Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim all rights to all characters (save for those of my own creation) in this time of corruption and uncertainty… especially for the one who knows more than he can share.

~保護者~

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Hello, MelGamingPlays! Well, you'll probably find out. ;) Haha, yeah, it's pretty in-depth. I only remember because it's fun for me and interesting, lol. XD

~保護者~

"First Reunion"

~保護者~

BEGINNING OF PART TWO

~保護者~

Kaden frowned down at the image he was currently viewing through a small mirror that a now very dead demon had recently conjured up and been carrying around. Displayed on that shimmering smooth surface in full view were both of his sons, each standing around with several of their friends and occasionally speaking. Being that he was viewing them through a mirror, he could hear nothing to indicate what was being discussed. He could certainly see several important details, however… such as the floating stone visible just behind where Shadow currently stood.

Now, Kaden may not have been an Immortal or even anyone that had ever really had much contact with Immortals, but he knew what he was looking at. Secretive though their kind were, the Immortals didn't always feel the need to safeguard everything they knew and could do… especially when the object in question wasn't one any non-Immortals could typically interact with, anyway. So when he had once traveled to meet with the Immortals in ancient times in order to practically plead for them to do something about Kathros (ashamed though he'd felt for having to do so, it had been necessary), he had seen the stone. Being curious, he had asked about it before leaving, and been told a very brief summary of what it was… and where it had come from. The very same place where his sons now stood.

The question was… why? Why were they there, exactly? He had no real idea of what ancient whispers were contained within those stones. No one outside of the Immortals themselves were supposed to know, but if Sonic and Shadow and their allies were there then that meant that Jet must have shared something with them. Something important. Something… that perhaps he needed to know as well. As for how he was meant to learn whatever it was they had learned without confronting them (something he wasn't prepared to do yet), he didn't yet know. All he knew was that there were absolutely things he needed to get done, and it was likely in his best interest to get on that as soon as possible. After all, an uninformed warrior was hardly a warrior at all.

Shattering the demonic mirror on the ground, he turned and walked away.

~保護者~

Complete and utter confusion written all over his face, Sonic turned to look at each of his friends and allies in turn. "You all saw that… right?"

Slowly, almost cautiously, Cream nodded. "What… was that? Did Mister Jet do that?"

"Something big happened, and Jet almost certainly wouldn't have caused something that grand," Steam murmured with a frown, eyes flicking around rapidly as he attempted to take stock of the situation at hand.

Subtle eye movements revealed to anybody paying attention that Shadow was actively scanning his surroundings. "The energy levels are well beyond anything even he puts out," he added quietly. "...Usually."

"He absolutely did not do this," Wave cut in, tone firm. "Someone else, however, did. And my money's on another Immortal because, really, how else even could cause that sort of thing to occur?"

Armaris wasn't entirely sure about which Immortal it could be that caused this. "I don't think any of the others alive could have done something on that level. It most certainly was someone at Jet's level, but…" She trailed off for a moment and mumbled incoherently for a short few seconds before resuming. "None of them were at his level yet."

"Look, it wasn't him," Wave insisted. "Trust me. Where he's at right now, he has to keep a low-profile. He can't risk someone like the God of Demons ferreting him out."

"I didn't say it was him, did I?" Armaris asked, turning her icy gaze over at the swallow. "Jet wouldn't have done it, and it was an Immortal."

Wanting to head off an argument before it could really begin, Sonic started to say, "Okay, anyw-"

"Anyway, I will answer your worries myself with this piece of information I am privy to," Ylden said in lieu of a proper greeting, stepping through a portal that suddenly appeared. Officially cut off, Sonic shut his mouth and spun around to look. "The situation was… dire. Therefore, we had to take a dire step forward."

A cerulean blue-feathered Babylonian stepped out of the portal behind Ylden, sky blue eyes glancing around at all the new faces before them. It was readily apparent that this man was a hawk who was rather young in age, perhaps about twenty-two. His long hair was pulled back into a traditional samurai knot (much to the surprise of Espio in particular). However, it was the shimmering colors of his boots and gloves that most caught the group's collective attention in the dim bluish lighting. His shoes were plain silver, but gloves were a different matter entirely. The gloves were silver with rose gold creating a picture on the back of each hand. There was an ornate knightly sword on each hand, and snaking its way around those swords was an accompanying serpentine dragon… that looked just like Jet's Raiga attack.

