I'm back! Sorry for the long wait; I rather don't tell you for how many weeks I tried already to update and then remembered, that I wanted to look this part over and this other one and then didn't find the time...

Anyway, please enjoy!


14: Immortality

Normal people needed probably an hour or two to calm down from a foul mood, but Sonic managed it in less than five minutes – by running twice around the city at full speed.

Reaching the foyer of the Shelter he ran to afterwards, he realized upon letting Silver down, that he should have probably stopped himself a little.

The poor silver furred uke looked awfully dizzy and almost smacked into the receptionist's desk, that was manned by a middle aged, male mobian badger with mint green fur, who watched them worriedly, the second he was on his feet.

"You okay?," Sonic asked, while holding Silver's arm to stop him from swaying more and hurting himself.

"Uh...maybe. ...Is the world supposed to go in circles?," he asked dazedly. Sonic grimaced. "Not really. Sorry, I forgot for a minute there, that you aren't used to my speed.," he apologized sheepishly. In fact, he had forgotten Silver altogether. He had simply been too light to hinder his running and his still vivid anger at Shadow had let him ignore everything for a few minutes, before he had reigned himself in again.

Silver just whined, but gradually stopped swaying. "Y-you don't hate me, do you?," he asked meekly and Sonic felt a metaphorical fist hit his stomach hard upon realizing, that Silver assumed the speedy detour had been a punishment for him. "Of course not! What makes you even think that!?," the hero asked in astonishment.

Silver's ears pressed to his skull. "B-because I saw everything, that happened to Conner and didn't tell you. Maybe...you could have stopped it.," he mumbled.

He wasn't aware of it, at least not consciously, but his instincts knew, that Conner was part of the hero's colony, just like him and as he had the second highest rank, the Gamma's safety had been his job, too.

"Silver, you had absolutely NO way of knowing, that this would happen. It could have been a nightmare. Chaos, it looked like a nightmare! I'm not blaming you and I could never hate you, okay?," Sonic soothed and the younger male, feeling the sincerity in his words, nodded.

When a light lit up the foyer, Silver gasped and quickly hid behind Sonic, which wasn't very effective, as his head quills poked out from behind the hero, giving his head a very weird, silvery shine-effect.

Letting him be, Sonic turned to Mephiles and Kylie, who just appeared in front of him. The dark seme saw his mate, of course he did, but Silver couldn't see his heartbroken face as hidden as he was. With a small sigh, the seme disappeared again.

"I-is he gone?," Silver asked meekly. "Yeah, he went to train with the semes.," Kylie replied calmly. "Oh...g-good, I guess.," Silver mumbled and came out of his hiding spot, looking sheepish. "I... er... need to go there...," the silver furred hedgehog quickly said, apparently wanting to get away, and ran down a hallway.

"...Okay. Come on, we better not waste any more time.," Kylie told the hero and marched down another corridor, Sonic on her heels.


The hero's sensitive hearing picked up on the crying of three individuals first and he rushed past Kylie in a room to his left, where Forest sat on an examination table, his babies clutched in his arms and all three crying loudly.

"Forest!," he called over the heartbreaking sounds and quickly ran over, jumped on the table and enveloped all three in a tight hug. Forest willingly turned into the embrace, crying into his shoulder.

"Where is Thilo?," Kylie asked upon entering and finding only hedgehogs. "H-he just went away. H-he s-said, that it's my f-fault they're like this!," Forest sobbed, finding finally enough strength to gently rock his young, until they had calmed down, he following their example eventually. "I'm sure he didn't mean it like that.," Kylie tried to soothe the calmer male over her own rage. When she got her hands on the butterfly...

"-barrassing! Everyone can see it!," a shrill voice suddenly piped up from outside the room. Sonic's ear twitched. Didn't he know this voice?

"So? I'll just kill them for gawking.," a second voice said with an audible shrug. "Don't say it so casually!," the first voice shrieked and by now, Sonic had recognized both speakers.

"Whatever. Look, I'll just do this one thing Silv asked of me and then we'll find someone to take care of your leg.," Scythe said, just as she opened the door to their room and entered, having a struggling Amy thrown over her shoulder.

Seeing, that her position revealed everything hidden beneath her stiff skirt, the hero quickly averted his eyes.

"Hey.," Scythe greeted, her eyes almost immediately finding Forest. For a good minute, Scythe just stood in the door frame, not saying anything and as Sonic was still determined to keep his eyes away from Amy, he couldn't look for her face to try and find out, what she was thinking about.

"Now I see, what Thilo meant.," she eventually mumbled, entered and deposited Amy on a chair, ignoring her loud protests, that were cut off with a squeak, when she spotted Sonic staring at her and the pinkette quickly crossed her legs and tried to force her skirt more over her knees. One of them looked blue, slightly swollen and bloody, as if she had fallen on it, but as flustered as she was, Sonic doubted, that he would get an answer just now, if he asked.

Meanwhile, Scythe took her weapon and her backpack off and leaned both against the wall next to the door, where they wouldn't be in the way, before moving to Forest, who was still busy with trying to calm himself and the little ones down. The sudden arrival and the obvious interest Scythe had in him were upsetting Forest once more and, as a consequence, his young, too, who felt his unrest.

Carefully, Scythe went to sit on her ankles in front of him. "Forest, correct?," she asked with a smile.

One brown furred ear twitched and the male looked up, blinking, surprised by her position, that put him in the dominant one, actually, and nodded. "Hi, my name's Scythe.," the greenette started. "H-hi.," he greeted back.

"Are these yours?," she nodded to the pups and his grip strengthened a bit, gathering the little ones closer. "Y-yes.," he mumbled, shuffling closer to Sonic.

"They're cute. So tiny.," the female went on. "I don't have some of my own, but I honestly don't want any, yet. I remember my mother say once, though, that some parents never want their little ones to grow up and leave their protection. Did you ever feel like that?," Scythe asked and Sonic frowned. The change of topic was abrupt. Was she trying to catch him off guard?

Forest's ears pressed immediately to his skull. "Just...once." He smiled weakly. "They grew...so quickly... I...I didn't want to lose them..."

"Like you already did with your former pups.," Scythe concluded and the poor male jerked so hard, he would have slipped off the table, if it hadn't been for Sonic keeping a tight grip on him, while staring at her in horror, as he knew, what she was talking about.

"H-how...?," the brown furred male stammered, his voice only a croak. "Shy told me. She was with me, when Silver explained your situation to me. She combined quickly and told me that little fact about what happened on the Island. They took your young, didn't they? You never saw them again.," Scythe pressed on and Forest's eyes filled with new tears. "Y-yes."

Kylie felt her own eyes becoming wet, when she remembered Forest's desperation, when he had been in labor, back on the Island. He hadn't known, that she had been on his side, had begged of her not to take his young away again. The word 'again' twisted her stomach until today, especially, when you knew – and she did – what had become of all the pups, that had been stolen from their mothers. It gave her nightmares until today, she couldn't blame Forest for wanting his young close to him forever. She made a mental note to speak with him later about seeing one of their therapists. He could need one, from the looks of it.

"And the thought of letting these two go, even just to live their own lives eventually, had to be terrifying for you.," the hedgette concluded.

Forest sobbed loudly now, she had guessed it. "I'm a horrible person." "For never wanting your young to leave you? I don't think so. You just...overdid it a bit.," Scythe replied and straightened. "But everything's gonna be okay, I know a way to fix this."

She went, under the curious glances of everyone in the room, to her backpack and rummaged through it.

A minute or two later, she found, whatever she had looked for and straightened, a small, reddish-golden gleaming bowl, that looked like out of copper, and a thin iron rod in her hands.

"Here, take this.," Scythe instructed, holding out the bowl. Forest hesitated and then carefully nudged one of his young into Sonic's arms to have his hand free.

The hero was too surprised to argue, he just shifted his cargo carefully on his arm, until its position felt right, the little one having her head in the crook of his elbow, her body lying on his arm, that rested on his lap.

For a second, he just studied the baby. He had never held one like this, or, well, not thought about it. When he had held babies so far, then it had been to rescue them and to bring them back to their mothers, it had been a brief, business-like contact.

Now...he had time to observe. The heartbeat against his arm, and the steady breathing against his skin, the small, delicate bones in his palm, the tiny fingers, that opened and closed to small fists in her sleep, the slight, hardly detectable movements... It just felt right to hold the baby like this, as if...it was his.

Quickly, he shook his head mentally. That was the last direction his thoughts should go in. The mother was LITERALLY sitting next to him! He wasn't her mother...or father, or whatever.

"Yeah, like this. Just hold it for a minute.," Scythe's voice thankfully interrupted his thoughts and he focused back on the room.

Forest held the bowl in his now free, outstretched hand, balancing it on his palm, looking clearly confused between Scythe and the small object.

"Now, observe.," the female ordered and with the stick she still held, she hit the bowl's side, causing Forest to jump, as he felt the vibration through his flesh and even bones.

Scythe smiled in satisfaction and hit it again, letting the light sound echo through the silent room, until it wasn't audible anymore, before hitting the object more, in a steadier rhythm now, letting the sounds of every new hit merge with the previous one, filling the space with something, that resembled a bell's ringing and was different still. In fact, it didn't sound, as if two metals collided there, but as if something out of metal collided with something, that was out of glass, or maybe crystal.

Forest gasped suddenly, along with Kylie and Amy, and Sonic turned his head away from the bowl to look at him properly.

His eyes widened. Forest was glowing. It was a weak light, that illuminated his skin and fur, but it was definitely noticeable, even in the bright room.

Another hit to the bowl let the light move in waves across his body, as if the sound-waves were disturbing it like a fluid. Sonic blinked. Was it his imagination, or did Forest's fur turn darker under the waves?

The third time Scythe hit the bowl, the light got stronger and his fur turned unmistakably dark, but not a nuance of dark brown as expected, but rather...purple.

Right in front of their eyes, his fur turned from light brown to dark purple. The fur on his snout turned lighter and peach fur also appeared on his belly, forming something, that looked remotely like the number eight with the circles not as cleanly separated as it would be the case with the real number. The quills at the back of his head seemed to swing in the rhythm that Scythe still played, fawning out and becoming longer, as if growing in fast forward, curling inwards, until they almost looked like hooks.

Sonic felt the little one in his arm move and looked down, his jaw dropping, when he realized, that the baby moved by growing like her mother's quills had, inch by inch, while her fur turned purple, a lighter shade than her mother's. The tips of her now longer, also curled quills colored themselves black.

She grew in the rhythm filling the room, little by little, until she had more than twice her original size. NOW she looked like a two year old!

An undernourished two year old, though. She hadn't gained weight by growing at all, feeling skeletal and fragile under his hands, worse than before. The onesie she wore looked now awkward on her, her legs and arms poking out of the piece of cloth's legs and sleeves to the elbows and knees, where they had previously covered her wrists and ankles. Her torso looked fine, though, the onesie had been a tad too big on her, now it fit her malnourished form perfectly.

Forest's breath hitched and he saw him holding an identical looking child in his arm. "Impossible.," he stammered. His head snapped up to meet Scythe's eyes. "How?," he breathed.

