•~•
At the house, Blaze and Shadow tended to Faith in her bedroom. Blaze sat on the side of her bed, and fed Faith some sort of green concoction. Faith made an expression of disgust at the taste and struggled to get most of it down. She coughed a few times, and moved her face to the side, refusing to drink the rest. "Come on, honey, just a little bit more."
"No," Faith whined. "It's yucky."
"I know its taste is a bit unpleasant but this should help with the fever," she swore.
"Come on, love," Shadow encouraged. "Just quickly down the rest and it'll be all over."
Begrudgingly, Faith in defeat sat up and downed the rest of the medicine. She coughed once she had finished it; rejoiced to be done with the vile flavor. Shadow stroked her back. "That's it, love."
"Good girl," Blaze admired. "I'm just going to take this stuff downstairs. Be back in a few minutes. Shadow watched as Blaze picked up the tray with the empty glass and spoon to mix the herbal remedy before she exited the room.
Faith turned to look at her father. "Hey dad…"
"What is it, darling?"
"Whatever you do, don't look at the red lights."
Shadow raised a brow, completely stupefied by her warning words. "What are you talking about, sweetheart?"
"I had a dream when I was sleeping and saw that the red lights are bad. If you ever see Infinite, don't look at the red lights. Promise me, you won't?" she begged, holding out her pinky finger.
Shadow looked at her extended pinky finger and shot her a small smile. He wrapped his own left pinky finger with hers, avowing not to look at the lights. "I promise."
•~•
In another part of town, Aurora got a text message to meet Mighty at the local park. The female echidna walked into the empty park, looking around for her boyfriend. He had texted their exact location, but she didn't seem to find him waiting for her. Strangely enough, there didn't seem to be any people in sight, which was strange, because this public park usually was packed with families at this time. Finally hearing some grass crinkle, she spun around only to see him saunter towards her calmly.
She relaxed her tense stance and stared at him skeptically. "Why did you want to meet here? You told me this was an emergency, but I don't see anything crucial."
"That's just it, I'm a little skittish right now. I've got this evil mojo breathing down my back," he motioned. "It came for some kids and now I think it's trying to take out my girlfriend," he said flatly, glaring in her direction.
Aurora took a step back, keeping her eyes fixated on him. He was onto her. "Was this your plan, Mighty? Invite me here and confront me?" Her left hand reached behind her left hip and slithered its way into her purse, reaching for something.
He took another step towards her. "Look, whatever this thing has promised you, it's not gonna deliver," he pleaded.
"—You're wrong!" she shouted, finally gripping the item she had been looking for. "Infinite rewards those who are loyal to him. Maybe if you did what it asked you to do, things might be different."
He tilted is head, bewildered by her logic. "Is that what it told you?"
Finally, she whipped out a handgun and pointed it in his direction. Mighty instinctively raised his hands. "That's what it showed me, Mighty!" she shouted. "I'm pathetic, okay?! The only way to become strong is to do one evil thing myself."
"This is not what you are!" he tried to reason. "Babe, you can walk away from this right now. I can help you walk away from this evil. You are not as weak as you think!"
She held her aim steady with her gun. "Again, you're wrong. I've always been weak..."
He shook his head, taking another step closer. "What are you talking about?"
"Not another step," she barked, making him halt again. "I am weak because what you don't know is, I was the one who agreed to Ivy's body possession," she confessed. "She promised me insurmountable power if I helped her find another body for Mephiles to claim, but I didn't realize my own body would be used as her vessel."
Mighty looked surprised by the reveal. "Why didn't you ever tell me the truth?"
"Because I knew you'd be disappointed in me," she said, feeling tears well up in her eyes. "You've always been looked up to as the most powerful witch in our coven. I've always been considered a coward and failure. I can't even perform magic anymore…what kind of witch am I?"
Mighty watched as some tears escaped from her eyes, cascading down her cheeks. Her arms wielding the gun in his direction began to shake, as emotions overcame her. "Babe, please… You might think you're not worth anything, but you're worth a whole lot to me. I think you're incredible and I know I can help you," he smiled genuinely.
