Chapter 9: Finally Some Answers

The two had left the hospital in a hurry, Nikki taking the lead as they traveled at the highest speed they could possibly go within the city. Nights followed her, slightly concerned about her sudden odd behavior.

"So you said you know where that mist came from," Nights said. "And if today's events signify anything, it seems plausible to believe that it has something to do with our transformation. But how exactly do you know where to look?"

Nikki turned her head back slightly to Nights, still keeping her eyes on the road ahead of them. "I'm not sure how to explain it, but I get the feeling that that mist is somehow trying to get our attention. When it surrounded us back at the hospital I think it tried to show me something that could help us out. It's not much, but I think it's the best thing we got to a lead right now."

Nights had accepted the answer that Nikki gave, but it still didn't quite explain where they were headed. They were now running close to the outside of the city limits. The area around the road became more forested and Nikki made a sudden turn off the road and into the woods. Nights followed this movement and was soon jumping over rocks, stumps and, puddles while skating around the humongous trees. Nikki continued to lead, seemingly very familiar with the surrounding area.

Surprisingly, with all the things that had transpired, it was still the middle of the day, close to three o'clock if Nights was to guess from the position of the sun. The area became more and more heavily wooded as they ran further and further away from the city.

After about thirty seconds of traveling at high speeds, Nikki began to slow down as a sign that they were close to the designated spot, wherever that was. Nights was now side by side with Nikki as they both walked into a tiny passage that was shaped by a large amount of surrounding trees.

"Well… this is the place," Nikki said as she gestured toward the lake in front of them.

Though Nights would never admit it out loud to anyone, the place was very beautiful. The water was clear enough to cast some wonderful reflections of the sky and sunlight. The surrounding trees formed a canopy from which little sunlight could escape from, but whatever light made it through seemed to sparkle within the reflective waters.

The scene before her reminded Nights of the stories that Maria had told, explaining how beautiful she had always imagined the earth would be like once she got there. Shaking these sentimental thoughts out of her head, she walked closer to the lake and inspected the land around it. The land surrounding it was fairly large with plenty of rocks scattered about. The whole place seemed to be naturally crafted by mother nature itself. Though the scene itself was very beautiful, nothing about it seemed really suspicious in any super-natural way.

Nights turned to Nikki as she walked up behind her. "So how did you know about this place?"

"I've been here a few times actually. Before I settled in at Station Square, I stumbled into this place while doing my usual morning jog around the county. Since then I'd sometimes come here to unwind and maybe get stressful thoughts out of my head. It's kinda like a secret getaway you know.

Anyway, I took Amy here last night on our date together. I figured she'd like the whole romantic gesture so I took her there on our last stop. Needless to say, she loved the scene. So then she becomes all lovey with me and then we…."

"Ok, I think I get it." Nights interrupted, not sure of where Nikki was going with this (the fact that they were now girls made this passing thought feel even more awkward). "So did you take her here after you went to the mall?"

"No. We went to tons of other places before we actually stopped by here. I just decided to go here cuz I think that mist got into my head and tried to remind me of this place. But so far I don't see anything too…"

Nikki's sudden pause caused Nights to look back at the lake to see what had gotten her attention. There seemed to be some steam emanating from the water like a natural hot spring. At first glance, this might not seem that startling of a change; however, the light that filtered through the canopy above them began to fade from it's normal tone of yellow into a particularly bright new light hit the water and steam, causing the water to become a more unnatural purple color while the steam began to thicken, seeming to become it's own self contained fog. While the water sparkled in shades of purple and blue the fog had begun to change colors as well and soon turned into a familiar shade of pink.

Unlike their previous encounters with this fog, not only was it much thicker, but it's size and silhouetted details seem much more profound. The pigtails that stuck above the round head seemed much longer and more "flowy." The neck was now noticeable and seemed to be thin and long while the shoulders seemed to be draped with some sort of unworn hood. The rest of the body was also slender, flowing so that it appeared to be wearing some sort of long dress. She had no visible arms, but what was easily the most interesting thing about it was that on it's face were two distinguishable, glowing yellow orbs that resembled eyes.

"She" continued to stare at the two dumbfounded hedgehogs. Not quite knowing how to fight such a being or even if they wanted to, Nikki tried to think if the most intelligible thing to say to the being.

"Uh, hey there." She raised her hand in the air in some sort of gesture of peace. The creature didn't respond, still staring at them with her glowing yellow eyes. "Yeah,well…. Me and my friend here had a few questions that we think you might help us with."

When the mist creature only continued to stare at them in response, Nights finally got fed up and asserted her presence herself. "Hey! We heard you giggling and whispering back at the mall. I think it's fair to say that you can speak too, so why don't you acknowledge our questions."

