Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim all rights to all characters (save for those of my own creation) in this explanation… especially for the one whose past haunts them all.

~保護者~

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Hello, MelGamingPlays! Yeah, it had occurred to me that I never mentioned the pronunciation. XD Lol. Well, it's not that cliche, and they've already done a reunion during a fight before, so... just needed something new. :P

~保護者~

"Enter the Guardian"

~保護者~

So this place… was real, Sonic mused as the group trudged through thick snowdrifts up toward the main entrance of the lonely castle Sonic had found himself at for the first time just this morning. While Shadow grabbed one of the doors to open it, Sonic asked, "What are the odds that he's actually here right now, Tails?"

"Best estimation… well, it's a pretty small number. But there is still a chance so, you know." The fox followed Shadow up to the door. "May as well check." Shrugging, Sonic walked side-by-side with Espio up to Shadow and Tails. The heavy doors were soon forced open (once they got the thick layer of ice that had started covering them to break) and the four of them walked inside. The odd warmth of the interior was a welcome change to the potentially lethal temperatures outside. Sonic chose to savor it as they shut the doors. Tails, meanwhile, remained focused on the task at hand. "Sensei!" he called. "You here?"

Instead of Jet, the voice that quickly answered was undeniably that of a young teenage boy. "Tails? That you?" Before long, Cadora jogged into view from some obscure corridor. "It is!" he enthused, clearly pleased. "And you brought them, too!" He glanced to Sonic. "Oh, and you're back? I was wondering where the heck you'd gone."

Two pairs of confused eyes (along with one lone eye that disconcertingly showed zero emotion) turned to Sonic who, honestly, was still just as confused. Still, he tried to explain. "When I was initially revived, I was dropped here and, as you might guess, he and I met. We talked for a while and got some food, then next thing I knew I was waking up in some forest out on Mobius." He rubbed the back of his head with a hand. "To be honest, I wasn't even sure until just a few minutes ago if that meeting had actually happened. I'd kinda thought I'd dreamt it or something."

Cadora piped up again. "It was probably Ythene's doing. You know how she is about us keeping our allies close and all that stuff she's always preaching to us. She probably sent you there so that you could reunite with Tails and the others and come back here with them."

"Then why not just send me there in the first place?" Sonic grumbled.

"Ask her that, not me. She's the enigmatic 'Voice of Chaos'." With that, Cadora gave Tails and the others a smile. "Anyway, it's great to see you guys again! It's been forever!"

"Yeah, it really has been," Tails smiled back. "Sorry we haven't visited lately. We'll have to work on that."

Espio's one eye glanced to the nearby table, where Jet's folded robe and sheathed sword still rested just as they had been in Sonic's dream. "Where is your sensei, Cadora?"

"Huh?" Cadora looked up at him with a face that said he wasn't used to hearing the elusive ninja actually speak. "Oh, he's upstairs somewhere. And… I'm supposed to be studying, so…"

Shadow used a nod of his head to gesture for the young hawk to get going. "Go on, then. We can find him on our own."

"Okay," Cadora agreed easily enough. "See you guys later."

"Bye," Tails replied. With that, Cadora headed back off in the direction he'd come from. Tails, meanwhile, followed Espio's gaze. "Well, if he took his armor and weapon off, he's probably staying a while. We came at a good time."

Sonic eyed the unassuming white fabric resting atop the table. "Armor?"

Tails beamed as though he himself had invented the cloak they were gazing upon. "Very lightweight armor, but armor nevertheless. It's amazing, really. I have no idea what it's made out of, but I've seen swords break when they struck that cloak before. Bullets ricochet right off of it, and even magic attacks are just absorbed. Usually, anyway." He grinned. "It's not just for fashion, you know. It's practical, too."

This made Sonic huff, albeit out of amusement. "I highly doubt he'd care about how fashionable it is or isn't, Tails." The fox just laughed.

Turning his head, Sonic looked over the cloth armor again. Come to think of it, he never bothered with such protection before.

It seemed as though Tails literally read his thoughts. Though, more likely, he'd just accurately read the cues on Sonic's face and in his eyes. "Trust me, with the baddies that are around in this day and age, he needs it. Even if it's good looks can't do any good alone." Sonic couldn't help but let out a chuckle at that one.

Indulging in a rare eye-roll, Shadow started walking. "Come on. We haven't got all day."

