Hello everyone! Time to get started on chapter eight of this story, but first the reviews!
1TGN: Tails' subconscious wasn't related to the figure in those chapters, we'll figure out more about them as we go! Sonic and Tails' bond is certainly very close, and nothing is going to change that! But they've definitely got a ways to go before it becomes normal so to speak.
Perturbo: The angst was certainly strong in the last chapter as Tails' world kinda fell atop him for a bit, but things are looking up more now!
Void Reader: There's still plenty of unanswered questions to explore!
AndTails: The angst between the two of them was certainly strong for a bit, but they certainly seem to have figured out things for themselves! As for Tails' heritage, we'll have to see how that goes for him!
That's everybody, let's start this chapter!
Nightstalkers
Smoke and Starlight
The two of them approached the cave in silence. The thought of having to explain himself to Sally sat in the back of the kitsune's mind, not to mention worrying about what she would think, needless to say, the entire prospect had him on edge.
As the cave entered into sight, Sonic led them both to the mouth of it. Tails pulled the hood of his cloak over his head as they approached, trying to avoid eye contact with Knuckles who stood guard just outside the cave mouth.
"Thank goodness you're both alright…" Knuckles began, "You ran out and I was starting to think that-"
"That what?" Tails interjected, his anger rising with every word the echidna spoke. "That maybe I wouldn't be back, that's what you really wanted huh?"
"That's not-"
"They're too dangerous to be left alive right? Just… Just shut up…"
The fox walked past the echidna and into the cave, giving him a glare as he did.
"Sorry about that," Sonic spoke. "He's had a rough day, just give him some space for a bit."
Knuckles nodded, but deep down, he felt guilty. Tails had clearly heard him say quite a few bad things about Nightspawn, and now, he had every right to be angry with him.
The kitsune sat next to the fire and wrapped himself in the folds of his own cloak. He took deep breaths to try and calm himself after his angry outburst, as he did, Sally made her way over and sat next to the fox. The kitsune glanced at her out of the edge of his vision, a tinge of guilt in his eyes. He quickly returned his gaze to the fire in front of him, avoiding making eye contact with the chipmunk.
"Tails," Sally spoke, being as gentle with her voice as she could. "You don't have to hide you know…"
She pulled his hood off his head, revealing his somber expression as the kitsune gazed down at the flames, the orange light from the fire reflected in his three blue eyes.
"I'm… I'm sorry Sally…" He eventually spoke. "I was just scared about telling anybody and-"
"I understand…" Sally interjected, placing a reassuring hand on the fox's shoulder. "I know it's probably been just as hard for you to live with not telling me. I just want you to know that whatever you need to talk about, I'm here to help."
"T-Thanks…" Tails responded, trying to hold back his own tears. For one of the first times in his life, Tails strangely found himself seeing a future where things went alright. One where he wasn't going to be left on his own, where he wasn't going to be killed for what he was. Maybe things would be different for him now… Maybe he could finally be himself…
"I really mean it," The fox continued turning his head to look over at the chipmunk. "You don't know how much that means to me right now…"
Sally gently smiled at the kitsune, the three blue eyes that gazed at her still somewhat threw her off. Rather than being afraid however, she saw those eyes as those of a friend or even family.
"Do you wanna get some sleep?" Sally spoke, "You've probably had a really rough day… I'll take your watch for you tonight."
The kitsune returned her smile, "Thank you… I'm pretty tired. I promise I'll make it up to you somehow."
"You're perfectly alright Tails, just get some sleep."
The kitsune curled himself up next to the fire, keeping his cloak wrapped around himself as he slowly but surely allowed the clutches of sleep to carry him off into his dreams.
-X-
All Miles could feel was heat… Outside the window, he could hear the shouts of some of the other villagers above the roaring blaze of the flames that threatened to consume him.
"You can't hide forever you little freak! We'll burn the whole place down if we have to!"
The kitsune fell into a coughing fit, trying to expel the smoke from his lungs as he made his way over toward the stairs outside his bedroom and started down them. He had hoped that they would just leave him alone, that maybe if he hid himself for long enough that they'd have to go away.
The fox's coughing finally ceased as he reached the bottom, but he could still feel some of the nearby flames from one of the wooden walls licking at his fur, threatening to set him alight if he wasn't careful.