No sooner than they had all taken this in, a woman lightly stepped out into the open as well. The portal shut behind her, briefly sending her waist-length hair into a tizzy from the wind. Her long bangs shadowed her eyes, silver-grey feathers glinting softly in the light. Her shirt was little more than a covering for her chest with baggy partial sleeves looping around her upper biceps to hold it up. The rest of her outfit was fairly simple and plain, just pants with boots. Her pants and shirt were a strange yet entrancing sort of mixture of colors, somewhere between golden and creamy white. Her gloves and boots bore no real patterns and were very light gold with hints of bronze here and there. She looked to be virtually the same age as the other hawk, perhaps a single year younger in their ears, and quickly turned her electric blue gaze from the group to the male Babylonian beside her.

"He is not here," she murmured nearly under her breath, sounding sort of… defeated.

"But the people who know him are. Let's start with that," the man answered gently, pulling her into a soft embrace with one arm. "We'll see him soon enough, I promise."

Ylden breathed a somewhat understanding sigh, his attention having shifted to the two hawks before returning to the group. "I will keep this brief and you can all question it after. This is Sein and Alana, the latter being the daughter of Laralei and Kath and the former being her husband. These are Jet's birth parents."

"Oh, so I'm downgraded to just being the husband of the famous Alana?" Sein asked incredulously. Alana gave him the look to silence him.

Stunned silence overtook the rest of the group (with the exception of Steam, who probably already knew this, and Armaris who didn't have much reason to care much about this). After a few moments of intense silence, Sonic finally managed to blurt out a simple, "Wait, what?!" Beside him, Tails just stood there with his mouth open.

Steam snorted faintly. "About fucking time." Several pairs of eyes glanced to him, but only Alana addressed him straight away.

"I take it you are aware of us from your own reality, Balancer?" she questioned easily, not missing a beat.

"Precisely. Been through a lot of this where I came from, already," he answered just as easily, a faint smirk painting itself onto his face. "Nice to meet you guys again here, by the way."

Sonic cut in before their dialogue could continue. "Seriously, what? I thought his parents were Ross and Selena."

There was a faint sigh of something akin to agitation from Ylden, the man shifting his incredibly cold gaze to the hedgehog. "There is so much you do not know. The 'parents' you know of were merely… caretakers, so to speak."

"Caretakers?" Cream piped up.

Ylden nodded once. "When an Immortal is born, typically it is by random chance. Seldom do Immortals have a child that is also Immortal. However, even when it does happen, there is no disruption to the balance. But, when an Immortal has a child with another Immortal, that forces two things to happen. One, a different Immortal is forcibly removed from existence to preserve the balance, and two, the child is then born as an Immortal."

"I was that Immortal," Sein revealed. "I gave up my own life so that, when Jet was born, he could live."

"The moment he," Ylden glanced at Sein, "died and Jet was born, a terrible evil made their move. The leader of a force known by some as the Trokkelar army set her sights upon Jet and his mother, chasing her from one reality to the next in an effort to accomplish… truly, no one quite knows." Alana looked down and away, her bangs now fully shadowing her eyes. "It resulted in her death and Jet's near-death, but he was eventually rescued and saved by the woman you mentioned. Selena and her partner unofficially adopted the boy, from what I know. Hence the confusion."

Armaris took a moment and frowned faintly, then glanced away. "So, all this time he's been a target of this Trokkelar army threat?"

"Yes," Ylden answered simply. "The question is merely why."

Finally, Tails managed to find his voice again, whereas Sonic remained mute from shocked confusion. "That's… honestly something that he himself might not know," he pointed out. "Unless… I mean, unless there's something big he's been hiding from us."

Several pairs of eyes turned to Wave, but she shook her head. "No, nothing on this scale. Trust me."

Crimson eyes narrowed. "Where is he now?" Shadow demanded.

It seemed that Wave was reluctant to share that bit of information, but she soon sighed and relented. "You two may actually know of it," she murmured, directing her words at Sein and Alana. "It's a place that Kath shared with him. It's a weapons vault, known as the Vault of Ice."

The name made Alana freeze, recognition written all over her face. Father's vault… I forged my sword there…

Sein raised an eyebrow. "What's he doing there?"

