Chapter 21

The old echidna leaned back in the bench, enjoying the presence of the pretty young woman next to him. Sure she was a mouse, but he was probably four times her age already, so it wasn't like he ever had a chance. For the moment it was good to simply take a break from his task at hand. He hadn't felt this old in a long time, but swimming across the Channel had been hard on him, not to mention having to find new clothes. Of course, everyone gave him odd looks in the old ones, so it was probably for the best.

It was a nice little town he was resting in, quaint and slow. The bench looked in on an old fountain that sat at the center of the town, barely a trickle of water flowing out the top.

"So," the echidna asked in English. "Why are you here?"

"Business." The mouse replied. Her Tsarminian accent was good, but so was her English. She probably used the accent to dissuade people from bothering her.

"What do you do?"

"Gems." The answer sparked the echidna's interest.

"Really? Doesn't seem to be much of a market these days."

"Nobles. Former businessmen. There is always a market."

"Ah. I'm a bit into gems myself, but I don't really have enough money to buy any."

"Just like to look?" the mouse said, taking out a metal briefcase. She undid a set of complicated locks and opened it up. Inside were a series of brilliant gems of almost every color in a multitude of different designs. The way she was presenting, however, took much of the attention away from the gems. The echidna recognized the ruse well, and judged her to be a skilled amateur.

"Holding a gem's also nice." He commented, keeping his eyes intently on her briefcase. To the mouse's credit she kept a straight face, and didn't say anything more along the line. "Do you have any emeralds? Those are my favorite."

"No, I have been having problems finding any." Well, it had been worth a try.

"Well, I probably need to be going." The echidna said, standing up from the bench. He began to walk away, but something made him stop. "Is that singing?" The mouse packed up the briefcase and put it back besides her.

"Probably some stupid parade. The local Enforcers will shut them up." She said.

"There aren't any around." The echidna said. "That's why I came here."

"Oh, bother." The mouse said, tightening her coat and walking away. The echidna widened his eyes as he saw one of the singers marching forward.

OOOOOOOOOO

Knuckles made his best effort to join in the song, even though the entire thing was an incomprehensible mess. As they finally reached Deppen he prepared to call a break. After five days of the most hurried marching even he had ever seen, they were all thoroughly ready to take a break, but they would still need to clear the town of cop-bots. Knuckles barely noticed the echidna talking to the mouse until he stood up and yelled out.

"Cal." Knuckles instantly recognized the voice and stopped in his tracks, the kid behind him bumped into him and pushed him forward, and the rest of the freedom fighters slowed to a halt. The old echidna walked over and spread out his arms. "Fancy seeing you here." Knuckles simply looked him in this face, showing something akin to fear.

"Grandpa, what are you doing in Thran?" Knuckles said hesitantly.

"Hunting a demon."

"oh feth." Knuckles mumbled, putting his hands over his head. He could hear the vacant stares of every single person behind him.

"What about you and your friends here?"

"What does it look like?" Knuckles yelled into his grandfather's face. The old echidna swung up and arm and hit his grandson across the face with two fingers. Knuckles yelped and stumbled back, clutching his hands to his face. The old echidna snorted.

"I was being serious, if you hadn't noticed. You, blue kid."

"Yeah?" Sonic asked.

"You're fighting the Robotnik?" the old echidna asked.

"Yep."

"Figures. Well I need to keep moving. Good luck kids." The older echidna waved and walked off into the distance before breaking into a run. Sonic turned back to face Knuckles.

"Weird grandpa?" He asked.

"Insane grandpa." Knuckles said, rubbing his cheek again.

"How insane?"

"Do you remember when you were talking about the… Chaos Emeralds?"

"Yeah?"

"He thinks he guards a giant one." Knuckles spat as he finished the sentence, and Sonic thought he saw blood. "Still pretty strong, though." He muttered to himself. Sonic rubbed his head for a few seconds before responding.

"The Master Emerald?" Knuckles stared before continuing.

"Let me guess, one of the Bard's stories."

"I think it was the one that let a castle float actually. There might have been something about a demon."

"There was." A girl in the crowd said.

