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Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog & Amy Rose are © Sonic Team / Ashura the Hedgehog, Lauren Antares, Akuma & the Uni are © me

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13: Night Raid

Red eyes gleamed through the darkness. Dirty red-and-white sneakers slipped quietly over the tiled floor towards the right-side bed. The red eyes leered down at the sleeping inhabitant of the bed: Sonic the Hedgehog. The ruby-eyed creature reached both hands towards---

Sonic!!

Akuma winced. He'd managed to suppress the soul of the body he'd taken, but was not yet strong enough to completely obliterate it. Miles Prower could still see out of his stolen eyes. He could see all of the hell Akuma was causing. He could see Sonic lying there, completely vulnerable in his sleep.

Don't!! Don't you dare hurt him! Let me out of here! Let me---

Akuma growled softly and concentrated on forcing Miles's soul back down beneath his own. He was greatly looking forward to the time when he could get rid of the kit altogether and use his own body; unhindered by the small, weak fox shell.

He waited until Tails's presence had faded completely from his head, and then he returned to his objective. He was going to eliminate Ashura's "bodyguards". Ashura himself was quite strong, but he had no will to fight. Sonic and Sakana, on the other hand, were powerful fighters. Sonic was brazen to the point of foolishness and seasoned in battle, and Sakana was intrepid and wielded staggering psychic abilities. They were the barriers protecting that weakling Ashura, and if they were out of the way, the poor Chosen One would be a sitting duck. Even better, he'd be a wreck if anything happened to his loved ones.

Akuma placed his hands a few inches above Sonic's chest, palms facing down, directly over the hedgehog's heart. A swirling black mist appeared on his palms, growing thicker by the second. When the mist no longer fit beneath his hands, it began to drift downward and seep through Sonic's skin.

Before it could fully permeate, Akuma felt a large hand wrap around his neck from behind. "Get away from him," snarled Ashura.

Akuma, not at all worried, smirked. "Not sleeping well?"

"You heard me."

"Do you really think you scare me?" Akuma drove his elbow back into Ashura's stomach, and as the giant hedgehog sank, Akuma spun around and seized his arm: one hand on his wrist and the other hand nearer to his elbow. He started to break Ashura's arm in half. The hedgehog whimpered softly, not having enough breath yet to cry out.

"If you scream, I will kill Sonic." Akuma grinned. He watched with almost euphoric delight as his enemy squirmed on his knees, trying to hold back his shrieks of pain. The hedgehog was crying already, and now that he was able to breathe again, his gasps rattled his whole body.

Brave boy. He'll do anything to protect his poor little brother. But he can't last. He will scream.

Just as the radius and ulna neared their breaking point, Ashura sprang to his feet with an enraged roar that woke everyone up and down the hall. He brought his free fist crashing straight into Akuma's face, knocking the devil back over Sonic's bed. The little hedgehog sat bolt upright. "What the---"

Akuma recovered immediately from Ashura's blow and pounced on Sonic, knocking him off of the bed and dragging the sheet down with them. After battering Sonic in the face twice with his fist, Akuma tried to twist the sheet around his neck.

"GET OFF HIM!!" Ashura lunged at Akuma, but was met with a powerful kick to the stomach that sent him flying across the room. He smashed into the wall and sank to the floor, nearly unconscious.

Sonic went into a spin move, catching Akuma by surprise. The hedgehog's quills slashed the front of his body almost to ribbons and forced him back. As Akuma crumpled to the floor, Sonic bolted across the room to his fallen brother. "Ashura!"

The Chosen One was barely conscious, and blood trickled out of his mouth. A large bruise had already formed on his abdomen. Sonic wiped the blood away with his knuckles and gave Ashura a few shakes. "Come on, man, wake up."

"Uhh…"

Sonic became aware of movement behind him, and glanced over his shoulder. Akuma had gotten up already. And very slowly, the wounds Sonic had inflicted were healing themselves. "Oh, shit," whispered the blue hedgehog. "Don't say that…" Ashura murmured.

"Ashura, you have a hell of a lot more to worry about than bad words; now get up!"

Akuma raised one hand towards the hedgehogs, and Sonic was sucked back to him by way of telekinetic powers. Akuma caught him by the neck and sneered at Ashura. "I've got him, Ashura. Aren't you going to save him?"

