Here we are. The last chapter with an epilogue at the end. From here its all from here. I will see you at the Author's notes after the epilogue in a few days from this posting.
Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Sonic franchise.
And now the conclusion.
The Guardian's Cometh
By: Mauser
"'Ah've out done myself, Sug'ah-King. She's surely a peach, now."
Elias eyes were filled with an inner awe that betrayed is featureless face. His soul was quiet, his heart beating hard enough to know he was in the corporeal world and not seeing Meg as if he were a restless ghost. Bunnie was right, she had out done herself.
"I love her hair, Bunnie," he said with an easing voice. Like opening a door gently.
Meg kept silent for the most part, but, with an eye to Elias, her lips tugged nervously. She has never been one to take pleasure, or even solace, to having something done for her without feeling obligated to return a favor. Elias wondered how he was going to explain to his wife, like many times before, that giving smiles sometimes was the only commodity needed. Maybe this time it would stick.
He hoped.
"I–I thank you, Bunnie," Meg said with some effort, both of their eyes meeting.
"Oh, sug," Bunnie said candidly, "Ah don't pass up a chance to perfect m'ah talents, and on such a fine lady as you."
Looking around the room, Bunnie took in the large marble floor, its white gleam reflecting off the orange, fading sunlight from the twin large stain-glass windows to Elias back. For a mere lapse in a time of her own, she felt alone, wrapping herself up in what Elias knew was a burdening worry. The cutting sheers and combs on the oak table, and the chair fit for a common Mobian placed beside it, all seemed like an abstract piece of setting to them. And when Bunnie turned her face from the window to Elias, her eyes were asking the question that had been plaguing him longer than it has her.
All he could do was stare away and shake his head.
Antoine and team were overdue, and it ate at both of them.
All he could do was breath. His eyes were wide, searching for...something. Doors were closed up and down the hallway. He was still on the second floor, but traversing a balcony overlooking a large indoor courtyard. Aleutian had left Sally and his father to help with Amy.
It was just him.
Sally told him where she knew Elias was. Hopefully they hadn't moved, hoping they may be away from the castle. Maybe the last Combot might de-cloak. Maybe it had to cool down, just enough time for Aleutian to double tap it in the chest and send one round to through its eye.
Yeah, like you bullets will do anything except a headshot. No Mozambique drill. Just DRILL it!
What he would give for an Overlander plasma carbine right now—
A figure come out a door to his left. He stopped, hugged the wall and took aim. Two handed grip, thumbs pointing forward, looking down he sites...empty. He blinked, lowering his weapon. The door was closed. No one in front of him. But he swore...he swore he saw the white suit of Sammy the Slime. He closed his eyes, took a breath, and then opened them. Nothing. His blue eyes searched more, but still the hallway was empty.
He pressed on, keeping his pistol tight against his chest, but the barrel still forward. No need to show his gun before himself.
A threshold to his left, Pistol out and away from the wall, he pied it to the right, leaning around the corner with small steps before pushing through the fatal funnel of the threshold.
Stairs!
They went down and opened up to the right to the courtyard. Hugging the outside bannister, he slowly descended, his voice nagging at him to pick up the pace. Barrel low, then barrel high. He kept both eyes open, his sites even, his front site in focus to the background.
Landing on the ground floor, he continued right, going under the balcony he just walked across.
Body!
It was a guard, the back of his neck bloody, his face to the ground. He looked to be a Wolf, or a fox, its fur a red with black lines, seeing pointed ears.
Cordite and blood filtered through his senses, not from the present but from the past. He closed his eyes, shaking his head and the memory off. No. Not now. But it didn't obey. Mud, bodies...Emi-la's, face down in the mud. The rain pouring through the dancing smoke.
"Keep going."
Aleutian looked behind him, his weapon still pointed down the hallway in front of him. Locke was three steps from the ground.
"Focus on the now, son."
Aleutian nodded, but stopped. "Where's Sally? Amy?"
"They're gone. I didn't feel the bot on the way out, so I came to help you."
