IF YOU DIDN'T SEE THE REPOST OF CH. 35 OR READ THE HUGE NOTE ON THE TOP OF IT, PLEASE DO SO NOW. THE NOTE EXPLAINS EVERYTHING, AND EVERY CHAPTER FROM THAT ONE ONWARD HAS BEEN EDITED, SOMETIMES HEAVILY.

Notes on the edits I did: Where to even begin with this one… Well, remember Kethro and his board game at all? If not, just as well. If so, just know that I entirely removed it from both chapter 55 "Celebrated (Let's Play a Game)" and "Pure Corruption". I also removed Selene and took out every scene (besides the first one) in "Pure Corruption" (Ch. 56) that came before the scene that started with Tails. I then put that scene and the Ix scene onto the bottom of "Celebrated", making them one chapter. ...Albeit a giant one. Also, I changed the title.

Special note: Selena, not Selene, is mentioned in a scene in this chapter. Remember, Selena is the translated name of Jet's mother, not the name of his friend from New Babylon.

~台風の目~

"Surprise, Surprise"

~台風の目~

Wandering through the halls of the Blue Typhoon, Sonic saw the new day begin with a simple switch of numbers on his communicator screen. A soft sigh was the only sound he heard besides his own footsteps as he turned his screen off, ridding himself of the dim light. The hall was quiet, as the bedrooms were nearly all on the opposite side of the ship. The only ones near to him were Shadow's, Lia's, and Sen's. His parents' and Sarai's weren't too far away, either, but weren't right by where he was. Instead, the kitchen was, and he found himself wandering toward it. At about 12:02 a.m Mobian Time, he paused by the doorway, eyes locked on two emerald green bodies. Father sat with son at the lone table, talking quietly. It was Jet and Lucas.

Struck by the familiarity of this scene, Sonic thought back through many years and many events, back to a small event that had taken place days after the fall of the Metarex. Something had happened, and Jet had wound up feeling upset for some reason Sonic couldn't recall anymore. The hawk had been visiting with Sonic and most of the others at Kaden and Analia's house. Due to feeling upset, however, he had gone inside and sat himself down at the kitchen table to get some alone time and relax. Sonic had, at the time, been so busy playing with Amy and Cream that he'd been oblivious to his best friend's shift in mood. His parents, however, had been much more attuned to the situation. Even Kaden, in spite of all his difficulties with reading people (especially those like Jet, who often hid their auras from others' senses), had realized that something was up. Analia had gotten up and gone inside, and everything that happened next had been later explained to Sonic by her.

Upon finding the young hawk in her kitchen, Analia set about trying to figure out what had happened so that she could better help comfort him. She had to ask several questions before finally getting a response to one. "No, it's not anything they did," Jet hedged, seeming frustrated with the fact that he couldn't quite find the words to explain what he was feeling and what was wrong. "It's just-" He cut himself off with a sigh and pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes. "Never mind. It's stupid. I'll be back outside in a minute."

A single eyebrow raised. She didn't believe him and didn't plan to leave him be, both facts she suspected he knew in spite of his apparent hopes to the contrary. "It is not stupid," she responded. "If it were so silly, then why would you be upset?"

"Sensitivity," Jet muttered. Then he huffed again. "I get it from my mother, supposedly."

And there it was. Without even realizing it, he had given up the truth as to why he was upset now despite having been relatively happy earlier. "A holiday is coming soon," Analia reminded in a murmur, "one celebrated to honor parents across the world." A soft snort served as his response to that, but she wasn't deterred. Taking a chance, she spoke, both vaguely bringing up his past and a friend of hers she had long ago lost. "I have heard whispers of your family," she confided. "Things that would both make your grandmother very proud... and things that would undoubtedly cause her no end of shame and disappointment."

Unsurprisingly, Jet shrank away a bit at that last part, no doubt reminded of verbal and physical abuse he had endured in years past. "Don't remind me, okay?" he cut in, voice gaining a sharper edge in response to his increased upset.

Her head shook, making the length of her blue hair sway. "You did not let me finish." When he said nothing more, she continued. "You are not to blame for the sins of your father, nor are you meant to carry his burden upon your shoulders. Your life is yours to live, free of such influences as you so choose."

Instead of responding to that, Jet attempted to change the subject. "'Sins'?" he echoed dryly.

"Just because my partner claims not to be religious does not mean I cannot be," she responded with a small smile. With that said, she started guiding the subject back on track. However, he interrupted her again, unintentionally this time as his eyes were still covered and he had no real way of knowing that she had opened her mouth to speak.

Saying nothing in reply to her latest statement, he muttered in question, "Why are we even discussing that asshole? He's hardly worth celebrating. He and that festival should never be mentioned together."

Though she never approved of swearing (merely tolerated it usually) and hearing his speak so bitterly of his own father broke her heart on her friend Laralei's behalf, Analia fully understood Jet's words and emotions on this matter. "You still have a mother," she reminded him, tone soft and exceedingly gentle. She sensed something in his heart, something that was already very fragile and damaged, break a little further.

"I don't know her," he choked out. For a single, rare moment, he almost seemed to want to shed a tear. The moment was lost with the next breath, however, and it was for his sake that she didn't mention it at all.

"You know of her," the ancient hedgehog pointed out. "You have seen her and heard her voice in your early years. You experienced those things again when you saw those videos of her upon the Blue Typhoon. Even if none of these things were true, you still would know she once existed. That alone is worth celebrating."

Fingers tightening until they curled against his feathers, Jet shook his head. "It isn't the same," he practically whispered. "It just... isn't."

Of course, she understood his pain, and what he meant by his words. There was no way she couldn't. But she also knew that he was missing something, something she had assumed he had known all along. 'I should know better by no than to assume such things.' Taking a calculated risk, she reached over and gently laid a hand on his shoulder. He tensed at the contact immediately, but she didn't pull away. Not this time. "Sonic has openly considered you to be his brother for many years," she murmured. "Is this not correct?"

A sigh, but he relented and answered her almost random question. "Yeah. What of it?"

