12:50 HOURS LEFT / THE PANELS

Robotnik was getting rather annoyed at the disappearances of all his advisors. First Snively, now the time-traveller. He began to suspect the two were teaming up to take him down, but pushed the thoughts aside when he remembered that Snively hated the boy. Even so, he trusted neither of them as far as he could throw them, although after last week's tantrum he had noticed his throwing wasn't so bad. Perhaps, he thought, he should make himself worse at throwing just to be able to use that phrase. He chuckled.

It was frustrating too that the freedom fighter had escaped, although she'd given him all the information he wanted. The location of Knothole was unnecessary at this point of the Doomsday Project's construction - Robotnik was far more interested in the cries of "traitor" and "coward" picked up by the hidden surveillance camera in the torture chamber, and he took this as more than enough evidence to order all SWAT-bots to shoot the time-traveller on sight. A very successful turnout, even if he lost two potential worker-bots.

And the rabbit had been caught on camera once more, when she had escaped in the barrel storage room that the time-traveller had been earlier. He hadn't yet gotten around to reviewing the tape, so he played it on the main screen and watched the girl kick that same barrel the boy had knocked over, only for her to reveal and jump into a secret hole beneath the floor panels. What a delightful surprise. Barking a quick order at the screen, it began to rewind at super-speed. Not much happened in the room for a very long while, but for a few milliseconds he spotted the time-traveller and played the video back to look closer. The time-traveller unscrewed the floor panel with a screwdriver he tucked into his pocket and removed it, then climbed into the hole, pulling the panel delicately back over. It barely looked like it had been moved at all.

The clip was rewound more until he came across the time-traveller again, this time climbing out of the hole with Bunnie Rabbot unconscious over his shoulder. The boy was a little stronger than Robotnik had imagined, but the crucial point was that he now knew how the time-traveller had been getting in and out of Robotropolis. There was almost no doubt now that he was acting as a double agent. The final question was Snively – was he potentially aiding the freedom fighters too? It seemed unlikely, but the weasel was prone to muttering behind Robotnik's back, and he wouldn't be too surprised if Snively was a traitor too.

After rewinding the tape further, he spotted Snively in the early hours of the morning, being pulled into the storage room by the time-traveller. It appeared that Snively wasn't working with the time-traveller at all. "So..." Robotnik hissed, "...Snively's gotten himself kidnapped? Stupid little dwarf." At least now Robotnik had solid evidence for the boy's two-faced behaviour. The chair turned and Robotnik faced two SWAT-bots standing obediently and silently behind him. "Find the time-traveller! If he's not dead by the Doomsday Project's launch I'll scrap every bot in the city!"

But in his rage, he hadn't noticed the pathetic animal held between the SWAT-bots by the arms, squirming weakly. "I don't work for the freedom fighters, I swear, I'll do anything, just don't Robotisize me!" he started pleading as he noticed Robotnik looking at him, the man's hateful snarl quickly turning into a delighted grin.

There wasn't anything more satisfying than seeing a cowardly animal Robotisized, Robotnik thought to himself. "What a poor, pitiful creature. Terrified of my machine, hm? You should be. You're going to be the first robot to ever be created in my brand new Robotisizer! It'll erase every memory you once had of your... disappointingly short life. But look on the bright side, you'll be the talk of the whole city," he purred sarcastically.

The animal made a feeble squeak as he was dragged away, having worn himself out from struggling. Robotnik turned himself back to the screens and, after a few minutes, saw the prisoner forced into the Doomsday Project Robotisizer and the lever pulled. He tapped a button and turned the monitor's volume up to maximum, making the scream echo around the room and give him those delightful chills. "How eloquently symbolic," he thought aloud, "of my coming victory over the freedom fighters."

The Doomsday Project was complete. Robotnik chuckled once again. His chuckle became a booming, throaty roar of laughter. Victory... at last.

12:30 HOURS LEFT / THE HYPOCRITES

Lupe of the Wolf Tribe had spent a lot of the morning with the leaders of the other freedom fighter groups, but she found a lot of them irritating. Sally and Ari seemed to be the only two people in the entire freedom fighters with any sort of tactical knowledge, the rest being wannabe heroes or mere sheep following the orders set by Sally or herself. Ari had slightly less influence, as the leader of an entirely Robotisized freedom fighter group, but his authority was never questioned. The metaphor of sheep came to Lupe's mind again, and wondered how helpless a flock of sheep would be against Robotnik without a true leader.

She was on her way to meet Ari now. Griff had been entirely uncooperative, but he was young. Ari had age and experience, like herself, although she had been told that some of Ari's intelligence came from a short-lived alliance with Robotnik in the past. If she didn't know better, she'd have suspicions that he could be with Robotnik again, but Sally had reassured her that he had only done it for his family. Lupe knew how tight the bonds of family were within conflict. Her father had left her at a young age to fight Robotnik, but he had never come back. Every time she'd made it as far as Robotropolis, her eye was kept open for any signs of her father, especially with the discovery that Sonic's Uncle Chuck had 'recovered' from his robotisation.

Age and experience didn't always help when finding the right hut, though...

