Tails threw open the door, slamming it shut again when he had made his way through it. With emotions barely contained, he ran unsteadily through the rainy streets, running away from the horror that he had just experienced.
He was so sure what the result would be that when something else happened, he was shocked out of his mind. What went wrong? Why did he have to be the victim of a let down? All the others Vector, Knuckles, Sonic, Espio. Their partners had happily excepted their now husbands offers. But Talim had almost laughed in his face it seemed, before realising he was being serious, and trying to gently let him know that she wasn't interested. But to Tails, it seemed that she had just told him to piss off and now, he ran, away her from, away from his house, away from the nightmare that he had just experienced.
He stopped under a tree, the rain splattering on the pavement around him, as if even it were trying to attack, biting at his ankles. He took out the ring, the tiny box that contained something he had spent so much money on, for nothing. He stared at it with blank eyes for a few seconds, before snarling at it and throwing it away, as if it was the rings fault he was refused marriage by the one he loved. He thought he knew what he was doing, yes, he was only 18, and Talim was getting onto 22, but it just felt so right that they should be together.
Why couldn't it just be like in the movies? Tails sobbed to himself, shivering pathetically in the rain, all alone. In the movies, the girl would gasp and cry and kiss her groom, saying over and over again how she loved him so much and how she would marry him with any hesitation. Why couldn't he have the luck of his friends? Friends who had now gone and started their own families, and had no more time for him. He had no place in the world it seemed, and so he just sat, in the rain, shivering and crying gently to himself.
Eventually, as the sun began to rise for the new day, Tails realised he couldn't sit in a puddle and shrivel away like some unwanted tramp, so he decided to visit an old friend, one who had been there so many times when he most needed him, and hopefully someone who could help him through his newest troubles.
But when Tails approached Sonic's house, a baby's cry could be heard through the door. Shocked and alarmed, Tails had a brief thought of how Amy had given birth already, but then realised if she had, the baby wouldn't even be alive. So, his curiosity peeping through his depressed cloud of thoughts, he pushed open the door, and found Sonic trying to help Amy feed Draco, who looked like he really didn't want the vile lumps of semi-liquid that was supposed to be baby food any where near his mouth. When Sonic spotted his best friend, he thrust the spoon into Amy's hand and rushed to greet him.
" Tails! I'm so glad your hear! It's like my baby's been born early! How the hell am I supposed to look after some baby that's not even mine?" He screeched, waving his hands in emphasise. But Tails didn't reply, he didn't particularly care that Sonic was having trouble looking after Draco, at least he was married. " What's wrong buddy?" Sonic asked curiously when he saw the dark expression on Tails face. With tired eyes, Tails looked up at his 'older brother', gave a sniff, and wrapped his arms around Sonic, enclosing him in a frightened hug. " Tails!" Sonic exclaimed in surprise. They used to hug like this all the time, but since Amy and him had married, and Tails and Talim had started dating, a rift had been forming between the two, so much so that the so called ' Unseperatable' pair had been, well, separated. Tails found himself crying again.
" I asked Talim to marry me!" He cried loudly, his chest shaking with unsteady breaths. Sonic jumped a little.
" What!" He yelled in surprise, obviously not remembering the conclusion that Tails had come to that night two weeks ago. His face changed to one of sympathy when he realised why Tails was probably here. " Those aren't happy tears are they buddy?" He asked gently, his eyes curved. Tails lifted his head out of Sonic'c chest, thinking how childish he was being, and gave a little nod, sniffing and trying to steady himself. Sonic nodded and said softly with reassurance " Don't worry about it Tails. Your gonna be ok". He took Tails shoulder gently, wrapping his hand around it, and leading him to the sofa, pushing him down to sit and bringing him a box of tissues. " Let it out buddy" he urged, but Tails felt he had done enough crying for one day, and simply blew his nose and started ripping up tissues from the box into little pieces.
When Amy had finally persuaded Draco to eat, she too came over, taking a seat on one of the spare chair and asking Sonic what was wrong with her old freind. Sonic told her, keeping his tone low so as not to provoke Tails into any extreme action. The fox barely noticed Amy's weight gain. At that moment, he didn't give a damn.
" Oh Tails! I'm so sorry! Did she give any reason why she refused?" Amy said, worried for her old friend, one who she was almost as close to as Sonic. Tails shrugged and said
" Not really, she keeps hinting we settle down, and I didn't even want the wedding that soon! I can wait years if she wants to!" His voice began to quiver and break " I just don't get it" he mumbled, burying his face in his arms, not answering anymore of Sonic and Amy's questions. A splattering sound reached their ears as Draco threw his baby food against the opposite wall, his laughter following soon after. Amy sighed in frustration and got up, finding looking after a baby not quite as rewarding as she first thought. She was beginning to understand why Sonic was having second thoughts.
