Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim all rights to all characters (save for those of my own creation) in this mostly relaxed chapter… especially for the ones who are taking it easy.

~保護者~

"Inquiry"

~保護者~

It had been thirteen days since the Faein had ensured peace for all for two month's time. A mythical bird rocketed over the trees, pure white feathers ruffling in the wind before seeming to finally find what it was looking for. It suddenly dipped and began its descent, morphing mid-air until all that was left was Kial before landing on the ground. He stood up and held his staff in hand while walking along, a small smile on his face. "Is that you, Espio?" he called.

"If I were anyone else, you may well have been cut by now," was the calm reply. Espio didn't look up from the fish he was busily skinning beside a slow bend in a river as he spoke. Having long since decided to not do one long trip to fetch all the food and supplies his family needed, he was once again out on a smaller foraging excursion by himself to gather food and be alone with his thoughts. Or, at least, formerly alone.

Kial shrugged gently. "Eh, calculated risk. We haven't gotten much chance to talk lately, for varying reasons."

"No, we have not," Espio agreed, not saying anything further about it.

"So, why don't we take a few minutes now? Unless you're needing to get back to what you're doing," Kial said, leaning his weight onto his staff. "It'd be nice to talk."

"I am fully capable of handling a knife and talking at the same time," Espio responded. Though he wasn't super thrilled about being cornered in another conversation by someone yet again. Not that he showed it.

Kial shrugged. "Not that I would have known," he teased gently. Before Espio could really respond to that, though, he posed a question. "So… what's been going on? You've been a little quiet lately. Everything okay?"

Espio gave that a little bit of thought before pointlessly shrugging. "Things are fine." More so than they were, at any rate.

"That's good to hear," Kial answered. "How's Armaris doing?"

"She is also fine," Espio answered simply. He didn't have too much to say on that, though he was inwardly relieved that she was no longer as upset as she was in the not-too-distant past.

If Kial had been a number of other people, it would be likely that these answers might have made them believe he was lying. However, it was Kial and he understood that these types of short answers were normal. "All things considered, it's good that you two seem to be doing alright. I talked a bit to your parents, as well as met Zei. She sounds extremely sweet."

The chameleon again took a second to think things over before speaking. "You met Zei?" he finally asked.

"Yeah," Kial said. "She was around your mother when I went to talk to them, and she got curious about what I was and all." Espio murmured a small reply of some kind and moved to stand. Using his thread creation/manipulation ability, he strung up the fish alongside several others he had already skinned and gutted. "Anyway, I'm asking a lot of questions. Do you have any for me or should I keep carrying the conversation along like I did when we were kids?"

That earned a small huff. "You act as though you did not enjoy talking me half to death back then."

Kial shrugged with a chuckle. "I always hoped you'd speak a little more, but alas, my dreams were never realized and you were always the least outspoken of us."

"It cannot be helped that I do not have as much to say," Espio replied evenly. He knelt back down and started cleaning his knife in the water.

"It's not really a problem," the bobcat answered. "But do you have any questions?"

After a third pause, Espio responded with, "You left for many years. Where were you?"

Kial frowned briefly. "I don't think it was a planet that was really named. It felt ancient, it was uninhabited, and it was quiet. A perfect training ground to be taught by my old teacher."

"Why did you return to this world?" Espio found himself asking.

"My teacher died, as I've told you, so I had nobody left to learn from at the time. I wandered for a short time, handling some matters that he hadn't been able to tend to in his state before finally deciding that I wanted to find the people I'd cared about. I had no doubt that you were still alive. If I'd found a way to live that long, surely you did as well. Not to mention Rose, who as you may or may not know, is the woman I'm dating," Kial explained, a bright smile on his face.

Somehow, that last bit made a lot of sense. Far more so than it perhaps should have. They are dating… Of course they are. "What made you so certain I survived?" he eventually questioned. "With my lifestyle, you were once convinced I would die long before you."

"I figured out over time that you just weren't going to die, at least not to someone else. You're too damn stubborn," Kial joked, before adding. "Honestly… it was likely mostly hope that you'd lived. I didn't know, but I held on to the hope that somehow you'd have managed."

"It would seem that you were for once not overly optimistic about the world around you," Espio returned dryly, half-joking as well. With his knife now clean, he teleported it away.

