Hello, StarryMoon33! Pfft, haha! That's so true! But, then again, it's not like it was his choice to show it off. XD YES, IT HAS! AAAAHHHH!

~台風の目~

"Aikouhenno (Disaster)"

~台風の目~

Sonic walked to Tammy immediately upon leaving Jet alone with Suri. She was sitting where she and Jet had left their bags that morning (namely, under yet another tree), and she took notice of his approach quite quickly. Looking up, she offered him a small smile. "Hi, Sonic."

"Hey, Tammy." Taking a seat in front of her, he spoke again. "Hey, can I talk to you a bit?"

The sparrow's smile turned knowing. "Our friend over there is being difficult again, isn't he?"

Somehow, Sonic found it in himself to chuckle a little. "You could say that," he admitted. "He's nearly impossible on some days. Not so much on this one so far, but still."

"I understand," Tammy replied easily. "Selene and I really had our hands full with him sometimes, trying to figure what he was thinking and that sort of thing."

Blue ears perked at the sound of Selene's name. "Selene is actually one of the things I wanted to ask you about," he said suddenly.

"Okay," Tammy agreed. "What about her?"

There was a small moment of pause bordering on hesitation, then Sonic spoke again. "I mostly just want to know who she was, especially in relation to him." Emerald eyes briefly drifted to the side to rest on Jet, and purple eyes followed. Then they both looked back at each other. "I haven't tried asking him about it, though. I just keep thinking that he won't tell me, so I end up hesitating and crap because I don't want to fight with him unnecessarily." Our friendship is fragile enough as it is without me making it worse.

"I understand that," Tammy murmured, looking down. She suddenly seemed very, very sad. "And you're right in thinking that he won't talk about it. It's such a hard subject for him. See, he and Selene knew each other right from the very first day he set foot on Babylon to aid in the war." Sonic listened intently, keen on not missing any details, lest he end up missing something important. "They were quick friends, and great allies. I swear those two were as perfect for each other as your own parents, Sonic."

The part about his parents didn't surprise Sonic at all, as anyone with eyes could see how perfect Kaden and Analia were together. Hearing that Jet had found someone who was like that for him was... surprising, but not in a bad way. But she died... he remembered. Jet wrote it himself.

"The two of them went through so much together," Tammy continued quietly. Her expression had changed from just sad to sad but smiling. "They fought countless battles together, went on daring missions, explored unknown sections of the world, traveled through space, shared the job of raising little Ten, confronted even the most ruthless of the Syxans without fear... God, you would've thought that they were characters in some fantasy novel or something. They were just that perfect together. And when they fell in love, they fell hard." That small smile grew. "They denied it, of course, but we could all see it. They loved each other so much... Each was willing to die for the other, to live for the other no matter how painful life became, to take on all of the other's pains... but they never had a chance to even try being in a relationship. The war permanently took that possible future away from them."

"Because she died," Sonic murmured.

Tammy nodded. "Yes. And that's not even the worst of it." Sonic's eyes betrayed his confusion, and she explained. "She died, but not just anywhere. Her murder happened right in front of him, at a point in the fight with Nyxar where he was so badly injured that he could do nothing to try to save her. He could only watch as she was killed, and that's something that still haunts him horribly to this day. He even still has nightmares about it." There was a small pause before she continued. "That's why he doesn't talk about her," she sighed softly. "Not necessarily because he just doesn't want to, but because he can't without reliving all of the pain he went through on that day. A wound like that just isn't one that ever fully heals. It's just not."

The truth of those last two sentences was so real that it forced Sonic to question just how much his friend might still be hurting... and just how hard it must have been for Jet to continue on living after that horrible day. It forced him to question something else, too. "If he loved her so much... then how did he end up with Jade?"

"Love is such a tricky thing, Sonic," Tammy sighed. "It can happen at any place and at any time and with anyone, no matter how much you decide that you just don't want it. With Selene's death having happened sixty years ago, he had more than enough time to find new love. He didn't want to, and he certainly wasn't looking for it, but it happened. It took him ten years after Selene's death to finally realize that he was starting to have feelings for Jade, and another decade or so after that to finally heal enough emotionally that he could start to act on those feelings. From there, things progressed as normally as one might expect, with lots of dates and eventually a marriage. Though, as you well know by now, things didn't stay happy between them."

