CHAPTER 5
That was the plan. To slip a weapon into the same room the Commander was in and shoot him dead. Without a leader, they'll fall apart. Jason knew this well enough.
The second the third bullet pierced the Commander's body so did three pierce Jason's. He felt them enter his ribcage and exit out the other side. Somehow, he was still alive. But he knew not for long. Starr was at his side, tears brimming in her eyes. How Jason loved those eyes…
"Jason, Jason, please!" Starr cried. "Please don't die! Not like this!" In a softer voice she added, "I want you to see Mobius gain its independence."
With his failing strength, Jason managed to shake his head. "I knew I…was never going to see…it anyway…"
"The Commander's dead!" Legacy shouted. "Dead!"
The Generals in the background began making frantic calls to the humans in the base and on the battlefield. Many of their replies were distorted by static, but Starr knew well enough to know that they were panicked and falling apart. Mobius had won.
Jason smiled, his eyes feeling heavier. The pain in his body had reached a white hot searing agony. He didn't have long now.
"You're such an ass," Starr choked out. "But a very brave one at that."
"Take care." Jason could hardly breathe. "Long…live…"
The last thing he ever saw was Starr's face; her brown eyes brimming with unshed tears that would be shed, for him and for those lost in the battle. His last thought was he had never loved anyone before…until possibly now. Although he knew he would never confirm it.
MEANWHILE…
Tails watched in awe as many of the human soldiers pulled back towards their base. Why were they retreating? What happened?
"What's going on?" Blaze's question echoed his own.
"They're retreating. Maybe…the Doctor and Rose did something?" Tails suggested.
"I don't know."
Many of the Mobians were pulling back as well. Tails knew that they were just being cautious, but there was always the threat of a bomb... along with the happiness of winning. This was the turning point of the war.
"Come on, men! Keep moving! We'll surround them in their own base! The tables have finally turned!" Knuckles shouted from somewhere in the crowd. With a loud battle cry, they lunged forward once again.
MEANWHILE…
Frantic footsteps and shouting came from the hall. Then silence. More running. Rose tried but couldn't make out what was going on. Either they were under attack…or something possibly worse, although Rose couldn't really think of anything worse at the moment.
"Doctor?"
The Doctor turned to her from where he was trying to loosen up the bars. So far, no good. "What?"
"Can you tell what's going on?"
"Nope." He went back to working on the bars. "Maybe it's lunchtime. There's always a rush at lunchtime."
"Be serious, please." Sonic growled.
"I'm trying to keep everyone going. I mean, we haven't laughed in a while, have we?" The Doctor shrugged. "Never mind." He muttered when no one said anything.
Rose once again tried the wristwatch communicator. "If anyone can get this message, we're being held hostage in the human's base. We have no idea what's going on outside the building, or if anyone's even alive. Please, give us a sign!"
They waited for about an hour. Nothing suggested that anyone was coming.
To make matters worse, there was a dead silence that hung over the entire cell. No one said anything. It was as if they were accepting defeat.
"I still can't believe we're all alive." Rose murmured. "Especially Scourge."
"They should have killed us." The Doctor agreed.
"They should have. Because if they did, then there would be no more Resistance." A voice in the hall said. Rose stood up and glanced around warily.
"Who's there?"
"Relax, we're the good guys." Silver came into sight, closely followed by Blaze. "Come on. the humans' army is falling. The Commander was killed."
"You're kidding! …Who killed him?" The Doctor couldn't hide the excitement on his face.
"That's the bad news." Blaze sighed. "Jason and Starr were taken to the real base to get an award. Jason had a small pistol up his sleeve…he shot and killed the Commander, but in the process condemned himself to death."
A long silence settled over the room.
"As far as we know, Starr's still alive." Silver said after a moment. "She made it back here, but not before blowing the other base up. If you look out the windows here when we get you out, there still is a huge column of smoke."
Blaze unlocked the cell with a key. "Come on. Many of the humans are in panic. They might kill anyone who's their enemy on sight."
Rose picked Scourge up and she, Sonic and the Doctor left the cell. Silver pointed out a nearby window. "See? Look at that. Beautiful."
It was anything but beautiful to Rose. All she could see was a huge cloud of darkness; a scene of many deaths. She wondered how Starr had brought herself to do that.
"Come on, Doctor. Let's see what we can do." She managed to say in a whisper.
The Time Lord turned to her and nodded. "There's going to be a lot of rebuilding here going on in the next few weeks."
LATER…
Rose, Silver, Blaze, Sonic, and the Doctor had freed every Mobian held prisoner as they made their way out of the base. With them all freed, they reckoned they had about a hundred or so more troops to aid the Resistance officially put an end to the war. They fought their way out of the base as humans realized that there was a jailbreak…and exited outside to see the whole of the Resistance surrounding what was left of the human army.
"Well, what should we do with them?" Shadow asked, catching sight of them and walking over. "We have them now."
"We'll return them to their planet." Sonic said after a slight pause. "We can't just kill them all."
"They're murderers!" Shadow objected. "They killed millions of us! How can we just let them go?"
"Because if we kill them all, we won't be any better than them."
Shadow glared at Sonic for a few seconds before hissing, "Fine. But what about the time rift? We can't do anything to close it."
"Leave the transportation of everyone and the closing of the rift to me." The Doctor said. "I can do that."
Sonic nodded. "Well, then. I hope we have enough handcuffs for them all."