"You're a shapeshifter.," Scythe told him, taking the now still bowl from him. "W-what!?," the uke exclaimed. "Uhuh. Should have noticed it far earlier. If we would have spent some more time together on the Island, it would have become clear pretty much immediately. Back then, there were just too many scents in the air to smell it right away, but I noticed it the second I entered this room. You are a shapeshifter.," the tall hedgette repeated.

Forest stared at her, his mouth opening and closing, as if he was a fish on land. "B-but...m-my parents... th-they don't look like that, they looked like I did before!," the male stammered, his still green eyes wide and panicked.

"Well, there are not many explanations for that. My guess is, that you are adopted.," Scythe told him, her voice neutral.

Forest blinked at her, while her words registered. Then, his breathing became gradually faster and irregular, as the message sank in. They weren't...his parents? But...who was? Who WAS he...!?

Kylie found herself plucking Forest's young from him and Sonic and depositing them into a protesting Scythe's arms, when he started to whimper and cry, so both Alphas could try and calm him down, before he hyperventilated himself into hysterics.

"Forest, it's okay, try to calm down. Deep breaths.," Kylie soothed and when he didn't seem able to hear her, Sonic pulled him against his chest, giving the distraught uke a pace to follow with his own breathing.

A minute or so later, the now purple furred male took a shuddering breath, having calmed down again. "I'm...I'm adopted?," he finally whispered, his forehead resting against Sonic's shoulder in exhaustion.

"Well, it would make sense. Children, who can shapeshift, often imitate their parents, or, you know, the people, who they think are their parents. I can't tell, if the people you call parents knew of your ability and wanted to tell you about it, when you could handle it, or if they simply ignored the fact, that you looked completely different one day."

Depending on how they had used their instincts and their brains, they could have just brought him to a doctor and, after confirming, that it wasn't something life-threatening, just forgotten about it. And Forest was paying for this ignorance now.

"How did this bowl work?," Sonic asked to distract Forest – and himself – a bit. "Hm? Oh, it's a crystal, not a bowl.," Scythe replied and turned the object, so that he could see the opening. A few similar colored, smaller crystals were protruding from the bottom and reaching into the confined space. It looked indeed not like a bowl from that angle.

"This is a crystal, or better, an ore you can only find near my village. When you make it swing like I did, the cells of shapeshifters pick up on the unique sound waves and return to their original state. It's a practical invention for everyone, who still learns shapeshifting and can't return to normal on their own. It's usually faster, but...well, he was stuck in this form pretty long."

"Are there any side effects?," Sonic asked, worried. "Aside from realizing, that his whole life was one big lie? Nah. He'd need some help with returning to the previous form, should he want it, but that's it.," Scythe replied, while her focus went again and again down to the young she held.

"What's up, scared of two pups?," Kylie asked, amused, and Forest's head shot up, realizing only now, that his children weren't with him.

He quickly freed his arms from Sonic's embrace and reached out for them. Scythe didn't hesitate to step closer and lean forward, until he could take them one after the other, cradling them.

"D-did I...i-influence them, too?," he asked silently. "Definitely. But it's normal for mothers to picture their babies and some shapeshifters really manage it to alter their pups' appearance. But it's usually...not dangerous.," Scythe muttered, adding the last sentence thoughtfully. "A-are my young in danger!?," Forest gasped, hearing her hesitation while speaking.

The scythe wielder blinked, as if ripped out of a deep thought. "Huh? Er...no. No, I don't think so. You just fed them like babies and they're probably lacking nutrients, but that's not, what I was thinking about."

Straightening, she crossed her arms. "I'm thinking about something else... It's usually no problem for a shapeshifter to turn a child into a baby – when they're experienced. When I came here, I thought you were a shapeshifter, who got himself and his young stuck and didn't know, how to reverse this. But you have apparently not known, what you are at all. While it's possible to get a lucky shot and transform one of your daughters into a baby without meaning to and without knowing how to do this, it is absolutely impossible, that you could do it with both, twins or not."

"W-what are you saying?," Forest stammered. "I don't think, that you're just a shapeshifter. You have one more secret hidden under this purple fur.," Scythe replied.

"No way.," Kylie suddenly said, her eyes wide. "You don't think...?" "Yeah, I do. They DO look pretty alike. And the scent...it's almost identical."

"W-what are you talking about?," Forest asked, his heart beating anxiously. "Here in the Shelter lives another hedgehog, who looks almost exactly like you, his name is Vremy.," Kylie explained.

"The scent of his is very close to yours, too. Also, he can turn back time. Sound familiar?," Scythe added, letting the male perk up in interest.

He knew, that, while mobians had their visual differences, they had an even more obvious factor, that told them apart – their scent.

For mobians, the smell was the most important method for identifying. The scents of others told them, who was family, friend or fiend. Even the best disguise couldn't fool their noses. If they had a similar scent, then it was more than just likely, that they were related somehow... And he could turn back time? Had he turned back the time of his own young? Maybe...even his own? He seemed to have grown himself a bit, his spares seemed to sit a tad tighter than before.

"W-where is he now!? I have to see him!," Forest pleaded, becoming more and more excited. After losing his parents, that weren't even the real ones, and finding out, that he had been most likely adopted – it made absolute sense to him by now –, he saw this stranger as his maybe only chance for something resembling answers and closure.

"Perhaps we should first hear about your young and then go to him. He is in a meditative cycle right now anyway.," Kylie quickly suggested, before he could slip off the table. She wasn't sure, if he could carry his young in this bigger form as easily and she didn't want to risk them getting hurt. Besides, they little ones were still a reason for concern.

"...Okay.," the young male agreed reluctantly. He didn't feel too happy to wait, but the knowledge, that this mysterious, potential relative was close by, pacified him and his impatience a bit.

In that moment, the door opened and Thilo strode in casually. If he was surprised to have the number of hedgehogs in the room doubled since he had left it, he didn't show it. "Where have you been?," Kylie demanded immediately, the butterfly had tried her nerves enough for one day.

"With that green furred hedgehog you didn't want me to look after.," the male replied easily, shrugging.

"What were you doing there?," Sonic demanded sharply, making Amy and Forest jump at the cold tone they weren't used to.

"Maya required a second opinion. The uke's heartbeat got out of control for a very limited time period.," Thilo replied neutrally.

"His heartbeat? Why? What was wrong with it?," Kylie asked, alarmed. "It sped up for no apparent reason, then dropped to an almost flat-line. After ten seconds, it was all back to normal. It wouldn't even have been noticeable right away, if it hadn't been for Maya being in the same room to that time. She couldn't find anything wrong with him and called me to make sure, that her diagnosis was correct and she hadn't overlooked something. I couldn't find anything either, he is healthy – and by the way awake."

"He is? Any side effects concerning the Healing slumber?," Kylie immediately inquired. "Yes. He has the mind of a child. A rather bratty child.," Thilo added thoughtfully. His parents wouldn't have tolerated such behavior at all.

Sonic looked to Kylie for an explanation. "He has been mentally through too much lately, that's why his mind retreated to simpler, less complicated times – his childhood."

"That's not permanent, is it?," Sonic asked, worried. Kylie smiled. "No, thankfully not. In fact, according to my research, this particular side effect is rather short-lived. Once you got Scourge to take a nap, he'll wake up as his normal self, with no recollection of what he did before."

Sonic nodded, about to ask for directions to his room, when he was met with a problem: he still had Forest, his young and Amy to look after.

Non-Alphas would simply set their priorities according to the need those three had, putting Scourge on the top of this list, as Forest was just desperate to meet Vremy now, his young about to get treated and Amy had a minor injury with a doctor in the room (Kylie, not Thilo – he didn't trust that butterfly still), but Alphas didn't work that way. All of their problems were important to the same degree, as none of them was an emergency, a 'life or death'-situation. If at least one of them had had such an emergency, then his course of action would have been clearer.

"Go.," Forest suddenly said and he flinched a bit, blinking. "What?," he asked, not sure, if he had heard correctly. "Go to...this Scourge? I'm fine, he needs you more. Thanks for staying with me.," the purple furred male smiled and Sonic felt the sincerity in his words. He looked over to Amy, but the pinkette avoided his general direction, which was as good as Forest's words.

"How do I get to Scourge from here?," he asked Kylie and was gone, before the woman had spoken out the last syllable properly.

"Well, Pinky and I will take our leave, too. Oh, and good luck with Vremy. If you or your little ones need help with the shapeshifting, just look for me. I'm at least sometimes at the Shelter to teach other shapeshifters.," Scythe spoke up and went to take Amy over her shoulder again, but the younger hedgette jumped off her seat, before she had the chance to grab her and marched with large steps out of the room without a word.

Scythe blinked at that, but eventually shrugged, grabbed her things and followed her, quickly catching up to the pink hedgehog girl, who was marching through the hallways, tears dripping down her face and sobs wracking her frame.

"Whatever happened to 'my knee hurts so much, I can't walk a single step'?," Scythe asked, quoting the girl's words from before they met Shy and were brought back to the Shelter without much explanation.

Amy stopped so suddenly, that Scythe almost ran her over. "My heart...hurts more now.," she managed to gasp out between sobs.

"...Why? I had Blue the whole time in my sights, he didn't do anything!," Scythe questioned, raising a brow.

"He...didn't need to. I saw, how he held this baby. How he looked. Do you know, where I saw this expression before?," the girl asked, without turning around, her head hanging low. "I'm sure, that you're going to tell me in a sec.," the scythe wielder replied.

"On a photograph. Taken of Vanilla after Cream was born. The look she had for her baby...was like Sonic's earlier. Like...a mother's. That's something I can't give him.," Amy ended in a whisper.

Scythe sighed through her nose. It had been painful, but she had eventually reached the last stage of her brokenhearted grief.

Acceptance.

She had realized for herself, that the blue hero would never be hers, something, nobody could have fully convinced her of before. In fact, she had just started to contemplate, if her beloved Sonic couldn't MAYBE like her at some point. Now, she had understood it, she just needed time to digest this properly.

"Come on, Pin- Amy. I know a place, where they sell the best ice cream around. You look like you need it.," she suggested the first thing, that came to her mind, and the younger eventually nodded, sniffing.


Long before Blush had reached her birthing place, she knew, that something was wrong. Usually, she could feel her brothers' and uncles' presences hidden between the rock formations surrounding the mountain kettle, where her clan lived, but now, she couldn't detect anything. They couldn't have become THAT good at hiding, so what was going on!?

The disturbance of the normalcy was enough to stop her in her tracks and she stayed in the air, her feelers stretching out and twitching in all directions to try and detect any enemy or another reason for the absence of everyone. It didn't exactly calm her down to not find anything, neither clan nor foe.

Eventually, she pressed on, still wary. She didn't encounter anyone, when she was finally above the buildings she had once considered home. Nobody seemed to be here either, which was worrying. Most of her sisters were at the Shelter right now, but her uncles and brothers, not to mention her youngest siblings, aunts and parents, were supposed to be here, going about their daily life... Why would they abandon their posts and home like that? The buildings were all intact and untouched from what she could tell, so there had been no attack.