Aleutian nodded again. "She said the Reception Hall was just down here." He pointed his gaze at the fallen guard.
Locke's face firmed up. "We aren't far."
Sonic checked his N-76 static line parachute harness. "Yo, Knux, this look good?" he asked Knuckles as the Echidna walked past him to the rear side door.
Hershey stepped behind the Hedgehog. "Hold still, let me tighten your upper shoulder strap so you don't slip out."
A quick tug and a slight slap on the head. "Hook up!" was all the cat said to him.
Knuckles turned to Hershey. "Time!?"
She looked back at the cockpit to Rotor, past the small pile of refugees sitting or laying on the metal deck. The walrus gave her ten fingers.
"Ten minutes!"
"Nothing takes ten minutes!" Sonic shouted annoyingly. His hand reached up and hooked his parachute line to the static line.
Knuckles tightened his face, then reached and opened side the door to the rushing air.
The creaking of the large door to the Reception Hall was what broke Elias from his trance and view he held of his wife. Bunnie had done such a job he felt he was seeing Meg for the first time, again.
Looking over his shoulder, he noticed no one was coming through the door.
"Sh'ug, if you want your nails done, Ah', know someone. She does mine all, the, time."
Elias attention went back to Meg and Bunnie. He smiled, was almost about to say something...
Something cold past by him. Like a ghost, a phantom. It spooked him such that he sidestepped to see what caused the feeling. Nothing.
His hand went for his sword–
On impulse Aleutian bolted to the open door. Please no!
He stopped short, facing close to the threshold when he felt his heart pounding through his chest. His father was right beside him.
"It's here. INSIDE!"
Bunnie saw Elias's stance, his expression searching. Her hand went to her right hip, grasping the wooden handle of her revolver. Meg was talking, but she never heard her.
Elias unsheathed his sword, and with the same movement sliced up—and connected to the air with a hard metallic CLANG! For a moment his sword hung in the air...then it started to disappear from the upper edge like blood tracing over the blade, trickling down like he hit something flesh.
His sword was instantly knocked out of his hands. It clanged and landed on the floor and against the wall to his right. He back peddled, his breathing increasing, his eyes wide.
He almost stumbled over a chair, but instead grabbed it and swung it in front of him. It stopped dead with a thud before it was crushed and broke in pieces by the nothing in front of him—
"Elias! DOWN!"
Aleutian's roar carried hard in the large open hall that Elias obeyed the command without recognizing hesitation. He dropped back and then hit the floor, almost tripping on Meg.
Sparks lite up in front of him. Two, a swish, then another spark, hitting like metal POPS. He watched has the copper slugs fell like mushroomed pedestals. Another hit, another spark.
But there was nothing to see!
Bunnie fired one shot, but it hit the back wall where the Princes' sword had bounced. She fire one more round, this time hitting dead air with a spark of its own.
Aleutian pressed his attack, firing three more roads, but only landing one on the bot he was sure was still next to Elias.
Locke appeared from behind him. "Its moving right. Towards us," he shouted, his right hand leveled .
Aleutian fired another round. Contact!
Sparks turned blue. A wave started to fade in and out from thin air. The white tile floor below them, however, was vanishing before reappearing. Dark green was fading into the light in blotches.
Another spark erupted after a BANG, this time Bunnie landing a shot. With the impact of the forty-five slug, more green began to appear, the floor below again, vanishing, then like a ebb of a river, reappearing.
"It bleeds!" Locke shouted.
"What bleeds?" Meg cried out, scurrying behind Bunnie.
The rabbit cocked her hammer back and fired off another round. Miss! She cocked her single action revolver again. Click!
She stepped back, reaching to her belt and began grabbing for her spare forty-five Long Sherdain rounds. Coking the hammer half way, she opened the cylinder gate, pulled the ejection rod down to push the spend case out before thumbing another round in, and repeated!
Aleutian in all of that was still pressing on. Another shot, another hit. More and more of the Combot bled, more its green armor was exposed!
