A/N- I saw it a couple of times in some reviews, so I'm addressing it right now: no, I'm not planning on doing anything with Anarchy Beryl.
Recursion Error
Episode 49- A deal with a devil
"Thanks for helping me with this, Mighty. I owe ya one."
These words were spoken by Sorun, who at that moment had stepped out of a portal sitting right in the center of his hospital room. From behind him ambled out Mighty from the portal, who was balancing a TV in his hands with a game console and controllers stacked precariously on top of it.
"Aw, it's nothin', Sorun. If anything I owe you for your help with Knuckles during, y'know, that whole thing from a few days back." Mighty set down the electronics and turned back to Sorun just in time to catch him cutting the portal closed. "Though," he continued with a small smirk, "I'm kinda surprised you held out so long in here without getting your hands on this thing with the way you act around it."
Sorun turned around towards the armadillo, his eye twitching in irritation while his mouth was set in a happy grin. "It's been hectic, man, come on. I haven't really had a good opportunity until now."
"Are you sure it's not because you just forgot all this game stuff was in the HQ?" Mighty asked him in a teasing tone.
"You know what, man, you'll never know 'cause you don't have proof of squat." He threw Yamato over his shoulder as the sword disappeared in a show of blue spark and particles and began to approach Mighty. "I don't really have an end table or something to prop the TV up on so we'll just have to leave it on the ground. Maybe I can have Nicole make, like, some bean bag chairs or something later on. Or an end table."
"Sure, but, uh..." Down on his knees, Mighty looked up to Sorun with a confused expression as he held the TV's power cord in his hand. "Where are we supposed to plug this in?"
Humming in acknowledgement, Sorun took a quick glance around the room. He looked towards the various medical machines stacked near his bed, and then nodded his head towards them. "Eh, just plug it into the outlet over there. It used to power all that stuff, but I pulled 'em out."
Mighty followed Sorun's gaze towards the wall, and then squinted. "Don't... don't you need all that stuff?"
"Nah, not really," Sorun denied with a shake of his head. "I've been getting better. Doc even let me out of the wheelchair, so yeah, that's been great. I can actually walk on my own free of scrutiny." That was probably one of the best things about finally getting somewhat healed of his injuries. Getting out of that infernal chair so he didn't have to feel embarrassed being pushed around in that thing. He'd never get back in a chair for as long as he lived. Which wasn't long. "But yeah, it's been real great. Nicole stopped worrying about me so much so I don't have a camera following my every footstep, so that's been... that's been substantially less weird all around." He got down on his knees on the other side of the TV from Mighty. "How's Knuckles been doing?"
"Ah, he's been doing fine," Mighty answered as he continued to examine the power cable. "Most of the other guys in the Chaotix are up there with him. Thinking maybe tomorrow I'll go join 'em." He gave Sorun that certain look that suggested he wanted to ask him something. "Hey, you think when I do that you could portal me up there?"
"Eh, I dunno," Sorun said. "The island went back to floating around its usual track around the world. I either need exact coordinates or a general idea of where the location I'm making a portal to is. It's easy when I'm going to a static place. Little harder when it's a giant, floating island that keeps moving around." He briefly paused to bend forwards and grab the game console. "I mean I'll try, but you might wanna ask Tails to fly you back in case I can't. Pretty sure I can make it work though."
"Cool, that works. Thanks, Sorun."
"Mm-hm." Sorun made a small hum as he continued to examine the game console. "I just hope I can get this thing to work. I haven't played a video game in forever and being stuck in this hospital room's been torture, so I thought maybe I'd set the old system from the HQ up to try and bring back the simpler times. Was thinking of inviting Nicole here to play this later on. I think she'd like it." His grin widened a bit as he looked up at Mighty. "But hey, if you wanna stay around for a bit to get a few rounds in with me first that'd be cool."
"..."
"Hey Mighty, did your eyes always glow a ghostly green like that?"
A few minutes prior
"Usually I don't intervene so heavily, but I guess this is a special case. No helping it, I suppose."
The location was above the detention center inside of New Mobotropolis. Or just the prison, as Rubrum would put it simply. An admittedly nice-looking prison like everything else in the city, fit in with the aesthetic weirdly enough, but he wasn't here to admire architecture. He had a job to do.
And right now his job was sitting in a cell inside the prison. The prison he was sitting on top of with his legs hanging off of the edge of the spire that was the detention center building. Rubrum looked down towards the ground entrance to the prison with a small sigh.
"The five bozos locked up down there are some villains the Freedom Fighters had to deal with and locked up a bit before Sorun arrived in this world if I'm remembering this right. Normally how things would have gone is they would have all gotten free by now, but then I happened and screwed up the proper order of things. As a result they wound up stewing in the Knothole jail for months longer than they were supposed to before they got transferred here along with everyone else after Sorun bailed everyone out of New Megaopolis.
"My target... Mogul, right?" Rubrum wondered. "Hnn... I was told that he made Tails, Mighty, and Mina magic sleeper agents. Apparently he encountered the latter two as children and used his abilities on them back then to mark them with some mind control curse, and then did the same thing to Tails on some adventure. It was all part of this grand plan of his to use them as hostages to coerce Sonic into giving him the gray Chaos Emerald so he could use its power to bust himself and the others out of prison."
His hooded head looked to the side, at the duffel bag sitting next to him. He stared at the cyan light bleeding out from the bag's opening, and then looked back down at the ground entrance to the prison.
"Yeah, well, that's not gonna be able to happen now with everything I set in motion. Six of the seven Chaos Emeralds are in Sorun, and I have the last one. Which means that even with his sleeper cell puppets he won't be able to escape. And unfortunately, if the plan is to proceed as intended, he needs to get out of that place. So it looks like I'm gonna have to step in and lend a hand."
It wasn't something Rubrum was very comfortable with, being so direct with his intervention. Pulling strings in the background, subtly shifting things in his favor, playing the whole "mysterious benefactor" role in front of Eggman, admittedly none of it was really his style and he didn't like doing it, but it was necessary. As necessary as him needing to directly deal with this issue. His anxiety was only magnified given the high chance of somebody as important as a Freedom Fighter seeing him while he was doing this.
He only had once shot to pull all this off, after all. That's where a majority of his stress came from.
"Gonna have to smash any camera in my way so Nicole can't get a recording of me." Rubrum stood up and grabbed the duffel bag containing the Emerald. "With any luck everyone'll assume Mogul pulled off some magic trick and managed to escape. Wouldn't be the most unbelievable thing. From what I heard he at one point had enough power to crush entire universes with his bare hands before Tails did something to stop him. He has an unusually strong link to the Chaos Force due to his exposure to a Chaos Emerald from way back when. Strong enough that he got god-like powers. It's not unreasonable to think he'd find a way out of there after a while. That'll have to be the story everybody buys."
He made the motion to step forwards and fall off the top of the prison... but then froze with his one foot hanging in the air.