"Is she still a risk to him?" Sonic asked suddenly, eyes sparking temper at the idea. "Or to their kids?"

"To him, yes, at times," Tammy responded with another sigh. "He keeps her away from the kids at all costs, but when she catches him alone somewhere... He's gone on simple walks in the woods before to relax, only to come back battered and bruised because she just happened to show up there, too. That's happened several times, and there are many incidents like it. Whenever she thinks she can get away with it, she goes after him like that."

"Why doesn't he ever defend himself?" Sonic questioned, utterly baffled and furious at the same time.

"He does, but not by striking back," Tammy replied. "He just won't do that, partly because I think he's developed a sort of fear of her attacking him like she's been doing. I've seen him sort of freeze up just from seeing her in the distance once or twice before. Plus, I just don't think he can stand the idea of hitting her back because he seems to feel like that would make him no better than her."

Or Ross, Sonic realized silently with a sort of jolt of understanding.

"However, he doesn't just passively let her hit him," Tammy clarified. "If he can escape the situation or get her to stop somehow through means other than violence, he will. A couple times, before the two of them were divorced, he even called out to Kath for help."

That name caught Sonic's attention. "So Kath knows about all of this, too?"

His question earned a nod. "Yes, of course he does. Even pretending he hadn't noticed the abuse for himself, though he did very early on, Jet would have inevitably told him at some point or another. They're very close with each other. Practically family, really. And, because they're so close, Kath will absolutely die to protect Jet, and vice versa. Jade knowing that Kath is so protective of Jet is one of the reasons why she never dares to try to harm him at the palace, since Kath lives there, too."

So Mr. King has an entire palace, not just a castle, huh? Sonic thought, slightly amused by his own thought. He couldn't quite recall if that had been mentioned in the journal entries he and the others had read before, so this felt like new news to him. But it was far from being the important bit of information that he'd just been given. It was far more important to know that Jet had people looking out for him on Babylon, especially with cruel people like Jade still in his life. "I'm glad that he has people like you and Kath," he murmured. "He needs friends in his life, even if he doesn't always think so."

"I agree," Tammy replied sincerely. "That's why everyone he ever befriended on Babylon, besides Jade, have always refused to leave him, even when he would try to push us away."

Sonic nodded slowly, then switched the subject back to the matter of Selene's death. In spite of how abrupt this was, Tammy seemed unfazed. It was, after all, still a topic related to friends in one way or another. "I don't understand something about all of this," he admitted. "If he was so horribly injured when this Nyxar person killed Selene, then how did Jet ever win that fight?"

"It's going to sound crazy at first," Tammy replied slowly, "but he won that fight by at first losing it."

Now Sonic frowned, but only out of confusion. "...What?"

"You know about what he is now, don't you?" Tammy asked him suddenly. When Sonic still seemed confused, she sort of huffed. "Think about it. It's the very same reason why he's able to wield Alkarus."

Oh... Right... Feeling a bit stupid, especially since he'd just learned about this not even twenty minutes ago, Sonic scratched at his right ear. "Okay. I get it. He's an Immortal."

"Right," Tammy nodded. "And when an Immortal dies, the death is only temporary unless they're killed by another Immortal, of which their are only four in total. Nyxar most certainly wasn't one, so when he killed Jet after Selene was dead, Jet simply revived." Before Sonic could even voice a question, Tammy continued with her explanation. "And when an Immortal revives, whatever injury or injuries they had that directly led to their death will heal instantly. As such, Nyxar killed Jet only ensured a much faster end to his own life. Even if he hadn't done it then, he undoubtedly would have done it later, and the result would have been the same."

This all made sense, but... it was still horrible to know that Jet had died back then. And who's to say that he hasn't died other times as well? Sonic suddenly realized. On that thought, he quickly asked, "Do you know how many other times Jet's died before?"

