In The Command Center

Dr. Eggman has never felt better.

Eggman was looking directly at the lemur who got hit with his Morality Switch, and seeing her uncaringly watch that wolf get attacked by Mimic might have made his day. It was a good thing that he merely set the egg pawns to capture instead of terminate. A genius way to get an unmoving target for the Subject to hit. He watched the whole exchange, and saw that the lemur didn't even care about her friends! It was perfect!

In fact… He could work with that.

Sadly, just because the lemur might technically be described as evil doesn't mean she was automatically on Eggman's side, she still smashed his egg pawns and didn't attack the rat and his friends or anything. But he just knew he could manipulate her into joining his side if he was able to garner an audience with her.

Eggman watched the rest of the battle play out, a bit disappointed that his defenses were defeated so easily. He was also anxious to see another one of the pests get hit with his Morality Switch. It's just a shame that it took so long to recharge, but that was the price of progress. If Eggman wasn't so impatient to get the invention working, he might have searched for more Chaos Emeralds to lend to its power. Alas, only one was truly needed to create the Cube, with the downside being the long recharge time.

Finally, he noticed that the turret that the Subject was operating began to charge another blast. Eggman giddily rubbed his hands together, he couldn't wait to see who got changed next. Even better, there was no chance it would miss because they were all so distracted by the lemur!

He watched the signature purple-green colored laser streak towards the wolf, and Eggman felt even happier. With how dark that wolf's past was, she would doubtless be an utterly ruthless individual. He leaned close to the screen, hands rubbing together excitedly. But something went wrong. The lemur threw Mimic into the laser!

Eggman nearly punched the screen.

After calming down a fraction, he realizes that perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad thing. While the Subject did help with the testing of the Cube, she was not good enough for perfect data. For that, Eggman would have had to test the laser on some immoral individuals as well, and none of those were stupid enough to apply to be a lab rat. So, in reality, he should really look at this as just another test subject.

He was still mad.

But it didn't matter. Eggman needed to prepare his speech to the lemur to convert her, and he probably needed to get the Cube out of the base as well. Don't want the vermin to get a hold of it. He was about to step out of the command center when his communicator chimed.

"Yes, what is it you want, Subject?" Eggman said, still unhappy.

"Boss, I know I might have messed up that last shot, but can me and Metal Sonic confront the intruders?" the Subject asked hurriedly, seemingly running. "I can separate the lemur girl from the rest of the intruders as well. And Metal Sonic seems to really be itching for a go at Sonic." She finished, out of breath.

Eggman was about to shout at the Subject to do something else, but after a moment of consideration, he realized that separating the lemur from her friends wouldn't be a bad idea. However, this base was a bust regardless, so no fighting Sonic here.

Eggman brought the communicator to his mouth, "Alright Subject, you can separate the lemur from the rest of her pals, but Metal Sonic, you are to come over to me immediately with the Cube. Now!" Eggman shouted, preparing his Egg-Mobile.

He barely heard the Subject's excited agreement. He quickly set up everything he needed to make a quick escape. Pulling out the Chaos Emerald he pocketed from Metal Sonic earlier, he attached it to his Egg-Mobile for some extra speed. Not a moment later, Metal Sonic blazed in holding the Cube, before handing it off to Eggman. Eggman took it with a giddy smile, before strapping it securely to the machine.

"Now, all I have to do is get that lemur alone. Metal, guard the entrance, won't you?" Eggman muttered, content to just sit and wait in the Egg-Mobile.

Eggman looked over at his computer to see the sign that Sage had already entered back into the Eggnet. Orbot and Cubot also jumped in, which Eggman was not nearly as happy about. Regardless, they were completely evacuating. Now all there was to do was wait for a chance to talk to the lemur alone.

Outside

Lanolin was berating a bored looking Tangle for pulling a stupid stunt like throwing Mimic into the incoming laser. Personally, Whisper thought that trying to berate this Tangle was a waste of time. Whisper looked over at Sonic, who, after doing a lap around the base to see if there were any unexpected surprises outside, was curiously looking at Mimic. Whisper looked up at the turret, which she immediately shot after the failed attack, to see if it was magically operational again. Luckily, it wasn't, just a smoking husk. Whisper knew she was just trying to take her mind off of the obvious question.

