FSE

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Sonic and Bunnie finally stopped running - Bunnie virtually dragging Starla along by the wrist - when they saw their friends waiting for them outside the gates. Sonic slowed to a trot and then a walk and Bunnie stopped to get her breath back, while Starla leaned on the fronts of her legs and panted, muzzle pointed toward the ground and her belly hollowing, inflating, and hollowing hard.

The group waited for the hybrid to regain her composure and perhaps say thank you to Sonic and Bunnie, maybe even sorry for the trouble caused. But when she got her breath back she simply straightened her belt and combed through her long hair with her fingers.

"Did you do what you came here to do?" she asked distractedly as if, now that the mission was over, finally she could attend to the urgent task of her grooming. Starla's gaze flitted nonchalantly over to Sally as if she was the person the hybrid expected an answer from.

Sally couldn't believe what she'd just heard. Annoyance overtook her before she could stop herself. "Hey, wait a minute, how dare you!" she glared at Starla. "How can you stand there and-" As she began this rant she chastened herself for losing her temper: what kind of royal was she? A royal who couldn't control their temper was no better than a dictator. Her father, if he were here, would be so disappointed.

But what actually stopped her from talking was the fact that Sonic, Bunnie and Antoine had started rants of their own. She fell silent as a chorus of protests rose around herself and the winged female. Starla turned her head and looked at the others, unsure of who to face in the verbal onslaught.

"Geez, Starla, we nearly got killed just bustin' you outta there! What the-"

"What in tarnation is wrong with y'all? Ah just got you outta that-"

"Zut alors! Madamoiselle, you are truly ze most incor... inde..."

Surrounded by the support of her friends and reassured by the fact that she was not the only one angry with Starla - and therefore maybe she wasn't the dictatorial despot she'd feared herself to be - Sally calmed down and put her hands up to silence them. Reluctantly, they granted her that silence. She took a deep breath.

"Now come on everybody, Starla made a mistake. I know we're all stressed, but I'm sure she's sorry that the mission was aborted. Starla, do-"

A quiet bleeping sounded by her knee. Her heart lifted - the sound told her that NICOLE had come within range of a SpaceTime pocket. The group went quiet: they too knew what the sound meant. Sally picked the hand-held off her boot and opened it, pressing a button that sent a holographic beam around her which traced the dimensions of the SpaceTime pocket. She stepped backwards outside the projected space, looked at Starla and smiled.

"There it is, Starla," she said reverently, "your way home!"

Starla looked at the pocket of holographically-lit air in front of her, for once dumbstruck. Finally she found her tongue. "That's the portal? What do I do?"

"I've got what you need." Sally replied. She offered NICOLE to Antoine to hold and took off her rucksack. She pulled out the bottle of hydrogen gas she and Rotor had prepared in his workshop and lifted it to eye level.

"What you have to do, Starla, is step into the middle of the space and open this bottle. But we need to get away from here first or we'll be taken through to your world with you." She handed the bottle to Starla. The hybrid stepped forward into the reddish haze.

In the background, Sonic began to corral everybody so that he could take them out of reach of the portal. As they lined up, Starla began to look upset. She drooped a little and stared at the ground, and then at the distance. Something about her seemed reluctant to do this. Come on Starla, Sally thought determinedly. Say goodbye. You need to go back...

"Don't you guys want me to stay?" she asked finally, a slight tremor in her voice. Sally could almost feel everybody cringe behind her. Somehow it was her friends' awkwardness that made her words come kindly, freely and clearly.

"Honey, this isn't your home," she replied gently, wondering just how she was going to convince Starla that travelling back was the right thing to do. At that moment, Starla looked like she wouldn't travel back for anything- Then, she had it! Love! "I bet your warrior friend misses you," she said, "and all your other friends! You need to show them that you're okay."

Starla looked at the ground again at this. It looked like she had thoughts about that, but before she could counter anything Sally said the princess continued:

"You've got a whole world to go back to, Starla. Just make sure you remember us!"