Smiling softly anew, Analia told him gently, "Being brothers means sharing parents, does it not?" It took mere seconds for the implications of this to sink in, and he looked up sharply at her. Still smiling she further explained herself. "Kaden and I have not viewed you as a stranger in our family by any means in all the time we have known you. Our sons, daughter, and grandson all accept you. Why would we not do the same?" He did not speak, so she played to his instincts as a Babylonian by lightly running her thumb up the center of his forehead. It was a special gesture, the kind a mother would show her child to say she loved that child and always would. It caught his attention thoroughly, and his expression was unusually filled with emotion as he tried to process what she was telling him both with words and without. She merely continued to smile. He still had a family, and he knew it now. That was all that really mattered.

Emerald eyes remained locked on the pair of hawks in the kitchen as the memory of what he'd been told about that day faded from Sonic's mind. In watching father and son interact, it soon became clear that Jet was doing for his son now what Analia had once done for him: providing honest comfort. He went about it so quietly, though, and with so few words. It was, as with many other things, different than what Sonic would have expected in the past. In the past, Jet had struggled a lot with providing comfort in any form, and words hadn't always been his strong suite. In years long since past, he likely would have tried to distract from the source of upset, rather than try to comfort a person. Now, his approach was different. But... this was a good difference.

Other good differences in Jet, his behaviors, and so on filtered through Sonic's mind as he turned and walked away from the kitchen, resuming his wanderings. One such difference that immediately came to mind was something physical in nature. Namely, it was the fact that his friend had gotten so much more powerful over the last century. Truthfully, Sonic didn't think he had even seen so much as a hint of Jet's true strength since the hawk had reentered his life. He'd also gotten way faster, too, not to mention the fact that he had gained such complete and damn near perfect mastery over his powers. Jet could teleport farther, kick harder, run faster, fly more gracefully... The list just went on and on, Sonic was sure.

For all the good changes Jet displayed, though, there were also ones that Sonic didn't consider to be good. Jet kept his thoughts and feelings hidden. He didn't share his words freely on most days. Rarely did he ever smile, rarely did he allow himself to relax, rarely did he sleep... Most of the time, he didn't admit in any way to anyone when he was in need of help of any kind. Sonic was lucky if the hawk ever acknowledged him as a friend, let alone did so with anyone else he had once been close with. And this list, as with the other one, would wind up being simply too long for Sonic to spend time further contemplating it.

Making his way out onto the wide roof, Sonic took a seat. As he sat there, watching stars and meteorites and distant worlds drift by while the ship flew by... slowly, he began to feel a sense of sadness and frustration he couldn't quite describe or explain. Time does a lot to change things, places, and people... he reminded himself, thoughts again drifting to his alien friend. But why did you have to change so much...? It was a question he doubted would ever be answered for him, at least not in full, and this fact only further increased his random sadness, frustration, and even hopelessness. Not for the first time since the start of this war, he found himself generally losing the willpower he needed to try to mend his relationship with his best friend. In that moment, something his father had once said suddenly entered his mind.

"The future is the most motivational thing in the world. As long as we are alive, we have a chance to change the future, our future, and make it better. That alone in the greatest motivation we will ever find."

This was something Sonic turned around in his mind in silence for several minutes before coming to a decision he felt was among some of the most important ones he had made in recent days. In spite of all the difficulties he would likely experience in trying to mend the bond torn by time, he wasn't going to give up. His best friend was more than worth the struggles Sonic had to endure to remain by his side. That was something he had always felt very strongly... Even many, many years ago, back when he'd thought that Jet was someone that he hated.

~台風の目~

Time alone did so much to change things. This was something Jet had learned many times and in many ways over the course of his life in its entirety, and it was a lesson at the forefront of his mind right now. It was somewhere around one or one thirty in the morning now, and all of his children were asleep. They themselves were huge changes that had taken place in his life. The last time he had set foot on this ship, three years before he'd gone to Babylon to aid in the war, he hadn't had a single child. Back then, he'd just been a teenager with an I-pod, waiting for the Metarex to fall so he could resume properly living his life. Now, things were different. He was still a teenager by Babylonian standards, but everything else had changed. He was a father now, a ruler, a soldier, a space-time traveler, a former prisoner of war, and more. It was almost startling to consider. But, then again, he supposed that maybe it wasn't. He'd never had the best of luck. ...Or... maybe, in some ways, he did.

In silence, the young king peered into four different bedrooms, checking on each sleeping body within. All of his children (including Lucas, since about forty minutes ago) were sleeping, their fears forgotten for now as they dreamt. It was as it should be, and he left them be to sleep. Heading down the hall leading away from his kids' bedrooms, he found himself again feeling exceptionally lucky that he had these children. It was true that they hadn't had lives as good as he would have liked (they were in a war, for god's sake, first of all), but it was also true that, while he never did quite say it, Jet adored all four of them. They were people he would always willingly give his life for, people he would never cease to love, people he would never regret bringing into his life. His kids were such a beautiful, crazy, perfect part of his life that he'd never envisioned when thinking about the future so long ago. However, as wonderful as this portion of his life was, many others simply weren't.

One of those much less wonderful things chose to rear its head again and disturb his mostly peaceful walk through the ship. His cellphone buzzed on his nightstand in his bedroom just as he entered the room. The door slid shut behind him when he entered the room. Stifling a sigh (he really didn't want to talk to anyone right now), he picked up his simple phone and flipped the screen open with a deft flick of his wrist. A few presses of a couple buttons, and the new message opened. It was from a number he didn't recognize, but the message itself told him everything he needed to know. The message was from Jade. It had to be. His past self would have scowled, but his current self simply frowned very slightly as he typed a cold reply and sent it off. "I told you never to contact me again."

Jade's reply came swiftly. "You were a fool to think that I would not. Our business is not yet finished."

"The terms of our divorce are final, Jade. I will not permit you to see or speak with any of the children." The argument only escalated from there, and the words being traded grew yet more heated. There were threats of violence, but this only served to anger Jet. This time, he felt no fear or anxiety, only anger. He threw threats right back at her, though these threats were of a more legal nature. He threatened to have her arrested if she ever came near the kids or if she ever dared to lay a hand on him again. That shut her up for a short time, but not quite long enough for him to fully prepare himself for whatever acid she might spew at him next.

When her newest text came, it was filled with so much genuine hatred that he found himself genuinely doubting that this woman and the woman he had once been married to had ever been the same person. Back then, she had been so kind to him and their children, so open, so genuine... But he supposed that time affected other people, too, not just him. Then again, maybe she really hadn't changed at all. Maybe everything he'd once thought was true about her and them had merely been a ruse, as she'd once claimed. The next text came before he had a chance to reply, and this one sent him reeling. "We should have left you in that Syxan dungeon."

