Through the Looking Glass: Chapter 4-C
Exactly as she predicted, Rouge was holding the portrait of Banjo and his family when she had woken up that morning. She smiled, thinking about how the girl she now knew as Tooty would react to seeing that photo.
Very sneakily and with an expertise that years as a government agent had given her, she snuck out of the bed without the she-bear noticing her movements at all. She then planted the picture in a drawer in her desk before getting back under the covers.
Rouge decided she would get Tooty on this subject after breakfast, and so she sat in bed for the morning, waiting for Tooty to rise.
Or, would have, if a blare on the intercom had not startled the bat greatly and woken the bear up instantly.
"Rouge, I think you've got something in the prisoner's room you want to see..." said Robotnik's voice over the intercom. "It's a surprise..."
The bat looked up at the intercom, first in confusion and then in disdain. The teenage bear simply looked at Rouge with a very surprised expression on her face.
"What was that...?" she asked hesitantly.
"Oh, I dunno..." said Rouge, a slight scowl pervading her speech as she stepped out of the bed. "Come on. We've got business to attend to..."
The bear understood immediately, and as Rouge walked out of the room the she-bear followed closely behind.
When Rouge entered the prisoner's room, she noticed Sonic, Cream, and Amy all looking at her and the person Rouge assumed to be Tooty right when she entered. However, she was utterly shocked and surprised to see a fourth face in the same cage that Cream was in. Crimson eyes glared at her hatefully, and the bat was able to tell by the black fur the person wore that this was not going to be a good day.
"S-shadow?" she asked suddenly, rushing straight to his cage in her shock. "What... What the hell are you doing here?"
"What do you think, you backstabbing bitch?" spat the black hedgehog, the venom in his voice all too apparent to the jewel thief.
"Whoah, Shadow, be nice please," retorted Amy from where she was.
Shadow's glare effectively silenced the rose-colored hedgehog. "I don't need to be nice to a backstabber," he said with biting cynicism.
"Uh... Why are you saying that about Mama Rouge?" asked the bear innocently as she came closer to Shadow's cage.
Even though the night-colored hedgehog had seen the bear, he did not think that she would actually speak up for Rouge. However, the only indication of surprise he gave was to raise one of his eyebrows for only a second before crossing his arms in front of his white chest fur. The hedgehog's visage still wore a cross expression through all of this, however.
"Uh, 'Mama' Rouge?" asked Sonic uncertainly. "Why 'Mama' Rouge?"
"I don't care, and honestly, I still wouldn't care even if you stole all the emeralds from Eggman once he got them all..." said Shadow, his frown still prominent on his face.
When he noticed the slight bit of shock that registered in Rouge's face, however, his frown softened, and then he smirked softly. This gesture confused everybody in the room, especially Rouge; she knew Shadow liked Rouge when she was crafty, but just a second ago she thought he hated his guts.
"Crafty as--"
"Oh, boy, I just remembered I have to check your voltage ratings!" shouted Rouge loudly to interrupt the black hedgehog. As soon as she had said this, she leaned in close to Shadow, whose expression turned from gleeful to unamused. "Yeah, there's audio surveillance in this room, just so you know." Her voice was barely a whisper at this point as she glanced quickly at all of the spots in which the hidden microphones were installed. "Remember that the next time you try to blow my cover."
The black hedgehog nodded softly, looking down at the bear that was by Rouge. "So who's this person?"
"Oh," replied the bear with a soft smile. "Mama Rouge... saved me... from that mean... doctor person..."
"Yeah, she was going to get killed by E... er... Robotnik two days ago," she said, indicating the TV that she new was behind her. "If Sonic, Amy, and Cream hadn't pointed his thing out, and if I hadn't talked to him about it afterward, she'd be dead right now."
"Yeah..." said Amy with a shrug. "So, why are you here right now?"
"Other than the fact that Robotnik woke me up with him blaring this over the intercom that there was something I should see in here?" asked Rouge irritably.
Amy, Cream, and Sonic all glanced at each other briefly before nodding their heads dumbly.
"I see..." said Shadow, frowning slightly. "I wish Eggman wasn't using such dirty tactics..."
Rouge shook her head and shrugged. She dared not say anything out of fear of inciting Robotnik's wrath, however, so that was all that Shadow recieved in terms of a reply.