"Right, right," Tails chuckled. "We're coming." He and Sonic hurried after the hedgehog with Espio not too far behind. The four of them walked together to some stairs way down a hall and began their journey upward. Tails then nudged Shadow, an action that the dark hedgehog surprisingly didn't even bat an eye at. "I don't suppose your scanners are telling you which floor he's on right now."

"No," was the simple reply.

"Can't say I'm surprised, what with much he loves hiding his presence."

"It is a matter of safety."

"Yeah, I know. I mean… duh."

Rolling his eyes expressively at the pair, Sonic interrupted, "How many floors are there?"

"Six," Tails answered just as the arrived at the second. "And each one is huge, so… guess we're gonna have our work cut out for us."

Sonic glanced about, though there really wasn't much to see in the stairwell. "Okay, so where's he most likely to be?"

Tails counted off on his fingers. "I'd say, either his private library, which we're not allowed into, his room, which we're also not allowed in usually, or the Sanctuary, where we're definitely not allowed."

Honestly, Sonic wanted to pinch the bridge of his own nose from sheer annoyance, but he refrained… if only to prove that he wasn't, in fact, a cranky old man in a young man's body. "Screw his rules for now, Tails. Where are those rooms?"

"Well, we literally can't go into the Sanctuary unless we want to be disintegrated by the sheer amount of magic and universal energies that are in there," Tails was quick to caution. "That's on the sixth floor, as are all of the other rooms he's claimed as wholly his. That includes the library and his room, plus his study and some others."

This made Sonic sigh. "Looks like we have some climbing to do, then." By now, they were nearing the second floor.

"Yeah, but you don't have to wait up on my account," Tails smiled. "I don't think these two would mind, either. If you wanna go on ahead, we'll catch up."

Finally, Sonic also smiled. "Thanks."

"Sure thing," Tails replied warmly. "Now get going. You guys have a lot of catching up to do."

With a nod, Sonic dashed up the stairs. He was at the top floor in less than a second. Slowing to a walk, he headed down the lonely hall, wisely choosing to avoid the door at the very end. With the amount of power emanating from behind that door, he had to guess that that was the Sanctuary, whatever that was. Really don't want to be vaporized, thanks. Instead, he went to the one door up here that wasn't actually shut all the way. It had been left cracked open, and some dim light poured into the hall from within the room. That seemed as good a place as any to check, really, so he went ahead and approached. Giving a light knock with one knuckle, he dared to push the door open further. It opened just in time for him to see his best friend turn halfway around to face him, book in hand. Sonic felt himself smile again. "This another weird dream encounter, or is this the real deal?" he joked.

Impossibly young hands closed the book silently. "Reality can be rather subjective, anyway, Sonic." The book vanished. "But, yes. This is real." For the first time, Sonic noticed what a thick accent his friend was speaking in. It was smooth, beautiful (according to Amy in years past), and undeniably Babylonian. He'd always heard it a little when Jet spoke, particularly after he resurfaced at the start of the Nocturnian War, but he'd never heard it so much before.

"Good." Sonic walked the rest of the way into the room. He eyed the thin and rather see-through blue scarf that his friend was wearing, noting the slim gold threads weaving through the fabric. Mood suddenly teasing, he questioned, "Why so fancy? Expecting someone today?"

Jet huffed at him. "A kitan is hardly 'fancy'."

Though Sonic recognized that Babylonian word and knew it referred to a specific type of scarf, he couldn't quite recall if such scarves actually weren't fancy as Jet claimed, or if they were. "If you say so," he shrugged. He glanced to a chair at a desk in the room. "Mind if I sit?" A slow move of the hawk's right hand served as invitation to do just that, so Sonic went ahead and took a seat. Jet chose to just lean back against the wall beside a large window, arms comfortably crossed. "So," Sonic began, "I hear you're the person to talk to if I want to know what in the hell's going on these days. More specifically, if I want to know about who you've been fighting." It was hardly a proper or even emotional greeting but, really, neither was usually the sort to tolerate that kind of thing anyway.

"There is little to tell about the first one," Jet told him, turning his head to the side to contemplate a bookshelf. His eyes roved over the numerous books, few of which had any titles or other writing on their spines. "His name is Tein. He was a student of mine once, another Immortal. I met him when he was a child. He came to us, myself and the other two Immortals, orphaned and eager for a place to belong. We housed him, and I did what I could to teach him."

Sonic frowned a bit. "But something went wrong… didn't it?"

