left so many days ago, the Earth that Robotnik had tried to take over.
From what he saw up and down his street, Robotnik was unable to even touch the human race as the Roboticizers were tuned for the anatomy, composition and body type of the Mobians and had never been tried on a human. There had been a little damage to the city itself; some minor structural damage to the city center and some houses from what seemed to be a fight.
"So that's why Robotnik was so ready to use that device; he just wanted to destroy both planets and then move on to a new civilization and take them over." Aaron thought to himself. As he turned into his driveway, the car died in a cloud of oil smoke resulting from three blown head gaskets. Aaron was able to push it into the garage before going into the house and going to bed. As he climbed into bed, he noticed the picture of Sam he kept next to his bed was gone. That night, both Sam and Aaron cried themselves to sleep.
The following morning, Aaron set about assessing the damage to his home city and what had happened to the citizens that Robotnik had tried to roboticize. Very little had happened to the few citizens who were subjected to the process; from what could be found, the only thing that happened to them was the process enhanced their strength and ability to retain information. Aaron tried to explain what had happened as clearly as was possible without going into too much detail about what had happened to the few people who were subjected to the process. Once he was done explaining what happened to the people who witnessed the attempt at invasion by Robotnik, Aaron went back to his house and began trying to rebuild his car. The car proved to be a mess; during the return trip, he had not only blown the head gaskets of three cylinders, he had also damaged the onboard computers. Both would have to be replaced before any further travel would be possible.
Sam and the rest of the Freedom Fighters spent the next ten months working on restoring the Kingdom to its once and former glory. King Maximilian and Queen Alicia Acorn assumed the throne once again after almost eleven long years. Much time was spent looking for Snively, but he was never found. It was assumed he had traveled to the eastern half of Mobius where he lived with the Overlanders. The restoration was completed nearly a year after the end of the siege under the direction of the King and Queen.
At the same time that the restoration was completed, Aaron finished working on rebuilding his car and getting it back into working order. He had also taken the tattered remains of Princess Sally's vest and found a similar fabric in his hometown, which he used to make a duplicate of her original vest. He used what he could of the original vest and the rest was the new cloth. After packing his clothes and locking his house and garage, Aaron embarked on his last mission; his last mission would be to return the vest to the Princess, get back together with Sam, and possibly marry her. Aaron started his car up and made it back onto the Dimensional Superhighway and journeyed back to Mobius.
(End of Chapter 14)