The mist then seemed to turn it's head at Nights, focusing it's stare on her specifically. Before Nights could talk any further, the two heard a feminine yet hushed voice.

"Yessss…. I remEMBER both of yoooou…." The mist spoke with a whisper and a very odd speaking pattern, seeming to emphasise certain parts of some words with a louder voice, as if speaking with some sort of accent or speech impediment. It cast it's glare between both hedgehogs and spoke without any visible mouth.

"the bLUE one has frequented this spring for many Moons now. always when the moon was WANing. he had brought a FRiend along with HIM last night while the moon was waXING. with the inCREASing moonlight that i HAD last night i FIgured that it was the BESt time to grab your ATTENtion without revealing my weak physical form. to do this i used the MOONlight to cast a SPELL on you that transmitted your FRiends feminine essence on to You. as it tuRNS OUT, my speLL had also TRANSmitted itself to you OTHer male friend."

As the mist explained itself, Nikki and Nights continued to stare at it with hardened expressions. The mist took this as a sign to continue.

"You see, i NEEded your aTTENtion so You could HELp me reGAIN my original body…"

Nights finally spoke up. "So why couldn't you just ask us to help you out in the first place? Why'd you have to go to such extremes to get our attention?"

"beCAUSE, i FIgured that You wouldn't BE so EAger to help a 200 year old WITCH."

The two hedgehog's eyes widened and their breaths hitched when they heard the answer. They had both dreaded that they would get an answer like this when the mist had started talking, but as it turns out, they were now living their worst case scenario.

"dON'T you worry dearies. i WON'T try to do ANY more HARm once i reGAIN my original form.

you see, my MAgic has been fading for YEARS. the lack of my PHYSICAL form has left my poWERS severely limited than when i was ALIVE, so much so that i can ONly use the MOONlight to poWER my MAgic. my ABILities are also LIMited whenever i reach the SUN of the outside world. because of this, i SIMply needed a generous WARRior to help this DYing old witch enjoy her last days of MAgic in her old body. but LOW and BEhold, DEStiny has given me TWO fine WARRiors.

ONCE i am flesh again, i'll go ON to live my life as peacefully as POSSible before my MAgic completely fades. in REturn, i'll give YOU your oRIGINAL bodies back. bUT you must HURry. my MAGic has been FAding for years. if my POWers fade by the time the FULL moon disaPPEARS like i FEar, then NONE of us will get our ORIginal bodies back."

This explanation had dropped on Nikki and Nights like a bombshell. They still weren't entirely sure whether to trust this witch or not. Apart from the obvious questions of how she got there and why, as well as millions of others, they weren't really sure if she was telling the truth when she said that her powers might disappear when the full moon had passed. If this situation was true, then maybe they really would be stuck like this. Of course, they couldn't really let that happen.

"We'll have to take a moment to think about this," Nikki said. She and Nights turned around and huddled together to discuss their situation, while the mist simply stared at them with her yellow, unblinking eyes.

"What do you think about this whole deal?" Nights whispered.

"I don't think you should be asking me," Nikki responded. "I'm still trying to process the fact that this mist is supposed to be some ancient witch."

"I honestly don't know if we can really trust her. It seems a bit unnecessary to bribe your 'warriors' by having their genders changed."

"Well from what we've seen, her speaking skills aren't all that great for communicating." Nikki interjected. "Besides, Eggman told us that this mist had malfunctioned his machines back at Station Square. If this is true, maybe we have it to thank for our win."

Nights' eyes narrowed at this. She didn't really like the idea that she may have owed her victory to some outside source, but if this was true, then maybe this mist really wasn't some enemy. "Maybe you're right about that. Besides, apart from being able to suffocate us in enclosed spaces, this mist doesn't seem like that big of a threat. We can easily outrun it and if it's magic is really weakening, it probably won't too big of a deal when she gets her body back."

"So, do you think we should go through with this?" Nikki asked.

Nights thought about the circumstances that they were faced with. 'Not all the details seem all too reliable, but I'm honestly not sure if things could really get much worse. But does she have some more sinister motives? Do we really need to trust her if we only need our bodies back?"

After some thinking, Nights finally turned back to acknowledge the mist's job. "We've thought about what you've told us and decided it's best to take up the job that you offered miss…"

"you may call me ZORRA…"

AN: I guess this chapter was more of an exposition dump, but we still gotta keep the plot moving. So it turns out that having Sonic and Shadow turn into girls really wasn't just some cheap gimmick, though it really did just start off like that before I adopted this story. I'm just glad that I was able to focus that gimmick around a central story. Now that Sonic and Shadow know why their genders are switched, the rest of the actual plot can begin to unfold. Stay tuned!