Passengers (An ArchieIDW Sonic Adventures 2 story)

by Mauser-KAR98K

Finding the right Zone to return home to has been anything but home for Julie-Su. Everything she had suffered through with her people was met with a horrible truth: the people she knew and loved were gone. Arriving on Earth, she found G.U.N., and Shadow. But her safety, her security, he was only a shell, the Knuckles she loved not in it. Her Soultouch...still there for him. ShadxSu

11. 10: A Dichotomy of Trust

I own nothing of Sonic and etc.

10: A Dichotomy of Trust

---

For Julie-Su, there were only two types of beings in the universe, and she very much judged who they were from her current residence on Earth: those who spoke binary, or those who did not.

She had a catalogue of such beings that should could work close with those who understood codes, algorithms, and the seemingly universal language for advanced societies being digital binary. The Xorba's, the Noctunrious Clan–when they weren't trying to kill her species–, the Zone Cops, Overlanders and the humans of Mobius. And now the humans and Islanders of Earth. Granted, she didn't look down upon someone who couldn't code, or in her case, to become one with it if she had to dive deep within her implanted CPU to search file banks, source codes, or in the futile case of stopping a spiked wall from crushing Mighty the Armadillo and her equal...a situation in which she defaulted to her double barrel blaster to "solve" the problem. And it had.

Her bare fingers on her right hand and her mechanical fingers on her replacement left hand flowed over the keyboard, her shooter's gloves off and tucked inside her drawer on her desk below her left side next to her silver captain's bars. Legs crossed, her shoes off, and her toes seemingly wiggling in sympathetic movement to her dancing fingers. She couldn't let the thought pass that if a curious passerby had laid witness to her movements, one would have thought she was reciting a piano sonata that had a foreboding tone and cadence to it. Why had the thought lept to her as she was finishing her report from last night? The question made her cast an eye to the empty chair close to Brass' lighted office.

When she, Remington and Shadow had returned to Clip, Shadow had gone almost immediately to General Tower, who was standing next to Brass' office. To her idle astonishment Tower leaned down to Shadow, both she and Remington noticing the trepidations forming on the hedgehog's face. What Shadow had spoken in Tower's ear was her guess, but it prompted the General to call Brass and Shadow to his office. And for the past twenty minutes they have been inside, the door closed, the blinds pulled. She didn't hear any shouting coming through the heavy industrial wooden door, but she hadn't heard laughter either.

From the look she saw Shadow give Remington when Ebony had spoken of Mammoth Mogul possessing a Chaos Emerald but having the color of magenta, Julie could see a past fear return to her partner. One she knew was being discussed behind closed doors away from the uninitiated. The secrecy of it was beginning to gnaw at her already suspicions feelings for GUN and the U.F. Closing her eyes and sending a neuro-signal from her brain to her cybernetic lock that was connected to a long white chord that disappeared down to her computer close to her left knee, she saved her report to the system. With another shot of digital empathic signals to the computer's interface and user program, she opened the intranet email, choose Shadow's email address, and sent another neuro-signal to send the report attachment to the Ultimate Lifeform, but not to Tower.

It wasn't that she didn't trust the General. Far from it, since she did see her Dream Journal sitting on his desk from just the brief glimpse she got before he shut his door to his office. No, she wanted to make sure her report, and Shadow's–if he even typed one up at all–mirrored close to one another's. An odd feeling washed through her when the sent icon appeared. She had trusted him with her life the night before, and with slight shame in all honesty, she'd been open with him about...the pain and the processing with everything she has gone through. Telling him about her haunting equal that was still bonded to her own soul. And for the life of her, she kept asking why, only to have her Knuckles answer for her.

"Trust," she murmured to herself from her reflection on the whitened monitor that had her report still splashed on it.

"What?" came Saffron's high caring voice with the question.

"Oh...nothing, Ghostrider," she answered, shaking her head before looking around the cubical wall separating her and the bee. "Just thinking out-loud."

"Hey," Saffron chimed at her, giving Julie a nudge on her still organic shoulder over her replaced arm, "you're like me–you need someone intelligent to talk to, right?"

For one reason or another, Julie blushed at that outlook. Smiling, she nodded. "Yeah, you could say that."

Moving the mouse this time instead of using her neuro-connection to her computer, she saved her report one last time before she closed the word-processor. Moving her mouse up and to the right, and pushing her now empty soda cup closer to what was left of her lunch–a nice burger with lettuce, mayonnaise that would've made Knuckles gag—why do you hate it, babe? she asked her equal still inside her—tomato, mustard, and actual real ketchup on her medium serving of french fries. It was an amazing treat considering her last meal before she found Lien-Da's mine was a dehydrated lump of deer jerky they had killed a week before Blaze and Silver opened a portal to this Earth.

Rolling her jaw and tongue, she had a feeling of guilt that lingered heavy over the after taste of her grape soda. She could not fathom as to why, only that it was there. She had gotten her people to safety, and they were being treated with a kindness that she could only accept with a grateful resignation instead of the cloaked pitifulness that weighed down her heart. Guilt that others were left behind, even though they had made their choice? Had they given them a choice when they abandoned Lien-Da and her hardcore followers? Maybe it was that she hadn't asked to be saved? Perhaps it had been that the others had stripped her of her armor when she had finally passed out so that she had no choice in the matter but to be taken in? Between being brought up in the Legion, and then falling in love and fighting next to Knuckles and being lucky in having his courageous friends accept her made the notion that to even let her armor around her soul slip just an inch to never have entered her mind, much less even be an option. Somewhere deep inside her principles and scruples, it felt more like a betrayal to her and her kind, to her friends and to her lover, if she had wavered in her resolve; as though her dignity were at stake.

But you would let Knuckles shed it from you, she impassively dwelled. You'd let him...she let her conscience return to the screen with the picture of the mountain backdrop and the icons of applications ready for her to click.

His baritone voice called to her...soothing her inner torment on her face, reflecting back at her from the screen. You made me feel whole, Julie.

She blinked at his words, ceasing a tear to come, only her whispered inner voice to greet his. As had you...

She clinched her jaw to push her and Knuckles away, her heart fluttering with an awful anguish when she had, straightened her face to a more professional posture, and leaned back over to Saffron's side of the portion of their cubical. "How is the download from shit-bag's laptop," she asked with a forced smile.

Saffron had been intent on the green progress bar on her own computer screen that she jolted back with surprise from Julie's question. "Oh, it's coming along. I-I-C seems to be getting most of it just fine."

Julie had to think for a moment before the acronym came to her. The Intelligence Intake Center nestled on the East side at Naval Base Sullivan in Empire City had only been a name to her where people who worried more about her being able to go through their entire classified data center, to punch through the firewalls, than about her possibly being hacked herself. Her innate thought of there only being two kinds of people and the universe rang true with the humans and Islanders of Earth, especially with GUN, about being able to understand and read binary. But she had to joke when she was finally plugged in–as she was now through her cybernetic lock–that the majority of Earth's coding had been a creation of convenience rather than through intellectual design for faster progress with tough firewalls and security. From her own data codes that ran deeper than just her augmented CPUs compared to this Earth's progression, the handshake from one binary codex to another had been simple with her grip being firmer to what she had plugged into. The codes and symbols she possessed and learned to foster as almost a primary language than basic speak from her own tongue when she was merely seven—that she had found odd this Earth had as well—she worried that there wasn't compatibly to Earth's binary codes. It turned out she had been wrong, and found the coding, even the deeper tougher codes GUN used for their top security programs and servers, were easy to decipher.

It was what had made GUN's cyber warfare section (Section 6) utterly afraid of her. She nearly giggled when she explained to them her understanding and prowess with binary was more equivalent to a high school graduate with basic understanding, compared to the other Legionnaires that Remington and Lara-Le had brought with them when Silver and Blaze opened the portal to Earth. After all, she left the Legion when she was barely fifteen...to pursue who her soul had latched on to, and to get away from the dogma's of her kind.

Where upon that thought had brought another, and one she was more positive about what her role for GUN and well, not just the U.F, but Earth as a whole, was to go through this Eggman's technology to figure out the codings he had used for his machines. She at least hoped it was for a truly greater good, and not for domination. She had already exiled herself twice from treacherous dogmas before, and she had vowed never to be used like that again.

Rykor came to mind in that instant. She looked around the large open, former theater for her former sergeant, but he could be seen. She could only find the now six working television screens that had nothing but the news from several station and network feeds plastered on them. Two had the picture of Rouge standing out from of her Casino in Station Square, probably either explaining her disappearance, or maybe even going over other things she is known for. Either way, Julie could care less of the very person they were trying to find. Old hatreds were hard to kill in a Legionnaire, after all.

"Have they said anything?" Julie finally asked, laying her eyes back to Saffron's screen.

But it was Komi from behind them on the raised walkway and desks who answered. "Yeah, on our end." Julie flashed her eyes behind her to the purple-furred echidna. Sitting next to Komi was Teri-Lu, working hard as well on her own computer. "They've sent us data from it that they pinged as interests. Teri is going through Ebony's accounts–"

"Since I had done this before with Remington when we were working his tax evasion case," Teri commented, her head down at her monitor screen.

Komi smirked. "And Rem has me checking through all of Rouge's accounts to see if we can pinpoint any monies going to any clients of hers that might be a lead."

"Speaking of Rem," Julie said, shaking her head, "I need to see if I can recall anymore of our assholes he suspects may be here to do this."

Saffron chimed in, looking behind her. "Not a bad gig for a former school teacher, eh Komi?"

The purple echidna raiser her pencil and pointed the eraser end to Saffron with a smirk of her own. "Math teacher."

"You looking to get back to it?" Julie asked with an affirming look.

Komi nodded, taking her pencil back to her sheets of paper. "Eventually, when things settle down...along with Remington."

Julie raised her browns with an open expression. "Yeah, good luck with that!"

She felt all three girls, including herself, were about to giggle when the door to Tower's office opened with Shadow stepping out of it. Julie saw his face was mute, but his red eyes were focused on something that not only was worrying him, but now her. Just the quick look she received from him that was not really directed at her, commanded her inner-self to return to her computer screen. Taking a heavy breath, she refocused her mind to the face of the white, albino echidna, his cloak black, his eyes covered with a pair of small framed glasses that were transparent, revealing his own yellow and black eyes. Atop his forehead was the swirl of a yellow symbol that she had recalled she and Knuckles had called it the Doctor's third eye.

The last mental image she recalled from her mind, digitizing it through her CPU embedded in her cybernetic lock, and sent it through with her neuro-command to have his picture printed on the large copy-printer next to the communications and tactical operations command desk just behind Teri and Komi. Opening her eyes, the albino echidna was standing with his bandaged hands clasped together at his golden belt, his face static and impassive, lips pursed in thought, possessing a hidden maleficence she knew all to well—

Shadow's passive voice came from above her, nearly startling her. "Who's that?"

Julie had not heard him step beside her. She blinked for a second before courage found its way back to her to strangle the apprehension of saying the name:

"That's Doctor Finitevus." The shiver up her spine seemed to exhume from her right hand as she made a fist. "He should have a burn mark on his upper right shoulder, thanks to me."

