"Sir?"

Eggman was walking down the corridors of his base in Robotropolis without a single iota of joy. It was time for the Morning Report, and that meant having Snively list off whatever projects were currently underway and their current rates of progress. It was hardly an enjoyable experience most of the time, but it had to be done. Besides, the only reason he wasn't standing in the Control Room to hear it was because he had something to look forward, and he was eager to get to it as soon as possible. Hence the walk and talk. Not that it made this any more exciting.

"Nothing, Snively," said Eggman. "You were saying?"

"If you say so. In any case, here is how things stand so far. Project Thorndyke is approximately at 40%. We're still in the relatively early stages, but we're making some considerable highway. It won't be long before he's running around without a care in the world."

"Quite. That one's special to me, Snively. For your sake, you had better hope this one comes through. Because if it doesn't…"

"There will be hell to pay, I know." Snively was starting to get wise, as if he had seen many of the tricks in Robotnik's playbook at least once. "Then there's Project Phage."

"Yes," said Eggman. "I still remember how they blocked our signals in that last operation. It was most infuriating. Like having an entire omelet fall on the floor after spending an hour preparing just the proper mixture. In any event, once this puppy is complete, it will be that much harder for them to do it again. Especially once it gets a chance to show its' true colors."

"Indeed. Moving on, we have Project D-E. It's taking us a lot of time and manpower, but we're slowly starting to build that basement hanger you requested. Once it's complete, whenever that is, we'll be able to start building the real thing."

"Egg-cellent," said Eggman. "And the last one?"

"You mean Project Hedgehog?" Snively slowly grinned from ear to ear, his teeth at that moment resembling those of a shark. "Swimmingly."

"That's good to hear. For your sake. But speaking of hedgehogs, I suppose it's time to meet my special guest!"

"Yes. He actually said something about you during our initial interrogation. Something about being an old friend. Care to explain what he meant by that?" Eggman glared at Snively like the devil, his cybernetics saying all that needed to be said. "Very well. Gaea forbid me for having the nerve to wonder why you happened to know someone that looks like a certain Gaea forsaken rodent. If you'll excuse me, I'll go and stick my nose back in the toilet like a good little lackey because that's apparently all I'm good for." By this point, condescension was dripping from every pore of Snively's being. Proof that he was steadily running out of fucks to give.

"Funny." By this point, the both of them were nearing the Special Class Prison Cell. The same one that Eggman had used for King Acorn. A special prison for a special guest. "Oh, and if I catch you eavesdropping, I WILL use that nose of yours as a doorstop, I'll have you know."

"I'll make sure it's properly furnished." He opened the gold plated door, beckoning Eggman to step in after giving the most half-hearted bow of his life. And it wouldn't be the last. "After you, your obeseness."

"Cheeky, aren't we?" Eggman would have had to be a fool not to notice Snively's latest run of insults, and it was clear that Snively was finally having it up to here. And he was okay with that. In fact, he encouraged it. The more Snively became a self-serving, backstabbing SOB, the more he'd be ready to carry on Eggman's work if the time came. And if he somehow usurped control? At least he'd have a worthy successor. Not that he'd admit it.

In any case, it was time to begin. Eggman walked through the door before Snively slammed it shut behind him. Sitting in a luxurious red chair with golden highlights was Uncle Chuck. On a round table in front of him was a plate of eggs' benedict, sausage, and hashbrowns, all prepared to perfection. And as Chuck crossed his shoulders, he couldn't care less. Perhaps if there weren't a pair of Troopers pointing a couple of rifles at his person, he'd be more inclined to take a bite.

"Chuck!" said Eggman, walking over to his seat. "It's been too long!" He plopped down on a second chair exactly like Chucks and picked up his own plate of food. Again, it was exactly like Chuck's. "How long has it been? Ten years? Twenty?"

"Nearly thirty," grumbled Chuck. "Though in case you've forgotten, it wasn't for lack of trying on my part."