"Wait. What about the others?" Rubrum suddenly realized. "Bean and Bark I'm not worried about. The bear doesn't talk and the duck... well, I don't think anybody'll pay attention to anything he says. Naugus, that fucking motherfucker, is a bit too feral right now to recall any of this. Nack... nah, I don't see him ever bringing it up with anybody important. And even if he does I won't show off anything too damaging. It'll be fine. All's I gotta worry about is Mogul, but I already know how I'm gonna take care of that. We're all good."
His mind made up, Rubrum walked off the edge of the spire and dropped down to the ground below.
Finding the way to the holding cells for him had been a piece of cake. Destroying security cameras along the way while also ensuring he wasn't seen by them were equally as trivial, if not a bit challenging from how small and nearly unnoticeable Nicole made the damn things. Stealth may not have been his specialty, but with his abilities, he didn't need all that much skill in that particular area.
He was a bit surprised on how little of the city's guards were actually inside the structure itself. On the outside guarding the perimeter, entrances, and manning the searchlights, of course. On the inside it was practically a skeleton crew. Rubrum supposed he could see some of the logic; the security cameras set up by Nicole did enough of a job guarding the place, and on a practical level he really did doubt the prisoners themselves had any way of escaping. Not if Mogul had needed to concoct this half-baked "brainwash people into hostages" attempt of his. Desperate move that one, especially if he used cards he'd been holding for likely over a decade if Mina and Mighty said anything.
All that just to bust out of jail.
"I know the guy's immortal and everything, but there's playing the long game and then there's... whatever that was," Rubrum thought as he descended the stairs into the holding area. "I guess I can't be too judgmental. It woulda worked, after all."
The holding area quite honestly didn't look like anything Rubrum had ever seen in a prison. It was a corridor, basically. Each side was lined with cells, the doors of which weren't doors at all but clear glass panes. The cells themselves didn't have doors, of course. Not when Nicole could willingly teleport anything in the city she wanted. Doors to prison cells were unnecessary in that case; another reason Rubrum doubted escape from this place was near-impossible.
The corridor ended with another cell, this one slightly larger than the ones to each side of the corridor. He saw who he was looking for in there: a brown-furred mammoth Mobian, massive in size. At least three to four times Rubrum's own size. Casually laying back against the wall of a cell that barely fit him, reading one of the many books stacked to his side.
"The hell? They gave him books?" As he slowly walked down the corridor, he glanced to the side at one of the empty cells. The bed was the standard metal-plank-chained-to-wall prison bed, utilities looked pristine, and the lighting was pleasant, too. Even the temperature in this place felt pleasant to Rubrum's skin. "For prison cells these rooms aren't actually half-bad. Some Mobians really are too nice for their own good. Or maybe that's just Nicole. Wasn't there a place the kingdom had literally called the Devil's Gulag? Some prison in the middle of the ocean somewhere or something like that?" Rubrum held a hand to the back of his head as he continued to slowly walk forwards. "Ahh, I'm not too sure actually..."
"Hey, what's all this? What's goin' on?" Rubrum looked to his left at a cell he passed when he heard that accent. A purple-furred Mobian. A... something, he couldn't remember. Weasel? Probably, though he didn't look like one in Rubrum's opinion. The brown hat and singular fang sticking out of his mouth was a good enough identifier for the Mobian he knew as Nack. The sharp glare he was giving the passing man not as indicative, but still distinctive enough. "Ah, for the- and who's this clown suppos'd to be, huh?"
Rubrum had wordlessly passed his cell, though he had gone as far as silently show him his middle finger as he passed. Nack had looked incredibly offended by this and banged on the glass pane of his cell in defiance.
"M-monster..." The red-cloaked man stopped, his hand going limp as he turned to his right. In that cell was a relatively short, green duck Mobian. A duck Mobian who was looking straight at Rubrum with quivering eyes. His who body was shuddering out of absolute fright at the sight of Rubrum, to the point that he was sweating intensely as he slowly backed away from the glass pane of his cell. "Bad, very bad, monster, demon, go away, please please please go away..."
The cell right next to him contained a relatively large polar bear Mobian with an off-white, almost tan fur color. He was doing his best to look into the cell next to his, with a look of worry and concern on his face over the shaking duck. Even the purple weasel on the other side of the corridor seemed off-put by how the smaller Mobian was acting.
"H-hey, Bean, c'mon..." He actually seemed unsettled at the sight, and then reared his head towards Rubrum. "What's the big idea, fella?"
"It's nothing of concern to you," was Rubrum's only reply as he continued onwards. He came to an abrupt stop at another cell, inhaling sharply as he turned to look at the thing inside of it.
The thing that resided inside of the cell was a creature so grotesque Rubrum didn't rightly know if it was even a Mobian. That chimeric abomination. That overly stocky body. A wart-riddled, Mobian bat head whose features were so feral that if Rubrum didn't know any better he'd say it was a lost cause. A cybernetic pincer claw hand that continued to erratically open and close.
Rubrum couldn't control himself he he rushed forwards and slammed his own forearm against the glass pane fast enough that those observing jumped back in surprise, while Mogul, ever casual, just turned a page in his book. Rubrum himself had breathed out so harshly at the sight of the thing it came out as a hiss, and both of his hands began rapidly twitching.
"Mutant, degenerate fuck," Rubrum harshly thought as he glared at the thing past the shadow of his hood. "If I could I'd wring you apart with my bare hands right now..."
He wanted to. Deeply. The hatred flowing through him at the moment would have made it so easy. It was the same feeling of intense, hopeless frustration he'd felt when he'd held his sword to Eggman's throat, but hadn't been able to cut his head off. All because of His plan. His actions. These factors were the only things keeping Rubrum from tearing his way into that cell to tear the thing inside apart.
"You'll get yours. You always do." Rubrum pushed off the glass with a scoff and averted his eyes from the thing. He turned towards the end of the corridor at the cell containing the mammoth Mobian, and began to approach it once more.
In another time he would have laughed at the comedy the image a anthropomorphic, tusk-sporting mammoth wearing a white business suit and reading a book in a jail cell provided. At the moment Rubrum just didn't feel like laughing, instead choosing to stop right in front of the cell containing the Mobian. The mammoth's green eyes had only given the red-wearing man a cursory glance before he looked back to the book in his hand, while his trunk hadn't even flinched from his presence. The cheek alone had gotten some amused rise out of Rubrum, if only a little.
"Sorry about that back there. I really don't like that thing," Rubrum greeted as he lowered himself to sit down on the ground while placing the duffel bag he held in his hand right next to him. "Mammoth Mogul. We need to talk."
"Do we now?" Mogul's deep, baritone voice seemed to cut through the walls themselves as he flipped another page. "You will have to forgive me for lacking any recollection of having ever requested to engage in the act of consultation with a deviant garbed in rags-"
"Yeah man, listen, do you think we could keep the verbiage on a lower level here?" Rubrum requested in a tired voice. "I don't know when the AI who runs the city is gonna realize I killed all the cameras on the way here, so we're kinda on a time crunch."
