Welcome back everyone, and mostly to me. This chapter is going up as is with out a single edit. Not something I'm comfortable with, but I can't keep you all waiting.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the main sonic crew, so I respect the rights of their original creator.

Please read and review and don't be gentle; slam me with this one. (Observe what happens when a writer doesn't polish their work) Be happy, this chapter is going up and not the way was planning from the start. It was meant to be a lot longer.

Enjoy

Whispering Shadows

By

Mauser

"Can you hear me?"

Yet in the blackness of his closed vision from the wink twilight of the coming night, Locke's sanctum wasn't intruder. No voices echoed to him, no images came to his inner-sight; only a sigh from his sentient-self stirred after a moment of complete silence.

"Can you hear me, Aleutian?"

A pause in continuance, wanting to ask again in the void he trapped his eyes under but instead let the thought slip back into his attuned mind. Was he being too gentle? Did he need to excite his frontal lobe further, or hold what could be a very crushing surg to the receptor at bay? Or was he missing something else entirely.

"You're asking too much for the lad, Locke." came Archimedes voice, who the elder Guardian knew was sitting in on a branch of the large pine tree not more than five feet behind him. Sentry for the life Locke was beginning trying to continue...and alas, guide further. His.

He flexed his left shoulder that twisted his forearm, settled his wrist further up on his knee, holding his three digit glove flat, palms up, thumb resting at the base of his pinky. Right the same way.

"Can you here me, my son?"

He held his breath to only be deafened by silence.

"Locke, you're trying to much and too fast."

Archy's voice sounded reasoning, though Locke felt his old mentor was scolding him. And like a warrior in defeat falling upon himself, Locke opened his eyes to his darkening surroundings, and their brightened inner world with a steady, humble fire at the center of their cores. Where the sun had gone the azure trial of twilight's last blink drifted Locke's eyes to the low horizon for his answer. The hot day was slowly coming to pass, and the mountain top he and his son had settled for after the steep climb together was helping along the cool air.

Yet he could feel warmth...and his senses of it brought his placate face around to the source.

Aleutian's legs were still folded under him. His eyes still shut, hands resting on his knees as his brown jacket was open to expose his crest. He wasn't sitting directly across from Locke, but instead diagonal to his left, letting the light cut his long scar in a shadowy line that stirred something in Locke to crush his heart with more guilt of not being there. Of not succumbing to defeat to his and Aleutian's distant war. One of which only Archimedes knew to be waging...and he the poor messenger.

"What have I done, Archy?" he whispered in his mind. "Why didn't I see what you meant? Why couldn't I hear the cry for help you spoke of?"

For a moment, there wasn't even a reply from the wind. But then a sigh lifted Locke's chin, though his eyes were still on his son.

"Because I didn't speak loudly enough. And we were all worried about another brother. Not just us, but him, Locke," came the fire-ant's slow voice.

Locke's face tightened. "And what makes you say that?"

Something flashed through his mind that lead Archy's silence–but went when the fire-ant spoke:

"You're not ready."

The image returned, striking Locke harder than what General Kage had tried to do when the half-dingo, half-cyborg beat him for the Master Emerald's location. It was just a fleeting glimpse but it burned in him: he saw a boy, weak in his stance, his bottom torso missing in what Locke could depict as a dark room–shelves he could see with books–a bed behind him, his chest covered in a black shirt, standing bodies in the shadows in front of the boy, looking on as a suffering, orange light earned its name. And the boy held something in his hand, something dark but gleaming, protruding out at both points of his fist, hovering down at his thigh. And Locke winced just as fast as the flash came and went he saw the glistening of blood oozing out of a fresh wound across his face that was bearing down on the occupants in the room–

He shut his eyes, clearing the image with a fierce shake of his head...only before it left, seeing tears tracing the boys face. Where did the image come from? He thought hard for a split second, retracing his own questions, and stopping at Archimedes. It had to come from him. Just the low level of the reflection earned the conclusion. But why did it come from his old Mentor.

"Tell me what went on two years ago?" he demanded in a horse whisper. "I'd sent you to get him, but you returned with him missing. What went on that you held silence for?"

But before Archy's voice came with a reply, a stern, softer voice came in his stead that brought a contrast of blue and green to Locke's eyes. "Tell me, Locke the Liar, does thou selective mute insect still hold his tongue?"

The fire-ant's voice rang through, widening his eyes to his son. "He's not ready."

"Then how will I find his past without being intrusive to him? We know how that went yesterday."

He could here his former mentor breathe, preparing what Locke knew was a coming plain, but cross voice. "He just spoke in your head. I think the bloke might take you into his home after seeing Aleutian the way he is now.

"It just might be me waiting outside of his den."

Locke watched on at his son, relaxing his face before letting his known unbridled snuff out and opened his heart and brought forth a smile. "I'm still impressed at how quickly you can put a fire together, son. And by hand too."

Aleutian opened his eyes, holding his body still for a moment before turning his head to his father. "You mean there was an easier way?" he said in a tone Locke couldn't discern whether he was chiding or actually taken aback.

A twitch of his head, like a monk in a temple becoming enlightened. "I could've found the wettest wood, dried it, and had it warming us before you'd even opened one of our meal pouches."

Aleutian broke eye contact with him, drifting his head away while his mouth hung open meekly in frustration. "It's not that how you can do it, dad, but knowing now that I–"

He'd stop and Locke waited, watching him look down to find his thoughts. "Knowing what son?" he asked in helping him.

"I don't know, father." He sighed, letting his shoulders dropped. "I'd learn a lot of what I know out here. I mean–" He rose his head and met his father's eyes. "One side of me says, 'if I would've known that back then', but something else in me says...I just...don't know."

Locke gazed on with an affirming smile. "What motivated you, Aleutian?" he asked, almost like gently breathing into the fire. "What made you work to get it right and the first time. What helped you find the better wood?"

A long pause, but Locke could see he knew the answer.

"It..." His voice was low, shallow. "I had a girl that I was trying to keep warm. Trying to get her well, dad."

"Oh?" Locke pressed disarmingly.

But Aleutian didn't have to say he found her sick. He didn't have to say anything at all, for the thoughts, the memories were leaping at Locke like a he'd remember both his boys would when he came home. Aleutian in particular. And how he felt then was how he felt now with the images of his son's past coming to him.

"Are you all right?" he heard his son's higher, shy voice say, watching his arm extending out to body that was shivering, crying, her white dress stained with dirt, ripped from what Locke could see as she'd been running from something. But her head, her red fur head with hair darker in crimson and tangled, turned to expose her tears and her fright. She sucked in air, rolling her body over and trying to scramble away–

"What did they want, Aleutian?"

She was sitting in a pool of water, her arms folded on top of her knees, looking toward to shore–and Locke realized she was sitting in the same lake he and Aleutian had taken a swim in two days before. She was trying to wash away something, cleansing her soul.

"I don't know, Emi-La." But Locke knew he son was lying. "I don't know. But we don't have to worry about them anymore."

