A/N: I've been writing this for some time now. While I originally intended A Love Story in Fifty Sentences to be a standalone fic, Apron Strings was added as a request. I thought the whole thing was finished with those two, but apparently my back brain had other ideas. What follows from here on in was kind of an accident, really; written when I was worried about my grandmother and needed to take myself to another place. And you can't get much more distant than Mobius, right? Therefore, ALSiFS and Apron Strings can be considered a sort of prologue to the main action, which is a much more sprawling story than those tow perhaps promised. The whole lot is henceforth to be known under the umbrella of Reason in Madness. I hope you enjoy it enough to give some feedback. Thank you.
Reason in Madness
© Scribbler March/May 2007
There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness. - Friedrich Nietzsche
1. The Circle Opens
Emptied to essentials, the sitting room had a lobotomised look, as though all personality had been surgically removed. Stripped of their accessories, Bunnie's florid, oversized furniture seemed self-consciously large.
It'd been a whole month, and still nobody had moved into the hut.
Sally stood next to the armchair and rested her hand on its back. It was tall, with high armrests and cushions perfect for sinking into. If a beast sat in it they could lean backwards comfortably. She'd fallen asleep in it many times before, especially on Winter evenings after a hard day's toil when her own hut seemed cold and uninviting. Bunnie used to creep around, preposterously noiseless, and cover her with a blanket rather than wake her.
Sally sighed, and then turned when a floorboard creaked behind her. She wasn't surprised to see Sonic, frozen with one foot raised.
He grinned sheepishly at her.
"Is something the matter?" Sally asked, her thoughts interrupted. She ran a hand through her hair. It was growing out a little, and she wasn't sure whether to let it or take a pair of scissors to the back. The decision was something she would usually have discussed with Bunnie, who would've had a lot to say on the matter. When they were kits, it'd been Bunnie's dream to become a hairdresser when she grew up.
"I saw you come in here and I thought, y'know…" Sonic shrugged. "You okay?"
"I'm fine."
"Eeeeh. Wrong answer." He folded his arms. "You've been majorly bummed ever since Bunnie left."
"So what if I am?" She sounded defensive, and made an effort to lower the timbre of her voice.
"Yo, chill, Sal. We've all been a bit down; I'm just worried about you, that's all."
Her irritation drained away like bathwater down the plughole. "Thanks. But I really am fine. Things just seem so … quiet without her around."
"You're telling me. Every time I see him, Tails asks when she's coming for a visit, or if he can go to the floating island. It's getting so I don't wanna go near the big guy in case he wants me to take him with me."
"But you haven't been either."
"Not the point, Sal."
Sally shook her head. It was obvious Sonic actually did want to go visit the island, but, like her, was respecting Bunnie's right to privacy and her need for time to settle into her new home. It'd been a huge step for Bunnie to move out of Knothole – for everyone. Nobody had ever done it before except Uncle Chuck, and he hadn't really been a resident in the first place. Sally recalled the day Bunnie had clambered onto Dulcy's back and flown off, the rest of the Freedom Fighters running below until they were no more than a speck in the distance. Then they'd all come to a halt, and though they'd all had chores they'd made their way back to the village as a group, and spent the evening in Sally's hut drinking acorn tea and eating hot oat farls with oak cream and dewberry jam. An air of false jollity smothered them, as they laughed and joked and pointedly ignored the empty chair where Bunnie should've sat.
Since then, her absence had drawn the Freedom Fighters closer together, though they hadn't been on a proper mission into Robotropolis. Sally supposed she was unwilling to make plans that compensated for Bunnie's absence, but at the same time she didn't want to impose by asking her to come back yet.
Bunnie was Sally's best friend in a way that Sonic just couldn't be. They'd shared a dormitory as kits, and when their bodies went through the changes of growing up, each girl had taken comfort in knowing she wasn't the only one. With each of the Freedom Fighters, her friends, Sally could be a different part of herself. With Bunnie, she felt less like a leader and more like a teenager who should've been poring over magazines and choosing nail polish. She couldn't sit up doing Sonic's hair when she needed to talk. So she missed Bunnie unbearably.
Yet Sally was terribly aware of how much their war had affected Bunnie. She'd suffered, above all other Mobotropolis refugees, and her suffering continued even when they weren't hiding behind trash dumps or running from SWATbots. They'd all lost their families, but at least they'd kept themselves.It had always lurked under the surface, but especially in the last month Sally had brooded that no other Mobian she could think of had a personality or the fortitude to live partially roboticised and keep smiling the way Bunnie did.
So it was that Sally couldn't bring herself to suck Bunnie back into their fight so soon. Her mind was suffused with images of how Bunnie had looked at Knuckles's retreating back the day she left. It had been an expression so full of hope and caring that it was etched indelibly on Sally's memory, an obvious reminder of why Bunnie had chosen to go. Likewise, Knuckles's gentleness with her, so incongruous to what Sally knew of him, had also made an impact. Knuckles never treated Bunnie like she didn't need protecting, the way the Freedom Fighters sometimes unconsciously did. When someone could wrench an iron grate off its hinges without even breaking a sweat, even if you didn't mean to you assigned them a little more 'I don't need to worry about you' than you did for others.