Another page is flipped. "That is none of my concern. Time, you see, is a resource I am in abundance of, whereas it seems you are in short supply. If there is any singular individual in our midst without a leg to stand on in this negotiation, it would be you."
"This fucking guy..." Rubrum had to resist reaching up to rub a hand over his face. He couldn't suppress the small sigh, though. "You got me there," he admitted to the mammoth. "I think you'll change your tune when you see what I got in the bag, but we'll get there."
"That remains to be seen." The large Mobian glanced up from his book at one of the cells back behind Rubrum. "I am curious, however, in why you would show such animosity towards Naugus."
The name alone made one of Rubrum's hands twitch. "It's not important," he said with a shake of his head. "What is important is this."
He reached forwards and opened the top of the duffel bag. Cyan light shined out from the opening, drawing the attention of every single person in the holding center. Mogul seemed most interested out of them all, going as far as to lower the hand holding his book down halfway to his lap as he stared towards the bag with now wholly interested eyes.
Rubrum's hand started reach forwards while his shadowed face continued to look up at the Mobian. Pale, human fingers rested against the Emerald, and then the whole hand clamped down on it. The Emerald was risen out of the bag and held in front of Rubrum as his hooded head continued to look up at Mogul.
And then the Emerald left his hand as he casually tossed it up in the air.
"You know what this is," Rubrum claimed. He caught the Emerald as it fell back into his hand, only to continue to casually toss it up in the air over and over. "How much do you know about Sorun? The human Freedom Fighter?" he asked. "I know you must have seen him. You all were in those Egg Grapes along with everyone else while he was fighting Eggman."
"That curiosity?" Mogul voiced, his eyes lifting up and down as they followed the Emerald. "A rather anomalous figure that seems to have shown up out of the blue. I'll admit I know little other than what I saw him display. His control over the energies of Chaos was a peculiar sight to behold, even if I myself found them lacking in great capacity."
"That right?" Rubrum drawled out as he continued to toss the Chaos Emerald up and down.
"I had heard of certain technomancers within the Overlander community who possessed psychic abilities that could control machines, though Overlanders being Overlanders I hear the persecution rates for these individuals were quite high. It was my initial assumption that the boy was somebody unfortunate enough to be born with similar abilities who sought refuge with the Mobians of the kingdom. I find myself questioning these assertions with each passing day with the words I had heard him speak during that battle," Mogul said. "The boy's abilities are a mystery to me. So crude and inflexible, and yet at the same time the power behind them was mildly impressive." His eyes narrowed a bit as he looked to the side. "That sword, on the other hand... its very nature felt erroneous." He looked back to Rubrum. "What purpose does inquiring about the boy serve?"
"Oh, plenty," Rubrum said as he caught the Chaos Emerald. "Sorun... is a human from another zone entirely. One completely inhabited by humans void of any link to the Chaos Force. On his own Sorun isn't special; only thing special 'bout him is how his powers manifested. Otherwise any human from where he comes from can absorb Chaos Emeralds like he can to get powers out of them."
"Truly?" Mogul rumbled out, sounding slightly interested. "I had never thought such a phenomenon could be possible. A being lacking a connection to the Chaos Force... I suppose, given the proper environment to thrive in, such a thing could be possible." A deep hum rumbled out from him. "I find myself questioning why he would be so limited to those simplistic abilities given the nature of Chaos Emeralds."
"Yeah, I'm sure you'd know all about that." Rubrum began tossing the Emerald back and forth between his hands. "Here's the deal. It's nearly impossible to remove the Emeralds from Sorun, and he's absorbed six of the seven. Which means the one I got right here is the last one." He snapped his hands together and cradled the cyan gem between his fingers as a look of realization came across Mogul's eyes. "You seem to be catching on. Wanna escape this prison? You need more power than what you got right now. Only way to amplify your abilities is with a Chaos Emerald, and I just happen to have the last one in the world." He placed the Emerald down on the ground in front of him. "So let's deal. And try to keep in mind the clock's tickin'."
The mammoth Mobian in the cell in front of Rubrum looked down at the cyan Emerald sitting in front of him. Its intense glow shone off the wall around them, and even from here Rubrum could see its light blue light reflecting off Mogul's eyes. Mogul himself had creased his furred eye ridges in concentration as he contemplated Rubrum's words and offer.
He seemed to reach a conclusion, as he slowly set down the book he'd been holding amongst the pile besides him. "I assume you have terms," he said at last.
"Mm-hm. First things first. That magic mind control thing you have on Mina, Mighty, and Tails? Yeah, I'm gonna need you to dissolve that."
Mogul froze a bit. He kept it cool, Rubrum would admit that much. Not so much as a facial muscle twitched and his eyes remained in the same expression they'd been in. Even his voice remained the same normal tone as he spoke out.
"How could you possibly know about that?" Mogul questioned him.
"I'd rather not say," Rubrum answered. "I know you put some magic Chaos spell thing on them. Remove it."
"And that is what you want in exchange for giving me the Chaos Emerald?"
"No, that's the prerequisite for us beginning negotiations."
Mogul tensed up slightly. "You would ask for more than that? I'm already having to pay a steep price in relinquishing my Fearsome Foursome-"
He was interrupted mid-sentence when Rubrum burst out in laughter. A gasping type of laughter made from disbelief, so intense that Rubrum was forced to hug his sides he'd laughed so hard. It was enough that he fell to his side while he laughed, causing Mogul to eye him in annoyance from his behavior. Even some of the other prisoners from behind them who had been listening in to the conversation gave Rubrum odd looks as he continued to laugh.
Finally, the red-cloaked man's laughter seem to subside. He let out one last wheezing gasp, and then laid his palms flat on the ground in order to push himself up.
"Haaaa... sorry, it's just- you were spitting out all these big collegiate-level words and then you hit me with the 'Fearsome Foursome' and I just- it was too much." Shaking his head, he breathed out while righting himself back into a sitting position. "Alright, where was I? Oh, yeah." His shoulder slumped forwards a bit as Rubrum's voice grew a bit more serious. "Get rid of the mind control you have on them or I walk out with the Chaos Emerald."
A hard, unflinching glare was sent Rubrum's way from the Mobian in front of him. He said nothing at first, instead just maintaining that glare, waiting for Rubrum to flinch. He remained still as a stone, though, causing Mogul to lean his head back a bit in silent acceptance.
"Very well," he agreed. Rubrum cocked his head to the side in interest as both of Mogul's eyes began growing a solid green color, and at the same time a green, four-sided diamond shape appeared on his forehead. He closed his eyes in concentration, after which the diamond shape on his forehead faded.
Meanwhile
"Mighty? Uh... Mighty?"
