It took longer than expected (school issues), but without further adoo, here is chapter two
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Beyond
"Captain! Incoming Devari assault craft thirty-two by sixty-four degrees off the starboard hull. Sir, it's and attack squadron!"
"Dammit!...Greva how long until engine shakedown is complete?
"One minute Sir...wait...power supply drained! Engines are offline!"
"What?!"
"Power levels at fifty percent and falling...sir, it's...."
No, that is not for you to know.
"...Greva, prep missile tubes one through twenty and fifty-five through eighty."
"Missile pods prepped."
"Engage Grav-Field generators."
"...Done."
The captain watched as ten small spacecraft emerged from small ripples in space. He sighed as he propped a small golden trinket on the palm of his hand, he pushed the sides of the object and it opened revealing a picture of a small fox. "Goodbye...Shevat." He closed the trinket slowly. He sighed, 'Unload missile tubes' he said with a disturbingly cool calmness. Hundreds of small 'pops' could be heard as the missiles screamed towards their targets. More spaceships appeared out of the nothingness that was slipspace. Their metal surfaces gleaming in the wake of a large star. The missile tubes were empty. The reserve cannons flourished in the graveyard of metal and debris.
A ship, like a human can only take so much. After years of abuse and repair, the ship began scream under the stress of the firefight. At first, cracks appeared along the hull. Then the ship started to split apart, gapping holes filled with jagged teeth.
The captain closed his eyes. He smiled. This was it. Everything faded into the ashes of Time. We all watched from beyond our thoughts. This was it; the ship disappeared into the darkness.
----
"Shevat!"
She awoke.
Her mind exploded with pain.
She screamed and fell to the ground clutching the sides of her skull. It was as if she was being ripped apart.
He fluttered to the ground, gun in hand.
Shevat screamed.
He landed with the grace and agility of an acrobat, then fired his gun again.
The bullet tore through Shevat's left arm in a slurry of pain.
Shevat screamed again.
"Defiler."
----
"WaaaaaTHROOM!"
The explosion rocketed Tails through the air. Dirt and grass clogged his eyesight.
"Amy!" He yelled into the darkness whilst more dirt rained upon his battered form.
No reply.
A metal blade dug into his arm. He yelled then smashed his unseen opponent into the hellish maelstrom. He dug what was left of the dirt from his eyes and looked around. What remained of his and Amy's sanctuary was a measly pile of boulders. He turned around and slammed his claws through a metal skull. The Sentinel fell to ground emitting distorted vocals on how to cook chicken. Tails grabbed another by the arm and slammed it into a tree. He ripped off the blaster section of the recently diseased cyborg and used it to blow another into oblivion.
It was all over in ten seconds.
Silence.
Tails looked around. A burning landscape greeted his gaze. The crackling of dry leaves tempted his ears as he slowly walked towards what once was a luscious green forest. He stared in awe as the Great Forest burned.
----
What happened here....
Do you see it now....
Yes....
He has awakened....
They must not be revived....
Terris....
Flaw....
----
The fire burned with an intensity unlike any force the fox had ever seen before. He walked into the shrouds of fire; they parted, bowing towards his presence. He knew this would happen. Why? It had happened before. When? He was the catalyst, he had done this. No! Yes...I remember....The fox fell towards the ground screaming, his tails twitching as his past shattered.
----
"Sonic!" Tails cried. He was cold, he was wet, he was scared. How long had it been since the explosion in Robotropolis? Two days. He shivered, a puddle of dew had begun to form on the ground next to him. Your tears. He had to get up, he had to move. No! Sonic said to stay right here, he said he'd be back. Its been to long. "Sonic!" He yelled again. Only darkness replied to his call. He shivered. His mind began to succumb to the powder of a Mobian Winter.
Snowflakes danced upon the foxes muzzle before melting into a crystalline pool of shimmering water. He unconsciously twitched as one of them drifted into his nose. A lone figure clad in a black cloak stumbled across the dying child. He gasped as he noticed the young foxes slow arrhythmic breathing. He snatched the young fox up into the folds of his draping cloak and scurried off to the bounds of his village.
----
Dreams.
Patterns in ones thoughts.
Floating around in an ocean of your own memories.
Some of those memories are blocked by a wall.
What if you never even existed until today?
What if all of your thoughts, memories, and experiences were lived by someone else?
What if who you are isn't really who you are?
What if you were trapped within yourself gazing through your own eyes, but not being able to control them?
Fate is a fickle mistress isn't she?
----
Den gazed upon the sleeping fox, his breathing had stabilized, he was no longer on the verge of dying. It had been five days since he had brought the fox to Algomare, A quiet fishing town on the west coast of Delore, the largest continent on Mobius.
"How is he?" asked Den's wife Sara.
"'Ell, he's no longa knock'n 'n deaths door." replied Den in his peculiar accent, "Eets all op to 'im now."
Sara sniffed sadly. (They had lost their own child last year to a freak accident.) She hoped the young fox would pull through.
----
They were staring at him.
"Hello...Miles." One of them stated.
"Can he even here you?" Another.
"I'm not quite sure, but look at his eyes!" The first.
"Why are they glowing like that?"
"Must be a faulty gene."
"You really need to test those things out...but that would explain why he looks like a fox."
"Yes, that was quite an interesting side effect, that and his two tails."
"It's a pity when things turn out this way, have you chosen a disposal site?"
"Th...ol...em."
Their voices were fading will die quickly."
