Chapter 13: Reunion

September 3rd, 2316 – 12:10 AM – Nedlo, Tneicna

Ever since Tails had left Carrie in her bed, she'd settled into an uncomfortable sleep. The wolf had done her best to try to relax, but too much had been going on lately. Her mind buzzed with everything that had happened this evening.

The gas attack at the stadium...the gas attack here...Sonic getting kidnapped... What else could happen now? It's all happening so fast it doesn't feel real...

Suddenly, someone opened the door to her room, allowing a soft light from the torches in the hall to seep in. Carrie closed her eyes a little harder to block the light out. That didn't work out too well, as she sensed someone bringing more light with them into the room. Grudgingly, she opened her eyes.

As her vision came into focus, Carrie saw Captain Relis standing at the door, and at the foot of her bed were three other people. On the left was Tails, his face glowing in the light of the candle he held in his hand. Beside him stood Knuckles, whose face could also be made out in the candlelight. The wolf also noticed that Knuckles held a rope in his hand, which led into a knot that tied up the hands of a third person with them that Carrie didn't recognize...and yet he looked familiar somehow. He was a gray fox. The candlelight reflected off of his eyes, making them shine like small torches in the darkness.

Since nobody spoke, Carrie decided to break the silence. Sitting up in her bed, she asked, "What is it you two? And who's this with you?"

"Carrie...there's someone here who'd like to talk with you," Tails said, gesturing towards the older fox.

She turned her attention to him, as he put on a small smile.

"Carrie," the fox said softly. "There isn't an easy way to put this, so I'll just say it straight up. It's me, your brother...Augustine...or Nail, as I go by today."

For a moment, Carrie was silent. However, a moment later her mind actually started to process the shocking information, and her mouth opened slightly in surprise. She leaned forward slightly, trying to get a better look at this fox.

"What?" she gasped. "How is that possible?"

Even as she said it though, she realized that it was very possible this vulpine was her brother. Augustine was a fox, had gray fur, and yellow wolf eyes. The person standing before him had all of these traits. Furthermore, she couldn't sense he was hiding anything in his mind, so he must not be lying. However, she was a tad skeptical.

"So is it really you, Aug?" Carrie said, sliding out of bed and moving over to him. "How do I know it's you?"

"Well...what would do you want me to do to prove it to you, Carrie?" Nail said. "Want me to tell you what your favorite song used to be? Or maybe the names of your friends at grade school? Or maybe something I did for you?"

The last one brought a memory to Carrie's mind...

Carrie moved to stand behind her brother, as Aug confronted the drunk cat.

"What do you want?" Aug asked.

"Give me all your money!" he shouted, stepping closer to point the knife at Aug's head.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out four one-demen bills and handed them to the cat. The feline waited a moment to see if Aug would give him any more money, and then he growled as he brought the knife closer to the fox's head.

"That's all you've got?" he screamed.

"Well...yeah," Aug said, starting to feel a bit afraid. "We're just kids. We don't have anything else."

That only seemed to enrage the drunken man even further. With a shout, he slashed his knife across Aug's chest. Aug cried out in pain as the knife cut all the way through his clothes, his fur, and down to the skin underneath. He looked down, and blood was already beginning to seep out and soak his clothes. Before he had time to do anything else, the drunken cat threw him aside and advanced on Carrie.

"Now it's your turn girl!" he shouted. "This is what you get for wasting my time!"

Carrie screamed, and ran past Aug down the street. However, since the cat had much longer legs as an adult, he easily caught up with her. The feline's hand wrapped around the hood of her coat, and she was yanked backwards. He pulled out his knife and prepared to slice her just as he'd done to Aug.

"Stop!" Aug shouted, climbing to his feet as he held an arm to cover his wound.

"You want some more, pup?" the cat said, turning to face him.

Carrie looked the fox up and down again. Her eyes rested on his chest.

"Aug...if that is you, can you take off your chest armor?" she asked, looking back up to his face.

"Why would you want him to do that?" Knuckles asked.

"Just trust me, Knuckles," Carrie answered, looking at him.

The fox looked confused for a moment, but then he gave a little smile, apparently catching onto what she was hinting at. Did that mean that he really was her brother? Anyone else probably wouldn't have reacted that way...

As she thought about it, Tails undid the bonds on the fox's hands. After he was done, the vulpine lifted the upper section of his armor up over his head, exposing a dark blue T-shirt underneath the metal plates. That definitely wasn't standard issue among Tneicnan soldiers, since it was a modern garment, although she hardly noticed. He then took off the shirt, exposing two scars forming a cross mark on his upper chest. She remembered Aug having a scar in the same area after the knife attack...