Sorun wasn't too sure what lead him to poking Mighty's fallen, unconscious form with the scabbard of Yamato. One moment everything had been fine. The other moment Mighty's eyes had started glowing green, and a strange shape had appeared on his forehead. Sorun had been worried something was about to happen before all the green glowing faded, followed by Mighty doubling over onto the floor and falling unconscious.
Hence why Sorun was poking him.
"Mighty, come on." Poke. "Mighty." Poke. "Yeah, he's not waking up," Sorun sighed to himself as he stopped poking the Mobian's body with the scabbard. "What was up with the green stuff?" he wondered as he stroked his chin in thought. "Looked kinda... magic-y. Should probably help him in case something is wrong, but I don't know anything about Chaos magic. I know anybody that does?"
Some seconds passed as Sorun thought. Finally, he reached an answer and snapped his fingers.
"Oh yeah, that g- oh, yeah. That guy," he all but hissed. He briefly contemplated ignoring it altogether in favor of just hoping that Mighty could sleep whatever that was off, but as he gazed at the armadillo's body he felt a bit of worry well up in him. And then his worry gave out and, with a sigh, he stood up to his feet. "You're lucky I like you so much, man," he muttered out as he picked Mighty up with his spectral arm. "C'mon, Mighty. I'll have foxy grandpa check you out."
Detention center
"There. It is done," Mogul stated as he opened his eyes up. "Now what do you want in exchange for the Chaos Emerald?"
"Hm... that's it, huh?" Pale fingers began to idly tap on the surface of the cyan Emerald as Rubrum made a contemplative hum. "Well... you don't really have anything I want if I'm being honest," he said. "So what I want... is the Chaos Emerald."
He finally managed to get some reaction out of Mogul with that request. It wasn't much; just a bit of eye-widening on Mogul's part. And it seemed to be more in confusion than anything else from the way he was staring at Rubrum.
"I beg your pardon?" Mogul asked. "You... want what you are trying to trade me?"
"Yeah, I want it back after you use it to get out of here," Rubrum explained. "I'm not giving it to you for you to keep. It's more of a loan. A minute-long loan. I still need the Emerald for one other thing."
"That's absurd." He didn't sound at all pleased by the offer. In fact, he sounded downright disgruntled. "You would give me the Emerald only for me to have to give it back shortly after? You act as if my liberation from this penitentiary is all you desire."
"Look, man, I'm just trying to scratch stuff off my to-do list. I don't question it. I just do," Rubrum said. "If you don't like the offer, tough. It's all you're getting."
Mogul's eyes narrowed a considerable amount at Rubrum. "And you truly think I would just freely relinquish the last Chaos Emerald simply because you asked?"
"I would think a man of your distinction would have a bit of integrity when it comes to things like this." Rubrum leaned his hooded head to the side and propped it against his fist. "Besides. If you don't give it back, I'll just take it."
The last words of Rubrum's sentence were punctuated by small bolts of red lightning arcing over his body. There'd been something else too- a small presence that had radiated out from his form. It had only lasted for a brief moment, but that moment had been long enough for the other four prisoners behind Rubrum and the one in front to feel it. It had been something that caused the voices of those that could speak to die in their throat and have them step back away from the glass panes, all the way to the backs of their cells. Mogul, meanwhile, stayed still as a statue.
Highly-evolved animals or not, Mobians still had fight-or-flight instincts hardwired into them all. Instincts that had begun screaming at them for the single moment that presence that radiated from Rubrum's body hit them. Instincts that told them the thing sitting so calmly on the floor wasn't just a threat. Not even a force. Just that being near it alone meant the possibility of unavoidable death, and that they needed to get as far away from it as possible.
It was the kind of instinct that overwrote all thought processes with fear, and had the prisoners not been boxed inside of cells that would have ran away. As it was, all they could do was press themselves to the walls of their cells to try and gain as much space between them and Rubrum as possible. The only one who didn't seem so heavily affected was Mogul, who looked down at Rubrum in an unimpressed, if not slightly wary, expression.
That feeling had only lasted for a single second, though, and went away right after. It had still been a shock to the systems of the Mobians around him, though, leaving them all in sweating, panting messes pressed up against their walls as they stared bug-eyed at the man in the red hood. Mogul was the least worst for wear, having been able to maintain his composure for the most part, though even he had large beads of sweat matting the brown fur covering his head as he continued to stare at the being in front of him acting so casual.
"So," Rubrum said in a light tone, acting as if his mere existence hadn't just momentarily set off everyone's instincts that were telling them to run away from him, "what's it gonna be?"
The mammoth got through the instinctual shock he'd received quickly enough. He leaned closer to the glass separating him and Rubrum, peering deep into the shadows of his hood as a threatening scowl overtook his features. "I am Mammoth Mogul," he boomed out in a low, threatening voice. "My life has run a duration of which your mind could scarcely comprehend, and shall run longer still for an amount you cannot even fathom. I wield powers beyond your understanding and am your intellectual superior. I will not be strong-armed by petty scare tactics produced by second-rate tricks performed by an amateur wielder of Chaos energies such as you-"
"Spare me the drivel and cease your incessant pontification, Mogul."
Mogul stopped talking when he heard that. Out of everything else, that had been the one thing to make him the most surprised. The use of advanced grammar. Rubrum, meanwhile, continued to stare up at the mammoth while drumming his fingers along his hooded head.
"Yeah, that's right," Rubrum said, "I can use big, fancy words too."
The Mobian in front of him actually looked offended at that. "And yet you demean yourself to that of a lowly commoner by speaking with such indolent grammar."
With a sigh, Rubrum dropped his head. "Dude, nobody cares you can pull ten-gallon words out of nowhere like you do." With a small groan he stood up to his feet. "I guess I can't be too surprised you'd act like this. I almost expected it." His shadowed face picked up to look at Mogul.
"I really adore that aspect about you Mobians," Rubrum continued as he gradually approached Mogul's glass pane step by small step. "You almost always fall into extremes. The average Mobian is either good to the point they're sickeningly naïve or they're cartoonishly evil. And if it's not one of those they're prone to being impulsive idiots." He stopped centimeters away from the glass pane. "That's why I like living among them so much. They're so easy to read. Predict. Co-existence with Mobians practically requires no effort if you're keen enough, because they all fall into these neat little archetypes. And if you look past all the faults they're generally pleasant to be around." He looked Mogul up and down. "Well. Most," he added with a scoff. "You're sharp, Mogul. Not just because you're smart but because you have an ungodly amount of experience nobody without immortality like you could ever catch up to. You know what I mean when I speak of Mobians this way. You're a manipulator. I bet you did this kind of thing all the time to other people back in your heyday. You probably don't even need powers to do something like that at this point you're just that smooth."
