"You want me t-to what?" Irritation spread across the young hedgehog's face. She glared up at her robotic partner, assessing how serious he actually was about this. Of course, she was studying the face of a robot; she wasn't getting anywhere any time soon. Sure, he was a particularly expressive AI, all things considered, but that meant little in her current situation. His face was stoic and his voice was monotone, she could read nothing.

"I don't want you to do anything," the towering red robot stated simply, crossing his arms as he near-mumbled, "except maybe stay as far away from the public eye as possible," before returning to his typical, flat tone and explained further, "it was Solaris' request upon bringing you back."

"But RK! School?!" Itara whined, her ears dropping as her arms flew into the air, "w-what do I… what do I look like, some kind of mortal?! A-And without the use of my powers…" Her arms returned to her sides, fumbling more and more over her words as she grew more anxious about the idea, "I… I can't… I-"

RK kneeled down to meet the small, stuttering demi-god eye-to-eye, placing a hand on her head and rubbing between her ears, getting a wide-eyed stare from the girl. "Look," he began, having made note of her stutter since her return, "I'm sure Solaris is aware of your loss of control over your powers, which means he knows you can handle it without them because I'm more than sure he wants this for a particular reason. He didn't exactly stop to explain in detail why, but whatever it is, I'm sure it's important." Of course, with the memories he retained of Mephiles' schemes, he wasn't entirely sure the situation wasn't dangerous to Itara in her current state, but he wasn't going to tell her that. He would just keep a close eye on her.

Perhaps Solaris wasn't as conniving and sacrificial as Mephiles had been on his own and wouldn't just use Itara as Mephiles had, but RK couldn't be sure of that. There was very little actual information regarding the personality quirks of Gods so RK could only work off his data about Mephiles and Iblis. Solaris still seemed pissed, even after the fight, even after erasing the humans' corruption of his power, so RK wasn't about to just blindly trust him, but he could at least calm Itara's nerves for the meantime. He wouldn't ever be far from her for the time being, at least until she regained control of her powers.

It took at least another hour of quelling her concerns before Itara was finally convinced, to a degree, of the idea, and they had decided a trip into town for school shopping was in order. While they walked, RK searched through a database of the nearest schools, taking Itara's physical age into account, rather than her mental age, as it would raise fewer questions. The walk was relatively silent, Itara lost in thought about what Solaris could possibly want from this endeavor, giving RK plenty of time to focus entirely on his research.

They remained in the same abandoned house as they had been the entire time so they were still a decent distance from the nearest town, as well as its school, and no form of public transportation came anywhere near them. Of course, this set up was necessary for their previous needs, staying as far away from prying eyes as possible, but now that they needed to associate more with the general public the distance offered a minor challenge. If Itara had use of her powers, physical distance would have meant nothing to her, and if she could rely entirely on him to get her to and from school he could run great distances easily and quickly. However, if she ever needed to get there or home on her own, it would be a long walk to even the outer edge of town. Given her increased… clumsiness… he wanted to avoid that as much as possible.

Would it be possible for them to move further into the town?

Costs aside, would that be safe? They weren't exactly regular citizens of… anywhere. Itara was a shred of a God created in a lab, he was a rogue Robotnik robot… and then there was their latest addition. The newest broken robot in their base had yet to reactivate, but when he finally did they had no guarantee he wouldn't attack. In fact, an immediate assault was the most likely response. It wouldn't be safe to have him inside the city. There was always the option of keeping Metal Sonic at their base while he and Itara stayed somewhere in the city during the week. He wouldn't like not being right there in case he awoke, but if he connected directly to the other robot so he would know immediately if he reactivated, it would be a quick trip back to the base.

It was a possibility. He would have to look into it more, as the threat of the public eye remained. Just trips into town were potential risks. They didn't know who remembered what still. Could they really risk living within the town? Even just during the school weeks?

"RK!"

RK snapped back to attention, closing his various research materials as he looked down at the young, perturbed hedgehog, "what?"

"You weren't listening!"

"I apologize, I was looking into nearby schools."

Itara remained silent as her flattened ears flicked up, though concern crossed her face again as she questioned, "did… you find anything?"