"Why?" Shadow asked after a heart beat, his red eyes studying the image.

"Because I only gave him one barrel from my blaster just before he tried closed a warp ring around my Knuckles."

She felt the hedgehog lower his gaze to her. "Can it slice someone in half that way?"

She shrugged with a revulsion of the thought, the mental image of her equal's upper torso laying motionless on the grass of Angel Island, his eyes lifeless. "I–Finitevus said he was about to find out, until I shot him."

"But...he's still alive?" Shadow asked, stepping closer to her.

She looked up, giving him a grim frown. "I honestly don't know. Knuckles threw him off the Island into the sea. But if he had another warp ring...Honestly, I don't know."

Shadow bit his lower lip, not seemingly satisfied with her answer, but she saw he knew he couldn't press her further about it either. The intake of breath through his mouth, causing his chest to rise under his black shirt and his black suit jacket combined with what white fur he allowed to be exposed from the unbuttoned top of his shirt was like him turning a page. "And of this Mammoth Mogul?"

She closed her eyes to dive back into her CPU data banks, retrieving her last known saved image of the tall and extremely portly brown-furred mammoth. He stood erect, a jeweled topped cane upon which his hand rested on, which complemented his white three-piece suit along with his black, large shoes. Again, she sent a neuro-command from her cybernetic lock to the computer next to her left leg to print the image. She also moved the mouse to save the image on the computer's hard-drive, which she would soon send it to the main GUN database at a place called Cheyenne Mountain, west from them, near the Continental Divide. "That's him," she stated without any fanfare from her voice.

"And he can jump through Zones?" Shadow asked.

She gave a slight nod, crossing her arms over chest. "From what I remember, he had a Chaos emerald in his chest that kept him alive for a fucking long time."

"Centuries?" Shadow quickly asked, still standing stiffly next to her as he stared at her screen.

She gave a slow tilt of her head. "Try millenniums." She then sighed. "Last we heard from him he was doing some shady shit in our Casino Night City. But if I remember right, he didn't have an emerald in his chest that go around. But..." She trailed off, straying an eye up to Shadow, "I'm sure he was looking for one, even after our Tails placed every Chaos Emerald from our zone into a place called the Zone of Silence..." She gave a swallow to bring out her next thought. "And with your help."

Shadow looked down to her with a widen gaze. "My help?"

Again, she nodded to him. "Our Shadow brought about something Tails had said was called the Great Harmony. In the end, it stopped Mammoth Mogul from destroying the multi-verse, as it had been foretold by the Ancient Walkers."

He took in another deep breath, this time wavering his eyes to her. "And who are they?"

She kept his gaze before turning her head down, closing her eyes. "Our dead God's who were lost to the Prophecy."

For a moment the two held their silence before Shadow cleared his throat. "But he was looking for another power source?" he asked carefully.

Julie turned her face up to him. Scribbled on his face was more than just a question, but a past that she could clearly see was haunting him. There was a connection he knew was there, but he seemed too afraid to ask her for fear of a truth, or...

Betrayal? she gawked within herself. His visage possessed something akin to it. She had seen it once before...from her Knuckles after his father had threatened the safety of Lady Lara-Le and her family. Knuckles' family.

There was a pull inside her, to reach out to Shadow, to just touch his gloved hand beside him to give him a slight comfort away from what was clearly plaguing him. But she hesitated...recoiling from the thought for one reason or another, wondering even where the urge had been birthed from inside her being.

"What are you doing next?" he asked her after a quiet moment, whatever was haunting him dissipating with a quick sigh.

"Um..." she looked down and searched over her slightly cluttered desk. "I was about to start checking different video footages of where Scourge deployed the warp ring. Maybe see if we had any satellite surveillance overhead—"

"There was none at that time frame," Shadow quickly said, his voice still deadpan. "But keep looking." He then looked down to her. "And can you send to my computer an image of this Scourge?"

She nodded. "Sure." And she closed her eyes one more time and sent a command to her neuro-link that sent the image to Shadow's computer email through Clip's intranet. "Done." Then, she pulled up the image of the black leather jacket clad green hedgehog. Her heart fluttered with glee when her eyes bore at the twin scars on Scourge's chest.

"Where did he get those?" Shadow asked, pointing to them.

She smiled with her answer. "My equal's father put them there." She stiffened in her chair. "Sure wished Locke had dug a little deeper."

Saffron's soprano voice filtered over the cubical wall. "Would have saved us a lot of trouble."

With this, Shadow turned, not saying a word. Julie kept staring at the screen when she felt a touch–a squeeze–come from her right shoulder. Looking up, she had just caught the quick glimpse of Shadow's hand leaving her. She kept her eyes to him when he pulled out his chair from his work station on the other side of Saffron's, pulled off his suit jacket and placed it on the chair's back, before he took his seat close to his desk.

She was about to return to her own task when Rykor had appeared from around the large hallway threshold from where their lockers and break room–not to mention their meager armory–were. He had taken the step up onto the first small level before he stopped and nearly collapsed at the side of the white wall where their unit's wooden shield and symbol hung. He tried to take another step forward, but stopped. She saw he was gingerly cradling his abdomen, his own suit jacket undone, his face fighting an emotion of pain and embarrassment.

She rose from her chair, disconnecting her crudely spliced data cord from her opened cybernetic lock at the third joint from the tip, and made an effort to hurriedly walk to her former sergeant. She had only made it three steps when Teri-Lu had also risen from her own chair, pulling her one eared microphone headset off and got to Rykor before Julie even got to Shadow sitting at his desk. Stopping short, she waited and watched as Teri placed her hand on Rykor's. He gave her guarded look, one Julie know all too well, before she witnessed something from her former superior she had not seen from him: he let himself become vulnerable, doing so openly to Teri.

Julie had found her hand landing on the back of Shadow's chair, the hedgehog having his head turned some to the two echidnas that where now whispering to each other. Before Julie closed to them, more light invaded the small operations center when Colonel Brass stepped out of General Tower's office before grabbing the papers she had printed out from the printer. She drifted her head to him as he approached, his own eyes widened for a moment before his face softened with a pensive pause.

"What's going on?" he asked, his tone of concern.

Teri-Lu looked over her shoulder to Brass as he took the step down to the level where his office met to where they stood. "Sir, he's..." She let her voice drift, her hands falling from Rykor's.

Here, Julie kept her distance as she witnessed Brass lower his height down to Rykor as the burgundy-furred echidna tethered his pride close to him as his eyes searched for seclusion away from what Julie could see was embarrassment Rykor had tried to hide. Brass didn't stoop down, but actually got down on a knee to become eye-to-eye with the shorter echidna. "You alright, brother?" he asked with concern. Julie could feel it to be genuine from the tall human.

With one eye to Teri, Rykor eased his peached skin muzzle to Brass' ear and whispered for a moment. Hugo nodded, then looked to Teri, then over to Julie. His mutton chopped beared face tightened with a dour conclusion before turning his affirming, yet resided eyes back to Rykor. "Sounds like an ulcer, Bruiser? And honestly, I'm surprised the rest of you don't have any." He turned to Julie, his eyes going to her replaced arm. "With all you've been through..."

She swallowed when Brass rose up, his eyes going back to Rykor. "Remington," he called out to the former Constable, who was now stepping close to Brass' office door. The colonel extended out his hand with the papers and handed it to the brown-furred echidna, whose suit jacket was still on, in contrast to Brass' hanging on his coat rack. "Faces to pin up on the wall."

Remington took them and studied the top page. "Oh," he graveled, "that asshole."

A curt cough from Julie's left made her stray an eye over to Komi. Remington attempted to turn away, his face looking through the rest of the pages when Komi called out to him. "Oh, Rem?"

He turned back around, his eyes leaving the pages to find his wife's eyes leveled to him. "Yes?" he said quickly.

Komi let in a small breath. "Am I going to have to bring in the swear jar to work?"

What Julie saw next made her smile to almost giggle. She could see the struggle the former Constable was going through, how his black hair brows held a command presence with his former law enforcement bearing reappearing since this morning, to the former Grandmaster of the Frost Legion standing erect almost to a close approximation of his father, Kragok, to the now newly minted Major standing beside the tall human Colonel who was pressed close to the wall taking in something Julie could see he had gone through as well.

And Remington let his face fall in understanding with a slight defeat when the most respected echidna Julie had ever known said to his beloved wife with a sheepish look, "Yes, dear." With his eyes widening from the skirt of trouble he got caught in, he turned and stepped back into Brass' office, his tail low.

"Come on, Rykor," Brass said with a chuckle, standing up. "I've got something for you." Before he went in, he turned back to the main floor. "Yeah, so what are we all working on as of now?"

Komi let her slightly critical eyes follow her husband's back before she answered, "I'm working through Rouge's bank accounts to see what has gone where."

"Any transactions from today or last night?"

Komi shook her head, her dreads swaying with it. "Nothing with large sums. Rem told me to keep any eye on something like that."

"And Station Square Pee-Dee is doing the same," Brass concluded. "Anything from foreign bank accounts?"

"That," she stated roughly, "I'm still working on. She has had a lot, but she's also had a lot closed down in the past year."

Brass nodded with this.

Teri took a step forward, her hand going to Rykor's arm briefly before looking up to Brass. "I just got Ebony's accounts from his lap-top that I-I-C has so far processed. Right now I'm looking for the deposits from last night, but so far nothing."

"Roger that," Brass announced before he looked to Julie. "Tempest?"

She shook her head. "I'm about to look into other camera feeds to see if I can get a better I-D of who was involved besides of who we suspect. Hopefully I can see where the warp-ring opened to, as well."

Brass again nodded before casting his eyes to Shadow. He let the air lay silent between them, the black hedgehog never letting his gaze release from his computer screen. "Okay...keep working with what we have." He then turned back into his office. "Anything from you, Constable?"

Remington had just placed the photo of Doctor Finitevus up on the white wall that Julie surmised they were going to use as one of Remington's famous connection boards he had done when he–and she and Teri–worked for the Echidna Security Team. "As of now, if we can find a connection to any of her past clients to Ebony, or Ebony to the accounts he got the forty-grand from Lightning or the Destructix, we may have a shot in trying to pinpoint where they might be."

From just the way he said the last part gave Julie a shiver. With how Scourge or Finitevus could warp from location to location, even finding where the money went wouldn't give them a solid location in where they were holding Rouge. It would just give them the bank's location. With wire transfers over this internet, or even old-school satellite link ups, even that was making things difficult.

But it was all they had.

"Alright," Brass said. "Keep punching at it and we'll go from there. Chaos is talking with Mother right now, so be ready when he comes out with what we have. Station Square and our intel services are also working on this. Coordinate with them as much as we can."

Saffron spoke up behind Julie. "Sir, I just got Ebony's laptop completely downloaded to Sullivan and Cheyenne Mountain. Got his phone uploaded about half an hour ago."

"Out-fucking standing–" Komi cleared her throat roughly, adding a stern look to Brass. The colonel brought his hands up in defense. "Okay, Teach. Don't throw me in detention." He sheepishly smiled before he turned and walked into his office.

