The Test
At that moment, she, alongside the other inhabitants of Floral Forest and Gemerl, were watching as Eggman, now sporting muscles as thick as small tree trunks and a short, scruffy beard, give some last touches to a machine that apparently would be both more efficient and cleaner than their current energy source (in his words).
Even after a week of him being there, she still could not believe it.
Eggman. The now no-longer rotund villain had, quite literally landed on the middle of their village, a week before, scaring everyone with his mere presence despite him bein unconscious and then locked up in a barricated storehouse (for all the good it did when he simply forced his way out).
Some of her peers suggested to throw him in prison for everything he had done, others to do nothing and hope that something would happen in the meantime so that they wouldn't have to do anything at all; Gemerl, her and her daughter's robotic guardian, suggested killing him outright before he woke up and did anything that could endanger them, to the horror of the Mobians. Eggman may have been evil and done horrible things, but even he didn't deserve to be killed in cold blood!
For some reason (that some of her villagers clearly regretted, even after one week), no one thought of telling about him to the Restoration, a movement dedicated to the rebuilding of Mobius that originated as the Resistance, an army of freedom fighters that fought against Eggman's forces during the months following Sonic's disappearance. It was also the closest thing they had to a government after the Eggman Empire toppled all others, and was in turn toppled by the blue hedgehog and his friends' efforts.
What a shock it was when, after getting out of his confinement, the first thing he did was to ask what did he do. Apparently he knew who he was, and that he was supposed to be evil, but had forgotten his past misdeeds, to the point of actually asking her what he had done, and later that day promising that he wouldn't do anything remotely villainous as long as they told no one of his presence in their village.
And yet, despite everyone expecting his promise of doing nothing to be a ruse to make them lower their guard, or him to recover all of his memories and turn back to villainy, he did nothing of the sort.
Indeed, Floral Forest Village was taken completely by surprise when Eggman did nothing. Yes, Eggman had literally done nothing but exercise for a week, stopping only to sleep, eat, and do small things, from fixing toys to bolting down unhinged doors. It wasn't just him waiting for them to slip up either; Gemerl had been watching over him the entire week from afar, waiting for the each day fitter and more muscular doctor, until one day Eggman, to the surprise of everyone, ripped open his shirt, walked up to Gemerl and stood in front of the ancient robot, doing nothing as Gemerl tentatively aimed his chest rockets at him, until finally walking away. It was clear what he meant with that: he wouldn't defend himself if they attacked him.
That had been three days before, and despite having no real face to speak of, and despite most of the time not caring much about anything sans her and Cream, Gemerl was still troubled by what happened. And so was she, for that matter. She still remembered those days where Eggman would kidnap her daughter for no real reason other than to force Sonic to confront him face to face, or just because. And that was when he and his robotic lackeys didn't capture animals to power his robots to cause havoc and destruction across Mobius.
And yet, despite everything, she was also the one who offered him a place to sleep (the storehouse was part of her home) and food, without her daughter, who despite everything Eggman had done to both her, her friends, and even the world itself, having to ask her.
"Thank you, thank you!" Eggman said with a bow, the strange device he built out of junk standing behind him on the ground. Funny, even though a little voice in her head was telling her that it HAD to be a weapon of some sort, her eyes only saw something that did kind of look like a weirdly-shaped, vertically placed windmill if seen from a certain angle.
"Now, this here" He said after giving a short speech, patting the turbine. ", is a what I call an ergonomic wind turbine. I've already told you what it does, but in case some hadn't listened, this thing generates electricity when the wind pushes it's rotor. You know, this could give Sonic a REAL job, if you think about it."
None of the adults laughed at the joke, but something told Vanilla it had less to do with Eggman being Eggman and more with nobody knowing much about turbines at all, and the children simply assumed that whatever he said had to be funny.
"And this other thingmajig" He said as he gestured to the electric counter of her house. She actually had it inside, but he insisted on bringing it outside and putting on the roof for the test, pointing out when she protested against it that not many would be able to see it. ", is an electric counter. I'll be sincere with you people, even though I'm a genius, I never saw one of these in person in my entire life. Well, maybe I have, but I can't remember. A few hours ago, this thing was, like all the others, linked to an electric plant ten miles away. Today, however, it's connected with my creation to show you all that I can create things that benefit people, in this case a power source that only requires a bit of wind. There are other forms of clean, renewable energy, like solar, geothermal, hydropower, or even nuclear, but there's something about the wind, something incredible..." He said before shaking his head. "I'm trailing off." He then looked down, directly to Vanilla. "Miss Rabbit?"
"Yes?"
"I would be honored if you did the honors, ma'am." Eggman said. "After all, you were the first one alongside your daughter who gave me a chance to prove myself." Well, it wasn't completely untrue.
"Of course." Vanilla replied with some nervousness before climbing up to the roof, giving a look at the counter.
"Alright." Eggman then bented forward to the turbine. "Here... we... go!" He exclaimed the last word before unlocking the rotor.
At first, nothing happened as the now-unlocked rotor of the wind turbine moved at a good speed of one three rotations per minutes, the pointer not moving from its position. Vanilla saw Eggman, at first expecting and even giddy, have doubt and sadness appear on his face.
Seeing like this, much unlike a few minutes ago, full of radiance and convinced that his machine would work only for it to do nothing, moved Vanilla's heart and who, ignoring that voice who warned her, moved up to Eggman and put a comforting hand on his back. It seemed that the doctor really wanted to leave his evil past behind and show it with a goodwill gesture, only for it to not work.
But then, to both hers and Eggman's amazement...
The meter's counter started lowering.
"It works!" He exclaimed before laughing. Instead of a mad cackling, Eggman's laugh was, of all things, a genuinely happy, non-evil one. "IT WORKS! ITWORKSITWORKSITWORKSITWORKS!" He sing-songed as he hoedowned for several seconds before he, to the shock of everyone present, grabbed Vanilla and swinged her around in some sort of celebratory dance. "Today, your house! In a week, theirs! In a month, everyone will use the power of the wind for everything! EVERYONE! EVERYTHING! WIIIND! YIPPIE-KIE-YAY!"
The crowd, previously mostly silent, clapped and cheered at this, apparently finally believing that the doctor was indeed sincere in his intentions. After all, what 'villain' would dance like a happy miner finding gold when a contraption of his designed to give electricity worked?
Vanilla, for her part, was happy for the doctor. After all, he had demonstrated that he really wanted to change to good... for good.
Now, the only thing left was to wait for the doctor to tire himself out dancing to let her go.
He danced for five minutes.