Almost instantly, memories that haunted the darkest of his dreams, memories he normally suppressed with every ounce of willpower he had, suddenly began to burst into his consciousness. Memories of unspeakable horrors filled his mind, memories of whips and fires and beatings and brandings and- and-... Breathing hard, he forced the memories of his torture away, only to be struck down by yet others. These ones were different from the first bunch, as they were detailed memories of the psychological hells he'd gone through when in the custody of the monsters he had already spent years fighting. The torture in all its forms that those Syxans had put him through were why, even now, he really and truly struggled to trust some certain people he had once been so close with. It was only with great, great difficulty that he was able to force those memories to once again recede, at least for now.

It took several long minutes of just breathing for Jet to calm down enough to realize that he was sitting on the floor, clutching his phone tightly in his his hand against his knee. Shifting, he slowly regained his feet, forcing himself not to shake through sheer force of willpower. He turned his phone off without bothering to check whether or not he had another message, then set it back down on his nightstand as gently as he could manage. His journal normally would have been there, too, but he was pretty sure one of the kids had swiped it earlier for whatever reason. It wasn't something he chose to worry himself with right now.

With that minor task accomplished, he sat down heavily on his bed and closed his eyes. Not even a full minute later, however, memories again threatened him and his overall well-being. This warranted distraction, and he turned to the very first thing he could think of: his music. A quick bit of scrounging through his backpack, which was resting beside him on his bed, produced his I-pod. It took him mere seconds to discover that he had inadvertently damaged it somehow, and he sighed heavily and tossed it and his earbuds to the foot of the bed with the intention of repairing it at a later time. Rummaging through his bag once more, his fingers closed around his camcorder and pulled it out into the open. Settling back against his pillow again, still fully reclined, he turned it on and began going through the many, many files stored within the device. Almost immediately, he selected a very old video file and played it. The video had been taken way back during the war, but... It was still happy.

Jet was seated in a chair at a desk in a random room within the palace. Sitting on his lap was a small boy with wide, innocent amber eyes and dark blue feathers. Jet was smiling faintly as he watched the boy suck on his little fist and look around. "Hey, Ten, can you say hi to the camera?" Ten looked at the camera for a moment, then looked back to Jet and babbled something that, of course, didn't make an ounce of sense. Jet chuckled a bit. "No, I guess not. It was worth a try, though. Would've made for a cute video." He reached over and turned the camera off.

Not caring at all for his mask right now since he was in the privacy of his own room, Jet managed a slight smile as he scrolled through many more files and selected another one he remembered to be happy in nature.

The second the video began, Ten's curious, five-year-old face appeared onscreen. He leaned in close so that almost nothing but his left eye could be seen as he examined the camera. Just moments later, Jet's own voice could be heard from somewhere not far from the little guy. "Ten, are you playing with my camera?"

Ten blinked and looked out toward the hall. "...No..." The video abruptly ended after that.

Remembering the laughter this video had earned the first time he had found and viewed it, Jet allowed amusement to flow through him momentarily. Finger lightly swiping down on the touchscreen, he selected a very random file he didn't immediately recognize and let it play through.

The video started accidentally somehow while the camera was laying on the ground. More likely than not, judging by the unusual static in the video, the camera had been dropped and it accidentally turned on in that way. About thirty seconds after the video began, there was a shout from an unknown person followed by a great deal of gunfire, clashing of swords, and so on. This continued for about a minute and a half, which was when Jet finally came into view. After another couple minutes of fighting sword-against-sword with a Syxan, he grew visibly angry and, with a single movement, he'd blasted his enemies away with a large amount of rock. Then something hit the camera and the video abruptly ended with a burst of noise.

Frowning to himself, as he'd had no intention of watching anything related to his struggles during the war, and resumed scrolling through the files. When he found one that seemed to not involve conflict, he selected it.

The video started up, and it was soon shown to have been taken in the evening near one of the walls of the outside of the palace. Arthr spoke, indicating him as the one recording this video, sneaking along in the grass as he spoke. "I doubt anyone will ever see this video, but I'm going to try to sneak up on Jet and scare the crap out of him." The grin was obvious in his voice as he rounded the corner. Another minute or so passed, and he moved very slightly around another corner, camera aimed ahead of him. What he saw seemed to make him pause. Jet was sitting in the grass, strumming lightly on an acoustic guitar. It was a calm, almost peaceful tune, and Jet didn't even seem to notice Arthr as he played. Apparently deciding not to interrupt, Arthr quietly snuck away. Once there was a good distance between them, he spoke again. "Eh, maybe another time." Then he turned the camera off.

Huffing softly to himself at Arthr's endless pranks and whatnot, Jet debated whether or not it would be worth his time to clobber the other hawk next time they crossed paths. Ultimately, he decided not to bother and instead just scrolled through yet more files. Once again, the file he selected was random and, thankfully, had nothing to do with battle or other sorts of conflict.

The video started up, showing that Jet was alone on a ship that clearly had no power. It was drifting through space, a fact which could be clearly seen through the cockpit, and a few small devices in the ship were acting up by turning on occasionally and turning back off. He didn't seem to realize that the camera was on, indicating that the camera was acting up as well. He was sitting in a seat, visibly bored but seemingly trying to do something. He moved his hand again a few times and, suddenly, there was a sharp flare from the sun his ship was drifting by. He sat straight up, apparently surprised, and, after a moment, repeated what he had done before with the same end result. He'd just created solar flares.

A small, thoughtful hum escaped him at the memory of that particular event, but Jet didn't dwell on it. Instead, he just selected a new video to further occupy himself.

Arthr had the camera again, and it was pointed at Jet, who was laying on his side in bed in the palace. Arthr, laughter clear in his voice, said something in Babylonian to his friend and Jet pulled the blankets up over his head in response, not bothering to open his eyes. "Go 'way," he mumbled tiredly.

"Come on, it's a beautiful morning," Arthr said. His smile could be clearly heard. "I know you're not a morning person, but even you can enjoy a morning like this." No response. His tone became mischievous. "Of course, if you don't get up, I could always repay you for that slime bomb prank you pulled in my room…" He trailed of significantly.

