The obligatory stuff:

None of the Sega & DiC characters are mine, I don't in any way claim that they are. The ideas and dialog however, are mine and not representative of Sega, Archie, or DiC and their opinions or views. Ideas, characters such as Jake, and the plot are mine. All are free to use by anyone and everyone because that's what FanFiction is about. Again ideas and dialog in this story are mine and represent my work using copyrighted characters.

A few important things about this story.

Resistance: Aftermath is the third story in a series. It should be fun to read by itself, but there is a lot of plot points that may be lost on anyone just joining now.

Resistance is the first story in the series, and subsequently is slightly weaker given then I wasn't nearly as strong of a writer when I wrote it (my own opinion). Resistance also directly precedes this story chronologically even though Resistance: Futile was the second story in the series. What this means is that if you're interested in jumping in, you only need to read the first story (Resistance) to understand what's happening in this one. Resistance: Futile can be read at your leisure as it precedes Resistance.

A few important things about this series.

The Resistance series takes place in a fictional world of my own devise. I ignore most precedents in terms of world and setting provided by Archie, Sega or Dic in favor of creating my own. I wanted to write a story about how the characters would act in a war against Julian Kintobor (Robotnik) in a more familiar setting where humans are still part of every day life. The timeframe is set not that far into the future and yet should in many ways seem older (think 90's era infrastructure with tech from 100 years from now). Populations of people depending on their location will act differently. This is also true for characters based on their past and current situations. In short what I am saying is that people may seem OOC, but that is because I am interpreting how they would act given the world and scenarios I am putting them in. I don't like to build a world around predefined notions about characters because it forces too many things.

For anyone that's still with me after all this time.

This story is for you guys. I have loved all of your support. I'm sorry it's taken me this long to continue the series, but here it is. Hopefully a few of you are still around to read it!

Help me be a better writer.

I strive to be a better writer every day. I welcome any and all critiquing, and yes that includes you grammar nazis. Let me know what I can do better, what you liked and what you didn't.

Enjoy the story!

He watched himself in the reflection of her eyes. It was easy to get lost in their endless abyss. Wrapping his paws around the small of her back, he pulled her close. The mellow sound of her breathing was hypnotic and before the Mobian could whisper more lies, he was asleep in the warmth of her arms.

Darkness grew while a chilly plague of bleakness surrounded him, swallowing him whole. It had the makings of a landscape created by a fear-fueled imagination. Nothing was the same, nothing was how it had been. He was still unsure how he had gotten here, but the vertigo of waking back into what he hoped was a more forgiving groggy reality was quick to make itself present.

Fatigue was not a feeling he was familiar with. Moving felt like it was through quick sand, smothering his momentum with every inch gained. Just putting together the thought to reach out into the blackness was tiring, let alone lifting an arm. Like his nightmares, there was no escape from the suffocating gloom that worked against him at every turn.

Where the hell am I? The questions finally surfaced in his muddled mind.

Tracing his steps backwards wasn't as easy as he had hoped. Memories turned into a grey static that hurt to recall.

Am I still dreaming?

It would have been the easy answer, but there was no way to tell, his body was numb. When the Mobian's arm finally made it beyond where his eyes could see, the tug of cold steel and the rattle of chains were there to greet him. His back tingled in pain; it was locked tightly against a moist concrete surface.

"What?" he stammered, trying with all his might to say just the one-syllable word.

Despite the haze in his vision, a silhouette appeared in the distance as a solitary overhead light flickered into existence amidst a halogen-powered frenzy. A stuttered electric hum accompanied the entrance, complimented only by the stranger snapping his fingers in time with a growing rhythm.

Lyrics used below are not mine. I will occasionally mix in music to change things up a bit (for my own sanity really), but overall it's rare.

Now Playing: Paper Trails By: DARKSIDE

The first words the man uttered were too garbled for his senses to grasp. As the figure drew nearer, shuffling with a delightful step, another light snapped on, bringing his illusive figure closer still.

"I told you I would get you," the voice sang in time with the melody. "The back of the hand."

Sweat was running down his brow, the tone of this shadow was one that inspired fear even if he couldn't place why.

"I told you I would find you," the person sang before clicking their heels together, "a place to go."

This isn't the type of place I would want to go.

"The grass is green but the , the sun is blue," the seemingly jolly man went on in giddy way.

