Chapter Fifty-Six

Me: Before Tahra gets her turn, there's one last detail I intended to add to Chapter 55. I don't feel like changing the actual chapter, so I'll put it here.

Tahra: What detail could be so important as to keep me from getting my shot at that pervert angel? Start talking, author boy!

Me: Oh, pipe down, Goth girl.

Tahra: It's PERKY GOTH, YOU IDIOT!

Me: (pwned)

-- -- -- -- --

With Ragozine gone, Amy could free all the dragons imprisoned in the fortress without fear of attack, and did so after Alneetha flew off into the night. Each one gratefully thanked her before taking leave, sometimes with a bow of the head or a short telepathic message. It did Amy's heart even more good to know that these beasts would finally be able to live their own way without fear of mind control.

As Amy searched around for more dragons to free, she stumbled upon what seemed to be Ragozine's study. She figured that since he was as dead as physically possible, she could loot the place of anything that struck her fancy. But it was only full of sinister books and notes from his experiments, detailing gruesome things that the girl was not willing to read in detail. As she sifted around for anything she might actually want, she heard something made of glass shatter in a nearby room. Figuring it was nothing, she continued looking.

She did find one item worth keeping…it was a notebook, not the scrolls of parchment Ragozine used…and the handwriting was different. She soon realized who it was: it was one of the journals of Geoffrey Ullundara, monitoring the progress of her early days…the heading "Project Minerva" was a dead giveaway. She read about all the daily tests she went through. She was relieved to know that never once did the scientist consider her an object…he always called her Amy, never as "the specimen", or "Project Minerva". She was awed by all the things that happened during his day.

As Amy read on, she suddenly started to hear the sound of a frog in the hallway. Her curiosity finally got the better of her, and after dog-earring the page she was on, she went to investigate the frog sounds. Sure enough, there was a large frog about the size of her hand hopping down the hallway…it was Froggy, Big's companion. She could only imagine what Ragozine was using Froggy for. The amphibian seemed to recognize Amy, as it made no attempt to flee from her when she approached it. In fact, as she bent down to pick up the frog, it hopped onto her head. She wondered why the amphibian had decided to stick with her.

Maybe Big wanted it this way, Amy said to herself. With Froggy and the doctor's notebook, she finally took leave of the sinister fortress, and never planned to return.

-- -- -- -- --

"That's it…I've never looking at hentai websites EVER AGAIN," Nack said as he, Tahra and Armeil reached the nineteenth floor in Leawdak's tower. They had seen things, many of them too wild and perverted to be written here, and all three were either disturbed greatly or sickened to their stomachs. But that soon became secondary when Tahra noticed a figure standing just outside of the light hanging the center of the room. The figure was wielding a huge axe, bigger than Labrys. When the figure strode into the light, all three of them recognized the figure…it was Haishin.

"I've been waiting here for quite some time now…Leawdak said you were in his tower. Did you like what he's done?"

"Like it?" Tahra answered indignantly, "He's turning the bodies of innocent girls into…ergh, just thinking about it makes me sick. But there's a more important question…"

Nack asked the very question Tahra was about to, pointing one of the Law Givers at the evil prince, "Where's Rouge!" The prince chuckled, and then started laughing. Apparently he though whatever was happening to the bat was downright hilarious. In fact, he started cackling wildly. Immediately, Tahra's phobia surged up, making her knees buckle, and she dropped to the ground, covering her ears to stop out the sound.

"Oh…sorry about that, sweetie," Haishin said sardonically. "I didn't know maniacal laughter had that much effect on you…wait…I did!" Tahra stood up again and readied Labrys for battle. Nack was about to start forward, but Armeil stopped him by blocking him with an arm.

"This is her battle to fight," he said as he nudged Nack to the stairwell. "We should only intervene if she needs it."

"What happened to the Haishin I used to know?" Tahra said as she stood there, waiting for Haishin to make the first move. He did, and instead answered her question as their two mighty weapons clashed.

"The old Haishin died on the day you rejected me…the day you tore my heart out and smashed it with your words!" It was in that moment of rage that the last bit of Haishin's heart was devoured through the pendant…and thus, Haishin became a Heartless. This was also indicated when he suddenly turned a few shades darker, and his eyes began glowing yellow. Haishin took a hard downward swing, which Tahra deftly dodged.