Rykor followed him, only stopping when Teri clasped his hand. Julie saw the two exchanged looks, Rykor closing his eyes with a bow of his head to Teri before Julie he gave a small squeeze of Teri's hand before releasing it.

"C'mon, Bruiser," Brass announced. I've got something in my desk that will help your constitution."

When they disappeared behind the wall, Julie walked up to Teri before the former assistant to Remington could return back to her chair. "Hey, what's up with Sarg'?" she asked, still referring to Rykor by his old rank as a joke.

Teri glanced to her, giving a small smile before it faded to one of shared pain. "He...he said he threw up his lunch. Said he saw blood." Julie saw her throat tighten. "He has a bleeding ulcer, Su. But he's too–"

"Too bull-headed to admit it?" Julie said with a slight smirk in hopes of cheering Teri up.

The red-furred echidna nodded, giving one back. "Remind you of someone."

Julie could almost feel Knuckles' soul shuffle inside her as if her had turned his back to her and crossed his arms, yet giving her a knowing eye. "Yeah...yes it does."

With that, she nodded to Teri before turning away from her.

She hadn't gotten more than three steps when a heavy gloved hand found her cybernetic arm in mid swing. Her sudden stop brought her natural and replaced eye to Shadow. His face was bathed in white from his computer screen. Seeing that he had opened her report she had sent him, she held her breath.

"Why did you send me this?" he asked quietly. His red eyes weren't necessarily to her, but more to his flat-screen monitor.

She leaned down to him and got close to his pointed right ear atop his head. "I–I wanted you to look over it before I sent it to Tower."

"Why?"

She swallowed hesitantly. "To make sure we are on the same page..."

He held his repose even when he released her arm. She could see his red eyes scanning over the text of her report. "Did you tell the truth?" he asked her after a moment.

The question caught her a little off guard. "Yes...I even stated I didn't hit that jackal who stopped me hard enough," she admitted, still feeling her hair and dreads being forcefully pulled from last night that sent her to floor of the hallway of the Havana Club.

He gave a small nod after a moment. "Okay," he quietly murmured. "Just..." He let his eyes go to hers. "Next time you see one of these Jackals–" He let his pause drill into her; his stare the instrument. "–Don't hesitate."

Letting her jaw become slack, she whispered, "Are they that dangerous, from what you and Wojtek had said?"

Shadow only nodded, before taking in a breath. "Just tell the truth to Tower. No more...no less."

---

"Is he still considered a weapon by Gun, or is he truly an official citizen?"

Her tone over the phone link wasn't as much motherly but more as a concerned tax paying citizen, or really the President of the United Federation. Tower didn't need to weigh his answer between half-truths or lies for plausible deniability if any congressional committee wanted to step back in the ring in regards to Project Shadow. Quiet frankly, in Tower's eyes—it was none of their damn business anymore.

"I have his citizenship papers in my private safe at home," he said after a small moment. "Aside from me becoming a father, ma'am–seeing Shadow raise his hand and recite the Pledge was the most honorable and moving moment of my life...all things considering."

He felt his stomach tighten from past memories that flooded in. Between remembering seeing Shadow talking and making his childhood friend laugh, and coming to grips when his twelve year old-self was told by his betters that Shadow was the one responsible for killing Maria...he had let lies and falsehoods place him on a vendetta that had nearly killed them both. In an instance of pure hate coupled with utter sorrow and anguish...and a trigger pull away and chaos spear waiting to be thrown, Tower had been the one to see the pain behind Shadow's red eyes. He had been the one to shut his own... to let death come for him.

But Shadow let his first act of finding who he needed to be by letting mercy be his first guide. Swallowing his emotions down, Abraham quietly prayed thanks for his late sister in being Shadow's other guide for redemption. The Ultimate Lifeform's forgiveness to him was Abe's gift. Their understanding...one he knew he was treading close to danger in betraying. The blacked out Cryptex phone next to his left elbow on his desks beckoned that warning with his eyes looking to see if he had gotten a response–

"That's all fine and dandy, Major General, but is he truly free from orders and protocols from the military?"

He considered her question and answered it with a genuine affirming voice. "Yes, ma'am. He just chooses to stay...He made a promise."

There were times he would catch Shadow looking over to his right, his hand hovering in the air as if holding another, giving a rare smile. One to his promise. To Maria. As if she was still there for him...and he for her.

And other times he would catch Shadow looking up to his left side...up to Tower's sister that showed him meaning to keep it.

"We're aren't abusing that promise, are we, General?" President Vanilla asked over the speaker phone.

It cleared his mind for just a moment, his seasoned eyes going back to the blank Cyptex phone. "I...I would never do that to a friend, Madam President."

"Very well, then," she said with an air of trust coming from her. "I'm just making sure we are still making him someone, and not something...General Tower."

He nodded to the speaker phone, though he knew she wouldn't see it. Taking in a breath, he focused his thoughts before saying, "I guess my requests for approval to search financial records through the banking system hit your desk?"

Her reply was slow, causing him to lean forward in his chair toward his phone and the speaker attachment her voice was coming from. He had been slightly reclined, keeping his eyes balanced on the computer monitor on the right side of his desk, and his Cryptex phone. "It's not quite the reason for my call, General, but yes, we do need to discuss it."

He arched a brow at the circular speaker attached to his phone, the readout on the display saying secure connection. "I promise you, this is above board," he tried to assure, though the person he was already looking into for the deep dive gave him indigestion from disappointment. Mike would have wanted better for his daughter, he breathed out from his mind.

"General, from what I have read and have been briefed with, the Financial Securities Act was passed when Eggman first started his troubles around the world. And as of now has been used within the spirit that the law makers had instilled in the law when it was passed. But–" She held a pregnant pause that arched his other brow. "–The time is coming soon when it will have to be rescinded."

"I take it our war-footing is slowing to a walk around the park, ma'am?"

Here, she took another pause. Tower narrowed his eyes to the phone as if he were sitting across from her behind the Resolute Desk. "A deal has been struck with Central City's government and council, General."

This he sat up to his desk from. "So it is true?" he asked with a conclusive voice.

"Indeed, Mister Tower," she answered. "Be ready to see a star come back on our flag."

He sighed, but smiled with it, "Four more to go. When does it happen?"

"I hope next month," came her high spirited voice this time. It had been a staple through her presidential campaign, along with her daughter, Cream, smiling and waving to the crowds. "But be ready for some changes coming with it. Central City is still leery of coming back into the Federation."

And why possibly she had asked about Shadow, he surmised.

To be frank with himself, if he were the mayor of Central City–and soon to be governor if when many were hoping to come to pass–he would be leery as well. In fact, he had been leery with Vanilla becoming President of the United Federation when she won by an historic landslide between the three current city states along with the out lying territorial holdings of the rural continent. They were too small to be a charter, but they held a slight incorporation, and had petitioned for protection when the first Egg War erupted–though the U.F. stayed out of it–and when Black Doom and the Dark Arms returned to Earth to get what they wanted. Each time, Tower reflected, Sonic the Hedgehog had been the thorn in Eggman's pursuits...and then Shadow when he broke from Eggman's lies. When his dear friend's memories had returned.

Such as I from politicians, he echoed to himself. The voice he heard was young–fourteen maybe–from his questioning self from long ago. But the thought that came to him was the greying, blond forty-four year old woman President of the U.F. when he and Amanda were still on the Space Ark nearly fifty years ago. The same woman that gave the order to not only shut-down the Ark, but to terminate the hedgehog that now sat and worked for them in the very building they all occupied. Tower chuckled within himself several times that fate had a weird sense of humor.

With it came the first Islander woman President of the United Federation that he was now talking to. Nearly fifty years seemed to heal the gapping wounds. What was interesting to Tower was that Vanilla had not been anyone's first choice, much less on their radar when she announced in the front yard of her home in Sunrise City with her daughter holding a camera, that she was going to run for President of the United Federation. When questions of citizenship and edibility came up, she not only reminded the hard skeptics that she was born in Westopolis, making her a naturalized U.F. citizen, but she had attained residency in Empire City when she was getting treatment, along with helping others, from Doctor Starline's Metalvirus (Tower still refusing to give Eggman credit for it).

Her campaign slogan, Tower reflected, would be one for the history books: "A Mother's Touch." She had promised–and surprisingly had delivered in the past eight months–that the U.F. would not only come out of the war footing it had been in for nearly eight years, but will also come back stronger through unification. That last promise had her laser focused, and Tower knew it was what was getting the band back together. He had already heard from GUN's diplomatic section that Apotos, Mazuri, Shamar, Chun-Nan, and Holoska where also looking to make petitions to come back...but it all revolved around if Central City would return. And if the Capital of the U.F. could be reseated there from Empire City.

Which made him ask the question he had only asked her once after her first three months in the "hot seat" of the most powerful chair in the world...a diminished power, he conceded. "How are you fairing so far?"

If she were across from him from the tone she gave him, he thought he'd see her give him a motherly smile. "I'm hanging in there, I guess. So far my brunet hair hasn't fallen out, or become grey, and I haven't seen any grey strands come across my fur."

He smiled back, reclining again into his chair and closing his fingers in front of him. "And how is the First Dude handling it?"

It elicited a chuckle from her. "Oh, he's doing good. He has a fund raiser dinner he is doing for the restoration, tomorrow." She hushed her voice some. "Quiet honestly, Vector says he'd rather be back gumshoeing than being a figure of state."

"I guess that means he's not breaking up with you," Tower chided with a smirk from under his broad, grey mustache.

"Oh heavens no. I'd call you to shoot him if he does." But she sighed after her mirthful quip. "He has been good to Cream. He's being doing my duties as a mother, but...well, he's been giving her that guidance from a father she never got to meet."

On this, Tower couldn't help but stray his eyes to the grey hardcover journal lying to his right on his desk.

---

Julie had just began looking through the lone video footage of the attack on Broadway avenue when her left eye began flashing a red INCOMING CALL through her neuro-connection. Darkening her natural eye to the flashing icon on her computer screen that read "Incoming Secure LTCDR Topaz, she let her hand guide the mouse cursor over and clicked on it.

A screen popped-up that overlaid the footage she was just about to play with a woman staring at her from the screen. She was human, her skin white, her sandy blond hair short and cropped below her neck. She wore a bulky, buttoned up long sleeve shirt with a digital green, olive and black camouflage pattern that Julie hadn't seen before. The only eye catching feature Julie noticed was that the poor woman's left arm was in a white cast, her fingers barely poking out from the plaster.

Seeing the gold leaves on the lower collar of her uniform shirt, Julie figured to give the required greeting to the deadpan faced woman on the screen. "Um...good afternoon, Major?"

The woman gave an open smile from the video feed with a slight twinkle in her eyes. "Ouch," she said, her blue hues beaming a disarming visage that seemed to compliment her pointed chin, yet full, slender oval face. "Please don't slander my name with an Army rank," she laughed. "I'm Lieutenant Commander Topaz of GUN's Navy," she greeted. "You must be Captain Su if I'm reading your name correctly?"

Julie couldn't help but offer a smile back. "Yes. I'm Captain Su, from those echidna's that showed up I guess two months or more back. And careful with us ground-pounders, now!"

