Thanks to the reviewer who pointed out the fact that I repeated a line. I also now have a progress report thing on my profile to let you guys know how each chapter is coming along as it's being worked on.

CHAPTER 18

Avery couldn't sleep. She had moved back into her old apartment, but even the fact that Infinite could no longer harm her wasn't enough to calm her thoughts. It was what Infinite said that troubled her.

She had always been planning on never telling Forest about his biological father, but maybe it's not a good idea to lie to him. Maybe she should come clean and tell him that his biological father is an insane mass murderer. And it wasn't just that, that worried Avery. It was the general environment of the city as well.

The post-war environment allowed all sorts of vile prejudices to rise up. That white cat Avery met at the bus station wasn't an anomaly. There was a male hedgehog that lived across the hall from Avery. She had known him ever since she first rented the apartment. Earlier today, the hedgehog had left the door to his apartment open because he was bringing up some packages from downstairs. Avery had briefly glanced into his apartment and was shocked to discover a familiar (and rather infamous) red, white and black flag hanging from his wall. It was at that moment that Avery decided to move out of her apartment for good after Forest was born. But there was one group in the city that the white cat and the hedgehog across the hall look downright tolerant by comparison: The Iron Battalion.

The Iron Battalion were a very controversial militia that fought for the Resistance during the war. Even Knuckles was very hesitant to let them join before ultimately deciding that desperate times called for desperate measures. What was controversial about the Iron Battalion? To start, their flag was extremely similar to that same infamous historical flag that Avery saw hanging from that hedgehog's wall. Even though they constantly denied the allegations, the majority of the members were openly opposed to half-breeds and interspecies relationships. Some members even took their bigotry further by being not only opposed to interspecies relationships, but intersubspecies relationships (such as wolf/dog couples) too. The more "moderate" members of the Battalion, on the other hand, were of the opinion that stuff like wolf/dog relationships were a "weird fetish" but not as "immoral" as interspecies relationships. The Iron Battalion had apparently committed war crimes by massacring civilians, but the investigations into this matter were still unfinished.

Knuckles had gotten into a major fight with Rouge over the decision to allow the Iron Battalion to be a faction of the Resistance. The bat nearly left the Resistance over Knuckles' decision. Amy's reaction was even worse. Knuckles had told Avery about how the pink hedgehog reacted. She had whipped out her Piko Piko Hammer and whacked Knuckles on the head.

"How could you, Knuckles!?" Amy had cried. "Do you know who these people are!? They're pretty much fascists! We can't have them fighting for the Resistance!"

Knuckles would eventually come to realize that he should have listened to Amy and Rouge. Eggman capitalized on the existence of the Iron Battalion by using them for anti-Resistance propaganda. Despite the fact that the Iron Battalion were only one faction of the Resistance, Eggman's propaganda smeared the entire Resistance as being composed of anti-half-breed bigots. Eggman had even went as far as to falsely portray Knuckles as a member of the Iron Battalion.

Apparently the Iron Battalion were convinced that the Resistance would deal with the "half-breed problem" after defeating Eggman. When they found out otherwise, they defected from the Resistance and became their own independent group. Avery had read reports of Iron Battalion members attacking half-breeds and interspecies couples. She had always wondered why the Iron Battalion weren't classified as a terrorist group. Not even G.U.N. (or rather, what consisted of G.U.N. at this moment as it slowly pulled itself together) viewed them as terrorists. Is it because they haven't killed anyone yet (assuming that they actually didn't commit war crimes)?

Even worse were the rumors that the Iron Battalion would establish a political wing and have a political candidate run for mayor. Election day was only a year away. What chilled Avery even more was the possibility that an Iron Battalion-backed candidate could actually win. The same citizens that suffered under Eggman and Infinite would have no problem electing another tyrant, but of a different nature. Ever since Avery encountered that cat at the bus station, she had became more suspicious of the citizens she passed by on the street. How many of them, no matter how friendly they outwardly appeared, were secretly harboring vile prejudices?

As Avery thought about this, she finally began to feel tired. She closed her eyes and went to sleep.

That filthy little bitch. I saw the way she looked at the blue bastard. She's probably fucking him. Wouldn't be surprised if she's doing Shadow and the echidna too. Infinite could only quietly seethe in his chamber. There was nothing he could do about this. The sedatives were wearing off and his meal was on it's way. Why must my beloved mate be such a vile slut? It sickens me.

Life at Elm Grove was rather dull. When Infinite wasn't in his sedated state, he was either being fed or being led down to the bathroom (the staff made sure that none of the other residents of the facility were in the hallways when Infinite went to relieve himself). Sometimes while the jackal was sedated, he had an interesting dream/hallucination/whatever-it-was-that-the-drugs-were-doing-to-his-brain. For the most part though, he couldn't remember anything while under sedation. The only thing that was mildly interesting were the porn mags that were occasionally left in the bathroom.

Then there was his caretaker: Dr. Smith. A rather unassuming human male with sandy-brown hair, gray eyes and spectacles. He had talked to Infinite a few times. It was always about how he was feeling while drugged. Is he trying to be my friend or something? Infinite couldn't help but wonder if Dr. Smith had more planned for him than he let on. While he was on that thought, Infinite heard the door to his cell clicking open. It was time to eat. He would have plenty of time to ponder Dr. Smith's motives later.

Avery woke up to a loud knocking on her apartment door. She groaned, sluggishly pulled herself out of bed and went downstairs towards the door. She opened it to see a very nervous-looking Amy.

"Is something wrong?" Avery asked.

"Just let me come in and...I'll explain it." Amy said hesitantly. The pink hedgehog pushed past Avery and went over to the couch in the living room. She flopped down on the couch with Avery beside her. Amy sighed and began to speak.

"It's...It's about Shadow."

I know what you're thinking. "What!? Knuckles allowed what are essentially Mobian neo-Nazis to fight for the Resistance?" I'm not a fan of black-and-white morality. So I decided to muddy the moral waters by having Knuckles make a very questionable decision out of pragmatism.

The Iron Battalion might be the new baddies of this fic now that Infinite's gone. If they're not an active threat, then they'll just be a threatening presence in the background. Something for the Avatar to worry about while she goes through her pregnancy. When you have a world of anthropomorphic animals and some of them are capable of producing half-breeds, you might as well explore the implications of such a thing.

Yeah, Infinite's a bit of a hypocrite. Accusing the Avatar of sleeping around even though he tried to fuck Amy while he was "dating" the Avatar. There might be some more mini interludes involving Infinite along the way. Oh and I kept my promise about Infinite being paired up with his right hand and a stack of porn mags.