Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim all rights to all characters (save for those of my own creation) during these emotional interactions… especially for the one who is listening.

~保護者~

"Dark Whispers"

~保護者~

For a second, it didn't fully register to Jet what Wave was telling him. He was still sitting in the hall right where he'd been with his parents before Kath had left, and several minutes ago Wave had joined them. That he was so preoccupied with his own stress likely played a huge role in why he didn't entirely catch her words. Finally, he was forced to admit defeat. Unburying his face from his hands, he asked in a small voice, "What?"

Wave offered him a gentle smile. "I said you still look really upset… so some good news might do you some good."

It took Jet another moment to reply. "What good news?" he dared to ask, barely trusting himself to risk feeling hopeful about anything right now.

Moving slowly (which Jet was honestly thankful for, because it felt like he was operating on a hair trigger and had already been badly startled several times by practically nothing), Wave took a seat by his free left side. Sein still occupied the space to his right and Alana continued to sit in front of him, but both seemed prepared to stay quiet for now so Wave could speak. "Sonic and Steam," she told him, keeping her voice gentle and low which honestly soothed his frayed nerves a bit, "had a bit of a… misadventure and fell through time. I wasn't fully aware of that before, but Silver and Tails both sent word to me that they're back now. They're up in Hyale with everyone else."

Well that was news to him. Why hadn't anyone told him that Sonic and Steam had gone missing? ...Actually, he suspected he knew why, but it was better not to think about that. Especially since that required thinking about her, and she was precisely the reason why he was already so damn jittery and nervous, and… Fuck, he just needed to stop thinking. Completely. "Are… they alright?" he eventually asked, dropping his gaze back down to the floor. The urge to go back to hiding his face in his hands hit and he did so without stopping to think about how little that would actually help.

"I wasn't told that they weren't, so I think it's safe to assume they are," Wave assured. She very, very lightly rubbed his back for a moment before removing her hand again, no doubt knowing that he couldn't tolerate much physical contact right now. Still, he was grateful for her efforts. They were helping to keep him grounded… somewhat. At least, they were preventing him from completely freaking out right now. Which was something.

Observing the state he was still in, Wave sighed almost inaudibly. It's so hard seeing you like this… "Jet," she called softly, hoping to regain his attention, "do you want to go back into the room? We don't have to stay in the hall." With any luck, a change of subject would help to keep him calm, since she knew that he knew who else was in Hyale right now. Thinking about that wasn't good for him.

Much to her surprise, he shook his head. But before she could ask him anything else, he mumbled, "They aren't safe there, Wave."

She understood why he thought that way, despite logically knowing the truth. He was reacting based upon emotion and old but sharp-as-ever pain. For that reason, she kept her response to him as gentle as possible, even as she refuted his words. "Right now… they are. They're safe."

"They aren't," he insisted, voice breaking a little as he fought not to completely lose control over his emotions. Then a shiver of pure fear passed through him and he suddenly became extremely tense. "Lucas is there," he practically whispered, having only just suddenly understood who else was present around Astra.

Some of his sudden resurgence of panic abruptly made a lot of sense. Wave quickly turned to Sein and Alana and asked them, "Can one of you go get Lucas, please?" Then, glancing at Jet and knowing he wasn't really capable of listening too much right this second, she added, "He doesn't need to be directly here right this minute, but Jet's only going to get more panicky if Lucas stays on Mobius. It's… honestly bad enough that Sonic is there, now that I think about it."

Alana stood without a second thought, only too eager to help. "I will retrieve him, but I will not take him over here right now. It is best if he does not see this." She turned to her husband. "Sein, stay with him. I can be of little use to Jet regarding his emotions, but you can."

Sein nodded softly. "I understand. Go get him," he said. With a nod, Alana teleported away.

Worry gnawing at her, Wave asked Sein, "Should we take Jet to a room? I know Jet said he didn't want to go, but…"

The man nodded again. "Yeah, let's take him to one. The more comfortable he is, the better," Sein murmured.

