"Still no sign of either of them, Sal," the hedgehog said, shrugging helplessly. He was too used to being able to solve any problem with a burst of speed. No amount of sprinting, no spin dash, would help them find out where Bunnie and Rotor had disappeared to. The torture on his face was strikingly clear.

To be fair, the disappearance of their fellow Freedom Fighters wasn't the only thing weighing on Sonic's mind. Just an hour ago, the mortally wounded Drizit had slipped into an unconsciousness from which he was unlikely to recover. A death coma. It would be less than a day until the laser wounds finished the job.

"Another mondo problemo," he continued. "I just had Antoine run a supply check. He said that one of the cargo sleds is missing."

"What?"

"It's gone. There are thruster burns on the ground where we parked it last, but they're already hours old."

Sally didn't like any of the implications of that. She bit her lip. "Well, that clinches it. They've run off somewhere, without leaving so much as a note behind."

"What would make them wanna pack up and leave like that?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know," Sally admitted, "but I do have an idea. And its what worries me about all this. The last time I saw Bunnie was when Drizit wanted to talk with her."

"Do you know what he told her?"

"No, I never saw her after she went in. And I can't ask Drizit now." Sally paced anxiously back and forth in her hut, trying to think of something to do, some way to help. It was clear that something bad was happening, but she didn't know what. Whenever the Freedom Fighters were about to go into battle, she always felt a prickling along the edge of her back, a premonition. She felt that prickling now. Even if they didn't know what was coming, Sally decided, the least they could do was prepare for something. "How many people do we have ready for any kind of action?" she asked.

"Not too many," Sonic said. "With Bunnie and Rotor both gone, we don't have that many people here with us in Knothole. Since Ari's out serving as an 'envoy' to the Wolf Pack, that leaves just us, Antoine, Dulcy, and Tails." He grimaced, brushing back the quills on his scalp. "Oh man, this is a major headache."

Sally's frown only grew deeper. "Have Dulcy and Tails make scouting runs over the Great Forest to look for any sign of the cargo sled. And, er, keep Antoine on standby."

"What about me?" Sonic asked anxiously.

"Go down the grotto, and get another power ring. We might need it soon."

"No prob." A gust of air swirled through the hut as the blue blur blasted out the doorway. He was gone.

Sally paced for another moment, and then gave it up. Her elbow landed on the hut's window frame, her head supported in her hand. This was a day gone bad to worse. As if it weren't enough that they were going to lose Drizit, now Sally had a sneaking suspicion that she was going to lose two of her best friends, as well.

***

Bunnie and Rotor strode alongside Griff, who was moving almost too fast to keep pace with. His legs pumped with a ferocity that completely contradicted the usual nonchalant attitude he had donned only moments ago. His mouth was twisted down in scowl. Bunnie couldn't help but get the impression that another sleeping demon had been awakened.

She couldn't tell where he was headed, except that it seemed to be one of the buildings clustered in the center of the Lower Mobius cavern. "How did you know about the nodule?" she asked again.

"I knew the nature of your robotic limbs was unusual from the moment I saw you," Griff said. "I always suspected, but I could never be sure."

"Of what?"

"That Robotnik used the Laurentis modifications to roboticize you."

Bunnie struggled to keep up. Despite the strength of her metal legs, they were slower and heavier than any organic counterpart could be. They rounded a curve in the dirt road, drawing stares from more passing pedestrians. "And how do you know about the Laurentis process?" Rotor asked.

"I invented it."

Bunnie felt the ground slip up underneath her, all sense of orientation suddenly lost. In her shock, she suddenly forgot where she was walking, and nearly tripped over her own feet. She stood still a moment, trying to regain her balance.

Griff either didn't see her stop or didn't care. He kept walking stubbornly forward, scowl growing deeper by the second.

Bunnie felt a hand gently touch her organic arm. Rotor's. His support pushed her forward. She ran to catch up with Griff.

"You're Laurentis?" she asked breathlessly.

"Past tense," Griff corrected. "I *was* Laurentis. That distinction is important to me."

It wasn't to Bunnie. Usually she mindfully kept her emotions in check. Now she didn't care how much anger was in her voice. "Ya mean you're the one who-"

"Came up with the concept of an enhanced-strength roboticization process," he finished for her. "The same process that Robotnik used on you. Yes, that was me."

"You knew all along what Robotnik had done to me? Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"I suspected. I never knew. If I had told you, I would've had to face who I was. Laurentis is a liar and a cowardly miscreant, somebody you'd never want to meet. He's dead as far as I'm concerned."

