Chapter 21
I'm going camping tomorrow, so I figured I'd update earlier rather than later. :)
Seganumber1fan, thanks for the review!
*~X~* (A flashback)
I own Amara, the name Shadykins, and this story. The Sonic Crew belongs to Sega.
Shadow's P.O.V.
"You ready to go Shadow?" I hear Amara call from her bedroom.
"I have been ready." I call back from the living room, rolling my eyes. She walks into the room and it is like deja vu. She is wearing the blue polka-dotted dress Rose gave to her the first day she arrived to this world. She grabs her present from the couch and walks over to me.
"Can we take the motorcycle this time?" She asks, eyes lit up with excitement. I smirk at her with amusement.
"Sure." We walk out to my black motorcycle and I secure our presents to the back of the bike. After she hops on I take off, driving off to Vanilla's house to celebrate Cream's 14th birthday. As I drive, my thoughts wander back to the issue that has been plaguing my mind for the past ten days.
*~X~*
I stand in my back yard, practicing casting small spells. I have not sensed the girl since that first time, two days ago, and it is frustrating. I still have a lot of training to do before I can track her down, so I have to deal with it until then.
"Shadow."
I tense. I know that voice. Suddenly my mind is plunged back into the same darkness from the last time I heard that voice.
"Hello again, Shadow."
"Dovarian." I say cooly. He chuckles.
"I never have been able to introduce myself to you. You have always figured it out first."
"Then maybe you should not make it so obvious."
"Hmm. The time has come for my favor, Shadow." I narrow my eyes.
"What is it?"
"I need your oath for when you hear me say 'transform', you will transform, whether you want to or not, into your Overseer form, or as you call it, superlative form."
"That is all?" I ask, wary. Something definitely does not feel right about this. I expected him to ask that I use my powers and release him, making it so he just needs the girl Overseer to release him. What does he have planned?
"Yes. Remember the consequences if you refuse to do this?"
"She and I will die." I answer, not sure if he knows Amara's name. I am not willing to risk it if he does not. A thought hits me. "I will be reborn when I die, however, and she said she went to her own personal heaven when she died. Maybe we are better off dead." She would at least be safe.
"True that you will be reborn, but that does not mean I cannot torture her soul. If I have the power to bring her back to life, do you not think I have the power to put her in hell too?"
He could be bluffing, but he makes a valid point. I am only risking a temporary death for myself, while I risk eternal torture for Amara. It is a possibility I cannot take. I growl lowly to myself and summon some Chaos powers to enforce the oath.
"I, Shadow the hedgehog, hereby swear that I will immediately transform into my Overseer form once you say 'transform', with or without my consent." I say with clenched teeth, trapped.
"Very good. Your training is paying off." He chuckles darkly. "Until next time, Shadow." The darkness fades and I am back in my backyard. What have I done?
*~X~*
Ten days later, and I am still asking myself that question. I do not regret agreeing just to protect Amara, instead, I regret not being able to let her go and accept her death. Then I would not of had a reason to make that deal with him in the first place, ensuring the upper hand we had over him. Now, because of my actions, I might very well be the cause of Dovarian's escape.
I pull into Vanilla's driveway and shut off the bike. After we step off the bike and retrieve our presents, we walk to Vanilla's front door.
"Hello dears. I'm so pleased to see that you came. Thank you." She smiles warmly at us after she opens the door.
"Well of course we did!" Amara smiles brightly at her. We walk into the cozy home, a table full of presents set off to the right. We set our presents down and find the rest of the group in the living room.
"Shadow!" Rose jumps up and skips over to me, taking my hand in hers. As far as I know, Rose and I are not dating, despite Amara's constant teasing, we are just spending more time together. "I saved you a seat!" She leads me over to a tan couch.
"Yo, wut up Amara?" Faker walks up to Amara.
"S'up Sonic?" She grins and they do their handshake. I asked her what the point of it was and she only told me that it was for a secret club she and Sonic started. I thought she meant it as a joke, but they actually meet up twice a week for their 'meetings'. No one else knows a thing about their club. Amara takes a seat on a kitchen chair that was brought out, seated between Rouge and Cream.