She shook her head, bringing her knees closer to her. "I wish the tribe was here...we could've given them reason not to hurt us."

"I don't think that was going to happen, Emi-La. If they wanted reason, they would've given up on the first shot."

And Locke felt a chill come from the words. One he knew Aleutian didn't like...And that was good.

But then came a bone crushing pain; straight inthe rib cage. Sight became unrecognizable, whirling until more pain came from the right arm side–then the tightness of a left arm being manipulated where joints were meeting the breaking point. Locke was looking through Aleutian's eyes, his sight being pushed towardsa bamboo floor. And lastly, he felt his whole body being weighed down by someone else.

"Very well, Emi-La. Very Well. Just remind thy Aleutian he needs to be quicker with his lower blocks." came a stern voice that flowed like water. "Okay, that's enough for the day. Alea needs thee in the kitchen, Emi-La–" Locke could hear the voice drifting away. "Aleutian!"

"Water! Yes, sensie!" his son's voice squeezed out from his lungs.

The pressure from his arm had let up, but the body above him moved. Blue eyes and a smiling face invaded his sight. "You alright?"

A playful moan escaped him.

Then she came closer to him...and Locke felt her lips against his sons.

Locke's sight eroded back to the darkness when her giggle drifted from his ears. "You're being intrusive," he said to himself. But was he? Those thoughts, those memories; it was like he was asked to see them. Could it be Aleutian was finally opening up? Was he reflecting? Was he cherishing his memories and not dwelling on them? That was a lesson Locke remembered his son rolling in his mind over and over that afternoon. And one from the voice he couldn't see.

Or maybe he could...like what Archimedes was leading on.

"Thirteen kids?" Locke nearly barked out, but disciplined his voice under a smile.

A simper slowly came across Aleutian's face, lowering his head as if not to let his father see it. "Yeah. He had nine when I met him–" Locke watched him sigh, passing a whimper of shame he felt his son didn't need to let out. He knew how hard it was to let go. "When he met us."

But he knew he couldn't come close to know what his son was enduring. Lara-Le was in this world to remind him. Aleutian only had memories.

"And her," he softly reminded himself with a twinkle of a smile. "She isn't away from your side, son. Just not there to hold you like we wish."

"How old is he, son?" Locke asked with a breath of hesitation. "Or is that a secret?"

A shake of the head with a waning smile. "No–no secret. I think he's hitting forty-two, here, with a sword in a few months."

Locke widened his eyes in a pensive surprise. "He's forty? His fur looks younger." He swallowed, trying to recall more from his encounter with him. "That, and he moves like I did at your age."

His son looked on at him quizzically. "Huh? How did you find out?" His stare got a little narrower. "Hey, what went on the other day? You didn't fight him, did you?"

A smile and a turn downwards of his head. "Call it–reaction." Shrugging his shoulders like saying what he did was no big deal, Locke began to waver his head some. "He snuck up on me while I was trying to help you...trying find what was wrong with you, son, and...I reacted. Then I felt my arm stop; wrist collapse; and before I knew one thing, I was staring up at those blue and green eyes of his."

Aleutian closed his eyes under a whispering sigh. Locke felt something come over his son that dredged deep into him. It had the notion of fear mixed with something akin to...

"Friendship?" Locke pondered.

"Those eyes, father," Aleutian slowly seeped from his lips, bitting his lower in repose thought, "those eyes still haunt me."

"How come?" Locke returned, leaning forward.

But Aleutian faltered. Shaking his head, he snuffed, trying to push back his memories.

"Son?" Aleutian finally picked his head up, but giving his father a long, emotionless stare. Nonetheless, Locke pressed on: "Son...it wasn't anything he did?"

"No." Rubbing his head, he kept his searching eyes towards the ground. "I went to sleep under a cloudless night and a full moon, about a weeks walk from here." Raising his shoulders he drifted his eyes to his father. "I woke up sometime later–staring up at a quarter moon. And before I could move–even think–the glare of the moon started tracing a head that turned towards me...and there they were: one blue eye, followed by one green." Aleutian peered up into the night sky. Clouds were encroaching under the stars from the east, yet the last quarter moon was visible, even with the dying twilight at his back. "Almost a night like this."

"Even with rain afoot?" Locke quizzed winsomely.

Dropping his head towards the fire, Aleutian sighed, trying for a smile but failing. "No...but I remember the autumn cold. Even the coolness of tonight up here makes me shiver."

"Why you've got your jacket on?"

He rose his cheek under a knowing smirk. "Yeah...a mobian in the summer...with a jacket on."

Locke gave a sly grin. "Hate to see how you would fare in the Ice Cap Zone back on the Island."

Aleutian didn't answer; only smiling like the jab didn't have any prudence with him. Instead he tapped the green stripe of his shoe.

Swallowing, Locke let his voice come out like a lite wind. "Lopper said something about..." He froze when his son's eyes met his. "...said that you two would have your talk. What did he mean?" Silence from the two of them. "He didn't seem pleased about having it."

A gaze Locke was sure he would remember enveloped his son's face that, for only the second he had witnessed it, left to the weakening fire. A gaze Locke could only surmise as his son realizing why the lop-eared rabbit had come to his house on the bluff in the first place. And as the fire breathed, so too did Aleutian. Steadily. Deliberate.

"Things, dad," he answered for the moment. "The past, me...Emi-La...everything."

Locke straightened his back. "Were you going to listen?" he asked rather sternly.

He'd tucked his inner bottom lip in. He held his stare at the fire, but was possibly giving it to himself "Before last week...probably not," he said in a straight voice, lost in his thoughts. "But with Mathias...meeting my brother..." Locke leaned forward when Aleutian's voice began to lose its bearings, only stopping when he'd breathed in his anguish. "Mom."

Lara-Le's gentle face came to Locke just as fast as Aleutian's call to her–and he was sure Aleutian had called for her, and not reflecting her. He could see her head spines, each woven in white silk bands that enclosed the red fur, dancing when she would move about in the kitchen, when she had Knuckles nestled in her arms, wandering in his nursery to keep him calm. When Aleutian was born...carrying his small-self around tightly, never letting her sight leave him...

"I said some–" Locke's lush memories left him without their pardons when his son stopped his voice. He didn't say anything to help him along. But conveyed with his eyes to aide him. "I said some really hurtful things to mom, dad. Things I'm not really sure that they had come from me."

"Like what?" Locke asked, making his voice gently touch his son's shoulder.

A tuck of his lips. A moment in time Locke was happy to be sharing in his son's thoughts. "She'd said that my scars...my severed lock could be mended. Fixed." Letting silence carry his sympathy, Locke only nodded. "I–I said I wanted them...that I had my reasons for keeping them." Aleutian swallowed the tightness of his throat, turning his neck away under a phantom pain.. "I hurt her, dad. She hasn't seen me in sixteen years, and I turn around and hurt her by throwing away the best gift I think I could get right now."

"You were not you," Locke reasoned with a steady tone.

Tears began to glimmer from his eyes, rolling down his cheeks. "And you would know?"

