Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim all rights to all characters (save for those of my own creation) in this chaotic battlefield… especially for the one with a plan.

~保護者~

REVIEW REPLIES:

Hello, MelGamingPlays! Reply 1 (from me!): Yeah, those three and everyone else had better be careful. Some crap is really about to go down. There's trouble brewing, alright. Anyway, hope you enjoy this!

Reply 2 (from Blazing Winds): Yep. Definitely trouble. Especially for two characters.

~保護者~

"Fragments of Darkness"

~保護者~

The demons descended upon the landscape from the sky like a tsunami… one comprised entirely of dark, writhing bodies. The air was filled with roars and screams and all manner of other horrific noises. The cacophony sent Shadow reeling, causing him to instantly regret connecting his auditory systems to various cameras and the like outside. Wincing and cursing under his breath, he withdrew his connection. It took him a few crucial seconds to recover, but once he did he instantly shifted his focus to any tech he could detect outside. Anything, literally anything he could find would be good enough for now. He would have taken an electric scooter for fuck's sake, so long as it had at least a tiny pistol or something on it. Anything to avoid just sitting here, being absolutely fucking useless.

Thankfully, he wasn't that unfortunate. He reflected briefly that he shouldn't have been surprised in any capacity. After all, he was on New Babylon. Babylonians weren't exactly lacking in technology. In fact, he was able to find quite a lot to work with without even having to really search. There were unmanned ships and hoverbikes (sparrows, he believed they were called), robots, weapons and defense systems programmed into various parts of the palace itself, several mid-sized mechs… And as a bonus they had guns. Lots of guns. Destructive guns. Oh, he was going to enjoy this. If he couldn't be out there fighting in person, then fine. This would more than make up for it.

Wasting no further time, he set his newly acquired resources into action. Ships took to the air, sparrows raced across the terrain, guns blasted, robots marched, mechs readied their individual weapons and, best of all, demons died. They were punched out of the way, shot, run over, blown up, sliced apart, accidentally set ablaze (for all the good that did), even stomped upon. Death surrounded his acquisitions, and he was satisfied with that. This unavoidably added a layer of chaos to the madness already unfolding outside, but Shadow didn't care. Every death he caused, be it directly by his hand or not, increased their odds of success and survival bit by little bit. He and his allies were vastly outnumbered, but by thinning the hoard as quickly as possible right from the beginning, it became possible for them to even the odds. That was all the incentive he needed.

~保護者~

The fact that he was being relentlessly pushed away from his friends was probably bad, Sonic reflected as he swung his sword over and over again. He was fighting hard, as hard as he could for that matter, but he was utterly surrounded. To make matters worse, he was deeply lacking in so much of his former battle prowess. He felt weak, unlucky, cursed even. Why couldn't he be less useless? Why did he still have to be so damn old on the inside? What he really could have used prior to this was some more training. Instead of sleeping and chatting, he should have been out sparring, or at least discussing battle tactics with someone. Anything more than just sitting and twiddling his thumbs.

That was when he suddenly remembered his last serious training session. Espio had seen fit to properly kick his butt at the time, but he had also imparted just a couple of pieces of sound advice. Specifically, he had admonished Sonic for spending so much of his energy thinking and worrying as opposed to focusing on the fight himself. Sonic had promptly been instructed to stop doing that, for his own sake. He supposed he should have known this beforehand, but it suddenly occurred to him that he should probably follow those instructions here as well. After all, while he was struggling to cope with his thoughts, he was doing poorly in his portion of the battle. He'd even managed to get himself a nice scratch on his back already. So, taking in a few breaths, he forced himself to clear his mind (at least as much as he was capable of doing). By some miracle, his fighting seemed to gradually improve after that. It helped that several small, unmanned vehicles came screaming through the area, filling with bullets several enemies that had been giving him trouble… and proving that he wasn't actually as alone as he felt.

Thanks, Shadow.

~保護者~

No matter how many we kill, it does not seem to be enough.

Lamenting the apparent futility of their struggle, Cream sighed to herself and unleashed another small and concentrated blast of psychic energy. Demons died all around her and her friends, leaving scarcely a dent in the still-descending hoards. They had effortlessly surrounded the palace and all of those in it. Strange, she had thought there were normally barriers around the building and its land. At least there clearly were barriers around all of the cities she could see in the distance. Those seemed to be holding up just fine. It was a small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless.

As she thought on all of this, she repeatedly flung her new weapons around her body and released various other attacks alongside them. However, the moment she began paying attention to the damage she was doing, she shied away. So much bloodshed… Her discs were sharp. It should have been obvious to her that this was what they would do. How she had managed to not to consider it was beyond her. But she noticed it now, and she did not like that at all. So, instead of continuing with her unintentional path of gory destruction, she resorted to her usual method of vaporization via psionic blasts.

It was easier to stomach.

~保護者~

Perhaps… flying a ship out here wasn't one of my brightest ideas, Tails reflected as he struggled to pilot through the cloud of demons he found himself within. He shot at them, fired missiles at them, unleashed beams into them, the works, but it hardly seemed to matter. There was no room for him and the Tornado-Z up here. This problem was getting beyond frustration. Now, what to do about it…

Glancing around, Tails frowned to himself in thought. Flipping a couple of switches, he deactivated the defensive shields around his ship and prepared to open the cockpit. He didn't dare release any radiation at the moment, not with his friends scattered all around him, but there was something else he could do… Following up with his thoughts, he went ahead and opened the cockpit. Before anything could attack him, he gathered the energy within and unleashed it all around his ship.