Her brows furrowed as she blinked away the tears. "No," she croaked. "You can't help me, because you can't even help yourself. Don't you see you're in the middle of everything that's to come? Which is why I came here in the first place. They sent me here for you!" She pulled the trigger releasing one shot.
In quick reaction, Mighty lifted his arms and closed his eyes, trying to shield the shot, but felt nothing strike him. He opened his eyes when he realized he was not injured, but didn't understand how at first. He was right in the shooting range of her gun, there was no way he could miss. Until he spotted Silver standing in front of him, blocking the bullet's target.
Instead, Silver had been shot in the chest, but the bullet did not faze him in the least. Freaking out by his arrival, Aurora continued to shoot six more rounds at Silver, but with each shot, he only continued to walk towards her.
Silver reached out and grabbed her by the throat, thrusting her up against a tree and holding her midair. Aurora dropped her weapon and gasped as she held onto the strong hand gripping and depriving her of oxygen. "That's quite the monster you've got lurking in there," he noted, locking his amber eyes with her terrified ones. "Would you like to see mine?" he challenged darkly.
•~•
Back at Mighty's place, Silver and Mighty took Aurora back with them and tied her up to a chair to get answers. Silver stood behind Aurora with one hand held against the back of her head. Silver kept his eyes closed and focused, trying to infiltrate her mind for answers with his vampire manipulation. Aurora winced as he tried to use his mind tricks, but after a third attempt, Silver quickly realized that whatever force they were up against, wasn't allowing him to infiltrate her mind.
Mighty picked up his failure yet again. "Someone must have cast a spell to block her mind against your vampire tricks," he deduced. "I can break it but it's going take a little bit of time."
With time running out, Silver already was beginning to grow stressed. Who knew how much time they truly had before Faith's life was in absolute jeopardy. He pulled his hand away from Aurora's head. "That's a luxury we don't have," he dismissed with frustration.
"Look Silver, I'm not going to let you torture my girlfriend, all right?" he said sternly. "She's my girl and she's as much of a victim as all of those kids are," he argued.
The two locked eyes as they stared at each other in moments of silence. Caving slightly, Silver turned around in defeat. "You have five minutes," he spoke before exiting the living room to allow Mighty to work.
"He's got some patience…" Aurora spoke facetiously from behind.
Mighty turned to look at her and frowned. "He's just scared. Faith and those children's lives are at stake."
"I made a promise that I would not allow you or anyone else to intervene in this ritual," she leered.
Mighty cracked his knuckles. "Yeah, well, that's what you think."
•~•
The progress back at the werewolf camp was no better. Sonic continued to try to reason with and get answers from Nicole, but she was definitely stalling. "Look, we're not here to hurt you," he promised.
She shrugged without emotion. "You can't hurt me anymore than I've hurt myself. I didn't know this was going to happen. I didn't know they were going to bring children into it."
"I understand, but just tell us who, they, are."
"Those that serve Infinite, followers of the red light. I thought we were doing something good."
"Like what?" Sonic probed.
"Getting power that we needed, so long as we pledged our allegiance," she answered.
"But Nicole, you're apart of my pack. You have all the power you need here—with us!"
She shot him a bewildered look. "You don't really believe that, do you? You bow down to those Originals like they are your lord and savior," she argued. "Our pack means nothing to you."
It wasn't true, but if he could make her believe she agreed with him, he'd comply. "Fine," he surrendered. "You're right, but just help me find those kids."
Nicole laughed. "You can't help them, Infinite wants power—the type of power that comes from sacrifice. Those kids will die and it will get stronger." Nicole took a few ominous steps towards him. "It will feed and it will rise. We will all bow before it." Her eyes glanced over to Amy and Sally watching off in the distant. "Even you two will bow." Sonic craned his neck to look back at the girls, who seemed to appear creeped out by Nicole's foreshadowing words. "My only regret is that I won't be here to see it," she finished.
With quick precision, she reached for a flip knife in her jacket and stabbed herself in the throat, dropping to the floor. "No, Nicole!" Sonic caught her just as she fell, still holding the knife in her throat. Blood oozed from her open mouth and neck wound as her life quickly faded. "Damn it!"