"There are a couple options within this town, it seemed the most viable since this is where we shop most often, you already know the layout, though I'm concerned about the distance," RK explained, looking up at the various store signs. He had led them to the nearest clothing shops, though he wasn't entirely sure what to even look for and pulled the websites up for the two schools he had found to see what sort of dress they suggested. One seemed to require a school-issued uniform, the other simply required certain types of clothing that could be widely bought. "Itara, would you prefer a private or public school?"

"A what?"

"The two types of schools in this town, one is a private school and the other is a public school. They have different dress requirements so I want to know which we should prepare for."

"What's… the difference?" There were many things Itara was knowledgeable in, having travelled across many timelines and spent much time studying. However, she had taken very little interest in the more useless details of mortal life. School, she had long since determined, was useless.

"Private schools are independently-owned schools and are funded in whole or in part by a tuition rather than a government funding. They're often specialized in some way and most offer a stricter curriculum. Public school, on the other hand, is government-funded and has a more generalized curriculum. The private school here requires a school-mandated uniform, but the public school just has a set of codes you need to follow. They both seem to have their pros and cons, I can give you a more detailed report if you'd like."

"Oh… uh, n-no… that's… that's fine." Itara's ears twitched lightly as she thought it through, looking up at RK again, "did you say tuition?"

"Yes, the private school has one. If the private school is what you'd like, I can just pick the side-job I had before back up-"

"No, I… I wouldn't," Itara chewed on her words, looking for the correct ones and growing frustrated, "this isn't… important enough to worry t-that much about. The… the public school will be fine. I guess."

"If that's what you want," RK nodded, leading her to the most promising clothing shop to continue with their trip. The code was extensive, but the large store offered plenty of options that he could easily run through the code and make sure it met the requirements. As they walked, RK made careful note of any item Itara seemed to eye for certain lengths of time to run them through the code and see if they were feasible options. Though she made few comments throughout the trip, despite shopping for her own clothes, RK was able to easily identify what she most wanted by carefully studying her reactions when they walked past aisles.

Not everything she eyed were possible options, either due to going against the code's requirements or funds, as he wanted to make sure she had plenty of options, but by the third shop they'd acquired a decent number of new items. Along the way, Itara had gone from unsure and weary about the entire idea to surprisingly ecstatic about her new clothes. RK made a note of this for later, as well.

Exiting the third shop with the final pieces of her new wardrobe, Itara bounced out the door in her excitement, catching her own feet along the way and nearly tumbling into a nearby streetlight. Luckily, she managed to grab onto the pole before she planted her face into it and recollected herself. After a brief scolding from RK to be more careful, she pointed to a nearby ice cream stand, staring up at the robot with the most pitiful look her giant green and purple eyes could manage, which only garnered a sarcastic laugh from the robot.

"Itara… you know that doesn't work. But fine, I will get you some ice cream, but only a small cone! Dinner is soon and I don't want you ruining your appetite."

"Yes," the child exclaimed, darting, and tripping, towards the stand with the robot hot on her heels.

"Itara, go sit down before you hurt yourself. There are tables right over there, go sit down and I'll bring your ice cream."

"Fine, fine… I want chocolate!"

"I know."

RK followed her to the table, setting her bags down, and made sure she stayed in place before turning back towards the ice cream stand to get her a small cone. Itara sat, though wiggled excitedly in place, as she watched him walk off. Once he was in the line for the ice cream, she decided to look around and study the people around her to keep from getting too anxious. She noticed the drawbacks to being unable to travel through time more and more every day and so she had taken up small exercises to try and make it more bearable until she could control her powers again.

The area around the ice cream shop was a relatively small nook, set up with several tables and benches as there were a handful of food shops nearby. The ice cream shop was a mobile stand set up in the middle, but along the edges were a noodle shop, a sandwich shop, and some fancy foreign-looking diner. Towards the opening of the nook was the last clothing store she and RK had just come from and past that was a much wider shopping area with a host of varying shops and stores. It was a popular outdoor shopping center that she and RK only visited once or twice before when it was absolutely necessary, otherwise they avoided heavily populated areas.

