Happy New Year everyone!

Yeah, I'm back! I hope you like this new chapter!

WARNING!

There will be two small passages, that are marked like this. If you are a bit sensitive - and, as for the second passage, like animals - please just skip these parts, you won't miss something important.

END OF WARNING!

Now, on with the story, enjoy!

13: Broken hearts

The feeling of air, that got suddenly compressed and pushed against his lab's door as well as several crashes outside of said room let Tails look up from where he had carefully examined one of the blinking lights on Omega, trying to determine its purpose.

Frowning, he went to the door and opened it to peek into the hallway. Several picture frames had fallen off the wall and were littered across the stairs leading up to the first floor and the ground before them.

"Strange...," he mumbled, while walking to the stairs and carefully picking up, what had fallen, examining the damage. Some frames were broken, but he could fix them up again, no problem. Looking up the stairs, he was able to hear shuffling in Sonic's bedroom, confirming his suspicion about the culprit for this mess.

A worried frown settled on his features. Usually, Sonic had perfect control over his speed and slowed himself down inside the house (or other buildings), so that the furniture and decoration stayed intact and upright. He hadn't caused such a chaos in ages...

...Something must have happened. This realization alone let his heart thrum too quickly and painfully in his chest.

Carefully, he put the frames in staples on the stairs, making sure, that they were out of the way, and then climbed up to the first floor, inching closer to the bedroom of his older brother, getting slower and slower the farther he came, until he was almost crawling. It was so strange for Sonic to act this way, that he didn't know, what to think or what he should expect to find once he was at his destination.

Peeking into the bedroom, the boy watched Sonic move about his room, grabbing different items and throwing them into a bag, that was standing opened on the bed.

He felt his insides tighten at the picture, as Sonic hardly ever packed anything. He was the one, who tried to prepare by grabbing everything he deemed as useful whenever the need arose – if he hadn't done so in advance already –, while Sonic just ran ahead, needing rarely anything more than his trusted shoes.

What had his stomach plummet to his ankles, however, were the small sobs and sniffles coming from his brother. Sonic was his idol, the epitome of strength, confidence and bravery for him, so seeing him cry always felt wrong.

As he had cried on several occasions before and after the Island-incident, the sound alone was enough to open some of his two-year-old mental scars and fill him with unwanted memories...

Sonic, high on drugs Eggman had secretly injected into him, breaking down so painfully slowly and yet so unbelievably fast, crying his eyes out, until the genius didn't dare to leave him without supervision.

And then, after the Island-nightmare had been over, Sonic, waking up crying and screaming in the middle of the night, just like Tails did on occasions, with him peeking through the ajar door – it had taken so long, until they could close the doors to their rooms without feeling trapped – and watching, how Shadow tried to pick up the pieces of his brother's heart, soul and mind with gently whispered words and hugs and kisses to his temple or hands, not going farther, when he felt the fox's eyes on them...

Hearing these dreaded sounds again unsettled the young genius greatly. Inching more into the room and watching his brother move about, he quickly noticed, that Sonic was throwing things into the bag, that belonged to Shadow.

Now confused, he stepped to the bed and peered into the bag, seeing indeed only items, that were Shadow's or were connected with him.

Most were his socks and gloves, but also his Chaos Emerald, a few framed pictures of both hedgehogs (and one just with the ebony furred male in it), souvenirs Shadow had brought from his missions and given to Sonic (which was a small amount in comparison to the huge collection the brothers had been able to build up over the years) and his pillow were among the mass filling the bag almost to the brink.

"...Sonic?," he questioned loudly, making his presence known, causing the older to whirl around, two more souvenirs given by Shadow still in his hands. Tails deliberately ignored the red, watery eyes of his brother and his still present sniffles.

"Hey, Tails.," the hedgehog greeted listlessly, going over to the bed and placing the items he held to the rest in the bag. "What's going on?," Tails asked shyly.

Sonic looked insecure, as if he didn't know what and how to tell him, but then, he sighed, appearing almost defeated, which the young genius didn't like one bit, and plopped on his bed.

Feeling younger than he had in a while, the fox climbed on the bed as well, seating himself next to the other end of the bag, keeping it between them.

"Shadow and I...we... broke up.," Sonic mumbled after a few seconds of silence. Although he had never been in a relationship, Tails knew, that this had to be a really bad thing – the hero's heartbroken tone explained that all too well.

"B-because of what I said yesterday?," he whispered regretfully, causing his brother to look up quickly, a look of pure surprise on his face.

Truthfully, their talk – and pretty much everything else – had fled Sonic's mind, since he had learned the 'news'. Even now was it difficult to concentrate on anything but the turmoil in his mind and heart.

Seeing Tails' guilty face, however, he forced his troubles back with practiced ease, placed the bag down and pulled his little brother in a tight embrace, reducing their physical and emotional distance to nothing.

"I promise, Tails, our breakup had nothing to do with you. Shadow, he just...he..." Sonic bit his lip, partly to stop a fresh bout of tears and partly to find an appropriate explanation. Until he had digested this information and come to terms with it himself, he rather didn't try to break this to his brother – or any of his friends for that matter.

"Shadow...hurt my feelings. Pretty badly.," he eventually explained, using the most harmless paraphrase he could think of.

Tails gently pulled away from him and looked up at his face. He had no idea, what that explanation should mean, but seeing Sonic's distraught expression, he didn't dare to ask for more information. It would feel like digging in a physical wound – at least he could imagine as much.

Standing up, Sonic grabbed the last few of Shadow's gifts and pictures, stuffed them in the bag and closed it, before turning back to Tails. "I'll put it in the hall. If- When- Should Shadow appear here, please give it to him. I...already told him, that he should live at Rouge's now.," Sonic explained. Well, not really.

"Sure...but...won't you stay?," the younger asked, an underlying tone of fear in his voice. Sonic grimaced, hating himself for his next words. "Not for a while. I really need to run and clear my head." If that was even possible to accomplish.

"...Okay, then. See you later?," Tails questioned insecurely. "See you later. No dangerous experiments, alright? I'll be back in a bit." Giving his brother one last hug, Sonic grabbed the bag and rushed out of the room.

Not fast enough to destroy more of their interior, but enough to stir up, what drove Sonic off: Shadow's scent. Of course, he had lived for almost two years here, it was bound to be everywhere he had ever been...

...And that was a problem, wasn't it? It had always scared him to smell his bullies' scents around, back before he had become Sonic's brother. Was it...something like that? Could Sonic not stand Shadow's scent at the moment, because it reminded him of whatever Shadow had done to him?

Unsure of what to do, Tails opened the window and went out in the hallway, hoping to get rid of the scent, at least a little bit. Being a mobian, he knew, though, that this wouldn't help too well – Shadow's scent was ingrained in every fabric he had ever touched, a bit of air wouldn't change that.

Their front door had long since closed behind Sonic and Tails couldn't help, but feel cold and abandoned as he stood there between their bedrooms. As long as 'Shadow' was still lingering in this house, Sonic wouldn't return, he realized with a start.

Whimpering silently, he rushed to the telephone sitting on a small table in the hallway and dialed a familiar number, completely forgetting about his communicator downstairs, that would have made getting a connection that much faster.

Now, listening to the monotone sound of the phone ringing, he felt his anxiety grow with every passing second, as if Sonic distanced himself more and more from him and not just physically and not even his rational, usually stronger, side could convince him, that he would come back eventually.

When the one he had called finally answered on their end of the line, he almost cried into the receiver,

"Aunt Sally?"

"Come on, come on...," Rouge muttered under her breath, drumming her fingertips on her desk, while letting her communicator ring endlessly. For the whole day now, she tried to get a hold on her partner.

At first, she had just called him once or twice per hour, now she just let it ring...or better, beep. As their communicators had no answering machines built into them, there was only one way of stopping the beeping – by answering personally.

What made this waiting worse, was the fact, that she didn't even have Omega here to complain about their other partner. The robot was an excellent listener...usually, because he was powered down while staying in their office. Although he rarely stated his opinion on any topic, it was good to vent to someone. Briefly, her gaze wandered over to one of her pot plants. Nah, she wasn't THAT desperate, yet.

She had spent her day with trying to find out more, about Archibald Bloom and this mysterious symbol Shadow had presented her with yesterday, and she could really need someone to listen to her complaints about the whole thing now.

First, she had sought out Lupe and her pack – who were really in a cave they had found for themselves not too far away from GUN-HQ as she had suspected – and asked them about the symbol.

Actively, neither of them had recognized it, but it had caused many of them to growl seeing it and Lupe had even taken the piece of paper with the drawing on it and shredded it to confetti in pure rage – luckily, she had made a copy, just in case.

Not one of them had been able to say, why it made them this angry. Strangely, the ones, who had slain their own family – Lupe kept those very close to herself and the rest of the pack at a distance, should there be a relapse of some sort –, had had no emotional connection whatsoever with the symbol. It had been just a drawing in their opinion.

Storing the information away (and getting the hell out of the wolf cave, before they would see her as a new threat or convenient snack), Rouge had then researched the background of the human she had found out about yesterday.

Sadly, that was about as helpful as meeting with the wolf mobians. Archibald Bloom had had the most boring life she had ever seen. He had never done anything wrong in his life, never married, no family, that would be still alive or had been in contact with him for ten years or so before his death, no known friends or relationships, had been as suspicious as a newspaper on a park bench and his neighbors could fill maybe half a regular post it-note with what they knew about him.

He had gone to work, returned home and repeated the process, everyday. The only unusual thing about this was, that he had worked also on Sundays – but that just made him a workaholic or his boss an asshole, nothing more.

If there had been anything out of the ordinary in his house, besides the obvious, then the report hadn't mentioned it. She still tried to reach the one making this report as well as the coroner, who had performed the autopsy. Thanks to Towers, he hadn't been asked anymore for a report and the file about the case had been left to collect dust. She hoped, that these people could help her out – otherwise, this lead would become a dead end and they were back to square one.

Researching the company, 'Narcissus Solutions', had been about as successful. It was Archibald Bloom all over, just in bigger proportions.

All reporters trying to get an interview with someone in the company had been aggressively turned away – Rouge had found several articles, in that the writers had complained about how the company had allowed no one outside the staff in its building and made up rumors of what they did there. Otherwise, the company just seemed to have existed, plain and simple, without offering something or any kind of service to anyone.

The articles about the fire didn't help either, the complete property had burnt to the ground, not even the cellar – that had been surprisingly spacious and deep and had spread out under several other buildings whose owners hadn't known of the fact – had been spared. One of the fire fighters, who had been interviewed, had mentioned, though, that he had never before seen such a fire. Even metal, bones, teeth and stone had melted in the heat of the quickly extinguished flames.

Because of this, nobody was sure, if anyone had escaped the fire (and likewise, who hadn't even been in it), the entire staff was a mystery until today. There had no list with names of employees been found, that would have made identifying the people easier. As most bodies had burnt to little more than ash, there was hardly any material left to identify and it had only been enough to differ between male and female.

The only known person, that they could identify more or less so far, had been the head of the company, as he had given a short interview after opening his company forty years ago at the tender age of eighteen while wearing an expensive diamond ring, whose remains had been found on the body.

At the time he had given said interview, nobody had bothered with checking the info he had shared and therefore not noticed, that everything had been fake. Eracion Marián had never existed and his company had never produced anything, that would 'change the world' as promised.

Personally, Rouge didn't know, why anyone believed, that someone with such a strange name would exist at all, but oh well. It's not, like she could change it now. That was just another lead, that didn't help them at all.

She had already started to look for the firemen, preferably the one, who had been interviewed, and people working around the company's building, but she wasn't so sure, what (or if) she would gain (something) from the effort.

Basically, she had found enough information to fill a nutshell after hours of intense research and it drove her insane!

At the same time, the lack of information worried her. It reminded her too much of the Island: little to no information reaching the outside, the coworkers all loners, that would rarely be missed and had no nosy family members. Kylie was one of the few, who actually had family (with that she had been still in contact before she had started her new job) on dry land.

The only reason, why Perringten's little horror cabinet had been discovered (or would have been discovered sooner or later, if things hadn't played out the way they had), had been small mistakes due to his advancing insanity and misfortunes, like being forced to create an 'Uke Institute' for cover purposes.

This 'company', or whatever it was, had hidden its secrets flawlessly, they weren't revealed until now. She hoped to find a leak – one, that wasn't dead like Bloom – but so far, she had been unsuccessful.

The pot plant just started to look attractive as a 'listener' after all, when finally a light lit up the office and the dark hedgehog she had awaited for hours decided to make an entrance in the middle of their office.

She ended the call and already opened her mouth for a remark, but it died in her throat, when she took in Shadow fully.

He seemed to have deflated, not holding himself proud and straight, but standing slumped over in what could only be defeat. His limbs shook ever so subtly, his eyes were redder than usual and wet and his head quills were badly ruffled, as if he had ran his fingers again and again through them, maybe even pulled and tugged at them in helplessness and/or stress.

"W-what happened to you?," Rouge stammered, unable to keep her cool. Shadow had overcome potentially life-threatening situations without losing his composure for even a second in the past, so this appearance was completely new, alien and – dare she say it – scary for her.

Now, that she thought about it... had Shadow ever showed signs of crying in front of her before? Nothing came to her mind, so the answer was apparently 'no'.

"Didn't have the Chaos Emerald.," Shadow mumbled and would have collapsed then and there, if Rouge hadn't caught him, which wasn't as easy as it sounded – Shadow was heavier than any mobian hedgehog could ever be and Rouge wasn't exactly the bodybuilder-type.

Somehow, she managed to get him to his chair to deposit him into it, and she would never look at this piece of furniture in the same way again – it had carried her partner for years after all and not given in, yet. She was drenched in sweat from the five minutes she had to shoulder a part of that weight.

Concentrating on Shadow, she knelt down in front of him to create eye contact. It didn't help matters, that the ruby orbs looked glazed, wet and empty.

"Okay, warping without a Chaos Emerald explains your obvious lack of energy for pretty much everything now – but why did you cry?," she asked, trying not to sound too curious. She was known to pry a bit too much in everyone's personal affairs to sate her own curiosity, but it was also known, that she took secrets and private talks to her grave. She hoped, that Shadow remembered this, he seemed to need a listener, desperately so.

The dark seme didn't answer for a long while, fighting for composure but then, he breathed, almost too softly for the bat to hear it, "S-Sonic and I...broke up."

Rouge's eyes widened and her hands flew to her mouth. "Oh, Shadow, I'm so sorry...," she whispered.

She herself had never been in a real relationship before, always been more interested in the jewels than in the men she had to seduce to catch them off guard, and therefore not let anyone closer to her heart.