"Well that dress brings back some memories." Rouge eyes Amara's dress.
"I know, I just felt like wearing it." She shrugs, an emotion flashing in her eyes too fast for me to confirm. Sorrow?
"Alright Cream," Rose turns to the young rabbit. "what do you want to do first?"
"Well, how about Would You Rather?" Everyone, except for me, nods their heads and makes sounds of agreement. The chao, Cheese, flies around Cream's head excitedly.
"You go first Hun." Rouge tells Cream.
"Okay. Would you guys rather be fast like Mr. Sonic or have telekinesis like Mr. Silver?"
"Speed. I've always loved how the world looks when going that fast." Rose sighs dreamily.
"I am just as fast as Faker, so I might as well try out telekinesis." I shrug. If this was anyone else's birthday party, I would refuse to play, but the innocent rabbit has always made me feel guilty when I refuse her small, also innocent, requests. Faker scoffs at my answer.
"I'd go for speed, then I can finally catch and pound Sonic into the ground!" Knuckles smiles at the thought. I smirk as well, knowing he is not kidding.
"Well, never gonna happen Knux!" Faker smirks at him. He takes his turn before the echidna can yell at him. "I'm good! Speed is all I need!" Faker clasps his hands behind his head with that cocky smirk of his.
"Hmm, I could find good uses for both of them." Tails rubs his chin thoughtfully. "I would take... telekinesis. Then I wouldn't have to squeeze into tiny spaces to fix things."
"Obviously I'd go for speed, since I already have telekinesis." Silver smugly says.
"Oh great, you'd be more troublesome." Blaze rolls her eyes. "I would take telekinesis so Silver can finally stop levitating me when I least expect it." She glares at him. He gets a sheepish grin.
"I'd take speed. Can you imagine all the jewels I could steal and get away with?" Rouge sighs dreamily.
"Not my emerald, bat." Knuckles growls at her.
"Especially that one." She grins slyly at him.
"I'd go for telekinesis." Amara interrupts before the echidna and bat start one of their infamous arguments. "I've always wanted to move things with my mind."
"I would like to have speed like Mr. Sonic. I could get flowers from anywhere in the world!" Cream smiles with excitement.
"Okay, my turn!" Rose claps. "Would you guys rather get married or get claimed? For the guys, claim someone?" The guys groan; Leave it to Rose to bring romance into a game.
"Claim?" Amara ask with a look of confusion.
"Claim is when a male bites the female with her permission, claiming her as his. It's a lot more serious than marriage, it is literally 'until death do you part'. For that reason, it's not very common anymore." Rouge explains. Amara nods in understanding.
"Shadow, you're first." Rose pokes me.
"Pass." I say. A look of disappointment crosses Rose's face. I cannot imagine either of those options for myself right now, so I refuse to answer.
"Uhh, pass." Knuckles shifts uncomfortably.
"Diddo." Sonic rubs the back of his head.
"W-well, as long as she's the one for me, whatever makes her happy." Tails says quickly and blushes.
"I agree with Tails." Silver answers while wrapping his arm around Blaze. The cat blushes.
"I can live with just marriage." Blaze shrugs, still blushing.
"Definitely just marriage." Rouge flicks her wrist. "I'd like to have the option of divorcing incase things don't work out." Knuckles quietly snorts.
"I'd be fine with both, but if I had to chose one, I would go with getting claimed." Amara answers. "If I'm sure enough to marry him, then letting him claim me shouldn't be a problem."
"I agree with Miss Amara, except if I had to chose one I would go with marriage." Cream answers.
"As romantic as being claimed sounds, I would choose marriage." Rose says, surprising us all. "Claiming is a big decision, one that I don't think anyone can truly be sure about. Even if they are sure they've found 'the one'." I notice as she unsurprisingly gives Faker a quick, pained look. What does surprise me, though, is that Faker returns the look, no one else but me noticing.
"Anyways, your turn Shadow." Rouge smirks at me. Vanilla walks into the room.
"Lunch is ready." She announces. We file into the kitchen for the home-made stew, the game forgotten.
