Though I have a couple of other stories floating around in my skull, this should probably be the first StH fanfic posted.
It serves a couple of purposes: first is that it provides possible answers to a number of questions I (and a few other fans, apparently) have about a certain Guardian—Spectre, to be precise.
Second is that the main character in my original fiction tends to visit other universes, and I think this particular storyline will be one of the places she finds herself. Thus it allowed me to add this fic to the word count on my NaNo.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Brotherhood of Guardians, and I don't own any of the species or the world in which this takes place.
I do own the randomly assorted, mostly anonymous characters that find their way into the story, such as Vahti and other members of the Shinobi clan.
Note: If you've read the relevant issues of the Knuckles series, you already know what's going on with Tobor and Moritori Rex. So do I. This bit is written up based on what the characters would have known when it takes place, so the names I use are not an accident.
Note times 2: Anyone find a canon timeline somewhere? I'd love to be able to just say what year some of these take place or something like that. I mean, there's probably only one chapter where I have it as taking place at a given time (how long after the previous chapter), and even that's an approximation, but I'd still like some kind of timeline.
Hawking had left not long ago to continue restoring the Island. There were no serious enemies to speak of, and no disasters loomed that required a Guardian's unique skills. Aside from patrols to provide the figurehead that the people looked for, Tobor expected that his own tenure as Guardian would remain calm while he waited his father's return.
Even the Shinobi Vahti, ever watchful and trained to distrust such calm, had resigned himself to an uneventful assignment.
But the Fates have always had a way of breaking our expectations.
—
When the Dark Legion arrived, Tobor faced their threat with the force of all the Guardians. He and their leader, Moritori Rex, fought back and forth; it seemed the Legion's victory or defeat might be decided by this battle alone.
The battle was beyond the skill of a lone Shinobi, and in the absence of other orders, he left the Guardian to the fight and worked to pull innocents out of the fray.
Thus it was that Vahti was not prepared to intervene when the Guardian and his opponent were blasted into apparent oblivion.
When Hawking returned, he routed the Legion and sent them back to their Zone. But his heart was not on the fight, but on the injuries his son had sustained, and some of the Legion managed to escape.
The Shinobi clan agreed to send more chameleons, to keep an eye on the doings of the Legion during the Guardian's emotional absence.
Vahti continued his watch, but it soon became clear that Tobor would not be the Guardian he once was. Though he was on the mend, his experience had robbed him of much of his command of the Emerald's power. Though he had begun trailing the escaped Legionnaires, even the Brotherhood was not certain that he could ever return to his full duties.
The Bride of Constant Vigil deemed that the chameleons who watched the Legion could also watch his dealings with them. And she ordered Vahti to turn his attention to the next generation.
And so Vahti watched, not the active Guardian as was customary, but a wee bit of a child who the Brotherhood was not even ready to train.
Okay, not much of an intro. Just thought I'd set the stage for why the Shinobi were not, themselves, equipped to handle the situation with Tobor before it came to the aforementioned issues of the comic.
Not because it was their custom not to interfere or reveal themselves, but because in this, they did not know any more than did the Guardians. They made the same mistake as Hawking.
At least in my version; I'd love to see Archie's take on it.