The Last Day Alive

By MistressAli

All characters and places are (c) Sega/Archie/Dic.

 

Hey all. I felt like writing a lemon, and so this idea came up... I like it, though the ending I believe is just... well sucky. I couldn't think up anything decent and my inspiration on this had gone bye-bye!

This story contains: swearing, descriptions of dead stuff and uh... sex! Continue at your own risk!

 

'if I should die this very moment

I wouldn't fear

For I've never known completeness

Like being here...'

- Lamb 'Gorecki'

 

***

 

 

If all the freedom fighters were dead, they said they'd always have each other.

 

If Knothole was destroyed, they said they'd always have each other.

 

She wondered if these words were true, if they could hold true. She stumbled, arms held tight by two SWATbots. They felt cold, and she wondered if it was the chill from her aching heart and shivering body transferring to them. The ground blurred before her, tears falling to dot the dry dirt.

 

Ahead of her, Sonic was being dragged through the filth. He hung limply, unconscious, red blooming from a blow to the head.

 

She prayed he wasn't dead. If he was...

 

Then the SWATs could shoot her right here.

 

She didn't think she could exist without him. That seemed funny, she thought, and she could nearly laugh, but the pain wouldn't let her. Her, the princess, the leader of the rebellion, being so dependent on another! They never knew how much of her existence lay with Sonic. He was her friend, her love. He was the other half of her, completing her.

 

She knew, gazing blurry-eyed on the quills on his limp back, his hanging head, that he felt the same of her.

 

If everything was dead, they'd always have each other.

 

**

 

Oh, what a joyous day it was for Julian Ivo Robotnik.

 

Every monitor in the command room was lit up, showing the same glorious footage. He stood in the center of them, turning around and around with his arms thrown out, lost in the display. It showed burning huts. It showed smoking corpses. Trees razed to the ground, sap oozing from stumps like blood. And there was blood too, on the grass, on the little picnic tables spread around the village.

 

The village. The enemy's base, the elusive prey Robotnik had stalked for so many years now. Finally, he had caught a break. While breaking a prisoner nonetheless. They had caved in, offered him the payment those damn beasts seemed to think was the highest. Higher than their own lives, even!

 

The location of Knothole.

 

He could spend the entire day just watching this footage. No, he could spend a year! He cackled so evilly it set off a small nervous noise from behind him. He turned to see Snively, leaning against the throne, but when Uncle's eyes rested upon him, he quickly straightened. 

 

"Isn't it glorious? Isn't it marvelous!?"

 

The small one beamed widely. "Oh yes, sir! Very much!" He sounded genuinely truthful, and the smile curving those lips was real. He had wanted the destruction of the village just as badly. He too had cheered and screamed orders to burn and shoot and crush over the airwaves and to the SWATs and hovercraft that had decimated the village.

 

Robotnik thought they would put up a fight. He thought the battle would be long (though ultimately won by him) and a wonderful, futile thing to watch. But the village was nearly defenseless. So many had died in the first wave of SWATs. Some ran. But most died, those unimportant souls, the ones who stayed and hid in the forest all their lives.

 

'What a wretched way to live,' sneered Robotnik. 'When they could live here, under my metal wings, free from pain.' Or at least they should've fought, if they wanted their own lifestyle so badly...

 

So, he killed them. But the *real* enemies, the fire-laced brood with the determined eyes and stern lips, and their heads full of ambition, Oh...no. They died slowly.

 

He hated them so; the dragon, the rabbit, the kitsune, the French fox, the walrus!

 

But there was two he hated more, and he had nearly screamed with laughter, joy threatening to burst his heart inside his chest. To see the hedgehog, and the squirrel watching as their friends died before their eyes...

 

**

 

"They have their presents, then."

 

"Yes, sir." Blue eyes narrowed cunningly. Snively directed Uncle's attention to a monitor focused on a holding cell.

 

Sally lay on one end, tossed carelessly there. She had been knocked out beforehand, and her head bled just like the hedgehog who was motionless on the other side of the small cell.

 

"I've waited so long to try out these presents. I do hope they like them, Snively."

 

"Oh sir...they will..." A devious smile played the corners of the small man's lips. "They're to die for..."

