11. Tragedy Strikes

"Sir! Sir!" Snivelly was apoplectic with joy and barely hiding it. "Sir!" he said once more into his communicator.

"What is it Snivelly?" Robonik's deceptively laconic voice came back.

"Sir, the princess sir, she's – ahahahahaaa! – she's, sir, she's-"

"Stop wasting my time, Snivelly," Robotnik snapped. "What about the princess?"

"She's down, sir! Shot out of the sky!"

"Dead?"

"We're, ah, looking into it now, sir. But she took a direct hit-"

"But you cannot tell me whether she'd dead or not. You have contacted me in the middle of a full frontal assault to tell me that Princess Sally might be dead or might be drawing out our troops into one of her accursed counter-attacks. Is that what you're telling me, Snivelly?"

Snivelly was suddenly uncertain. He'd been so sure his uncle would be pleased at the news. He'd been ready to describe in perfect detail the scream the princess had let out and the sight of the ice-breath dragon plummeting and trailing blood-

"Snivelly?"

"Yes, sir."

"A word of advice, Snivelly. Unless you have hard evidence, such as the princess's corpse, or the body of that hedgehog,do not contact me again. Failure to meet with these instruction will result in a … cessation of your services." The words were so loaded with meaning they sag in the middle.

Snivelly swallowed. He recalled the hard eyes of Robotnik's new allies, the echidnas, and the way their leaders stood beside him as if they were always meant to be there. They'd organised Knothole's downfall in such a short amount of time, showing intelligence and the kind of ruthlessness Robotnik prized and feared in equal measure because it was exactly what he'd used to overthrow the king. Snivelly also recalled the way the echidnas had turned their backs on him, as if he wasn't even worth looking at, and how Robotnik conducted their entire first meeting without wrenching his eyes from their faces. The echidnas had resources and technology they were willing to share if Robotnik used his transporter to bring them out of their dimension and into this one. Afterwards, the room had stunk of secrets and evil intent and Snivelly had felt shut out, despite being there the whole time. Merciless as he was, Robotnik would have no compunction about getting rid of his old deputy if a better, more reliable alternative was available.

"Are we clear, Snivelly?"

"Yes, sir."

"Come on, Ducly," Sally wheezed. "Come on."

Dulcy panted and held her wounded side. "I can't, Sally."

"Yes you can," Sally insisted, dragging on the dragon's arm and ignoring the ringing in her own ears. "You have to move."

Dulcy sank to her knees. "I'm serious, Sally. I can't."

"Dulcy, please." Sally hoped she kept the note of desperation out of her voice.

She scanned the sky. There had been so many enemies it was amazing they'd got this far without being spotted. The ditch was filthy, choked with old leaves that had gone rotten in the trickle of water lining the bottom, but overhanging bracken and other plants gave them more cover than if they were out in the open. The leaves muffled their footsteps and the putrid stench masked their scent. It was pure luck that had put them so close to this when Dulcy crashed out of the sky, and Sally's pure determination that had heaved Dulcy into the ditch when it became clear she was too injured to fly.

Dulcy kept her head down, tongue hanging like an overheated dog. She was breathing so heavily Sally feared they'd be found even as she worried for her friend. When she raised her face Sally saw the raw pain in her eyes. She also saw the dribble of blood running from the side of Dulcy's jaws.

"Sally, you have to leave me."

"That's not an option."

"You have to-"

"Not. An. Option."

"I'm hurt bad. I can't make it as far as the shelters, and definitely not without those things finding me first. A Freedom Fighter's first priority is to Knothole, right?" Dulcy parroted one of the soundbites Sally pedalled to keep them focussed in their fight against Robotnik.

Sally turned her face away. "Knothole is gone."

"Knothole isn't a bunch of huts – you know that better than I do. Knothole is the creatures who live in those huts. They're still out there and they need protecting."

"I'm not leaving you."

"You have to." Dulcy stared levelly at her.

"You're part of Knothole, so you're my priority right now. Don't even start trying to argue with me, Dulcy Dragon. I'm not going anywhere without you and that's final."

Dulcy's expression was caught between grateful and anxious. "If they catch me it's just one less dragon. If they catch you …"

"I'm no more important than anyone else in this forest."

"Don't try that with me, Sally. We both know the Freedom Fighters need you more than they need me. If one of us has to go today, it can't be you."

"Neither of us is 'going' today," Sally snapped. "Stop talking nonsense. If you have the energy to argue with me then you have the energy to move." She yanked on Dulcy's arm, but dropped it when the dragon let out a sharp moan of pain.