"Yeah, Sugah," Bunnie chimed in, picking up on Sally's friendly but firm speech. "And Ah bet your mom misses you." In a flash, the others joined in too.

"Au revior, madamoiselle. You must to be 'aving a pleasant of journey 'ome!"

"Yeah! I mean, you wouldn't wanna see ol' Butt-nik again, would ya?"

xXx

Starla looked once more at the group, at their happy - too happy? - waving, at their plastic smiles. She opened her mouth to speak, only to be cut off by Rotor.

"Bye, Starla," he said. She began to chuckle before realising that her laughter didn't quite fit. Even his smile was fixed and insistent, his eyes clear and child-wide and urging her to accept his message. Had he manipulated her into accepting him or leaving? Is that what she could sense: that these people really, really wanted her to go? She couldn't understand why they wouldn't want her around: she was a great friend and always knew the right thing to say. Couldn't they appreciate that? Suddenly she saw only one solution: she had to say goodbye and get away from here. She couldn't stand the idea that they didn't want her. That idea hurt too much.

"G-goodbye," she said simply, still unsure quite what these peoples' opinion was of her. They can't hate me. Can they? Trembling at the thought, she crouched, put the bottle down on the ground and placed her hand around the neck. She looked at Sonic, sadness rising in her chest. Now that we're parting, don't you want me to stay? Say you do. Please?

At this cue, Sonic ordered his friends to link together. Sally stood in front of him and he took her in the crook of one arm. The last thing Starla saw before the world blurred was Sally's indifferent expression. Then he accelerated into a dizzying run that pulled them all far, far away from her. The wind he generated pulled lightly at Starla's hair. The dust he kicked up curled and twisted before coming back down to the ground to settle. In an instant, Starla was by herself.

She hitched in a small sob: she was alone now. The only people she knew in this world had just rejected her. She squinted through the darkness: the Knothole Freedom Fighters were already a long way away.

Tearfully and full of the agony of rejection she pulled the cork.

xXx

Sally faced into the oncoming wind as Sonic raced, carrying her, along the walls of Robotropolis. She barely glanced in their direction even when they gave way to piles of rubbish and finally to clear ground. She glanced over Sonic's shoulder to see the pink form of Starla through rays of a bright white light. She opened and thrashed her wings as if in a panic, drawn into the midst of the white void. Sally looked forward again.

Ahead was a hill and Sonic sped up it. Gradually he slowed until he came to a stop and put everybody down. He must have guessed they were a safe distance away and, looking down at the spot Starla had been, Sally thought he was right. The others joined her on the crest of the hill to see the light flare and sparkle and cast strange lights against the city walls. As they watched, the light began to fall in on itself. Three more tendrils lashed into this world as if they were truly alive and winked out in a fraction of a second, and the light-show finished with an anticlimactic burst of white sparks. Nothing was left where Starla had been, not even the bottle.

xXx

Rotor watched those points of light flicker and felt himself relax. Finally Starla was gone and he thought it wasn't a second too soon. The day had been stressful and embarrassing but he was happy to see it end like this, with nobody harmed. He didn't want anything bad to happen to Starla no matter what she was like, and he was glad that together, the Knothole Freedom Fighters had sent her home safely.

He continued to watch the last of Starla's stars flicker and listened to the quiet rustlings of his friends. He felt lucky to have them and he thought of them now: Sonic, his best friend, who he could always rely on for support and to speak up when he couldn't. Sally, who'd been so confidential and allowed him to ignore his embarrassment gracefully and Bunnie, who contrastingly had shown him that she would accept him - and defend him - without hesitation. Even Antoine had a dignified, genteel way about him that Rotor appreciated right now. He smiled to himself. He was happy among his friends.

He still didn't want to talk, even to them, but their implicit support was warming and he felt it gladly. Now all he wanted was to go home. He glanced at Princess Sally, waiting for the word from her.

xXx

The alien embers burned out and Bunnie breathed a big ol' sigh of relief. She flexed her robotic hand and a thought occurred to her. Though she hated her robotic limbs, they did their job in giving her immense strength. They'd come in useful tonight. Until two days ago, she hadn't seen any good in them. But today she thought she'd found her groove. She looked at metal hand and clenched and unclenched it. Maybe they could make a truce, her robot bits and her.