She knew, that Knuckles was different, because she remembered the color of his eyes more vividly than that of the gems he guarded, but she wasn't ready to start anything with him, yet.

And while she may not understand the full depth of a broken heart, she knew, that Shadow had been happy for the first time since she knew him after meeting Sonic. Not even the circumstances of how they had met had been able to cast more than a tiny, easily to be ignored shadow on their love and happiness. She could, if only to some degree, understand, how it had to feel to lose this kind of bliss.

"What happened?," she asked again. Shadow shook his head. "It's not my place to tell. I...I hurt Sonic...," he whispered, trembling hard, new tears gathering in his eyes, although he refused to let them fall.

Rouge blinked. Shadow, the most loyal soul she knew, had managed to hurt Sonic, the most forgiving guy on the planet, in a way, that caused him to break up immediately? She wasn't sure, if she wanted to know the details to this...

"Shadow, where is your Chaos Emerald?," she asked one of the few things she actually wanted to know for the moment. "At Sonic's. I...should get it.," he mumbled and pulled himself to a stand, forcing Rouge to back off a bit.

Then, his words registered in her brain and she scrambled to stop him, grabbing his arm. "W-wait, Sha-" They were gone, before she could end.

Rouge had hitched a ride with Shadow's warp countless times already and was therefore prepared for pretty much everything – impossible landing places, less than pleasant reactions depending on where they decided to appear (even the occasional bullet rain), different weather or climates all together – but never before had she had such a rough travel, that ended with them being thrown backwards, landing hard and skidding a good bit across the dirt.

"Ow...I think I bruised my tail...," the bat groaned, painfully slowly sitting up and dusting the dirt staining her clothes at least a little off, while rubbing her throbbing tail base.

Next to her, Shadow struggled into a sitting position, now shaking very visibly, almost collapsing again. He looked in the direction, from that they had been thrown and his eyes widened.

In front of him was the house he had lived in with Sonic and Tails, but now, it was surrounded by a green glowing, transparent half-sphere, that was big enough to cover the garage and the backyard, too by Shadow's calculations, leaving no access point untouched.

With newfound worry, as he had never before seen this, Shadow forced himself up and shakily stepped closer to the sphere, concerned about Sonic's safety. Was he home? Was this another one of Eggman's tricks? Had he found them? Had he trapped the hero in his own house!?

Rouge quickly caught up to him once she had discovered his doing and they reached the edge of the sphere at the same time. Both reached out a hand, carefully trying to touch the strange energy to determine its origin and danger.

While Rouge's fingers slid easily and unharmed through it, as if it was just light created by a huge green light bulb, Shadow's arms got thrown backwards upon impact, almost dislocating his shoulder in the process.

"It's...holding just me back...," he realized and the fact hurt for some strange reason more than knowing, that this house wasn't his home anymore.

"It's doing its job, then.," a voice sounded suddenly and they saw the front door a little to their side open to reveal a familiar chipmunk mobian with long red hair in a blue vest with matching shoes and pants.

Her blue eyes were lit with fury, but otherwise, Princess Sally Acorn didn't show any kind of emotion in her body language. She walked out to meet them, a bag in her hand.

Behind her, a coyote in a blue and red uniform and a half-robotisized female rabbit mobian stepped out, flanking the door like guards. Both their faces gave away, that Shadow was the most disgusting thing they currently knew.

Shadow tried to straighten, but using Chaos Control twice had left him drained and he couldn't quite make it.

Sally stopped just at the edge of the shield, dropping the bag in front of her, but due to the shield's impenetrability, Shadow couldn't reach the piece of luggage, that was unmistakably for him to take, on his own.

"This is an invention of Tails, it keeps everybody with your specific Chaos Energy signature out. I hope the message to that is clear, you aren't welcome in this house any longer. I give you this one chance only to tell us your version of what happened. Once we are able to talk with Sonic, we might not be interested in your words anymore.," she explained and offered.

Shadow knew, that Sally wasn't saying this out of personal curiosity or to be a bitch – she was the arbitrator of the Freedom Fighters, always called, when there were disruptions or fights in their rows of friends.

She had the reputation of being fair and an excellent listener, giving everyone the same chance, even if she was mad at one or both of the fighting parties. That she gave Shadow just one chance was only, because she knew, that he wasn't someone who went to others to elevate his soul, so it was better to give him an ultimatum.

"It isn't my place to tell.," Shadow replied calmly, like with Rouge. Sally's eyes narrowed, staring at the seme intently, trying to understand his intentions.

"Suit yourself, then.," she eventually answered curtly and whirled around to follow her two friends back inside the house, closing the door a bit harder than necessary behind her. She was apparently stressed by the whole situation and Shadow wasn't helping her anxiety and worry. In only seconds, they were alone again.

Wordlessly, Rouge crossed the artificial barrier and retrieved the bag, rummaging through it. As hoped, there was the Chaos Emerald.

She knew, that Sally hadn't done it out of malice, but keeping Shadow away from the Emerald wasn't good for him at a time like this.

He had used Chaos Control twice now without an Emerald. What he could apparently take while depending solely on his instincts, was pure torture in every other state of mind and body.

She – and maybe Sonic, too – knew, that warping without an Emerald was indeed possible, despite the seme's claim of the opposite, but also, how this would end. Using Chaos Control required a lot of Chaos Energy, more than he could collect in on a second's notice. He would need to collect energy for several hours to pull it off flawlessly. Trying it far earlier, put stress on every single cell in Shadow's body and caused them to rip one by one, losing their energy, which meant nothing but pain.

If the bat could see Chaos Energy, she would see it seeping out of his body in various places, despite the skin being mostly intact. The dark fur hid several wounds the destroyed cells had already caused.

One or two more warps with an Emerald would have destroyed his body beyond repair – which was, why this was a highly guarded secret of the dark hedgehog, that only very few people knew about.

Rouge had the sneaking suspicion, that Shadow had wanted the pain. He always became a bit self-destructive, when he had the feeling to have let someone down. It was probably because of what had happened to Maria under his watch, that he had worked for Towers for so long without complaining. Not, that she was stupid enough to speak it out, she liked being unharmed and in Shadow's good graces.

"Here.," Rouge said, after having left the barrier again, pressing the gem into his hands. Almost immediately, Shadow exhaled in relief, feeling – physically – much better and straightened.

"Thank you.," he thanked her. "No problem.," Rouge replied, giving him the bag. It was still open, so Shadow could see its contents and his heart throbbed painfully upon recognizing the gifts he had given Sonic next to pictures of the two of them.

He looked up, when Rouge placed her hand on his arm. "Let's go, to my place, okay?," she suggested, wanting to distract him.

"But work-" "I don't think, that you are in the right state of mind for that just now, hon. I'll call Topaz from my home and tell her, that we are working outside the office today. I have made...well, progress would have been too much said, but I got some new information, that I can tell you about at home.," the bat replied.

"What kind of information?," Shadow asked, jumping at the new topic. "Not now. First, we'll get ourselves a drink and then we'll talk – about what you can tell me.," she added, when Shadow attempted to protest.

Accepting the condition after some hesitation, Shadow took her hand and warped them away.

Sonic had by now no idea, just where exactly he was. His legs ached from the wild and unexpected turns, twists and stops he had made for...hours? Maybe. It felt about right.

He had ran as far and fast as he possibly could, been only stopped by too large bodies of water and when he had reached those, he had usually just taken a turn into a random direction to keep on running.

Rarely had he stopped, only, when rain, sand, dust or leaves had hit his eyes and made it too dangerous to go on in full speed, so he had just slowed down to a light jog for a bit, or stopped and just let himself get soaked, until the rain had passed. The droplets hitting his skin and skull had been like tiny fists beating him – and he had felt distracted from his thoughts for a little while, just focused on the feeling, until the rain had stopped and he could run again, cherishing the wet, slippery ground as an extra challenge.

His joints hurt from extreme, overly long overuse and thanks to the varying climates he had stopped in. Usually, when he ran, he hardly felt the temperature around him, even if he was in a region with explicit climate, like a tundra or a desert, but when he stopped, he was just as prone to it as every mobian with fur.

He had finally burned away his excess energy...and quite a bit of his normal energy amount, it seemed. His stomach grumbled in hunger, he felt dizzy and weak and his vision was strangely narrowed, creating some kind of tunnel vision.

Several shapeless, grayish blobs pushed past him, more than once smacking into his shoulder or front, he was apparently in a busy place, but he hardly took notice of that anymore. In fact, every impact felt a bit less like one, he turned numb...

His thoughts had clouded over the more energy he had burnt and now, he felt, as if he had to drag them out of a murky swamp, and there was only one thing he seemed to be able to grasp time and time again: "I'm immortal. I can't die. I'm immortal..." There was nothing else, just that, repeating over and over. The words had long since lost all meaning, a dull roar in the back of his mind, that drowned out every sound from the outside world.

He couldn't find a way out of the cycle and honestly, he didn't know, if he ever wanted out of it. He knew, to some degree at least, that something hurtful lured outside of his self-created bubble.

"-NIC!" For some reason, he suddenly moved backwards. Losing his balance, he...seemed to fall? And there was a strange screeching sound, ringing in his ears. That wasn't his doing, was it?

"-don't take- picture? You'd- more- last longer!," a voice, that became audible in waves and then droned out again said and he blinked in confusion. Had sound always sounded like this?

A few minutes earlier:

"So...this is, what females do in their free time?," Blush asked, watching the ice cream cone she held in her hand as if studying it. "More or less. Would you have preferred maybe some sewing in my living room? I have lots of socks, that need darning!," Kylie grinned, highly amused.

She had found Blush a few hours ago sulking in the foyer. Apparently, Shy was avoiding her – and everyone but her sisters – and Blush didn't take the resentment well.

To distract and maybe cheer her up a bit, she had offered her spontaneously a 'girl's day out'. The only reason, why Blush had agreed and joined her, was, that she had never done this before and had gotten curious.

Their couple of hours in the city had consisted of a coffee (milk with honey for the assassin, who was actually allergic to caffeine), a walk in a park (that had the female constantly on edge, looking for potential enemies – and had her attack a few flirting teens, who regretted their moves dearly now), a shopping trip through several clothes stores (Blush had never seen so much clothes and it had taken quite a while to get her out of the changing booth – and to stop her from buying herself poor) and now an ice cream cone (Blush's third, actually, she had definitely found a new favorite dessert and devoured the first two in seconds, until Kylie had shown her, how to eat it properly) on their way back to the Shelter.

It had amused Kylie beyond compare to see Blush this excited, like a little child discovering a toy store for the first time.

At the same time, she wondered, how her normal life looked like, if shopping, taking a walk or eating ice cream were this foreign to her.

The butterfly mobian grimaced at her suggestion. "No, thank you. I prefer using my needles for my missions.," she declined.

"I was kidding. I'd never do something like that with a friend.," Kylie snickered. "But tell me, what do you usually do, when you want to relax for a bit?"

Blush frowned and turned her head away. "Sorry, that was too much, huh? It's okay, we can talk about something else.," the woman quickly amended. It was really hard to talk with her, when she couldn't reveal anything too close to her family.

"It's not that.," Blush replied, looking at her again. "It isn't a secret of my clan. It's rather... that I don't know, what to answer you. I don't think, that I have ever relaxed.," Blush confessed.

That almost caused Kylie to stumble over her feet. "W-what!?," she gasped. The younger shrugged. "My life always consisted of training. Physically, mentally, emotionally. And when I didn't train, I was prepared for my missions, learning things like reading, writing, math, basic first aid, a bit of social skills...stuff like this.," the teen listed off. "You had never time to...just read a book for the fun of it? Or...meet up with friends?," Kylie asked. "I read books my ancestors wrote about the arts of killing, stealth and so on. And...well, I never had friends before Mighty and the others."

"I'm so sorry. Your life must have been hard. Were your sisters never there for you to play with?," Kylie inquired. "Every kind of shenanigan was immediately stopped upon discovery. A few of my younger sisters managed to hide one or two secret hobbies, but they don't know, that I have knowledge about them.," came the – almost mechanic – reply.

"Would it be bad, if they did?" "I'm the oldest, I'm supposed to report behavior like that to my parents so they can stop it.," Blush's answer was stiff. "It's great, that you don't deceive your sisters.," Kylie praised.

Blush cleared her throat nervously. "Could we...change the topic?," she asked, clearly uncomfortable now. "Sure. Any ideas, why Shy is acting that way?," Kylie complied. "No, no idea. She came yesterday back with Curi and is treating him like a plushie. Usually, Curi doesn't like it to be carried, but now, he is allowing it. He...seems to feel her troubles. Shy herself is closed off and hardly lets us near her for longer than a minute. Normally, that doesn't bother me, but now... I'm getting soft.," she stated suddenly with a note of disgust in her voice.

"Blu-," Kylie started, but she interrupted herself, when something bumped into her leg. Not enough to trip her, yet definitely enough to grasp her attention.

Looking down, she was met with a familiar shade of blue swaying past her in an unsteady walk. "Sonic?," Kylie half asked and half called, but received no answer.

Confused and increasingly worried, the woman turned around in the direction, in that the hedgehog wandered and watched, how he just walked on, heedless of the people he bumped into, too, and their loud complaints.

It took her only seconds to realize, that he wouldn't stop at the street, that they had crossed a minute before, either, to wait for a good opportunity to cross it – he would just walk on...

Letting her own shopping bags and ice cream cone fall, Kylie rushed after her apparently suicidal friend.

"Sonic, stop! SONIC!," she shouted, managing in the last second to grab his arm and yank him back from the street, causing him to fall on his behind, just as the car, that would have hit the hedgehog hadn't it been for Kylie, stopped with screeching tires, the driver peeking his head out of the window and cursing the 'thoughtless youth', before getting behind the wheel again and driving off.

Ignoring him, Kylie knelt down next to Sonic, first looking at his shoulder – although she had quickly let go of his arm, before he could land fully on his behind, she couldn't be sure of no dislocation taking place – but found it unharmed, thankfully.

What worried her, was – aside of his appearance with dirty and wet (and at times bloodied by shallower or deeper wounds) fur and ripped socks and gloves in a similar state – his unresponsiveness. He didn't try to stand up, to speak, by all means, he didn't even seem remotely aware of her being here. If anything, he seemed mildly surprised to sit on the cold concrete and confused by the circumstance.

"Why don't you take a picture!? You'd have more of that, it'll last longer!," Blush snapped above her and Kylie was dimly aware of a crowd forming around them, many recording with their phones, wanting to catch a glimpse of the blue hero in such a desolate condition.

