"...I...I never stopped for a second to think what I was doing was wrong," Master's assistant Becky wiped the sweat off of his face while he sat there on the dull and lifeless grass, "I just thought it was the right thing to do. I always questioned people, but I never questioned myself."
"Well, that just goes to show," said the strange young woman in front of him, "You can't trust yourself sometimes."
"Well, who the hell DO I TRUST!" Master bellowed suddenly, throwing his arms straight into the air, "It's not like I could trust just any old person at the ball, could I? Half of the buggers thought my telly was fuled by MAGIC, for my sake!"
"You're problem, Master," the mysterious woman went on, "Is that you're so full of anger and resentment and you see it fit to take it out on people who just don't deserve it! You killed almost everyone you encounter. Almost killed...her and him."
"Yes," Master said, suddenly calm with a hint of irritation, "But I beleive that we came to the agreement that we would NEVER EVER MENTION THAT AGI-"
"MASTER!" Becky quickly stepped forward when she could see Master begin to dig out his now rusty Deagle out of it's holster, holding him back with strength unseeable to the comman man, "Calm down! You have to admit it happened, remember? You don't wanna end up like your superiors!"
"Right, right..." Master said wearily, flopping backwards to the floor, a tear of guilt in the corner of his eye, "I'm sorry. I...don't know what came over me."
"Jesus..." the woman said pitifully, "And the comman man calls you a god..."
...
"So...let me get this straight..." Spectre mumbled uncertainly, "You're like this because of you getting...fused with your universe's Amy and it leaving side effects upon seperation? Mainly by photos of you in her swimsuit circling the internet?"
"Yeah!" Sonic chirped, "It's a long story, I know."
Lowell just shrugged sluggishly. Having recoverd from the massive shock of finding Sonic in the dress (or Sonya, as she preferred to be called in this form), Spectre was just asking all sorts of questions aimed towards how this was possible, ranging from the obvious ("Why do you feel comfertable this way?") to the hard to explain ("How did you get those...things without breast pads?") to the pointless (Why the hell are you wearing STOCKINGS?!"). Sonya simply smirked in response to each one, before answering the entire thing in a few sentances:
A few years previous, there was a event called the "SonAmy Incident", where Sonic was brainwashed and genetically adjusted to turn into Amy Rose herself with each and every dream. The end result, however, was a dead Sonic/Amy hybrid (of which Lowell was the cause of), a near-ruined universe, a locked-up (and branded insane) Master and a Rouge with the impaled abdomen.
Upon revival and inevtiable fixing of everything they went wrong (this IS Sonic, remember), a quick poke around his brain revealed that not all of the genetic screwery was fixed. Thusly, many aspects of Amy's personality were still intergrated into his own. This on it's own was not exactly an issue, just leading to lapses of Amy at random and (as ever) inoppertune moments, but it was near-fate that one of those lapses would happen near one of Amy's old swimsuits. One round of Rouge-taken, internet-released photos later and it seemed to be the end of the line for both personalties. Luckily, Lowell (a professional therapist) and Miley 'Tails' Prower (a great mechanical and genetic wonder) found a way to combine a dress, long boots, fishnet stockings, a wig, black quill dye, eye contacts and a breast-forming-voice-changing chemical to release the inner-female trapped inside the hybrid mind. And, after all that pretentious stuff was out of the way, it worked.
Having had enough time to fully absorb and process all the info, Spectre's face twisted into one of pure confusion, but slowly re-shaped to a normal (if slightly disturbed) smile, having nothing to whisper but, "...O-okay..." Lowell could see that she was disturbed by what exactly this alternate version of her ex-lover had become, even compared to that ex. He could sense a feeling of dispair and fear from deep inside her ghostly mind, one that was now very much aware of the fact that her most favouritest lover in the history of forever was, even across universes, a shallow con-like hollow husk of a hedgehog who wanted nothing more than to destroy everything he held dear to make himself seem the best person alive (mainly by being the ONLY thing alive). A mind that, probably for the first time in years, was afraid.
"Don't think about it too hard," Lowell said after a short while, "Trust me, it's more complicated that she'll let on."
"She?" Spectre asked.
"Yeah, she. She's a transgender, remember?" Frost said, her voice a timid whisper, "That's not to say it's still Sonic under all those layers, physically and mentally. She...he...whatever...is still my lover."