He certainly had a point. "Let's take him to his room, then. He's always felt pretty safe in there, and if he escalates into a meltdown - which he very well could at this rate - then he'll need that feeling of safety in order to recover afterward."

Sein walked over to Jet and gently said, "We're gonna take you to your room, okay?"

Somehow, Jet managed to curl up tighter. "I don't want to," he answered, voice scarcely more than a whimper.

"I know," Wave responded, being just as gentle as Sein. "We'd like you to, though. Will you come with us, even if only for our sake?" This time, he was silent. He may not give us direct permission, but… I don't think we should take silence as permission, either.

Sein very slowly set a hand on Jet's shoulder. "We want you to feel comfortable and safe."

When he remained silent and continued to not argue further, Wave decided this was as good as they were going to get. She tossed Sein a glance, hoping to communicate that he should brace for a potential outburst in response to what she was about to do, then teleported with Jet off to his room. Sein was quick to follow suit, not letting himself be left behind.

~保護者~

Calypso opened her eyes, slowly pulling out of her meditative state when she detected movement to her right. With scarcely a glance in that direction, she gestured meaningfully to the source of the noise and said, "Go'dess o' Stars, I t'ink your friend be wakin' up. He moving around a lot."

Sona frowned in Calypso's direction. "So you've gotten involved in all of this, too?"

"I no see how you not notice before," Calypso answered with a shrug. "I be here a while now."

"I've been busy with some good kids, and some other matters," Sona murmured. She didn't wait for a response, walking in the direction that she sensed Locke. It had been too long for her liking, not seeing him at all. Of course, she always grew antsy when he disappeared for his extended 'trips', as she put it, but this time it was different. He had been forcibly stuck here without any way of doing anything for himself, and she wasn't sure how she felt about it. Her gaze fell on Locke and she bit her lip, muttering a few curses. You've been here all this time, away from your daughters, because of your oldest friend…

Just as Calypso had suggested he'd been doing, Locke soon shifted yet again. This time, however, he shifted so as to push himself up a little from where he'd been laying in the grass. His face was scrunched up into a pained grimace as he moved, and he wasn't able to quite sit up yet. He wound up having to carefully lower himself back down instead before his arms gave out on him. Sona knelt down by him, a concerned frown on her face as she watched him quietly.

Still dazed and overall out of it, Locke eventually moved some more and tried a second time to push himself up. He was a little more successful this time, managing to nearly get into a sitting position before he was forced to lean heavily against a tree in order to remain upright. His hands clutched at his throbbing head as the first coherent thought of the day filtered through the fog in his brain. Damn… hurts like a son of a bitch…

"Locke…?" Sona asked softly. "How are you feeling?"

Somehow, Locke managed to hear her and make sense of her question. It took a little bit of effort to reply, but he found that he was able to do so with minimal struggling. "Head h'rts," he mumbled, doing his best not to let his words slur. He recognized that he had likely been struck on the head and that slurring words would quite possibly be an issue - if only because it had happened before. Turned out that his one major weakness was way too well-known by his enemies.

"Relax," Sona murmured, setting a hand on his shoulder. "You'll make it worse if you try too hard to do much else."

"Jus' sitting up," Locke responded quietly, barely aware of having given this reply at all.

"I know, but don't do much else," Sona huffed, crossing her arms. "You're the same as ever."

It took a short moment for him to answer her, and when he did he didn't directly reply to what she'd said just then. "Wh't h'ppened…?"

"You got hurt," Sona said simply. "That's all I really know. You've been unconscious for a while."

That got some gears turning and Locke had the presence of mind to immediately ask, "The girls?"

"They're with Cosmo. I left them with her so I could check on you," Sona murmured. Locke could only nod, feeling far too out of sorts to otherwise reply. The cat sighed softly. "Relax for now. We can talk more once you wake up." That didn't earn too much of a response, but Locke had heard her. Taking heed, he tried to focus on recovering for now. Everything else would have to come afterward.

