FicWad

Dreams of an Absolution
By Chibi
Chapter 1: "Devastation and Reform"

*

A white and green hawk's cell phone beeped. She flipped it open to find the following text message: "R u ready?"

She quickly inputted the response, "Ready when u r. Lets do this."

*

Night may have fallen on the city of water, but Soleanna was hardly quiet. Much of the population were gathered by the canals or headed that way to watch Queen Elise, her children, and her envoy float down to the Altar of Fire. A little ways behind the crowd, a yellow hare with glasses leaned back against a building, watching the latecomers walk past. She took a particular interest at a certain pair: a red echidna, who was practically being dragged by an enthusiastic purple hedgehog in square-framed glasses.

"C'mon, Red, we're gonna miss it!"

"Thomas, you're supposed to take it slow! Remember your knee?"

So distracted was the hare by the pair that she didn't even notice the busty white echidna that now stood next to her. The white echidna blinked at the two the hare had been staring at. "Dad...?" she said.

The hare jumped. "Don't sneak up on me like that, Agent Lebat."

Agent Lebat sheepishly saluted. "Sorry, sir-ma'am-Cmdr. Saunders, ma'am."

The hare waved her hand. "At ease, Lebat. Did you complete your mission?"

Lebat nodded. "Yes, ma'am." She held up a scepter of blackened metal twisted vine-like around an oddly glittering purple gem.

"So this is the Scepter of Darkness, one of the last things he..." the hare began. She shook her head. "That part's not important. Just keep it in one piece until we return to the Federation tomorrow morning, Lebat."

Lebat saluted. "Yes, ma'am! You can count on me!"

"Good," Cmdr. Saunders said. "Now let's-" An explosion and people screaming from the direction of the Altar of Fire interrupted whatever thought the commander had at that moment and made her turn her head in time to see smoke rise and metal birds fill the sky. "The hell?!" She drew her sidearm and waved to the echidna. "Follow me, and whatever you do, don't let that scepter get broken!"

Agent Lebat put the scepter away and punched her fists together. "Yes, ma'am!"

*

Moments earlier...

The queen's boat floated along the canals of the city. The queen herself, supported by her older son, waved to the crowd as the dancers on the wide boat twirled in the torches' light. The queen's younger son, a dark blue, decidedly hedgehog-like boy of no more than fourteen or fifteen, peered over the edge of the vessel irritatedly.

"Joey, please, stand up," Queen Elise urged, "This isn't a time to be playing around..."

"But I dropped my PDA in the water," the boy complained.

The older sibling, a violet and no less hedgehog-like man, turned his eyes to the boy. "You can get another one tomorrow. This is important, Joseph."

"Bite me, Elias," Joseph replied as he stared down at the water, hoping to get a glimpse of the device he dropped. "I need my damn..." The reflected fire dancing on the water rapidly spread out along the surface. "My... damn..." He turned his head, and saw only fire. He looked back to the boat, but the boat was gone, gone with everyone aboard it. The city was engulfed in flames, and he was all alone.

"Joseph?"

"Sweetheart?!"

"JOEY!"

The boy snapped back to reality. His mother was supported by her ladies-in-waiting while his brother was holding him upright by the boat's edge. "Huh? Wha...? Wha's goin' on...?" Joseph mumbled.

"Are you well?" Elias asked. "You almost fell overboard, and then you weren't responding..."

"I don't need your da-aaaack!" the dark blue teen said, pushing his brother away. He would have pushed himself off right the vessel as well if not for the older man's grip on his wrist.

The queen reached out towards the pair. "Joey, sweetheart, please..." she began.

"You've already worried mother enough, Joseph," Elias said. "If you are still unwell, you may remain sitting, but please, you've caused enough a scene already.

Joseph jerked away from his brother, trying to escape his grasp. "Shut up! You're not my damned father; stop acting like it!"

The purple prince caught the struggling boy's other wrist as the boy swung at him. "No, but I'm your older brother, and I'm responsible for you!"

The boy opened his mouth to swear at his brother when a sudden buzzing filled the sky. Above them, shiny, red metal birds started to flock; a few at first, but rapidly growing in number. Without warning, one dropped out of the sky on a crash course with the Altar of Fire. The bird made impact, sending smoke and debris high into the air. The queen and her ladies-in-waiting yelped, causing the older prince to turn his head to them and loosen his grip on his brother. Seizing the moment, the boy managed to free himself and tumbled into the water. Elias turned back to grab the teenager, but he was nowhere to be seen. The older prince hesitated for a moment, and decided protecting the queen was of greater importance and went to her side.