"Ah, well, I'm most sorry, but being a paid scientist is a rather busy endeavor. I just don't always have the time to make social calls."

"More like never. I tried to call you more than once, but after the first few years, you never picked up."

Eggman had been itching to start his eggs' benedict, but as Chuck opened his mouth, Eggman's own chops stopped just short of having that first bite and froze mid-chomp. Eggman slowly finished the bite but placed his plate down delicately afterward. "Yes. If I'm going to be perfectly honest, I had meant to call you back. Every time you called, I said to myself, '"I'll call him back later. No harm done!"' Well, I suppose the harm has been done, hasn't it?"

"Even if it hadn't, you've still done plenty of harm regardless." He inspected his plate carefully, making sure the food wasn't poisoned or that there wasn't a boobytrap on the bottom. "You really can't think there's a chance we can patch things up after THIS."

"I suppose not. Although, I suppose I still owe you an explanation."

"Quite. All those years ago, you didn't mention a word about any of this. In fact, you were a really different sort of fella back then. You didn't want to hurt anyone or make anyone suffer. Or if you did, you did a helluva job of covering it up."

"Why thank you!" said Eggman. He was practically giddy. "On covering it up, I mean. Not everyone gets that one."

"To be fair, you always knew how to keep a secret." Chuck finally took a bite of egg, hoping that he hadn't met his maker. "Like the time we taped an automatic hair conditioner to the Dean's pajamas and hung it up the flagpole. Sucker kept on blowing like it was flapping in the wind to no tomorrow. Would've expelled the both of us if you hadn't kept your trap shut."

"I do seem to recall that particular incident, yes. I believe I had some shred of integrity back then."

"Or the time we nearly got caught trying to sell the school's power generator on the black market. It was like something out of a bad sitcom."

Eggman chomped into one of the sausages as though he were tearing it apart with his large, pearly teeth. "Now that was a hoot! I can still see it now, the both of us crawling through those dirty, half clean air ducts like it was yesterday."

"Well, we wouldn't have nearly gotten caught if you hadn't been stuffing your face with pork rinds!"

"And if you hadn't blown all your spare cash on chili dogs, we wouldn't have been in that mess in the first place!"

The two glared at each other, neither one giving an inch. It was such an intense struggle that one could swear there was a single solitary bead of sweat on each of their brows.

Then, without any prodding or pretenses, one of them laughed. Even if only slightly.

Then the other the did the same.

The first one laughed again, only more so.

Same with the other.

The two of them continued to laugh and laugh and laugh until what began as a virtual whisper had turned into a righteous uproar, neither able to contain themselves in the least.

It wasn't to last. It took the longest time, but it gradually died down until all that was left was a long, awkward silence. One neither was quite sure how to break.

Chuck finally broke the damn. "Julian. Why can't things go back to how they were before? Just what the hell happened to turn you into, well, THIS?"

Eggman didn't answer for the longest time. He didn't look up. He didn't touch his plate. He didn't laugh. He didn't do a darn thing. Until at last, he spoke. "Chuck. I hate to admit it. Especially because I honestly didn't see this coming. But — and this is a shock for me — I do still like you. And I'd like to still think of you as a friend. So please. Do NOT push this. Because if you do, I honestly don't know where this is going to go."

For a moment, Chuck held his tongue, mulling it over. He then slowly put down his plate, thinking it all through as he did so. And then he made his declaration. "Julian. I know about the roboticizer."

For a moment, there was nothing. Nothing but silence. Until it was broken. "Do you now?"

"Did I ever mention I used to be old pals with Harvey Who? We go way back. So much so that when you started setting yourself up as the Acorn Kingdom's Supreme Leader, he started sending me encoded radio messages without anyone knowing a thing. But he knew about the roboticizer. And he knew just who originally built it. So it was only proper to let them know their work was being stolen from right under their nose."

"I see."