~保護者~

Heedless of the rain, Shadow had returned to his earlier seat outside of Calypso's barrier. This time he was shielded by one of Silver's, a fact which he was both grateful for (cold water hurt like a bitch, as he recalled Tails had briefly explained to Toru once) and annoyed by. He just wanted to be away from most people. It was hard to feel too alone, however, when surrounded by someone's energy. He hadn't minded it so much earlier, but that had been… different. In a way he didn't trust himself to contemplate too deeply when feeling moody like this.

That he was feeling moody, however, was something he didn't hesitate to admit. It was another common symptom of his, one that was quite aggressively trying to rear its head. But, while it was affecting him and his ability to get along with people and whatnot, it still wasn't severe. Even when coupled with the building cravings, it wasn't bad enough to warrant another dose of the apparently high-end medicine he'd been given. It was designed to tackle the worst of the worst, or at least its close counterparts. This simply didn't qualify.

Needing a distraction, he turned his attention to other matters as best as he could. First, he reached out with his mind, feeling for the Black Arms hive he had left deep within space. Being essentially Black Doom's son and directly sharing the "man's" DNA, he had always been connected to the Hive Mind. He just hadn't ever been affected by it. Although it had been a source of annoyance in the past, particularly on days when the hive was buzzing so much activity that it was difficult to just outright ignore them, being connected in such a way had its advantages. Without their true leader around, the remaining individuals might have only been very loosely a hive nowadays, but Shadow could still sense them all regardless. That was how he knew that they were basically fine and he could shift his attention away.

Distraction was something he still needed. Checking in with the base sounded like a decent enough idea. Except… those check-ins didn't take very long. There wasn't much for anyone to report right now. Things were going well enough, his orders were being followed, no threats had been detected… and that was it. That was the end of the conversation. There was no other source of distraction. He already found his thoughts drifting into much more dangerous territory. This was not good. This was a problem.

Mind still wandering through a sea of awful ideas, he glanced over at the others. No one seemed to be paying any mind, which was good. He hated the idea of people seeing him like this. And yet, he knew that he probably needed to go back over there, for his own sake. Except, he didn't want to. What he wanted was to reach out to his old contacts, find out if they were still peddling, get all the necessary supplies from them…

He caught himself staring at his communicator screen. There was a number on that screen suddenly, one he hadn't intended to type. It was a familiar number. A bad one. One he should have made himself forget years ago. Cursing himself, he quickly turned off his screen and crossed his arms so as to keep his hands in check. Idiot, he mentally chided himself. Absolute idiot. Still, in spite of himself, he glanced at his communicator a couple times before forcing his eyes shut with a soft, self-deprecating growl.

Toru suddenly appeared, slipping Shadow's communicator off with practiced ease and moving into the tree quietly. "Mind telling me what's got you so worked up, Shadow?" the chameleon asked, an eyebrow raised.

Not really thinking, just reacting, Shadow gritted his teeth and immediately demanded, "Give it back," as he threw a glare up at the branch Toru was perched on. At the same time, he couldn't help but idly wonder how and why Toru always seemed to do that. Just appear in random places all the time, that was. Then he recalled that Toru was (obviously) a shinobi and decided it really wasn't surprising at all. He was just being an idiot right now. Still.

"Not until you tell me what's going on," Toru answered, a frown on his face. "This is obviously something bothering you in some way, or you wouldn't have been scowling like Sonic did when calling our bluffs. So, either tell me or I keep this thing on me for the foreseeable future," the chameleon said.

"You can't keep it," Shadow retorted immediately, still refusing to acknowledge the question. "That device is necessary for me to stay in contact with others."

Toru frowned a bit more. "You're not answering my question."

That earned another scowl. "I don't have to. Give it back."

"Zero?" Toru dared to question, dropping out of the tree and onto the ground as he fastened the communicator to his arm. "Is that what's happening?"