As Amy tried to force the food into the infants mouth, ending with most of it on her own face, Sonic sat with Tails, watching as the fox sat still, not moving or making any noise. If Sonic didn't know better, he would have wondered if the fox was asleep. Then, amongst Draco amused laughter and Amy's annoyed and desperate words, the mobile phone in the corner rang, it's ring tune the intro to Sonic heroes ( sorry, couldn't resist). Tails immediately looked up and threw himself of the coach and grabbing the phone before Sonic could react.
" Talim!" He exclaimed, perhaps stupidly. The other voice on the phone made a confused noise and said
" No, er , this is Shadow". Tails felt overrun with disappointment.
" Oh" he replied. Shadow sounded panicking for some reason. If Tails wasn't so caught up in his own thoughts, he would have caught onto this rare emotion of Shadows and recognised that something was wrong. " What did you want Shadow?" Tails asked in politeness, although at that particular moment he didn't feel like being well mannered. Tails listened to Shadows reply, yelling the answer to Sonic and Amy soon after.
" What!"
" Argggh!" Siberia screamed, as yet another contraction vibrated through her. She had felt so many in the last two weeks, and the very hint of them made her feel sick to her stomach. Two weeks had been spent sliding in and out of hospital, going in an out of labour. Siberia was sick, extremely sick. She had hardly eaten for weeks, as whatever she did eat would probably end up going back out again through her vomit, and she couldn't cope with anymore attempts at her body to have her babies early, it was draining whatever energy she had left. Shadow was by her side, like he always was. That was one thing she could count on, he would always be supporting her, helping her out however he could. But for once, his support was simply not enough, she was dying...
She had hardly seen her little boy all this time, her house was a mess where Amy and Rouge had been trying to take care of Draco and keep the house clean, a difficult task for both of them, as Rouge lived so far away and had her own son to look after, and Amy, who was expecting her own child and couldn't rush about as much as she used to be able to.
Then , Siberia felt something break, and she was alarmed to find liquid trickling down her legs. That was her water, and , this was it. She struggled to keep herself from fainting as she felt blood rush away from her head. Shadow recognised the symptom as well, and he suddenly looked as if the world was ending. He couldn't even pull himself together enough to reassure Siberia, and simply went into his own head, the nurses milling around beside him, trying to help Siberia. There had been a mistake on the conception date, and they worked out that Siberia was 7 months pregnant, not six, but it was still so young for any baby to be born, let alone twins.
" Their coming! Their coming!" One of the nurses alerted, perhaps slightly unnecessarily, and everyone snapped to attention, Siberia pushing with every new, horrible contraction. Aside from the obvious, there was something else wrong with this labour, and Siberia knew it, even being half awake. Normally, when the water broke, it was usually hours before the babies were actually born. But here she was, in heavy labour, her water broken just minuets before. Siberia knew she was too weak to do this, but her instincts told her to push, and get the babies out, so that they might survive, even if she didn't...
" There's the head!" One of the younger nurses shouted eagerly, seemingly unaware of the danger both mother and children were in.
" Come on Siberia! You can do this! Please!" She faintly heard Shadow plead with her, but her vision was becoming clouded, and she felt her self slipping away.
But after another strained push, she felt something leave her, but wasn't sure if she heard a babies cry or not. The nurses excited voices were hard to make out, and she felt someone shout ' It's a boy!'. She knew that already, but didn't have time to think about it, as another wave of pain shot through her and a contraction forced the other baby half way out too. After 20 minuets of strained pushing, where she drifted in and out of awareness of her surroundings, the baby finally gave up and was pushed out. Her head was ringing, her breathing was fast and forced and yet she didn't seem to be getting enough to her head, and her vision dying with every passing second. She shifted her head to the side and saw Shadow, looking desperately at the nurses as they held the babies, Siberia didn't understand why. She grabbed his wrist and just managed to wheeze
" Name...them" she said between haggard breaths, staring at him with loving eyes, and passed out.
" Shadow! I heard the news! Is she all right? Are they all right?" Rouge exclaimed at an extremely fast rate as she rushed up, seeing the before mentioned hedgehogs wondering out side and intensive care unit that the receptionist had told them that Siberia was in. Shadow took one look at the bat and echidna, before walking over, in a slouched, heavy stance, to Rouge and hugging her, taking Knuckles by surprise. He seemed again very close to tears, and tried to blink them back and keep his voice under control long enough to tell Rouge what was happening.
