"I still can't believe I'm doing this..." Tails muttered, trying to keep the gym bag over his shoulder from biting into it as he flew through the forest.
It was necessary, the voice replied, as he knew it would.
"It's crazy, is what it is!" The little fox snapped in reply. "Sure, I wanted to be independent, but I never asked to be forced out of my home!"
You are the Chosen One! Came the sharp reply. You were told as much in Athair's cave, and you knew then that the powers you were given came with as much responsibility. You will do as the writings bid you, whether or not it is your intent, and with or without our presence - we are merely here as your guides.
"Some guides," Tails muttered bitterly.
If you wish us gone, you have only to say so. We were under the impression you appreciated our help.
"I do... you were just a lot nicer when I was ten."
You were but a child then, and you had the time to waste. There should have been more time - but the Wanderer Prince acted sooner than we expected.
"You mean there's a loophole in your all-knowing, all-seeing wisdom?" Tails asked, with some degree of satisfaction.
No! Came the hasty reply. ... We... we... we merely underestimated his resolve!
"You were wrong!" Tails crowed gleefully. "Admit it! You made a mistake!"
Hold your tongue and respect your elders!
"Jerks," the fox muttered sullenly.
We heard that.
When Prince Elias came to, it was to the steady beat of pain throbbing in his shoulder and in his head. It took him a while to get his bearings. He could see nothing ahead, his vision obscured by a long, sandy-blonde plait that was tickling his nose irritatingly, and could feel little from his limbs except the pain from his left shoulder. Then, as the dizziness left over from his drug-induced sleep subsided, he was able to make sense of the situation - she was carrying him, around her neck and shoulders like a royal fur wrap. His legs hung over her right shoulder, his right arm over her left. His jacket was open, one sleeve hanging empty, to act as a makeshift sling for his left arm, which was bent over his chest.
"Jess... Jessa...?" He mumbled. At the sound of his voice, the bounty hunter stopped immediately and set him on the ground, with an unrestrained sigh of relief.
"You're awake, huh? Is that ever a relief - I was starting to think my neck would get stuck on that angle..." To emphasize this, she stretched and bent her neck back, resulting in several popping sounds and another sigh.
"What happened to me?" Elias sat up, rubbing his temple. "My head is throbbing like crazy..."
"I apologize for that," she replied. "I just didn't want you to wake up for a while..."
"Huh?" Elias raised an eyebrow. He was about to query further, but suddenly noticed that around his wrist was a thin, steel band, set with several blinking lights. "What the - "
"I wouldn't touch that, if I were you," Jessa cautioned quickly.
"What is it?"
"Sort of a modification on handcuffs," she replied nonchalantly, as if she'd just told him it was a piece of jewelry. "They're controlled by electro-magnetic currents - here, let me show you."
She retrieved a small, box-shaped device from one of her pockets and pressed a button. In the next instant, his right wrist was trapped against his left, held there too firmly for him to move it. His ankles had also locked together - and he grimly noted that they wore the same bands.
The bounty hunter clicked the same button again, and the cuffs released. "That's their primary function. There's another one - if they're tampered with, or if I press this button," she held up the device and indicated a second button, "they self-destruct. Then, Your Highness, there won't even be enough pieces of you left to roboticize." No harm in keeping it from him that on their current setting, the cuffs wouldn't explode - they would just send enough electricity through him to shock him into unconsciousness. She wasn't going to risk losing her prize - and possibly her own life - that easily.
She watched with mild amusement as the prince swore angrily and then looked up at her. "Jessa... it's short for Jessalyn, isn't it? As in Jessalyn Oregon. Born twenty-three years ago, orphaned when your parents became casualties of the Great War. Your work - hunting your own kind - made you a wanted criminal, but you evaded the authorities for so long that when you were finally caught, my father exiled you to the Forbidden Zone of the Floating Island. But somehow you escaped, only one year later, and became the most dangerous bounty hunter on Mobius."
"Well, if that ain't hitting the nail on the head. You seem to know a lot about me, Prince."
He shrugged. "We have several things in common."
"No, we don't," she replied. "You're a spoilt royal brat, to whom power was such a leisure that you threw away a monarchy without a second thought. I'm a nobody who became somebody by fighting her way to the top. We have nothing in common."