"I guess I can't say I'd have given them to you if you asked. Not if I knew you were gonna use them for this. And don't think I'm blind. I saw everything on the way here. And I know what you're using it for. And it's horrific. I mean, you might as well have slaughtered them and made tools out of their corpses. In fact, that might have been better than what's actually been done to them."

Eggman began rubbing his thick, bushy mustache, as though attempting to give the impression he actually cared a whit about what Chuck had to say in this particular instance. "Honestly, Chuck, I'm appalled that you aren't more pleased with your device is being used so lucratively! Think about it. It's essentially free slave labor."

"You just dug yourself even further than you already have. You realize that, don't you?"

"If you want someone to blame, blame Snively. He's the one who hacked into your personal database. Of course, he doesn't know about our little relationship, but what he doesn't know won't kill him! Yet."

"I suppose what I really want to know is, what's even the point? You're trying to take over an entire kingdom. You've stolen my device and re-purposed it as a slave labor machine. And you're for all intents and purposes doing this with the end of goal of taking over the world. I'd ask you take a step back and see how insane this all is, but I'm starting to realize that would be a lost cause. So again, I've really got to ask: Why?"

Eggman had just started to go back to eating his eggs, but all he could accomplish was meekly swallowing one little morsel before Chuck asked that dreaded question again. "Chuck. Again. Do NOT push it."

"Oh, I'm going to push it. You think you can steal my device and use it in such a fashion and not expect me to want to know what it's all for? Nevermind being kidnapped. That's the cherry on the sundae."

Eggman firmly placed his plate down on the table before getting back up. He stood tall as he loomed over Chuck, his red cybernetic eyes gazing at him before he promptly pulled a literal about-face. "We're done here." He began to walk the door, intent on walking out of there as quick as a bunny.

"I expected as much."

Eggman stopped dead in his tracks. "Come again?"

"Oh, don't act so surprised. It was always this way, wasn't it? Why, back in college, whenever one of the teachers asked you a hard or uncomfortable question, you always tried to just get up and walk away. Whenever the Dean asked you why you never talked about your parents, you did the same. And whenever Lucinda asked why you weren't as dreamy or hunky as Carl—"

That did it. Eggman whirled back around. His face was livid and red as a beet, and his teeth were clenched like a vise. He stomped straight over to Chuck and lifted him straight up by the neck.

"Oh, struck a nerve, did I?" said Chuck. "Perhaps we're finally getting somewhere!"

"Do you really want to know so badly, you miserable rodent?!"

"So that's what you really think of me, is it? And here I thought we actually had something. Guess I was wrong."

Eggman gritted his teeth, growling like a feral animal before finally tossing Chuck back on his chair and plopping right down on his own. His fingers clasped together and he seemed to be thinking long and hard about whether or not he should go through with this. Eventually, after long last, he said his piece. "Did you hear what they did to my grandfather?"

And in that moment, Chuck finally started to understand what this was all about. Or at least part of it. "I heard the rumors."

"Rumors nothing. I'll spare you the details, but suffice to say, it was nothing short of an atrocity. To make a long story short, my grandfather was working on a number of different projects for GUN fifty years ago. 'The arm of the Federation.'" Eggman scoffed as if he couldn't bear to say it with a straight face. "However, GUN was still in its' early days. It wasn't long before Gerald figured this out for himself, and when he did, he threatened to leave GUN and take all his work with him."

"I bet GUN wasn't too happy about that."

"Thank you for stating the obvious. No, they were far from happy. In fact, they were livid. After that, all it took were some trumped up charges, a President who couldn't care less, and, well, you can see where this is going."

"I can imagine."

Eggman began to clench his fist, as though he could just imagine strangling the head of GUN in his thick, fatty grip. "They ransacked the place. Put my grandfather in chains. And his grandaguther…"

"'Grandaughter'?"

"Yes. He had a daughter. So innocent, so sweet. So naive. At least according to my grandfather's journals and diary's. I never got the chance to meet her.

"That so?"

"Indeed. And do you know why?"

"You tell me."