Itara shifted her focus from the stores, themselves, and began studying the general populace hurriedly shuffling from one building to the next. They were mostly humans, as was common in this area, but a handful of mobians were dotted throughout the crowds. Along with their distinctive appearances, even amongst mobians, the fact that this was a mainly human populated area was one of the reasons she and RK preferred staying out of sight. When there were only so many of them to begin with, it was easy to pick out the oddly colored or shaped and they had too many enemies to take many risks.

Then again, Itara wondered how many of the others even remembered the previous timeline. She remembered, of course, but she was part of Solaris, she would. RK was a robot so it was easier to keep the files, even with the changes. But what about Sonic's group? Or Robotnik? Or, most importantly, Shadow? She had been lucky enough not to run into him since her return so she didn't know if he would even remember her or not. She didn't really want to find out, either, especially not without her powers. She could never escape Shadow on foot. Once her powers returned, though, it might be a good thing to find out.

Itara's eyes scanned, curiously, over the different people and groups, studying each carefully. There were a lot of families, parents with their young children, and groups of teenagers, friends hanging out and discussing the latest interests. A group of teens was daring each other to climb the planted trees on the sidewalks. A mother was scolding her screaming child, threatening to go home early. A couple on a date was sharing a drink. Itara was growing bored already. As her eyes slid halfway down, she drifted into thought about the mortals and their meaningless nonsense, mentally yelled at them for not realizing it, and cursed them for the original future they brought on. They should know how lucky they were to exist now, never knowing what originally became of their meaningless society.

But Solaris would show them again. His plans would be less… destructive this time around, but he would be back and she would relish in their pain once more.

Well… not that she did much relishing in the original timeline, either. But that was beside the point.

Sighing, she threw her head back impatiently and outwardly whined, catching the attention of a few passing groups, but turned her attention back towards the ice cream shop. RK was at least next. She wouldn't have to wait too much longer. He shot her a look at her outburst, having heard her, as well, so she turned back around and rested her arms on the table, laying her head between them. She hated waiting! She was a time traveler!

As she looked out again, hoping to find something entertaining to keep her mind busy again, she realized one of the couples she'd attracted with her outcry had stopped and were still staring at her from across the courtyard. At first her face flushed with embarrassment, but turned to frustration at her boredom and being stared at. She shot them both a warning glare, eyeing them coldly to hopefully get them to move along again.

That didn't seem to work.

Instead, much to Itara's concern and dismay, the couple crossed the courtyard towards her after one of them nudged the other forward. Itara's eyes widened for a moment, before narrowing again, watching them cautiously. She didn't recognize them, they weren't part of Sonic's group as far as she could tell and they certainly weren't Robotnik robots. Who were they? Why were they approaching? They were both mobians, hedgehogs; the woman was noticeably taller than her male partner, with deep reddish-brown fur and long, wild spines, and shining purple eyes; the male was teal with long, smooth spines pulled back into a low ponytail and calm orange eyes. They were both dressed in exquisitely high quality clothing with impeccable style, in drastic contrast to the very casual people around them. It made Itara wonder how she ever missed them while she was looking around before, they were hard to miss.

Her eyes narrowed only further as they approached the table, her mouth pulling into a tight line as she eyed them cautiously, waiting for them to make the first move to see what they wanted. If they were enemies, she didn't want to initiate a fight she couldn't finish—or run away from—but if they weren't, she didn't want to spark suspicion and draw excess attention she didn't need. She really hated not being able to see into the future. She felt so defenseless lately. As she started opening her mouth to call for RK, the male hedgehog's stern, equally-cautious face finally softened as he questioned, "Itara?"

What?

Confusion spread over her face, almost immediately being replaced with apprehension. She sat up and away from the couple, eyeing them suspiciously. They knew her name. No one should know her name. Did Shadow remember the other timeline? Were they sent after her? But why weren't they attacking immediately, then? Her eyes slid towards RK before returning to the couple. Maybe it was because of RK being right there, maybe it was because they were in a heavily populated area. They couldn't attack her right now with all the innocents around so these two obviously had to be GUN spies; they would go in, inconspicuously, maybe even get her guards down, lead her somewhere with less people…

Shaking the thought from her head, she eyed the couple again, cautiously and slowly questioning, "Do I… know you?" If Shadow remembered her, surely he'd be more direct, because if he remembered her, he'd remember Mephiles. He wouldn't take chances like this. So who were these two, then? Why did they appear hurt by her question?