Electricity that bordered on lightning due to mutations (which he closely monitored even now, right in this moment) erupted around him. Demons screamed and roared in agony, writhing and jerking as they fought to escape the onslaught. The mass fleeing cleared up space around the Tornado-Z quite nicely. Feeling pleased, he closed the cockpit, reactivated the shields, and flew off to a more advantageous position.

~保護者~

Blood spurted from a fresh wound, soiling the torn fabric of Espio's kimono. Having long since decided that said kimono simply couldn't be salvaged, he didn't deign to give the matter any of his attention. He ripped his sword free of the demonic throat he had plunged it into, then swung it around to relieve the beast of its nearest limb. It happened to be a leg. The beast bled to death in a matter of seconds from those wounds and several others he had just inflicted. Whirling around, he sliced clean through the torso of another demon, instantly killing it as well.

All this bloodshed was nothing to him. It was simply a part of life for his people. Always had been. Inflicting pain and death didn't bother him. However, he rapidly began to notice that it did do something else to him. Specifically, it began exciting the Dark energies buried within, urging them closer and closer to the surface the longer this went on. Gritting his teeth, he attempted to reign them in (not that he even knew how) while simultaneously continuing to fend off the hordes of demons surrounding him. It wasn't as though he had any other choice but to do those things.

In spite of his efforts, the very next time he buried his sword in yet another disgusting body and used it to rend that body apart, the energy spiked. Violently. Violently enough, in fact, that when a demon came at him with a sword of its own he was able to retaliate with so much instantaneous and uncontrolled force that his blade (a mortal's blade, he reflected briefly) snapped like a little twig.

That had never, ever happened before.

Suddenly furious, he hurled the remainder of the sword to the side, where it promptly embedded itself into a significantly larger demon's eye. He ignored the bellow of pain that answered his impromptu attack and lunged forward, wrenching the sword out of his initial opponent's hands. The direct physical contact with such a wicked object instantly sent his own energies into a further frenzy and he reacted to them with scarcely a thought to the consequences. He was slipping, and the burning sensation of new marks spreading down his arm was proof of that.

A harsh stab through the torso of the first demon was enough to kill it. Leaping high, he cleaved the head off of the demon whose eye he had stabbed just seconds before. Then, wrestling for control over himself before this could escalate any further, he hurled his stolen sword into some other foe's back. He landed nimbly in a small open space within the crowd after that, quashing any and all emotions as he did so. Still… he couldn't quite keep the harshness, the brutal edge out of his attacks anymore as he went invisible and resumed fighting. He was slipping, bit by bit, and he knew it.

~保護者~

Armaris vanished and reappeared consistently, dropping into the darkness around her and launching herself back out as she violently tore into demon after demon before her. Her own Darkness may have been useless in this fight, but she would be damned if that was the only ability she was capable of using. Precise and sharp blades of wind sliced apart her adversaries with ease as her blade cut any stragglers down with a practiced mix of grace and violence.

Countless individual blue wisps of her magic floated in the air before exploding outward to deliver dangerous lacerations to some of the stronger foes in her vicinity. She redoubled the efforts of her Wind power, creating a whirlwind that slammed the several damaged demons into one another so she could deliver a deft and calculated swipe of her sword to end them all at once.

Her attention was suddenly pulled from her fight for a moment as she felt Espio's Darkness flare in a way that alarmed her. Surrounding herself in a cyclone for temporary safety, she trained her vision on his fight to watch momentarily. Damn it… If he loses control now, we might be in for something a lot worse after this is over. Armaris bit her lip painfully before turning away. She couldn't let herself be too close to this happening in case that it caused a rise of her own Darkness. If that happened… No. That's definitely not happening. The cat refocused on her own battle and simply kept a mental note of Espio's current state, monitoring the situation should it get worse.

Be safe, please.

~保護者~

Steam grappled with a demon and violently slammed it into a crowd behind him, throwing out a burst of Light at them all to eradicate them while flipping over another and forcefully slamming it into the ground with more than enough force to crush it's head. He allowed Light to fill his body, then allowed it to pulsate outward in waves as he barreled his way through large numbers of demons in front of him. When these pulsations finally ceased, Steam felt something clamp onto his shoulder and proceed to throw him into the air.

In the moments before he could be launched, he latched onto the arm of the offending enemy and proceeded to twist his body in a truly violent manner to toss the demon into the cyclone Armaris had created. He blinked a few times at the fact that the cyclone was even there before realizing the situation. Steam felt the surge of Espio's Darkness and promptly cursed aloud, grabbing the nearest demon by the face and slamming it into the ground. I don't know what the hell prompted that kind of reaction, but I might as well check it out.

In an easy movement, Steam vaulted himself off a rapidly approaching crowd of demons into the air, taking stock of the situation as he sent down a beam of light onto every enemy below him. Cursing once more, the hedgehog used his fire to propel himself near to the area. "Espio!" he called out. In response to hearing his name, Espio whipped around. His gaze locked onto Steam in a near-instant, but he didn't say anything back to him. Instead, he almost immediately returned his attention to the demons that were launching themselves at him, all of which he forced to back the fuck off with a series of severe knife slashes.