Her heart took a painful beat and she rushed to hover over the biggest building, built close to the ring of thick, black stone, that surrounded the valley as a natural protection. Behind it, hidden in a cave, was the treasure of their family: the eggs. Butterfly broodmothers produced up to a thousand eggs and could decide, how many would hatch when. Some eggs were empty, it depended entirely on the female, how many were actually containing anything, but before their time for hatching had come, nobody was able to tell the difference. Until the hatching happened, the brood needed to stay warm and the subterranean spring with hot water, that they kept carefully controlled, originating at this place, made the cave the ideal location for that.

The hatched young, the caterpillars, spent the first few months of their lives there, too, protected from the moist and cold mountain air, until they were old and strong enough to be let out. Needless to say, that this was the most precious and the hardest protected place of the entire family. The eggs AND caterpillars were in no way able to protect themselves from an attack. The more disconcerting was the fact, that the entire valley seemed to be deserted and the eggs unprotected. She looked around.

The rocks going around the valley had been decorated by her family with colorful silk bands. The pattern they formed was unique and impossible to copy by outsiders. Any disturbance in it would be noticeable, but thankfully, she saw nothing. Whatever had happened here, the brood was safe. The caterpillars had enough food to feed themselves for a while, so they were fine, too.

Still looking for ANY sign of life, Blush pressed eventually on to a small, shed-like hut out of corrugated iron at the other end of the valley, that stood outside of all buildings, and landed in front of it.

Staying frozen on the spot for a few seconds with nothing happening still, she finally knocked on the rusty metal door, fully expecting no answer – and she was surprised, when a muffled "Come in!" answered.

Carefully, she pulled the door open, the hinges creaking horribly. The hut had been built without much care and the space had been saved by countless shelves lining the walls – tilted and crooked shelves made out of broken, thrown away boards – packed with small and medium sized gadgets, that didn't tell her anything.

In the back, that was the carved-in wall of the valley to get some more space, stood a large, old desk, filled with tools, papers and more gadgets littered in an organized mess over the top. A lean figure sat with their back to her at the desk, busy with something their body hid, sitting on a creaking swivel chair.

"So, did you find him?," the figure asked. "Who?," Blush replied, completely surprised by this welcome.

The other stiffened for an entire minute, before slowly turning around. The male mobian butterfly staring at her had short, red hair, that stood to all sides, yellow feelers, that drooped just a little over the half, wore a dirty overall, that was too big – male butterflies tended to be underweight –, and had the same blue eyes as Blush, hidden behind a pair of special goggles, that had several lenses behind each other.

Azyran the Butterfly stared at his younger sister for a solid minute through those goggles, before ripping them off and jumping to his feet, performing a bow, the stumps of his wings visibly straining against the back of his overall in the process.

"Rise.," Blush quickly ordered. She hated it. Hated, that she was considered the oldest daughter, the elite of their family, and had to be greeted with bows by everyone of the clan but her parents. Even by her older brother.

Azyran was the first-hatched of the clan, but unfortunately, that didn't mean anything in their dynamics. Since he had been a male, they had hatched another, a female this time, and raised them both. Until a certain age, the children, male and female, were treated the same. It was only after this age had been reached, that the males were taught just how not valuable they were for the clan and what their jobs would be, if they wanted it or not.

Azyran was one of the few in the clan's history, who had rebelled against fate. Being gifted with a natural talent for mechanics and electronics, that he nurtured by sneaking down the mountain to dig through the piles of scrap metal and other trash, that was thrown there by several companies trying to save some money, he had turned himself into an inventor and mechanic.

The clan didn't mind the trash much (although it was occasionally catching fire, with the poisonous smoke not reaching them due to some strategically placed, sturdy plants cleaning the air), as it kept unwanted visitors away, especially with the smell and the sharp metal bits.

Still at a young age, the young butterfly had often flown down and salvaged quite a few useful items and broken gadgets he could repair in his free time, keeping everything hidden from his parents by completing his expected chores and staying out of their sight.

It had been Blush of all people, being hatched six years after Azyran and eighteen more brothers, who had tattled on him, when she had been just three years old. She hadn't meant anything by it, it had just slipped out during dinner.

Unfortunately, that had led to two horrible things: Azyran had gotten punished severely and his wings had been put in chains to prevent further trips to the junkyard, while Aphanda, his sister of the same age, had begged their father to let her take on her first mission to prove their worth at this age and to help her brother. Papil, their father, had relented after much thinking and accompanied her.

Aphanda hadn't survived and her body had been brought back to them. From then on, the training had become harder, even more relentless, merciless. Failure wasn't only not an option anymore, it was forbidden. And every sign of weakness or failure was punished severely.

Still, Azyran had refused to let Aphanda's sacrifice be in vain and finally convinced their father to let him become the family's tech-support. While most of his sisters still refused to use technology, they couldn't deny, that more and more people made their jobs harder with new inventions and such, which made it practical, that at least one person in their family could help them out. He had always useful gadgets ready for his sisters to take for their missions, or could build them some of those with little material they had to collect for him. He used the rest of his time, that he didn't spend with his chores, to keep the security of their home at its highest.

The price for living his dream? His wings.

To make sure, that he wouldn't betray the clan at some point for someone, who appreciated him actually, his wings had been cut cleanly off. It had been as painful as losing any other limb and Blush knew, that he could still not stretch his arms too well over his head, which was, why all the shelves around him weren't higher than their shoulders' height.

The fact, that her older brother was as good in masking his feelings as she was, often worried Blush. He had to hate her guts for ruining his life and killing their sister if not personally, but his demeanor stayed neutral and respectful whenever they met. The guilt kept her away from this place more than her worry about what her brother might do, if she let her guard down around here, though...

"Where is everyone?," she asked the first question on her mind. "The Caves.," Azyran replied dutifully, meaning a close by hideout of their family, where they retreated to in case of emergencies.

"...Why?," Blush inquired, trying to ignore the fact, that her brother had been left behind with no chance of saving himself in case he had to.

"An intruder. Until they have found him or at least some traces of him, everyone is to stay away from the buildings and the hatching place.," the older replied. "How do you know the gender, if you haven't seen him, yet?," Blush wondered. Azyran shrugged. "Who else could pull it off, than a moth?," he asked back rhetorically.

Blush narrowed her eyes. She knew, that there existed three clans of mobian butterflies, created by an argument, that took place centuries ago between three brothers. They had separated and the two younger ones had created their own clans.

While the clan of the youngest brother had retreated to an unknown location and the family hid well until today, the clan of the middle brother, now known as the Moth Clan, never made a secret out of its existence. They were rivals and enemies of the Butterfly Clan and the moths tried their everything to divert from what the main clan did, while working in the same business.

If the intruder had been indeed a moth, he would be male, as only the butterflies saw the females as stronger. In the Moth Clan, the males were the stronger ones for whatever reason. Somehow, Blush doubted, that it had been a moth, though. As tough as their males were – they weren't this stealthy and clever, let alone subtle. This place would be in pieces at the very least, if it had been a moth. The location of their hideout was a secret after all, that the middle brother had taken to his grave. The moth clan would kill to learn their whereabouts and destroy them once and for all.

"Is there any real evidence for an invasion?," she asked further. If so, then she would have to leave, too – clan rules.

The other shrugged again. "If so, then I have no information about it." "Good." Blush held out the bundle she had carried. "I need you to analyze the blood on this." "Of course. How fast do you need the result?," Azyran asked, eagerly taking the object in question and looking for the blood stain. "I'll stay here.," Blush answered in a way of replying. Azyran chuckled. "In this case, I'll hurry."


Sonic stopped in front of the room Kylie had described to him seconds before and immediately heard the commotion from inside, so he hurried to enter.

"-damaged it! Look at that! What did you do to it, I got it just like... five years ago or something and I always made sure to keep it clean and whole and now, it looks, like, grandpa-old!," Scourge accused as he entered, showing a brown furred female raccoon mobian in a light green lab coat standing at his side his leather jacket.

"It's ruined! The Boss gave it to me and now it looks like trash!," the hedgehog went on, shaking the piece of clothing, as if he could shake off the cracks and stains in the fabric this way.

"I'm sorry to hear that, but your jacket was already this damaged, when you came in here.," the raccoon, Maya, Sonic presumed, explained patiently. "Why don't you lie back down and take a nap? You are still tired, aren't you?," she suggested, when Scourge apparently wanted to complain some more

Scourge scoffed. "So you can call the authorities and they stuff me in an orphanage? I don't think so, I'm outta here!," the green furred male snarled and tried to stand up, but due to all the IVs and cables still connected to him, he could have just as well been bound to the bed. "What is all this!? Take it off! TAKE IT OFF!," he shouted, frantically trying to get the equipment off him and rip the needles out of his arm.

At this point, Sonic raced over and grabbed his wrist, pulling it away from his body. Scourge jumped at the contact and whipped around to him, staring at him with wide, not-recognizing eyes. "Who are you!? The doctor? Fuck off, I don't need you!," the male snarled at him, trying to free himself out of his grip.

Sonic almost flinched back at the hostile tone. He knew, that Scourge couldn't know or recognize him right now, but the cold stare and colder voice still hurt a bit. "I'm not a doctor, just concerned about your health. You were lacking lots of vitamins and everyone had been pretty worried about you.," he explained calmly. It was a part of the truth, so it was true.

Scourge frowned at him. At least he had stopped struggling for the moment. "Nobody outside the gang is ever worried about me.," he muttered, his eyes narrowed in distrust. "Well, now there is.," Sonic replied and it was nothing but the truth.

Scourge seemed to feel it, but it obviously baffled him still. "...Why? You look like money. Why would you care for a street rat like me?," he asked, even more distrust entering his glare. Well, Sonic had no answer to that. He didn't need a reason to care for anyone. He just did.

"It's here.," a voice suddenly said from behind him, coming through the door he had left open. "Fine, let's get this over with.," another voice sighed and in the next second, Silver pulled Shy into the room. The teenage girl didn't look too thrilled to be led by the uke, to be here at all, but put up no resistance, either.

Silver brought her to the foot of the bed, a strange, almost empty look in his eyes, before stopping and letting her hand go.

"Okay, I bite. What is so important, that I need to be here?," Shy asked, after having let her eyes sweep over the occupants of the room, just stopping for a second longer than on the others on Sonic, before turning to Silver.

"I don't know. You need to be here.," Silver, whose eyes were as lively and bright as usual now, replied, frowning in obvious confusion, while he tried to remember, what had driven him to grab onto the girl and bring her here.

"Oh, it's you!," Scourge suddenly exclaimed, letting everyone flinch and turn to him. His eyes were on Shy, he grinned widely and Sonic believed to hear the thumping of his tail against the mattress.

"I never came to thank you! You were suddenly gone, I was so afraid they had gotten you after all!," the green furred male grinned.

Shy blinked at him. "Should I know, who you are and what you are talking about?," she asked, rather rudely.

Scourge frowned, his smile getting weaker. "It's me! You saved me from the Grabbers by pushing me into the dumpster, remember? I thought they got you, but you could flee after all! You must be so strong! You should totally join our Gang, the Boss could totally work with you!," Scourge chattered away, oblivious to the fact, that Shy turned gradually paler the further he came with his explanation, her eyes wide and that Silver turned to look at Shy, too, a look of astonishment on his face.

