Chapter 32 - Bearing Fruit of the Gift

Minutes went by in silence between the trio sitting near each other around the campfire. Watching the slabs of meat cook, its juices would fall down to the fire and cause spruits and spits. Noticing that Speed had not moved or turned his skewer over, the two women glanced at him. Malaria's attention went towards the cybernetic eye that stared forward. Its never ending, piercing gaze gave her the sense that it was always watching. Never blinking to faze its focus. Never faltering as if to watch the world eternally.

'Was the eye by choice to replace his mortal one...or was it to replacement for losing sight?' the bat woman wondered while staring. Feeling her eyes drift, his head had slight movement. Blinking, she stared at him carefully.

'I wonder if he's mad or something,' Triselle pondered. Glancing at Speed, she blinked from being startled. His right eye was closed and his breathing was shallow. His head was slowly bobbling as if trying to keep it up from dropping.

'...is he...asleep?' she thought. Looking at his left hand, he was still holding onto the skewer over the crackling fire as if locked in place. Thinking about taking it so the food doesn't turn into a charred mass, she began to reach for his left hand.

'What is she doing?' Malaria wondered. Seeing a left hand come into view, it was the female canine's. Moving a little, both women's eyes met. Staring at each other, another silence commenced as both did not move from their positions. Only the noise from the ongoing campfire and the slumbering amputee separated the two.

'...' Triselle said in her mind.

Feeling tense from the bat woman staring at her with a blank face, she gripped her skewer firmer. Not trusting the torturer, she waited for the other to do an action. To her, the kebab stick had a pointed end that could be used to impale. Minutes passed on by in tenser silence than before. Both heard pops and sizzles near them. Glancing back at their food, it was almost cooked.

"..." Malaria spoke staring back at the canine.

"..." Triselle responded turning her eyes back to the black skinned Chiroptera.

Hearing a soft exhale of air from the bat woman, she glanced at her skewer. Seeing it was almost cooked, she retracted hers. Looking at it, the slabs of meat were sizzling from the boiled oils and fats. Steam emitted from the cooked muscle as droplets of juices fell off of the slabs to the ground. The dog woman turned her head to look at hers. Seeing one side was cooked to what she thought looked right, she turned hers over. Placing it back over the fire, she stole a glance at Speed's portion.

'It's going to get burnt,' she remarked from seeing the condition of the cooked meat.

Slowly reaching towards him again, his head and torso did a small pulse flinch. Stopping, she wondered if he was having a nightmare or something. Carefully continuing, she was able to grasp his kebab. Gingerly taking it out of his hand, the mild flinch happened again. Retracting to where she was sitting near him, she watched him while continuing the cooking.

Both women saw another slow pulse occur that seemed to start from his head and slowly towards his chest. The frequency from each jolt was several seconds in between. At the same time, Speed was still in a state of sleep regardless of the number of times he got vibrated. After a minute went by and he had not become conscious, the small jolts became more frequent. Both women observed him finding his peculiar sleeping behavior odd.

'That kind of seems like a nervous fidget,' the female canine said in her head. 'I know some of the vets from the war that got bodily and/or psychological scarring that made them shake uncontrollably...maybe...what she doing?'

Darting her eyes to Malaria, her face was getting closer and closer to his left eye. Seeing her narrow her eyes, they went wide and her pupils shrunk a little. Tensing up from the sight, it was like a predator finding its prey. Moving her head more, she was staring directly into his crimson eye. Unsure why she was being creepy, something began to glisten in her left peripheral vision.

Darting her vision to her left, she noticed something on the ground next to the amputee. Leaning toward him and blinking, there were droplets of blood. Looking up to where it could be coming from, it seemed to occur where his missing right arm would be. Retracting back and trying to ignore how close Malaria was to him, something else was moving on him. Looking at his head, a droplet trail of crimson was coming down. Seeing where the iron liquid was from, it leaked out of his missing middle quill fin.

'By the looks of those wounds, they never healed and scarred over,' Triselle commented. She cringed a little seeing red flow in sliver streams down the right side of his face. Feeling clammy from the sight, she turned back to the meat skewers. Pulling them back to be out of the fire, she could see that the bat woman was still in front of his face.