"Oh, stop it," Sonya giggled, "You'll make me blush."
"Well, that may be because of the fact you have to have your panties extra-tight to hide...something. Certainly something that never actually existed..." Lowell snarked. Sonya blushed a very deep beet-red and flew into a rage.
"WHY YOU...HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST I'M HIDIOUSLY KINKEY!"
"Beleive me," Lowell said, starting to gain an ounce of irritation in his own voice, "If I wanted to paint you as the sad kinkey type, I'd mention the rope, ball gags and iron weights!"
"Guys..." Spectre said timidly, "I'd love to hear your frankly disgusting bickering, but we...seem to have company," her voice suddenly gained a angry, gruff tone and it was now her turn to whip up a small rage beneath her skin, "Like HIM."
Master, Becky and the Mystery Woman were now in plain sight, having taken to sitting outside the lab on a well-kept wooden table. On the table, there was a simple basket of assorted treats and sandwiches, with three goblets placed in random places on the table bearing two names with the last partially smudged and scribbled over. Nearby was Kathrine, simply hovering near the back of the table and staring deeply at Master and Becky, sitting opposite them on the same side as the Mystery Woman, slowly taking in notes and showing signs of thinking hard to work out what had happened. Master seemed nervous and jumpy, as if he did not want to be in a place he had hidious memories of, and never seemed to focus on any of the women around him. Indeed, he only seemed to be focused on the scenery surrounding the table; mainly grass and flowers and other natural things that were more or less just rocks all those years ago. Being a master of time travel through the Tears, Master himself was no older than before. However, he sported a slightly different outfit, mainly one that was of a different pallete. His 'cloth jacket' (ie. a fleece) was now a simple grey as opposed to the dark blue it had been before, and no longer sported an unusable hood and instead had a sort of large collar like-arrangement around his neck. His gloves were much longer and also seemed to be partly made of leather as well as wool, and his shoes has lost their blue tint and were now just a plain black.
Becky, sitting next to the paranoid Master, was a small female hedgehog with white fur that also had dark-furred quills and ears. Her eyes were a brilliantly bright teal colour with a matching green shirt that exposed her right shoulder and some of a wound on her upper arm. Her legs were encased in jeans with silver boots and matching ring bracelets, just like the ones Amy Rose wears. The woman sitting opposite her, however, seemed to care little about her personal apperance (which, admittedly, was a rare occurance in any plane of existence). She wore a normal pink t-shirt that was all sorts of stains on it ranging from ketchup to oil, along with a pair of jeans that made it obvious early on that they weren't the ones you buy pre-ripped. She didn't wear gloves or shoes, simply wearing pink and frayed socks that showed brown fur poking out of the holes. She wore her quills in a ponytail, a quite messy one at that, and wore glasses that were hastily repaired with tape and hot glue. Her eyes were purple with dark rings under her eyes and she seemed weary and depressed. She slowly glanced at the group before them, before eyeing the table again and sipping her drink.
"Master?" Lowell asked out loud, "What's he doing here?"
"You think he wouldn't return after the event at the party all those years ago," Sonya shrugged, "After all, it's doubtless he had a part in it somewhere. Nevertheless, it could be possible that he's here to find a way to cover his tracks in some way..."
"Perhaps he's trying to retire?" Frost asked, sarcasticlly.
"Well...I wouldn't put it past him," Lowell said, "He's done some bad stuff these past few years..."
"Oh yeah," Sonya winced, "The Lost Hex...Amy's corpse...thing...how's Amber, by the way?"
"She's good," Frost shrugged, "It's not easy to enjoy life when you know your brother more-or-less glassed a planet and killed billions to get you back from the realms of non-existence."
Spectre's head tilted to the side in pure shock, "What?! Look, I may've just been hovering around here for years, but what exactly did I just hear? Did you just say he killed billions?!"
"Well...not exactly so," Frost said quickly, trying to grab Spectre's arm, "He DID revive most of them at the end, you have to know!"
"I don't know or care anymore," Spectre growled, "I've wanted to do this for years!"