"Saved by lunch." Amara elbows my side as she walks by.
"Indeed." After we are all seated back down with our bowls, Faker speaks up, his mouth full of stew.
"So, how's the training goin' Shads?" I shoot him a glare.
"Another day or so and I will be able to begin my search for the girl Overseer." I answer.
"Has she used her powers the same time as you again?" Tails asks.
"Yes, but she recently did something to prevent me from locating her. I can still sense her, but I cannot tell where she is like I could the first time." I say, frustrated. I have sensed her everyday for the past five days now, but I have been unable to sense if she is still close or not.
"Then how are you going to find her?" Blaze arches an eyebrow.
"In a couple days my powers should be advanced enough to naturally sense other power Users, especially her. It is one thing that no spell can stop, so I will have to travel around and find her the hard way."
"Yikes." Amara grimaces. I smirk at her.
"That is in another two days, however. I will still be able to come to your concert tomorrow night."
"WHAT?! A CONCERT?!" Rose and Rouge yell and everyone whips their heads towards Amara, who flattens her ears.
"Umm, my band is having a concert tomorrow." She explains, ears flattening.
"And we're hearing this just now because...?" Rouge narrows her eyes at her.
"Because I thought it wasn't a big deal?" She nervously says.
"Big deal or not, we'd still like to watch you play!" Faker jumps in, also glaring at her.
"Okay okay! I'm sorry! I promise to inform you guys of any future performances I have, okay?" She holds up her hands in surrender.
"You better." Rouge threatens before turning back to her stew. Once everyone turns their attention away from her, Amara glares at me. I smirk. That is what she gets for not telling anyone. She did not even tell me. I found out yesterday from a glimpse at one of her text messages. It read, 'wear all black clothing to concert tomorrow'. After I confronted her about it, she admitted she did have a concert and that she did not want to trouble anyone by asking them to go. I did not scold her. Instead, I decided to let the others do that for me.
The door suddenly bursts open. "Sorry we're late!" Vector comes in, followed by Espio and Charmy. "Somebody here hid Cream's present and forgot where he hid it!" He glares pointedly at the bee.
"I had to make sure you wouldn't steal my idea!" Charmy glares back at him.
"Yeah," he scoffs. "like I'd ever take one of your fabulous ideas. Oh hello Miss Vanilla!" Vector straightens up and says loudly as the rabbit enters the room. "How are you?"
"I am well, Vector, thank you for asking. It looks like you boys are just in time for Cream to open her presents."
"Sweet! Open mine first Cream!" Charmy buzzes over to the young rabbit, a small teal box in his hands. She opens it and reveals a handmade friendship bracelet.
"Oh I love it! Thanks Charmy!" She hugs him, making him grin sheepishly.
Judging from the amount of presents she received, I would say Cream is the most adored in this group. It also makes it that much harder to find a gift for her. I was going to give her a card with some money, but Amara refused to allow it after finding out, and she suggested I should paint something like a field of flowers for her. I found a patch of daisies by a creek and thought it suitable. I did not expect the squeal of delight Cream made and everyone's gawking after she opened it, though. I refused to tell them the artist, and Amara stayed silent as well.
"Time for the birthday cake!" Vanilla smiles from the kitchen doorway.
"Yeah! Cake!" Silver dashes into the kitchen, quickly followed by others. Just a few more hours of this before I can go.
XXXXX
Amara's P.O.V.
I talked Shadow into staying for dinner, not quite ready to leave Vanilla's house. Sonic, Amy, Shadow, and I were the last ones to leave. As we were leaving, I heard Sonic ask Amy if he could walk her home and that he needed to talk to her. He gave me a grim, nervous smile as they were walking away. Looks like The Hidden will be no more. I just hope that whoever Amy chooses, that the other will be okay. Especially if it's Sonic she chooses, because Shadow will have a lot to deal with after tonight.
Tonight is the night I have to go back to Earth. It's the reason why I didn't tell anyone about my concert; I wasn't even going to be there for it, but Shadow just had to see that stupid text from Noah. I have finally reached the point in my training where I am strong enough to transport myself back. I have already casted my location spell, explaining why Shadow can't sense my location now. I can't even stall for time. Shadow said he will be able to begin his search for me in two days, and, knowing him, his senses will probably be developed by tomorrow night, ending my chance to leave undetected.
