Now how long has it been, four months? Sorry about that... D:
And the reason I haven't been on is a few things.
40% Lazy, 20% Writer's Block, 30% Life and 10% of me not wanting this story to end.
But all that matters is that I finally updated and that I won't need to update no more since this is the finale. Hooray!
Hope you all enjoy the final chapter, and don't forget to review after!
A Number of Days Later…
Surf cheated death for the third time, an incredible number as usually it's impossible to have such a task done even once. He was up and at 'em, stretching his body after having found out its gone a little soft during his small recovery.
The great gap in his chest closed up with the help of some liquid Kathy injected into him every day, the gap, of course, left a great scar. The scar, however, appeared hardly visible with Surf's chest fur developing over most of it.
Surf seemed unnaturally happy despite everything he has gone through. But the thought of returning, again, to his parents and knowing they'll welcome him with open arms kept the bad memories at bay.
Kathy herself was checking everything with Surf for his depart. For example, his robotics to see if they weren't going to act up in a while or his new heart and seeing if it was fully functional and of course other limbs that weren't artificial.
"Well Surf, you look ready to go!" Kathy declared happily, but with a hint of sadness. Surf sensed the hint.
"Aw, Kathy I'm going to miss you too!" Surf tried to make everything all better again.
Kathy smiled her smile and spoke,"When you leave, don't almost kill yourself again. You might not wake up next time."
"No promises!" Surf joked around with high spirits.
Just then, as expected by the two, the door slid open and in came Snowy.
"Good morning Surf, nice to see you up early." Snowy greeted.
"Seems I brought this cup full of ice for nothing." True that Snowy had a cup of ice but Kathy took it right out of his hand.
"Thhaaannnkkkss, I was getting really thirsty!" She threw a couple of cubes in her mouth.
"Well I'm guessing the fact that you're here means it's time for me to go huh?" Surf implied.
"Yep, better say your goodbyes to Kathy now while you still can. Maybe you should give Treador a heads up that you're leaving too." Snowy suggested.
"You never know, he might consider you as a friend."
"Might? I thought we were nowhere near as friends." Surf raised a brow.
"Well… the people of this facility are very… strange." Snowy looked at Kathy who was chewing on an ice cube.
"So you really never know what's going on in they're mind." Snowy explained.
"Huh… I should have figured that myself now that I think about it." Surf face palmed himself mentally as he had a sweat drop.
Surf also noticed that Snowy missed a name.
"How come you didn't say anything about old Jo-Cher?"
"Well… she hasn't really been seen around here too often now, she would appear once in a while but that's it." Snowy pondered why there was a lack of her appearances.
"Do you have any ideas why she would suddenly stop showing herself like this?"
Surf thought back to when Treador spoke the truth about Jo-Cher, the horrible truth of why all Replacement Project subjects always died.
"Not a clue." Surf lied.
Snowy eyed Surf for another moment with suspicion but soon let it go.
"Anyway, go on then, say goodbye to Kathy." Snowy left the room to wait for Surf in the corridor.
"Well Kathy, this is goodbye… again." Surf said with a sad smile.
"Dow… do you have to leave?" Kathy puppy eyed Surf while she put another cube in her mouth.
"Hey, I got school and a mom and dad to get to; you know how that's like right?" Surf tried to get her to be in his shoes.
"Nope!" She replied happily.
This confused Surf.
"Wait, you never had parents?" Surf eyed her weirdly.
"Of course I did! …Well I think I did…" Kathy scratched her head.
"You don't remember?!" Surf was shocked.
"Well duh, no one remembers their parents or childhood here!" Kathy stated.
"The only people allowed to remember anything of family are the head scientists and, of course, the high council."
Surf couldn't believe what he was hearing, thus disregarding the bit of info about this high council people.
"Like Snowy! You know he had a son and everything. If he was a rank lower he would have been forced to forget him." Kathy smiled.
Surf was utterly speechless.
"Bu-… b-but… why do you have to forget you entire childhood… and family?!" Surf stuttered.
"So it doesn't get interfered with work, like if the other facility that Conor ran killed the family of one of the scientists and such then they would be too busy grieving to work." Kathy explained with a smile.
"And it's better for them to never know?!" Surf wasn't liking this one bit.
"Well yeah."
"So Treador doesn't remember his family?" Surf asked.
"Nope!"
"I'm guessing the same goes for Jo-Cher?"
"Oh well Jo-Cher is a special case." Kathy corrected.
"She does remember; she even had a little sister."