Slide lock!
His last trigger pull fired his last round that looked like it bounced off the bot's shoulder. Aleutian opened his wrist pouch and pulled his spare magazine out. Ejecting his empty one, he slammed the other in the magazine well—
The bot was closing in on him!
He pushed his thumb down on the slide release.
The bot was closer, its face and eyes apeearing in raining blotches! It was completely fixated on the Guardian.
Slide to battery, Aleutian stepped further foraward. He fired, the round landing at the throat. The suppressed shot flicked more sparks with the bot's cloaking chemical spraying with it. Two steps closer, Aleutian could make out more of the face of the bot. Another step, another shot, this time to the head. The round bounced off.
Hit the eye!
He took two steps; the bot took three!
Another pull of the trigger, but it was more a snatch, sending the shot wide, impacting up near the side of the bot's right eye.
And at their closing steps, both bot and Aleutian connected, both never flinching—
Except for the Echinda's index finger. He was snatching it–over and over.
Nothing! No jump in his hands; no recoil!
Aleutian's eyes drifted to his pistol, it's supressor three centimeters from stabbing through the Combot's right eye. The slide was back, locked open!
"Ah, shi–"
The hit came so hard he though the bot had broken his jaw. But it hadn't. Instead, it sent Aleutian sailing, almost over his father if Locke hadn't used the power of the main Emerald to keep his son alive. He extended his hands out and guided Aleutian to the floor.
Locke turned and advanced, his hands up. The bot was becoming more and more exposed as it bled through it chemical cloaking fluid.
Bunnie had just closed the cylinder gate on her revolver, was about to take aim when Locke called out over his shoulder, still moving towards the Combot:
"Bunnie, get the Prince and Meg out of here. Get them to St. John. We can handle this thing!"
She looked on, almost took a shot, but decocked the hammer, holstered her pistol and ran to Meg, who was making her way to Elias. The Prince was finally up, moving towards the both of them.
Locke stood almost toe-to-toe with the now visible Combot. He was halfway expecting the bot to make demands. There was no chance.
Aleutian watched as his father nailed not one, but ten concessive punches to the bots chest, pounding his fists like jackhammers.
But the bot responded in kind, swinging at Locke and hitting the elder Echidna. The blow sent him to the bot's left side, but Locke was able carry himself with the strike. Following through, Locke used the momentum to slingshot around the bot's back, connecting his right fisted spiked knuckles across the back the bot as an sliding anchor. Sparks erupted from his knuckles digging into the armor of the bot as he circled around it, his right hand charged with energy channeled from the master emerald, ready for the strike to kill—
The bot swung and connected with Locke with its right arm, jutting the Echidna back and over to the floor.
Meg had Elias made one last look just as Locke landed, his body sliding and hitting the wall. Bunnie could only look on, shielding them behind her as she hurried them to the open door.
Aleutian watched his father tumble and slide to the wall...where lay Elias' sword. He began to move towards it, but stopped when the Combot advanced, the invisible liquid still bleeding out on the floor, giving the bot a cascading green blotchy skin like a waterfall exposing the rocks behind it.
The bot took a fisted swing, Aleutian ducking, rolling like a ball to his right to miss it before coming to his feet, launching himself towards the Prince's sword. Grabbing it with his right hand, he swung, but to empty air–the bot had moved on, pursuing Bunnie, Elias, and Meg. Aleutian didn't even look down to check on his father. The thought of throwing the sword over his head to send it to the bot entered his mind, but he instead sprinted forward. He brought the sword down to his right, executing a right side power swing that connected to the bot's back and left arm. The KLANG of the sword, and the minor spark, was all his effort produced. The attention he was seeking, however, was garnered, and not well. The Combot swung instantly around, its right arm moving faster than Aleutian could blink. All he could do was bring the sword up and swing down to block the fast chop.
The impact rippled like a hammer through his body, nearly knocking him off his feet.