There was no sun or grass to speak of, just a fleeting darkness being replaced by a the dim glow of florescent bulbs. Apprehension began to course through his blood with each new light that blinked into being. The sound of the stranger's voice only helped paint the round figure whose dance like steps brought him closer and closer.

"Better find a way, to get through to you."

You have my attention, he thought before testing the quality of his restraints again. Even if he hadn't been drugged, there was little chance of escape. This isn't a dream, the Mobian finally realized as a new wave of panic bit into his nerves.

At just five feet a way, the man finally broke away from his song, "What's the matter, hedgehog? Don't recognize me?"

It can't be.

When the last light sprang to life overhead, Julian pressed his bulbous nose into Sonic's face, narrowing his gaze into the defeated Mobian's eyes.

"Don't look so surprised. Did you honestly think you could kill me?" he spat with confidence.

The hedgehog was admittedly scared to speak, he was talking to a dead man after all.

"They put a bullet in your head," Sonic managed through a still numb tongue.

"Well it depends on what your view of 'my head' is," the deranged dictator began. "It was at one point, 'my head,' just not anymore."

Any attempt he made at hiding his look of awe was moot, the doctor saw through it plainly.

"It's a marvelous thing, technology," Julian went on. "Wouldn't you agree?"

Sonic looked away, refusing to meet the mad man's eyes. However, the slimy grip of the overturned dictator's fingers grasped his mussel, forcing him to face an evil he thought gone from the world.

"Don't you want to know how I did it?"

With a quick inhale, the hedgehog spit in his face, making his answer quite clear.

"Tasteless creature," the man grumbled, using his sleeve to wipe the saliva away from his face. "Have you no curiosity?"

Sonic remained defiant, maintaining his silence in the presence of an arrogance greater than his own.

"Then perhaps I'll just show you," Kintobor went on, motioning to the walls surrounding them as power brought more lights to his left to life.

A loss for words was not a common thing for the hedgehog, but for the first time in a long time he was speechless. Large tubes lined the walls, each with its very own gelatinous husk of a man floating inside. They appeared lifeless, their skin pale and eyes hollow.

"Clones?" Sonic asked in a way that suggested Julian had cheated.

The fat man chuckled deeply, "If only it were that simple. What good is a clone? It doesn't think like me, it doesn't have my memories; it quite simply, isn't me. BUT!" he emphasized raising a finger into the air, "genetically they're me, made of the same parts. If only there was a way to transfer for those things that make us so uniquely human."

"Roboticization," the Mobian whispered with a small amount of astonishment.

Tails and Sally had explained it to him countless times and he still didn't quite get it. What he did however understand was that it made you a computer, and computers could share and transfer information.

"What was that hedgehog? Did I hear you say Roboticization? More clever than you look, aren't you?" Julian chided as he strutted around, hands folded behind his back with pride. "My demonstration that night was not the first time I roboticized myself. That was just to show what could be done."

He's insane, Sonic thought, staring wide-eyed at his captor.

Tapping his skull Kintobor continued, "No, I turned this into a machine first. Aside from unlocking my potential, I was also able to back up my entire consciousness. After that all I had to was download myself into a new body."

"But…" Sonic began, "It's still not really you."

"Isn't it? What are we but our memories, Sonic? What are we but a collection of experiences, emotion, and desires?" the man asked, stretching out his robotic arm to admire his work, "this feels like me."

The thought had never occurred to him. Could the memories make up the totality of a person? If boiled down to nothing but their consciousness is that all that would remain?

Isn't there something more?

But there he stood, as evil as ever, the sneer that crept up his rosy cheeks looking sinister and mysterious. It was hard to deny that this was Julian Kintobor.

"No," he finally muttered, denying the facts as they appeared before him. "Fiona killed you."

"Believe whatever you like, hedgehog. It won't help you, no matter how stubborn you are."

Sonic tugged at the chains again, but it was pointless. He could feel the IV line in his arm, pumping him full of what felt like sedatives. His strength was gone, his mind on the fleeting edge of consciousness.

"And I am so glad you brought up those foxes. I have added some space down here just for them," Julian said gruffly while motioning to the free shackles next to Sonic. "Ordinarily I wouldn't waste my time with such pathetic creatures, but they made things personal when they killed me."

The hedgehog almost laughed when he heard Kintobor say it so nonchalantly. "What did you expect after you got between them? I did that once and it nearly got me killed…" Sonic trailed off.