•~•
In the meantime, it was getting quite intense back at Mighty's place. Mighty had conjured up a powerful cleansing spell in order to counteract the one preventing Silver from his mind games. Aurora screamed in absolute agony as the spell preventing Silver from infiltration or compulsion was ripped away seam by seam. Mighty waved his hands out before her face, continuing his magic infliction. "Make it stop!" she bellowed in pain.
It was hard to watch, especially since it was being done to the love of his life, but he knew this was for her own good. In the background, Silver sat on the couch, idly watching the torture commence before him. He glanced at his wristwatch, counting down the seconds. After a few seconds, he got up, dusting himself up. "You've had exactly five minutes. Time's up."
Feeling panicked; Mighty shot him a pleading look. "Hold on, Silver!"
"Time is running out, I have to give it another shot," Silver argued back.
Mighty stepped protectively in front of her. "She's the love of my life," he gestured. "And I refuse to give up on her!"
Growling, Silver backed off. "Finish it already…" He turned his back and crossed his arms over his chest, irritated that this wasn't done already.
"Alright, this is just going to take a few seconds longer. Okay?"
Blood was oozing from her ears and nose. "You're hurting me!" she screamed irately.
"I know, I know, but I'm almost done." He began to tap his hands together and mumble an incantation that once again brought on immense pain to her brain. She screamed out a blood-curdling scream and shut her eyes tight. She thrashed about in her seat, hoping the pain would end. Silver kept his back to the scene, growing even more impatient.
Then out of nowhere, Aurora managed to rip both her binds on her wrists off the armrests of her seat. Mighty stepped back, stunned by her immense power. "Aurora!" Mighty shouted. Silver spun around and watched as she reached into her cleavage adorning the amulet that was given to her by the cult. Silver began to rush towards her but as she held it out towards him, a powerful force lifted and chucked him into the nearest wall. The throw was so powerful that it formed cracks in the wall. Mighty looked astounded by her new strength.
"There's no going back now, Mighty." She held the necklace out towards him and then sent him hurtling over their dining room table. Mighty screamed as he knocked dishes and glasses off the table and onto the floor. The glass shattered as he landed with a thud. Quickly, Aurora left the house in a hurry, leaving the two males stunned.
Mighty pushed himself off the floor, looking at his new cuts. He groaned as he reeled from the impact. Silver recovered from his throw and extended a hand for him to take. Mighty accepted his help and was lifted back up to his feet. "Any other wonderful ideas?" Silver asked sarcastically.
"Well, I tagged her with magic so now we can trace her right back to the kids," he smirked arrogantly.
Silver looked impressed by the quick thinking. "Then let's go."
•~•
After calling the others to meet them at their new location, Mighty and Silver waited in an unmarked area of the Mystic Ruins. It was starting to get dark now as the sun set in the distance. "I assume you told your brother to be on his best behavior?" Mighty inquired.
"I did but it doesn't mean it'll happen," Silver replied.
As if on cue, Shadow came running over to join the two. "It was quite the pain in the ass to find this place," he grumbled irritably.
"It's no wonder these freaks picked this place," Mighty muttered under his breath, looking at their surroundings.
"Shadow, did you leave Faith with Blaze?" Silver questioned.
The ebony hedgehog nodded. "Yes, she's helping her fight whatever it is right now."
"The kids are attached to that spell so if we save your little girl, we save them all," Mighty reminded.
"—And that's the type of talk I want to hear," a familiar female voice chimed in.
The three males turned, only to spot Amy and Sonic finally joining them. "How has your day been?" she asked with intrigue. She eyed Mighty and Silver up and down, noting their dishelmed clothes and scrapes. "Looks like you've had a rough day," she quickly surmised based off their silence.
"You could assume that," Silver replied.
"Enough small talk, lead the way," Shadow demanded.
"The trail leads off this way, so I guess we follow the breadcrumbs," Mighty gestured.
Shadow huffed. "Best make short work of these cult-lunatics. I say we-"
"—We split up," Sonic cut off, making Shadow shoot him an irritated glare. "Shadow, you're with me," he pointed. "I'm not letting you out of my sight since I know how you can get when you're angry."
