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“Sure, go into the castle, Rosy. It’ll be easy , Rosy. I sure hope that fox is right about this damn beryl or I'll turn him into a rug.”
The anti- Amy was sneaking through the servants' passages of Castle Mobius, following a map pulled up on the TailsTech watch the fox had given her. Working with her Prime alternate and her friends was never pleasant, but it was a means to an end; an end of an era, an end of a reign, and if Rosy got her way about it, the end to the Anti-Sonic’s life by her hand.
But she wasn't there to smash his face in. Not tonight.
Instead, her goals were something deep in the belly of the castle, a power source that was giving the bastard king unfathomable amounts of energy. Being the only person able to navigate her home world without getting jumped, she was offered a deal: find the source and trade it for the right to beat Scourge to death.
The theory was a collection of the anarchy beryls, the unstable cousins to the chaos emeralds with the unfortunate habit of driving their users insane. Even one of them could be used to level a city with relative ease.
Not that he needed one. A flashback hit her unwillingly, vivid and painful. The smell of smoke and the feeling of the heat that burned her cheeks as she watched her childhood go up in flames. The sick cackle of the speedster as he took joy in the chaos. The screams of her neighbors. Up until that point she’d idolized the other hedgehog, looked up to him like he hung the stars in the sky.
Bile rose in her throat at the thought.
A slam of a not-so distant door snapped her out of it, and Rosy spat on the floor to rid her mouth of the taste of weakness. Pressing on, she found the stairwell that would lead her down into the basement, the tubes of strangely glowing light an indication that she was probably proceeding on the correct path.
After what felt like a million flights of stairs, she found a door with a keypad blocking her path. It was heavy, reinforced at every joint and seam with bolts and steel she knew she couldn't punch through.
A brief inspection of the keypad showed that the tech was old and outdated. It wasn't hard to figure out the password of choice when the four number keys that matched Scourge’s birthday were worn off entirely.
What a narcissist.
It was dark in the room, lit only by an unnatural green glow from the tubes overhead. She had no time for hesitation, so she stormed right in and braced for the guards, the traps, something heavy and covered in spikes- she was sure of it. What she was greeted with was only gloom and the sound of the door shutting behind her with a snap.
The whirr of heavy-duty locks echoed as they clicked back into place.
Deciding that was a problem for future Rosy, she turned to the source of light in the room. Where she had been expecting a stone hooked into machinery or a gem set nicely on a pedestal, she instead found a cage in which a dark shape was laying.
It wasn't any kind of Mobian she’d ever seen, and its body was so dark it was hard to determine its true shape. As she approached, it shifted, revealing a contraption of metal and wires crossing over part of it, attached to the luminescent tubes hanging from the ceiling. It took her a moment to realize the design of a muzzle, heavy duty and reinforced.
Three eyes of crimson looked up at her but did not seem to notice she was there. Looking off into the middle distance, awake but apathetic. A low whine sounded as the lights grew brighter and a machine above them whirred, moving the flowing light upwards and drawing it out of the creature.
Her heart broke. Despite her trauma and malice and disregard for others, Rosy was still Amy at her core and animal abuse was a kind of evil that she couldn't take in any form. She moved to the side of the cage that was closest to the creature's face, watched as its eyes finally settled on her.
“I’ll get you out of here,” she promised, then got up and rushed about the darkened room for any clues as to what she was looking at.
Many of the files that were scattered around referenced something called Project Terios. A few diagrams on the machine written in code, indecipherable in detail. A remote was tucked in a drawer, ‘release’ labeled above a large red button. That was pocketed for later.
Finally, she worked her way around to a console on the other side of the room, a foot away from the cage. A biometric scanner, no doubt set for Scourge’s DNA. She continued inspecting the technology, looking for a loose panel she could pry open to dismantle the machine subtly. The dark shape grew closer, lethargically as it worked to follow her motions.
After finding no purchase on the console, she settled for the old-fashioned way.
The beast jumped back as she summoned her hammer, but only for a moment as it moved closer again to try and inspect it. She could hear the beast sniffing the air, and watched as it titled its head like a confused puppy.
“Okay, back it up. You're gonna wanna be away from this part.” She shooed the beast back, having only the vaguest guess of its location based on the size of its eyes. When it was far enough away, she planted her feet and smashed the pointed end of her hammer into the machine, crumbling the device to pieces in a shower of sparks. This worked to shut the machine above them off entirely but plunged the room into darkness. For a second, all she could see was the glow of red eyes and the start of stripes that matched coming back into color as the beast stepped out of its cage.
And then the alarms went off.
Flashing lights and a blaring siren; her stealth mission had turned to an escape plan, and Rosy was left scrambling to find a way out. No vent in the room was big enough to hold the beast, nor did she think she would be able to carry him up all of those stairs.
But then, she didn't need to. Once the energy was no longer being drained away, the beast recovered quickly. It shook its head and huffed, clawing at the muzzle in frustration. When it couldn't remove its restraint, it chose instead to stand up. And up. And…
Oh Anarchy , this thing was huge.
