Mirror of Malice

Some of you might just skip to the prologue bellow but for those of you who read this... congrats. If you read Demon Dance and liked it, I am pleased to present you with a sequel to it. For those of you who didn't read Demon Dance, I'd suggest you don't read this. Because if you didn't read Demon Dance you probably had an excellent reason... either that, or I told you not to. I hope that if you read this story, you'll like it. Timothy, from Demon Dance, is one of the main characters in this. And there's an enemy of course... but you'll have to see who it is. I know what some of you might be thinking "who is it?", but I'm sorry to say you'll have to wait and see. I do not own Sonic and co, or the Phantom ruler who will be referred to, he is owned by ShadowRuler55. The other characters are owned by me. If you have characters who could be used for enemy soldiers (whatever status), then please give me descriptions. I own the other characters who are obviously owned by SEGA or ShadR.

"A son." The figure shook her head in disgust. "I don't need a son. I need a daughter to carry on what I've started."

"But milady... he might be a useful fighter. Have one of your servants give him to someone's wife in the ranks, let them raise him. Then, he won't know you're his mother, and they won't tell him, they'll be too afraid." She considered, looking at the mysteriously quiet baby in her arms. She nodded curtly.

"Choose who you will out of my slaves to do it, now get out of my sight with this... abomination." And with those words following him, the man left the room with the woman's child in his arms. She sighed and leaned back in the bed, servants cleaning up after the birth. "Soon... soon I will have a girl... just how long will it take? How many unworthy sons must I bear?!" The servant girls kept their eyes averted but occasionally shot glances at each other from the safety of the screen of their hair. "And you three." They looked up. "If your heads are not shaved the next time I see you, you will go and work in the mines as well." The girls left the room and went to their slave rooms. Only then did they sink down into their straw beds and clutch their hair, sobs shaking their bodies.

***

"Too fast... for the naked eye. Sonic the Hedgehog (me!). Sonic (me!), he's got an attitude...!" Before the blue hedgehog could continue singing his praises, he was hit in the stomach by a black fist. Shadow rubbed his knuckles. "Did I injure you?" Asked the blue hedgehog, hoping as he stood up. Shadow shook his head.

"No, you're stomach was just thicker than I expected... do you keep your brains in there?" Sonic frowned in mock indignation.

"Shadow how dare you!" Shadow sighed wistfully.

"It was only a hope... pity your brain wasn't there. You might have suffered permanent brain damage, not that you haven't already." Rouge laughed.

"Come on Shadow stop provoking him! Come on in, Slade made a sour cherry pie with me, we want you to sample it!" Shadow sighed, pretending to be mournful.

"It's a good thing that I have a fast metabolism, otherwise, I would be getting fat from all the food tasting you've been having me do!" Dusk's head suddenly popped out of an upper window.

"Shadow could you help me out please? I think one of the chemicals in my science kit was mislabeled." A burst of orange smoke spilled out of the room and Shadow heard Tails coughing.

"Dusk are you alright up there? You haven't set anything on fire have you?" Grave's head popped out another window.

"No, but there's a smell like dead rats in his room." They heard the toilet flush and could only assume Tails had thrown up. The mansion was lovely and large, and quite obviously Shadow's. All the "intruders NOT welcome" signs, and the "beware of wolf" signs gave it an appearance that was almost cheerful... compared to some of Shadow's other works of "art". Darkness was snoozing in the living room by the fire, and Chaos was in the living room gently scratching behind the wolf's ears, which earned her growls of appreciation. Sonic sighed.

"Why does it seem like your house is the most chaotic? And why does it seem like all your siblings are constantly around?" Shadow frowned.

"They aren't, Nightmare, Swirl, Eternity and Moon are out right now."

"Doing what?"

"Beating Eggman."

"WHAT?! That's my job!" Yelled Sonic. Rouge came out looking like she hadn't a care in the world.

"Oh relax blue, you need a break every now and again."

"But fighting Eggman is my break from everyday life!" Wailed Sonic. Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Please allow me to knock him out?" The blue hedgehog dodged out of punching range.

"Shadow, you know that if we're going to throw a birthday party for him he has to be present."

"Letting me beat Eggman would be a nice gift!" Called Sonic. Shadow and Rouge ignored that.

"I know Rouge... but why do we have to throw the party?"

"It's our turn this year. Come on... the party will only go until ten o'clock." Shadow's expression showed that every second until ten would be torture. She laughed softly and kissed his cheek. "Come on you complainer, complain to the cherry pie we want you to sample!" Shadow chuckled and followed her inside. Dusk watched in interest.