Master slowly sipped at his coffee and stared at the other three before him for a second. His mind was awash with nervousness and guilt and he wasn't exactly excited to be back on the island in the first place. He placed his hands on the table and scrunched them up into little balls to prevent them shaking, but that didn't seem to work. He could feel a cold wind blow against his back, arching over the coller and brushing his neck with it's long, cold fingers. His sweat began to freeze slightly and he was becoming more and more sure that the ghost was near him, ready to extract her ghostly revenge.
And it was only then did he notice Spectre hovering near his side. A short and painful cough of surpise left his throat and he fell to the floor, edging slowly away from the vengeful ghost until his back was touching the brick wall behind him. Spectre hoevered closer and closer, her eyes becoming tighter and tighter, her mouth growing fangs and emitting a rough growling. Master curled up into a ball and squeezed his eyes shut, to scared to apologize or even scream. Spectre just stared at him as the other females around the table stood up and back a few steps, becoming just as uneasy.
"YOUR EYES..." Spectre said in an unearthly tone, "PURE EVIL. Just like last time..."
"SPECTRE!" Lowell shouted, rushing to her side, "Don't!"
"Why not?" Spectre asked back, "This guy ruined my life! He killed me! Made me suffer eternal damnation!"
"It-it wasn't me, I swear!" Master said quickly, his once strong and powerful voice now a stammering wail, "It w-wasn't anywhere NEAR me!"
"YOU'RE LYING!" Spectre screamed in an even more unearthly way, her eyes misting over and glowing a slight and ghastly shade of red, "YOU'VE ALWAYS BEEN LYING!"
"...What if he isn't? What if he was simply taking guilt for this event?"
From the sound of this soothing female voice, Spectre seemed to calm down and the glowing ceased. All heads began to turn to the unknown woman, who had broken her silence and was now beginning to speak in a low and mature (yet decidedly weary) tone. Spectre hovered closer and closer to this woman and stare deep into her eyes. Unlike Master's, she found nothing; just a calming wash of black pupils with purple tones to the outsides. An unusual contrast the fire that was at first burning in the eyes of the Master, such fire now extinguished and damp. Kathrine straightened her jacket and joined the others as they began to crowd around this woman with wildly varying levels of interest. The woman, in response, simply shrugged and began hugging herself.
"So...does the concept of personal space mean anything to you people?"
"How do you KNOW for certain that he's wrong?" Spectre asked skeptically.
"Why, it's simple, dear Roseanne. I've told young Kathrine here everything I can."
"Indeed she has," Kathrine spoke up, "Basically, her name is Sunbeam or something, and she's been the one living here and forcing Spectre into a sleep mode. And she's doing that 'cause she's been studying the events of that day and trying to see who was really behind it."
"So..." Spectre turned to Sunbeam, "You forced me to sleep every night so you could look into my dreams and see what I recalled of it?"
"Of course," Sunbeam replied, "After all, you were there...obviously. Unfortuently, it was a failure; you just kept dreaming of the falling part and not the actual death. Falling wasn't the exact cause, I'm sure of that. There was a gunshot wound on your body. One that, after scanning all the files and records I could find, was from a bullet that could not have existed in that particular timeframe. Specifically, a .50 Action Express cartridge."
"Only one gun I know of chambers that..." Sonya spoke up, "And only one guy I know would be dumb enough to carry one as a sidearm, too..." she then walked briskly over to the still balled-up Master and then fiercly kicked his face until he lost consciousness, silently breathing a "I've always wanted to do that..." After this, she began to rifle through his pockets. There was finally a click and a tick sound, and out came the gun she was expecting; the Desert Eagle. It was midly the same as from that day, as it still had the tactical rail and two-colour paint scheme. What WAS interesting about it, however, was the large amount of rust on the weapon. It was incredibly dirty, as if the paint scheme was just tinfoil attached with glue, and some of the buttons on the slide were missing. Lowell stared at the gun as Sonya presented it to Sunbeam and suddenly realized he hadn't seen Master use it for a while. It seemed to him that, whatever happened on the island, Master had abandoned his gun and instead turned to his ever popular Staff of Chaos as his main weapon. Indeed, Lowell took a quick check of the area and the Staff was seen perched on the table, glowing a faint purple and featuring many unusual tidbits and gadgets to make it look more Steam-Punky. Nevertheless, Lowell smirked at the Desert Eagle, knowing he would be able to repair it to full strength when he next had the chance.
