Chapter 9: Trust Issues…
When Sonic, Shadow, Saura and the other rescued members arrived back to the Resistance HQ, Saura and the others are sent to the medical room since some and maybe all of them could've been injured during their time in Metropolis. While that group was there, Knuckles informed Sonic and Shadow that he just sent the younger Sonic and Tails to the Chemical Plant to find out more about the Phantom Ruby. "So, we just wait until they both return?" Sonic asks.
"Yeah," Knuckles replies. "Although, I don't know what else we can do at this point," he added. Sonic nods while Shadow crosses his arms as he leans against the wall.
Amy had been listening through some of the conversations that were recorded through the communicators. The recent ones had grabbed her attention. As she listens to the audio clips over again with head phones, she gasps. Knuckles hears Amy and shows a look of concern. "What's wrong Amy?" he asks the pink hedgehog.
Amy takes the head phones off her ears and the computer. As she looks to the group, she puts the audio on speaker. "You guys might want to listen to this," she says to Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles, Rouge, Silver, Espio, and Charmy.
Once the audio clips are on the big screen, Amy plays the audio. When the crowd heard the glitch noise, Shadow's glare deepens at the audio. "It's Infinite," he states. Everyone else became tensed as they listened the audio clip.
"Well, we meet again," a voice was said through the speakers. Everyone flinched, that was Infinite's voice! They suddenly hear Knuckles's voice in the audio as well to ask the rookie what's going on!
Knuckles then realizes whose communicator this audio clip came from. "This audio clip is from the rookie's communicator before we lost her signal," he says while he listens.
The group soon hears growling coming from Infinite. Silver's voice was then heard telling the rookie to retreat! The sound of movement came as they hear the glitch noise being moved away, but it came back and sounded closer like Infinite was right behind them! Growls from Infinite and whimpers from Saura were heard. The poor wolf sounded so scared… Knuckles's voice was heard again pleading Saura to speak up. The growls suddenly stopped. "Oh, you've never spoken yet?" the group hears Infinite ask. Infinite appears to be talking to Saura! Sonic's voice was then heard along with Infinite growls, but chuckles afterwards. "That won't be necessary, blue savior," Infinite's voice was heard clearer as if he's speaking directly to a communicator. Sonic's voice was in again but was stopped. "Your pathetic resistance group will be gone by the time you arrive. As for this one, it's too late for that," Infinite says. The whimpers from Saura was then getting softer as if Infinite is trying to cover it. "Because, Saura belongs to me now," he added. A cracking noise was soon heard until the audio stops playing.
Everyone looked shocked. "So, Infinite and the rookie know each other?" Vector asks. Everyone looks around to see if anyone knew of this, but no one does.
"That's something we'll have to ask the ro- I mean Saura," Espio answers. "But the problem is, Saura had still not yet spoken a word to any of us," he says with a sigh. "Getting her to talk will take a miracle," he added.
Knuckles frowns as he looks at the ground. No matter how many times he tries to get her to talk, Saura continues to remain silent. Why is Saura so afraid to talk? Growling a bit, the echidna gets ready to leave. "And where are you going?" Rouge asks.
"I'm going to ask, "the rookie" some questions," Knuckles replies as he continues to walk towards the exit.
Before Knuckles could leave, Silver blocks his way. "Hold on Knuckles. We shouldn't just jump in on her after she just got back. Plus, maybe Infinite just knows her name," he says to the echidna.
"If Infinite knows her name, there is no doubt that they've met before! The more information on Infinite the better it is to have an advantage! We don't have much time! We have only one day left before Eggman launches his plan," Knuckles says. Everyone looked down to think while Shadow continues to remain unfazed.
Before Knuckles moves, the computer starts beeping and the screen has a dot blinking. Amy checks to see what's going on and gasps. "Metal Sonic has been spotted in the city," she says to the group!
Shadow looks to the screen in some concern. "Is it another fake?" he asks. Amy shrugs in response.
"Why would they bother making a fake out of something that already isn't real? Couldn't they just build more?" Sonic asks as he scratches his head a bit. He then stops to shake his head. "Either way, it's getting wrecked," he added. The blue hedgehog runs off to the city.
Knuckles thinks about staying to help Sonic, but he also wants to get some information from Saura. He looks around the group until his eyes lay on Charmy. "Charmy, go get "the rookie" from the medical room and bring her here," he says to the bee. He watches Charmy nod as he flies out of the room.
Meanwhile…
Saura returned to her room after she checked to make sure she had no serious injuries. Although, she did disobey the nurse for not staying in the medical room when she had to leave and check on someone. The nurse was an adult cream rabbit with a bit of orange. Once the nurse left, Saura went to her room where she feels more comfortable and safe. Besides, she has a lot on her mind right now and they mostly involve with Infinite.