That did it. Jet abruptly said up, throwing the blankets so that only his legs were covered. "Pull that shit in here and I swear to god I will kill you!" he snapped.

"Aw, you wouldn't kill me," Arthr teased even as Jet's eyes sparked and snapped with annoyance. "You love me too much." Jet scowled at him, and Arthr pressed on. "Besides, Mr. King, I-" He didn't even have a chance to finish his sentence before there was a sudden blast of air that sent him flying out of the room, simultaneously slamming the door shut and sending the camera skittering across the highly polished floor. Laughing loudly, Arthr picked up the camera and shut it off.

For the second time, Jet huffed. Arthr's antics never ceased to both annoy and amuse him. However, he again didn't dwell on it. Instead, he chose several videos one right after the other and watched them all play through. Most of them weren't serious, which helped him to relax a bit further after the night's earlier events.

-Someone else was recording this, though no one spoke, giving no indication as to who they were. The camera was focused on Jet, and it was the middle of the night. He was sitting by himself in the middle of what had very recently been a battlefield. As he sat there, he continuously fiddled with some sort of gun. When another enemy dared to jumped out of the bushes at him from behind, he whipped the gun around and shot them dead with one shot without even looking. He then simply resumed what he'd been doing as if nothing had even just happened. Then whoever was taking this random video abruptly turned the camera off.

-This one started off as a loud burst of static for some reason, though the static soon faded and was replaced by a clear image and equally clear sound. Jet, who was sitting on the palace roof, blocked the camera's view of him with a hand. "Selene, come on. Don't record me."

The aforementioned female hawk laughed softly offscreen. "Oh, come on. It's fun to embarrass you." Nonetheless, the camera was shut off after that and the video ended.

-Arthr was holding the camera in Jet's office while Jet was working at his desk. Arthr said something in Babylonian, and Jet just hummed slightly in response. Six year old Lucas then came running into the room, and Jet immediately stopped what he was doing to give his attention to the child. Lucas was smiling widely and holding a baseball bat, glove, and ball. Jet smiled, though a bit apologetically. "Not right now, bud. I've got a bit of work to finish up. Give me an hour and we can go play, okay?"

"Okay!" Lucas agreed easily enough.

Once the child had run off, Arthr commented, "That was pretty adorable." Then he shut the camera off.

-In this video, Arthr was the one recording it. In the sky in the distance, Jet could faintly be seen as he rode on his zeklan, a surfboard-life vehicle with a sail that took in solar energy to make the vehicle fly. For once, he actually seemed to be having a great deal of fun. At one point, he snapped the sail shut and allowed himself to fall backward out of the sky for a good few miles before suddenly opening the sail again and shooting past Arthr, now just a few feet above his friend. Arthr was making comments the whole while, his grin obvious in his voice. This all continued on for a while before the video ended.

After watching those, Jet pulled up a picture. It was taken in a dimly lit room and showed Jet fast asleep on a couch. Ten was there as well, also sound asleep. He was had wriggled his way under Jet's arm, where he then had begun to slumber. In his sleep, Jet had held him protectively, causing the child to smile as he, too, slept. A hint of a genuine smile tugged at the corner of Jet's mouth as he looked the photo over (he was sure Selene had taken it). A short while later, he closed the photo. After doing this, he once again scrolled, then opened a random video. This one was, unfortunately, serious. However, it also had a note of care in it that he could only vaguely recall anymore.

The person with the camera was running after two other sets of legs that seemed to belong to Jet and Selene. They were all in a massive, burning building, and they seemed to be trapped. Selene skidded to a halt by Jet and snapped somewhat desperately, "Can't you pull the water out of the air and put this out?!"

"There is no water in this air!" Jet snapped back. "And in case you haven't noticed, none of my powers are working here, remember?!"

"It's not like mine are, either!" That was when a loud rumbling took over the sound and a large section of the building seemed to collapse. The camera was momentarily buried in rubble.

What happened next was a lot of chaos as the building started collapsing all around them. Selene had grabbed the camera. Whoever had been carrying it before seemed to have been killed. Several minutes into the chaos, Jet suddenly stopped running and turned to face Selene, then asked a seriously random question. "Selene, do you trust me?" he asked her quickly.

"What? Why-"

"Just answer the damn question!"

There was a moment's pause before Selene finally answered with a small, "Yes." Something made the video cut out after that, however, forever leaving in mystery whatever Jet had done to save them.

Jet frowned to himself momentarily, trying to remember exactly how that particular event had ended. He knew it had landed them both in the hospital for ages with burns and broken and bones and whatnot, but he couldn't remember much else. Well, nothing else beyond the fact that he was pretty sure they had both been hit on their heads with huge chunks of rubble. Shaking his head to rid himself of those memories for now, he watched another video.

Someone (presumably Arthr) was recording Jet and Selene from afar. The two of them seemed to be talking, and Selene was slowly drifting off. By the end of the video, she'd fallen asleep with her head on his shoulder.

A pang of some bittersweet emotion stabbed at his heart, and he quickly shut the video off before it could continue. Without a sound, he selected yet another random video in an effort to distract himself once more... this time from old emotions.

In this video, the sounds of a piano could clearly be heard in the hall just outside of Jet's master bedroom in the palace. The song was a bit fast paced, but it was also beautiful and somewhat sad to listen to. Then the recording was apparently paused for several hours. When it was resumed, the person holding the camera crept up to the door and cracked it open. The piano was being played again, though it was a slightly slower version of the song. This time, there were also lyrics being sung slowly along with it. As the newly crowned king sang, his fingers danced across the keys on the piano. Raw emotion filled the room.

"It was like a nightmare that could make you scream
'Cause nobody wants to die too fast.
That wretched day of grief is so strange to me.
I could see your face; I could see your voice.

Remembering the day we met rips my heart in half,
'Cause no one should have to die that fast.
And now the day we dreamed is just pain for me.
I could see your face; I could see your voice.

Day by day, we're losing our edge.
Don't you know? Forgotten is the life we led.
Now it seems, you don't know what's at risk.
The peaceful times have made you blind.

Don't look back, 'cause they're not coming back.
Don't show fear, each time after time,
But once again, I'm hiding in my room.
The peaceful times have made me blind.

