AN: Thanks everyone for reading this far - I know it's been a while since the last upload but work (and my new camera) got in the way! This is the longest chapter yet, at over 2400 words, but I think it's quite deserving of that count as some big things happen this time. I hope you all enjoy!
12:15 HOURS LEFT / THE TIME-TRAVELLER'S MOTHER
"...And you will not be escaping zis time, non! I 'ave got ze ropes zat even ze great escaper Houndini will never be escaping from."
Snively had quickly gotten sick of Antoine's broken English. He'd spent nearly an hour in the idiot's company in his hut and he already felt he was going mad – the coyote just wouldn't shut up. Antoine had asserted that telling Sally he had kidnapped Snively would be against the 'grande plan', making Snively wonder how he had come up with anything close to resembling strategy. He had no idea how the freedom fighters managed to put up with this.
"You know, I am related to Houndini, hmm? Maybe zat is where I get my incredible skills zat I am so very valued for in ze freedom fighters, like, uhm..."
Skills? Snively almost laughed at Antoine's deliberation.
"Like my 'andsome and sharming good looks, ah?"
Snively rolled his eyes. He had no idea what the idiot saw in himself that made him believe he was so great. At least Robotnik knew he controlled an enormous oil empire and unstoppable robot army.
"Do you not think zat I am ze 'andsomest? I look in ze mirror and I see ze reflection of Juliet, ze symbol of romance..."
"You mean Romeo, you ignorant weasel," Snively interrupted.
"Zat is what I say, you must be blind not to hear!"
Snively's brain began to ache.
The overgrown rat had finally decided to drag Snively out of his hut and towards another with some poorly-tied ropes. Snively considered making a run for it, but noticed freedom fighters staring at him. There was no way he'd even make it to the bushes before he'd be stopped or caught, even if his ropes were already falling apart and off of him. That, and he still wanted his watch back. Disappointed, he looked up at the cabin he was being pulled towards, and recognised it as the one he'd seen Sally and Sonic in before, along with-
The time-traveller. As Snively was led into the room, the boy was seemingly asleep, hunched over in the chair with his hands tied behind it. Antoine ran ahead and grabbed a chair, moving it to face the time-traveller's, and pointed at it. Snively snorted contemptuously and looked away.
"Allez! Go, go, get 'ere!" Antoine ordered.
Snively remained defiant, and Antoine sighed. "Clearly you are not ze clever person, look! I go and kindly fetch you a chair and you are looking ze wrong way!" he complained, stomping over to Snively and spinning him around before pulling him over to the seat and tying him feebly to it again.
"Now stay zere! I am going to fetch Sally and tell her of my accomplishments," Antoine declared, then ran out of the door and slammed it shut. The noise jolted the time-traveller awake, and as he looked up and blinked wearily, he froze.
"Snively. I see you got kidnapped then," he said slowly, and with a brief yawn.
"Don't play me for a fool, boy! I know you brought me here. And I know your plans for the Doomsday Project," Snively lied with a snarl. He was hoping to force a confession out of the wolf before Sally got the information.
"Plans? All I did was suggest that more bots should focus on building it. Robotnik's got all the plans locked up tight, away from me. And you."
Snively narrowed his eyes. The boy was cunning with his words, but that gave him all the more reason to believe he could have subtly coaxed Robotnik into making a mistake. "So, when will the Doomsday Project be complete?"
"Tonight, if all goes as planned for Robotnik. The freedom fighters don't have the Deep Power Stones; they can't stop it."
'A-ha,' Snively thought. 'He's made a mistake there.'
"And is it just a coincidence that the freedom fighters are attacking tonight, or was that your recommendation too? I was told there'd been only silence from that treacherous hedgehog-bot."
Snively noticed something in the boy's face. It looked like fear.
"The freedom fighters aren't entirely helpless... they will be able to damage the Doomsday Project beyond repair if it's activated when they attack. It won't be a killing blow to Robotnik, but it'll be a very long time before things get back to a state where he can work on Doomsday again... and he'll probably lack the confidence to do so."
Snively stared, everything the boy had done suddenly making sense in just a few seconds. "What?" he gasped quietly. "So... you want neither side to win?"
