Kelly tilted her head at Snively's question.  She could feel the storm raging within him.  "What are you planning?"
       "I...I'm leaving.  I'm leaving this goddamn place!"  He almost yelled his reply, standing up and beginning to pace the room again.  He bit his lip hard, and Kelly knew he was on the edge of tears.  A decade of living here, and now he wanted to leave.  She looked down at her hands in her lap.  "What would it help to transform you?"
"Those Freedom Fighters, Robotnik, everyone!  They'll be looking for me!"  His words were quick and quivering, sweat beginning to bead his forehead.  "I can't prance around like this.  I can't...they'll...they'll kill me.  Or worse.  The King...I don't want to think about what he'd do."  He shuddered violently.
       "Who are these Freedom Fighters, Snively?"
"Former citizens of this city, fighting to get it all back.  The ones who managed to escape the roboticizer, get away from here somehow."  He closed his eyes.  "I envy them."
       "You can get away now.  Maybe that's why I'm here."
       Snively wanted to scowl.  He wanted to protest, to tell the fox she had no business coming in and trying to change things.  His shoulders sank.  He couldn't honestly say it.  She was like an angel, like an answer to prayers whispered into the darkness of so many sleepless nights.  Those sleepless nights had now been replaced by dreams of the face that had hovered before him that first time she healed him, the soft voice soothing him, reaching into his soul.  She had healed more than his body that day, if only a little.  "Maybe," he murmured absently.
God, she's an angel...
       Snively's eyes widened.  The sudden thought startled him.  He pushed it away and cleared his throat.  "We need to hurry, fox.  We'll need clothes, food, just enough to get us by."
       "Us?"  Apparently she hadn't made the connection yet.
       "Uh...yes.  You're coming with me."
       She crossed her arms and glared at him.  "Oh sure I will, thanks for asking so politely!  Such a gentleman!"
       Snively wrinkled his nose.  "What, you want to stay?"
       "I could."
       "You wouldn't!"
       "Sure I would.  I'd love to reap payment from your boss.  Plus interest."  She grinned.
       "That's not funny, fox."  Snively looked like a child as he crossed his arms and pouted.  Kelly just laughed, at which he quirked an eyebrow.  "Why do you want me to come along?"  Her tail curled as she said it, and he had a hard time not staring.
       "Because...it's...it's just better that w--"
       There was a loud popping noise overhead that made the two of them freeze.  Kelly looked up, noticing for the first time a speaker imbedded in her ceiling.  The voice that rasped through the speakers sent chills down Snively's spine.  "Snively..." Robotnik was panting, wheezing.  "You listen, and listen closely.  You're DEAD!" He stopped and coughed, and there was a sickening spitting noise.  "You're dead, Snively!!"
       Kelly stared at the door.  Distant, rhythmic clanging was approaching.  
       Something snapped inside Snively.  He shrieked, "Let's go, let's go!" and darted for the door, his eyes wild.  "We have to get out!"
       "There's bots out there, Snively!  We can't--"
       "We have to get out!"
       "Then grab my hand!"
       He clamped his hand frantically over hers.  There was no time to object.  He could hear the SWATbots right outside the door.  A blinding light overtook him suddenly, and he felt cradled as if in the arms of a giant being.  He felt his knees hit solid earth, and his eyes opened.
       They were outside the towering barrel of a building.  A high-pitched sound escaped his throat.  "No, not here, you idiot!" His words slurred as she grabbed him and broke into a run.  "I know!" she yelled.  "It's the best I can do, and that much less time wasted to get--Get down!!"  A SWATbot had noticed them and now began firing, metallic arm outstretched.  Kelly threw Snively to the ground with a grunt, and with a thrust of her hand the machine shut down.  Snively haughtily protested her shoving him to the ground, but she couldn't hear him.  She screwed her eyes shut, fingers curling into fists a moment.  Light enveloped the two again, but the world did not fade.  It was a soft blue glow, hovering around every inch of them like a suspended suit of armor.  She turned to Snively.  "Don't worry about the bots.  Let's go."
       "B-but what--"
       "It's a force field!  Now go!"  She grabbed him again--somehow their "armor" could yield for each other--and sprinted forward, making him yelp as his arm was jerked.  They ran aimlessly for several seconds, then she cried, "Tell me where to go!"  SWATbots were gaining on them, lasers ricocheting off their shields.  A troop of them began spilling out of a nearby hovercraft before it had even fully landed.  Snively gasped for air, pointing at it.  "There," was all he could manage.  Every breath felt like a rush of needles into his lungs.  He whimpered when she set off toward the vehicle.
       Kelly made quick work of the SWATbots.  They fell like flies--one here, three there, another one there.  She kicked the remaining stragglers from inside the craft as Snively hopped into the driver's seat, then yipped as she fell to the floor.  He had launched it with a jolt, leaving the door to close belatedly.  Kelly could buckle up later.  For now, it was just a matter of getting out.
       "They'll know it's us, Kelly!" he called from the front.  "I can put up a shield, but it won't last long.  Can you--"
       "I'm on it."  She propped herself up from where she had lay sprawled on the floor, her hands waving.  Light swept over the craft.  Snively groaned, "Oh god, this'll be a pain in the ass to navigate through."  He worked buttons and switches frantically.
       Kelly tried to catch her breath, flopping into the passenger's seat and buckling in.  "Where are we going, Snively?"
       "As far away from Hell as we can get."

       Apparently that wasn't very far.  The craft had run out of fuel not long after they reached a vast forest.  Kelly had gazed through the window most of the way.  Wasteland, cliffs, rolling hills..and now this endless mass of trees.  Sweat beaded Snively's forehead as he circled, looking for a suitable place to land before the craft shut down altogether.  "Can you transform me as soon as we land?" he asked distractedly.  In the back of his mind he laughed.  Such a gentleman.  But Kelly nodded nonetheless, and he caught the gesture through the corner of his eyes.  Just as he spotted a small opening through the trees.  "We're headed there?" Kelly pointed.  There was no need to answer; he jolted the steering wheel, eyeing the dangerously-low fuel level.
       The landing was rough, to say the least.  Kelly could swear she wouldn't be able to move her tail for a week, after bouncing and ending up sitting on it while it was bent funny.  Snively sat gripping the steering stick, trembling.  He looked at Kelly.  "Now, fox.  Do it now."
       Kelly watched as the light took over Snively.  She cringed at the pained expression on his face, even as she knew he felt nothing.  The light faded.  He was tall again, that blonde hair falling over his eyes as he bent over weakly with a sigh, hugging himself.  She watched his eyes, even as they were looking down at his boots.  His uniform had changed into a simple grey shirt, black pants and worn boots.  Kelly stroked her tail gingerly, lightly grimacing, but keeping her gaze on him.  This was the aura she had felt, the man she had seen.  This was what was meant to be.
       "I don't even know where I'm going to go, Kelly."  Snively's eyes were glazed over.  He swallowed hard.
       Kelly turned sideways in her seat to face Snively, scooting closer so she was on the edge of it, her knees close to his.  She leveled her eyes with his, and he looked up awkwardly.  "We're both going, Snively.  Wherever it is."
       The stiffness in Snively's manner faded.  And if only for a moment, the storm ceased.  His words came in a whisper, and somehow he didn't care how it sounded.  "I'd like that."