"Vultures. Leave that to me.," the assassin growled, cracked her knuckles and went to collect in the phones, destroy them and send their owners on their ways, at times by just throwing their devices in the direction they were meant to go in. She definitely was holding back to not cause a scene – she could have easily crippled or killed the whole crowd – but she didn't stop either, as even the technology-hating Blush knew about the crushing impact such a video in the depths of the Internet would have on the hero's reputation. Some people were at least clever enough to show the butterfly girl the 'video deleted'-notification, which saved their phones.

While Blush effectively shortened the number of bystanders – and raised the number of demands for replacement-phones – at maximum speed, Kylie tended to Sonic.

Checking his vitals as good as she could, she presumed, that he was in some kind of mental shock, as none of his – mostly superficial – wounds would have triggered a physical one – and the reasons, why he didn't stand up, was for one, that he was most likely not aware of his current situation, having detached himself from reality, and two, he was for sure tired, judging by the strong scent of wet dog he emitted and the slight tremors going through his body.

"That should be the last one.," Blush just said, dusting off her hands, satisfied and joining her side again. "How is he? Is it bad?," she asked, while using her large wings to hide Sonic from view, where Kylie didn't cover him with her body.

"He's in shock, mentally anyways...and probably totally drained. Could you call a cab? I'll take him to my place for now.," the woman replied, while giving the notoriously phone-less Blush her mobile and then digging through her shopping bags, that Blush had brought with her, and pulling out a pink fleece blanket she had bought in a second hand-shop.

It was meant as a birthday present for Hope, who liked it to build nests out of her blankets and cushions and always appreciated extra bedding. The slightly worn blanket would be a better gift than any toy or book could ever be – but as her birthday wouldn't be for a while, she would for sure not mind sharing it for a bit with Sonic. The good thing was, that the second hand-article didn't give off the chemicals most new clothes had in them and wouldn't aggravate his sensitive skin, eyes or nose.

Expertly wrapping her friend in the blanket, so that nothing of him was visible anymore, she lifted him up with one arm.

With her free hand, she picked up her shopping bags. Then, she stood up, finding her balance quickly.

"He'll be waiting at the corner.," Blush explained, nodding in the direction she meant, while sliding Kylie's mobile into one of her bags, as her hands were full. Picking up her own bags, the younger female led the way.

Trailing after her, Kylie couldn't help the odd sense of déjà vu she felt upon carrying Sonic cradled in the crook of her arm, even though he looked more like a blanket burrito with only the black nose peeking out this time.

She had carried him like this before, on the Island, and she still remembered, how small and fragile he had seemed. Now, the feeling wasn't much different – he was just a bit heavier and wetter than last time.

His instincts seemed to work still – which unfortunately didn't include avoiding cars as potential deathtraps, as those didn't exist in their book – since his quills didn't rise upon smelling her (a human's) scent. On some unconscious level, he realized, that she meant him no harm, maybe he even recognized her...

She was so deep in thought, that she almost bumped into Blush, who had stopped at the corner, where the taxi stood, but managed to avoid it after all.

The younger held the car door open for her and Kylie took a seat in the back. Settling the still unresponsive Sonic on her lap, she turned back to Blush. "Don't you want to hitch a ride?," she asked, when she noticed, that the butterfly had made no move to join her despite having the same destination.

Blush grimaced. "No, thanks. I'm not fond of vehicles. Besides, I need to stretch my wings anyway – and hide these from my family." She held up her own shopping bags. "Alright, then. Bye, and thanks for your help.," Kylie said her goodbyes and with a wave, Blush closed the car door.

As it was usually the case, the driver was reluctant to drive to the Shelter – the whole uke-thing made many people uncomfortable and they seemed to believe, that they could become ukes themselves, if they got too close to them, so driving to their 'nest' had to be avoided.

It was stupid, of course it was, but Kylie guessed, that this was a natural reaction. Fear, what you don't understand. She could only hope, that it would change one day.

Offering a generous tip – everything she had left in her wallet, to be precise –, she could convince the human to please just drive her to where she wanted.

During the journey – the first few minutes just about crawled by, as they tried to move through the busy city, before the traffic became lighter again – Kylie tried to reach Sonic in any way, but she was hardly successful.

Sonic stayed unresponsive for the most time, only twitched his ears, when she touched them through the blanket. Everything else didn't seem to work.

The driver took off almost before she had time to close the door behind her, not wanting to linger another second at the Shelter.

With one eye roll at the immaturity, she turned her back to the rapidly disappearing car, not paying it any more mind.

Kylie then just proceeded with carrying her burden through the gate, that was closest to the apartment-complexes.

Reaching her home, she unlocked the door, let the bags fall in the hallway and went straight into their smaller bathroom opposite the front door, setting Sonic on the counter there, next to the sink, that was embedded in it.

"Mom?," she heard Alex call out from the other side of the door. "Bathroom!," Kylie called back, trying not be too loud, so she wouldn't actually hurt Sonic's hearing.

"Er...Mom? We...kind of have a situation here...," she heard Alex say, sounding a bit nervous, but not enough for Kylie to get worried. He probably found some letter in their mail he felt unsure about, or something like that.

Thankfully, the teen was old enough to respect her privacy. Hope and Vanessa, who were currently on a play date with their friends, would have already barged in. For now, Kylie didn't want anyone to see Sonic like this, not until she had at least tried everything to rouse him. If she needed to get him to a ward of the Shelter, the hospital or someone else, then it would be better, that not so many people knew about his condition.

"Funny, I have a situation here, too. I'll come out, when I'm ready, okay?," she answered her son.

"Er...sure...," Alex mumbled, barely audible, probably wondering, if they were talking about the same thing.

Nonetheless, she heard him move away, grabbing the bags from the sounds of the rustling to put them into her bedroom.

Focusing back on Sonic, Kylie freed him out of his cocoon, earning a twitch, as the air in the room was naturally cooler than the heat he had accumulated in the blanket.

"Maybe that's it...," Kylie mumbled, grabbed a clean washcloth and wet it with cool water. Wringing it out, she started to dab Sonic's face, gradually cooling it down.

"Sonic? Can you hear me? I know, that you are in shock, but it will become better, okay? Whatever it was, there is always a way out. Chaos, YOU are the one, who taught me that! I thought, I would be forever Perringten's slave, but you freed us. I thought, that we would die in this damn place, but you saved us all. You can't let yourself go like this, not because of something, that is for sure smaller than the end of the world..."

Helplessly, Kylie just talked, being again reminded of how she had once talked with Shadow, when he had been almost completely consumed by his instincts while protecting Sonic, to avoid being killed by him, hoping against hope, that she could reach him somehow this way, while she drenched his fur more and more with the washcloth.

"I'm immortal. I can't die. I'm immortal. I'm wet." Slowly, Sonic blinked, seemingly for the first time in ages. The new, unexpected thought seemed to clear the fog clouding his mind a little and he became aware of something wet and cold touching his face again and again.

While the cold-part was appreciated – he felt slightly hot for some reason – the wet-part wasn't. Right, he hated being wet. Because...'wet' meant 'water'. And he couldn't swim!

His thinking became faster along with his heartbeat, trying to determine, if he was in danger of drowning, and he blinked some more, clearing his vision. He looked down on a pair of human legs in jeans, surrounded by white tiles.

His ears twitched, when he picked up a sound, a voice, to be exact. "-saw you, I thought, 'Damn, we're screwed', I mean, you were now also one of Perringten's victims and I kind of – unconsciously – saw you as my only hope. ...Well, not exactly the only one, but you were definitely in the top 10..."

Sonic blinked some more, as memories rushed back to him at once, lured to awareness by the rambling voice. His head started to hurt and groaning, he raised his heavy arm and rubbed his forehead.

The voice – Kylie's voice, he realized – fell silent and in the next second, he looked into her warm, brown eyes as she had moved to sit on her ankles.

"Sonic? Can you hear me?," she asked – unbeknownst to him, for the fourth time in the last thirty minutes – worriedly. "Uh, yeah?" He flinched a bit at hearing his own, beyond raspy voice.

"Wait a minute." Kylie straightened, grabbed a clean glass from the shelf next to the counter – this bathroom sink was the one the girls could reach the easiest and to prevent them from walking around at night with a glass from the kitchen to fill it in the bathroom, she kept a small stack of glasses in easy reach for them here – and filled it with water from the tap, offering it to Sonic, who took it. "Thanks.," he croaked and drank with big gulps, feeling instantly a bit better.

"Another one?," Kylie asked, amused by the sound of his tail wagging lazily against the counter top. "Yes, please.," Sonic nodded and Kylie was happy to comply.

Several glasses later, Sonic felt more like himself. His head and body still hurt and he could curl up right here on the stone counter and nap the next three days away, but his mind was finally clear.

...Clear enough to realize, that he had no idea, where he was, anyway. "Er...where are we?," he asked, looking around the bathroom.

"You're in my home. I found you on the streets, in the process of getting run over by a car.," Kylie explained. "Ah.," Sonic replied, his voice emotionless.

"...You know, most people would freak out hearing this.," Kylie said, confused. "Most people know, that they die, when they're hit by a car.," Sonic growled, clenching his fists on his knees.

Kylie blinked, processed his words and then sighed, plopping on the closed toilet seat. "Shadow told you.," she stated flatly.

Sonic whirled around to her. "You knew!?," he asked, his fur turning a darker shade of blue for just a second.

Kylie didn't notice, as she was looking on her clasped hands. "Sure did. I was the only witness. And I really wanted to know, why my patient, meaning you, suddenly stepped back from heaven's door with a kiss alone."

Sonic felt heat creep up his cheeks. "But...why didn't you tell me?," he asked. When he thought, that he was dying a while back – why didn't she use the opportunity?

"Aside from the fact, that I couldn't even begin to explain, how this miracle happened? I thought, that Shadow could break this to you easier, being immortal, too and stuff. Apparently, I was wrong, I'm sorry. He was probably pretty blunt, huh?," she asked sympathetically.

Sonic looked down on his hands, noticing his ruined gloves. "That's putting it lightly." And with newly rekindled anger, he went into a tirade, recounting this morning with several profanities thrown into the mix.

When he was done, he was actually out of breath, panting, with new tears gathered in his eyes.

"Remind me to sic Mephiles on this idiot.," Kylie sighed. She had no idea, how to break news like these to someone – but she had a very good idea now of how not to do it.

"...Is this...'being meant for each other'-thing... permanent?," Sonic asked silently, after a minute of nobody speaking.

The woman winced in sympathy. She understood, to some degree, that Sonic wanted nothing to do with Shadow anymore, but true mates were true mates – they couldn't just break up and be done with it. Their instincts knew, who the one real match was and around Mating Season, they would draw them towards each other, if necessary simply take over and override the conscious-sides, until the deed was done. What a mess.

"I'm afraid, it is. But you shouldn't rush things here.," she eventually answered. Sonic's head whipped up and he glared at her. "'Rush'!? He lied to me! Even worse, he made me immortal!," he hissed, his quills rising and Kylie was glad, that the blanket pooled around his hips and wasn't in danger of being shredded.

"Technically, he never lied to you. He kept this a secret, yes, but he never claimed, that you were mortal. Don't look at me like that, it is a difference! As for the other part – if he didn't make you immortal, you would be dead."

"You don't know that!" "Sonic, I was in charge of your health that day. I can very easily tell you, just how close to death you were. You would have died in the next two to twelve hours, if it hadn't been for Shadow. I get, that being immortal is a huge, scary thing, but the only alternative this day would have been death.," Kylie told him calmly.

Sonic studied her face. "I thought, that Alphas were so strong.," he mumbled defiantly. "'Strong' doesn't mean 'invincible'. You were almost starved to death and the fact, that you had transferred most of your energy to the pups didn't help matters at all. And you shouldn't underestimate the damage the miscarriage did.," she added silently.

Sonic blinked. "Like internal damage?," he wondered. "Like mental damage.," Kylie replied. "Your conscious-side had most likely retreated the second you realized, where exactly you were, while your instinct-side knew to some degree, that you had lost your pups. I told you, how protective mothers become of their pups and how they would do everything to protect them. Part of the reason for this protectiveness is the fact, that losing a pup – even worse, all of them at once – creates a hole in the mother's heart. Your instinct-side couldn't cope with the loss and shut down. In a way, it had no reason to go on and therefore no reason to fight its way back to life. In his very own way, Shadow dragged not only your body back from the brink of death. He also helped your depression and gave you...with his love... a reason to live on."

As cheesy as it sounded – it was true. The kiss had reminded Instinct Sonic of the mate he still had and thrown him a bone, that had been the first piece of food Sonic's mental stability had needed to find its way back. Meeting Silver and Scourge in their shared cell had then solidified his will to live to protect them and it had gone upwards ever since.

"Yeah, forever.," Sonic growled. "You don't know that." "I don't know anything, that's the problem!," the male snapped.

Kylie waited, until he had reigned himself in again and apologized, before she gently suggested, "Maybe you should ask Mephiles, then. He is immortal, too, after all."

Sonic perked up at that. "That's a great idea!," he exclaimed and jumped off the counter, about ready to race to the Shelter to look for the dark seme, but he was met by an enormous dizzy spell the second his feet touched the ground and hadn't it been for Kylie's steadying grasp on his shoulders, he would have collapsed on the ground.

"...Better?," she asked, when he carefully straightened out of her grip. "Y-yeah...just got a bit dizzy.," Sonic mumbled, his voice trembling a bit.

Kylie narrowed her eyes. "Sonic...when was the last time you ate?," she asked in a stern voice, watching, how the blue furred ears pressed to his skull. "Uh...," was the intelligent answer to that, as the hero had to think about this, actually. "...yesterday, I think.," he eventually supplied.

"You had a race on an empty stomach?," Kylie questioned, annoyance dripping into her voice.

Sonic, finally rid of the last of the dizzy spell, turned around to her and grinned sheepishly. "Well, I thought I could wheedle Shads into buying chilidogs, either as winner's prize or consolation. It would have been a victory either way.," he shrugged.

Kylie chuckled in fond exasperation, glad to have lifted Sonic's spirits some. "Alright then, here's my – not up for debate, by the way – suggestion: you stay here overnight, I'll give you something to eat to make up for the loss of nutrients and a place to sleep some of that exhaustion off and tomorrow, when I'm satisfied with your recovery, you can go and look for Mephy."

She didn't suggest bringing him here, although that would be not too much trouble, so her children wouldn't accidentally hear something of their talk, as she could imagine, that Sonic would keep an as tight as possible lid on the information for as long as he could.

One day, he would have to tell his secret to the world, but this moment was hopefully far away from now.

The blue hedgehog grimaced, as usual not too fond of getting orders, but knew, that Kylie was right. Now, that his mind was clear from shock and anger, he felt his body's signals all too strongly, including his building up fatigue and his gnawing hunger. "Alright.," he eventually agreed grudgingly.