Ashura was still trying to get up. He swayed dangerously on his knees, groaning softly and shaking his head. He knew Sonic was in trouble, but he was too disoriented to help yet. He could just barely see in the darkness of the room, and the blurry figures of Akuma and Sonic he could make out were multiplied a few times by his head injury. Ashura reached out to the smudged images as if they were right in front of him. "Sonic…"

Sonic squirmed angrily in Akuma's grip, sucking what air he could through his teeth. He lifted one foot and shot it back into the devil's groin. The pressure on his neck relieved instantly, and he vaulted away from Akuma, gasping. "I'm over here, stupid!" he yelled at Ashura. Ashura began to stumble in the direction of his voice.

The double doors opened all of a sudden, and there were three Uni servants standing inquisitively in the doorway. "Get out of here!" Sonic shouted at them. "Go get Sakana! Quick!"

Without warning, the doors slammed shut again, catching one unlucky servant's arm and slicing half of it off. Sonic gasped. "No interference," growled Akuma. "I'll have plenty of time to make them suffer after I take over."

"You son of a bitch!" Sonic moved to attack again. Akuma fixed his eyes on the airborne hedgehog, and they glowed faintly. Sonic stopped right where he was: in midair. "Hey---!"

Akuma's eyes glowed brighter. The upper half of Sonic's body snapped back violently, contorting him into a right angle. The hedgehog screamed in pain, but he could not move himself. His body was at the mercy of Akuma's telekinesis.

Now Sonic's head slowly rotated to the left, pushed by an invisible hand farther than it should be able to go. "Ashura, help me!!"

The more pain he put Sonic in, the brighter Akuma's eyes shone, and the bigger his grin got. He began to salivate, and a gravelly chortle came out of his throat. This was what he lived for. This was his soul pleasure: Pain. Torture. Unrelenting, unimaginable misery.

"ASHURA!!!"

Sonic's final plea was enough to cut through the dazed fog clouding Ashura's mind. He heard the sheer terror in his little brother's voice, and one thought sprang dominant: Help him.

He ran for Akuma. Akuma was the one hurting Sonic. He would have to be stopped to save Sonic.

Akuma was so wrapped up in his torture of Sonic that he didn't notice the huge hedgehog barreling towards him until it was too late. Ashura hit him at about thirty miles per hour, with his full bulk behind the tackle. The two of them slammed to the floor with Akuma beneath the Chosen One, and the devil heard a crunch from his right shoulder. Sonic, released from Akuma's power, immediately dropped out of the air.

Ashura clenched his hands together and swung them at Akuma's head in what should have been a skull-cracking blow, but a foot slammed up into his chin before he could strike. He toppled over on his back, and Akuma was on top of him, reaching for his throat with one arm; the injured one hung slack. Ashura seized him around the neck first and struggled to push him off. It should have been easy, considering Akuma's small size and weight, but his hellish power made him physically stronger than Ashura. Foam bubbled out through his teeth as he clawed furiously at the air, trying to get a hold of Ashura and throttle him. His hand, fingers hooked like claws, grabbed at the hedgehog's face and tried to put his eye out.

The bedroom doors slammed open once more, and Sakana was there. Her hair and dress billowed, and her eyes glowed a piercing green. "Akuma!"

Nice entrance, thought Sonic. The princess looked like a goddess. Even Akuma seemed to be slightly startled by her.

The woman walked into the room, carefully stepping over the servant's twitching severed arm. "You're a coward, Akuma: moving in the dead of night, when we're off-guard."

"That was the point," Akuma hissed. The pressure on his jugulars was causing his eyes to bulge, making him look all the more maniacal. "Had to catch us by surprise?" Sakana asked. "Unprepared? Does that mean you're afraid to face us head-on?"

Akuma snarled like a rabid canine and tried to lunge at her, but Ashura wouldn't let him go. Akuma flopped on his side, flailing violently at the hedgehog. Sakana raised one hand and formed a sparkling golden ball of energy on her palm. "Ashura, move!"

Ashura didn't hear her command, for he felt like a hand was inside his head, squeezing his brain. It hurt so bad that he couldn't scream; couldn't do anything. He couldn't see, and his body was going numb. He could have been dead already and not known it. And the worst thing about it was: he did not know how to fight an invisible power.

That's it, Akuma thought. That's it. Die. Ashura's body had locked up, but since he was no longer putting up a fight, Akuma could begin to pull himself free.

Sakana broke out in a sweat; she could not fire off her energy blast at Akuma without having Ashura get hurt as well. "Sonic, stop him!"

"Yes ma'am!" But Sonic was moving too slowly, favoring his sore body.