It was Mogul's turn to scoff. "You speak as if you Overlanders-"
Rubrum's fist snapped out and impacted the glass pane hard enough that spiderweb cracks spread along the impact point. Mogul had started out from the sudden strike and moved back a bit, while Rubrum had to take a deep breath to calm himself.
"Do not... compare me to that subhuman trash," he snarled out. "That garbage species is nothing but a dreg of what humanity used to be before the gene bombs." He removed his hand from the glass and took a single step back. "Did you know that they're actually a devolution of the human species?" Rubrum asked. "The gene bombs the Xorda used, you see. They were meant to render all organic life on this planet to its base components using specific isotopes used in the bombs. They were basically neutron bombs intended to wipe everything out. But those isotopes they used were derived from Chaos energies, and since life here on this planet is unusually close to the Chaos Force compared to most other things in the universe life here re-evolved due to a reaction to the isotopes found in the gene bombs. Humans who survived the gene bombs in their bunkers and underground sanctuaries were still affected by the bombs' effects, though. Their entire genetic pool was damaged. Not to a detrimental amount; they can still reproduce, and in some physical and mental aspects they're actually superior to humans. But damaged is damaged. Their warped evolutionary tree branched so far away from humanity that they ceased being humans and became Overlanders.
"I despise them. Utterly and completely. I can respect the humans of Station Square. Their instincts may have been dulled to a rounded point after years of living so peacefully in that city of theirs under a mountain that no longer exists, but at least they never lost touch of who they were. At least when they were exposed to the world they sought cooperation with the outside species instead of conflict. Because they had an urge to grow. To thrive and learn about everything around them. Because betterment through knowledge is human nature; they display that perfectly! But it just seems to me that Overlanders inherited more of humanity's bad qualities than good. The wars, the blatant schism between Overlander and Mobian territories. You know what I mean.
"Ah, but... maybe I'm overgeneralizing. Not all Mobians are so nice. Some Overlanders tolerate Mobians just fine. But exceptions don't excuse the majority, and the bad I've seen from Overlanders far outweigh the good. I look at them and all I see are things pretending to be human. Caricatures of humanity. Homunculi. Ghosts. Mockeries living off the corpse of a beautiful species. If you need an example of them at their worst then you don't need to look any further than Eggman and his twisted little nephew. Though I hear he has a niece named Hope that's rather nice. She'd be an example of an exception. And then there's Mobians like the bandit tribes in Yurashia or the ones in Sandblast I can't find myself standing. Exceptions. The same foolishness from everyone. Over and over."
With a deep breath, Rubrum ceased speaking. His back fell against the nearest wall, after which he breathed out a loud sigh while reaching a hand behind his hood's shadow to rub at his face. Mogul looked on, completely silent with his eyes trained on the red-garbed man, expression a cross between intrigue and quite plainly being disturbed by what he heard. The others in the back were still too scared to speak up.
"... Well, it's all beyond me at the end of the day," Rubrum quietly mumbled out as he pushed off the wall. "Besides, I have bigger things to worry about than animal people and broken humans. I came here for one reason and one reason only: I've a job to do. And I'll eviscerate anything that stands in my way of accomplishing this mission. Fortunately for everybody in this room you're all too important for me to hurt."
His elbow shot out and impacted the glass pane sealing Mogul's cell. It shattered away, opening up the mammoth's cell and exposing the wide-eyed Mobian within. Rubrum barely paid this any mind as he used his foot to kick the cyan Emerald up and grab it with his hand.
"I apologize for that. Sometimes it all becomes too much and I need to vent," Rubrum stated in a sorry tone. "Now take this Emerald before I shove it in the cavity in your chest, Mogul. We're almost out of time."
Without even waiting for a response, Rubrum causally tossed the Emerald towards Mogul. The mammoth easily caught it in a single hand, his eyes still giving Rubrum that perturbed stare. Even so he still proceeded to pull down the neck of his suit's shirt to reveal a perfectly circular hole in the center of his chest. The Chaos Emerald fit right into the organic slot, and the instant it was fit in Rubrum had felt it. A sensation like an electrical charge seemed to grow and manifest around the mammoth's body as green energies began to swell and gather around him in an aura.
"Ah... how long it's been." He spared Rubrum a cursory glance before looking up at the cells holding the other four inmates. "My fellow prison-mates, I would extricate you from your cells if only to spare you another moment of listening to this madman before us."
Whether the other four had even heard him was unknown. Naugus, in his feral state, was at this point frothing at the mouth at the mere sight of Rubrum. The duck was still looking at him with fearful eyes, while the polar bear and Nack stared with wary eyes tinged in fear. They'd maintained these expressions even after green Chaos energies swirled around them, followed by them all disappearing completely as they were teleported away by Mogul's powers.
"'Madman' is stretching it a bit, don'tcha think?" Rubrum asked as he turned his hooded head back to Mogul. Green energies began to swirl around his own body. "My feelings are actually kind of hurt here. I was just speaking my mind out."
"And I've no time to entertain the philosophy of what amounts to little more than a child angry at the world," Mogul said as his own body began glowing a brighter green. "This is where we part ways, my mysterious malefactor. For both our sakes, I sincerely hope our paths do not cross once more."
"Sure, but before you leave can I have the-
Zap!
Zap!
"- Emerald... back? Wow, really?"
Rubrum no longer found himself standing next to the cells of the New Mobotropolis detention center. In fact, he didn't rightly know where he was. Somewhere snowy definitely, seeing as he could barely see anything in front of him past all the white snow blowing past him. The wind howled unusually loud, too, and even for a frigid environment it was colder than normal.
The top of a frozen mountain, then.
"Did he seriously teleport me all the way here hoping I'd freeze to death? Or did he just put me somewhere as far away as possible?" Rubrum wondered to himself. "Bold, if not stupid. I'll respect the hustle if nothing else."
A few miles outside of New Mobotropolis, just in front of an outcropping of trees leading into a forest, there was a flash of light. At the epicenter of this light was a Mobian mammoth in a business suit, whom began to lightly brush his white suit off once the light around him dissipated. This action continued until he felt satisfied in the cleanliness of his suit, after which he began stepping forwards. A light breath blew past his ivory tusks as his face began to relax into an easy expression.
He was finally free of it all. That prison, the meddlesome heroes in New Mobotropolis, that insane man in the red hood, all of it. The time had come for a new business venture, away from all that. Something to occupy himself as he bided his time-
"Okay, but seriously, I really need that Chaos Emerald back, Mogul."
His footsteps froze at the voice. His voice. The voice of a man he knew for a fact he'd teleported to the top of the highest and coldest mountain he knew of, one that wasn't even on this continent. He slowly turned around towards the source of voice, knowing it was impossible that what he heard was some sort of auditory hallucination, but hoping nonetheless.
No, he was there. The red-hooded man, sitting on a nearby rock. The empty bag from earlier he'd used to carry the Emerald was even in his grasp, which he was now casually swinging around. And though Mogul couldn't see his face, the mocking smirk he was sending his way was palpable in its intensity.