" Siberia has had the babies. One..." He paused, took an unsteady, shaky breath and continued " One is in intensive care ...one is ...one is..." He stopped and broke down at that point, crying like a little child at his owns death. Rouge felt her own deep feeling off loose for him, but knew that he was feeling a million times worse, and envied him for being able to hold himself together as well as he had. She would probably want to kill herself in his position.
" Shhhh, it's ok Shadow, it's ok" she soothed, but Shadow was not in the mood to be calm, and pulled his face out of Rouges shoulder, rage filling his eyes, disappear beyond measure.
" It's not ok! My son is dead! Don't you get it? My son is dead!" He shouted, drawing attention to himself. Rouge tried to shush him, but it appeared Shadow was far to upset for anything like that, so he simply roared with grief, and started yelling louder " My son is dead! My son is dead!" He thrashed and bellowed like a beast in agony. Rouge desperately tried to silence her friend, shaking his shoulders and shouting into his face. But from that point on Shadow seemed to have formed a sound proof shell around him and drifting away into his own world of sorrow.
Knuckles stepped forward, thinking of a similar situation around two weeks ago, feeling his heavy hand had a better chance of forcing some sense into Shadow than Rouges ways. He prompted her aside with his large hands and face gestures, while Shadows voice had been reduced to wailing nonsense. Knuckles tried one more time to make sure Shadow wouldn't shut up, shaking his shoulders just as his bat wife had done, before gritting his teeth in impatience, drawing his fist back, and striking Shadow across the face with a not so light punch.
Shadow recoiled at the unexpected attack, regained his balance, stared at Knuckles for a few moments, then hit back, punching the echidna across the chest. Knuckles nodded in understanding and said calmly
" Let it out Shadow". From those words, it seemed as if the light had been shown to the hedgehogs eyes. He started punching, repeatedly, onto Knuckles strong chest, smashing his fists against him with the guilt, fury and sadness, along with all the other emotions, he felt inside. His teeth gritted, his sharp canine showing with menace. Knuckles began to wince as Shadow hit the same spots, already soar from previous striking and the blows began to land harder and harder. Rouge watched in concern as her loved one received the blows, but she was grateful that he took her place before Shadow became violent on his own.
By now the hedgehogs blows were weakening. His raging roars of grief turning to gentle simmers. He struck Knuckles once, twice, three times more ...before slumping in defeat down on the floor, all his energy spent. Knuckles, his chest moaning in complaint to Shadows fierce punches, bent down slightly, stooping his back and putting his hands on Shadows shoulders, squeezing gently.
" It may not be to late" he said quietly, and walked past Shadow, going into the room through the massive doors that stood behind them. It took Shadow a while to look up, and by the time he did, Knuckles was gone. He wondered what Knuckles had meant by what he had just said.
Meanwhile , Knuckles wondered through a corridor and found a small room with a group of discouraged looking nurses who were slowly milling away, looking saddened. Sensing this is where he had to go, Knuckles approached the women.
" What's going on?" he asked, his eyes fixed on the form that lay lifeless on the table, covered with a small blanket. The nurse gave a weary smile and said mournfully
" We just lost this little one". Knuckles felt his heart grow heavy in pain for the little creature, it's life snapped away from it even before it had a chance to use it. He stared at the creature, knowing what he was about to do was very risky.
" Mind if I just do something?" He asked. The nurse looked a little confused as to what this ' something' Knuckles wanted to do was, but she moved aside anyway, letting Knuckles pass and gain access to the dead little baby. He approached it, carefully lifting up the edge of the blanket to reveal the infant underneath, it's black body littered with jagged orange striped and long red streak across it's front quill. It was tiny, half formed and vulnerable looking, it's skin poking through it's fur in places where the fur had not yet had a chance to grow through.
The echidna took a long breath, trying to calm his heart rate. He raised up his large hands and placed them on the infants body. His mind and stomach screamed in disgust at touching a corpse, but Knuckles had to try, he knew Shadow would do the same for him. He closed his eyes a silently contacted the master emerald, pleeing with it in his mind and asking for it's strength to aid his own. The remaining nurse watching in strange fascination at what the weird looking creature was doing, but became almost terrified when both the echidna and the baby hedgehog began to glow, one a shimmering red and the other a flickering orange. Knuckles eyes burst into a colourless mass, his dreadlocks lifting and flying around his head, as if they had minds of their own. His huge hands, ones that almost overlapped the infants body, tightened on their target. The strain began to show. A bead of sweat made it's way down Knuckles face, dripping of the end of his muzzle. More followed, and he gritted his teeth in an effort to keep control.