"Optimism sadly does only get you so far. A healthy dose of realism is always good to have, and I've learned that over the years," Kial explained. Espio hummed softly in reply. "Any other questions before I return to quizzing you?"

"No," Espio answered.

Kial thought briefly before seeming to decide on something. "So, let's say this war ends and we all get to move on with our lives and such. You gonna stay with Armaris?"

"I don't know," the chameleon said after a lengthy pause. He didn't even know if anything was going to happen between them, and he certainly wasn't going to try and plan for that sort of thing. It would be pointless in the event that things didn't work out for him once again.

"Well, even if you don't plan ahead like I enjoy doing every now and then, you should take some time and enjoy being with her. Could make some shit a lot more bearable," Kial stated easily.

"Perhaps," Espio answered neutrally with a noncommittal shrug.

"When was the last time you sat down and just relaxed with your family?" Kial questioned lightly.

This earned another shrug. "I do not know," he admitted.

Kial frowned softly. "You've got a good one. You should set aside some time and just be with them, if you can. Considering we've got a bit over another month of time, I hope you don't end up so busy that just a few hours is too much." Espio would know precisely why this seemed to bother Kial so much. The cat's family had been far from… pleasant, to say the least, and had always wished for others to have a better relationship with their own.

Things were quiet for a time as Espio sat back on his heels and gave this all some thought. Eventually he said, "You could also use some rest." He didn't directly state it, but he knew Kial would understand the invitation that had been presented.

The cat managed a faint smile. "I would be delighted to." In response, Espio simply gathered up the results of his fishing and teleported away with his childhood friend in tow.

~保護者~

Fourteen days into the two months of peace, Jet was finally convinced to go and see Sonic and the others. His first order of business before going to Mobius, however, was to go and retrieve Cadora. He took his student home and, since it was perfectly safe there without any demons or Trokkelar Arm soldiers running around, simply put him to bed and then left. Once that was done, he teleported to Tails's house where, as promised, Sonic was waiting for him. The hedgehog tossed him an easy smile. The temporary removal of most stress from his life was doing him wonders, it would seem. "Hey, you made it. Took you long enough to be persuaded to visit."

Jet huffed and, in spite of himself, rolled his eyes just briefly. "You also could have come to visit," he pointed out, "if it was bothering you so much."

Sonic waved him off with a hand. "Anyway, wanna come in? I'm cool with hanging out here, but it is getting dark."

They both knew what Sonic was getting at. During his abuse with Ross and his torture at the hand of the Syxans and Astra, he was often confined in dark spaces. He didn't… like the dark. Though it no longer made him anywhere near as fearful as it once did, he still got anxious when faced with it sometimes. To save face, maybe it was best to take Sonic up on the offer and go inside. As such, he motioned for Sonic to lead the way and then followed him into the living room.

Once the pair were seated, Sonic immediately asked him, "I promise not to pry, but are you doing alright?"

Mostly in an effort to avoid the question, Jet settled back into his seat and simply said, "Well enough."

Thankfully, Sonic only shrugged in reply. "Okay." He, too, took a second to get comfortable. "Well, I'm glad to hear it. And, truly, I'm sorry for bugging. But, you know, I figure… what kind of 'big brother' would I be if I didn't nag you from time to time?"

The humor wasn't lost on Jet, and he managed a fleeting smirk. "You do realize you have an actual brother you can antagonize?"

"Don't even get me started on him," Sonic groused. "Guy stresses me out even more than you do sometimes, I swear."

"Has he been recovering well?" Jet found himself asking.

"From what I understand, yeah. Toru's been making sure of that." Sonic paused, rightly assuming his mistake, and said, "I just realized you've never met Toru. So, long story short, he's a chameleon, apparently an old friend of Espio's and maybe Armaris, and he and Shadow seem to have hit it off somehow. I'd say they're at least friends right now, more or less, but steadily moving toward something else."

Jet raised an eyebrow. "That is… fast, for Shadow."

"You think so, too?" Sonic sighed and briefly closed his eyes. "After the way he was dragged around at light speed with Mari, I was kinda worried how this would go. But he seems pretty comfortable with it so far."