Shy didn't even see it, her eyes were solely on the male on the bed. "That was you.," she breathed, recognition and something else, that Sonic couldn't quite place, entering her eyes.

"Uhuh. I stayed totally still, like you told me to and they didn't find me. But where did you go then? Boss would have rewarded you for saving me!," Scourge explained, a honest smile on his face, now, that she had recognized him.

Shy swallowed thickly. "I...need to get out of here.," the teen choked and whirled around to run out of the room.

"WAIT!" Scourge's anguished call let her stop in the door frame, her left hand resting on its wood as she showed them her profile only. "What if the Grabbers come back!? Even Boss is afraid of them, I need you!," the green furred male called out in distress, having Shy positively floored, turning to stare at him with a slack jaw.

For a few heartbeats, they just stared, Shy with a shocked expression and Scourge with a pleading one, before Shy looked away.

"You...you don't have to be afraid anymore. They...the Grabbers...they are gone. The Golden Star wiped them all out.," she told him, causing Silver and Scourge to sigh in pure relief, while the teenage female took a quick leave. She seemed so distraught about whatever they had talked about, that she apparently forgot all about her powers, or she couldn't use them at the moment. Either way, Sonic heard her running away quickly with the sound of Curi's paws following her (and a few complaints of people she almost ran over).

Turning to Scourge, he saw him slumped into himself, as if his relief had swept him directly into sleep, snoring quietly.

"He's still very weak, it was to be expected, that he dropped off in the near future.," Maya explained in a whisper, while the both of them carefully lay him back down, Sonic making sure, that none of the cables and tubes were tangled around or under him.

Once he was lying properly, Maya started to systematically take off cables and tubes and Sonic, who couldn't even begin to help with that, turned to Silver, who stared, lost in thought, to the door frame, where Shy had stood two minutes ago.

"Silver? You okay?," Sonic asked, quieting his voice a bit to not disrupt Maya's concentration. She seemed not ready to take all of the machines and IVs off, yet, and he didn't want her to make a mistake by diverting her attention.

The uke's ears twitched and he looked over. "Uh...yes. I...just...I didn't think, that anyone would be that strong. I thought, nobody but Blaze could win against the Grabbers.," Silver replied, still a bit dazed.

"What are these 'Grabbers'?," Sonic asked. Silver all but whipped around to him, staring at him in bewilderment, before sighing. "I sometimes forget, that you weren't ever homeless.," he smiled.

It was meant as a compliment, even if it didn't sound like it. Almost everyone Silver knew and loved was or had been homeless. That he had forgotten, that Sonic had never lived on the streets, meant for him, that he saw him as part of his family.

Sonic was almost tempted to apologize for having a home. Well, for having a home, since he knew Tails. Before, he had been always on the move and made temporary homes for himself. A young child like Tails had needed stability, so he had – pretty much without noticing it – settled down for the most part.

"What does that have to do with anything?," he asked, while gently guiding Silver out of the room, figuring, that their talk would take a bit longer and he didn't want to wake Scourge up just yet.

"Every homeless knows the Grabbers, there are so many stories about them, told at night around fires. They are faceless creatures, appearing at night, grabbing homeless people off the streets and letting them disappear forever, never leaving a trace of the missing ones, aside from their stuff, and nobody ever found out, where they had disappeared to.," Silver explained, his voice just above a whisper, as if he was afraid, that the ominous Grabbers would make another appearance, if he spoke too loud.

Sonic's eyes widened, as this sounded rather creepy. "Didn't the police or GUN try to find them?," he asked in worry.

Silver shot him a pained look. "Sonic. Nobody cares about homeless.," he told him, as if he reminded him of something so obvious, that he should have known that himself. "If there are four or just three people standing around a bus stop, it doesn't make a difference to them. Homeless die every day, it doesn't interest so many people. Just the ones, who have to take the body away.," Silver explained gently, as if he knew, how much it bothered Sonic to learn that.

"And nobody has a clue, who those Grabbers are, or what they want?" Silver shook his head. "I only know this rhyme, that they told us since I can remember. Every homeless knows it. It goes like this: Do you see flowers? Stay right here. Do you see trees? The Grabbers are near."

Sonic blinked. "So...they are in forests?" Silver shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. Nobody knows anymore, who invented that rhyme and what it means. But it is said, that the Grabbers are as old as time itself and existed long before cities were built. I'm...just not sure, if that is true.," he quickly added.

"And what about this 'Golden Star'?," Sonic asked further. Silver frowned. "I'm...not sure. The Golden Star is a myth, even worse, than the Grabbers. Nobody knows, who he or she is, if he or she even exists. Like... Santa Claus. I can't believe, that Scourge still believes in them.," he added.

"Well, Scourge had a side effect, that made him think like a kid. Maybe this strange heart condition of his also had something to... do... with... this..." Sonic trailed off, when something clicked in his brain.

Scourge's heart making trouble around the time he had healed – no, revived – Conner, seeing this particular uke of all possible ones in his mind's eye...

Suddenly a bit dizzy, he leaned back against the wall next to Scourge's door. Instantly, Silver was at his side. "Are you okay?," he asked, worried.

"Er...y-yeah. I guess, that I only just now realized, that I saved a life back in the city, that would normally be lost to me and... everyone else.," the blue hedgehog replied silently.

His hand actually trembled a bit, when he dragged it through his quills. Until now, he had been preoccupied with other things, but now, he couldn't ignore any longer, what his instincts had done there.

And that without hesitating. As if they had known, that it would work. He didn't even know, what he had done there! He could definitely not repeat it – not, that he hoped for another occasion anytime soon...

What you think you have as powers is nothing in comparison to what you could do, if you were aware of it., Kylie had once told him and now, he believed her. He had given someone his life back, as if it had been a run through a park.

It was scary in a way, that he could do this. Was this, how Shadow had felt, when he had saved him...?

He quickly moved away from that train of thought, concentrating on something more important. There had been something strange about the whole event...

It had made sense – in a way – that he had... channeled Scourge or whatever he had done there, but why Happy, too?

Sure, Conner had been in a bad condition and Happy was one of the few people he knew about, who could have helped him, but he had never seen his full potential, if he could have pulled a full healing off, if he had been there.

Had it been a coincidence, that he had thought about the red furred male – or was there another reason? Maybe...could he be the descendant of the legendary Hedgehog of the red Chaos Emerald...?

Well, according to Kylie, it was his own ability to tap into every ability the other six hedgehogs had, so it would fit...

Knuckles hadn't been able to translate the carved in word (or words, honestly, he couldn't even begin to decipher this chicken scratch...) on the red hedgehog's figurine, just, that it had something to do with life.

He hadn't focused too much on the wooden piece's posture, but he remembered, that it had held both arms in front of itself, the hands forming a plate, as if it had wanted to give something invisible away. And weren't Healers giving their own energy to heal someone? Well, they saved lives, so...maybe that stood on the figurine's back...

He made a mental note to ask Knuckles about it soon, when a nasty headache made itself known. With a hiss, he grabbed his throbbing forehead.

"Sonic?," Silver asked, even more worried. "I'm okay, just a headache. It's probably just my blood sugar being low. I'm rather hungry.," the hero shrugged, straightening again. Saving a life – in the most literal way possible – apparently build up an appetite.

"...Oh. The canteen isn't that far away. It isn't yet time for lunch, but there are always snacks for people, who skipped breakfast.," the younger uke explained. Well, technically Sonic had skipped at least a part of breakfast, when Kylie had gotten the call and taken off unexpectedly.

"Sounds good.," he decided and pushed off the wall. "Do they serve chilidogs there?" "I thought, you weren't allowed to eat some, yet!," Silver argued and Sonic regretted his repeated complaints about not getting his favorite meal from yesterday evening now, as Silver and Forest both had heard Kylie's opinion and reasoning on that matter.

"I'm sure it's fine now.," he reassured, as he allowed Silver to lead him to the canteen. Unlike him, the younger uke knew the way, after all.

"Why did you bring Shy in Scourge's room, anyway?," Sonic asked, when the silence stretched on.

It had been interesting and something about her talk with Scourge and his own talk with Silver seemed to remind him of something (even if he couldn't for the life of him say, of what...), not to mention the new lead to the Legendary Hedgehogs, that became a rather interesting topic, but it still seemed random to just drag the girl into the room.

Silver frowned in thought. "I'm not sure. I saw Shy, she had gotten lost again and I remember, that I TRIED to remember, why this situation was so familiar...and then I already stood in front of Scourge's bed. He will be fine, right? He seemed so...odd.," he added worriedly.

"Yeah, he will be fine. He just needs a nap.," Sonic replied honestly. "Does it often happen, that you lose track of things and don't know, how you got somewhere?"

Silver nodded. "Yeah. Sometimes, I also look for something, like a book or spices, while I'm cooking and suddenly, I have them, without knowing, how or where they have been." These occurrences seemed a part of his every day and had therefore long since lost their strangeness.

"Is it maybe part of your psychokinesis?," Sonic asked, trying to make sense out of this. Silver cocked his head. "I... don't think so. My psychokinesis only activates, when I'm really scared, or when I really concentrate. I'm not so stressed, when I cook. I can make great meals!"

"I'm sure of it. How...do you know, that your powers activate by fear?," Sonic asked carefully.

"That's, how Blaze and I learned of them first. I have always been sick, back then, you know? There were mostly good days, when I just felt drained and cold and everything ached, but there were also bad days, when everything hurt, as if there was glass embedded into every inch of my body and the coughing...it was just horrible. Every cough hurt so bad and I couldn't breathe sometimes, until it stopped. One day, when I was five, I got the worst coughing fit ever. It lasted several full minutes and...I...I just couldn't breathe in, at all."

He shivered at the probably still vivid memory. "I really thought, that I would die, but I didn't. When I could breathe again, Blaze and I saw, that lots of trash in our alley suddenly flew around and that my hands were glowing. After that, Blaze and I trained these powers, when I wasn't too tired. She always called it 'playing' and said, that I shouldn't ever tell anyone about this. She only broke the rule, when you were falling, two years ago." The two hedgehogs smiled at each other. Of course, Sonic knew about that, Silver and Scourge had recovered in his house after the Island-incident, after all, and the younger male had been proud to tell him about his rescue.

"Here we are.," Silver broke the contented silence between them and opened a big white double door. The room behind it was very large.

Several long tables with twelve chairs on each side and one on each head and foot, too, stood to their left and right in groups, leaving a broad aisle leading to the back free, where there was a buffet and a rectangle-shaped hole behind it in the wall. Behind the hole, Sonic could see people in light gray attire move about.

"That's the kitchen.," Silver explained, pointing to the hole. "You can order something there, if you don't like the prepared food."

They entered and Sonic noticed a few people sitting at tables to his left, mostly hedgehogs, but also a few humans and a very familiar armadillo, who nursed a cup of coffee and looked, as if he hadn't slept at all last night. Like the other beings in this room, he occupied one table on his own.

"Mighty!," Sonic called and, his hunger for a second forgotten, went over to him to plop on the chair opposite his friend.

One of his yellow ears twitched and the strong mobian looked up to smile tiredly at his friend. "Hey.," he greeted, waving a bit, before letting his arm fall on the table, looking drained.