A narrowed right eye, yet face still reposed. "I knew the moment you let yourself known in the chamber that from what Archimedes and Athair told me of you–my son was still missing."

He lean forward, muster his emotions to hold themselves in his heart. "It took Lara to come find you."

"And you found him, Locke, the way he was from the day I had left him. You just didn't see the blood," came Archy's whisper voice like an interlude to his psyche.

The sight he held now strengthen him; of his son living...breathing. Finding himself.

"Can you fix all of this?" came Aleutian's distant, longing voice. "From what mom said?"

Locke sighed faintly. His answer was instant, but he knew the way to cleaning up his son's blemishes meant asking someone who he despised...and she likewise.

"Yes...to a point, I'm afraid." Aleutian looked on unmoved. "From how Angel Island is currently, it will take a while. But yes, Aleutian...we can at least clean them up."

Shaking his head, Locke changed the subject. "You said you were going to help Elias and Knothole?"

"Yeah," Aleutian began under a fortitude gruff. "I at least want to spend a week with them. See how they are doing things; teach them a few things. Get to know my brother."

Locke's brow rose. "I could really use you both, you know?"

Shaking his head, Aleutian frowned. "I'm not going to force him, dad."

"I'm not asking you to do that–"

"But it's what you would like. And I'm not going to manipulate him."

Locke took in a breath, calming himself, trying not to let the war that split him and Aleutian from each other spark again. "I can't fight Robotnick and the Dingoes alone. Especially when the Legion is at war with itself." He sighed inwardly. "I need you and your brother...badly."

A furrowed brow. "And throw me to them with what I now know. I'm no use, dad."

"But you're training well," Locke countered, almost a little to forcefully.

But Aleutian's shaking head showed no quarter to his wisdom. "I'm not ready for this totally, dad. I still feel weak. And I still yearn for her so much that it might be dangerous."

It was with his last sentence that Locke was beginning grasp how much of a journey he had yet to travel. And the grimace from Aleutian that could've been seen from Aurora Herself struck the first seed of doubt into his heart. He had to qual it. He had to find a way to ease the pain. But he had to find a out what fully triggered it–

"Tell me, Locke the Liar, does thou selective mute insect still hold his tongue?"

Lopper's voice seemed like a never ending echo in his head. Yet, the mystery behind it and those eyes fostered the truth that lay hidden to him after all these years. Truth that he'd never taken the time to search for. Of all the lessons he had told Knuckles, and before him his brother, to let the light of truth find your way, Locke had chosen to be in the dark, only to want the torch now after the darkness had whisked everything important to him away. And now...and now he wanted to collapse in front of his eldest son...to beg for the truth to know what damage has been done.

"Let the light of truth guide you," he said to himself.

"And I have, mate," said Archimedes.

Locke thought to turn and face his old mentor but instead he held his fond gaze at his son. "You taught me that, old friend. I remember that was your first lesson to me...when–"

"When I'd help you dry your tears after your father leapt into the Forbidden Zone. Lad, I'm forever your teacher...reminding you that past lessons will always follow you. If you want to the truth, Locke; follow your heart. Follow your son."

And he knew what Archimedes meant.

"How far is Lopper's home from here?"

Aleutian's face gawked at the question. "Say what?"

A smile consumed Locke. "How far is Lopper's home?...I'm serious."

"Maybe–a week and a half from here," Aleutian replied, closing his eyes as if to further his grasp at what his father was asking.

A slight frown. "Unfortunately I don't have that long." Locke cast an eye to his and Aleutians back-packs, seeing in his head the object of his wishes. "But I can teach you how to warp-ring to there."

Nodding, Aleutian gave a smile that was almost unexpected. "Are you sure about this?"

"Why? I'm not going to ambushed and assaulted by all his children?" came Locke's cautious remark.

"No." Aleutian tightened a fist in apprehensiveness from something Locke was asking if it was in sympathy to is well-being. "But he's going to teach you somethings...and you're not going to be just a guest at his house."

"How so?" came the eldest Guardian's quick response, answering inwardly part of his question just by his aimed goals with asking Lopper about Aleutian.

But Aleutian only nodded at him, setting his mind to what his father desired. "Just watch out for his floor when we get there."

Digging his chin, Locke gave a quizzical nod. "Why?"

"The floor sings, dad," Aleutian replied, holding a pause for a moment. His father still had a puzzled expression. "His house has something called a nightingale floor."

The elder echidna's face melted to bewilderment. "He has a what?" broke in with a gapping jaw. "I've only read about them...but didn't think anyone would put it in their house. It must drive his family nuts?"

Aleutian lowered his voice under a warming stare. "Not if you can walk across it without making it creak." He had his father's full attention. "I learned to walk on his floor in three days without making a sound. His children and adopted children can run across it and not make it chirp."

"I can imagine their huff-beats," Locke observed eagerly.

"Yeah, but if Lopper hears one squeak;" Aleutian took his right hand, hoovered it behind his head and slammed it at his skull with a thwack– "Guess who's doing sit-ups on it...and not making it sing. All the while little Hannah is hitting the back of my head for my counts."

"You didn't do them fast I take it?" Locke grinned, eating the sight coming to him up. He was almost challenged to make Lopper's floor sing just to try the sit-ups.

"I wish I could've...and so did Emi-La. But that was the other side of the sit-ups; the slower we did them to keep the floor silent, the more our muscles burned." A grunt came with a lite grimace. "And having a tail doesn't help with the sit-ups–but–" Locke could see the thoughts rolling in Aleutians head. Whatever they were, it firmed his expression. "But it does help walking across it."

"Distributing your weight?" Locke inquired gently.

Aleutian nodded. "Yeah. I'll teach you that...that is if you want to do this tomorrow?"

The question was beyond recounting. "Yes, son. I want to meet him."

And Aleutian sensed why. And it was all fair. "Okay, want to try this again?" he asked with a wanting, expressionless face.

"It's up to you," Locke replied, holding out his three digit gloved hand.

A succession of nods. "Yeah, just tell me what I'm doing wrong."

"Just open your mind. And make it clear. Meditate for the start. Then search for me."

Aleutian bowed his head and inhaled deeply before closing his eyes. Watching him rest his wrist on his knees while focusing on a shallow, rhythmic draw of air, Locke closed his blue eyes to coming night, and glowing fire, and began his concentration.

A shallow breath. Then a deep exhale, clearing out his mind and encasing his sight with pure darkness. Tightening his hands at his fingers he searched for his son across the blanket void. To one extent it was easy to look for him; just one being not really directly across from him, but at least not buried in a dense crowd. Not like how it was looking for Lara-Le and her Wynn and little Kneecaps. But yet, it was almost that hard. Feeling his pupils track under his eyelids, Locke set-out from his mind like a blind man in space, feeling for warmth to seek shelter with, and letting its touch connect to him. He'd practice this enough to do it to the point of not having to close his eyes.

