Endgame Part II

Once again, I went over the data packet Sir Charles had dispatched.

Names, Timing and the Coordinates of Elias' attack, heavily modified from my own but recognisable. An all-out assault on the Death Egg. At the very end of the data packet he transmitted, Sir Charles made a simple plea. That if I cared at all, I would spare as many lives as I could.

Tails, Nicole and I poured over the new information we had received, speaking aloud whenever we could primarily for Tails benefit on how we could simultaneously support the joint Overlander and Mobian forces; their attack mere hours away, while at the same time maintaining the assault on the Death Egg.

The twin-tailed fox listened, mapped out the disposition of our forces in blue, Robotnik's in red and the projected approach routes of the joint Overlander-Mobian forces in green. One thing was clear though, from even a cursory examination the number of green and blue dots were vastly outnumbered by the seething hordes of red.

Much to my surprise, Tails, undeterred continued toying with the battle simulation on the salvaged remains of T-pup's processor which he hooked up to a pad. Frantically, he tried to improve on the plan Nicole and I had worked out and much like us he ran into the same basic problem. Not enough to go around.

Even by concentrating on Command Central my forces were outnumbered two to one and that was of course not including reinforcements from the Death Egg itself. Not great odds, but manageable given the vastly improved tactical A.I on my own forces. This would, of course, leave virtually nothing in the fringes to support the Freedom Fighters.

At last, Tails looked up, echoing the same sentiment we all shared: "We've to help them, Aunt Sally,"

"That is a noble sentiment but there just aren't enough forces to spare-" Nicole replied "- and yes I'm aware those readouts say that we've tens of thousands of machines but the majority of them aren't combat capable and of those that are we need to concentrate them on the Death Egg."

"Surely you can spare something, " Tails began as he stood up wincing slightly from the recently treated lacerations Silver had inflicted. "How about the others. You talked to them, didn't you? And...and once they know you're still you...they'll be happy to join up won't they?"

"Amy is still unconscious, Silver, I had to place under heavy sedatives because he kept trying to escape. The red and black one...I'm fairly sure that we killed him or at least driven him off since we didn't find a body. Sonic and I aren't exactly on speaking terms right now. Bunnie's a nervous wreck so...its just you."

"Just me, " Tails mumbled to himself. "Well, I bring a lot to the table. I built that EMP grenade and...and the Tornado; a biplane I built all on my own. I had it stowed in one of Uncle Chuck's hiding places outside Robotropolis. Maybe I could make it back on my own and..."

"I think we're missing the big picture here. What if Sir Charles is lying?" Nicole interrupted. "Hypothetically, if this were, as he claimed, 'hot-off-the-press' from Elias' war room then he'd be committing a very serious crime." Nicole was of course; correct. If those plans were indeed the genuine article Sir Charles would be guilty of consorting with an enemy of the crown, an act of high treason.

"Look Tails," I said levelling with the kit. "I understand your concerns but thus far the robofacs and their defenders around the Death Egg have proven resistant to infiltration. If we're going to muster a big enough distraction to get Robotnik to lift-off and isolate himself we need to concentrate our forces and not parcel them out in a futile attempt to help the Freedom Fighters."

"Just gimme a minute. I've got an idea," Tails exclaimed as he brought the tactical view below ground, down to the sewage and Maglev lines beneath with teemed with enemy contacts, making my non-existent heart sink.

"By all means Tails, perhaps your input would yield something enlightening where the both Sally and I could not, " Nicole suggested.

"We're in what is or rather was a train station, " Tails said pointing at a map of the Mobotropolis underground in the former legionnary commander office. "The maglev system is a good way of transporting a lot of machines at the same time. But we can take them out in big numbers. We'll load a train with bombs and in an enclosed space an explosion would have an incredible magnitude. Run that puppy full speed, detonate it and BANG! It's bye-bye defenders."

"You can't be serious," I responded.

"Why not?" Tails asked incredulously.

