ARAAT4: Origins

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A Rose And A Thorn 4: Origins

Co-Written by Harley Quinn hyenaholic and Froggy22651

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Harley: Well, I had to put all ten chapters back up again thanks to the loser Blowjobman. But It wasn't THAT hard. You'll have to all put up your reviews again I'm afraid, but hey, at least the fic won't be wasting bandwidth.

Froggy: It's still a mystery to me how anybody can consider those reviews a productive use of their time. Oh, well...

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Chapter Ten: Bedside Manner

Mirage woke up slowly and painfully. Her absolutely everything hurt absolutely everywhere. She realised that once again she was floating in a tube. It wasn’t the same weakness since she had woken up. She was just in pain. The chemicals stung her wounds, but they were already nearly healed from the regenerative enzymes in the tube. And she itched. She must be in the med-lab for experiments. They’d never put humans in this chemical bath.

The tube was down her throat again. It hurt like hell. Everything did. The sensors had been reattached to her body. She opened her eyes, and shut them quickly. Once again, they stung her. But she wanted to get out, out of the tube. She started to writhe in the water, reaching for the sensors to rip them out.

One of the white-coated doctors nearby noticed the moving feline and put down his clipboard, stepping towards the tube. He pressed some buttons, and the liquid drained out, "Easy there,” he told her, "You're in no shape to be moving much."

"Urgh..." Mirage agreed, painfully removing the tube from her throat. She looked at the tattoo on her wrist. It was normally hidden by fur, but it had been shaved again and she could see the numbers ‘119.14’ on it once more. She looked around, "I am in the medical lab," she said, "What is going on? How long have I been out?"

The doctor picked his clipboard back up and searched over the page, sticking the pen he had been holding back behind his ear, "About a day and a half,” he told her, "After getting beaten in some silly test the robotics team put you through, they knocked you out with a taser."

"I was not beaten!" Mirage snapped, "Ask Midnight - wait, where is Midnight?"

"His injuries were not as severe,” the doctor explained, tapping a finger on the underside of the clipboard, "Just a bump on the head and some mild electrocution. We didn't need to keep him here long. We certainly didn’t need to use a tube."

"Then where is he?" Mirage asked, trying to stand again, "I want to see him," She twisted her head, trying to see her back, and saw the bandages, "Where IS HE!" she shouted suddenly.

"Whoa, whoa!" said the startled doctor, raising his hands defensively, "I don't know where he is, but I'm sure he's fine, ok? I can find him if it'll make you feel better."

"Why is not he here?" Mirage sat on the floor of the tube, "Where is he? I miss him..."

"I'll go find him for you,” the doctor assured her. Turning and walking towards the infirmary exit, he paused and turned his head, adding, "Oh, I think you have a visitor." Walking past him and towards Mirage's bed was a familiar blue hedgehog.

Mirage looked up. When she saw who it was, she smiled tiredly, "Hey, it is the blue blur..." she chuckled.

"Blue Blur... I like that,” said the hedgehog thoughtfully before giving the hedgecat a wide smile, "How are ya, Mirage?" he asked, "Ouch, you really did get beat up, huh?"

"I did not get beat!" Mirage said sharply, "I would have trashed that showy robot if those GUN soldiers had not tased me."

"Wish I were there. I could'a taken 'em!" the young hedgehog said enthusiastically, "Hey wait... they tased you?"

"To stop me junking that damn robot," Mirage answered, "GUN are dangerous, kid. And to them, you are just a tool. A very expensive tool."

Sonic shrugged, apparently not caring one way or the other. Just the way she remembered him, "Are you feeling any better?" he asked her.

"Well, I am awake," Mirage replied, "That is a step up from being unconscious. I hurt all over..." she rubbed her back, "But that is not the point."

"What is the point?" he asked, looking at her curiously.

"The point is that I am not giving up because of a little thing like being in the med lab," Mirage replied, looking at him through the glass, "Next time I see that robot... I am junking it. Permanently."

Sonic grinned, "There ya go, Mirage! Send that hunk of junk to the scrap heap!" He hesitated, “But what if you do have to give up?”

"You should never give up, Sonic," Mirage told the blue hedgehog, addressing him with his name, something she had rarely done, "No matter what. Because the bad guys in real life are not like the bad guys you read about in the comic books the scientists give you. They do not always tell you their dastardly scheme, they do not always dress in Communist colours, they will not show you mercy because you are a kid, and they will kill you if you surrender."

"I won't,” he said with a confident nod. Judging from future history, he meant it, "I didn't know if I should bring you anything or not...” he hesitated, “Why do you talk like that, anyway?” he asked.

“Talk like what?” Mirage asked.

“Like… like a robot,” Sonic said finally, “Like you think about every word before you say it. Like you’re deliberately checking every word in your head.”