"Woah, you okay?," Sonic asked in concern. Mighty was, due to his constant fear of hurting or killing someone with his boundless strength, a prime candidate for nightmares, but Sonic hadn't seen signs of those in his friend in a while.

The armadillo yawned and sipped on his cup, before answering. "Yeah. Just...didn't get all that much sleep last night. ...None, actually. Shy, Emma and Kari decided to throw a spontaneous slumber party. In my bed.," he added sourly.

Sonic grimaced in sympathy. In other words, those three could snore away, while Mighty had kept himself awake with all of his might in fear of falling asleep and hurting one of the girls.

"Why didn't you tell them to take a guest room or something?," Sonic asked. Mighty wasn't a pushover, despite being friendly most of the time. It wasn't like him to just let the girls – the far lighter and mostly smaller girls – walk all over him.

Mighty rubbed his forehead. "They looked SO terrified standing there in front of my door. Something really scared them. And after what happened with Conner, I'm really glad they stayed with me last night.," he added darkly.

"You think, that the culprit wanted to do this to Shy or her sisters?," Sonic asked, feeling Instinct Sonic snarl in anger in his mind. So far, he had believed, that Conner had been the target because of his connection to Shy, as someone apparently left a message for her – but could she have been the potential victim after all and Conner just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time? Somehow, this would be worse, if it were true.

"It's what Shy believes. She doesn't say it, but it's obvious by the way she has enlisted some of the strongest ukes and semes here to watch over her sisters at all times now and how she seems unable to leave Conner's side for longer than absolutely necessary. I hate feeling so helpless. If I knew, who did this, I would kill him. But as it is, I need a face first before I can bash it in.," he growled.

He still saw Shy's face, when she and a bloodied Conner had appeared in his bedroom, so pale and drawn with worry. She had cleaned the uke with her powers off the worst of the blood and he had all but collapsed into his bed. The teen had then shortly told the shocked armadillo, what had happened – leaving Sonic completely out of the tale, as if Conner had just come back to life due to someone's reviving skills. Without her having to ask, Mighty had offered to watch over him, until Shy had looked after her sister and organized them some bodyguards.

He had only been relieved from his duty, when he had found one of Blush's sisters on his balcony, who had announced, that the uke's safety was her duty now. Completely exhausted from no sleep for so long, he had agreed. Now, after recovering a bit, he had had time to think about what he would do to this asshole...

While Silver scooted a bit back at his obvious anger, Sonic just smiled. "No breakfast, yet, huh?," he asked. His hunger usually got him mean headaches and/or dizzy spells, while Mighty always became rather aggressive, when his stomach was empty.

"Not really. I'm glad I remembered how the coffee maker worked.," the other muttered, taking a sip of the bitter fluid. "I'll get us something.," Sonic offered, purposefully telling him this way, that he would eat with him.

The armadillo liked it to spend time with his friends and activities like eating together were ones, that didn't put his friends in risk of getting hurt by him. He just nodded, smiling gratefully.

"Er...is that okay? I mean, this is the seme-side!," Silver asked, worried. Mighty shifted his focus to the nervous male, while Sonic looked between the two halves of the dining hall, but couldn't find any indication, that any half was solely for ukes.

"Of course it is. The uke-side exists to give you guys some space from semes, if you don't feel comfortable around them. If you don't want to hang out around me, that's fine. I don't mind.," the armadillo explained.

He did mind, Mighty hated being alone more than anything and Silver seemed to feel this, too. Immediately, he shifted a bit closer to Mighty again. "I'll stay. I didn't ask you that, yet, but wanna be friends?," he asked, determined.

The strong mobian seemed a bit astounded by the abrupt change of heart, but then he grinned. "I would love to.," he answered warmly, making the young uke giggle happily.

Seeing, that those two were alright now, Sonic went to pick something from the buffet. Before he could, though, a tray with three plates on it was pushed through the hole just in his reach.

Looking up, he met the face of a smiling mobian rabbit female. "Hello, Sonic. It has been a while, since we last saw each other. How have you been these days?," Vanilla greeted gently.

"Just fine, thanks. What about you and Cream? And are those your famous carrot crepes?," Sonic replied, just now recognizing the dish on all three plates, each decorated with a tuft of whipped cream and a rose out of a carrot slice.

"Indeed they are. You three boys looked, like you needed something nutritious and not too sweet."

"And Cheese and I helped!," Cream piped up, standing on her tiptoes to try and look over the counter. Cheese sat as usual on her head.

"Then they'll be the most tastiest for sure. Thank you for doing this.," Sonic grinned down on her, making her beam. "Anytime! I can make seconds, if you like! I just have to make more, the batter went out real quick!," the girl offered enthusiastically. Apparently, she had discovered her love for cooking. No surprise, seeing how her mother enjoyed doing it.

"How about you help me with preparing lunch for everyone? In just two hours, we'll have lots of hungry mouths to fill.," Vanilla suggested, a tad too quickly.

Cream didn't notice it. Her entire being pretty much lit up and she and Cheese cheered and hurried out of his sight. "She meant well, but Cheese added his own share of ingredients, I'm afraid.," the hare explained in a hushed voice. Sonic smiled in understanding. Sometimes, Cheese was like Cream's little, curious brother, often imitating her actions. While it was usually not a problem, trying to cook with Cream was bound to be disastrous, as the Chao rarely payed attention to instructions.

It was probably good, that Vanilla had replaced the batter with her own before finishing the crepes.

Thanking the female again, he picked up the tray and returned to the table with his friends. Silver was just in the middle of an animated story about how Blaze accidentally set a room in Mephiles' house on fire, when he arrived.

"...Mephy could extinguish the fire, but he was pretty mad at Blaze and she eventually moved out. I was very sad, but she still visited at least once a week! Even here.," Silver just reported. "She's a good friend. I heard she took a job as a guardian around here. She's already a legend, nobody wants to mess with her.," Mighty smiled. "She's my sister, so she's naturally tough. And I love her!," the uke grinned back.

Then, he noticed Sonic and gasped. "Are these Mrs Vanilla's carrot crepes!?," he asked excitedly. "They seem to be famous here, too, huh?," Sonic grinned, while Silver quickly helped himself to one of the plates.

"Are they really that good?," Mighty asked curiously, eyeing the dish Sonic placed before him with some cutlery.

"Remember the cake we brought for Knux' last birthday party? Came from the same cook.," Sonic explained in a way of answering and Mighty's eyes went wide, when he remembered the heavenly taste of said cake. "Okay, I'm convinced.," he stated and dug in with his friends.

For a few minutes, there were no talks between them aside from appreciations of the masterpiece they ate.

"Amazing, I'm actually full.," Mighty eventually said after the last bite, rubbing his belly. The portion hadn't been as big as his normal ones, but filled him better than those. "That's Mrs. Vanilla's secret superpower!," Silver whispered loudly. "I'd say.," Sonic and Mighty both agreed, chuckling.

"Feeling better?," Sonic asked, after they had reigned themselves in again. "Much. Thanks. But I will still turn in early today. Maybe get myself a cot so I'll get some actual sleep. Although, I'm pretty sure, that Shy will go to Scythe next night.," Mighty mumbled, apparently not aware of him thinking out loud there.

"Does she trust Scythe more than you?," Sonic wondered, jarring him from his thoughts. Mighty shrugged. "I'd like to think, that she trusts me, Blush and Scythe equally, but she is no idiot. She knows, that I didn't sleep a wink last night and dead-tired, I'm of no use for her. Scythe can sleep like a rock and be hyper aware at the same time."

He often wondered, if she really slept, or just pretended to and snored loud enough to rattle their bones all night to jump at the throat of everyone trying to silence her. Then again, if that was the case – when did she actually sleep? No, it was more logical to assume, that she somehow still heard something over her own snoring, as impossible as it seemed.

"And Blush?," Silver asked curiously. Mighty grimaced. "Let's just say, that it's no fun to sleep in the vicinity of an assassin. Leave it at that." There was a reason, why Blush chose strange resting places, like the crown of a tree, where nobody could get closer to her – and it wasn't for her taking over the watch at night. Silver nodded, not arguing.

He almost jumped out of his fur, when the door to the canteen banged open and Mina came rushing in, panting. She looked around in a hurry, spotted Mighty and raced towards him, stopping in front of the table just before she could slam into it.

"Mighty, can you destroy walls!?," she asked quickly. "Good morning to you, too. And sure I can.," the armadillo replied, a bit irritated by her rush. He had just eaten and had been digesting, when she had come and made such a ruckus.

"You have to help me, it's DJ! She's stuck in a wall, I think.," Mina pleaded. Mighty didn't even blink at that statement, he just sighed and stood up. "One of these days, this girl will kill someone with her stunts.," he muttered, clearly annoyed. Apparently, it wasn't that rare, that he had to help her. "Alright, let's get this over with."

"I'll come with you! DJ's my friend!," Silver immediately told them and stood up, too. "One second." An exact second later, Sonic had gathered their plates, forks and knives on the tray and returned it to the passage to the kitchen before he met them again.

"Let's go.," he told them and the blushing Mina hurried out of the room, the others quickly following her.


She led them to a small piece of simple wall between two windows, that formed a right angle to the hallway they just came through and in that Sonic could see a single foot sticking out. Like the last time he had met the unusual girl, her contours seemed strangely blurred. A pair of haphazardly strewn around red roller blades lay in front of the wall.

"It was here. I already checked the outside, but she wasn't there, so she has to be stuck between the inner and outer wall.," Mina explained as they came to a stop.

"Well, it's kind of obvious, isn't it?," Sonic asked, pointing to the twitching foot sticking out of the wall. The other three looked at the spot he pointed on and then back at him. "But there's nothing there.," Silver told him innocently.

Mighty frowned in thought, before something seemed to click and he snorted. "How could I forget that? Of course, your perception is as fast as your feet!," he laughed, shaking his head.

"Er...yeah. So?," Sonic asked, not sure, what this was about. "DJ has the ability to move her molecules so fast, that she can slip them past solid obstacles. To the naked eye, she seems to disappear in the process, but you can apparently keep track with her still.," Mighty explained. "Sure can. But why can't she just slip out again?," Sonic wondered.

"Every solid texture has, so to say, its own wavelength and DJ can't exactly switch between those while being stuck in one of those solid objects.," Mina explained, not looking at him. "These walls have a metal frame inside of them. DJ is probably tangled in the support transoms.," Mighty supplied. "O...kay... Could you rip the wall open?," the Alpha asked his strong friend, who blinked. "Er...sure?," he replied and went to the wall, kicking the roller-blades aside with a mumbled "I should really confiscate those".

Placing himself in front of the wall, he eyed it worriedly. "I hope, this doesn't let the building fall in...," he muttered, having no idea of the building's static, while he carefully plunged his fingers into the material and slowly pealed the thick layer of marble and brick beneath it off. He grunted, as he had to measure his strength anew with every inch he added to the debris he grabbed and broke off.

