Elias came to lying on his back, against something hard and flat that felt suspiciously like a table. His first instinct - to move his arms (or any other part of himself) - revealed that he was restrained, unsurprisingly, by tightly buckled straps around his wrists, ankles and stomach. His jacket and boots were gone, and there was a dull throbbing in his injured shoulder, a pain which was possibly what had awakened him. He remembered very little of what had gone before - after Jessalyn had handed him over to her mysterious trenchcoated client, and he had been guided (dragged) to some sort of... well... something. They had headed up the mountains, along what seemed to be no particular path, although it was obvious that Mr. Trenchcoat knew exactly where he was going. About halfway up, when he had just been able to pick out some sort of structure built into the side of the mountain (and quite well-concealed), 'Sabeth' had shown up. She made him uneasy - she had spoken little since she had appeared, but he knew he wasn't imagining the underlying threat in her voice, nor in the 'calculating' way she had looked at him.
A few more minutes, and Sabeth had spoken again, conferring something to the trenchcoat in whispered tones. Elias had attempted to listen in, but by the time he had noticed, she was already finished. This had caused a brief pause in their journey, and the trenchcoated figure had nodded at her with the words, "you are, as usual, correct." Before he could even wonder about this, Trenchcoat had forced him to his knees, and he had felt the brief but rather painful injection of something into the back of his neck. After that, to his recollection, he had gone out faster than a candle in a typhoon.
And woken up here. Where was here? Whatever sort of bunker or laboratory or prison he had noticed built into the side of the mountain, he supposed. He didn't care to guess at it any further than that - mostly because, unlike a great many people, Elias had the common sense to know (and admit) when he didn't know a thing.
His ears pricked up at the sound of voices, or rather, the echo of voices, which denoted that they were from an adjoining room or corridor. Quickly, he closed his eyes - the tones he was hearing sounded like an argument, and if he pretended he were still unconscious, he might be able to gain at least a little precious information about his situation...
"...Just think you should be careful," came a voice that he identified as Sabeth's. "Even if Jessalyn Oregon wisely chose not to turn on you, Miles Prower has spent far too long around heroes. I don't believe he will be deterred so easily."
"We are in no danger, Sabeth." The trenchcoat-wearing figure's deep baritone. "Even if he takes it into his foolhardy young head to attack us, he will not get past our defenses. We are virtually inside a fortress here, Sabeth."
"Yes, Master," Sabeth sounded repentant - perhaps deliberately so - but not totally submissive. "But I warn you not to underestimate him. I have been observing them all for some time now, and others have made the mistake of dismissing Prower as a follower. It was their downfall." Her tone changed ever-so-slightly, into what sounded to Elias like a subtle challenge. "I know you will handle things wisely, Master - you have invested too much into your plans to let them be destroyed now by an intrusion that could have been avoided."
"Very well," the trenchcoat conceded (by this point, the voices were in the room with Elias). "The subject should not wake for a while yet. I will attend your concerns, but you are to stay here and guard him, with your life if need be."
"Yes, master. Thank you."
The sound of his footsteps as he left, and hers as she moved over to stand beside him. Maybe, if Elias could somehow get himself loose, this would be his chance...
Be silent, and remain still. Your decision to do so thus far was an extremely wise one.
Elias' eyes shot open as the voice suddenly invaded his thoughts - a voice he didn't know, but, for some reason, he somehow knew it was Sabeth. It was the strangest feeling he had ever had - her thoughts were like waves edged in barbed wire, little ripples brushing up against the fringe of his mind with the threat of crashing breakers behind them.
Close your eyes! The voice ordered. Immediately, he did, because he could feel the urgency of her advice by the increased strength of her thought-waves. There are surveillance cameras in here. Do not physically react to what I say in any way, or the consequences may be dire for both of us.
She could read his thoughts?!
It just takes a little practice... and some unique talent. Now be quiet and listen carefully. I have little time to prepare you. I cannot risk Orion knowing what I am doing.