A bird-a real, living female hawk this time-then dropped from the sky, an Extreme Gear board under her. After landing safely on the remains of the altar, she kicked her board so it stood vertically and raised a megaphone to beak-level. With more dignity than one in lime green and hot pink attire should have any right to having, she announced, "My name is Gale al-Rashid. I demand you bring me Sonic the Hedgehog so he may be properly punished for murdering my father, or else I will destroy your damned kingdom!"

Gasps and murmurs emerged from the crowd. Why was this bird asking for the hero-turned-villain who died at the hands of Dr. Ivo Robotnik fifteen years ago? Surely it was madness, and the queen said as much. "Sonic the Hedgehog has been dead and buried for fifteen years!" Elise yelled above the crowd. "There is nothing here for you!"

The hawk, who couldn't have been much older than Joseph, glared and pointed a finger at her. "If Sonic is dead and buried, then explain where your youngest son came from, and why he looks so much like his older brother, who we all know was fathered by Sonic!"

"So I like hedgehogs," Elise answered, "There's nothing wrong with that. Not to mention you seem to assume there's only one blue hedgehog in the entire world."

Gale smiled and wagged a finger at her. "True, but there's only one full-blooded echidna in the entire world! Funny how he out of the blue decided to live here, far from his island and his children. He was in love with Sonic, wasn't he?"

Before Elise could say another word, Elias stood in front of his mother, then drew and pointed his sword at the hawk. "Have you not listened to a thing my mother has said? My father is no more, and insisting otherwise is madness! Isn't that right, mother?"

The queen's eyes darted away from the prince and the hawk and placed a hand over her heart. She closed the hand partially, two of the fingers refusing to bend under her glove. "Elias..." she began.

A flash of green light clashed with the fire's red and orange. A displeased black-and-red hedgehog now stood next to the hawk, arms crossed and eyes narrowed at her. "Gail Dorothy Lebat, what the hell do you think you're doing?" he said.

Gale squeaked. "Uncle Shadow?! What are you doing here?!" she said, megaphone still before her beak.

Shadow covered his ears. "I'm on a second honeymoon with my wife. What the hell are you doing here?"

Without lowering the megaphone, the hawk replied, "I'm here to avenge my father's murder, that's what I'm doing!"

The dark hedgehog snatched the megaphone out of her hands. "Enough with that damned thing!" he exclaimed as he tossed it into the water. He could have sworn the water said "Ow!", but he ignored that. "Look, I don't believe that asshole died either, but how is doing this any better that what he did?"

Gale hesistated. "I..." Her eyes darted to a pale hand in a brown fingerless glove reach up for the dark hedgehog's leg. "Uncle Shadow, did you ever learn how to swim?"

Shadow tilted his head to one side. "Huh? What does that have to- " he got out before the pale-fingered hand grabbed him and pulled him off the altar, dropping him into the water below.

The owner of the hand, the thoroughly-drenched Joseph, continued to climb up the altar, with a little help from the hawk. He adjusted his orange-lensed glasses and muttered a "thank you." Once on his feet, he looked down at the girl and asked, "Who are you, anyway?"

"Gale al-Rashid," she answered, "You?"

"Joey-er, Prince Joseph I," he replied.

A wicked grin flashed across the hawk's face. "Oh, really?" she said. She set her board down, gestured to it, and said, "Get on."

The boy shrugged and did so. "Are you going to use it to take me back to the boat?" he asked, pointing to the queen's vessel.

He felt the weight of her getting on behind him, heard the click-clack of a butterfly knife opening, and saw a flash of steel near his throat. "No," Gale said, "I'm not. You're extra incentive for them to give me what I want."

Elise rushed forward, her ladies-in-waiting following. "JOEY!"

Joseph tried to reach a hand out to her, but was prevented by the blade. "Momma!"

The hawk turned her head to the boat and, wishing she still had her megaphone, yelled, "Bring Sonic to the altar in the forest in an hour, and I'll return the boy unharmed and leave the New City untouched!" She looked up to the sky full of buzzing metal birds and commanded, "Tiamats, ATTACK!" before high-tailing it away from the altar.

