AN: Thank you, Captain, MissMJS, risingzero, and aliciathewolf45 for your reviews. I hope you guys are enjoying the story. I know a lot of people were hyped to see me do a sequel of this story. I just hope it is living up to all of the excitement.

•~•

The next morning, Amy groggily wandered in her pajamas to the back porch while she held Faith in one arm. "Gosh, I'm starving," she mumbled. Once she finished closing the porch door, she was startled when she spotted the picnic table with a full breakfast laid out on magnificent display. "What the…"

Lying out on the table were pitchers of various fruit juices, along with fresh apples, oranges, grapes, watermelon, grapefruit, and even fresh pancakes, bacon, cereal, and eggs. Amy smiled brightly at the gesture as she came to her own assumption. "Wow, look what daddy made, Faith," Amy pointed as she picked at some grapes, popping them into her mouth.

Right on cue, Shadow stepped out past the French doors, looking on in awe at the generous food display himself. "Rose, did you do all this?"

Amy turned around, swallowing a mouthful of grapes and shook her head. "No, I thought you did?" she said slightly confused.

Shadow shook his head as he came over to study the food. "Not at all, I just finished showering and getting dressed."

"Did Silver compel another chef again?" Amy surmised dryly as she looked around, expecting to see a compelled cook pop out of the kitchen at any moment. "Perhaps, this is another sweet gesture of Silver for his recent engagement?"

Right as the words left her mouth, Silver and Blaze came out, also in their pajamas, yawning, stretching, and completely oblivious to the antics going on outside. Seeing Silver and Blaze in their current state, it became evidently clear that none of them were responsible for the feast. "I'm guessing this wasn't you either?" Shadow surmised.

Silver's eyes widened, as he looked at all the delicious food set outside. He scratched his head perplexed by the sight. "I wish."

Blaze wandered over to the table and poured herself a glass of orange juice. "Who could have possibly taken the time to do all of this?"

Before Blaze could take a sip of her drink, Silver swatted her hand, forcing the glass of juice to shatter on the ground. "Blaze, don't drink that! You don't know where it came from," he scolded.

Blaze shot him a deadpan expression. "Well, someone put a lot of effort into making all this. Besides, I hate wasting food."

While the two bickered, Shadow found an envelope in between the two pitchers of juice and opened it up. As his eyes scanned the message, the note read:

Dinner at your place.

8 PM.

Dress nicely.

– Mother

While Shadow was busy reading the note, Amy finished swallowing a spoonful of scrambled eggs, ignoring the possibility of poisoned food as she stood to the side with Faith. "What is it, Shadow?"

Shadow's hand lowered with the note as his expression grew dreaded. "An invitation for dinner from our Mother."

•~•

Once they finished getting dressed, Amy followed Shadow around the house as he prepared for the inevitable dinner party. "Why are Blaze and I not allowed to come to dinner?" Amy pouted.

"Because I don't want either of you anywhere near that wretched woman," Shadow growled at the thought. "That's why I'll have you, Blaze, and Faith head over to Caleb's for the time being while Silver and I deal with Mother," he seethed on the last word.

Amy groaned by his overprotectiveness. "If you hate her so much, why can't you just…"

"—Kill her?" Another voice chimed in. Silver walked around the corner with Blaze tagging behind. "Because our mother is a master in the art of possession. We know whose body she currently inhabits, so we must decipher her intentions before she finds a new host."

Shadow crumbled the note in his hand. "Her last invitation was an assassination attempt on all of her children, so I think we can assume her intentions are decidedly foul," Shadow replied, thinking back to a past event.

Silver looked down at his wristwatch. "Well, then, we have this afternoon to prepare for the worst."

"And how are we to prepare?" Shadow inquired.

"Silver and I have been discussing what we can do to prevent your mother from jumping bodies, and I know another witch that might be able to help us," Blaze responded.

"Fair enough," Shadow approved. "While you two deal with our mother's body jumping act, Amy and I will continue prepping for tonight's feast."

