Nwchap10

Reese tapped his pencil. Okay…I know what I want to say…err, I mean I know what I think. And it makes sense, or at least more sense than any other ideas. And in light of Tails's explanation to them, it still makes sense…I am so glad I don't have to explain to Ethan too.

Amy is one thing. It might be.. A bit awkward, but I know she'll listen. Whether or not she'll actually believe me though….well, I guess it depends on how convincing I make my case.

The bell rang, and Reese felt like banging his head against the desk when he realized that he still had absolutely no idea what to say. And almost as bad, he had no idea of what the teacher had said…throughout the entire class period!

In the six minutes Reese took to think about and toss the ideas of running away from home and then the idea of playing sick, someone snuck up on him. "So we meet again."

Reese jumped about five feet in the air. He landed, however, to Ethan's laughing

"I knew I could walk quietly, but man! You must have been really out of it!"

Reese glared at him.

Ethan smirked. "Were you thinking about Amy?"

Rees growled. "Why does everyone keep harping on that? Especially you!"

Ethan shrugged. "Personally, I can't see what you're complaining about. She's pretty, she's caring, she's a good cook…why are you so insistent that you don't like her?"

Reese wondered for a moment if he could've heard something other than curiosity in Ethan's voice, before brushing the thought away. No, there was no way Ethan could be jealous…right?

Reese shrugged. "I just am, okay? Now, will you go away ? I'm supposed to meet Amy here."

Ethan raised an eyebrow. "Why? If you're not interested-"

"No, that's not it." Reese said, rolling his eyes, "we just…want to talk. About things…that have been going on lately."

"Things like what?"

"Like freaky dreams and mysterious friends." It was said shortly, but it started Ethan thinking.

A reflection in the emerald that was not his own… The strange feeling he felt where he met them…

He smiled.

Just then, Amy ran up. "Hey guys! Reese, are you ready?"

No. "Yes." But I'm willing to try anyways.

"Hey Ethan, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, I've joined this little club."

"It's not a club! You can't just join it!"

"Why not?"

Amy looked from one to the other in amusement. Finally, though, it got old. "Guys?" No response, so she tried again. "Hey guys!" delivered louder, "didn't we come here for a reason?"

Both turned, somewhat surprised.

She stood there, taping her foot and looking reproachfully at them. Amy sighed, seeing that she finally had both their attention. "Ethan, you've had dreams that are really weird, right?"

Almost unwillingly, he nods.

"And you feel that you've met Tails before?"

Ethan nodded again.

Reese sighed. "Actually, Tails said that much."

Amy looked delighted. "Another clue. Does it support your theory, Reese?"

Now it was his turn to nod unwillingly. He began explaining to Amy, "A long time ago, there was this one belief on Earth. And it was that if you died, you would be reborn, but not necessarily as what you were before…"

"I think he's doing a pretty good job." said Tails. "Better than when they first met, anyways."

Shadow raised his eyebrow, and switched his gaze to from the trio of students to the kitsune in the tree. " What happened?"

"The lord of lard told him that we were evil thieves and he believed him."

"No wonder he used to call him a knucklehead."

"That, and it was just way too easy."

There was brief silence for a moment, and both Anthros turned from each other to watch the students once more. Reese was finished talking, hands shoved in his pockets as he stared glumly downwards.

Amy was staring at him, open mouthed, as Ethan paced.

There was silence.

"Things can't stay this way." Shadow said suddenly.

Startled, Tails turned towards him. Shadow was gripping the branch above him, tightly, and it was quivering as if it would snap.

"We can't stay with them…we can't stay here. Eventually, it'll all happen all over again. We can't… we can't protect them from everything!" the branch snapped. And he wobbled for just a minute before he grabbed the branch beneath him as he watched the pieces of the broken one fall to the ground…because sometimes, you have to let go, or you'll fall, and break yourself.

Carefully, slowly, Tails crawled over from his branch to Shadow's, and then, repeating what he'd done days before with Reese, put his hand lightly, on his shoulder.

"We can protect them from everything except old age. And that probably shouldn't be messed with anyway."