The previously idling Tiamats all at once awoke from their daze and swooped down upon the city and its populace, raining bullets and fire as the crowds rapidly dispersed. Sonic... the queen thought as her elder son began issuing orders to the people on the boat. I may not be able to protect you anymore...

*

From the rooftops, a pale figure in a white cloak watched the entire scene take place. "I found her," he said to himself, "The Iblis Trigger..."

*

Shortly after in one of the city's narrower alleyways, the red echidna and purple hedgehog fought. "You are not turning yourself in!" the echidna insisted.

"Knuckles, she has one of my kids!" the hedgehog countered. "I have to do something!"

"Then figure something else out!" Knuckles exclaimed.

"Like what?" the hedgehog asked. "I seriously don't think she's willing to negotiate, and if I rush in, Joey's life'll be in danger! I'm not taking a chance on this, Red! Besides..." He stared down at his hands. "Besides... I'm guilty, Red. I killed him. I pulled the trigger on Jet without a second thought." His heart began to race, soon feeling like it was going to burst out of his chest. "And he wasn't the only one I killed. All those people, just for a stupid revenge plot or to change GUN or whatever the fuck I was thinking back then!" He hugged himself tightly, his breathing rapid and shallow. "I should have died! I should have let Tails or Saff finish me off, or ended it myself-I should've Chaos Controlled myself in space, or used my gun..."

The echidna slowly put his arms around the hedgehog and pulled him into a tighter embrace. "Sonic, stop," he said soothingly. "Just... stop. I..." He mentally cursed himself and, words failing, held the hedgehog in silence and stroked his quills until the other man calmed himself. "Better now?"

"Not really, but I don't feel like I'm dying now," Sonic replied shakily. He pulled back just far enough to allow him to kiss the echidna. "Heh, how did a rat like me end up with a husband like you?" he said with weak smile.

"You know me; I like 'em a little bad," Knuckles answered. A sudden hail of gunfire just outside the alley snapped the pair back to reality and caused the echidna to re-tighten his hold. "Come on, we have to get you out of here. New City should be safe for now," he said as he released the hedgehog and took his hand.

The hedgehog refused to budge and pulled his hand out of his husband's grasp. "I can't just leave Castle Town like this," he said as he stretched. "It's been a long time since I've had to bust up some 'bots, but I think I can put a dent in their numbers. You go head for New City without me."

Knuckles shook his head. "You're crazy, Sonic-"

Sonic cut him off. "You're not getting me to leave! I have to-"

Knuckles lightly pinched the hedgehog's mouth shut. "Let me finish. You're crazy, Sonic, if you think I'm letting you do this alone." He moved his hand away and kissed his husband. "So, shall we?"

Sonic nodded and grinned. "Let's get this party started."

*

Elsewhere, Cmdr. Saunders cursed her luck. There she was, in unfamiliar territory, with a single agent as her only back-up, in the middle of a robot attack, surrounded by panicking civilians. "Where the bloody fuck is the Soleanna Guard? You'd think there'd be some fucking security here!" she growled as she reloaded her gun.

The echidna woman landed next to her, wreckage from another Tiamat crashing to the ground behind her. "They're probably trying to protect the royal family. What do we do now, ma'am?"

The commander pushed up her glasses. "Hightail it to New City and call in some damn back-up. There's too many for just the two of us." She turned halfway and jerked her thumb towards a nearby bridge. "This way!"

No sooner did the hare turn back and take a step did another metal bird fall out of the sky. The purple hedgehog from before landed a mere couple feet from her, dusted himself off, and brushed a bit of stray wire off his quills. "I'm getting too old for this kind of thing..." he muttered to himself. His green eyes met the hare's brown as he straightened himself out. "S-Saffron?!" he stammered, eyes wide with surprise.

Saffron remained unfazed. "Sonic. I was wondering if you were going to show up," she said.

The hedgehog rubbed the back of his neck, "Eheh, I couldn't sit still and do nothing. You're not gonna try to shoot me again, are you?"

The white echidna blinked. "Uncle Sonic...? Is... Is it really you?"

Sonic turned his head to the younger woman. "Elly?! Yeah, it's me, but what are you...?"

