As the group wordlessly climbed the hill, Honest was steadily thinking.
Last night, Scourge had described the city as "not exactly functional". What he had meant by that was that Hearts couldn't just get a hotel room, it was like the apocalypse or something. Gangs running rampant, most every building abandoned-- you know. However, Honest probably knew a little more about Hearts than Scourge. Honest had a whole other problem she was worried about that maybe the green king just didn't know about yet or else he might've been just as worried as she was. If Hearts was unleashed on the city, she might take control, unite all the gangs under her, turn the city into a kingdom of its own, and pose a major threat to the monarchy! ...Or dictatorship... the lines were blurry... Okay, maybe not, but still! After giving her twin behind her a timid glance, Honest turned back around and whispered pointedly to Scourge, "Whenever we get to the city, Hearts needs to stay with us all the way to the Castle no matter what."
"So, you've decided not to abandon her after all, huh?" Scourge whispered back instantly.
Honest messed around with the hem of her dress. "Well yeah, but it's also important that she doesn't wander off on her own because... well, we can't trust her. She could pose a potential threat to you in the future."
Scourge seemed to understand immediately. "Okay, yeah you're right. I can see that. I really can't see exile working on her a second time."
Honest turned back to face the hill ahead of them, uttering a silent sigh within her own head. Scourge didn't quite understand what she meant, but that was fine. What he understood didn't matter so much, you know? Leave it up to Honest to quash would-be usurpers. Regardless, it was more important that he focus on the bigger issues.
Speaking of bigger issues...
After overcoming the majestic sand dune, the vast cityscape spread out before them without any pop-in whatsoever, something one could only achieve in fanfictions... or the real world too, she guessed. Honest once came over a hill and saw a city IRL spread out like that. It must've been pre-rendered because she remembered it being instant. Anyway...
Scourge passed Honest without slowing down at all. "Come on, Honest. I wanna get to the Castle and settle this matter as soon as possible."
"Don't you want to stop for a moment to take in this wondrous view of the city?" Honest asked, annoyed.
Scourge looked up. It was breathtaking to see a city from such a height. He lifted his sunglasses. Honest folded her arms triumphantly. "See? You can't get this kind of view from that dingy stone balcony of yours."
That balcony. It was chapter 26. Scourge greatly disliked the inhabitants of Moebius, his home zone. Honest had just written out all that she already knew about how Scourge came to be in that chapter, but it had helped her to realize something new. She knew about that, and she knew the reasoning behind it. And, furthermore, she couldn't find anything about it that she disagreed with, but still... Ugh. If it had been anyone else, would she still be able to forgive and forget that sort of thing? Of course, she didn't forgive him for what he did afterwards. I mean, what kind of psychopath would be able to forgive someone for that?
Fiona.
Yeah, she did. But then again, was that really such a bad thing?
No, Honest decided. I'll give her just this one thing. Everyone deserves second chances, and that was exactly what Fiona gave him. Honest then realized something else. You know who didn't give Scourge a second chance? Sonic. Honest then imagined some readers' reactions to that thought and immediately despaired. No one would ever accept that, and they would label her as everything in the book under "terrible person" for saying such a thing. But you know what? It didn't matter. Their thinking was influenced by prejudice. Honest knew what was right and what was wrong, and it was right to protect those who protect you. If you just focus on the underlying situation, on the basics, even you, my faithful reader, will be able to see through the thick fog of bias clouding everybody's judgment, including your own.
For now, Honest and the readers could just focus on what they did have in common: their shared hatred of Fiona. Man, that fox girl. She's really terrible, isn't she? What she did to Tails? Just the worst.
But what she did to Scourge in this story? The ultimate betrayal. Poor Scourge. Speaking of him, Honest found, after she had broken out of her trance, that Scourge was still standing there taking in the view from atop the hill, ridge, whatever this thing was. Honest couldn't tell if the expression on his face was one of wonderment or sadness, but frankly she didn't care. He was holding them up.
"Yo, Mobius, er, Moebius to Scourge! You 'wanna get to the Castle as soon as possible,' remember? Well?" Honest shook her arms so fast they blurred. "Let's go!" Not waiting for the kingly porcupine to follow, Honest sprinted down the hill towards the city. However, she ended up stumbling once the hill turned down steeply halfway and rolling the rest of the way down. Scourge rolled his eyes and went to sit down and slide after her, but instead Mephiles came out of nowhere and ran into his back, sending the moss-colored monarch tumbling head-first after Honest. The demon disguised as a striped hedgehog fell back on his knees and watched the king roll away with an emotionless stare.
