Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim all rights to all characters (save for those of my own creation) in this tense time… especially for the one who's full of rage.

~保護者~

"Vanish"

~保護者~

Shadow awoke abruptly to a sharp stab of pain in his lower back. Instincts hit him hard, guiding him through how he needed to breathe to cope with this. He was helpless to resist them. They were too raw, too powerful, too sure. But once the pain passed he was freed from their grip. Son of a bitch, he mentally griped, pushing himself up. It wasn't often since his early teen years that he'd used many curse words beyond "damn", "hell", or "fuck" (largely due to the presence of children in his life after that point), but that short-lived pain had been more than enough to make his old vocabulary show itself again.

He didn't really dwell on it. Looking around, he saw that Toru was no longer in the bed with him. His ears were quick to explain Toru's absence, as the sound of the shower was impossible to miss. That was a reasonable enough place for a chameleon to be, he supposed. From earlier conversations with Toru, Shadow had learned that chameleons loved the water and also a bit of why that was the case. Wanting to be within the element one loved so much was something he knew to be normal (for one thing, he'd never seen Kaden anything but at ease around flames), so he didn't give the matter too much thought overall.

The next sense he found himself paying attention to was his nose. It told him immediately that, for some reason, Toru had been at his desk earlier and touched the drawer where he kept his seldom-used journal. He sighed to himself. He'd always known giving into Tails's insistence to try writing as a coping mechanism like Kaden once had would find a way to bite him in the ass one day. Everything on those pages consisted of venting and dark thoughts and whatever else that he would never say aloud but wanted to get out somehow. There was no telling what Toru had seen. While he wasn't angry about it, he wasn't looking forward to anything the man might say or ask regarding the secrets those pages kept.

As he moved (slowly, just in case) to get out of the bed, his nose told him something else. He'd instinctively known what demon blood smelled like when he had picked up on the scent clinging to Toru a while back, and it seemed that that same instinct knew the identity of other sources of blood as well. There was almost no trace of it left by now thanks to the water and soap, but Shadow detected a faint hint of blood coming from Toru's direction. Babylonian? He frowned to himself. What the hell happened? How did I not notice?

For now, he decided not to worry about it too much. He stood fully and left the room to check on Lia and Soren. That swiftly evolved into making the two of them some food and indulging them in their chatter about various things. Soren talked about the game he'd been playing. Meanwhile, Lia talked about how Myriu had played with her recently and they had explored a cave under the bed with a "scary but actually nice" (as she'd put it) monster.

Once they finished eating, Lia decided she wanted to watch a show in the living room. Shadow set her up on the couch with a drink, a blanket, a pillow, a remote, and a brief explanation of the few channels he was willing to let her watch right now. After that, he let Soren show him some things, as earlier promised at the table, in the aforementioned game. Soren then went to his room again and Shadow ultimately did the same.

He sat down on his bed, laying on his side with his eyes closed. While he hadn't done much, he was fucking tired again already. It was irritating, but he swiftly resigned himself to the reality he was facing for now. However, he didn't fully go back to sleep. Toru had taken a long shower, but he had a feeling his boyfriend (god, that was such a strange term to use, even just in his head) would be out before too much longer. As such, he tried not to let himself do anything more than lightly doze.

In due time, the chameleon did leave the shower. He was soon fully ready and returned to the bed with a casual sigh of relief. "So, you're awake, eh? I didn't wake you up, did I?"

Crimson eyes opened drowsily. It took a few seconds for Toru's words to register, but once they did he rolled over to face the chameleon. "No, you didn't," he answered. He chose not to mention the pain for two reasons. One, Toru already knew he'd been having pain earlier, so bringing it up a second time felt pointless. Two, it was over and done with for now, anyway. As such, he focused on other matters. "You smelled of blood earlier," he said quietly. "Babylonian blood. Why?"

"Eh, some Babylonian vampire showed up and I ended up fighting them," Toru explained shamelessly. "Somehow I feel a lot better after all of that."

Shadow leveled Toru with a look of blatant disapproval. "Ghune will kill you if you did that person any substantial harm."

"They healed as well as I do… but maybe a bit slower," Toru said, thinking back to the fight. "They were tough as hell, though. Didn't flinch at any pain."

That does not justify anything. "Regardless, it was a stupid thing to do, Toru."

"Would it help that they baited me into it?" Toru questioned after a moment. Unable to decide if Toru was joking (as he often was) or if he was being entirely serious, Shadow waited for Toru to explain further. Toru didn't explain himself any more than he had, simply looking to Shadow to see what his response was.

"Explain," Shadow sighed, having now decided that this was, in fact, an instance where Toru was being truthful.

"Oh, well," Toru replied, "she just goaded me into it. Something about helping me or whatever. Ended up venting a lot during it. Suppose she got what she wanted."

There didn't seem to be too much else that Toru was willing to tell about the event in question, so Shadow let the matter drop for now. "Ah," he murmured noncommittally.

"She's fine, and so am I," Toru decided to add. "Before she left, her injuries had already healed, and obviously you can tell mine have as well." Shadow nodded in confirmation of this. The chameleon was quiet for some time before finally deciding to ask his own question. "Okay, so, hear me out here. Why the hell would something float across the room and just randomly fall on me?"

Shadow's answering frown was more confused than upset. "Did you sense someone using their powers?" he asked.