Okay... that was all well and good, but did he really trust her? He still remembered how she had looked at him... uh-oh... had he just thought that?...
Trust me or not, it is your choice, but know I could kill you now if I wanted - I can induce pain as easily as I can project my thoughts. Suddenly, the barb-wire waves wrapped around his brain and squeezed, a feeling not unlike that caused by the bionic wildcat two days ago, if a little more gentle. A second later, it released, and she added, but you will listen to me.
He did.
You still do not know why Orion wants you, do you? It is for your identity, as a son of the House of Acorns. Many years ago, he tried to capture your father, Maximillian, for the same reason.
But why? What did being an Acorn have to do with anything?
It is too detailed for me to explain quickly, but it has to do with his 'hobby'. A disgusting term for it, really, but people are often disgusting creatures. He has developed techniques, over his lifetime, that allow him to seize control of your mind, your very self, and subvert you to his will. Your bloodline in particular is extremely unique, and he has been waiting a very long time for the power he can gain from it. And now, thanks to that accursed fool bounty hunter, he has finally acquired one your line...
He thought that was slightly harsh. Jessa had hardly known what she was getting herself in for...
She found out soon enough to do something about it, Sabeth replied sharply. She could have prevented this, but she let her own cowardice get in the way...
Not fair! Jessalyn had good reason for acting as she had, and that was why he had gone along with it. The world had fashioned her into who she was - she was only doing what life had taught her was smartest. Who could rightly blame her for wanting to live?
Oh, shut up. You defend her only because you think she is like you. Well, the bare fact that you feel such empathy should make it obvious that she isn't. But enough! I cannot tell you exactly what Orion is planning to do to you, but I can guarantee you will be in a great deal of pain. I can do little to prepare you, but I can tell you one thing that may save your life - whatever he does to you, no matter how much it hurts, do not let yourself forget who you are. Write your name in your mind and focus on it, no matter how great the pain. It is the only thing that can stop him from -
Her thoughts vanished abruptly as the sound of footsteps alerted him to Orion's return, leaving the urgent warning, remember! As it fled.
The Sword of Acorns temporarily out of its bag and strapped over his back, Tails Prower crouched low in the shadows as he picked his way through the craggy, tooth-like boulders, keeping one nervous eye on the fearsome drop that lay a few inches to the right. After careful scrutiny (as careful as urgency would allow) of the mountainside fortress, he had devised the kind of haphazard, spur-of-the-moment strategy that, with a little of the luck the Freedom Fighters had always seemed to be blessed with, should allow him to infiltrate the place relatively unscathed. He had noticed that there was only really one face of the fortress showing - the rest of it was inside the mountain - and therefore, the one thing they wouldn't expect was an attack through the mountain, from behind, or underneath. But as he had gone up the mountain, he had noticed a great deal of caves, small and large, that sunk into the rock of the mountain. He was willing to bet that there was a whole network all through it, and it wouldn't take much to break through from one to another. He may not have had spines like a buzzsaw or useful little knuckle-claws, but he had developed some decent attacks that utilized his tails over the years, and if he kept them spinning fast enough, he could cut through things just as easily as Sonic could. That coat-wearing creep had probably underestimated him like all the others, but boy was he in for a surprise...
...Of course, if they were prepared for inside or rear attacks, there could be trouble...
...No! This plan was going to work! He was The Chosen One, and he could do it. He would gather them, the Wanderer Prince and the Huntress, no matter what it took. They would be The Chosen if he had to beat it into Jessalyn's head with a big wooden stick.
The dull clank of metal on stone sounded from behind him, and he spun, instinctively falling into fighting stance. However, when he did, he was caught off-guard by what he saw - a tall, slender, grey-furred and deep indigo-haired feline Mobian, wearing silver armour that covered her completely from the shoulders down, save for her long tail. A long, thick cloak, of the same shade as her hair fell around her, and she stood with her head bowed and her arms outstretched, in an obvious gesture of submission.
