This was written after some inspirations of some great emotional scenes I've seen. I hope you like it... there's a happy ending, but it's sad in some parts :D
Set about a week or so after the end of "Shattered Mind", so you know...
She shouldn't have come.
But she wanted to.
She always did… and somehow… they couldn't stop her from following. Nothing ever could…
Or that's what Mephiles had thought.
He had thought that from the day they met her and her dog.
She followed them around, like a little sister. But she was older than him by several years in this time.
She shouldn't have come with them… not this time…
But she did…
And…
She had been hit.
She had been hit… badly…
Her eyes had widened with a mix of fear and shock before she tossed Jak aside just before to blow stuck into her side, metal shreds of quills tearing passed her violet fur, and into her skin, causing her fur to gain a shade of red where she had been hit, some of the white fur staining pink.
But she did not scream…
She did not cry…
She simply let it happen until it was over.
Mephiles, who was behind her, immediately darted and slid across the floor to catch the old dog before he could be injured. He skidded on his back, keeping himself wrapped around Jak to protect him until they came to a stop within a few seconds.
Rae was thrown into the wall headfirst once the Shadow Android collided with her. Shadow and Rogue looked up from their fight just in time to see her slid down the wall and onto the ground.
Jak became frantic. He struggled against Mephiles' hold, twisting and turning his little body until he wormed his way out, slipping through Mephiles' hands.
Mephiles rolled onto his front and pushed himself off the ground, trying to stay with the dog. An Egg-bot got in their way, but Mephiles reacted with a quick snap of his fingers, engulfing it with shadows of darkness, and pulling it into the realm below.
"Rae!" Mephiles cried out just as Jak placed his paws on her chest, touching his nose to hers. Rae slowly lifted her eyes and rested them on Mephiles and smiled weakly.
"… Hey…" She said softly, as if nothing had really happened. Mephiles felt himself start to get sick and pale a few shades as he spotted both her head injury, and the wound from the strike. Rae just noticed it, and placed her hand against her side to pull it back and look at her glove. The large red stain on it from just that second's touch was enough to tell them both it was serious. But Rae didn't look as scared as Mephiles did, in fact… she didn't even look scared at all. And this was making Mephiles even more upset.
Jak's ears flattened, and he let out a shrill sort of whine, as if he was trying to hold back crying. Rae lifted her other hand and placed it on his head, Jak shifting his head sadly under hand.
"… Its okay, Jak…" She whispered, her eyes half closed. "… I promise you, buddy… its okay…"
Mephiles held back his tears as he watched this sad and heartbreaking scene. Rae might have been older than him in this time by a good seven years… but she was still just a kid. She didn't deserve this; she wasn't like Shadow, and could really be hurt by a hit like that. Seriously hurt. She was bleeding out, and half conscious, but all she did through this was smile and say it would be okay…
"… Stop it…" Mephiles said, shaking his lowered head, his hands clenched tightly together as Rouge and Shadow could only watch from afar as their fight with the Androids continued. They hoped and prayed Rae wasn't really hurt, but felt their hearts sink a little when they saw Mephiles shaking his head disbelievingly. "… Rae… It is not okay… you're hurt, and badly at that…"
"… I'll be fine… really…"
But it didn't convince the crystalline hedgehog. He just couldn't see how she could see that.
Rae's eyes started to drift shut, and her body started to relax, which caused Mephiles to shriek in horror. He dropped down on his knees, grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her roughly as Jak pawed at her arm.
"Rae! Don't fall asleep! Wake up! Come on! Stay with us! Stay with me! Wake up!"
The fox groaned lightly and hung limply in his hold. She struggled to stay awake, her bright purple eyes quivering and becoming black as her pupils widened.
"… Watch Jak for me… 'kay?"
Then her eyes closed once more, the shade waiting in vain for them to lift up again.
But nothing happened.
Mephiles froze, not wanting to register, to accept this as the fox's fate. He didn't want to. He couldn't. He can't…
His world spun, and the color faded, leaving shades of gray. Voices overlapped, as did past memories.
Rae was just a kid.
Rae didn't deserve this.