"It is not that relationship that concerns me," Jet revealed, frowning to himself. "There was another one, years after you passed but sometime before Marthal did. It did not go well, either, and it also went far too fast, after a certain point, for any of our liking. Most importantly, Shadow did not like it. He was not… happy."

Sonic's frown mirrored his own. Actually, it was quite a bit deeper. "What happened?"After taking a moment to consider things, Jet shook his head. "It is not my place to say."

The hedgehog pursed his lips together, clearly not liking this answer. "What can you say?" he asked carefully.

Another pause. Eventually, Jet relented a small amount of information. "The conflicts between myself and Jade… were child's play compared to what happened between Shadow and that man. And he was not the aggressor." Sonic's mouth was agape. Jet felt the need to clarify one thing. "Your brother was not a weak, broken victim. He fought back, using however much force was necessary at any given time. However… he did not know how to leave. And with so much of his latent abilities locked behind complex programming Tails was struggling to grasp and the machinery within him being so ancient by then… he was overpowered regularly. You will likely never hear a word of it, but he did suffer. More than I believe we have ever been able to learn."

There was absolute silence between them for a significant length of time. Eventually, Sonic broke that silence with a single question. "How could this even happen to him?"

"That is the same question we asked," Jet murmured. "The way Marthal explained it was that Shadow had been set up for failure from the start. His 'parental' figure during his formative years was horrifically abusive in nearly every way, experimented on him almost daily, tortured him, and neglected him. As such, he had no concept of love in any form for most of his life. He was still struggling to understand familial love when he first met Mari. Through her verbal and emotional manipulations and abuse, his concept of romantic love was also damaged from the start."

Sonic was catching on. "And those who suffer abuse growing up are substantially more likely to wind up in abusive relationships in their later years… which is what happened to you."

Jet nodded slowly. He was fully aware of the fact that he was divulging more information than he had originally set out to, but he ignored it. It felt good to just… talk. To Sonic specifically, that was. The passage of time had nearly allowed him to forget how easy it was with Sonic to just talk and not worry too much about other things. "All of those factors combined left him vastly more vulnerable than any of us could see. He himself does not seem to have realized it. It is likely that he is still grappling with it to this day, given that he was not programmed to feel these things - much less cope with them. But nevertheless, he was more cautious about this relationship. It took him close to two years to finally be comfortable enough to allow there to be a relationship."

"So things were okay at the start?" Sonic inquired, ears lowering a bit in obvious upset. He seemed to know what was coming.

Though tempted to, Jet resisted the urge to sigh. "They were arguably good, by all accounts. I cannot say for certain, but your brother seemed to be becoming closer to that man and truly trusting him, which only made it harder for him to adequately deal with the problems once that started to arise. It took multiple years for things to escalate to the point where he was truly being made to suffer, but even then he could not emotionally detach himself enough to leave."

Taking in a deep breath, Sonic closed his eyes again, wearing a deep scowl. "How long?"

"At least five years, but that is the time that we know about," Jet answered quietly. "We lost contact with him for a further six, and it is possible they were still together at that time. However, he had been safely separated for at least a couple of months when we reestablished communications with him."

Eventually, Sonic let out the breath he seemed to have been holding in. "Okay. I'll… definitely be keeping a closer watch on him, then. But I don't think things are going to go south this time. I don't."

Suddenly pleased, very pleased in fact, Jet answered, "You are trusting your instincts again… good. I was worried you had forgotten how to do that."

"Shut up, asshat," Sonic shot back, though he soon smiled. "Anyway, let's… talk about something more lighthearted now. Okay?"

"I get the feeling I do not have a choice," Jet quipped, as though he was upset by his apparent lack of say in the matter.

Sonic casually waved him off and just moved on. "How's Wave doing? I haven't seen her too much since she kicked ass against all those demons a while back."

"She is well," Jet responded easily. "She has mostly been at the palace as of late, but she recently returned to her father's home realm to check on him and Alec."

"Makes sense. They haven't been bothered by any of this, have they?"

"Somewhat." When Sonic immediately looked concerned, Jet clarified, "Han has helped to defend Mobius multiple times and aided Wave in defeating the World Eater. Alec was not in danger, for he remained at their home. As of now, no demons or other enemies have ventured into the Lost Hex."

"What… What about other realms?" Sonic asked slowly.