"Is this what you're talking about?" Sonya asked, handing the weapon to Sunbeam.
Sunbeam carefully inspected the weapon, unloading it and attempting to flip the saftey on (which failed because the switch wasn't there anymore). She flipped it around and looked slightly harder and it was then she noticed the fingerprints on the slide. She quickly pressed a piece of sticky paper on to collect them, and then gave the gun back to Sonya, saying; "Yes. This is the one we're looking for. With this, I can finally get the Answer to work!"
"...The Answer?" Frost asked, "The heck's that?"
"I...have no idea," Sunbeam said with a simple shrug, "It's a machine I found on this island a few years ago and I've tried to make it work for some time. I found some files and it's an amazing thing. It's the last thing the Prowers made before they went out of buisness and it's designed to, and I quote, 'to shed all light on this endless nightmare'. No idea what they were talking about. All I know is that it requires the fingerprints of that Master guy to activate. And now I have them."
"And why not use Master's own fingers?" Lowell asked.
"Well, this whole event was quite awful to him. And would YOU like him to re-experience something tragic and horrific?"
Lowell paused, then slowly looked sheepishly to the ground, "Good point..."
"I dunno," Sonya shrugged, "He seems to be determined to make my counterpart do the same."
"Not exactly importent, but well noted. Let's get on with this," Sunbeam said, "Maybe now we can finally find out what happened that night..."
Taking the now passed-out Master by the arms, Sunbeam picked him up and dragged him into the lab everyone was standing behind, with all the others following quickly. The insides of the lab were clean and yet incredibly unorganized, decorated almost entirely with the remains of past machines and experiements. The cog-powered Tablet Lowell had seen in the great hall was now on the table in many pieces and with a large note with the red words "RUINED" scribbled across it. Lowell got the feeling that the Prowers before Miley weren't as invincible as they thought they were. Apart from that, there were a few (hopefully) harmless chemicals spilled around the room and the odd loose cog and wire here are there too. In the farest corner was a rather crude living quarters and kitchen with a badly made bedframe with mattress and table, along with a TV and gas oven. In the centre of the room, however, was the most importent machine; a large cog-filled machine hooked up to a chair nearby with wires poking everywhere and what seemed to be a holographic projector connected to the top of the box. Sunbeam dusted off all the rubbish that had acumulated over the years and then forced Master into the chair, securing him to it with straps and shackles. After this, she then walked brisky over to a control panel on the machine and started to press all sorts of colourful buttons. She then pulled a lever and the machine, slowly and surely, sprang to life.
"I would suggest you...take a seat over there," Sunbeam said, pointing lazily towards some cushioned chairs with popcorn and drinks nearby, "This'll take a while."
The others did as they were told and sat accordingly. Sonya and Frost sat together and shared the popcorn, while Lowell and Kathrine seemed to quickly fall asleep against each other. Spectre just hovered around and then slowly appoached and floor and "sat", if that would ever be possible for a ghost, on the floor. The machine continued to spring to life, it's numerous clicks and whirrs slowly filling the area and bathing it in a similar grey light. From there, a sheet of white material slowly pulled down from the ceiling and somehow glowed on it's own. Soon, the machine appeared to reach full change; it's whining appeared to go no higher or no louder. Master was beginning to stir and regain his composure, before quickly jerking upright and yelping in surprise. His head darted around in multiple directions to find out where he was and, upon finding out just WHERE he was and WHAT he was strapped into, he began to struggle and squirm and attempted with all his might to escape the contraption. Alas, it seemed to be in vain and, after a few minutes of using all of his strength, he collapsed in a breathless heap and began to cough violently. Becky quickly ran to his side and pulled out what seemed to be an inhaler with small ventilating chamber attachment and stuck it in his mouth. The inhaler was sprayed and Master took long, deep breaths, which seemed to do the trick and calmed him down.
"Master has asthama?" Sonya asked as Becky returned to her seat.
"Sometimes," Becky corrected, "Only seems to occur when he over-excerts himself."
"Huh," Spectre mused, "He becomes a lot less scary and powerful with that in mind. I thought he was a God and all that."
