At The End Of The Tunnel

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At The End Of The Tunnel

Co-Written by Harley Quinn hyenaholic and Froggy22651

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Chapter Twenty-Seven: Wakeup Call

James' ears twitched as he slowly began to wake up from peaceful dreams. He could feel the warmth of another body embracing his, and the air was filled with Breech's scent and the sweet smell of sex. His eyes opened and looked down at the feline, who seemed to be sleeping peacefully for the first time since he met her. Memories of the night before came flooding back into his mind, and James smiled, gently nuzzling her, not wanting to wake her just yet.

Breech shifted against him slightly, moving closer, but not waking.

James sighed softly and just enjoyed the moment, listening to Breech's breathing as his mind started up for another day. He felt optimistic, energized, practically giddy. With his personal life rebuilt, and with people to love who would love him back, external threats like the cult didn't seem so bad anymore. He gently kissed Breech's forehead.

"Hmmm..." Breech stirred again, more obviously this time, and pressed against him.

"Good morning, Breech," he whispered in her ear.

"Hmmm..." Breech stirred once more, and awoke. She looked into his eyes, "James?" she gave a massive sigh of relief, "It wasn't just some hallucination or a dream or..." She wrapped her arms around him, her body pressed against his.

He smiled and kissed the tip her nose, "Nope. Its real."

Breech giggled, "Oh, James, I'm so... happy!" she sighed.

Did she actually giggle? Yeah, she must have been feeling better. James lightly kissed her lips, "Me too, Breech. Me too."

They lay there together for some time, each enjoying the feel and the smell of the other’s body. James kissed Breech’s neck and shoulders gently, and she stood up, slowly. She didn't really want to, but she knew she had to at some point. She turned to pick up her clothes, and James saw the horrible 'CF + BL' carved into her back, again.

He lay back on the carpet, stretched, yawned, and then finally rolled up onto his feet, "Another day, another long trip ahead of us. ...I found the emerald." He looked away from the obscene scar. He didn't want to think about that right now. It would spoil the mood. He'd deal with Curtis later. He began putting his armour and cloak back on.

Breech hastily picked up the plastic bag containing the drugs and pushed it into her backpack, "Good,” she answered, "Where is it now?"

"Just over here," he said as he walked across the room to a table sitting just inside the hallway. He picked up the sky-blue emerald and showed it to her.

Breech felt her jaw drop, "That is one big rock," she said, finally.

"No bigger than the others," he said with a shrug.

"True..." Breech sighed, "Look, I'm sorry I lost the Red one."

"It’s alright," he reassured her, "I'm just glad you survived that fall. We can find the emerald later."

"I just can't help but feel that I should know where it is, but I don't. Or something."

James walked back over to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, stroking her gently, "Don't worry about it. We'll find it later."

Breech gave up and pulled on the jacket, "I want to thank you... for forgiving me."

"You're very welcome, Breech," he said quietly, looking into her eyes.

Breech smiled and kissed him gently, "Come on, there's nothing more to do here," she said, "Let's go home. Together."

James grinned and then suddenly scooped her up into his arms, carrying her towards the exit, "You know... when this whole cult thing blows over, and this war ends... I think I'm going to leave the guard. Find a less hazardous lifestyle. Spend more time with you and the kids."

Breech smiled, "You really are convinced I'll survive Robo, aren't you?"

"Well, we've got a month to figure it out, and we've got two of the world's greatest geniuses working on the problem. I know you'll survive." He smiled and nuzzled her. "When this is all over, I say we go on a vacation somewhere; I've always wanted to see South Island. Just relax all day... you could have as much of me as you want, whenever you want." He grinned.

Breech giggled again. Somehow James' confidence made her feel better about the problem herself