•~•

In the city, Andrew sat at the empty bar, day drinking to ease his stress. With only a couple other customers, there wasn't much activity going on inside the establishment. The bartender cleaned the other end while Andrew sat at the far end. Dully, Andrew took a long sip of his beer, until he felt a presence loom behind him. He caved, craning his neck and expected to see a familiar face, but instead saw a handsome, black and red armadillo take a seat next to him. "Your name is Andrew, correct?" the stranger questioned.

Andrew looked at him trying to recall any time he had interacted with the stranger but came up blank. "Yeah, that's right. Do I, uh, know you?"

Mighty shook his head politely. "No, but I am, in fact, the person you'll be meeting with this afternoon," he explained. "My name is Mep-I mean, Mighty," he introduced sticking out his hand for him to shake.

Andrew stared at his exchanged hand and let out a small chuckle. The armadillo already had a major ego. "Look, I'm here to meet Aurora," he said explicitly. "I don't know who you are, friend, but you're certainly no teenage girl," he scoffed.

After hearing his attitude, Mighty lowered his hand and leaned his arms across the bar. "What a keen observation," he spoke facetiously, as he watched Andrew take another sip of his beer. "But when you speak to me, you are, in fact, speaking to Aurora," he spoke sternly.

"Pff, right," he replied lowering his bottle again. "How can I trust you?"

Mighty stuck his hand into his coat pocket pulling out a ring with a black stone. One that looked very similar to the moonlight rings he had, had when he was with Caleb's pack. "I offer this as proof," he spoke holding the ring between his index finger and thumb.

Carefully, Andrew reached out and accepted the ring, before placing it in his palm to examine. "What if I decide I don't wanna answer to you? So far, I'm not a fan."

Mighty stared at the naïve werewolf for a moment before he chuckled darkly. "Testing my patience, I see. Allow me to show you what will happen if you don't." He rubbed his thumb and index finger together in a circular motion and suddenly; Andrew felt his bones begin to crack as if he was about to take his wolf form during the day. He cringed, holding back cries of pain to keep the other mortal patrons from noticing. Mighty smirked contently at his suffering. "I could make an example of you—show your pack what happens when Aurora's requests are denied," he warned quietly.

"Okay, okay," he grunted in a hushed voice. "Please, make it stop," he begged through clenched teeth.

"Wonderful," Mighty replied, stopping his magical torture. Andrew's tense stance eased and he panted catching his breath. The armadillo hopped off the bar stool and stood. "That ring comes at a price, and you'll begin paying for it today," he pointed.

Andrew watched as the powerful warlock left the bar with grace, not bothering to look back. Once he was gone, Andrew pulled out his cellphone and went through his contacts before stopping on the name he was looking for, Caleb. He put the phone up to his ear and waited for the line to pick up. "Caleb, it's me. You're gonna wanna hear this…"

•~•

Back at Shadow's estate, Amy came into the dining room only to find Shadow in the middle of a conversation with a compelled mortal butler. "Make sure to tell the chef to cut out the salad part of our dinner. I want to get through this dreadful evening as quickly as possible," he grumbled. The butler bowed his head and walked off, leaving Amy alone with Shadow.

"You sure seem to be putting in a lot of effort towards this dinner for someone you can't stand. I mean the fact that you hired and compelled a waiting staff just proves it," Amy noted before glancing at the table. The table set was quite extravagant, with silverware, beautiful décor, and ironed tablecloths.

"Well, I may not enjoy the company, but I've always enjoyed throwing a good dinner party," Shadow excused as he picked up a champagne glass off the table.

She laughed at his response. "Right…well, I just got off the phone with Caleb and it turns out, letting Andrew survive paid off."

He held the champagne glass to the light looking for fingerprints to wipe off as he listened. "How so?"

"Caleb has Andrew working as a double agent—you know, to help us get more information on what your mother is up to?"

He lowered the glass back onto the table after finishing his inspection. "Hm, quite clever," Shadow commended.

"Caleb wanted me to let you know that Andrew said that your mother has a partner in crime—another witch."