"Is THAT what he tells you?" Becky sneered, "Typical. But he isn't TOTALLY wrong. Master isn't his real name; it's actually just a race of powerful people who rule the universes they create. Not exactly Gods, per se. They certainly aren't invincible by any stretch of the imagination. They're bad tempered, violent, hypocritical egotastical and want things to go their way and their way only. But they're not gods. They're children given the power to do things they shouldn't."
"Oh, I see," Spectre said calmly, staring back at Master, "Would you ever say that to his face?"
"Of course not!" Becky cried out sharply, "These Masters are violent and EXTREMELY powerful. Just not invincible. It's his emotions that do him in at the end of it all."
"So..." Sonya was the next to speak up, kicking the ground beneath her chair, "What's his real name?"
"No-one knows," Lowell spoke afterwards, "Not even me. He keeps it a secret to everyone. My guess is one that's embarresing or awkward-sounding in certain accents."
"So, it could be Perry?"
"Probably, yes."
"I can HEAR you, you know!" Master cried out himself from the chair, "I'm not deaf!"
"No, but you ARE concious," Sunbeam said, approaching the chair that Master was tied to, "All the better to re-experience one of the worst moments of this year. In full colour and, hopefully, detail."
"Let me out of this!" Master protested, making no second attempt to escape himself, "You won't find anything there, except maybe OUR memories! And trust me; you don't want them anymore..."
Sunbeam seemed driven aback by Master's use of "our memories", but too regained her composure and silenced him with a swift and hard-hitting slap to the side of the face, "We'll see about THAT," being said in a dark and restless tone.
The machine's pitch shot slightly higher still and a train whistle blew in a very loud manner, disorientating everyone in the room. Sunbeam saw this as the methaphorical lock being opened and rushed to the controls. A few buttons were pressed and a few levers were thrown and the machine finally glowed a eerie grey and began to rumble with pure power. A final shunting sound was mixed with Master's anguished cry of "NO!" and a beam of light began to shoot onto the cloth. From there, the entire room became overblown with a bright and stinging light and only when it subsided did the the image show; a large pool of light, showing an image of the castle balcony from years ago. There was Amelia, as she was when she was alive, calmed and still upset, stroking the baby Jules slowly and in an odd pattern. From there, the image could be seen in near-perfect clarity and a small amount of rain began to splatter into the room. The winds began to stir up and sweep around, blowing Sonya's popcorn clear across the room and into the corner. From there, however, nothing else happened and the pair by the edge of the wall seemed to pay no notice to the new audience.
"Is this what The Answer does?" Sonya asked, "Give us a damn slideshow?"
"It's a TEAR!" Master yelled in fear, scrunching his eyes tight, "Oh, I was dreading this!"
"Greeting..." came a slow and dull voice from somewhere inside the tear, echoing around the room just like the wind, "I am Charles Prower. This is one of my last recordings before leaving this castle and this way of life, perhaps forever. If you are listening to this, you have brought Master's fingerprints to the Answer and have activated it. Hopefully, you may also use this evidence I will now be able to show you, powered by the emotional power from that scumball Master person, to bring him to justice. Tonight, you will experience a recording of the final moments of Amelia Roseanne and our fall along with it. I lost my life, my wealth, my servant Zoi and my best friend..." the voice seemed to choke slightly here, "William. With this, you will see just how bad this Master is and, how ironic, how bad he needs to die."
"I don't care!" Master responded, his eyes still clenched closed, "I ain't watching!"
Just as he said this, two probes extended out of the machine and gave Master a brutal shock, causing him to spasm and jibber in a shock as powerful as the one being given to him. When it stopped, it seemed to Lowell that his eyes had been forced open, with slight twitches along the way.
"You WILL watch!" Charles began to bellow, "And you WILL be silent. Today, the answer to all your questions will be revealed, and all debts will be paid in full. Amelia..." Charles' voice once again began to choke, "I'm sorry."
At last, his voice went silent and the image whitened out to another view inside the castle. Master was now totally unwilling and unable to escape, the combination of the asthma and the electric shock leaving him drained and paralyzed. The others stared wide-eyed at the unfolding events before them, but the last thought to cross Spectre's mind before tuning in was that Sunbeam was not at all pleased with what she was seeing. She seemed...confused.
And very afraid.
Hoo Boy, I am going WAY off schedule for these. Sorry. :( Next chapter, we start to see what caused Amelia's death after all these years.