It took her a little while, and a few embarrassing pokes into some occupied huts, but she found the ram waiting for her in an inconspicuous little hut tucked behind two others, and he opened the door for her.

The Knothole freedom fighters' accommodations often weren't well-equipped. The freedom fighters had thrown up the houses in a hurry when Doomsday signs began appearing, and most of them were furnished with little more than a standard kitchen, a fire, an uncomfortable bed, an unpolished table with chairs and a cotton-stuffed blue sofa. Unsurprisingly, Lupe had seen fighting competitions for who got to sleep on the sofa in a few huts, but all of the freedom fighters knew that comfort was less of a worry than Robotnik was.

A few had even made some battle proposals to her, and she shared a few with Ari as they both sat on the sofa together, looking at the empty fireplace. They both agreed that decisions should be left to the leaders of the fighter groups with a little laugh, but the truth was that they were extremely worried. The fighters had already expressed concern that the assault was happening so quickly, and Ari interpreted it as meaning they were entirely unprepared – no training, no definitive plan told to them. Without a leader to rely on, they wouldn't know what to do. Such were the problems of a life without any sort of proper education, Lupe suggested, recalling her earlier thoughts.

"We will get it worked out, Lupe," Ari reassured her. "Sally has an emergency meeting in half an hour, and we'll have everything decided then. Besides, there is a backup strategy – the Deep Power Stones. We don't know exactly what they'll do, but if Robotnik is scared of them enough to bluff their destruction, we know we have a powerful tool in our hands."

"I'm wondering more about what will happen to Robotropolis when we destroy the Doomsday Machine. Will it all blow up?" Lupe said quietly.

Ari thought for a second, then saw the look in Lupe's eyes as she looked ahead, at the empty fire, and remembered his own freedom fighters as robots. "I think it will," he admitted grimly. "And if it doesn't, the explosion from the Doomsday Machine will probably do a lot of damage. At least we know it'll guarantee Robotnik's defeat."

"Then we need to assault soon. The sooner we do it, the more time we might have to find our families. Ari..." she turned to face him, "...you agree, right?" Lupe asked. She knew that sentimentality was a weakness in war, but she couldn't help it. Her father was more important to her than destroying all of Robotropolis, and she was certain that Ari felt the same way about his freedom fighters. The ram's face was difficult to interpret, she knew. He always had a stony look about it, even if he had quite an expressive personality, and she wondered if he was more complex than he let on.

Ari eventually nodded his head in agreement as he looked at Lupe. "There isn't anything I wouldn't do for my freedom fighters. We should talk to Sally about this in the meeting."

Lupe smiled. "Yes, we should. Thank you for understanding, Ari."

"Would you like something to drink?" Ari suggested, standing up and making his way over to the kitchen area. "I'm gonna get myself a glass of water."

Lupe relaxed in the sofa and crossed her legs. "Yeah, pour me one too."

Ari pulled one of the wooden chairs over to sit in front of Lupe after handing her her drink, and they started to talk about the time-traveller.

"He's a wolf, apparently," Ari said. Lupe nodded.

"I saw him telling Sally that the Doomsday Project would be happening tonight. He's quite young, actually. I wouldn't even say he's past 18."

"A lot of Knothole's freedom fighters are quite young, I've noticed. They might be more willing to trust him if he's the same age as them," Ari said, taking a sip of his drink.

"Sally doesn't trust him."

"She doesn't?"

"Well, where is he now? Certainly not helping everyone out like someone dedicated to saving the world at all costs would."

Ari nodded. "I suppose so. I take it that means you don't trust him either?"

"I don't know. He's a wolf, so he's one of my tribe's descendants. Maybe even one of our children. He supposedly knows one of the freedom fighters from the future, but without specifying who I only have another reason to be suspicious," Lupe admitted, finishing her glass in one gulp and placing it on the floor in front of the sofa. "Whether or not he's trustworthy, a time limit for the mission is more of a benefit than a hindrance. Sure, he might be leading us into a trap if he's not working with us, but waiting any longer is a risk we shouldn't take."

"And if Rotor's helmets are going to work, traps will be much harder to spring on us," Ari smiled, holding up his glass in the general direction of Rotor's lab. "Rotor's a great engineer. I have complete faith in him."

"Absolutely," Lupe agreed. "He's one of the few people here that I trust completely."

Ari looked at Lupe. "Am I one of those few people?" he asked quietly.

"Of course not! You're far too dangerous!" Lupe laughed.

Ari laughed as well. Hope was a wonderful drug.

"But if it makes you feel better, you're definitely the closest friend I have here, and with Robotnik about and nobody to trust, we all need friendships," Lupe said.

Ari nodded and finished his own drink. "You're right... but can I ask one more thing? Is Sally another one of those few people you trust?"

There was a short silence before they returned to their thoughts of the time-traveller, and then the future. A few minutes later, both Lupe and Ari left to reconvene with their freedom fighters, and while they were walking out of the hut they noticed Antoine pulling a small bald man towards the doors of another hut.

"I wouldn't have put Antoine in charge of Snively, if I were Sally..." Lupe joked.