"Wave and I keep them confined to this realm as much as possible. The few that break through tend to be killed off fairly quickly due to being alone in new territory surrounded by the unhappy natives of the realms in question."

Sonic managed another smile finally. "Good. S'pose I shouldn't have expected anything less from you two. How in the hell did you guys manage to get so strong, anyway?"

"We had to," Jet shrugged. It was keep up or die… and one was never truly an option.

"I mean, was training by itself really all it took?" Sonic asked him. When Jet just shrugged again, Sonic huffed. "Helpful, thanks."

"You still require training," Jet reminded in lieu of another reply.

That earned a sigh. "Yeah… I know. Believe it or not, I haven't been slacking." Jet gave him a look. "I swear I haven't, alright? I've been training on my own, sparring with Marthal, and with Silver and Blaze. They're sort of the only people we've seen in a while except for Tails and his new friend."

Jet was quiet for a moment, busily searching the residence and the surrounding woodlands to confirm that, yes, those three individuals somehow were indeed back. How had this not been brought to his attention? Perhaps it had happened when Astra had been busy keeping him unconscious… but that was a time best not thought about. "...That is good," he murmured, "but all of you will require more than that."

"Yeah, I know," Sonic agreed. "So, on that note, you free tomorrow?"

"It would seem so," Jet answered, already mentally making plans for what to do with Lucas for a time while he himself was here.

The hedgehog unexpectedly grinned. "If you'd said 'no' just to fuck with me, I'd have whalloped you."

"You are welcome to try," Jet casually invited. "And now that you have presented it as an option…"

Sonic immediately laughed. "Asshole."

"Only so much as required," Jet replied, smirking faintly. It was good to have his friend back, he decided without hesitation. It was wonderful. He had missed this…

~保護者~

Toru sat on Shadow's couch with his younger sister while Shadow himself properly slept (for once) in his room. "Myriu, can you please not crawl up the walls to investigate everything? It's not our place," Toru called from the couch, leaning back to relax.

The young girl in question glanced down at him from where she was currently placed and examining her surroundings, a blink serving as the only response (though it was unseen, so it hardly mattered) for several seconds. Myriu then wordlessly dropped to the floor and landed in a silent crouch before vaulting herself to sit beside her older brother. "Why does it matter?"

Toru glanced to her, raising a curious eyebrow. "Like I said, it's not our place. You can't go climbing around on everything."

Once more, a blink was all that came in response before she ultimately shrugged. "I did not think it mattered."

"How many houses did you just walk into and start climbing the walls?" Toru dared to ask, turning more fully to face her.

"Enough that you could not count them on two hands efficiently," Myriu answered lightly.

Toru facepalmed and groaned. "I should've stuck around you more to help raise you. Climbing around other people's homes isn't okay."

She tilted her head at him and frowned, not sure what he meant. "How so?"

"I'm going to go talk to someone," Toru suddenly answered, avoiding her question temporarily as he stood up. "I need you to stay here and not mess with everything while I'm gone, okay?"

"I promise nothing of the sort to you," Myriu answered. "You would not have listened to mother had she said such a thing."

This soured Toru's mood lightly, though he understood that it hadn't been her intention. "Please… don't compare me to her. I actually care about what's going on, and her opinions were usually far from respectable."

Myriu shrugged lightly. "I won't break anything," she answered as a compromise.

"That's good enough for me, I guess," Toru muttered, already teleporting out of the house. As he was leaving, he fully realized that he had no idea where this Marthal person was and resorted to the communicator he'd been given. It didn't take him long to figure out exactly how to track the other communicators and break off in a sprint to Tails's home.

As it happened, Sonic was sitting up on the roof of the house and saw Toru coming. Ears perked in a mixture of mild surprise and open confusion, he questioned, "Toru? What're you doing here?"

"I'm looking for someone. Their name is Marthal. You know them?" Toru asked.

"Uh, yeah. We all know him." Lifting a hand, Sonic pointed off into the trees. "He's out there, up in a tree. Look for fiery orange fur. You can't miss him." After a slight pause, he added, "Oh, and by the way, he's got hearing aids with him but not be wearing them since he's just relaxing. He's mostly deaf, so he may not react to you initially. Fair warning."