Never…
And at that point in time, something deep inside Mephiles just snapped.
It snapped in two.
It broke, and flooded him with such a powerful emotion, that he could not handle it at all.
And then… Mephiles screamed.
He screamed with every ounce of fear, sadness and anger that was within him. His Chaos powers erupted in a burst of energy, purple flames that were harmless to his friends. Jak backed away and stared up at Mephiles with an unreadable expression.
At that moment, Mephiles' heart turned to ice. He felt himself get plunged into darkness once more… and he lost himself…
In his blind rage, he dismantled one of the Shadow Androids by stabbing a Chaos charged clawed hand through its hard drive. Once the disabled machine fell, Mephiles continued his assault on it, tearing it apart bit by bit.
Piece by piece.
Ripping apart the monsters that took away a friend of his.
This all happened so fast, that all Rouge and Shadow could see of him was the flashes of purple mist that jumped between Androids.
"YOU KILLED HER! YOU KILLED HER!" His voice screeched as loud as it could, it being the only other sign that the mist was him. "YOU MONSTERS KILLED HER! SHE WAS MY FRIEND, AND YOU KILLED HER!"
One by one, the Androids sparked out and collapsed as the dark mist passed through them. Pieces of metal flew everywhere, and every now and then, Mephiles appeared for a second or two, personally tearing his claws into the inner workings of a few, ripping out wires and chips.
"SHE WAS JUST A KID!" He screamed, tears flooding from his eyes as he continued his destruction of the machines, those heartless machines, as Rouge started to flap her wings, grabbed Shadow's hands, and flew out of the way and over to the fallen fox. Jak was silent as he sat next to her, his ears out to the side.
Neither the bat, the hedgehog, nor even the dog himself, spoke or made a sound.
Mephiles was now clawing into the remaining Androids, his Chaos powers protecting him from electric shock.
"SHE HAD A FAMILY! SHE HAD FRIENDS! SHE WAS IMPORTANT TO THEM!" He clamped his teeth down onto the metal chaise of the machine that received the worst of the shadow's attack. He tore out a chunk with little effort and spat it aside like a wad of gum and proceeded to shred into the Android's insides. "IF YOU HAD TO TAKE SOMEONE, YOU COULD HAVE HAD ME! THAT'S WHAT YOU WANTED BEFORE, RIGHT!? SHE DID NOTHING! SHE WAS INNOCENT! SHE WAS NAÏVE! BUT SHE WAS STILL SOMEONE! SHE DIDN'T DESERVE THAT! SHE DIDN'T! SHE DIDN'T!"
This was the last Android. Mephiles gouged his crystal claws into the motherboard of the mechanical beast until it could no longer be called a motherboard. With one last scream, he planted his foot on the remaining large piece and pushed away with great force, then collapsed to his knees from exhaustion. He inhaled and exhaled heavily, his body shaking with each breath he took, as he braced himself against the ground with his arms.
"… Rae…" He whispered as he clenched hit chattering teeth together, shaking his lowered head with his eyes closed. "… Rae… I… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"
His Chaos flames burnt out and died down, and Mephiles sank lower to the ground. His energy was spent, and he was weary. He brought his hands into his quills, digging them in, and wrapping his fingers around some.
He was hurt.
Not physically, but it felt like it. He wanted to cry, but, for the first time he could remember… he could not come to it. He was upset at this now. Why, when in all his times of shedding tears over his own problems, could he not give some for a fallen friend? He was furious with himself for not being able to do this one simple thing for the fox.
The silence was driving him mad. He could literally feel his wall of sanity he had worked so hard to rebuild and stand up, crack and finally shatter as if it was just glass.
He began to scream again, louder this time, like a screech of agony and ripped his shard tipped quills out of his head, ignoring the pain of his spines tearing from his skin.
He felt two sets of hands close around his wrists and pull them away from his head. He didn't have to open his eyes to know who they were. He even felt the dog nudge him in the side softly.
"… Go away…" He mumbled to them, slipping his hands free and pushing them away gently. "… Please… I want to be left alone…"
No sooner had he said that, however, did he launch himself forward, and clamp onto the first thing he touched, which was Rouge.