Ashura started seizing as blood leaked from his ears, eyes and nose. He foamed at the mouth and his eyes rolled back in his head. Akuma started up his terrible, cold laughter again as he slowly pulled Ashura's hand from his throat. "Do you…see now? You may…be physically strong…but how…can you fight psychic power?"

Crunch.

- - - - -

Amy Rose jumped a mile and nearly fell over. That scream…it was so terrible!

The girl was in her bedroom, wearing silk pajamas and slippers (all pink, of course). She had just been ready to get into bed when she heard the bloodcurdling shriek from downstairs. She knew right away that it was Lauren. Well, of course; she was the only other person in the house. The older girl had fallen asleep on the couch about half an hour earlier, exhausted from crying and worrying.

Amy flew down the stairs, losing both slippers along the way, and was just able to see in the dark living room: Lauren had fallen off the couch and lay in a heap on the floor, still wrapped in the small blanket Amy had laid over her.

"Lauren! Lauren! What happened?"

Lauren was sobbing again. The sounds were muffled, for she had her face pressed into her arm and the blanket. Amy switched on the overhead light, then knelt at Lauren's side and helped her sit up. The older girl's furry face was matted with tears. "Lauren? Did you have a bad dream?"

"Yeah…Oh, my God…" Still horrified, and ashamed of her crying, Lauren pressed her face into her hands. "It was Ashura. He was…Oh God, they were beating him…"

"Who was?"

"Th-this whole city. It was like…a riot. Well, there had been rioting, I guess: there was, like, fire and broken stuff. And this huge crowd, and in the middle was Ashura, and…and they all took turns hitting him. They had him on a chain, and, and they had pipes and boards and…Oh, shit, everything! They were just…"

"Oh my gosh, that's horrible," Amy murmured, feeling sadness surge in her heart. She put her arms around Lauren's quivering shoulders. "What brought that on?"

"I don't know. I'm just so stressed…" Lauren suddenly turned her wide, red eyes on Amy. "Amy, what if…Oh God, what if it was a premonition? Like, like a…"

"No; you can't even think that," Amy reassured her. "You're too worried already. You're gonna get sick."

"I don't care." Lauren wiped her eyes on her arm. "I just want my Ashura back. Then I'll be fine."

"But you've got to keep your strength up so you can look for him," Amy pointed out. Suddenly she found herself longing for Sonic, and tried to push the urge down. Right now she had to look out for her new friend. "How 'bout I make you some tea? And then you can sleep in my room if you want."

Lauren laughed harshly. "Thanks, Amy, but I'm not afraid of the dark."

"I'm not saying you are. I'm just saying maybe you need company."

Lauren shrugged. Companionship wasn't a big thing with her, especially with her reputation as a slut. "I'll take the tea."

"Okay. Come on out in the kitchen."


- - - - -

The fox's body went slack.

Something burst in Sonic's mind. He could only think of one thing. "Taaails!"

"He is not your friend, Sonic," Sakana reminded the hedgehog as she rushed past. Sonic knew that was true, but at the moment he couldn't comprehend it. He felt like he'd snapped.

Technically, Ashura had just killed Tails.

The hedgehog's hands were still wrapped around Akuma's crushed throat. Ashura himself had stopped seizing, but he still twitched, and his eyes hadn't yet returned to a normal position. Sakana worried that he might have suffered serious brain damage from Akuma's telekinesis. She pried him away from the devil and cradled his upper body in her arms, patting his cheek. "Ashura? Ashura!"

Still dumbfounded, Sonic crawled to Akuma's crumpled body and peered down at him. The beast's eyes were half open, and blood trickled out of his mouth. His neck was sickeningly misshapen.

We might be fighting Akuma, but it's still Tails who takes the damage.

"Sonic, he's coming around!"

The blue hedgehog scrambled over Akuma and planted himself in front of Sakana. Ashura's eyes were rolling, and he was moaning. He gagged a bit on the blood draining from his nose, and Sakana propped his head higher. Sonic leaned in close. "Ash?…"

"Uhhhssonic…" Ashura tried hard to focus his eyes, and his mouth struggled to form rational words. "Uh…Ah dinn…"

"Is he gonna be okay?" Sonic asked Sakana, concern in his bright emerald eyes. "Give him time," Sakana said. "I will heal him if he doesn't improve."

"Good Lord!"

Two heads turned towards the bedroom doors, where Lady Arisu had almost stepped on the severed arm. Her nearly white face seemed to have grown even paler, and her eyes were wide and shimmering. From the hall, the injured servant could be heard wailing. Arisu struggled to retain her authoritative air. "Uh…Uh…Is the situation under control?"

