Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim all rights to all characters (save for those of my own creation) in this brief foray into the darkness… especially for the ones who, in spite of all that they are, still worry for the future.

~保護者~

"Black Arms"

~保護者~

Not really thinking twice about it despite having someone following along behind him, Shadow lit a cigarette in the hall as he walked. Upon recalling that he wasn't walking alone for once, he surreptitiously moved over enough that Toru would be spared breathing in any of the smoke. He knew the stuff couldn't harm a chameleon to their bodies' naturally insane resistances to toxins, chemicals, and illness in general, but he suspected that Toru wouldn't particularly appreciate breathing it in regardless. If nothing else, the smell was sure to bother him, just as it did most people.

Toru glanced over and raised an eyebrow curiously at Shadow, blinking once. "Is there any reason you do that?" he asked, purely curious and not with even a hint of judgement to his tone.

Shadow took his time debating whether or not to answer as he led the way through the hall, but eventually he relented and gave a half-response. "It… helps."

The chameleon nodded slowly, shrugging. "As long as it doesn't hurt you, I suppose it's alright," he murmured.

"It does not," Shadow confirmed simply. Given that he was a fire user, the smoke had no effect on him. As for everything else… well, he had his healing factor to thank for that. He put that out of mind, though, and walked a bit further down the hall and stopped at a holographic keypad, which he typed on rapidly to open the door. Once said door opened up, he waved Toru along and entered the room. Toru followed behind him quietly, gazing curiously at everything around him. The room they entered was very clearly a high-tech control room of sorts, filled with machines and computers and holograms of all sorts. Shadow walked over to one particular person's station and asked some questions in a low tone. They conversed for a moment, with the person gesturing at their screen several times throughout.

Toru decided to take a look around the area, casually walking the perimeter to gaze at whatever foreign technology they kept in this building. Shadow, meanwhile, got himself fully up to speed on what had been going on here and moved to a different person. Without prompting, the person said, "We haven't detected any other invaders entering the atmosphere in several days. Things have been pretty quiet up there."

"Monitor for portals as well," Shadow was quick to direct. "The enemy is fond of them."

The person nodded. "Understood. As of now, however, we haven't detected any."

So it stood to reason that Steam and Sonic hadn't managed to get themselves back to this time period, then. Unless they had somehow wound up elsewhere than Mobius in the process of doing so… which was also possible. Shadow chose not to fret over that for now. "People need to be armed. Have you finished providing the proper weapons to everyone?"

"Nearly," the person nodded. "We're having trouble getting in contact with some of our soldiers. There's a chance they may have been lost during some smaller skirmishes since the planet was mysteriously healed."

"Find them and confirm it," Shadow directed, walking away. "We need every able-bodied soldier here and ready to go as soon as possible." He headed over to an unmanned hologram and started typing on it rapidly. Toru glanced over and raised an eyebrow, watching from afar for the moment as opposed to actually approaching for now. It was interesting to see, as he hadn't pegged Shadow to be the type to lead others. He supposed he could be wrong sometimes as well. After seeming to find whatever data he was after on the hologram, Shadow returned his attention to Toru. "I have two more places to visit briefly, and I need to leave now. Are you returning to the village?"

"If you wouldn't mind, I'd enjoy tagging along. Seeing people in the field can reveal a lot," Toru revealed with a small smile.

Shadow quirked an eyebrow, but nodded. "Come, then." Without explaining anything, he simply teleported away. Toru was quick to teleport after him. They arrived in the woods on the side of a misty mountain overlooking the military base in the distance. This mountain was but one of the many that made up the impossibly massive range which contained the ruins of ancient Chun-nan. This mountain in particular was at the very outer edges of the range, and it was here that Shadow's house was located. Once at the door, he made quick work of disabling all of his security systems before stepping inside.

Toru glanced around at the surrounding area with ever-curious eyes before following Shadow inside quietly. "So, you've got tech like that one place does in your home?"

"It is necessary," Shadow shrugged, heading toward the home's single hallway.