"Don't be too enthusiastic.," Kylie joked. "Oh, do you maybe want to take a shower to get that grime off? You can use Hope's shampoo and I have some antiseptic soap here, too, for your wounds.," she then offered.

"I don't exactly have spares with me.," Sonic replied, while checking his body for the mentioned injuries. Only now did he realize, that he had cuts and bruises littering his skin.

"Don't worry, I do.," Kylie answered easily, went to a drawer and pulled out some gloves and socks made for mobians.

With a dropped jaw, Sonic accepted the items. "Uh...why do you...?" "You would be surprised, how many ukes come here, when they don't feel safe alone. I often have guests overnight and they sometimes forget to pack anything, before they come. That's why I started to keep a small stock of gloves and socks here."

"...Okay. But I could still rip your towels..." "That's why I have some older or ugly ones always stocked, too." She gave him a soft towel, whose green color was definitely washed out on the edges. "Alright, if you're sure. Thanks. I'll hurry.," he promised.

"Just not to the point, where you get dizzy again and possibly slip.," Kylie warned and straightened. "Take your time, I'll have some soup ready by the time you're done and we have dressed those wounds."

"Soup?," Sonic whined. "Even if I had chilidogs, I'd never gave them to you on such an empty stomach." "You don't have chilidogs!?" "Sonic, shower, now.," Kylie ordered, but her smile took the sternness away. "See you later.," the hero grinned and Kylie left the bathroom.

In the hallway, she met her son. "We'll have a guest overnight.," she told him right away. "Really? How many?," Alex asked with a smirk, confusing his mother. She got, that sleepovers weren't that rare in her family, but his reaction still seemed odd. "Just one, Sonic to be precise.," she answered.

This surprised Alex – and forced the reflexive blush on his face. "Funny, I wanted to tell you the same. But in numbers, I won.," he eventually said.

Kylie blinked. "Huh?," she said intelligently. "Just follow me.," Alex waved and led them to the living room. He let his mother in first and the second she entered, she was assaulted by a twin shout of "KYLIE!", that made her jump, followed by a weight barreling into her legs and clinging to them.

Blinking, she took in the room first and discovered Silver standing in front of the left couch, looking a bit crossed at whoever was hugging her legs, as he had apparently planned on doing that, too.

Behind him, against the far wall, stood an old perambulator, that looked ready to be recycled and was pretty dirty, too.

Looking down, she saw a bunch of brown head quills and she had to keep from holding her nose, as the hugging one was emitting a powerful stench, as if he had crawled out of a dumpster.

"Um...hello?," she greeted, not sure, who this was. Most ukes in the Shelter were Deltas... The uke looked up and she was met with forest green, reddened eyes, that filled with new tears.

Kylie blinked again. She knew those eyes... "Forest?," she asked, meaning the uke, whose pups she had delivered on the Island. The male cried harder, but nodded.

Immediately, the stench was forgotten, she knelt down and quickly hugged him. "Forest, what happened?," she asked gently.

One look at him already told her a good enough story. He hadn't washed in a while, his fur tangled and grimy, and he looked undernourished. He shook with exhaustion – it was too warm to be cold – and his tears soaking her shoulder and chest told her, that something had greatly upset him.

She let him cry for a bit longer, before she carefully inquired again, "...What happened, Forest?" The male hugged her a bit tighter, before choking out, "P-parents...f-fight."

Kylie winced. Forest had been one of the few ukes from the Island, who had been able to more or less return to normality after being free. He hadn't been there for long and his young had given him something to focus on. She didn't know, what he had told his parents, with whom he had lived the last time she had heard of him.

"Did they throw you out?," she asked empathically. To her surprise, he shook his head. "N-no. I l-left...," he whispered. With hardly two-year-old pups? Now the perambulator made sense.

"Okay, I'll need the whole story here.," she told the distraught uke, who fought for composure. "My parents think...thought... I'm their father. S-something's wrong with my daughters...they're not growing anymore. No doctor can help, so m-my father...s-said...that it's the m-mother's fault, that she's weak and irresponsible to leave them with me and...and I just saw... red. I h-hit my father and...and grabbed my girls and left..." he sobbed.

Kylie rubbed her hand over his back quills, soothing him. She wasn't actually surprised, that Forest had reacted that way.

Ukes were usually pretty relaxed when it came to profanities. You could swear in their presence like a sailor and it hardly offended them and calling them names was just marginally worse.

But call them bad mothers, if you meant them consciously or not, and you had an enemy for life.

Most ukes were proud of being able to conceive, but due to society's fix concepts of males and females' roles, they often felt insecure about being as great mothers as females. Therefore, they hated it with a passion to be called bad at raising their own children. It was very possible, that Forest would never be able to forgive his father for that.

Then, the rest of his words registered. "Your daughters don't grow anymore!?," she asked, flabbergasted. Forest heaved a sob and nodded. "I...I think they even shrunk.," he whispered shakily.

At that, Kylie gently pushed him away. "Let me see, okay?," she asked. Forest nodded, hopefully, and let her stand up, almost dragging her over to the perambulator after she had straightened.

Curiously, Kylie looked inside at the two girls curled up around each other on a dirty blanket. She frowned, noticing, that they were truly not as big as they were supposed to be. If she didn't know better, she would have guessed, that they were only a month or two old, their small backs fitting too easily on both of her hands, she estimated. With two years, give or take, they should have the size of an average human baby, that was just past the stage of a newborn.

"They hardly eat anymore and sleep almost all the time.," Forest explained forlornly. "What were you feeding them?," Kylie asked, while very carefully lifting one of the pups out, not surprised by her slight weight. She hoped, that they weren't undernourished too badly.

She knew, that it was quite a bit of distance from Forest's home to here and she could guess, that he had walked the entire way to the Shelter, using whatever he found in the streets to stay warm and feed the three of them – which couldn't be much.

And as all mothers did it, he had made sure, that their needs had been met, before thinking of himself. "Milk. I...I had no money, and...and it was rather easy to steal it. Their... their teeth shrunk, too and...I wasn't so sure, if they could handle solid food...," Forest admitted.

"You stole to sate their hunger. Nobody would punish you for that.," Kylie soothed, while carefully examining the little being on her lap, having taken a seat on the couch for that. It worried her, too, that the little one wasn't responding to a human holding her and let her without complaining turn her over to examine her brittle looking quills and even open her mouth to look at her far too small teeth, that had almost disappeared completely in the gums. As if their time ran backwards... From the looks of it, the little one was only lacking some vitamins, which explained the condition of her quills, but she found nothing else wrong with her.

Due to her teeth being this small and weak looking, Kylie couldn't accuse Forest of doing something wrong, though – she could have choked on something solid very easily. Mashed foods were also a possibility, but he had probably not been able to get some on his way here (and even if, spoons weren't exactly sold with them).

Carefully putting the girl down – and seeing, that her sister wasn't better or worse off, which was a relief of sorts – she turned to Forest.

"Right now, I can't find anything wrong with them. But," she quickly went on, when Forest looked ready to burst into tears again, "But I know a friend, who can look at them tomorrow. He's the best, when it comes to physical ailments. I'm positive, that he'll find out, what's wrong."

"Why not today?," Forest asked. "Thilo has the day off. Besides, you look ready to drop dead. The shower's occupied right now, but how about you and the little ones grab the next one? Then, I'll make you a nice hot meal and you three can stay here overnight and get some real rest. I have an old crib around here somewhere, that you can use, until I have cleaned this perambulator for you.," she offered.

Forest looked at her and a fresh batch of tears started to run down his cheeks. "Thank you.," he whispered.

"Aw, it's okay. Come here.," Kylie cooed and hugged him again, reassuring him as best as she could.

"The third shower's mine.," the woman thought dully, when the stench of dumpsters tickled her nose again.

"Kylie?," a voice whimpered and she looked up to see Silver fidget nervously, tears in his eyes. He had let the Delta first to the Alpha, as all Betas would do it, but whatever had brought him here, wasn't solved, yet, unlike Forest's problem for the most part, so he brought attention to himself again.

Smiling, Kylie opened the arm, that didn't hold Forest. "Come on.," she coaxed gently and the silver hedgehog needed no further invitation. With a cry he launched himself into her arm, crying into her chest.

"I didn't promise too much, did I?," Alex asked from the doorway and she saw him leaning in the frame. "Certainly not. Could you heat a can of soup for Sonic and Forest and look for Hope's old crib?" "And the bedding and Hope's too small clothes, sure.," Alex grinned and went over to the kitchen to start on the soup.

The crib in question had been for a human baby and was therefore bigger than that for a mobian hedgehog, but with Hope's growth spurts in mind, Kylie had actively chosen this one. It was also useful now, as they had two little ones to put somewhere comfortable and safe. Thankfully, Alex always remembered, where they kept their stored stuff.

Forest had calmed down again and let Kylie explain to him, where he would find spare clothes and towels in the bathroom, while she kept hugging Silver, rubbing his back.

When Sonic entered the living room a few moments after that, he looked surprised at the scene before him and quickly zipped over to Silver, while Forest, intimidated by the presence of a mobian Alpha, grabbed his perambulator and quickly rolled it out of the room.

Sonic, whose Inner Alpha felt more distress in Silver than Forest, ignored him and focused on the Beta instead.

"Silver?," he asked gently and the male looked up. "Sonic?," he whimpered and easily transferred arms, although he rather cuddled than cried now. Sonic just held him, readily offering all physical comfort he could to the younger. Nobody paid attention to Alex creeping from the kitchen and to the hallway again.

A few minutes later, Silver had calmed enough to separate himself from Sonic. "Better?," Kylie asked gently. "Uhuh.," Silver sniffed, rubbing his wet eyes. "What happened? Why were you sad?," Sonic asked.

The young Beta sighed. "I don't want to be immortal.," he whimpered. The blue hero next to him flinched, but Silver didn't notice.

"Y-you are-?," Sonic stammered, but the uke shook his head. "Mephy told me, that I will be immortal, when I get his baby. I...I didn't understand, what he meant and...and he said, that Blaze will die!," the poor teen wailed, throwing himself again in Sonic's arms.

Kylie sighed soundlessly. She was pretty sure, that Mephiles hadn't formulated it like that, but that was, what Silver had understood – and cared to learn. Apparently, breaking the news – any news – to their ukes wasn't a strong point of semes.

"C-can I stay here tonight? Blaze doesn't have a place, yet, and I don't want to see Mephy for a bit.," the younger male begged, looking at Kylie from his retreat in Sonic's arms.

"Of course you can stay. And don't even start, Sonic, here is enough space for ten ukes.," Kylie added, when the hero looked ready to not take her offer after all.

"Thank you.," Silver sniffed, rubbing his eyes. It was then, that his stomach decided to rumble and he blushed.

"Let's see, if there is some more soup for you. Sonic, we'll dress your wounds, when I'm done in the kitchen," Kylie grinned and stood up to walk exactly there.

A steaming pot stood on the stove and when she peered into it, she found enough soup in there for all of them.

Smiling at Alex' thoughtfulness, she rummaged through one of her cupboards for one of their first aid-kits.

As Alex was a klutz in the kitchen – whenever he tried to cook something more elaborate than heating canned food, he ended up with some kind of injury, like burns or cuts –, quick aid needed to be close by.

She had just found the kit, when her son came in, carrying two baby bottles. "As small as those two were, I thought, we'd need them.," he explained and, reading his mother's face just right, started to fill both bottles with milk and heat them. Thankfully, he still remembered, how it was done, since he had prepared bottles for both of his sisters more than once.

More or less patiently, Sonic waited for Tails to answer his call. After getting his wounds dressed, having a nice dinner with Kylie's family, Silver, Forest and his young – which had been relaxing and chaotic all in one, especially with Vanessa not knowing, if she wanted to hug Sonic or (a horrified) Forest's babies more – and helping his hunger immensely, Sonic felt the need to check up on Tails.

He knew, that he had left him quite abruptly and although he didn't feel well enough to run home, yet (both physically and mentally), he wanted to check up on his brother and at least ease some of his worries. Unfortunately, he had forgotten his communicator, so he had to communicate the old fashioned way.

"Residence of Maurice the Hedgehog and Miles Prower.," a familiar, yet unexpected, voice answered his call and Sonic almost dropped the receiver. "Sally!?," he asked in surprise.

"Sonic!?," she answered, just as taken aback, but recovering quickly. "Thank goodness! Where are you!? Are you okay? Do you have any idea, how worried we were!?," she barked, which was, as Sonic knew from years of experience, just a testimony to her truly deep seeded worry. Thanks to his speed and his 'let's keep moving'-attitude, it wasn't exactly easy to find him, unless he wanted to be found, so when he pulled a stunt like today, his friends were bound to get worried. Still... "I'm fine, but what are you doing at our house?," he asked back.

Sally, as well as the other 'core Freedom Fighters' had spread all over the planet to keep the world safe after Eggman had decided to go global in his plans and after new, though usually smaller, threats had decided to show their ugly mugs all over Mobius. They had built bases for themselves and recruited new fighters to keep their territories and their inhabitants safe. Sally wasn't living furthest away from them, but they still saw each other rarely in person and talked mostly via communicator.

"Tails called me and once I heard about what happened, I rounded up the others and we came to your place.," the chipmunk female replied. "But the Freedom Fighters-" "-have a second in command each, so we can afford to take a while off. Two years ago, it was the same, remember?"

Sally didn't mention the Island-incident and its aftermath, but they both knew, that this was, what she meant.

The Freedom Fighters hadn't left their friends, until they had been sure, that they could cope with what had happened to them, which had been about a month.

"Bunnie, 'Twan and I are busy with cleaning everything, that has Shadow's scent on it and Tails and Rotor found something, that will remove the traces of him in the bigger textiles.," the female quickly changed the topic.

Sonic felt a pang in his chest hearing that and when he swallowed, it tasted rather bitter, but he forced a smile nonetheless. "Never took 'Twan for the laundry-type.," he smirked. "You don't really think, that he trusts anyone to get his clothes this accurate other than himself, do you?," Sally giggled back. It felt almost...normal to joke like that and he really appreciated it.

"Thanks, Sal.," Sonic told her and meaning it. Not just for being there or doing his laundry, but also for staying their friend through all of their troubles.

She chuckled warmly back, as if she had somehow felt, what he meant. "We're friends, so don't mention it. Now, where are you? Are you alright?," she asked again.

"I'm at Kylie's. She won't exactly let me leave until tomorrow. I'm fine, though.," Sonic grinned.

"...Right, that's, why Kylie wants you to stay the night. I'm not going to ask, then.," she grinned back.