"I fed her, clothed her, gave her free reign of my country!" the mad man roared. "And how does she thank me? With a bullet. What kind of gratitude is that!? And as for my little brat of a nephew taking sides with Naugus… well I am sure I can find some more room down here."

"Good luck catching them," the hedgehog scoffed.

"Colin," he laughed, "That sniveling buffoon would piss himself dry if he knew I was alive. As for the foxes, I am not that worried about it, I caught you didn't I?"

Sonic gulped, Julian had caught him, and he still wasn't sure how. His memory was a distant thing still.

"Miles weakness is the same as yours, the girl. So pathetic you let some inconsequential emotion get you killed."

"Look who's talking," the Mobian laughed, "look where greed got you."

The foxes had persevered through more than anyone could imagine and it was only because of the love for each other that they were able to survive long enough to get the revenge they both desired.

"You felt so safe that I was able pluck you right from where you sleep whilst your lover lay next to you."

"Sally? What did you do with her!?" the Freedom Fighter screamed at the top of his lungs, his flesh tearing as he tugged at the irons with an adrenalin fueled rage.

Kintobor began to chuckle, clearly amused with himself, "The princess is just fine… for now. She's not the one I was talking about."

Sonic gulped, how did he find out about that? Was she in on it too?

"Your affinity for the pink hedgehog amuses me. Such an obnoxious creature, even you must agree."

"You leave Amy out of this!"

His relationship with her was complicated at the very least and it certainly explained how Julian had gotten to him. The pink hedgehog's tattered apartment was in the heart of the Capital City.

"No need to waste your breath, I don't have the time or patience to waste on her. Although I do wonder how the princess feels about this romance."

Sonic remained quiet, stewing in his own pity and self loathing.

"Of course," the dictator laughed, "just as I suspected, she doesn't know."

Amy had been an accident. She had been there when Sally wasn't. The princess had a way of freezing him out, but the warmth in pink hedgehog's smile never dulled. His only regret was not ending it before it got out of hand. Sonic often found himself sneaking away to see her. It had become his guilty pleasure.

"What do you want Kintobor?"

"Kintobor is dead," the man snapped back, "you may address me as Doctor Robotnik."

In his groggy state, Sonic twirled the letters around in his head.

R-o-b-o-t-n-i-k—K-i-n-t-o-b-o-r… Backwards, he spelled his name backwards.

"You're joking right?" the Freedom Fighter asked sarcastically.

The mad man laughed as he stretch out his robotic arm again, letting it glimmer in the light, "I find it a bit more fitting now, don't you?"

Sonic fought the urge to spit in his face again, "let's just get this over with Robobutt."

"Patience!" the overthrown dictator scowled. "Your time will come. I have plans for you, so get comfortable."

"Patience isn't my strong suit, doc," the hedgehog dared to tease him, knowing now that his life was strangely important to the deranged man.

"So quick aren't you? No time to stop and think, let alone sit still. I am going to figure out what makes you tick, hedgehog. A few needle pricks here, and a few exploratory surgeries there. I will wear you down until everything that you are is mine, Sonic. Your limitless speed will be nothing more than feature for me to harness."

"I'll die first."

"I know, I know," Robotnik said as he looked to the shadows on his left, "but I'll be sure to take of you until I'm done."

Following the man's gaze Sonic could only make out the telltale silhouettes of the large test tubes. Squinting, the hedgehog attempted to pry into the darkness, but his unadjusted vision was useless in these dreary conditions.

What's' he hiding?

"This is going to be so much fun," the doctor said with an uncomfortable amount of joy.

They trained for this, but nothing about torture struck Sonic as fun.

"Forget Capital City, I'll take all of Mobius."

Sonic was still quiet. He had lost the will to speak. Tails had made his mistake, but it was starting to look as if Sonic's would have larger and farther reaching consequences. Now it remained to be seen whether, like the two-tailed fox, he could fix it.

"I'll be sure to give the princess your regards, Sonic," Julian said before turning around.

"You're not going to get away with this. You know that right?"

"But I already have. Good night, Sonic," the man waved as the overhead lights faded.

The icy cold feeling of a narcotic began to flood his veins, entering through the needle in his arm, bringing with it the warmth of sleep. His conscious was whisked away into the darkness again.