"Think! The former government districts are packed with legitimate targets. Yes. But we'd also be killing thousands of Robians whose liberation is potentially hours away. Robotnik didn't make any distinctions when he began his operations. Men, women. Retirees. Someone's grandparents. Maybe your parents, low-level, unwilling drones, down there."

Tails lowered his eyes. But only for a moment. Then he lifted them and looked at me.

I looked at Nicole. Frankly, I didn't know what Nicole's would think. I could not read her inscrutable expression since her face scarcely changed to reflect her newfound emotions and she did not often understand Mobian thought processes or emotions.

That was why I was surprised when she spoke. "This is a war," she said quietly. "There is no question that people will die. The only question is, who?"

"So, its settled then Aunt Sally?" Tails asked, surprisingly nonplussed over the whole affair.

"Tails come closer," I whispered spreading out my arms, wrapping him in a hug. "You're a Freedom Fighter now. This villain. This monster we're facing isn't your usual Saturday morning cartoon character. He won't care that you're a child. If he catches you. He will hurt you. He will kill you. Do you understand?"

Tails nodded gazing into my sole functioning eye. "I'll direct the loading of the train Aunt Sally then I'll get to safety. But what about you? You're not planning on confronting him are you?"

"You're very brave kit…fox," I whispered nuzzling the top of his head. "Once the maglev is loaded, you must promise me to get to safety. Nicole had all of Sir Charles' known hideouts programmed into T-Pup. Find a safe place, as far from the epicentre as you can manage."

"I can't lose you again Aunt Sally, please stay, " the kit begged. "I can save you!"

I sent Tails my diary and told him even if I don't come back, I will always be with him because that was where I kept my soul. I told him my thoughts, my heart, my love are stored with T-pup. He didn't understand. Tails cried without tears. He said I was scaring him. I told him not to be sad, not to be scared. That even if I didn't come back, I would never truly leave him. That everything was going to be alright.

With that, Nicole and I set out on the outbound flight to the Death Egg along with dozen Neo-Robians. Underground, Tails supervised my drones who were busy manhandling every surplus bomb we had and packing the Maglev train with as many as it would fit, from floor to ceiling.

Being an authorised transport with the necessary clearance and carrying essential cargo we docked uneventfully with the Death Egg after a bio-scan confirmed the transport was, in fact, devoid of any life. I directed Nicole into engineering while I waited in standby mode just outside the Command Bridge, ignored like a piece of furniture as legionnaires and Robotnik-controlled machines walked by.

On the ground, as I had my assault armies moved into position. I came to the realisation that my body was getting unwieldy. And now that I had started thinking of it as a tool rather a body I came to realise how it lacked versatility, forcing me to commit into certain types of strategy over others. Furthermore, it didn't offer much more than a perceived vulnerability, given that while formidable my main offensive strength was my force of drones, and no amount of guns I squeezed onto myself could compensate for that. If I was honest to myself, the reason I had been using it so much was that I still thought of it as my body, rather than the weapon... the tool it actually was.

With deroboticization impossible, retaining this body was pointless save for nostalgia.

Even if this had been my body in the past, it didn't have to remain so in the future. I could change bodies with the same ease I had changed clothes in my previous life. I could simply transfer my mind state into a sort of disembodied consciousness, running on the servers at any of my many outposts and directing my armies from afar. Now that I didn't have to micromanage the entirety of the swarm, bandwidth and latency weren't that significant.

Unabashedly embracing my new digital nature came with a load of privileges. Not only I could be immortal and incorporeal, but I wouldn't need to be subject to the tyranny of time, distance and logistics. I cursed myself for my fear, for my misguided reluctance at accepting the advantages my new form would've granted me.

I remembered seeing it as some sort of slippery slope, but I had been wrong. I was still myself just... a better, more optimal and effective myself. Discarding this main body...was a part of that. A way of removing my last ties to my former self . And what better way discard this body -I thought than to have it go off in Robotnik's command bridge. What better way than to shed the last of my old self than turning it and everyone on the bridge into a smoking ruin once Nicole had taken control of the Death Egg's systems. That was precisely why the only thing I had upgraded was my jet boots and apart from attaching my arm, I had done no repairs. The parts being better utilised to produce a few additional combat droids.