'I know he can take care of himself...but with these wounds...and being a former prisoner to S.O.S...how is he not dying?'

'Hope she doesn't go for round two for feasting while he is sleeping,' she pondered nervously then glanced back at the two.

'What is causing the flow to come forth?' Malaria wondered. She saw blood seeping out of his cybernetic eye. Despite seemingly had been fused and sealed itself to his skin and eye socket, an outline of crimson indicated it wasn't completely sealed.

'...also...why is his disfigured components spilling as well? This never happened when he was in my chamber cells.'

Puzzled and intrigued, she could visualize the slow flow rate from the top of his head and his right shoulder socket. Flashbacks of this first time he was brought into the dungeon flooded her mind as she continued to stare at him. As if he was a time traveler, how he looked and acted back then was very similar to now. Now curious, she stuck out her tongue and touched the bottom edge of the cybernetic. Gliding it from the left corner to the right corner, a good amount of blood got onto her tongue. Unable to feel amused from the dog breed's disgust reaction, she tasted it before swallowing.

'...like a wild animal...it is earthy and intense...' she mentally remarked. 'But why is his body doing this...is it because of this soulless seeing glass?'

Not looking directly in front of the crimson ring for the eye, she looked into it at an angle. Focusing hard on seeing through the blackened screen, she saw faint movement inside. Pondering if it was designed to stab himself inside of his head, something moved. Darting her eyes downward a little, the red eye was staring at her and glowed. Her primal instincts were revving up as the thought of it attacking her came; however, nothing happened except hearing a deeper inhale from him.


When Speed felt his eyelid droop a little while watching the meat cook over the fire, his vision blurred quickly. Closing it to rid of the obscurity, he couldn't re-open his right eye. Not feeling too tired, he felt his surroundings morph eerily. Cringing a little, he was able to open his shut eye. Looking forward and slowly looking around with his one seeing organ, his vision was darkened into chaos.

In a fast-forward movie reel, his past was shown to him. From when he woke up a decade ago, it sped through all the experiences and memories up until now. The barrage of images hurt both eyes as his mind felt something grinding it to grains of sand. Trying to understand the purpose of being force fed all these visions, none of them were about when he was younger or when he wasn't disfigured.

'Rise...and shine...' the voice of an old man whispered through the amputee's mind. Not recognizing who it was, the person made a quivering inhale. It sounded like something of a respiratory issue that forced the individual to soudn creepy.

'Sub#$%...rise...and...sh-sh-sh-sh-shine,' the man stuttered then swallowed. It sounded dry and above Speed's right ear. Hearing the person inhale again made the hedgehog clench his teeth in mild irritation.

'Have y#$%#$...wwweeeellll?'

'Being...silent...aaaaahhhhhhgain...?' the unknown male asked. Unable to see what the individual looked like, the amputee had an urge to gorge out its throat. Not sure why, the chaotic sights of recollections continued. His left ear twitched hearing the creepy old man near there.

'I hhhhhhhhaaaaaave#$%#$...' he began then breathed again. Hearing an airy shuttered from his mouth, a static buzz and visual scrabble came over Speed's eyes. It only lasted a couple of seconds before returning to the image bombardment of memories.

'Y#%$camera...rrreeeaadddyy #$% ' its voice continued.

Getting cut out more and more by white noise, it grew too incomprehensible. Feeling the entire world suddenly pulsate in a two-stroke fashion, his vision became distorted. Everything became a shade of red before returning to normal. After several seconds, it would repeat. Watching and waiting for a minute, the mild shocks became more frequent.

'...this feels...familiar...' Speed pondered narrowing his right eye. Each pulse inducing sensation caused the world to bleed crimson. Feeling something beginning to leak from three spots in his body, the pain sensors stung hard enough to make him blink.


"..." the amputee spoke after a deeper than normal inhale.