 

Around Sonic's throat was a smooth silver collar, and it had a twin that made its home around the princess's slender neck. Like a matching set of wedding rings, these sparkling necklaces might very well bond the two together for the rest of their lives...

 

**

 

Sally woke to the sound of laughter. She opened her eyes, grimacing. Her head was howling and her vision slightly blurry. She wondered if she had a concussion.

 

She heard a voice, cracked, but tight with anger. "You'll pay for this Ro-butt-nik."

 

She saw Sonic stumble towards the bars, lunging at the towering evil on the other side.

 

His voice rose to a roar, and she knew he was crying. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!!"

 

"I wouldn't touch those bars, hedgehog." And Robotnik's voice was so ominous that Sonic fell back.

 

"You see," he began, but was interrupted when Sonic screamed again. "DON'T TALK, ROBOTNIK, I SWEAR I WILL DIE KILLING YOU! I WILL FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU HEAR?!!!"

 

Sally had never heard Sonic swear before. Heat rose in her eyes and she curled against the wall, unable to stop the hoarse sobbing in her throat.

 

"You won't, hedgehog!" A cruel smile played Robotnik's lips. "Oh, how I've wanted to capture you so long, rodent, but I've decided not to roboticize you, no. How does that make you feel?" He sighed. "I wanted at least one of you as a robot, but it was so much more amusing to watch them bleed. "

 

"SHUT UP!!" Sonic screamed and lunged at the bars, but Robotnik roared.

 

"I AM NOT FINISHED, HEDGEHOG! NOW STEP BACK OR YOU WILL DIE."

 

Sonic kept close to the bars, eyes spilling tears. Those dark pupils could slay if they had the power to. There was such hatred there, such despair.

 

"You see...those collars around your neck."

 

Sonic looked down, and Sally regained composure enough to feel around her neck.

 

"I have put many a sensor in them, hedgehog. I've decided it would be so much better to watch you two, my *pretties* to waste away here, in the dark, just thinking about all your friends who you didn't save. What kind of HERO are you now, SONIC?!" He spat out the name. Then back to the subject of collars he went, sudden and abrupt.

 

"If you touch the bars, you will be roboticized. If you attempt to attack the walls, to dig through the floor, to get out the window, you will be roboticized."

 

"How..." whispered Sally.

 

"How could I get the roboticizing technology into a collar?" He laughed long and loud. "Oh, Princess, so quaint, so precious in your thinking. You always judged me for a lazy fool, didn't you? Thought the roboticizer was mine purely by theft. As it was." He smirked, thinking of Sir Charles, who had been captured and torn asunder days before. Now he lay in the scrap heap with all the rest of the trash.

 

"But I'd learnt all about it long before the theft. It is complicated technology and it has taken me a long time to install it in small objects." He sighed. "At last, I succeeded, but you eluded my capture for so long and these beautiful collars went nearly forgotten.  Oh well. All's well that ends well, and this shall end fabulously."

 

Sonic fell back from the bars, going to fall beside Sally, clutching his arms around her. "Don't worry," he said, half to her, half to the mad tyrant, "We'll get out. You'll see."

 

"And for what, hedgehog? Your base is destroyed, and your pathetic followers, dead. Dead and useless like they were in life..."

 

Sonic's voice rose to a scream again. It hurt Sally's ears. "TO KILL YOU, ROBOTNIK! That's all that matters now..." His voice died down, sounding cracked and weary. He closed his eyes and clutched tight to Sally.

 

"Hmmm. I think not." Robotnik turned and his yellow cape billowed behind him. "I shall be watching you two well... I want to see how long before your minds break... What a glorious sight that will be...."

 

Sonic ignored him, and Sally began to sob again, softly this time.

 

If all hope was lost, they said they'd always have each other.

 

**

 

Robotnik returned to the command room. There was grandeur in his step.

 

The throne room was empty and the lights dimmed. The footage still played, looping over and over, and the fires there flickered. It filled the room like candlelight.

 

"How romantic," Robotnik said aloud, and laughed.

 

Presently, Snively returned, bringing coffee and sandwiches for the two of them. They sat and munched silently, staring at the screens.

 

Snively glanced over at Robotnik. The burning corpses, marred with laser holes, made him squeamish. He hated them, *had* hated them. And now they were gone.