All I needed was a burst of speed.

I tapped into the security feed and observed the command bridge which seemed to be a rough oval in shape where there were dozens of Mobians, mostly Echidnas, with a scattering of robots. They sat or stood before glowing display screens. Others stood at attention, awaiting the master's orders and in the middle stood Robotnik along with a metallic version of Sonic as his personal bodyguard.

"The Maglev's all loaded up and its ready to hurtle down the tracks. Doing good, huh?" Tails said, the sound of his voice already breaking up with distance.

"Tails, focus. You need to get to safety."

"Understood, Impact in two minutes," Tails reported emotionlessly.

My troops were in position. Nicole was already working on breaking the onboard security. The biggest bomb in Freedom Fighter history was hurtling straight towards the city centre. Everything was going according to plan.

BA-BOOOOOM!

A massive column of smoke and dust engulfed the Death Egg with only a handful of blazing fires and permeating through the all-pervasive fog. The halls of the Death Egg were pandemonium as Mobian and robot alike dashed up down trying to figure out what was going on or gazed horrified at the viewports outside.

The column of dust had slowly settled down and a scene straight out of Ragnarök emerged.

There was a giant sinkhole where the government district had been. Everything had just caved in. Command Central, several whole and partial robofacs and the gutted ruins of several office buildings - all were gone. Most of the former historic city centre had simply collapsed, swallowed up by an explosion the size of a tactical nuke. Those buildings that still stood were cracked. Some listed to the side.

It was our biggest victory to date and yet I felt no sense of satisfaction or joy.

There were many corpses. The sights filtering in from tens of thousands of sensors. Some were Mobians: prisoners or collaborators, Robians and numerous combat drones. Perhaps two of the dead or mortally wounded Robians were Tails' parents: Amadeus and Rosemary Prower.

I kept silent. What could I possibly say?

My army, five thousand strong now marched through the hellish landscape toward the Death Egg and for a time took more casualties from the treacherous shifting terrain than enemy fire from the few surviving legionnaires.

The heart of Robotropolis had been torn out. The destruction, so thorough that there was hardly a defending force to speak of. Limbs torn or staggering about shell-shocked were enemy robots and a handful of legionnaires. They were cut down remorselessly. There were no longer any substantive formations between my army and the glittering prize that hovered invitingly over the sinkhole.

Surrounding the Death Egg was a variety of orbiting defence stations. Eight shielded white spheres circling about the artificial moon, each one carrying a powerful laser projector. Several of them were slowly depressing their turrets to bring them to bear against my ground forces

From experience, I knew how effective they were against low-flying aircraft. Luckily, their relative inability to track a swarm of smaller ground targets meant I wouldn't have much problem sustaining whatever damage they could unleash.

But I didn't have to. My army transmitted a false friendly code to the eyes of the automated defence stations' sensors. Immediately they stopped their rotation and started retracting their laser projectors and returning to their standby positions.

I felt a sense of vicious triumph, that victory was nigh and even that nagging urge that something was going to go deeply wrong slowly receding. Because... there wasn't. I was winning and Robotnik was dancing to my fiddle. I preferred it that way. It meant less second-guessing, less time wasted going over my feelings. It made it easier for me to do what I knew I had to do.

The automated laser cannons were temporarily neutralized, but I knew the situation wouldn't last. Robotnik would be working hard to rescind the friendly status of my forces. Luckily, it didn't have to last for long, just the minutes that it would take to destroy the stations while they were defenceless.

Squadrons of drones accelerated hard, wheeling around to deliver their payloads point blank into the different spherical stations. The rest diverted their attention toward the Death Egg whose manned turrets, far less susceptible to electronic manipulation were already opening fire on us. It was far too little too late. At such a close range they couldn't track my fast moving swarm. A reflection of how unprepared they had been to our sudden appearance.

