Shadows of the Future
Chapter Twelve
Hail and Farewell
(Explanations, rating, and disclaimers can be found at the beginning of Chapter One.)
Queen Riku-Dari stepped down gracefully from her ornate, curtained sedan chair, holding Anansi's hand as she did so. They made a striking pair--she jet black, he flaming red. The crowd--for of COURSE there was a crowd gathered now, the Queen adored spectacle--oohed and ahhed appreciatively. She smiled, her orange eyes gleaming wickedly, and strode out onto a bridge that connected two of the buildings of the Launch Base together, almost twenty stories above the ground. A whole slew of elegantly-dressed, foppish courtiers and smartly-uniformed guards walked behind the couple as an honour guard. From across the bridge came twelve of her best soldiers, prodding four handcuffed prisoners before them. The two groups met in the very centre of the bridge and the entire crowd held its collective breath.
Completely ignoring Sonic, Electra, and Number Twelve as if they did not exist, Riku-Dari went straight for Number One. "Sgt. Steele," she said. "Oh, dearie me. Dearie, dearie me." She took the rebel leader's chin in her hand and raised it so that the other woman was forced to look her in the eyes. "I must say, I am SO disappointed in you, Steele. One of my BEST police officers." She pouted coyly. "How CAN an officer of the law, a protector of the peace, a servant of the people, go so terribly WRONG?"
"I don't know." Steele replied grimly, for so Sonic supposed he should now think of her. She looked the Queen rather pointedly in the eye. "How DOES that happen?"
The Queen's eyes blazed with anger as she realised how this--this--bratty little upstart!--had managed to turn her own words against her. "My DEAR police officer," she cooed, still standing far too close into Steele's personal space on purpose, to bother her, "WHY do you want to cause so much trouble? Why won't you be a GOOD little girl and go back to HELPING people?"
Steele was no longer afraid. She was mad. "I AM helping people," she asserted, "I am helping them by trying to create a world in which they can be FREE! In which there are no more curfews, no more secret police, no more SLAVES!"
"But slaves are HAPPY being the way they are," smarmed the Queen. "They were BORN for it! They CAN'T be anything else! Free a slave and you'll make him miserable! Silly thing!" She tilted back her head and laughed, a high-pitched, trilling laugh. "Isn't that right, Anansi, dear?"
"You of course are correct as always, my sweet," he answered, kissing her hand.
Steele stared at Anansi as if she was just then noticing him for the first time. "Knuckles?" she gasped. He didn't respond. She took a step towards him but the guards restrained her.
Then it hit Sonic and Electra, too. "Oh, my gods, KNUCKLES!" yelled Sonic. "It's me, Sonic! Your buddy! What happened to you? What's wrong with you? Why aren't you helping us?"
At that moment, something ALMOST jarred loose inside of Anansi's dark, hypnotised soul. But it didn't break free quite YET. He looked at the unfamiliar blue creature with an icy, blank sneer. "What do you mean 'us', Short-Spines?"
"Okay, that's enough" warned the guards, taking the safeties off their weapons and pointing them directly at the four prisoners. They all quieted down.
"WHAT exactly are you going to do, my dear?" giggled the Queen to Steele, almost as if she were drunk. "There's nowhere for you to go, no-one who can help you. Your entire little so-called 'movement' has been completely crushed except for only four people! There's NOTHING that you can do!"
Oh, no, thought Lorinda Steele. There is still ONE thing I can do. She jerked free of the guards and climbed up on top of the bridge wall. The guards looked at each other uncertainly. The Queen merely sighed as if this was simply TOO boring for words and began to file her claws.
"People of Arellus, LISTEN to me!" Lorinda screamed out at the crowd below. "No matter WHAT she says, we are NOT defeated! No matter WHAT she does, we will not be destroyed! Our cause lives on! We are fighting to make you FREE! You CANNOT KILL FREEDOM!!!!"
And with that, she calmly plunged off the bridge.
NOW that something inside of Anansi broke free. "LORINDA!!" yelled Knuckles desperately. He realised that not only was this young lady he'd kissed falling to her death, but that he LOVED her. Deeply. "LORINDA!!" The Queen whipped her head around in alarm to see that his eyes had turned back to their normal purple hue. He dove off the bridge after the rebel leader, hoping to glide down and carry them both to safety. The hold the Dark Master Emerald had had over him was no more.
But so were hs recharged powers.
Suddenly, the full weakness hit Knuckles, as back on the Floating Island, his own Master Emerald was almost nothing but a huge grey lump of coal by now and the dying, twisted morass of what had once been his paradisical home was dropping to the sea in disconcertingly large jerks, and he COULDN'T GLIDE! It had never occurred to him to wonder just exactly where his powers came from until they were gone. But now he was not only falling to his own death; he was unable to save the one woman he had ever truly loved!
"LORINDA!!" he called again, helplessly...
* * *
"Great Maker!" cried Tails, as he and Amy watched the whole scene from the balcony they had been sleeping on across the way. "She just jumped off the bridge! That lady who was making the speech--she just KILLED herself to make her point!"