"You… are Itara, aren't you?" the male questioned.

"That would depend… on who's asking," Itara stated firmly.

"Do you not remember us?"

Itara stared them down. She couldn't say she did. Was that possible? She didn't associate with enough mortals in this timeline to know enough of them to forget. Sonic and his friends, Shadow and his group, the princess, Robotnik and his robots. Silver and Blaze in the far off future. She didn't ever talk to normal mortals. Who could these people possibly be? That knew her? There was no way they were confusing her with another mobian, hedgehog Itara… could they?

As she shook her head, the couple exchanged glances. Concern and pain touched their faces as they turned back to her, "Itara… we're your parents."

Itara's eyes widened as she stared at them; shock, horror, confusion, uncertainty, she wasn't sure which cycled emotion was left on her face, she couldn't fully comprehend their statement. Her parents? Her only 'parent' was the split mind of a God, her only 'father' was Solaris. She had no parents. No family. Who did they think they were, insinuating this?

But then it dawned on her.

The girl whose body she'd taken.

She had never liked dwelling on her actual creation, it had been a terrifying, confusing time full of panic and constant on-edge survival instincts. She only remembered a lot of loud noise and a sudden force shoving her into a physical form she didn't choose with powers she had no control over. Before her first run-in with Mephiles, she never understood what she even was, how she came into existence, or what 'parents' even were. She didn't even know where her own name came from, it was just the name echoing around the mind she'd taken over.

Now she understood.

Her face calmed, finally, as she went into careful thought about the situation. These were the parents of her namesake. Though her appearance had altered slightly due to being part of Mephiles, she remained relatively the same. At least in her neutral form. They thought she was their daughter. Technically speaking, she was, in a way, but the girl they knew was long gone. She was Itara now. This sliver of Mephiles' power, this creation of Robotnik, this broken off piece of Solaris, this was Itara. But how did she handle this situation?

She couldn't look into the future for the answer, her book was useless, so she had no idea which option was the most beneficial to her. The couple didn't give her much more time to consider it, either, as they leaned forward to start barraging her with questions about her location over the years. Itara didn't even realize the girl had been missing for so long, even before the events with the scepter would have originally taken place, on top of the two-year gap between the reset and her return to the physical world. She couldn't answer most of their questions and was having a hard time avoiding the answers. She wasn't sure what she could tell them and her stutter was only making things worse.

Finally, her rescue came, as RK crossed the courtyard from the ice cream stand to come back to the table, though his pace suddenly quickened once he noticed the couple talking with a flustered Itara. He immediately started running them through his database, not immediately recognizing them as their enemies, but wanting to make sure they weren't a threat. His scan continued running in the background as he approached the table, eyeing the two suspiciously as he did.

"I apologize for taking so long, everything alright?" he questioned, catching the young time traveler's attention as she swung around to face him. She'd nearly forgotten all about her ice cream by this point but the small, sprinkle-covered cone lit her eyes right back up.

"RK, these are, uh," Itara began, reaching for her ice cream, needing the comfort of the snack now.

"Her parents," the teal hedgehog interrupted, turning cold rather suddenly as he glared the large robot down, who only stared in response. Silence drifted between them as RK refocused on his scan and Itara kept her eyes glued to her ice cream, trying to think through the situation. Once his scan completed, and RK realized the situation, he closed the window and stared out at them. The dated missing child post popped up along with their names, backing the story up with what remained of his Robotnik database. Even though he had been inactive during her kidnapping, the information was still there. This could very well be problematic.

While he hadn't been the one to kidnap the young mobian, he was not only the one with her now, but also a creation of the one who had. If he wasn't guilty by circumstance alone, he was guilty by association and he was sure the parents would see their missing child as his fault. Did they explain the situation to them? Surely they couldn't explain about Mephiles, Solaris, and Itara's current existence… but could they explain that she was kidnapped by Robotnik? It wouldn't be the first time Robotnik was behind a kidnapping so it was a believable enough story. But should they? Or should they just leave? Immediately?

No, that was too hasty and suspicious, it would draw attention they didn't need. He and Itara were too distinct to hide from public eye if direct attention was brought to them and, assumedly, the world wouldn't be destroyed soon so this situation couldn't be passed off as irrelevant.