"Another, more powerful and far more secure vault, the Vault of Time, was compromised," Wave revealed carefully. "That was where he stored his most lethal and important weapons, artifacts, and so on. He's had to move everything, but he's also had to take inventory of what was potentially lost. He's just finishing with that, I believe."

"Wait, how was the Vault of Time compromised?" Sein demanded, eyebrows furrowing in concern and faint agitation.

"You can thank demons for that," the swallow sighed. "That is, extraordinarily powerful and high-ranking demons, such as the Black-Winged Messenger (the right-hand of the God himself) are responsible." She didn't go into further details, but it didn't matter much at this point.

A growl escaped Steam, the hedgehog shaking faintly to keep himself in control at the mention of the demon. "I'm assuming you guys are heading there first, then."

"We weren't planning on it," Wave admitted. "He told us to meet him elsewhere, but… That plan might need changing at this point. The Vault is close enough to New Babylon, anyway."

That made Alana pause. "...'New' Babylon?" she questioned slowly, almost carefully.

Ylden cut in before Sein could speak, making a vague motion at Wave with a hand to say this should wait. "We will discuss this another time. I presume you all have finished with the Stones of Lore?"

Cream nodded. "Yes. We had just finished when all of… this… happened."

Sonic finally broke his silence again. "How are we supposed to get to wherever this is? Is it close enough for us to teleport?"

"Not for you," Wave replied, "sad to say, but yes. We can teleport." She turned to Sein, Alana, and Ylden. "I'm assuming you'll follow?"

"I'll be there shortly enough. I have a matter to attend to first," Ylden murmured as he walked toward Armaris. He leaned down and faintly whispered something to her, then teleported off to handle his aforementioned business.

Wasting no further time, Wave gathered her energies. "Right, then. Let's go." She teleported away, taking along with her the people who wouldn't be able to teleport that far on their own. Alana followed shortly behind her, followed by Steam and Sein.

They all reappeared together in a large snowdrift outside of the (apparently very appropriately named) Vault of Ice, encouraging an immediate bout of complaining from Sonic. "Must it always be snow?" he griped, trudging out of the mound as quickly as possible. Shadow also looked annoyed, but he said nothing.

Alana glanced around in utter silence. She hadn't been here since mere weeks before… Before our world was destroyed.

A long and deep exhale escaped Sein as he glanced around with his wife, eyes uncharacteristically narrowing to a degree as he took in his surroundings. "Let's get moving. A fair few of you aren't suited for this weather."

No one really moved initially, until Espio finally reached out and nudged Cream toward the large doors ahead of them. Once she started walking, others followed. "How are we meant to even open these?" Tails asked, eyeing the ornate stone doors incredulously. "They're massive."

Sein walked forward, holding Alana's hand in his own as they approached the door. He surveyed it for a long moment before pressing his hand against the seam between the two doors, a light blue aura flowing out. Alana poured her aura into it as well, allowing the two to very easily unseal and subsequently open the doors. They slid inward with a sort of thunderous, echoing roar that only faded once the doors ceased to move. Alana tugged lightly on Sein's hand as she said to the others, "Go inside. There is warmth."

Trading a brief look, Sonic and Tails hesitantly stepped in, closely followed by Shadow, Cream, and then Espio.

"It'll be alright," Sein assured Alana softly, eyes glancing over to her. "He should be here, and we'll finally get to really meet him. Everything will be alright." Alana's eyes remained mostly downcast, too emotionally drained to much share in his belief, but nevertheless she gave a slight nod. She did trust him, after all…

Wave stepped past them and went inside just behind Armaris. "Now, the only trick is gonna be figuring out where in the hell Jet is in this place." She stopped and looked around, huffing at the fact that none of the lights were on anywhere, then called out, "Jet! Get your ass over here, will you?" Her voice echoed eerily, then gradually faded. There was no initial response, not that she had been expecting one to come straight away. "Typical. He's ignoring me." Despite her words, she was more amused than anything else.

A faint snort of amusement escaped Steam as he walked up to Sein and Alana. "I don't remember which of you did the disappearing acts, but just know he's good at it." With that, he slipped inside to search around for the time being.