"You know, I really didn't think you were gonna do that," Rubrum said. "I thought you were gonna take the honorable route here, but I guess it doesn't really matter at the end." He slung the bag over his shoulder as his face, shadowed by the hood he wore, continued to look at him. "But you know, I gotta say. That's some serious power I feel coming off of you. All from one Emerald?"
"The powers I wield while in possession of this Chaos Emerald classify me as a god, the likes of which are beyond your mortal mind," Mogul boasted in a voice that was at least three times as confident as he sounded before. "How are you here?"
Rubrum shrugged. "All that power," he continued, "and what do you choose to go do with it? Trivial villain shit that gets nobody anywhere?" He made a breathy sigh. "Ah, I guess I'm not in a position to preach. Well, anyways. 'Bout that Emerald."
"What use could you have of it?" Mogul demanded of him. Green energies instinctively began to gather around his hands as he unconsciously took a step back. "Somebody of your caliber wouldn't have the slightest idea of what to do with all this power. You're undeserving of it."
"Bit presumptuous, don't you think?" Rubrum asked. "C'mon, I just need it for my list. Please give it to me?"
"And you'll do what if I refuse? Resort to fisticuffs to wrench the Emerald from my body?" Mogul questioned him. "I'm afraid you lack the proper scope to accurately measure just how vast my power is if that is indeed what you imply. Were not listening to me prior? I am a god, child."
His voice was punctuated by an unnatural echo that reverberated around the mammoth's body, as well as his volume being magnified by the Chaos energies within him. Rubrum stared on, unimpressed even if his hidden face couldn't show it. If anything, he relaxed even more out of boredom at the sight of the power-radiating Mobian, making the motion to yawn while doing so.
"I've gone up against a lot of guys calling themselves gods," Rubrum informed him. "None of them really ever lived up to the title."
"I sincerely doubt one who spouts off such puerile bravado such as you has ever matched any individual possessing even a fraction of my power and intellect."
Rubrum shook his head. "Sure, whatever. Listen, Mogul, thing is I can't really hurt you, so tearing that out of your chest is a no-go for me. But I don't need to use violence here. I can just take the hood down and show you my face, after which you'll just give it to me willingly." The energies around Mogul's hands dimmed as confusion lanced through the mammoth. "But you don't want me to show you my face, Mogul. You don't want to know who I am." Rubrum's voice had gone into a lower warning tone, and he'd leaned forwards on the rock he sat on. "I'll give you the chance to just give me the Chaos Emerald. Because you really don't want to know the truth. Trust me on this."
Seconds passed. Mogul's eyes glared towards Rubrum, and not a word was said from him.
"Mogul?"
The green energies around the mammoth's hands increased their glow in silent defiance.
"Don't do this to yourself."
Rocks, dirt, and small pieces of debris began to shift and float around Mogul's figure as the Chaos energy in him charged further and further.
"Last chance."
His green eyes turned to a solid green as the attack Mogul was readying to unleash on the man in front of him neared completion.
A sigh. "I tried to help you, man."
Rubrum's pale hand slowly reached up and tore down the hood concealing his face.
Mogul's breath hitched in his throat. The earthen debris that had been floating around him instantly fell back to the ground as the Chaos energy in him died down. The green energy in his eyes dimmed, and slowly, his hands lowered back down to his sides. All he could do was stare at the face looking at him from that rock, feeling nothing but complete disbelief at what he saw.
"What...?"
"Pretty wild, huh? Since you've seen my face, I'll go ahead and tell you everything. It all began..."
"So, uh... they-they just had, like, hexes in them this whole time? Just sitting there in them waiting to be turned on?"
As it was, the only person Sorun knew in all of New Mobotropolis that had even inkling into the mystical aspects of the Chaos Force was Tails' uncle, Merlin. Whom Sorun had threatened to kill. And generally disliked.
Honestly, he would have preferred avoiding him entirely, but Mighty's condition worried him, so he decided to put aside all that hatred for the time being to seek out his aid. He had little doubt he'd find help in the old fox; the Mobians that lived in this city weren't ones to turn away from helping others due to grudges, and Merlin didn't seem like an exception to Sorun. So he'd had to swallow his pride and carry Mighty outside of the hospital to search for the wizard.
Only problem was that he hadn't actually known where he lived; Sorun never made it a point to learn where anybody's new houses in the residential district were, really. He'd only found his house to begin with because he'd run into Sonic while looking for it, who at the time had been carrying Tails' unconscious body. Strangely enough the same thing that had happened to Mighty had happened to him, and fortunately, Sonic actually knew where Merlin lived. So he'd lead Sorun there.
Interestingly they'd arrived to find the old fox already had guests. Two yellow mongooses, one Sorun was familiar with and one he wasn't. Strangest of all was that a third victim in the mystery of the green eyes was Mina, the singer. Her boyfriend, Sorun briefly caught his name being Ash, had apparently been taking a walk with her when her eyes had glowed green and she'd collapsed right there in the street. Merlin had just happened to be nearby at the time and had brought them back to his own home in order to try and aid the girl.
Three patients later and doing whatever magical examination he did, the three worried teens had gotten their answer. Apparently they'd been affected by a hex, one not so unlike the one Finitevus had put on the Master Emerald on Angel Island. Hexes that had been implanted in them long ago that, for whatever reason, had been deactivated without seemingly any rhyme or reason. The deactivation had been what knocked them out to begin with, though Merlin had been quick to assure them they were fine.
Evidently he was right, as Sorun was watching the three previously-unconscious Mobians out and about. Tails was conversing with his uncle, Mina was busy trying to calm down an intensely-worried Ash, and Mighty was... well, he'd gone back to sleep. Sonic and Sorun were standing outside near the house, watching the proceedings with relieved looks on both their faces.
"Yeah," Sonic said in answer to Sorun's previous question. "Merlin took 'em out of them all, so we shouldn't have any more problems. Gotta wonder how those things ended up in them to begin with. Or why this had to happen now."
"Got no clue, man," Sorun honestly answered with a shrug. "It's over with now, though, so I wouldn't think too hardly on it."
"Speakin' my lingo, Sorun, speakin' my lingo."
They both glanced at each other for a brief moment. A playful smirk stretched across Sonic's lips, while Sorun had rolled his eye with a small scoff while turning away. He'd done it just in time to catch the sight of Tails hugging his uncle. He had a sort of sad look on his face for some reason, which drew Sorun's interest. He continued watching as Merlin retired to his small home while Tails began to approach the two that had been watching him.
"Yo, Tails," Sonic greeted as the fox approached them. "What was all that about?"
"Oh, i-it's nothing, Sonic," Tails answered, though his ears had flattened halfway to his head. "My uncle Merlin just said he's moving out of the city."
Sonic looked to Tails in surprise. Sorun, meanwhile, had snapped his head to the direction of the old fox's home as a scowl replaced his features.