"So you can't fly if you never try,"
You told me, so long ago.
But you left the wall, outside the gate,
So more than ever it's real…

It was like a nightmare that could make you scream,
'Cause nobody wants to die too fast.
That wretched day of grief is so strange for me.
I could see your face; I could see your voice.

Remembering the day we met rips my heart in half,
'Cause no one should have to die that fast.
And now the day we dreamed is just pain for me.
I could see your face; I could see your voice.

I sing for the reluctant heroes, who give me their strength,
Though life is so short.
Sing out for the reluctant heroes,
I wanna be brave like you.

"So you can't fly if you never try,"
You told me, so long ago.
But you left the wall, outside the gate,
So more than ever it's real…

They came in like a nightmare that could make you scream,
'Cause nobody wants to die too fast.
That wretched day of grief is so strange for me.
I could see your face; I could see your voice.

Remembering the day we met rips my heart in half,
'Cause no one should have to die that fast.
And now the day we dreamed is just pain for me.
I could see your face; I could see your voice.

I sing for the reluctant heroes…
I wanna be brave like you…"

He sort of choked on his own breath as he recalled this song, why he'd written it, and who he'd written it about at the time. However, he was quick to reclaim his mask and force his emotions away. The video ended and he shut the screen off and he put his camera on the nightstand beside his phone. His eyes again closed, but he still wasn't sleeping. As he lay there, his thoughts wandered aimlessly, never allowed to linger on depressing, fear-ridden, or otherwise upsetting topics for too long. In the middle of his idle ponderings, he suddenly heard an argument spark not far from the outside of his door. Frowning, he called out, "Lei, H'alia! Kokeita!" ("Lucas! Hannah! Knock it off!")

Then it hit him. Why were Lucas and Hannah out of bed, and why were they arguing in the hall? Sighing to himself, he rolled off the bed and headed into the hall to deal with his life's latest random event.

~台風の目~

Quiet babbling filled the room as Selena typed away on her laptop, a device she had purchased on the distant planet Earth ages ago. Her one month old baby, Jet, was crawling around on the floor, playing and "talking" to his toys. How the baby was able to do roll, crawl, hold his head steady, babble, and so on so early in his life was a mystery to her, and she was typing up her knowledge on the matter in the hopes that she could one day send the compilation to Kath for his opinion on what was going on and how. She planned to see him soon, anyway, now that she knew the truth. Her husband, Ross, was no cousin to Queen Laralei. He was her son, Kath's son, the one Kath had always referred by the Babylonian name Raul. Jet was Kath's grandson (a fact which may have a role in the baby's rapid development), and Kath had to know. Ross did, too, but that was all something to worry about at a later time.

Ross took a seat beside Selena on the couch, a drink in one hand and the other arm casually draped along the back of the couch behind her. "He sure is busy over there," he commented lightly. Two pairs of eyes watched as the baby rolled onto his back and smacked a small toy train against the side of a tall cabinet, babbling all the while. Then he rolled back onto his stomach, abandoning the toy train in favor of crawling over to a nearby chair. Small hands reached up, gripped the cushion, and pulled. Already, he was trying to stand up.

The young mother found herself smiling. "Yes, he is. He likes those trains you bought him."

"Mm-hm." After taking a sip of his drink, Ross spoke again. The subject changed when he did. "I think I may have an idea about why he seems to look at and watch things that don't actually seem to be there, by the way."

"You mean besides the fact that he's an adorable baby and babies do things like that?" Selena teased, though her words were true. Their child was absolutely adorable, and he seemed to know it, too. He milked it for all it was worth the few times he actually got himself into trouble. And, in at least one way, he was like all babies, watching things that weren't there.

"Yes, besides that," Ross replied, smirking.

"Okay, so what did you find out?" Selena prompted.

"It's more along the lines of what I remembered," Ross responded thoughtfully. Getting up briefly, he walked across the room and moved Jet away from a piece of trash that had ended up on the floor somehow, threw it away, then returned to his wife. Reclaiming his seat, he recalled aloud, "My mother used to do what Jet does. The watching seemingly nonexistent things, I mean. I would see her talking to nothing fairly frequently, too. As a kid, I didn't understand why she did those things, but she did explain it to me when I was old enough to understand."

Interest piqued, Selena closed her laptop so as to give him her full attention. "What did she say?"

"She said she had a pure aura," Ross explained slowly. "You know, the kind that allows you to see the spirits of dead people with pure auras. That's probably why he watches things why we can't see."

It made sense, and Selena was disappointed with herself for not thinking of this possibility before. 'For once, it would seem that I have been the fool.' That thought quickly left her mind and another one swooped in to take it's place. 'My baby will always be in danger.' Her eyes shifted to once again watch her son as he played on his back, chewing on a toy while kicking his little legs. The child was safe and happy now, but she knew that could never always be so. Not when he was the heir of Laralei. Not when he was Babylonian. Not when he possessed such a pure and true aura. Such an aura could be used. They could be manipulated, in a way, and filled with Dark energy. Sometimes that Dark energy could be evil, sometimes not, but either way a pure aura could foster the energy, make it grow, give it so much strength. Evil beings had long tried to use people with such auras as vessels for their power. It was easier to do with babies, since they had little to no ability to defend themselves from an attack usually. Adults could be victimized, too, though. Few, regardless of age, were ever lucky enough to survive the ordeal. Her child would always be in danger because of this... and she could never always be there to protect him.

~台風の目~

When the black light first enveloped the ship early the next morning, Tails wasn't quite sure what to think. He was even less sure of what to think when, for whatever reason, people began vanishing off the ship right before his very eyes. Everyone had was awake by now, and they were gathered in the control room together for no real reason other than to see if the ship's scanners had detected any enemies in the night. As such, it was all too easy for him to see when people began disappearing. Marthal and Keiri went first, followed by Wave, Cream, and Charmy, then Knuckles and Silver. Vanishing right after them were Sonic and Amy, closely followed by Kaden. Espio and Vector poofed next, then Locke, along with his daughter-in-law and grandson, and finally every single child on board the ship. Only Jet, Tammy, Analia, Shadow, and Tails himself were left behind.

Eyes wide, Tails traded a look with Shadow, who had become a good friend of his over the last hundred years. "What just happened?"

"You mean besides the obvious?" Shadow responded sharply. Tails didn't blame him for the minor outburst. The hedgehog had only just recovered his daughter from Nocturnian clutches. How was he meant to cope with the loss of her again, and so recently after the first incident?

