The images echoed in her memory, coursing through her mind. A blade, a scalpel wet with blood. The steel and wire of machinery, soaked in red. Faces, eyes filled the fear bordering on insanity. Moments that had passed in slow-motion, etched by terror and suffering into minds that would never be able to forget. His face. His screams. His pain.
The echo of what had been. The warning of what would come. Destiny? What was destiny to her? Her future was tomorrow morning, when her life depended on whether or not she could get a decent meal. It was next week, when the meager earnings from her last job ran out, and she'd have to spend the next month stealing to get by. Her destiny was nothing, not further than what she was able to make it. That was why she had to look out for herself, not anybody else...
His face. His screams. His pain.
What she was, that was what she believed in. Her abilities, her achievements, her desires, her memories, her self. The reflections of the world around her that formed the shape and the being that she knew herself to be. These things were solid, undeniable, unchanging. They were her foundation, what she had shaped herself according to. If they didn't fit the world's expectations, it didn't matter any to her. Destiny? Destiny be screwed.
His face. His screams. His pain.
No! No, she refused it. She would not change herself because of what she had seen! It was beyond her power! What could she do?! She was a hunter! She didn't play hero! She didn't save people! She... she didn't risk her life for others! It... it wasn't... who she was!... she wouldn't... she couldn't...
His face. His screams. His pain.
And something in her kept saying, 'but you can'.
Jessalyn Oregon awoke. She didn't jerk bolt-upright out of a nightmare, eyes wide and body covered in sweat, even though she probably had a right to, after what she had just dreamed. She simply opened her eyes, like 'standby' had been suddenly switched off. And the first thing she saw when she did was several feet of sharpened steel pointed directly between her eyes.
"The control box," Elias ordered simply, voice wavering ever-so-slightly even if the hand holding the sword was dead steady.
"Congratulations," she said dryly, fishing the small device that controlled his handcuffs out of her pocket. "Looks like you finally grew a backbone, Your Highness." Inwardly, she cursed herself. How could she have fallen asleep? She was a hunter! She could go days without sleeping! Somehow, she'd let her guard down long enough for him to... wait... where on Mobius had he gotten a sword?
"Put it on the ground, and your gun beside it," the prince continued. She did, outwardly retaining her calm, slightly amused demeanor, and inwardly swearing up a storm. As she did, another figure emerged from behind the prince - a figure that any bounty hunter worth her salt knew to be Miles 'Tails' Prower, onetime sidekick to Sonic the Hedgehog, and proven Freedom Fighter in his own right. That, then, would explain where Elias had suddenly acquired a weapon... she should have known that the prince wouldn't pose any real threat by himself. After all, what sort of fight could you expect to get out of some royal pretty-boy who'd probably spent most of his life surrounded by a squad of daddy's finest bodyguards?...
Tails retrieved the two items, handing the control box to Elias before releasing the safety on Jessa's pistol and levelling it at her head.
"How does it work?" Elias asked, holding up the controller. "And don't lie to me - if I die, you won't last long either."
"Aw, c'mon," she drawled sarcastically. "Would I lie to you? Actually, now that I think about it, I haven't lied to you at all, ever. Interesting, that..."
Elias glared. Tails snarled. Jessa grinned like a wolf.
"Cool down, boys. There's a sort of stamp on the bottom of the box, the shape of a 'J'. Next to the join on the cuffs, there's an indent that it'll fit into. Snap them together and the lock will release."
Elias inspected the control box, and found this to be correct. He quickly followed her instructions, and was relieved to find that she was telling him the truth. As the cuffs released and clattered to the ground, the prince slipped the sword into the sheath strapped across his back. And, though looking a little uneasy, Tails lowered the laser, and placed it on the ground beside him. Jessa gaped.
"We part ways now, Jessalyn," Elias calmly informed her. "I thank you for your help, even though it was somewhat double-edged. Don't follow us - we don't want to hurt you."