What did the laser do to Mimic? She thought against her wishes. Looking at the, now much lighter, octopus. If that laser turned Tangle into her worst self, what could it possibly do to someone who was already as bad as Mimic? Whisper had half a mind to just shoot Mimic while he was unconscious. And this time, Tangle wouldn't try to stop me, Whisper thought grimly, once again glancing over to Tangle, who was starting to look angry instead of bored.

Whisper shook the dark thoughts away. If she was just gonna regress into a murderer the minute Tangle wasn't trying to stop her, Whisper wouldn't need the laser to hit her before she was already her worst self. Besides, Sonic probably wouldn't be cool with killing a defenseless prisoner either.

Before she could think anything more, Mimic started to wake up. She took a defensive stance and leveled her wispon at Mimic. Just because she wasn't going to murder him in cold blood didn't mean she was gonna let him escape either. Mimic slowly woke and stood up hesitantly. He seemed to have some kind of headache, because he put his hands on his head and groaned in pain. After a few seconds, he finally opened up his eyes, which to Whisper's surprise, no longer had black sclera, but regular white like any other islander. His eye's white iris also seemed to become a really dark brown, bordering on black. He seemed to look around in confusion, before looking directly at Whisper. His eyes widened in what seemed to be surprise.

"Whisper…?" He said hesitantly. Whisper noted that his voice also changed into something slightly higher pitched.

"What's going on…?" He said, looking genuinely confused. Whisper also noticed that Mimic didn't sound disdainful or even sarcastically smug like she's come to associate with him. "Why are you pointing your wispon at me-?" He said, before freezing up. Suddenly, to Whisper's utter shock, Mimic started to tear up. "Oh Gaia… what have I done!?" he said loudly, before crumbling down to his knees.

Whisper was loath to pull down her wispon, but despite how good of an actor Mimic was, she had a feeling that for once, he wasn't just trying to manipulate her. There are better ways then sympathy, after all. She was still ready for anything, of course, but now she wasn't actively pointing her weapon at Mimic. Whisper would never admit it, but she also lowered her weapon in surprise too. Before she could think to pull it back up, she started to hear Mimic mutter to themselves. She slowly turned up the volume on her mask to catch what Mimic was saying, too quiet for her to hear otherwise.

"No, I wouldn't have... No that can't be true I would never… But- but I did? Clair, Smithy, Slinger, what did I-" By that point Whisper couldn't understand whatever he said next, because she was so stunned by what he said that she stopped hearing him.

Whisper wanted to feel angry, she wanted to hate him for daring to bring up their names again. Yet, this wasn't some kind of manipulation like usual, he was muttering too quietly for anyone to actually hear him, it wasn't meant to be heard by Whisper. So it wasn't manipulation or trying to put her off balance.

He sounded… regretful.

Whisper looked over at Tangle again, who looked like she was about to deck Lanolin in the face, before turning back to look at Mimic who now seemed to be silently crying in the grass. She looked at Sonic, who was staring at Mimic, confused. She silently motioned him over.

"Okay. I don't think I'm equipped to handle whatever's going on with Mimic. What do you think Whisper?" Sonic said, keeping a watchful, if confused, eye on Mimic.

"Tangle is a good person. She gets hit with that laser and now she's no longer quite a good person." Whisper said, slowly speaking out her insane idea. "Yeah, and?" Sonic said, apparently not getting the memo. "Mimic is a terrible person. He gets hit with that laser and now he's weeping on the ground, and I think it was because he was looking at his memories…" Whisper said slowly, still figuring out how to say what she's thinking. Suddenly the light of understanding shone in Sonic's eyes, before he looked at Mimic with an incredulous face.

"...No way," he said quietly. "There's no way Eggman would make something like that. I can understand a device to make people evil, but there is no way-"

"It's the only explanation besides manipulation, and Mimic manipulates people in other ways. He wouldn't be caught dead crying." Whisper said, quieter than usual.

Before they could continue the quiet discussion, Mimic suddenly piped up, in a ragged voice, "Blue? Blue, where are you?"

The wisp in question popped out of one of Whisper's wisp canisters, looking at Mimic somewhat fearfully.

Mimic looked overjoyed to see what was originally his wisp, before a sorrowful face broke through, "Blue? Blue, I'm s-so sorry." he said quietly. "I don't know why I would ever do something like…"

Whisper stepped in front of Blue, who was starting to look extremely sad, before closing the distance between her and Mimic. Sonic tried calling out to her, but whether she heard or not, she didn't stop.