Exhaling with his teeth clenched together, it helped him endure the pain felt from three places on his body. Opening his right eye slowly, it took a second or two for the blurriness to go away. Getting two images at once, both women were close to him and staring at him. Breathing through his nose again, the smell of cooked meat came. At the same time, he could smell an abundance of iron that wasn't cooking.

'...the pulses have stopped,' he thought to himself.

Based on how his left side of his face was numb a little, the left eye socket with the implant had caused a harsh migraine. Figuring that the auto sensor features for it went into survival mode and forced him awake, he was not as tired as before. Remembering that he was cooking a skewer of meat in his left hand, there was nothing for him to hold. Seeing that the female canine had two, he retracted his left arm.

"..." the three said to each other. A murky silence passed between them as Malaria was still close to his left eye while his right eye stared at the other woman.

"...I..." Triselle began. Getting his attention still, the bat woman only moved her yellow eyes towards her. As much as she wanted to point out or ask how is he bleeding, she didn't know if asking would irritate him. Pulling both kebabs from the fire, she extended the one she took from him when he was sleeping.

"T-Think they are well done."

"..." both responded staring at her. Tensing herself up, part of her reminded her that the pointed sticks in her hands could be stabbing weapons if aimed at a soft organ. Seeing movement, Speed turned himself and reached for what she offered. Grabbing it and taking it, he moved himself to be pointing at the campfire.

"...thanks..." he said with a raspy voice. Choking up higher on the wood spike, he began to bite into one of the meat slabs. Hearing Malaria move away from his face a bit, she still sat closer to him than Triselle. Both women turned to their cooked meal and began to consume it.

Another silent passerby went between them as they ate the cooked meat. Despite showing a stoic face, Malaria was feeling ambivalent from eating. The consumption of a cooked corpse was not new to her or appalling. Having acquired a preference to more raw foods, the act of chewing and swallowing around a campfire triggered something in her mind. Times of a past life came. Onces that dealt with images of war and vague comrades.

Blinking and slowing down her action of grinding the food into smaller bits, the mental visions continued. It showed her places were human holidays and non-human ones were being celebrated. Each moment of watching the fire crack with its colors of red, yellow, and orange seemed to trigger more recollections from a past she had. Oddly, none of the memories of being in the Sanctum occurred. The aspect made her swallow and stop eating.

'...why is this...happening?' she pondered in her mind. 'What is this supposed to signify? How is recollecting the past enlightenment of the future?'

Triselle could feel herself relaxing as she ate the meat. Reptile meat was not something she had before. The aspect made her blink and think back on the war. Recollecting rough times when rations were low, soldiers would risk to venture out to gather more food. Remembering the various times that people brought back game, it made her relax enough to speak out loud.

"...this reminds me of when I was in the war," the canine began with a small smile. "When supplies were low, some of the boys would go hunt. The stuff they brought back was mixed."

"..." the other two individuals responded with glancing at her.

"Sometimes they'd get low-level primals. Rare they would get a large one...but that would feed us for a week," she continued. Her expression turned a little sad as she looked at the fire.

"There were unlucky guys that were killed in the process. Those were rough moments...just like the numerous sleepless nights...heh...strange how a small fire like this brings up all the ones I have seen through my time in the war. It's almost like a time glass where the past comes back to haunt you to remember."

"..." the hedgehog and bat spoke listening to her. One by one, both turned back to the fire. As Speed continued to eat seemingly not caring about the statement, Malaria brewed on it.

Trying to recall who she was during the flashbacks of war, nothing was coming to her mind. Symbols of faith and religious acts such as prayers before battle invaded her mind. Getting frustrated from not being able to get rid of the mental episode, she looked at the one-arm man. Seeing him put the last slab of meat in his mouth, he focused on eating it.

'...how is this supposed to implore me Vermillion?' she asked in her head. 'Tell me why this will edify me beyond the ways of the Sanctum.'

"..." the bat woman responded seeing movement. Speed's crimson ring eye slowly shifted to look at her. Among its blackened screen, the red iris glowed with an icy appearance as if it was activated. Combining that with the slower oozing of blood from between its metal and his flesh, it seemed cannibalistic. As if a pin dropped in her head, memories of past battles flooded her mind.