Griff's pace had never changed or slowed. Bunnie had a hard enough time keep by herself, but Rotor had it worse. She could hear the pudgy walrus starting to pant. "He'd better not be dead if he's the one who knows how to uninstall the Laurentis nodule. If you're the one who knows, this isn't the time to suffer split-personality syndrome."

Griff didn't answer.

They rounded another corner, verging on the market square in the center of the Lower Mobius. The city's cavern was large, verging on the colossal, but it take less than an hour to walk across the breadth of it. Bunnie was disoriented by the way the shadows moved as they got closer to directly underneath the glowing energy crystal. She had spent her entire life on the surface, mostly without the aid of artificial lighting, so was hard to shake the impression that several hours had passed, and that it was now noontime. As if her perceptions of the entire city had been changed that much. They had, in a way, since Griff's confession.

"Please, Griff," Bunnie pleaded. "Ah don't care who or what Laurentis is anymore. But we have to know if there's a way to get rid of this infernal transmitter."

"It can't be uninstalled," he said quietly.

Her muscles contracted and froze, feeling like ice. It was only through sheer force of will that her legs were able to keep moving. She knew that his words hadn't even sunk in yet.

"What?"

Griff's expression trembled for a moment, but then fell back into a scowl. "You can blame Laurentis for that. You can blame *me* for that."

Before Bunnie could think of an answer, Griff came to a dead stop. The discussion was apparently closed for now. He turned and glanced towards a small group of people gathered near the market square. In a few short seconds he began moving again, heading towards them.

She could see a bright blue and gold uniform, similar to the one Antoine always insisted on wearing even in the hottest of weather but more highly decorated, amidst the small gathering. Griff's faithful boar companion, Dirk, was guiding a small procession of three people through the marketplace.

Dirk had always been somewhat of a mystery to Bunnie, but the integrity of his character was clear enough. He had devoted his life to service before the coup, and continued to do so even afterwards, when there was no military left to speak of. He had fought on the front lines during the Great War, but had only occasionally in the role of soldier. He had been a fully trained medic, and had even been assigned to King Acorn's diplomatic staff near the end of the war.

He seemed sensible enough, but his devotion to Griff always perplexed Bunnie. The last time she had been down here, she had asked him about Griff's questionable behavior during the two groups' first encounter. Dirk had adamantly defended everything that Griff had done, almost blindly so. Bunnie found that she could only be comfortable around him for a few minutes. Too long and his unfaltering loyalty began to grate.

They were close enough to hear his words now. He sounded almost like a tour-guide. "The marketplace is center of the city, the place where most everything that happens, well, happens. It's also where new citizens can help out the most. We need as many helping hands as we can get, in doing everything from moving goods and supplies to running storefronts." He held up his hands. "Lower Mobius, is, though, a refugee camp, first and foremost. If you can't help out or want to just settle in with your family first, that's perfectly all right. Down here, we provide for everyone who isn't Robotnik." Several nods or warm smiles met his words.

Dirk prepared to lead the new arrivals onward when he spotted Griff. "Here's our chief, now. Griff, is there anything you'd-"

"Sorry, there's no time for this right now," Griff said urgently. "Dirk, something big is happening. I want you to put all our militia posts on standby alert." He swallowed, pausing. "And ready the evacuation drills. Just in case."

The three new citizens looked alarmed. A startled gasp came from one of them; Bunnie didn't see from which.

"I don't mean to frighten anyone," he said quickly. "This is just a precaution."

"What's going on, Griff?" Dirk asked.

"Something that's my fault," he answered. "I hope that nothing happens, but just in case, I want the city to be ready."

It was all the answer Dirk needed. He nodded curtly, and looked back at the group of three following him. "Sorry, folks, but city business calls. Hopefully someone showed you where you can set up your new quarters, but I've got to go."

***

Griff's house was almost as charmingly quaint as the mountain goat himself, but still far too spartan for Bunnie's liking. There were enough decorations scattered about to provide for a personal touch, but most of the walls were plain, unremarkable brown rock. As if the 'homey' feel of the house itself were only superficial, and there was some component of its personality missing, something essential to its personality yet something that it didn't want to make seen.

Again, much like Griff himself, Bunnie reflected. She wondered what else he had kept concealed from them over the years.

Slow, coiling tendrils of steam licked upwards from the cups of caffeine-laden drinks on Griff's dinner table. He had insisted on preparing them, though Bunnie couldn't fathom why. He was the only one who touched the cups, cradling it as if for comfort. Rotor's and her own merely leaked their heat away.