Although Sally didn't know Kylie that well, she knew enough from Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Shadow and Rouge about her to have a certain idea of the human woman – and she liked her very much.

"How is Tails?," Sonic asked. "Okay, I guess. He called me, because he couldn't handle the situation, but you know, how much he loves it to tinker with Rotor. It always calms him down.," Sally replied.

She paused a second, before quieting her voice a little. "Sonic, what happened between you and Shadow?," she asked.

Sonic bit his lip. "I...don't know, what to say.," he mumbled. Usually, he and Sal could talk about everything, even topics, that weren't appropriate for a child like Tails, but this was an exception. Not even he had a handle on things, yet.

"We met Shadow earlier today and I asked him, too, what happened.," Sally told him honestly. "...And?," Sonic inquired, feeling a knot in his stomach all of a sudden.

"He answered, that it wasn't his call to speak about your breakup.," the chipmunk replied, sounding a bit annoyed.

Sonic, instead, felt his cheeks heat up. Shadow didn't owe him anything. HE had broken up with him, he had had every right to try and put him in a bad light. Instead, he had showed him nothing but respect, even if he couldn't know, that Sally would tell him about their talk.

"Sonic?," Sally called gently, he must have been quiet for too long. "Er...yeah, sorry, I spaced out for a sec there.," he replied.

The princess worried her lip for a minute, before she approached a rather sensitive topic. "Sonic... Tails told me, that Shadow hurt...your feelings. We both know, that you aren't that fragile, so...did he-?"

"NO!," Sonic exclaimed so loudly, that Kylie actually poked her head through the door of the living room down the hallway, where he stood in, but upon seeing him waving apologetically, she smiled and retreated again.

"Sal, Shadow would NEVER, I repeat, never hurt me in that way. He really...in a way, he really hurt my feelings, but I can't talk about it. Not right now. I need to come to terms with this myself first.," Sonic answered, once the door was fully closed, whispering now, just in case.

Sally stayed silent for another minute and Sonic knew her well enough to guess, that she was contemplating his answer.

"Alright then.," she eventually answered. She was worried, he heard it in her voice, but she trusted him to tell her, when he was ready. "I understand. Can you tell already, when you'll be back?"

Sonic grimaced. He had heard of Forest's trouble during their dinner and offered to accompany him – especially, when Kylie had told them about Forest's doctor, Thilo – which had made the male so happy, that he had actually hugged him.

Until now, Sonic didn't know, if he was simply relieved, that he didn't have to go there alone, or if he felt safe, because he was an Alpha. Either way, he would go with him tomorrow morning and then look for Mephiles to talk with him about immortality – and how to explain things to Silver in the future. Depending on what he would learn, he would probably spend another night at Kylie's...or somewhere else...to digest everything.

"No, sorry. It's probably tomorrow, but I don't know, when exactly. I hate to ask, but could you-?"

"-look after Tails for you? Always. He's our little brother, too, you know?," the female replied, reading his thoughts. Sonic smiled. "Thanks, Sal, you're the best.," he told her.

The princess chuckled. "Always. Do you want to talk with Tails?" "Only, if it's okay with him.," he replied and Sally hummed in acknowledgment and placed the receiver on the small table, that held the telephone to go and talk with the boy, while the hero waited patiently – again.

Sonic made himself no illusions, Tails wouldn't have called for Sally's help, if he hadn't scared and overwhelmed him badly. If his little brother didn't want to talk with him right now, then that was okay.

His ear twitched upon hearing running steps on the other end of the line and then the receiver was suddenly picked up and Tails panted, "S-Sonic!?"

"Hey, buddy.," Sonic greeted gently, using the nickname to put his brother at ease. It seemed to work, as Tails' breathing eased a little.

"Are you okay?," he asked, worried. Apparently, Sally had had just enough time to mention, that Sonic was on the phone, before Tails had run here.

The hedgehog chuckled. "Yes, buddy, I'm fine. Kylie just plays prison guard and won't let me leave until tomorrow."

"But tomorrow, you're back, right?," Tails asked hopefully. "Maybe. I have a few things to settle in the Shelter. Depending on that, I may need a few more days."

Tails stayed silent for a minute, his tails swishing anxiously in the background. "...I didn't have the chance, yet, to check on Eggman's old robots Kylie has now.," he eventually started. "Would it be okay, if Rotor and I checked them out?," he asked carefully.

Sonic laughed a little. "No complaints on my side, buddy, but you better check in with Kylie."

Without Tails having to ask for it, Sonic called for the woman, who appeared a minute later in the door frame. "Would it be okay, if Tails and a friend of mine checked Eggman's old robots out tomorrow?," he asked, keeping the receiver uncovered, so Tails could listen in.

Kylie frowned in thought for a minute. "Yeah, that should be fine. As long as those two don't take them apart. It's rather traumatizing for them and I can only stand so many robot hugs in a month.," she replied.

Tails giggled and Sonic chuckled. "I don't think, that this will be a problem.," he reassured her. "I hope so. You don't want to know, how often I got this particular promise broken.," the woman sighed and retreated back into the living room.

"Any progress with Omega?," Sonic asked, changing the topic to a more pleasant one. "Not really.," Tails replied, his tone enthusiastic, though. "Rotor and I ran every diagnostic program we know, but got no result! We tried everything, so now, we have to think about a new approach!"

He paused to think for a moment. "Do you think we could transport him somehow to the Garage? Snow and the others there might have an idea!," he suggested, obviously liking the idea already.

Sonic grimaced. Shadow hadn't put Omega in their house for fun and although it worried him, that not even Tails and Rotor combined could find out, what was wrong with him, he didn't want to remove the obvious proof of Shadow's care, when everything else of the seme was taken away already.

"I don't think, that transporting Omega is a good idea.," he eventually spoke up, hearing Tails' disheartened "Aww", before he went on, "But you can for sure bring a hologram or something like this to the Garage, or invite your friends over – just please not all of them at once, okay?"

He still remembered, how many people had been in the Garage and didn't want to find out, how or if they would fit in Tails' lab. Chaos, he had accidentally pressed hundreds of buttons while being there – and they had been usually alone. It was a miracle, that he hadn't killed them during one of their countless meetings in the lab... He rather didn't have the lab so packed, that something would get activated by someone.

"Hmm...ten people max?," Tails asked. "Including Rotor.," Sonic told him. "Deal!," the fox laughed.

Sonic chuckled, happy to have cheered his brother up. "But promise me, that you won't go too late to bed.," he insisted. Although he knew, that Sally would see to that, it was something normal between them and right now, they could both use some normalcy. "Okay...," Tails grumbled, but not as annoyed as usual. "See you tomorrow, then."

They said their goodbyes and Sonic hung up after promising, that he would try to meet his brother tomorrow at the Shelter.

Upon entering the living room again, he saw, that Kylie and Alex had turned one of their couches in a bed with three sets of pillows and blankets on it. Forest's young lay in a crib Alex had brought, cushioned by several blankets, that stood next to the couch.

"Is this alright with you?," Kylie asked upon spotting him. "If not, we still have a guest room, or the other couch. This one isn't a bed, though."

Sonic looked at the triple bed for a second, before turning to her. "It's fine, really." It would feel strange either way, he was so used to sleeping in Shadow's arms, that he would need ages to find a comfortable position, if he was alone or not.

"Alright then. Do you want to go to sleep already? You have a long day before you, Sonic and Forest.," Kylie told them and Sonic had the feeling, that she would say the same to her children in a similar situation.

Not even Silver argued, they all felt rather drained by now for three different reasons. "Okay, if you need anything, I'm in my bedroom, just down the hallway, the last door to the right...," Kylie explained, but trailed off at the last word upon hearing the door opening.

She turned around, expecting Alex, but was surprised to see her daughters instead, both in their matching sky blue night gowns, their arms full of plushies. "Aren't you supposed to sleep?," she asked, disapproval in her stern voice.

"In a minute.," Vanessa replied with all the resolve a girl her age could muster and marched towards Sonic.

"Here." She gave him a plush monkey with longer than natural arms. It had a smile stitched on its face and button eyes. Judging by the slightly thinning plush coat here and there and some discolored patches, the monkey was hugged pretty often.

"That's Mr. Choconut.," Vanessa told him. "I have him since forever and he's the best listener and comforter there is! You can tell him everything, he won't ever tell anyone else!," the girl explained and Sonic realized, that Vanessa must have noticed, that something had bothered him – and thought of a way to help him.

A gentle smile stretched his lips. "Thanks a lot, Vanessa. I feel better already.," he told her and as it wasn't a lie (in her own way, she had made him feel cared for, something which Shadow always comforted him with), Vanessa beamed at him. "I know, that's Mr. Choconut's secret power!," she grinned and went to Silver.

"Here, that's Mrs. Apple-Orange. She married twice, you know? That's why she has two names.," she explained with her childish logic and gave the male a pony plushie with black fur and a candy cotton-colored mane. Its white eyes were made out of rows of yarn, that formed two circles.

"Oh, she did? Then she's old already?," Silver questioned, not playing along, but really believing her.

"Of course not, silly! Plushies become much, much older than us! Mrs. Apple-Orange was already married, when Mommy found her in the toy store, but she pretended to be a baby, like me. She told me her secret only after I was old enough and then also about her secret second wedding.," Vanessa told him, as if she was lecturing a younger child.

"Oh, that makes sense.," Silver nodded. "Then she knows lots of stories, right?," he asked. "Sure! And she always gives the greatest of dreams!," Vanessa giggled.

Silver looked elated at first, but then he frowned in worry. "But...won't you get nightmares without her?," he asked, obviously fully buying her story.

Vanessa giggled again. "No, I still have her daughter in my bed, Miss Piggy Adaline Apple-Orange.," she told him.

"Wasn't her name Ally Applecorn-Orange?," Kylie asked amused. Vanessa flushed a bit at confusing the names and Sonic wondered, just how many plushies she actually had in her room... "Er...that's her nickname!," she dismissed, quick-witted as her mother.

"Thank you, I will enjoy Mrs. Apple-Orange's company for sure.," Silver thanked her, earning a big grin.

Forest jumped a bit, when Vanessa approached him next. "Here, that's for you." She gave him a Sonic the Hedgehog plushie, that showed a confident grin stitched for all eternity into its face and a thumbs up.

"Um..." A bit confused, Forest looked from the plushie to the original. "That's Sonic, but you know that already. He not only protects your dreams, he also protects at day!," Vanessa explained.

"She takes him to every doctor's appointment and to school, when she has a test of any kind. He's a lucky charm, so to say.," Kylie added, when Forest still seemed lost. "That has nothing to do with luck, Mommy.," Vanessa pouted. "It's magic, given by the one and only Sonic! Everything he touches, becomes great!"

Kylie chuckled fondly, especially, when Sonic turned an interesting shade of red. "If you say so."

"I...thank you.," Forest thanked her, taking the plushie, as if it was a precious treasure. "No problem, really.," Vanessa grinned and stepped to the side to let Hope, who had followed her sister, walk forward. She held two brown furred squirrel plushies, who looked identical aside from the pink bow one of them had wrapped around the base of its tail.

Noticing, that Forest was looking at her, Hope blushed, but eventually found the courage to give him her plushies. "They're twins...and...and for the twins. To...to watch over them. T-tomorrow.," she stammered.

With a dropped jaw, Forest took the plushies, acting, as if they were made out of thin glass.

"You're willing to give them to my daughters?," he asked, baffled by her kindness, making Kylie's heart bleed for him. Pretending to be a single father (and being a single mother in reality) probably isolated him quite a bit from society, which was, why he was now so overwhelmed by the simple show of compassion and kindness.

"Th-thank you.," he whispered, tears in his eyes, that quickly started to run down his cheeks, which took the girls off guard.

"Mommy!," Vanessa called out in distress, when Silver already moved and hugged Forest, who was a few years older than him. Neither of them cared, though, Forest just hugged Silver back, accepting his comfort.

Meanwhile, Sonic gently shepherded the girls to their mother. "You did nothing wrong.," he reassured the disturbed children.

"Forest just...didn't have so many reasons to be happy lately. He's crying out of happiness, you see?," Kylie went on, hugging them. "Let's go to bed, it's past your curfew anyway. Tomorrow, you'll see, that Forest is happier already.," she soothed and led them out of the room.

When the door closed, Sonic went over to the pair and placed his hand on Forest's shoulder, silently offering support. He didn't expect the Delta to shoot out an arm and pull him into a three-way hug, but Sonic didn't resist, just allowing the other to cry on both of their shoulders. He started to understand, what Kylie had meant, when she had talked about ukes having less problems with physical comfort. He himself felt already better and he was the comforter here.

A minute or so later, Forest had calmed down enough to loosen the embrace again. "S-sorry about that.," he mumbled. "No need to apologize.," Sonic replied, while Forest went to the crib to give his young the squirrels. He smiled, when they latched to the objects, that carried his scent now.

"Let's get some shuteye.," Sonic decided and went to the light switch. By the time he had plunged them into darkness, that got only broken by the light coming through the window, he saw, that only the middle of the bed was free.

Not arguing, as he didn't see a point in it, he just kicked off his shoes, crawled in between the other two, put Vanessa's toy on the outer edge of the mattress, where the other two were already to make sure, that they wouldn't get damaged by their quills accidentally, and lay down, bidding the other two goodnight and it became silent.

As expected, Sonic couldn't find a real rest, even after hours of listening to the other four in the room breathing evenly.

His thoughts drifted immediately to Shadow whenever he tried to relax and their time together and when he tried to move away from this train of thought, then he went immediately to what he might hear from Mephiles and what he should tell his friends and family and it took an almost physical effort to beat the thoughts down again.

He sighed, when he got another short respite from his mind, before it would let the Shadow-topic back on the mental stage, and rolled on his side, trying to get comfortable. He knew, that his thoughts would return soon to their vicious cycle.

"NO!" The shout of Silver to his right almost let him jump out of his skin and he sat up with his famous speed to see the male sitting up as well, panting and sweating. How didn't he notice before, that he was having a nightmare?

Forest popped his head up off his pillow at the shout and blinked blearily at them. "Wha-?," he mumbled sleepily.

"Everything's okay, Forest, go back to sleep.," Sonic told him, while gently putting an arm around Silver's shoulders.

"Bad dream?," he mumbled empathically, as Forest buried back under his blanket. "Y-yeah." Silver sniffed. "It was horrible. All that blood. And the screams. And...and the laughter...," he cried.

"Hey, it was just a dream, not real.," Sonic soothed, gently rubbing his back. "I guess, that Mrs. Apple-Orange couldn't help me after all.," the younger sighed sadly.