Finally, a tiny trace of amusement managed to enter Alana. She gave her partner a small nudge. "I seem to recall," she murmured, "you doing the very same thing very frequently when we were children." As she spoke, Wave called out again, walking deeper inside as she did so.

"I happen to not know a thing of what you're talking about," Sein huffed indignantly as he walked along beside her. "However, I would be mighty proud of any child capable of doing it at such an age as what you speak of."

"You cannot replicate a formal speech pattern," Alana responded, managing to crack a tiny smile. "Do spare me from your attempts from here on, will you?"

Just about as soon as the words were out of her mouth, Wave called out one last time. This time, she finally got the answer she had been waiting for. Jet appeared before her faster than she could even blink, once again wearing his cloak and carrying his sheathed sword at his hip. Looking vaguely annoyed, he asked her, "What?" He said nothing yet about the fact that they were here instead of at the agreed upon meeting place.

Sein's eyes snapped open wide and he froze in place (as did Alana) at the sight of the blade, his breath halting just as suddenly as his movements. "Alkarus," he breathed out weakly.

This caught Jet's attention, and his gaze slid impassively over to the pair. However, before he could speak (if he had even intended to in the first place), Wave cuffed him lightly on the shoulder and brought his attention back to her. "Do me a favor and answer me sooner next time, will you? Honestly."

"I was busy," he reminded her. Then he asked, "Why are you here?" He refrained from asking how, assuming that Wave had done it (as he had taught her how and she was fully capable).

Wave gestured at Sein and Alana. "They kind of needed to be here. Actually, they really needed to be."

Steam walked up with his arms crossed. "Mind sparing just a minute for us to explain who they are and all?"

Jet gave Steam a long look, then glanced over Sein and Alana very briefly before giving his consent with a simple, "Fine."

"Long story short is that these two are your parents. Alana is the child of Kath and Laralei and all that." This succeeded in immediately granting the situation Jet's full and undivided attention and he gained a visible frown. However, he didn't immediately speak as he began to try to wrap his mind around what he'd just been told. "They are both Immortals and when they had you, you were born Immortal, so Sein let himself die for you to live."

Deciding it was best to try to put Jet a bit more at ease before he got completely anxiety-ridden over this, Wave tentatively suggested, "So, good news is, Ross isn't actually your dad."

That certainly was something, Jet supposed. But even so, the rest of this was just… Too much.

Sein decided to speak instead of Steam, noticing that the hedgehog's lack of… tact was beginning to bother Jet to a degree. "Hey, let's just slow it down for now and take this one step at a time. It's… really nice to finally meet you, Jet." He offered a reassuring smile to his son, trying to ease him into all of this.

"Why don't you guys join him as he finishes taking inventory?" Armaris proposed, raising her shoulders in a manner that suggested the trio go now. "Could be a good way for you all to get acquainted."

Sensing the subtle tendrils of anxiety that were trickling into Jet's mostly hidden aura, Wave was quick to assure, "I'll tag along, too. You know, to chat." Already planning on hanging back, Sonic took a seat against a wall near Tails and the others.

After a very brief pause, Jet decided that this was going to happen whether he liked it or not, so he gave a curt nod of agreement. Spinning around on his heel, he strode back down the long corridor toward where he'd been. Wave hastened to follow, tossing Sein and Alana an encouraging and hopeful glance as she went. Alana hesitated for only a second before beginning to walk after them, Sein at her side.

They were finally going to meet their son…

~保護者~

"Tell me something, dove… Why do you believe so strongly that I should let any of you live, hm?"

Squirming in his grip, the woman he was currently antagonizing fought to loosen his hand on her throat. Her efforts had no affect, and he continued to hold her up off of the ground. "We didn't… come here to… fight," she struggled out, teeth visibly clenched.

With an idle twirl of the dagger in his free hand, the God of Demons swept an assessing gaze over the group huddled in the dirt before him. They had appeared suddenly, unarmed like the fools they were and boldly calling for him. He had incapacitated them in a matter of seconds, taking entire legs off of some and stabbing dangerously close to the hearts of others. They were weak, pathetic, not even attempting to defend themselves… and they perplexed him. It occurred to him that that was potentially a part of their plan for whatever game they were playing at. After all, his curiosity was currently the only thing keeping them alive. With a soft growl of annoyance, he returned his attention to the woman. "Then why are you here?"