"I don't think so?" Toru answered.

"If there were no powers at play, then that only leaves a spirit," Shadow answered. "Satsuno has mentioned them being in the house, and there is no technology within the building that would make things float." He chose not to mention that he could sometimes see those same spirits, if only because it was entirely irrelevant here. It wasn't like he'd seen this one.

Toru let out a sigh. "It dropped your journal on me," he decided to reveal. "And I might have read the last two entries."

Hearing this caused Shadow's expression to flit between several subtle options before settling on a mixture of resignation and some degree of annoyance. So he did read it, then. Damn. "Ah," he said again, though the word was more mumbled this time. He strongly suspected that he knew where this conversation was headed, and he wasn't looking forward to it.

"I assume you don't want to talk about it, then," Toru replied, "even though I think we should."

"Just say whatever you intended to say," Shadow replied, almost sighing. Getting out of this for the short-term would only wind up being a delay and he knew it. Dragging out discomfort was almost never something he deliberately did in his life. Getting it over with as quickly as possible was far more preferable.

Toru shrugged. "Fair. One thing that bothers me is how…" The chameleon hesitated for a moment, then decided the only easy way to refer to the madman was by his name. "How Gerald raised you. How he taught you to think and behave."

Now, though he'd given Toru permission to speak here, Shadow hadn't anticipated the chameleon using Gerald's name. He was unprepared for it, as well as for the stab of old fear that hit him in that moment. In the seconds that followed, he had to force himself to release his breath (why had he held it in?) and focus solely on Toru rather than that accursed name. However, he didn't speak, just waited for Toru to continue. There seemed to be a larger point that Toru intended to get at here. Just listen to him, he told himself. Ignore everything else. Focus on him.

Realizing shortly that Shadow was waiting for him to continue, Toru resumed speaking. "To be straightforward, you're not a weapon. You're a person. You don't have to act in a way that anyone wants you to, no matter who or what they are. I fell in love with you, and I know for damn certain you're not a lifeless weapon."

Various negative potential replies vied for Shadow's attention in that moment, but he forced himself to continue doing what he had been doing before. In paying attention solely to Toru, he found himself able to reply to the other man's assertions in a way he hadn't actually done before. Namely, by agreeing. At least to some extent. "...I know."

"Adding to that, yelling and screaming is something that is not okay," Toru continued, not missing a beat. "I still feel bad for raising my voice at all, because it's not something I should have ever done. Anyone that communicates solely by raising their voice doesn't deserve to communicate with you."

"It isn't something I ever expected you to do," Shadow admitted slowly, "but I'm not… upset at you. We were both under stress at the time, and you didn't know."

"I should've taken a second to relax myself so it didn't happen," Toru replied easily. "Even if you aren't upset with me, I should be cautious about how I respond to anyone." Shadow considered this statement and, after a short pause, murmured something in acknowledgement. The chameleon thought to himself for a moment before speaking up again. "Something else you mentioned… about speaking and thinking like he does about the Black Arms? What's happening there?"

Shadow had to really think that over in order to come up with any sort of reply. "...Emulating him was something I tried hard to do as a child in order to get by," he eventually said. "It was along the lines of how he wanted me to be, anyway, so it was encouraged. Being cruel and the like, that is. Maria did her best to undo those behaviors… I think… but there are still times when I catch myself falling back into them in small ways. Never frequently, but… frequently enough."

"It's okay that something like that happens, because you're aware of it and trying to get better," Toru explained, a soft frown appearing on his face. "The fact that you recognize it means you can still work on undoing it." Shadow nodded a little, if only because he wasn't sure how else to respond. Not wanting to drag that topic on for too long, Toru moved on to something else. "On the Black Arms, I want you to know that while I may not exactly know how to feel about them, I realize that they're… more than just the one that decided to hit me."

"I was under the impression that you disliked them all," Shadow said, almost sighing as he shifted his gaze away. "Perhaps even hated them to some degree."

"I did," Toru admitted after a long moment. "But that was just because I got exposed to one I didn't like. Meeting Black Doom, I realized that they can be… a lot more. Different, definitely, but they're not just mindless or stupid beasts."

Hesitation wasn't something Shadow was known for, but he displayed some here before carefully asking, "You thought they were before?"

"Yep," Toru hesitantly agreed. "It was… pretty much just generalization, really." Shadow nodded slowly, thinking. It took a surprisingly short amount of time for him to shake whatever mood had hit him, which in turn led to him mentally moving on from the matter. Toru had, after all, genuinely changed his mind from what Shadow was seeing and hearing, and he was being honest about what he'd thought before. That was what mattered.

There was one more thing that was on Toru's mind, but he wasn't sure how to broach it. He couldn't think of one good way to go about it, especially since it was already a somewhat touchy subject to begin with. Ultimately, though, he decided it was best to just get right into it. "We need to talk about your feeding."

Hearing that really did make Shadow sigh this time. "What about it?" he asked.

"You asked about my reaction to you feeding the last time," Toru said slowly. "And, well… I didn't really explain anything or help the situation."

"No, you didn't," Shadow agreed with a huff. He looked at Toru again at that point.

"I don't know how to feel, with people seeming to be of the opinion that feeding on me is dangerous," Toru explained. "With everything that's been happening as of late, I'm just finding it a lot harder to be as confident, and it was getting to me."