For starters, Infinite had kissed her! Why did he do that? Saura thought the masked jackal wanted to destroy her… The wolf starts blushing as she places her hand on her lips. She shivers as that scene with Infinite placing his lips on hers returned to her thoughts. Why her out of everyone here? Saura stares at the ground as she leans to the wall. None of this makes sense!
Not only that, Saura actually spoke! Not to Knuckles, Sonic, nor anyone else in the resistance, but to Infinite! Something she had vowed to never do to anyone except for her parents until she trusts them. Even, she was surprised to hear herself speak; it has been four months since she last spoke. Saura gently has her finger tips touch her neck. Remembering a small scar, she shivers at some memories that replayed in her head.
"Your voice is disgusting! No one likes you for the way your voice is! That's why everyone hates you. And the only way everyone can like you, is for you to get rid of that pathetic voice of yours once and for all!"
Saura flinches as that phrase was played on her head repeatedly. Why couldn't she keep her mouth shut when she was at Metropolis?... But then again, Infinite didn't say anything bad about her voice… neither good as well. Sighing quietly, Saura looks at the ceiling.
"Now do you see? Nothing good can happen when you speak! I bet the jackal is thinking how disgusting your voice is."
Saura shivers when she hears the voice from before. That voice is right... After all, many things happen when she speaks and none of them were good results. She needs to keep quiet... Maybe Knuckles and the others wouldn't mind... She'll go ahead and ask them about the-
The wolf suddenly hears knocking on her door. She stays quiet and remains where she's at. "Miss, are you in there?" a feminine voice asks. Saura continues to be silent. After a minute, she quietly goes to the door to check if whoever is behind it is gone. "Miss, I need you back to the medical room please," the voice added. Saura freezes and stays still. She continues to wait for a bit and hears a sad sigh. "I hope the poor dear is around here somewhere," Saura hears the voice say. The wolf starts to hear footsteps as they get further away.
Once the footsteps are gone, Saura sighs as she opens the door a bit to peek and see if the one behind the door is gone. When she sees it's clear, she got ready to shut her door, but a white gloved hand stops her. She flinches and steps back a bit. To her relief, it was the younger Sonic! The wolf sighs quietly in relief. Just then, Tails shows up as well with a confused look until he sees Saura. "Oh, thank goodness it's you," said Tails with a smile. "Sonic and I are still trying to memorize this place a bit and we kind of got lost," he explains as he chuckles nervously. "Can you help us get to the Computer Room?" he asks. Saura jumps a bit, but she stops herself to hide it and nods. Tails and the younger Sonic smiled. "Thanks," the two-tailed fox says. Then, he, Sonic, and Saura walk to the computer room.
When they arrived, Tails and the younger Sonic entered the Computer Room while Saura stayed behind from sight. The wolf watches the group from a far. "We got it! We figured out a way to stop Eggman's Phantom Ruby," he says to the group with a smile. "Based on these readings, the Phantom Ruby requires an incredible amount of energy, which only the Death Egg can provide," he explains the weapon. "We simply stop the energy transfer and boom, the Phantom Ruby is practically useless," he added to explain what they should do.
Knuckles had a concerned look. "Simply? Last I checked, the Death Egg is heavily fortified… well, Death Egg," he says with a serious look.
Tails nodded. "True, but I came up with a plan," he says to Knuckles. He then looks to everyone in the room. "First, we distract Eggman. While he's not paying attention, we use the Chemical Plant computer to hack into the Death Egg's weapons systems and shut it down. With no weapons, destroying the Death Egg will be a piece of cake. No Death Egg, means the Phantom Ruby is nearly useless," he explains the plan.
Knuckles listened to Tails's plan and smiles. "Well you know, it's just crazy enough to work," he says in excitement. "So first, we need a distraction," he thinks. The echidna smirks as he pounds his fists together. "I'm on it," he volunteers.
Amy, on the other hand stops Knuckles with a serious look. "No way Knuckles! You're too easily distracted. That's not a good trait for a distraction," she scolds the echidna. "Plus, you're our commander! We kinda need you here," she added.
Knuckles had and annoyed look on his face as Tails thinks for someone to distract Eggman. And, the fox has someone on his mind. "How about the rookie?" Tails suggests. The younger Sonic nods in agreement, but the rest of the crowd winces. "Eggman would never-"
"No," Knuckles says immediately which caught Tails by surprise. "I'm not sending her into battle until she starts talking," he added in a serious tone.