He wanted to tell her how wrong she was. But few people knew the story of how the prince had grown up - roaming the Forbidden Zone while the war raged over the planet below, until his father had finally regained power and sent a special task force to recover Elias and his mother - and those who did know had been sworn to secrecy. And as for throwing away power - he'd acted as he had because he honestly believed it was best for Mobius that Sally rule, not because he didn't appreciate his standing. If he was a spoilt royal brat, then Sonic and Sally were terrorists and Robotnik had been a kindly old veterinarian.
He decided to change the subject. "So...if you're a bounty hunter, somebody's put out a bounty on me. Who's paying you?"
She shrugged. "Beats me t'all hell."
"You don't even know?!"
"Who needs to know? Do you know how much you're worth, Prince? Five million bucks!"
Elias swallowed, and blinked in surprise.
"Yeah, it caught me by surprise too," Jessa continued. "You realise that's over twice the bounty Robotnik put out on your pal Sonic? And what's more, it's for real. You're a walking gold mine."
"So that's how you managed to continue in this line of work," Elias snorted. "You've come to see others of your kind as assets, not living beings. All you care about is money."
"It's nothing personal, Your Highness," she patted his shoulder, but he pulled away angrily. "Hey, a girl's gotta get by however she can. Unlike some people, I have to work for a living."
"I..." Elias began, but trailed off, realising he was unable to counter her statement. Ever since he had been taken back to Mobotropolis, he'd quite frankly had it easy. Boring, but easy.
"C'mon, get up," she prompted, helping him up before he could protest. "We got a long way to walk..."
"Is that - "
Yes, that is them. The Wanderer Prince and The Huntress.
"Waitaminnit! The Huntress isn't on our side?! How in the heck is that supposed to work?!"
Hush, Chosen. Everything will fall into place. It was written, and so it must be.
"I hate when you say that..." Tails grumbled, slowing the spinning of his twin tails until he touched down safely.
You must stay out of sight. Do not allow her to detect you.
"Easier said than done," the fox muttered, ducking behind a tree in his best attempt to hide himself, and feeling grateful that the forest was getting thicker and thicker as they went. "Especially since it means no more flying. That's really gonna slow me down..."
Patience. Soon she will leave him, and then will be your chance to deliver the sword.
"The sword..." Tails murmured, thinking of the artifact that had gotten him into all this in the first place. If it hadn't been for the sword, he would never have had to leave Mobotropolis. Or Sonic, or Sally, or the other freedom fighters... it felt strange to suddenly be without them. The two-tailed fox, though he had spent many years playing sidekick to his hero Sonic, had been off on his own before, but never like this. And this time, there was a sense of finality to it... after all, he had stolen the king's sword. It would be a cold day on Lava Reef before he would be welcomed back to Mobotropolis.
Up ahead, the sun was going down. Tails had been following Elias and his captor for the better part of a day, but the adolescent fox still had no idea where they were headed. There were no landmarks, no buildings, nothing - it was just forest, thick and dark, and had been for miles. Where was she taking him? And to whom?
"You are as prompt as always, Miss Oregon," her client said, leading her down the hallway. "It is a comfort to see one can still find good help these days."
"Hey, for five million bucks, you can find just about anything," Jessa grinned.
"Speaking of which, you must be eager to receive it. But I do not see the prince."
"Call it insurance," Jessa shrugged. "I just wanna make sure the deal's genuine."
The figure, still obscured by the trenchcoat and glasses, nodded as he opened a large door at the end of the stone hallway. "You are shrewd, Jessalyn Oregon, but your mistrust is misplaced. Your pay is a trifle to me."
"Even so," Jessa replied, "I'd like the exchange to take place on neutral ground - like I said, remember Nack the Weasel."
"The wariness born of living without certainty," her client noted.
"Of living without anything," the hunter corrected. "But we aren't here to discuss how miserable my life has been, are we?"
"No. Of course not."
"Right then. There is a cave about a mile away from here, where I propose we make the swap. We can meet there tonight... say, six-ish. No weapons, no cohorts."
A moment of contemplation, then a nod. "All right. It shall be."
"Great... I'll show myself out, shall I?"
"As you wish..."
As Jessa turned and strode back toward the doors, she felt the nagging itch that something had gone wrong. Nothing she could quite put her finger on... everything had seemed just fine...huh. Maybe it was just leaving her catch unguarded that was worrying at her professional side. She didn't like to take chances...but who else would bother coming way out here, and for what reason?