"Thanks." Sonic called behind him. Knuckles just shook his head, trying to forget about the strange meeting.

"Come on, we need to secure the town."

OOOOOOOOOO

"Hello, Mr. Goering." Sleet said. "Yes, your uncle referred us to you. We're the folks he hired to help handle the… situation. You may have noticed the Enforcers in Deppen were all on stand-by, but there's a good reason for that. The rebels have already arrived, and we're just waiting for the right time to strike." Sleet nodded as he listened to what appeared to be a question. "Of course it'll work; we've got a ninja. Really." Sleet passed the radio to Espio, who grudgingly lifted it to his head.

"Hello… Yes… Tenth circle… Master Mil-Lah… yes." Espio mumbled, keeping his features straight. He handed the radio back to Sleet.

"So yeah, everything's under control." He said. "Just leave it to us."

OOOOOOOOOO

Tails waited outside the doors to the Northern throne room, rubbing his hands nervously. He didn't know why he was waiting here, and the only things he could hear were when people yelled intermittently.

"…losing…"

"…not…"

"…no one…

"…kid…"

"…only one…

"…insane…

"…point…"

"…nothing…"

"Shut up." The voice of the king was the last to reach Tails' ear. He couldn't make out what was said next, but whatever it was stopped the yelling. After a few minutes the door creaked opened up and a soldier stepped out.

"They're ready to see you." He said, and ushered Tails into the room. A table with a large number of older foxes was set before the throne so that the king was seated at it. Tails felt the intense stares of every single person in the room, and he fancied every person in the city, upon him.

"Tails," The king said hesitantly, enough to make the young fox realize the king probably didn't know his real name. "Do you know how the war is going?"

"No." Tails said, focusing on a lion stitched onto a tapestry behind and slightly to the right of the king.

"We are not losing," The king said, taking time to glare at one of the old foxes wearing a pair of glasses. "But we are not doing as well as we thought we would. Along with that fact, the Robotnik's begun blockading the water around the North." The king breathed in deeply. "We cannot send a boat to pick up the Mobian rebels." Tails lowered his head. He had been cheerfully told that everything possible would be done, and then suggested to go back to work on the radio. The king gritted his teeth, ready to say something, but one of the old foxes interrupted him.

"We need you to go and tell them." Everyone else at the table gave him deathly glares. He mumbled something and lowered his head.

"Yes." King Robert said. "We really would rather send someone else, but you are currently the only person who has both the skills and the materials to reach Deppen."

"What do you mean?" Tails said.

"You have a working plane, and you know how to fly it. Sadly to admit, attempts to train flight-pilots of our own have not been going well." A fox with a distinctive scar across one cheek looked away at a suddenly fascinating candle holder. "Which means you might be the only person in the world currently capable of reaching them at this moment. We'll give you food, a map, and anything else you may need, but you don't have to do it. If you don't though, your friends won't be able to find out that we can't reach them. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Tails said. There was a tight stillness in the air before he said, "I'll do it."

OOOOOOOOOO

"I have to admit," Manic said, "The townsfolk are being pretty chill about all of this."

"From what I can tell." Sonia said, "They are really only under the Robotnik in name, like how Knothole was. Other than that they're independent."

"Huh. Well, nothing to do but wait for the boats to pick us up."

"Man, this is going to take forever." Sonic said. "At least when we're marching we're marching, but this is literally doing nothing. I mean, no one even followed us. It's like there's some new plan to bore us to death."

"He seems to be enjoying himself." Sonia, said pointing to where Big was fishing in the waters of the Channel besides Jet, a giant frog squatting on the cat's shoulder.

"He could enjoy himself in a blank room." Manic said. "I wonder how your… fiancé is doing."

"Yeah, I'd like to know more about that myself." Sonic said, casually running a hand over a fist. Sonia suppressed a blush and patted the ground irritably.

"We are not engaged." She said, glaring at her brothers.

"Hey, we're just concerned about the welfare of our possibly soon-to-be new brother-in-law." Manic said, making a face of innocence.

"Just shut up, you two." She said. "Or I'll start suggesting that you like Amy." Sonic's face showed complete and utter fear.