Toru nodded to this and broke off into another sprint, searching the area to find Marthal. The yokai wasn't too far off, but far enough away to be out of even Sonic's hearing range. As the hedgehog had stated, Marthal was reclined in a tree, apparently dozing. However, he caught a whiff of Toru's scent almost instantly and cracked an eye open, nose twitching. Seeing the chameleon headed his way, he stretched and sat up before quietly saying, "Guessing you need something. No reason to approach a stranger otherwise."

"Little bit," Toru answered, climbing up a tree to be on eye level with the other male.

Marthal took a second to sift through the various scents clinging to Toru's person before saying, "You've been hanging around with Shadow, huh? Didn't think he had such close friends." He stretched again. "...Guess I'm glad to be proven wrong, though. His old man's my friend, so his kids doing well is good in my eyes." It seemed like something random to say, but this attempt at minor small talk had a purpose. It helped to simmer-Kath hn his instincts a little bit, as yokai were notoriously suspicious of strangers. He knew chameleons could be the same way, so if this particular chameleon was feeling that way then maybe it would also help him.

Toru shrugged a bit, smiling. "Glad to hear it, and yeah. Me and him got fairly close recently." That's a bit of an understatement, but eh. Who cares?

"Good. Guy's needed friends for… eh, pretty much forever." Marthal shifted his tail to one side and then resituated so that he was sitting cross-legged on his branch. "Anyway… what brings you here? I doubt you'd approach some random yokai for shits and giggles, considering how dangerous that could potentially be."

"It's a possibility, I won't deny that," Toru answered easily before sighing. "So… this woman by the name of Rose told me I could talk to you to get… 'acquainted' with people that you know."

Blue eyes blinked a couple of times, then shrugged. "If you want to know about everyone, I can tell you, sure. I'm going to hazard a guess that you know at least Sonic and Tails, though, since you know Shadow and came to Tails's place. But I can tell you things about them regardless, if you want." He leaned back against the tree's trunk. Not sure why she directed you to me, though… pretty sure Tails could have described everyone just fine on his own. Or even Sonic, for that matter. They know everyone in this group.

Toru nodded. "I'd appreciate it, all things considered. I've barely seen a few of them, and knowing what they're like would be good knowledge to have."

"Alright, who exactly do you want to know about?" Marthal inquired.

"Sonic would be a good starting point, I suppose."

"Right… so what sort of information are you after? Is it history, personality, something else?"

Toru shrugged. "I'm not sure, honestly. I just want to get to know what kind of person he is, I suppose."

"Well… he's a good person. I know everyone typically says that about everyone else, but in this case that statement is justified." Marthal sighed and closed his eyes. "Kid's got a lot of heart. He may not always know what to do or how to do it, but he always knows what he's striving for. He's spent the entirety of his life seeking out peace for this world and all those residing on it. He's fought for that peace for so many years that I genuinely don't think he knows how to live any other way. No one's perfect, I'm not trying to say that he somehow is, but all in all… Sonic is truly someone who is good. And that's really all that matters."

The chameleon nodded slowly to this, crossing his arms lightly. "And what about Tails?"

At this, Marthal smiled a bit. "He's definitely a more simple person, I suppose you could say, but not in any sort of negative way. He's kind to all who deserve it, uses that powerful brain of his to try to make life better for others, doesn't shy away from the idea of helping to fight even when he knows he and everyone else might be killed off in a heartbeat… The dude is truly courageous, that much I can say for certain."

"A good bit of that I could see just by talking to him," Toru said honestly. "I find him and that girl following him around to be really interesting."

"'Interesting'," Marthal snorted, half-amused and half-annoyed. "Her emotions fluctuate so much sometimes that it gives me a migraine. Hence me being out here."

Toru smiled. "She's pretty passionate about what she does, though. I'll give her that."

"Yeah, definitely deserving of having been born a fox. That sort of trait suits their people well. Always has." Marthal was quiet for a moment, then asked, "Who else did you want to know about?"

"So… there's Silver. I've met him, but I don't know too much about him yet."

"Right. So, in case you didn't know, he's Sonic's kid. Sonic is Shadow's half-brother, so Silver is Shadow's half-nephew or something weird like that." With that out of the way, Marthal quickly moved on. "Anyway, he and Tails are best buds from what I remember. They've got a lot of similarities in their personalities, so it's understandable. Silver is more goofy, less wary of potentially-but-not-actually suspicious people, and so on. He can be a real big kid sometimes, but he's a lot more intelligent and insightful than he lets on most of the time. He's also got mental abilities far beyond anything else I have ever seen before, though I've never once seen him go all out. Beyond that… I guess all you really need to know is that he's just like his dad."