But as the slight chill he was becoming to that existed deep in his son latched onto him, it was here that Locke had to ebb his way into to become one with his son. He dove deeper, searching out feelings, looking for something that could lead him further into Aleutian's mind. Something he could communicate with, and hope his son could touch the same feeling and ride the wave-length. But there was nothing...

The cold was strengthening. It stirred further. It was slithering in and around Locke's mind, covering its origins with a different scent. But he could feel the being that was being surrounded by this inexorably...animus notion.

His eyes had stopped moving in his sockets. Like starring at something alien to him and attempting to figure out what his sight was beholding. This dark notion–it barked at him, mauling at his skull. Had he awoken something inside Aleutian? Was this a true feeling from him, striding closer to his soul; hunting him? Yes...it was hunting him. And it was doing so in known territory Locke began to feel lost in.

Voices mumbled at him...yet not directly. It was almost like he was in a heated conversation with him stuck in the middle of it–

A feeling of helplessness wafted at his face that he latched on to with a crushing grip, feeling its pull drag him to a moment of sorrow...then anger...then revenge.

And the cold kept coming, stalking...bringing with it something Locke remembered by touch when it'd touched him, and felt when it'd breathed on him.

Killer instinct. And it was hunting them.

Snap!

The break of a twig sprang his eyes open, darting his head the space his son was sitting:

"Aleut–"

He was gone. Where his sight had last seen his son was gazing upon fallen, rotting leaves. His head turned frantically, looking, shooting his eyes in all directions, but the glow of the fire and the fading blue of the horizon turned up nothing.

But the cold was coming closer!

He was about to stand up when Archimedes voice slammed into his brain. "Don't move a muscle Locke! Stay where you are!"

"Where's my–"

An object moved straight ahead of him, shutting his mind to fixate his eyes on what the glow of the fire was beginning to trace; where the void had closed produced a swollen, toned body; at the center flickered white; then black wrapped around it, but dark enough to be silhouetted in the trees; then what only his eyes etch became a head, a mouth with exposed tan skin surrounded by the same sea of black. The white became the bunched fur of a chest wall. The head grow outwards, showing two points which stopped to become ears; but three growths continued like Neptune's triton, tracing a crimson streak up each spine...

...And in the lone white socket above a gapping mouth...hard red eyes.

A jutting red arm speared through and up between the black hedgehog's right arm and chest, hooking over his shoulder blade, spinning his head in reaction but just doing that before the back his left knee was kicked through and his body collapsing under Aleutians full body weight, pinning the hedgehog flat on his side, and his borrowed arm hyper-extended at the elbow against Aleutian's Guardian crest.

"Coming back for round two, Shadow!?" Locke heard his son breath acidly down Shadow's neck–and from what he couldn't see, Aleutian hooking a claw from his right glove under the hedgehog's throat . "Heard you coming a mile away."

Locke jumped to his boots, olive drab tribal robe following him to catch Shadow trying to struggle to get his smashed left hand free. The hedgehog's white glove began to glow green.

"Tell me, Shadow," Locke announced, holding up his right palm out with his three digit fingers in an stabbing spread. "Does that wonderful power run through your whole body."

The hedgehog grunted in pain, closing his eyes briefly before snapping them open to glare at the beared echidna. His hand stopped glowing. But his chaos powers, Locke knew, was vibrating every muscle fiber in his body by his own wielding.

"What are you doing here?" Aleutian drove in, along with his knee into the hedgehog's side.

Locke saw Shadow's eyes dart to Aleutian, and sensed a coming assault. Clawing his hand, he concentrated further. The hedgehog recoiled, arching his back right into Aleutian's thigh. "Better answer now, or that sentient being isn't going to be here much longer," he said very cooly.

A heavy grunt strained from his lips. "Funny," came Shadow's corroding voice, "I was going to ask you the same thing. Why are you here? You're risking danger to yourselves."

"What do you mean 'ourselves?'" Aleutian shot back, nudging his lone spiked knuckle deeper at Shadow's coratic-artery.

The black hedgehog swayed his red eyes to the baring echidna on top of him, letting the air between them slip in his nostrils. "If you don't want any Eggpawns finding us as quickly as I did, I suggest to put the fire out." Both echidna's held a fleeting vacant stare at him. "There's a small compound not even a half mile down the hill," he went on, feeling the strain his voice from the labor of his breathing, "if you don't put out that fire, Espio is a good as dead when they come to investigate here."

Aleutian darted his eyes to his father before shooting his terror filled face towards the dancing fire. "Dad!" He jumped up from Shadow.

But before a step was made, Locke extended his left arm straight out his side, opened his palm, and with driving eyes, summoned the air to become wind, concentrating it like an upper-level jet stream straight at the glowing hot ambers. The bright orange flames bent over itself like grass in field might in a large storm, snuffing out in just a few steps that it took for Aleutian to sprint to, kicking the chard logs, making a fast attempt to disperse the smoke.

Locke turned to Shadow, slowly watching the hedgehog climbing to his white and red trimmed shoes. "What's going on, Shadow? Where's Espio?"

From the slight glare Shadow gave him, Locke knew their last encounter with each other–one the Guardian was truly hopping had went well for the sake of his grandfathers–still stirred like it all happened yesterday.

"He's toward the bottom of the hill, watching the compound while I came to see what the light was all about," Shadow answered after a simmering pause.

Aleutian stepped forward, but relaxing his posture. "Is Espio alone?"

"No...that stupid, insisting girl, Rouge, is with him."

"Who?" the scarred echidna nearly stammered, eyes bulging.

Turning his head toward the east, Shadow looked on before speaking. "Rouge. She volunteered herself just for the fun of it."

Locke gave out a weak chuckle. "Yeah, that sounds like her."

Shaking his head, perhaps in disgust, Shadow returned his eyes to the bladed-off echidnas. "I need to get back down there before something stupid happens."

"So he's not up here to kill us," Locke concluded in his mind.

"You haven't answered us. What's going on?" Aleutian said, giving his voice more of an edge.

The question just didn't rolled in his head, but Locke saw it as a riddle weather the hedgehog was even going to answer. Frankly, it wouldn't surprise him if Shadow would just walk away in pure silence.

But he was surprised at his calm voice when he did answer:

"Commander St. John sent me here to find this compound. He's looking for a cipher of some sort."

"Then why Espio?" Locke interjected.

An uncaring shrug of his shoulders. "Explosives–computers."

"Then why you?" Aleutian barged in. "Not something I'd expect you doing for St. John."

A heavy, drawn stare between the three of them.

"I have my reason this time," Shadow bleed in through a molten voice. "And only this time."

Locke stepped closer to the hedgehog, bringing his beared face further into the dim moon light. "All said and done, Shadow, but me knowing Geoffrey through my son, Knuckles..." he paused to let a narrow eye pass between him and the ultimate life form, "and knowing who you are, the good commander wouldn't ask for your help unless he really needed it." He placed his right foot out, spreading his gait shoulder width apart. "What's so important about this cipher?"