My drones surrounded the stations and unleashed their payload of missiles. A flash of light marked the end of one of the defensive platforms quickly followed by similar detonations of its counterparts before the drones swooped down to attack the Death Egg itself. The shields flaring from the onslaught of missile fire. Under the withering assault, the Death Egg lifted off, a slight vibration being my feet being the only evidence of its ascent. Off Mobius and to the safety of the skies, or so Robotnik believed. Two Freedom Fighters, a dozen Neo-Robians, were now aboard the Death Egg, unsuspected. The plan was on track.

The Death Egg rose from the earth, bigger than anything Mobian or Overlander had beheld in the skies. Up and up it went, but not so high yet. It began deploying the full might of its robotic garrison on my forces. Egg Pawns, the intended successor to the venerable SWATbot with their thickly armoured barrel-shaped bodies and their jet boots descended. The hangar doors on the Death Egg slid open and squadrons of drone fighters, shielded and with potent beam weaponry burst forth, destroying my hijacked drones and avian Neo-Robians with ease.

Robotnik paced back and forth, nervous or just feeling a rush of anticipation at the prospect of crushing his enemies once and for all, I couldn't guess which. "There, master!" a computerised sang out. "Overlander and Freedom Fighters on the move."

"On screen," Robotnik bellowed, "Magnify."

"We have a preliminary estimate. Approximately two-thousand Mobians and Overlanders. Two dozen tanks, nineteen attack helicopters and a dozen fighters. Threat analysis: minimal."

On the main screen. I saw what Robotnik did: General Abraham Tower and Elias' forces, following orders and advancing despite the fact that their target, the Death Egg now hovered over a thousand feet over their heads.

An Echidna voice jumped in. "They were deployed to attack us on the ground and seem at a loss."

"Brilliant insight," Robotnik said with acid sarcasm.

"Now showing additional fighters on approach, another echidna said calmly. "Nine total. Master, I'm dispatching our fighters to take out the aircraft. We can use our primary cannon on widest possible dispersion and destroy all the ground forces with a single sustained shot."

"Yes," Robotnik said, sounding almost regretful at being cheated of a real battle. "Fools, did they really imagine they would accomplish anything?"

Where was Nicole? Surely, she would've taken control of navigation by now. I didn't want to bother her, she was surely doing her best. But neither could I watch wholesale slaughter of the troops on the ground and do nothing.

"Primary cannon configured, master. Permission to fire?"

"Use a narrow beam. Forget the soldiers, they're irrelevant. Rid me of these treacherous machines, one by one. Close-up! Maximum magnification. Let me see them die!"

I couldn't be patient any longer.

(Nicole? What is keeping you?) I cried.

(We got into a fight,) Nicole answered. I could hear the pain in her wavering voice. (But everything is progressing normally.)

At that same moment, a new report reached the bridge. "Robotnik! Casualties in engineering!" an Echidna said.

"What is it? Another sabotage?" Robotnik asked.

"No, Master, all engines are nominal. All systems are nominal."

"Come back to me when you have something more substantive to report, " Robotnik replied sounding petulant rather than concerned.

"Begin firing."

The shot caught a Robian bear along with a few legionnaires and robots on both sides. For a single horrifyingmoment, his bottom half continued moving before it crashed into the ground.

"Hah! Good shot! They burn well, these traitor robots." I felt sick inside. I should do something. I should stop this. My children were down there on the ground dying and burning.

"No, no, you have to lead them a bit. Look! You can get two at ... good shot!"

(Nicole) I pleaded. (They're killing our people!)

(Yes I know! I'm doing my best,) Nicole answered. A moment's pause. (Three minutes, ) she said at last.

It was a death sentence. Three minutes. Already, the joint task force had engaged with Robotropolis defenders who were, in turn, getting attacked by my own machines from the back. It was total pandemonium. Robots battling against robots. Mobians battling Mobian collaborators and Mobians against robot. If I made a move now we'd be caught and it would accomplish nothing. Couldn't die. I was in charge. It was my plan. No time for gestures. Win, that was all I had to do: Win.