Shadow stiffened without meaning to, but very quickly he forced himself to stop. "No," he muttered angrily, looking away.

"Please don't lie to me," Toru murmured. "It's a bit disrespectful, all things considered. You can be honest with me." Shadow just bared his teeth a little, not really stopping to consider the fact that the unspoken meaning of that reaction would be lost on most people outside of his own race. Toru narrowed his eyes and glanced at the communicator, tapping at it a few times until he figured out how to work it. "Contacts…?" he asked slowly, a far deeper concern welling in his usually calm eyes. "Shadow, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Shadow answered, albeit more harshly than he'd intended. He wanted to stand up and forcibly take his communicator back, but he knew what chameleon speed and dodging capabilities were like and so saw no point in making such a fruitless attempt. He'd just make a fool of himself.

"You're not," Toru argued. "Is that the illness you were feeling? The side effects and withdrawal from Zero?" Shadow held his tongue again, biting back a growl and crossing his arms tightly. He refused to answer that question, even if it would somehow save his life. Toru frowned even more, crossing his arms. "Look. I give a shit about you. I don't want to see you get involved in that business, whether as a seller or a buyer. I can't just sit back and watch you get hurt by this. If you won't talk to me, I will get your brother."

That finally, finally forced a measure of clear thought to come back and Shadow put his head in his hands out of sheer frustration. Eventually, he muttered simply, "Don't." Then he mumbled almost as an afterthought, "...He worries enough already."

"So… talk to me," Toru murmured. "I'm here for you. I will not stop being here, especially if you need help. Whether you want to admit it or not, you do need help from the people that love you."

Shadow opened his eyes again to look at the vial of currently useless medicine he had left in the grass by his leg. There was a lengthy pause before he spoke again. Going back to one of the earlier questions he'd been asked. "...It's… cravings," he finally forced himself to admit. "They aren't… severe enough to warrant a dose of the medicine yet."

Toru nodded slowly to this. "I see. Is there anything else going on, especially something with what you were looking at on your communicator?" Shadow internally cringed and fell silent again. He did not want to discuss having yet another near-lapse in judgement and control. It was bad enough that he'd been tempted, but starting to follow through with the idea was… sufficiently horrible. The chameleon walked closer to Shadow, a much deeper frown than before on his face. "I'm going to be honest with you. I don't understand what you're going through. I don't really get it. I barely know about the withdrawals, and I don't know how to help. I do know that I can talk to you, though, so I really would like it if you could tell me what you're feeling."

There was another pause, then Shadow admitted something he didn't make any sort of habit of telling people normally. "Talking about feelings is difficult."

"Can you try for me?" Toru asked softly. "I'm not gonna make you, but I want to try and help."

A few complicated emotions flickered through Shadow's eyes for a second upon hearing that question before he let out a long-suffering sigh and muttered, "I don't know how to."

Toru took a small calculated risk and set his hand against Shadow's arm. "That's fine. Just start with what you were thinking. Stick to what you know logically."

Though he glanced at the hand in question, Shadow said nothing against it and just let the matter be. He took a short amount of time to consider what had been suggested to him before eventually making yet another admission. "I kept thinking about making contact with the dealers I used to know," he mumbled, looking away. There was a pause, then he forced himself to continue. "...I still remember their numbers, even though I deleted them years ago. I nearly… let myself try contacting one of them."

Toru looked at the communicator screen and memorized the number. He had a new mission he'd send himself on in the future. For now, however, he focused on Shadow. "You did the right thing by not doing it."

"I nearly did," Shadow bit out, growing angry with himself all over again. "I should not have typed the number at all."