"I think you know where I got this, right Carrie?" the fox asked. "It was that drunk with the knife, when we were waiting for the school bus when we were little kids."

Carrie froze, her mouth hanging open in shock.

It has to be him! All of this can't just be coincidence! He looks like Aug, has the same memories as Aug, he seems to be what Aug's age would be today, he's got Aug's scars, and to top it all off I sense he's not lying! This has to be him!

A broad grin crossed the wolf's face, as she ran over and wrapped her arms around Aug in a hug. Despite her brother being two years older, she still surpassed him in height by a few inches due to her species. Aug seemed to freeze up for a moment, surprised by the sudden move, although within a few seconds he too started to hug back. Tears of joy began to stream down Carrie's face, and she realized she could feel tears dripping from Aug's face too.

"Oh Aug! It really is you!" she yelled, between the hugs. "It's been years!"

"I know!" Nail said back. "I can't believe this is happening! I'll never leave you alone again!"

The two temporarily separated, both with tears streaming down their faces and their mouths stretching into wide smiles. Neither of them spoke for a few moments, as they were too happy to say anything.

Suddenly, Knuckles broke the silence a little cough, causing everyone in the room to look at him.

"Sorry to spoil the reunion Carrie," Knuckles said, glaring at Nail. "But I'm afraid there's something else you should know about your brother Nail here. He was the one who kidnapped Sonic."

It was like someone had torn out Carrie's heart and filled in the hole with cement. She stared hard at Knuckles, before looking Nail up and down. Her brother looked as though he'd just accidentally killed her best friend. Come to think of it, that wasn't too far away from what he had done. In shame, Nail closed his eyes and faced away from Carrie.

"Is it true, Nail?" Carrie asked.

"Yes...it's true Carrie. I'm the one who..." Nail choked for a moment. "...kidnapped Sonic."

Carrie's tears of joy turned to tears of anger and sadness. Of all the people in the world, why did it have to be her brother who had done such a crime? It made her feel like crawling into a hole and never showing her face to anyone again. She'd been wishing for so long to see anyone from her family again. This was supposed to be a happy reunion, not one where she felt like hiding in a dark corner and wishing to never be seen again!

Meanwhile, a smirk crossed Knuckles' face.

"Heh heh, I knew he was the one who did it," the echidna said with a dark smile. "Finally, we can get Sonic back again."

Carrie growled, as she turned to face Knuckles. She gave him a hard slap across the face, and he was so caught off guard by the sudden strike that he nearly fell down. Only putting his arm out kept him standing. Knuckles reared back up again, the red mark of a hand across his face. Tails just stood nearby, his mouth hanging open in surprise.

"Knuckles!" Carrie screamed. "This is no time for you to show off how happy you are! Don't you know how cold it makes you look?"

Knuckles' eyes bulged out in surprise, and he didn't seem to know what to say. Both Nail and Tails had their mouths hanging open too, and for good reason. As far as Carrie knew, this was the first time she'd ever had such an outburst in front of anyone, and that included Aug in all the years he'd known him.

"I...I'm sorry," Knuckles said. "But...Sonic. Even if he is my rival, I don't want anything to happen to him, because he's also my friend. I just got carried away. I mean, I just caught the one person who'd know where he is..."

Tails, Knuckles, and Carrie faced Nail. As they all stared at him, he turned his head down to the floor to avoid looking them in the face.

"I'm so sorry everyone..." Nail said. "You see, I'm a mercenary for hire, and Sonic was worth ten million demens. That's why I captured him. The money was just too good to—"

"Aug!" Carrie cried, tears streaming down her face. "How could you do this? You used to be such a good brother! You never did anything wrong at all, and you only fought when it was to protect someone! Now you've made me feel ashamed to be your sister!"

"Carrie..." Nail started again. "I wouldn't mind stopping this work, but the money—"

"Is that all you care about Nail?" Carrie interrupted. "Money?"

Nail narrowed his eyes, his tone shifting to anger.

"It was ten million demens for Sonic! Nobody in their right mind would ignore an offer like that!"

"But it's wrong! How can you do this? Has your conscience left you completely? I don't remember you being like this at all! What happened to Aug? He protected me from that drunk with the knife, and I want him back! Not Nail!"

Carrie fell to the floor, tears streaming from her face like a waterfall. Through her teary eyes, she saw Nail moving closer and kneeling next to her. He put one arm across her back.

"Oh Carrie," Nail started. "I'm so sorry..."

The wolf pushed Nail away, as he tried to get close to her.