"He said he wants to travel around more to help 'discover himself' more and to learn more about the Chaos Force. I don't really know the details," Tails admitted to them. "I'm a bit sad he's leaving, but he said he'll be okay. And my uncle's a pretty smart guy. I'm sure he'll be okay."
A small hum came from Sorun. "Right. Of course he will." He looked back to the two Mobians. "I have something I need to go do. I'll see you two later."
"Huh? Oh, sure. Seeya," Sonic said with a wave. Tails gave him another wave along with a smile, which Sorun had only taken the sight of for a single second before he Tricked away.
A small, satisfied sigh blew out from between Rubrum's lips as he used his left hand to pull the red hood back over his head to conceal his features once more. In his right hand was the cyan Chaos Emerald, which he was casually tossing up and down in the air. "Glad you saw some sense finally," he said as he turned to his left. "Woulda been a chore taking this from you by force. But you're a sensible guy it seems, Mogul."
To his side was the mammoth in question, who was sitting down on the rock Rubrum had occupied prior. His large, flap-like ears were flattened against his head, and his entire body language looked like he was low on energy. His face, though, told a different story. His eyes had a distant, vacant look to them, and his mouth seemed to be set in a permanent state of shock and disbelief. His demeanor as a whole screamed being withered. Withered to the point he could collapse and die right there.
Slowly, his eyes turned in Rubrum's direction. That vacant, hopeless expression of his only seemed to magnify tenfold when he caught sight of the red-garbed man standing in front of him, so casually tossing that Chaos Emerald up and down. A shuddering breath had left the mammoth as he opened his mouth to speak.
"It's impossible... it can't be true..." His voice was a voice void of all confidence. Broken, like he'd just been told the worst news in his life.
"Afraid it is," Rubrum blithely replied. "That's the whole truth, from beginning to end." He slowly began to walk towards him. "I said you wouldn't like it. Guess I was right, because you look downright suicidal right now. I honestly can't blame ya."
"I could tell them," Mogul threatened, his voice still hollow as Rubrum stopped in front of him to prop a leg up on the rock. "You cannot harm me. There would be nothing stopping me from going to the Freedom Fighters and revealing everything you've said to me."
"Aw, you're not gonna do that." Rubrum leaned forwards and patted Mogul on the shoulder with his free hand. He flinched from the contact. "If you were actually serious about something like that, we wouldn't be having this conversation." He leaned in closer to one of Mogul's flattened ears. "Hey. Mogul," Rubrum whispered out. "I'm gonna let you in on one more thing. I was faking it when I tried warning you away from making me pull my hood off. I was gonna tell you regardless. I just felt like fuckin' with ya."
Mogul shook his head in denial. "You lie."
"Nah, it's on the list. See?" Rubrum dug into his pocket and brought out the list, and then held it out for Mogul to see. His eyes briefly glanced at the list, followed by him making a small moan as he averted his eyes from it.
- Give Mogul the last Chaos Emerald so he can teleport himself, Nack, Bean, Bark, and Naugus from the New Mobotropolis detention center (X)
- Tell Mogul the truth so he becomes docile (I might fuck around with him just because) (X)
- Get the Chaos Emerald back from a now-docile Mammoth Mogul (X)
"My life's been a living hell for a while now, Mogul, so you can't blame me for trying to milk some enjoyment out of this," Rubrum said as he pocketed the list. "Now I got things to do. And you, my large and not-so-in-charge friend, have a... what is it, a casino to go build and manage? Something about you originally wanting to wait out Sonic until he died of old age because you're convinced the universe gave him plot armor or something stupid, I don't know, I didn't pay attention to every minutia of detail when all this way laid out for me."
He took his leg from the rock and took a few steps back. He took in the sight of the defeated mammoth in front of him, and then spun around and began walking away.
"I know it's rough knowing your immortality doesn't mean anything anymore, but try to enjoy the time you got left," Rubrum called back. "Seriously, try and enjoy it. You still have more time than everybody else, after all."
"Devil." Rubrum stopped walking when he heard that word lowly exclaimed at him. He turned around, and then tilted his head to the side when he saw the harsh look Mogul was sending him. "A demon under the guise of a man. A schemer who acts with so much confidence, but you're trapped just the same as us. You're a fool. A mad fool."
"... Don't I know it." Rubrum turned back around. "Have fun knowing every action you take from now on is meaningless."
With that, he continued walking forwards. He'd bent down briefly just to pick up his duffel bag his feet had crossed, after which he resumed walking forwards. Mogul remained silent at his departure, something Rubrum paid no mind to as he left. It was only when he was far enough away from Mogul did he turn his head back down to the Chaos Emerald in his hand.
"Well, it looks like we're at that point," Rubrum muttered to himself. "All that's left to do with you is give you to Sorun."
He tossed the Emerald up in the air one more time, and then tossed it into the duffel bag. He proceeded to twirl the bag by its handle around his wrist. With the bag spinning around, Rubrum looked up in the sky, towards the broken moon.
"The stage is all set, Sorun. I puppet mastered my way all the way to this point to line it all up for you. You're the leading man here, after all, and we can't start the show without you. So it's time you got your next Emerald."
With New Mobotropolis being a relatively new city, there were no roads that lead to it. Even beforehand when it was simply a blank nanite city there had been no roads, with the place mainly just having been a facility owned by Eggman. As such the city lied in a field, surrounded by trees, near the Great Forest, and with a large stream at the city's back.
As such, anybody traveling to and from the city would have to walk through a field lightly populated by trees just to get there. All in all, not that bad of a hike, as the environment itself was pleasant enough. As such the fox wearing a hooded robe with a knapsack stuffed with personal possessions on his back strolled through the land with relative ease. He'd traveled far enough that the city had disappeared behind his back, and a light smile was on his face as he continued moving forwards.
That was until three blue swords rained down from the sky and stabbed down into the ground in front of him. The old fox had stumbled back a bit in fright from the swords blocking his path, and then froze entirely when the cold edge of a katana was held to his neck.
"Hey, Merlin." The fox Mobian looked to the side to see a blue, spectral arm holding the katana held to his throat and the pale human attached to the arm. His one eye stared coldly at him. "Leavin' so soon?"
"... Hello, Sorun," Merlin greeted in an uneasy tone. "What brings you out here?"
"What does it look like?"
A loud gulp was heard. "I see." Merlin made a nod small enough his head had barely moved. He took in a deep breath, and then closed his eyes. "I had thought you wanted to wait until after you succeeded in finishing Dr. Eggman off before doing this, if time allowed you."
"Eh, you know, I figured I'm kind of getting close to dying here, and seeing as you seem to be leaving to somewhere I changed my mind and decided to just do it now," Sorun explained. "I feel bad for Tails, but... I just really don't like you, Merlin. Or any of the Neo-Walkers. You all kind of fucked my entire life over."