The chameleon sighed softly. "Truthfully, I don't think you're really able to think clearly. The little bit I do know is that the drug heavily clouds judgement when you're suffering withdrawals. You are not thinking like you normally would." Toru wasn't exactly wrong, but Shadow didn't tell him that. Instead, he just offered a vague shrug. Toru slowly took the communicator off, but not before speaking. "When I give this back, I want you to clear that number off your screen, for your own sake. Okay?" Shadow just nodded once in agreement, not offering any argument of any sort. The chameleon handed the device over to Shadow, a thoughtful frown on his face.

Without a sound and barely even looking at the screen in question, Shadow quickly and wordlessly deleted the number off of it and closed the screen where numbers could be typed. It was done now, but he really didn't feel any better. If anything, he arguably felt worse. All he could manage to think about it, though, was simply, I hate this.

Toru ever-so-softly wrapped an arm around Shadow after checking to make sure nobody was watching. Shadow very much took note of the contact and the peculiar way his heart had chosen to beat in response to it initially, but he ultimately decided it was safer not to mention it right now and so said nothing. ...Not… that he objected, though, exactly. "That's a big step you took. Not many would have the willpower to do that. If you ever feel overwhelmed again, let me know. I'm always willing to talk."

It didn't feel like a big step. If anything, it felt like he'd leapt miles backward, somehow. Shadow tried not to dwell too much on that, though, as he tossed the communicator carelessly into the grass about a foot away. "It isn't your problem," he answered, trying to emotionally distance himself from… just about everything, if he was being perfectly honest. Not that it proved to be an effective attempt. "You shouldn't concern yourself with it."

"I'm going to do it because I want to, and because your problems are mine. I'm here to help you with them," Toru murmured softly.

Unsure what to even say to that, Shadow initially just nodded. After a brief pause, however, he managed to say, "I… appreciate that." Why did that feel like the hardest admission he'd made all afternoon? ...Well, aside from the earlier one but, he was really trying not to think too hard about that incident just yet. The idea that anything was going on (or even just starting to) so quickly was just… a little too much to take in right now.

"I'm glad you do," Toru answered, slowly pulling his arm back. "Now, let's relax a little. You could use it, with all of your grouchiness."

"Just… shut up."

~保護者~

Only once they were sure that everything had more or less calmed down did Silver and Blaze finally moved a ways away from everyone so that they could sit and talk. She had questions, naturally, chief of all being why she was alive again. There was no avoiding that question, or the terribly complicated way that it had to be answered. So, with little other choice, Silver started to explain all about what was going on, one detail at a time.

He explained in more detail about Espio and everything that was going on with him. He gave more details about what had happened to Jet, as least as much as he was able to. He described the demons, the war, the Trokkerlar Army that he'd heard about but not yet personally encountered. He also mentioned the trouble with Shadow, a bit more about who Astra was and the issue of her past actions before arriving here. All and all, he explained just about everything.

Everything except that. But then, as he'd expected, she asked. "Tails mentioned that… Kaden corrupted Espio," Blaze said softly, looking troubled beyond measure. It made sense. Kaden was her teacher. Her friend. Someone she had idolized her entire life. That the possibility of him hurting an ally existed had her more afraid than she would likely ever say aloud. "How is this possible, Silver? He would never have done such a thing, even if he had been capable of it."

There was no choice but to explain. She deserved the truth. He certainly wouldn't be the one to hide it from her. Doing his best to keep himself from getting too choked up about the matter (which was harder than he'd anticipated, chiefly because he hadn't even stopped to think about this matter too much yet), he resumed talking. This time he focused solely on his grandfather, describing everything Sonic had said that Jet and Tails had explained about how Kaden had become a demon… how he had been forced to serve the previous Demonic God, Amnikaribah… how he had later slaughtered that beast and assumed the role as the new God… and everything that had happened afterward that he knew about.

By the time he was done, he was nearly crying. Blaze's eyes were similarly shimmering with unshed tears as she leaned heavily against Silver's side with her head on his shoulder. They were silent for an uncomfortably long time before she drew in a shuddery breath, effectively shattering that silence. "It pains me… greatly to say this, but…" She paused, took another breath to steady herself and her voice, then continued. "If I have to fight him… then I will. I know Kaden. The real him would never have wanted to be this way… to do these horrific things… to hurt so many people." A tear finally slipped free of one of her eyes and Silver nearly broke at the sight of it. "The real Kaden… would have rather died."