"Not exactly," Tammy responded, turning to her right and bravely reaching into Jet's bag without a fear in the world as to how he'd react to it, "but this can tell you." Blinking, Sonic watched as she pulled Jet's journal out into the open. As she flipped rapidly through the pages, she kept talking. "Arthr and I monitor what he writes in here due to that massive depression incident you and your friends read about," how Tammy even knew they'd done that was beyond him, but he supposed Tails or Jet himself could have told her, "so I went through it last night to see if there was anything worrisome written in here. You know, anything to hint at the fact that he might be feeling depressed or hurting himself again or anything like that." The confirmation of the contents of two specific Sonic remembered from Jet's journal, entries involving very vague mentions of Jet harming himself, made Sonic's ears lower quite a bit. "Anyway, while I was going through the entries, I found this one." Tammy turned the journal around so Sonic could read, and he took it from her to do just that. Since he didn't know specifically which part of the entry she was referring to, he just read the whole thing in spite of its length.

921. -I caught myself drumming my fingers against my thigh earlier ("earlier" being at about 12:20 this morning), as though my hand thought it was playing the piano or something while I was sitting under a tree at lunch. I've caught myself doing that before (though not always on my leg). I've been doing that for… basically my whole life. I can't really explain why I do it, though. I've always chalked it up to some sort of an idiosyncrasy and could never explain it better than that. I still can't. But, the only problem is, calling it an idiosyncrasy doesn't explain why that action feels so… compulsive (though it only feels that way when I actually consciously notice that I'm performing the action, as it seems to tend to be subconscious).

I told Kath about the finger-drumming thing in passing while we were, for lack of a better term, "texting" on our communicators (I built some for him, Selene, and the others during the war) earlier in the day. He seemed thoughtful, but didn't really say anything about it. He did ask some weird questions, though, like if I remember how interested I was in certain games as a young child (i.e. peek-a-boo), how long I've been averse to touch, what other compulsions I have, if any, and that sort of thing. I answered his questions, but he didn't tell me why he was asking. It was weird.

-It's lunchtime. I've been a bit bored today due to overall lack of combat. That worries me, since bad things inexplicably happen around me (i.e. bookshelves randomly falling even when nothing happened to them to cause it, someone randomly tripping, etc.) when I get bored. It's never as a direct result of something I do, but even still. So far, nothing has happened this time. It's possible that my wandering thoughts provided enough entertainment for me and that's why nothing happened, but who knows.

Anyway, I was in the middle of continuing to be bored as all hell and eating a sandwich (and Sonic wouldn't stop watching me for nearly ten minutes for some damn reason) when I got a text from Kath. It literally read, "Do a self-assessment. Does this sound like you?" Attached to that little message was a file. Upon opening it, I found a list. It was a list of autistic symptoms. Of course, I read it. Then, after a couple of minutes, I opened the list again to read it once more.

I still don't know what to think.

-I left for a while earlier. Tammy agreed to watch the kids for a while, and I left to go investigate some auras I was sensing. I met Shade. She's a Nocturnian (as I mentioned a while back), and a very powerful one. We spoke briefly, and then she vanished. After that, I went back to the others. It was around seven in the evening by the time I returned, and I found a minor scene from hell. Apparently, the group was attacked while I was gone. Sonic teased me for a moment about not arriving in time to save the day, then I focused on checking on the kids.

Not too long after that, he and Tails began questioning me once again. Apparently, they read my damn journal. I don't know who else was involved, but I suspect Silver was. Part of me wanted to walk over to the hedgehog and smack him, but I didn't. I just dealt with the questioning for as long as I could tolerate it, then walked away. That did little to appease Sonic, I'm sure, but I don't care right now. I'm too goddamn tired.

If nothing else, this saved me the trouble of having to explain about any of the things that happened during the war. Apparently, I did myself a favor by writing in this thing so much back then.

-We made plans to leave for Espio's homeland tomorrow, a place many know as the Highlands. I remember that place. The villages of Hyale, Maukuri, and Tzhin are allies of mine. Hopefully, even if they're not too keep on the idea of so many strangers staying in the mountains, my alliance with at least one of those villages will ensure us a place to stay. One can only hope.