Staggering backwards again, Aleutian this time grasped–far back it felt–to his training with Lopper. Like a scorpion ready to strike with its tail, Aleutian gripped the sword with both hands over his head, and tip high in a perfect angle lined through his nose to the floor.
Swinging down, he was close to hitting the bot's head—but was deflected by the bot's own blade that jutted from it's right wrist with a quickness Aleutian never saw.
Reversing his hands, Aleutian struck up from a downward arc from his left just fast enough it caught the bot at it's lower torso. More liquid bleed from it, the sword vanishing for a brief moment. But it didn't phaser the Combot—
Another blow that stung this time, straight to his face. It sent him sailing across the floor, his shirt ripping open from the blade narrowly missing him. Elias' sword left his grasp from the onslaught of pain, doubled from the concussion, his body finally stopping when the top of his head impacted the leg of the large hall's table.
His vision was way out of focus, beyond blurry. Aleutian tried to blink, tried to clear the pounding pain and fog, but only seeing just for a pause the waving traces of the blotchy green bot coming right at—
A white robe popped into his fading view. It jumped with a hard upper cut that produced sparks, scrapping of metal, and the spray of the bot's cloaking fluid.
Locke landed his first blow perfect. His second, though, was truly dead on, knocking the bot off balance.
As the bot backpedaled, it's arm blade retracting, Locke powered his arms, shaking them as if loading them like a gun. Three steps to close the gap, he reared back with his right, calling to the Master Emerald that burned into his fist, and pushed his fist as hard as he could, rotating his body for more power in his thrust, connecting straight at the bot's center.
The Combot sparked blue, it's full green armor now visible when his fist drive through and dented the chest plating. It rocked backwards before falling to the ground.
Locke, squaring up, waited. His breathing deep but steady. The bot, motionless. The power strike, boosted from the emerald's energy, even from afar, did the deed.
He turned, his eyes searching for his son. He was about to go to him, just pone step forward—
He heard actuators–hydraulics rams–gears, moving!
Locke could only turn one step before the Combot hit him with its forearm hard enough to send across the hall, his head connecting against the wall before slumping to the floor.
Aleutian's vision had just cleared, his left hand pushing him off the ground, when he saw the bot send his father across the hall. Something warm and went was running down his snout. It had pooled on the marble floor below him A quick tap produced blood from his right hand. He was bleeding from his scar.
"Now you've pissed me off!" he retorted evenly.
Looking up, the bot was homing in on him—
Sparks and three loud BANGS rung out in the hall. Bunnie had returned, firing her revolver as fast as she could cock the hammer and aim. Aleutian shielded his face with his arms, rolling to his left side to get away from the raining fragments from the lead bullets impact around him!
"Aim for its eyes, Bunnie!" he hammered out as he dove to the ground.
She actually heard him over her gun fire. Her first three rounds impacted its center mass. Cocking the hammer back, she took aim and fired at its head, the shot hitting it and bouncing off its armored head. Her second shot missed entirely.
Her last went straight for what she was aiming for—except the bot blocked it with its right forearm as it shielded its eyes.
With a new target, and Bunnie knowing it was her, the bot leaped over Aleutian, cleared the table, and slammed in front of Bunnie. She had just reached and got her second revolver from her left side when the Combot swatted at her like an angry parent. She rolled away to her right, sprung up, and fired off a wild shot that impacted below the bot's left arm. She cocked and aimed hurriedly at its head. She fired.
Her shot had scrapped past its left eye.
The Combot swung its fist, hammering at her gun, tossing it away. Its second blow connected to her chest. She was sent flying, piling her limp body her right on top of Locke's.
The Combot began to move, searching—
He was quick. Damn quick. But the shot he wanted wasn't there.
Aleutian had grabbed Bunnie's discarded revolver that skirted to Aleutian's feet. He fired at the side of the bot's head. It did the trick. Cocking the hammer back on the single action revolver, he fired once more, but the bullet hitting the mask cover hiding the bot's jaw.