Steam drew his own sword, quickly stabbing a demon behind him and wrenching it free in time to slice through another in front, quickly coming a bit closer so he could aid in fighting back the assailants. "Talk to me, Espio!"

"And say what?" Espio snapped, temper flaring for no good reason. In the same moment, he flung his knife into a demon's gaping maw, stabbing the creature in the back of its throat. It choked and howled in pain, but only briefly. Before it could even try to take in another breath, he rather brutally kicked its skull in, killing it.

"I just need you to talk to me, Espio! I'm sure you're aware of it, but you're not exactly in control of yourself!" Steam dropped to the ground and powerfully launched a much larger demon into the air with his legs, throwing a sphere of Light into it that promptly exploded and vaporized the beast.

Rather predictably, Espio ignored that comment in favor of taking out his frustration on a demon that had cropped up a short distance away. It was very, very dead in short order, as was the one next to it. And the ones surrounding the pair of them. However, one of them managed scratch him slightly with its claw. That… only worsened his mood. The bastards.

Steam gritted his teeth and spun around to deliver a destructive blow to a demon attempting to sneak up on him, Light flowing out of his fist to destroy the enemy. "Just please try to keep yourself under some manner of control. I know you are very capable of doing so."

Several distinctly negative response flitted through Espio's mind, but he managed not to give vent to them. Instead, he bit out a harsh reply of, "I know." Nothing he did seemed to quell the constant flow of Darkness within him. In fact, most things he did made it worse. Such as fighting, for example. But he couldn't exactly stop doing that at the moment. All he could do was call upon his training as best as he could to at least attempt to level out his emotions. Not that that was proving terribly successful at the moment. Gritting his teeth as well, he kicked a demon into the side of a random section of building, killing it on impact.

Steam resigned himself to simply continue fighting for the time being, knowing full well that continuing to talk to Espio may make the situation far worse than it was currently at the moment. As such, he distanced himself more so that the two could fight independently and not hamper each other's style (mostly his own, given the fact that he knew many of his attacks were literal explosions). In true fashion, he quickly unleashed a practical storm of small beams of Light into the oncoming waves of demonic enemies before violently slamming himself back into the fight, full force.

~保護者~

Aura exploded forth from Sein's body, eradicating any demon that dared step (or fly) too close to him. Any aura that would have dissipated after release was instead drawn into the claymore he wielded, allowing him to launch blades of aura at his more distant foes. He threw himself into the air and slammed his foot into one particularly large demon, forcing the enemy up toward Alana. "Alana! Catch!"

Whirling around, Alana caught sight of the hulking mass sailing toward her position in the sky. Huffing softly to herself, she hurled a blade of her own aura energy at it, slicing the beast in half in one smooth motion. She then sent her husband a vaguely disapproving look before returning her attention to the few demons that had been brave enough to stay by her. Summoning her own sword into her hand, she swiftly shot forward and cut them all up as well.

Once the immediate area was clear, Alana took a second to glance around again. There were no barriers to speak of to guard the palace grounds below, but all things considered they seemed to be defending it well enough. It was clear, from her earlier examination of Queen Saraya's schematics, that the lack of barriers was due to all of that technology being used to defend the cities. She was proud of the young for the decision. The strength of the barriers was something she could sense even from here.

Wait… what is that? Suddenly aware that she was also sensing something else entirely, Alana dropped down to stand beside Sein. "Do you sense that?" she asked quickly, offering no explanation. There was this strange spike in energy emanating from some undetermined point, and it was… growing? She couldn't be certain.

"Keep a focus on it. I'd rather not get caught by surprise if we can manage it," Sein said easily, throwing his sword in a wide arc to behead several demons before it returned to his hand. "If you can, try and figure out where it's coming from."

"It seems to be moving," Alana remarked idly, eyes on the sky. Despite her apparent lack of focus, she was able to easily kick an enemy away from them. She then murmured, "And it does not feel malevolent. Whatever it is, it is not demonic." By now, a faint shimmer had taken hold in the air above them, almost as though a section of the sky was… sparkling? How odd.

Sein cast a glance upwards and examined this, raising his fist up with enough force to crunch a demon's head into its body. "Should… we do something?"

"Perhaps…" Alana looked around the space surrounding the strange shimmering spot in the sky, taking notice of the fact that most of the demons were actively avoiding it. The few that ventured close to it in spite of the behavior of the others found themselves rapidly incinerated by whiteish energy with hints of a sort of… rainbow. That, she realized with a start, was the telltale appearance of… Chaos… but it can't be. She frowned to herself. How would Chaos have-

Before she could even finish her thought, a mental link suddenly opened itself to both her and Sein. She had half a mind to sever that connection the instant she felt it (how had it even bypassed their defenses?), but a voice interrupted that train of thought. A voice that had not been heard by any but one other person in more than several billion years. "Your situation will soon be dire. I am sending you aid."

"Hold the fuck up, what's going on here?" Sein demanded immediately, face noticeably bearing hints of concern and agitation at this sudden intrusion followed by grave news.

Already, the connection had begun to fade. In shock, Alana turned to her partner and, for once, did his job for him by asking a probably stupid question. "Was that… Lady Teyan?"