"Then stop trying to force it," Shadow responded immediately with a small scowl. "I have been saying from the beginning that I don't want to feed to begin with. It has only happened when you or Ghune have forced me to."

"But you have to feed at some point," Toru replied. "And if anyone is going to be on the other side of your fangs, I'd rather it be me as opposed to someone that it'll freak out."

"You are freaked out, Toru," Shadow pointed out, annoyed. "I'm not going to continue doing something that bothers you that badly."

"I'm freaked out because everyone else is saying that some other plan has to be made," Toru explained. "You're becoming an Immortal or something, and we don't really know if my body can properly recover from any wounds that you'd inflict." The chameleon paused for a moment, then felt at his neck. Sure enough, the wounds were healed still. "Hey, remember that licking thing I said you did when you feed?" Shadow inclined his head slowly. Toru held out his arm. "Bite me."

Shadow gave him an incredulous look. He had never consciously bitten anyone before, and he sure as hell wasn't okay with the idea of doing it to Toru. "I'm not biting you."

"Look, I need to see if you licking it is doing something. A wound from an Immortal shouldn't heal on its own, right?" Toru questioned.

"No, it wouldn't," Shadow reluctantly agreed. He shifted to sit up just a little so that he could properly angle his head, but not without throwing a small insult Toru's way just for good measure at the same time. Determined to just get this done and over with, he gave his boyfriend's wrist a quick bite - one instinctively aimed at a vein. Sure enough, the wound didn't stop bleeding on its own. Yet when he (reluctantly) gave it a quick lick, the bleeding instantly ceased.

However, he was distracted from that knowledge by the small amount of blood in his mouth. He expected to be either repulsed or at least apathetic toward it, but that didn't happen. In fact, it was quite the opposite. The same went for the act of biting itself. Eila's notes had mentioned that vampires experienced strong pleasure in both biting and tasting blood, but he hadn't believed it before now. Fuck me, he internally groaned, laying back down. After that, he turned his attention back to Toru again.

The chameleon looked at the wound for a moment before shrugging. "Something about you licking it helps. I'm not sure what, but it seems to work well enough."

"It makes no sense," Shadow groused, though it was pointless and he knew it. It wasn't like Toru had any better answers to give, nor did he expect any from him.

"If this is the case, though, I think it'll be safe for you to feed," Toru pointed out. "Since there isn't a risk of me dying of blood loss or something like that afterward."

In the end, Shadow conceded the point with a huff and a nod. When Toru seemed to have nothing left to say or ask him about and silence settled between them, Shadow changed the subject. His only real purpose in doing so was giving the chameleon some minor shit, and he didn't bother to hide that fact. "Why did you take such a long shower? Just in the time that I've been awake, you took nearly an hour." That wasn't even counting however long the man had been in there prior to Shadow waking up, either, which only added to his point.

Toru shrugged a little in response, letting out a soft chuckle as he so often did. "That vampiric sense of smell apparently told that woman that I smelled awful. Figured a nice, long shower to destress would help out."

Shadow almost huffed at him again, but refrained. Toru did have a point, after all. He had no more false gripes to voice, so he changed the subject. "Lia was asking about you," he said. "She wants you to play with her today. It's some sort of game she and Myriu were apparently playing. Something about exploring a cave with a 'friendly monster' in it."

The chameleon blinked at this. "I… didn't expect that Myriu would ever get involved in something like that." His surprise was evident, and he could hardly be faulted for it.

"Neither did I," Shadow agreed.

"Well, in any case, I'm glad to hear it," Toru said, though he remained quietly surprised and confused. "Her interacting with anyone even remotely her age is good." Shadow nodded a little.

Whether or not either of them had anything more to say, their conversation was abruptly cut short. Now for the second time since Gerald's revival, in a "blink and you'll miss it" event, energy gathered and made Shadow completely vanish. Toru noticed this rather quickly and pinched the bridge of his nose. Fucking hell. The chameleon pushed himself off the bed and teleported directly to Tails's workshop. "Shadow was taken again." He explained, not giving either of the foxes a chance to speak. "Find out where he is so I can go commit violent murder."

Wery looked over, bewildered. "I- what? What's going on?" His gaze trained on her and she coughed a little, moving to track Shadow's communicator. There was something unsettling about the look in the chameleon's eyes, and it wasn't something she wanted to push her luck with.

The reaction Toru got from Tails was about the same as Wery's. He was quick to set to work as well, a nervous chill running down his spine. He's furious, he deduced. That was best left unsaid and unacknowledged, however. "Um… Uh, here. It- It looks like it's…" Tails reread the data on his screen, then subtly gulped. "...Back where we guessed the ARK to be." Again. Because of course that's where they took him.

"Get Steam," Toru all but demanded. "I'm going to find Ghune. She will help."

Ignoring the fact that he had no idea who Ghune was, Tails was fast to say, "We… can't. We have no idea where Steam is right now."

The chameleon frowned a bit. "Can't you track his communicator like you did with Shadow's?"

"Though he can communicate with us and such, we can't track it," Wery explained. "The technology in his communicator doesn't exist yet in our timeline. He might be able to track us, but we can't do the same back."

"Then I'll find him myself," Toru stated simply.

