And that's all folks. Yes. Bam. Out of nowhere. It's over.
"What?" I hear you ask. "You can't just end it like that, you cruel bastard!"
Yes, it's quite a premature end, but as evidenced by the lack of updates, it was a long time coming. This story never left my mind in the last eight years I've been writing it, even during the (very) long spells between chapters. After two years of trying and failing to find the time to really knuckle down and finish it, rather fittingly for a SatAM story, I must sadly admit that it is time to let it go.
Being in my thirties now, I have a family and work commitments that are and have been higher up on my list of priroities than anything else – sadly, that's been to a debilitating effect for my progress in writing this story, but I never, ever forgot about it. I offer my most sincere thanks to everyone who read my ramblings here and encouraged me to continue with it. Thank you!
And while I must cut things short here, I don't want to leave it all on a cliffhanger, so let me at least fill you in on how it all ends…
Fight for Freedom, Part II
We last left things on a terse note. Chuck was dead, at least for the foreseeable future, at the hands of Scala Grama and his compatriots. Nicole's name was cleared and the hostilities between North and South were over – but only just in time for the final piece to fall into place for Angiris' plans.
He and his daughter had made it to Ironlock Prison to expose the Antithesis from its ancient place of rest, and rip the portal open, releasing cosmic streams of ethereal, eldritch energies into the atmosphere, to be absorbed by all kitsune, turning each one into almost a sort of demigod in their own right.
We last left Griff staring through the end of a bottle, a little worm on a hook far too large for him, feeling like Nicole's trust in him to act as her second was grossly misplaced. Now, it seemed to him like his end was in the offing, a just dessert for his cowardice hitherto. But before he could allow himself to do the worst thing of all – give up – Lupe discovered him, and talked him back into action. After all, it had been him that had led the underground freedom fighters so long ago, and done it so admirably. The only thing here that had changed was the scale of the conflict, but the loyalty that he was looked to with from the armies below him was no different to how it had been then.
Rotor's makeshift comms relay reopened the floodgates of communication between North and South once again, and what remained of the two forces now marched, arms linked, upon Ironlock.
However, all of this was to play into Angiris' plans. The two masses were herding themselves through the dense swampland to their inevitable slaughter, as he was well aware that despite the kitsune being outnumbered twenty to one, Ironlock's fortified position was well-defensible, and every newly-supercharged kitsune warrior was well worth ten Mobian soldiers.
The armies lay siege to the prison, flinging their munitions from down in the Dark Swamps to soften the kitsune's defences, under a crackling sky of ethereal green that made the fur on a Mobian's arms stand up straight. The kitsune emerged, one by one, to meet their attackers face to face, and their wrath proved more terrible than anyone imagined: a swathe of Mobotropilan and Treman lives met their end in the early minutes of the engagement. Immediately, the armies were forced to fall back, and the kitsune warriors became further emboldened. Suddenly, the valiant attack upon the kitsunes' position seemed like a slaughter. The armies were on the verge of being scattered.
Atop the prison, Angiris put his arm around his daughter's shoulder, and they both watched the chaos unfold. Angiris' heart fluttered with anticipation of the rightful ascension of his kind, while Fiona's gut churned with ambivalence.
Hidden deep in the jungles away from the chaos, Antoine, Bunnie, Knuckles and Tails met to assemble a covert demolition force. It was obvious by now that the Antithesis was far too immense a thing to close for good, but with the right strategy, they stood a chance of burying it long enough to sap the kitsune of their power source and allow the Northern and Southern armies to overwhelm them. The Freedom Fighters would use the skirmish as cover to sneak past the prison's natural and unnatural defences, and plant charges in each corner of the structure, in order to collapse the structure in on itself when they detonated.
The odds of this succeeding, in such bedlam, were slim to none. This was a fact understood well to all, and everyone was ready to give their own lives in the struggle.
But Nicole had seen enough lives lost under her watch, and suddenly the prospect of losing the people she loved so dearly, those closest to her that had been there for her in all of the hard times, was too much to bear, and she lost her nerve. She begged, pleaded with them to retreat and let her go alone. None of them would have it, especially Sonic. This was, after so long, his moment to live or die for. They said their thanks to each other, with tears of sorrow and gratitude, and made their way in.
In pairs – Bunnie with Antoine, Knuckles with Tails, and Sonic with Nicole, they snaked their way past the lines of battle, placing seismic charges at each of Ironlock's weakest structural points, the prison itself already teetering on collapse with the Antithesis below having blown a gaping hole clear through the middle of it.
They regrouped undetected, and were ready to retreat, and deliver the coup de grace upon Ironlock.
But before they could get clear, Scala Grama finally descended upon them. In a flash, several supercharged, power-mad kitsune had them boxed in. Tails' newfound powers put him on an even keel with them, but all the same, they were badly outmatched. Sonic and Scala locked eyes, their rage bubbling to the fore. Nicole ran after Sonic to try and stop him, and it was then that Scala whisked the three of them away with a flick of his fingers, down into the swamps, well clear of Ironlock.
Scala's powers from the Antithesis were beyond reproach, but Sonic's speed served him well, with Scala's deadly magical attacks finding only empty air where there'd once been a hedgehog. One-one-one, the hedgehog and kitsune traded blows. Sonic, his abilities bolstered by a factor of five with his power ring, was barely holding out against the kitsune warrior's onslaught. But the hedgehog would eventually falter, and then Scala suddenly had him pinned to the ground, hook-blade in hand, ready to slit the hedgehog's throat from ear to ear and fulfil his lethal vendetta against him.