Blue eyes blinked slowly, gaze distant. "He was always drawn to darker things… to evil forces that are best left buried. He began to succumb to their lure when he was barely twelve. By the time he was fifteen, there was no saving him… though we tried. Now he is trying his damnedest to raise an unstoppable army, to kill myself and our other kin, and to conquer or destroy any worlds he comes across." Jet closed his eyes. "But that is my problem. Not yours."

"I can help, you know," Sonic argued quietly. "I may not be unkillable, but I'm not useless."

Jet frowned subtly. "I know that."

Unhappy, Sonic questioned, "Then why do you look so unconvinced?"

Something in Jet's eyes had hardened by the time he opened them. "Sonic, there are far darker forces at work right now. This I can handle alone."

This reminded Sonic of the other enemy he had wanted to ask about. "Tails mentioned that there's some sort of… demon?"

Jet nodded, but didn't have a chance to speak before said fox walked into the room. Shadow and Espio were close behind him. The fox gave a happy wave as he crossed the room to claim a seat on the edge of the bed. "Hiya, sensei." Finally, Jet looked away from the books. A moment after he did, he offered a nod of greeting to the group as a whole. "Did you get to explain about anything yet?"

Again, Jet looked away. "Just Tein."

"Ah." Tails leaned forward on his knees with his arms. As he did so, Espio sat cross-legged on the stone floor near the doorway. "Well, if you're up for some more dialogue, I'm willing to help try to explain about the rest of it." Jet didn't reply, but Tails seemed to read something in his silence that Sonic didn't. "Alright, so… where to begin?"

Shadow, like Jet, opted to lean back against one of the walls with his arms crossed. "Start with the basics, Tails. You can get into worse matters later."

"Right, right." Tails thought for a minute or so, then said, "Well, let's start really basic, then. Sonic, we might have asked you this already, but I just want to make sure. You don't know anything about demons, do you?"

"I had no idea they existed before today," Sonic shrugged. "I mean, I'd heard about them before once or twice, I think. Always kinda assumed they were just myths or something, though."

"Okay, I thought so. ...So, really basic." Tails pushed his glasses up. "Well, to start with, you have to understand something about demons. They aren't people. They aren't animals. They are monsters, but they're sentient monsters with free will - albeit evil will - and personalities and so on. There are also many types of demons. There are vampiric demons, fire demons, rock demons, smoke demons, serpent demons, wolf demons, cave demons, bone demons, blood demons, sky demons, illusion demons… the list just goes on and on and on. Following so far?"

Incredibly serious, Sonic nodded. "Yeah."

Tails returned the nod. "Good. Moving on… Another thing you need to understand is that demons are beings of Darkness even though, obviously, not all beings of Darkness are demons. Not even all of the evil ones are demons, such as Malevolence which is a different entity entirely. Also, not every demon is born demonic. Quite a large number of them were once normal people, animals, or whatever else, but I'll explain about that later."

For now, Sonic chose to accept this. "Okay, fine. What else?"

"While many demons do roam free and do their own thing and whatnot," Tails continued, "they do have leaders. Some are organized by kings and queens, but even those that don't - and those kings and queens and whatnot themselves - have a singular ruler that they follow whether they want to or not… purely because that entity can and usually does exercise full control over them."

Understanding dawned. "You're talking about that 'god of demons' you mentioned earlier."

"Yeah," Tails sighed, gaze dropping to the floor. "That part's gonna take some serious explaining, so just listen. We - meaning Jet and I - did some serious digging into the past some, well, a lot of years ago. When we did, we were able to trace back the line of demonic rulers, gods and goddesses alike, all the way to the probable first ruler. That first ruler was Tajra, a genderless being that took charge of the uncontrolled masses and ruled for somewhere between four to six million years. The next was Kahenra, a powerful goddess who ruled for at least seven million years. The next was a massive beast named Amnikaribah. It ruled for fourteen to twenty-two million years before losing the throne to the current god."

In disbelief, Sonic stared. Holy hell...

Tails lifted his head and looked deeply into Sonic's eyes. "Fact is, Sonic, that these guys… they're powerful. They don't seem to die unless they're actively murdered, which next to no one can make happen. And the way their throne is passed on is largely to blame for our current problem."

"Is it some sort of royal bloodline or something?" Sonic ventured cautiously. "Some family that's more powerful than the rest or something?"

"No, not at all," Tails responded with a shake of his head.

This was where Jet stepped in again. "Overall, they care little about blood and familial ties. What they care about are cunning, intelligence, power, and other such traits. The god or goddess is by far the most powerful, ruthless, and so on of all demons, the single demon that all other demons want to be… generally speaking. As such, any demon that is capable of potentially killing the ruler often attempts it."