"I… guess it was. That doesn't explain what the hell she meant…" Sein murmured, crossing his arms and glancing off to his right for a moment. "Situation…?"

This situation in particular was under control, but Alana seemed to recall that Jet and his friend Wave had been concerned about a bigger conflict to come later. Perhaps that was what the Queen of Chaos had been referring to? There was no way of knowing that just yet, but she was starting to realize something different. "Lady Ythene uses a very similar form of Chaos to this when she is reviving someone, does she not…?"

Just before the connection faded entirely, the Queen deigned to answer her. "She does. It takes longer when the subjects are from other timelines, however. Your patience will be required. I will be finished shortly." Her words faded away into nothingness just as she finished speaking.

There was a short series of blinks from Sein, utter confusion on his face as he tried to figure out who could be getting revived. "What…?"

There was another spike of energy in that moment and, as if purely to contradict what the Queen had just said about patience, a portal suddenly opened up. Some of the energy Alana sensed was very clearly from their home timeline (it was something she, being an Immortal, could just feel). That was a fact she couldn't even begin to take the time to process before more energy spiked… and incredibly roughly flung something out of the portal. Or, rather, someone. She recognized him the instant she saw him. Her eyes widened. Father…!

Unable to recover himself fast enough to land with his usual grace and dignity, Kath slammed back-first into the ground, crashing through several demons along the way. He finally managed to stop rolling after hitting his side on a rock, thus slowing his momentum enough for him to catch himself. With a subtle wince, he started to sit up… only for his ever-present wolf-companion to be flung out of the portal as well - and straight into him. The collision was nearly instantaneous and sent them both tumbling hard again. When they finally stopped, Azerel was lying in a heap on top of him. Supremely irritated, even visibly so, he shoved the wolf off (earning an unhappy growl) and finally sat up.

Sein coughed amidst his attempts to not laugh, mouth covered tightly as a well of emotions surged up within him. He had no idea how to feel in this moment, so something was coming out as a result. This time, it happened to be laughter. Alana, meanwhile, just stared in mute shock. It truly is him…

Hearing this sound, Kath started to stand and turn around, only to stop short when a demon's huge sword swung at his head with every intent of cleaving it from his shoulders. He ducked neatly, then knocked the opponent back a step with a surge of aura. When the sword came at him again, he caught the blade itself in his hand with enough force to create a shockwave. With a grip too tight for the demon to remove its weapon, he turned his head to look over his shoulder to look at Sein and Alana with a soft and icy demand of, "What are these doing here?"

"That's a long story that I'm not even fully sure that I know, so, let's kick ass and figure it out more later," Sein answered with a shrug, using the gauntlet on his hand to block a blade's deadly arc. "Honestly, I think it'd be easier that way."

Huffing, Kath tightened his grip enough to shatter the sword he'd been holding hostage, blasted the enemy away and stood up. Azerel look up at him and growled, clearly communicating something the wolf wasn't at all happy about, but Kath simply murmured back, "Quiet." Alana rushed over to the pair then, nearly tackling her father in a hug. Though slightly taken aback by her uncharacteristic action, he didn't hesitate to take the necessary seconds to return her embrace.

Seeing that Kath was ignoring him, Azerel huffily trotted over to Sein and sat against his leg as though saying hello in his own way. Sein kneeled down long enough to ruffle the fur on the wolf's head for a moment before raising back up and grabbing a demon that was attempting to ruin the moment his father-in-law and wife were having before launching with every last bit of force he could muster.

With a sigh, Alana reluctantly ended the hug. Her husband's little outburst was as good a reminder that any that there was still very much a fight going on. That needed dealing with, something Kath very much seemed to agree with immediately. Trading a look with his wolf companion, he prepared himself for battle by summoning his sword into his hand. Alana took off but, though he was ready to follow suit, he lingered for a moment. There were conflicting emotions all over Sein's face and, while Kath had never been especially well-versed in dealing with emotional matters, he felt compelled as always to try for the sake of his family. "Sein," he called softly, hoping to gently nudge the younger hawk out of his fluctuating whirlwind of emotions before they got out of hand.

For a moment, Sein almost seemed intent on ignoring this. Ultimately, he turned and cast a vaguely questioning look to Kath. "Yeah?"

Kath's tone was calm and not admonishing when he reminded, "Settle yourself. Your aura responds strongly to your emotions."

"I know," Sein admitted, crossing his arms once more for a moment. "Just… not sure what to do right now. Didn't expect… all of this."

No one did, Kath inwardly reflected. Glancing away, he gave the simplest answer he could come up with. "Focus on the battle for now. 'All of this' can be dealt with after." And, hopefully, by then he would have come up with a way to deal with his son-in-law and daughter's reactions better than this. He'd never done well being flung into emotional situations like these… hence why he typically avoided them.

A short nod served as a reply, Sein's aura soon losing the natural flare it had as he attempted to exert a more proper control over it. "Talk to you more after, then."

The older hawk nodded once in response and shot one last quick look at Azerel. "Stay with him." Hearing this silent command, Azerel inclined his head subtly. Kath took off after that, leaving the pair alone where they were.