"The past always has a way of catching up with you, huh?" Griff asked emptily, gazing at her metallic left arm. Contrary to what Bunnie would have expected, the caffeine had mollified his anxiety somewhat. He was turning back into the calm, self-assured Griff that Bunnie remembered, although not very quickly. His exterior determination had melted away, making him seem more vulnerable.

"Believe me, Ah know that better than anyone else."

"I was afraid that this would happen someday. I wasn't sure how, but I knew that Laurentis had left enough behind to maybe hurt someone."

"Tell us more about Laurentis," Rotor suggested.

Bunnie expected another objection, another vigorous statement of hatred towards his past self. His voice was calm and clear instead. Maybe the caffeine really did help calm him, or maybe it was the familiar surroundings. Bunnie didn't care which.

"I suppose you both deserve to know," Griff sighed, resigned, "Simply put, Laurentis wasn't the kind of person you'd like to meet. I wasn't concerned about anyone or anything other than myself. I never paid attention to anything that didn't directly affect me or my work. I didn't *care* enough about other people to realize that I always found some way to hurt those who did manage to come close to me.

"Even worse, I realized what the roboticizer could be used for. While Sir Charles was conducting medical experiments, I was fantasizing about armies of robots. I had these harmless little dreams about abusing the roboticizer, and doing exactly what Robotnik's doing up on the surface right now.

"That's why I proposed the Laurentis process. I wasn't trying to improve strength or stamina in hospital patients. It was just a little exercise in my fantasies. I," Griff stuttered for a moment, "*Laurentis* was trying to find a way to create an armada of robotic supermen. Use the machine to magnify a person's strength until it was twenty times what they would normally be capable of.

"That's really why I added the beacon to the system's layout. The damn roboticizer didn't need the beacon to function. I thought that any armada of supermen would need a tracking device so that their commanding officer, me, could always be able to find them. Even when they were sealed in the city's sewers. God, it was just a fantasy, though, that was all.

"I didn't try to be a bad person. Truly, I didn't. Right up until the end, I thought I was one of the good guys. Fantasies aside, I always imagined myself as a fearless medical researcher, pushing back social and ethical boundaries in a tireless quest to save lives. When the end finally came, I saw what my fantasies had finally accomplished. An entire civilization enslaved by a tyrannical madman. Both Sir Charles and I saw what our work had done to life on Mobius.

"I can't even imagine what torture Charles went through when he was cast into his own invention and roboticized. I just know that there was one thing that truly defined Laurentis's character, the motivation that lurked underneath the surface of his personality, and that it finally came out into the open on the day of the coup.

"When I looked out over the vast armada of newly roboticized worker bots, I found that deep inside, I was actually *proud* of what had been done."

Griff's eyes were far away. He refused to even glance at either of his two guests. Bunnie suspected that this was the first time he had told this story to anyone.

"That was the day that Laurentis died. I cursed my luck that I was one of the few lucky enough to escape Mobotropolis, and fled underground. The only thing that I couldn't hide from there was myself, but that was the only thing I wanted to.

"If I hadn't met another band of five or so refugees, I probably wouldn't have survived long. I hadn't been pushed far enough to be suicidal, but I wouldn't have worked too hard at staying alive. The will to keep living just wasn't there, all that was left was a fear of death.

"The moment I knew that I was no longer Laurentis was when I met those refugees, and began traveling with them. When they asked me my name, I immediately responded 'Griff', the name of one of my favorite professors back at the Uni. The man had practically been my hero, even after I had graduated, and he had been one of the first to be roboticized.

"I tried to assume his personality for a while, be just like him, but that didn't work out for long. Again, my will to live started to slip. It was when we found the old, abandoned buildings down in this cavern that I finally found a new purpose in life. I tried to make up for my old crimes, watching this turn from a refugee camp of five, to thirty, to over one hundred. But even now I've come nowhere close to making up from what I - Laurentis - did back on the surface.

"And Laurentis is still alive inside me, which only makes it worse. If I'm not vigilant, the old facets of my personality start to surface again, and hurt people. You saw Laurentis when I stole the power rock from your village grotto. I just wanted to save my city, but I had no regard for how much you Freedom Fighters needed it. That's Laurentis in his full glory.

"It was bad enough knowing that my work on the roboticizer had been put to such a fiendish purpose. But now I know that my own little fantasy of robotic supermen - the Laurentis process - has actually been used to hurt someone. It'll never end. Just when I start thinking that I've done a little good in the world, it turns out that I've just made it that much more rotten."