"Knock it off," Jet cut in before the argument could truly begin. His tone was eerily calm and unreadable. It never ceased to amaze Tails just how closed-off and otherwise quiet Jet had become over the years. Sure, the hawk hadn't ever been super chatty, but this... this was just extreme. Actually, it reminded the young fox of Ruined Future Sonic. Only, Jet was more closed-off and whatnot than even him, half the time. Heck, even his own Ruined Future self hadn't been like this. And Jet was just so calm... Half the time, Tails wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

Shooting the hawk a tense glare with tightly crossed arms, Shadow curbed his tongue and refrained from sharing whatever barb had crossed his mind. Analia spoke then, directing her attention not toward her two adopted sons but, instead, toward Tails. "Are you able to track anyone's communicators?" she inquired, keeping her tone more or less the same as it always was. Light, unaffected, but containing definite notes of warmth, love, and hope.

Quickly looking down, Tails set about trying to use his own communicator to do just that while Shadow and Tammy both seemingly did the same. Analia and Jet, however, seemed to be more focused on utilizing their special senses to try to find any trace of the missing members of the group. It was especially imperative that the kids be located as soon as possible, they all knew. The Nocturne Clan had killed one of the kids already. They wouldn't hesitate to slaughter the rest. It was a dark truth that hung over everyone's minds, making this moment far more tense than it would have already been. Tails didn't like tension in the least. Though he wasn't terribly easy going or laid back by nature, he also wasn't by any means such a serious person that he could handle the stress of these situations as well as some of his friends could. That was something he found regrettable at times.

Finally, some good news. "I found Sonic," Tammy said suddenly, eyes on her own communicator screen. Tails noticed, not for the first time, that the communicators Jet had built (or rebuilt, in his own case) had a unique look that was all their own. Plus, they were white and black instead of being predominately yellow. Jet's own had a sort of silvery sheen to it, indicating that, perhaps, he had used different materials for his own device. But now was not the time for the inventor in Tails to start drooling over the clearly Babylonian version of his own tech. He needed to focus, and he knew it. Watching quietly as Jet turned and walked over to Tammy to peer at her device, Tails listened as she stated with some confusion, "He's with Amy. They're... back on Mobius."

"Mobius?" Shadow echoed, openly frowning. "How the hell can you know that? Communicators don't have a wide enough range of signal for you to see Mobius from here."

"Ours do," Tammy said, glancing at Jet, whose eyes were still on her screen. "Jet built them that way." Shadow obviously had no argument to that, so he just watched with the others as Jet reached over and casually used his fingers to zoom out on Selene's screen, arm just barely brushing against hers.

"Is anyone else there?" Analia asked, walking over.

"Espio and Vector," was Tammy's quiet reply. A pause, then she added, "Wave, Cream, and Charmy, too."

"No one else?" Analia inquired, a small frown marring her beautiful face.

Tammy shook her head, the length of her somewhat long ponytail brushing against her back. "No one else. Not that I'm picking up on, anyway."

Tails frowned worriedly. "So where did everyone else go?"

"There's no real telling," Tammey sighed, gently pulling her communicator away from Jet's fingers so that she could turn the screen back off. His arm went back to his side. "They could be anywhere in space, really. Some of them could be lost on Therius right now, for all we know."

Though the name didn't strike Tails as especially familiar (though he was sure he'd heard of it at least once before), he didn't waste time asking about it. Instead, he sighed. "Okay... So what do we do, then?"

"Search, obviously," Shadow growled.

That was when Jet shook his head. "We will search," he said with a glance at Analia, who nodded slightly. He looked back to Shadow, Tails, and Tammy. "You three stay here." Before Shadow could argue, Jet glanced at Tails specifically and said, "We cannot abandon the ship, and the others need to be found sooner rather than later. Tails is unable to teleport and you are unable to teleport as far as you need to in order to effectively aid in the search."

Tammy, apparently, agreed with him. "It's for the best that at least two or three able-bodied people remain on the ship to defend it. We can help tend to the others, too, once Jet and Analia start locating and sending them back here."

Unsurprisingly, Shadow opened his mouth to argue, but Analia interrupted him. "Not now, Shadow. We are wasting time as it is. Even one second is time enough for tragedy. The longer we stand here debating this, the longer the Clan is able to do as they please."

That finally got through to the multi-colored hedgehog, and his mouth clamped shut. Tails spoke up again. "So, are we staying here and just waiting for you guys?"

Again, Jet shook his head. "No. This is in the very heart of a dangerous race's territory."

"So where do we go, then, sensei?" Tails's question was, at first, met with silence. However, it didn't last for as long as Tails had suspected it would. Mere seconds passed before Jet suddenly listed off some coordinates to the young pilot, who scrambled to type them in as they were being relayed to him. An image appeared on one of his screens, data transmitted to him from some technology located either in or around the place indicated by the coordinates. Looking over the image, Tails saw what at first appeared to be a large planet surrounded by six massive rings tilted at six different angels. Upon closer inspection, however, the truth came to him, and his eyes widened. What he was looking at right now wasn't natural at all... whatever it was, it had been made by people. The faint glimmers of impossibly advanced technology illuminated parts of the space around the floating construct, and Tails's gaze swung around to face Jet and Tammy. "What is that?" he breathed.

"It has no true name," Tammy murmured, "but it serves several purposes. One of them being a meeting place for the Watchers."

Right now, Tails didn't have the words to ask who they were. "And... we're going there?"

"You are," Jet confirmed, calm as ever. "We will join you there at a later time."

As he turned to leave, Shadow scowled and spoke up again. "How do we know these 'Watchers' won't just blow us up when we get there?" he demanded, voice less friendly and much more irritable. But, then again, the few times he and Jet had ever interacted at length had been more or less the same as this. The two of them just didn't quite get along for some reason or another.

"Trust me," was the aloof reply. It wasn't anywhere close to what Tails had expected Jet to say and, with that, the hawk had rounded the corner and was out of sight. Analia offered Shadow and Tails a wish of good luck and a farewell before teleporting away with a brilliant flash of pure Light. Not even two minutes later, they felt more than sensed that Jet had left, too. Tails, Tammy, and Shadow were now alone. The young fox turned back to his screens and controls. "So... time to head out?"