"Hey Sonic, when are you going to have a girlfriend?" He asked. Sonic went red and just went inside. Grave laughed himself silly, almost falling out his window.

***

"Timothy!" He looked up.

"Yes Momma?" The phantom lady smiled at him, her pale silver hair cascading around her shoulders as she looked at him.

"It's time for dinner, come on, everyone else is waiting." He stood up and held the carving knife and small block of wood in one hand, and the phantom's hand in the other.

"What's for dinner today Momma?"

"What do you mean? We've been telling you for the past week." He smiled innocently.

"But I've forgotten Momma!"

"It's your birthday, there will be all your favorite foods and a nice big cake with chocolate and cherries... and some whipped cream. Just the way you like it." He laughed with childish delight at such things. He was thirteen, but obviously still like a child in most respects. He was almost as tall as the phantom. She sat him down, protesting, at the head of the table.

"But Momma! Daddy sits here! I can't!" She laughed, a tinkly, lovely sound.

"Daddy is a little busy tonight, he'll be here in time for cake and presents. He's trying to escape his vegetables I think. And he said that as the birthday boy you MUST sit here." Timothy looked around, he'd never had a birthday party before, they'd only arranged one this year because he'd asked what they were like, and if they were fun. So they'd decided to show him. There was even a pinata hanging from the ceiling. He smiled at the phantoms sitting around the table.

"Happy birthday Tommy!" They chorused.

"Timothy!" Said the phantom lady.

"Oops, happy birthday Timothy!" They said. Timothy laughed, they liked calling him Tommy when she wasn't around, and they had slipped. He ate the dinner with them, completely happy. The taste of the food seemed fresher than any he'd had before. The phantom women just smiled and told him they'd put extra love into the food. All of them loved Timothy, and were glad he lived with them. None of them cared that he was adopted. He was still part of the family. He'd asked what his real parents were like before, but the phantoms had had regretful looks as they told him they hardly remembered, though they said his father was a darkness shield. His imagination and carving skills were the greatest ones he knew about, he'd never searched for any others. He spent happy hours carving the characters in his imagination, and making small conversations for them to have for each other. The phantoms were delighted by this, they couldn't do much art other than drawing and painting, and appreciated the effort he put into the small carved figures. He carved lots of other things for them too, toys for the children, bowls for the women, cups for the men... all of them had something he'd made. When the cake came out he gasped. Four of the phantom women carried it, it was huge, with smooth, moist looking sides and juicy looking cherries. He burst out of his seat to hug everyone, to the amused laughter of all.

"This is the best birthday anyone ever had!" He pronounced. They smiled and continued the dinner.

***

"Your highness?"

"What?!" She asked, having a son had not left her in a good temper. The man looked nervous.

"We... we've found reports..."

"Get on with it man! Before I kill you!" He swallowed.

"We've found reports that your first son is alive." Her facial expression changed to excitement.

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely positive milady." She mused then waved him aside and walked in from her balcony.

"Prepare an escort. I will see to this personally." She strode into her room, yelling for her servant girls, who were now bald, and weeped about the loss of their shining hair. The lady smirked as she looked at them. "Do you want your hair back?" They looked at her hopefully, the lady had many powers... maybe she could give their hair back. They ignored the fact that the lady was the one who had made them shave in the first place. They nodded. "Then this is what I want you to do." She outlined her plan as one of the girls got her dressed in a beautiful embroidered robe. They nodded. "Get me my first female child, she's weak and doesn't care for power, but she'll have to come back into my affections until I get another girl. Do you understand your instructions?" They nodded quickly, they wanted their hair. The lady smiled. "Then when you come back to me with my daughter, I want you to go into the torture room... I'm not going to torture you you idiot girls! I'll give your hair back." They looked relieved and dashed from the room to do her bidding. She looked at herself in the mirror and smirked. "They are such fools. Such ignorant fools."

I named this story Mirror of Malice because, sadly, no title suggestions came my way. :'( I'm hurt. XD Just joking. Though it WOULD have been nice if I'd gotten some title suggestions. And you'll get why I named it this later... and if you haven't guessed who "milady" is yet, then oh boy..... X'D I will be laughing so hard i start crying. I was painfully obvious here, but so what? XD Anyhow, hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please R&R and sorry for the long author notes. :P If you have ideas for the next chappie, let me know! ^_^