"That's… good to know," Toru said. "I've got a few questions about Shadow as well."

"Shoot," Marthal invited easily. "I'll answer them as best as I can."

"What was Shadow like when he was younger?" Toru questioned.

The cat hummed softly before saying, "Shadow was really… aloof toward everyone for a long time. He barely spoke to anyone, made no effort to interact or befriend, was quick to anger, had no qualms about picking verbal fights with people who spoke to him… All in all, he had a very difficult time acclimating to being around everyone and getting along with them. At least, this is what I've heard. I only met him later on, so I didn't personally see it at the start. But even when I finally joined the group, he was still like that. Just maybe a bit less than before."

Toru took a moment to take this information in, nodding slowly. "Do you know what's happened to him in his past relationship?"

In response to that, Marthal lifted up two fingers. "Relationships," he corrected. "There were two, but I'm not surprised that he hasn't mentioned the second one at all. As far as the first one goes… obviously, I wasn't there. I could only piece together so much. But from what I gathered back then, there was a lot of bickering and arguing in that relationship. There was also a lot of pressure coming from Mari, the girl he was somewhat dating at the time, and things apparently went way too fast for his liking. Beyond that, the only significant detail is that she left him with a baby and they never saw each other or spoke again. I don't know anything else." A flicker of agitation appeared on Toru's face and left as quickly as it had come, as if it were never there. He closed his eyes and thought this over before nodding slowly. "That's awful."

There was a lengthy pause before Marthal continued. "The second one I only learned about because he eventually caved and told Espio after the dude badgered him for close to two years to talk about whatever the hell had happened. Since he was worried, it was clearly no small issue. And, given that and the fact that I tend to understand people's mind fairly alright, Espio eventually told me so that I could help. I did what I could, but I'm pretty sure Shadow just resorted to blocking it all out." Another long pause. Then he sighed. "Anyway… point being, it's bad. I'll spare you further details beyond this if you don't want to get into the nitty-gritty."

"Maybe, for the time being, it's better if I don't," Toru murmured softly. "It'll give me more questions than it'll answer, I'm sure." With this said, though, he couldn't bring himself to really believe that. Maybe this was more of an attempt to keep himself from somehow upsetting Shadow?

With a small nod, Marthal tactfully shifted the conversation away from this matter. "Did you have any other questions, then?"

Toru shook his head. "Not really. That's all I really needed to know."

Marthal took this as his cue to lay back down, tail arcing lazily from one side of his body to the other. "Alright. Well, if you want, you can come back another time for anything else you think of. Not like I'm busy."

"I'll keep it in mind," Toru answered easily, smiling faintly.

The cat closed his eyes, but didn't go to sleep. Instead, he frowned. "One last thing, though… something to keep in mind. Shadow wasn't built to feel much of anything. Anger and hatred, perhaps, but that's it. I don't know how it's possible, but he broke through that programming at a young age. It's why he has a more proper and full range of emotions now. But he still just isn't programmed to handle stress, post-traumatic stress, nervousness, anything like that. So topics like these, the matter of dating… they'll be hard on him. Maybe less so with the right person, maybe significantly less so, but some struggles will be there. However… he isn't fragile. You don't need to walk on eggshells. He won't break if you take risks and push things here and there. And it seems to me… that he trusts you. Don't take that lightly. That's another emotion he was never supposed to be capable of feeling."

Toru sighed audibly. "Is it that fucking obvious?"

"Mm, to some people, I suppose," Marthal answered. "I suppose it's easier for me than most, and not because of the reasons you think. For me, it's about the scents clinging to you. You've obviously been hanging around him pretty constantly for a while now. He doesn't let just anyone stay near him 'round the clock. In case you haven't noticed, he's quite fond of personal space usually."

"You and that other damn cat," Toru murmured. "Is it a cat thing to just know things that you're not supposed to?"

"Not particularly… but I'm also not just a cat, mind you," Marthal answered, a faint smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth.