Shadow growled lowly. He hated to admit it, but he was right. "Fine. Lead the way."
•~•
With the other three split from the group, Mighty, Silver, and Amy walked with haste as they followed the trail. Mighty had filled in Amy about Aurora's involvement and their findings, but he was curious to learn what she had discovered with Sonic. "So what did you learn from this werewolf?" Mighty probed.
Amy ducked under some low-lying branches as she kept up her stride. "Nicole was talking about some sort of red light. It didn't make much sense to me, if I'm honest."
Mighty's expression perked. "Oh, I've heard of that before. Legend has it that ancient spirits will sometimes present themselves in a ball of light," Mighty explained.
"Wonderful," Silver droned as they continued walking. "So how do we kill it?"
"We'll find out soon enough," Mighty shrugged.
•~•
After some time walking, night had finally approached. A large bonfire was set in display of a circle formed with rocks. Lying on a flat stone surface were the bodies of the missing children, now wrapped in some sort of wool fabric. Two sets of cloaked figures surrounded the bound children as they waited for further instructions. Aurora made her way towards the group and stood before the male crocodile she had met early. The crocodile smiled darkly at her arrival. "Now that you've returned, you may join us as we claim our power—our rightful place. We will lay waste to all that deny our master!"
Shadow and Sonic quietly snuck up on the group, just as they heard the crocodile speak to Aurora. The two stayed behind some brush as they watched and waited for their opportunity to strike. Meanwhile, in another part of the forest, Amy, Mighty, and Silver also eavesdropped and stalked the strange ritual from afar. They also decided to wait before striking.
"I am ready to prove my loyalty to Infinite," Aurora spoke confidently. "I know what I have to do and I am not afraid."
"Then we should begin," the crocodile concluded.
Shadow's eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the sick ritual. "Enough with this circle of sadists," he whispered venomously. "Let's attack."
Sonic shook his head, not as certain on the decision. "We need to wait for the signal," he whispered back.
Shadow bared his teeth, growing more impatient by the second. "No, I can't wait any longer." His eyes looked around for anything he could use as a weapon. He glanced above them, noticing some sort of dream catcher with assorted bones dangling from strings. He reached up and grabbed one of the sharper looking bones and yanked it off the string.
Sonic's eyes widened as he watched Shadow reach back and throw the bone towards the crocodile, like a boomerang, piercing him through the chest. On the other side of the forest, Amy and Mighty gasped as they watched a bone shoot through the reptile and stick out of his chest.
The other cloaked figures brandished their handheld weapons, realizing they were under attack. Seeing this must be their time to strike, Amy and Silver rushed into battle attacking the cloaked figures. Silver bared his fangs before digging them into the side of one of the cloaked figures. Amy ran over and broke one of the other cloaked figure's necks, killing them instantly. Shadow and Sonic jumped into action, rushing towards the two remaining cloaked figures. Shadow punched a hole through one of their chests, ripping out their heart. Sonic body slammed the remaining one, crushing multiple parts of his body.
Mighty watched from the bushes, terrified by the bloodshed unfolding before him. Once he saw most of them were down, other than Aurora, he knew this was their time to save the children. "Get the kids!" he shouted.
Amy and Sonic rushed over, picking up a body each and rushing them out of the spell circle.
Aurora watched them rescue the children and clutched the amulet in her hand, holding it out before her. She began to mutter some sort of incantation, allowing her to use magic. Mighty spotted his girlfriend doing some sort of spell and his expression grew grave. "Aurora, don't start the spell!"
"It has already started," she smirked darkly.
Suddenly, Sonic's body levitated and he was flung into one of the spell circles. "Ahh!" he screamed.
Seeing Sonic in danger, Shadow rushed towards Aurora and gripped her by the throat. "You," he seethed.
"You can't stop what's coming," she snickered. Aurora's eyes rolled into the back of her head and went unconscious. Then Shadow felt a powerful zap in the hand he used to hold up Aurora. Hissing from the shocking pain, he released his hold on her and she fell to the floor.