 

Robotnik looked eerie in this light, his teeth shining in a devil's smile whenever he was not chewing. Shadows rested in the creases of his face.

 

'How long could he watch this?' A glance back to the screen. A young girl, torn apart. 'Forever-and-ever.'

 

Robotnik looked over at him and smiled. There was a piece of meat stuck between his front teeth, marring their white perfection.

 

"I could watch this forever," he said.

 

**

 

Sally lay on her side. She felt stiff and cold.

 

'This is how the dead feel.'

 

The air was like ice, but it couldn't of been cold enough to kill. They weren't frostbit. She tried to count the days in her head. They didn't seem to add up. They hadn't been here for a week, only seven short days?

 

In the corner was a water dish.

 

Robotnik had found that funny when he put it there. Sally thought at the time, perhaps it was poisoned, but no, that would ruin the fun. He knew a body deprived of water died faster than that of food. And so, their stomachs grew hollow and their skin shrunk around their bones, yet the water kept them alive just that little bit longer...

 

It was filled with dingy gray water, and Sonic was crouched down like a dog, cupping it, drinking it.

 

She felt a tear run down her face. Sonic had always been slender, but now his ribs stuck out. His legs looked like toothpicks.

 

She'd never seen him like that before. A choked noise rose in her throat. Sonic turned his head. Water dribbled off his chin.

 

"We're going to die."

 

His eyes went wild and he lunged at her. His gloved hands, now a filthy gray, came to lock around her wrists. He shook her roughly, eyes locked on her face.

 

"We're NOT going to die, Sally!! We're NOT!" He tightened his grip and she cried out.

 

"We...we can't get away..." she choked. "We really can't this time, Sonic..."

 

"No...no, Sal...we're not..." He loosened his grip and fell upon her in a fierce embrace. She heard him gulping.

 

He was afraid. Sonic was afraid.

 

At least they could share the fear. She clutched him tight and they cried onto each other's shoulders.  Their tears, though tainted with grief, ran purer than any water that flowed in the city.

 

On the dirty floors it splattered, washing them clean.

 

**

 

That day, Robotnik finally looked at new footage of Knothole. He still had SWATs deployed there, and spy eyes swarmed the area.

 

By this time, the flies had arrived, and they ate, and slept, and laid their young uncaringly into dead flesh, burrowing into ears and eyes.

 

Few fires still burned; most had died out, leaving charred ash and bodies twisted with their burnt bones, hands sticking upwards like claws. The huts were gone, save for a couple which stood like silent witnesses to the destruction, their thatched sides blackened.

 

Bodies lay twisted, fallen. Their last decisions had been fight, or flee; some had not had any decisions at all. They hadn't expected this. Other's mouths were stretched wide, their last screams lost by laser holes through hearts and heads.

 

"Isn't it delightful?" he said. "Isn't it beautiful?"

 

Snively thought at first it was, and he agreed. He was content to observe the carnage and not feel guilt or cruelty for a few minutes. An hour, even.

 

But Robotnik sat and watched it like a man transfixed, possessed. All day long he watched, forgetting even to leave for his lunch.

 

After a while, Snively couldn't watch, but still his master stared. So the lackey went to writing reports, though there was nothing to report. All the Freedom Fighters were dead, or nearly, or trapped inside a robot's shell.

 

He shivered. The room...the world... suddenly seemed so very large and so utterly empty.

 

**

 

 "No, Sally, I won't... I won't do this anymore... "

 

"Sonic, please, sit down..."

 

Sonic raised his hand and threw to the floor a piece of bread. A SWAT had come by earlier and tossed the small loaf in. It was hard and green mold bloomed in some places. Robotnik wanted to feed them, draw out their torment longer. Maybe he'd just keep them alive forever.

 

Sally sat with her half of the loaf gingerly in her lap. It had been so hard, for both of them, to tear the loaf evenly. Both bellies were clenched with hunger.

 

"Maybe...maybe..." Sonic let out a half-laugh, waving his hand wildly around. "Maybe he's just bluffing! Huh? Wouldn't that be so funny, Sal, huh?!"

 

And he took quick steps to the bars, his hand reaching out. "Maybe this collar crap is just made up!"

 

Sally sprang to her feet, bread forgotten. "No, Sonic!" She screamed.

 

He paused, turning his head to smirk.