'...the metamorphosis is completed...' an unknown distorted voice stated in the background of the memories. '...go forth...kill...and maim those humans...show them the power of our kind...give them...something to fear...'


Rushing through the passageway he was in, Sonic tried to get far away from the eerie sounds he heard from the other tunnel entrance. To his captivity, the boy noticed he was going faster than his normal top speed. Seeing this, while not being in a dream, gave surrealism and adrenaline from doing something he always wanted to achieve. Forcing himself to re-focus on where he was going, things were passing by at a greater pace than his previous running speed. Trying to adapt to the different visuals, fear attacked him.

"...eeeerrrrrrrrAAAOOOOOOOOOOO!' an unknown monstrous voice boomed to life.

Hearing it from behind, the child bypassed the wonder of how it got behind him so quickly. With how oddly illuminated the carved-out spaces in the mountain of bedrock was, there was no shadow seen behind the orphan on the walls. A few seconds later, a threatening presence appeared behind him. The sound of quick four feet hitting the ground in a fast gallop echoed. Feeling his fur stand on end and his quills straightening, his eyes began searching for a way to evade.

'There are other passageways up ahead! Go left! Go left!' Sonic shouted in his mind.

Just when he felt the short, powerful huffs of air above him, the blue hedgehog dug his feet down. Getting the grip, he banked left into another pathway quickly. Feeling a rush of air go behind him, the creature hit the breaks. Hearing it snarl before returning to the pursuit, it seemed to have gotten faster. The spacing between each gallop got shorter and shorter.

Finding another intersection up a head, Sonic banked to the right into another tunnel. Listening to the monster brake sooner, it repeated its pursuit of him. The thought of having to have the unknown predator right behind him before banking into another pathway to dodge it was too scary. Seeing other pathways coming at him quicker than normal made thinking a strain from not having enough time to make a decision. Turning into another tunnel, the creature was in the same pathway a moment or two later.

Deciding to keep going into different tunnels without thinking of where he was going, he went into another pathway. Stealing a glance at what was pursuing him, Sonic's eyes widen. A large silhouette, three to four times bigger than him, was seen as if two different primals were fused together. What made the boy look forward and force himself to run faster was its face. The beady orange eyes that looked down at him as prey pumped more apprehension and adrenaline through his veins.

After doing this several times and almost getting one of his quills bitten off, the kid turned left. Instead of immediately setting himself straight while running, he ran up the wall a little. Seeing sunlight dead ahead, the hedgehog rushed toward it as fast as possible. Regardless if he was breathing hard from tiredness or terror, he wanted to escape the monster. Getting closer exponentially faster, he spotted a small balcony.

Not knowing if it was a cliff drop, the chasing monstrosity screeched while gaining closer and closer behind him. As high as the amount of fear that was inside of him, Sonic held firm and clenched his teeth together. Thinking upon something similar when with Speed, he put un-logical faith in his new ability. Upon stepping out of the passageway, the sky was blue with white clouds as the vast amount of ocean sea went from the ground to the horizon. It immediately was foreshadowed by a something larger behind him.

"GGGNNNNNRRR!" the child growled feeling a mouth open above his head.

Planting one foot on a protruding rock through the sediment balcony to stop hard, he shiftly did a 180. Staring at the creature with its open mouth, it was half the size of the boy's head. Bypassing the terror from the sight, he pushed off hard and rolled into a ball on the ground. Cold sweat and goosebumps flared all over his skin as the hedgehog felt something muscled and sharp grace his skin while going underneath the being.

Uncoiling himself and standing up, Sonic sprinted up the slightly steep mountain side. Focusing hard at the sensation of how to go faster, he stomped and clawed to keep his momentum going. Getting a good amount speed pumping his arms like a madman, he kept running. Not daring himself to see how much of a drop it was to the ground down the mountain, not wanting to get killed was his new motivation to keep going.