Sakana opened her mouth to answer, but a different voice arose. "No…" The voice was cold and harsh. Akuma.

Arisu walked closer, intent on getting her first-ever look at this infamous beast. His blood-red eyes rolled for a second, then focused on some distant point. His mouth twisted into an ugly grin, baring his bloodied teeth. "Not over…Never over…Heh heh…" Blood gurgled in his throat as he spoke.

"That can't be," Sakana murmured. "You can't speak. Ashura crushed your throat. You should be dead!"

"It doesn't matter," Akuma growled. "He cannot kill me." He started to laugh, spraying a disgusting shower of blood at the three warriors. Thoroughly revolted, Sonic leapt behind Sakana. "The dead thing's talking. The dead thing's talking. It's friggin' talking."

"Fool!" Akuma spat, spouting even more blood. "Didn't you hear me? No mortal can bring me down! Especially not someone so pathetically weak as Ashura!"

"Bullshit! He just broke your neck!"

"But am I defeated?" Akuma grinned at him.

"You are about to be." Lady Arisu tossed the Enjeru Rod over Akuma's limp body. "Destroy him, Ashura." Noticeable fear crept into Akuma's eyes.

"Mother…He can't." Sakana looked up worriedly at the queen. "Akuma has damaged his brain."

At this, Akuma began to chuckle again. "God, shut up!" Sonic screamed at him.

His vision was very hazy and swimmy, but Ashura could see the Rod lying before him. He knew what he was to do. But he couldn't make his body listen. He tried to move his arm, and his shoulder just jumped. Go! Get it! Why won't you work? he thought in frustration.

Seeing his struggle, Sakana picked up the Rod and placed it in his groping hand. His fingers closed tight around it. "There you go," Sakana murmured. "Do your job."

"No!!" A powerful telekinetic blast slammed Sakana and Ashura into the wall behind them. The impact was so powerful that one of Sakana's spines snapped clean off. She screamed with the pain.

As Sonic's voice had cleared his mind before, Sakana's scream slashed into Ashura's brain and seemed to wake him up.

You…hurt her…You…hurt Sakana…

Ashura's face wrinkled into a hateful snarl. "Leave my friends alone!" he bellowed, and with that, the power in the Rod was finally unleased. A fat, electric blue beam of divine energy exploded from the black crystal orb, vaporizing Akuma and blasting an enormous hole in the opposite wall. The beam then sliced through two more bedrooms before abruptly fizzling out.

"…Wow," said Sonic.

Ashura let the Rod fall from his hand. "There," he mumbled, sagging once more in Sakana's arms. She hugged him closer. "Good job."

Arisu was smiling faintly. "The power of gods. I see it at last."

"Mother, this is no time to gawk over the Enjeru Rod's power," Sakana admonished. "We've got an enormous mess, not to mention three injured people."

"Four," Sonic pointed out. "You're bleeding." Sakana's spine had broken off near its root, leaving a round, gaping wound in her back. Violet blood oozed from the hole.

Sakana shook her head. "I will be fine, Sonic. Come here."

"Hey, if anyone's 'fine' around here, it's me." Sonic was lying through his teeth, of course; both eyes were blacked, there was an almost bleeding abrasion on his left cheek, and it hurt him to move due to Akuma's contortions, especially in his backbone. Sakana rolled her eyes, grabbed a hold of the hedgehog's wrist, and dragged him close. "Be still now. I will heal you." And she did just that. Her skin glowed gold, and then the radiance spread over the two hedgehogs she held. The healing power enveloped the three of them like a film of glowing water.

Arisu felt a tug on her gown as she watched the healing spectacle. She glanced down, and then turned her head fully to look down into her youngest daughter's face. "Mother? What happened?" Keera's face should have been dull with sleep, but it was tight with fear instead, and her eyes were too bright. "They took Kaba…And her arm is…lying on the floor."

"You should go back to bed, dear." Arisu picked the child up and carried her out of the room.

"There's a hole in my wall."

"Oh…That's right." The little princess's bedroom was to the right of the hedgehogs'. "Well, would you like to sleep with me tonight?"

"Okay." The queen noticed with much surprise that Keera was sucking her thumb. She hadn't done that since she was only two. When her father had died.

Arisu knew what was wrong. Her daughter was traumatized. Keera should not have seen tonight's events. And then again, if she hadn't come out of her room to see what was going on, she might have died in the Rod's blast. Maybe she was thinking of that, too.