Locke felt a ruse pass openly through Shadow's feelings. When the hedgehog disingenuously looked away, he was only confronted by Aleutian sliding closer to him. From Locke's eyes, he was seeing something trying to connect between Shadow and his son, though both of their looks could place good money on a second fight. But shadow wasn't wanting to talk with the elder echidna. And Locke knew absolutely why.

Shadow's throat closed in a swallow, but his tone was as steady as a well plained board. "It involves something about chameleon.." A slow turn of his head down the toward the way he came. "It was what got Espio to come along. I was just sent to help find the place and give a little pay-back." A held silence passed him, his eyes looking as if he was searching his soul to come to grips with something. Then he turned to Aleutian, the hedgehog's white chest almost radiating his face. "And your brother, Sonic and an Antoine is missing, possibly, because of this."

Darkness had enveloped her cloak around the three standing mobians. It seemed as if the stars held the only light, saved the last play of the silvery moon. Yet Locke could see both his son's and Shadow's face almost perfectly; both trying to decipher each other between their own open books while Locke saw hardly any resemblance of contrasting verbiage. The sight of Aleutian matching the black hedgehog's indifferent, challenging visage twisted his insides, contriving a sense of grandeur that actually hurt to witness and feel. He'd experienced this before; seen it. He knew what Knuckles had endured to achieve the same look, and even then it gouged into him. Locke watched over his youngest son while he cried, fought and then fell in love. He watched him know when to stand for injustice and to protect everything he cared for.

And yet when Aleutian gave the same look, beset with subdued aggression, Locke wanted to shout his frustrations and rage to Aurora for not knowing how his eldest son achieved this.

The shroud of silence Locke was wanting to linger broke with Aleutian's drumming voice:

"What about my brother?"

Locke's eyes darted in their sockets to Aleutian. He was believing the hedgehog!

"Sally and Geoffrey had sent him out to scout out a camp or something. They have them chasing a different cipher that they already have."

Aleutian stepped further to Shadow. "And your pay-back."

A square stare to the echidna; neither mobain's eyes flinching. "A debt you wouldn't understand," Shadow answered, his tone laced with acid.

Aleutian looked to the stars for a moment. His face kept its firm stare, bring it down with a sigh and straight to his father. Neither said a word; Aleutians mind was free from any images as well.

"It's just three of you?" asked the scarred echidna, rotating his head toward Shadow.

Shadow nodded his chin. "And a few pounds of explosive."

What came next had Locke's face turning to his son to express his wide surprise and gleam of astonishment. He watched as Aleutian broke his stare from Shadow and stepped over to his pack and pick it up. Without so much as breaking his determined filled stride back to the Ultimate Life Form, he said as soon as he was more than three feet away from him:

"Lead the way."

If Shadow could see himself looking on at Aleutian, he'd seen a kaleidoscope of bewilderment, an unhinged jaw, and something resembling intrusion. "Are you serious?"

Aleutian dipped his chin before looking to his father.

The hedgehog held his gaze at the younger Guardian before turning his head towards Locke. "You all up to this?"

A narrowed eye to his son before thinking of his other. "Espio is Knuckles' friend. If he's done there, he could use our help."

Shadow tightened his fist, ebbing an affirming stare on his face. "Yeah, he's down there keeping watch with Rouge."

And the hedgehog turned away, stepping lightly with his white shoes down a path he'd made with his red eyes.

Just before Aleutian set-off behind him, Locke was attempting to get to him when a poof from his shoulder made him stop in his tracks. Fours surrounded the tiny body of Archimedes.

"You sure about this, mate?" the fire-ant asked very worried.

"Stay with him, Archy," Locke answered under a cloaked voice. "Guide him like you did Knuckles, no matter the difference between you two. Something has sparked a glow in him, and I don't know what it is except possibly hearing about his brother."

He took a step but stopped and quietly turned his head straight to his old mentor. "And don't you two use me as bait again," he lightly scolded with a mirthful smile.

Locke caught Archy's winsome grin as he continued his walk, grabbing his own pack on the way down the incline while slowing staying behind his son. For the second that it took for his voice to cease in his head, he nearly wanting to halt once more from the sight that laid ahead of him. It wasn't of seeing trees or Shadow's quills disappearing in the darkness beyond the woods...but of Aleutian. His son's back was slightly bent, but posed to strike with the charging griffin on his jacket ready to charge with him. His hands were balled in relaxed fists. It was though that what Locke heard that made him want to stop and look on at his son, distant until now for over sixteen years, and feeling further apart than how far he'd thought he'd come to known him. Aleutian was waving his tail side to side with every gently placed step he took under his new shoes...bring only silence that Locke heard. The leaves didn't rustle under Aleutian, but they did under him, no matter how hard he tried. No snaps from fallen twigs. No thumps on the soil. Locke could see what was transposing. His son was finding his way back with each quiet step.

"This is not happening."

The single viewing screen that wrapped around his eyes like a well tailored glove swept left across the fence line for the countless time. Espio stopped as soon as his pupils focused once more on the square concrete shed to the east of the main building. Possibly a storage hold–if not a holding block–from the main structure to the west. It was large enough, guessing it at about sixty square feet in size with hardly any funnels or protruding pipes from the bare roof. He snuffed the air, raising his stomach that laid atop the grassy ground, watching the whole compound forty up from the valley nestled behind a fallen tree trunk, and rotated his elbows, pressing his hands further to keep a tight seal of the binocular to his face, tracing a lone walkway straight-lining to the larger facility he was still figuring out he was going to level with only four satchel chargers. There was no way Knotholes satellites missed this place. Compared to the infant offspring to the right, the larger rectangular building took up most of the fenced in grounds, spreading close to sixty-sixty-five meters to the north and perhaps a hundred to a hundred and half meters wide, sprouting an antenna farm in an arrangement that was more akin to a crop of weeds, mixed with what few ventilation shafts and snakes he could see. Yet, standing atop of the amazingly single story building–and what this place so out of place–was a large satellite dish with a fifty, possibly sixty foot radius, sitting at the edge of the west wall.

And how could he not miss the Eggpawns. Five in all; two patrolling the fence line, two on the large building, and one standing by what he could make out as the door to the small structure.

"This isn't happening."

"What's not happening, Espee?"

Espio's right hand was three inches from the source of the low, disciplined voice that startled him. When his pupils had dilated just in time to make out the familiar face that he didn't hear, nor feel land beside him, he nearly jumped out of his purple skin when he made out a smiling, dark crimson echidna. "Knuckles!?" he sniped under a hoarse whisper, yet his best friend's voice sounded a little deeper, even from his soft tone, and possessing a degree more of maturity. "Wh–what are you doing–"

He was cut off when the echidna shook his head, raveling his head spines atop his shoulders and jacket...? "Knuckles never wore a jacket?"

"Wrong brother, Espio."

The chameleon stammered, gawking when the echidna turned his head further to reveal the long scar running down his right cheek. "Al–Aleutian!?"

The echidna nodded under a knowing smile.

Then a deeper voice floated down to him. "Hey, Espio? How's the rest of the chaotix?"