"Okay, just… be careful," Tails sighed. "One of us will contact you if Shadow's location changes." Toru didn't reply beyond this, simply teleporting away to go do as he'd said he would.

Only after a few seconds had passed did Wery speak up, letting out a massive sigh of relief. "That was terrifying," she breathed.

"A little," Tails agreed, letting a nervous laugh.

Wery leaned back in her chair, taking a breath. "If they took Shadow again, we might be in for some issues here soon…"

"Which kind are you thinking of, specifically?" Tails asked her. "I can think of a whole host of them, myself."

"Who knows?" Wery said, giving a weak shrug. "We saw how bad off he was before."

"If Toru can get to him before Gerald has a chance to actually hurt him, then my hope is that things won't be too bad," Tails said. "We know where Toru needs to go right off the bat this time, and more importantly Toru knows. With any luck, he can get there much, much faster than the last time."

"I hope so…" Wery murmured. "I didn't like doing all that work on Shadow. It was good to help him, but having to try and undo all of the stuff he was dealing with? It sucked to see, and I can only imagine what it put him through."

"Yeah… And none of that even takes into consideration the memories he's had to live with since then, even if he wound up suppressing most of them like I suspect." Tails sighed to himself. "I haven't heard anything from either of them about his nightmares getting any worse than usual, but his eating sure has gotten worse. I nearly had him eating normally again before all of this stuff started." And before the fresh incident with Zero… but at least that one is over with finally. For good this time, if his brain scans are anything to go by.

"We'll have to handle whatever comes when we can," Wery pointed out. "There's no better option, but here's to hoping that Toru acting so fast can help."

"I'd drink to that… you know, if I drank," Tails replied, sighing again. "But, in all seriousness, I agree with you. Let's try to hope for the best."

Wery nodded a little. "I will, for sure." Giving her a weak smile, Tails turned around in his chair to get back to work on his latest project. It took a few moments, but Wery apprehensively returned to her own project. She didn't like any of this, not one bit… but she was here to help.

~保護者~

I have some of the most important people on board, specifically Jet, Wave, and Sonic. Steam took a moment and pressed the back of his head against a tree, letting out a slow exhale. There are people that just can't go, and there's people that simply have to go… but are people really gonna go with me on such a farfetched plan, even with the support of some of our most trusted leaders?

He wasn't sure, and anxiety ate away at his nerves. It was one thing to invade the demonic realms and worlds to take someone back, but this was a whole new beast. Conducting a raid against Nareish's realm? Absolute insanity. But… they couldn't keep sitting idly by while Nareish kept getting her way. He couldn't stand for that, not when the wellbeing of his friends was on the line.

That line of thought was enough to get him to his feet, swallowing down the nerves he was fighting while almost subconsciously typing out a message to Tara. "About to prepare for my plan. Love you." For once, he didn't wait to see if he'd get a reply, teleporting himself away. He'd already been on New Babylon, a home away from home. Part of him always loved it here, but the rest preferred Mobius. It was a matter of preference and nothing more, but it was still rather comfortable amongst the Babylonians.

He walked through the palace in search of Alana, Sein, and Kath. Ultimately, two of the three weren't hard to find. Alana was with her parents and recently revived grandfather in a sitting room on the top floor, quietly talking with them. Sein, however, was a touch more difficult to find, but Steam soon deduced his location and that he was asleep. Rather than bother the man, he teleported up to the top floor and walked to the sitting room, knocking on the door.

It wound up being Laralei who answered him. Despite having no idea who he was, she gestured for him to enter and returned to her previous seat on one of the couches. "Was there something you needed?" Alana, Kath, and T'alo looked over, pausing in their conversation.

Steam paused briefly at the sight of Laralei, instinctively giving a short (but respectful) bow before going to sit as she'd motioned for him to. "I uh, needed to speak to Kath, Alana, and Sein," he explained vaguely.

"What about?" Alana asked him when, predictably, her father didn't speak up.

It took a second for Steam to tear his attention away from Laralei, looking over at Alana. "I need help from all three of you. I have a plan that's dangerous… but I know it will work." As was standard for them, Kath and Alana just waited for him to continue and actually explain what was happening. The hedgehog almost didn't notice, blinking in confusion before he spoke suddenly. "I'm planning to raid Nareish's realm and take out some of her forces."

Immediately, Steam was treated with Kath's patented "you're an idiot" face, but Alana again spoke before he did. "That is a fool's errand," she told Steam bluntly. "The moment we set foot there, we will all die."

Steam's most immediate answer was a quick, "Nope." After about a second, he realized his blunder and continued speaking before further questions came. "Me, Jet, and Wave all agreed to work together to hold off Nareish. I'm going to be granted enough Privilege to fight alongside them while people are able to take on those under her."

"Privilege from who?" Kath finally asked, mindful of Alana's incredulous expression. Laralei and T'alo traded silent glances and she subtly shrugged.

"The Jet of my timeline," Steam answered.

Alana took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I don't want my Jet to be sent into this," she murmured. "Too much has been put on him already. He is burdened with far too much and it is doing him nothing but ill."

"I know," Steam explained, "but the longer Nareish gets to play her games, the longer we're sitting here and wasting time trying to recover from her various exploits. I don't think we can risk letting this continue much longer, and I know for a fact that she's not going to expect this."