"Then you're both fools!"
"Maybe we are," Tails stepped forward, speaking up for the first time. "But you're outnumbered, and you aren't the only one here who grew up on the streets. In fact, Elias tells me you've only been on your own since you were eight. Well, I lost my family when I was five, and what's more, I helped take down the single most dangerous threat ever posed to Mobius, and a bunch of other ones along with it. If you think you can take me, why don't you just go ahead and try it!"
"You... cocky little brat!" Jessa looked both surprised and impressed. "Maybe I oughta stuff both those tails down your throat and see if you're still so smart..."
"Tails!" Elias hissed. "This was not part of the game plan!"
"Quiet, you royal pansy!" Jessa snapped. "Unlike you, the kid's got some guts... for a undersized mutant who always plays the sidekick, anyway..."
Elias gulped. Apparently, Jessa knew exactly how to hit his friend where it hurt...
"I'm nobody's sidekick!" Tails snapped, temper flaring. Normally he wasn't so hot-headed, but at the moment, he was plain sick and tired of taking other people's orders. And she called him a sidekick! He had pulled off this rescue, not Sonic or Elias or anybody else! A sidekick! She was gonna pay for that!
She took a step forward, cocked her hips to one side, and put her hands on them. "I'm waiting, kid. You need to call in somebody you can follow?"
With an angry snarl, Tails charged, as did his opponent. But bare seconds before they met, a streak of brown and blue and silver brought Prince Elias between them, the Sword of Acorns pointed at Tails' torso, and Jessalyn's laser pistol leveled at her forehead.
"Back off, Jessalyn!" He warned, eyes narrowing. "You may think I'm some sheltered royal wimp, but you've got no idea who I really am."
"Get out of the way!" Tails demanded recklessly. "I can take her!"
"Control your temper!" Elias ordered him, keeping the sword and the gun raised. "Can't you see she's just goading you? She's using your weakness to affect your judgement! Don't fall for it!"
"Of course, I forgot - Tails can't do anything without somebody to give him instructions..." Jessa sneered. She knew exactly what would happen next...
Tails yelled something extremely offensive, then renewed his charge. Elias, unwilling to skewer his friend, was forced to move the Sword of Acorns aside, instead blocking the young fox with his body. And to do that, he was in turn forced to face Tails instead of Jessa. As he did, the hunter dropped into a sweeping kick that pulled Elias' feet out from under him, and caused both the prince and his young friend to fall to the ground. Jessa brought one steel-capped boot around into Tails' stomach, knocking the breath out of him and throwing him across the floor into the nearest wall, hard. Elias was halfway to his feet again by then, but she was ready - a quick elbow to the chest winded him, and a second jab found the pressure-point in his shoulder that made his legs give out beneath him like snapped sticks. Before he could even try to rise again, she had one foot on his wounded shoulder and her pistol aimed at his head.
"Don't you even move an inch," she warned savagely, grinding the heel of her boot into his wound. She'd had just about enough of this. "And you," she added, keen hearing warning her that Tails was back on his feet without her even having to look away, "get where I can see you, now, or we'll all find out what colour royal blood really is."
Elias, who had now managed to choke some air back into his lungs, rasped, "you... won't... kill me..."
"You're right," she replied. "I won't. But the specifics for this job were 'alive and in one piece', if I recall. That doesn't mean I can't break bones or shoot holes in you. Either way, I'd still say I have the advantage."
Tails exhaled with an angry-yet-defeated sort of noise, and reluctantly complied, moving into Jessa's field of vision. The game was over, and they had lost. And it was entirely his fault...
"Just for the record, boys," Jessa continued, "this is beyond money now. It's the prince's life or mine, and I think you can guess which one I'm picking. Like I said before, nothing personal. And as for you, shorty, you can go once this is over. I've got no intention of fighting you - come back after you reach puberty, and maybe I'll think about it."
