Above It All

Back at the house where his journey began, amidst the panicking and crying, Ivo sat at the kitchen table and looked down at the photo. "Poor Maria, if only we had known sooner!" His mother wept, Ivo still processing the situation.

"She had one last wish, now she's gone," Ivo's father said, head in his hands. "Maybe if we didn't keep her all alone like we did, we would've known how to make it come true."

"Maybe... you should just let her rest, we can't do much more at this point," Ivo gripped the photo in his hands, before setting it down on the table and walking to the doorway. In the space between the house and the outside world, Ivo looked back for a moment. Nobody had seemed to notice his words, or his departure.

"I definitely need to leave this place, if Bad Egg… Maria… could just die out of nowhere, perhaps this dimension is even more dangerous than I predicted," Ivo sighed, sitting down on the back porch under a flickering lightbulb. Suddenly, Ivo felt something nudging against his arm. He looked up, and saw Meringue Cloud hovering right by him. "Oh, it's you. We just left you behind in our scuffle, perhaps I can repair you. I was the one who got you both in this mess, anyways." Ivo dug around in the Eggsack, and got his tools. "You don't figure Maria was hurt in the crash, do you? To be frank, it looked more like an incision than anything else." Ivo flashed back to the hole on Maria's chest he saw while in the dungeon. This all seemed so familiar. But he couldn't quite tell why. He knew Maria had died aboard the Ark in the Chaos Dimension, but the details were fuzzy. Ivo spun his wrench around. "Looks like you're all fixed, Meringue Cloud. Maria would be happy." Ivo hopped on, and floated away.

…

BANG!

Ivo's head bumped into something above the clouds. "Ow!" He exclaimed, snapping awake and rubbing his head. Looking up, he saw… prison bars? "What are these doing here? Meringue Cloud, where are we?" Ivo looked all around. As far as the eye could see, there were prison bars all around the skies of the O-Void. Ivo pulled his ball and chain out of the Eggsack, and swung it at the bars, breaking a small hole in them. Just wide enough to fit through.

Ivo hopped onto the sky bars, and balanced atop one. He walked through the sky, above a rather small Eggman Island. Up here, the perpetual nighttime seemed to wane. There was a sun, rapidly changing its position in the sky and painting the airspace with unusual chemically hues. The grass grew and died and grew again in seconds. Ivo felt a presence to the right, and then spotted Ivan standing in a patch of frostbitten flowers. A large skyscraper cast a shadow onto him from far away. Ivo rushed over.

"Greatest grandfather Ivan, what is this place?" Ivo asked, looking up at the towering man. "It seems like it could circle around the whole O-Void." Ivan turned to Ivo.

"That's because it does, this is the Orbital Eggshell Zone," Ivan replied. He sat on his knees. "It protects the realm from all kinds of intruders, this way, we can keep people who aren't of the Eggman family out," Ivan walked off, and Ivo followed him.

"So it's a gate between the O-Void and the real world? That means there has to be something around here that can bring me back to life," Ivo replied. Ivan sighed.

"No, Ivo. It's a one-way entrance. Maria tried to escape as well, and it led her to finding out the truth of her demise," Ivan explained. "Once she remembered, her form couldn't maintain itself. She then succumbed to her reopened wounds. I would not wish for that to happen to you." Ivo shuddered at the thought.

"But I'm not dead yet. My soul has left my body, that's all," Ivo replied. "Y'know, I'm probably hooked up to a machine right now as someone tries to resuscitate me. I'm not supposed to be here at all!"

"Ehhh, maybe. I don't know anything about… machinery. I think it's total junk," Ivan replied. "Without it, we would still rule Erius." Ivo grumbled. "It was better when machines were simple. Once those horrible Fallen Stars arrived with their alien technology… those emeralds… the world just fell apart." Ivo stopped following Ivan, gripping his fists.

"That's not true. Progress is a GOOD thing. Look what I've managed to accomplish with contemporary technology," Ivo sneered. "You may have ruled the world for a while, old man! But I'm well on my way to reclaiming it for us!" Ivan quickly turned around and stomped his foot. Ivo jumped back, nearly falling into the hole he had made with his ball and chain and waving his arms all around for balance.

"I let you out of that prison after you escaped because you're family… Despite how much disorder you were causing. But now you stand before me, insulting the Eggman Empire of old?" Ivan said sternly. Ivo cowered, holding the Eggsack in front of him as a human shield as Ivan walked closer. "I've seen your little 'empire' from this very vantage point. The rest of the world looks down upon it in disdain, it is mismanaged and terroristic." Ivo began swatting Ivan with his Eggsack, but Ivan absorbed the blows. He could not be harmed! "They have named stars after me, and nuclear winter zones after you. You're a bastard, a DISGRACE!" Ivan picked Ivo up by the collar. Ivo kicked his legs to try and escape his grasp. "Perhaps this will teach you… to stay where you belong." Ivan snapped his fingers.