“I do?” Mirage blinked, “I do not know why. I have never noticed before.”

Sonic shrugged, “Can I do anything for you?"

Mirage scratched the back of her head. Seeing as she was currently in a tube, there was a lot he could do for her, but right now she didn’t want him to get into trouble, "Are there many soldiers on the ARK?" she asked him, "Not security guards - the soldiers of GUN."

"Oh, those guys," Sonic considered it for a few seconds, "Yeah, they've been showing up everywhere. They say it’s for our protection. They don't seem very nice."

"They are just obeying orders," Mirage told him, "But something really bad is going to happen really soon... and when it does, when the alarm sounds and the people panic... you must run. Do not fight. Run and hide until it is over. Stay safe. And do not ever give up hope. I want you to do this for me."

Sonic looked uncertain but nodded in agreement, "Okay, I'll do that,” he said, putting trust in the hedgecat’s words.

"Okay, that's enough for now,” spoke the doctor who had been there earlier, walking back into the room, "Mirage here needs her rest. You can come back again later."

Sonic gave a quiet, "okie-dokie" and then made his way towards the exit, flashing Mirage a smile before he left.

Mirage smiled back at him briefly, than turned to the doctor, "So where is Midnight?" she asked him quietly, through the glass.

Looking nervous, the doctor took a deep breath and looked away, beginning with, "Well, as I said, he's doing alright..."

Mirage's eyes narrowed, "Where is he?" she asked the doctor, a soft hiss entering her voice.

The doctor looked at her and raised his hands nervously, saying, "Hey, take it easy, alright? Promise me you'll take it easy, and I'll tell you."

"Let me put it this way, doctor," Mirage hissed, "If you do not tell me soon, I will most certainly not be taking it easy. Where..." and her voice had acid in it, "Where is he?"

The doctor looked over at a nearby console, briefly considering spraying the tube with the sedative, but decided against it. Speaking as calmly as he could manage, he told her, "GUN apparently has been concerned about Midnight's actions, believing him to be a threat. So they've put him in solitary confinement for now."

Mirage didn't leap to her feet and start screaming that the doctor was lying. She looked far too angry and shocked to do that. After testing out various sentences in her head, she selected the least violent, "I will kill them. Fu’geez, I will kill them! He has not done anything wrong!"

"Your sentiment is shared by many,” the doctor told her, "People have been complaining about GUN's presence here, and I don't blame them. Everyone's on edge. This wasn't my idea..."

Mirage pressed against the glass, her claws scratching at it, "Where is he being held?" she snarled, "I shall break him out myself!"

"What? Are you nuts?" said the doctor, "There's far too many of them. They'll shoot you to pieces! I'm only a doctor; I can't bring back the dead."

"They cannot kill me - I am too damn expensive!" Mirage growled, "Now release me!"

Now the doctor thought the sedatives were a good idea and reached towards the console again.

"Fine!" Mirage drew back her fist to smash the glass of the tube, "This is not FAIR!" she snarled, "He has not done anything WRONG!"

The doctor sighed, "I'm sorry about this,” he said, pushing the button for the sedatives, "But I can't let you go off and start fighting people when you’re not in a suitable frame of mind."

"You sanctimonious bastard! I will go... wherever... I like..." The hedgecat crashed to the floor noisily as the sedative took effect. Her world clouded over and faded black, and she was aware of no more.

~~~

Silence. There was no sound except for the quiet hum of the air recyclers. The cell was cold, dark and empty. The only light source was the observation window in the ceiling, which people occasionally walked over and barely noticed.

But Midnight wasn't even looking up at that; his eyes were closed, and the echidna was sitting cross-legged on the floor trying to meditate, trying to calm his mind. It was impossible. He was angry. Angry at the arrogant, uncaring humans who cared more about their stupid research than the well-being of his mate. The humans had imprisoned him for doing the right thing. The humans didn’t even about their own creations, treating them with suspicion when not as mere objects. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. He wanted Mirage, wanted to know that she was alright, wanted to hold her warm body against his. But she wasn't there, and so he continued to sit alone in the cold, dim room, his anger, loneliness and resentment his only companions, boiling within him.

~~~

As time passed, Mirage trained. All day until the night came, she trained to fill up her day, for there was nothing else to fill it.

By day, she could feel herself coiled tight inside and waiting for the night. At night she felt a desperately empty place inside of her as she waited for the day to come. Time stopped, but duration continued, and inside she felt only cold and lonely.

Like any clock wound too tightly, anybody could see that her spring was ready to break.