"I just wonder if you've got some kind of back-up," she said, trying to word it in a way where her own back-up plan would not be revealed and that would keep her in Robotnik's favor. "I mean, Knuckles can't Chaos Control without your help, and even Shade's warp belt isn't powerful enough to move the island out of harm's way, so..."
Shadow's crimson eyes simply narrowed in a slight anger, however. "If you're trying to get info to stop us, I'm not giving it!" he said. "All I'll say is that you may have five emeralds now, but you'll have a hard time finding the other two."
Even if it was not the answer that Rouge would have expected, she knew it was the best she was able to get under the circumstances. Hearing this, she simply shrugged and inched closer to Shadow.
"And if that fails, I've got my own plan," she said.
The black hedgehog blinked while Cream rose one of her own eyebrows. Since Sonic and Amy were unable to hear, they simply gave each other very confused looks. Rouge then backed away from the black hedgehog and winked slightly.
"I'll leave it at that then," she said. "I'll see you guys later."
The she-bear that had watched this the whole time suddenly filed behind the bat, and the two of them left the prisoner's room, leaving a set of four very confused prisoners.
The next place Rouge had gone to was back to her room. The she-bear followed close behind, and when they were both inside, Rouge moved over to the desk where she had planted Banjo's family picture. "Hey, I want to talk to you about something..." she said softly.
"What is it, Mama Rouge?" asked the bear.
"Please, just call me 'Rouge'," she said nonchalantly as she pulled the portrait out. "You make me feel like an old woman!"
"Oh, sorry, M... Rouge," said the she-bear softly.
"That's okay," said the bat as the two women sat on the bed, Rouge being careful to hide the portrait until she absolutely needed to show it. "Listen... I know it's painful, but... could you talk to me... about your earliest memory that you have?"
The bear's expression immediately tensed, and she suddenly looked down at the floor, sadness in her eyes as she was deep in thought. To try to comfort her, Rouge edged closer and draped one of her arms over the bear's shoulders. Rouge could not blame the bear for being so nervous, but she had to know whether she was sending the right person back to Banjo. The bat knew she would not press anything if it tread upon overly painful territory, knowing that if this did not work she could always bring this girl into her dream.
"I..." said the bear finally, getting Rouge's attention. "I don't remember people... But I remember... the earliest thing I can remember is this... this witch... who spoke in bad rhymes... She held me in this... glass... thing... I don't remember what she wanted anymore... But some person... I don't remember who... He came and saved me... I don't know anything after that..."
The instant the bat knew that, she recognized that this was in fact Tooty, Banjo's sister. The description matched up with the tale that Banjo had told of his own first adventure, and so she uncovered the portrait.
"I see," she said, holding the picture in front of the bear. "Tell me; do you recognize anybody in this photo?"
The bear who Rouge knew was Tooty by this point looked at the portrait. Gingerly, the bear took it from Rouge, studying every detail of the portrait. When Rouge looked at an angle into the bear's eyes, she suddenly noticed that the bluish-grey eyes of Tooty had begun to shine in a strange, curious kind of light. When her head slowly backed away, the bear's gaze locked onto Rouge's topaz eyes.
"Rouge...?" she said. "I think I do... That blonde bear..." Here, she pointed to the blonde bear in the picture. "That's... that's me..."
That was the moment everything came together for Rouge. The bear in sitting in front of her was definitely Tooty. It had to be the innocent she-bear that Banjo had adored so much when he was a younger bear.
"And who else do you recognize," asked Rouge, hoping to goad the bear into saying something else.
"That other bear..." she said, indicating Banjo in the portrait. "I don't know why, but for some reason... I think he's... important... I think... He knew me once... Rouge...?"
"Yes?" asked the bat in reply.
"Do you know... who this person is?" asked the bear nervously, taking her hand away from the picture.
Rouge swallowed nervously, unsure of what to tell the bear about everything. Taking a deep breath, she began.
"This..." she said. "He's your brother..."
The bear looked up at the bat with a strange kind of mixture of wonder and confusion on her face. Her eyes seemed to shine with a strange child-like curiosity, but her face was creased in a very confused kind of way. Clearing her throat, Rouge continued.