"Miles Prower, I presume?" She asked.
"Who are you?"
She looked up, meeting his eyes. "I am Sabeth. I come to you with information that may help you save your friend."
"How do you know about him?"
"I have worked for Orion," Sabeth gave him the devised story she knew would work best on him, regardless of the degree of truth it contained. "He is the man wearing the trenchcoat, who has Prince Elias. I was associated with him in the past, but he betrayed me, and almost cost me my life. I vowed I would take vengeance upon him, no matter how long I had to wait, so I have been watching his activity carefully. You've done quite good job of sneaking around up here, I must say."
"Well, I happen to be a trained professional, y'know," the fox informed her. "And as for your help, I can't accept it - I don't want to put anybody else in danger. This is my mission."
"My - handsome, brave and chivalrous," she smiled, and smiled further at his look of mild annoyance. "But you're mistaken - I'm not offering you my help. I'm suggesting an alliance. I will go up against Orion with or without you, but together, we stand a far better chance. Don't you agree?"
"Well, yes... but why should I trust you? Why would anything you've told me be the truth?"
She paused briefly. "Well... frankly, no reason. All I can say is that with every breath, your friend's chance of escape worsens. I can get you inside that fortress quicker than anybody save Orion himself, and that will give you a big advantage. And what's more, I'll take care of Orion - he's mine. You can just free the prince and get out. If you're a professional, you know that working with me gives you the best chance of success. So how about it?"
She extended a silver-covered hand, and Tails regarded it suspiciously. Everything she had said was true. He had no reason to trust her, except that her help might prove invaluable.
"All right," he finally agreed, shaking her hand. "Deal."
Elias screamed, and the walls bounced the echoes of his agony back to him from all angles. It was excruciating. It was unbearable. It was so intense, so powerful that it was almost inverted, like white heat, like ice burns. It speared through every limb and gathered like a flood before the gates of his mind, surging and thrashing and pounding against the fragile, shaky wall of his will. He was trying. He was trying so hard. He had done as she had told him, clung to his name as the symbol of his identity and refused to give it up, but it was so hard! It was like... like trying to shelter from a hailstorm under a paper umbrella, like trying to support a city on a toothpick. With every passing moment, he grew more desperate, less and less sure that he could hold out against the pain...
"... I am... Prince... Elias... Acorn..." he muttered fervently, choking on the words as the waves of pain surged anew. "... Prince... Elias... Alexander... Acorn... aaaagh!..."
"Go!" Sabeth hissed to her young 'ally'. "Most of the guards have been posted near the front in anticipation of your coming. If you hurry, you should make it through unnoticed!"
Tails dashed past her, through the narrow breach in the wall and into the corridor, quickly flattening himself against the opposite wall. "Will you be okay?" He asked in a whisper.
She nodded. "Go on! I'll take care of Orion!"
He took a step down the corridor, then turned back. "Hey, Sabeth! ... Thanks."
"Get going!"
"Right!" He took off down the corridor, tails flying out behind him.
When he disappeared round the corner, the lynx gave a small, sadistic smile, and headed off at an easy stride toward her quarters. The security cameras all fed back to there, and she wanted a good view - when Tails suddenly burst in on her 'master' at work, she wanted to see the looks on everybody's faces. If her guess was right, and Prince Elias was strong enough to resist Orion, the results sure would be interesting.
She had to admit, this was turning out to be pretty fun after all.
"Aw, no!" Tails groaned, smacking his forehead. Before him, the corridor hit a T-intersection, going both right and left. Time was running out fast - he couldn't afford to think about it - but which way?! Sabeth had never mentioned an intersection when she had described the path he should take! Did she think he was a psychic or something?!
Fast sinking into panic, Tails clenched and unclenched his fists, trying to find some factor that would allow him at least an educated guess... but there was nothing...