~保護者~

Finally, found that sneaky little hedgehog. Time to play with him a bit. A cocoon of magic formed around her body in preparation, her expression faintly shifting to something more wicked. Very quickly and forcefully, she teleported Sonic away from the area he had been in and placed a veil of her magic around him. "It has been some time, Sonic," she mentally said.

The second he heard that voice, Sonic realized it was familiar. It took him a few moments to think back over all the eons that had passed and give that voice a name, but as soon as he did his stomach dropped. Oh, no…

"You should have listened to your friend back then. Had you done so… well, you shall see." She giggled maniacally.

Immediately, he understood. He remembered. It was her, he realized. Astra. The woman they had all met near the very end of their war against the Nocturnians. The one Jet had never trusted. The one Sonic had defended… God, he was an idiot. And now I'm about to die for it. Of that, he had little doubt.

"Your fate will be far worse than death, imbecile. You will… suffer, alongside the one you decided not to trust, by the hand of the one you did trust."

Sonic's stomach dropped further. He realized that she was reading his thoughts and so thought quickly, "The hell are you going to do?"

"As I said, had you been listening… You. Will. Suffer."

Without any further warning, she suddenly began showing him memories from the far distant past… memories of an extremely dark series of events that she had once partaken in. But one in particular truly stood out among the rest.

"The both of you, get out of the room. Leave him to me for some time," Astra demanded, grey magic glowing around her hands as she stormed in. The pair of Syxans in the room turned her way for a brief moment, then hurried into the hall without complaint. They all but fled from her presence. Jet, meanwhile, sat on the floor with his limbs bound, coughing and struggling to remain awake after the beating he'd just sustained moments beforehand. His bindings were imbued with such powerful dark magic that it could sap the strength from virtually anyone… magic that could only have come from one prime, evil source. "So, you're still… conscious." The cat kneeled down, discarding her cloak and carefully lifting his head to examine him. Despite his condition, he managed a weak glare. "Leave it to the resilience of an Immortal, I guess," she shrugged, retracting her hand and letting his head droop down. "Well, let's see how long that lasts."

Gritting his teeth, Jet gave her another glare. "Fuck… you," he coughed, eyes blazing with hatred that he simply could do nothing about.

"Oh, how short this little… mood will last." Her feet lifted off the ground and she brought him with her, magic encircling them both. He glanced down, hatred bleeding away into immediate wariness. "What to pull out first… that's always the tricky one to figure out. Ah, I have just the thing for someone resilient."

Within moments, the room seemed to grow intensely hot. Jet instantly cringed, despite trying to hide his reaction. He knew what was coming, and it showed. Magic pressed Jet against a wall, flames sprouting all around the room and slowly consuming its occupants in a hellish blaze. Astra saw through her own ruse, of course, creating this entire mental hell simply to further damage and weaken her Immortal prey. No matter how hard he tried, Jet couldn't calm his instantly frantic breathing and pulse as he fought to press himself further against the wall and away from the flames.

"Oh dear, this doesn't seem to be nearly enough. Perhaps you need a… touch." A mixture of her mind and magic formed a searing edge to the flames, practically scorching his feathers and skin as the fire grew ever more wild. Helpless to quell his rising panic, Jet curled in on himself, unable to breath properly from fear and fighting not to react to the rapidly increasing pain he felt. No amount of telling himself that it wasn't real ever helped during these "sessions" of hers.

Astra grew… bored of this show, letting her feet touch the ground once more to exit the room and retrieve a few select tools she was fond of, returning only once this was done. Gradually, the flames and pain ebbed away with her decreasing care for the display, her intent now focused onto other matters. "Jet… you poor, innocent soul. Your fear only allows me to enter your mind more easily..."

The memory ended abruptly. While Sonic was too stunned to react, he was away and into a writhing mass of demons. One he would be able to fight off… eventually. Thus, Astra kept her promise not to break or kill him. At the same time, Astra's gaze flicked over the battlefield and briefly examined her various traps. If there ever was a time to have them active, it would be now, and so they were made to be. Now… onto the bigger bird of the two.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, Jet was only just beginning to take note of her presence. He had been locked in such a wild fight with a particularly violent pair of demons that he hadn't even noticed her previously. He frowned at the energy he was sensing, recognizing it vaguely from their brief encounter during the Nocturnian War. But, there was something else, too… some other memory (perhaps many) tugging at the darkest recesses of his mind, hinting at things he couldn't seem to remember. Things she appeared to be the root cause of.

He flicked a glance to the side just in time to see Sonic flung to the ground, and his frown deepened considerably. In spite of the danger and the threat she posed, Jet appeared in front of her in a flash. She grinned at him as though he were prey and she had not eaten in months. Hungrily. "My, my. You've always been one to charge headlong into danger, but this occurrence is simply reckless. I can't dare think of what might happen should you make a mistake in this engagement," she teased openly, licking her lips as she watched him.

Shifting his grip on the handle of his sword, Jet softly demanded, "What did you do to him?" His tone was cold, so cold that it almost seemed to threaten particularly bloody violence against her at a moment's notice.

"Nothing like what I haven't done to you, Jet," Astra said honestly, eyes narrowing faintly. His own eyes narrowed faintly. What was she talking about? "Move and you will feel pain far worse than I dare make your dear friend feel." Jet stayed silent, assessing the situation and continually shifting his grip on his sword in irritation. "You've lost your mouth? Shame, I did so enjoy your vehement spoutings." A hand covered her mouth for a moment as she glanced past him. "This is an unusual turn of events, if I am truthful."