Straining his head, and his mouth open further, across his shoulder to see the white beard of Locke kneeling behind him, off to his left side. Archimedes was clinging to his right dread-lock, smiling down. "What–"he stopped himself just to look away for a second before looking back over his shoulder. "What's going on? What are you all doing here?" Scanning his surroundings for anymore surprises he then asked, "Where's Shadow?"

"Right here," came the reposed voice standing to his left. "Anything new?"

Swallowing, the chameleon tilted his head at the cove between the sprouting grass and the log, preparing for any assault from Shadow, or even the two echidnas: one guardian, one probably still mad at him from peering over his shoulder just a week ago. "Yeah, you might say that."

Locke must've overlooked his distress; his voice keeping attuned to discipline. "How many?"

Returning the binoculars over his horn and to his eyes he replied in a faint monotone, "Five outside. Not too sure about inside."

A pause gripped the four mobians. All eyes were staring directly ahead at the subtle lighted compound on the corners.

Aleutian drifted his head over to his father. "This is new...very new."

"What makes you come to this conclusion?" Shadow remarked snidely, though his voice was so plain, even trained ears could've missed the barb. "You haven't even set eyes on this place till now."

But Aleutian heard it very clarion. Yet he still had to breath to calm himself. "This wasn't here six years ago." Twisting to Espio, he kept an even face to him. "May I?" he asked, offering an open hand to him.

Twitching his cheek as if the request was very trite to even ask, the chameleon handed the lying echidna the binoculars. "Be my guest."

Espio moved his wrist kinetically at the joint, imitating the binoculars like a tachometer if it was plugged into a certain blue-cobalt friend of his. When Aleutian took the set of eyes, he folded his arms underneath him and hid his face from his disgrace. Least anyone knows it yet. For the moment that passed he was certain Locke would pry away his thoughts and raise the alarm. He'd seen his dear friend Knuckles go through the same ordeal. But for the purple skinned chameleon, it was only a matter of waiting to discover if Shadow would pound him in first or if Aleutian actually had feelings and do him in first. "This is not happening."

"Five bots," Aleutian whispered, mostly to himself.

"Yeah; four on the grounds, one stationary," Espio added.

"And three with blaster arms, two with swords." A breath or two passed from Aleutian. "Our stationary one is going to be the ringer in the bunch. Bet he can weld flies to the wall with that thing."

Shadow's voice intruded over the two. "Try all three." He caught Aleutian's eye towards him. "They're all manufactured so they get the same programing."

Espio watched the younger echidna from the corner of his eye brush off Shadow's observation and went back to looking through the binoculars. "Shadow says y'all have explosives?"

A nod. "Possibly not enough."

Aleutian wavered his head under a meek frown. "Nah. This more to this place. The walls keep going down through the foundation."

"How do you know all this?" Espio quickly shot.

Turning his head, Aleutian saw that not only was the chameleon conveying the question through his face, but Shadow was doing likewise. Shrugging his shoulders, he peered back into the binoculars down the hill. "I've had practice."

Espio couldn't find anything to either question him, or even let a snide comment slip through him. Sonic might've but not him and not now. He was rolling over what Aleutian was possibly leading to. The facility did look a little puny on its surface. In fact that was his initial reaction. Now he had a confirmation on a hunch.

"Hey," Shadow whispered, breaking his train of thought. "Where's Rouge?"

Espio opened his mouth, only to have his voice delay for just a nano-second. "Ah, yeah–"

"Wow, hey," Aleutian said pensively, eyes still glimpsing through the binoculars, "there's a ventilation shaft with the cover off of it."

"Ah, yeah–"

The chameleon only had time to rub the back of his nape just as Shadow spoke:

"Where the explosives?"

Again, he tried to open his mouth but couldn't get a syllable out.

"She's not checking the perimeter, is she?" Aleutian asked a little louder than what the situation could afford. "There's no cover to the east or west of this place."

"Yeah, guys...that's what's not happening." Espio felt all eyes burning a hole through his skin. Never had he felt the urge to completely disappear.

Aleutian looked back across to the compound then back to the chameleon. "Well, where'd she go, Espee? Other side of the fence?"

A sulk of his head. "No," he said, like letting a confession drip from his lips, "she's inside the fence...through the ventilation shaft."

Shadow didn't let silence have a chance. "What!? You were supposed to watch over her!"

Aleutian fell in right on top of the hedgehog. "You let her go in there by herself! She can screw this whole thing up!"

"I know guys," Espio said defensively, still keeping his head down.

"And where the explosives?" Shadow nearly shrilled. Espio–and for that matter, Locke–had never heard Shadow's voice go that high before.

"She liberated them from me."

Aleutian's eye bulged. "Liberated?"

"Not my words!?" Espio snapped back, along with his head.

A fist landed on his left shoulder, sending a pain to dart his head over. Shadow was winning the beat-the-chameleon-down-free-for-all with ever hard glare–red eyes at their fullest. "She was a girl! How can I trust you if you can't handle a simple, dumb girl."

Opening his mouth, feeling his eye brows rising to full height, he muttered, "So me and Sonic have a hard time with holding down a girl."

"Yeah, but this one took everything!" Aleutian drove in with a sneering whisper. "Man, if your horn wasn't part of your numb-skull, she'd taken that too!"

And speaking of which, Shadow grabbed it and yanked Espio's head over to meet his scathing face. "Does she know what else we're here for?"

A gulping quiver. "Maybe?" he chorused innocently.

At this point the purple chameleon, ranking member of the Chaotix, close friend to Knuckles the Echidna, Guardian of his home, first name Espio, wicked with knives and shruken, and unmatched in explosives–not to mention vanishing without an absolute trace–was beginning to feel more like a SWAT-bot being tagged teamed by Sonic and his dear friend Knuckles when they both made-up and became butt-kicking friends. Come to think of it, a punching bag got more mercy than him at this point.

"If she takes that whole place down–heck, blows the alarm, we're done!" Shadow summed-up everything as best as he could without showing any quarter.

A knock came at the crown of his large head. Turning his head ever as slow as he could manage, he met Aleutian's scar face head on. It bleed acid. "And Knuckles and Sonic are toast if what Shadow says is true." He held a breath. "Why aren't you with them?"

"I wanted to," Espio nearly cried out, smothering his harping voice in the soft grass and dirt below him. "But Commander St. John wanted me here because of my 'hidden talents.'" A heavy intake of air, bring about his own tempered face, darting it between hedgehog and echidna. "So–lay–off–me!"

"Okay, boys," came Locke's wedging voice. "This isn't solving anything we need to fix, and fixing it now." When the elder Guardian saw he had all three Mobians' attention–and witnessing Shadow didn't take to well being called a child, being the hedgehog the oldest of the bunch–he pressed further, lower down closer to the grassy floor. "How long ago did she take-off, Espee?"

The chameleon's eyes kept straight forward at the compound. "About ten-fifteen minutes ago."

Shadow's voice was back to normal for him. "Why did she take off in the first place?"