Sonic's interruption of the fight between her and Starla had been just the right thing to do. He hadn't asked her to apologise for hitting Starla. And Sally's quiet support afterwards had been a tonic. She glanced around at the others and flicked her gaze briefly over to her marine friend.

Rotor. Loveable, vulnerable Rotor. She hoped he'd get his confidence back soon. He deserved it. She looked further around at the others. The rest of the team were more tolerant than she was. They'd calmed down the situation when she'd only helped it spill over. And for that she was grateful.

Yep, she needed these friends of hers.

xXx

Sonic couldn't help but sigh now that Starla was gone, but he wasn't quite sure why. Starla had been insensitive and rude for the whole time she'd been here. And yet... she'd had guts. Not everybody was as wrecklessly brave as she'd been. She had that. It was a strength he recognised because he had it himself. If she'd been kinder to his friends then she could have been a cool addition to the team. Maybe.

Then he thought back to yesterday, when he'd shown her to the spare hut. She'd tried to seduce him. He shivered. Had he liked that or not? He really wasn't sure. But as he tried to work it out he slowly realised that Sally was standing by his side. Whatever had happened between him and Starla, he didn't want it. Sally was a much cooler girl.

What was be thinking? Girls has cooties!

He looked at her for a second. Yeah actually, he thought. She's okay. For a girl.

xXx

Antoine squinted into the darkness, the better to see the strange fireworks. Starla Mirage Brighteyes was gone. That was a good thing, he thought. For she had been callous, sneering, and she had treated his friends with an unkindness that he had found quite shocking.

With her gone and with his friends around him, he felt at ease again. Although Starla's sharp tongue had never been turned in his direction, he'd felt affronted on his friends' behalves. But now, thinking about this mission, he felt pleased with the tattered chosen family around him. They had done well. All of them. He took a look at them in turn: Bunnie had a smile of peace on her face that he hadn't seen since before her roboticization. Rotor looked mild and deep in thought, and content. Antoine allowed himself a small smile of satisfaction. He was pleased with how Rotor had weathered Starla's bullying, but he knew that all the walrus wanted for the next few months was space and understanding friendship, in measures that he cared to choose. Antoine was perfectly happy to grant this to his friend.

Antoine looked at Sonic and noted the hard edge of jealousy in his stomach. It felt wrong and he thought about it. Why did he feel it? What use did it serve? He took in a deep breath to stretch his chest, and when he let it out again, the anger had dispersed. Sonic was his unofficially adopted brother and deserved the same regard that everybody else. He knew that now, even if he did not always feel it. He smiled in Sonic's direction with genuine affection. Sonic looked lost, however. He was looking at the princess as if he needed her to do or say something. So Antoine did the same and glanced at her also. It was time for her to lead them home.

xXx

All that was left was the city and the dark vista. Clouds half-obscured the night sky The wind blew in their fur. There seemed no reason to stay.

Sally waited for a signal from one of the others that they should leave but it didn't come, not even from Sonic.

She looked around in confusion. 'Big Brother Sonic' wasn't taking the initiative. Neither was 'Big Sister Bunnie'. Antoine and Rotor, both looking for guidance, seemed to be waiting patiently for somebody else to make the move. Then she realised they were all looking at her.

What she felt then was happiness. But it was more than that: something in her took root, almost as if it had literally latched onto the ground. It felt solid and strong. They want me to lead them back? she asked herself, searching each of their faces in turn. And it seemed, by their expressions, that the answer was yes.

She felt a spontaneous smile break over her face. Perhaps she did have a place in this family, after all. Maybe Bunnie was a big sister but wasn't she, too? Who could say they were not both older sisters, almost twins, each looking after the family in a way the other could not. That had a ring of truth to it; it felt right. She smiled again at them all. Yes: she was the big sister too.

"Come on, guys," she said, "Let's go home!"

THE END.