Mighty's eyes widened in terror by the sight of his fallen girlfriend "Aurora!"
Right as those words left her mouth, Shadow was also flung into the spell circle that Sonic had landed in. He collided into Sonic, making the two of them grunt from the powerful force. Amy and Silver watched in terror as the circle they were enclosed in, combusted into a circle of flames.
Mighty rushed to Aurora's side after dropping off the final child to a safe distant. He held her in his arms and felt for a pulse, but felt nothing in return. Tears started to well up in his eyes. "No, no, no!"
In the meantime, Shadow and Sonic were rendered immobile as an unseen force forced them into kneeling positions. Silver tried to rush through the flames to save them, but was forced backwards and hurtled into a tree. "Shadow, Sonic!" Amy cried out. She looked over her shoulder at Mighty who was now mourning over his dead girlfriend, "Mighty, we need you!" she shouted, trying to get him to regain his composure.
Coming back to reality, Mighty wiped away the tears and lowered her body to the ground before refocusing on the important mission at hand. He rushed towards the engulfed flames, looking at Shadow and Sonic who now appeared to be in some sort of catatonic state, with their eyes glazed over. "Oh, man, we got this all wrong. They wanted us here all along..."
"But why?" Silver asked, confused by all of this.
"Shadow and Sonic are both hybrids and harvest a lot of energy. They probably wanted to channel their power and anchor Infinite to the living world," he surmised.
Amy stared at her husband, growing more concerned with every minute that passed. "What do we do now?"
Mighty ran his hands over his head, trying to think quickly. Things were starting to get very serious. "Okay, okay…think, think," he mumbled. His eyes looked over to the concealed children wrapped in fabric. "So, those kids are linked to that ritual, right?" he gestured.
"Right," Amy nodded.
"We can't free Sonic and Shadow unless we break that spell," he continued.
"So, how do we stop this?" Silver asked calmly.
"I-I don't know!" Mighty groaned feeling the pressure amount. "It's a sacrificial ritual. I can't break it unless I kill one of the kids." Silver glanced over at the children, looking at each individual as time ticked on.
Amy shook her head, not being able to fathom the idea. "No, no, there has to be another way."
•~•
At that same time, Shadow and Sonic were sent to some sort of dark dimension they had never seen before. Everything was oddly quiet in this realm. They were still stuck in a binding circle, yet there was nothing much around them other than darkness. "Where are we?" Sonic asked lowly, feeling a heaviness overcome him.
"I don't know," Shadow replied weakly, feeling the same heaviness on his end.
Out of nowhere, a bright red light appeared in the corner of the realm. It began to slowly encroach towards them. Shadow squinted at it, trying to figure out what it was before something resonated in his head.
"Don't look at the red lights."
Shadow quickly averted his gaze, looking down at the floor instead. "Don't look into the red lights…" he commanded weakly.
Sonic turned his neck, staring straight into the light, not having heard Shadow's warnings. "Wait, what is this?"
Shadow turned his head slightly, looking to see if Sonic was looking at it, and he was. He frowned by this. "No, don't. Shut your eyes," he advised. Unfortunately, for Sonic, it was too late. He was staring at it in almost a trance. Shadow reached out to grab him and shake him out of it, but accidentally caught sight of the light himself.
•~•
Back with the others in the real world, Mighty continued to try to think of a plan to save everyone. "Okay, so uh, these kids are powering that ritual, but there might be a loophole if I link it to you," Mighty surmised as he stared at Silver.
Silver was still staring at the children with a blank expression, until hearing his name. Amy picked up on his longing glance at the children and felt a chill run down her spine. Was he considering what she was thinking? Silver shook his head, coming out of his daze and stared back at him, skeptically. "Are you suggesting we take my life?"
"I'm suggesting we stake you with wood. You die temporarily and that might be enough to break this spell," he elaborated.
Amy could see Silver was skeptical of the idea as his eyes shifted back over to the children. Feeling unease, she walked towards him, blocking his view of the kids. "Silver, it's the only way," she begged.
He looked at her hard for a moment before caving to her demands. His eyes linked with Mightys. "Do it," he demanded.