Ivo Robotnik snapped awake, hyperventilating. He scanned his surroundings, eventually figuring it out. "Just a dream…?" He asked, scooting out of a sweat-covered bed. "Just a dream! It's just a dream! I WOKE UP!" He sprang out of his room, laughing giddily as he flew down the stairs. "Eeeheeheehee! Oohoo! THANK you, greatest grandfather Ivan!" Robotnik ran to the dining room to get his breakfast on! With his apron around his neck, his fork and knife in hand, he sat down at the table.

He was given a boiled egg.

"WHAT is the MEANING of THIS?!" Robotnik shouted, looking to the chef. The chef was his mother, Bertha Robotnik. He immediately piped down.

"I am so disappointed in you," Bertha grumbled, looking out the window of Ivo's childhood apartment. "Why can't you be more like Maria? She was such a kind girl, such a kind girl…" Bertha put her head in her hands, and loudly wailed in agony. "MARIAAAAAA!"

"Mom? Oh no, it's happening again," Ivo asked, carefully trying to approach her as she screamed. He was pushed away by his father, Benjamin Robotnik.

"Do not approach her, boy. You know how mama can be when she's like this," Benjamin said calmly. He put his shaking hand on Bertha's inner shoulder and gently scratched her skin. "Go… go play with your robots, boy. Grandpa's workshop is right where you left it. He should be there, go and bring him… his medicine. Why don't you…" Bertha lunged at Ivo, catching her throat on Benjamin's arm. He let out a strained yell as he struggled to hold her down.

"GET OUT! Get out, you horrible man!" Bertha shrieked, before gagging as her consciousness flickered out. Ivo backed away, grabbed the picnic basket for his grandpa from the table, and then ran out the door.

"Hey you, wait!" The GUN Agent stationed outside shouted, reaching for Ivo's arm. "We have orders to keep you all inside your apartment." Ivo slipped by, and the GUN Agent pulled his firearm. Another agent put a hand on his shoulder.

"Settle down, he's a KID. We're out in the open. If you shoot him, that'll just add more fuel to the ARK rumors," the other agent whispered. Ivo disappeared around the bend, running all the way to his grandfather's workshop. "I'll follow him."

Ivo swung the door to Gerald's Workshop open, and saw him passed out on his desk. "Grandfather, I've brought you your medicine, and… lunch?" Ivo asked, trying to shake Gerald awake. The old man tumbled out of his chair, and hit the floor with his mouth hanging open and red-black tar pooling out. "S-Shadow Anomaly?!"

Ivo ran to the door. But on the other side, the GUN Agent was shouting at him to open up. Ivo didn't know what to do, until he caught sight of a nearly complete flying pod, and previous robots he had made with Gerald. "I need to get out of here… Nowhere in the UF is safe!" Ivo scrambled to the Rob-O-Matic, pulling robots off the shelves and stuffing them into the trunk. "I can't live in the United Federation anymore…"

"I'll give you to the count of three, kid, before we bust this door down!" The agent exclaimed, other agents coming in with a battering ram. "One…" Ivo hopped into the driver's seat. "Two…" The engines ignited, blowing exhaust all throughout the workshop. "THREE!" The brittle door was knocked down, and the agents piled in… only to see a hole in the roof, and a dead Gerald Robotnik.

Flying into the sky inside the pod, Ivo evaded their gunfire until he was out of range. His eyes blinded with tears, he blasted off to new lands, struggling to keep his grip on the control panel. He looked back at his house, but didn't turn back. He was… free.

…

"Hey, hey Ivo," Ge said, as Ivo awoke inside the egg-man's cave house. He held his head, feeling as though it was leaking. "Dude, that was a nasty fall you had. You're lucky I was here to nurse you." Ivo groggily processed his words. "Back to health." Ge walked to his empty shelf, looking at the square of dustless wood where Maria's photo once resided. "I was thinking a lot about how I kicked you out before, and… well, I didn't have much time to make up my mind and apologize when I saw you passed out in the field just outside. I guess they don't call it Sleeping Egg Zone for nothing!"

"Ge? I wouldn't have expect you to be taking care of me, thank you," Ivo said, dazed.

"Don't thank me, remember, I haven't decided to apologize yet," Ge said uncomfortably, putting his stick fingers in his pockets and looking away. "But I have decided to put you to work! I had no idea when I met you, because I forgot, but you're THAT Ivo. The techno-geek, right?"

"Ehm… I suppose you could say that," Ivo replied, following Ge into the computer room once again.

"I'm a nerd, too! But I need help to fix this computer, still. It's called the Electric Egg, and it'll help me do some dandy things," Ge raised his arms to the giant computer tower behind him. Ivo marveled at the sheer size of the Electric Egg. Ge then snapped his fingers, Ivo looked Ge directly in the eyes with sweat trickling down his face. "Like… bringing you back to the Chaos Dimension. Away from all this… EGG-CRAP. We can go back together, and I'll help you with the Robotnik Empire." Ge held out his hand, with a warm smile on his face.

"You didn't even need to ask! I'd have found a way to enslave a genius like you, anyways," Ivo sneered, shaking Ge's hand.