Itara looked up towards him once she was about halfway through her ice cream, exchanging glances with the robot before their eyesight turned back to the couple. The male seemed surprisingly calm, despite the situation, though his eyes had scarcely moved from the robot since his approach. The female, on the other hand, looked ready to start a fight. They realized, upon further inspection, that they should likely quell the fire before it exploded and made a scene.

Standing up, Itara started picking up her bags of clothes and offered, "w-we should talk… elsewhere. So I can… m-maybe try to… fill you in? But… not in such a… loud public place?"

RK moved to take the bags and nod to the parents, hoping they would willingly follow without making a scene. Their daughter had been missing for several years now, so he didn't see them wanting to argue the point, but he couldn't be sure. One of them seemed willing enough to listen, but the other just looked like she wanted to punch him. He really hoped she didn't try, he didn't need some random mobian breaking their hand on his hull. Even though he looked like just a normal, though unusually tall, mobian for the most part, punching him would easily shatter that disguise when they hit nothing but steel and a thin layer of fluff.

Luckily, it seemed, they would be able to move out of the populated area without incident, as the couple followed easily after Itara. RK decided it was likely in his best interest, for the moment, to take up the end and not separate the parents from their 'daughter'. The explanation would be hard enough as it was without the added suspicion of trying to separate them once again. Though, now that he thought about it, the one who did technically kidnap the missing girl… was back home, in their base, deactivated right now. That detail was also best left unsaid.

They walked in relative silence, Itara leading the way, wanting to get as far away from as many people as possible so they lowered the risk of anyone overhearing anything of value. The mother grew impatient as they walked, but worse was Itara's tripping from trying to hurriedly leave the area. She was lucky she finished her ice cream quickly, otherwise she would have lost what was left several times. Light conversation was started, and ultimately dropped, along the way but nothing much of value began until they reached a decently vacant park outside the shopping area. As it grew closer to evening, despite the warmth of the day, a cool breeze was starting to blow and many had left to return home, most for dinner, leaving the four plenty of open space to talk.

Itara moved to a lone bench and table near a scrawny tree and sat down, waiting for the others to join her. RK readjusted all her bags, setting them on the concrete under the table, as he sat beside her, joined by the parents quickly enough, though the father seemed displeased by the idea of sitting on something potentially dirty. It amused RK for a moment, but the picky mobian sat down eventually.

Shifting uncomfortably, Itara ran a couple more scenarios in her head, potential outcomes of the various details she could tell the two, looking over to them once she had as much of a handle on it as possible. She cursed her inability to time travel again, not only could she not foresee what would come of this, but it meant she would stutter through whatever explanation she gave, as well. She questioned how much they would even trust her, knowing nothing about them whatsoever, if she constantly had to reword her responses. She wasn't even sure where to start, but that answer came soon enough for her.

"So who is this, then?" the father questioned, regaining the cold, accusatory tone from before as he motioned towards RK.

Itara glanced to her robot companion before returning her attention to the couple, "his name's RK. He's my," Itara knew she needed to quell their suspicions about him as an idea hit her, "my rescuer." All three present eyed her, either curiously or in shock, and she was glad RK was able to hide his own response easily as she continued, "I remember very little about being kidnapped, and, admittedly, almost nothing before that." That, of course, was a lie. She 'remembered' nothing about either. "But I was held in some underground base and RK rescued me. The injuries he… his injuries are from the base c-collapsing during our escape." She spoke as slowly as she could manage to avoid stuttering as much as possible, but also to make sure her explanation was simple and easy to work off. She preferred careful planning over improvisation, so she stuck as closely to actual events as possible, even though they were a bit… shifted, chronologically.

Wanting to carefully consider her next detail, she studied the faces of the parents across from her, curious of their reactions. The woman continued to stare in shock, but the male shifted his gaze between her and RK, seeming to also carefully consider the tale. Itara couldn't tell if he was suspicious, or just cautious. Either way, she decided she needed to be careful of her words around him, he seemed the most likely to catch on to her ruse. She hoped she could play the memory loss for any change in personality traits between her and their daughter.

"Do you know who it was that took you?"