Eventually, he had created a decent hole, big enough for Sonic to peer through and see the female tangled in the metal frame. Chaos, she was fairly stuck! She had probably slammed with her middle against a thicker transom and then performed half a flip forwards from the looks of it. Her left leg, whose foot he had seen sticking out of the wall, was hooked awkwardly around a higher located, thinner transom, her right arm dangled over a lower one and her left hugged a vertical support beam, against that her head and shoulder were pressed.

"She's stuck, alright.," he mumbled, racking his brain for a solution, that wouldn't include taking the metal frame apart. He had learned enough from Tails' endless descriptions on how he built his inventions to know, that it wasn't easy, if not impossible even, to fix the inner structure of anything, once it was damaged.

"Is she okay!? She isn't hurt, is she?," Mina asked nervously. Sonic looked over to her. "Can't you see this for yourself? I mean, you run almost as fast as I do!," he argued, confused.

Mina blushed, either in embarrassment or because their eyes had met and she quickly looked away. "It...it just happens, when I run myself. Otherwise, my perception is just like everyone else's.," she explained silently.

"I see...," Sonic muttered, already thinking about what he could do to help DJ. His eyes slid over to Silver, who seemed to wait patiently for any indication, that he could be of help.

"Silver, could you try to grab DJ?," he asked. "Er...I don't see her...," Silver reminded him anxiously. "I'll guide you. Mighty, mind giving me a lift?," he asked.

The armadillo just smirked and held out his hand, as if he wanted to catch raindrops. With a skilled jump, Sonic landed on the hand, holding his balance easily, while steering his friend a bit closer to the wall with a simple instruction.

Once he was, where he wanted to be, he raised his hands left and right from DJ's raised foot as if wanting to cup it. "Try to grab her foot, here between my hands.," he instructed and Silver complied, a turquoise ball appearing between Sonic's palms, engulfing the girl's ankle and foot to her toes. "Great job. Now, try to move back, nice and slow." As he had hoped, the limb moved with Silver's energy and got easily disentangled.

Jumping off Mighty's palm, Sonic continued to instruct Silver to carefully free DJ from her precarious situation.

It was a slow process, as Silver was completely blind on that matter and very afraid of making a mistake despite the continuous encouragements, but Sonic, amazingly enough, didn't lose his patience. It was probably, because he was the only one around to help and because Silver was younger than him, which naturally made the Alpha more patient.

Eventually, DJ hung like a piece of wet clothing on a clothesline with her middle over the transom, that had started the whole trouble in the first place. She was not moving, but otherwise free.

Getting her out of the wall proved to be another challenge, as Silver had still no idea, what he was doing there and Sonic had to keep his eyes pretty much everywhere to make sure, that the girl wouldn't get smashed against another metal transom, while being gently lifted around her waist and carried out of the hole.

Once the girl was out of her self-made prison, she turned solid – in Sonic's eyes, her contours became clear again – and groaned. "No more rollerblading.," she moaned, while Silver gently lowered her on her feet and his psychokinetic grip changed from her middle to her shoulders, carefully righting her. Her face was contorted to a grimace and her complexion had turned slightly green. "Now I know, how the laundry feels.," she went on, swaying and leaning heavily on Mina, who had quickly come to her aid.

Eventually, she seemed to have recovered and straightened, or better: tried to. The moment she had just a slightly hunched over posture only, she winced, grabbing her middle, and rather let herself sink into herself a bit more, which seemed to alleviate the pain she felt. "I think I bruised my stomach.," she whined.

"Which would be the least you deserved. That was totally irresponsible, you could have hurt countless other people! And I thought I had told you not to roller blade anymore!," Mighty chastised sternly.

It surprised Sonic just a little to see the armadillo so angry. DJ's situation had been pretty dire and it was in the strong fighter's nature to be worried about others, especially when he knew them – and rollerblading was a dangerous thing to do indoors. Judging by how mad he got, this wasn't the first time he had to talk with the girl about safety. Still, it wasn't normal for him to actually scold. He himself had been pretty reckless at first, too with his powers, until someone had gotten hurt...

Oh. This was probably it. The girl reminded him too much of himself with her recklessness...

"Relax. You KNOW, that I never hurt anyone, but myself.," DJ shrugged, flinching, when she agitated her bruises.

"In case you haven't noticed it, I don't like you getting hurt, too.," Mighty told her. The female scowled, her eyes narrowing. "Yeah, right. As if I have never heard THAT one before. Do me a favor and save your breath for someone, who gives a damn.," she hissed and whirled around, almost collapsing due to the pain, but only just managing it to stay upright.

Mina followed her and went on to support her. "Come on, I'll help you to a ward.," she told her silently and led her away, while Mighty sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I really need to lie down.," he grunted tiredly, apparently not in the mood for further discussions about this topic and left, too, but in the other direction.

Silver looked after both parties, before turning to Sonic. "Did I do something wrong?," he asked shyly, overwhelmed by the situation.

Sonic smiled and gently put a hand on his shoulder, feeling the tension under his fingers ease up immediately. "Don't worry, you didn't. Mighty and DJ are just a bit grumpy and need some time alone.," he soothed.

Silver nodded quickly. "Okay. Oh, you were with Forest at the doctor's, right? Are his babies alright now?," he asked, what he had almost forgotten. "Er... I guess so. But...Forest has...kind of...changed. He's...er...purple now.," Sonic tried to break the news to Silver gently. He and Forest were friends, so he should know.

"Oh." Silver blinked at him, seemingly trying to understand, what he meant with his words. Then, he showed a broad grin. "That's okay! I like purple, reminds me of Blaze.," he declared happily.

"Good...to know, I guess...," Sonic replied, baffled by his easy acceptance. Anyone else would have asked, how this had happened, but Silver seemed to know this already...

Sonic took a double take. "Er... Silver? Did you...know, that I would say something like that?," he asked slowly.

The Beta cocked his head. "Hm...no. But what you told me, still didn't feel new.," he confessed.

Sonic looked at the male, contemplating. If their roles were reversed, he would probably go insane.

Silver could apparently foresee a lot without even noticing it, making things appear well-known, when they had just taken place. He himself liked not knowing, what would happen next, it made his life so exciting. Always having a clue about the future, it would probably let him die from boredom...

"Sonic? Are you okay?," Silver asked, waving a hand in front of his friend's eyes. The blue hero blinked, shaking his head a bit to return to reality. "Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry, I just spaced out a bit. Should we go and check up on Forest?," Sonic suggested, earning an eager nod. "Okay! Race you there!," Silver giggled and surrounded himself with his aura, levitating his form.

Sonic grinned. "Oh, you'll regret that. Ready?," he asked, going into a crouch. "Set!," Silver answered, imitating his stance in the air. "GO!"


The race of the two hedgehogs ended earlier, than Sonic would have liked it – or expected. They were just racing down a hallway, when Kylie and Forest in his new form stepped into it from a side entrance.

Sonic could stop on a dime, so despite seeing the two just in the last second, as he had teased Silver to get him to get faster while looking over his shoulder, he could avoid a crash, but not scaring the already upset looking Forest, who jumped at his sudden appearance and nearly fell over in shock, but Sonic caught and righted him, before he could overbalance.

Kylie and Silver weren't as lucky. Silver was still bound to the laws of physics, even surrounded by his own psychokinesis, and once he started moving, he could only stop, when his remaining kinetic energy was used up – or when he was stopped.

Unfortunately for human and hedgehog, the second option was the case here. Silver hit Kylie's chest head-on and they toppled over.

Although he had slowed himself as much as possible, the woman's rear still made a painful impact with the floor, Silver landing in her lap.

"You okay?," Sonic asked, while Forest, who had quickly recovered from his shock, clung to him, sobbing. His arms drew him immediately into a hug.

"Surprisingly, the answer to this is 'yes'. Meph isn't always around to protect me, I get barreled over quite often. This is harmless in comparison.," Kylie shrugged. One could think, that getting barreled over by hedgehogs was some kind of life style of hers...

Meanwhile, Silver had gathered his bearings again and looked up. A gasp escaped his lips. "You're bleeding!," he squeaked and Sonic's head snapped up.

He relaxed, when he realized, that Kylie had just a few small red dots growing slowly around tiny holes in her light pink shirt, where Silver's smallest quills had pierced her skin. If anything, her shirt being ruined was the worst thing here.

"Silver, relax, it's not so bad. I'll get Meph to fix it, no problem.," Kylie soothed and, when she noticed his nervous stare, added, "In a bit. Why don't you go ahead and meet me in the foyer? I think, Forest could use a walk."

He could use a lot more than that, Sonic presumed: the poor uke was still dissolving into tears on his soaked shoulder and didn't seem able to stop. "What's wrong with...?" Sonic interrupted himself, when a realization hit him. "...Where are his young?," he asked, having Forest wail even louder and cling to him tighter.

Kylie grimaced in sympathy. "Our ICU, specialized on children's care. Their lack in nutrients was worse than we had feared and Scythe's help unfortunately put a giant shock onto their systems, which didn't do them good at all. They need a few days of very close care and observation and there is no telling, if there is any lasting damage.," she summed up the last 45 minutes – and Forest's entire misery.

"And you blame yourself for this?," Sonic asked the hedgehog in his arms. Forest shook his head. "K-Kylie explained. It's...n-not my fault.," he whispered.

"Then what-?" "Sonic, he is for the first time away from his young and they aren't well to make it worse. His instincts go crazy, especially, since they can't fully grasp, that we are helping his little ones. He listens to me as an Alpha, but that doesn't mean, that he really understands and, well, that's why he is upset.," Kylie explained, while lifting Silver gently off her and standing up.

"I see...," Sonic mumbled, not sure, how to handle this situation. There was nothing anyone could do now, it was all in the doctors' hands – and of course of the little ones. His Inner Alpha seemed clueless, too. He didn't offer anything, but he felt more inclined to follow Kylie's plan of action now.

"Let's go to the foyer, maybe outside. Fresh air will do you good.," he gently instructed and eventually, Forest let go of him and allowed the hero to lead the way, Silver quickly following them, while Kylie waited for them to be out of sight, before she called Mephiles to herself.


"What did the doctors say in detail?," Sonic asked after a minute of silence. "They...they are lacking pretty much every nutrient there is. They need special IVs with vitamin and nutrient solutions, that are suited for their little bodies. They said...their brains...they could be damaged...underdeveloped." Forest almost burst into tears again at the mere thought.

"When can they tell for sure?," Sonic asked, feeling a sudden rock in his stomach, as if they were talking about Tails or Cream.

"As soon as their vitals are remotely normal and they become more active, they will be tested for the basic abilities and skills children of their age should have. Then, I have to bring them over once a week for a while to keep track of their development.," Forest answered immediately.

Despite his stress, he had been able to listen closely to the doctor's instructions and memorize them. In fact, everything concerning his young's health had been pretty much engraved into stone and would always be remembered.

"If you want to, I can give you my number. When you need me to accompany you to any of those appointments, you can just call and I'll be there.," Sonic offered.

"B-but you're a hero! Is there...I...I mean, there are for sure other things you have to do!," Forest protested, blushing in embarrassment at the attention.

"Well, I can't ditch Eggman, when he goes on a rampage, but trying to reach me anyway won't hurt, will it? Besides, I can always catch up to you.," Sonic grinned.