 

"No, Sonic, please don't...don't touch them..." She began to shake. "If I lose you..."

 

He thought of himself, frozen in place as a robot. The collar seemed to hum this close to the bars. Maybe it wasn't bullshit then. Maybe this was real.

 

Sally ran to him, embracing him as he fell to his knees.

 

"Maybe we'll get out, Sonic, but please, Gods, please...don't try that..."

 

"I won't, Sal..." Though escape was futile, and he knew it, they both knew it. To touch the bars was death. Death of freedom, death of will. Death without dying, but death nonetheless. 

 

She pushed him away gently, her hands raising to cradle his face.

 

Her eyes were so blue. He could think of a dozen clichéd things to describe them. They were sapphires, rich azure and sparkling. They were ocean waves, they were cloudless skies, they were blueberries, they were... He smiled, weakly, and let his thoughts trail off. Who cared what they were, they were beautiful, and they rested in the face of the one he loved.

 

She leaned her face forward. Lips caught lips. Her hands toyed with his ears.

 

A quiet moan escaped him. She smelled sweet underneath the filth that dulled her mahogany fur. She still smelled sweet. He could smell the forest there, smell all the things they'd lost, and still loved.  Nearer, he pulled her, locking peach arms around her, trailing his hands down the valley of her back.

 

Tongues crept out, like tentative snakes, to probe a curious place, a den like theirs, but different, filled with different tastes, and intriguing textures. A dance began, slow, wet, caressingly twining, even a hiss into each other's mouths.

 

"Sonic..." sighed she, through breaths of air; it seemed they could not disconnect now. There was a hunger here, so much more different than what had plagued their stomachs.

 

His hands moved around to her sides. He clutched there for a moment. He could feel her ribs. But he always could feel her ribs. It did not disturb him, not now.

 

'We are dying,' she thought, but only idly. If they were to die, then they would die like this. They would die within each other.

 

**

 

"Ohhoho."

 

Robotnik's laugh rang out and it chilled Snively to the marrow of his bones. Uncle was so dark lately. The shadows seemed to collect on his face more than usual, and the red of his pupil had darkened to maroon. He had come in this morning without his uniform. He had come in wearing black.

 

'I am mourning,' he'd replied when asked.

 

"Mourning, what, sir?" Snively had responded and Robotnik had chuckled.

 

"Those that are dead, of course..." And the laugh had rang out, mocking and sharp enough to slice through stone.

 

"Look at them, Snively, come look..." He raised a hand and beckoned at the screens. Snively turned his head away from his own small computer, where he was examining statistics.

 

Sonic and Sally were on the screen.

 

When were they not on the screen? When Knothole's rubble was present or the footage replaying its destruction, over and over. He could scream from the monotony of it all. He had never liked history all that much.

 

"Ohhooo. So sweet." The black-clad demon laughed again.

 

Snively looked away again. His monitor blurred before his eyes. This was too horrible to watch.

 

Sonic and Sally were touching each other. Sonic and Sally were kissing.

 

Love amidst the ruins. Futile love that could not save their lives.

 

Yes, it was just too tragic to see.

 

**

 

Sonic's breath was raspy on her neck. She tilted her head to the ceiling. He had discarded his gloves and bare hands were on her breasts, squeezing gently. Her hands dipped low, stroking his thighs. She swore she could feel bone underneath the hard muscle. But he wasn't that far gone.

 

She ran her hands over his stomach. It was firm.

 

A moan. He moved his head lower, planting kisses along her neck, licking her collarbones. Over an expanse of tan fur he laid his kisses, until the fur turned a sandy color and his mouth caressed the rise of her breasts.

 

She gasped, eyes closing. Tingles ripped down her spine liked electricity. His tongue flickered, bringing soft flesh to hardness, sucking there. She clutched her arms around him.

 

'I feel like...

 

a mother? He, her baby at the breast. She loved him so much it made her ache inside. All her insides, they pulsed for him, her lungs seemed to breathe for him. She cradled her arms around that babe as he suckled. She had to protect him. She had to...

 

'No. We are Lovers.'

 

He drew his head away as if hearing her thoughts. They stared each other in the eyes. His were like onyx, glimmering.

 

"Sally..."