Shadow sighed, rubbing the skin between his eyes. "Building alliances in her quest to destroy us, I imagine. It doesn't surprise me really," he droned.

Amy crossed her arms over her chest. "Why does she hate you so much? I mean, she had three kids, it's not like she doesn't have the maternal gene."

"Four actually," he corrected solemnly. "And I think at one time, she loved us very much."

"Oh, that's right. I completely forgot…" Amy took a few steps closer; her curiosity now peaked. "But now that you reminded me, you've never told me exactly what happened to the fourth?"

"Our sister, Dove, was killed when I was just a boy," he informed. "I took her out with me to watch the wolves transform one night, but I wasn't prepared when a group of them attacked us and took her life…"

Amy placed a hand over her heart, after hearing of the tragedy. "Oh, Shadow, I-I'm so sorry."

"She was only four when she died, but the loss of my younger sister pushed my mother over the edge. That's what drove her to use her magic to turn us into immortals—that way, she'd never lose a child again," he recounted. "And I think that's when she loved us the most, but it was also her undoing."

"What happened after that?"

"It triggered a sequence of events that led to the reveal of her long-held secret. My birth father was the werewolf whose pack killed my little sister. Of course, when Coal found out, he murdered my real father and my mother lost her lover too."

Amy's ears lowered sadly after hearing the origin story. "Wow…no wonder she's crazy. I couldn't imagine what I'd be like if Faith had died."

Seeing the thought was bringing Amy's mood down, Shadow quickly tried to shift the conversation. "You know, my brothers used to tell each other she didn't hate us, but the truth was, she hated herself for what we'd become."

"Mephiles and Silver really believed that?" Amy questioned in disbelief.

"I think they believed it even after she tried to kill us all, eventually Silver came to his senses after wanting to hopelessly believe our mother had good intentions."

"What did you believe at the time?"

His eyes fell to the floor as he contemplated her question. "I don't know," he replied. "I just knew I wanted her dead."

Amy walked closer to him, trying to keep up his optimism. "Well, every good story needs a wicked witch. It'll be all the more satisfying when we melt her," she grinned.

He gave out a small chuckle at her comment and stroked her right cheek by her dark humor. "I concur."

•~•

In the city, Silver and Blaze entered a store only to be met with strange objects in jars, lit candles, books, herbs in bags and other strange concoctions. As they walked further back into the store, they spotted the person they were looking for. Standing behind the counter was an older, but beautiful, female lilac echidna in her 40s with long, luscious, dreads. The witch was fully in her element as she ground herbs into a bowl. "I'm sorry, but I'm busy," she spoke not even bothering to look up at the two.

"Yes, making some herbal concoction I see," Silver observed as he and Blaze encroached towards her.

"Herbal remedies for a neighbor," she specified as she continued her task. "But I'm guessing that an Original is not here to discuss my remedies," she guessed dryly as she looked up from her project.

"You're correct, I'm not. We're actually here to ask a favor," he began.

"This town is crawling with witches, go ask one of them," she quickly dismissed.

"Please, Gala-Na," Blaze intervened. "I've heard you are one of the best and most accomplished witches in this city. You have talent and experience that not even I have."

Gala-Na raised a suspicious brow, flattered by her words and intrigued to know what they'd have to offer her. "And exactly what am I going to receive in return if I help you?"

Silver looked around the store, noticing it in desperate need of fixing. "I noticed that bureaucracy has not been kind to your community." His fingers grazed another counter top, noticing the dust that came with it. He rubbed the dust between his fingers in pity. "Those tax incentives on local businesses have been stalling for months—of course, a persuasive person could potentially remove any red tape," he hinted with a wink.

She smiled slightly, seeing an opportunity to seize. "I'm listening..."

He returned a smile, now that he had grabbed her attention. "A certain someone, let's say a witch, has a troublesome tendency of jumping into other bodies. When she does so again, I'd like to know whom she jumps into."

"You want a soul branding spell?" Gala-Na figured by the description.