Arisu walked into her room and sat the child on her canopy bed. "Keera, I want you to stay in here. Do not come out at all. You don't need to be bothered with---"

"That was Akuma, wasn't it?" Keera asked softly. "The little animal who was fighting Mr. Ashura. He had powers like Sakana. And he was too strong for that little body. Akuma steals other people's bodies. So that was him."

"Yes…Yes, it was Akuma."

"He did all those bad things. Cut off Kaba's arm. Beat up Mr. Sonic and Mr. Ashura. And he's going to get much stronger and do much worse things."

"Keera---"

"And he got in here. He can go wherever he wishes."

Arisu didn't know what to say to calm her daughter. "Ah…I…I don't want you to worry about him. Sakana and I will protect you. And I know our guests will go out of their way to do the same."

"He'll beat them up. And then…he'll get us." Keera pulled her legs up into the bed, retracted her spines and lay down. Her eyes began to shimmer even brighter, and a single tear managed to edge its way out and down her cheek.

- - - - -

"We'll begin reconstruction of the walls after Akuma is finished. We already have enough to deal with. For now, I suppose we'll just hang blankets over the holes."

"Well, then that's settled. How is the servant? The one who…"

"Taken to the infirmary. She should be all right once the bleeding is stopped."

"Oh, good." Sakana turned and looked at the massive holes in the walls. "I have to say, I didn't expect him to come here. I don't know why. I thought he would stay in the city above ground."

"Like Keera said: he can go wherever he wants." Arisu gazed off into space. "How will we protect our people?"

"You know there is no easy way to this, Mother. People will die. We can only do so much to protect others while our hands are full with Akuma."

Arisu shook her head. "We lost so many six years ago…We moved in here for protection…And now we're being killed off again."

Sakana tried to prevent the flood of memories into her mind, with little success. "Six years ago" was the fault of those blasted humans: one of their tanker ships had run into a small reef and spilled its cargo of thick, black oil. Back then, most of the Uni people had resided in the open ocean, though the Erus' castle had always been in the caverns. Of those who were affected by the oil spill, none survived. That included Arisu's mate, the Lord Hedataru, who had gathered a rescue party to remove his people from the area of the slick. Three weeks after his noble attempts, he was dead too.

Though Sakana wanted to forget, the day was still vivid in her mind. She and baby Keera had been prohibited from seeing their father in his last moments. When Lady Arisu came out of the infirmary and broke the news, Sakana just stared at her in shock. Keera, however, had only been two years old at the time, and went on happily playing with her webbed toes. Sometimes Sakana envied her sister. She had barely gotten to know her father, so his passing hadn't impacted her as much.

The two women shook themselves out of their recollections and stepped into the hedgehogs' room. Their two guests were sitting side-by-side on Sonic's bed. And though Ashura looked comical next to his tiny brother, both of them somehow appeared very small and lost.

"Are you both sure you'll be all right sleeping alone?" Sakana asked them. "Of course," Sonic replied nonchalantly, raising his head sharply. Ashura's response was more delayed, and he looked nowhere near as confident. But he didn't want to look like a wimp, and if Sonic was going to stay, then so would he.

"Would you like to have patrols outside your room?" Sakana asked. "Or maybe I could sleep in here for a while."

"No, Sakana, we're fine," Sonic insisted. "And besides, a patrol wouldn't mean anything. You guys don't stand a chance against him. And how'd he get in so easily in the first place?"

"…I suppose you're right," Sakana conceded. "But really, are you sure---"

"Yes," Sonic growled.

The princess gave in, though she looked as if she still wanted to argue. Smiling, Lady Arisu touched her shoulder, and the two of them finally left the room, along with the few guards and servants that had been covering the holes.

"Finally, some peace and quiet," Sonic grumbled, flinging himself onto his back. Ashura looked down at him. "She just wanted to make sure we're okay."

"No shit." The smaller hedgehog scrambled to the head of the bed and switched off his lamp. "Bedtime; again. Get the other light, will ya?"

Once more, Ashura turned off his own lamp. And once more, he came back to Sonic's bed. Sonic was lying on his side facing the opposite direction, but he heard Ashura's return. "Go away."

"No." And with that, Ashura made himself comfortable in Sonic's bed.

The blue hedgehog sat up. Did I hear him say "no"? he thought. "Ashura. Get out."

"No. I want to protect you."

"Ya did just fine sleepin' on the other side of the room."

"I'm not going."