 

She smiled, eyes half closed and sparkling with tears. In her hands, nestled in Sonic's lap now, something throbbed, feeling warm and hard inside her clutched fingers.  "Sonic..."

 

He dropped his eyes. On the floor two twin drops of wetness splattered, washing the dirt outwards. She titled his head upwards with one hand. "Oh, Sonic..."

 

He drew in a shuddering breath. "Sally Acorn..." Another deep breath was drawn in, and then he smiled, as if he were gathering courage. "I...I love you. " And then more rapidly his words came, first trembling, and then firm. "I love you with all of my heart. Every part of me, Sally... my soul... it loves you."

 

She leaned her face forward, now their noses touched. "I know, Sonic..." She pressed her mouth to his, tasting salt on his lips.

 

His fingers stroked her breasts, the hard nipples that topped them. Her hand moved slow in his lap, a firm grip, a gentle motion. She drew away to breathe.

 

"I could not live without you, Sonic... so if you die...take me with you..."

 

This was not a time to argue, to bring up false hopes.

 

He laid her on her back, gazed down into those, simply put, beautiful eyes, and clutched his hands to the sides of her face. "We'll go together..."

 

She parted legs for him, eyes to the ceiling. He was over her now, he was clutching her hips. It should've seemed obscene. This should have seemed wrong, to display their love, their raw primal love in this corrupt place.

 

No. They could light this darkness. For a little while at least.

They needed this. It had never been done. It had to be done. Before they died.

 

She felt moisture drip, felt burning warmth between her legs. Sonic pressed his mouth to hers, mummering.

 

"Sal...I love you..."

 

She arched upwards as he entered, eyes clenched closed, and a cry coming from her mouth. Her hands gripped at his strong shoulders, digging into the plush fur. There was no barrier; she had broken that long ago with all her running and jumping. But she was virgin and he did not fit at first.

 

That melted away. He eased into her, and she saw, opening her eyes, the worry crease his brow. She raised a hand, her finger brushing his cheek delicately, feeling the wetness there.

 

"It's ok, Sonic..." she whispered, arms wrapping around him. He felt large inside her, hot. Throbbing, like an ancient drumbeat...she could hear the bass in her soul, she suddenly understood words that had been written from the beginning of time, but strangely, only recorded in the frantic thrusts of hips and cries from lovers mouths.

 

"I'm ok, Sonic..."

 

A little wink to reassure him.

 

He suddenly grinned. "Alright, then, let's do it to it...!"

 

Her laughter rang out, and eyes sparkled. The cell faded out; they were not here, they were someplace warm and soft.

 

He was awkward, he knew, but she was too, and he began his thrusts clumsily. Into her, he drove, into the warmth, then out again, and back in, to clutching pleasure. Soft moans escaped her throat, smoothing over his senses like wine. They sounded so good.

 

She could almost laugh, through the moans. It seemed so untrue, this. Cliché, maybe?

 

She remembered. It had only been a few weeks ago, and Antoine had been nervous about a mission, sprouting his warnings of their maybe dying on this trip, gibbering about the danger. And Geoffrey had jokingly asked over the crackling fire, what everyone would do if they knew they were to die at the end of the day.

 

She had said, stoic-like. "I would say goodbye to everyone I loved and", She shook her head. "Maybe try to say bye to Daddy..."

 

Sonic had laughed. "I'd eat all the chilidogs I could, then head off to ole Robotown. I'd take out that fat slob with a bomb strapped to my chest! Hehehe!"

 

Tails, not surprisingly, had declared he'd go with Sonic. "If your bomb didn't get him, mine would!" And the two had gleefully laughed.

 

'Oh Tails,'...  Sally's arms clasped a little harder around Sonic's body, tears fell onto his shoulder. He was kissing her neck, but she swore the moisture there was from his eyes. She would never hear Tail's laugh ever again.

 

But they weren't doing any of things Tails or Sonic, or she had said. They were doing the silliest one, the one Geoffrey had snorted, and laughed.

 

"Well, me, heh. I'd have sex on my last day alive. All day long."

 

 

No wonder. Geoffrey wasn't so stupid, after all.

 

She finally could laugh, though it mingled with a moan. Sonic let out a similar sound. He could have been chuckling.