Sonic wisely didn't say anything to that, just coaxing him to lie down again while doing the same. "Do you think, that you can go back to sleep now?," he asked carefully.

Silver gave off a small whimper. "I'm...kinda afraid to sleep.," he mumbled, reminding Sonic of Tails after a nightmare and he smiled gently. "Come here.," he offered, lifting his arm to make room and Silver only hesitated for a second, before he scooted over and snuggled closer, his head on his shoulder, his tension already draining away and with a small sigh, he settled down and quickly fell asleep again.

Sonic smiled fondly down on him, when he felt someone settle against his other arm. Turning his head, he wasn't too surprised to see Forest snuggle against his arm, pinning it down. It wasn't uncomfortable, though, so Sonic just let him.

When Kylie peeked her head in a few minutes later, as she had, too, heard Silver's shout, she couldn't help the gentle smile, that stole on her face upon seeing the three hedgehogs snuggled up together and slumbering away. Soundlessly, she closed the door again and retreated into her own bedroom.

The next morning, the three hedgehogs were awakened by an enthusiastic Vanessa running into the room and jumping happily on the couch – and wisely not on them. "Wake up, breakfast's ready! Come on!," she cheered happily.

As it was an unwritten rule in Kylie's family, that they would only eat, when everyone was at the table (unless, of course, someone had a good excuse not to be there), she was motivated to get them out of bed quickly.

Yawning, Silver rose first, rubbing his eyes. "Already?," he muttered. "Yeah! Mommy made a mountain of pancakes, come quick, or they'll get cold!," Vanessa insisted, while Forest silently slid off the bed and checked on his young, who had thankfully slept the night through. He didn't get that much sleep in a long time and he felt much better than he had expected.

"Sonic, wake up!," Vanessa called for the hero, who had the least sleep of the trio and could really do with more as he curled into a ball.

"Sonic?" Hearing the change in her tone, he cracked an eye open and saw her staring at him in worry.

Heaving a small sigh and giving up to his fate, he pushed himself up. "I'm up.," he declared with all enthusiasm he could currently muster.

Van looked at him and then grinned, happy again. "Alright! Let's go!," she whooped and jumped off the couch to race into the kitchen and Sonic asked himself, if she really needed more sugar.

Eventually, they all sat at the table, helping themselves to pancakes and toppings. "I have good news for you, Forest.," Kylie announced as the small talks wound down for a minute. "I organized you an apartment here. It's already furnished, so you don't have to worry about that. Later, we'll get you and the little ones some clothes."

"B-but I don't have any money!," Forest protested. Kylie smiled softly. "It's okay, we have funds for that. Don't worry, I'll show you, from where you can get a monthly check for your expanses and I'll help you fill out the necessary forms.," Kylie explained.

Forest froze on the spot taking that in, a fork with a piece of pancake halfway to his mouth. "B-but I...I can't...," he stammered.

"You can and you will. This is just, until you can stand on your own feet. You don't have to pay us anything back, so don't think about it. We'll talk more, after we know, what's wrong with your babies, okay?," the woman replied. Forest nodded and continued to eat quietly, blinking back a new bout of tears.

They talked about meaningless things for a good while, before Kylie's mobile rang. "Ah, one minute.," she told Silver, who she had spoken with, cleaned her hands and mouth quickly with a napkin and answered the call.

"Ellen?," she started, as she hadn't recognized the number shown on the display. She frowned and turned away from the table. "...Yes, that's me.," she answered slowly, a faint trace of worry starting to leak into her voice.

Gradually, her face took on a look of horror, her face color draining away, as she listened to the one calling her.

"...Y-yes, I'll...I'll be there...," she stammered eventually, hung up and stood up, looking around for anything she might need, seeming in a rush suddenly.

"Alex, take care of your sisters, I need to go.," she told her son, while gathering her plate and cutlery in a rush and pretty much throwing both into the sink, before rushing from the kitchen.

Sonic, not liking, how her whole demeanor had changed so abruptly, excused himself and followed her in the hallway, just to see the front door falling shut already.

He quickly opened the door and wanted to run after her, but he found her a few steps away from the door already, just in the process of standing up while swallowing several curses. Her purse, mobile and a backpack lay cluttered around her and he quickly collected everything in, waiting for her to straighten.

"Kylie, you okay?," he asked her. It wasn't like the woman to stumble this clumsily. "Yeah...I just tripped and bruised my knee.," Kylie growled through the pain and used the wall next to her to bring herself up to her feet.

"What was this call about?," Sonic asked urgently. Kylie froze for a second in her movements, thinking hard, but then, she sighed. No use lying to an Alpha., she reminded herself.

"That was the police. They found the body of a male mobian hedgehog, just down in the city. Maybe an uke, they aren't sure. I was asked to come to...to try and identify him.," she managed to get out, feeling nauseous.

Sonic felt a block of ice drop into his stomach upon hearing that. Although he couldn't tell, if this was really an uke, if he even knew him, he couldn't help, but feel, as if someone of his closest friends had been declared dead. His Inner Alpha's instinct, perhaps?

"I'll bring you there.," he told Kylie, following a sudden idea. "What?," she blinked, turning around to him and leaning against the wall, the items she had gotten from him held loosely in her hands.

"You're hurt, it will slow you down. The faster you get there, the faster we know for sure.," Sonic argued.

"Please listen to him.," another voice piped up and they saw Silver stand behind them, looking anxious. "I...I don't know how I know this, but please, you have to hurry... W-we have to hurry.," he corrected. "Silver, this isn't exactly-"

"Hang on, both of you!," Sonic interrupted her and lifted Kylie on his arms at once, allowing Silver to approach him from behind and cling to his neck.

"What's the address?," he asked the woman, who was stunned by his obvious impatience and boldness, but eventually answered him.

Thankfully, Sonic knew the more or less exact location and without further ado, he just jumped through the window opposite the apartment's door, earning a startled yell, as it had been closed and they were on the first floor.

But Sonic, being driven to haste by Silver's words and an uneasy feeling he started to get in his gut, hardly heard her.

He didn't care about the drop, although he was heavier than usual with his passengers and his ankles protested accordingly during the landing, or the rain of glass shards his unexpected descend had created, he just took off with Kylie and Silver clinging to him for dear life.

The police cars blocking off the street and the police men redirecting the traffic around them were the first sign, that he was close.

Jumping over one of the parked cars, Sonic ran down the blocked off, empty street, until he spotted the vehicles of police, firefighters and reporters parked haphazardly in the street before two apparent apartment-complexes standing next to each other.

Stopping just before he could crash into the van of a news channel parked on the street right before the gap between the two buildings, he let Kylie down, who gladly leaned against the car to gather her bearings, while Sonic gently untangled Silver – who had only by some divine miracle not choked him in the slightest – from the grip he had around his neck.

"I don't know, if it's a good sign, that I'm getting used to this.," Kylie groaned, giving her jacket a shake to let the last glass shards from her window fall off her. She had already fluffed her hair a bit to make sure, that it was glass-free as well.

"And you owe me a new window. And probably a year of my life.," she added sourly towards Sonic, who brushed some glass himself off his quills and checked Silver's fur and quills, as he was still recovering. "Yeah, sorry about that.," he replied, although he didn't seem that sorry.

"Miss! You two!," a voice called out suddenly and they turned around to see a young human female police officer quickly come over. "I need you to leave this area, this is a crime scene and-"

"I know that.," Kylie quickly interrupted her, showing her ID-card, "I'm Dr. Kylie Ellen, director of the Uke Shelter. I was told to come here to try and identify the victim."

The other woman processed that quickly and nodded, relaxing a bit. "I see, but I'm afraid, we have trouble with recovering the body, so there is nothing to identify, yet."

Kylie – and her two companions – blinked at that. True, they had been fast, but there were roughly a dozen vehicles here – what was taking them so long?

Then she noticed, that the officer was looking at something, that the van they stood next to hid from view, so they walked around it to see, what was so interesting – and their jaws dropped in horror.

WARNING!

The apartment-complexes in front of them had four floors each, which gave them the same height.

Between them, strung up on razor wire someone had wound around each of the buildings just above the highest row of windows, hung the small form of a mobian hedgehog.

His arms were spread apart by the tightly strung wire and it seemed a miracle, that they were still attached, as the razors dug deeply in the flesh and had apparently created hard bleeding cuts along the lengths of his arms when the wire had been pulled, as there was even now still blood dripping on the pavement.

The rest of his body was completely limp. The poor thing was bleeding from various deep and long wounds all across his body and face, that let the ones on his arms look harmless in comparison, the blood having soaked and splattered over so much of his fur and quills – that hadn't been ripped away by the cuts and stab wounds, at least –, that it would have been impossible to say, what his original fur color was, even if he had been closer to the ground and them.

His legs looked broken from Kylie's point of view, swaying in a breeze and revealing the odd angles they were bent in. By all means, from what she could tell, she had no idea, how any of his limbs were still attached. Between the cuts and the fractures, his body seemed ready to fall apart at the seams. His arms were possibly broken, too, but the wire wrapped around them masked any bone injury there. From the looks of it, none of the injuries was deadly in itself, but they would cause a blood loss, that would lead to a slow and painful death.

END OF WARNING!

Kylie felt disgust well up inside her, that someone would do this – and present the body like that afterwards.

Then, her attention was drawn to something written on the wall, that stood between the two buildings and that just because of two reasons – someone had pointed a flood light on it and the displayed message, that was a stark contrast to the dirty white of the wall; and every letter had been written in blood. Probably the hedgehogs blood, which was just as disgusting as the situation of its owner.

In big letters, there had a cryptic message been smeared under the high edge of the wall:

Pnshm #128

#129: CT.

"You need to get him down, now!," Sonic suddenly shouted, making both females jump. "Sonic, what-!?," Kylie began, but the male didn't react, he seemed to calculate something quickly, while he took a few steps back, his eyes jumping back and forth rapidly.

"I should get this wire through in one swipe.," he mumbled to himself and looked over to Silver, who watched him attentively, just waiting for instructions. "Can you hold him, until he's loose?," he asked the younger.

The Beta nodded. "I'll hold him and get him down.," Silver reassured and Sonic nodded and went to jump over the startled people gathered in front of the buildings and to climb the right apartment-complex by jumping from windowsill to windowsill.

"Silver, what's wrong!?," Kylie asked the young hedgehog, who looked at the prone mobian with pure determination, waiting for Sonic to reach the roof and make his move. "He's still alive.," Silver answered shortly without turning his attention away from the two other hedgehogs and both humans looked back at the hanging male.

"Oh, Chaos.," Kylie whispered hollowly, shaking in horror and feeling very nauseous all of a sudden. She couldn't even begin to imagine, how this was actually possible by the condition he was in. The officer recovered from her own shock and quickly shouted towards a colleague to get an ambulance here.

Sonic had reached the roof now, but had retreated out of sight as he moved to the far side of the building with quick, measured steps. He needed some momentum for this, as he didn't plan on leaving the poor guy hanging a second longer than necessary.

Despite not knowing for sure, who this hedgehog was, his scent told him, that he belonged to Kylie's colony and another scent, that he couldn't identify just now, somehow made him part of his own. He would later sort through that fact, for the moment, he just concentrated on getting him out of this position.

He quickly raced to the edge of the roof and jumped off it, curling into a ball a second later. He felt, how his sharp quills cut through something, that gave way almost as soon as he had touched it and uncurled.

Bouncing off a flat, turquoise glowing platform, that had the exact angle he needed, courtesy of Silver, who dutifully held the halfway freed male in the air, he aimed for the second target.

Cutting through the other side of the wire, Sonic landed on the roof next to the one he had started from, watching, how the now completely freed male was carefully turned on his back and then just as carefully lowered towards the ground.

Under him, Kylie was elbowing her way through the crowd, 'accidentally' smashing cameras against noses on the way, when they tried to take a picture or shot of the descending male.

In front of the crowd, she came to a stand, watching the hedgehog, who was still quite a bit above her.

Looking over at Silver, who was concentrating on bringing the hedgehog down and wondering, what took him so long, Sonic realized, that he had to constantly regulate how strongly he gripped the hedgehog and how fast he let him down (he rarely transported people this way and had little to no experience with this) and at the same time he tried to look past the crowd for a place, where he could best lay him down. He didn't try to move him towards himself, as he had never trained his powers that well and his depth perception was always messed up using his telekinesis. The risk to accidentally drop him on himself or an innocent bystander was just too big.

Seeing, that nobody else noticed Silver's struggle, Sonic jumped off the building, landing gracefully on the pavement. "Hey, make some space, will you?," he told the crowd loudly and after the police men had understood, what he was doing (and more importantly, why he was doing it), they immediately went to help, clearing everyone away, who could obstruct the uke's view of the pavement.

The motionless hedgehog was only about six meter or so away from solid ground, when two lights suddenly lit up to both of Silver's sides, startling the male so much, that he lost focus and the other uke plummeted without any hope of rescue to the ground.

Kylie and Sonic balked and attempted to catch him, but he stopped at once, before he was even close to Kylie's arms, who had naturally better chances of catching him.

Surprised, Sonic looked around and spotted Shy a few steps away from Silver, her eyes firmly on the unknown uke and he was gently lowered on the ground in front of Kylie, who immediately knelt down next to him, examining the wounds.

While she did that, Shy came closer, her walk unsteady and her face pale as a ghost's. She held Curi in her arms, squeezing the poor animal to the point, where it had to hurt, but the small wolf stayed silent. Her eyes were on the hedgehog Kylie tended to.

She didn't even realize, that she almost pushed Sonic to the ground while passing him, which suited the hedgehog just fine, as he had caught sight of the second new arrival and all thoughts beyond that had vanished.

He was staring at Shadow standing across the street, he and Rouge being the second light source, that had disturbed Silver before, looking as shocked as he felt. What was he doing here!?

Time seemed to freeze, everything fell away but them. Sonic felt his insides tighten and knot and he actually felt a bit nauseous. Somehow, he felt worse than facing the older Perringten or Perfect Chaos once. Was he...afraid?

Somehow, he was a bit scared, as he had no idea, what his ex-boyfriend was thinking. Usually, he could read him like a book. Right now, he got nothing. He looked shocked, true, but everything beyond that was a mystery to him, as if his eyes had suddenly tightly closed doors behind them. Was this his fault?

Kylie's horrified gasp broke the spell on the hero and he turned to see her frantically trying to help the wounded mobian. "Come on, breathe!," she begged, despite knowing how useless the plea was.

She didn't try the typical procedures to revive someone – his ribs were shattered as she had had to learn once he lay in front of her and trying to apply pressure on the chest would just push bone pieces in his heart. For his lungs, it was too late already, he was oozing blood from his mouth in endless rivulets, they had been pierced. "Where is that ambulance!?," she muttered.