A smirk actually crossed Espio's face. "You were taking to long."

A gruff thunder from the Ultimate Life Form. "I was dealing with some problems."

"Oh, like what?"

The grass shuffled from the body to his right. "Me," came Aleutian's early calm voice.

"Us," Locke corrected.

Looking back across he shoulder, Espio found Locke's eyes, though they were staring over him towards the compound. "Yeah, why are you three here anyways?" A long moment passed without either echidna replying. When the chameleon saw Locke bit at his inner lip, he had a feeling what was transpiring before now.

"Catching up, Espee," the elder Guadian said, drifting his right hand up to his beard, gently pulling at the whiskers. "I hope you've been thinking of a way to get in there."

Looking forward, the Chameleon sighed. "Thus far the front door play comes to mind."

Locke's voice resembled a mild thunder. "Out of the question. Not if you want the bots inside reformatting their hard-drives because of us."

Right hand falling towards Aleutian, Espio directed his eyes to the binoculars, which the scarred echidna gave him without so much as straying an eye away from their target. "Well," he started, finding his own voice subsiding to calmness, "our only set of wings has left us."

"And we're too low to glide in," Locke observed under a hefty breath. Even he was beginning to get frustrated.

The trees swayed under a cat's-paw wind, gently bringing in silence to the Mobians tucked behind a fallen log. The wet glaze of their eyes flickered with every turn of their hues under the leaving moon, all searching a much needed solution, however, scared to bring about an idea. For a moment, Aleutian had conceded into watching the place blow up, or even better, wait for Rouge and give a huge surprise. If she thought their first meeting was a show, she had yet to see him now armed with what he knew.

Then it sparked him, making him twist his over his left shoulder to his father. "Dad, you have that warp-ring?"

Locke hid his smile, letting a disappointing grimace betray him. "Already thought about it, but those Eggbots would know when we activate one. Especially if they are on high alert. Given the gravity of what Espio and Shadow are hunting for, I'd say a flee be hard pressed to jump through here alive."

"But you can teleport."

Locke had to look away from his son, because the near demand didn't come from him, but from the one being who knew about his capabilities. If Aleutian knew how close Shadow had come to killing his father...things would've been much different...and his son's wish fulfilled in death. But there he was staring at the other walking body that was a living, breathing chaos emerald.

Nodding to the black hedgehog, he bit at his lip and scowled at the weakness he was about to expose. "Unfortunately I've never visited this place before, so I can't see, or picture where I can teleport to."

"But..."

The underlying question in Aleutian's voice was waned, almost misguided not to Locke, but to someone else the elder echidna was sure he was looking at when his son spoke. He felt Aleutian's blue eyes steep inside him, asking, reasoning. Why of all time now, Locke festered deep within himself? Why convey this daunting look to him now like he had just become a menace to them all?

"Don't hold back on me, son. Ask what's in your heart."

Aleutian turned away, only hearing his father sigh instead of some sort of protest, or simple plead to continue. He rolled his thoughts in his head, already processing them but driving for commitment. Another flicker of images in his; a squeeze of his hand were pops resinated from his joints; his own inner voice yelling out to him, his face expressionless as if he was taking the inner beating; past voices that were softer–

Her face looking over shoulder at him...

"You up to this, my Guardian."

"Aleutian?"

The scarred Guardian strayed his head slightly to Espio, finding his puzzled expression alien as to why he possessed it. "What?"

The chameleon looked behind Aleutian then returned his odd expression. "What are you doing with your tail?"

Looking back himself, he saw, and at last felt, his crimson furred tail twisting into a cork-screw clockwise, then alternating the other direction. Was he committing himself to what had just briefly passed through his mind and almost through his mouth? It was just an inexplicable moment of judgement that two years ago he felt would've just come out in the open, presenting itself for short moment and he taking it for all it proposed it was worth. This had all been recluse to him. His heart didn't have the strength to trust his own judgement, his own voice, leaving it all as just mumbles in a dream and never acting on them. But why...why now? Why then when Knothole was confronted with Eggman's Dreadbot?

"Because she wasn't there with me. Because I had no one...because I wanted no one."

The confrontation was real, looking at him with enviously, wanting to be taken and pushed to the envelope of his forgotten desires and renew his soul. It had been warming in him since Shadow...he felt it now.

And he was ready.

"Stretching my tail, Espio," he replied, gazing on at the compound though his sight had been somewhere else.

Looking back to his father, he let his conviction show with an expressionless sneer. "But what if you could see, dad?"

Locke blinked at his question. "Yes I could, but how?"

"Through me," Aleutian said, drawing his eyes in rudimentary confidence. Checking Espio than Shadow, both mobians' attention squarely on him, he faced forward to his coming target. "If I can get my hand on that wall, I could trace the inside and find a spot to get us in with my sight. Like we did with that tree the other day."

A slight tilt of his head back as the memory struck the older Guardian. He saw the whole act bombarding in his head. "You're going to need to work fast to get in, but what then? As soon as we pop in there–"

"We can work fast," Aleutian drove with a subtle voice. Turning to Espio, he asked, "You know what to grab, right?"

The chameleon nodded on a surely face. "His computers aren't hard to crack. With the way the Bee-Hive's system was three weeks ago, I can download the cipher and anything else."

"What about me?" asked Shadow. Both echidna's could see the hedgehog was wanting his share of this.

Bitting his lower lip, Aleutian returned his gaze to the main building. "If my hunch is correct their might be a lower lever to this place. Want to have a look?"

Shadow faced the structure of their collective attention. For a while he remained silent. "Yeah. Yeah, I can take it."

"And you, son?" Locke pondered aloud.

For a moment, and just that, Aleutian held his breath, mostly for himself. He had the idea touching his mind and soul; wondering if it was what was driving to do this.

"I'll go find Rouge. She shouldn't be hard to find."

"I'd bet money on that," Espio quipped without remorse. "For all we know she's down in those lower decks you think this place has. Probably lost."

He shook his head. "Nah, I can find her. From what I know of her, we might use the same tricks and go the same places." Easing his broad muzzle to Espio's ear, he added in a serious tone, "Once I find her with the explosives, I need you to find me after you're done."

Espio looked on to him with a furrowed brown. "What–why?"

The chameleon watched Aleutian roll his eyes, mostly at himself. "I've never blown a building up before. I need your explosive work."

A smirk in grandeur to himself. "My fireworks have not disappointed."

"Cool."

Locke's deep voice floated down. "And me son?"

Aleutian rolled over on his side and steadily, and slowly, climbed to his feet. He kept his back to his father, only turning when he heard Espio struggling to his own feet. "I want you to get us in, then get yourself out." He closed his eyes, fisting his hands as his head dipped. He was asking himself if he was sure about this. "Just watch the gear and our backs. If the things go wrong, dad–"

"Son."

Aleutian held up his palm, eyes looking away in thought. "Um, I–"

"Son, take Archimedes with you." Locke saw his words grab his sons head and eyes and gentle pulled his attention toward his caring, affirming expression as if his own hands had done this...like when he was five. "I'll stay here and keep watch on the perimeter, and the bots. Besides, you're going to need my eyes when you're at the wall. If a bot gets too close, I'll shout to Archy and have him pull you all out."