Teeth audibly ground together before Shadow deigned to reply, though it was hardly a useful response. "Whatever."

Unperturbed by his companion's attitude for the moment, Tails simply fiddled with the necessary buttons, switches, and so on and got his ship in motion once more. Once the ship was traveling again, he let out a soft breath. To the Watchers, we go.

~台風の目~

To say that Ix had a lot on his mind at any given moment was never very far from a severe understatement. Being the leader of an army large enough to overwhelm a planet, an army with an insane amount of bloodlust and pent-up wickedness to unleash upon its foes... Well, that was no simple matter, nor was running such an army an easy feat by any means. This was something he was sure at least two of his enemies (namely Kath, former king of Babylon, and Jet, current king of Babylon) could understand, at least in part. There army was, after all, just as large as Ix's own, if not larger. That was a troubling matter all it's own, but not quite why Ix had his eye on those two, among others.

The Clan was watching them. All of them. Sonic, the Child of Light. Analia, the Will of Light. Sen, the Disciple of Light. Kath, the Soldier of Light. Jet, the probable future Sixth Guardian. Kaden, the Child of Night. Sarai, the Disciple of Night. And then there was one other... little Suri, the latest in the Babylonian royal bloodline. All were extreme threats to Ix's plans, and yet... now was not the time to end them. He needed them for his plans. Without these seven, the Clan would never succeed. And yet, without them, there was also the assurance that the Clan would not be defeated for a very long time. His was a gamble, and he knew it. It was something he was prepared for, however. After all, one couldn't be a leader if one couldn't bring themselves to take a few risks. And besides... this was far from the biggest gamble he was making in this game.

It had been known for impossibly innumerable eons that Chaos was said to be the ultimate power in existence. It was also known that, to date, only one person had ever come to posses even just a sliver of that awesome power within themselves. Also known was that there existed beings known as the Immortals, beings far more ancient and mysterious than any other. They were born along with time itself, coming to be countless millions of years before any other life formed within the universe. The Immortals were as secretive as they were elusive, as mysterious as they were powerful, and Ix knew he was damned lucky to have ever knowingly seen one of them with his own two eyes. But that all was not why the Immortals had so wholly captured his interest.

Chaos was said to be the ultimate power in existence, yes... but it had an equal… if not a more powerful alternative.

The Immortals themselves were the very key Ix had spent so many years searching for, back before Sade had sealed the Nocturne Clan away. The key to not harnessing but instead fighting back against Chaos was them. Existence, after all, required balance. Balance could never exist if Chaos were allowed to be an unfettered force, let loose within the universe to do as it pleased when it pleased. There was so much more depth of purpose behind the Immortals than Ix had ever lent them credit for. They did so much more than merely safeguard existence from those who wished to upset the balance. They also had more than ample means to fight against Chaos itself, and that alone was plenty reason to excite the Clan.

But there was yet more to it than that. There were vast and innumerable other dimensions, realms, timelines, and so on than just the one Ix himself existed in. There were the Realms of Death, the Realms of Light and Dark, the Realm of Chaos itself, the Mirror Dimension, so, so, so, many others... And Jet and the other three Immortals, could see, go to, and interact with literally any and all of them at will. That did nothing short of arouse Ix's jealousy, if he were being quite honest with himself. The trick now, now that he had learned all of this, was to find out how he could work this knowledge to his advantage. Or, better yet, steal those powers for himself. If there was any way in existence, he would find it. That much he swore.

Slowly, Ix's thoughts trailed off from that to other things related to the Immortals. More particularly, to Jet himself. The young Babylonian king was the current owner of Astral Babylon, a ship older than memory that was powered by the Cosmic Sphere. That sphere had been crafted by the Immortals, which begged the inevitable question of how they had done it. How did they ever come to possess so much knowledge that they were able to make something that knew everything? And, more importantly, being an Immortal and the rightful owner of the ship and sphere currently, was Jet granted more access to the sphere than others had been in the past? If so, was there some way to work this all to the Clan's advantage, too?

Of course, even if there was, Ix would still need to get ahold of the ship first. That, however, didn't strike him as something that needed to be done straight away. He needed time to carefully plan how to go about it, for multiple reasons. New Babylon was, after all, surrounded in it's entirety by invisible barriers. Even their two moons were shielded. And, on top of that, not one Babylonian on that world was going to just let Ix waltz right in there with his armies, take over the world, and steal Astral Babylon. No, he would experience heavy resistance right from the get-go, far more than he was on Mobius. The Babylonians did, after all, know of the Nocturne Clan (whom they called the "Felorn" in their language). Ix had once tried to destroy and take over their original homeworld and, well... The Babylonians were surprisingly capable of holding a grudge. To make matters worse for Ix, Jet's armies were already gathering (it was no secret to the Clan that they were), and they were no pushovers. Even Ix could admit that. Granted, from what Ix had heard, some Babylonians didn't want their world to be involved in the war in the first place, but even still. And, to top it off, if Kath got involved... Well, that would be bad, to say the very least, but things would be far worse if even just Jet himself stood in their way.

Even ignoring the fact that Ix could never permanently kill the young man, that man had truly surpassed Kath in every way, shape, and form. It was clear to anyone who just took the time to examine the two. The One True Heir of Babylon was far more powerful, fast, and intelligent than the former king himself, and Kath himself knew it. Ix himself had yet to see Jet openly display these things, however, and that alone was troubling. That was an inevitable confrontation he wasn't looking forward to, honestly. It was a fight he wasn't able to win as he was now, especially if Jet decided to use Astral Babylon itself. That ship had, after all, blown up the original Planet Babylon, leaving nothing but the ruins of a dead world floating in space. There was no telling what it could do to a measly army.

Even if Ix were somehow able to take away all the things that made Jet such a formidable foe and just leave the hawk his sword, Alkarus, that would be more than enough for Jet to destroy Ix and everything he and his people had worked for. That blade was considered to be the pride and joy of the Immortals for a reason, after all. It was the most powerful weapon they had ever crafted. It was special. It was beautiful. It was lethal. Ix wanted that blade, too.