"Really?" Surf was curious to learn more of Jo-Cher's family, since she never spoke of them.
"Yeah, but Jo-Cher ended up having t-"Kathy was interrupted.
"I do believe it's against the rules to let out that kind of information without speaking to the high council first…" Snowy was leaning against the doorway with an unhappy expression on his face.
Surf looked at him and frowned; he crossed his arms and questioned, "What, I don't have the right to know about the family of the person that stalks me around?"
"No, no you don't." Snowy turned around still giving Surf the evil eye as he left the room.
Surf was a bit offended but as well as worried. He had never seen Snowy like this; it was as if he was a whole different person in that moment.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have gone too deep into that." Kathy apologized. She stared down to the floor, looking to be ashamed of herself… as if she almost did something horrible.
Surf didn't say a word to reply back.
'What was she going to say that made Snowy like that?'
Surf started thinking more deeply for a second.
'Is there some dark secret that this place is holding…? What exactly are they hiding from me?'
"Surf… I really think it's time for you to leave, before I end up getting both of us in trouble."
Surf looked at Kathy pitifully.
"Are you sure that you're going to be okay?"
"Well of course I am." Kathy put on one of her famous smiles again.
"Just go and say goodbye to Treador now." Kathy pushed Surf toward and out the door, near where Snowy was still waiting.
"We said our goodbyes Ricardo!" She announced.
Snowy still looked like a stranger with his face stuck on angry and serious.
"Alright then… have you made up your mind about seeing Treador?"
Surf took a moment to think," Yeah, I would like to see that old grump again."
Snowy did a motion with his head that signaled "Follow me". Surf gave his final wave to Kathy who afterwards retreated to her little hospital-like room.
Surf followed Snowy for some time, all the while wondering how in the world anyone even navigates through this maze of tiles and walls, passing the same looking doors every once in a while.
Soon, they stopped at a special looking door. It was painted in military camouflage.
"When he has nothing to do he mostly spends his time in his room." Snowy stated with a dull expression.
'Seems like we have more in common than I ever knew.' Surf thought as he remembered that he does the same thing back at home.
"I'll wait right here, you go on ahead."
Surf looked around and then looked at Snowy. He pointed to himself as a silent question.
Snowy sighed," Yes you, who else?"
Surf was nervous, but then again, who wouldn't be after the small history the two shared.
He tip toed towards the door only to have it slide open noisily. He jumped a little.
Surf gathered up all his courage just to give a small peek inside the room.
The room itself was so… Treador in many ways.
The walls were also painted with military camouflage and guns of all sorts were a lined neatly on one wall but the other walls were scared with claw marks; there were also little gaps in the walls showing that Treador shot them with his special gun. The room was a wreck as the bed was smashed in half, grenades and bullet shells were covering the floor and chairs laid in pieces next to the grenades and such. Opposite of Surf, in the far end of the room, sat Treador; he looked to be meditating.
Surf had his fur stand on the back of his neck but he continued onward. He was careful not to step on any of the grenades, afraid that they would blow. He soon made it to the other side of the room, near Treador.
Treador didn't seem to have notice Surf's presence so Surf took the time to make sure there weren't any grenades next to his feet or anything but heard a very unwelcoming voice.
"What are you doing here…?" Treador turned his head a little, enough to see the blue porcupine in the side of his vision.
Surf breathed in before he started speaking;" I just came over to say goodbye."
"So you're finally leaving?" Treador started getting up.
Mind you, Surf was unnaturally tall, in most cases he even towered over his teachers, but Treador bested him in that. For the first time in his life, Surf felt short, having to look up to meet eyes. Since this was an uncommon thing for him, he felt… uneasy. But then again, Treador was made as someone who could destroy a major city in a matter of hours, so maybe Surf being a little shorter wasn't the concept that made him uneasy.
"Yes…" Surf cowered.
"Good, I was getting tired of seeing you around here." Treador took out a handkerchief from his left pocket and started shining his beloved rocket launcher; which was rebuilt after The Fight.
"Yeah… hey, do you mind me asking a question?" Surf hesitated, but the worse he could do was say no, right?
Treador gave his a threatening glare for a moment, but then sighed, and gave him a better look straight in the eyes.
"Go ahead."
"Great, anyway, how long have you been in this place?"
"As long as I remember." Treador wasn't any longer looking at Surf as he was cleaning the inside of his rocket launcher.
"But, you don't exactly remember everything… don't you?"
Treador stopped cleaning, and slowly looked at Surf.
"And you would know that how?"
"Oh a little birdie told me." Surf started swaying his arms, as he did when he started getting extremely nervous.
