The very next morning had Kelly and Snively waking early to begin work on rebuilding.  Kelly was exhausted.  She had spent most of the previous night lying awake anxiously, thinking over and over, What have I done?  But she had perked up well enough as they entered an entirely different section of the city than she had seen before.  Warehouses seemed to fill this area, each one teeming with various robots, filling the air with smog and noise.  Those near the rubble of the COMBOT factory seemed newer, with more guards at their every window and entrance.  The smoldering rubble in their midst looked all the more out of place.
       Snively crossed his arms over his chest with one eyebrow raised.  Kelly hadn't taken very long to begin work.  Her hands were outstretched toward the ruins, moving in strange motions.  Her eyes were glazed over in almost a trance.  Ash lifted from its piles, floating gracefully but quickly as if upon a breeze.  Dust particles swelled, regaining the composition once lost to flame.  Like minute pieces of a vast puzzle, they settled neatly into place.  It was all Snively could do to keep an appearance of apathy, when all he wanted to do was stare.  There was something about the way she moved, the flexing of her clawed fingers, the slow movement of her tail.  He couldn't stop thinking about what she'd done the day before; that warmth and calm, her angelic face hovering above him as he fell into the best sleep he'd had in years.
       He rubbed the back of his head, staring at the ground and nervously pushing back his thoughts.  Ridiculous magic tricks. I give the factory a week before it falls apart...  He scowled and kicked ash at his feet.  Somehow that didn't seem to help.  The particles were lifting and swelling from the ground he stood on.  He cleared his throat, fighting the curiosity stirring in him.
       So much for that.  He looked up, watching the progress, his eyes gleaming with awe again.  "Er...how..how do you do that, fox?"
       Kelly paused, ears twitching as she snapped out of the trance.  Dust froze in mid-flight as she did so.  "Um..." She shrugged.  "Actually, I don't know."
       Snively gave a look.
       Kelly swirled one of her fingers idly in the air, rubble following her motion.  She stared at it, seeming to fish for understanding of what was taking place.  "I really don't know," she said again.  "I guess it's like gently guiding these...dust things...or something."  Her ears splayed.  That was a flop.
       Snively scoffed.  "You aren't as powerful as you claim, are you fox?"
       Kelly shrugged.  "I know how to do a few things.  Most of it I find by accident."  Silence fell.  Snively couldn't think of what to say to that.  Kelly continued working absently, fingers waving in those strange motions again.  Every now and then she glanced around, watching Robotnik's creations at work.
       A frown touched her lips at the sight of some of the robots.  Something wasn’t right.  They seemed out of place.  Each one was different—and they had Mobian attributes.  It was as if…
       She noticed a blue hedgehog robot.  Aside from its metal moustache, it resembled the one that had been with the Freedom Fighters.  He was staring at her.  Or at least, he was before she glanced at him.  As soon as their eyes met, he quickly looked away.  He seemed to have been not only staring at her, but focusing hard on her every move, as if scanning her.  Now he continued his work, appearing mindless like the rest.
       Kelly narrowed her eyes.  Something was far different about this robot.  She had looked into the optics of other Mobian-like robots, and none of them seemed quite as..alive..as this one. She watched the bot work steadily.  He didn’t look at her again.
       “What’re those robots?” Kelly finally asked Snively.
       “Hmm?”
       “Those…animal ones.  What are they?”
       “Roboticized Mobians,” Snively replied matter-of-factly.
       “Roboti-what?”
       “Robians, for short.”  He shuffled his feet on the ash-laden ground.  “Used to be citizens of this city…before it was this way.”
       Kelly’s heart sank.  “How…did they become robots?”
       Snively shrugged.  “The roboticizer.  Ingenious invention, really.  Enslaves the mind and mechanizes the body.”
       “Wow.”  Kelly tried to sound impressed.  “So…do you know anything about that one?”  She pointed to the blue hedgehog Robian.
       “How could I forget,” Snively said lowly.  He heaved a sigh, and at that moment he sounded like an ancient man wearied of life.  “Sir Charles Hedgehog.  Funny you should point him out; he invented the roboticizer.  One of Dr. Robotnik’s favorites.  He personally watched the roboticization of that one.”  He sneered.  “Ironic how the tables turn.”
       Kelly forced a slight laugh.  Inwardly, she could not have been more disturbed.  So, this was the evil that had befallen Mobius.  This was the fear that silently loomed over every flesh-and-blood Mobian.  She could scarcely imagine what the city must have looked like before.  Perhaps it resembled Echidnapolis in architecture.  She may never know.
       She flinched suddenly as a piece of restored building fell out of place in front of her.  The fox's ears went back and she continued work silently.  Snively sneered.  It was all too wonderful, doing nothing while he watched someone else at work.  Something he hadn't been able to do for quite some time.
       "Snively..." The communicator on Snively's watch squawked with Robotnik's voice.  He walked away several yards as he replied, his voice lowered.  Kelly glanced with curiosity, though at this point the rubble required more attention.  She could only hear bits and pieces of the conversation that followed.  Until Robotnik started to yell.
       "B-but sir," Snively stammered, "I thought--"
       "I don't care what you think, you dipshit!  Get your mutant little ass up here, NOW!"