Sally didn't want to risk that happiness in the face of all Bunnie had already endured – Knuckles, too. Though she'd been out of contact with him for years, she knew enough about his life as a Guardian to know that Bunnie's presence in his life was the best thing that could've happened to him. They complemented each other.
"Yo, Sal." Sonic waved a hand in front of her face. "Earth to Sal, come in Sal."
Sally startled. "Sonic!"
"What? You totally zoned out."
"I was thinking."
"I know. I heard the gears creak."
She swatted at him. I bet Knuckles never says stuff like that to Bunnie. "Thinking isn't exactly your greatest asset."
"That's because you don't love me for my brain. You love me for my body." He rested his arms on his waist and canted his hips from side to side.
Sally snorted. She couldn't help it. Melancholy cut about as much ice as a soap hacksaw when Sonic was around. "You wish!"
"I don't need to wish. I know." More hip wiggling. Sally swatted at him again, but he dashed away, laughing. "C'mon, Sal. I told Rotor I'd meet him up at the water wheel, and I know how much you like bossing us around. He reckons we can light up two bulbs today."
"You're hopeless. You know full well the water wheel is already capable of powering an emergency medical pack."
"Yeah, but it takes, like, a million hours to charge the batteries for each one – and that's only when they river's high."
"Fourteen hours, actually," Sally corrected, but she had to concede about the river. Water levels had been low for the season recently, and if there hadn't been so much to do she would've made a point of finding out why. She pulled NICOLE off her boot and made a note to get to it later.
Sonic rolled his eyes. "You're such a worrywart. It could just be all the extra sun we've been getting."
"Yes, but it could be something else, too. After what happened with Robotnik and the water supply last time, I'm not willing to take any chances."
"Hair-splitter."
"Sloth."
"Moi? A sloth?" Sonic put a hand to his chest. "Sal, I'm hurt. Do you know how slow sloths are?"
"That's not what I meant and you know it." Sally sighed and made for the door. "Let's see what Rotor wants, then."
Sonic grinned and trailed after her. "See, I knew it. You just can't resist a chance to boss us around."
"Idiot." But she was smiling as she said it.
Knuckles stood on the embankment with his eyes shut. The breeze was cool and sharp, and carried with it a faint salty tang redolent of the coast. It cleared his head, and he filled his lungs.
A week ago Angel Island had floated over a swath of fields recently devastated by Robotnik's forces, the creatures who worked them either captured or dead. Either way they were long gone, though their homes and livelihoods still smouldered. The stink of burning grain had lingered in his nose, and had seemed to follow him back to the island, so it felt good to finally be rid of it.
Last year Knuckles would not have even considered leaving the island to visit a bombsite like that. If he'd even noticed it at all, he would've sailed on past, reasoning that the fate of ordinary Mobians was no concern of his as long as the Chaos Emerald was safe. He wasn't cold; anyone who'd spent more than five minutes in his company could attest that. It was simply that he was devoted to his mission. Having spent the majority of his life being programmed about the importance of keeping the Emerald secret and safe, he'd come to view his calling as something almost holy, which drove him to walk a very fine line between dedication and ruthlessness. That he'd drawn back from that precipice was just one of the many differences wrought in his life since he'd met Bunnie Rabbot.
She'd insisted they go down to the village to see if they could help. They couldn't, and after searching fruitlessly for survivors she'd stood in the middle of the smashed main square until Knuckles tugged at her arm.
"This could be my home," she'd said softly, after flinching at the contact. "It ain't that different. Those poor beasts, taken away to the Roboticisor, or worse…"
They were too far north for it to actually be her home town, but Knuckles understood. Consequently it'd been his idea to bury the few pitiful bodies they found. This seemed to mollify Bunnie a little, though she'd still been sad and silent when they finally left. Afterwards she'd withdrawn into the caves and Knuckles, though vastly inexperienced in reading the signs of other creatures, recognised her need to be alone for a while.
Yet that had been a week ago. Bunnie's resilience amazed Knuckles. After a few hours brooding she'd emerged wearing her usual smile and said no more on the matter. They'd spent an enjoyable evening of her teaching him how to play bobstones and no mention of the village had been made since.
Now he stood on the embankment and contemplated how own preoccupation with the rows of burnt out houses. If he hadn't known better, he'd have said Bunnie didn't care about what they'd seen, but since it'd bothered him so much he knew it'd bothered her too. She'd stamped down on her preoccupation with good cheer the same way he had with reticence.
Until Sally got back in contact with him, and he finally answered her requests to come to Knothole, Knuckles had been only vaguely aware of the details of Robotnik's rise to power. Initially he'd absorbed the information as one might absorb a history textbook. Now, however, he found himself growing increasingly sickened by the far-reaching effects of Robotnik's iron fist.