"Is that how you see it?"
"Yeah. It is." The blade's edge pressed deeper into Merlin's neck. "So I'm ending you."
Silence at first. Sorun continued to hatefully stare at the fox with his sword held out, while Merlin seemed... rather startlingly calm, given the circumstances. He simply continued to calmly breath even in the face of getting his head separated from his body, not looking worried in the least. He seemed so calm, in fact, that Sorun was almost off-put by how he was reacting.
"Fine, then. Do as you will," Merlin said. "I'm powerless to stop you. And I've no regrets."
"You've a lot of cheek to say something like that after what you all did to me," Sorun said. "Your attitude..."
"We foresaw a world devastated by Dr. Eggman. With your intervention our vision went from certain doom to wholly uncertain. We did what was necessary in order to prevent disaster to this world we cherish," Merlin calmly answered. "If I have to give my life so that my family and all people on this planet have a chance at living a peaceful life, then so be it."
"It's way less noble when it's my life you're throwing under the bus here."
His eyes still closed, Merlin said, "You speak as if you do not agree with the decision we made, Sorun. Don't tell me, after everything you've done with the Freedom Fighters, after all this time, you haven't come to the same conclusion-"
"Don't." The blade dug into Merlin's neck hard enough that a bead of blood began to run down the sword's length. The fox's face twisted in mild discomfort. "I grew to like them all, sure. Would I rather see the world saved than completely destroyed by that madman? Of course I would. But none of you had any right to drag me into this by forcing me to remain silent about what the Emeralds have been doing to me using that curse."
"All the curse did was force you to remain silent, Sorun. It never forced your actions. It was you who decided to come back to the Freedom Fighters after you left. You who continued to absorb Emeralds. You shout your grievances at me, and yet this entire time all you've done is furthered your progress to the end via the Emeralds." The corners of his mouth upturned in just the barest of smiles. Not one that was mocking in any way. It looked genuine. "You already made your mind up long ago, haven't you? The proof is in your actions. You would have just used your sword to separate the curse from yourself so you could tell the Freedom Fighters everything if you had no intention of seeing this through to the end."
"..."
"..."
"... I could have done that?"
The smile dropped off of Merlin's face. His eyes snapped open in surprise, and despite the sword biting through his neck he'd turned his head to directly face Sorun. "Pardon?"
Sorun's own face was set in such a degree of surprise that Merlin found himself stunned. His eye was opened wide, and the human's jaw had dropped open a bit. He seemed to lose all focus on Merlin as he vacantly stared ahead, his focus so lost that his sword arm dropped away from Merlin's neck.
"Oh, man..." The expression on Sorun's face morphed into something else. The face of somebody who just realized something that they knew they should have known all along. A look of self-pity and realization all mixed together in a face that looked like Sorun was disappointed with himself. "I really am an idiot, aren't I?"
"I... sincerely thought you knew. All three of us did," Merlin confessed, looking just as surprised as Sorun as he rubbed at the shallow cut on his neck. "How could you have never considered this?"
"Because you're right? I don't know." With a sigh, Sorun dropped his shoulders and looked up at the night sky. "Back when I ran away and came back, I made up my mind and decided to go through with this whole thing because I genuinely want to give this planet a chance at living. Because I didn't want a future ruled by Eggman come to pass. To be honest with you, after that the curse... never really came up in my mind all that much. Just whenever I thought of you three."
A gust of wind passed by the now-silent pair. Sorun just continued to stare up at the starry sky, while Merlin watched the human with the now-vacant expression. His hand slowly dropped from his throat, and he gave the human a questioning look.
"Well, now you know," Merlin said. "What will you do now?"
"... Nothing, I guess," Sorun answered in a small voice. "I'll always hate what you people did to me. The principle behind it. Don't think I can forgive ya. But I know why you did it. I remember Aurora hoped that I'd change my mind after a while and see the why of what they did, and while I can't agree with it... I understand," he softly admitted. "I genuinely do want to save them, Merlin. Somehow all those people back there grew on me so much that... that I'd be willing to give my life for 'em. Not like I can just go home and forget about all this anyway, and even if I had the option I doubt I'd take it at this point. So this is the next best option. Lying to them hurts. Knowing how my death'll affect them hurts more. Knowing I'm gonna die, pfft, I'm terrified out of my mind over that, Merlin. But if they all get to live, then... it's worth it. So I'll keep going. Get that last Chaos Emerald so I have the best possible chance at closing the book on all this. I'll get mourned for a bit and everybody will move on with their lives afterwards, but if it means giving them the ability to live a life outside of fighting, then at least me dying means something. I'm not content with it. But it'll have to do."
After he finished talking, Sorun's head slowly dipped downwards. He looked at the katana in his hand, and then glanced at Merlin, who was giving him a sympathetic look. He felt like he should have been mad at that look, but at the moment, he just couldn't muster up the willpower to care. Or even enough to raise his sword back up for that matter.
He couldn't very well kill somebody over something Sorun himself was willingly going along with, could he? He didn't think he'd be able to live with it.
"... Go." The sword dissolved from Sorun's hand as he turned his back to the fox. "Just go. I don't care anymore."
"..." The soft crunching of someone stepping on earth and leaves reached Sorun's ears. He felt a light pressure on his left shoulder, and turned to see Merlin's hand pressing down on it. "Thank you, Sorun," he said. "I know this isn't fair to you. I'm truly sorry for that. But you have my gratitude that you finally saw the right path. I promise your sacrifice won't be in vain."
Sorun shrugged the hand off him. "Never let me catch your face ever again, Merlin."
Saying nothing in response, Merlin simply turned around and began walking back in the same direction he'd been traveling prior. Sorun himself remained rooted to the spot, waiting until the quiet footsteps disappeared. It was only when all was silent did he tilt his head back up at the sky to look at the shattered moon.
"I guess all that's left is to just wait..."
A/N- So I had some wacky stuff originally planned for this chapter. So wacky, in fact, that I took a second look at what I had planned and realize I probably shouldn't go ahead with it for a couple reasons.
So how it was gonna go was it was gonna be this whole thing where Mogul would try to use Sorun as a human battery for power only for it to fail. It was gonna lead to this whole thing where he'd try to mind control Sorun, but then end up in his subconscious and be driven out when he opens a mind door that exposed him to a bunch of ridiculous 21st century internet nonsense, blah blah blah, it was a really dumb idea in hindsight, and it would have ended with Sorun cutting off an arm and threatening to separate him from his immortality if he didn't get back in the cell.
It's, uh, it's probably pretty obvious why I decided to not go ahead with that. I'll put a bunch of goofy stuff in the story for gags, sure, all the lightheartedness and jokes contrasts well with the dark undertone of the story, but I think blasting the immortal mammoth dude with Sorun's memories of Reddit posts and memes woulda... woulda been taking it a wee bit too far off base. So I did this instead.
Funny to think about, though.