       Apparently the line was cut off.  Snively swore loudly.  "Get over here, fox-girl."  Kelly's ears fell back slightly.  "Now," Snively growled impatiently.  In that single word, he sounded all too much like Robotnik.  Kelly strode over to him, and he ushered her into the nearby hover craft.  He hopped into the front seat, pressed a few buttons, grabbed the steering stick, and they launched with a jolt.
       As soon as they landed and stepped out, Snively turned to the two SWATbots that accompanied them.  "SWATbots," he commanded, "escort the fox to her suite."  He waved Kelly off and said in annoyance, "I'll deal with you later, just..."  His voice trailed off, and he strode quickly into the enormous barrel of a building.  Kelly grumbled in protest, jerking her arm away when one of the SWATbots tried to take it.  "I can walk on my own!"  They seemed not to have heard her.  Each one grabbed an arm and very roughly escorted her every step of the way to her room.  They shoved her at the doorway, and she staggered in with a grunt, turning with an icy glare at them.  She slammed the door in their metallic faces, rubbing her sore arms.

       Hours passed with not a word from Snively.  Kelly had resigned to lying in her bed, head propped on one of her arms.  She glanced at a nearby clock and heaved a sigh, then stretched and rose from the bed to stand on the balcony for the umpteenth time.  The sun was high over the city now.  It looked more like a bright harvest moon through the thick haze.  Kelly's ears drooped.  I've almost forgotten what sunlight looks like.
       There had been no sunlight then, either, when...
       She cringed, leaning weakly on the railing, dizzied as her gaze fell on the streets below.  She saw no streets now, no piles of scrap metal or floating Spy-eyes.  Her eyes widened and glazed over, her mind sinking inward, backward.
       Kelly...Kelly..come to me...
       Kelly jumped suddenly, gripping the railing as if for dear life.
       "Kelly?"  It was Snively's voice, more timid than usual.  She turned, swallowing back her memories to give an inquisitive look.
       Snively had peeked into the door.  At the sight of the fox, he slipped inside, leaning against the door when it shut.  He looked ragged, stunned.  "K-Kelly..."
       "Snively? What the...what's wrong?"  She stepped in from the balcony cautiously.
       "Y-you...you shouldn't be here."
       "What?"
       His eyes darted around frantically.  His hand thrust out, a trembling finger pointing at the balcony doors. "C-close it! And lock it!"  Kelly obeyed reluctantly.  Snively heaved a tired sigh of relief the moment the door was locked, and crossed the room to flop onto the couch.  "You shouldn't be here...you've got to get out..."
       "What...Snively, what're you talking about?"  She approached, then sat across from him on the couch.
       "Haven't you caught on, fox?!" His voice was shaky and high-pitched.  "Don't you know why you're here?  Don't you know what we do?!"
       She sighed. "I'm here so the fat guy can have me on his side, I know th--"
       "But do you know what that means?" he said, voice lowered to a dark tone.  She avoided his piercing gaze, and he said emphatically, "It means you'll be killing, destroying, transforming things for us.  It means you'll eventually be an experiment; a lab rat for the fusion of magic and technology.  Don't give me that look," he jabbed a finger at her nose, "I know you're not...bad.  I know you've never been a criminal; you're one of those goodie-goodies."  There was less disgust in his tone than usual.  "But you're not Mobian either.  Why are you here?!  What possessed you to--"
       "I don't know, okay?  You wouldn't understand anyway."
       "Would I not?"
       "Why the hell does this matter?"
       "Because you...you're...You're mad if you stay!"
       Kelly stared at Snively, searching.  A Sense overtook her mind.  His aura...only, deeper..or was it different?  Past, present, or future, she couldn't tell.  But she saw a calm, a subdued strength...and was that blonde ha--?
       She returned to the present suddenly, her senses departing from the more abstract.  She looked down then and sighed.  "Snively...what's going on?  What happened?"
       "I...I...He fucking killed her!  She's..roboticized, and the blood, and..she was fucking pregnant! She..oh god, we fucking murdered her, it wasn't human, it..."
       His words were reduced to a whimper as she put her hand on his arm.  "Ssshh..." She gripped his arm, fingertips flickering with a soft blue glow as she whispered simply, "Calm."  He shuddered, his breathing slowing.  "K-Kelly...don't...please...don't use that magic..."
       She shushed him again, and there was a brief silence before she spoke again.  "Now.  Tell me what happened."
       Snively was still trembling, but not so violently.  He wrung his hands in a daze.  "I...Robotnik, he..wanted to roboticize her.  We found another magic-user.  He wanted to test her.  See if he could subdue her with the...with the roboticizer.  He wanted to keep her powers intact, even as a robot, that fucking idiot.  But she...sh-she resisted..oh god, the blood, the..." He cringed suddenly, looking as if he would vomit.
       Kelly put a hand on his knee to hush him.  "It only half-worked, didn't it?"  He choked, crossing his arms tight over his chest and closing his eyes a moment.
       Kelly's ears went back as she watched him.  She pictured herself enclosed in some hideous machine, fighting a sort of energy she had never needed to fend off before.  A violent shudder gripped her as the scene flashed in her mind.  She shifted in her seat, sickened.  "Snively..."
       He looked up, trying to regain his composure.
       "How much does Robotnik know about my powers?"
       Snively heaved a shaky sigh.  "A fair amount."