"Well, you're not sleeping with me."

"Yes I am."

"No, you're not."

"You can't make me leave."

Sonic's ears perked. A challenge? All right, you son of a…He started to push Ashura, hoping to tumble him right off the bed.

The big hedgehog hardly moved. Sonic shoved, and heaved, and even tried using his feet. But when Ashura felt himself moving, he simply clutched the mattress to remain stationary. Sonic couldn't move him but a couple of inches before he collapsed, panting. "Don't…get any ideas…I'm not…done yet…"

Ashura smiled fondly at his little brother. "Yes, you are." He rolled over to face Sonic, and put an arm around him. "Rub it in, why don't ya?" Sonic growled. Ashura chuckled. "Be nice, Sonic."

"I'm through bein' nice."

Ashura smiled and closed his eyes. He knew Sonic's threats were empty. And if Sonic tried to fight with him anymore, he'd just hold him in his arms. Sonic was not strong enough to break out of his grip.

"Good night, Sonic. Have nice dreams."

"Fag."

Thanks, Ashura.

- - - - -

Ugly. So ugly.

Ashura sat on the big rock by the brook, staring down at his reflection in the gently flowing water. He would do this each day for an hour or two, trying to figure out how to make himself look more attractive. But there was nothing he could do. And every day, the water reflected that ugly black face and freakishly placed quill and the blue eyes, too bright against the black fur.

The bushes rustled a few yards away. Ashura jumped up, his small muscles tight. Nate and the other bullies knew he came here, and would stop by every now and then to torment him. He usually managed to run away, but if they caught him…

Someone finally stepped out of the bushes. Ashura scrambled backwards, but forgot to turn around. He fell off the rock and landed hard on his backside with a yelp. As he was getting back up, a voice called, "Ashura! Are you here? It's me, Lauren!"

"L-Lauren?" Ashura couldn't believe it. Lauren had come to his secret spot! But what for? Surely she hadn't come to beat him up.

Lauren started down towards the stream, and Ashura realized she was going to cross it. He didn't want her to mess up any more of her pretty skirts. "L-Lauren, w-w-wait!" he cried, and splashed across the stream to her. She smiled sweetly at him. "What?"

"D-don't w-walk in the w-water," Ashura said. "You'll m-mess up your c-c-clothes."

"Yeah," Lauren sighed, twirling a strand of her brown hair around her finger. "I got in trouble the other day for getting in the mud."

"S-sorry ab-about th-that," Ashura murmured. "I d-didn't r-really n-need h-help, y-you know."

"Yeah, you did," Lauren said. "I hate it when those jerks pick on you all the time. You need someone to stick up for you."

"L-Lauren?"

"What?"

"W-why d-do you st-sti-ick up f-for me?"

"Why shouldn't I?" Lauren replied. "You never do anything wrong. You're a really nice boy. Everyone should be your friend, Ashura."

Ashura was blushing, and felt weak. He managed to smile, though it was shaky. "So," Lauren said, looking up and down the stream, "how do I get across? Is there a bridge around here?"

"I can carry you," Ashura blurted out clearly. The words weren't even in his mind when he spoke. They just popped out of his mouth. Lauren looked at him in surprise. "You will?"

"Um, su---ye---I mean---I, uh…" Ashura was terribly embarrassed, and disgusted with himself. So he ran, leaving Lauren alone by the stream.

"Ashie!!"

- - - - -

Ashura woke up from his memory dream with a sharp cry. It took him several seconds to remember where he really was: under the ocean, in the Erus palace, in bed. When he saw Sonic lying next to him, he gave a little gasp. Then he remembered that he had met Sonic already, and the events of yesterday came back to him in an almost painful flash. He whimpered and lowered his head onto the pillow.

I want Lauren.

Strange; he hadn't thought of Lauren in months. The agonizing dreams he'd had of his sweet friend had plagued him for nearly all the years since he'd been abandoned. When they finally stopped, he'd been relieved. No more waking up sobbing, and with a bad ache in his heart.

But the dreams were back, apparently. And so was his heartache.

Ashura clutched the bed sheet tight in one fist and pressed his face into the pillow, muting his sobs.

I want Lauren…


A/N: OMGWTFBBQ did they do to QuickEdit? It's all...fucky now. Took me forever to get this chapter to look right. AND OMG THEY TOOK OUT THE INDENTS!!!!! NOW WE GOTTA DOUBLE-SPACE CRAP! I never liked double-spacing, for some reason. Cuz i r retrd.