She was suddenly aware of a presence behind her, and her right hand reflexively dived toward her laser pistol. But before she could touch it - and that was very, very quick - there was the ominous click, magnified by the silence, of a safety catch being released just behind her head.
"Okay," Jessalyn said, after a moment of silence. "I s'pose you win the quick-draw."
"Do not speak," a female voice responded, in a low, harsh whisper.
The bounty hunter raised an eyebrow, but prudently kept quiet.
"Do not turn around," she was ordered. "Hands behind your head."
Bugger, Jessalyn thought to herself as she reluctantly obeyed.
"Now," the voice behind her continued. "I'm going to show you something."
"Prince Elias!"
Knowing he was mostly asleep, Elias immediately dismissed the sound of a friendly voice as either a dream or a hallucination, and thus refused to be fooled by it. He was miserable enough at the moment without getting false hopes up over a surprise rescue.
"Elias?"
That voice again... strangely enough, it sounded like Tails. Odd... he would have thought that if he'd bothered hearing voices, he would have heard his sister Sally...
There was a brief period of silence, then Tails' voice again. "What? Give him a good whack over the head?... well... okay... if you say so..."
"Yeow!" Elias yelped, as a very solid object inside some sort of bag crashed down directly between his ears. Suddenly, he was very much awake.
"They told me to do it!" Tails cried hastily.
"... What?..." The prince asked incredulously, rubbing his head. "Hey... wait... hallucinations don't hit people... neither do dreams..."
"What on Mobius are you talking about?"
"Uh...never mind...but...what are you doing here, Tails?"
Chosen! Don't tell him about us yet!
"Uh... sort of a stroke of luck... I was... flying overhead, and I saw you with that girl... thought you could use a little help..."
"There's an understatement," Elias said sourly.
"So... uh... how come you're just sitting around here? I mean, shouldn't you run away or something while you've got the chance?"
"I don't have the chance," he replied with a small sigh, and displayed the cuffs he wore. "To cut it short, if I take off, or try to take these off, they detonate as soon as she finds out."
"Oh. That's sorta not good..."
"Sort of, yes. We need a plan..."
"Yeah... oh yeah, I sorta brought something with me..."
Elias' eyes widened in amazement as Tails removed the sword from the bag and held it out to him, hilt first. "Tails...! That's...that's the Sword of Acorns!"
"Eheh..." A sweatdrop ran down the side of Tail's face. "... Yeah... funny story, that..."
"Have you seen enough?"
Jessa turned away from the scene, sick to her stomach, and replied in a cold whisper, "enough."
"This is what you have allowed yourself to become part of," continued the disgusted voice, whose owner was still making sure she remained in the shadows and indistinguishable. "This is what you sold yourself into."
"So?!" Jessa snapped. "What am I supposed to do? Play the hero, back out now and save the prince?"
"Unless your dirty money means more to you than any shred of morality you may have retained even through your disgrace of a life."
"Look," the hunter snarled, temper flaring, "I learned a long time ago that sticking your neck out for other people is the easiest way to get it cut in half! If there's one thing my 'disgrace' life has taught me, it's how to stay alive!"
The voice changed tones, now seeming disappointed. "I feared as much...you have the skill, but not the courage. All you care about is saving your own worthless neck. Such a disappointment..."
"Will you stop talking like I owe you something?! I don't even know who you are!"
"And it seems I don't know who you are, either. I was told you were the best... but I see now that you are only the strongest. And worse still, you don't even know the difference between the two."
Jessalyn stood, turned sharply, and strode toward the door. "I've had enough of you, whoever you are. Morality's one thing, but common sense is another - and at least I know the difference between those two."
The quiet click of the closing door disappeared in the roar of machinery, the noise floor that all but eliminated any chance of discovery.
Sabeth fell to her knees with an infuriated cry, slamming both silver-armoured fists into the ground, and denting it rather than them. She had been so close!... So close to convincing her... so close to finally exacting her revenge...
"Then die!" She whispered fervently, passionate hatred burning in her voice. "Die!"
Hi! Jessalyn Oregon here, greatest bounty hunter ever to grace the face of Mobius... so... why, when I find out what's in store for his Rebellious Highness here, am I sitting around debating whether or not to hand him over?! Not only that, there's somebody else following us... so what am I doing, hesitating?! Why don't I just take the cash and spilt?! This is Part Four of The Chosen, Turmoil/The Huntress' Choice, coming next month... come on, girl! What are you, going soft?!