 

 Her eyes closed and head tilted backwards. Sonic's lips caught her throat and he nibbled gently. His hands were locked to her hips, hard-like. She wondered if she might bruise from it, but didn't care, no, she grinded up to meet him, driving him deeper inside. It seemed if he could just reach far enough inside they would...he would... touch her soul... and she wanted his prints there, she wanted them smeared and blatant against the expanse of her being.

 

She bucked up to meet him, legs clasping around his back. He brushed foreign and unexplored parts of her, deep within, making her cry out, louder. It echoed off the walls.

 

"S-s-sonic...oh...please..."

 

What did she plead for...? He stuck to well-learned knowledge. Speed. Strength. Harder he went, and she dug nails into his back. Scent filled the air; musk, thick and heady. He groaned. They rolled over, a heap of colored fur, growling and suddenly frenzied now. Love mixed with lust; a fire that could be dangerous in wrong hands, hands that said they loved but did not really, hands that loved more than one lover, hands that loved and lusted, yes, but only for greed.

 

No, their fire was pure. It blazed off good kindling. Love that was true, Everlasting.

 

Her heart beat a furious patter in her chest. Each thud seemed to sing 'Sonic Sonic' for the love of Sonic... he was wild, and she was wild, and they writhed on the floor with the fire in their blood. She had thought romantic things of their first time. It would be a dinner and candlelight with slow music in the background and it would be slow and gentle.

 

This was fierce, and fast, and sweaty despite the cold air and the air was dark and dank and the floor was dirty, and so was their bodies. But somehow, in this moment, she could not ask for anything better.

 

Into her he went, deep. Sonic leaned over to messily adorn her breasts with kissing and sucking. He moaned, quietly, breathing in her pine-scented fur.

In... he thrust, shuddering. She was so warm inside... like a volcano....her moisture flowed around him, hot and thick. He could smell it. Musky and dark, like exotic perfumes brewed to seduce the soul. He could crouch down and drink it, 'but later...' he thought idly, unwillingly to give her up so soon. So warm, so tight around him...

 

Out...he withdrew, feeling cold air, damp but not a good damp like her. It almost brought him back to reality. But no... it was gone as back in he plunged.

 

Oh, outside, within...out in... she could not imagine a more sacred rhythm. A simple motion, a sliding of one part into and out of another. How could that do this? She felt like a wire, crackling with pleasure electric... frazzled now... almost too much to bear. She was overloading from so much.... Him inside her, big and throbbing with life, his moans on her breasts, her arms around his body. She was moments away from exploding.

 

"Sal..." Sonic's voice was odd, like a whimper and a growl combined. "Sally...I'm going...t-t-t..."

 

She embraced him tighter, dragging her head up to his ear, muscles straining. Her thighs were damp and her insides hummed. She was getting sore, she realized, from such passion, but this aching only flung her up to higher heights. She could see glitter, warping her vision.

 

"Just...just a little longer..." She pleased, for she knew they had to...

 

they rolled, so dangerously close now... to exploding...

 

...and too close to the bars , and their silver collars began to hum keenly. Neither heeded, neither heard.

 

...had to...

 

...explode together.

 

Both reached the pinnacle now. Together. Everything shattered outwards into white light. Sonic could not speak; Sally could only scream.

 

Explosions were weak.

This was a supernova.

 

Sally felt warmth flood out from between her legs, that place where such heat was. It was her and Sonic combined, she knew. She wondered if, they had more time to see, more time to live, if that flood of his would have brought her children.

 

She tilted her head back, eyes closed, a sudden smile on her face. Sweat dripped from her brow, and she felt so very relaxed. She floated, high in glittering clouds, with no fears of falling. Her body sung in contentment; she could feel her heartbeat slowing down... she could feel Sonic there too, like his heart was right inside her chest alongside her heart and they were beating together.

 

She heard laughter and opened her eyes to see Bunnie alongside her, smiling, holding flowers. She saw Tails with Dulcy and Rotor working on his projects... she saw Sonic running and Geoffrey cooking corn on the cob over the fire. Antoine was sweeping his porch.

 

'Oh, I love you all!' she wanted to cry, and she did. The world was starting to come back now, but before she faded back to the cell and Sonic there, still inside her, she saw them all turn and smile at her. They nodded.

 

And she knew they were ok.

 

 

'Sonic?'