"Kathy really needs to learn how to keep her mouth shut…" Treador growled under his breath.
There was a moment's silence.
"So… why do you accept having to lose your memory of everything?"
Treador growled and bared his teeth.
"I only have one thing to tell you, porcupine."
Treador came face to face with Surf at a really close distance.
"You better keep your nose out of where it doesn't belong, or else you'll get in bigger trouble than just Conor wanting to dissect your brain for information."
Surf became even more scared than when he first walked in and tried leaning backwards, away from Treador.
"Got it!" Treador hissed.
Surf fell backwards and landed with a loud Clank! due to his robotics.
"Now get out of here before you get me in trouble." Treador turned back around and sat where he was earlier with a bad vib coming from him.
Surf thought it was smart to do what Treador said and leave, so he started crawling out. He, of course, was careful not to hit any grenades again on his way out.
He stumbled out of the room and came to be in front of Snowy.
"I'm guessing the goodbye went well." Snowy smiled.
Snowy seemed to be back to normal, the happy, optimistic Snowy, but Surf doubted him. Surf now knows there's something horrible about this base that Snowy didn't want him to find out, and Surf knew… that he would probably never know.
"Considering our first meeting, it did go well." Surf started getting up, Snowy offered a hand but Surf declined it, having lost trust in the feline.
Snowy seemed a little sad that Surf declined his help, as if he knew Surf didn't trust him anymore but that didn't seem likely, unless he could read minds.
"Well let's go our merry way before night falls. Night makes it difficult to find a landing spot to drop you off at." Snowy started down the hallway, expecting Surf to follow.
Surf was hesitant, but he knew that he couldn't just stay there in protest of trust issues, so he followed.
Snowy made turns here and there, Surf still completely oblivious of how he doesn't get lost, and they eventually came up to a very familiar black door.
"Remember the last time we were here?" Snowy swung his head back to look at Surf.
"Yeah, you made me blind so I wouldn't know where this place is." Surf looked around one last time, to have a last look of the place before everything would disappear in blackness.
Surf gave Snowy his hand, who already had his device out. Snowy did the process of inputting codes and tapping the screen, which eventually led to Surf becoming blind once again.
Surf didn't freak out this time though. Mind you, this experience of having died and gaining robotics has changed Surf entirely. Surf is no longer the young porcupine that was timid of every little thing, or that was insecure and shy. Now he was brave, feeling as if he could take on the world (Besides Treador of course). Never having to doubt himself for a moment, instead… he will possibly overestimate himself. Being the one to go up to people and say "Hi!" and not being the one that waits for it; an entire life lesson that took Surf two lives to get to experience.
Surf was helped up the stairs for possibly the last time and was taken out to where the helicopter pad was. The helicopter itself was clearly already on as the sound blasted his ears once again and the wind force tried its best to push him back. Snowy gave him headphones before they got too close.
Surf was grateful for everything. The experience, the change, both physically and mentally, the friends he's made, his own life, and of course being able to return home.
Surf smiled when he thought of home, he was pretty sure that his parents weren't the only ones anticipating his return.
'I swear Jo-Cher, if you go through my stuff…' Surf thought to himself not too seriously as he was helped to board the helicopter.
Most people would consider Jo-Cher as a gritty assailant, but Surf considers her as a friend, a friend that doesn't know how to be gentle.
But Surf gave a small frown. He thought about this base that he's about to leave behind, the place that he can't be too certain if it's his friend or foe. This is the place where he has been revived after death, but, was it only for the pure joy of experimental research and success.
Surf knew he would never find out for sure and, honestly, he didn't want to. However, the questions that will never be answered will forever haunt him, nagging at him in the darkest corner of his mind.
I feel so sad now, I felt close to this story but now it's over.
BUT, I might rewrite some of the beginning chapters since I feel its very... first tryish. Like when you draw something, and then a while later you look back to it and you think, "Jeez that was a horrible drawing."
I hope you all enjoyed the story as I have, it was quite fun! ^-^
And I'll have even more fun writing Abandoned and Never Loved, learning and becoming better at writing with every chapter, like I have with all 24 chapters of this one.
And to recap.
Jo-Cher belongs to my friend, who has helped me with the story a bit, OighearTine
Twilight belongs to Twilight The Wolf
The Sonic Crew belongs to SEGA/Sonic Team
And basically the rest characters in the story belong to me! :D
(If I forgot any other character that don't belong to me, my apologies)
Goodbye The "Accident", it was fun while it lasted. =)