"Jet may not be able to help you," Laralei suddenly told him. "Sein was corrupted recently. I don't know the full details about it or how he was saved, but from what he told me after the fact he was forced to say things to Jet that would further push him into working with something called 'the Void'. He may not be in the condition to give you any aid."

Steam paused and his eyes widened. "Wait, what?" he quietly demanded. "Is Sein okay?" The hedgehog asked immediately, concern in his eyes.

"He is and he isn't," Alana sighed. "He's managing to smile and have a little fun again, but… As you can imagine, he hasn't been taking any of this well."

"Shit," Steam muttered to himself, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I have to find out what Jet's current state is. There's a chance that I can't turn back on the plan now."

"Father, is…" Alana trailed off. Kath blinked, and then his eyes were full of the light of distant stars. She gave him a moment before finishing her question. "Is he even home?"

Kath shook his head. Another blink, and his eyes were back to normal, though now he was trying to rub the blurriness out of them. "No, he isn't. I only glanced about the immediate area in search of him, and I saw no one."

I'm gonna need to find him… Steam thought this through before shaking his head. Horrible idea. The Void might just erase me from existence. Eventually, Steam put his face in his hands and let out a deep sigh. "I've gotta figure out what he's going to do. If he's there, it's a suicide mission, and I can't ask anyone to dedicate themselves to that."

"There is no way to determine that without approaching him," Kath pointed out blandly. "That also would be a suicide mission if he truly is in that bad of a state."

Which means I'm literally facing a life or death problem here. Risk it all and see if this insane plan can continue, or bail and hope the Void's influence doesn't drag Jet too close to Nareish… Steam thought quietly before looking up to Alana. "Do you think there's even a chance that I don't get wiped out of existence immediately?"

"I'm not sure," Alana admitted. "I haven't seen for myself what his condition is. I had hoped to try to find him and see once Sein woke up, since with both of us together he might… regain some amount of control, I suppose." She was quiet for a few seconds, then continued. "It's difficult to say, Steam. But, unless I'm mistaken, he must trust you quite a lot for him to have gone to face the fires at Li's forge with you. Perhaps that trust will manage to reveal itself again here and help prevent him from lashing out."

Steam nodded a little, biting at his lip painfully. Relax. Being stressed will make it worse. "In that case… I gotta go find him." The hedgehog stood, tapping on his communicator and initiating a search for Jet's. It was, unfortunately, still on A'latria.

Alana watched him only briefly before saying, "Wave and the Aether may be of use here. The Aether is the Void's opposite, is it not?"

"...Jet attacked Wave," Steam explained slowly. "Not… in a way that threatened her life, but enough to make it hurt."

Though her eyes became even more troubled than they already had been, Alana pressed on. "I only meant that they may be able to sense where he and the Void are."

"Oh- Right," Steam nodded and typed a message to Wave. "Hey, can the Aether sense where the Void is currently? If so, I need to know."

After close to a solid minute, Wave texted back little more than some simple coordinates. Shortly thereafter, she followed them up with some words. "Just be careful, alright? I might have… done a stupid thing and approached him again. I know, I know, it was beyond dumb and I could have died and all that. Spare me the lecture this once and I swear I won't repeat my mistake twice. But… the Aether and I might have made some headway this time. He actually tolerated our presence for a few minutes and he seemed a tiny bit calmer just before the Void itself forced us to bail. You might be able to further reach him if you're careful."

Steam frowned at this. "I understand. I can't say much. I would've done the same, but please tell me about this sort of stuff sooner, okay?"

"I will," was the brief reply.

The hedgehog didn't see it necessary to reply to that for the time being, closing his eyes and taking a long, deep breath. He let it out and stood. "I've gotta get going. The sooner I get to Jet, the better off we might be."

Trading looks with her parents, Alana also stood. "I'm going with you."

Steam paused for a second and shook his head. "If this goes south, I'd rather you be around still," he murmured.

"I am his mother," Alana argued quietly. "I'm going."

That wasn't an argument that Steam could make a point against, offering his hand out to her. "Alright, but stay close to me. If things get too dicey, we have to leave." Alana took the hand with a simple nod. As soon as they made contact, Steam teleported them both near to the coordinates Wave had sent him, hoping to not get too close to Jet and the Void immediately.

The pair appeared in a safe enough spot, it seemed. Jet and the Void weren't immediately in sight, but their collective presence could be felt with ease. They were near, though not too near, to the very edges of Nareish's realm. Dead pyrzar beasts littered the ground on the shattered remains of some planet that suffered its demise in ancient times. While the Void was being allowed to freely run rampant and kill anything it found, Jet appeared to have taken up residence somewhere on his own. His aura wasn't moving around like the Void's was, instead being stationary and even somewhat… calm.

Steam slowly approached Jet's location with Alana by his side, keeping his presence and aura plainly visible to the hawk while trying to avoid notice of the Void. I've got one good chance here. If this is fucked up, it'll be bad for a while.

Before long, Jet came into view. Though no doubt aware of their presence, he wasn't immediately looking at them. His gaze followed the steadily growing path of destruction the Void was leaving behind. Meanwhile, he was sat on the remains of some crumbling wall with arms crossed and one leg crossed over another. For the moment, his eyes were mostly blue, but when he finally looked at them it was clear that they still had a faint purple tint to them.