"That red guy jumped, too," said Amy, pointing.
Tails squinted. "That--that guy looks familliar--wait, it's Knuckles! He can glide! He'll be able to save her! GO KNUCKLES!" he cheered, even though he KNEW there was no way his friend could possibly hear him from this far away.
"But he's falling, too!" Amy pointed out. "Why isn't he gliding?"
"I don't know," said Tails. "But I've got to go help him!"
Tails spinning, he leapt off the balcony and swooped down towards his friend.
* * *
For a brief, horrible moment, Tails wondered if he was going to be forced to choose between saving his friend and saving the rebel lady--after all, the fact that he didn't know her personally didn't count; one life was equally as valuable as another--but by the time he reached their spot only Knuckles was still falling. The rebel lady had, Tails supposed, hit bottom already. But he didn't like to think about that.
Knuckles caught sight of an orange blur heading straight towards him, then he abruptly stopped falling. "We've been looking all OVER for you, Knux!" said a familiar voice.
"Tails?" he looked up and almost burst into tears of relief. "Tails! Am I glad to see you! Put me down there!"
Tails didn't hear him over the rush of the crowd and continued to carry him back up towards the balcony where Amy was waiting. "TAILS!!" Knuckles yelled again, or perhaps screamed would be a better word, "Take me DOWN, not UP! I have to get to Lorinda! I have to save her! Somehow..."
Tails heard this time and changed direction, swooping down to the ground. And just in time, too, he was running out of energy. He carried Sonic all the time, but Knuckles was several inches taller than the hedgehog, and MUCH heavier.
"Lorinda?" Knuckles shoved his way through the crowd, so weak he could barely stand, but he didn't care now. "Lorinda? It's me, Knuckles! Lorinda, answer me, PLEASE!"
"here..." came a feeble whisper from somewhere ahead of him. "I'm here."
Knuckles finally managed to reach her. He gasped as he saw the state she was in. She lay sprawled on the cement pavement, her arms, legs, and back all at funny angles, a gaping wound on her head, blood drying on her spines. Flakes of blood cracked off when she struggled her eyelids open. "Knuckles?" she whispered as if she could scarcely breathe, and he realised that she must have punctured a lung as well, from a broken rib. "I'm glad you're here."
"You're going to be all right," he lied. Of course she wasn't going to be all right. Nobody could survive a fall like that. "Everything's going to be all right."
"Don't try lying to me," she wheezed. "I'm a cop, remember? I'm dying. Don't be silly."
"Lorinda," Knuckles cleared his throat nervously, "that--that wasn't ME up there on the bridge, Lorinda. I was under the control of that thing you told me about, the Dark Master. It's a Master Emerald like mine, see, only evil, and--"
"Knuckles," interrupted Lorinda. "Shut up and kiss me."
So he did. He kissed her again, in front of everybody. A long, desperate, passionate kiss. And he didn't feel the slightest embarrassment.
When they seperated, she said simply, "Goodnight, my love."
And quietly died in his arms.
Knuckles knelt on the ground, cradling her lifeless form in his arms, when Tails came up behind him and tenatively tapped him on the shoulder. "Knuckles? Knuckles, are you all right?"
Knuckles got to his feet, slowly, wracked with grief. She died for a REASON, he kept telling himself. She died to make a POINT. It's my duty, now, to make sure that point gets made. To carry on her message for her.
"NO!!" he called out at the top of his lungs, startling Tails out of his wits. "I am NOT all right! THIS fine young woman--" he pointed dramatically at Lorinda's mangled corpse--"died for us! She died for FREEDOM! I am not all right, YOU are not all right, NONE of us will be all right until ALL of us are FREE!! FREEDOM!!!" he bellowed.
The crowd, which was already pretty riled up, took up the chant. "FREE-DOM! FREE-DOM! FREE-DOM!"
The Queen, who was still standing on the bridge, got a horrified look on her face as she realised that she had crushed the small minority rebellion only to inadvertantly start a full-scale popular REVOLUTION! The guards hurried her quickly away.
Knuckles stood tall and strong for a moment longer, leading the crowd on in its chant. But the first second he could, he found a quiet corner, put his head in his hands, and wept.
* * *
"What do you mean, I can't enter the Royal Palace?" demanded Riku-Dari in an imperious shriek. "I am your QUEEN! Now open up the gates!!" She kept tossing frantic looks over her shoulder. True to the style of angry mobs of peasants everywhere, the sound of bloodthirsty shouts and pelting feet were getting ever closer and closer behind her. Her personal guards looked nervous, too, but tried unsuccessfully not to show it.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am, but I can't let you in. Orders is orders."
"WHOSE orders?!" The Queen was livid with rage. "Whose orders could POSSIBLY countermand MINE?!"
"The King, Ma'am."
"KING?!" she shrieked hysterically. "The echidna people can't be ruled by a KING! Men have no head for government! They were not created in the divine image of the Goddess! And besides all that, it just ISN'T DONE!"
"Not until now, my lady," came a calm, deep voice from the doorway. The ever-dignified Lord Django stood there, smirking smugly, surrounded by heavily-armed guards.