Thinking logically, there was no way that anyone who knew Blaze could find fault within her words. She was right about him, after all. And she certainly would be useful against him. She was quite possibly the only person (aside from his own sons) whom Kaden had ever personally trained. She knew his tactics, how he would think and act in battle, how he fought in different circumstances, how to counter him to some degree, what his faults and weaknesses were, and so on better than most other people in existence. Her knowledge and intel would prove vital. Plus, if all else failed, her fire was… special. It existed to fight against Darkness. That, coupled with her and Kaden's past friendship, meant that she really could help more than many others could hope to.

But Silver wasn't able to think very logically right now. He was too close to breaking down and crying. He also didn't trust himself to speak much, if at all, because he was sure the lump in his throat would prevent that to begin with. So, rather than try to force any words to come out, he rested his chin on her head, closed his eyes, and tried to find some measure of peace in her presence. It was the only comfort he had.

~保護者~

Being half-asleep, Jet's thoughts couldn't entirely focus. His thoughts wandered between this and that, occasionally landing on meaningless things (such as the fact that he was resting in his old room at the palace for the first time in years following his near-meltdown earlier) and lingering there for a time before moving on to other things. Truth be told, though, he preferred the pointless thoughts over the more intrusive, frightening ones. Mostly, they were snippets of memories, broken fragments that he'd buried a long time ago because they had made him suffer far too much for him to handle.

Only… not everything was actually a memory he had buried on his own. Others were memories of things he had lost well before awakening from the coma his torture had left him in so many, many years ago. In many of these memories, she was there. She was the one person he could see inflicting all of the extreme agony that had haunted the darkest recesses of his mind for so long. He tried not to let himself think about any of it, but while each fragmented recollection had initially come on slowly and one at a time, soon he found that he was starting to drown in a veritable tidal wave of them.

Just as before, terror soon left Jet trembling and struggling to remember how to breathe as he curled into a fetal position in bed, arms around his head as if to guard against oncoming blows that weren't actually coming. He was only barely aware of any of that, however, as emotion began to consume him once more… closely followed by the return of an accursed presence he hadn't felt in sometime.

That voice.

Jet knew that voice. He knew who it came from. Or, rather, what it came from. A shivery chill ran up and then down his spine as it whispered to him in his head, almost gently tugging him away from his other thoughts as it did so. "This fear… is not befitting of a ruler. Yet it allows me to enter your mind with ease. Why do you suppose that is?"

Shivering again for reasons he couldn't really explain, Jet found himself replying without having meant to. "I don't know."

"Because you are broken," the voice told him softly. "She made you this way… and yet you chose not to end her. That decision was a mistake. You must let go of your penchant for this kind of mercy. Some things do not deserve to be saved."

"I don't know why I did it," Jet found himself weakly responding, curling up tighter. "I just want her gone."

"So make her be so," the Void almost purred. "Your pain is nothing more than a product of your broken mind, but it can also be your weapon. Embrace your agony. Let your suffering teach you how to forge a path forward. Learn to bestow that pain upon others, for only in death do they serve their purpose to you."

That made Jet suddenly remember something. "...You told me once that death is love's truest form."

"If the love of all things is death, then what is it that you think you feel for that woman?" the Void challenged him in response. It continued before he could answer that question. "There is nothing more ruthless than compassion. If you love something, the very least you can ever do is allow it to die. But if true love is at play, then you will allow them the honor of meeting their end by your hand… and without mercy."

"I don't love her," Jet retaliated, some measure of anger managing to take hold within him.

"You hate her… as you should. That is why you will not simply kill her."

Heart pounding for reasons he couldn't explain, Jet took in a breath and asked, "What are you talking about?"