Shy fell to her knees on the hedgehog's other side, her movements stiff and mechanic. "Conner.," she choked out, the desperate, lost tone in her voice indicated, that she saw him dying quickly, too quickly to be rescued.

"This is Conner!?," Kylie gasped, pausing her ministrations for just a second. Even from up close, it had been almost impossible to recognize him. Now, the extensive damage made sense.

Conner had the ability to temporarily cross his own boundaries if he needed it, be it speed, strength, healing, endurance or all of those and more. Whoever had attacked him had probably caught up quickly on this specialty and had kept injuring him, until he hadn't been able to recover anymore. She couldn't even begin to imagine, how long the whole torture had taken to have him in this condition...

Suddenly, Shy's hand grabbed her wrist to stop her movements. "You can stop now. It's too late.," she told her stonily. Her eyes were still on the now cooling body.

Kylie expected her to start crying, she definitely felt like it, knowing how close those two had been, but Shy's eyes stayed dry. She seemed too numb to shed a tear. Inside, the teen was screaming, crying, pleading to anyone, who cared to listen, but the sight of his vibrant orange aura turning black under Kylie's ministrations cut off her air.

This was her fault, she understood as much. The aura clinging to his body, latched there like leeches sucking out the last bit of life, was horribly familiar to her. Seeing it in the second she had caught him with her wind, she had known, that it was hopeless. She never made mistakes. Never.

"Conner...," the girl took a shuddering breath and let go of Kylie's wrist to place her hand on his, "I'm sorry, I couldn't protect you. Thank you...for being friends with the likes of me.," she whispered, her voice too soft for human ears, cracking with unshod tears.

Sonic was close enough to hear her whispered words, though, and suddenly, he felt Instinct Sonic press urgently against his consciousness. He seemed to have an idea and the sudden urge to intervene and without hesitating too long, he allowed his other side to take over.

Instinct Sonic instantly moved his body over to the females and the dead mobian, making him fall to his knees behind his head. Gently, he placed both hands on the deceased one's cheeks and closed his eyes.

For a second there, Conscious Sonic believed to see Scourge and Happy behind his eyelids, but they were gone half a second later and he wasn't so sure, if he hadn't maybe imagined them for whatever reason.

Something hot suddenly traveled down his arms and to his hands and when he opened his eyes, he saw a bright light bleed from his palms, enclosing Conner in just a few seconds, covering every inch of his body, before it subsided quickly.

Shy's eyes widened and unconsciously, she squeezed Curi harder against herself. She had seen Sonic rescue someone from the brink of death once before, on the Island, but this was different. He wasn't rekindling a fire, that was about to go out, he willed his very own flame, taken from his own soul, on the dark aura, burning the black death away to a brilliant white life, in that flooded, starting by the heart, Conner's unique orange aura like paint on a white canvas in less than a second, restoring him to normal.

In the next moment, the formerly dead and now completely healed hedgehog jerked out of his hold and sat upright with a gasp, that turned into a fit of coughs. He wasn't even done with that, before he was crushed in a bear hug by Shy.

Kylie somehow managed to close her jaws again. This was the second time now, that she saw someone return from the dead, although Sonic hadn't been as close as Conner had been. She turned to Sonic and her worry returned, when she saw the male at once pale and swaying on the spot.

Quickly, she gave him her shoulder to lean on. "Sonic, how did you do this?," she asked silently, not wanting to disturb Shy and Conner. "Ask Instinct Sonic, was his idea.," the hero mumbled tiredly. He didn't seem aware of the fact, that he had just revived and healed someone and he probably never would, Instinct Sonic had done everything.

"Shy? ...What happened?," the orange furred uke asked, confused and weak. He gasped, when he looked down on what he could make out of himself in the hug and saw, that he was still covered in blood and he repeated the question more anxiously.

The teen didn't seem ready to answer, she just hugged him a little tighter, before looking up at Sonic. "Thank you.," she mouthed at him, showing him a shaky smile. Sonic smiled back, feeling strangely as satisfied as if he had just helped a close friend, but when he picked up another sound, the feeling was forgotten at once.

Immediately, he was on his feet, almost having Kylie fall to the ground in the process, and darted over to Silver, who had started sobbing.

"Silver, it's okay, Conner's fine!," the hero quickly told him, assuming, that this was the reason for his tears, but the Beta hardly reacted. If anything, he cried louder.

Acting out of pure instinct, Sonic took him in his arms, having the other cry on his shoulder. "Silver, speak with me.," he requested silently. He had no idea now, what the problem might be.

The male sniffed. "I...I know that. I know...all of it.," he whimpered. Letting himself out of the embrace, Silver's yellow, reddened eyes found Sonic's green ones.

"The nightmare. Sonic, I saw this all.," he explained with a trembling voice, begging the hero to understand his pain. "Conner, how he was hanging up there, how Shy and I rescued him, how you revived him – I saw everything last night!," the male exclaimed, clearly distressed.

"Then did you also see the one doing this?," Shadow asked behind him, making him turn around as good as he could with Sonic tightening his grip upon hearing his voice.

The seme held a distance to them, as if he had felt the blue uke's tension, looking solely at the Beta, though, as he concentrated on getting some answers. It was rather clear, that this was the same murderer they were looking for and he was more than ready for ONE clue at least on the culprit's identity.

"W-well...I...I don't think so. I...I mean, I saw someone, but...that's kinda impossible.," Silver stammered, playing with his fingers and unconsciously leaning more against Sonic to protect himself.

"We are trying to solve a very hard case for quite a while now and this incident here seems connected to it, so every little detail, even the impossible ones, might help us.," Rouge piped up, when she noticed, that Shadow and Sonic had locked each other in a stare duel again, in whose middle Silver was caught up. It was hard to say, what they tried to accomplish there with that behavior, so the bat took over.

"Well...I...in my dream, I saw...a child.," the silver furred hedgehog started nervously. That brought him the attention of everyone close enough to listen and Sonic loosened his grip again. Silver made no move to separate from him just yet, though.

"A child? A witness?," Rouge asked. Silver shook his head. "No. She...in my dream, she did this. All of it. She hurt Conner and hung him up there."

"A child and no one else?," Shadow questioned. "In my dream, there was nobody else.," Silver replied.

"How did the girl look like?," Rouge inquired. Silver frowned in thought. "She had...pink fur. And...and she had a hammer.," he explained.

Sonic gasped. He knew someone, to whom this description would fit perfectly... "What do you think?," Rouge asked Shadow.

"I highly doubt, that it's Rose.," the dark seme replied, carefully avoiding Sonic's general direction. "She may fit the description, but she is no murderer. I am positive, that she would never do this, especially not without a reason."

"It was for sure not Amy. I know her and that wasn't Amy at all!," Silver quickly agreed, only now realizing, who he had accidentally suspected there. "I never before saw this girl. She was so creepy, she laughed the whole time." He shivered a bit at the thought.

"Hmm...maybe an escaped patient of a psychiatric hospital?," Rouge mused, filing the thought away for later, when they were back in their office.

A loud crunching sound let them turn back to where Kylie, Conner and Shy stood. The flood lights illuminating the message at the wall were out and the car next to Shy looked, as if an invisible boulder had hit its motor hood. While they watched, the rest of the vehicle got crushed to flat scrap metal in the blink of an eye, as if a giant had stomped on it, that nobody could see.

The only one capable of doing that stood with her back to them, staring at the now dark alley holding the bloody message.

Shy had dropped Curi at some point, was breathing heavily and unevenly – and crushed a second vehicle close to her shortly after the first with nothing but air pressure.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing!?," a man shouted at her, for sure the owner of one of the cars, who had only now found his voice. It wasn't a daily phenomenon to see someone flattening a car with air alone, after all.

He stalked towards the girl, but Conner quickly ran into his way. As he was still full of blood, the man quickly backed off, when he advanced him. "Please leave her alone, sir. I promise, we'll buy you a new one, a better one even, but please, don't get close to her right now.," the uke pleaded at him.

Just then, Shy heaved an audible sigh, her whole body posture losing its stiffness in a matter of seconds. Conner mirrored her, feeling her stress retreat from her. Seemed, as if the attack had faded again.

She bent down, picked up Curi and whirled around to march with long strides towards Shadow, who raised a brow at her intense stare.

The teen stopped a good meter away from the agent. "Just so we can cut the dance short: yes, I know, who did this, yes, I know, what the message means and no, I won't tell you anything – and if I find even a wisp of your aura in the range of my sisters, my friends or me, I will turn you into a piece of coal – and you guessed correctly: that wasn't a metaphor.," she told him coldly, whirled around once more and marched towards Conner, who waited patiently for her.

Sonic watched her retreating back. For some reason, he had something against Shy talking like that to Shadow. Not because she was attacking his ex-boyfriend, but rather...because she was impolite? He wasn't her caretaker, her attitude shouldn't be his concern. But for some reason, it was. To top it off, her movement of whipping around like that had spread her scent and he had realized with a start, that this had been, what had linked Conner to his colony earlier.

But...Shy didn't seem like a 'new' member to him, like someone he knew for about two years only. No, this connection ran somehow... deeper... He didn't understand it in the slightest, before Kylie, he had had never human friends – at least nobody, that he would have called 'friend'.

Reaching Conner, Shy stopped and hesitated, but then turned around once more to the four mobians looking at her. "Sonic, Silver, I can't thank you enough for what you did today for us. But please, stay out of this, too.," she told them, an unreadable expression on her face. With having said that, she and Conner disappeared in a white light.

"So, what are you going to do?," Rouge asked her partner, once she was gone. "Find one of her sisters and ask for answers.," Shadow replied stoically.

"You like the danger, huh?," Rouge joked and Sonic opened his mouth to tell him to leave her alone, but stopped himself in the last second. Why did he care? This was Shadow's business, it didn't concern him anymore, did it? Or was he trying to protect Shy, not Shadow?

He remembered the short talk about her, that he had with Shadow two days ago – it already felt like a lifetime away... – and the feeling from back then was now stronger than ever. He knew this teen, more and longer than he had estimated so far. But from where? Absolutely nothing came to his mind...

"I wouldn't recommend it.," someone suddenly piped up and Sonic, ripped at once out of his thoughts, looked up to see Blush, who just closed her wings to drop the last two meter or so to the ground.

"And why is that?," Shadow asked, his quills rising in annoyance. "Do you have any idea, why she destroyed those cars?," Blush asked back, nodding her head to the flattened vehicles, while Kylie exchanged numbers with their owners. Shy lived at the Shelter, so everything she did was her responsibility.

"Boredom?," Shadow guessed sarcastically. Blush snorted. "True, Shy isn't above senseless destruction to distract herself, but no. She did this only, because she had a mild panic attack."

Seeing her confused audience, she went on, "She felt threatened and stuck and needed space to breathe. Her powers reacted accordingly and flattened the obstacles closest to her. She can't control this, so it's impossible to try and stop her or to tell her to get a hold of herself."

"Why should that be of any importance for me to know?," the seme asked, unimpressed. Blush sighed in annoyance. "I'm starting to believe, that all semes are stupid.," she grumbled, before looking at him intently. "You just saw, what she did during a mild panic attack – and let me tell you, if someone would have been in those vehicles, then her powers wouldn't have cared one bit. Can you – if only to some extent – imagine, what happens, when she panics in a place like the Shelter, where there are plenty of people around to get hurt?"

Shadow's eyes widened. He could imagine that, alright. The girl could kill the whole population of the Shelter in one go...

Out of pure habit, he looked over to Sonic, expecting disapproval in his glare, but said hero had been still thinking about Shy and how and when she could have become part of his colony, when the butterfly's words had started to sink in and had worried him beyond the normal level of concern for a random child.

He had been too deep in thought to have heard the last piece of Blush's speech and therefore not realized, what Shadow had almost done with his egoistic decision. The blue one's ignorance hurt his former boyfriend more, than he would have liked to admit.

"Fine, I won't approach her then, unless we are out of options.," the dark agent conceded after having reigned himself in again.

Blush grimaced and tilted her head to look at Rouge over Shadow's shoulder. "I admire your strength. It can't be easy to deal with this kind of stubbornness on a daily basis.," she told her, unfolded her wings and brought herself in the air.

Looking down on Kylie, who just approached the mobians, she declared, "I will tell my sisters about this and we will double our security measures. Whoever this was, if there is another deliberate act against ukes, it will be her last mistake."

Kylie grimaced a bit at the implication, but nodded nonetheless. "Thank you, Blush, I trust you.," she answered and the female butterfly took off with a satisfied smirk. The woman had just given her full range – and she intended on using it.

"I have the feeling, that I'm going to regret this someway.," Kylie sighed and turned to Sonic. "Forest's appointment has just begun. Do you feel well enough to run back to the Shelter, or should I ask Mephiles for a transport?," she asked. From the looks of it, they were done here.

"I'm totally fit.," Sonic replied confidently – and it wasn't a lie. The fatigue he had felt after helping Conner was almost completely gone, had been gone, when he had heard Silver cry, and never returned – just a light headache remained now.

Seeing Kylie's narrowed eyes, he quickly added, "And I'll tell you the second that changes."

That satisfied the woman. "Good, then- oh." She jumped a bit, as her mobile rang. After the last call this morning, she was a bit apprehensive about this one, especially when she saw the caller-ID, so she answered quickly.

Her jaw dropped shortly after the one at the other end had started talking. "Seriously!? It has been just...three minutes!," she exclaimed, actually looking at her watch to confirm the time period. "What are you doing over there? You know what, don't answer that, I'm coming back to the Shelter now. Just do me a favor and keep. Your mouth. Shut.," she ordered flatly and hung up.

"Thilo is three minutes together with Forest and he already made him cry – and judging by the ruckus in the background, his young, too.," she informed her friends, feeling highly annoyed.

It was Thilo's luck, that he was so good in what he did, or she would have fired him already.

Sonic's eyes flashed at her explanation and he growled lowly, as if Thilo was already in front of him. Kylie really feared for the butterfly male's health now.

"Alright, let's go. You coming, Silver?," Sonic decided, straightening and rolling his shoulders briefly to prepare for the weight he would carry soon again.

Kylie wasn't exactly heavy, but gravity did nobody favors and made her weigh more with each passing second. He could take it and would never let her fall, but especially after such a rough day yesterday and too little rest, he struggled a bit.

"Uhuh.," the younger uke nodded as an answer to his question, but Rouge waved him to her, before he could climb on the hero's back.

"Here.," she said and gave him her business card, after he had approached her. "If you have another of those dreams, call us."

"Really? Mephy said, that I shouldn't talk about my dreams with others...," Silver mumbled reluctantly.