"Because they gunned her down at first sight."

Chuck's eyes opened wide. He could scarcely believe it. And yet, if Eggman were telling the truth… "Julian. If this is true…"

Eggman stood up livid. "Of course it's true! It's all there! Right in the notes! THEY MURDERED HER! Because they couldn't afford a single witness! I'm honestly not quite sure what happened after that. Certain pages are muddy or torn out. Still can't fathom why. But I do know what he did in the end. Before GUN put him in front of a firing squad once they were done with him. And he vowed vengeance on all of Mobius. So I'm going to make sure he gets what he wants. Well? Does that answer your question?"

Chuck mulled it over. His index fingers were pushing together over his mouth and his eyes were closed in thought as if he could scarcely believe what Eggman had just told him. And yet, what choice did he have? If it really were in his notes (and seeing as he probably wouldn't have the chance to look at them himself), he'd have to take Eggman at his was still a lot unanswered, no doubt but at least Chuck seemed to have gotten what he asked for.

Or did he?

"Julian. I am sorry for you. I really am. And what GUN did was reprehensible. It truly was. But there's still something I don't understand."

"And what's that?"

Everything you mentioned — Gerald, GUN's hostile takeover, his daughter — that was all fifty years ago. You never even met the man. Are you really trying to take over a whole island because you're chasing after a ghost?"

"Chuck, it isn't just my grandfather they ruined. It's his reputation. After they turned my grandfather into a war criminal, they made him into a pariah. They tarnished his name to the point where if anyone heard it, most of them would only recognize it as a bad omen. Even among my parents and relatives, it's a disgrace. But I never thought of him that way. Simply put, he was my hero. So I was always compared to him. By my parents, by my uncles, even by some of the bullies at school. EVERYONE! Well, they'll rue the day they ever laughed at us. When I'm done with this place, I'll show them just how wrong they were."

Eureka. Just like that, something clicked in Chuck's brain. It had all finally come together into one collective whole, like having an epiphany. And he didn't like it one bit.

"That's what this is about, isn't it? This isn't about your grandfather or his reputation or any of that! It's about you."

"Come again?"

"Julian, remember back when we were in college? You told me what it was like for you growing up. How you were picked on. Disrespected. Bullied. How you were relentlessly abused by your parents. And how you'd do to all of them what was done to you. I know what this is about. You say you're doing this to avenge your grandfather, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. You think the world's wronged you just like it wronged your grandfather, so you want to make them all pay! You're not doing this to avenge anyone but yourself."

Eggman simply stood there. Motionless. He didn't seem angry. Or sad. Or much of anything really. He was inscrutable. As though he could be any number of things or nothing at all. And then, slowly, carefully, he spoke. "Guards. Chuck and I are going on a nice trip to the Control Room. Do follow along, won't you?"

"Julian, what's this about?"

Eggman did his best not to seem upset in the slightest, but his eyes betrayed him. They were narrow, focused, and glowing red hot like fire. So much so that they might as well have been burning straight into Chuck's soul. "I want to show you something. Something I'm sure you'll appreciate."

"Julian?" But he wasn't listening.

"Chuck, part of me still respects you. I really do. As a scientist. And so for now, I'll do my best not to lay so much as a single quill on your head. But your nephew is a different story."

"And who said I have a nephew?"

"Oh, Chuck. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. Just look at the two of you. In any case, I was going to get to him sooner or later. He was still a pest that was getting in my way. But now? Now it's personal. I'm going to crush every bone in his body and make you watch."

"Julian, think about this for a minute—"

"I have. And you're no different from all the rest. Thirty years! For thirty years I'd thought you'd be better than them. But in the end, you're the same."

"Julian, please—"

"It's Eggman to you! Guards, take him to the Control Room. And make sure he gets a front row seat." And as the Troopers began to grab Chuck by the wrists, all he could think was that he hoped he didn't leave the burner on back home. And that Sonic was okay. Because somehow, he knew he wasn't going to be much longer.