Steam decided to speak, coming near to the wall but never fully approaching the hawk. His gaze fell on the same scene and he sighed a bit. "Didn't expect it to be at this point already. How are you doing?"

Jet regarded Steam silently for a moment or two before just saying, "I'm fine." For now, he showed no hostility or aggression, and that had Alana feeling hopeful as she approached.

Steam nodded slowly. "You just watching it do what it wants for now?"

Letting out a soft huff, Jet muttered a cold, "This is boring. It can do what it pleases here without me."

"Mindless destruction is boring," Steam agreed. "I've taken part in it before. Doesn't… really achieve much." The hedgehog glanced at Jet with a raised eyebrow. "When was the last time you ate?" This earned little more than a shrug. Steam nodded at this. "You should probably try to at some point soon."

Another huff. "I'm not hungry." Jet dropped down off the wall, arms still crossed, and fixed Steam with a hard look. "Why are you here?"

The hedgehog sighed a bit. Knew he'd eventually call me out. "With all of the stuff I planned regarding that raid, when I heard about what was going on with you, I knew this was the only chance I had to back out of it or go ahead with the plans." Steam shrugged a little. "I was also really worried. I… don't like seeing you influenced by the Void like I did in my timeline."

"We're going. I don't care if you are or aren't." This simple assertion finally prompted Alana to speak up, and Jet's gaze flicked to her.

"If you are going, then so are your father and I," she told him. "I assume your friends and allies would feel the same way."

Steam's ears flicked back a little, glancing between Jet and Alana, before finally refocusing on the green hawk. "Are you sure you're good to go?"

"Yes," Jet told him, voice firm. "Nareish thought it wise to hurt my father. I intend to make her rethink doing so again."

He knows… or has an idea. "Yeah. We'll make sure that happens. I can count on you and the Void to help face her, then?" Steam was answered with another nod. The hedgehog nodded as well, opening his mouth to speak, then closing it and looking to Alana. "If you wanna talk to him, you definitely can."

She considered his words, then asked her son, "Would you object to my company, Jet?"

"Do what you want," he answered after a short pause. Despite the dismissive words, his tone wasn't quite as cold as it had been before. "I don't care."

Alana turned to Steam. "I will stay for now. Go do what you need to do, Steam. We will be alright here."

Steam nodded a little. "Alright. Message me if you need anything."

"I will," she assured him.

With this all handled, Steam chose to teleport away to Mobius, searching for Sonic. He landed outside Tails's house, then immediately went inside. The living room was somewhat crowded, as usual, but not for any happy reason. Word of the raid had spread like wildfire through the house already. People were somber as they prepared defenses for those staying behind and weapons for those going along. Steam's ears folded back instinctively at the emotional state of the room, standing up straighter. He quickly moved over to Sonic, instinctively grabbing the hedgehog's wrist and pulling him aside.

It was par for the course that Sonic started to object at the sudden tug, but once he saw Steam's face he quieted down. Only once Steam released him did he speak. "What's going on?" he asked, keeping his voice low so that others couldn't so easily overhear.

"How the hell did people find out?" Steam whispered, frowning deeply. "I wanted to keep this as quiet as possible."

Sonic let out a sigh. "I don't know how much you ever learned about him from your timeline, but Kohaku has some of the same psychic powers as Silver does. I guess he picked up on things from one of us. He started acting really confused and distressed, so Silver read his mind to try to work out what was happening, and… Well, you can guess the rest."

"Shit," Steam bit out, rubbing at his face briefly. "I forgot about that. Fucking…" He couldn't stay mad for long, not when he was fully aware that Kohaku didn't know better than to act like that in response to something so distressing. Hell… I've done the same. He managed to relax himself, letting out a long sigh. "Okay, well, it's for sure happening now. Jet already said he's going, whether we do or not, so I'm not letting him go alone or even with just his parents."

"I kinda figured that would be his reaction, whether his mental state was normal or not," Sonic admitted. "I mean, yeah, it'd be a bad idea to go without backup and he knows that, but each new person Nareish hurts, corrupts, or kidnaps makes him hate her all the more. He was only going to keep a lid on it for so long before he acted like, well, himself and decided to do something about it."

"Yeah, so I need to get everyone together that can reasonably go. Can I trust you to handle things-?" Steam cut himself off, shaking his head. "Of course I can. Why am I even asking? Please handle things here while I round up the Gods and Goddesses that can fight with us."

"Sounds good. I'll see about getting ahold of Espio. No way he and his family will accept being left out of this." Sonic crossed his arms and rapidly tapped on foot. "I might be able to get in contact with Wave, too. She's our best bet of getting word to Kath, since Jet's elsewhere."

"Already talked to Kath, but you're still right. He needs to know this is definitely happening." Steam thought it through before nodding. "I trust you with this. I need to go talk to Eila."

Sonic inclined his head. "...Look for Rose and Cyril, too. We could use all three of them."

"Right. Cyril is likely here on Mobius… but…" Steam frowned. "I gotta hunt down Kial and Rose, too. Could use their help."

"I don't really know anything about Kial, but from what things I've seen, I'd have to agree with getting him to come along," Sonic nodded. "Aside from that, though… Who all here do you think should stay behind? We have a pretty good idea ourselves, but your opinion holds some serious weight here."