So all day today I hung out with all of my friends as much as I could, hiding the sorrow and pain inside me as I acted normally. I am lucky to know such wonderful people. I've even learned some new things today too, like claiming, and why the guys wear clothes now; puberty hits around the age of 16 in this world. Also, I found out that touching someone without wearing gloves is as significant and intimate as kissing someone. While I find that to be interesting, I still don't see why wearing the gloves 24/7 is necessary. Luckily, I'm used to them.
Now, here I sit: watching the time fly by as Shadow and I sit and watch TV. I can't reminisce nor say cryptic things with him like I did the others, that would raise his suspicions, so I am forced to absolute normalcy. I steal glances at him whenever I can, noticing his distant stare. He's been this distant for a little over a week now. Shadow stands and begins to head to his bedroom.
"Shadow." I call. He stops and turns. "You've been pretty preoccupied for the past week." I state. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No. It is a personal matter." He crosses his arms.
"Well, just remember you have friends. They will always be there for you, no matter what." It's the closest I can get to saying goodbye without him noticing.
"I will keep that in mind." He says wearily, rubbing his temple.
"Well then, goodnight." I smile warmly, holding back the urge to cry. This is the last time I will see him.
"Goodnight. See you in the morning." He walks down the hall and into his bedroom. Unable to hold them back, I slowly let my tears leak out. I stand and take one last tour of the house, tidying up things as I go along, before I go to my room. I organize my room and I grab a picture from my dresser of the whole crew and me. I remove it from the frame and put it in a hidden pocket in my dress, remembering how my pajamas from Earth came with me here. I actually wore this dress today because it was the first piece of clothing I wore from this world, so it might as well be my last.
I look at the partially-melted snow outside my window, clouds blocking the moon. I've delayed this for as long as I could. I grab a piece of paper and leave a note, as well as my communicator and credit card, on my bed for Shadow to find in the morning. Taking one last look at my room, I open and crawl out of my window, and I make my way into the snowy woods.
Once I feel I am far away enough, I stop. I center myself and take a deep breath. I call upon the surrounding tendrils and orbs and I utter "Portal." The powers gather in one spot and begin to swirl. Faster and faster they spin, electricity from the amount of power present shoots out in bolts as the powers pick up speed, until a circular, dark gold portal is before me, still spiraling and cracking with electricity.
With new tears springing to my eyes, I walk towards it.
XXXXX
Shadow's P.O.V.
Something feels off. I cannot explain this feeling. It started after Amara and I got back from the birthday party. I was beginning to think Dovarian might make his move now, but I found it not to be the case after putting much thought in it. No one has found the girl Overseer yet, and he does not seem to know where she is either, otherwise he would have made me do a different 'favor'. It would be impractical for him to strike now, whatever he has got planned. I then tried going to bed, thinking that I just might be tired from all the training I've done as of late, but even my body refused to settle down. I eventually gave up trying to rest and chaos controlled myself onto the roof to train. Watching the night sky and the sleeping world usually relaxes me, although clouds blanket the sky tonight.
Not long after I start my training I sense the girl again, still, to my frustration, unable to locate her. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I notice some white flashes from within the forest. The little sense that I have developed so far tells me the World powers are responsible for the flashes, and a lot of it. It is fairly close to my house...
'They will always be there for you, no matter what.' Why did she not say 'we'? Following my instincts, I chaos control myself into Amara's room, not bothering myself with privacy, and I look around. She is not in here. I look at her bed and see her wrist communicator, her credit card, and a note.
'I'm sorry.'
Too many things click into place for me to just focus on one piece, but I do manage to understand one thing.
Amara is the girl Overseer.
I zoom outside and sprint to where I saw the flashes, no longer sensing her. Do not let it be too late. I let my senses take over and they lead me to the spot where she last used her powers.
"Amara!" I call out as I look around the trees for her.
She is nowhere in sight.
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