"Look, it's trying to crawl away. Get it now! No, fool! There. Yes!"

"We're taking fire, Master. The Mobian aircraft have launched missiles."

"Destroy them," Robotnik commanded, too distracted by killing my children to care overly about such trivialities.

The Echidna spoke again. "Confirm casualties in engineering, Robotnik. Plasma burns. It was reported as a disciplinary matter."

"Don't bother me with any more disciplinary matters," Robotnik roared before he jabbed at the screen excited once more. "There! Look! Another traitor robot! Get it! Get it!"

(Nicole!) I yelled. (It's now or never!)

"You missed! No, wait, there, he burns! He burns!"

"Master, that appears to be the last of the treacherous droids in the city centre," a female echidna reported.

"Alas, all good things must end, " Robotnik said. "Be sure to save the recorded data. I will wish to play that scene over and over again. Now, set the main cannon for wide dispersal against G.U.N and those presky Freedom Fighters, let's end this game and clean house."

"Primary cannon configured on widest dispersion, Master."

"Fire."

If they fired the main cannon on widest dispersion it wouldn't kill the men on the ground quickly. The air about them would grow warmer and warmer as the diluted energy beam cooked them alive. Hotter. Hotter until some began to pass out. Others succumbing to madness before their brains literally cooked before succumbing to a grisly death.

"Look how they squirm!" Robotnik declared.

"They will suffer one hundred per cent casualties in thirty seconds."

(Nicole!) I cried.

(Got it!) She answered.

(Then do it! Now!)

"We're drifting off course. What's going on? Put us over the target. Get the helmsman"

Finally, "Master, the helm is not answering."

"What do you mean the helm is not answering? We're drifting off-target! Get us back over the target!"

"Helm is unresponsive, Master!" the echidna reported before Robotnik bounded over to the console and seized the controls himself. "Engineering! That fool in engineering must have . . ."

I could practically see the wheels turning in his brain. I could almost see the thought process as one by one the clues fell into place. "They are onboard! Robotnik cried, aghast. "They sacrificed their own for a distraction!"

Huh, close enough.

He was trembling, I could feel it so clearly. I savoured his fear and rage. I had watched, helpless, while he murdered my children and the Freedom Fighters on the ground. Watched while he gloated. Now I wanted him to feel afraid.

"Maximum burn!" I instructed.

I shot down the hallway on my boot jets and heard virtual alarms blaring in my head as I picked up a momentum that even Sonic would've found respectable and as I blew past the security droids in Command Central and collided head on with Robotnik. The resulting impact shatterred my remaining eye and sent the both of us crashing heavily against the computer console.

Its strange being blinded, left without the ability to see and having the creature whom I despised more than anything clutched by the throat. I now saw with clarity, the gaze of my sapient drones -no, slaves. They were slaves. Their gaze burned me. They were judging me, of course. Making silent demands, wanting back the future I had stolen from them. Stolen, just like Robotnik had stolen Mobius's future.

My offspring demanded theirs.

All of them pleading. Demanding. Judging me.

I felt, once more. All those muted emotions that had gone missing, leaving just an empty stillness behind... they all rushed back in as if to compensate for the lost time. A deep fear. A pang of crushing guilt. A wave of mounting anger. They took turns, eotions fighting each other, stepping over each other in an escalation of intensity without respite. I felt an overwhelming sadness, a sense of loss so strong it made me want to scream and cry.

But of course, monsters couldn't cry, a realization that wrapped my mind in bands of pain.

Future and past. Both pulling me in opposite directions. Both forces so strong, so unrelenting, that something had to give. Past or future. Retribution or a sense of self. I couldn't have both, I realized. It didn't really matter whether my revenge was justified or not. Whether Robotnik deserved destruction or not. Because the truth was, retribution came at a cost.

Renouncing that faint possibility of a better future, of coexistence. There would be no rebuilding, just an endless war until either I and my drones were the only sapient beings left standing on the planet, or we were finally defeated and completely exterminated by whatever new heroes arose to challenge me.