-It's the middle of the night. The kids are finally asleep (even Sarai, who has her father's habit of not ever wanting to go to sleep). The only other person who's awake right now is Sonic (even Kaden and Shadow are out), but he's leaving me alone, thankfully. Anyway, I'm bored as hell right now (fancy that), so I figured I may as well write in this old thing again. But, because I don't have much to say right now (beyond the fact that I'm so glad that Suri finally stopped crying and passed out), I guess I'll just write my deaths. It's a morbid topic, but at least this way there'll be a record of them somewhere.

On South Island, Before Gerald's Reign of Terror:

1. Age one, killed by a crashing plane that hit me after I wandered away from my mother (who died a couple months later, not long after I turned two, if memory serves).

On South Island, During Gerald's Reign of Terror

2. Age ten, mauled to death by some animal in the woods (I think it was a bear, but I don't remember for sure).

3. Age ten, killed by the giant Chaos explosion when South Island was destroyed.

After the Dark Days, Before Ivo's Reign of Terror

4. Age fourteen, died in my room due to heavy bleeding after a particularly severe beating, then saved from a second death that day when Sonic found me and got me to a hospital (not that I wanted to go).

5. Age fourteen, died due to doctors' negligence when Sonic again took me to the hospital after I received a beating so severe I couldn't even open my eyes (the doctors all decided it would be fine to leave the room at some point and I perished briefly before they returned; Sonic had no idea, as he was in the waiting room).

6. Age fourteen, finally starved to death while locked in the attic.

7. Age fifteen, died upon impact when my airship (the one I stole from Ross) violently crashed into the ground not long before Sonic and I met Wave (Sonic wasn't on the ship at the time, thank god).

During Ivo's Reign of Terror:

8. Age seventeen (as with all the rest following this), killed by activating Astral Babylon.

9. Stabbed by a Metarex leader in plain view of Amy, but almost instantly revived just as she sent a wave of healing energy at me (which is how my Immortality remained a secret).

During the War for New Babylon:

10. Died from a combination of heatstroke, exhaustion, starvation, dehydration, illness, and injury during the failed Badlands mission not long before we were finally rescued.

11. Bitten to death by a Turuk the same day Luko went missing. Revived quickly, but not before Luko was dragged off. Luko seeing me die and then seeing me alive later on caused him to learn of my Immortality.

12. Stabbed and slashed to death during an assault with a shortsword by a lone enemy on the Southern front (I was alone and had prior injuries and, as such, was unable to defend myself properly).

13. Killed in a gunfight while alone in the woods mere hours after the above incident.

14. Died before I could be taken to the hospital after being poisoned by a Syxan (which is how Selene, Arthr, and the others learned of my Immortality).

15. Briefly froze to death after a shipwreck in the middle of a massive blizzard (that later turned into a full-on white-out).

16. Tortured to death by Syxans while in their custody for around six months.

17. Tortured to death by Syxans while in their custody for around six months.

18. Tortured to death by Syxans while in their custody for around six months.

19. Tortured to death by Syxans while in their custody for around six months.

20. Tortured to death by Syxans while in their custody for around six months.

21. Killed by Nyxar minutes after Selene's death (I was unable to fight back effectively due to exhaustion and pre-existing injuries).

After the War, Before Reuniting With Sonic and Co.:

22. Killed from injuries suffered from a severe beating from Jade (I apparently lingered for a while before bleeding out from the head).

23. Trained to the point of exhaustion so severe it was lethal (and was promptly scolded by an angry Kath, though he normally isn't the type to scold people).

24. Caught a disease that originates from the Therian homeworld, Therius, and was violently ill for weeks before it finally claimed my life (didn't revive for about forty-six minutes; my slowest revival so far).

25. Was too reckless in the use of that damn razorblade (months before disposing of it) and quickly bled out.

During this War (which I will henceforth refer to as the Nocturnian War for simplicity's sake):

26. Killed due to psionic blasts created by a Nocturnian soldier. (Quick revival.)

The secret of my Immortality is safe for now. I don't really know how much longer that will remain true, though. And, really, I'm starting to wonder why I'm even bothering trying to keep it a secret in the first place.