"I... I met him once too," she said. "And he told me about his missing sister. He told me about her, and I told him I'd keep an eye out... And... there's no doubt about it... Everything fits together..."
The bat took Tooty's hands in hers before continuing. "His name was Banjo," she said. "Tell me... Do you remember your name...?"
The bear looked away for a brief amount of time, thinking. Rouge waited in a great amount of anticipation as the bear looked around. When she whipped her head back to the bat suddenly, Rogue knew she had her answer.
"I think..." she said. "I think it was Tooty..."
Rouge nodded. She kept herself reserved, but secretly she wanted to tackle Tooty to the ground in joy. All that Rouge had to worry about after that was whether Tooty could enter her dreams or not and everything would be all right in Banjo's life again. There was a brief pause in which Tooty seemed to flinch as memories came back to her of everything that had happened in her life. It had taken the kindness of a complete stranger to get her to finally realize her identity, and for this Rouge seemed to be as happy as anyone.
"Tooty..." said the bat softly.
And before she knew it, the bear had grappled onto the bat with a tremendous amount of force behind it, and she proceeded to cry into her shoulder. Rouge simply put her
"Rouge, I wanna see my brother again!" she exclaimed, sobbing into her shoulder. "Please, Rouge, take me to him! I just want to see him again, even for a minute!"
The former G.U.N. agent nodded, patting Tooty's back as she herself was on the verge of tears of joy.
"Well..." she said. "You'll have to hold my hand tonight when you go to bed."
To this, the bear broke the hug, looking at Rouge with a very confused expression in her eyes. "Why?" she asked.
Rouge simply winked at her before standing up. "You'll see," said the bat. "Come on. I think we should tell Sonic and friends the good news, yes?"
Nervously, Tooty stood up and nodded to this. She then followed Rouge out of the room, and the two of them headed straight for the prisoners' room.
When bear and bat got there, the bat was ready to burst in telling them about Tooty when suddenly she noticed the absence of a certain blue hedgehog. Now that she was there, the bat's plans had been thrown out of the window, to say the least.
"Where's Sonic?" asked Rouge.
"Oh, some bots took him..." replied Amy, looking at the screen in fright.
This sentence alone was enough to send Rouge's white fur standing on end and wishing it could fly right off. Instantly she knew something bad was going to happen, and she knew she had to stop it at any cost. Quickly, she turned to her charge.
"Okay, stay here," she said as she went for the door. "And stay by the cages no matter what you do!"
"But, Rouge, I--"
"Just do as I say!" shouted the female bat as she rushed for the door. "Shadow, Amy, Cream, keep an eye on her!"
"What, in these cages?" asked Shadow.
Rouge nodded. "Just make sure she doesn't leave the room!" she exclaimed. "I'll be back as quickly as I can, okay?"
After receiving a nod from the bear, the bat promptly left the room, and she dashed straight for the control room, where she knew Robotnik would be conducting his experiments on Tails.
When she ran into the room, she was suddenly greeted with an orchestral burst of music. This promptly stopped her as suddenly a mezzo soprano began singing something over a silky orchestral texture.
**Doch er sah den Wagenlenker
und vernahm die Trauerbotschaft:
Sonne sank, indes die Glocke
Grabgeläute tönte.**
Again, Rouge was about to ask, but she thought better of it and let the doctor continue playing the music as it went into a massive orchestral crescendo in a minor key.
**Weit flog ich, Klage sucht' ich
und den Tod!**
And here, there was another burst of orchestral playing, this one with much more prominent brass and percussion than the one that preceeded it. Rouge felt goosebumps form all over her skin as she heard what she felt to be the most damning chords in all of music.
**Helwigs Falke war's, der grausam
Gurres Taube zerriß.**
As the piece dragged to a close on a climactic minor chord, the doctor saw it fit to stop the tape here. He then turned to face Rouge.
"Ah, Gurrelieder," said the doctor with a slight smile on his face. "Always good for your epic musical fix."
Rouge shook off the feelings she had acquired while listening to the climactic music, her expression instantly hardening. "I don't really care for your musical fixes at the moment," she said bitingly. "Where's Sonic?"
Robotnik puckered his lips, raising a finger in the air as he stood up. "Ah, so you arrived just in time for the show," he said, moving over to the control panel.