Topaz have a smile, and nodded. "You've all been the talk of GUN and some of the diplomatic circles as of late," Topaz responded, her eyes going down to her desk somewhere. Behind her, Julie could see the Lt. Commander was in a large command center of some sort with red digital clocks hanging on a wall behind her. A few other humans were working at their stations, either sitting, or like the one she could barley see, standing and talking on a ear piece.

"I hope it's all good?" Julie allowed, almost guarded.

Topaz nodded her head. "It has been a very interesting two months since you guys jumped zones to here."

Julie picked up on this and asked, "Has there been more of us? Echidna's, I mean?"

This time Topaz shook her head. "No, not as of recent. You've been the only ones. But these Destructix guys I just got a tele-ex about has many of us here worried."

"You're telling me. We–" She cut herself short to look at the connection on the computer before closing her eyes and checked that her own internal neuro-security ports were closed. "Are we on a secure line," she asked with a concerned voice.

"Oh, yeah. I'm calling you from Cheyenne Mountain, so we can't get more secure than this."

Julie let her lips tug with an assuring smirk. "Good to know. I sure as shit don't want anyone poking around my internal systems."

Komi-Ko's voiced filtered over the hum of Clip's computers and central ventilation. "Su...that's a credit."

Julie looked back to see a white styrofoam cup placed next to her twin computer screens, her pencil tapping at it. "Right...Swear cup?" She only got a heavy nod with widened eyes from Komi.

Shaking her head, she returned it Commander Topaz who held her own smirk. "That must be Teach?" she asked.

Julie turned her head slightly with a grin, her eyes still to Topaz's image. "Yep...and my salary isn't going to keep up with my mouth."

Topaz gave a laugh, though her attention was on another screen, with her good hand moving the black mouse by her keyboard. "So, I have to ask, what's the deal with Ghostrider?"

Julie let a smile come to her face, almost a devious one before she said, "Hold on." Leaning over to the cubical beside her she pulled at Saffron's sleeve. When the bee looked to her, she motioned her over with her head. Following, Saffron slid herself over by wheeling her chair over and leaning over to Julie's work space. Julie saw Topaz's face become quizzical for a moment.

Tapping the icon to switch from Julie's internal phone connection from her cybernetic lock to putting their call on speaker with the monitor's built-in camera and microphone, she looked to Saffron. "Okay, girl. You have to tell this nice lady how you got the code name Ghostrider."

Saffron gave her an exaggerated grimace that was more out of play, but then smiled to Topaz on the screen. "So–I'm out trying out this new headset and camera from Section Nine to be, I guess, a living drone, flying around the airfield of Fort Amanda when I start getting tired." Saffron rolled her jaw and eyes. "So, being nice and all, I call out to the tower that–'hey, I'm getting a little tired in the wings, I'm coming in. What traffic do I need to watch for?'" She took a breath, Julie seeing she was trying to hold in her laughter. Julie was too. "Well, those jokers come on the radio link that's attached to my antennas–" She motioned to this by bending her left antenna on her head before exaggerating her voice by lowering it "–that is 'ah negative Ghostrider, the pattern is full."

Julie couldn't help but start to laugh, placing her head down near her right arm.

"And I'm like," Saffron laughingly continued, "Hey! I'm right here. I can land in the freakin' parking lot and they wouldn't have known." She then gave a devilish smirk. "So, I fly over to the tower, hover, and I start banging on the big window with my fist, yelling at these guys that–hey, do I look like a plane, or ship, or something! What'd they do!? Oh, no they just kept laughing more at me! C'mon! They knew who I was! Just little miss cheerful bee!"

Now Topaz was laughing, almost hysterically, Julie keeping pace with her gasps and chuckles. "And...I guess it stuck?" the Lt. Commander finally laughed out.

Saffron mocked that she was unhappy by folding her arms over her dress. "Oh, that no good for nothing Iron Fist Brass comes in for a class on security threat assessments, and he goes through the roll, and ends up calling me Ghostrider instead of my name!" She nearly hammered her fist on the table. "That's when it stuck!"

Julie after a moment of hard laughing finally recovered, whipping a tear from her natural eye. "And I heard it all on my comm-link!"

"Oh, and it was being recorded to their operations center from my camera feed too. So—anyways, that's how I got it," Saffron stated, giving both Julie and Topaz a grin. "Okay, I gotta get back to this–"

"Hey, Ghostrider," Topaz announced with a snicker, "thanks for the upload from Ebony Hare's computer and his phone. I've got my guys at the Intelligence Intake Command going through it at Naval Station Sullivan.."

"Oh, " Saffron started, then poked at Julie's black blouse. "Thank Tempest, here. She's the one that can figure out the digital stuff like it's nothing."

"Oh really?" Topaz quizzed, giving an eye to Julie.

Saffron just nodded. "Yep...anyways, have a great day, miss?"

"Lieutenant Commander Topaz," the woman said with an assured smile. Julie noticed she wasn't overbearing with her rank or status, but relaxed, even in her posture, though she could see that officer presence and air that Tower and Brass held. It was a far more lax edge than what she had been brought up around. Except...

Dad? She thought to say Simon, but stopped herself. Luger's full height entered her mind for a brief moment, and only briefly before Saffron nudged her at her elbow, and rolled back to her desk beside the cubical wall.

"Bye, ma'am," the bee said when she rolled away.

For a moment, she stared at Topaz, lost in a small thought before she engaged her neuro-link and turned the speaker and computer microphone off, reverting back to her implants. "Anyways, where were we?" she asked Topaz.

The woman's face had softened, perhaps from Julie's tone. Taking a breath, she looked across to the other screen that Julie couldn't see. "Well, my first question is, how are you adjusting to Earth?"

Julie had bobbed her head, almost thinking Knuckles had done it and not her, then she pursed her lips and said, "So far, I think I've gotten acquainted to life in Station Square and the U.F. pretty well."

"How much of it feels like it's the same from your Zone?" Topaz asked next, her tone holding genuine sincerity of remorse. It almost made Julie a little guarded with her answer.

"It has a lot, I can't lie. Same faces," she said with bright tone. Yet, when Doctor Quack's face from yesterday entered into her mind, she gave a slight frown. "But different people inside them."

And she did her best not to think of Knuckles.

---

"How are our new residents handling things?"

Tower was taken more off-guard with Vanilla's question than the long silence they both held after discussing Shadow...and who in his recent past had emerged, particularly from last night. The four killings of the jackals he and Julie had done wasn't so much as a diplomatic problem, but more of a revelation that Shadow, and GUN, hadn't been as thorough as they had hoped from eight months ago.

"At the moment, beyond our expectations," he allowed, though he being truthful.

"We aren't using them either, I hope?"

He shook his head at the phone. "No, ma'am, though I feel they have their suspicions of our intent with them."

A long pause before a sigh from the President. "From the conversation I've had from their Matriarch, they have a burdensome history of trusting the wrong people, along with their own hubris."

Which was a fact that when he did talk to Lady Lara-Le, she would almost always brought those subjects up. From the conversations they'd had, there was an experience not only from just being an echidna and living in echidna society that she let out from her body language, but from a remorse and guilt that Tower could only conclude it was from a personal relationship Lara-Le had with someone that had failed. Only on his third phone call with her after a reliable communications line was established did she come forth to an almost confession that she had been the mother of their Zone's Knuckles. And that her and her husband Locke had divorced because of differences on how they wanted to raise their son.

He thought to take in a deep breath to sigh, but he withheld it, then his eyes went to Julie's journal.

And it scared him to know what she was going through.

"Well, General, trust is going to have to go both ways with this. Considering what we have been talking about with Lara-Le and the rest of the echidna's...we may be joining at the hip more with Angel Island through them."

---

"So, I don't want to sound...I guess crass or anything, "Julie began, leveling her face and voice to the screen with Topaz on it, "but, what is GUN's plans for us? And what the heck is Clip really doing?"

She could see the questions hit a mark with Topaz that Julie wondered if she had strayed too far out of her lane. She was just a Captain after all, and at this juncture, she did not speak for the Knuckles Clan, or really, for Lara-Le and the rest of the echidnas. But then again, for who she was, and who she had fell in love with and still resided in her, her interests with the U.F.'s own interests with her and her people still held priority.

And Topaz verbally cleared her throat, though her eyes grew slightly nervous that made Julie feel the need to raise her inner-armor. "To be honest with you, Miss Su...we don't know, aside from what the President had ordered when she let Tower stand up Clip."

Julie's face fell for a moment before she regained her composure. "What do you mean?"

"It's like this–right now we have been doing our best to keep your presence and how you got here a secret from the rest of the world."

Julie rolled her eyes some. "Yeah, I don't think that is working too well thanks to the restoration–" Her mind went to this morning when she was placing her tell at her door and the girl-cat had flashed her phone at Julie "–And I got put on a podcast this morning!"

Topaz's mouth opened with grave concern, her head cocking with brows knitting. "Come again?"

"So...okay," Julie began, "I'm coming outta my apartment to meet Remington, Teri and Saffron in the S-U-V, trying to get my tell placed in my door, right?"

Topaz nodded, "Okay. I'm tracking with you there."

"Right, so this girl comes out of her apartment about a few doors down from me, talking her–I guess–her cellphone with a bunch of people of the screen. She see's me, stops, and says, 'hey chick, cool cyberpunk look–"

Topaz gave a hearty chuckle, looking to Julie on her screen before laughing, "Oh wow...how many times have you gotten that?"

Julie rolled her eyes. "A few! What the hell does that mean?"

Topaz took a breath, biting her lower lip, looking down at her keyboard to gather her thoughts. "It's a genre with our pop-culture that has a lot of emphasis on technology," she said. "Don't take this the wrong way, but your cybernetic enchantments like your dreadlock—from what I know that's what you call them–" Julie nodded "—and your eye and...well, your new arm. People here make a connection with it."

"I guess that added wires and metal clasps on my dreads adds to it?"

Topaz gave a nod. "So, I guess the girl was doing a live stream of her life?"

"Oh, I think she is into cosmetics and looks, from what she said. Hell, I was into that for a time when I was on my own, and well..." She gave a sheepish smile, thinking of the one inside holding on to her soul, "trying to look good for someone."

This made Topaz arch a brow. "Okay, so this girl got a shot of you on her podcast. Did you talk or interact with her?"

"No—well, she did this odd thing to me. One of her followers made mention of my arm, and said I was probably a veteran or something—"

"Which you now are as of yesterday," Topaz put in, staring off to her other computer screen before leveling her eyes back to Su. "And you most definitely are with your people."

"Hey, I was just trying to do what needed to be done for us. You know—"

Topaz nodded. "And so this girl looks at you different, I'm guessing?"

Here, Julie swallowed. "And—she thanked me for my service."

An eye arched from the Lt. Commander, her attention now fully to Julie. "Oh...you got one of those today?"

"Yeah...and it was a bit awkward. I mean–I think I understand why she said it. But I felt as if she was pandering to her audience at my expense."

A nod from Topaz, her jaw rolling with thoughts. "And she probably was."

"Okay, but even if she was genuine about it, I felt guilty because–well, I really haven't done anything for you all except raise my hand and take an oath."