After several seconds of running on the steep slope with his new top speed, he could feel forces trying to make him lose. The momentum and speed he had kept him going forward. At the same time, gravity and the slop angle imposed a constant difficulty in remaining straight. Fear of sliding, slipping, and/or missing a step kept him focused on not doing that. Seeing something of a clear platform in front of him, he kicked off to jump to it. Clearing it and flopping onto the ground, the boy rolled a couple of times before sliding to a stop.

"EEHHEEE-HAAA-EEEEHHHEE-HHHAAA-EEEHHEEEN-HAAAA," Sonic hyperventilated with his face on the ground.

Turning a little to not breath in dust and dirt, his lungs burned as if he was breathing in frozen air. Legs felt sore and overworked. The body ached all over from the tumbling impact of his suicide dive. His head pulsated quickly as the train ride of adrenaline and terror was still coursing through his veins. Knowing that he was in pain, he also knew that he was alive. Struggling to get on hands and knees, he slowly looked back at where he nearly was mauled.

Staring with apprehension, the monster was still at the other platform. Looking more humanoid than animal, its limbs were a blend of human and something feline like a panther or cheetah. Hearing it shout loudly, it echoed everywhere. Watching it stare him down from a distance, it walked back into the cave and was gone. Only able to stare and breathe, Sonic rolled onto his back.

"..." the child spoke with only air escaping his mouth. Closing his eyes, he tried to calm himself down and bite down the pain before moving again.


'...how...' Chiara began to wonder tensely. '...how many have died in this building?'

'Or is this place just really haunted by some ancient past?'

'It said some wacky stuff...kind of like a soldier with a loose screw or two.'

'Whatever,' the female stout thought and shook her head. Looking back at the elevator level indicator, the ground floor was coming up. Staring at the doors and feeling the lift's descent slow down, the images of hanging ghosts in the hallway plagued her mind.

From the lobby level hallway, one of the elevators came fully down and stopped. Making a small buzz noise and the doors opening, it showed no one was inside. Slowly peering out from behind the button panel, Chiara looked into the hallway and cringed a little. Despite seeing a couple of suspicious people walking around, the atmosphere smelled the same of when she opened the window in the staff room. Burnt corpses.

'...great...a slaughterhouse scent to invite people in to stay,' she muttered in her mind. Covering her noise with a hand and exiting the elevator, she glanced in three directions for pathways. Finding which one lead to the lobby, she walked quickly in that direction. While passing by the apartment rooms, the small guest lounge was seen up ahead. Slowing down to the corner and stopping, she glanced into the area seeing that there many people loitering.

'If I don't want people to see me...then I'll have to go out through the staff door,' the woman told herself.

Panning her view left, she flinched a little. There were a couple of see through silhouettes in various locations in the lobby. Some hovered inside while others were outside. Even some were in between walls which made her wonder what happened to them. Only thinking narrowly of the possibilities, she backed up. Turning around, she headed to the staff kitchen area.

Reaching it and peering in, it was deserted of people. Thanking no one for the lack of people, the female stout traveled to the back of the room. Seeing a door that was covered by fixtures, she moved them out of the way. Opening the door and exiting, the smell outside was immediate. Like someone swung a shovel and made contact with her face.

"AH SHIT!?" Chiara said out loud. It smelled worse as if an air bomb flavored of death and burnt hair just exploded. Reeling and going back inside the apartment, she closed the door quickly.

"That's the air out there!? Freakin' hell!"

Blowing all of her air out through her nose, she looked for a place to breath in non-death air. Going to the refrigerator and opening the door, she stuck her head inside. Exhaling and breathing in the cool air, it seemed to make her less out of sorts from smelling leftover food. Thinking about getting a mask of some kind, she pulled her head out and closed the door.

Looking around and seeing a couple of things, an image of a makeshift mask came to mind. Rummaging through the room and borrowing a couple of items, she jerry-rigged a face mask. Placing some spices between the layers of cloth and tying it, she wrapped the mask over her nose and mouth. Securing it with a knot behind her head and tightening it, she was breathing herbs instead of the tint of death in the building.

'Better than vomiting on the street,' she thought.