"Uh…Armeil…what's with that?" Nack whispered to the echidna.

"He's lost his heart and soul…that pendant is the only thing keeping him alive now…"

The battle was now increasing in speed and velocity, and now both combatants were bounding off of walls as they clashed. They had been little communication for some time now, but Tahra began to notice Haishin's new state, and suspected that he was beyond saving. Until now she had been holding back in the hope of reviving the good in him, but now she knew it was hopeless. She knew there was no way he could win when she went at him, even without a Super form. Even though he had mocked her and openly attacked her, Tahra still viewed the prince as a friend.

As the two clashed again and began forcing on each other, Tahra made one last statement to him…

"Haishin…old friend…I see that you haven't the heart to beat me…"

"What are you talking about!" he said, now with a dark echo to his voice.

"I mean what I say…you have no heart…and now I'm going to defeat you. It pains to me to do this…but I must do it…for your sake and for mine…"

He stopped pushing, and stepped aside, using Haishin's own strength against him. As he stumbled by, she, with a tear in her eye, lopped his head off with a single swing of Labrys, then smashed the pendant, since her instinct told her that it was keeping Haishin alive. There was no blood spurting from the dead prince's neck, since no blood flows through the veins of Heartless. His body moldered into black dust, and he was no more.

Armeil and Nack were dumbfounded. The very being who had taken them down with one swing had just gotten the same treatment. Had Akuma trained her well enough for this to happen? They could only imagine what surprises the young descendant of warrior queens had in store for the perverted angel who ran the place, as well as them.

"Well, I suppose that leaves only Leawdak himself…" Armeil said as he continued through the room. Nack, with a grin, removed a pair of submachine guns from of his fur and followed the echidna. Tahra watched the weasel do that with a little surprise, and she wondered if he was really going to use that thing.

-- -- -- -- -- --

"Just send her to the experimental room, there's no time," Leawdak spat as he reviewed the last of the girls sent up to him. Even though he knew that there were three intruders in his tower, he continued his daily business, including inspecting new arrivals to his tower. The girl was a white female hedgehog…the one named Melody, the old favorite of Regal before Vera obtained that role.

But before anything could be done, about twenty rounds shot through the head of an angel who was guarding her. Nack was standing on the landing, and Tahra came up from behind him, and waved Melody over. Leawdak made no move to stop the barely-clothed and nearly crying girl.

"Look who decided to show up…not only has one of those little Chosen, but the traitor and my own wimpy light side…how nice." The black-haired angel stood up, and summoned a large black and spiky whip to his hand.

Tahra chuckled as she gripped her axe tightly. "It figures that the guy with all the sexual deviances would have a whip. Big load of good it will do you…"

Leawdak grinned and snapped the whip at Labrys in an attempt to disarm her. Though the whip did get around the axe, he couldn't remove it from Tahra's iron grip on the weapon. She shifted to her Heroic form, and tugged hard, pulling the whip loose, then shot a small energy blast at it, disintegrating it.

"Really, buddy…you're going to have to do better than that…or have been too busy pleasuring yourself with innocent girls to learn how to fight properly!"

"Hmph…maybe I cannot fight in this form…" the black-haired angel sneered, before shifting back to the blond-haired form of Dark Armeil…"but I can in this one!" He called forth a huge scimitar to his hands. Tahra grinned and readied herself, holding Labrys two-handed.

"Now things have gotten interesting…maybe you'll actually be a challenge!"

The two fighters dashed at each other with blinding speed, their weapons clashing brightly. Dark Armeil quickly broke the pushing and tried to hit the hedgehog, but she bounded upwards and then disappeared, warping behind the angel leader, and, with no disguise of her pleasure, sliced off one of his wings. The angel knocked her away and regenerated the decapitated wing before launching another attack.

"You dare to mock me? I am the king of heaven, who dethroned the old gods ages ago!" the angelic Armeil ranted as he clashed with Tahra again. He was obviously annoyed at the girl's defiant attitude, as well as her ability. But then again, all of the people like her were this way.

