The Speed of Darkness
Chapter 49 – Epiphany
THEY HAD BEEN WALKING FOREVER.
The torches went on forever. Skipper was afraid to turn around and look behind him for he might forget which way was forward. The sides of the tunnel never changed. An arch, a torch, a door. In that order always and never ceasing. He didn't remember the tunnel being this long the last time he had been here. Maybe it was just because he was on edge.
"Look, up dere," Julien said, pointing his finger down the tunnel. Skipper could barely make it out, but ahead of them it seemed like there was another tunnel crossing paths with their own.
"What a sight for sore eyes," Skipper said. "Maybe we can finally meet up with the others."
"I am hoping so," returned the lemur.
They hurried to the intersection of tunnels. When they got there, however, there wasn't another soul around. Skipper peered as far as he could down each tunnel, but his eyes were only greeted by more torches and arches.
"Where they?" Rico wheezed, scratching his head.
"They could have passed here already, or they could be lagging behind. Or maybe this isn't even the right tunnel," examined Skipper.
"What should we do?" Julien asked.
"Get moving. Each moment we waste we're letting Sarge get closer to the Sun. If they're already further along than us, we need to catch up."
"Keep going? It seems so silly to be walking more when we can be resting and waiting for Marlene," the lemur complained.
Skipper lowered his brow, glaring at the lemur. "You want to rest and wait while Sarge gains the power to conquer the world?"
"There is no way we could be stopping him without the others..." Julien started, but Skipper cut him off.
"If there's anything I hate in this world, it's excuses," he said, solemnly. "Standing around here won't get a single useful thing done. We need to move."
Julien blinked. "But..."
"No buts. Remember what I said about following orders?"
"Marlene..."
"We'll find Marlene, don't worry. I won't let anything happen to her."
Julien looked worried, but nodded slowly. Skipper wondered if he felt guilty for nearly getting caught up in that strange Madagascar-themed room, without thinking about her at all. He hoped the tall lemur would not succumb to his own wants again.
"Skipper!" called a familiar voice from down the tunnel behind the leader bird. He spun around and was relieved to see Manfredi's red eye glowing back at him.
"Manfredi!" he returned. "Where did you come from?"
"I was locked in a room," he said after he got close enough so he didn't have to shout.
"Huh. Out of all of us you were the last person I suspected would be messing around with the doors," the flat-headed penguin.
"I did not open any doors," the cyborg countered darkly.
Skipper opened his beak, but was interrupted by Julien. "Where is Marlene?" he said quickly, face showing concern. Skipper spun around and noticed for the first time that Manfredi was alone.
"Yeah, Private's not with you either," he said.
Manfredi tossed his knife from his robotic flipper to the organic one. "Your missing soldier. The tall one."
"You found Kowalski? What happened?" Skipper interrupted, suddenly feeling the worst. Had Manfredi been the lone survivor of a battle involving all of the others? Had they all been killed? Skipper's eyes jumped to Manfredi's knife. It didn't have any blood on it. Neither did Manfredi's feathers, but he wasn't so sure nothing had happened.
Manfredi held up a flipper, looking tired. "I shall explain as we continue towards the Sun," he said. Skipper, Julien, and Rico agreed and they started walking down the path opposite where Manfredi had emerged. It was more of the same, but Skipper was now more reassured it was the correct direction now that they had met up with Manfredi.
"I was unaware the tunnels split into multiple directions such as this," Manfredi said, gesturing back to the intersection. "Maybe it has something to do with the large number of beings present here, as opposed to last time?" He looked thoughtfully at Skipper.
"Eighty-six the supernatural talk," returned the leader. "Where are Marlene and Private?"
Manfredi turned back to the leader. His face was blank, not showing anything about what he was thinking. Skipper had always known him as more of an emotional creature, but ever since they had been reunited Manfredi had seemed like a wall of nothingness, broken only by his most painful memories.
"We found Kowalski, yes," Manfredi began. "He seemed to just be standing around in a room, doing nothing important. Your Private and the otter were happy to see him. I did not enter the room. When the others exited the room, Kowalski offered me a handshake. I was suspicious, but I accepted. I wish now I had not trusted him."
Skipper's eyes grew wide.
"What happened?" Rico asked for him. His flippers were balled into fists and he looked tense.
"He wrenched my dagger from me and tossed it into the room. Private prevented us from getting into a greater conflict, so I went to retrieve my knife. That is when I became trapped."
"He locked the door shut on you?" Skipper said. "Kowalski's smart, and he hasn't seen you since you attacked me in the HQ. He probably saw you as a threat."
"A threat, yes, but not for the reasons you describe," continued Manfredi. "After I was locked into the room, I heard my target's voice."
Skipper was bewildered. He let Manfredi continue. "My target and your Kowalski have worked out some sort of a strange deal. Kowalski agreed to help him get to the Sun, while my target agreed to not harm Kowalski or any of us."
"Blast!" cursed Skipper. "While Kowalski was on the boat, Sarge must have persuaded him. That's why we found Kowalski's navigational equipment there."
Manfredi nodded. "Private and the otter have joined them, as well."
"Private? Marlene?" Rico wondered out loud.
"I only heard their voices through the door and did not witness the exchange, but Private willingly went with Kowalski. Marlene had no choice but to accept, as well. I have no reason to believe any of them were hurt, but I did not follow them to make sure."
"Why not? I'm guessing you got out. You should have stopped them!" Skipper argued.
Manfredi shook his head. "The otter released me from my prison, yes, but she did so conditionally. She request that I not follow. She asked that I meet up with you, and then locate them as a group. I can only agree that it was the best choice of action."
If what Manfredi said was true, Skipper had to credit Marlene. Even if she didn't want to go along with Sarge's plan, she had made a wise decision. He wondered if she was going to try to delay them from reaching the Sun. He hoped so.