Until, suddenly, a tortured scream hurtled down the right-hand passage, with such violence that he practically felt it hit him. A scream that sounded very familiar. Tails was off like a hyperspeed hedgehog down the corridor, filled with a new sense of urgency - judging from that cry, Elias didn't have all that long left. The screams continued as he went, unerringly leading him through the twists and turns of the fortress' inner maze. The irony of it was horrible - if not for the cries, he would have been lost ages ago... but what a sickening thing to be guided by...
Forcing the thoughts away, he pressed on.
"You are wasting your time, boy," Orion sneered, setting down the saw-bladed knife and exchanging it for a small iron rod that was glowing with an intense, almost white-hot heat, having been charging up during his earlier work. "Give up, and the pain stops..."
Prince Elias' chest heaved and shuddered as he choked out the words, "... I... a-am... Prince... E-Elias... A-A-Acorn... ... E-E-Elias... Acorn..."
Orion swore inwardly. How had that accursed prince worked out how to resist him? Was it part of his power? Was it merely an instinct reaction? Damn him! None of the others had worked it out, even though it seemed so simple... well, no matter. The longer it took for Elias to submit to him, the surer his grasp on the young prince's mind would be...
"You're losing a lot of blood here... let's try something new," he said coolly, grasping Elias' right arm by the wrist and turning it over to reveal the star birthmark that identified him. The prince shut his eyes and braced himself; Orion smiled a little and waited a few moments, just to draw out the effect, and then brought the burning end of the rod down against the mark, inhaling the smell of burning fur and flesh. And Elias screamed again, and again, and again...
Then, like the second half of an army turning up just in time to turn the tide of battle, somebody short, furry and orange burst through the (locked) door, all but breaking it off its hinges with the strength of his charge. Orion was caught off-guard for a moment. Miles Prower? But... how had he gotten past security? And, moreover, Sabeth?
Tails rolled to his feet, fell into fighting stance, and threw a brief glance at... woah... that was... an awful lot of blood...
"Let him go, you sadistic freak!" The little fox seethed, drawing the Sword of Acorns.
"You little fool!" Orion snatched up the knife he had been using on Elias, preparing for a face-off. "You have no idea the powers you are meddling with!"
Tails allowed himself a heroically confident grin. "Do the words 'Chosen One' mean anything to you?"
"Get out of my way!" Orion snarled, jumping forward in a vicious thrust with the jagged-edged knife. With reflexes honed by years of fighting alongside Mobius' most famous hero (and some on his own), Tails ducked out of his opponent's path, rolling and leaping back to his feet behind Orion. In a swift upward stroke, he sliced up the back of the trenchcoat that Orion still wore, neatly cutting it in half. Inwardly, he thanked the Walkers that he'd let Antione teach him a bit of fencing last year.
With an angry cry, Orion swung around, the coat falling away. And Tails finally saw who he was fighting - a very tall, rather solidly built Mobian, who looked for all the world like a very oversized echidna. Orion's fur was a dark brown that was almost black, his features over-sharp and chiseled-looking, his typical echidna dreadlocks cut off into short, jagged-looking points. His eyes were almost completely black, tinted here and there with a fleck the colour of blood, sunken and strained and almost definitely insane.
And half his body was missing, replaced by polished black cyberlimbs.
"Die!" Orion screamed, and Tails prepared himself for another charge. Instead, he suddenly found himself seized by a horrible, stabbing pain in his temples, a pain that knocked the breath out of him and made his legs crumple like paper beneath him...
"You really think you can defeat me?!" Orion grinned, echidna-characteristic fangs showing in an insane grin. "Can't you see what I've become?! I am everything! I have all the greatest powers of my enemies combined! I have the power of cybernetic enhancements, yet I have my free will to guide them! And from the Acorn bloodline, I have the psychic energy of this entire planet behind me! I - "
Cut off mid-sentence in a strange, gurgling cry, Orion stiffened in disbelief, then collapsed forward, almost crushing Tails as the little fox scrambled out of the way.