"Usually, exactly none of them succeed," Tails cut in. "But, just a few times, a high-level demon has come along that actually didn't die in the attempt… a demon that actually managed to succeed in their goal."

"Immediately upon spilling the blood of the current god or goddess and ending their life," Jet murmured, "the killer is elevated. They become the new ruler, gain all of the special abilities that come with the role, and so on. This is how the current god came to be the god. He grew vastly more powerful than Amnikaribah, slaughtered it, and claimed the proverbial throne. Now, when comparing him to other evil entities in existence, he is second only to Malevolence itself."

Sonic thought for a moment, then asked, "You mentioned that not all demons are born demonic. Does the god or goddess of demons have something to do with that?'

"Yeah, actually," Tails responded. He pushed his glasses up again, almost anxiously. "See, one of the unique abilities that only the god or goddess has is the power to turn other people, animals, and so on into demons at will, even ones that were never beings of Darkness before. That's what happened to the current god, actually. He was a normal person, once. A semi-Immortal, but otherwise normal nevertheless."

A semi-Immortal? Sonic thought in surprise. There aren't a whole lot of those out there, right?

Tails continued. "Now, normally when a person or whatever is turned, it's done when they're alive. This means that, overall, their bodies and whatnot remain the same. Their powers are unchanged aside from becoming corrupted, demonic versions of themselves - such as a normal fire power becoming Demonfire or Hellfire. The most important thing to take away from this, though, is that they get to keep their own body."

"When it happens to someone who is dead, however," Jet stated quietly, "it is a different matter. The freshly deceased are the only ones who are at risk of being turned, but because they are dead their newly corrupted, demonic souls are often put into the bodies of lesser demons who lack the power to resist these souls taking control of them. Generally, the only exception to this comes when some necromancy is used to reanimate the person's corpse for their soul to reinhabit, thus allowing them to keep their own powers and whatnot."

"'Generally'?" Sonic echoed. "There's another exception?"

"The current god wasn't a mortal," Tails reminded, "and the death he experienced wasn't one of the kinds that could have permanently killed him. As such, he revived, but… Amnikaribah captured and corrupted his soul long before then. So, when he revived, he got to keep his own body without the aid of any black magic or anything. He got to keep all his own powers and whatnot, too, which definitely played a role in him being able to so easily kill Amnikaribah later on down the road." The fox indulged in a heavy sigh. "And… it ties into why we haven't been able to stop him yet." There was a bit of a pause, then Tails gave Sonic a wan smile. "But, that's enough of that for now. You've only just come back, and I'd like to just enjoy that for a short while before we really start dealing with any of this."

Somehow, Sonic eventually managed to smile back just a little bit. "Yeah. I'd like that, too."

"It's just as well, anyway," Shadow suddenly said. "You're still getting used to no longer being old and frail. Some rest and sparring might do you some good."

"Excuse me? Who are you calling frail? I'll have you know that even when my body reflects my actual age I can still kick your ass!"

"Perhaps you should prove that sometime."

"You're on, asshole!"

"As entertaining as that would be…" Jet pushed off the wall and gestured languidly with a hand for the lot of them to head out of the room. They all got up and filed out without complaint, and he followed.

Once the door was shut, Sonic decided to prod a bit. "So, seriously, are you expecting someone today?" Nothing specific about Jet's demeanor hinted that he was, and yet there was this sense of anticipation coming from him that Sonic just couldn't overlook. Yet all the hawk did was shrug and head for the stairs. Shadow and Espio moved to follow, but Sonic leaned in toward Tails. "He really hasn't changed that much, has he?"

"In a lot of ways, no," Tails smiled. "But, at the same time, I have to point out that you couldn't be more wrong. His personality may be pretty close to the same one you remember, and he certainly looks the same overall, but there are other ways people can change. You know?" He started walking and gestured for Sonic to come along. "Anyway, I have a feeling I know who he might be waiting for. If so, we have a heck of a show on the way."

"Show?" Sonic echoed, already following Tails back down the stairs after the others.

"Yeah." Tails picked up the pace, clearly excited. "You'll see. Come on."

In response, Sonic hurried his own steps to keep up. "So, wait, who's coming?"

"The Grand Sorceress, who else?" Tails called back, obviously excited.

Bemused, Sonic rushed after him.

~保護者~

3,707 words this time. Hope you all enjoyed! And Happy Halloween, everyone! Posted (at about 10:50 a.m.) 10-31-18.