"The show...?" asked Rouge in disbelief, glancing first out of the window that looked into Tails' cell and back at the doctor. "You mean, you're going to kill him?"
"Kill him?" asked the doctor. He laughed briefly after this. "Why would I need to do that?"
Rouge frowned, unconvinced at this that Robotnik was not going to harm Sonic in any way. "Because he's your enemy," she said. "I dunno, it would seem like the logical thing to do, you know?"
"Not really," replied Robotnik. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a set-up to--"
"And you're not worried about the emeralds at this time of day, are you?" asked Rouge suggestively. "I suggest you drop your project if you want to keep these things here."
"Oh, and you'd do that?" asked the doctor. The playful tone in his voice concerned Rouge, but she had confidence in her abilities.
"Right in front of your face," she said simply, walking over to the pedestal and running her hands over the emeralds. "You know that I worked for the government for several years and I could do it right now if I wanted to. So don't tempt me, you hear?"
The doctor paused for a second, Rouge's words sinking in as he snickered. Confused, the bat put her hands on her hips as her eyes narrowed in distaste.
"What's so funny?" she asked.
"You amuse me, Rouge, you know that?" he asked. "You think we can blackmail each other all we want. Well let me tell you something." As he said this, he turned around and pointed a finger at Rouge accusatorily as several robots filed into the room immediately and blocked all of Rouge's possible exits, even the window to Tails' cell. "If you don't do as I say and leave me alone, I'll kill that little bear that you've been getting attached to over the past two days. And you'll be sitting in those electric cells, unable to do a thing about it while that girl writhes in agony before being killed. And I know where she is, so I can send my robots at any time." The doctor lifted up his walkie-talkie for emphasis on this. "It's your call, Rouge. The girl dies, or you let me do my experiments."
Rouge was thankful her fur was white; otherwise, the doctor would have noticed her face paling. There was no good option; either stand up for Sonic and risk having Tooty get killed, or keep Tooty alive and risk having Sonic get harmed. She knew she could try to make a break for it, but with the sheer number of robots in the base and the fact that there were almost no stealthy ways to get around in the narrow, heavily monitored corridors meant that this option was out of the question as well. She was also not the best fighter of all, and she knew that in a brawl with far too many people she would easily get overpowered.
Ultimately, however, she could not bring herself to rebel against Robotnik under much more personal circumstances than simple impracticality. Thoughts of Banjo swirled around her head as she realized that either way somebody was getting hurt, but nothing could compare to never seeing a sister after ten years of her being missing. The bias towards the honey bear was also apparent in that he was so close to seeing her sister; rebelling then would destroy the efforts she had put into reuniting the two bear siblings. Thus, she took her hand away, shaking her head as she looked at Robotnik.
"Do your worst..." she said morosely.
Eggman smirked heartily before setting the walkie-talkie down. "I'm glad we agree on something."
After this, the doctor laughed maniacally, the laughter hurting the bat's ears as the heart-thumping orchestral crescendo that had greeted her entry into the room pounded in her ears. Rouge figured it must have been her imagination, but every detail of the music was there, right down to the odd coloring of the one ostinato figure.
As the doctor laughed, Sonic was thrown into the room where Tails was, his hands and feet both bound by seperate pieces of rope as he tried to stand up but found it futile. Tails simply stared ahead, Sonic looking at him with pained emerald eyes as he tried desperately to stand up. Rouge peeked from behind the doctor, knowing that whatever he had planned could not be good for the hedgehog.
Even with that reassurance, nothing could have prepared her for the two words that would sear themselves into the bat's memory for as long as she would live.
"Rape him."
And Tails did exactly that. The kitsune leapt onto the hedgehog, Sonic unable to get away in time. The fox, grabbing his erection that had suddenly formed, forced himself into the hedgehog, and began thrusting.
The sounds of Sonic's screams of pain emanated around Rouge's ears, and the bat eventually had to turn away as Tails pounded into the ass of his best friend with hypnotized abandon.
And all the while, Eggman hovered over the scene, laughing maniacally as Sonic's screams turned into whimpering, begging the kitsune to stop. But alas, there was no reprieve for the unfortunate hedgehog.
