Chapter 8: There's Always a Choice
On the Emerald, at about the same time…
Sally literally counted the seconds before Roman burst into the bridge of the Emerald, his face a mask of such fury that Sally almost ran past him to avoid his wrath.
"What the fuck are we doing?!" Roman demanded.
"Getting out of here." Shade replied, unaware of just how angry Roman was.
"I wasn't talking to you, bitch!" Roman snarled, drawing Knuckles' attention as the large heavyset echidna got to his feet to calm down the situation:
"Now Rome, I know you're mad, but-"
Roman interrupted by pushing Knuckles back into his seat. "I wasn't talking to you either." He growled, before turning to Sally, who'd used that small respite to compose herself. "Now where was I?" He demanded.
"Asking what I'm doing, if I recall." Sally replied. "And to answer your question, I'm getting us and Caleb out of here."
"When we also could have used the firepower on this ship to extract Seth as well." Roman replied.
"And risk hitting civilians?" Sally asked. "You're asking a lot to save one person."
"That one person is going to be a dad in a fucking month!" Roman exploded, spittle flying everywhere from his mouth. "And you've just gone and left him behind." Throwing his hands up in the air, Roman said: "Well done Sally, you just violated the oldest rule in the book on being a soldier: No-one gets left behind."
"Don't lecture me about being a soldier, Roman!" Sally snapped, her temper rising. "Do you think I wanted to leave Seth behind?" Sally demanded. "I had no choice, Roman! One man opposed to every single person on this ship, including the one we came here to rescue? If we'd tried to rescue Seth, we'd all be in chains right now!"
"There's always a choice, Sally." Roman replied coldly. Scoffing, he said: "I guess you weren't smart enough to make that choice when it presented itself."
Sally's eyes widened as she suddenly snarled: "You did not just say that."
"The fuck I did!" Roman growled, stepping right up to Sally so that their faces were touching. "Thanks to your indecision, my best friend is either dead or being dragged to a jail cell!"
"My indecision?" Sally demanded, pushing Roman back. "I actually made a decision and stuck to it. The better decision, may I add."
Roman laughed. "Even after everything I've seen from you Sally, I never thought I'd see the day you became a coward."
Sally's fist found his face soon after, making him stagger back a little. Wiping his now bloody lip, Roman looked up before saying: "Alright then, bring it!" With that, he moved to tie up with Sally, only to be forced apart by Knuckles.
"KNOCK IT OFF!" Knuckles shouted, eyeing the both of them like a father looking over squabbling children. "We don't have time to start fighting amongst ourselves." Turning to Roman, Knuckles said: "Head back into the hold and cool off. I'll deal with you later."
Roman nodded and made to go, but not before connecting with a thunderous punch to Knuckles' face, one that knocked the crimson echidna back into his seat. Once he did that, he looked at Sally and spat in her general direction before turning and walking out of the room, flipping Sally the bird as he did.
Sally sank back into her seat, her head in her hands as she began to mentally debate whether she had made the right decision.
Cargo Hold of the Emerald, moments later…
Tails made to get up when Roman stormed in, but Ashley stopped him with a look.
Wait until his mood's improved, Ashley's eyes said to Tails.
The twin-tailed vulpine nodded and reluctantly sat back down, just as suddenly, Roman began to pound on the walls, roaring expletives:
"That fucking bitch!" Roman snarled, marking each expletive with a fresh dent in the wall. "That no good, indecisive CUNT!" He growled.
"That 'no good, indecisive cunt' is my wife, Roman." Sonic said, unaware of Roman's black mood.
Roman rounded on Sonic, who flinched in a rare show of fear from the blue blur. "Do I look like I give a shit who your wife is, Sonic?" the vulpine Jedi snapped. "Thanks to your fuck-puppet, my best friend is either dead or in a fucking jail-cell!"
"That's no reason to be taking it out on Sonic, general." Shatter replied.
Roman turned to Shatter, who instantly stiffened.
"Forgive me sir. I overstepped." He said.
Roman nodded, before looking at Sonic. "Regardless, I shouldn't have said that." He said. Falling back so that he was sitting down with his back against the wall. "I'll let Ahsoka deal with Sally later." He said.
Shatter and Tusk shared a worried look at this. They both knew full well how angry Ahsoka could get. And once she had found out Seth had been left behind on Sally's orders… well, Sally would not get off lightly.
With this and other dark thoughts on their minds, the clones and the others resorted to silence, knowing that any further conversation on the subject would awaken Roman's fury.
Later, Emerald Island Village, 14:50 pm…
"Well, we're here." Sally said as she entered the hold, a relaxed smile crossing her face. It quickly faded as she read the sombre mood of the group, causing her to sigh.
"I know you're all mad about Seth getting left behind, but-"
Roman interrupted by getting to his feet, an action that made the whole group tense, prepared to try and pry Roman off of Sally if he made to attack her. But no such thing happened. Instead, Roman just waited patiently for the ramp to lower, and left, but not before throwing a withering scowl in Sally's direction.
"I don't think he's your biggest fan right now, Sally." Tails remarked as he walked up next to Sally.