By this time the bot had closed to mere feet. Aleutian could only widen his eyes, seeing the scrapes, the huge depression in the Bot's chest from his dad's blow, and impact marks of his and Bunnies rounds.
And panic began to take hold in Aleutian!
Out of fear, he held the trigger back and rapidly rolled his left hand over the hammer. The cylinder turned, fired when the hammer was released– the round hitting its torso. His left hand rolling the hammer back again! BANG!– It bounced off the bot's right arm.
The last round, the last slam fire he rolled off—it landed nearly at the bot's throat.
Nothing.
He rolled the hammer again, but to a click. He never looked down at it as the bot closed further to him.
He flung the gun at the Combot, backpedaling this time. The bot was between him and the open door. To Aleutian's left, his father and Bunnie...none of them moved.
Clenching his fist, gritting his teeth, he brought them up to bare, his arms extended out and over his over his exposed Guardian's crest from his ripped black shirt, blood tracing down from his scar,
All he could think at that moment in his life:
It's up to you!
Lopper's voice filtering into his head, and his heart.
Thee fight's like the Devil itself!
The light to his right was still red. It felt like an eternity before it had lite, and now it felt like Knuckles was waiting on the next eternity for it to turn green. His was posed at the door of the Mach 2, ready to propel himself out, hands at both edges, A quick look behind him saw Sonic was just as anxious as him.
Below them, the trees were creeping up closer. Rotor was descending the plane and slowing the speed. It gnawed at him. But he could see the castle coming up as he looked right. Before that the scattering of people.
"If we get any lower, I'm not going to need a freakin' parachute!"
It was all Knuckles could do to smirk, but it dissapeared as he saw the small blob of what he hoped were the contingency of Royal Guards running to the castle. They were too far away.
No time!
"See you on the ground!"
He didn't even look back to Sonic. He lunged out the door, tucking his head down, falling just for a few seconds before orienting himself face down with a vertical roll. Arms tucked in, the wind rushing through and over his deadlocks, Knuckles fell at thirty-two feet per second, per second. When his speed was right, he extended his arms and began his fast glide approach to the foot of the castle that seemed like miles than the half of one it was flying through.
It took minutes. Knuckles was hoping for seconds, but it was faster than waiting for the right drop point.
He tried for a right hook, but the bot anticipated it, blocking with the outside of its left forearm, and punching forward at Aleutian. It was a square land at his chest, but the Guardian was able to shrug part of it off when he dug his left fist into the bot's chest. His barbed knuckles connected, piercing through the armor and scrapping down to expose more of its insides.
But it wasn't enough. The bot just stepped forward, and on Aleutian's right foot.
Straight back came his voice, and he did, unlatching his left hand's clawed knuckles, and sliding his right foot from under the bot's before he lost his balance, he readied for another punch when the Combot took another swing from his right. Aleutian was quicker this time, putting up his left hand, sliding the bot's long arm across his before grabbing it with a tight clinch. He managed to stop the hydraulic ram.
A hard punch close the robot's elbow let out a loud crunch. But it didn't collapse the its elbow forward. The crunch, and the pain, was Aleutian's hand hitting more than he could lay in, with one of the spiked knuckles collapsing outward from his glove from the failed hit.
All Aleutian could do was look up before the bot connected another blow to his chest.
Tuck and roll!
Landing in a roll–his glide slope was too fast coming in–Knuckles carried the roll to his feet that turned into a full run. The castle was right in front of him, but he was a few hundred yards to the steps.
His legs pumping, his breathing deep, he ran faster than he could, almost tripped, but gaining himself back into his rhythmic stride.
He slowed when he saw Elias' moving with Meg helping him. They were maybe two hundred yards from the castle's entrance.
"Elais!?" he shouted.
The squirrel looked up. "Knuckles!" He stopped and looked behind him, Meg trying to continue on.
"Your father and brother are up there fighting something we couldn't see!"
Knuckles didn't answer him. He just ran past them, his eyes narrowing.