"Makes sense," Toru answered, following him yet still. He eyed the sparse decor. "I enjoy the simplicity, though. Kinda feels… a bit like home, to a degree."

That earned him a glance. "I suppose it would," he agreed after a moment. As he spoke, he approached the one room in his house he always kept locked and began the process of undoing all the holographic locks that he revealed by simple virtue of touching them.

Toru watched this with a few blinks. "Damn. So people might not even know that it's locked?"

"Yes, that is the intention," Shadow confirmed. He set to work on the final lock. "Those who know better would not mess with this door to begin with. Those who would seek to try and force their way in will find themselves hurting."

"Well now I'm curious," Toru said, watching with a far more interested gaze than before.

"About?" Shadow asked, doing away with the lock and opening the door.

"What you've got behind that door."

"Hn." Shadow went through the door and into a large room full of nothing but the most powerful and high-tech guns and explosives available on Mobius. Each was of his own creation and he began grabbing several of them.

Toru looked at all of this curiously, but ultimately he wasn't able to grasp the full scope of what he was looking at. Perhaps he should start looking into understanding technology like this? "What are you grabbing all of this for, in particular?"

"Aside from a single exception, I have no real powers that can be utilized specifically for combat," Shadow told him. "Without weapons, I am largely useless against enemies like these." He turned and grabbed a storage cube, one of many Tails had given him over the years, and started putting his various weapons into it.

"I see," Toru murmured slowly, stepping in after Shadow. "You do well for someone who doesn't have 'real powers'."

"Perhaps," was the noncommittal response. Shadow grabbed several more weapons and stored them as well before focusing more specifically on his bombs, grenades, explosive traps, and so on.

"Most of it. A few of these will be useless. They are unfinished prototypes unfit for combat." After storing a few more things, Shadow tucked the cube away.

"Any reason they didn't get finished?"

"I lacked the time to work on them. I was building them prior to becoming involved with the people at the base you just saw."

Toru nodded slowly. "Makes enough sense, I suppose." Shadow answered with a nod of his own and started to leave. Toru glanced between him and the rest of the devices before deciding to ask, "Are they all useless or unfinished?"

Shadow paused and glanced over the things he had left behind. "No," he answered after a moment. "Only a few are."

"Well…" Toru managed a faint smirk. "What if we get started on that gun training a bit early?"

Raising an eyebrow, Shadow gave that some thought. "...Perhaps." He turned and pulled several different types of guns off of their places on the wall. "These are suitable for battle and can be modified to work better for you. Pick one."

Toru turned back to the guns and gave a glance over them before picking the one he was instinctively drawn to and collecting it. "I like this one."

"That is a hand cannon," Shadow told him. "You do not get the same range as you would from a larger gun, but it does incredible damage at closer proximities. You will have to practice reloading quickly, however, as each bullet has to be put in individually with that model."

"I'm sure I can figure it out," Toru answered with a wink, carrying the gun to get a feel for the weight. "It's also not cumbersome. I like it."

Shadow responded by finding a suitable holster for the gun and tossing it to Toru. "Use this to carry it on your waist, like a blade. It will not come loose even if you are running, climbing, or the like."

Toru snatched it out of the air and fastened it onto himself before sliding the gun into it. It felt… good. It wasn't a perfect counterbalance to the weight he normally carried, but it wasn't anything that would throw off his balance. "Alright, so, we've got one more place to go to, yeah?"

Toru watched for now, not wanting to accidentally damage something by simply handling any of it wrong. He was sure he wouldn't, but at the moment he didn't want to take the risk. "So, are you gonna keep all of that with you?"

With a small sigh, Shadow retrieved one more cube (this one filled with all the tools and supplies he needed to work on his guns and such) and tucked it away. "Yes. Though, this stop is not what you might call 'safe'. It may well go south the moment I show my face there."

"Will I be allowed to practice my shooting?" Toru dared to ask, crossing his arms.