"Sally, please; don't make me responsible for them catching you or worse," Dulcy pleaded. "The others need you – Bunnie and Rote and Tony and Tails, and especially Sonic. You can't choose me over all of them and Knothole."

"Don't make me choose between them and you," Sally replied. "They're safe." She hoped that as true. They'd had enough time to evacuate by now. "You need me."

"They need you," Dulcy contended. Suddenly she coughed, dropping her head and retching bloody spume into the leaves. Her sides heaved and the mangled mess of her left wing stared at Sally so hard she thought she might throw up herself. Dulcy's hide was a mass of scorch marks and scarlet wounds, her scales melted and fused together from the heat of the lasers - lasers she'd saved Sally from by taking their shots with her own body while Sally nestled inside her pouch. The lower half of Dulcy's tail was gone and her hindquarters were badly damaged, making it difficult for her to walk. It was a shock to realise just how badly she was injured.

"Dulcy," Sally said, voice thick with ill-defined emotion. "I'm sorry. You got hurt because of me-"

"As if. I got hurt because Buttnik is a no-good, dirty, rotten word-my-mom-would-kill-me-for-saying-if-I-said-it." Dulcy coughed again, pitching forward. "Sally, please go. I can't have you on my conscience."

"I'm staying-"

"Sally, I'm probably not going to live through this anyway," Dulcy said bluntly, revealing a side of herself that her whimsical nature often concealed.

Dulcy was young, but she was still a Freedom Fighter. You didn't become one and stay one without learning to make part of yourself hard. Sally did it the day her father was taken from her, then rediscovered that hardened part of herself the first time she and her friends went back into Robotropolis as kits. There was a brutal truth to the reality of fighting a tyrant like Robotnik. If you wanted to stay sane, you had to accept the harshness and the bad things you saw, plus the possibility that every mission might be your last. It made you wake up with nightmares, but it also let you swallow your fear and do what needed to be done.

Sally looked into Dulcy's eyes now and saw that hardened part of her friend looking back. She still couldn't leave her, though. She was having a hard enough time understanding how and why echidnas were working for Robotnik, without this adding to the jumble in her mind. Tails's loss of sight was bad enough, but he was still alive. Sally was confused but she understood one thing – she would not leave Dulcy to die like this.

Dulcy shoved her. "Go!" It was the shortest whole sentence possible, and also the saddest.

"I won't!"

"If you stay I'll hate you."

"So hate me."

"You're being selfish."

"What?"

"Everyone is relying on you. You can't let guilt over me stop you from being there for them. Besides, maybe those SWATbots won't find me at all. I'll hide here for a while and when they're gone I'll crawl out and find you guys."

Sally bit her lip. They both knew this wasn't true. Tears welled in her eyes. "I can't do it. I can't just leave you like this-"

"You can't leave them, either. You have a responsibility as their leader and as their princess."

Sally stared at Dulcy. She'd grown up so much since the little draglet she and Sonic saved in Mobotropolis, when they went back in time but couldn't avert the tragedy of Robotnik's takeover. Here was another tragedy on the brink of happening, and everything in Sally rebelled at the idea of walking away. Her heart ached and her throat constricted. "You're my friend."

"Then be my friend and save yourself."

"This doesn't sound like you. You sound more grown up than Rosie."

Dulcy winked. All her eyelashes and the scales on her left temple were gone, leaving the flesh beneath puckered and pink. "I guess it had to happen sometime. I wish I could've mastered my landings first, though."

That did it. Sally choked, tears running down her cheeks. She clutched Dulcy's hand, holding it to her face and feeling the rough scrape of scales against her fur. When Dulcy pushed against her it was gentle but firm.

"Go, Sally. You're wasting time."

"Please…"

Dulcy pulled her hand away. "Go."

Voices cut through the air, the monotone of SWATbots and others with the inflection of living creatures. They were hunting for them and had come near enough to be heard even in the ditch. The heavu tramp of metal feet made the bracken bounce.

Dulcy's eyes went wide. "Go!" she hissed. "They haven't seen you yet. You can still make a run for it. This ditch leads to the river, right?"

Sally nodded, wiping at her face. She took a step backwards, unable to look away as Dulcy wrapped what remained of her tail around herself and huddled against the side of the ditch. She was waiting and Sally couldn't bear to think what for.

"Go!"

Sally went.

And she hated herself for it when, only a short time later, she heard the blast of ice-breath and laserfire behind her.

To be Continued…