"Yeah?" Jessalyn asked, unimpressed, standing in the doorway and holstering her pistol. "Well, yer head ain't bulletproof."
...The world was white and flawless, soft and mild, warm and quiet. It felt like peace. It felt like perfection. His father was standing beside him, one hand kind and comforting on his shoulder, the harsh anger that so often found its way onto his face vanished. There was his sister, smiling and radiant, free of the terrible burden that the losses of her youth had placed upon her, finally happy, finally free. And there was his mother, holding him in the embrace he hadn't felt since his childhood, that he could barely remember for its long absence, that it almost brought tears to his eyes to feel again. And he knew it was all a lie. He knew it wasn't real. His father hated him and had cast him out, and his sister was still weighed down by her sorrow, and his beloved mother was gone, lost almost five years ago.
But it was so beautiful. He could feel the warmth, their love radiating from them, accepting him, making him whole. What could it hurt? Why shouldn't he let himself stay here, just for a while, just to live for a moment in the world the way it should have been? Why shouldn't he take back these things - family, love, peace, home - all these things that were rightfully his? He wanted it more than anything he had ever wanted, just to stay here and pretend it was the truth...
Three shadows. No, not shadows - voids, spaces, shapes waiting to be filled. They were visible against the night sky as deeper than black, less than nothingness. The universe would not be complete until they were filled. As the moon moved through the sky overhead of the shapes, it began to turn through its phases, gradually sinking from fullness and cycling through to the new moon. And as he watched, the shapes began to blur, to shimmer with light and fill with colour. And they stood against the sky - a small orange fox with two tails, a beautiful dingo with enticing green eyes and long, sandy-blonde hair, and a tall, slightly lanky squirrel with scruffy eyebrows and rust-red hair. Who... who were they? He felt he knew them all from somewhere... he wanted to remember... their faces... their names...
He reached out toward them, and his finger came up against something cool, smooth, hard. Steel? Glass. Glass - a mirror? Then these people were...
"This is who we will become," said the fox, who stood to his right.
"The world will unfold as it must, and we will be there when it needs us," said the dingo, on his left. And this... the third, the squirrel, this must be him... but... what was his name? ...He couldn't remember? This didn't make sense! He knew who he was! He must! He was... he... he was...
The dingo pouted, glared at him with irritation, and gave him a good solid thump between the ears. "Hey, Elias, will ya quit screwin' around and wake up already?!"
"The moon!..." Elias gasped, jerking himself into a sitting position as consciousness flooded back to him. "The moon!..."
"Woah!" Jessa caught him by the shoulders and firmly pulled him back down. "Oh no, you ain't goin' anywhere for a while yet, yer Royal Batteredness."
"Jessalyn," he gripped her arm. "The moon..."
"Whu? It's a new moon tonight - not much to see..."
His face broke into a grin as he lay back down. "It's true..."
"Huh? Are you delirious?"
"The new moon shall herald the coming of The Chosen," Tails murmured from his position a few feet away, staring away and up at the night sky.
"Huh? Say what now?"
Tails grinned. "Aw, nothing. You probably wouldn't believe it anyhow..."
Jessa threw her arms up in exasperation. "Look, will somebody please tell me what in th' heck's goin' on around here?!"
"I told you, doesn't matter. Must be a 'sidekick' thing..."
"Oi, get back here ya little fuzzy freak! Yer gonna get it when I catch up with you..."
"It's true... it's really true..."
In her mind, a silver lynx watched them, and smiled.
Elias here... well, it looks like things turned out all right after all - though I would still really like to know what's going on with Sabeth. But there's just one question; what are we going to do now? Tails and I can't go home, and Jessalyn's sure she'll never work again. Luckily (or maybe not...) those Ancient Walkers seem to have a plan for every occasion, and Tails is leading us in a new direction in no time... it looks like we have a mission, in Part Six of The Chosen, Summons/Toward the Flame, here next month! See you then!
Sorry, that's all there is!