"You wouldn't." He said.

"That's just cruel." Manic said in mock horror.

Inside of the town Knuckles was busy talking to King Geoffrey. The king was constantly fidgeting or shivering, uneasy under the stare of an echidna that seemed to be constantly enraged, and constantly armed. Geoffrey felt certain that anyone else could have made the discussion seem reasonable.

"You wanted me to start another revolution?" He asked. He was still trying to comprehend how he was supposed to do that.

"Yes." Knuckles said. "Specifically shut down your computer, claim independence from the Robotnik, and disable all cop-bots in the area."

"How?" The skunk asked, a question he had yet to have answered.

"North was able to reverse engineer the war robot's weapons. I had figured you'd be at least trying to find something."

"I didn't have time." Geoffrey said. The conversation dove off into an argument on the two's abilities, heedless to the wanderer cautiously exiting a house nearby the three. It was a wolf, appearing to be in his mid thirties, dressed in a business suit that seemed to have seen far too much travel.

"Hey, rebels." He said hesitantly.

"What?" Sonic said, standing up to walk over to him.

"I wanted to be a bit discreet about my situation, but I need a ride home really bad."

"Really?" Sonic said, already disinterested.

"Yeah. I know it's a lot to ask, but I think I can make up for it." Sonic waited a few seconds before answering.

"How so?" He asked.

"Do you know the tunnel that's supposed to run beneath the Channel?" By now much of the freedom fighters were becoming attracted to the conversation, and watched it with interest. Jet was among them, and was highly disturbed when Big tapped him on the shoulder.

"Not now." Jet said, waving him off. Big stroked his frog nervously.

"Well, I found it." The wolf said.

"Right." Sonic said. "And where did it turn out to be?" Jet found Big tapping him on the shoulder again.

"No. I'm trying to listen." He said.

"It was buried, under a hill," The wolf said. Big tapped on Jet's shoulder even harder.

"Stop it." Jet whispered as harshly as possible.

"-outside Sanguinaire-" The wolf kept talking, but Big couldn't contain his nervousness. Everything that was happening felt wrong, especially that

"There's a knife floating on the roof!" He yelled out. Everyone turned to stare at him, and Sonic felt something knick the back of his head spikes. There was a disturbing stillness as he turned to look at where sharpened razor disk had cut into the ground, caught on one of its spikes.

"I'm gonna' die!" The wolf yelled hysterically, running back into the house. Then the shooting started.

OOOOOOOOOO

Edward muttered to himself as he forced past the last of the fail-safe programs his Uncle had placed on Deppen's Enforcers, directing them to start attacking the rebels.

"Those idiots. They just had to mess everything up." A single set had managed to remove itself from a building and had opened fire on the assembled rebels, hitting a few before the rebels could disperse. So far the scans showed them to only be wounded, but they could be dealt with later. For now the three leaders were the highest priority, and he directed the robots as such. He couldn't end this swiftly, but he would be the one to finish it.

OOOOOOOOOO

Sonic jumped back to grab his rifle and opened fire on a set of cop-bots coming from the back of the village limits, keeping them away from Jet and Big.

"Get Big to cover" he yelled as he finished off the last one."

"Gladly." Jet yelled, grabbing the giant cat's hand and leading him away. Sonic hugged the corner of the first house, poking his head around to see Sonia already at the next house, firing at another squad of robots. He ran around the other side of the house to reach her and nodded as she turned around to see him.

"We should have searched the houses." She said.

"Shoulda' known it wouldn't get easy." Sonic said in reply. They dashed to opposite corners of the house and opened fire on the cop-bots filling the town.

Fear, anger, sorrow, flames.

Death beside me, Death before me.

Espio chose to remove himself from the fight as the Enforcers began to open fire. He had failed his first kill, plain and simple. He should have realized that the wolf's plan was too extravagant, and should have opted for a simple kill while they slept. A whistle of air barely let Espio dodge as a green hedgehog rammed the butt of a gun at him. Years of training instantly focused Espio's mind, letting him grab the gun and force its barrel back into the hedgehogs face. The smaller creature took the blow well, turning his head to deflect it, but Espio quickly reversed the gun and slammed the back into the hedgehog's stomach, laying him flat with a final blow to the face. The chameleon let momentum carry the gun away and began his run away from the village. It was only then that he realized who the hedgehog had been, but a distinctive cracking sound told him that the rebel had retrieved his gun and opened fire. Espio jumped down into the grass, shifting his emotions to blend in. He would have to try another day.