Steam looked over the room and made his judgments quickly. "You, Silver, Blaze, Amy, Ava, and Kayde can all go," he answered. "Everyone else needs to stay behind because of the pure danger. Plus there's the risk of being generally corrupted or turned into a pyrzar beast."

"That's about what we figured," Sonic agreed. "...Though, now I have a new question. The hell's a pyrzar beast? It was mentioned in those… Stones of Lore or whatever Jet shared with us ages ago, but I have no idea what they are."

"A corrupted demon, touched by Nareish's energies," Steam murmured. "If she gets ahold of someone with demonic heritage and can corrupt them like that, there's a chance we won't be able to save them for a long time."

Hearing this, Sonic clicked his tongue in distaste. "The only person I know of at risk of that, then, is Armaris." Sonic paused, thinking, then cursed. "Shit, Zareil and the triplets, too. I assume they're safe this time around, but still."

"None of them are going," Steam affirmed immediately. "I will take Armaris to Ylden's realm myself if I have to, and Zareil will listen to Kaden, because Kaden will tell her to stay if she catches word of it."

Sonic was quiet for a poignant moment before quietly asking, "Dad's not going to get involved in this, is he? I want him to keep resting, not fight."

"If he chooses to, I can't stop him. I'm trying not to let him know about it… but if he catches wind and chooses to go, that's all there is to it," Steam murmured, sighing. Sonic mirrored his sigh and didn't say anything more about it. "That aside-" Steam stood upright suddenly, his ears flicking to the door the moment before a knock sounded from it. "What the hell is she doing here…?" he asked himself, walking to open the door. Steam blinked a few times when he saw his grandma, stepping aside to let her in.

"I didn't expect things to be so energetic," Tarin murmured slowly, looking around the room.

"Yeah, we're preparing for something," Steam explained, walking off to rejoin Sonic.

"A raid, yeah?" Tarin asked after a moment.

Steam thought about questioning how she knew, then remembered that his family had always had strong senses… meaning she was probably listening from outside. "Yeah. I'd appreciate you helping the others, if you can." She nodded with a smile and moved to join everyone else in the room in preparing defenses and other things while Steam refocused on Sonic. "Sorry. Apparently my grandma traveled through space until she got here."

Blue eyebrows raised. His grandma, huh? I think I've seen her around once before… maybe. "It's fine. Nothing to apologize for."

"Anyway, is there anything else we need to cover before I get moving?" Steam questioned.

"Not that I can think of off the top of my head," Sonic said.

"Alright. I'm gonna go talk to Tails briefly about everything being prepared, then I'm gonna get Eila's help contacting the deities," Steam explained, already moving to begin walking. Sonic waved a simple farewell and walked back over to the others to tell them what had been discussed. With his mind now focused, Steam walked directly to Tails's workshop and teleported directly to him. "Tails."

Tails turned to face him, looking a bit haggard but no less focused and determined than everyone else. "Hey, Steam. Wery and I thought you might be stopping by, so we pulled that," he gestured to a device on a table, "out. It's the thing you asked us to make a while ago."

Steam picked it up with his magic and pulled it to his arms, inspecting it briefly. "You built it perfectly," he stated. "Good work, both of you."

"Oh, I'm just glad we were able to get it done!" Wery said, chuckling tiredly. "We got a bit slammed for a while there with some stuff going on."

"Especially that thing," Tails agreed, gesturing to the ultrasound machine. "That was really short notice and surprisingly complicated… But, anyway, what's your device going to be used for, exactly? Like, we know what it does, but not how you intend to use it."

"Punching a hole in Nareish's realm," Steam answered. "So that we can raid it and tear her army apart."

"...Crap," was all Tails wound up saying initially.

Wery blinked a few times. "I'm tired… so correct me if I'm wrong, but you're going to raid Nareish's realm?"

"Correct," Steam replied.

"And… we all expect this to work?" Tails asked carefully. "If we do, why?"

Steam nodded slowly. "It will. Nareish won't expect it, I know she won't." Tails tossed Wery a concerned glance, but didn't wind up arguing against Steam's assertion.

"Well… if you're sure," Wery murmured. "Just please, be careful, okay?"

The hedgehog managed a smile. "Of course." Tails offered a wave before returning to his work. With this handled, Steam teleported the machine away elsewhere and then himself back up to the main room. He then went down the hall before knocking on the door to Eila's room. There was silence for a few moments before the cat opened the door and walked out, motioning for him to follow. He decided to speak. "I need your help with something."

"You want me to contact Cere and the others?" Eila asked, glancing sidelong at him. "I can't do that. You already know how I feel about it."

"Eila, I need to get ahold of them all quickly," Steam said, frowning deeply. "You're one of the few people who can-"

"I'm not interested in a panic attack," she answered snippily. "You of all people can comprehend what I'm saying from experience. The answer is a resounding no."

They both turned at the sound of heavy footsteps and the front door being flung open, Steam's eyes widening at the sight of Toru's silver gaze. Oh fuck. The hedgehog walked forward to meet the chameleon.

"Shadow was taken," Toru stated calmly to Steam, not bothering to keep his voice lowered. Most everyone else in the room was stunned silent both by his entrance and his statement. "I'm going to take him back."

Eila walked closer to them both. "By who?" she demanded to know.

"It has to be Nareish," Toru explained, frowning.