"… She shouldn't have come…" He whispered shrilly, trying to keep his voice steady, though it still quivered. "I… offered for her to watch the Chao …egg and she could name it… when we got back… but… but she still followed us… she still did… and she… she… why!?"
"… I… don't know…" Rouge said sadly, bringing her hand to the top of his head and petting him to try to calm him down, but she couldn't see if it was working. "… Things just… happen… and…"
"… But why her?! She wasn't a threat! She wasn't dangerous! She had no special powers! She was just a kid with a life! She had a life and Robotnik's monsters took that away from her! What about Jak, now? Who's going to take care of him?! He was her dog and hers only! What about her family?! What do we tell them?! What do… why…?" He trailed off, and slumped forward, too depressed to continue his words.
Why hadn't she stayed with the egg?
Shadow slowly walked his way over to Jak, who was sitting on Rae's chest. Once Shadow reached forward to pick him up… Jak snapped at him!
"Jak!" Shadow exclaimed, drawing his hand back in surprise, knowing the dog probably didn't understand. "You have to come with us! We have to take you home to…"
To his bewilderment… Jak shook his head stubbornly, and growled. He looked at Rae, then to a far corner of the room, to Rae and back before looking up at Shadow.
"… What are you trying to tell me…?" Shadow said softly, realizing Jak was trying to communicate.
If Jak could talk, he would have said: "I'm tellin' ya to look over there, 'genius'!"
Yes… Jak would be a smart aleck, but he just wanted Shadow to see what he saw. He gave up on pointing, and got off of Rae to lead him over to a console.
"Jak… What is that gonna – Oh!" Shadow switched his sentence when the old dog crawled under it and, one by one, extracted three Chaos Emeralds in his teeth. Eggman must have dropped them in the battle and thought he lost them!
Jak shifted his head to stare at Shadow, to the Emeralds, to Mephiles and to Rae. He repeated it. Again and again. Tying to get his message across.
Could Shadow speak "Dog", he might have known this probably meant "Shadow… give the Emeralds to Mephiles, to help Rae…"
But he couldn't, and that frustrated the senile old coot of a dog. With a bark that meant: "Damn… you're slow…", he picked up the purple gem in his mouth and carried it over to Rae, and placed it above her head. He picked up the red and the blue ones and placed them to the side to make a triangle. Shadow watched in amazement as the dog made up a makeshift resurrection circle with just three Emeralds. Then Jak sat down and yipped, which in his vocabulary meant: "Well… I've done all I can do…"
Mephiles had been watching as well, carefully. He pulled away from Rouge and slowly made his way to the dog and his work. Maybe this dog watched too much "Full Metal Alchemist" with Rae or something, but this reminded Mephiles of the alchemy used in the series, just minimal.
"… You're kidding me… right?" Mephiles coughed out, hoping the dog was. That was something from TV, and anime none the less, and Mephiles knew full well that fictional plots and events cannot happen in real life. It never did. "Jak… Even if it could happen… It wouldn't work right…"
Jak snorted and sniffed, which translated to: "I'm not asking you to transmutate her or something! I'm asking you to call her back! This isn't rocket science!"
"I mean… I don't even think I would be capable of pulling it off…" His voice quivered some as he continued, not knowing what Jak was saying. "I'm not as powerful as I used to be. I was once fueled only by rage and hatred… But… I cannot… I don't feel that anymore. I'm… I don't think I can do it…"
Jak snarled and barked at him, which meant: "Hatred never wins! It is love! Love and caring that can fix and 'pwn' all! I believe you can fix this! Just try, dammit!"
These would have been strangely, emotionally stirring words… if anyone could understand him.
Jak growled and snorted to catch the shade's attention. Once the green eyes landed on him with mild curiosity, Jak looked at Mephiles, the Emeralds, and placed his paws on the one above Rae's head. Mephiles just stared, so Jak repeated it twice more.
Mephiles shook his head as he started to catch on.