Doom, pain, destruction, terror.

Death beside me, Death before me.

"Why did we ever get caught up in this?" Antoine yelled as he and Bartleby ducked under one of the hut's window.

"I believe it was the sudden appearance of several hundred forceful personalities armed with machine guns." Bartleby replied.

"In another way, it was destiny-" Someone else began, but was quickly cut off by Antoine. Another round of bullet fire came through the window, causing the two to cringe again. The door swung in and Amy ran in at the head of a small group of the rebels. She quickly fired a round of bullets through the window, before ducking and turning to face Antoine and Bartleby.

"The cop-bots are moving in closer. We need to get you two out of here." She said. The two nobles were pulled up and kept in the middle of the group as it made its way to the back of the hut. They filed through a rear door, and ducked to avoid the gaze of a squad of cop-bots that was waiting for them. It seemed to work long enough for them to reach the back of an actual brick house, which the pink hedgehog pushed the two nobles into unceremoniously.

"Scrat, you can use the second level to shoot from. Try to keep the machines off of us." A weasel nodded his head and followed Antoine and Bartleby into the house, quickly heading to the stairs.

Thunder, rain, and lightning.

Death beside me, Death before me.

Knuckles kicked down the door and dove into the house, quickly sweeping for any sign of robots. The squad of kids with him filed in behind, and performed quick searches of their own. All they found was a giant, orange-furred anthro non-chalantly leaning against a wall, talking into a radio, seemingly oblivious to the mayhem around him.

"You sure?" He was saying as Knuckles came in. He gave a partial glance to the intruders, but simply kept talking. "Well, what if some of the rebels find me? Okay." The orange anthro put the radio away, finally turning to look at the Knuckles and the machine gun he was holding. Knuckles almost thought the indistinct anthro was suspicious, if he didn't look too stupid to lie about stealing cookies.

"Who are you?" Knuckles said.

"Oh, I'm Sleet's partner." The orange one answered.

"Sleet?"

"The archeologist guy?" The anthro said hopefully. Knuckles narrowed his eyes, looking at the shotgun tied to the anthro's back.

"You don't look like an archeologist." He said. The orange furred anthro shrugged.

"Body guard, heavy lifter… don't you guys have a battle going on?" he said. Knuckles nodded.

"You two, stay here." He barked, pointing at two of his kids and then pointing down. "Everyone else with me." The freedom fighters turned and began to fire at the machines still hunting for them outside.

Twilight, star-bright, master, cage

Death beside me, Death before me.

Sonic roared as he let loose a flurry of bullets into the robots before him. He and Sonia had pushed forward relentlessly, driving back the machines until they reached the center of town. The freedom fighters were finally gaining some semblance of control in the battle, and had taken most of the northern half of the town by now. On the far side of an ancient fountain the remaining cop-bots mindlessly arranged themselves, continuously firing at the children that attacked them. Sonia pushed her brother flat against the wall right before a bullet streaked path.

"Calm down." She hissed. "What is your problem?"

"This entire war!" Sonic yelled. "I'm sick of all of this."

Blood for blood, skulls for a throne.

Death to guide me, Death to lead me!

The fountain's top exploded.

The ceramic shards rained down around it but the water stayed, swimming above it as if in a clear bowl. The water grew into a giant orb, balanced on the midsection of the fountain. The orb split at the bottom, a separate line of air going up halfway, the bottom tendrils fattening on the bottom and thinning on the top. Two tendrils of water pushed out to the side from the side, leaving the central globe thinner. The tendrils waved and split at the ends, forming what clearly looked like deformed hands. A second globe rose out of the center, and grew three back spikes of water as it stretched out to form a head of sorts. Then two yellow eyes grew inside of the watery head, stretching wide and shaking.

The demon threw back its head and screamed.