"Correct, but there aren't just two sides to this conflict. There's Robotnik, the freedom fighters, and the planet," the time-traveller sighed.
Snively frowned. "What do you mean?"
"When I told Robotnik that the world Sally ruled in the future was a disaster, I was not lying. I was born in that future, and I lost everything to that future. My home, my possessions, my foot, my... mother. I had to change the past somehow, to prevent other people from feeling the same loss. I used the Time Stones to go back and see what the people's lives would be like if Robotnik won the Battle of Doomsday, so I helped him and we won. It only took a few months before there were no humans or animals left on the planet, only robots, and the world began to crumble underneath Robotnik's feet as he sucked it dry of its resources. In order to save both my mother and the planet, I had to go back in time again...
"I arrived earlier than I had last time, so that I could kill my past self and try to figure out a way that meant neither side won. Sonic and Sally found me in the Great Unknown and took me in, and I earned their trust by telling them 'information from the future' about the Doomsday Project. I spent a couple of weeks with them as the Project was under construction and guaranteed that I was trusted by everyone important, all while I was digging a passage into Robotropolis that I'd figured out in the future would get me in and out of the city easily and quickly. You know the rest – I told Robotnik about the oil lakes, bought his respect, and started my persuasion from there... I just had to guarantee that the planet would survive by making neither Sally or Robotnik win the Battle of Doomsday."
Snively, after absorbing the information, shook his head. "You're selfish," he spat.
The time-traveller growled. "What?!"
"If you'd waited just a few years longer in Sally's future, the chaos would naturally have come to an end," Snively sneered.
"Are you saying Sally's victory is something you think would work? When you serve Robotnik?!"
"I'm saying you are selfish. You would risk hundreds of lives to protect just your mother."
"I CAN protect her!"
"You're acting like a child! You're not only overestimating your own power, but you're also just being petty. The world will die eventually, as will your mother. You won't be able to keep her alive forever. I lost my mother when I was young, but I knew that I couldn't change that. I didn't preach my false heroism to people to exploit them into working for me. I didn't want to go back and save her. We can't change if we don't make sacrifices." This was the first time Snively had ever been able to vent in this way. It was refreshing, although there was still things he wanted to say. Decency restrained him. Even if the boy was almost a complete fool, he had some respect for how well he'd manipulated Robotnik.
"You don't know what it's like, then! My mother was the kindest woman I've ever known. She gave her life for me. I must pay her back."
Snively's mind oddly turned to thoughts of Rosie.
"You could pay her back by respecting her memory, and not trying to be some stupid hero."
He realized he was being sympathetic again. Perhaps all the talk about mothers had stirred some long-forgotten memories. Maybe it was just this place. Nature wasn't exactly nostalgic for him, but it was very present in his younger years.
"Anyway... I know your plans, now, and I will do everything in my power to stop them."
The time-traveller looked surprised. "Even after all I've said?"
Snively shook his head. "Have you not heard of the Butterfly Effect? The future could be changed already by just your presence. Besides... I'm not a mindless worker-bot like Julian seems to think I am. I have plans for my own life, with or without Robotnik or Sally."
For once, the time-traveller shut up.
In this brief period of silence, both prisoners thought they heard a scuttling of feet. Antoine, who had been sitting outside the room and eavesdropping the whole time, was running towards Sally's hut.
"Antoine, you 'ave outdid yourself. Now you know zeir plans of evil and Sally will be very much wanting a kiss or two for me, oh yes!"
11:45 HOURS LEFT / THE MIRROR
Rotor had been working on his new inventions for weeks before Doomsday started appearing, but he'd not expected to have been forced to rush them so much in the last week. He had a tally of just twelve hours of sleep over the whole week so far, and the pressure handed onto him by not only the time-traveller's new deadline but also the whole drama surrounding the guy wasn't making him feel much better. Any mistakes in these machines could cost lives, and there simply wasn't enough time to perfect them.