"And you've done more than most just by doing that, Captain," Topaz remarked, her eyes growing stern, almost trying to realign Julie's thinking with it. "I'm gonna tell you something, Miss Su—for those of us who have put our lives on the line, freedom has a flavor that the protected will never know. I can honestly say after the eight years of almost continuous war, you are in good company with those who understand this. So...when someone thanks you for your service to us, or even of your own kind...you thank them back."

"Even if it's pandering?"

Topaz gave a hesitant nod. "Yes. Especially when you are in uniform. You have to uphold a good image for Gun in that respect. And get ready, because you are getting part of your uniforms today from what supply and Section Nine reported to me this morning. So expect a lot more people thanking you for your service while in it."

Julie's tone brightened. "Okay. I think I understand."

"Look...talk to Brass or Tower about this if you're still hesitant. They will guide you."

Julie nodded. "Can do, ma'am. But anyways, what about the issue with us and Restoration?"

"Maybe on their end you are good, but when it comes to your capabilities, and still not knowing the true origins of Angel Island or the Master Emerald, or even how our Knuckles is the last of his kind...until now...we are in a bit of a jam since you showed up."

Julie closed her eyes before digging deep within herself to find a smile. "Sorry," she gingerly whispered.

With this, Topaz released a sad frown to her. " From what I was told by Tower a few weeks ago, don't be, girl. Princess Blaze and Silver did you all a favor, in my opinion."

Her heart tightened with Topaz's words. There was a failure still nestled deep in her soul, and it wasn't from finding Knuckles, but from not finding the Brotherhood. She could blame her half-sister for that. But she could also blame herself for taking the easy route back to their objective rally point to get to Blaze's Sol-Kingdom to regroup.

No...they had to abandon their true mission because they might have lost her. In which case, she was beginning to wonder why Lara-Le and what was left of the Dark Legion that defected from Lien-Da hadn't gone back. Then she remembered what Remington had told her when she was still taking the pain meds that had thrown her into a dark loop: Sally had been found and they were working on her.

It was what she had told Shadow when he had asked her about the Princess. And she wasn't ready to meet her just yet, even if they had awakened her. She couldn't bring herself to see her and tell her she should have sided with Sonic and got her lover to go and help...and not go to Albion.

And maybe...just maybe they would all still be together...

She blinked, pushing aside the sorrowful feeling for girl sitting next to her for a moment, remembering that Saffron's first words to Julie when she had awakened...were that her Charmy was better off now.

"Hey, did I say something?" Topaz asked calmly.

Julie blinked at her comforting tone to find her own image on the small square box below Topaz's had her looking spaced out. "I...I'm sorry, I just..."

"Hey," Topaz said sympathetically, "take your time. I know what it means to be in your shoes, sister." Julie saw her swallow, looking down some with her eyes. "We've lost a lot of good...friends over the years, ourselves."

Julie almost wanted to say with a bite from what came to her mind...that her loss was more. But he stopped her:

I'm still here, babe.

She sighed with Knuckles' voice fading from her, only to blink once more to gather her thoughts. "So...what is my purpose, then?" she asked almost in a whisper. "I mean...I've gotten a few weird looks and comments of how young I am to be a Captain?"

Topaz took in a deep breath with an tense frown before shaking her head. "It's because you are. You're the youngest we've had, but Major Remington and Lara-Le gave us a big run-down of your service to your people and how you basically got them where they are now..."

Julie gave a stare when Topaz had trailed her thought. Su could see the Lt. Commander looking at her replaced arm, even from the camera feed. "It's alright," Julie said weakly.

Topaz gave a wry, apologetic smile, lifting her own cast up. "I guess I'm kinda with you."

"How'd you break it?" Julie ask, returning her smile.

"Oh, a stupid thing called horseback riding out here in the open country." She shrugged. "My mare bucked and I got spooked and fell wrong. Dumb-ass me."

But Julie's eyes went wide from hearing the word horse. "You ride, too?"

This gave Topaz a reason to grin. "Yep! Come on out this way, I'll give you a howdy, and you can have a ride out in the freedom that is out here. You'll love the mountains."

"I used to ride back on my planet...but we called them Streaking Pashas," she said, finding the image of her shirt her father would tease her with his fingers of the pasha. Another memory she wasn't supposed to have.

But Topaz gave a wide stare to her. "Streaking Pashas?"

"Yeah. They were tall for us, had a mane that stood straight up from their necks, and had these large red eyes."

Topaz this time blinked. "Those...sound like nightmare fuel."

And with this Julie laughed. "Haha...I could see that. But they were gentle. And gosh, they could gallop quick."

With this, the Lt. Commander nodded with a smile. "I'll have to get you out here, then. I could use a riding mate...once my arm heals. Course, you'd have to put up with my boyfriend, Tanaka, but he's good."

Julie gave a smile. "Sounds like you're happy."

It seemed Topaz heard the longing in her voice, giving her an assuring smile. "Give it time, sister. Just give it time." Topaz then looked back to her other computer screen, then back to the camera. "So, where are we on the investigation at your end."

Julie widened her eyes before taking in a deep breath to reorder her thoughts. "Well, so far, we..." She thought to be diplomatic of what they had done to Ebony, and choose her words to be a little more fluid. "We interviewed Ebony Hare. Found out he is the same one from our Zone on Mobius–"

"Was Shadow with you," Topaz asked, almost in passing, giving her a side glance through the video feed.

Julie nodded. "Yes," she slowly answered.

But Topaz gave a weird smile with a shake of her head. "Then it wasn't an interview, it was an interrogation." She looked up some, squinting her right eye. "Anything interesting happened that gave you pause?"

Julie shook her head with pursed lips. "Actually, no. Considering how much of a piece of–" She looked behind her to steal a glimpse from Komi's swear-cup before looking back to Topaz on her screen "–crap. I liked how we handled things a few hours ago." Then she shrugged. "He took two of those gold rings off his wrist—"

Topaz eyes narrowed. "He. Did...what?"

For a moment, she felt a surge come to her as if she had betrayed her new partner and had said too much. "Ah...I guess I shouldn't have said—"

Topaz bit her lower lip, but shook her head. "It's okay. Just don't tell Tower. But I know Shadow will. He's not really suppose to do that. But–did he do anything...weird?"

Julie shrugged. "Aside from him and Remington pinning Ebony up on the wall and making his fur stand on end...nah. I think it went pretty well. I mean, we got a lot of information that we're now digging through."

Topaz cocked her head in agreement, but then asked, "Did you do anything?"

Julie innocently shrugged her shoulders. "Just punched his worthless muscle Blackjack in the nuts, and flung his coffee mug to the floor with my tail." Topaz gave her a widened look, in which Julie offered a smirk showing she really didn't care what, if any, consequences were to come of it. "Trust me...they deserved it." She then shrugged again. "I guess those jackals from last night did as well?" she asked, still feeling her back most dreadlocks which were still sore after being pulled to the ground by them.

With this, Topaz took a composed intake of air. "That's...that's actually what I'm calling you about, beside what we are digging through, and who we are looking for." Topaz then leveled her eyes. "I need to read you in about the Jackal Squad...and their former captain, Infinite."

Julie gave a pause before repeating, "Infinite?"

The fair skinned woman gave a nod. "It involves Shadow...and Rogue from about nine months ago." Topaz's eyes offered a sobering gaze to her. "And it be best you don't bring this up to Shadow unless he asks or talks about it first."

"Touchy subject?" Julie gathered out loud.

Topaz gave a nod. "Shadow asked me to do this for him...to talk to you about this."

Leaning back in her seat, Julie tried her best to keep her eyes to Topaz, but she couldn't help but stray a glance to the black hedgehog to her right, across from Saffron. He too was leaning back in his chair, his red eyes intently focused to his own computer screen, his arm resting with a cocked elbow on the arm rest, his fingers slowly drumming, alternating, on his thumb. What bothered her was that she had been so open to him about what...no, who was haunting her. Yet, he couldn't come and tell her what haunted him? "I'm listening, ma'am."

"Okay...I need to start with Lieutenant Colonel Brass...when he was just a First Lieutenant."

---

"From my understanding, it was us that had trained them," President Vanilla said.

Tower kept leaning in his chair, though he felt he was now sitting across from Vanilla. He remembered that she had this pose from the first time he had met her in the Office of the President behind the Resolute desk that told him she was going to be a different leader, and one he felt he wouldn't need to fight as much to gain mutual respect from. When she had given her condolences from him losing his family...and with the loss of his sister, he knew right then that she was the right woman this time around for the seat.

"I wasn't part of Spider Troupe back then, nor Paladin Team Sigma, but yes, Madam President...the Jackal Squad was a mistake from over a decade ago."

He heard her give a pensive sigh. "General...that war when Shamar started pushing into Spagonia and threatened Apotos and Chun-Nan, we started throwing help and money to anyone who needed it, if I recall. To see how those Jackals took what we taught them and create their own little mercenary squad...I don't think we could blame ourselves completely for what they did after we left. After all, they did help us against the Black Arms."

He took in a deep breath before he replied with careful words. "Except we left them in a power vacuum, and nothing to really fall back on except being unemployed guerrilla fighters that we'd trained. I had a bad feeling at the time when Eggman came back looking for new allies during his last go around, and Infinite took over the Jackal Squad after we left. That was before he found the Phantom Ruby, mind you."

"And their last hoo-ra was to team up with Eggman. Yes, General. I know all. Too. Well of what happened."

Just the sharpness of her voice made him think back to when he had made his own mother testy when he had fibbed about losing her change back on the Ark. He had done it just weeks before GUN showed up and upended their world. He could only think of Shadow, and his last cry and image of Maria dying...before her lifeless body sent the Ultimate Lifeform down to Earth from pressing the release button. "I beg your pardon, ma'am," he said apologetically.

"It's water under the bridge on that fork, dear General. But this bridge we are on has some weak spots in the story. For instance—"

"Where the Phantom Ruby went?" he offered.

"Yes...from when Shadow rid us of our mistake?"

He only nodded. "Shadow awoke to dust blowing around him. That was what was left of Infinite and his followers when he did what he called a feedback loop between his Chaos control and the Phantom Ruby that Infinite was trying to use against the Earth."

A short pause; he could hear her flipping through papers in a report folder. "That's not entirely in this report, Major General."

"I know ma'am. It's what Shadow told me when he came out of his stasis tube after a week of recovery from the incident. The event nearly killed him." The other thing he held to himself was that Shadow had removed his inhibitor rings to do so, unleashing all Chaos control he had. By the the time Major Brass and Lieutenant Topaz arrived after not only seeing the flash of light from the event, but also an activated distress beacon that a certain Bat that was now missing had left, Shadow's inhibitor rings were left neatly piled on top of one another.

But Shadow did see Mike's daughter leave, Tower confided to himself. Shadow had said he had a weird memory swirling in his head of seeing the black wings of Rouge walking away, her eyes looking back to him, after he had done the needful. He had sighed with it, but he let it out through his nose, feeling the release from his friend of the anguish and anger of Amanda's death. Shadow had focused his rage from all he had endured straight into Infinite. If he had Eggman there, it would have been a total just revenge.