A faint splash caught his attention. Thinking it might be the dekku fish, he made his way up the embankment for a better look at the lagoon. It was nearly mating season for the dekku, and the males always put on a spectacular show as they leaped out of the water, gaudy scales flashing and tails trailing behind them like pennants. He'd always liked watching them, though his father used to complain that he was wasting his time when he should've been studying the ancient scrolls.
However, what met his eyes when he crested the embankment was not the dekku fish. Knuckles halted and stared, blood rising in his face and making his nose sting.
Anyone unused to Bunnie might've thought she couldn't get her robotic limbs wet for fear of rusting. In fact this was a ridiculous idea. When he designed the Roboticisor all those years ago, Uncle Chuck had intended it to give old and sick beasts a new lease of life – an unworkable idea had they been forced to stay inside whenever it rained. Bunnie's limbs were coated in a high-grade alloy, completely waterproof and partially heatproof. She didn't like the rain, but she didn't fear it either.
It certainly made bathing a lot easier.
Knuckles turned away, cheeks burning. Mobians didn't typically care about nakedness. Those who wore clothes wore them for fashion, status or warmth, but nobeast was embarrassed by his or her body enough they felt the need to cover up. Yet the sight of Bunnie, sans leotard in the shallows of the lagoon … Knuckles felt so strange he willed her not to have noticed him so he wouldn't have to explain himself.
No such luck.
"Knuckles?"
Damn. Knuckles swallowed, turned and waved.
Bunnie waved back. It jiggled her front and made him feel even more bizarre. "I was just tryin' out that beeswax soap you gave me. It's mighty fine stuff. Got the grease outta my fur a treat."
"I'm glad." It seemed the most appropriate response.
Bunnie's ear trailed down her back, and both her hair and fur were plastered flat. It drastically altered her appearance. She looked smaller, her robotic limbs horribly inelegant. "You okay, Knuckles? You look a mite peaky."
"I'm fine," he replied in a strangled voice. "Just, uh, gauging where we are."
She spread her hands. "Looks like the lagoon t'me."
"I meant -"
"I know what you meant, sugar. I was just yankin' your tail. So where the hoo-ha are we?"
Knuckles focussed on the question and not on the way she leaned to one side to wring out her ears. "Near the northern coast of the Mobian Sea."
"Really?" She sounded surprised. "Wow. This rock sure travels fast, don't it?"
Knuckles wasn't sure he liked Angel Island being referred to as a 'rock', but he let it slide, if only because mentally he was estimating the distance covered in the past month. Angel Island followed no set trajectory or speed. Sometimes it raced across entire continents as though pursued by demons, other times it cruised at a more leisurely pace, and sometimes it seemed almost to be standing still. Since Bunnie arrived it'd moved erratically, and had gone almost in a perfect circle. The coast wasn't far from the Great Plains, and from there it was only a hop, skip and jump to the Great Forest, and beyond, Robotropolis…
Locke, Knuckles's father and the Guardian before him, had come up with a theory that the Island's flight path was governed by the Chaos Emerald at its heart, and the Emerald was linked so closely with the Guardian that it stood to reason what was in the Guardian's heart would, in turn, influence where the Island took him or her. Knuckles was inclined to believe this theory in light of their current route.
He told Bunnie where he thought they were headed and smiled at her reaction. She clapped her hands and bounced up and down, making little splashes.
"We could visit Knothole! It's been so long – I ain't never been away so long as this. I wonder what's been an' gone on while I've been here."
Knuckles's smile faltered. It was a constant niggling in his brain that Bunnie regretted her decision to come live with him on Angel Island. No matter how many times she reassured him, he couldn't help but worry that she simply didn't want to hurt his feelings and would jump ship at the first opportunity to return to her friends. The Freedom Fighters had a common bond so powerful he was a little envious and a lot antsy. He didn't want to lose Bunnie. Strange to think that he, the Guardian who had deliberately stayed out of Mobian affairs, could become so attached to a lowlander. It was almost laughable, really. He wondered what his father would say if he were still around.
"… Only if that's okay with you." Bunnie's words snapped him back to reality.
"Huh? What?"
"Goin' down to visit Knothole. I asked whether it'd be okay, 'cause I wouldn't make you go if y'all didn't wanna. You know that, right?"
"Uh, sure. Sure, it'd be fine. No problem."
Bunnie frowned. "Are you sure you're feelin' all right? You're actin' right spacey."
"It's nothing. I'm just … a little distracted." He kept his eyes on her face. "The Emerald. Has been picking up on strange, uh, vibrations. Yeah."
"Vibrations? Y'mean, like, magical vibrations?"
"Maybe. It's not really clear, but I'd best keep an eye on things until the, uh, vibrations clear up. In the chambers. With the Emerald."
She nodded. "Good idea. If'n you need me for anythin', you just holler, okay?"
Knuckles agreed and beat a hasty retreat.
To Be Continued…