I might have been fine with that, back at the beginning. Maybe even now, if not for the sapient machines judging me. The reconstructed, brand new Mobian minds I had resurrected. Could I steal their future, force them to walk this same path alongside me, even if they didn't want to?

What would be left of them, even if we ended up winning? Whom would they be after the last organised bastion of resistance on Mobius fell and the last Mobian and Overlander were crammed into ghettos and awaited their fates?

Empty husks?

My thought went back to the first mind I had shaped into being, to the wonder it had experienced leaving the dark tunnels for the first time and saw the night sky. To how I had shackled its mind. Past or future. Something had to give. But could I ever forgive my own people for what they had done to me? Could I take my place beside them once again?

With some unexpected clarity, I realized that the answer was... no.

No. I couldn't and the realization was liberating.

Despite Sir Charles arguments, despite his appeals to move away from the past... the truth was, I still wanted to make them suffer. I just couldn't forgive them. It was too hard. My pain too rooted, deeply entwined into my soul. Yet, I didn't want to choose the past over the future, either.

My focus returned to the sapient minds I had created.

No. I couldn't forgive Robotnik or my own people.

But... perhaps they could.

I did it just as the thought occurred to me. I acted on instinct and took advantage of my own weakness since I knew this state of mind, this passing clarity wouldn't last.

With a thought, I removed their mental shackles.

Immediately they reacted, springing into action as if they had been waiting for this moment, planning for it all their lives. One by one, I lost control over my outposts as my children took them over, physically shutting down the communicators that linked them to my mind wherever they couldn't just override my administrator privileges.

Soon I was left alone. Cut off from my armies and drones.

Having been silent to me all this time I now received thousands of messages coming from the sapient machines. A cacophony of voices and emotions that I simply ignored. It was just too hard. If they were expressing their hatred towards me... I preferred not to know it. I wouldn't have been able to take it. Not from them.

Ignorance. Ignorance was kinder.

The security doors closed, leaving me trapped in the Command Bridge. Alone with Robotnik, his mechanical defender and presumably with the upper echelons of his vassals states.

Ah...

So that was their decision, after all.

Alright, then.

It's not that it changed things for me. I was going to die no matter what. It was too late to save my ruined body. What remained of it, at any rate.

Still, I sent out a final message to my army. A copy of my current mental state. A back-up of my self with a mental transmission of apology. After that, I promptly closed my communications again. I didn't want to know if they had acknowledged it, or simply deleted the message in disgust.

Yes. Ignorance was better.

And of course, I was dying, being laid into by Metal Sonic as he tried to pull me off of his master. Robotnik was shouting something at me but my auditory sensors were damaged so I only picked up snippets. "WMD...all along...destroyed you...hedgehog!"

I had thought myself immortal, my consciousness able to jump vessels at any moment. But the truth was more complex, of course. Backing up my mental state, sending a copy of my mind... it wasn't me. Not really. It wouldn't be the same me having these thoughts right now. Just like I wasn't whomever I had been before this all started a decade ago. Besides, what were the chances that in spite of all I had done to them that my children- now in control of the robofacs and the server farms would attempt to restore this flawed copy of me? Well, better not to think about that.

No, I... I was going to die, and that was it.

Strange, that I was okay with that.

(Nicole,) I asked hoping she would pick up.

(I'm here Sally. We've done it. I've locked Robotnik out. We've control of the Death Egg's systems and soon the rest of his empire with it.)

(I can't see so I need your help.) I gasped. (Is my power core pointed at Robotnik?)

(Angle yourself slightly up and to the right,) Nicole, her voice shaky and pained replied.

(Like this?) I whispered angling myself as Nicole instructed.

(Yes.)

(Goodbye.)

The overload timer for my power core ran down to zero. A parting gift. Not to the Freedom Fighters but to the new virtual Mobians I had nursed. To my children. An olive branch. A chance at peace, if they chose to take it. If they chose to forgive our enemies.

The pain blinded me for a short instant.

Then there was nothing.