It seemed his words to a while to reach Aleutian, but his son finally nodded after a moment. Yet, when he peered up, his eyes held a malice tone to them and aimed straight at Archimedes on his shoulder. "Let it die, son."

"It won't for some time to come, Locke," the fire-ant replied. "But I know what he is seeking, and I can deliver it this time."

"Fine," Aleutian replied. "But he goes with Espio once we get inside." He focused on the Archimedes fully. "I'll do my best to search for the control center, but my sight is limited. If I can find it, teleport him there and let him do his voodoo."

A curt bow of the slouch hat. "You have me, lad."

From Locke's shoulder erupted a poof of purple smoke and in an instant the dark olive colored fire-ant was standing on Aleutian's shoulder. For the moment, handed down mentor of three generations and the one Guardian he hadn't had the better chance to pass on his life's wisdom locked eyes with each other. So much could have been avoided; both glares conveyed this to each set of eyes. But Aleutian said he was willing to place it aside, Archimedes remembered...and he had already. He was just upset Aleutian had accepted his apology fully. And he couldn't blame him one bit.

So much could have been avoided.

"All right blokes," Archy announced, turning to Espee and Shadow. Gather around if you fancy a trip," Pinching the brim of his hat, bringing down further at his eyes. "This is going to be fast, lads...and it better be."

Locke stepped forward, snagging Espio binoculars from him as he past, bringing them up to his eyes and scanned the compound. One of the two bots armed with swords was marching the closest fence line towards them to the west while a single bot was making its way east along the wall of the large structure. "Archy, you're going to have an opening here real soon." Looking to the corner, he descried the second patrolling bot rounding the eastern corner of the buidling. In about ten seconds it'd be passing under the awning that stretched from one building to the next. In another fifteen, it would round the corner and spot the group. "Get ready."

Espio stepped next to Aleutian. "Hope you can pull this off."

"You and me both," Shadow remarked, sliding himself between the two while looking straight into Aleutian's eyes.

The Guardian didn't flinch a nervous muscle. Instead he met Espio's eyes. "Hey Espio." The echidna's eyes drift to the chameleon's left wrist where his four throwing knives laid inside their large sheath fixed to his upper forearm. "Got a knife I can borrow."

"What?" Archy nearly yelp. "Aleutian, you have your skills–"

"Not to mention these," Espio put in, pointing to the Guardian's spiked gloves.

But Aleutian barley shook his head, tugging his lower lip by covered teeth. "I'm not well versed with them. I need something I know I can use, and you have them."

Locke's quick voice came over the still air. "Let him have it, Espio."

The chameleon eyed the elder Guardian as he felt with his right hand for his lowest knife in its nestled place on his left arm, pulled it out, twirled it a half revolution where the blade landed in his gloved hand, and slide the handle to Aleutian. The guardian gripped it, letting his index finger ride the length of the metal handle with three holes drilled into, opened his left jacket flap and placed it in an inside pocket.

Locke's voice chorus, "Five..."

Aleutian gave an assuring, harden face to Shadow.

"...Four..."

The hedgehog nodded; the thought of enemies slipping with it.

"...Three..."

A quick glance to Espio.

"...Two..."

And a curt smirk exfoliated from his lips.

"...One..."

Archimedes voice replaced all sound. "Here we go."

Sight dissipated under a harsh cloud of purple smoke; with it, all feelings of direction. A sinking sensation of weightlessness engulfed the pit of Aleutian's stomach–partly from the act Archimedes was conducting, but mostly from the trapped feeling that if he messed up in the next second, there was possibly no way. Then again, he'd felt this feeling once before, remembering his sight fading when he'd collapsed on Emi-La's dead body, then feeling the weightless that he was experiencing now, then waking up with Faith Drake's hands damping his head under a wet cloth, her voice bringing him back to consciousness. When one nightmare stopped and another began.

He hopped that as his feet felt the soft clumps of ground returning he was waking from his last nightmare.

"I'll see you when I get back, father."

Just as the smoke began to clear, Espio remerging beside him, Shadow in front, his eyes caught the grey concrete wall directly to his right and before he could think it, his hand had slapped the tips of his fingers on a lone cinder-block spread. Immediately he dove his corporeal vision straight through the wall, focusing through the pits and canyons of the block, slicing through its harden molecules before halting when he was viewing inside a dark room, saved the blinking red lights of idle computers and machines. He paused for a brief moment, waiting to see if anything moved.

There! A single sway of a large hulk roved to the right, uncovering a single florescent light stand that was hoovering over a table with something covered over it in a white sheet.

Aleutian steered sideways to the east side of the room, finding his vision flash in total blackness before reappearing in adjacent room. Every over head light was on inside it, but it was too large and cluttered with machines to make a fast entry.

"Not there, lad. I thought a saw a camera on the wall," Archimedes voice echoed in his ear. The fire-ant was fully connecting into his sight, and somehow Aleutian was aware of him.

"I can feel you inside my head–"

"Good, tell your father that later...focus."

Tilting his head, the echidna slewed his sight further across the wall, following the connection until again a flash of black signaled he'd slammed into the far wall, crossed it in sea of motion lines, and stopped in a small room, bare to the shelves and floor. "That might be it?"

"Best hurry, Aleutian. Your father gives us five seconds before the bot rounds the corner."

A quiver from his head. Indecisiveness filled him. He wasn't sure if Archy could get them all in to that small space. He followed the wall further down, watching the support rails pass him as if he was driving over a guttered-bridge, crossed the bridge to the next room, but soon found himself looking down a darkened hall. A single, bare florescent light bar flickered over the short passage way–

"I don't like this," Archy shouted in a hoarse whisper.

"Neither do I," he groaned evenly.

But there was no other choice. Archy's feelings powered that conclusion straight to his mind.

"Your father is saying now!"

"Then do it!"

For the moment he had before all his sight was taken from him, Aleutian let go of his inner vision, finding his eyes staring at Shadow's wide red pupils. Something passed between them but he didn't have time to think of what it was. Just beyond the hedgehog's, when their eyes had unlocked from each other, he saw the beginning lines of an Eggpawn's figure jutting from the corner.

Then the feeling of weightlessness saturated him.

Locke nearly collapsed when he deflated his lungs. The bot had pivoted right on the spot he was calculating it would, turned its round torso, and possibly never saw a shred of the purple smoke dissipate into the air like fog leaving a calm meadow. And with it, his mentor, a being beholding a grudge, a friend to his youngest son, all in the care of his eldest...hoping his path was turning to his true calling.

"I'll be here, Aleutian. I promise, this time."

Okay, it's me again. How did this one fair? Was the suspence right? Does it feel rushed? I hope not. Please let me know. I will be doing an edit with this but I may not change to much around, except the damn spelling.

Thanks y'all see you next round, and hopefully the full conclusion.