He slept for an eternity.
----
He awoke with a jolt.
It was dark, moonlight filtered in through the windows. Tails's eyes flickered. The warm night air smoothed his frightened expressions. He got out of the bed and started walking towards what appeared to be a door. The creaking of the wooden floor as he lightly crept across it was painfully reminiscent of his remaining memories. A library, a fireplace, long drawn out winter days spent sleeping on warm wooden floors. The thought stuck him like lightning, where was he? This place, these smells, they weren't familiar. "S...Sonic." Tails whispered. Who's Sonic? The thought lingered on his mind. Who was Sonic? Why had he uttered the name. He knew not the answers to his own thoughts. The young fox stumbled on the leg of a chair, let out a yelp, and slammed head first into the floor. Lights blazed into existence. Footsteps could be heard rushing towards him. Tails tried to role into a corner, but the gaze of two middle aged mice caught him. Tails propped himself into the shadows, his eyes darting frantically from object to object, looked for a plausible escape route.
"Looks 'ike the young'ns up eh Sara." Chuckled the mouse closest to him
"Yes, now are you all right?" The other asked the scared fox.
"Umm..." Tails's eyes were still darting around the room.
"Oh look now Den, You scared the poor thing to death." Tails noticed that "Sara" emphasized this last word strangely.
"Oh 'ome now, 'was just 'avin a lit'tle fun wit' him." Den replied.
Tails had never heard this accent anywhere before...nor had anyone outside of Algomare.
"Just calm down dear." Sara reached out a hand to Tails.
Tails looked at Den with what seemed to be a perplexed expression.
"Where do you come from?" Tails asked
Den stopped, "me?" he replied obviously confused.
"Yes, your accent...its different."
"'Ell, I would 'ope so."
"What do you mean?"
The mouse smiled, revealing a warm bed of white teeth. Tails knew that he would not get the answer he sought.
"We had quite a scare with you, when Den brought you here. I thought you were dead, but it seems you've got more than luck in those bones of yours." Sara said to Tails.
"Umm...sorry for the trouble mam." Tails replied trying to remember the formal attributes of language.
"No apology needed dear, but what were you doing on the edges of the Great Forest in the dead of winter."
Tails thought for a moment, but the answers to his thoughts still eluded him.
"I...don't know." Was the only response that he could muster.
Sara sighed and went to the kitchen. Tails sat down on a big couch that resided in the front of the living room. Den pulled up a chair and sat down with a "plumph." The lights overhead flickered rabidly.
Tail's mind drifted. He no longer knew who he was or where he came from, he was at that point in his existence, a shell. The Arbiter had left his body. "Miles" wouldn't exist for another two years now. He had left only a scared fox in his departure.
Sara came back into the room carrying a tray brimmed with various morsels of food and drink. The tray clanked as she sat upon the couch next to the sleeping fox. "How's he doing?" She asked Den.
"Thins probably still tired." He mused.
Sara sat the metallic tray upon a table. "Poor thing."
Outside it started to snow.
----
Miles awoke. The ashes greeted his eyes. He stood up, causing a cloud of gray to follow. The ashes swirled around him like angry wasps. The fire still raged. Golden wisps reached up to the sky, consuming all that they touched. He watched as what had once been his home burned. Why? He didn't want this.
The fire faded away into the darkened sky. Miles watched in amazement as burnt trees regained their healthy greens, he watched as the ashes around him melted into the dirt. He watched as the dying forest regained its former self.
"What the...." Miles whispered. The chirping of a small bird was the reply. Just twenty seconds ago the Great Forest was a burning wasteland, now it was the thriving, lush landscape that it had always been.
"Miles Prower!" The voice echoed out of the trees.
Miles turned around with a jolt. "Amy?"
The snapping of twigs followed by the introduction of the Pink hedgehog into the sunlight startled the fox. Amy was...different. Her hair flowed behind her, moving freely in the wind. She wore two cracked leather gloves along with a black full body outfit with the letters N.M.P. engraved on it. Lastly, in her hands, was a type of gun that Miles had never seen before.
The hedgehog stopped. "How do you...." She shook her head quickly and leveled the gun at Tails.
"Amy?"
She fired.
Things had changed...again.
----
The cool sound of flowing water awoke Shevat. She was laying on a dirt mat. She sat up, her upper arm was heavily bandaged. Shevat tried to sit up, but a sudden flare of pain from her forehead halted that action. She groaned.
"You shouldn't move for awhile, Hect ruffled you up quite a bit."
Shevat turned her head slowy, trying to numb the pain in her arm and forehead, only to she a pair of sapphire boots standing about three feet away from her. The person with the sapphire boots kneeled on the ground revealing the face of a gray wolf, a jagged scar screamed down her right cheek. She smiled. "You should probably rest for a while. Looks like your gonna need it."
Shevat tried to smile, but the pain retured violently and she groaned again. Light faded away into the darkness.
The wolf watched as Shevat slept. A large panther walked into the hut.
"How is she?"
"She was awake earlier...Hect, you nearly killed her." The wolf in sapphire boots said as she pointed to the bandage on Shevat's forehead.
"Well, what did you expect, a hug, a kiss?" Hect smirked.
"No..just..."
Hect handled an axe that resided in his belt. He brung the axe up to shoulder height and slowly dragged the blade against the side of the wolf's face. The edge licked the damaged flesh. Hect shouldered the axe and left the hut. The wolf touched her scar, she shuddered.