Blood Bonds

Part 3 - The Deal

The creature wasn't sure exactly how much time had passed, but he was aware that it had been at least a few hours since his capture, as he laid paralyzed in the containment portion of the G.U.N. vehicle. The vehicle slowed to halt, and he could feel vibrations through the cushioned floor mats as the driver slammed the door shut and opened the back of the truck, where he was trapped. Rough hands pulled the cuffs off his ankles and pulled him out of the dark interior, introducing him to a grim concrete lot surrounding a large military building, with words reading "Guardian Units of Nations" in small white font at the top front of the establishment. The soldier planted him on his feet and he swayed slightly, his abnormal metabolism quickening up to outpace the amount of time the drug lasted. He looked wearily about as numerous soldiers with their guns on standby surrounded the soldier who brought him out and escorted the two inside.

He spent the rest of the day and the night afterwards locked in an containment cell, where G.U.N. soldiers paced the halls and checked on him every few minutes. The beast sat on his sad excuse of a prison bed, watching the soldiers in silent fear, too distressed to fall asleep. After some time, he grew weary, and was only resting his eyes a few minutes before a soldier banged a fist on his cell door, startling the creature out of his wits.

"Get up, Head of Guard wants to see you." The soldier, a different one than the man who brought him there, opened the door. "Come on. Get up. Let's go."

Grumbling under his breath, the bizarre entity walked down the hall, his hands cuffed behind him, staring at the sterile hallway before him as the soldier marched at his side, leading him through the building and out of the hall with the holding cells. Before he knew it, he was being ushered inside a dim office, the softer lighting giving his tired eyes a break from the harsh lighting of the rest of the military base. A man sat behind a desk across from him, looking up disinterestedly as the alien was brought before him.

"Hello, I'm Robert Wilkes, Head of Guard..." his dull blue eyes drifted down to the files opened on his desk as his hands shifted through the documents. "I do believe you're Shadow the hedgehog's... half-brother? Your name is Eclipse?"

The alien stared at him silently, unsure of what to say. The Head of Guard's gaze grew somewhat critical as he studied his prisoner's dumbfounded expression, before he sighed and stacked the papers together.

"From what I've heard, your kind has committed numerous crimes against humanity, going as far as to trying to overtake our planet and use our species as fuel for your own, am I correct?"

Eclipse nodded. Wilkes regarded his anxious silence with an unimpressed raise of his brow. "Not going to try and defend yourself?"

"My species is as good as extinct. I'm entirely at your mercy." The alien uttered back. "What do you want me to do, beg that you not to treat me like a lab rat? Ask you to think of my future and that of the Black Arms?"

"Interesting..." Wilkes glanced at his computer, the monitor of which displayed his email's inbox. The current conversation he had open was between him and someone named Head Mistress. He studied the latest conversation they had had, before looking back at Eclipse.

"I know you're in a pretty rough situation right now, but say I make you a deal. With Mobius' most recent technological advancements, we're capable of taking the DNA of any species and using it to recreate more of the same kind. Essentially, we can make copies. Does that sound interesting to you?"

The alien gave him a look of suspicion. "Why on Doom's deathbed would you help repopulate the Black Arms? We've tried to eat your kind."

Wilkes smiled without humor. "Now that's where it becomes a deal. In exchange for our assistance, you and all your future relatives have to swear an oath of alliance and a treaty of peace regarding the inhabitants of Mobius, and any of their allies. In other words, no brutality between our kind, no trying to eat one another, you get the idea."

Eclipse was growing increasingly paranoid. "Why would you- why would you help the Black Arms? Why help any species that's not your own? What's the meaning of all this?!"

"For that answer..." Wilkes placed a document on the desk facing Eclipse. "I'll be handing it over to your new counselor, Head Mistress Nutmeg. She runs a G.U.N.-funded program called Foundation for Villain Redemption. or F.V.R. She can be of guidance, if you're willing to accept the terms and conditions, that is."

Eclipse looked down at the document, a beat passing by as he soaked in all the information given to him, before scoffing half-heartedly at Wilkes. "I'm not given much time to think it over, am I?"

"You can have a month to think it over, though you'll be kept in our containment cells." Wilkes smiled pleasantly, placing a pen beside the unsigned treaty. "Though if I were you, I think the best available options have made themselves pretty clear. Besides, your case is pretty special, and you've been given this offer solely through Mobius' protection and revival of endangered or extinct species."

The alien pondered it over, thinking of how the Black Arm's future rested solely on his shoulders, before gritting his spiky yellow teeth. "Alright. I'll think about it. One month."