"Steam, go find Rose," Eila said. "She's on Archor. You know where. Kial is there too. I'll speak to Cere and the others. Go." Steam didn't question the cat, teleporting away immediately. Eila refocused her attention on Toru, stretching her mind out to contact the deities all at once. "Toru, sit tight. We're about to raid her realm."

"We're taking Shadow back," Toru muttered. "And I'll kill anything that tries to stop me."

Sonic finally spoke up, eyes hardening. "Eila, we need to expedite this. If Shadow's been taken by Nareish, that means she gave him back to Gerald. The longer we take, the more time that bastard has to try experimenting on him or controlling his mind again."

"I know," Eila murmured. "I've already sent out the message to their minds. They're getting ready." I can't allow something like that to happen to him. If he is injured or put into too much stress, all of the pieces of his varied heritage may spring forth at once and he could become a danger to everything.

"Tell them to hurry. I'm not waiting long," Toru bit out, fighting briefly to keep his Darkness under control.

"They'll be ready," Eila assured.

That being said, Toru teleported away to the Hive, seeking out T'chalik. Rather than being aggressive as he had been before, any resistance or danger he encountered from the members of the hive was simply stopped by a barrier of Darkness. "T'chalik!" he yelled out. A creature with sensitive ears visibly shrunk away from Toru's voice, turned tail, and ran off into the darkness.

Moments later, T'chalik appeared as though he'd warped through the shadows themselves. "What?" the hulking biped responded. "Do not shout. Those who live in this area are vulnerable to sound, and they have young."

"Shadow was taken, and I need to find Ghune," Toru explained. "I don't have time. Tell me where to find her."

Yellow eyes flashing, T'chalik let out a deep growl. "She is here. Come." He turned and began walking without waiting for any sort of agreement. Toru followed the Black Arms without hesitation. They rapidly went deeper and deeper into the hive, reaching its pitch black heart in no time flat. T'chalik gestured to a seemingly random expanse of wall and asked, "Are you capable of phasing?" He was gesturing to an area just feet away from where Toru had found Shadow shortly after his father's own kidnapping. The claw marks were still visible.

"I can teleport," Toru said. "Never tried phasing."

"Go only a few feet. The wall is not especially thick. There is open space beyond it, where Black Doom personally takes up residence. Ghune is with him there."

Toru chose not to comment on the matter of Black Doom being back, simply accepting that as a good thing. He teleported a few feet forward and immediately walked toward a standing and alert Ghune. Before she could speak, Toru explained. "Shadow was taken by Nareish. I need your help." Meanwhile, a dark figure slept uneasily within a pile of pelts and furs, presumably Black Doom himself.

Unlike many people, Ghune didn't flinch or pause. "I will arrange for others to join me. Are you planning to go to her realm?"

"There's a raid being planned," Toru further explained. "At least, from what I gathered in the five seconds I was near my allies."

"Perfect. I will obliterate her armies," Ghune replied, cracking her neck. "I will join you on Mobius. For now, return and prepare. You may want to take more than your sword alone."

Toru didn't find it in himself to argue, nodding. "See you there, then." The chameleon vaguely looked in Black Doom's direction, frowning softly. "Are you planning to join us, or will you be staying here?" he asked, softening his tone a little when he realized something was amiss.

There was a bit of movement, something like an arm shifting to rub at one's eyes, but no verbal reply. That Black Doom wasn't yet awake was clear. Ghune decided to speak up in his stead. "He will be staying. Recent events have rendered him in dire need of rest."

Toru somewhat understood the situation and nodded. "Alright. I'm gonna go, then. I'll see you soon."

Ghune didn't really reply, which didn't matter as Toru teleported away anyway. She walked over to Black Doom and knelt by him, setting a hand on one of his shoulders. "Black Doom." This time, her touch didn't earn an adverse reaction. It did manage to wake him up further, however, and yellow eyes soon opened to look at her. "Something has happened. Shadow was kidnapped. I will be leaving to aid others in his rescue and teaching Nareish a lesson."

His lack of strong reaction was further proof of the fact that he wasn't entirely cognizant of what was going on. He sort of mumbled something, rubbed at his eyes again, then said somewhat more clearly, "Okay."

"Do you remember what I said to you just now?" Ghune asked gently. There was a bit of a pause, then he sort of shook his head. She decided to repeat herself, letting out a silent sigh. "Shadow was kidnapped. I will be leaving to aid others in his rescue and teaching Nareish a lesson."

Most of her words failed to sink in, but it was soon clear that something had registered. Black Doom looked at her again, his eyes a bit more focused, and frowned a little. "...Shadow?"

"Correct. Nareish kidnapped him." Her words earned a slow nod, but little else. "I will be leaving soon to reclaim him."

Enough clarity returned for him to say quietly, "Don't let her touch him."

"I would cleave her fingers off should she try," Ghune replied. When he said nothing else, she leaned down and pulled his hand close, kissing it softly before teleporting away to her world. There were people to gather and hell to raise over someone she had already claimed as her own… at least, in private.

~保護者~

9,248 words this time. Many thanks as always to Blazing Winds for all of his help and support, and I hope you all enjoyed. This chapter is definitely shorter than usual, but next chapter will have a lot of action. Hope that makes up for it! Posted (at about 9:20 p.m.) 03-10-21.