Silver nodded. "What will you need to complete this?"

"I'll require an item that's been spelled by the witch in question," Gala-Na explained.

"Then I shall retrieve the enchanted item." Silver looked to Blaze and the two headed out the door.

Silver exited the store first and Blaze stopped just by the door and looked back at the echidna. "Thank you again, Gala-Na. You have no idea how much this has helped us."

"Of course, just make sure your boyfriend gets that item to me as soon as possible," she reminded. Blaze nodded with a smile and then left.

Once they were gone, Gala-Na went back to her remedy and began to continue to grind up herbs. A few moments later, the bell to her store door jingled again. She looked up, only to see a red and black armadillo slithering up towards her counter. "Can I help you?"

He eyed her up in down with evil intentions in mind. "I'm most certain that you can," he replied smoothly.

•~•

Back at Shadow's estate, Shadow and Amy rummaged through the attic, looking in boxes for an item enchanted by his mother. "What exactly are we looking for again?" Amy questioned after opening another box.

Shadow did the same in another corner of the room. "Looking for a specific necklace that my mother enchanted when I was a boy."

Amy continued rummaging through her box until she pulled out a painted portrait. She blew off some dust and stared at the piece, admiring the detail and beauty in it. "Wow, Shadow, did you do this?"

Shadow halted his searching and looked over his shoulder to see what she was looking at. He scowled at the sight before walking over to look at it more closely. "Unfortunately…" he droned

"What's up with the tone? It looks so lifelike! You've got quite the talent," she praised.

He stopped beside her and took the painting from her hands. "I appreciate the compliment, but this is a portrait I painted of my mother."

"That's your mom?" she repeated. Just from looking at the picture Amy could see that Silver definitely favored his mother in looks. She was white just like him, with long flowing quills that stopped at her waistline. Her eyes were a striking amber, and she had a few bangs over her eyes. "She was quite beautiful."

Shadow rolled his eyes at her comment. "Beautiful, but deceiving," he mumbled under his breath as he tossed the portrait to the side. Amy cringed as she heard the painting collide with the floor, but Shadow continued his search in the boxes Amy had started. He looked relieved when he found the item he had been looking for. "Ah, ha!" He pulled out a wooden jewelry box and opened it up. Inside the box was a necklace containing a metal bird pendant.

"This is what your mom made you?" Amy pointed.

He nodded. "Yes, she made this for me a very long time ago," he said as he stared at the old piece of jewelry.

~Flashback 990 Years Ago~

Inside their old cottage home, Shadow's mother Ivy sat at the kitchen table finishing a spell. "Come over here, Shadow," she beckoned kindly.

A young, eight-year-old Shadow made his way over to the table where he watched his mother dip a necklace with a bird pendant into a bowl full of ink. "Why a bird, mother?" Shadow asked curiously, as he peeked over the tabletop.

"Birds are sacred to our village," she spoke before pulling it out of the ink and dipping it into a small mound of sand on the table. "They're the reason we find land. They're how your father and I found our home." She finished her spell, by wiping off the remnants of sand and ink with a cloth before she placed the necklace around Shadow's neck.

He took the bird pendant dangling from his neck and looked at it in his hand. "What do I do with it?"

She stroked the top of his head. "If ever you are lost, scared, or in need of me, just clasp the bird in your hand, think of me, and I will come," she instructed.

Shadow looked down at his necklace in admiration. "Do Mephiles and Silver get one of these, too?"

Ivy looked conflicted of her response, as she contemplated on how to properly answer his question. "I love all my children," she said as she reached out and held his hand in hers. "—But you, Shadow, you're the most special," she smiled warmly. "That's why I'm giving this to you. Promise me you will wear it, always."

Shadow nodded eagerly with a smile. "I promise."

She leaned down and kissed the top of his head. "That's a good boy, Shadow."