Forest hesitated, but then nodded with a smile. "...Thank you.," he whispered, just as they rounded a corner and stepped into the foyer. The badger behind the receptionist's desk was gone and instead, there sat Mali in her wheelchair, studying something in her computer.

A good second later, Sonic was almost run over by a blur of white and yellow, that clung to him with all their strength the moment their bodies collided. As it was, Sonic just shifted his leg behind his body to catch himself and returned the hug of his little brother with the same vigor.

He felt the double fox tails wrap around him in a rare show of insecurity and the need to stay close and he let him. He knew, that Tails was constantly worried about him ever since the Island-incident had been over and his little crying mess from the day before hadn't been confidence-building. No wonder, that the boy was so clingy right now. "Hey, little buddy.," he greeted gently, petting his back and the back of his head.

Eventually, Tails let go and he set him to his feet. His blue eyes were still full of worry and roamed over his form, seemingly looking for something.

"What's wrong?," Sonic wondered. Tails flinched a bit and fidgeted. "It's just...we watched the news this morning and they said something about a dead, yet to be identified hedgehog in the vicinity of the Shelter and you being involved. W-we thought...," he stopped and swallowed thickly.

Sonic looked up and saw Sally and Rotor standing next to the receptionist's desk, looking as worried as Tails was.

"And I had my communicator at our place and there was probably nobody anymore at Kylie's to answer your calls. I'm so sorry, buddy, I didn't mean to worry you. Besides, it was fake news. Nobody died.," Sonic soothed and hugged the fox again. It wasn't unusual for him to forget his communicator, but there were a few occasions, like this, when he regretted not taking it with him.

"You're coming home today, right?," Tails asked, trying – and failing – not to sound insistent. "Sure, as soon as I'm done here.," Sonic replied immediately. Honestly, he wasn't too keen on being in his room – smelling like Shadow or not – right now, but he could always sleep on the roof or the couch. It was better than putting even more stress on the young fox. Tails smiled happily and Rotor and Sally seemed also relieved.

Just then, Kylie joined them, showing no signs of her little 'meeting' with Silver anymore. "Hey there. Sorry for the wait.," she greeted and apologized. She noticed Tails' just fading distress and frowned. "What's wrong?," she asked.

"Some news channel reported about a dead hedgehog and Sonic being involved near the Shelter.," Sally answered for the young fox.

"Oh, really?," Kylie asked with the dangerous tone of someone, who would rip off some heads, and soon.

She whipped out her mobile and pressed a button, before placing it against her ear. "Hey, Frank, I-" She was apparently interrupted by this 'Frank' and listened carefully, before grinning brightly. "Did I ever tell you, how great you are? Thanks a lot, I'll let John know to give your paycheck a bonus. Say hello to your wife and children from me, bye."

With that she hung up. "Everything's under control. Our lawyers already found the ones responsible and give them hell. Now, how about we look at your new apartment and for some furniture for it, until Vremy is available?," she suggested towards Forest, who froze.

"B-but...I... D-don't you have...appointments, or something? I...I mean...do you have the time?," he stammered, blushing a deeper red.

"Mali?," Kylie asked the receptionist. "No appointments whatsoever.," the woman replied without looking up, not missing a beat.

"See? Let's go. Want to tag along, Silver?," Kylie invited the Beta, who perked up. "Is that okay?," he asked Forest, since Kylie had suggested it in the first place.

"Yes!," Forest exclaimed, far too fast to be subtle, before quickly stopping himself. "I...I mean...that...would be nice.," he amended. Despite his instincts accepting Kylie as an Alpha, it made him nervous to be so close to a human on his own, so having a Beta with him was better.

"Before you go." Sonic raced over to Mali. "Do you have a pen and paper I could borrow?," he asked with a winning grin.

"Sure.," Mali replied and handed him both. The request came probably too often for her to be surprised still.

The blue hedgehog quickly scribbled something on the paper, gave the pen back and raced over to Forest. "Here. Our telephone number. Call whenever you need me. And maybe you'll get a communicator, then I can give you that number, too.," Sonic explained, while Forest took the sheet of paper delicately, as if it could crumble under too much pressure. "Th-thank you.," the Gamma mumbled.

Grinning, Sonic turned to his friends. "I have to go and talk with someone now. See you later!," he waved and was out the door, before anyone could answer.

"We'll go, too. Try not to upset my robots too much, okay? Especially Bokkun.," Kylie added, grinning crookedly and ushered her two hedgehog companions through another hallway.

"Er...Mali...could you...?," Tails started, still a bit embarrassed, that he had almost ambushed her, before Sonic had arrived, demanding for Kylie or Sonic, whoever could give him answers, in a more aggressive way than Shadow had ever done it.

"Already did. They should arrive shortly. Bocoe and Decoe always fall over each other, whenever they are called and hurry, but the others are more relaxed.," the woman replied, while Sally used the moment to inform Bunnie and Antoine, who were waiting at Tails and Sonic's home for news – and Sonic, should he decide to come back home – of the hedgehog being alright.

"I see. Thanks. And...sorry, about earlier.," Tails apologized. Mali smirked. "No worries, it's not so bad."

"But-" "You were just worried. Why would I be mad at you for that?" "You were angry with Shadow before...," Tails reminded her. "Because HE had no reason to be worried in the first place.," Mali shrugged.

Thankfully, Decoe and Bocoe – and a good part of the glass door – just came running in and spared the mobian an answer to that.


The semes' territory on the grounds of the Shelter was officially off limits for ukes, but there were no signs whatsoever needed to get the point across.

The heavy scent of a large group of the dominant males, that was spread around with every movement they made, was everything the ukes needed to detect to stay away.

There were always exceptions, though, Mephiles guessed, when he noticed the scent of a close by uke and, like every other seme close enough to smell it, he turned his head to see, what hedgehog was crazy enough to jump over the fence separating them firmly from potential assault and/or harm.

For some reason, the demonic being couldn't bring himself to be surprised, when he recognized Sonic striding towards him, as if they were the only ones around.

Sparing glances to the side at the other semes, Mephiles noticed, that, although many looked interested – even some of those, who already had a mate –, they didn't try to get closer.

The reason for that became obvious a split second later, when it hit him himself: Sonic gave off a scent, that could have been an iron wall for all the distance it gave him. Even Mephiles got the message: Leave me alone, I'm busy.

What his business was, became obvious, when he stopped in front of Mephiles, who felt inclined to turn towards him the second he couldn't ignore Sonic's intention to speak with him any longer.

"I need a word with you.," Sonic told him simply, a clear order in those six words. "Very well.," Mephiles replied and snapped his fingers. Immediately, it became silent.

Curiously, Sonic looked around and saw the two of them surrounded by a light violet glowing half-globe, while everyone else outside this shield seemed to be frozen in place.

"I figured, that you meant 'in private'.," Mephiles offered as an explanation.

Sonic nodded and although he didn't say it, the demonic being felt his approval. Then, he turned to face him completely. "We need to talk. About immortality.," he said and again, it sounded like an order.

"Ah. So he finally told you.," Mephiles replied, liking, how Sonic faltered for a second there in his stoic facade.

"Yes. I want to know, what this...entails, I guess.," he mumbled, looking away. Mephiles chuckled. "What, did the deal not come with a contract?," he mocked.

Sonic's head whipped around again and pinned the male with a stare, that let his laughter cut off abruptly. Not, because the glare was in any way threatening, but rather, because his air supply was suddenly close to being cut off – a clear warning of the Alpha not to fool around with him.

"I understand.," he managed to get out and the vice grip around his throat disappeared. "Let's see... May I take a closer look at your aura? It would be necessary to determine just what type of immortality you have.," he added. For this to work, seeing alone wasn't enough, he would need to mix his aura with his own and then judge by the outcome.

Sonic blinked. "There is...more than just one type of immortality?," he asked. His stance was guarded still, meaning, that Mephiles had to explain first, before he could get the aura sample he required.

"Indeed there are. Mine, for example, is a natural one. I was born to be immortal and I will continue to live, until someone either manages to kill me, or until I do the deed myself. Not, that I plan on doing anything like that anytime soon.

Should Silver ever allow me back into his life, he would receive the Gifted Immortality. It's a natural immortality, that can only be given to someone else out of deepest love. As my kind is usually unable to feel any emotion at all, I doubt, that you will encounter many of those.

Then, there is the Bound Immortality. It means, that someone is bound to someone or something else's life force and lives for as long as this someone or object exist. In return, their own natural life span adds up to that of the one binding him or her. Your echidna friend is one of those.," Mephiles added nonchalantly.

Sonic jumped, as if he had been attacked. "What!?," he exclaimed. "He's bound to that big glowing rock of his.," the seme shrugged.

"The Master Emerald? But...how?," he asked. "How am I supposed to know that? I can't even go close to this thing.," Mephiles muttered.

There weren't many objects, that hurt as much as this stupid gem did, when he came too close. It was far too bright and...something else he wasn't masochistic enough to try and figure out by going close to it again, unless he absolutely had to.

"But the Emerald broke into pieces before!," Sonic argued. "It doesn't seem like it, so he apparently repaired it again. Look, I don't know, how this rock works, alright? But your friend isn't in danger of extinction anytime soon. The rock seems pretty unbreakable to me. Should someone find a way to destroy that rock permanently, your friend will die, however."

Well, for the moment, Sonic was calmed. The Master was pretty resident and Knuckles' life had so far never been in danger, when the stone had been... He would warn him next time he saw him, anyway.

"Then, of course, there is the Artificial Immortality. The name is actually stupid, because it is technically no immortality. There are some people, who can steal the life force of others to lengthen their own with demon magic. Foolish waste of effort and resources, if you ask me, because this only works for so long and then, they die anyway.

The creator of your precious Shadow," he got a small warning growl for that, "took another approach. Instead of sacrificing other creatures, he used the natural power of Chaos and connected his Life Form to it to make him immune to every kind of death there is, making sure, that he would recover from everything thrown at him. Naturally, there is still the problem of cell death."

"Cell death?," Sonic repeated. "I don't know too much about biology, but I know, that every body cell of a normal human, mobian, plant or animal has a pre-programmed expiration date and a limited amount of cells, that can replace the died ones. When you have reached your last set of body cells and they die, so do you. That's nature and a natural death."

That he had had in the past quite a bit of fun with finding out, how many cells his enemies and/or victims had in them, was rather kept a secret in front of the overly moral-bound hero.

"Gerald Robotnik knew that, of course, and found a way around it. As he programmed Shadow's entire existence, this also stretched to his cells. He never let me close enough to really find out more, but I figure, that his cells live far longer than an average mobian hedgehog one's and he has most likely more cells in storage than any other living being, which gives him a very long life and the illusion of immortality. He is still too easy to kill, at least for me, but bounces back from pretty much everything else. I wasn't aware, that he could share his immortality, but I figure, that he did exactly this to you."

That he had given Shadow a slight kick in the tail to tell the hero finally the truth in the first place, was something, that he rather didn't mention. He almost got suffocated for mockery, this would bring him as close to death as the blue uke could bring him and he wasn't in the mood for that.

Sonic needed a second to digest all the information, before taking a deep breath. "Okay, fine.," he consented to the dark seme's earlier request and loosened his stance to an only slightly nervous one, since he didn't know, what Mephiles planned to do in detail.