Several coughs escaped the woman before she answered him. "Our… Our leaders," she gasped. "They sent us here t… to make a d-deal."

That one word instantly made him narrow his eyes at her. "Deal?" he echoed, voice lowering to a silkily dangerous near-whisper.

Perhaps sensing that she was testing his patience with her mere presence, she sought to quickly explain herself. "W-We serve the Army," she told him breathlessly. His eyes narrowed further. "As… the newest recruits we… we were the ones selected to c-come here."

Annoyance morphing into irritation, he bared his fangs slightly and growled again. "Tell me why," he demanded. He didn't give her a specific threat in order to coerce her and force compliance, but he suspected that he didn't need to. This lot was radiating so much raw fear already that there was no real reason for him to waste words.

She swallowed as best as she could and continued hurriedly, "A command was s-sent down… from our… from one of our High G-Generals." She coughed some more, nearly prompting him to stab her right then. She was taking too long. "She wishes to m-make a deal with y-you."

Finally, one of the others spoke up. "The general proposed a trade," he bit out, clutching at the stump that had once been his right leg. Glowing demonic eyes shifted to him instantly. "In order to end the long-standing wars between your kind and the Army, he believes it would be beneficial to form an alliance of sorts."

Alliance is a condition for the weak. "...Ally..." The God pronounced the word slowly and with supreme distaste. "You think I would ally myself with your beloved army," he murmured, "simply because you asked?"

"No," one of the other women quickly interjected. She, too, was missing a leg. "As an incentive, the general has also proposed a trade. Some of your battle-worthy demons for some of our best Pyrzar beasts."

His chin lifted. "Trading highly-trained members of my legions for your mindless fiery puppets… I think not." With a single forceful movement of his arm, he threw his captive to the ground. She struck her head upon a jutting rock, splitting her skin open wide, but the blow didn't kill her. What did kill her, however, was when he hurled his dagger through her chest and set her ablaze. Turning to the survivors, he muttered darkly, "You are fools, allowing yourselves to be used so easily…"

The man from before started to speak, but the God cut him off. Summoning a sword into his hand, he executed two perfect slashes. The left arm fell away first, closely followed by the head, and then the entire body slumped backward into the dirt. Turning, the God then studied the four terrified individuals who still sat trembling before him. "You believed that a force as ancient as the Army's would truly place their trust in powerless fools like you?" he questioned. It was less an effort to really accomplish anything important as it was a way to briefly entertain himself by watching them slowly realize their own mistakes.

"We were sent here to prove our worth, to be accep-"

A stab to the throat was more than enough to shut the man up. "You were used," the God informed them simply as his victim clutched at his throat, choking on his own blood. "Your leaders are not fool enough to expect this little plan to work."

"Then why would they have sent us here?!" the woman who had spoken earlier demanded, fiery anger burning in her eyes.

Mildly amused by her display of temper, he humored her by explaining, "Simple… they knew you would die." Slowly, he smirked. "And they enjoy bloodshed as much as I do." With that, he whipped back around and callously lopped the head off of the man he had just stabbed, paying no real mind to the spurting crimson fountain that proceeded to collapse into the dirt. He then coated his sword in flames and hurled it straight through the heart of the only member of the party who had opted not to speak, ensuring they suffered a rapid and excruciating death. Only then did he turn his attention back to the woman.

She glared hard at them, eyes as cold as steel. She was the only one not to show true fear, the only one who remained largely stoic and unshaken. It… interested him. "You should have honored the deal," she hissed. "When they discover you refused, the fires of war will be upon you again."

As if that were any sort of a threat. Did she not understand that demons lived for things such as this? Crouching down in front of her, he responded softly, "I do not know what power you seek… but your dreams of Immortal-slaying are naught but ash now. I have other plans for you…" Wispy black and crimson energies formed and coiled around her, filtering into her soul and occupying every fiber of her being in a near-instant.

Understanding and horror dawned in those steely eyes, but by then it was too late. Standing, the God turned and walked away from the newly-corrupted demoness, closing his eyes as he went. Strong individuals like her… they would be useful in his own plans. Plans that he was more than ready to begin setting in motion very soon. He was just about to begin contemplating which action to take next when suddenly, he stopped. All senses on high alert and stretched out to the max, he snapped his eyes open. Just as he did so, all of existence around him visibly rippled… and right then he knew.