Later that night at a bonfire in the village, Shadow, and his family danced to music by some local villagers. Shadow and Ivy danced along with the other villagers as they held each other's hands and spun in circles. "Your father may teach you to hunt, but I shall teach you to win the heart of the prettiest girl in the village," Ivy laughed. The two broke out into a fit of giggles as they enjoyed the night, but not everyone was enjoying the festivities. Sitting on one of the logs nearby, was Shadow's older brother, thirteen-year-old, Mephiles.

As Mephiles watched the two dance and smile together, he couldn't help but scowl at the sight after overhearing his mother's conversation with his younger brother. What had made Shadow more special than the rest of them anyway? He was sure he'd find out and put an end to the obvious favoritism.

Suddenly, Ivy gasped and pulled away from Shadow as she noticed something troubling. Her eyes focused on Shadow's chest, making him confused. "Where is your necklace?"

Shadow put a hand to his neck, realizing the item had vanished. He panicked as he frantically looked around in the dirt. "It must have fallen off!"

Ivy began to look around herself, growing more concerned by the second. "You need to find it now, immediately!"

"—It's all right, mother," another voice spoke. The two looked at them only to see Mephiles saunter towards them. "I found it," he spoke heroically. They watched as he reached into his pocket and pull out the lost necklace.

Ivy sighed in relief. "Oh, thank heavens, you owe a great thank you to your brother, Shadow," Ivy retrieved the lost item from Mephiles and stood behind Shadow to secure the necklace back around his neck. "Go on," she encouraged.

Shadow looked up to his older brother and gulped nervously. He had always felt inferior and out of touch with him. "Thank you, Mephiles," he mumbled shyly.

"I've always got your back, little brother," he smirked arrogantly.

~End Flashback~

Back in the present, Mighty and Aurora walked through the witch cemetery as Mighty briefed her up to date on their plan. "I found you someone who I think will be the perfect fit for your new body, mother."

"Really now?"

"Yes, I placed a mark on her earlier today. She's already prepared for you to jump into if need be," he explained. "And she has no idea she's been destined to be another surrogate. I made sure to erase her memory afterward."

The two turned a corner together. "Wonderful, but I really need for you to attend dinner with me tonight. Your means of persuasion will be needed there. Speaking of which, have we received any response to our invitation?"

"I imagine your message had quite the effect," he mused. "But about their response, they haven't exactly replied, but I've seen Shadow and Silver on the move all day," he noted. "Earlier today, I was eavesdropping in on Silver and Blaze and I overheard them conspiring against us. The plan they have in store will go completely awry tonight thanks to me," he snickered. They also still seem to be completely ignorant to my existence."

She chuckled lowly. "Of course they'd conspire, clever boys." They stopped by the cemetery entrance and Aurora turned to look at her son. "Make sure you're ready for them this evening."

He nodded. "I've handled everything as you've instructed so far."

She smiled lovingly at him and patted the side of his face. "I'd expect nothing less from you, my darling Mephiles."

•~•

It was getting close to dinner time, and last minute preparations were being put into place. Amy watched as Shadow searched his closet for the perfect attire to wear. "Since I'm forbidden from attending the party, I figured I could bring the enchanted item over to Gala-Na, just to help out."

Shadow duly sorted through his clothing options. "I'd prefer to keep you in my sight, or at least in the sight of someone I can trust—like Caleb for example."

"—It's okay, Shadow. I'll go with her," Blaze volunteered. Amy and Shadow turned and spotted Blaze and Silver standing in the doorway.

"She's right, Shadow. Amy should be fine with Blaze," Silver defended.

He mulled over the idea for a moment. "I suppose you're right," Shadow walked over to his dresser and picked up the necklace. Amy walked over and took it from him. "Just be careful, okay?"

"I will," she smiled. "Blaze and I will take Faith over to Caleb's to babysit in the meantime and once we're done with our errand we'll go back to Caleb's camp and stay there until your dinner is over."

"Alright then," Shadow looked over to his brother. "You ready?"

"As ready as I can be," Silver replied.

•~•

AN: Well, we all know this dinner is going to go terribly.

Remember to leave a review, your hopes and predictions!