"It is a form of mercy to crush the weak early on, before they can suffer," was the impassive response. "Similarly, it is another form of mercy to end those you love before they, too, can experience true pain. These actions are necessary. They are right. But this woman… this woman does not deserve your compassion." Jet shivered once again, squeezing his eyes shut tighter. "There is beauty to be found in pain," he was told, "for it is through that pain that you will know death… and through death, you will come to know love."

Unable to resist the urge, Jet found himself snapping, "There is no love here."

"There is, but only toward some others," the voice told him. "You may well have no choice but to go through them to get to her. You exist right now on the cusp between light and life, death and destruction. It is you who decides their fates, who suffers and who finds escape in death. And when you are finished with them, you will be left free to force upon her as much suffering as you see fit."

The implications were… staggering. The things that were being suggested to him… surely he couldn't actually listen to any of them. And yet, despite his hesitation, he found himself quietly asking, "What do I do?"

"You know what to do," the Void whispered, sounding as though it was directly in his ear. Fresh chills wracked Jet's slim frame, making him almost appear to tremble. "You and I… we have spoken many times throughout the years, but my advice remains the same. Prune the gardens of your mind until only the truth of my words remains. And when it comes time to face your friends… sing them a lullaby of death and nothing more."

More chills, more shivering. The presence didn't leave. If anything, it seemed to be surrounding him, suffocating him, pressing heavily and insistently down against every fiber of his very being while awaiting his response. Feeling as though he could barely breathe, Jet whispered back under his breath, "I don't know what to do."

"Turn your mind to the Void... and embrace it," came the immediate reply. "For too long, you have denied me and all the strength I can give you. I have long provided you with the answer to everything. Now it is time to truly begin to listen. Listen… and cease your resistance."

Energy that had been bonded to him for countless years but that he had been forcing away just as long slowly started seeping into him. Breathing heavily, Jet allowed it to happen, no longer thinking, just feeling as that old taint started truly taking hold again. He was left feeling strange, off-balance, different, and yet somehow better in ways he had no ability to comprehend in his current state. All of the memories and emotions he had been struggling with fell by the wayside, fading away until he was able to finally push them away and cease being affected by the time. Suddenly, he was no longer sure why he had been resisting this for so long… just as he remained unsure why he was allowing this to happen.

All he really understood was that he felt… complete, somehow… as though something that had been missing had finally been found and put where it belonged.

The next thing Jet knew, he was blinking his eyes open in response to the feeling of hands gripping his shoulders and lightly shaking him. When his vision focused, he saw Wave leaning over him with a frown on her face. Her hold on his shoulders was tight and firm, as though afraid he would wrench himself away, but he didn't. She stared at him for a long moment before saying, "You were having some sort of a dream. I couldn't enter your mind to see what it was, but it seemed like it was really distressing you. I couldn't wake you up from it, even once you stopped shaking and otherwise behaving upset. Are you okay?"

A dream? Was that… possible? He supposed it wasn't impossible, but his mind just couldn't accept that Wave was correct. That experience had been far too vivid, far too real, to be just his imagination, surely. How could he have just dreamt all those sensations and words? How could a mere dream still leave him feeling so utterly strange and different? None of it made sense. The more he tried to think about it, the more stricken with the need to sleep he became. He didn't understand what was going on anymore than Wave did, but even so he found himself quietly saying to her, "I'm… fine." If nothing else… he guessed that he was fine. He certainly didn't feel wrong in any manner.

Wave didn't seem to like this, much less accept it. However, she relented (perhaps due to seeing how drained and exhausted he was) and stood up. "...Okay. But your dad and I are going to keep checking on you. That wasn't normal for you, Jet."

He had to agree. But he was too tired to care. So, with nothing more than a vague nod, he closed his eyes… blocking her out and succumbing to whispers once more.

~保護者~

6,247 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 9:25 p.m.) 06-20-20.