Tails snarled a few choice words under his breath, but wisely realised he wasn't in a position to argue right now. Glaring at the bounty hunter, he seated himself against the wall, wondering how he was going to sort out this mess. Looking satisfied, Jessa removed her foot from Elias.
"You might as well go sit over there too," she told him, still keeping the laser trained on him. "I dunno... say goodbye to your little friend or something. It won't be too long before my client gets here."
Elias picked himself up, clutching his shoulder, which was aching once again from the exertion, and from Jessa's boot. For once, Jessa was completely unprepared for what came next.
"Jessalyn?" He said quietly. "... Could you... uh... I think you broke the stitching..."
She looked at him in surprise, blinked, and quickly recovered. "Oh, I get it. You distract me while your little friend jumps me from behind. Sorry, not gonna happen."
Tails watched with interest. Was the prince planning something?
"No tricks, I swear. I'm telling the truth."
"I'm not that stupid, prince."
He sighed. "Fine..."
He turned and walked toward Tails, still grasping his injured shoulder, and deliberately adding a slight limp to his movement. She had taken care of him once before. Maybe if he could play on what lingering sense of sympathy she had, he could get her to listen to him... and if he could get that far, maybe he could use what they had in common to help him sway her resolve...
He only got in a few steps before she caught him by the collar of his jacket, being sure to keep him between herself and Tails, who seemed significantly surprised at this turn of events. Let him wonder, she thought to herself. Might defuse his temper a little after what I said to him... sorry about that, kid, but you do what you have to...
"No tricks," She ordered as she pushed Elias to the floor, "or I swear I'll cut a whole lot more holes in you, and I won't sew them up, either. Got it?"
Elias nodded and lay down, folding his good arm behind his head where he couldn't move it quickly. She regarded him suspiciously as she pulled off his jacket and unwound his bandages, then reluctantly turned her attention to the stitches in question, cursing herself for a weak, emotion-driven fool and expecting Tails to knock her out at any given moment. The neat line of stitching still held perfectly, to her credit, but the wound itself had torn open again, probably due to her heel-digging. Giving herself a few mental kicks for regretting her actions, she retrieved what was left of her supplies to quickly staunch the bleeding with another one of those liquids that sting like hell but are supposed to help anyway. An essential part of any first-aid kit, those.
"I'm going to say something," he started, as she began wrapping the bandage again. "And I'm going to finish saying it no matter what you threaten to do to me. Please listen, Jessalyn."
No answer was forthcoming. She finished on his wound, using his jacket as a sling, like she had before. He continued.
"I... I just want to know that I do understand how you feel. You might not believe me, and I don't really expect you to, but I didn't grow up the way you think I did... in fact... it was much the same way as you did. Only I spent longer in the Forbidden Zone."
"Oh, of course," she said dryly.
"Like I said, I don't expect you to believe me. Nobody knows the truth about my childhood except the royals, the Secret Service, and one or two of the Freedom Fighters. But it was just like yours - I didn't have anybody, and nothing in life was certain except the danger you could count on to be there every time you turned your back. I know how it feels... when you wake up and wonder if you're going to live to the end of the day... when you've been running for so long that you're sure you're going to die if you have to take another step... when you actually want to give up, if only it means an end to it all..."
She snorted.
"I've felt like that a lot, and I'm willing to bet that you have, too. But we both kept going. Kind of strange, isn't it? No matter how much we tell ourselves that we don't care if we die, there's still something in us that keeps us fighting... Anyway, I know how you feel. And while I'll ask you not to do this to me, I know that you're going to make your own decision, because you're the only person left that you can trust. So, if you think this is what you have to do, go ahead. I'm done with fighting you. It's your choice."
As he ended the sentence, and Jessa was inwardly screaming at herself for being a sentimental fool and him for suddenly knowing her so damn well, a third voice joined in the conversation.
"I apologize for once again being late, Ms. Oregon. Shall we do business?"