Shadow didn't say anything. He didn't move either, but, and it was hard for Tails to be certain, since he had his gloves on, but he felt, and he could be wrong, he thought he felt Shadow relax.

Below them, in the school building, Amy was stepping forward, and holding Reese's hand. She was speaking, and smiling.

Now Ethan was stepping forward, also smiling, although his had a bit of a smirk to it. When he finished speaking, he and Reese shook hands.

"Maybe we can't protect them from everything...but we can help."

And then came time for the trial.

Shadow was both surprised and somewhat disgusted. He had assumed it would be a fairly simple affair, just proving that Maria hadn't done anything wrong. As far as Shadow was concerned, that was obvious from just having one conversation with her, but hey, if they wanted more evidence he'd give it to them…that's what I'm here for, after all…to help her…to protect her…to stay by her side.

For as long as possible.

As everyone walks in and takes their seats, I watch Maria and glower at the lawyer who sits next to her. I want that seat, and I want to walk with her into the room, let all of them know that she is protected by me.

She's nervous. I know she is, even though she's trying to hide it. The way she walks, the way she hides her face, lower, with the files and folders she carries, the way she looks around…I can tell.

I'm nervous as well, for two reasons. She is, and I have no idea what's going on.

I think it's going well. It's rather hard to tell, with the way that some of them talk, but I think it's going well.

When Maria's lawyer told them what Richard tried to do, there were angry mummers from the people watching.

Soon after, when I was called to the stand, and I swore to them that he had attempted to rape( I know what that means now, and I'm angrier than ever about it.), and that the only reason I'd shot at him was to save her, there were more murmurs, and these sounded even angrier.

Richard's lawyer attempted to ask me some weird questions…I don't know what the point was, but I answered negative to all of them. He even asked what kind of an outfit she was wearing. What kind of stupid question is that? It shouldn't make any difference what she was doing or wearing, or whatever. What he did was still wrong.

But maybe they don't look at it this way?

He's protecting me. Again. Always, always, protecting me…I'm sitting in the courtroom, wanting to shiver, but not daring. I want to turn around and look at him, but I can't. I wish he could sit next to me, but he can't.

I am so powerless… I want to do something for him, anything for him, but…anything just a small thing, just the right word at the right time, a small meaningless gift that makes him smile…or laugh.

The best I've felt throughout this entire ordeal is when he was up on the stand.

He surveyed the entire courtroom, judge and jury included, not as if they were below him, but as if he'd…judged them, their strengths and weaknesses, and found that he was the strongest, the dominating one. He was confident. He knew what he knew, and he knew what he'd seen.

And that, added to the fact that just seeing a face that I knew and …loved…a face that I knew was on my side…it helped me.

Just knowing that Shadow had my back, I could hold my head up, even though I couldn't stop trembling completely.

And after that, I began to get a littler bit angry. It seemed like they were trying to make me think I was guilty.

I don't know exactly what made me feel that way. Maybe it was just the way they looked at me…like I was scum on the surface of a pond, which had to be cleared away. Maybe it was the whispering that never seemed to cease. Maybe it was the sheer size of the room, which seemed designed to impress the smallness of the occupents upon them. Whatever it was, I felt it clearly, and it began to make me mad.

What had I done that I was standing here, in front of them? I had done nothing. I was innocent.

I was here for one reason only. Because Richard was not innocent, and I was here to prove that fact. And Shadow, his eyes upon me always, was here to help.

Because of that, when it was my turn, I was able to stand tall and speak clearly.

I could never be forceful or aggressive, but I was able to tell them, all of them, what had happened.

And then, at the end, they declared that Richard was indeed guilty of all that Shadow and I had told them of.

And because of the other girls, they also believed that that this was not the first time he had tried to do something like this. But they decided it would be the last.

He was sentenced to death.

He didn't take it very well. He jumped out of his chair to try to get to me, but the officers grabbed him and held him down…

Those guards were pretty quick for humans; I had just jumped out of my seat when they jumped him. Too bad they couldn't get him to be quiet as well. He screamed at her, most of the words I couldn't understand, but I knew they were bad, from the way the mutterings around me rose again, louder, and from the way Maria flinched.