He hadn't meant for any of this to happen, he'd just made one mistake, one tiny slip up, and now, everything was starting to come crashing down.
Literally…
One of the wooden support beams that held up the second floor gave way, splitting under the weight from above and causing a cascade of wood, embers, and fire to just barely miss the kitsune, who moved to the left at the last second to avoid it.
His lungs burned as yet another wave of coughs made its way out of his throat. He felt dizzy, and like he was being suffocated. He knew he needed air, but if he dared try and step foot outside, he would almost certainly be killed.
"Miles!?" A voice called, one which he instantly recognized as his mother's. He was able to make out her figure amidst the orange glow from the flames, dressed in her usual purple outfit as she tried to make her way over toward him.
"Mom!" He called back as loud as he could, and quickly the coughs he'd experienced earlier came back in full force as his lungs instantly filled with smoke.
Rosemary quickly made her way over to him, pulling him into her arms.
"Mom, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-" The younger fox spoke, before being interrupted by his mother.
"I know you didn't Miles, but I need you to listen to me." She spoke, she handed him his headband back and pointed toward the back door.
"I want you to leave right after I do, and I want you to run as fast as you can. But whatever you do, don't look back, alright?"
The kitsune gently and tentatively nodded and started making his way toward the back, weaving through some of the flames in his path. As he did, Rosemary exited out of the front of the house. Miles could hear shouting just after she'd stepped outside, and it seemed to be originating from out front. He pushed it out of his mind until he made his way next to the back door and rushed outside into the snow. He gasped for fresh air, quickly scanning his eyes around for any other Mobians. There were none, but fresh footprints lead around the house toward the front, where he could still hear some shouting.
Remembering his mother's instructions, he quickly ran toward the trees, away from the still burning home behind him, he heard the shouting grow fainter as he got further away from the flames.
It was at that moment that he let curiosity get the better of him, and ignoring his mother's instructions, he turned to look back at his home.
A small crowd had moved to the side of the now completely engulfed structure. They were advancing on another lone Mobian who the kit instantly recognized as his mother. He watched as Rosemary was grabbed and violently thrown to the snow below, one of the lead members of the group shouted something to the others, drew a sword from his waist, and stabbed Rosemary through the chest.
Miles' blood instantly ran cold, his entire world turned into a blur in that exact moment as the image of his own mother stabbed through burned itself into his mind. Tears instantly started to flow as the fox turned and ran in horror. All the while the voices in his head echoed one single thought…
"This is all your fault…"
-X-
Miles bolted upright in a cold sweat, panting to catch his breath. His heart was beating out of his own chest as he quickly scanned his surroundings with his eyes. He was still in the cave he'd fallen asleep in, and the fire next to him had burned down to the point it left only a small flame.
The kitsune trembled in shock and terror as he tried to catch his own breath, curling up into the fetal position and hugging his own legs closer to him. Unable to hold back his own emotions, a few tears made their way down the fox's face.
"It's all my fault…" He muttered to himself, over and over again, as if the simple statement was the only truth he'd ever known.
"Tails?" A voice from the front of the cave spoke. "Tails are you alright?"
Sally, who'd been on watch at the time quickly made her way over to the trembling fox, pulling him into a gentle hug. "It's alright…" She spoke, trying to console the kitsune. "Nothing's going to hurt you… You're safe now…"
Considering the other two Mobians were fast asleep by now, Sally sat next to him until he slowly seemed to regain some control of himself, his panic and trembling slowly faded and his ragged breathing returned to normal. Eventually, Sally spoke up once again.
"Tails, do… Do you want to talk?" She asked, "Maybe it'll help if we just talked about things, would you like that?"
The fox responded by nodding just enough so that it was noticeable to Sally. The chipmunk stood and helped the fox to his feet, they both made their way to the mouth of the cave so Sally could continue her watch, and Tails sat nearby, keeping his cloak pulled around himself. The duo sat in silence for a while, until eventually Tails quietly spoke.
"This isn't the first time I've had these nightmares… I get them a lot…" He commented, "They're always the same thing and…"
"Do you want to tell me what it is? Maybe we can talk about it better that way."