Something of untold consequence had just occurred.

~保護者~

Ylden stepped up to the wide open doors of the Vault of Ice, regarding them with a raised brow before walking inside to join the others himself. He vaguely glanced in the direction of Sein, Alana, and Wave before resuming his walk forward to return to the others. The cat didn't deign glance in the direction of the Balancer who fell into step behind him, nor did he fully regard Armaris when she began following as well.

He blinked as he approached the group, glancing over them all before demanding their attention with a soft clearing of his throat. "If you all have any questions, raise them now."

After some silence, Tails hesitantly posed the first question. "Are you able to give us any further information about everything? Like, how Jet's mother died, who attacked them… that sort of thing."

"That… is sadly something I cannot answer. Only those who were present can do so, and one is someone you do not wish to meet," Ylden explained, eyes shifting in the direction of where Alana was.

Several pairs of eyes shifted to gaze in the same direction, but no one attempted to say anything to her. Instead, the group fell momentarily silent again. It took a few moments for someone to speak up. "So, you obviously know about them. Nobody mentioned where Sein came from, just that he was Alana's wife. Who was he?" Armaris asked, crossing her arms nonchalantly. This caught Sonic's attention, and his ears perked up a little as a sign of this.

"There was a degree of similarity in the pasts of Sein and his son. He was orphaned and taken in by the royal family, Kath and Laralei. He grew up with Alana as a bit of a troublemaker and became a passionate fighter. Sein was born with a pure aura, as well as being an Immortal. As you all already know, he also did give up his own life for Jet to live. That's the extent of our knowledge other than things that are not concerning as of now, seeing as he was born and lived in another timeline."

Tails piped up again. "Yes, I remember. What timeline was that, anyhow?"

"Sein and Alana hail from the second timeline," the cat answered, raising an eyebrow at the fox's apparent knowledge.

The fox gave a sharp nod of understanding, but more than knowledge filled his eyes. There was awe as well. "That's… astounding," he said to himself. "Absolutely spectacular."

Sonic frowned at him. "You gonna explain why at any point?"

"Yeah, of course. See, you guys already know about how there are other timelines and stuff. Obviously, since most of us here have been to at least one separate timeline each. But what we didn't used to know was that these timelines all have numbers associated with them. For example, Silver and Blaze came from timeline fifty-two, and that one with the ruined future was roughly one sixty-six or one sixty-seven. All of these timelines and all the other ones came to be as a result of the very first reality, or 'timeline', branching off into two, then three, and so on. The first seven are said to be especially important, as they were supposedly created deliberately by the first beings in existence. The rest gradually formed on their own over time, without the interference of those beings."

Shadow clued in just slightly quicker than Sonic did. "The Faein."

"Exactly," Tails grinned. "And with the second timeline being the very first timeline to exist aside from the very main reality… it's naturally quite ancient and quite important."

As always, Sonic was completely cut off before he could ask anything further (not that he truly needed to, though, since things had mostly been laid out for him already). "And who, exactly, are you meant to be?" Shadow asked Ylden pointedly, shifting the conversation entirely. Then he observed a touch moodily, "You are far from an 'ordinary' person."

"Did I say I was…?" Ylden asked rhetorically asked, hand gently rising to his chin as he seriously considered his own question. "I do not believe I did… hm."

Cream solemnly shook her head. "You did not," she revealed. "But you also did not do terribly much to say otherwise."

He gave a faint nod before glancing to Shadow. "I am not. I am a being of Darkness with ties to most of the Realms of Death and essentially the right-hand man of the current God of Death."

Surprise plain in his eyes, Sonic asked, "The God of Death? Is this guy actively running around dealing with stuff, too?" He thought it a perfectly sound question to ask, seeing as how he now knew that at least one other God (or, rather, Goddess) was currently active these days. Namely, the Goddess of Judgement.

Ylden's eyes grew stormy as the question was posed, a scowl settling on his face. "In a way, yes. He is dealing with stuff, as it were."

Sonic frowned at the odd wording and the vagueness of the response, but held his tongue for now even though he wanted to know more. I get the sense that pushing it might get my head bitten off. ...Maybe even literally… Instead of pursuing that line of questioning, he opted for what he deemed to be a safer route. "So, I think we can reasonably assume part of how Sein and Alana are here right now," he started, steering the conversation back a bit, "in that two of the other Immortals from here are dead. But, aside from Tein, who the hell died? And how? What happened?"