"But if your intentions were good-" Bunnie started.

"No! They weren't good. The fantasy was always my intention, conscious or no. I never thought that someone might use the groundwork I laid to finish the job."

"It doesn't matter now," Rotor said. "Not if you can tell us how to safely uninstall the Laurentis nodule itself. Or even just deactivate the transmitter. That's what's important right now."

"It can't be done."

Steam from the drinks drifted sluggishly through the empty room.

"What?" Rotor asked, slowly.

"Neither the Laurentis nodule or the beacon can be deactivated," Griff said, setting down his own empty cup on the table. The impact of rock and ceramic was a hollow sound; hollow as Bunnie's stomach felt. Fear, anger, disbelief, she had lost the ability to tell the difference between them. Her emotions felt cold, rolled up in the center of her stomach like a ball of ice. "It's because of the way I incorporated the nodule into your systems."

Rotor pressed onward. "Forget uninstalling it, then, but what about destroying it?"

"No, trying either one will have the same effect. The nodule acts not only a focusing lens for the roboticizer beam, but as a nervous system for all of Bunnie's bionic components. It channels power to all three of her limbs." Griff paused, gazing hesitantly down at the table. "If the nodule is tampered with or removed incorrectly, the powered components of her limbs will overload. The shock will be enough to shut down all electrical activity in her brain."

"Ah'll be dead," Bunnie said helplessly. Whether her horror had yet to wear off, or fully sink in, she couldn't say.

"You said 'removed incorrectly'," Rotor said. "What happens if the nodule is removed properly?"

"We can't do that from here," Griff said. "There are some failsafes installed in the nodule, but we can't take advantage of them. Not without the proper tools."

"Explain."

"There is a tool out there that sends a warning signal to the Laurentis nodule, lets it know that a power shut-off might be coming. With the warning, the nodule prepares itself, stops channeling power to the other bionic components. Then it can be removed or configured without killing the person.

"But the tool needed is a very specialized component, one built precisely for the purpose of interacting with the nodule. We don't have any here. The only place that would have this tool, that I can think of, is Robotropolis itself."

"Go on," Rotor prodded.

"Maybe you've seen it, Bunnie. It's a blade, with a sharp tip fitted for adjustment screws on the nodule itself. When the warning beacon is activated, the blade itself looks like it glows a shade of blue."

An ancient flash of memory overwhelmed Bunnie. For a moment, she was fourteen again, back in the roboticizer chamber. Robotnik towered over her, a glowing knife clenched in his fat palm. She saw him open her leg, fiddle with something, and shut it again. She felt the murderous pain stabbing up her spine.

Rotor was still speaking. "So if we can get this tool..."

"No. Not even then. Like I said earlier, the nodule plays a critical role in channeling power to her augmented limbs. Even if you were to break into Robotropolis, steal the blade, and surgically remove the nodule. Bunnie would be paralyzed for the rest of her life. Her mechanical arm and legs wouldn't have any power to move, nor would they ever."

Permanently frozen. Crippled. As good as dead. And that was the best case scenario. Rotor had been wrong. There wasn't going to be any way out of this one.

No matter how long or hard they fought, her life as a Freedom Fighter was over.

Bunnie didn't hear the rest of their words. She stood up, as calmly as she could manage, and stormed out of the room.

***

She heard the door to Griff's house open behind her, so roughly that it slammed into the wall adjacent to the hinges. Rotor's heavy, plodding footsteps struggled to catch up with her.

"Bunnie, wait!"

It was sorely tempting to turn around, wait for him, see if he could ease the burdens that rested all too heavily on her shoulders. Rotor had been one of her best friends since she lost her family in the coup, and she felt terrible for just turning her back on him. But the relentless time bomb ticking in her leg would only hurt him, too.

Now that it was all over for her, the only thing left to do was make sure that her friends didn't get caught in Robotnik's sights.

She picked up her pace, and didn't look back. She didn't even know where she was heading. Just the fact that it was away was all the mattered. Eventually, she discovered that her feet were taking her towards the street where the parked cargo sled was waiting.

It wasn't long before the clacking of Griff's hooves joined Rotor's footsteps. No matter how fast she walked, they kept getting closer, and she couldn't bring herself to break into a full run. She felt Griff's hand catch her shoulder, trying to stop her.

Bunnie batted it off with a ferocity that surprised her, and kept walking. It was Rotor's voice that finally stopped her; not because of what he said, but what he didn't.

"*Please*."

