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Sonic the Hedgehog: Guardians
Epilogue: To Wake, Perchance to Hope
The guardian remained in his seat, watching as the world burnt before his eyes.
In this place, beneath rock and stone, the fire had yet to reach him. That which spread across the world had not yet touched this place.
In time, maybe. In time, this place might also fall. In time, in truth…time was ticking away, as creatures of steel spread fire, leaving naught but ash and sorrow in their wake.
Upon one screen, the burning of a village. Upon another, giant ships bearing a madman's insignia, cutting through the sky. On the third, Metropolis itself – shining pillars of white, far removed from the darkness that emanated from them. On the fourth, grasslands turning to desert. On the fifth, an ocean tainted by oil. And on the sixth, and the seventh, and beyond, the same sights repeated over and over.
Let it not be said that the end of the world would not be televised.
He rubbed his eyes, fighting off the desire, if not the need, for sleep. Such sights haunted his waking hours more than his sleeping ones these days, for the latter was fleeting. The latter, dreams or no, was still escape from daytime's nightmare. Sleep's oblivion in all its darkness, was still kinder than what reality now offered.
What reality might offer forevermore.
He lay back and closed the gates of his mind, shutting off reality's intrusion. It might lay siege to the fortress named his mind, but for now, the walls held. For now, sleep.
Sleep.
Sleep…
"Knuckles?"
To awake to the sound of Rouge's voice…
"Open your eyes, handsome. Lady like me's worth looking at."
…And obey the bat. Because even though he was the leader of the Resistance, a good leader knew when to follow the advice of his soldiers.
Soldiers…
"That's better," Rouge said, smirking.
"You listening, hon?"
"Just thinking," he murmured.
"About what?"
He frowned. "Being a leader." And how many have become soldiers.
There was a flicker on the screen as Rouge glanced aside. The background was grimy and industrial, which meant that she was in any number of Eggman's bases. At last count, there was over a hundred of them, with more constructed every day. As the Eggman Empire swept across the planet, it didn't just burn things down, it built things up.
Even the agreement with GUN a few months back hadn't changed the tide of battle. All their battleships, all their support, and all it had done was to slow, rather than stem the tide of steel bearing down on them. And with 99% of the planet now occupied by the Empire, including the United Federation (reduced to only a few holdouts by the latest reports), the leader of the Resistance knew that he couldn't count on any more support. He'd been born on Angel Island, and now, on South Island, chances are he was going to die here.
Or worse.
"That bad, is it?" Rouge asked.
"Excuse me?"
"Don't play silly with me, Red, I can read you like a treasure map."
Knuckles didn't say anything.
"No 'rally the troops' speech?"
The guardian formed a small smile. "I'll save that for actually rallying the troops." He rubbed his forehead, thinking of the rookie who he'd handed a wispon to only hours earlier. "As long as I've still got troops to lead."
"Yeah? Well what if I told you there was one more you could lead?"
Knuckles snorted. "I'd ask who the poor sucker was."
"Sonic."
He sat there. Staring. Feeling a chill run down his spine.
"Sonic is alive," Rouge said, her voice uncharacteristically low. "He's being kept in an orbital prison where they've been torturing him ever since he was captured." She frowned. "Little cold, if you ask me."
Knuckles frowned. Torture wasn't usually Eggman's schtick – he was more interested in getting animals inside machines than damaging his would-be batteries. But…he rubbed the side of his chest. The point where, years ago, Eggman had stuck an electric tentacle into that side (and the other), and zapped him with a few thousand volts after stealing the Master Emerald, laughing and mocking him all the while. He'd failed as a guardian, the doctor had told him. And now, the world was going to pay the price for his failure.
Funny, really. Huggy told him the same thing every time he visited his cell. The bear couldn't move, but news reached him all the same. Only when Eggman, then known as Robotnik, had told him he'd failed, he would have been correct, if not for the blue blur who'd saved him, Angel Island, the Master Emerald, and by extension, the world. And now, six months after Sonic's defeat in Sunset City…
"Sonic's alive," Knuckles mused.
"That's the smell in the air, Red." Rouge wiped her nose. "Ugh. The chemicals here are something nasty."
"Sonic's alive," the guardian repeated, leaning back in his chair.
"You losing your marbles, Red? How many times do I have to repeat myself? Yes, the blue boy's alive. Always has been."
Knuckles didn't answer, as his mind wandered. Thinking of the time when he'd first met the hedgehog on Angel Island. Of when a different hedgehog of silver fur had come to him on that same island six months ago, warning him of the looming threat to the world. Of when he'd thought the first hedgehog he'd met lost forever. And…
And of a city, not unlike this one. Where he'd worked with guardians of a different kind. Of the men who'd risked their lives to help the people he'd formed the Resistance to defend. Who'd done it without thought for any reward.
Maybe it's because we're like you," Dutch Warner had whispered. "We're guardians."
He didn't know what had happened to Dutch, or any of the team he'd met. He knew that Omega Site was still holding out against the Empire, with GUN doing its own resistance within its territories. He hoped that they were still alive. Heck, Omega Site was probably the most secure place on the planet like now. Not like this place, he reflected, looking at the roof of the bunker. The city above was a war-zone, with Egg Pawns in the streets, and Death Egg robots destroying everything above them. If Eggman's plan was to remove the surface of all life not subservient to him, then…
Well, they were down here. In a way, he'd already succeeded. But with Sonic apparently above the planet…
He looked at Rouge. "You're at the Westside chemical plant, right?"
Rouge pinched her nose by way of response.
"How's security on the spaceport?"
"Lax. Eggman thinks he's won, so security's flimsier than the Grand Central Bank. Why?"
Knuckles smiled and got to his feet. "We'll be in touch," he said. "Oh, and thank you."
Rouge smirked, her fangs gleaming in the dim light. "Wanna thank me, you can have a nice supply of rubies for me when this is over. Or, a nice ring. I mean, with Shadow missing, I-"
Knuckles cut off the feed. before glancing back at the screens around Rouge. A burning village. The Egg Fleet. Metropolis. Images that had been burnt into his mind as surely as the world itself was burning. Images that he'd never forget. Images that he kept in mind as he reactivated the comms. feed, upon which appeared the visages of Amy Rose and Silver the Hedgehog.
"I've just received some incredible news." Knuckles smiled, for the first time in an age. "Sonic is alive!"
"No way!" Silver exclaimed. "That's excellent!"
"What?" Amy asked, her throat trembling, yet her voice as high as Silver's. "Oh thank goodness! I knew it! I knew it!"
The joy in their eyes. In their voices…
"He's captured in the orbiting prison. My spy there says he's in a solitary confinement cell, and they've been torturing him for months."
For a moment, he dared to dream that they'd won already. And with GUN's battleships at their disposal, and soon, Sonic…
Maybe they had.
Maybe they could be the freedom fighters he'd formed the Resistance to be.
After all, Knuckles reflected as he laid out his plan, were they not all guardians?
Fin