"Happy?" Tails asked darkly, a few minutes after the trenchcoated figure left the cave with a securely bound and gagged Prince Elias in tow.
"It's not whether I'm happy or not," Jessa replied curtly. "It's the fact that I'm alive, and I can finally afford to keep myself that way for a while. If you've got a problem with that, you go rescue him."
Tails retrieved the Sword of Acorns from where it lay, and returned it to the bag he had been carrying it in. Then, with a last dark look back at Jessa, he headed toward the cave mouth.
"Hey, kid," she called. "Exactly where are you going?"
Tails rolled his eyes. "Where d'you think? To rescue him!"
"Are you kidding?! That guy practically has a fortress up there! You won't even get past the first line of defenses!"
"Yeah, well at least I've got the guts to try!"
He took off, tails whirring, and she shook her head angrily. "Fine. Fine! Go get yourself killed too! And here I thought you had a brain..."
Sabeth fell into step beside them, silent and swift as a shadow, as they walked back up the mountain.
"Sabeth," the trenchcoat acknowledged. "I've not seen you in some time."
"I have been about, Master," she replied evasively. It would not do for him to know her true motives. "You have finally acquired your new test subject, I see."
Elias made an angry noise behind the gag, and was cuffed over the head for it. "Indeed. The results of our next experiment should be most interesting."
Sabeth swore inwardly. That stupid girl had actually gone through with the deal! She had clearly overestimated the hunter's sense of morality. Or, perhaps, she had merely underestimated Jessalyn's inner fears...yes, that was probably it. Subconsciously, she had been too afraid to stand against Sabeth's 'master', but her conscious mind had translated the feeling into will and resolve. Right now, she was probably telling herself she had been stronger not to change her decision, completely oblivious to the fact that she would have displayed real strength by siding with the prince. Stupid girl. Sabeth had anticipated her being such a worthy opponent, but she was too crippled by her own insecurities to have a clear view of the world.
Now that young fox, he knew what he truly felt... but he was perhaps too open to it, too controlled by it. He had demonstrated that much when he had allowed Jessalyn's taunts to get to him so easily. But under that - simply a quality of childhood, Sabeth believed - he seemed to have a clear sense of honour, purpose and loyalty. Perhaps he would be the opponent she was searching for.
And then, the prince. He was the one she truly wanted to fight. His youth had gifted him with the sharp mind, honed reflexes and expert fighting skills that Jessalyn had, but at the same time, he knew himself, his identity, well enough that he could not be so easily manipulated by his fears, or by other people. Despite his rough childhood, he had honour and nobility, a surprising honest streak, and a rather poetic soul beneath his warrior's heart. And he had abandoned his cushioned life to wander the realm as a mapmaker! Such innocence... he was perfect... utterly perfect... she felt exhilarated just thinking about it. While her long-term plans for Prince Elias remained fixed, Sabeth yearned to meet him in battle before his end came, and put him to her final test. Jessalyn Oregon had underestimated the young royal, dismissed him as a sheltered, protected pushover, but Sabeth had done her research. An inquiry here, a promise there, and the lynx knew the truth about how the prince had grown up. And she knew that he was exactly what he was looking for.
But now this... Orion, this Mobian who thought himself her master because he was her creator, he had his own plans for the prince. She knew she could not let them come to be, even at the cost of betraying her true loyalties. Elias had a much higher purpose to serve than Orion's guinea pig. Yes, she really would have to do something about this turn of events...
Still, she knew Tails was following them. That would help some.
Tails again... wow, I really messed up this time... and Elias is in real trouble here. I only hope that what he said to Jessalyn before he was taken away starts to sink in... how can anybody be so cold? She's gotta change her mind! And who's this 'Sabeth' person? She's a mysterious soldier who wears silver armour and won't tell me anything about herself, but she says she wants to help. Can I trust her? Can I reach Elias in time if I don't? How do I choose? It'll all happen in Part Five of The Chosen, The Joining/In the Beginning! Next month!