Mighty nodded and reached out, taking one of the children's hands in his left hand. He reached out with his right and took hands with Silver. With them physically connected he could begin his linking spell. Mighty began to speak an incantation, unlinking the children and directing it to Silver. Silver staggered back as he felt the magic transfer to him. He wobbled slightly and signaled for Amy to be ready. In that time span, Amy searched the grounds of the forest looking for some sort of jagged branch she could use to stake Silver. Eventually, she found the perfect branch and took it in her hands.
For a few more moments, Mighty channeled the spell over to Silver before it was fully complete. He opened his eyes and looked over to Amy. "Amy, do it now!" he shouted.
Amy stabbed the branch through Silver's chest and he instantly felt the effects take place and slowly began to die. His skin turned grey and he collapsed but Amy caught him in her arms, stumbling towards the ground while she held him.
Right then, the flames surrounding Shadow and Sonic extinguished and the two collapsed face first into the dirt. Amy panted as she held Silver's decayed body in her arms. "D-did it w-work?" she stammered.
Mighty remained on his knees, looking over the still passed out children. "I think so…"
Amy pulled out the branch from Silver's chest and threw it in the distance. After a few moments, the coloring returned to his skin and face and he gasped a breath of air as he reanimated. Silver sat upright, and placed a hand to his chest. "Ugh."
Amy blinked a few times as she looked at him. "You okay?"
He nodded. "Yes, I'm fine."
Just then, Shadow and Sonic sat up within the spell circle, groaning and moaning as if they had just had a rough night out drinking. Amy quickly got to her feet and rushed towards them. Shadow propped himself up with one hand, and used the other to rub at his right temple. It felt like he had been hit with a truck with the amount of pain he was feeling. Out of nowhere, Amy collided into him, embracing him tightly. "Shadow!" she exclaimed.
Shadow grunted from her tight embrace. "Rose," he grumbled. "Not too tight."
She relaxed her hug and looked him over. "How do you feel, are you okay?"
He chuckled lowly at her. "Never better."
"Thanks for asking about me," another voice chimed in. Amy looked over to Sonic, who also was feeling similar effects.
She shot him a sheepish grin. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Sonic. How are you doing? Do you feel yourself?"
"I feel like I just went to a stag party," he cracked. "Other than that, it's still me here," he grinned.
Mighty walked over, looking pleased with how everything turned out. "Glad to see its still you two. I'm also happy to announce that the children are waking up now. We should get them back home to their families."
Amy kept her arms around Shadow's neck loosely as she stayed close to him. "We should go see how our own little one is doing. I'm sure she's feeling a lot better."
"You're right. Let's get going."
•~•
Back at the house, Silver, Shadow and Amy returned and came home to the good news that Faith was back to normal. "So, it worked?" Shadow inquired.
Blaze nodded happily. "It worked perfectly. I actually felt the spell lift the moment you ended it. Great job tonight, guys!"
Shadow let out a sigh of relief. "I know she's asleep, but let me just look in on her quickly."
"Just make sure not to wake her up. She just went to sleep again 15 minutes ago. In the meantime, I'll whip up some celebratory drinks for us! I think we've all earned a drink," she laughed lightly.
Shadow headed upstairs and Blaze walked into the kitchen, leaving both Silver and Amy alone in the living room. With the awkward silence commencing, Amy glanced over to Silver who didn't seem to hold much relief, joy, or any type of emotion. Instead, he gazed out the window into the dark of the night. Amy rose off the sofa and wandered over to him, standing just a few feet away.
"Since we're alone now, this gives me the opportunity to ask you something…"
Silver turned around to face her. "What is it?"
She cupped her hands together and her eyes drifted to the carpet below. "…In the woods," she started carefully. "If Mighty hadn't found that loophole, what would you have done to those kids?"
There was a long pause before he finally answered. His eyes bore into hers for what felt like an eternity before he craned his neck to look in the other direction. "Whatever I had to do," he answered bluntly.
Amy frowned by his answer and sighed. "We have got to stop making it a habit of putting our family's lives ahead of others. I don't want that for myself or for Faith. We have to do better."