But there was nobody, and she was becoming too cold to care.

~~~

Seven Days Later…

The doors to the small cell Midnight had been kept in for the last week finally opened up to let the echidna go free. Free, as if he really could consider himself that aboard the human's construct. Guards stood on either side of the doorway, pointing their weapons casually at it as the dark echidna stepped out, his steely eyes in a fixed glare.

A GUN officer stepped forward, "Return to training, Project Midnight," he told the echidna, "Any further disobedience will result in a much stricter punishment."

"Huh,” the echidna growled quietly, stepping past the man with barely a glance. He was sick and tired of being treated like property, like some pet of theirs that had taken one too many dumps on their carpet. He wanted to get away from their sterile hellhole. He wanted to see Mirage again.

"Don't answer back," the officer told him, "You'll find that GUN's soldiers and scientists are a lot less weak than those on the ARK."

"Good,” the echidna muttered, "I wouldn't want it to be too easy. Now could you stop bothering me and go guard something that's really a danger to you? Those absent-minded professors are crafting things that are making you nervous, aren't they? That's why you're here." He remembered what Mirage told him about the coming incident, about the escaped projects.

One of the guards activated a taser and held it very close to Midnight. The officer shook his head, "I don't have time to debate with ignorant animals." He turned and walked away from Midnight.

A pity, the echidna thought bitterly, This ignorant animal would have enjoyed showing you some inventive places to put a taser. Shaking his head in disgust, he walked away down the corridor, searching for his way back to the section set aside for the projects. As he did so, he wondered how Mirage had been for the long, long week he had been locked up.

~~~

Mirage stood in the training gym, panting softly over the remains of a GUN mech. The weapons in the gym had been upgraded from wood to real metal, and the ammo was live, even if the bullets were made of rubber. They'd been training her like this all week. Whenever she'd asked about Midnight, they'd ignored her question and trained her some more. And in that time, she had improved considerably her skills of Chaos Tempest and the Chaos Shield. If she hadn't, she'd have been in and out of the medical ward constantly.

A breath of disturbed air brushed past her, the wake of someone moving silently into the room. Suddenly, the lights went out with a sharp fizzle, and the dim, red emergency lighting quickly replaced it.

She didn't ask 'who is there?' or something equally foolish. She pulled out a pair of very real metal daggers from the weapon's case, and stared into the darkness, her feline eyes seeing as well in the dimness as they had in the light.

Someone was in there with her, and that someone was stalking her. The sound of metal sliding across metal came from the weapon's case. Then the figured lunged at her, all but a shadow in the crimson lighting, a sword held in its hand. The identity of the attacker, sex, or even species was hidden by the black clothing and mask it was wearing, resembling a stereotypical ninja out of a movie. Whoever it was, it was awfully short for a human.

It must be another Project, Mirage concluded, even as she dodged the lunge. She stabbed a knife at their hand, her goal to disarm them.

The assassin moved their hand out of the way, pivoted on their heel, and directed a kick towards her stomach. Whoever it was, they were fast and well-trained.

Mirage hadn't spent one whole solid week training for nothing. She let the foot connect with her stomach, tensing up her muscles, and slashed again at the attacker's shoulder. Just like GUN, to pull something like this. Doubtless it was more training. Whoever this was, they were going to regret being a pawn of those arrogant bastards.

The attacker leaned back and, with a twist of its wrist, clashed the sword blade against her knife, pushing it away. Backing up a step and holding its sword out in front, the assassin again went on the offensive, moving slower this time and giving shorter strikes, not overextending like before.

Mirage blocked several blows, then dropped to her knees and aimed a sweeping kick at their kneecaps. The warrior jumped over her kick, avoiding a great deal of damage. Recovering and raising the blade overhead, the assassin brought the weapon down towards her face with a masculine-sounding growl.

Mirage brought up a Chaos Shield, and the sword slammed against it with bone-jarring force. She stood up, the shield moving with her, and swung both her knives at the blade, knocking it to one side.

The assassin moved with the blow, spinning and turning his momentum into a slash aimed at her neck, a move sure to decapitate her if it connected.

Mirage ducked, and the air parted over her head. So, they were fighting to kill, eh? She could do that too... She did a backflip, her foot slamming into her opponent's jaw.

The other warrior staggered back, rubbing his jaw and then shifted back into a fighting stance, swinging the sword at her side. Mirage flexed her claws, “Chaos Tempest,” she said softly. The Shard around her neck glowed briefly, and the sword vanished before it connected. Her attacker stared at his hand for a moment, before she kicked him in the stomach back into the wall, and the sword reappeared, clattering to the floor.

He dropped and rolled back to the sword, snatching it up and swinging at her legs. She parried the blow, and he stepped back once again, nodding towards her in what seemed to be a gesture of praise.

"Who are you?" Mirage asked for the first time, bringing up her daggers into a defensive position.

The other warrior slowly lowered his weapon and chuckled, staring back at her. With steely grey eyes.

Mirage gasped, then glared, flowing into the fight again, circling around her opponent just as she moved into striking range, and kicking his side. Talking during battle was a waste of breath; she'd learnt that when she was fighting emotionless mechs.