Narrowing his eyes further, to the point where the action was actually visible, he told her simply, "Explain."

She rolled her eyes. "The return of two fully grown Immortals, and not newborns. They must be of great importance, perhaps to you?" Her gaze refocused on the hawk before her, head tilting a fraction. He didn't deign to divulge to her even the tiniest scrap of information regarding that, choosing instead to remain silent. "Your silence says plenty. The male agitates me. His presence is simply not what I needed to further what I am doing. As such, rendering him… incapable of helping would be a pleasant addition to my current goals."

Jet's shifting grip stilled and tightened. Clearly, she was up to something, though he had no idea yet as to the nature of her plan. Regardless of what it was, he didn't trust it. Didn't trust her. He just didn't know exactly why. That had been the case back then, too, when Sonic and the others had chosen to trust her. Clearly he had been correct not to, but… what had tipped him off? That was a memory he seemed to be lacking, and it… bothered him.

"If I'm truthful… you've already made the mistake, and now they will pay for it." Magic concentrated around the cat, forming a powerful sphere around herself. Gathering his aura energy to break through that magic, Jet lunged for her. He would be damned if he allowed her to attack anyone else today. At least if she focused on him the others would be relatively safer for it. Her body shone for a brief moment as one of her many traps activated the moment he was too close, ensnaring his body while her sphere of magic and the barrier formed within left her to receive a fraction of the damage she would have (both being shattered in the process). "And there was your second."

Inwardly, Jet cursed as he tried to free himself. He conjured forth more aura energy in an effort to break free, correctly assuming that it was his best tool against this corrupt magic at the moment, but for the moment he was held firmly in place. Though his face remained largely impassive, inside he was starting to get tense. He hated being restrained, hated feeling like he was being tightly squeezed and unable to move. As such, he started to lash out almost immediately. Sensing these deep reserves of building energies, Alana, Sein, and Kath immediately turned his way.

Hatred leaked onto Astra's face, evident in the way her eyes glowed and how her magic surrounded the both of them before enclosing around Jet violently as she assaulted his mind in an attempt to draw out anything that would bring him into mental or emotional anguish. Buried memories began to rise in response, causing emotions to flare up in Jet's aura beyond his control. At roughly the same time, Alana took notice of what was starting to happen. She shot Sein an alarmed look and began flying toward their son without further delay. Sein was following behind her in an instant, propelling himself with the furthest extent of his speed.

Sein and Alana both suddenly were forced to stop, a circle of magic appearing and wrapping around him tightly to prevent any movement for the time being. Before either could even so much as attempt to escape, their minds were also being assaulted (albeit with much more minor affects than Jet was experiencing). Sensing their plight caused Kath to start to fly over, but a trap right by his side ensnared him as well before he could get far. Soon, he was also being attacked, with Azerel helpless to stop it.

A sly smirk was cast in the direction of the trapped individuals, before Astra turned back to Jet fully and the memories she was forcing him to relive. Fractured, broken memories of darkness and hell and agony and suffering erupted into Jet's consciousness entirely against his will. It was difficult to make sense of them, but it didn't matter. What he saw was still enough to send him into an instant panic. Too terrified to react or move, he rapidly found himself drowning in it all. He saw flashes of fire, of bloodied blades of all kinds, of maulings by Syxan-kept beasts, of hammers and branding tools and whips and ligatures, of himself dying over and over and over again…

As the onslaught of memories practically tore Jet apart from the inside out, he very, very slowly became aware of feeling actual physical pain outside the scope of said memories simultaneously. The pain of bites and clawings and slices and god only knew what else sent his distress levels skyrocketing more so than they already had been. It felt as though the energy from every single attack was gathering in him, demanding to be loosed on his assailants. If only to save himself from having his focus dragged back into his memories, he allowed himself to lash out at every single individual thing around him.

The ensuing explosion was massive in scope and succeeded in clearing the surrounding area for the moment. For some reason, the flow of memories seemed to cease in the same moment. Unable to contain his emotions, Jet crumpled to the ground in a fetal position, trembling, sobbing, and hyperventilating. Alana broke free at almost the same moment and, seeing him falling apart so completely, she rushed to his side without first checking on her husband and father.

It was so, so hard to see her son like this. It was hard to even accept the fact that she was seeing him like this. Possibly, it had something to do with how hard it was to reconcile this image with the one he usually presented. Calm. Reserved. In control. That side of him was far removed from the sight she was seeing now, so completely opposite to how she was seeing him right this very moment. He was vulnerable. Terrified. Falling apart. What could she even do to help him recover?

Based off of what little she had ever seen of meltdowns in the past (the sort cause by trauma, stress, autism-related difficulties in emotional control, and so on), she knew that laying a hand on her son right now would be unwise. Still, she knelt beside him, close enough to let him feel her presence but hopefully far enough away to give him the personal space he required. It could never be enough to fix this, though. There was no way it could be. More was required. But… what? In an effort to further ease his attention away from whatever mental assault he'd just suffered, she then quietly called out his name. "Jet…"

Whether or not he heard her was anybody's guess. Even if he did, he didn't react to her. That is, he didn't react to her voice. But he did reflexively kick at her in continued panic the instant he detected her proximity. With some soothing words, she eased away from him, stopping once she was far enough away that he ceased his kicking. The sound of him still sobbing and struggling to catch his breath about wrenched her heart out. Seeking assistance, she turned her head to see if Sein or her father had managed to free themselves yet.