"… It won't work…" He whispered sadly, sitting down as he felt his legs start to lose their feeling. "… I can't do it… One Emerald nearly drove me insane on my last encounter with them… there's no telling what three would do to me. I could die, or even revert back to my former self… someone else could get hurt…"
Jak gently grabbed Mephiles' hand in his mouth and pulled it over the Emerald in front of him. Mephiles tried to recoil, remembering this was the very one that almost resulted in his death during his short time in Shadow's mind. The purple one. Mephiles also noted to himself that it was the very same color as Rae's eyes… how… strange…
Jak kept his teeth down on the hand, threatening to clamp down tighter if Mephiles didn't want to try. Mephiles reluctantly gave in and placed his other hand on top as Jak moved away, his body language unreadable.
Nothing happened, and then he quivered, almost pulling his hands away. He had spotted the red Emerald, and immediately paled and panicked when his memory of Dark rose swiftly to his mind.
He caught himself, however, knowing that he was the only one with enough internal Chaos energy to even hope that this could happen. He swallowed back his fear and nodded to himself.
"… I'm… scared…" He whispered brokenly. "… What… what if something goes wrong… and she can never come back? What if… I…" He trailed off, not wanting to finish, feeling that saying it would only force it to come true.
"We'll be right here if you need our help…" Said Shadow, his voice level, but convincing. "If anything even looks remotely wrong… we'll pull you free…" Then Shadow said softer: "… Don't worry…"
Mephiles swallowed hard and nodded weakly. He saw the Emeralds and his auras of energy surround him as he closed his eyes to block the sight of the crimson gem that was in front of him, and said the first thing that came to mind.
"Chaos Control!"
Instead of time freezing… the world shifted shades in his eyes, and he saw the auras that radiated off of everyone. Shadow's was red, Rouge's was pink, and Jak's was green…
"How strange…" Mephiles murmured to himself and scanned the room. He rested his eyes on something glowing purple.
His eyes widened with emotion, Shadow about ready to pull him loose, but the shade shook his head quickly, and Shadow stepped back, watching him closely, not able to see what Mephiles saw.
Rae's aura was in the shape and image of herself and was hovering above the ground in a kickback kind of style, singing to herself softly. Her voice, when low, had a somewhat pretty pitch so unlike the higher and shriller kind of one he was used to.
"And the clouds above moved closer… looking so dissatisfied…" She kept her eyes half closed as she twitched her tails in a pendulum style while they hung below her. "And the ground below grew colder… as they put you down inside… And the heartless wind kept blowing… going…"
Her ear twitched and she turned her attention to Mephiles, who stared back, his eyes shimmering. She smiled softly.
"… Hey…" She said, as if this was absolutely normal.
"… H… Hey…" Mephiles voice broke when he gave no effort to keep it steady. Rae saddened her expression.
"… What's wrong?"
Mephiles widened his eyes with shock. He couldn't believe this!
"Rae… did you notice you're… do you know… Rae… you're…"
"Dead? Yeah… I mean… I'm kinda floating and glowing and I can see me right there…" She nodded to her body on the ground.
Mephiles started to cry now. The tears that would not come earlier finally began to show.
"… Aw, c'mon, Mephy… don't…" Rae said softly, starting to tear up slowly as she rolled over and drifted over to him, reaching a hand up to his face to wipe off a tear, but stopped when her hand couldn't make contact, causing the shade's sadness to intensify. "Remember what I said about if you start crying? Remember?"
"Rae… why didn't you stay with the egg? If you stayed… you would have been alright… you'd be…" He couldn't go on. He cursed to himself for not being able to. Why did tears always make everything so difficult?
A shadow of a smile crawled across her muzzle. She closed her eyes and tilted her head to the side before explaining.
"… When you left… I just had this bad feeling that something would have happened to one of you on the mission…" She said, giggling softly. "… Something told me if I didn't follow soon… someone was going to get hurt. I always listen to those feelings, and so far… nothing bad has happened… well, except for this…" She shifted he eyes to her body and back at Mephiles, who was starting to shake. The Emeralds' power was starting to drain him.