But the best revenge is not to become that, he recalled from his studies in the Empire City Military War College from now two decades ago. It came from when Rome was still above water and exploring what a Republic was. A destination he hoped the U.F. had started back towards.

"So, my question is Abe...did the Ruby actually vanish with Infinite into dust with the wind...or did it vanish some other way?"

He felt his stomach knot at not only the accusation...but the insinuation that was already on his mind.

---

"That sounds like what Ebony described Mammoth Mogul had come to this Zone with," Julie observed with a shocked expression. "And it's just gone?"

Topaz nodded. "The only thing we saw were a few survivor's of the Jackal Squad running for the hills in southern Spagonia...which Brass' Spider Troupe took out." Topaz swallowed. "We thought Rouge had gotten caught up with the Chaos blast, but she had hidden herself behind the large ruins."

"She was there?" Julie asked with an arched brow.

Topaz again nodded to her. "Yeah. She had helped us track down their smaller bases and safe houses through wire transfers from accounts she had setup for us. Even went with Shadow as cover as a jewel purchaser just when Infinite went completely fucking nuts." Toapaz glanced down before looking back up to Julie. "I hope we aren't on speaker, or are you going to have to spot me for Komi's swear cup?"

Julie finally had something to laugh at from the past ten minutes. "Oh, trust me, we're secure."

"What's she going to do with the credits, anyways?" Topaz asked sarcastically.

Julie rolled her eyes and head. "Remington tells me it's date night dinner, or maybe a manicure when she gets comfortable enough to venture out more into the city and Earth. She says she wants to get her dreads trimmed, but, well honestly, we don't know who to trust to do the trims without cutting our spines at the wicks."

This made Topaz cock her head. "Spine wicks, if I understood you?"

Julie this time nodded. "Yeah, our locks have these flesh and tissue spines that our fur grows from to make our dreads. Don't ask me how the Ancients or the Xorda did this, but..." She readied not only herself, but if she was correct in going on further about her offerings to technocracy before she realized that she was committed. "...I had mine cut when I was thirteen at the base of my spine in order to get my cybernetic lock placed in. Once it was fused was when they ran the bio-fiber optic wires through my body and connected them to my brain and spinal cord."

Topaz face hadn't fallen into a stunned silence that Julie had prepared herself for. Instead, she was just looking to her, only giving a small nod. "It's what Henry from Section Nine had said when he was introduced to some of your compatriots of the Dark Legion."

Julie took a breath that quaked from her lungs. "I'm...I left the Legion a long time ago."

Topaz brought her hands up apologetically. "I'm sorry...again, I'm trying to get—"

"It's okay," Julie said with a disarming smile, "I'm the same way about understanding customs here. I guess its like learning a new way to speak basic...which I'm honestly shocked how our languages are...well the same."

Topaz gave a small smile before nodding in understanding, though Julie could see a hurt somewhere behind her blue eyes. "I know. There are a lot of things that are weird through our...I guess since your arrival." Then she looked down at her keyboard before looking at the other screen. "And now knowing you aren't alone from your Zone." She swallowed again. "Could you tell me more about Scourge and the guys he seemed to have brought with him."

"The best way I can explain him is he's the anti-Sonic," Julie said with a bite in her tone.

"Oh, great."

Julie frowned, then said, "Hang on, I'm going to send an image through the video link to you." She closed her eyes, dove deep into her own cyber-space, found the saved image she had recalled and digitized, then found the I.P. address Topaz was calling from securely, and sent it to the chat program she was using.

After a moment, a beep resounded from the other end, and Topaz maneuvered her mouse to click on the file. "Wow. You guys are plugged in. You did that all from your lock and head?" Julie gave a satisfying grin and a nod. "And Shadow was right in that he was a green version of Sonic," Topaz added. Julie saw that she was studying the image further. Topaz then asked, "What are these scars?"

Julie felt the two slashes across Scourge's chest bore through her heart and soul with Knuckles seemingly stirring inside her with it. "Those were put there by my equal's father, Locke," she said after clearing her throat.

"Your Equal?" Topaz asked with widened eyes and shock in her voice.

Julie's throat tightened, her emotions welling before she could close the valve on them. "My Knuckles," she answered almost quietly.

Topaz blinked her eyes to the screen Julie could see herself still on; seeing her face now become filled with a darkness she had failed to not show.

"Hey," Topaz began, her tone becoming even with understanding. "I'm...sorry if I brought something up."

"No, it's okay," Julie said, her voice shaking some. "I mean...it's what we are here for, right? To help y'all when scum like him, Mogul, Finitevus, or Scourge come here."

With this, Topaz nodded. "You're right...and we truly thank you for doing this with us. Tower had come to me and a few others about this...honestly he was pretty quick about it before he flagged it up to the President."

"I read the order from her."

"Vanilla," Topaz began, giving a slight frown, "Vanilla has been the best step forward for us. The last guy was good; got us to victory and all. But Vanilla has skin in the game as well to get us past what had happened...well, the metal skin that almost killed her."

"The Metalvirus?" Julie asked.

"That be it," Topaz said with a strange tone. "It's what got her to make the announcement to become President. She thought it was time to get the U.F. united again, because...well, as she saw it, it was the main reason Eggman, the Black Arms and then Starline and Infinite almost ruled the world...and kill the good hearted people of it."

"Is she succeeding?" Julie asked with a muted tone.

With this, Topaz gave an affirming nod. "Beyond what many had doubted she would do." She then looked to her screen. "And right now, we do have you all to thank, as well. From the rumors I've been hearing around the I-I-C—I think the goal with you all is to have Angel Island become part of the U.F."

This stopped Julie's heart! Her eyes widened when Topaz's words registered. "Say that again?" she said in an unbelieving voice.

But Topaz nodded. "It's a rumor...but from a tactical and strategic point, it would give the Earth a bit more security than just relying on Knuckles or his friends to keep that giant Master Emerald safe." She got close to the camera like she was wanting to whisper something to Julie. "Since you have come here, and again, its what I'm hearing, but I don't think it to be completely true... I think your kind is going to be that security. If Knuckles will allow it."

Julie wanted to sit back. She wanted not just to sit back but disappear for a moment to process what Topaz had unloaded on her. She could hear the uncertainty in the woman's voice about what she was relaying, but she could not deny her inner-soldier...her former Legionnaire-self confirming the tactical soundness of what Topaz had observed. She lifted her natural hand up to her lips and rubbed her lower face below her nose, almost perplexed at her rush of feelings. What if this Knuckles says no?

Is there enough of us to do it? she asked herself, realizing it was that very thought that was making her shake with trepidation. Yet, it was what Tower had told her their main intentions for her, Remington and the rest of Clip; to train them so they could pass on their knowledge to the rest of their people back on the Island. Like Brass had with the Jackal Squad over ten years ago?

"I know it's a lot right now, Captain," Topaz said with a leveled voice that Julie noted was trying to be comforting. "We can talk more about this and other things later next week since I'm coming over to give you all a class on intelligence information and analysis."

"That sounds like something up my alley, right now," Julie confessed, pushing her other thoughts aside.

"Good," Topaz said brightly, "I hope you speak binary?"

With this, Julie smiled. "Fluently!"

"Oh yes, I can't wait to meet you in person then," Topaz said gingerly before her eyes widened. "Oh shoot, forgot to tell you, Section Nine and supply should be to you very soon. They have your battle uniform pants ready, but...sorry, no shirts yet."

"Yeah, you mentioned that before we got caught up with people thanking me for my service. But hey, I'll take what we can get right now if it means I'm outta of this skirt and dress!"

Topaz nearly balled over laughing. "Oh shit, I'm glad I'm not the only one!"

"And panties!" Julie nearly swore. "So restrictive."

"Ah," Topaz remarked, "I heard about all you ladies running around with only your tops on."

Julie scoffed with this. "Hey, fur hides things pretty well—"

"Yeah, not here, sister. Unless you want'ah go commando in your pants, that's your business, but out here with the dirty civilians and humans, you gotta cloth up more."

Julie could only nod, remembering Brass' saying when in Rome. But her eyebrow arched some. "Commando?"

"Yeah! Going commando," Topaz said with smirk, "going without panties...just don't do it in a skirt."

Julie's eyes widen. "Gee...thanks for that." She gave a wink. "I'll think I'll do it when I get my new pants, today."

Raising her hands as if Julie had gone too far, Topaz then said, "That's on you, sister. Oh! And Section Nine is bringing that double barrel blaster of yours."

"Oh, thank Goddess!" Julie said with a large grin. "I really feel naked without it."

"Um," Topaz began, her own eyes widening, "that little thing packs a fucking punch!"

Julie looked to her with surprise and confusion. "What? Did you fire it?"

Topaz shook her head. "No, but I got see a video of a female wolf shooting it at one of Eggman's old E-units, and it did a number on it."

"Awesome...now give it back!" Julie said with a face.

"We are!" Topaz replied empathically. "Geeze. Favorite gun I take it?"

"Oh yeah, though that H and K Six-Twelve carbine is fun!"

"It's a beast...but I miss my M-P Five subgun when I was just an agent. Miss the recoil and the spent brass!"

Julie cocked an eye and annoyed face. "Geez, you and Shadow with your archaic weapons."

"Whatever, Julie! Recoil is a stress reliever! You should give it a try."

"Oh, I have. Shadow let me fire his forty-five. It's stout in the hands." Julie then looked at the clock on her screen, then sighed. "We've been on the phone for thirty minutes, girl."

Topaz looked at her own clock on the screen. "Yeah, and I need to sift through more of Ebony's data, plus counter check somethings from Rouge's end."

"Anything we should be looking for?" Julie asked.

"Just where money has been transferred..." Topaz trailed off before arching a brow. "What of this warp ring?"

Julie let her eyes widen. "Yes. So those warp-rings bends time-and-space to where you want to go. It has a very noticeable hum...in the lower bass frequencies when they open. It should have a bright light signature on any high focusing instruments you have. I'm trying to see if I can spot it on these A-T-M cameras from a few banks that didn't have their footage blacked out for some reason."

"Now that bit is odd. We found there was a circle of cameras and security systems that were turned off in a quarter mile radius of the crime scene."

"Any causes?"

Topaz frowned and shook her head. "Nodda' thing, right now. Just some horse shit speculation."

"Well, Shadow said that we didn't have a satellite over Station Square when this happened. So, what about the rest of the U.F.?" Julie asked.

"Only Westopolis on the other side of the country from you had a bird overhead. Why?"

Julie looked closely to the camera. "If we can pinpoint where the other opening of the warp-ring happened, we can possibly get a fix on the lumens and energy signature of the ring. From there we'd have a better advantage in finding it, and maybe finding Rouge."

Topaz gave a positive nod with this. "Miss Su, you are going to be a huge value to GUN. I'm starting to see why they made you a Captain."

Julie gave a subtle wink to Topaz. "Thanks...I needed to hear that from someone."

Lowering her head, Topaz cleared her throat with a twitch of her head. "And take your time with Shadow. I know he can be difficult and indifferent...but he does mean well."