At the last second, Nicole hopelessly tried to intervene. And instead, the hook-blade came down through her chest.
Sonic watched the blade go in, and then all he could think of was Sally.
He would not lose another one. Not again.
The hedgehog launched into a volley of ferocious attacks, fuelled not by the power ring's waning energy, but simply his own unbridaled rage, and forced the fox to the ground. And finally, there was no holding back this time – the hedgehog ended Scala's life. Weeping, he cradled a gravely-wounded Nicole in his arms, and did the only thing he could think to do – get her away from the furore. The fate of the world suddenly didn't matter anymore, as long as he could get her through this alive. The two disappeared into the jungle.
Back closer to the prison, Angiris had arrived on the scene. The fight between the Freedom Fighters and kitsune was coming to an end, and the Freedom Fighters had come out second-best – all overpowered and exhausted, the Padra Utama gave the order to have them executed.
But before the order could be carried out, the charges detonated. The entire structure began to collapse beneath their feet.
It had been expected that the dissolution of Ironlock prison would obscure the Antithesis and its influence from the kitsune, but the effect was unlike anything anyone expected. The properties of the portal were unpredictable at the best of times, and instead of collapsing inwards, the anomaly expanded outwards, and suddenly laws of phsyics were broken – pieces of the Mobian landscape were suspended in mid-air, and the group found themselves stranded miles above ground, alone with Angiris and Fiona, on an island of rock helplessly swaying in a kind of cosmic tornado, caught outside the realms of time and gravity.
Tails was the only one who could stand a chance against the combined forces of Angiris and his daughter, and two parties squared off in a brutal battle of raw energy and barbarian savagery. But it was a losing battle from the start for Miles Prower, against two warriors far superior in skill to him even without their augmented powers.
With Angiris about to deliver the final killing blow, his stroke of death was interrupted by his own daughter, Fiona, with a phrase that no one else would or could have said: "Galala gruma." She had proposed a duel to the death, with her own father. The winner would be the new ruler of the Enclave.
Taken aback, and insulted, but unable to refuse, Angiris prepared to go toe-to-toe with his offspring. They clashed without use of their powers, claws, fists, teeth and blades only. The others could only stand there, slack-jawed, as the battle played out.
And with a triumphant roar, Fiona drove her blade into her father's stomach, and disembowelled him.
As he lay bleeding to death in his daughter's arms, Angiris reached up with a bloodied, shaking hand to touch her cheek. He passed from the world in joy and rapture, proud of the strong, forthright and principled daughter he'd raised, now the Gela Utama.
The disparate pieces of land surrounding the rubble of Ironlock Prison descended back to the earth, and the rest of the kitsune formed a circle around Fiona, holding her dead father in her arms. Fiona looked at them, then looked up at the emerald skies, and let out of a howl of mourning to Angiris' passing. The other kitsune followed. Tails watched over the procession for a moment, and could only sink to a knee and join them in their chorus.
The kitsune swore their fealty to Fiona. She wiped her tears from her eyes, got to her feet, and with a flick of her arm, she closed the Antithesis, at once turning the angry green skies clear and bathing the battleground in eerie silence, but for the faint blowing of wind and crackling of distant fires.
Then, she slowly turned to her kin, and told them that the fighting was over. They were going home.
Sundown
The deal was set quickly: the remaining kitsune would return to Duruga without a fight, never to return. The Antithesis would be sealed once again and for all time, as not even its power was destroying all the life and order in the world for. They were led by the remaining Mobian Armies, under Northern and Southern banners, to the boats from which they came, and prepared for their journey back. Tails was there to see them off. Fiona saw him and approached.
"You should come with us," she told him. "With me. The Gela Utama needs a mate to rule at her side... I want it to be you, Miles Prower."
He had to admit, he had thought about it. His instincts drew him that way. The allure of going with them was strong, and the thought of being with her was even stronger. But he'd left his family, his real family, once before, and he wasn't going to do it again. He had fences to mend, and wrongs to right. She kissed him for the first and last time, and then she was gone.
Sonic had tended to Nicole's injury since the battle, never leaving her side. Nicole, albeit barely conscious, had guided him through the process of disinfecting her wound and sealing it, and Sonic had found himself unexpectedly talented as a healer. With his oversight, she made it through.
In the weeks following her recovery, Nicole retook her throne in the Acorn Monarchy, being granted a royal pardon by the regent, Griff. Upon doing this, Nicole invited Ari to sign the treaty that had never been signed on the night of Christof's fateful murder – but this time, in public, in front of both nations.
Then, Nicole stepped down.
In her closing speech, she outlined the terms of the agreement. There would be no more Treman Empire. There would be no more Acorn Monarchy. No more North, and no more South – from now, there would be one Mobius, united as they should've been since before the Great War.
She knew, and acknowledged, that peace would not come overnight. Old grudges still seethed in the young and old, and wounds both old and new still bled. But in time, and with understanding, they would unite in a new common goal, and a common law.
The future now was left in the hands of the children, like Amelie and so many others who would grow up in this new world. They had a sacred duty, to make peace with each other, and peace with themselves. The fight for freedom had been won, and the new generation to be made its stewards, saddled with the burden of keeping that freedom alive, to keep at bay the resentment, superstition and mistrust that had sowed the seeds of war for generations before.
Would they ever accomplish this? Would they?
For another time, that story is.