When Dark Armeil defeated the old order of angels and established his own, the first people to oppose him were these warrior women. They were also his strongest opponents, and he made it a point to kill them all off. He had believed that he had succeeded, but apparently he missed one: Tahra's ancestor. The ancestor had been on a journey when the Judgment destroyed her homeland, and her line established the high ranks of the Emerald Light's clergy. Now it was payback time for that dead race…

Tahra immediately broke away, spun behind him, and jabbed the angel in the back with the pointed end of her axe…and it went right through his chest, spearing his evil heart. The so-called king of heaven crumpled to the floor, but was not dead. Tahra figured it was a good time to get information out of him. She picked up the dying angel, and began her interrogation.

"Okay, blond-boy, start talking…where's Rouge, and what have you done with her?"

The angel thought about this for a minute, then started laughing. Blood was starting to leak out of his throat as he did. This laughter could not trigger Tahra's phobia, but she couldn't help but wonder what was so funny.

"Oh, she's alive…and in the room beyond here. But she won't respond or move!"

"…And why not?"

"…Because she's carrying babies…Lord Geddon's babies!"

Nack's rage suddenly flared up, and he tried to rush at the dying angel, screaming and cursing. The echidna Armeil had to hold him back, just so Tahra could finish her interrogation. Now the angel was starting to get a psychotic look in

"What's more…when those babies are ready to come out…they'll begin to eat their way out…while she's still alive!" He began cackling incessantly in his dying delirium, but Tahra was too angry to be scared by this. Never in her life had she heard anything so disgusting, so vile. She just had to shut this guy up once and for all. She pulled the axe out of him, and in a righteous fury, she split his head open, and the king of heaven turned to dust at last, Armeil's evil silenced forever.

Nack immediately pulled himself out of the echidna's grip, and he rushed to the room beyond where, just as the evil angel had said, Rouge was waiting. She was chained to the wall, and was looking noticeably plumper around the middle from her dire encounter with the Meteor Parasite. Her eyes were glazed over, and it was hard to tell that she was even breathing. Nack quickly took her off the wall, and held her in his arms, tears of anger running down his face.

"That creep…he'll pay for what he's done…" Tahra said when she came in and saw this pitiful sight. "C'mon…let's sweep out the rest of this tower and find a way to fix those poor girls."

"Good idea," Armeil replied. "But let Nack stay here." Tahra nodded, and the two went off to do just as they had said.

-- -- -- -- -- --

"Sonic…aren't you having fun with this?" Knuckles asked as Team Sonic grinded down a rail that spanned across Eggman's fleet. The blue hedgehog's mood was determined but grim today. He was not the same fun-loving fellow that had left them a year ago.

"Saving the world is serious business, Knux…it's not fun in the least…"

Tails seemed surprised. "Sonic…not having fun?" he exclaimed as the three bounded off the rail and onto another one. "That's a first. C'mon Sonic, this is Egghead we're talking about! You love thrashing him! Why the sudden change of opinion?"

"For the first time in my life, Tails…I feel like I have a responsibility to the world. I've saved the world just because I thought it was fun. Now I realize just how much people need saviors. They're unable to do anything for themselves…especially against an enemy this powerful. Besides, I was younger then, and I didn't have someone I truly cared about."

"Tahra?" Knuckles asked.

"Yeah…she means everything to me. I don't know how she did it, but she won me over big time."

"Weren't you secretly in love with Amy for a while?" Tails said as the team readied to land on another platform with Eggman's robots waiting for them.

"Yeah…but I'm happy for the girl now. She's found Shadow, and I'm not jealous in the least. Now c'mon, let's find Eggman and crack him wide open!"

"That's the Sonic I know!" Knuckles cheered as they began their attack on the robots.

-- -- -- -- --

Tahra: What? That was too easy. Shadow's fight was longer than mine by a long shot!

Nack: And what possessed you to make Rouge a living egg sac?

Me: Call it my evil side. But next up, a final duel to end a long rivalry is at hand…Sonic vs. Eggman! You won't want to miss this final battle! And once that's over, the siege on Hasyn begins!

Regal: What about me and Vera? At what does that slut Melody have to do with all this?

Me: It will all be told in time. I just hope ScarletEbon gets back from her vacation…it's been six days since she was on Deviant Art…