Saffron interrupted. "Agent Lebat and I are here on GUN business. We're-"

"Uncle Sonic!" Elly interjected, pointing behind the hedgehog.

The hedgehog turned around and froze as the hare raised her sidearm. The metal bird there began to rise once more, its guns wildly gyrating in circles. "No... sudden... moves..." Sonic muttered to the women. The guns finally locked on their purple target. "Ready..." the hedgehog muttered as he shifted his weight. The second the bird fired a volley of bullets, the trio scattered, the hedgehog leaping high into the air. The hedgehog curled into a ball and suddenly surged forward with amazing speed towards the metal bird.

The Tiamat, however, appeared to have learned its lesson. It swatted the hedgehog down as if it was an overlarge fly with a titanium-steel wing, sending the creature to the ground with a thud. It hovered there, rotating itself to face the hedgehog as to finish him off with its guns. The hare fired upon it, hoping to find some chink in its shiny red armor.

Elly looked to the dazed hedgehog, then to her commander. With the hare firing like that, she couldn't get in close, where she excelled. But she had to do something or Uncle Sonic was toast, she thought. Without thinking, she grabbed the scepter and hurled it as hard as she could at the metal bird.

The scepter shattered on impact as if it had been made of glass. A strange purple electricity surged through the Tiamat and shorted it out, causing it to once again plummet to the ground. A noxious black ooze giving off dark smoky gas pooled underneath the broken machine and flowed in the direction of the fallen hedgehog.

The two GUN members headed to Sonic. The hare eyed the broken Tiamat as the echidna knelt down next to the hedgehog. "Lebat," Cmdr. Saunders said evenly, "While it seemed to be effective, exactly what part of 'Don't break the bloody scepter' did you not understand?"

Elly colored faintly as she helped the hedgehog sit up. "Sorry, ma'am. It was the first thing I could grab..."

The trail of noxious black ooze seemed to be absorbed into the hedgehog's shadow. As Elly rose and helped the hedgehog to his feet, the shadow, amazingly enough, also stood up. The shadow fleshed itself out, turning into a dark, mouthless reflection of the purple hedgehog. The shadow stood as if he was being controlled by a puppeteer who had tangled up his strings, and said, "Who ever would have believed I'd be resurrected by your shade? I thank you, Sonic the Hedgehog."

"Friend of yours?" Saffron asked dryly, hand still on her weapon.

Sonic shook his head. "Nuh-uh." The hedgehog looked over the oddly-posed being before him. "Who-or what, for that matter-are you?"

The shadow's head slumped down as he took a step towards Sonic. "I am Mephiles the Dark." He tilted his head and looked up at Sonic with his acid green eyes. "You have forgotten?"

Sonic put Elly behind him. "Forgotten what? I've never seen you before!"

Mephiles continued staring up at the hedgehog for a moment longer. "I am... disappointed. I owe you much, Sonic," he said. He withdrew and held a hand open flat, palm up. A swirling ball of blue energy hovered over his open hand.

The hare, bastion of subtlety she is, fired on the shadow. The bullet, however, passed right through his head, the hole it left closing up behind it. "Bloody hell..." she murmured.

"May I continue?" Mephiles asked, only to be greeted with another shot. He made a dissatisfied little sound and pressed on. "What you gave to me, I shall return to you," he said, "A one-way trip to oblivion!" Another shot hit, this time breaking his square-framed glasses in two. He sighed irritatedly as the glasses repaired themselves. "And not a moment too soon, either," he added as the sphere in his hand rose and grew rapidly in size until it engulfed him, the hedgehog, the hare, and the echidna.

One by one, they disappeared. Before he vanished, Sonic thought he heard his husband call his name...

*
End Chapter 1

Chibi's notes:

Holy crap, this took long enough. Too many distractions. x.x

OK, so, notes...:

-Sonic started dyeing himself purple, as the epilogue of "Changes" indicates.
-Much of Mephiles's dialogue is left unchanged or slightly altered from the game. A few things didn't change...
-On that note, c'mon, you honestly don't think in a world full of gifted but crazy-ass people, no one would try to replicate the Solaris Project? And the Changesverse is more full of 'em than normal...
-"Gail Dorothy" LOL.

Sonic et. al. are owned by Sega. I'm just borrowing them.