"Only if you need to," Shadow cautioned with a huff. This time, he managed a fleeting smirk of his own. "Talking may well be a waste of time, but it is necessary to attempt it before shots are fired."

"I'll sit back and watch. If they pick a fight, I'll make sure we end it," Toru answered, a smirk on his face.

Shadow let out another huff, this one vaguely colored by amusement. "Do not make me regret gifting you a gun," he casually warned, exiting the room.

"Oi, I just want to try it out," Toru huffed in return, following him. "Oh, about ammunition, though. Do I have to stick to normal bullets or something?"

"You can channel powers through it, if you have any," Shadow explained. "It is also fully loaded with standard bullets for now, however." He walked into his room briefly as he spoke and grabbed a teleporter off of his desk by the door.

Toru nodded. "Got it. You do the talking. Let's go." His excitement was plainly obvious.

Crimson eyes rolled toward the ceiling. "You are just like Lia," he lightly accused. Without giving Toru time to reply or ask a question, he activated the teleporter and set them off to where he needed to go.

The pair arrived somewhere deep within space, in a place where the shining light of the stars were so distant that there was nearly no light. There was nowhere to stand, leaving them floating where they were. For a few moments, nothing happened. Then a dimly illuminated eye opened up directly in front of them and a deep voice demanded, "Why do you disgrace us with your presence, halfling?" A tentacle shot out and harshly prodded at Shadow, then at Toru. "And to bring an outsider here… you are a fool."

"Shut it," Toru muttered darkly, his entire demeanor flipping at the prodding. "We're here for a reason."

The tentacle flicked Toru hard across the cheek in a motion akin to a slap, but just as quickly as that happened the offending appendage was blasted off. Now glaring, Shadow lowered his gun and spoke. "Black Doom is dead. Your hive mind is gone, and this is what you choose to do with your free will? Pathetic."

"Choose your words wisely, halfling," the alien creature growled back. "Leaderless those we are, we still possess the means to stomp you out. You cannot control us."

"I can," came the calm argument, "but I would prefer cooperation. It is less… tiresome."

"We have no interest in your war," the creature responded harshly. "Let existence crumble if it will. The Black Arms have no reason to care."

"Survival and replication are all you care about," Shadow countered, idly scanning their surroundings and counting energy signatures all the while. "It looks to me that various forces have been ruining that for you as of late."

"Our numbers may be thin, but we remain strong enough to survive," the creature all but snarled at him.

"Alone? I think not." Shadow glanced around one more time. "By my count, you are down to fifty-two individuals. A single horde of demons could wipe you out if they saw fit." He leveled the creature with a hard look. "You require additional strength, and I require your abilities. You either accept that, or I let the demons finish you off. I do not care which you choose."

"Insolent halfling!" came the furiously hissed reply. A new tentacle sprang out from the Darkness, closely followed by several others.

Toru reacted instantly, his gun practically flung out of the holster to blast the nearest tentacles without the slightest bit of hesitation. "I was looking for a good reason to use this and you've gone and made a huge mistake by letting me find that reason," he muttered, drawing his sword with his other hand.

The alien let out a monstrous roar, but unexpectedly backed down. After all, it was as Shadow had said. Survival was one of the only things the Black Arms cared about, alongside replication. That… and blood. Family relations. It was the last bit of actual leverage he had left. Sighing between clenched teeth, he muttered to Toru, "I need a knife."

The chameleon didn't hesitate to use his foot to slip a knife out of one of his shoes, idly throwing it into the air with practiced ease to where Shadow could easily catch it. "Don't break it."

"As if I would." Taking hold of the knife, Shadow turned his attention again to the alien he had been conversing with. "The blood of your leader has the power to give your kind additional life… or burn it away. Does it not?"

"You are a halfling," the alien chose to remind him yet again. "That our blood mixes so freely with the blood of another race renders it useless to you."

"My blood does not mix," Shadow calmly argued. He lifted his right palm, a place where this so-called black blood freely circulated within him and slit his skin without a care. Blackness oozed forth immediately. "I can exert whatever control is necessary over you, by force if need be. Given that you appear to be the only one arguing with me, would you care to be an example for everyone else?"