"Sein and Alana gifted me the Privilege to kill an Immortal who was walking a dangerous path. It was necessary both as a preventative measure and so that Sein and Alana could take their places."

Slowly, Shadow shook his head. It was Cream, however, who spoke next. "Why was this done?" she asked. "Aside from ridding our timeline of further evil, why go to such extents to bring these two back, specifically?"

Ylden took a long and deep breath, closing his eyes. "They were the closest in living history to reaching the True Immortal status."

"...'True Immortal status'?" Sonic echoed, too confused to put together a proper question.

"There are much better people to ask this than myself. My knowledge lies most prominently in the affairs of semi-Immortals. I have less dealings with those above me. Perhaps Cere can shed light on this another time," he answered, sighing. "They were, to put it lightly, the top of their kind."

This seemed to spark a fresh bout of curiosity in Tails. "That reminds me… There were mentions of the semi-Immortals in those stories from the Stones of Lore. One of the big things we learned is that all manner of beings of both Light and Darkness gathered together to help fight off this 'Trokkelar army' threat. Do you happen to know if there are any such gatherings taking place these days, or if there could be?"

"There were vague attempts at it that were wiped away by the hands of the God of Demons. Two of the major figureheads are not present as they once were. This diminishes the number of gatherings that can occur. I have also been thwarting minor attempts so as to not gather too many such beings prematurely in an unsafe manner that could risk further lives."

The implications of part of what Ylden had said struck Sonic deeply. He means mom and dad…

Tails pursed his lips together and frowned in thought. "That… That makes sense," he murmured. There was a small pause, then he continued, "But… you're wrong. Partially." Ylden tilted his head curiously at this, motioning with a faint incline of his chin for the fox to explain further. Blue eyes lifted to look at the cat directly. "There is a gathering of beings of Darkness, in a sense, and there has been for eons. There's very large, flourishing population of them, in fact, all living very close together. And I'm not referring to demons of beings living in Zyr." In further explanation, he gestured to Espio (who barely acknowledged this conversation with the slightest of glances). "He comes from that population. They're living on Mobius, thriving and staying strong. They've never been attacked in such a manner by any god before, let alone that god."

"I see. That is certainly good news to hear. I spend little time on Mobius and as such was not made aware of that gathering in particular."

"So… this is something at least. It might help us in the future, especially since they've been left alone for some reason so far."

Finally, finally, Espio decided to speak. "It is not for no reason," he murmured. "With the exception of a few villages, most are guarded by barriers few can penetrate. Even that god would find great difficulty in breaking through." After that, he resumed his earlier total silence.

Ylden turned quietly toward the doors the moment he heard footsteps, watching as Sona stepped into the Vault of Ice. "Ylden. We're conducting a meeting of the Gods and Goddesses. You should join us." Surprised and more than a little confused, Sonic and Tails both looked between this new person and Ylden.

"Are you finally extending to me a position to join as a god?" Ylden asked with an amused raise of his eyebrow.

Sona rolled her eyes with an annoyed grunt. "No. We want you as a stand-in for the God of Death. Now, come on."

Ylden huffed at her. "Fine. I will be there in a minute. Go ahead and return, miss messenger." There was a flare of flames around her body before she teleported away.

Tails blinked when she was gone. "A meeting?"

"Presumably to speak of important matters such as what actions we should take against the God of Demons and so on," Ylden answered with a shrug.

"Go on, then," Sonic sighed with a wave of his hand. "I don't think we have too much else to ask right now, anyway." Plus, it isn't like we're in any sort of danger. We have three freaking Immortals here.

The cat nodded faintly and walked toward the doors. "Don't do anything moronic in my absence," he said, his glance shifting to Sonic with a faintly amused smirk. With that said, he teleported off and waited for no response.

A muttered string of complaints and mild curses followed him as he vanished.

~保護者~

6,315 words this time around. I can't apologize enough for taking so long to update this, guys... but thank you all for your patience. The next chapter (which will be much shorter than this) will be up tomorrow, I swear. Hope y'all enjoyed! Posted (at about 7:40 p.m.) 07-13-19.