"Don't touch me!" she cried, looking at him furiously. "If you really do feel sorry, then you'll quit your work as a mercenary right now and give us back Sonic! It's the right thing to do, and what I know Aug would do!"

She stood up to her full height and towered over Nail. Her face had a hard expression of fury, while he just looked on in surprise.

"If you really want me to accept you as my brother again, you'll do it. Show me that you care about more than just money!"

Again, there was a moment of silence between everyone. Nail had turned to look away from his sister, apparently to think about it. However, Carrie's gaze never left her brother. After five minutes, Nail finally stood up and looked her sister square in the eye.

"All right..." Nail said. "I'll go get Sonic back. I swear it."

"Well go out there and do it then already," Carrie said firmly, pointing at the door.

"There's a problem though," Nail said.

"What is it? Don't tell me you're already thinking of not doing this!"

"Calm down Carrie!" Nail said, waving his arm for emphasis. "It's nothing like that! What I was going to say was that while me and my friend Redrum were out in the woods, Nack and a friend of his attacked us. They stole away Sonic too, and now he's their captive. They're probably on their way to the drop site right now."

Tails and Knuckles both looked like they were ready to tear Nail limb from limb. Carrie hardly noticed though. She felt a ripple cross through her brother's thoughts. He was definitely plotting something bad in his mind right now. A small frown formed on her face.

"You idiot!" Knuckles screamed. "I hate you! I'll never forgive you if anything happens to Sonic while he's with Canma and Nack."

Now it was Nail's turn to look like he wanted to crawl into a dark hole and never be seen again. He stared down at his feet, as he shifted them around.

"I-I'm sorry, but—"

"But what?" Knuckles howled. "Sorry isn't gonna fix anything, and neither are excuses!"

Nail reared up his head and glared hard at Knuckles. "I wasn't finished speaking yet, you stupid echidna!"

"I'll show you stupid!" Knuckles said, lunging towards Nail with a fist.

However, Tails grabbed ahold of his arm before the fist could hit him.

"Everyone, just calm down!" Tails shouted, speaking for only the second time since they'd come into the room. "This is crazy!"

Nail sighed. "Sorry."

Knuckles just glared at Tails, and grunted a bit. The echidna moved over to stare out the window. Tails looked at him for a moment, before looking back to Nail.

"Now, what were you going to say, Nail?" Tails asked.

"I was gonna say," Nail started. "If we're going to catch them, we gotta get a move on. That hover bike of Nack's is damn fast. He could probably get to the drop off point within several hours if he hurries. He's already got a head start on us, and I bet you you'll never see Sonic again if he reaches the client."

"Don't worry about it," Tails said with a smile. "The Tornado 2 isn't much of a slowpoke either. I bet you we could catch up."

"Good then," Nail nodded. "I'll come with you."

"No you're not," Knuckles said, striding over to Nail. The two of them stood foot to foot and face to face. "You tried to steal away Sonic for money. I can't trust you. I know you're just wanting to get away."

"Please let me go with you," Nail said, speaking a little urgently. "Honestly, I do want to help. It's the least I can do for you, for looking after my sister for the last two years. If I knew about this, I'd have dropped this mission completely."

In a pleading tone, he continued to speak.

"You've got no idea what meeting my sister again means to me. It's been driving me nuts for so long, wondering if I have any family left, but now my wondering days are over, and it feels so great. I'm begging you... Give me a chance to repay you for bringing me to my sister. Look, even she said she wants me to go out and help before."

Carrie growled softly under her breath as she heard that. She could still sense her brother wasn't being totally honest with these two.

"No," Knuckles said flatly. "It's too dangerous to bring him along. This could all just be a trick for him to try to escape, or worse, try to capture us so he can get money that way instead. Carrie, what do you think? Do you think we can trust him?"

All eyes in the room were now on Carrie. Nail stared at her fearfully, knowing that she held his fate in her hands. Whatever she said, that's what they'd trust, since she was the telepath of the group. She let out a deep sigh, because it would be difficult for her to bring out what she was about to say.

At long last, she said, with tears in her eyes, "No Knuckles... We...can't trust him. He only wants to get away. I can sense it in him."

Carrie closed her eyes and cried some more, feeling betrayed by her brother. Was he really this shallow? Had everything she'd said done nothing to affect his mindset? What's worse, she felt terrible about sentencing him to prison like this. Through her tear-clouded eyes, she saw her brother was in a state of shock. Knuckles had a sly grin on his face, as he pushed Nail towards the guards waiting at the entrance of the room.

"Take him away," the echidna said, with an immense tone of satisfaction.

Sniffling some more, Carrie crawled back into bed and started to cry herself back to sleep.