"I will not-" The alien's words were cut off by a pained howl with Shadow casually flicked several droplets of blood onto its face, instantly gifting it with extreme burns and the associated agony that went with it. This seemed to infuriate the beast, and yet it backed off for the first time. "Why seek us?" it demanded. "You have ignored us for the duration of your life. Why come now?"

"I already explained all you need to know," Shadow responded simply. "Come now, or don't. I will not ask again for a straight answer."

Things grew eerily silent, but only for a short time. Eventually, the alien seemed to completely resign itself to its fate and muttered, "You possess the true blood of the first of our kind. By that right alone do you rule us. We have no choice but to follow."

Satisfied with that response, Shadow cleaned Toru's blade off and tossed it back to him before saying, "Remain here, where you are marginally safe. I will call upon you when you are needed." With these instructions given and knowing that they may well still be attacked again if they lingered, Shadow was quick to use the teleporter to send him and Toru back to his house.

Toru idly rubbed at the spot where he'd essentially been slapped, a deeply set agitation painfully obvious on his features for a moment. "If you hadn't kept that situation under control, I would have slaughtered it for such a fucking idiotic move."

"I am aware," Shadow answered, moving to find something to bandage his hand with. He was careful not to let the blood drip onto anything, for he knew it would irreparably destroy anything it touched in this room.

The chameleon was quick to sheathe his sword and holster the gun, crossing his arms. "So, you're half… whatever the fuck those things are?"

Shadow pulled some bandages out of his desk and sighed. "The man who made me a cyborg… did more than just that," he revealed slowly. "He created me to begin with. I was not born. Half of the DNA he used belonged to the former leader of that race, a creature named Black Doom."

"Well, you're by far much more intelligent and interesting than that one we talked to," Toru answered. "And I suppose it came in handy this time?"

"For perhaps the only time in my life," Shadow muttered. Then he looked up from his work on his hand long enough to ask, "You keep calling me 'interesting'. Why?"

This seemed to invoke some sort of thought from Toru. In his life, he'd only ever called two other people 'interesting'. His father and Espio, both of whom he respected deeply. Though, he usually didn't say it directly to them, and now what that woman had said came back to him. He had taken an interest in Shadow, that much he'd said for himself upon just meeting the hedgehog. It felt different now, however, and he wasn't sure as to why. "I don't know at this point. I guess I just keep seeing all this new stuff because of you." It felt like a lie, but it was the best truth he really knew at the moment.

Shadow looked at him for a long moment in silence, but eventually he just accepted the explanation with a nod and finished bandaging his hand as securely as could be managed. He made damn sure to wrap it in such a way that no blood would leak out whatsoever. "Unless you have anything you need to do, we can return now."

Toru took another moment to think before shrugging. "I don't think so. Let's get back." Nodding, Shadow took yet another one of his teleporters, the one he typically used when making a visit to Espio, and went straight back to Hyale. Toru followed the hedgehog with a noticeably troubled expression. What did he really feel, here...?

~保護者~

Once Aniko returned from whatever cursory work she had performed with the many shinobi gathering in the woods beyond the village's territory, Shei gently set Sako and his sister down in the grass. Then, catching Calypso's eye, he sent Lucas into her surprisingly open and inviting arms. With that taken care of, Shei hurried over to Aniko and took hold of her wrist to get her attention. When he had it, he tugged on her, trying to gently guide her to the place where he had been sitting with the children, out of earshot of the others. He didn't know precisely what she had been through earlier, but he needed to find out. More importantly, she needed to speak about it, for her own sake. She and their son both had such a terrible habit of bottling things up more and more until the bottle simply burst… and that would not do here.

For a moment, Aniko resisting his gentle tugging before finally relenting and following him. Her gaze rested on him as she leaned against the tree, arms lightly crossed. "If you mean for me to talk, I am in no mood to do so."