"It may help us. Just keep the card and call, if you have another dream of that nature.," Rouge replied with one of her winning smiles and Silver nodded eventually, holding the card close to himself and returned to Sonic.

"Sonic." Said hero's fur and quills bristled defensively, when he heard the voice and he stiffened, not turning around.

Carefully, Shadow approached Sonic. He had heard, that he wanted to leave and this was probably the only chance he would get in a long while to try and apologize.

The fists, that his boyfriend (he refused to put an 'ex' before that word, even in his own mind) suddenly balled, let him stop a few meter away from him.

Unbeknownst to them, Silver, who wasn't much closer than the seme, did the same, feeling the sudden tension. "Sonic, I...I'm sorry, I-"

"Save it.," the hero snarled darkly, causing Shadow to flinch at the cold tone. Even Silver inched a bit back, although he hadn't been the target of his rage.

"But, Sonic, I-I want to a-" "I said save it! I don't want to hear it! Leave me alone, don't EVER come close to me again! Silver, Kylie, we go!," the blue hedgehog barked, his temper flaring once again. He just wanted to leave this place and never look back towards his ex-boyfriend, preferably just forget, that they had met again.

There was a problem, however, that made it impossible to just take off the way he wanted to – his back quills were still raised and refused to relax and Silver couldn't hope to get closer to anything else but his front, unless he wanted to lose a limb or an eye. This irritated Sonic, which caused his quills to rise further and made him even angrier. It was a vicious cycle.

It was Kylie, who came up with the solution. "How about you and Silver take off already and I hitch a ride with Mephiles?," she suggested. "Just...take the scenic route. Calm down a bit."

Sonic nodded jerkily, not trusting himself with words right now. "C-could you tell Mephiles, that..." Silver bit his lip. "N-nothing I guess.," he finished lamely and Sonic quickly whisked him away, before it could become any more awkward.

Once they were gone, Kylie turned to Shadow. "Shadow, I'll only tell you this once: leave Sonic alo-" "Are you daring to tell me, what I should do!?," said seme snarled.

Kylie didn't even flinch. "Exactly. And what I tried to tell you was, that you should leave him alone, until he has worked through this mess you dumped on him. Smooth move, by the way. I couldn't have messed up any better.," the woman replied coolly.

Shadow gritted his teeth. "Why did he run to you!?," he growled in frustration. This human was far too close to Sonic.

"He didn't. I saw, how he was almost run over by a car and rescued him and of course I wanted to know, what threw him this much off track, that he would risk severe injuries.," Kylie replied coldly.

Upon Shadow's horrified face, she took a deep breath. Even if he was an idiot, he was still her friend and she shouldn't treat him like a criminal (even if he deserved it to some extent...).

"Sorry, that was a bit harsh. All I'm trying to say is, let him sort this out for himself. It may take a while and even longer for him to decide, if and when he can forgive you. Give him time and space for that. I know, that you worry about him and your bond, but for the moment, there is nothing you can do.," she explained in a gentler voice.

Shadow looked at her for a moment and then took a shuddering breath. "He'll...be fine, right?," he asked, trembling ever so subtly.

Kylie's gaze softened. "From what it looks like right now, I'm pretty optimistic.," she answered gently and called for Mephiles with her next breath.

The demonic being appeared immediately, looking uncharacteristically unnerved. "What!?," he hissed, his eyes flashing red for just a second.

"Silver is fine, Mephiles. He's on his way to the Shelter with Sonic and they both spent last night at my place. You scared him a bit with all the information, but he should come around in time. Just let him digest all this. And if you need someone to rant with – you'll find, that Shadow and you have a lot in common right now. When you're done moping, then, I would like to be brought to the foyer.," Kylie replied, undisturbed by his foul attitude.

Both dark furred hedgehogs stared at each other hearing that second to last sentence, understanding appearing in both of their glares at the same time. "Later.," they decided in one voice and Mephiles vanished with Kylie, while Shadow turned on his heel to examine the crime scene.

Behind him, Rouge crossed her arms with an annoyed huff. "Sure, let's all not tell the bat what's going on and have our secret paraded before her.," she complained, before stomping after Shadow. He better told her soon, what this was about, if he and Mephiles had something in common now...

Blush was on her way back to the Shelter, still mapping out the best places, where she could station her sisters and trying to decide, which one was best suited for what job exactly, when she saw someone stand above her in the sky.

Smirking, since she knew only one person, who could pull this off without having actual wings, she swung herself up, until she could face Shy properly.

The teen had been observing her surroundings, but turned her attention immediately to Blush, when she arrived.

"How is the hedgehog?," Blush asked first. Of course she knew Conner's name, but she liked to use the species' name and such to keep her emotional distance. She knew, that it was already too late for that with Mighty, Shy and the others, so she had doubled her efforts to keep everyone else out.

"Sleeping. Being resurrected seems to be quite tiring. I got Mighty to watch him like a hawk for the moment.," Shy replied shortly and Blush noticed, that she still looked around, although not as much anymore, merely moving her eyes now in restless, systematic sweeps.

"Okay, out with it. Why are you up here?," the butterfly asked. "You don't need to protect the whole Shelter.," Shy told her curtly.

Blush blinked, before she pieced it together. "You really understood, what was written on this wall, right?," she asked silently.

Shy shivered and balled her fists to stop it. "Yes.," she managed to get out through trembling lips. "This attack on Conner... I know, how much he means to you... Were you punished?," she asked, anger in her voice.

It hadn't been difficult to add the missing letters and get punishment out of 'pnshm'. So far, she had hoped to be wrong or, that it didn't concern Shy after all and she had been just upset, that her friend's blood had been used like that.

Of course she had heard, what she had told Shadow – but she had hoped, that she had merely redirected the focus on herself to protect Conner. Then again, the uke was about as innocent as a newborn. The mere thought of him being involved in anything, that could have ended in him being in this position was laughable. So much for hope.

Shy's answering smile was nothing but bitter. "Yes." She shrugged, as if it was no big deal, but Blush saw the shadows darkening her eyes at the one word.

"What were you punished for?," the assassin asked further. She kept all kinds of compassion out of her voice. It wouldn't help Shy one bit, let alone her, if she wanted finally some answers. She didn't need pity. She needed strength.

The laugh the human barked at the question was nothing but cold and joyless. "As if he ever told any of us.," she replied with an unsettling calmness.

Blush almost forgot to keep batting her wings. She felt heat rush through her veins and her feelers twitched in irritation. Suddenly, she hated this guy. Whoever he was, she wanted him dead, if she was paid for it, if he threatened her clan, or not. It didn't matter, he needed to leave this realm, the sooner the better.

She herself was punished often by her father, even now, but he always told her for what and it was always fair and rarely causing physical harm and she couldn't imagine him to just punish her for something without telling her his reasons behind it...or to torture her by attacking someone close to her. If he would take out one of her friends (she had made sure, that her parents didn't know, how much she loved her sisters), then not to hurt her. She had the sick feeling, though, that, should it come to this, her pain would be a bonus for him.

"What do you need?," Blush asked seriously, shaking off her own train of thought. Shy seemed surprised by her compassionate tone, that the butterfly herself didn't notice in her own voice, but then she straightened.

"Protect my sisters, please. They are the next target. I need to track down Scythe, she may be in danger, too. Like you.," she added almost as an afterthought and her glare suddenly burned into hers.

"He hardly ever warns, it could be a trick, he could target one of you, he-" Shy interrupted her mindless ramble with a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down quickly. It had been a small moment of weakness only until she had reigned herself in again, but it had been enough.

"You're scared, aren't you?," Blush asked silently, her voice almost too soft to carry over to Shy despite their current closeness. It was such a rare occurrence, Shy being afraid of anything, that it almost felt like blasphemy to even think this. That girl never backed down, destroyed every enemy with a vengeance, even she respected that. She couldn't be scared!

Said girl gave a soft sigh. "Yes.," she admitted, almost freely and definitely without a hint of hesitation. It wasn't like her to call herself scared at all and the assassin felt remotely scared, too, now.

"Who is this guy? Tell me a last name only and I'll present you his head in an hour – free of charge.," Blush promised.

Shy blinked at her for a solid minute, before she smiled weakly and even giggled a bit like a little child. "You can't kill the dead, but thanks anyway. I need to go now.," she laughed, in a much better mood for some reason. Death threats, even if they weren't aimed at you, were usually not the best things to lighten the mood of anyone.

But instead of disappearing, as her last sentence would have implied it, or at least moving somehow, she stayed exactly, where she was, her face pensive.

Patiently, Blush waited for her to say whatever she had still gnawing at her mind, her wings flapping silently with slow grace.

"Whatever you do, don't mention this t-to...the one we spoke about in last July, during Scythe's surprise barbecue. Bye!" And she was gone, before Blush had fully answered with "Okay".

The assassin narrowed her eyes, while staying exactly where she was. She hadn't missed the sudden stutter, the cryptic second half of the sentence or how Shy had for just a second fixated something over Blush's right shoulder and looked, as if she had seen a monster there.

"Hm...who could she possibly mean...?," Blush asked herself loudly, leaving herself deliberately open and seemingly defenseless.

Of course she knew, who she meant. Scythe's surprise barbecues were infamous (because the meat she served was a – mostly unpleasant – surprise, not the date, when she had one of those, as the name would imply) and they often sneaked away from the table, before the dubious dish was done.

Naturally, they always talked once they were safely away from the tall hedgette and while they had rarely just one topic for an entire afternoon, they didn't talk that often about other people.

Last year, it had been a certain blue furred hero they had made the topic. She didn't remember, how they got to him as subject in their talk, she didn't know, why Shy didn't want him to get involved (not, that she minded it), or why she thought, that whoever was watching them shouldn't know about him. Right now, it didn't matter.

She pulled out one of her needles and let it slip through her fingers, causing it to fall towards the ground. "Oops, clumsy me.," Blush giggled, doing her best to sound like a stupid girl.

Quickly, she performed a half somersault to plunge after the needle and only a few meter under her original position, she caught the weapon to throw it in one fluid movement in the direction, from where she had just detected a disturbance.

Her feelers twitched at the familiar sound of tearing flesh and she brought herself effortlessly into a horizontal position in the air to quickly rush over to the tree, that was singled out of the forest it stood in by its sheer size, that was about twice as much as the others had.

Upon arriving, however, she found only a large piece of cloth pinned by her needle against the upper part of the tree, fluttering in the wind.

"Hm. Fast little fella, huh?," Blush muttered, a bit miffed, that she hadn't hit her target. Her aim was perfect, flawless. Usually, people didn't live to keep their identities hidden once she had targeted them.

Upon taking her needle back – they were handmade and had a sentimental value next to being not easily remade and should therefore be retrieved whenever possible –, however, she noticed a dark, fresh smelling stain on the rough fabric of what seemed to be a cape for a rather small person.

Judging by the position of the blood and the small hole in the piece of cloth, she HAD hit her target, directly in the heart – the person had just shrugged it off and left. Seeing the lack of blood droplets on the branch the person must have sit on and the surrounding ones as well as the bark of the tree, she could imagine, that her target could heal faster than it could be hurt. You can't kill the dead., she remembered Shy say.

"That has got to be cheating.," Blush grumbled, not too concerned just yet, as she didn't know, if this was really true. People were known to be declared dead and in reality still alive – her clan was a master of faked deaths to protect their charges.

Just then, she noticed something at the foot of the tree. Letting herself fall, she almost forgot to catch herself upon discovering, what she did.

WARNING!

The ground around the tree was littered with dead animals: snakes, squirrels, rabbits, mice, birds... she even believed to recognize a kitten there in the pile. All of them had their necks broken visibly, the throats exposed and severed to strips of flesh with the spine peeking out here and there, at times, the heads were barely attached anymore. Their eyes were mostly open and their teeth and/or claws showed blood on them. Whoever had done this, had relished in their fight for pure survival, toyed with them and most likely killed them, after they had had no more energy left to go on and entertain him or her.

END OF WARNING!

Blush felt bile rise in her throat, when she realized, that the one she had tried to kill had committed all these pointless murders on innocent creatures to give their fingers something to do – like breaking or lighting matches or like she tended to swirl her needles during longer waiting periods. It was horrifying.

And this was the enemy? They must have watched them – Shy – for quite some time now... How much did they hear?

Most of the carcasses haven't fallen from a great height, he – or better, she; she was rather convinced now, that this had been the girl Silver had talked about earlier – must have been on a low branch and only recently come up to watch them. This would explain, why Shy hadn't seen her earlier, the butterfly had hidden the stranger with her own body, blocking the teen's sight, until she had chosen a higher position and revealed herself to the aura seer. So she probably didn't know about her family protecting Shy's sisters more now...

Making up her mind, Blush let her feelers bob a bit, trying to detect any unwanted watcher and when she came up empty-handed, she folded the fabric she still held in her hands in a bundle to make sure, that the blood wouldn't get contaminated too badly and then let out a loud, shrill whistle – a sign for her next younger sister to come to her immediately.

Dutifully, Cigis did just that, appearing a good minute later next to her, her sky blue wings shaking off some leaves and twigs she had ripped off during her descend.

"You wanted to see me?," she asked as a greeting, her dark eyes steely and serious. She didn't even look once at the gore beneath her, although she kept her feet firmly in the air and away from the carcasses.

"Yes. I need to leave for an hour to fly home. I have something to show to Azyran.," Blush started and Cigis' feelers twitched upon hearing their second oldest brother's name.

"In the meantime, you will grab as many of our sisters as you can get and keep a close eye on Shy and her sisters on all times. Be attentive and invisible. They may be in mortal danger. Until further notice, you are responsible for their safety. Take out every threat, even if it doesn't seem like one, yet.," the older ordered and the other nodded, having listened attentively.

"As you wish." And Cigis took off with a powerful leap, having disappeared in seconds from her sister's vision.

"Just you wait, we'll get you. I won't let you harm my family.," Blush hissed at the forest and stiffened upon realizing, what she had just said.

Since when...were Shy and the others her family? But she didn't take her words back, she just took off herself to a place she had never called home in her mind, just in talks with her sisters...

And done! I'm sorry for the long wait - I spent a whole week editing, I found so many mistakes and could think of so much I needed to add, too... The stress is getting to me and I struggled with finding everything I missed. I hope, I found everything and you could enjoy the chapter!

Please bear with me, my time at my university is going to end (hopefully) in this year and I'm having a lot of stress because of that and between the last classes I HAVE to pass in the first try and my master thesis coming up next semester, I will need longer than usual for shorter chapters, sorry.

Anyway, I wish you all a good start in the New Year and for your future just happiness, health and fun :D!