Hearts's head popped up beside him. Shadow ran up behind him and held his arms out in disbelief. "Before you say anything, that was not an accident. I saw you take off towards him without a word. You did that on purpose!"
"I'm not denying anything," Mephiles claimed. "I like the chaos."
Shadow looked to Hearts for some kind of help. Instead, she just watched as Honest and Scourge hit the ground, their heads lodging in the sand. "That was awesome," Hearts breathed.
Before long, the lifeless air of the city embraced the group. Not long after that, it started to rain. Honest looked almost blissful as she savored the bumpy texture of the pavement beneath her boots, even though she was struggling to keep the metal garbage bin lid that was serving as her umbrella to block the falling rain completely. It wasn't quite big enough for two people as Hearts was walking beside her, having not been able to find her own. However, Scourge was undoubtedly distressed as he was ducking around every building looking for something.
"What are you looking for... Scourge?" Hearts asked after a while of watching his desperate search.
"One of the tunnel entrances," Scourge told her, taking a nervous glance at the street sign above their heads.
Hearts smirked as she and her twin followed him down another alley. "You mean to tell me you lost your own passageway?" When Scourge said nothing, she put a finger to her cheek and pretended to examine the side of a building. "I heard you guys were building tunnels all throughout the city. I heard they were mostly an old sewer system so they went everywhere."
"Yeah, but this is the royal family's old escape tunnel. It only goes to the Castle, nowhere else, so there's only one entrance." His aqua eyes lit up when they landed on a partially smashed dumpster. "There it is!"
The king looked so unbelievably thrilled to see that old dumpster that you would've thought it was a four-tiered lemon cake sitting out there in the rain. He ran over and grabbed the one un-smashed corner and lifted the entire dumpster as if it were made of aluminum and tossed it to the side.
Shadow and Mephiles eventually caught up, and Honest gave Hearts the lid and squatted down next to Scourge. "Is this the entrance?"
There was a metal trapdoor where the dumpster used to be. It was slightly bent in the middle and was clearly silver at one point, but now it looked charred as if a bomb had gone off on top of it. "Is this really what your parents used? It doesn't look very fit for royalty if you want me to be Honest."
"What were you expecting, a parade? First of all," Scourge said, holding up a finger and smiling like it wasn't raining and they hadn't spent two whole days to get here. "If they were trying to escape something like an ongoing coup d'etat, and trumpets and balloons were waiting for them on the ground, it would attract unwanted attention, and two-" Instead of putting up another finger, he pointed at the tunnel entrance. "It's been twenty-nine years since that time, and I don't know if it was ever used for its intended purpose."
Twenty-nine years, huh? A seventeen year-old reminiscing about an event that happened twenty-nine years ago. Well, reminiscing wasn't the right word, more like recalling. Still, it was completely illogical, no, insane, and yet it made perfect sense to everybody there.
The tunnel was not what Honest expected. The walls were wood panels. Who had gone through all the trouble to install paneling down a four hour long stretch of tunnel? The bottom of the tunnel was filled with water though, and it was soaking Honest's boots.
"Ew," she said, lifting one boot and watching the water drain back out of it. Hearts and Shadow were still making their way down the ladder behind them. Meanwhile, Mephiles had turned to a liquid and was slowly dripping down beside Honest and reforming.
"Sorry about the water," Scourge apologized, shrugging his shoulders. "The ground's saturated up above. The water will find its way down here no matter what though. Even in the middle of a drought, probably."
"It sure rains a lot to be bordering a desert," Shadow said, having come down the ladder and was now looking for the flashlight he thought to bring from the inn that he had hidden in his spikes.
Scourge looked over at him with a puzzled expression. "Why do you assume the desert is dry?" Scourge turned with a sneer and peered down the tunnel. "Maybe before the Great Peace."
Honest tilted her head at that last thing he said. However, no one else responded and Shadow turned on his flashlight, having finally found it in his black hole-like spines. The light illuminated the tunnel ahead of them so they could see, and Scourge took the lead again. This time Shadow wasn't lagging behind but was instead walking together with the green king down the passageway.
"I've actually become quite accustomed to traversing water-filled tunnels these days," said Mephiles suddenly.
"Oh, no. Here he goes again," Honest heard Shadow whisper.
At least they weren't being rained on.