The fox started to describe his nightmare to her, trying to choke back tears as he did. As he explained, Sally listened and slowly began to understand why Tails hadn't told anybody about what he was, he didn't want anybody being killed for protecting him like his mother had. The kitsune eventually finished describing his dream, but continued onward a bit more in his explanation.
"I didn't mean for any of it to happen… I just lost control for a second… It wasn't even that bad, just a few scratches, nobody really even got hurt…"
A thick silence descended after the fox was done, Sally was trying her best to simply take in all the information she'd just received.
"Tails…" She spoke, a heavy amount of concern in her voice. "I'm so sorry that happened, nobody should have to go through that… I can't even imagine what you're going through right now… But, I want you to know that you don't have to beat yourself up over it. It's in the past. The best you can do would be to try and forgive yourself… It's not your fault…"
Tails looked down at the rocky ground near himself in contemplation for a moment, maybe Sally had a point, maybe he could find a way to forgive himself…
Eventually Sally broke the silence, "What's it feel like? To lose control like you did back with Sonic, is it something that only happens sometimes, or is it always there?"
"It's always there… Sometimes it gets stronger, but the urge to just snap and give in is always there… It's hard fighting it sometimes… But if you satisfy it, it goes away for a bit… My mom taught me how to better control it."
"How do you… Satisfy it? If you don't mind me asking…"
"Sometimes back at Knothole when I felt it getting stronger and that I needed to just let it out, I'd take watch for the night and once it was just me and everyone was asleep. I'd lower one of the ropes on the wall and climb down it, making sure I'd left it low enough that I could get back, and that I'd left my cloak at the top. Once I was outside and I couldn't hurt anybody, I'd stop fighting it and everything would just go black… Eventually I'd wake up, sometimes covered in some blood from any animals I'd found… I hate it, but it's better than attacking other Mobians… I never would be gone very long so nobody would notice, I'd just climb up the rope and get back inside, covering any of the blood with my cloak until I could wash it off…"
Sally in that moment realized the extent of the lengths the fox had gone to protect her and Sonic from himself. Hiding what he was, never talking about his past, hunting alone at night so he wouldn't come after them… It left her completely in shock, but she tried her best to keep her composure.
"What's it like being a Nightspawn? I know Sonic might have already asked but-"
"He did, we talked about it… But it's scary. You can't tell anybody, and you have to inevitably deal with it alone… That's what is really hard about it… Everything about you has to be a lie because it's just dangerous to tell anybody the truth… I want to help, but everyone's just scared of what I am. I can't tell anybody that the Nightstalkers are going to be back, they wouldn't know I can understand them…"
"You can understand them? Nightstalkers I mean…"
"Yeah… I can talk back as well… Something I've just always been able to do."
"Can you show me?" Sally asked, genuinely curious of what the fox was capable of.
The fox cleared his throat before letting out a series of low pitched snarls and growls that completely caught Sally off guard. It simply wasn't a sound she was expecting the kitsune to make, much less the fact that it sounded almost exactly like a Nightstalker would. "Wow..." She said, "You really can talk to them…"
"Yeah… It's a whole language, I've known it since I was a kid, just something that's always been there in my brain. I like to call their language The Sound of Night, cause that's what my mom called it whenever we'd talk about it."
The fox teared up a bit at the thought of his mom, and Sally knelt down and pulled him into a hug as they started to run down his face.
"I miss her…" He muttered, his emotions seeping into his voice. "I miss her so much…"
The chipmunk just let him cry on her shoulder. It was the least she could do for him right now. The kitsune sobbed his eyes out for what felt like forever, until eventually, he started to get a hold of himself once again, wiping the tears away as he spoke again.
"T-Thank you Sally… I just haven't been able to share this with anybody before… It feels nice… Like I've finally gotten something off my chest…"
"Thank you for sharing with me Tails, if there's anything else you want to talk about, just know I'm here for you."
The fox gazed out of the mouth of the cave and up into the sky, watching the stars twinkle against the dark backdrop. The kitsune felt good, he felt much more free, like a weight that he'd carried for years had finally been lifted off of his shoulders, and although things might not quite be perfect, he had his friends here for him, and that was all he needed…
Alright everybody, that's it for today! Let me know what you thought of this chapter and I'll see you all next time!