I almost started down the aisle to get go get him and make him shut up, when she took a deep breath and started towards him.

Everything stopped, everyone was shocked. Even Richard stopped cursing and stared at her as she stopped in front of him, and knelt to whisper something in his ear.

What did she say?

I don't know. And maybe…it might not be any of my business. But at that moment, I felt a little bit jealous of Richard, lying on his stomach, looking up at her, on his knees, to her, right now, he is the focus, the focal point.

For just a moment, I wondered why she had to be like that…with everyone. But then, watching her as she walked away, I had to smile.

Why was she like that? Because is she wasn't, she wouldn't be Maria. It was just part of who she was.

And Maria was not a problem…but there was a problem. I frowned as the crowd stood up and followed her out. I tried to weave through the crowd, but morons kept not noticing me and tripping over me.

The problem was this world.

Later, at the Hacker's table, they were talking about it.

"I'm so glad that at least one more of those monsters is off the streets." Beamed Mrs. Hacker. "No girl should have to go through what he tried to do to that poor girl. I'm so glad Shadow rescued her!"

"I'm sure that they're both happy about too, Mom." Reese said, just before taking a huge bite of the meatloaf. I watched him in secret amusement and wonder. How did he take such large bites?

His father raised an eyebrow. "Would either of you two like to explain the comment to the person who is not a history bluff?"

Reese in turn, raised his eyebrow at the last word. (Although, I was pleased to notice that his raised eyebrow was no where near as impressive as mine.)

"Means history expert." Mrs. Hacker explained. "And I believe what Reese means is that, for a very long time, Maria Robotnik has haunted Shadow. Now, perhaps some of that guilt and anger has been lifted by Maria Roberts."

She is smart. Kinda of surprising, considering who she has as a son. I glance at him, out of the corner of eye, and he smirks at me. I twitch. He's probably enjoying this…dissecting me with his parents in front of me.

But he, at least, will not smear my name and hers. I can't trust him not to annoy me, but I can trust him with the most important things.

"You've got a point there ma'am." I say, keeping myself from smiling by taking a bite of meatloaf.

She smiles at me. "I'm glad you think so, Sirius!" she says, using me by the alias the silly motor mouth came up with. Honestly, what kind of a name is Sirius Black? I suppose I'm lucky though…he could've told them my name was Emo Hog, or something equally dumb.

And later, as I entered my room, the room I was sharing with Shadow, I stopped.

He was kneeling in front of the window, staring out it.

"I thought she lived on the other side of town?" I asked, trying to get that depressing look off his face.

He didn't even turn to look at me.

After I got tired of waiting (and I did wait longer then I would usually), I gave up and plopped down next to him, and just stared out the window with him.

It was a little bit boring, just staring out the window and doing nothing… but hey, I couldn't leave him by himself in that kinda mood. And if I stayed with him, maybe he'd talk to me. That'd be good for two reasons. One, if something's bugging one of my friends, I'd like to know. Second, if people talk about what's bothering them, it makes them feel better (according to Mom, anyways).

Sure enough, after a while, he began to talk.

"This world is the problem."

"What?"

"I hated it…there we were, so close and yet so far... I hate that place…I can't protect her there."

I stared ahead, through the window. Should've known that's what he was worried about.

But now…what do I tell him?

He's right…it is hard to protect someone in this world. But… "It's not impossible." I tell him, speaking out loud. "It'll be a real pain in the neck, and it may seem impossible, but it's not. And besides…" I turn and grin at him. "The reward is worth it, right?"

He stares at me, and then laughs. "I never thought I'd hear mature advice from you." He stares out the window for a moment, then smirks and stands up. "Well, I guess I'll keep trying then."

He doesn't say thank you. But that's okay. I didn't expect him too, and besides, it probably dents his pride just to listen to my advice, let alone take it.

Standing in the moonlight, he smirks down at me.

I laugh and stand to face him.

Me and Shadow…good friends, best rivals.