"You must," Shei insisted after releasing her so that he could sign, "if for no other reason than the fact that I need to know what is going on."

"I do not want to," Aniko snapped lightly, a dark frown appearing on her face. "I would like to continue being productive."

"We all need to be productive," Shei countered, "but I cannot while merely watching children and twiddling my thumbs. I need to know what is going on."

Aniko's fist suddenly collided with the tree behind her as a means of attempting to vent her frustration, unintentionally snapping through it and felling the tree in the process. "I do not wish to remember my son killing the one who loves him or being the God of Demons, Shei! Why must I relive that sight?" she demanded before taking a deep breath and sitting. "Fuck this and everything they have done to my child."

Shei signed nothing in response for a moment until he was sure that she wasn't going to also strike him, then cautiously said to her, "That is what you saw, then."

"Yes," she murmured softly, knees to her chest and her face resting on her knees. "That damned God of Demons leaving that taint in him has sealed such futures as possibilities." If I ever get my hands on him, I will gladly remove his head.

"We knew it would," Shei answered with an inaudible sigh. He strove to remain neutral in his responses and demeanor, hoping to prevent his wife from further escalating. Keeping a watchful eye over the kids yet still, he sat down beside her. But, suspecting she would harshly reject it right now, he didn't touch her whatsoever.

Aniko grabbed Shei by the shoulder, taking obvious care to not injure him with this grip, and pulled him close. "We should never let our Darkness surface, should we?" she suddenly asked in hushed tones, turning her gaze just enough to look at him with a serious but pained expression. "It puts us at the same risk Espio is in, does it not?"

"It is never worth the risk," Shei confirmed with a suddenly stern expression. "It leaves us open to all the same corruptions that he has been exposed to, and against all but Nareish and her often missing-in-action army it would be useless against all of our enemies to begin with. You cannot harm Darkness with more Darkness. Not enough to kill. It does not work like that."

"It is growing harder to control," she revealed softly. "Bit by bit, piece by fucking piece it is trying to rise to the surface with every emotional hit I take." Aniko scowled toward the ground, trying to keep herself in control yet still.

"I know," Shei replied. "That is why you must take steps to calm yourself. You were trained extensively to do this. Now is the time to follow that training as closely as possible."

She struck the ground with her free hand, the reverberations shaking the leaves of the fallen tree behind them both. "Damn our heritage, and damn this Darkness."

As Shei brushed several leaves off of his shirt, Sako and his sister awoke in response to the sharp vibrations that were sent through the ground. The girl simply gasped and jolted upright while Sako started to fuss. Standing, Shei walked over to try and calm the two down. Aniko lifted her head to view this and she felt the anger inside her practically dissipate. Disappointment welled within her as she made the full realization that them being awakened was her fault.

She had to maintain control, lest she hurt those she cared about as well.

~保護者~

In the quiet they were left with after their long-sleeping friends dispersed to fulfill the duties they had been provided with, the individual Faein who had once taken on a female form murmured, "The young one suffers so… I cannot say that I am happy to let things continue as they are." Aethra (the name she had taken on temporarily for the ease of those they interacted with) turned her gaze on her companion. "If only our kin were awake. With their aid, we could safely disrupt the energy beginning to stir within him while also not allowing it to wipe him from our precious existence."

"I have to agree," Rusen (the name he had chosen for the same reason his companion had) murmured. "Not to mention that mental anguish and control over his mind."

"There are so many ways this could all go wrong for us all… and so few ways that it could ever go right," Aethra sighed. "Without our kin, we can do little to help."

"And yet we choose to trust in the lives of those that our labors have borne into existence," Rusen answered. "What else is there to do?"

"Woefully little," Aethra lamented. "It makes me worry for him all the more. He has so much potential. To lose him would be… catastrophic in far too many ways."

"He is more than potential. He is the closest to joining that which his kind was meant to be since we allowed the Immortals to exist. Losing him would reset it all, regardless of whether everything falls down."