The tone struck every chord of desperation, and of helpless frustration. At last she realized that, no matter how dire the situation, she couldn't bear to leave her friends so miserable. She owed them at least this much.

She turned around to face them, not caring whether or not they saw how bloodshot her eyes were. "Weren't you listening? It's all done, there's nothing Ah can do about it. Ah have to leave!"

"Maybe... maybe you could stay down here for a while," Rotor suggested, struggling, "Even if the worst does happen, the signal strength probably isn't strong enough to break through the hundreds of meters of rock and soil between us and the surface. Robotnik will never know."

Bunnie directed an accusing stare at Griff. She already knew what he had to say.

"I'm sorry, Rotor," he said sadly, "but I designed the beacon specifically with underground work in mind. The actual transmitted particles are small enough to fly through molecular gaps in any compound. Two hundred kilometers of rock wouldn't stop it."

Bunnie was about to turn around, start walking towards the cargo sled. Again, the pain in Rotor's voice kept her there, a bond as solid as prison chains. "We have to try something, damn it," he said, more out of general protest than any specific plan. "We can't just- just leave her."

"You're gonna have to," she replied, fighting to keep her answer simple lest her raging emotions choke it back down.

He used the same entreaty that he had at the start of the journey. "Take me with you. Please. Even if we have go as far as to invade Robotropolis and steal Laurentis's blade, I'll come with." Empathy and compassion were bursting out of the normally repressed mechanic's voice like an internal dam had been demolished. Like he was standing at the precipice of the end of time, with one last chance to say something he'd kept bottled up all his life. "I'll face down Robotnik himself if it means keeping you alive."

"Rotor, the only thing that would accomplish is getting yourself killed!" She kept hearing herself talk, and hating the words. She could understand where Rotor was coming from. There was something bubbling up inside her, some emotion she'd never noticed but would be empty without, some nameless feeling. She couldn't even place it, or give it a voice, but it was so strong. And it got stronger whenever she saw Rotor.

"I'm coming, too," Griff announced. "This is my fault more than anybody else's. If someone's going to get killed over this, I just hope it's me. But I have to help."

Bunnie backed away from them. Their motives were pure, almost more than that, but they didn't understand the reality of the situation. "Y'all just don't get it, do ya? I'm dead no matter what. Y'all just wanna help, but you're only going to get yourselves caught in the crossfire."

"Bunnie-" Rotor started. She couldn't let him finish.

"No, please, if y'all wanna help me... just go. Forget you ever knew about me. The only thing that would make this nightmare worse is knowing that my friends are going to die with me," she pleaded. "And that's exactly what's going to happen if you follow me!"

"But-"

"No! Just go!" Tears streamed openly down her face. "Ah have to die alone. Ah can't let any of you come with!"

Every time the nightmare had haunted her, one aspect had always been the same. Just as Robotnik was throwing her into the dreaded roboticizer, to finish the job he'd started, she'd see the faces of her friends outside the cold glass tube. They'd followed her, tried to save her, only to be betrayed and murdered by the Laurentis nodule's transmitter. If she could prevent that now, she'd still be dead, but at least the worst aspect of the nightmare would never come true. Her friends wouldn't die because of her.

No matter how much they wanted to.

"Please understand," she tried one last time. Her legs began carrying her backwards, back on the route towards the cargo sled. This time, Rotor and Griff didn't try to follow her. They just stood there, the pain on both their faces readily apparent. Seeing it on Rotor's face hurt worse than anything else. "The only thing that would make this worse right now is if y'all died because of me. The only thing-" a startled cry escaped her mouth without warning, cutting her off in the middle of the sentence. Shocked by a physical pain she hadn't expected, she tripped over her right leg and fell to the ground.

She knew from the instant she first felt the sensation, peculiar yet familiar all at once, that it was going to get worse.

She had tripped because something in the thigh of her metallic right leg had twitched. Some internal component had stuttered, momentarily disrupting the motion of the servos and motors in there.

Something had switched on.

Within seconds, both Rotor and Griff were at her side, helping her into a sitting position. Their voices seemed hollow and distant, so very far away. "Bunnie? What happened?" Rotor asked, voice thick with concern. "Are you all right?"

Bunnie held up a hand to silence him. She could feel the blood rushing from her face, fear taking an iron grip on her stomach. Time itself seemed to slow down as she placed her ear against the metal surface of her right leg.

She could hear a faint mechanical whir from inside, a high-pitched tone. Coming from the position of the Laurentis nodule.

Her nightmare had at last come true.

"Ah was too late. It's happenin'. Isn't it?"