Julie swallowed after hearing this, nodding her head. "He...He's been good with me so far. He does remind me of our Shadow from our time in ways."

Topaz held a stunned face for a moment, then said. "I–I didn't know there was another Shadow out there?"

Julie only nodded with a little sadness coming into her eyes.

"We'll have to talk about that," Topaz remarked. "What's the major difference between the two, if I may ask."

Julie could only think of the one thing that filtered through her mind. "Your's seems to be more closed off than the one I knew."

Tower's Cyrptex phone chirped. Looking to it, he picked it up and thumbed it to unlocked with his biometric print before reading the message:

"Yes...very dangerous. Take caution with Mogul. Ixis Wizard!"

"Anyways, General, I have other matters I need to attend too. But–" His eyes darted to the phone as if Vanilla was about to ruin his already destroyed day. "–you will be having vistors sometime today. It's the main reason for the call."

"Visitors?" he asked with an arched brow.

"Yes. I approved of their clearance and flight plan. I've sent a shuttle from Empire City to get them."

"And whom am I expecting?"

"I'll catch you later, Captain. It was great talking with you. I think you and I are going to work well, together."

Julie offered a smile. "I hope so. Saffron says I need to open up more and talk with other people besides...well, my people."

"When I get there next week, you and I and Ghostrider can have a girls night out. I know a few restaurants in Station Square that are good."

Julie smiled and nodded. "Sounds great...just be warned...and I told Shadow this. Any guy looking to get with me, I won't be kind, and miss echidna bitch will come out. I can't...explain it right now—but—"

Topaz offered her hand up. "You don't have to say anymore. For now, just focus on finding Rouge. There are a lot of us that would like to see her safe and sound."

Julie frowned some. "Have you worked with her before?"

A nod confirmed it, Julie feeling her stomach tighten from a past jealousy. "We weren't close, but she was an asset with Shadow when things were pretty grim."

"I know Wojek said something about pulling him out when—"

Just the look Topaz gave her cut her off and made her heart jump to her throat. "Let's talk about that much later...but yeah, Wojtek is a good friend of ours. Rouge...well..."

Julie couldn't control her lips when her mind tried to disengage. "Our's was a total whore," she nearly scoffed out.

Topaz blinked heavily from this, but Julie kept her face stern. "Come again, Captain?"

Julie tried to relax her revulsion, fearing it had come out too much all at once. Fearing she had made a mistake in losing control. "She...she tried to get between me and my Knuckles back on Mobius. I almost shot her for it...just before Eggman did something truly awful against us." She could still feel the burn from being teleported into an Egg Grape.

Topaz stared blankly for a moment before she gathered her thoughts. Yet, Julie saw something flash through her eyes but dissipated when she spoke:

"I can assure you, from the times I've dealt with her...our Rouge's only concerned is money and jewels. Her and Shadow are close friends and..." Julie felt the trail off from Topaz was more out of deception than catching herself in saying something else. She felt her jaw become slack, her eyes starring off as she felt something not being said was not in her favor. "Just, do your job that we ask of you, Captain. We tracking?"

Julie could only nod, though she felt suspicious about something Topaz was hiding. "Roger that, ma'am."

Topaz gave one more nod. "And I'll see you next week, and we'll talk more. I promise. Topaz, out."

"Okay, ma'am," Julie acknowledged. "Tempest out."

---

"I just hope we can get this girl back safe and sound, General. Please keep me up to date through back channels when you can."

Tower was about to say something, to acknowledge Vanilla when she cut him off.

"And good luck with your visitors. I hope all goes well with them. Sorry for the short notice."

He tried to realign his thoughts, but his eyes went to the grey journal on his desk, and the words he had read from Julie's handwriting that he could tell she had scrawled with emotion and pain:

"Ma'am, hope is not a strategy," he began, his eyes unconsciously going to the Cryptex phone he had placed back on his desk, "but it is the optimism we use to perfect it."

A short silence came from the other line, Tower nearly holding his breath.

"Wise words, General. I will talk to you later, Abraham. I hope you have a good day...and happy hunting, as they say."

"You too, Madam President."

Before he could inhale his small puddle of anxiety, the phone line went dead. Closing his eyes, he took his left hand and pinched the bridge of his nose, clearing his immediate thoughts. Yet...one still lingered. When he opened his eyes, it had directed him back to the grey journal on his desk.

He picked it up along with the Cyrptex phone, placing it in his back pocket and the journal in his right hand, and made his way from his desk to his office door.

Julie was about to restart the video feed, seeing the flashes of the first SUV exploding in the completely grainy footage, when she felt a large, yet comforting hand rest on her right shoulder. Before she could look up, her grey journal was laid beside her in the space she had cleared off from her lunch. Blinking, she followed the grey uniform up to find Tower's lowered eyes to her–

"Hope is not a strategy," he said to her, holding a silence between them with an comforting, yet residual stare to her.

Taking a breath filled with more of longing than nervousness, she replied with her father speaking with her:

"But it is the optimism we use to perfect it...sir."

He took in a breath, lowering his gaze to the floor, then to her journal, his left hand still resting on her shoulder. "Your father sounded like wise...man. A good leader. I wish I could have met him."

Julie felt her tears well up, Tower almost beckoning them to come when he squeezed her shoulder more. "I–I wish I had actually known him, sir."

He leaned down to her, this time gently whispering to her. "I believe you have, my dear."

She could only hold his stare, fighting her tears; succumbing to a past anguish she had only known when her surrogate father, Simon, told her of her history. Of who she was. "The pain, sir. It hurts."

"Julie," Tower offered, his head lowered more towards her, "a long time ago I heard my sister say something to someone I know...that made all the difference in his life...and our world." She held her breath, taking in his eyes with hers, holding her tears back, keeping her professionalism that had been honed into her at such a young age from the Legion. "With faith, this pain will eventually serve you when you need it the most."

She almost lost it.

Instead, she brought her hand up to clasp Tower's. And in doing so, she saw his eyes stray across from her. Turning her head, she saw he had placed his gaze onto Shadow, the black-furred hedgehog was beginning to stand up from his chair, his jacket still hanging on its back.

Turning her head back, she felt Tower's hand leave hers and her shoulder as he rose up.

"Okay, everyone, where are we at right now?" he said with a deep commanding voice that he seemed to have measured to stay within the confines of the Clip's tactical operations floor.

"Still going through Ebony's bank accounts. I think I've pin-pointed where he transferred the funds from last night," came Teri-Lu.

Tower nodded to the red-furred echidna woman. "Ok."

"I'm still combing through Rouge's accounts. So far nothing on my end, sir," Komi said next.

"Keep working on Ebony's and Rouge's accounts. Let me know when you have something concrete," Tower ordered. "Ghostrider, how about you?"

"Sir, I'm still working on the sound feed that Julie got from last night, but I can switch over to help Komi or Teri?" Saffron said.

"No, keep filtering out the concert. Maybe we might get something–"

Brass come out from his office, his face emphatic, but serious all the same. "Hey, Chaos! Station Square Pee–Dee just picked up Ebony for wire fraud. He was about to skip town with the ankle monitor, so me and Remington asked them get him and place a holding charge on him for that."

"Still a dumb-ass," Julie remarked with a laugh.

"Very well," Tower said over her, though she detected mirth from him. "Tempest, what are you on, right now?"

She cleared her throat. "Sir, I'm going through a video footage of last night. Trying to clean up the graininess, but apparently people don't clean their A-T-M cameras often. But, I'm trying to see if I can pin point the warp-ring from when they opened it."

"Okay," he said, "Shadow?"

Shadow turned some when he had grabbed his suit jacket from the back of his chair. "I've been checking on some old contacts. Seeing if the Jackal Squad has been making other movements outside of Spagonia. They have to have a network here since we killed four of theirs last night."

"Very well," Tower repeated. "Keep me informed with what you find." Shadow gave him a nod, before Julie watched him turn and head down the small stairs and dart left down the corridor that led to their breakroom, lockers, and their small motor-pool. She didn't see where he went when he disappeared into the dark.

"Alright, everyone, keep working," Tower ordered. "We have Station Square and the I-I-C working with us, so make sure you coordinate any information to them that they may not have. Keep checking your emails and phone calls from them as well. Focus on the banks, and any footage from last night."

And with that, Tower, walked past Julie and headed for Brass' officer where he, Remington and Rykor where working, still pinning up pictures on Brass' wall, and Brass typing up something that Remington was dictating to him.

---

For a half an hour, Julie kept sliding through the video feed. She got down to going frame by frame that the camera was able to catch in it's black and white grainy images. Julie noted it was to help enhance the night-vison quality of the camera, but in reality, all it did was flare up the two explosions from the SUVs brighter than what the camera or the capture program could take. Timing the feed however, she was able to find the exact time she saw a third flash of light flare to the right side of the screen...the south bound street of Broadway Avenue.

There! Julie confirmed with excitement to herself. "Hey, Remington, I found when the warp-ring was opened!"

She didn't stray her head from her monitor, but heard Remington's shoes come up behind her when he left Brass' office. "Show me, Jay-Es!"

She backed up the scroll some and paused it when she saw the thrid flash of light from the flare of fires to the left side of the feed. She pointed at it with her cybernetic finger. "There, Constable."

He peered over her shoulder, then said. "Time stamp, twenty-two fifty, local!" Julie noted the time on the video-footage and date as well; 04-23-2231.

"But we only had a satellite over Westopolis," Julie noted to him.

"Okay, what is the time difference there?"

She didn't have to think fast when her own internal clock did the math for her. "Um, nineteen hundred and fifty hours, their time."

"Okay, I'll call I-I-C and have them see if they can back track their feed from the bird and see if we can catch the other side flaring up. That's if they warped to there."

Julie nodded. "Gotcha!"

He squeezed her shoulder. "Hey, great work." He looked down at her for a moment. "You doing alright."

She shook her head more out of annoyance than meaning. "Yeah, I'm good, Rem." Then her thoughts turned to the empty chair on the other end from her and Saffron.

Squeezing her shoulder before turning from her, she waited till Remington left her and walked up to Komi and Teri's work stations before going back to Brass' office and picking up the Colonel's phone. Looking further past to Tower's office, his door was still closed since he had gone back in after talking with the two echidna's and Brass.

Feeling her throat was parched, and her legs stiff, Julie snagged what was left of her soda— now melted ice—and made her way to their break room. Passing Shadow's desk, she stopped to see that his computer monitor was still on. For a moment, she lingered, finding her eyes fixated to a picture on the screen of a figure with metal shoes, and a metal mask that engulfed the figures full head. Yet, there was a piece of the mask removed like it had been crudely cut out, exposing a yellow eye, wide with rage and focus. His fur was black, but the image conveyed a reddish glow around the figure and his long silver hair.

Is this Infinite that Topaz briefed me on?

To answer that question, she remembered not to ask Shadow about it. He was to only bring it up; not her. So, inhaling deeply, she continued to the break room by stepping down the other two levels, taking a side glance to her right at the six flat screen televisions hanging on the former projection screen wall, still showing multiple news network feeds, and darted left.