"Django!" cried the Queen, instantly going back into her "sweetsie-poo" mode. "Boy, am I glad to see YOU! Talk some sense into these bully-boys, would you, dear?"
Django shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't do that, my lady. I am the King."
"WHAT?!" But the former ruler regained her composure quickly. "Are you so sure you WANT the throne just now, Your Majesty? After all, the people ARE rather angry at the government..."
King Django gave her a crinkle-eyed smile. "Not so, I'm afraid, my lady. You see, while you were taking so long to fight your way back through the crowds to here, I sent the electromagnetic signal that would unlock the slaves' collars, ALL over the city. I never DID have much use for that newfangled custom of yours. ALL the slaves are now FREE. And I broadcasted an announcement all over the city as well, to make sure that they know exactly WHO had freed them. You see, my lady, the people AREN'T after the blood of rulers or the upper class, in general. They're after YOUR blood. Specifically."
Riku-Dari was nearly frantic by now. The crowd had caught up with her and the castle doors were still locked! "DJANGO!" she screamed, pounding her fists against the reinforced metal. "Django, let me in, PLEASE, I promise I'll make it up to you! I'm still rich, Django! DJANGO!!"
There was no response.
"Guards," she said to her personal soldiers, "Protect your ruler!" The peasants were practically breathing down her neck.
Without a word, her personal guards unsheathed their weapons, and...went to stand with Django's guards at the gate!
"MUTINY!!" she shrieked. "I'll see you all HANGED for this! Don't think I can't! You haven't seen the last of me yet!" She leapt desperately onto the wall of the Palace and began to climb it, using her sharp claws for purchase. Theoretically, all echidnas could climb, but only those who were in exceptionally good shape could actually pull it off, so this might give her a few moments. The crowd was already upon her, screaming curses and hurling rocks. A knife tore the hem of her ancient battle-skirt, another cut a muscle in the back of her leg. She bit her lip against the pain and kept climbing.
The guards shrugged and dispassionately watched her climb. She'd never make it to any of the entrances on the roof--the archers in the higher windows would see to that.
When she was about 20 feet up, Riku-Dari paused to consider her next move. She could just teleport into the Palace, but she was sure Django had thought of that already and all the rooms would be swarming with guards ordered to kill her on sight.
All the rooms, that is, except...
With a slow smile, Riku-Dari disappeared from the wall.
* * *
"Okay," said Electra as they all stood, together again, on the bridge, after Tails had airlifted both Knuckles and Amy over to it. "Now that we're FINALLY together again, mostly, I think we should compare notes. I'll go first. What we discovered from the rebels' point of view is that the mysterious power source that's running the entire city is ALSO what's draining the Master Emerald! And they have a machine that can power the city without needing the use of Chaos Energy. Now, while I THINK I can probably find my way back to it, that machine won't do us any good without the missing part, but Jolt has that, and I haven't the foggiest notion where she is! So as crucial as this information that Sonic, Jolt, Number Twelve, and I have, it's not enough. We don't know where or even WHAT the city's power source is, so we can't destroy it, and even if we DID find it, we'd have to get the rebels' machine working first or else all the air would be lost and--" She broke off abruptly, noticing the rather stricken look on Knuckles' face. "Knuckles? Are you all right?"
"The power source," he said, his face pale. "I know what it is! The Dark Master! It's a Master Emerald like mine, only..." he shuddered at the memory. It was too painful to discuss out loud just yet. "It had all this machinery hooked up to it, but I didn't think much of it at the time. THAT must be the device that connected it to MY Emerald!"
"WAIT a minute, wait a minute, waitaminute," said Sonic, holding up his hands. He turned to Number Twelve. "You say that the Queen has been running the city on this 'mysterious power source' for years, right?"
The echidna nodded his head.
"But the Island has only been sick for a few DAYS! And its own Master Emerald was able to power an area much bigger than this for centuries, with no trouble at all, until it was being drained! So this 'Dark Master' thing should be able to run for just as long of a time! WHY do they suddenly need all the extra power?"
Now it was Tails' turn to go pale. "I--I may have the answer to that," he said weakly. "You see, Amy and I somehow ended up exploring that big, huge spaceship? And we found some pretty weird stuff. First of all, that we are NOT many many light-years away from Mobius like we thought; we're only on Mobius's MOON! The sky-dome blocks out the sight of the planet, you see, so you can't tell from the ground. And...in the engine room...everything seemed to be in perfect working order except that, somehow, there was also a large piece missing. A piece that would probably be about..." and here he gestured roughly the size and shape of the Master Emerald "--THIS wide and THIS tall."
"Don't forget the instruction manuals that were in OUR language for some reason!" piped up Amy Rose.
Everyone looked at each other.
"Doomsday," gasped Sonic. "All over again!"
"They write books in our language because they want to know as much about their enemy ahead of time as possible." said Tails.
"That ship," breathed Amy. "We thought it was a generational ship, it was so huge. But they're not planning to COLONISE Mobius--
"--they're planning to INVADE it!!"