He could taste the blood in his mouth, smelling it through his nose. Aleutian was about to get off his back when the Combot nearly lunged on top of him. The Echidna kicked at the bot's leg, sending it backwards some, but it still fell right on top of him.
Aleutian cocked his head over just in time for the bot's right hand to smash through the white tile instead of his skull. Aleutian threw an uppercut at the bot's dented chest. Connecting, it sent it up a few feet.
But gravity didn't wait, bringing the bot back down, this time it's left hand grabbing at Aleutian's throat. The impact pushed air and blood from his mouth, spraying the bot's face mask.
It was that target that Aleutian fixated on just as the bot complete its mount for the ground-and-pound on Aleutian. The Guardian fired up with his left fist. The two knuckled spikes pierced through armor mask, dislodging it, and almost pulling the armor completely off.
It was then he saw his opportunity. The armor, hanging from a few wires, exposed the bot's lower possitronic brain. He just needed one blow from his gloved knuckles—
He cocked his left arm, ready to swing—
A harsh metallic HISS erupted over him. His eyes darted to his left. The bot's blade mirrored his reflection, his eyes widening in utter terror—
The bot sunk the blade straight through his left biceps, striking and braking his humerus bone almost in half, the blade piercing out the other side and through the floor—
"AHHHHHHHH!"
Knuckles skidded to a dead stop, his eyes going straight up at the castle majestic stained glass windows from the Reception Hall when he heard the blood soaked scream!
"No! NO!"
He pumped his legs forward., trying to burying his thoughts, but failing.
I'm too late!
Aleutian wrestled a breath in. With it he gave the best punch he could with his only free arm, the green bot pinning him down as it sunk its blade further through his arm and the floor. It landed at the bot's head, but it didn't even scrap the paint. Again, he swung, hitting the bot. Another swing! Then another–another–yelling with each blow he fished from his body.
But weaker, weaker his strikes came.
The Combot leaned further on top of the bleeding Guardian, blood pooling around Aleutian's body and head. It then closed its grip around his throat.
His last hit nearly touched the bot, but he lost his strength as his arm fell away, his vision become blurred. He tried to gasp in air, but got one breath with it.
He hit at the bot's arm, successfully loosening its grip just enough to breath in rapidly to get precious air. Again, the bot kneeled further in, twisting it's wrist blade in Aleutian's arm.
The Guardian roared in pain, his mouth spitting blood over his teeth.
He looked to his left. Bunnie and Locke were still pilled over one another. Neither moved.
"Dad!" he yelled hopelessly out. Tears, welled up in his eyes. "Dad, please!–"
The Combot tightened his grip. Aleutian choked to breath, but blood only pooled from his mouth. He was starving for air. His vision was fading...
"Aleeuutiann..."
His eyes widen, but briefly.
"Emme?" he barely choked out with what air he had left.
"Aleuutiann...
"Fight."
No...! he answered. His eyes closing.
"Fight!—Fight!"
His eyes peered open–
She was kneeling. She was there, kneeling over him. Her face was nearly consumed in his sight. Her hair was down, draping over her and down to him, blocking the thing killing him.
He rose his hand to her face, but she shook her head, her green eyes piercing to his.
"Fight my love!"
His eyes began to roll up in his head–
"Fight my Guardian!"
His sight began to blacken–
"FIGHT!"
He snapped his eyes open, his face twisting in hate and rage, balling his fist one last time—
A leather boot stepped to the Combot's right, making it jolt it's head over from the dying Echidna.
"Hello, Sug'ha bot!"
Bunnie's dead even voice, her eyes stern with inferno rage, her left hand tucked under her right cybernetic arm, her metal finger's disappearing, becoming the barrel of her arm-blaster, powering up with a low, deep hum to a harsh whine in seconds.
"Good-bye, Sug'ha bot!"
Aleutian shot his hand up and grabbed the contorted and pot-marked body of the Combot, and held it, grunting as he pulled it close. The Combot retracted the blade from Aleutian's arm, sending excruciating searing pain through the Echinda.