Soon enough, they were out by the hoverbike again. The storm had stopped, and the world was covered in a sheet of white. A clean slate.

~~~

It was ridiculously easy to sneak into New Knothole. Security was practically non-existent. The guards were amateurs, and the attentiveness of the inhabitants was downright embarrassing. How they had lasted as long as they did fighting Robotnik was a mystery to him. Maybe that was a sign of just how incompetent the fat man was. Used to be. Past tense. Chances were the guy was pushing up daisies by that point. His new master would have seen to that.

It was better to serve the devil than to stand in his way. It was the only way to survive his coming wrath. Darkness would rise again. He knew it. He saw it in his mind. The demon had crawled in there and showed him his power. Over the mind. Over the world. He showed him his greatest fear and made him tremble before the demon. There was no escaping him. The only choice was to submit… or die. Darkness had been mortal once, but the power of the Chaos Emeralds changed that. Now, not even death had power over him. Darkness was a force of nature.

It was not necessarily a bad thing to be the servant of Darkness. There were many perks to his service, if you were demented and immoral enough. You could gain great power. You could have a chance to settle old scores. This is what the intruder intended to do as he snuck through the dark towards the hut where his enemy lived. Prower wasn’t there now; he and the bitch were off searching for the source of Darkness’ power. For what reason, he was not sure. It didn’t matter.

Looking inside, he could see that the weasel, Nack, was hiding out in the hut. It was odd how Prower was now helping those who he had considered bitter enemies mere days ago. The figure opened the door slightly; Nack turned to look towards the sound. As the weasel bounty hunter walked over to investigate, handgun drawn, the intruder snuck over to a window, pried it open, and slipped inside. He walked up behind the unaware mercenary and placed his silenced pistol against his head.

"Drop the gun."

He recognised the voice immediately, "Cur, you bastard," he whispered, and dropped his gun.

"I get that a lot," the fox said with a grin. He grabbed Nack's shoulder and shoved him back into the room, the gun still aimed at him. "Where's Breechy and Prower?"

"You don't scare me Cur, I know you're not gay," Nack hissed, "Who are you gonna sell us to?"

Cur snorted. "There isn't a person on this planet that would pay a dime for you, weasel. Now I'm going to ask again: Where is Breechy and Prower?"

"They're not in Knothole," Nack snapped, "Do you honestly think they'd tell me where they're going? Prower barely trusts me with my own kid. Moron..." he muttered, under his breath. It was impossible to know whom he was referring to.

Cur frowned. But then a wicked grin formed on his face. That could work to his advantage, "Fine. Where's the kid?"

"There is no way in hell that I am answering that question," Nack replied, sweating. He could see Keith hiding under a table.

"Why not? It’s not like you care about the brat," Cur said, mockingly, "You sold him off to the fat man as soon as you had the chance."

"I sold him off before he could be stolen!" Nack replied, "Fatface gave him a better life than we could - he got smartness implants and friends and toys... sure he never actually saw sunlight and all that, but I wasn't willing to see him go down our path!"

"Oh shut up, Fang. You were just of much of a coward to keep him. While Prower, on the other paw, stormed the research facility to save a kid he didn't even know. Prower has more balls than you. That's funny."

Nack shook his head, "Prower's a Royal Guard. You don't need balls to be a Royal Guard. You just need a dick and a total lack of self-control." he narrowed his eyes, "Like you."

"Oh, that hurts so much," Cur said sarcastically. "I bet there's something else that Prower has that you don't. I mean come on... what do you think Breechy and him are doing out there alone?"

Nack glanced at the gun, "You fire that thing off, people are gonna come running. You won't get outta here alive."

Cur smirked and fired the gun close to Nack's head. All he heard was a soft ‘pfft’ sound, "Stealth pistol. Built-in silencer. Buttnik always gave me the best toys."

Nack nearly swallowed his own tongue, "Bastard..." he hissed. He had one of those, back in what was now pretty much Cultotropolis.

"I bet Prower is drilling Breechy right now... deep and hard… that's got to piss you off. How about you help me out, and we can both get some payback on that guardsman wannabe?"

"Breech wouldn't touch a Royal Guard, she's smarter than that," Nack snapped, but his heart wasn't in it, "And you're one to talk about putting a stop to it," he added more quietly, "Fucking ass-bandit..."

"Well, you got me there," Cur said with an ugly smirk.

"I might look stupid, Cur, but I'm not," said Nack, "I know what you've done to her, and I know you'd have done worse if Robotnik didn't tell you that she had to be fit for work in the morning. Prower's a bast, but she's safer with him than she is with you."

Cur's smug grin turned to an expression of anger, "Oh, is that so?" ‘Pfft’. The fox fired a round into Nack's belly.

Nack clutched his stomach and slumped to the ground, "Fucking... mother... fucker..." he gasped.

Cur looked down and saw the red glow of a chaos emerald in Nack's hat, which had tumbled from his head. Cur grinned, picked the hat and emerald up, and set them on his own head. "Thank you. ...Oh, do me a favour. Tell Breech that Keith and I are waiting for her and the emerald at the edge of Robotropolis. And tell her that Prower isn't to be involved." Cur reached down and dragged Keith out from under the table. He had known where the child was all along.

"Like fuck will I tell her that..." Nack gasped, "How you gonna... make me now?"

Cur smiled icily, "You’d better tell her... or I'll do it to your brat instead."

Nack bit his lip, "I think... you'd do it... anyway..." he gasped.

Curtis shrugged, "The choice is yours. If she doesn't show up..." He left it at that and walked out the door, dragging Keith with him.

"DAD!" Keith screamed, trying to pull free.

"Keith… Oh, gods dammit, Cur you bastard..." Nack managed, and slumped forward into the light. Someone screamed. There was a lot of turmoil. He wasn’t exactly sure what was going on, but it wasn’t hot enough for hell, so he couldn’t be dead.

Yet.

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Harley: You thought that reading about them screwing was the end, didn’t you? Hell no! We got loads of people to kill before this fic’s finished!