"So you found us," Skipper nodded. "That's a plus. Now we need to get to the Sun, and fast."
"I agree. There is no doubt in my mind that my target won't take advantage of Kowalski. It is not out of his range of ability to slaughter your friends, even though they agreed to work together."
Skipper felt a brief chill go up his spine. When it subsided, he said, "Sadly, I have to agree with you." He turned to Rico and Julien. "Double time, troops."
"Uh, K'waski!" blabbered Rico, flapping his flippers wildly. Skipper arched a brow.
"What about Kowalski?" he said.
Rico spoke more. His words were distorted, but Skipper could make out their meaning. "K'waski mad you left no us. Ran away 'cuz you come back not quick enough! Talk maybe you not care for us. Really mad."
Skipper felt his breath leave him. He had never asked why Kowalski had stormed out of the bunker shortly before his arrival, which had lead to his kidnapping. Rico's story told him Kowalski had been upset with him. Kowalski had been his best friend before he left. Why hadn't he thought about him? He felt stupid suddenly.
"Mutiny is the most common among the second-in-command," Manfredi said, repeating his statement from when they first arrived to Antarctica.
Skipper clenched his beak at the statement. "He didn't team up with Sarge because he's betraying us! He did it because he felt like I didn't care about them!"
While most would be intimidated by Skipper's sudden outburst, Manfredi did not flinch. He merely stood there, looking directly at Skipper. Skipper held his ground, but couldn't help but feel a little intimidated after a few seconds. Skipper finally averted his eyes away from the robot and back towards Rico.
"I left the zoo that night to go find Manfredi. Kowalski knew that. He knew it because he had overheard my talk that one night with Julien. You knew that I wasn't coming back, too, Julien, but you were more concerned about Marlene. There was the night you attacked me too, Manfredi. I told them that you were my old teammate. Kowalski knew from that moment that I was going to run off. Why didn't he do anything about it? Talk to me? I'm such a fool for leaving without talking to you men."
Rico placed a consoling flipper on his leader's back. "Is'kay," he purred.
"It's not!" Skipper returned, slightly more angrily than he had tried. Rico flinched slightly, but only looked concerned. "Kowalski was the one who always wanted to know about my past, wanted to know about my secrets. It wasn't because he was selfish and just wanted to know everything it was because he wanted to help me. He just wanted to help deal with the fact I lost Johnson and you, Manfredi. I never opened up to him, though. Then I ran off. It was like kicking dirt in his face. All he wanted to do was help."
Skipper wasn't sure why he was pouring his heart out suddenly to the other animals standing around him. Maybe it was because he was worried for his strategist. Maybe he didn't want to feel like he had failed. Maybe it because he felt like he had failed.
Ever since his return with Manfredi, Skipper had been concerned for Kowalski's well-being. He didn't want the tall bird to get hurt or killed over something from his past, something that Kowalski should never have gotten tangled up with in the first place. It hadn't been for the right reasons, though. He was more concerned with rescuing his teammate because he felt as though it was his duty. He didn't want to fail—rescuing Kowalski was just another mission. An everyday, ordinary mission. He hadn't felt like his friend's life was resting on it.
And now, he was following a madman. Roped up deeper into Skipper's past than he could ever be. Skipper remembered the time he had first met Sargent Fishslader. The penguin was a great persuader—he told him about all of the great adventures he would have. He never told Skipper about his real plans, his dark aspirations. Skipper could only assume the maniacal penguin hadn't told Kowalski about his real plans for the Sun.
The flat-headed penguin knew leaving without saying goodbye that night had been a mistake, but he never realized it would come to this extreme. He had wanted to find Manfredi and get his questions answered. He could have done that all the same with Rico, Private, and the intellectual tagging along. Maybe then they wouldn't be here, on the brink of Sarge getting his hands on the Sun again.
It would have meant getting his team involved in his past, though. That was what he wanted to avoid all along. Reliving the memories he had through telling the stories to his men. He never knew that not telling them would result in reliving them on such a higher level. Lives had very nearly been lost, they had ventured through the Penguin City once more, they returned to this temple, Kowalski was working for Sarge. Skipper wished he could go back and time and change the choices he had made. He knew if that was possible, though, these troubles would have been solved years ago. Manfredi probably wished the same thing.
"You kay?" cooed Rico. He had replaced his flipper on Skipper's back, breaking him from his trance. He realized that he was staring at the ground, and he returned his vision back to his explosives expert.
"I've hurt Kowalski enough that he's working with my enemy," said Skipper.
"But was he knowing dat de evil fishy-penguins are your enemy? Dey kidnapped him, but dey didn't have to tell de smart penguin de were evil," Julien said thoughtfully.
"You're right," Skipper realized. "He probably doesn't know anything about Sarge's plans or who that bastard has killed. Manfredi, he's being roped into a trap!"
Manfredi nodded like he had made that conclusion a long time ago. Not just before he had been locked in the room, either. Skipper wondered why the mechanical bird held useful things like this from him for so long, revealing them only after they would have been useful.
"K'waski only wants not us get killed," Rico wheezed.
"That's true. Even though he was mad at me for running off, he wasn't stupid. The only reason he would be working with someone who kidnapped him is to protect himself and his friends. He's helping Sarge because he thinks it means that we won't be harmed," Skipper explained.
"My target is not trustworthy. He will take advantage of Kowalski," offered Manfredi.
"We need to find them fast. If I can explain to Kowalski what Sarge is really doing, he won't help him any longer. I just hope we're not too late."
~Author's Note: Day 6. This chapter was a little difficult to punch out, and I'm not 100% satisfied with how it came out. I just think I'm getting excited for the final climax. Let me know what you thought about this chapter!