Still unable to see the shape of her companion clearly with the strobing lights, she was distracted from the task by the sound of the door opening and a pair of castle guards rushing in. If she didn't know better, she would assume the beast was…chuckling?
It moved quickly, too quickly, and attacked one of the opposing guards, launching them across the room into a bookshelf. The other was pounced on, and the beast snapped its jaws uselessly in its cage as its prey screamed. Another sound of a hit and the screaming stopped, but only as a second wave of guards opened the door and tossed glowing green nets at the beast, causing it to yelp out in pain with only the briefest contact.
She watched, hidden behind a set of desks as net after net was tossed over the beast, weighted ones that dragged it to its knees under their burden. From there guards piled onto its limbs, calling for backup into their radios as they struggled to contain the thrashing beast.
The beast was getting overwhelmed, it was losing! As hard as it bit, it was locked behind the muzzle and with its arms weighted down by nets and the weight of three guards each, its whining got desperate. It looked in her direction for just a second too long and alerted one of the guards to her presence.
"Hey! What are you doing here?"
She grabbed for the remote in her pocket, weighing her options. She didn't know what this thing was, or if she would be its next target once the muzzle came off. She didn't even know if this was the right remote! But the cracking of electricity and the faint recollection of what it felt like to be on the receiving end of a taser left her no choice.
She didn't have to win.
Scourge just had to lose.
A hiss escaped the muzzle as the glowing light died and the restraint slipped off the beast's face. This time, even through the strobing lights, she knew the beast wasn't just baring its teeth.
It was smiling.
She ducked under one of the desks and covered her ears as the massacre started.
By the time Rosy felt safe enough to look out from behind the desk she’d sought refuge under, her and the beast were the only two living things remaining in the room. Those white fangs from earlier shone red with blood, and there was a light in the trio of eyes that was new.
It sniffed the air and turned its attention to her, stalking over. It was bipedal, she noted, and lifted the desk with one hand, using the other to drag her to her feet. Heart pounding in her ears, Rosy was sure this was her doom, but instead the beast just dragged her to follow it out of the space.
We need to leave. Follow me
The voice in her head wasn't her own, it was smooth and deep like velvet, like a low rumble of a thunderstorm a mile away. She shook her head, tugging her wrist back as best she could.
“Let go!” she demanded, the voice responding again.
There is no time. I am thankful for my rescue, but I WILL leave you here if I have to.
The stomping of approaching guards’ footsteps rang out, and Rosy was left with no choice but to trust the monster in front of her. She allowed it to lead them out over the puddle of viscera that was formerly the guards, and as she passed the discarded muzzle she scooped it off the floor and tucked it away without the other noticing.
“How are you in my head!?” she demanded as they rushed through the castle, bulldozing anyone in their path via hammer or teeth.
Telepathy. Turn here.
It sniffed the air and dragged her down another hallway, which led through the kitchen to the outdoors. The night and the forest provided them with plenty of cover as they ran from the pursuing forces, only stopping after an hour once they found suitable brush to hide in. Rosy nearly collapsed, her heart pounding in her ears as she sank to the floor. The beast sat as well, inspecting her.
Why did you save me?
The rascal panted, waving the beast off. "I was told you were a beryl. I wanted him to lose the power source he was relying on."
You want the king to suffer.
“I want him dead .”
It moved in front of her, just as moonlight poured out from behind a cloud. Finally able to view its whole form, she shivered. Its pelt was mostly dark, like a black hole soaking in the light, making the glowing red irises and stripes stand out all the more. They wrapped around the quill and horn like protrusions on the beast's head, down its arms and legs, and appeared around its torso like a ribcage, framing thick white fluff. Its tail, long and whip-like, was also tipped in red, and flicked behind its owner idly.
It sat back on its haunches and Rosy let out a breath that had been causing her lungs to ache. Even kneeling, he was taller than she was.
I am Terios, prince of the Black Arms, heir to the Black Comet. I seek to avenge my family.
Odd. The beast before her was nothing like the pompous and stoic hedgehog that acted as a guard dog for her Prime counterpart whenever they met in person.
Rosy stuck her hand out for the other to shake. “Rosy the Rascal. If you want to help us, we need to make our way back to the meeting point which is on the north side of the kingdom.”
Naturally.
“And you can’t eat me.”
It huffed, a laugh as far as she could tell based on how its tail flicked.
I was not planning on it. You would taste terrible.
She got up to make a snide remark, and nearly collapsed as the adrenaline rush wore off. The beast’s reflexes were fast, and it caught her with relative ease before shifting so he could carry her piggy back style.
“I can walk.”
No you cannot. You got me out of the castle, now recover while I put more distance between us and them. I do not need sleep and traveling by night is safer.
It urged her again, and then hoisted her against her will. Rosy would have fought back if it hadn't been right. She was tired. It was warm and its spines flared to keep her hidden, pressing her into the soft underlayer of insulating quills.
With the gentle rock of its footsteps as the beast ran on all fours in the direction indicated, Rosy fell asleep.