Toru grinned faintly. "I know your kind. Yokai in the Highlands have a kind of unspoken truce with chameleons, so I've got pretty good impressions."

"Good to know," Marthal chuckled.

"Anyway, I'm gonna head out now. Thanks for telling me what you could," Toru said. "Means a lot."

"No problem," was the calm reply.

Toru leapt out of the tree and began walking, intent on taking some time to himself to think over this information he'd been given. The fact that Shadow had been through two different relationships that had both gone awry was… hard enough to think about. On top of that, he was also in a situation where he had to feel things he was never meant to feel. It bothered Toru to no end, and it showed in his features as he tried to sort it all out. Now I wish we'd met so much sooner…

~保護者~

Deep within the most energetic recesses of the Realm of Chaos, a plan was unfolding. Lady Teyan, the Queen of Chaos, sat hovering across from Lady Eona, the Firstborn of Light. They had spent plenty of time by now aiding the Faein in the pair's bold plan of containment and now, a little over two weeks in, they were well-rested enough to focus on their own goals. Namely, combining their powers to revive people, just as Sonic and Rose together had tried to do. Teyan herself was the first to speak up after close to an hour of carefully manipulating their energies to join together in the space separating her from Eona.

"Althea's successor, Locke… his son should be revived. It'd be good for him."

"I agree. And I believe it will aid your young prodigy as well. The two of them were often closer than they let on."

"Indeed, they were."

Silence followed, but it was not to last. Eona's gentle voice picked up the dropped thread of conversation as if neither of them had stopped speaking at all. "We agree that Knuckles must return, then. What of his wife, Rouge? It is true that she does not have many powers, and that puts her in more danger than others. However, the same can be said of him."

"You're right about that," Teyan nodded. "She's like him in another way, though. A more important way."

"She is strong… I know. Her skills in regards to stealth and thievery may one day also be of use." Eona canted her head a little before adding, "Also… it is possible that she may one day act as a friend to my wayward kin. That would do young Eila much good."

Teyan inclined her head. "It's decided, then. Those two need to come back. I think we should revive Storm, too. He may not have had powers of his own aside from the normal Babylonian Rogue skills, but that magic staff he wielded in his old age… only he could handle it for some reason or another. That sucker set off a volcanic eruption one time, believe it or not." She paused, then thought to clarify, "Erm, not the one that killed him, however."

Eona blinked slowly. "If he does not have powers, how was he able to wield a magical artifact?"

"No idea, but whoever it used to belong to clearly allowed him," Teyan shrugged. "Point being, though, I think he could come in handy. Him and his fancy staff."

"Very well," the being of Light agreed amicably. "What, then, shall we do about young Cream? By your telling, she has already been revived, yes?"

"Yeah, she has. And Faein seem to have set limitations on revivals of this nature since… damn-near an eternity ago. My sister believes each person can only be revived twice or three times, total." Teyan took in a breath and let it out in a sigh. "For Cream, that's really not the issue. My concern is the trauma surrounding her death. She may not want to be revived after having her life ended the way it was."

"That may be so. However, is it not also true that her strength is required?" Eona questioned evenly. "She is strong in many ways. Without her powers and her support, the heroes may struggle significantly more than they would if she was with them."

Teyan gave that some thought. "I suppose it would be good for Espio as well. Based on what I've observed regarding him and his family, he has taken her death harder than he cares to let on. His mother also seemed quite sad."

Eona murmured an agreement of some kind. "For that same reason, I am tempted to suggest we bring back Espio's other friend, Vector."

"Why just be tempted?" the Queen of Chaos asked, shrugging. "We can do it. The only person I can't argue for reviving is Charmy. Vector at least has strength, but Charmy has nothing overall. He can fly with his wings, but that's all. He would be a true sitting duck. Everyone else has something that can help them survive. He never liked conflict, doesn't have any weapons… I have nothing against people living normal lives, it just doesn't help him here."

"You are correct. I believe that he would understand." Eona closed her eyes, focusing her energies. "Shall we begin, then?"

"Yeah, we may as well." Closing her eyes as well, Teyan began to concentrate. There was work to do.

~保護者~

6,604 words this time. Apologies for the long delay, folks. We're working out kinks in our separate schedules and writing when we can. Thanks for your patience. Many thanks as always to Blazing Winds for all of his help and support.