"This is who I am," he shrugged innocently. "It's what I've done to survive and keep our family safe," he countered.
"What would Blaze say if she heard what you had considered?" she asked quietly.
"She doesn't need to know because I didn't make that choice tonight," he answered simply. "So just drop it," he said before exiting the room.
Unbeknownst to them, Blaze had overheard most of their conversation. She stood in the entryway between the kitchen and living room, hidden behind one of the walls. She had the drinks out on a tray, but had stopped her entrance when hearing their conversation. Just like Amy had said, she wasn't pleased to hear what Silver would have considered doing. To her, it sounded like Silver was fighting his internal demons once again—something she had thought had been put to rest several years ago.
•~•
At the werewolf camp, Sonic, Sally, and Mighty helped reunite the missing kids to their respected loved ones. Mighty couldn't help but smile as he saw the young children greet their worried parents. Even with him losing Aurora tonight, it was still an accomplishment to get the children back unharmed. Mighty turned on his heel after seeing most of the families rejoiced with the return of their child.
"Hey Might!" Sonic called out to his retreating figure. He stopped momentarily as he turned his head to look in his direction. "You can't go home yet, in fact, I think it'd be best if you spent the night here," Sonic advised. "You lost someone dear today and the worst place to go right now is back home…"
"No, it's okay. I'm fine really," he insisted.
Sonic walked over and placed an arm around him, guiding him back into camp. "Just one night, okay? Let's share one drink together."
"I suppose one drink wouldn't hurt…"
Sonic grinned. "Awesome."
•~•
In Sonic's kitchen, even though they intended only to have one drink, one drink easily turned into five. The two had talked a lot about Aurora and how she could have possibly gotten mixed up into the bizarre cult. But right now, Mighty was starting to feel the buzz as he tried to push off the deep despair he truly felt for losing Aurora. Sonic, also felt a bit tipsy himself.
"The thing that this cult idolized—Infinite, must have wanted us there. It wanted to come into our world by anchoring itself to one of us. So, that makes me wonder…did we end it?" he contemplated. "Or is it just getting started?"
"You think it's going to come after me?" Sonic questioned with intrigue.
He fingered the rim of his glass. "I wonder if it hasn't already gotten to you…" Mighty leaned forward in his seat. "Speaking of which, what did you see when you were in the circle?"
Sonic thought long and hard back to when he was in that circle. But as he tried to remember, nothing, in particular, came into mind. "Nothing," Sonic replied after a delayed response. "Not a thing."
"Well, I hope you're right," he shrugged, pushing himself out of his seat. "Now if you excuse me, I need to get some much needed shut eye." Mighty got up from his seat and walked out of the room.
"Night," he replied.
In the meantime, Sonic poured himself some more whisky into his glass. He picked it up with his right hand and stared at the toffee colored liquid inside, before realizing he could see some sort of red light refracting from the glass. Turning around in his seat, Sonic realized the light source was coming from the large wall mirror directly behind him. Almost in a trance-like state, Sonic walked closer to investigate the light. As he stood directly in front of the lights, it grew brighter and brighter and an infinite square suddenly carved itself into the mirror before him. When he looked at his reflection, his pupils disappeared and the whites of his eyes turned blood red.
•~•
At Shadow's place, Faith woke up at 3 AM when she felt the need to pee. She crawled out of bed and wandered down the hall towards the bathroom until she noticed one of the hallway lights buzzed with electricity, almost trying to turn on, but flickered off. She stopped momentarily, and felt a shiver run down her spine, but continued walking, until another hallway light did a similar effect. She got all the way down the hall to the bathroom, until she spotted one of the doors leading to one of the many balconies was wide open. Quietly creeping in that direction, Faith peeked outside, only to see her father leaning on one of the balcony railings.
Faith smiled at him and took a step to approach him just as he turned around to face her. Her smile vanished and turned to horror when she realized that this entity staring back at her was no longer her father, but instead, something else. She screamed a blood-curdling scream as she stared at his eyes. His pupils were gone and the whites of his eyes were a deep blood red.