 

Sonic arched back. His entire body shook, like he was shivering from cold, but this was not chills running through. It was pleasure, in its purest form, pleasure. Like a drug... he mused, though his thoughts didn't hold. They were fleeting. Drugs in their purest form could be the most intoxicating, and the most dangerous.

 

'Sonic?'

 

He heard a voice, small and sweet, but not female. He felt himself release, so very warm and wet inside the very warm and wet depths of Sally. He clutched his arms around her, feeling her damp fur, her trembling flesh.

 

'Sonic...you're like my brother, aren't you?'

 

He opened his eyes and saw there before him... Tails.  The kit was smiling at him, clasping on of Sonic's gloved hands in his. There were specks of grass caught in his hair. This was déjà vu'.. a scene that had occurred three days before Knothole...and Tails... had died.

 

Sonic could sob, but he didn't feel the pain right now. The light in Tails' eyes was too beautiful and precious, and vaguely, he was aware of Sally's arms around him now.

 

'Shouldn't I be with her now?'

 

He clutched Tails' hands harder, tears welling in his eyes. In place of the pleasure came a rolling wave of sadness. No, he knew, from Sally's tears on his arms and her trembling, that she was seeing them too. Their friends, their... families.

 

'Yeah, Tails.' He said to the kit.  He embraced the young fox, hugging him tight, and the sadness was intense to the point of being unbearable. He felt himself swelling tight with sobs.

 

He and Sally had each other right now. They had been given this chance, this divine chance to show their love, say their goodbyes, see each other's face that one last time. Tails... and the others... they hadn't had anyone... they had died on the ground of their sanctuary with no last words to escape their lips.

 

"I'm your brother, Tails. For always and always."

 

The smile on Tails's face... as he faded away... was more precious than any gold. It was more precious than life...

 

They melted back to reality. Sonic and Sally, in each other arms, cried tears into each other's fur. They clutched there for long moments, shuddering and shaking. And finally, Sally lifted her head.

 

"They're ok, Sonic..."

 

He was growing weary, he began to slump towards the wall, holding her in his arms. "I know, Sal. I know... even Tails..."

 

"Maybe we'll see them again..."

 

They hit the wall, and Sally's lips had gone to Sonic's for a kiss.

 

It was a kiss to end all kisses, shocking and rare... between them such love passed as to rival cities and outlive robotic shells of metal. They clung tighter, bodies melding into one, warm and cold, tears frozen on cheeks, eyes closed. Written into their very veins by ghostly hands, hands of dead families, were words that they would be ok. That they would be together again, all of them.

 

It was a kiss to end all kisses, for indeed it was their last kiss.

 

Against the wall... no... the bars... they slumped, for they had rolled too close, and in their weariness fell upon them.

 

Two metal bodies lay against those bars. Robotnik hadn't been bluffing.

Roboticization, instantaneous. Sentient will, gone. Death of freedom, death of will, death without dying, but death nonetheless.

 

**

 

Robotnik was irate to discover later that these two bodies were so tightly entwined that no crowbar or robot hand ould pry them apart. They were useless except as monuments to his greatness.

 

"Oh well," he stated loftily, as he gazed upon them for long long days. "I've broken them. I've won."

 

No movements stirred on the planet. Robotnik remained by the statues; Snively took to sleeping in long hours.  The monitors showing Knothole were turned off, because they only showed bones and a few burnt huts. The fires were gone and the robots had long since come home.

 

Glory only lasted so long in a place with no life. Soon Robotnik's joy withered, and the statues remained, gleaming and bright.

 

'What are we going to do now, sir?" Snively asked Robotnik one day when Spring was blooming. He stopped beside the fat man, who was gazing at the statues. His face was a pit of darkness.

 

"They're MOCKING me, Snively!" he suddenly screamed. He aimed a finger at their faces, locked in kissing. Their tears were hard little beads on their cheeks.  "I've stared at them so long...and their faces... they aren't broken."

 

Snively turned an eye to the statues. He knew, because he wasn't all gone like Robotnik. He could still recognize this, this thing Robotnik couldn't break. The statues were content, even in their last day of confinement, with all their friends dead, they were content because they had something Robotnik couldn't take.

 

He hadn't won at all.

 

Even in death they said they'd always love each other.