Then, just as the terrified and mortified nurse was about to step in, the chest of the infant began to rise, slowly and delicately in an effort to breath. Knuckles felt his legs grow weak, knowing the master emerald would not help a child that was not that of it's guardian and that he was using purely his own chaos strength.
But in the end, it proved not enough, and as Knuckles let go, knowing he would probably end up in a coma or worse if he gave any more of his own energy, the baby's small, pattern of breathing stopped, and it's heart feel back into a still sleep. Knuckles took a haggard, weakened breath and collapsed on the floor, the nurse catching him but struggling to maintain his heavy weight. When she managed to get Knuckles into a safe sitting position, she walked over to the baby, once again covering it over with the blanket. Knowing of the miracle that almost took place before her.
" Knuckles!" Rouge yelled in alarm when Knuckles emerged from the big, imposing doors, not walking, but leaning, slouched in a wheel chair, a nurse pushing it for him as his own arms dangled uselessly to the sides. The bat ran up, temporarily forgetting about her friends sons, and showered both her husband and the nurse with him with questions.
" I tried to...help...not enough" Knuckles struggled answer, almost choking himself in the process in an effort to get enough oxygen. Rouge shushed in, looking alarmed at her normally healthy lovers grave condition. The nurse, seeing that the well chair bound echidna had no energy of his own left, explained as best she could to Rouge.
" He used his er, chaos control is it? To help Tobious, but-" Rouge cut her off
" Wait! Tobious?" she interrupted, the odd name catching her attention. The nurse nodded and said
" Yes, Siberia fainted soon after she had the twins, leaving Shadow to name them both. The one Knuckles just tried to revive was Tobious" she explained. Rouge nodded her head in understanding, having a brief thought about how the nurse could possibly know all their names. But that thought was swept aside when she realised that all four of them were celebrities, especially Knuckles and Shadow. The only way you could possibly not know them was if you were living under a rock for the past 15 years. Rouge looked over her shoulder to where Shadow was sat, in his own deep thoughts, looking not upset up emotionally dead, and wondered why he had chosen such an odd name, not that Draco was a particularly normal one of course. " But I'm afraid whatever he was trying to do didn't work" she paused, sniffed and said " It's a shame, I was really hoping it would" and with that she left. Rouge sat with Knuckles for a while. Then, after getting no response from either the hedgehog or echidna, except for the continuos laboured breathing of the second mentioned, she tried to get Knuckles to talk, but that proved fruitless.
So , after asking Shadow if it was all right to leave and getting a short grunt in reply, the still worried Rouge found the nurse again and asked if Knuckles would have to stay in ' That wheelchair' forever.
" Oh no no no, just he seems to have lost a lot of energy. So long as he keeps eating and gets plenty of rest, he should be walking within a few weeks" she replied, seeming amused at Rouges suggestion. The bat breathed a sigh of relief, but had a small thought about having to take care of both Knuckles and Seth at the same time. At this thought , another occurred, Rouge realising she needed to pick Seth up from Vectors place. However, with Knuckles basically paralysed, Rouge couldn't fly him there like she usually did. So she phoned Tails, finding him at Sonic and Amy's place, and asked him to pick them up.
" Oh! One last thing!" The nurse called as Rouge pushed Knuckles in his new wheel chair out through the automatic doors. Rouge rolled her eyes in impatience and replied rudely
" What?". The nurse didn't seem fazed, and she simply stared in wonder at Rouge, asking
" Is it true you had the first crossbreed with Knuckles!". Rouge , not in the mood to discuss her own family, replied with a short
" Yes". The nurses eyes widened eagerly and she squealed
" Wow! This is amazing! Is it really true you used a gene splincer to create it?". That statement got rid of whatever patients Rouge had, and she snarled in anger, pushing Knuckles out of the doors as he watched fearfully. The nurses were gaverred round and hearing the young ones story, an excited sweep of chatter sweeping through he hospital.
Tails waited outside for them, his tornado parked in a 'baby on board' parking space. He looked like he would rather die than be there, his normally bright and opinionated eyes dark and empty.
Stories were exchanged during that trip, Tails telling them of his failed engagement and Rouge filling him in on Siberia's tragedy. It was a sad story, but unknown to everyone, it was about to get a lot worse.
AUTHORS NOTES
Ok, once again, appologises on this chapter taking so long. I have been sick, buisy, and trying to get a mountain of coursework done before I go to Poland, which is in three days time, for a school trip. Anyway, as always, I hope you liked it and ill see you soon hopefully. Please R+R! Thankyou kindly!