Being the first open passage to her left, the break room was lit with the curious sound of water coming from it. Rounding the corner, she stopped when she saw Shadow leaning over the sink, his gloves removed from his hands, though his inhibitor rings were still over his wrists. She could fully see the single red stripes that traced down his arms from his rolled up black shirt sleeves and went over the top of his hands in a broad stroke before tapering down to his index and middle finger knuckles. His left hand was holding the sleeve to his white shirt he had worn the night before. His right hand held a fine sponge Shadow was using to scrub at a purple stain that resembled a small lake on map. Taking one step forward, she realized with her heart constricting inside her where the stain had come from.

Her.

"I'm...I'm so embarrassed," she said shyly, almost turning away.

Shadow stopped his circular motion with the sponge at the cuff and turned to her. "About?" he said, his eyes narrowing with an indifferent puzzlement to her.

His question seemed to have snatched her response from her. "Um...my...episode at Wojtek's last night?" she said gently. "I–didn't mean to..."

Shadow held his eyes to hers, his visage offering her to become at ease. Something came from him that held her center; drawing her in to him, though she didn't move a muscle. An odd feeling of safety came from him, though there was a coldness that conveyed he wanted to be left alone.

The contest of searching each other's eyes ended when he looked down and away, relaxing his lips and jaw some.

"It's...it's only a shirt," he said quietly to her. With it, she dropped her own eyes.

Standing up, Shadow rinsed the sleeve of his shirt under the long goose neck of the facet before placing it over the adjacent empty sink and rinsing his own hands clean before turning the water off. Ringing his fur of the excess water, he grabbed paper towels from the dispenser and wiped the skin of his palms and fingers dry.

"Is it coming off?" Julie asked, stepping forward to him, placing her soda cup down.

He shook his head. "No...but it's nothing."

"I could–"

"It's okay," he said in almost whisper. "It's just–a shirt. I can get another one."

He looked over to his right, Julie following his eyes, and she had barely seen his 1911 pistol on the counter. The slide was locked back, the magazine out, though she could see the hollow-point rounds protruding from the single stack magazine. Her mind went through the mechanics and manual of arms that he had instructed her with: insert the magazine, press the slide lock down to return the slide into battery; have a good purchase on the beaver tail safety before lining the sights, and squeezing the trigger. She could still feel the recoil when she fired it in her right hand, her cybernetic left hand absorbing most of it with ease.

But it was the open black box next it, and the open box of ammunition, their casing a shiny nickel with the hollow point rounds facing up, that grabbed her attention. Stepping around her partner, she gazed down at the opened black plastic case and peered at another 1911 lying in it, its slide closed. The finish was a dark, almost a ghost grey color, a seemingly close contrast to her cybernetic lock. Yet, unlike his current carry 1911, this one had a rail with a light attached to the bottom of it, a switch that she could tell one could flip up or down to activate the light. The rear sight was tall with two green dots glowing on either side of the U-notch, just like his other 1911, with the front sight glowing bright red center. Both ends of the slide had diagonal cut serrations to grip and operate the slide.

The roll mark on the slide, however, was what had attracted her eyes. What looked like an eagle flying, she saw on the writing below it that it was meant to be a hawk, with the scrawl reading Nighthawk Custom, 10mm next to it.

"New piece?" she asked, holding her hands up but being shy to pick it up.

"Yes," he said, acknowledging. "Picked it up this morning before I came to where Rouge was taken."

"May I?" she asked, her brows rising as if she slightly begging. She would never shake off being a weapons junkie, no matter how much killing had soured the taste in her mouth.

"Go ahead. Do you remember how to–"

Picking up the pistol, she instantly noted the weight as she found the button she then pressed to drop the magazine from the grip; it was heavier than his current carry 1911. Her cybernetic hand hoovered below the hilt to catch the stainless steel single stack magazine. Placing it down, she rotated her left hand and clasped at the slide.

"Please be careful with your cybernetic hand," he said evenly, though she heard the slight plea in his voice.

From the month and half since she had awoken and had started her rehabilitation with her new limb, she commanded her mind to pull the slide back as if her natural left arm and hand were still there. Making sure her right thumb had the slide release pressed up, she locked it back, looked down the open breach to find the long, polished silver feed ramp guiding her eye to an empty chamber. Turning the pistol around, aiming barrel down her replaced eye, the full length guide rod protruding under it, she let her eye scan down the bore. Her internal computer calculated the rifling had a one and sixteen twist rate, and the length being five inches, stopping when she saw the breach face and the hole where the firing pin struck the primer. For such a primitive weapon, Julie mused, it had a elegant form with the rounded surfaces considering it's rectangular length slide, and angled grip. As with her blaster having wooden grips on the sides, this 1911 had hard black polymer handgrips instead, with a rough texture she could feel in her hands that they would not let the pistol slip from, even with her hands wet.

"It's heavier than your other one," she said, taking the weapon now in both hands and dropping herself into natural shooting position. She was about to place her left hand on the bottom of the grip, but remembered the range sessions with Shadow and Brass that she needed to place her hand flush against the checked handgrip, and indexed her thumbs to point forward along the left side of the slide. She then steadied her open eyes down the sights, concentrating on the front sight.

"Press the slide release down," he said to her, moving his white shirt to the other side of the break room's counter before picking up a shirt hanger and weaving it upon it.

She did as he instructed, pressing the slide release that shot the slide forward with a quick mechanical snap. The sharp sound bounced off the cabinet walls.

"Squeeze the trigger like I showed you last week," he then said, standing next to her now.

Thumb hovering close to the dropped safety lever on the left side, she placed her pink furred finger with her skin pad on the trigger, and slowly squeezed it until the hammer dropped down with a click. "Wow, that's light!"

"That's a nineteen-eleven for you," he remarked coolly with a half smirk.

He leveled his opened hand to her, and she placed his pistol in it. Sliding the magazine she had ejected back into it, he put the pistol back in its plastic case and closed it, clamping down the secure clips on it. Collecting the small boxes of ammunition and the case, he walked to the armory door, typed his code into the digital keypad, heard the locking servo rotate before he pushed the door to the armory open just enough that Julie could see the line of vests and tactical black helmets hanging on the left side the small room. Shadow placed the case and the two boxes of ammunition inside somewhere, and then closed the door.

"Anything new?" he asked her after a moment, stepping over to his main carry 1911lying on the counter.

"Right now, I found when they warp-ringed out from the crime scene. But other than that, nothing."

She inched closer to him. Shadow in turn took his pistol, dropped the safety before wrapping his thumb behind the beaver-tail safety and pulled the slide back just enough to expose a silver casing inside the breach. Giving a satisfied nod, he released the slide, tapped the back of it with his left fist after switching his grip to hold it better, reengaged the safety, and placed it back into his shoulder holster, taking care so as not to have the barrel pointed at her when he did so.

Turning to her, he reached over and grabbed his black suit jacket. "Any idea where they went?"

She shook her head. "Nothing on that end. Plus the only bird we had overhead was over Westopolis."

He frowned some while he wove his hands through his suit jacket sleeves, right before left. Picking up his gloves, he pulled them one in the same manner he had pulled his suit jacket on. "Just please, keep helping look for Rouge."

She looked down at the floor before leveling her eyes to him. "You close to her?" she asked, her voice sincere.

He placed his inhibitor rings back around the wrist gauntlets of his gloves with honed precision. "We were," he answered with a soft timbre. "She went her way...I went mine."

Straightening his jacket, he looked to Julie. She could see a hidden temper behind his red eyes, but she also saw his composure was also in full check. "Anything bothering you?" she asked with a quiet murmur that she hoped conveyed that she did care about him.

But he gently shook his head, offering a quiet voice. "Not right now. I'm still figuring a few things."

He then reached into his inside pocket and pulled out his phone. Seeing the time, he frowned some with it before elevating his even voice to her. "I have to be somewhere. I'll be back in a bit."

She shifted on her bare feet, her shoes left under her desk. "You–you want me to go with you," she asked, feeling a small hope he might say yes. To see where he disappears to in the mornings, and now the afternoons.

He shook his head gingerly. "No...I won't be long."

"You sure, partner. I mean I could use—"

"I'm fine, Julie," he said with a little more of his voice rising. She heard the cautionary tone of not to press the issue further with him. A barrier she didn't want to cross with him.

So, she nodded...and let her right hand find his arm, and gave it a small squeeze. "I'll see you when you get back, then."

He held his eyes to her hand until she released it.

"You okay?" he asked her.

"Yeah...just..." She looked to the white shirt he for which he had been trying to clean her grape stained saliva it had acquired when she had cried it out over his hand from last night...when her emotions couldn't be dammed up anymore. "Thank you, Shadow. I—"

Feeling her emotions begin to cup over, she stepped away from him, leaving the break room and him in it before she heard his heavy air thruster shoes exit and turn down the corridor to their parking garage where the Dark Reaper awaited him. She could feel her heart welling up once more, tightening from his hands holding her from last night in the booth, bracing her from her moment of grief...wishing they had been Knuckles' instead of Shadow's. stealing a glimpse, she watched as Shadow's tail rounded the corner past the elevator door to the right of the corridor, disappearing. Breathing in, she turned around and went back up the first level. Rounding his desk and feeling her emotions subside, though her temper was begging to drive her, she walked up to Saffron, who was typing at her keyboard.

"Hey, Saffron," she greeted with a hushed tone.

"Hey, girl, what's up?" the bee asked, her blond hair glowing from the dimmed lights of the Operations room.

"Is the tracking program working?" she asked.

"Yeah," Saffron replied, clicking out of the audio program and bring up GUN's tracking program on her screen. After the loading window disappeared, a black and green map popped up with a red dots blinking throughout the city. Saffron pointed to a cluster near downtown to the south of the city. "Here is us." She took the mouse and scrolled the mouse wheel, zooming in the image before pointing to a singe red dot. "And there is you."

Julie smiled, knowing for security sake that the tracking beacon in her cybernetic implant was still working. As long as her heart kept providing the neuro-power to her and the small battery in her implant, GUN and her friends would know where she was on Earth.

"The Reaper has a tracker, right?" she asked, her voice lowered.

Saffron this time canted her head with her eyes going to Julie. "Well, it is a company car...Why?"

Lowering her face and gaze, she gently let her voice seep out from her lips. "Can you track where Shadow is going?"

Saffron leveled her right eye to her. "Sure," she said with a long tone. "Why?"

Julie just gave a slight shrug. "I just want to know where he goes in the afternoons–" She looked over more to Saffron "–and the mornings. Can you back track him from this morning and other mornings and afternoons?"

Saffron just nodded. "I can, once I figure out a few things." She let her eyes go back to screen. "Don't get me in trouble, Jay-Es!" she seethed in a sarcastic, yet serious whisper.

But Julie smiled with it. "Oh, perish the thought."

Saffron shook her head, keeping her voice at a whisper. "This is what will make me go broke to Komi's swear jar, Julie...

"You!"

---

I'm truly sorry that this chapter was long, and honestly, I didn't intend it to be. But there is some backstory, and honestly, some candid moments I want to place in this. Really, this chapter was for the last part with Julie and Shadow, along with furthering the plot. I'm curious how many might think of Vanilla as the President.

Anyways, please review.