Rotor had low self-esteem, but admitted even to himself that his strongest quality was his ability to find a positive in everything, and that was keeping him going. Sally's occasional concerned visits helped too, even if he did have to lie a little about his tiredness. The truth was that he was more exhausted than he'd ever been in his life, and he was beginning to wonder if taking a short nap would hurt much. Sally had her meeting starting any minute now, so nobody would come and interfere, and although there was more testing that could be done, he wouldn't be able to work for much longer. Just one more check.
He tapped his pencil on the metal workbench as he waited for the gauge to shift, and noted down the reading as soon as it did. The promise of a short sleep was tantalising now – he hurried around the bench and positioned himself in front of the mirror, which he had 'borrowed' from Antoine, much to Antoine's displeasure. "My mirror is only for ze 'andsome visahge of myself, not for ze testing of ze silly doo-dads," he had said. Rotor had ignored him, which was surprisingly easy.
Rotor took a deep breath, and adjusted his position. Getting his balance right was easy – the weight of the boots dragged his legs straight down and made him stand as rigid as a pole. He pressed the button on the helmet and, exactly as planned, the image in the mirror changed. With a sigh of relief, Rotor turned the helmet off again and took it off, putting it on the desk and running over to his comfortable armchair.
Just as he was dozing off, he heard a familiar voice.
"Rotor? You awake, darlin'?"
He opened his eyes wearily, but smiled as he saw Bunnie leaning down and peeking through the hallway. Her ladder-legs were activated, strangely, and she didn't look too excited. At least she wasn't missing any longer, he thought.
"It's good to see you, Bunnie, we've been worried," he said, standing up and slowly making his way outside to meet her, now standing full-height.
"Well, ah've been over havin' a lovely cuppa tea with our dear friend Robotnik."
"You mean you were kidnapped?!"
"By none other than the time-traveller himself."
Rotor sighed. "Sonic and Sally were right, then. We shouldn't have trusted him."
"Yeah, but don't y'all worry, ah busted out. Was quite a pain walkin' with these ol' legs givin' me back pains the whole way though; they're stuck. Can ya help a girl out?"
Rotor laughed and kneeled down, examining her ankles. "So you mean to say you walked all the way from Robotropolis to here like this? How didn't you get seen?"
"Ah came across a secret tunnel that led from the middle'a bot-town to here. Ah think the time-traveller used it to get me in the city. Useful, though, right?"
"No kidding!" Rotor chirped enthusiastically as Bunnie slowly descended, the legs retracting into themselves neatly. "If the tunnel's big enough, we could use it to get people into Robotropolis tonight, and that solves our absolute biggest problem! Wow, Bunnie, maybe the time-traveller helped us after all!"
"Ah still wanna get mah hands on 'im an' pound 'im a new one... But thanks for helpin' with the legs, hun," she said as she reached his level finally, then leant over and kissed him gently on the cheek. "Much appreciated, darlin'."
Rotor blushed, a burst of energy suddenly filling him that even a nap wouldn't have given. "U-uh, you're welcome, Bunnie. I-if you wanna find the others, they're having a meeting, I think, about what's happening to-"
"Hold on a mo, hun, is that a mirror you've got in there? Ah need to see how ah look!"
Bunnie dashed indoors, not even giving Rotor a chance to think, and he spun around to follow after her. "Hey, wait up, Bunnie!"
He found her looking into the mirror with a sullen look on her face. "Ah'm sure glad that ah didn't have ta face any bots like this. Mah hair's all over the place, mah arm's all fuzzy, mah ears are frazzled ta heck – why, ah look positively terrible!"
Rotor suddenly had an idea and rushed over to Bunnie, grinning broadly. "Hey, Bunnie, wanna play a prank on Sally?"
Bunnie looked at Rotor skeptically. "That would be awful dirty, Rote. Sal's not been doin' too well recently," she pointed out. Rotor shook his head.
"I think she'll like this prank!" he argued. "It may be a little scary at first, but when you reveal it's all good, she'll be over the moon!"
Bunnie considered for a while, but eventually accepted, and helped Rotor lift the helmet onto her head ("At least when you take it off, you have a good excuse for your helmet-hair," Rotor had joked, leading to a sharp slap from Bunnie). He stepped back and nodded proudly as her appearance changed.
"Gimme a 'priority one', Bunnie!" he called excitedly.