Luckily, Sein had freed himself by now and arrived moments later, kneeling in front of Jet a few feet away with his aura rising and falling in a gentle manner. "Jet, can you hear me?" he asked in a still, soft, and concerned tone, his voice carrying the love he was so capable. Despite the intense anger burning inside him, he knew better than to let that flow outward right now. The faint knowledge of this he had from experiences with Kath told him that much.

As with before, there was no response or acknowledgement from their son. Worry furrowed Alana's brow. "I do not think he can," she murmured. Then she added more quietly, "He will make himself pass out if he continues to breathe like that…"

Worry flickered across Sein's face for but a moment before he resolved himself. "I'm going to try something." Closing his eyes in concentration, Sein's aura slowly flowed out around him and Jet, surrounding them both in a practical cocoon of a gently flowing aura. There wasn't an immediate response, but after several long and tense moments Sein's tactic seemed to produce some good results. If nothing else, it seemed to take some of the edge off of the intense terror still filling Jet's own aura.

Alana caught on quickly and added her own aura to the mix, willing her energies to be as calm, gentle, and even as possible. At about the same time, Kath finally broke free of the trap that had caught him and he quickly turned their way. She gestured for him to go, silently urging him to resume the battle so that she and Sein (and more importantly their son) would not be attacked. Her father cast a long and unreadable glance Jet's way, no doubt understanding the younger hawk's condition all too well, then simply nodded and took off with Azerel following close behind. Within moments of noticing this, Sein continued these efforts in another manner. He allowed emotions to flow in more, such as his love, concern, and worry over Jet, to try and allow his son to understand that he was safe and that he would be okay. Alana once again followed his lead, taking all of the same steps that he did.

Jet, however, was barely aware of anything they were doing. Aside from all of the emotions and memories he was currently suffering from, there was something else. Something worse. The longer his emotions continued to remain the way they were, the longer his mental barriers remained in tatters, the worse his sudden migraine grew. It was familiar, suspiciously so, and along with it came something faint. Ominous. Foreboding, even. The sound grew into a vague whisper that persisted until it could form words. Words he had not wanted to hear ever again.

"There is beauty to be found in pain, Immortal…"

~保護者~

Aura surged and magic flared as Wave gracefully battled her way through one wave of demons after another. She lingered close to whatever remained of the barriers as she fought, guarding the hole as valiantly as she could. A flash of steel as her sword swung around, a mighty roar as another demon died, and she glanced down once again to check on Jet. While she trusted him not to needlessly get himself killed (usually), she couldn't help but worry over his safety. Spying him far below fighting his own portion of the battle with ease, she relaxed again for now.

Well aware of the fact that she was getting distracted, she looked back up and refocused on her own enemies. More slicing. More explosions of aura. More powerful flares of magic. All seemed to be going well. Another glance around at the battlefield below seemed to suggest that the same was true for everyone else. Cream was holding her own as well as ever, purging demons from wide swaths of land with each psychic attack. Espio was an invisible blur of motion, detectable only through the sheer destruction he left in his wake. Shadow made his presence known through mechanical creations of all kinds, bullets chewing their way through anything that got in the way of his rampage. Steam was quite a force to be reckoned with, even with his less-than-usual fighting tactics. Amaris was a shadowy visage of death, with her black fur and relentless attacking of every single demon who dared cross her path. Sein and Alana were a sight to behold, doling out swift and powerful punishment against each and every single foe they could get their hands on. Tails was wreaking havoc up in the air near her, making full use of that big brain of his to take out all manner of beasts. And Sonic… well, he was doing far better than she suspected he was giving himself credit for.

Time to focus. Back to fighting. Slice, blast, vaporize, kick, stab, explode, throw, punch… With each attack, more and more demons fell. As they died, many more came to replace them. Sheer madness and hell descended upon her, for she had cut at the many heads of the hydra and yet more had arisen from the bloody stumps left behind. Gathering energies from within unleashed themselves in a golden outpouring of light, turning everything around her into dust that faded with the breeze.

With the area clear, she again turned her attention to battle still being waged far below her. Mere minutes had passed since she had been swarmed and forced to narrow her focus onto her own enemies and nothing more. However, despite the short amount of time that had elapsed, she realized with a faint start that neither Jet nor Sonic were in her line of sight. Concern arose inside her and she began rapidly scanning the battlefield for any sign of either of them. At first, there was nothing. Soon, though, she caught sight of Sonic way off to her left. He looked rather worse for wear, both physically and not, as he struggled to keep up with the near-endless tide of demons all around him. He was alive, though, and didn't seem to need immediate aid. Especially not with Cream so close by to him now.

That just left Jet. The longer it took for her to locate him, the more the worry she felt for him grew. It gnawed at her like a ravenous wolf that hadn't so much as spied a meal in weeks. She was about ready to start obliterating the beasts below her in an effort to locate him (the only thing preventing her from giving into that particular urge was the importance of her friends' lives) when she suddenly felt it. Energy, huge quantities of it, building at an astounding pace and threatening to explode outward against the world around it. Then explode it did, causing her to whip around to face the direction it had come from. That was Jet's energy. There was no mistaking it. Nor was their any mistaking the emotional state she suddenly sensed that he was in. There was so much anguish… and pain. So, so much pain.