"What… do you mean by that?" Tails asks in confusion. The younger Sonic looks confused as well as he looks at the crowd.
"Tails, something happened back at Metropolis during the mission. Somehow, "the rookie" and Infinite know each other. And until she tells us how, we can't trust her," said Knuckles. Everyone looked to Tails and the younger Sonic and nod in agreement aside from the older Sonic who seems to be lost in thought.
While everyone was discussing who should distract Eggman, Saura heard all of it as tears formed in her eyes. She turns away from the group and leans towards the wall as she grips on to the wispon in her hand. Now, she lost everyone's trust because of a decision she felt was right. Saura wipes off the tears in her eyes. She must find a way to prove she is on their side, but how? Remembering Tails's plan, she nods to herself. She will distract Eggman for them to prove she is still able to help without talking. She takes a peek to see if anyone is watching in the computer room. When no one is looking, she takes a deep breath and runs off to Green Hill.
Once Saura arrived at Green Hill, she was already surrounded by robots, but she took them out with one swing. As soon as the robots are gone around her, the wolf takes a deep breath to stop herself from crying a bit. She looks at the weapon in her hand, the same weapon Knuckles gave her to help them. She hugs the wispon as she frowns. "I hope this works," she mumbles. The wolf freezes when she realizes she spoke again.
"Your efforts will be futile. Don't you see what you've done? You and your choices will only cause suffering to everyone around you! Your "friends" don't trust you anymore. You are only wasting their time."
The wolf shivers more as the tears reappeared in her eyes. Perhaps, the voice is right. Look at the cause and it's effect! The resistance must have known for what she's done... Why else would she be questioned. The voice is- "No," she exclaims out loud! She can't let this get to her. There is still time! The wolf takes a deep breath to calm herself. Once the shivering and crying had subsided, she stops to look at the area. She suddenly feels the ground shaking and looks around. Saura then notices a huge spider looking robot walking! Realizing this could be the perfect distraction, Saura runs after it.
Espio sensed someone behind him and the group while they were discussing, but it soon vanished. He looks at the doorway but sees no one. He narrows his eyes at the area until he lets it go. "So, Sonic, go to the Chemical Plant. Once Espio finishes the distraction, we'll let you know when it's clear to get in to the computer room there," Knuckles says to the older Sonic.
The older Sonic nods to Knuckles and runs off. While the group starts to prepare for the plan, Charmy comes in with a panic expression. "Guys, she's gone! The rookie is gone," the bee shouts!
"What?" Knuckles exclaims in shock while everyone else gasps in shock! "What do you mean she's gone?" he asks Charmy.
Suddenly, the computer starts beeping and someone calls in as well. "Unidentified heat source detected! Requesting analysis," one of the soldiers says through the computer!
Amy quickly pulls up the visual of what the soldier sees and noticed a huge spider robot. She starts to try and analyze, but the readings were off. It must be a battlemech! "It's a multi-legged battlemech! The energy readings are off the charts," she says in shock!
Knuckles growls at this and turns to Espio. "Espio, go help out by taking down that battlemech," he says to the chameleon. Espio nods as he grabs a communicator and runs off to Green Hill.
The group quickly got ready to assist, but the computer starts beeping as an orange dot appears. The location of the dot appears to be in Green Hill and heading towards the battlemech. "Guys, there is a life reading heading towards the battlemech," Amy says as she tries to see who's chasing the huge robot.
To everyone's surprise, it's Saura! "Is that the rookie?" Silver asks with shock. "What is she doing over there?" he asks with complete shock.
The group noticed Saura taking out a few robots. Knuckles growls a bit as he pushes a button with a microphone on it. "Hey rookie, what are you doing over there?" he tries to call out. Everyone became stunned when Saura did not respond with a pause nor slowed down. Knuckles then remembers why and has his hands to fists. "That's right, she doesn't have a communicator," he says to the group, but mostly to himself. He pushes the microphone button again. "Espio, while you distract Eggman, see if you can find the rookie and bring her back to HQ," he says to the computer. Knuckles watches the screen in both anger and worry. What is that wolf up to?
Author's note:
Hello, it is time for another update! I am really shocked to see this story hit really close to 2.5K views. O_O Thank you all so much for this; it's actually amazing! Although from this point, I'll try to update as fast as I can. College can quickly swipe time away from you especially when they slam you with tests. Thanks again for all of your guys' supports on this story. :)
To the chapter: Well, it seems everyone is suspicious... Looks like things are going to be a bit complicated if this doesn't get fixed soon. Would you look at that? More of Saura's past has been revealed a bit. I wonder what else is going on through Saura's head.
That's all for now! Thanks for reading!