"So anyway…" Rae continued faster, sensing he was having a reaction to the gems' overwhelming power. "I think that the person who was going to get hurt was you… If I wasn't there, you would have been hit. At the angle you were facing, and standing… you would have died either on impact or shortly after…"
"… I'd have rather it had been me, than watch you suffer and die like you did…" Mephiles confessed grimly, starting to have trouble keeping his head up. He willed himself to fight against it. "… So… please… come back…"
Rae thought about it quickly… or rather… wasted no time at all to answer.
"Okay! I owe you one anyway." She chirped, ignoring the confused expression on the shade's face. She touched a hand to his on the Emerald, the energy allowing her to feel tangible, and touched her other to her body. Mixes of purples, blues, and reds wrapped around the two and Mephiles felt his energy to stay conscious plummet quickly. He black out briefly and gained enough of his senses to see the fox's tails twitch, hear her dog yip happily, and feel the Emerald get wrenched out of his hands when he fell back, his energy hitting zero once he was finished. He stayed awake long enough to smile smally and whisper "… I… did… it…", before he lost his hold on the conscious world with a soft gasp and dropped into the world of darkness that was his keeper until he woke up again.
Who knows who long Mephiles was out? He certainly didn't, and that thought didn't even register for a while.
He woke up on the couch, not at all surprised. Jak was curled up on his chest fluff. Again… no surprise here.
His body still felt exhausted, and he could barely even twitch his fingers. He whispered a groan as he tried to sit up anyway. Jak lifted his head up and yipped, alerting the others that the crystal hedgehog was awake. Mephiles weakly smiled a grateful smile at the dog, who was happy to help.
"I see you're finally awake… You've been out for weeks" Shadow said, relieved as he and Rouge entered the room, Mephiles' eyes quickly scanning the area in search of the purple fox, his tired expression starting to change to panic.
"She's okay…" Said Rouge, with a smile that caused the shade to calm down with the help of her words. "She's just tending to your Chaos…"
Mephiles thought he heard her wrong. He had had only one egg. He mouthed "Chaos?!" to her, unable to use his voice still.
"Yeah… funny thing…" Said Shadow, laughing at the thought of it. "Inside the egg, there were twins. It's very uncommon, but I guess luck would have it that it would be you to get them… She's been keeping them close to you so they know you when you wake up…"
Rae carried two sleeping Chaos that were clinging to her fur on her shoulder. They both were a light blue-green, one with the egg's shell still over it's head, almost like a hat the covered most of, if not all it's face. The other had the beginnings of crystal tipped quill-like objects on its head and both had patches of chest fluff, the hatless one's patch bigger. Their paws, as Mephiles would have guessed they would be called, because they lacked a true hand, had tiny little claws that could have been that same color as his own. He had no idea Chaos could look like their owners.
"This one's a girl…" Rae held up the one with the eggshell. "I thought a good name choice would be 'Krystal', and the boy could be 'Sharpe'… y'know, cuz…"
Rae trailed off for a moment and smiled at Mephiles happily as she handed them to him, Mephiles swallowed back his attempt to talk, knowing it would be pointless right now.
"Thank you…" Rae said, reaching down and scratching behind his ears. "We're even now… You came back to us that time we thought you died… And I came back to you guys when you thought I died. I paid you back…"
Rae's screwy logic was comforting to him and he nodded as he felt himself start to nod off, still a great deal drained from the Emeralds sapping his power. Rae smiled at him softly, and sat down on the floor, intending to be his first thing he saw when he woke up again.
Of course, I wouldn't kill Rae... she's almost like a member of thier family now. And Jak needs her!
But this was written to illustrate several things:
1. Just because a fan character is a fan character... doesn't mean they can't get hurt...
2. Rae needs a good fic, and this really shows how she managed to worm her way into their daily lives...
3. Jak getting a somewhat speaking part was too good to pass up
4. I wondered how Mephiles would react to grief... and I guessed it you be somehing that makes you feel sad, especially it being from him...
5. Who says Chaos Control cant be used for other things? It seems to have a long range...
6. I've heard of twin Chaos before... but after I came up with Krystal and Sharpe. :D
Tell me if you liked it