In an instant, Wave appeared directly in front of the strongest evil force she sensed anywhere in the vicinity. The same one she had sensed near Jet a mere instant before he had lashed out. Too furious to speak, she hurled a blast of aura energy straight at the other woman without giving her a chance to react first to Wave's arrival. Elsewhere, she briefly caught sight of Alana hurrying to Jet's side. That was good. He couldn't be left alone in his current state.

A quick barrier was erected in response to the attack, furious purple eyes glaring at the swallow before them. "So it's you. The one he told me about. Hexan magic user, hm?" Astra asked with a slight raise of her brow.

Returning the glare, Wave asked snidely, "Oh, someone mentioned me? My, and I thought I had lost my touch in making friends." As she spoke, golden markings appeared all over her body, signaling her strong intention to fight.

"You know, you're quite rude to speak in such a manner," Astra returned in kind, smirking faintly. A sphere of grey magic appeared around her as she prepared herself for what came next. The God of Demons had warned her of this particular swallow, a powerful magic user. The thought of truly facing someone with a proper knowledge in magic-based fighting excited Astra enough to make her want to draw this out.

Golden symbols began writing themselves all over Astra's protective sphere, each individual one threatening to blast a sizable hole in said sphere… and its creator. "Your opinion means nothing to me," Wave warned coolly, the markings on her body glowing. "Your actions, however…" She trailed off, letting the building explosions rip through the space her opponent was currently occupying.

"So I am aware," Astra responded with a spell she'd been building up, massive, grey, magic chains shooting through the air to coil around the cat and fly at Wave. She couldn't contain the wicked grin forming on her face as various dark markings formed all over her body.

Wave shielded herself from the coils with a fierce crackle of magic. Blades of various sizes and shapes formed of the same energy in the air around her, some of which she then hurled at Astra from multiple different directions. She was starting to get a very basic feel for how this woman fought, but she needed more information if she was to counter her properly. Astra was quick to respond, needles of her magic flying out to intercept the blades en masse before quite literally launching herself out of her protective bubble with a blade in hand to lunge at Wave.

Seeing the incoming threat, Wave readied her sword. She parried the blow with a strong arm, teeth gritting angrily at the grin plastered on the other woman's face. If this cat thought she would win, then she was wrong. Taking advantage of the proximity, she let loose another explosion, this one comprised of both her magic and her aura. Counter that, you smug little shit. Whether or not Astra could was yet to be seen, and that precisely what Wave was interested in learning.

The dark markings on Astra's body glowed and protected her largely from the magic as a barrier that was formed on her body bore the damage from the aura. She brought her blade back down quickly in a dangerous arc as magic circles appeared in the area immediately around them. Wave blocked the incoming attack with her sword and quickly shielded herself in a rippling cloak of glowing golden energy. This was done in time to prevent massive spikes of Astra's grey magic from violently piercing Wave's body, the cat immediately returning to offense as she let loose a quick explosion of magic from her own hand. Take a piece of your own goddamn medicine.

Wave's cloak managed to hold against the violent eruption of magic long enough to give her ample time to escape. Once she was clear of the attack, she flung more of the magical blades she had created at Astra closely followed by a beam from the palm of her free hand. The markings on Astra's body that absorbed the explosion of magic began glowing, forming a strong barrier around her that prevented the blades from reaching her body while the cat formed a magic circle that absorbed the beam and immediately fired it back.

With ease, Wave dodged the return attack. She narrowed her eyes, thinking, as she watched her foe. Clearly, she knows what she's doing. She's taken the time to learn. Given that bit of knowledge, she began to try to rapidly construct the basis for some sort of a plan. Though, realistically, she probably didn't have the time to do that. So, in order to buy herself that time, she conjured up a substantial force of magical clones of herself. They lunged for Astra all at once from all directions, swords poised to strike, auras surging, and magic blazing.

Astra glanced around as her perception of time seemed to slow momentarily, a concern written on her face before she proceeded to quickly move into a sitting position and create a powerful attack in return. Needles of magic flew out in every imaginable direction as threads appeared all around the magic copies of Wave, attempting to pull them all to their deaths while rapidly casting several spells to absorb or otherwise reflect the energy and magic being flung in her direction. In response to this, Wave promptly used a spell of her own to (for once) send the rebounding attack right back at her opponent.

Realizing that she wasn't going to win in this particular situation (and definitely not as of the moment with some of her energy and effort having gone toward tearing into Jet and Sonic's minds), Astra cast one last spell to properly blast the area immediately around her to hell before teleporting away. Wave gritted her teeth in angry frustration, but ultimately just let her leave. Other matters required her attention right now… especially Jet in particular. Sheathing her sword, she began to rapidly fly back down toward him, her heart aching as she remembered the sorry state she had left him in.

Hold on, Jet. I'm coming.

~保護者~

9,316 words this time. Whew, this was a biggun! Hopefully the wait for this chapter was worth it, and I hope you all enjoyed! Many thanks as always to Blazing Winds for his help! Posted (at about 8:00 a.m.) 10-27-19.