"I… I believe it was… the one known as Robotnik?" Itara looked down, purposely flattening her ears for show, "I was asleep most of the t-time, b-but… when I awoke again I… I had no memory… of anything. RK got me to safety… at the cost of his… arm… and so I simply stayed with him." Looking up again, she frowned, "I didn't know why Robotnik… I didn't know what he w-wanted… so we've been trying… we just wanted to stay hidden."

The couple exchanged glances once more as Itara looked up to RK, noting the robot's complete stillness and lightly glowing eye, which she knew meant he was either looking up or logging information. The only movement came from the long furry tail that flicked back and forth behind the bench. Itara returned her attention to the couple to find them staring at her and simply stared back, wondering what they were thinking. Both their faces had softened as they studied her, the cold glare in the male's eyes dissipating into concern for her. She couldn't help but draw parallels between their faces now and those of Silver and Blaze's when she first met them. When she was with her father.

The memory caused a small tinge of sadness to touch her face, drawing up memories of first learning to use her powers, the training sessions with Mephiles, when he first rescued her from Iblis' fire monster. The longer she studied the two across the table from her, the longer she dwelled on the memories of the original timeline, the more she realized that sort of expression never touched her father's face. She refused to let the thoughts go any further, however, and quickly wiped the string of realizations from her mind to turn her full attention back to the mortal parents. Her father just wasn't an expressive person; she was used to that with RK, as well. They were both just focused on releasing Solaris, that was all.

"So you remember nothing? Of us? Of your home?" the male questioned again.

"Of your friends?" the woman added.

"Unfortunately not," Itara answered, shaking her head, "otherwise I would have… gone home, I'm sure." No she wouldn't have. "All I could… recall… was the name 'Itara', so I assumed it had been mine. For all I knew… it wasn't… but it was all I h-had."

"You poor thing," the woman nearly cried, darting up out of her side and moving to Itara's side, wrapping her arms around the surprised child, "that must have been terrible! Don't worry, I bet your dad can find a way to fix your memory somehow. Maybe being home will jog it a bit! We should go home right now and see!" Itara, as caught off-guard as she was by this, could only blink in confusion. RK only watched curiously, though grew concerned. He couldn't very well argue, but he didn't like the idea of her being away from him, as was most likely to happen in that situation.

"Of course, I can't have my little girl not even remembering her father, I'll fix this, don't you worry," the male stated matter-of-factly. Itara shifted her gaze, as much as she could, towards him and furrowed her brows in confusion. She knew she needed to play along to find out if they were useful to her, but it was such a strange concept that she couldn't find the proper reaction. She needed to remind herself that these weren't actually her parents, that wasn't actually her father, she just needed to play along for a little while. He turned towards RK after studying Itara, struggling to keep the cold glare off his face, and added, "I suppose… I should offer you a room, as well, as you apparently saved my daughter."

"Oh, Mira, don't be such a grump about it," the woman exclaimed, continuing to strangle the small child in her arms, turning to RK, "we're very grateful you rescued and took care of our little girl, of course you're welcome back home, too!"

Mira just scowled at being called a 'grump' but returned his attention back to his wife and 'daughter', "Kelly, stop suffocating my daughter."

"Our."

"No."

After what felt like hours to the small child, Itara was finally released from Kelly's surprisingly locked grip, and thus free from the voluptuous chest that nearly suffocated her. Taking a deep breath and relishing her freedom once more, Itara just sighed as the woman moved back to the other side of the table. This was going to be a challenge, she could already tell. What had she gotten herself into? And without her powers, even!

The four, mostly three, of them sat and chatted a bit longer, the newly ecstatic couple trying to dig more details out of Itara while RK questioned their living arrangements. He was reminded, after one of the clothing bags were knocked over by the wind, that he was planning to enroll Itara in school soon and wondered if, perhaps, this might be the answer to the distance problem. He wouldn't much like the idea of her being away from him at any point, there were too many threats, but if he could keep an eye on her while she was at this other house, perhaps they could make it work somehow. Of course, there was still the problem of Metal Sonic, but RK would just make sure he was constantly connected to the dysfunctional robot while he was away from the base.

Besides, he thought, perhaps this offered Itara a chance to shift her focus away from Solaris and Mephiles and onto someone less… destructive.