Tails kept on thrusting into the helpless hedgehog. And all Rouge was able to do was stand there and listen to what her decision had caused.
When Rouge had gone to the prisoner's room later that day, she had a distasteful grimace resting on her face. She had not returned for Tooty as she had promised earlier, but thankfully Eggman had decided to stay true to his word for once and so Tooty was standing silently by Shadow and Cream's cage, looking upon the only other occupied cage in the area.
It was the sight of Sonic that broke her heart, however; the male hedgehog was sobbing profusely into Amy's shoulder, the rose-colored hedgehog whispering comforting words into his ear as tears were travelling down her own cheeks. Rouge knew that the poor prisoners had seen everything that had transpired there, and so for an hour after it happened she dared not show her face to the prisoners.
When Rouge entered, Shadow's angry glare greeted her, and it was all he could do to keep himself from gripping the bars.
"Damn it, Rouge, you said you would do something!" cried Shadow. At this, everybody's attention was diverted to the bat as she looked at the ground. "And now Sonic's been raped! Damn it, Rouge, what the hell did you do there, stand around and wait for stuff to happen?"
Rouge shook her head sadly as she walked over to the bear. The poor thing instantly latched onto Rouge, crying into her hips.
"It was either him or my charge..." she replied to Shadow's question.
This only seemed to amplify his anger, however. "You'd pick a total stranger over a dear friend?" asked the black hedgehog, the venom exuded from his voice becoming too stinging for the bat to take. "How could you?"
Rouge shook her head again. "You wouldn't understand..." she said softly. "But that's okay."
"Why...?" asked Sonic, letting go of Amy to look at the bat.
The indescribable sadness that permeated the cobalt hedgehog's eyes was heartbreaking for Rouge to see. The sight alone was enough to nearly reduce her to tears right then and there.
"I'm sorry..." she said softly, biting on her finger. "But there's somebody... who misses somebody else dearly... And if I had let my charge die... I don't think he would've been able to take it..."
The hedgehog remained silent, which Rouge took as a signal to continue. "Robotnik threatened to kill my charge if I didn't stay put. Trust me, Sonic, I knew he would follow up on it because he seemed so determined. I couldn't... I can't just let somebody die if another person's happiness is at stake... But he never said he'd do that... Oh, damn it, Sonic... I've been such an idiot... I... I'm so sorry..."
Sonic seemed to understand the point Rouge was trying to make, and as he wiped the tears away from his muzzle he reached out a hand to the bat.
"Hey, hey," he said hoarsely, surprising Rouge with how worn his voice sounded. "I think I understand. You... you saved a person's life... twice... and really, that's all that matters..."
"Yeah, but it came at your expense," sobbed the bat, moving closer to Sonic's cage. "I wanted to stop him, but--"
"But you couldn't," replied Sonic softly. "Please, Rouge, don't kill yourself over this... I'm still angry that you didn't do more... But I... I think your choice was the for the best... even if I... well..."
Through his tears, Rouge saw a strange kind of sincerity that just a few days earlier Rouge thought Sonic would be incapable of giving to her. Smiling softly through her own sadness, she took the hedgehog's hand in hers, squeezing it softly before parting.
There was a rather lengthy silence as Sonic dried his own tears, Amy putting a hand on his shoulder as Rouge simply stood where she was. Finally, after what had seemed like an eternity, the bat helped the bear up. Rouge's eyes gleamed with the intensity of the moon on a cold night, and in it one could feel a strange spirit of sincerity pervading them.
"Come on," she said to the she-bear.
The two of them exited, Shadow's now quite softened expression following her out of the room. Cream simply looked to the sapphire hedgehog, a strange wonder in her eyes.
"You're just going to--?" she asked.
"Yeah," said Sonic. "Besides, it's not really her fault that Tails was being commanded to rape me, you know? I can't be angry at that."
"Hm..." said Amy as she pulled Sonic into a hug. "I'd think you'd be less forgiving than that, though..."
Sonic shrugged softly. "I dunno..."
"Why's that?" asked Shadow with a confused expression on his face.
The hedgehog looked to all three of the other occupants of the room, a sad smirk on his face.
"It's just a feeling," he said. "But I've got a feeling she's gonna do something to get herself in here..."