Mimic slowly looked up at Whisper's blank mask, and the expression on his face was a strange mix between sorrow and fear. Whisper raised her wispon to aim directly at Mimic's face. Sonic tried to yell at her in a panicked voice, and Tangle and Lanolin looked over at the commotion. Lanolin looked shocked while Tangle looked excited at what was happening. Sonic was about to run over, but Tangle quickly used her tail to wrap up Sonic to prevent him from interfering, all with a gleeful smile.

The expression on Mimic's face slowly morphed into what resembled acceptance, before closing his eyes and tilting his head down. "Go on, I deserve it for everything I did. Just make sure Blue doesn't see it, alright?" Mimic muttered to Whisper.

Whisper grit her teeth, before walking away. Mimic looked up in surprise. Sonic and Lanolin let out a sigh of relief, while Tangle just huffed in annoyance. Tangle muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'lame', before releasing Sonic and walking away. Whisper stopped a couple paces away, before looking at Mimic with a strange look.

"If you're manipulating me, congratulations, you've succeeded. The Mimic I know wouldn't have added that last part. In fact, the Mimic I know would have broken his facade when faced with an execution." Whisper said quietly. "Whatever that laser did to you, you're not the Mimic I know."

"Whisper, I…" Mimic started, before looking away.

Whisper looked at Mimic with that strange look on her face, before asking in a strange voice, "Do you consider Slinger, Clair, and Smithy your friends?" She asked suddenly.

Mimic looked at her with surprise, before a resolute look came onto his face. "Yes. Yes I do. And… and we were friends once. I know you won't consider me your friend anymore, for good reason, but, for what it's worth… Right now? All I see in my memories is a monster who did a lot of unforgivable things." he said, a flash of anger on his face at the thought of what the original Mimic did.

Whisper stared at Mimic for a minute longer, before seeming to accept what he said as truth. She turned and walked away over at Dark Tangle, who was sitting down and angrily pulling grass. Whisper sat next to her, wanting to keep an eye on her.

"I don't know why you didn't just shoot the guy." Tangle said bluntly. "You know you wanted to. Still can. I mean, he's just over there." Dark Tangle said, pointing a hand at Mimic, who was currently getting helped up by Sonic.

"Do you remember who told me that murder was wrong the first time I had my chance?" Whisper asked, hoping to see at least a glimmer of the original Tangle.

"Yeah, some wimp who didn't have the same kind of guts you had." Dark Tangle said snarkily, not missing a beat. Whisper sighed, before readying herself to get back up. "...One thing though." Whisper looked back over at Tangle, who was making sure not to make eye contact. "It's nice to see you moving on from that lame trauma that's been holding you back. Maybe not in the way I would've liked to see, but at least you're not the boringly morose Whisper that's plaguing my head from that Tangle's point of view. Who knows? Maybe you could be as badass as I said you could be." Dark Tangle said, standing up, decidedly not looking at Whisper.

Whisper was a tad stunned. Dark Tangle was being nice to her? Sure, she was being callous and a bit of a jerk about it, but still. More than that though, it let Whisper know that the original Tangle was still in there somewhere. By all rights, the current Tangle shouldn't have cared less about Whisper currently. Whisper was about to say something, before Tangle interrupted her.

"Alright glass cup, all this standing around is about to make me lose it. We have a base to break into." Dark Tangle said, stretching.

"Glass cup?" Whisper said out loud, confused. Tangle showed a smug full toothed grin, which had Whisper flinching a bit at how sharp her teeth looked. "Oh, that? It's my little nickname for you! Because you're fragile, like glass. One slip and you break down in tears!" Dark Tangle said, looking like the nickname was the height of comedy.

Whisper was immediately mortified, and immediately reminded that Dark Tangle was not her friend, despite the earlier exception. She huffed in annoyance before going back to Sonic, who was conversing with the newly changed Mimic, while Tangle laughed in the background. Whisper was also a bit angry that Dark tangle had a point, they've just been standing around outside the base for well over fifteen minutes now, and they really needed to get inside to get Tangle back to normal.

Sonic noticed Whisper approaching and quickly went over to tell her that Mimic decided to join the raid, and that they were going in now.

Whisper questioned the idea of letting Mimic join them, but it's either join them and have him be watched, or just let him go and waste everyone's time when it came to him. She supposed the former was a better choice out of the two bad ones. Since the base's defenses were already destroyed, the team just went through the front doors. Tangle looked overly excited, while the rest of the group was treading with high caution, as to hopefully not get hit with the laser like Mimic and Tangle did.