The warrior bent with the blow and backed off, keeping his sword in front of him. Then the assassin paused, reached up to grab his mask, and ripped it off. Dreadlocks and navy blue fur were revealed; the familiar face of Midnight, "Who put you up to this, Midnight?" Mirage’s face had a hard expression that hadn't been there last time they'd seen each other.

Just the same, there was a hardness in his face that hadn’t been there before, lines under his eyes from stress. But it melted away as he gazed at her, and the echidna tossed his sword away, "My idea. I wanted to see how my favourite student had progressed,” he said, a smile spreading over his face, "Damn but it’s good to see you again Mirage."

"I missed you," Mirage dropped one knife and put up her hand in a blocking gesture, "But it has changed. Everything has changed. GUN is all over the place. They changed the weapons to real ones, and half of the scientists are theirs too."

Either he didn't hear what she was saying, or he just didn't care. He knew how things were changing on the ARK, and it didn't concern him at that moment. He stepped towards her and reached over to caress her cheek.

Mirage smiled, closing her eyes, but stopped suddenly, taking his hand in hers, "They say if we meet for any reason other than training, they will put you back in solitary," her expression became unhappy, "It is so dull without you, fighting these things," she kicked the broken mech's head across the floor, "They are predictable and dull and emotionless... and they are cold."

He nodded, his hand tightening around hers. In a strained voice, he said quietly, "The humans... I hate them now. They were just sitting there in their comfy chairs taking notes while that machine was killing you. I doubt they would have lifted a finger if I hadn't gone in there. I hate them..."

"Me too," Mirage agreed, "But I am not here for them. Either way, you should not hate. It is just a way to fear things without running away."

"I've lived alone and pointlessly on this floating piece of trash for a year, and when I finally find someone that makes it worthwhile... they try to separate us,” he said, looking into her eyes. Sliding his fingers between hers, he leaned in quickly and pressed his lips against hers.

Mirage didn't fight it. She'd missed Midnight, and she'd missed the feel of him too. He was warm, and everything else here was so cold... She leant back a little, her other hand dropping the second knife, and rising to his cheek.

He kissed her deeply with all of the longing he had for her. A week in the dark without her seemed like a nightmare, and he didn't want to leave her again.

Finally, Mirage broke the kiss. It was emotionally painful to do so, but she had to, "They are turning me into a weapon," she said, "I can feel it, the need to fight taking over. You should probably stop being emotionally involved with me-"

"No,” he said firmly, "I'm not going to give into their wishes... and I'm not going to stop loving you." Sighing, he ran his hand over her cheek again, "We'll find a way to get through this. Together, we can do it."

"When you talk like that... I can actually believe it is possible..." Mirage smiled. She put the daggers back in the weapons cabinet, and headed for the door, stopping and turning back, "I have missed you so much..."

Midnight returned the smile and walked towards her and the exit, forgetting for a moment his anger towards the humans on the ARK. They didn't matter. Not to him. Not when Mirage was around.

Mirage linked her hand with his, and as they stepped out of the training gym, she looked at his garb, "Where did you get that?" she asked him, a small smile on her lips.

"Oh, this?" he asked, looking down at his costume, "I, uh, stitched it together in my free time..."

Mirage laughed, "You mean that some time in the past year you actually sat down and made that?" She shook her head, "Oh, and Ashura came around yesterday," she added quietly, "GUN is keeping him busy in the restricted area, so he is not a worry... not right now, anyway."

"Good,” was his reply, "I'd be perfectly happy if I never saw him again." Looking down at his costume, she could actually see the hint of a blush in his cheeks, "Hey, I was bored and watching old kung-fu flicks…"

"Is that so..." Mirage tugged at the costume playfully, "The ones where the hero rescues his girl from the jaws of hundreds of identically dressed ninja death soldiers?"

The echidna grinned, "Yes, I watched plenty of those,” he told her, "How do I look?"

"Heroic," Mirage smiled as they walked down the corridor, "Sexy. But I do not think that is because of the costume." Her face broke into a grin.

Midnight chuckled softly, flattered by the compliment, and he gave her hand a squeeze. Tilting his head towards her, he winked at her playfully.

Mirage kissed him on the cheek, always conscious of the cameras watching them, "Perhaps there is a way we can get some time... alone," she whispered softly in his ear.

~~~

Harley: Now REVIEW the STORY. That’s what the damn review box is for. Not for some comment on Linux which I will rapidly delete.

Froggy: If you really want to annoy us, why not bloody well IM us? Harley’s IM is in her bloody profile. She’s practically inviting you. But for fuck’s sake why the hell do you feel you need to waste your life writing crap that’s going to get deleted anyway.

Harley: Next Chapter... sex! If you're sensible.