But he didn't loosen his grip.
Bunnie fired one plasma bolt—straight at the bot's head. It connected.
The bot, this time, was sent flying, rolling over but away from Aleutian.
When it stopped, it tried to move, but Bunnie tore loose three more successive shots, two hitting the bot's back, the last harpooning straight through the back of its head, exiting out the front, stopping it dead!
Aleutian saw it all with his blurred vision, only coughing blood when the bot's head began to smolder.
He turned his head up...green, proud eyes met his.
"Emme–?" he let out in a harsh whisper.
"Don't move, Sug'ha," come Bunnie. "Oh gosh," Aleutian saw her head dart away in his periphery. "Locke! Locke! Get up."
His right hand went up to her face. "Emil-La..."
Tears welled up in his eyes as she placed her hand to his, bringing it to her smiling face.
"Emil-La. Take me..."
"Aleutian...I can't."
He choked, crying. "Please. I want you. Take me with you."
"No, my Guardian." Her eyes began to soften.
Locke stirred, a soft voice awaking him. He rolled over, seeing blood, following it to see his son on his back, bleeding with Bunnie was side but looking away towards the hall's door.
His heart stopped when he gazed at the girl Echidna kneeling over Aleutian.
Then her turned her head at him. She only nodded with a saddened smile.
"Please, no!" he heard his son plead.
"You're place is here."
"No—!"
Locke struggled to move, getting up to walk over–
"I love you. Always."
Her hand squeezed his, touching her face with his, and then letting go, her face, he smiling eyes fading into the setting light through the windows.
"No..."
"Aleutian? Son!" Locke nearly skidded to his knees, and placing both hands on Aleutian's left arm. A large pool was all around him of his blood. Locke pressed harder down, trying to get more direct pressure, but saw that more blood, like a spring, still gushed out under him.
"Damn it!"
"He needs a tourniquet–"
Aleutian's vision faded further. He could still hear his father and Bunnie.
Forcing his eyes open, hoping to see her. He still had his right hand up...but she was gone.
He moaned, almost a cry, in grief. He screamed in pain. But still he kept his hand up.
"Where is she?" he stammered out between his tears and blood.
Locke put his face to son's. "Aleutian don't move. Hang on for me."
"Dad," he choked. "I heard her. I felt her–"
"Aleutian! Please, stay with us."
"Where is she...?"
Bunnie looked on to Locke, taking a piece of her shirt and placing on his opened, bleeding scar. "Who..."
Aleutian cried again as Locke lifted up his arm and sandwiched both his hands tight between the two open wounds. But it didn't help. More of Aleutian's blood pulsed out between his hands and fingers.
Aleutian's breathing slowed, his tears caressing around his face and soaking into the blood around his face. And his hand began to fall–
A white spiked glove hand grabbed it before the floor could claim it.
"Aleutian! Hang in there, brother!"
He blinked, tears blurring his vison. Then he focused. "Knuckles!"
She was gone...but in her stead he saw his brother.
More footsteps around him echoed in the hall and feel around him.
"What do you need!?" shouted a female voice. It sounded like Sally's
"Tourniquet!" came Locke's response.
"Here, mate."
Aleutian moaned, his vision blacken.
"St. John, help me!" came his father.
"Okay, lift his arm!"
Another movement in his fading vision. Blue...
"Hang in there, bud. Aleutian. Hey bud. Stay with us."
"Sonic, go get more help!" Knuckles nearly shouted.
"They're coming. Quack and Julie-Su were right behind me."
Aleutian yelled when his right arms roared in pain.
"Tighter, St. John. He's still bleeding!" shouted Locke.
"Aleutian..." Knuckles shook him, lower closer to him. "Aleutian, please."
His eyes began to roll back.
"Aleutian! Please, no..."
Blackness took him further, his hand weakening in Knuckles', falling limp...falling free.
"Aleutian...!"
"Aleuutiann...Allleeuuutiann..."
Her voice, it lingered in the fading light, slipping away—
Along with him.