Turning back to the door and opening it again, she peered her head out. The scent from before was reduced a lot to be manageable; however, it would take time to get used to it. Looking around in the coast town streets, it was empty. Hearing a faint loudspeaker in the background, Chiara tried to scout out where it was coming from. Closing the door and walking across the street, she began heading towards where she thought the announcement was from.

'Figures they'd be patrolling,' the female stout said in her mind. Going through alleyways and sidewalks, she hurried along and hid behind a portion of a wall. Watching on OHP car ride by, it was doing a service announcement.

[Attention! Attention! Oatisal Harbor is on lockdown until further notice. Everyone must be inside a building, resident and visitor, with doors closed and locked until further notice. Failure to comply with the lockdown rules will result in criminal legal action and imprisonment. I repeat...] the announcement played on the vehicle's loudspeaker.

'Tch. Course the law boys won't say zilch about what happened on that thing,' Chiara remarked to herself.

Getting out of hiding and glancing to where the law car was heading, she waited till they went down a street. Seeing the coast was clear in both directions, she began walking forward. Thinking about where she was, there was a few more streets and alleyways to go through till she reached the street market. Along the way, she saw people remaining in passageways between buildings. They too had wrapped their heads with thick cloth to try and block the smell.

"If ya goin' to da death pit," one merchant called out. His voice was very muffled so she stopped to listen. "It's ten times worse in da strip and crawling with coppers."

Nodding her head to him, the female stout continued. To what the man said, the pungency of burnt hair and smell of charred skin was getting exponentially stronger. Despite wanting to barf, she focused herself on a new aspect of seeing through two eyes instead of one. It was enough to distract her thoughts as she traveled and looked around. Getting into the last alleyway before hitting the street market area, she stopped and looked around.

Seeing a vertical storm drainpipe on the side of a building, she began scaling it. Getting onto the roof, she got low enough to here only her head stuck out passed the small retaining wall outlining the roof. Observing from her position, she could see the entirety of the flea market area and where the bar entrance was. The once populated road of tents was now empty with only a large tent fort for the security forces. The bar was burnt to the ground while scorching neighboring buildings a bit.

'...shit...was it a fire or an explosion?' she wondered squinting her eyes. 'If it happened in that hell hole...that means all the bodies there were BBQ along with those...things.'

'Knowing that irritating guy...he's probably miles away from here,' the female stout opening her eyes a little. '...hope that squirt is okay.'

"..." Chiara reacted with blinking a couple of times. Feeling the fur on the back of her neck stand on end, there were numerous ghosts in the street. Amongst the rubble of the watering hole, there were a cluster of see through silhouettes in various areas. Just the sheer amount of how many people have perished in this coastal town made her skin feel itchy.

"...CCCChhhhiiiiiaaaarrrraaaaaaa..." an airy voice called from behind.

"...!?" she reacted with a hard flinch.

Whipping around and producing her claws, she got into a defensive attack stance. Standing near an old radio antenna pole from the roof was another transparent silhouette. Given that it was still daytime with all the ash and fading smoke around, the supernatural still could be seen. Hovering in the air under a metal branch of the antenna gave the impression the individual lynched themself. Waiting in awkward and tense silence, the eyeless supernatural continued to hover.

"...there's nuthin' there...there is..." Chiara whispered to herself. Forcing herself to turn around and look back at the street, she tried to see if the female cat officer was around.

"...nuthin'...nuthin' behind me...no ghost...no see through figure...nada..."

"...ttttthhhhheeeeeee...ffffaaaallllleeeeennnnnn..."

'nothing there,' she repeated in her head. Closing her eyes and adjusting her kneeling stance, she mouthed the words to herself.

'...there is nothing there...it did not call your name...there is no such thing as-'

"...ddddiiiiieeeeeeddddddd...fffoooorrrr...nnnnnoo#$%ttttt..." it continued then had a glitching static sound from speaking.

'FFFFUUUCCCKKK!' Chiara mentally screamed. A swirling blend of apprehension and irritation swelled inside. Clenching her teeth together hard, she slowly turned her head back to the eerie wonder. In the process of maintaining composure, her face and body language was that of malice while her mind battled trepidation.