"That is precisely what I was referring to, Rusen. He might yet be one of us, one day… if he can manage to survive."

Rusen frowned, taking a seat by the table. "This next event may well decide the course our creations take. If she maintains control, we will have to remove her before anyone far more dangerous can control her actions with him."

"Yes," Aethra agreed. "We must monitor them very closely in the coming minutes."

"Do you remember where Yareis said she was leaving to?"

"She stated her intention to speak with the God of the Forge and his companion," Aethra answered. "She means to gather information from them before she attends to her duties within the demonic realms."

"Ensure she does not go… overboard." Rusen sighed. "She is ambitious, but often clouded with inherent disdain. If she goes too far, we will have to pull her away so she does not blow her own cover."

"I understand. I am already watching over her." Aethra closed her eyes. "If things grow out of hand, I will remove her from the area."

"What are this generation's Gods and Goddesses doing? The Forge is crafting weapons, and I can tell that Judgement is heading to Babylon with Mythical Creatures and Thieves."

Aethra gained a wistful sort of smile. "I must admit that I am quite pleased to report that our recent rescue has been a success. Young Analia is under the watchful eye of the God of Night, and Eona will soon be joining them to further ensure her safety. The Goddess of Life remains deeply rooted to her planet, as is only natural, while she watches over multiple children and the God of Runes appears to be slowly making his way toward the Hell Witch in search of intel on her current activities."

"I trust he will remain safe. The Goddess of the Stars is on her way to Mobius now… she seems intent on seeing the God of the Sun, if I recall correctly," Rusen murmured softly, frowning thoughtfully. "They are mobilizing in a very intelligent manner, I must say."

"They are," Aethra agreed.

"The young being of Light seems to be growing well, as well as…" he trailed off for a moment. "The boy of Chaos, and our wandering Balancer, they were sent through time, correct?"

"Yes, they were," Aethra answered. "A spawn of Malevolence that was captured and put under Nareish's control was told to 'get rid of them'. It rebelled enough to do so, but not quite in the manner she had intended. Instead, it used the sliver of power it had been granted to toss them through time. I believe it wants them and their allies to return and end Nareish, so it can go back to serving its true purpose. That purpose, of course, being following Malevolence itself, as all spawn are created to do."

"I am sure they will return soon. The Balancer is resourceful and knows enough to get them out of it, if they play their cards correctly. Not to say that the boy of Chaos could not do so as well," Rusen answered, a faint smile on his face. "They will not make it back for the event with Jet, however."

"No, they will not," Aethra agreed. "This will upset young Sonic immensely."

"It will, but he will be okay should this end swiftly and properly. What is our Walker of Shadows doing? She seemed quite upset."

"Currently, she is seeing her father," Aethra answered. "What she and those others went through was quite disturbing, and she may wish to seek his council. Or, at least, his comfort."

"He is also a bit of a wildcard in this war, much like Espio but in a different way. Should he go on to help his daughter and the one she loves, we could very well avoid much bloodshed. This may come at the cost of his life, or worse, however…" Rusen mused. "Involving himself brings far more risk than he has ever been in throughout his life."

"Yes, I understand. I will be monitoring him as well."

"Watch the one attacking Jet as well. She may well prove integral down the road as well," Rusen said gently. "Removing her from the grasp of the enemy is something that I would prefer to see."

"I will, do not worry," Aethra assured. "There are a variety of ways that she may yet be freed."

"Rose… she would do well to be reunited with her sister at last. Then her true growth can begin."

"Although, things will be complicated for a time."

"I trust that it can be worked out as time passes. Her skills, should she be allowed to use them properly, could be of aid to our group of heroes." Rusen stood once more and stood beside Aethra. "That covers the important details. Shall we continue on to our monitoring?"

"Yes, I suppose we shall." With that said, Aethra returned her full focus to her task.

~保護者~

5,173 words this time. Hope you all enjoyed, and many thanks as always to Blazing Winds for all of his help and support. Posted (at about 1:00 p.m.) 06-08-20.