None of this was going to be, in any way, easy to deal with. Ix, however, was nothing if not a problem-solver. Already, Ix was planning, conjuring, plotting. In order to attack Babylon, some level of infiltration onto the planet's surface would be required. This had already been accomplished, to a point. His necromancers had sent the corrupt souls of deceased Nocturnians to the world, where they had observed Kath and attacked Kaden not too long ago. Using them, Ix suspected he could work on taking down those barriers. He would need to be subtle about it, though. After all, pure auras could sense other pure auras, and it wasn't just in good little Babylonians that those existed. Dead or not, people like Jet would be able to sense some of Ix's invisible helpers. Yes, Ix would have to be very careful about this.

Next, Ix would need a base of operations close to the planet, but not in open space. Drawn though he was to Therius and the Therians, a world and race of beings far more malevolent than even the Nocturnians themselves, Ix knew that the Therians were much too far away for him to use their world here. There was, however, another corrupted world... one he had caught wind of only just recently. The world was known as Syx, the home of the deeply wicked Syxans, the people the Babylonians had apparently been at war with within the last century or so. That race, from what Ix had learned, had been utterly wiped out by Jet himself, and now their evil world stood abandoned. It was ripe for the taking, and Ix very much planned to take.

Other things that would aid him in gaining a foothold in this part of the war included, but were not limited to, the fact that he had effectively distracted his foes by separating the lot of them, Jet was not particularly able to trust his allies (most specifically Sonic) due to false memories for whatever reason (which created a divide, of course), the fact he would likely make it to his planned future base a good while before the so-called heroes could catch up to him, and the fact that Ix new a very closely guarded secret, one that it seemed Sonic and his little friends didn't yet know. The king of Babylon feared fire.

On top of that, once he had his Vessels of Darkness... Oh, that was something he could not wait for. The king and his youngest child were in far more danger than they realized... and they would put their precious allies in even more danger than that, with time. The evil stone Ix had used to attack the group, in a way, not too long ago (before Jet called Kath and Kath had Analia neutralize it), had done what it had needed to do. It had sewn the seeds of corruption, given those oh-so pure auras just a trickle of taint. Jet and his child were powerful, yes (the baby had stopped a massive explosion with vines, for god's sake), but they would be victimized nonetheless. The ball was again in Ix's court, and he had every intention of not losing it.

From there, Ix's thoughts strayed entirely off subject, shifting back over to pathetic little Mobius. His clan hadn't entirely abandoned the world yet, though many of his people were now in space with him. There, were, after all, more continents than Yueisha, the one he had been focusing his attention on all this time. Yueisha was the world's unique supercontinent, a massive slab of land so large it it stretched from just a scant few miles below the North Pole to mere kilometers from the South Pole, not to mention the fact that it stretched very far to the east and west as well. It was not, however, the only continent there. There were others, each of them smaller and less formidable, but they still warranted his attention. Tralius, Untol, Eurish, Artika, Efrikila, and an unnamed landmass, not to mention well over fifty islands worldwide (some in the sky and some in the ocean)... If he ever wanted to claim full dominance over the world, he would have to conquer all of them. Needless to say, he was prepared to do it.

Besides, in doing so, he could accomplish a few more things on his evil to-do list. One, he could search for the rumored Chaos Emeralds, powerful gems he had only ever heard of thus far. He had never once seen them, or this so-called "Master Emerald", but they were said to posses the power of Chaos, just like Sonic. Oh, how much Ix wanted those gems... Even pretending he didn't manage to find them, however, he could still get one more important thing accomplished by going to all of these different places and conquering them. Once these lands were conquered, it would make it so much easier for him to spread word that reminded the world that they once had had a king and queen ruling their world, and that king and queen's son never died. Once they were reminded that their precious leader yet lived, it would make it all the more devastating for the world when Ix finally slayed him. He couldn't wait.

Until then, there were other matters that Ix needed to focus on on that world, and in general. One of the biggest things he currently needed to focus on right now was the fact that Kingdom Valley was left unguarded, and Kath and his wolf (who had just left for space not long ago) were alone. This created ample opportunity both for attacking them and for attacking Kingdom Valley again. No one was there to protect the old hawk and his companion or the ancient burial ground right now. Yes, the valley had barriers to guard it and Kath and his furry friend could fight for themselves, but that was no matter. Ix would deal with all three of them soon enough. His Necromancers would have a field day with all the important souls laid to rest within the valley, and capturing Kath would help Ix's plans along nicely. After all, as he'd reflected upon earlier, while he couldn't kill the man right now, letting him run wild and free was certainly detrimental to the clan's plans. The wolf, however... Well, he could die. Couple his death with the fact that all of Hyale (and not to mention the rest of the chameleon villages in the Highlands) had fallen, and Ix could say with some certainty that Sonic's allies were dwindling... at least somewhat.

Still, Sonic and his group did have allies remaining, and the lot of them still needed to be distracted, hence them being separated earlier. Adding to the distraction was Shade's nightmare serum, which would continue to afflict Sonic, Jet, Blaze, and Kaden for the foreseeable future. All of this was good. Very good, in fact. Ix needed them to remain distracted. The sooner they discovered the depths of his plans, the harder it would be for him to complete them. Needless to say, he didn't want that to happen. After all... what good was a surprise if it didn't remain a surprise?

~台風の目~

11,113 words this time. Remember when I mentioned how longer chapters would be cropping up soon? Yeah. Hope you enjoyed, though.

Here are some aids with pronunciation again. Hope they help.

1.) Yueisha - "Yoo-ae-shuh" (This made up continent is where all of Hero takes place, save for the parts where they're in space, in the Master Emerald, or on South Island. Otherwise, all of that tale takes place here.)

2.) Tralius - "Tral (short "a" as in cat)-ee-uss" (This is a continent from either the Sonic shows, games, or comics. I didn't make it up, by my version of the pronunciation my be different than the one used by the people who did make it up.)

3.) Untol - "Uhn-tole"

4.) Eurish - "Yur-ish" (This is a continent from either the Sonic shows, games, or comics. I didn't make it up, by my version of the pronunciation ay be different than the one used by the people who did make it up.)

5.) Artika - "Ahr-tee-kuh" (This is a continent from either the Sonic shows, games, or comics. I didn't make it up, by my version of the pronunciation my be different than the one used by the people who did make it up.)

6.) Efrikila - "Eff-ree-kee-luh" (This was originally "Efrika", a continent from either the Sonic shows, games, or comics. Obviously, I changed it here.)

Posted (at about 9:05 a.m.) 08-29-17.