With a great start, Sonic re-read some of the deaths on that list. He vividly remembered the beatings Jet had mentioned, as well as the airship wreckage. That wreck had especially caught Sonic's attention at the time, as Jet's lack of serious injuries when Sonic had arrived at the scene had utterly baffled Sonic at the time. But those three deaths were most certainly not the ones that held his attention. His eyes focused on numbers sixteen through twenty, remaining frozen on them. "T... tortured?" he somehow managed to choke out in a whisper.

"Yes," Tammy confirmed with a solemn nod. "He was captured by the Syxans at some point, he can't remember clearly how it happened and no one else was there, and they did horrible, horrible things to him. That's why, in those entries you and your friends read from the time period after his rescue, he made mention of being shock, physically ill, unable to really eat, exhibiting more PTSD symptoms than before, being afraid to sleep in the dark, and so on. It was because of what he went through during those six months when he was in their custody."

Sonic had no chance to reply to that (not that he knew what to say or feel or think, anyway) before he suddenly heard a loud crash, followed by Kimmy and Lia both crying. Turning, he and Tammy both watched at the girls' parents hurried over to the pile of girls+branch. It didn't take long to sort of what in the hell had happened. All it took was Kimmy's wail about something having to do with her and Lia apparently being "sneaky super ninjas" for everyone to understand. Sighing and rolling his eyes in amusement, he turned back to Tammy, only to have their conversation interrupted for the second time before it could even actually resume. This time, it was because of a strange dark purple glow that started in Jet's backpack, then almost instantaneously overtook the entire area. Kimmy and Lia started to cry harder and Suri began to wail. Every single person touched by the light immediately began to experience a piercing headache so severe it nearly robbed them all of their senses. A voice, sadistic and smooth that seemed to be coming from everywhere at once whispered to them all. No one could understand what in the hell it was saying, but it gave everyone the most horrible feeling of dread any of them had ever experienced.

Gritting his teeth, Sonic shoved his hand into Jet's bag and grabbed the source of the light, whatever it was, only to drop it onto the grass instantly due to how intensely hot it was. Jet reacted in that instant and the rock became encased in his aura, thus blocking out the dark light and rescuing everyone from its effects. Without even thinking, Sonic snapped at him, "What the hell is that thing?"

Clearly not in the mood for this all of a sudden, Jet shot Sonic a sharp glare that immediately shut the hedgehog up as Jet walked over. However, it was Tammy and not Jet who spoke. "Okay..." she muttered, "so I was apparently horribly wrong. I guess you were right in suggesting that we find a way to get rid of the rock. ...My bad." Jet let out some sort of noncommittal hum that may or may not have been an agreement and and moved his hand under the ball of glowing heavenly blue aura energy. The ball, with the rock still inside, floated harmlessly above his palm as he straightened back up.

"Is that thing Nocturnian?" Tails asked, rubbing at one of his poor, temporarily nearly-blinded eyes. "It's just so evil..."

"That's what we suspect," Tammy replied. Then, turning to Jet, she asked, "So, what do we do?"

"Call Kath," Jet responded simply, asserting authority with her for once. He normally never liked to assert kingly authority over anyone, least of all his friends, but situations such as this one tended to force his hand. "Now." Tammy nodded quickly and began to do as she was told with portable device while also gently taking Suri from Jet, thus freeing his other arm. Kaden tossed Alkarus, sheath and all, to the hawk, who caught it easily and walked away with both it and the ball, just in case. Sonic watched him worriedly.

Just what were the Nocturnians planning?

~台風の目~

4,440 words this time. Hope you all enjoyed. Real quick, here are a couple word pronunciation help things. Maukuri: "M-ow-kurr-ee"

Tzhin: "T-jin (soft "j" sound)"

Lastly! Those of you who have not yet read the Hero side story "Time", I highly recommend that you do so! For those of you who missed my last explanation of it, the gist of the story is that it's Jet's journal. Every chapter consists of entries from his journal, in order, from one and onward. Writing it has been a fairly massive undertaking. The journal has been around a year in the making so far and is still ongoing. I won't be updating it for a little while, as the next chapter will contain a bit of important information that has not yet been revealed here in EotS, but it has around four chapters up already and I do highly recommend the story. :)

Posted (at about 3:40 a.m.) 10-06-16.