"Oh yeah? What was your first clue?" Sally replied sarcastically.
"Uh, the very audible argument you two had just after we took off, and the very near fight Sonic nearly started with him." Tails replied as he started down the ramp. "I'd avoid him for a while, if I were you." With that, he continued down the ramp and went out of sight.
Sally sighed before walking down the ramp herself, soon spotting Roman walking out of sight with a clearly distressed Ahsoka, followed suit by a concerned Tails.
"You alright?" asked a voice as Sally felt a gentle hand grip her shoulder.
Sally nodded as she looked at Sonic. "Yeah. Just worried about the things Roman might be saying to Ahsoka."
"We'll deal with that when we get to it." Sonic said supportively. "Besides, what can Ahsoka do to you? She's eight months pregnant."
Sally nodded and said: "Let's hope she sees my side of things and agrees with me." She looked worriedly in the direction Roman, Ahsoka and Tails had gone, before adding: "In which case I'd be concerned about her wellbeing, considering Roman's mood."
"Like I said, Sally." Sonic said, turning her towards him. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." He punctuated this with a gentle kiss.
Sally returned the kiss as best she could before breaking it. The first thing she saw over Sonic's shoulder were two very worried clones, who were pointing behind her. Her eyes narrowing, Sally backed away from Sonic, who made a face that made it clear that whatever was behind her, was not conducive to her side of the story. Turning to face what was behind her, she was turned spun around again by the hardest punch to the face she had ever received. And she'd received a few. Staggering back into Sonic's arms, Sally pushed herself out of his arms and turned, instantly wishing she hadn't.
Standing before her, flanked by an equally concerned Roman and Tails, was one extremely angry, heavily pregnant Togruta.
"Care to explain yourself?" Ahsoka demanded.
Sally thought carefully about what she needed to say, in order to both do what Ahsoka demanded of her, and calm Ahsoka down. But as she opened her mouth, Ahsoka landed a bazooka of an uppercut that knocked Sally off of her feet, sending Sally to the floor.
"ANSWER ME!" Ahsoka demanded.
Wiping blood from her lip, Sally said: "We had no choice."
"There's always a choice." Ahsoka snarled. Folding her arms, Ahsoka added: "So either you're not as intelligent as any of us thought like I hear Roman said to you, or you were too short sighted to see the choice that could have been made."
Getting to her feet, Sally retorted: "What would you have had me do then? Risk the lives of every single other person on this fucking mission just to save Seth?" Sally scoffed. "I'd have figured a Jedi to be slightly less selfish."
Ahsoka responded with another hellish punch to Sally's face, knocking her again to the floor. "I'm no fucking Jedi." Ahsoka snarled. "Betrayals like the one you've just wrought are the reason I left."
"Is that the only reason?" Sally asked. "Cause another I can think of is that you left so that Seth could knock you up like some common whore!"
Ahsoka responded with a cry of rage and smashed Sally in the face harder than she ever had, feeling something break as she knocked Sally down. Then, mounting Sally, she began raining down punch after punch, shouting: "He was your friend! And you abandoned him!"
Sonic started forward, but met the eyes of Roman, whose eyes said:
Don't even think about it.
It was half a minute before Ahsoka suddenly collapsed off of Sally, breathing heavily and holding her belly.
Shaking his head, Roman motioned for Shatter and Tusk to get Ahsoka away before he walked over to Sally, joining Sonic in attending to Sally. "I had no idea it was going to escalate that quickly." Roman remarked.
Sally scoffed. Her lower lip was badly split due to repeated punches, and her left eye looked as if it would be swollen shut. Thankfully, Sally still had her mouth guard, so her teeth were intact, but her nose also was broken, not badly, though. "That's rich, considering you were the one that put her in that state of mind."
Roman held up his hands. "Sally, I tried to diffuse that situation!" He protested. "Me and Tails both did."
"Well, you clearly failed." Sonic snarled coldly. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a beat up wife to attend to."
Roman shook his head and rose to his feet, turning to leave. But before he did, Roman turned once again to Sonic and said: "As much as it pains me to say, Sally brought that on herself. Both with her decision today in the field, and her unnecessary comment about Ahsoka." With that, he and Tails left, followed suit by Ashley and Caleb.
Sonic looked up and saw that everyone else was also leaving him and Sally alone.
It wasn't long before Sally realised that her decision to leave Seth behind might have had far worse repercussions than she had anticipated. It wasn't long before the tears came. The tears of one that is sorrowful for making a bad decision.
Well, sooth to say Sally's decision making has pretty much cost her dearly. And it will further cost her as the fanfiction progresses.
With that being said, thank you all so much for taking the time to read this chapter. If you enjoyed it, then please leave a review in the appropriate section, telling me what you enjoyed and what I can do better for next time. In the case that you really enjoyed it, then you are invited to favourite and follow this fanfiction, so that you will be notified whenever I upload a new chapter.
Again, thank you all for reading, and I will see you tomorrow (Hopefully!) with the next chapter, which sees Sally attempt to clear the air with Roman, only to make things worse.
T-Rock14