The sudden show of trust surprised the other, although it shouldn't – he was part of Sonic's colony, which gave him a lot of trust. It was just a little dented, due to the uncertainty of the situation and him making Silver miserable yesterday.

Mephiles crossed the distance between them and swiped his fingertips in front of the hero's chest, as if trying to scratch it – at least Agent Shadow would see it like that, the seme thought, amused – but didn't touch him in the slightest, not even his fur, just his aura, collecting a big enough sample.

Retreating his hand and moving also a step back – the appropriate distance from colony member to Alpha – he looked at the aura portion dancing in his hand.

Unconsciously, he changed the sphere's light balance, allowing Sonic to see his aura, too, burning golden as before, yet darker than the last time he had seen it.

"Hmm...interesting.," the male mused. "Did he mention by any chance, what exactly he did to give you your immortality?," he asked.

Sonic felt blood rush up to his cheeks. "Er...he shared his blood and Chaos Energy with me.," he quickly answered, hoping, that Meph wouldn't pry.

Thankfully, he didn't. "...Interesting.," he just repeated. He transformed his free hand not holding the aura to a crystal adorned claw and snatched a little bit off the mass of aura, keeping it between his claw tips and Sonic watched, how something black crawled from his hand to his aura, engulfing it.

For a second, his aura seemed to brighten the blackness, but was then swallowed completely by it, just like last time he had manipulated his aura, back in Kylie's office. "Very interesting.," Mephiles said for a third time.

"What is so 'interesting'?," Sonic asked impatiently. "You seem to have none of the types of immortality I know, but a different one altogether."

"Seriously?," Sonic asked. "Yes. It's definitely artificial, since Agent Shadow gave this one to you, however, I would have expected your aura to be extinguished far earlier by mine." "It was just slightly slower than last time you extinguished it!," the hero argued.

"Last time I used purposefully more than necessary of my aura, like pouring an entire cup of water over a small candle's flame. This time, I wanted to see, how many drops of water the flame could handle.," Mephiles replied, thoughtfully.

For Sonic, it hadn't looked so astounding, but the demonic being had been almost unable to swallow the aura sample, hadn't he turned the intensity of his own up a notch. As if trying to extinguish a stubborn fire, that just came to life again, when you thought, it was gone now. And that worried him, because this wasn't, how an aura with Artificial Immortality should work. "Tell me, did you get seriously hurt, since you received your immortality?," he asked.

"Well, I was apparently close to death, when Shadow had to do, what he did. And then...there had been that incident with number 300 almost killing me. Since then, just cuts and bruises."

"Illnesses?" "A few – and if you say 'interesting' one more time...," Sonic threatened, his quills rising in annoyance. He wanted answers!

Mephiles chuckled. "Well, it is sparking my curiosity. From what I can tell, your immortality was modified by this incident at the beach, when your life was in danger for the first time after becoming immortal. I have no idea, how that happened, or what this might mean for you. You probably need to die once for me to tell more."

"So in other words, you can't tell me anything about how this...affects me.," Sonic deadpanned, not liking, how casually Mephiles talked about dying...and not understanding, what he meant, either.

"I can tell you SOME things at least. It is clear to me, that you want to know as much as possible about this and I gladly oblige."

The 'gladly'-part made Sonic feel a bit queasy, but his curiosity was unleashed now. "Okay, do it.," he ordered and the other nodded. "Very well. Most immortal people are immune to illnesses and rarely need food or sleep. You are apparently able to get sick, which isn't so uncommon for the Artificial Immortality."

"So...Shadow could become ill, too?," Sonic asked, the question was out, before he could stop it.

Mephiles tilted his head, thinking. "I highly doubt it. His body had been built to kill every germ, before it even touches his skin. The girl he has tried to save depended on this little detail. Your immune system on the other hand may be strong, but it was never perfect to begin with, so even being an immortal, you will still get sick, but you won't die from any illness."

The recovery from some of the more gruesome illnesses would be pretty painful, not to mention long, but Mephiles figured, that he could find that out for himself.

"As for food and sleep – well, your body can adjust to not needing both anymore, but I wouldn't recommend it, unless you have to. The switch will be very uncomfortable. You will age, but very slowly, thanks to Agent Shadow's influence. Naturally, everyone else around you will age and die with you staying behind...," Mephiles went on, a smirk hidden in his voice.

Sonic's ear twitched, which was the only sign of depression he allowed. He knew that, of course he did. Shadow had made that point clear, when he had told him about his own immortality. He had actually pitied him for this, to lose everyone at some point, with him being unable to follow them into the afterlife, damned to miss them for who knew how long...

"How long...will I live?," the hero asked silently. "Unless you are killed somehow? Well, it depends on how long Agent Shadow has been designed to live, I'd say, but I would guess, at least a few thousand years."

Sonic felt something freeze up inside him hearing that. He honestly couldn't tell, if he had thought, that this wouldn't affect his lifespan at all, or if he had imagined just a few more years, but hearing this made him feel worse than ever before. He suddenly saw all of his friends, his little brother especially, in front of him.

Of course he wanted to see Tails grow up, but he had never wanted to survive him! But this would happen, wouldn't it? Tails, his descendants, they would all die, one after the other and he...he couldn't save them. Not, when it came to nature. Suddenly, he felt very alone.

"Is there a way...to let someone else...become immortal?," he asked, before he had really thought about it.

"No.," Mephiles answered curtly. "You aren't a God, you can't just give somebody a longer or eternal life, because you feel like it."

"Shadow did. And you can, too.," Sonic pointed out. "I highly doubt, that Agent Shadow can repeat this little trick and I won't be able to, either, once I have given Silver his immortality. It is given by love only and I don't believe in polygamy. Think about it, if everyone was able to turn someone else immortal, half the world's population would be exactly that. How would they be able to decide, who deserves such a long life? No, it's better, that the chain ends with the ones, who were gifted with said immortality."

Sonic didn't look convinced. "Don't you get, that immortality is against nature? We aren't supposed to live that long, which is, why most immortal creatures are either seen as gods, angels or demons. And why the latter get usually killed.," he added, slightly irritated.

Sure, call them gods or angels and they could live for as long as they wanted. But call them demons and they had to die. It was probably good, that nobody had found a foolproof way to get rid of grown demonic beings, yet. At least none he knew of.

"The bottom line is, immortality is a rare gift and that is good. Just imagine, everyone becoming immortal through someone else can do the same to one more person. Silver would choose his sister, no doubt and you most likely that fox of yours. What then? The chain has to end somewhere and let's just imagine it ends after those two have become immortal, too. Do you think, that they are happy to have everyone but you and Silver die on them?"

"Should I be happy to have only Shadow and you in MY future as it is?," Sonic snarled. It wasn't an insult, although it could be. It just frustrated him to no end, that Shadow would be the only thing, that remained, when all of his friends had perished already.

Mephiles didn't take it personal, he was too used to insults – and this was one of the more harmless ones anyway. "Alright, then let's assume another alternative: everyone can turn one other person immortal. Aside from the fact, that having children would be considered a crime at some point, because the planet would be overpopulated in no time, each one would primarily choose someone they knew for this gift. But what if all of their friends and family members are already immortal? Should they sell their gift? Wait for a fatal accident to happen in their range and save someone's life with immortality to be celebrated? And what is with the people, who are hated for one reason or the other? I have seen plenty of creatures, who were shunned for their appearance alone, with not one single evil thought in them – and popular people, who were rotten to the core. Who are you to decide, that they do or don't deserve more time on this planet?"

Sonic swallowed. He felt by now pretty seasick with all the questions falling on him like a downpour, but he got the message. He couldn't play God, it was against nature. It didn't make his burden any easier, but he understood.

In fact, he understood the part with the 'shunned' quite well. There had been a time, when his little brother had belonged to this group. An innocent, kindhearted child, who had only been hated for his appearance. He would be dead probably, if the hedgehog hadn't found him – that thought was scary until today.

If everyone could share their immortality...nobody would have given him even a day longer, much less an eternal life. And he was pretty sure, that there were more people out there, like Tails hated for trivial reasons.

And to think, that people like Eggman could wheedle themselves into someone's favor enough to gain immortality, too... No, it was good the way it was.

"How can immortals die?," Sonic asked curiously, once he had recovered a bit from the mental assault.

Anyone else would have assumed, that the hero had become suicidal, but Mephiles knew – saw – better. His aura, despite the dimming of its already darker color due to him realizing the full gravity of Shadow's doing now, showed no will to die. If anything, his will to live was stronger than ever. He was determined to overcome his shock for good, but killing himself wasn't an option. Remarkable, Mephiles allowed. Most people in his situation would have broken.

Rewarding such strength, he decided to be completely honest. "It depends. People like me can be killed, when our hearts are purified. Of course, my kind hides their hearts away, so finding them is the biggest challenge. Pour some holy water on it, stab it and I'm dead.

People with a Gifted Immortality, like Silver and let's count you to this group, until I have figured out, where to put you, are hard to kill, but not as hard as me. Stabbing your heart will only work, if said weapon shreds it. A single stab wound is easily enough remedied. Of course, you will still feel the pain. The same goes for shots, severe injuries of other vital organs, the loss of blood and broken necks. This are all things you will survive. Cutting off your head will actually do the trick, as you will lose your brain, which is, next to the heart, the most important thing for an immortal. Without it, your heart will forget its job and just stop. There are also some very deadly and rare poisons, that can destroy your innards, especially heart and lungs, and flattening you with a big weight will work, too. Also, if your heart should be separated from your body, hurt or not, you will die as well. These are your limits, as far, as I can tell.

As for Agent Shadow, he is like me pretty resident and can survive everything you can't, but block the input of Chaos Energy he receives and he will be little more than a mortal, or shatter those fancy rings he has and he will destroy himself."

Sonic blinked. "You were enemies, weren't you? If you knew this, why didn't you use the knowledge ages ago?" If he wasn't still mad at Shadow, he would be opposed to him trying to kill his mate, but as it was right now, Instinct Sonic was pretty content with the thought of the seme getting seriously hurt.

Mephiles let out a small chuckle. "Where would be the fun in that? There are so few people able to entertain me nowadays, I would hate it to lose one of those rare opponents. Besides, I'm no one to fire with cannons on flies. So far, he hadn't been a real threat to me, I never saw a reason to destroy him."

He had seen plenty reasons to hurt, maim and torture him in the past, but destroying? Nah, that went too far. He was more entertainment, when he was alive.

Sonic just nodded. For some reason, Mephiles' description of what could kill him calmed him down a bit. He was still a bit freaked out about all this, but he wasn't invincible. That was a relief. "Will I...grow old?," he asked, not sure, if the question was stupid, or not.

Mephiles shrugged. "Probably. People like me don't age, but Silver will, if albeit very slowly. One month every 100 years, I think. It's probably a bit faster for you. As I said, your type of immortality is completely foreign to me." Sonic frowned. "If you don't age – shouldn't you be just a pup?," he asked, confused.

Mephiles faltered for the fraction of a second, before he had reigned himself in again. Nobody had ever asked him that, not even bothered with it. It felt strange, to have someone truly interested in him, who wasn't his mate, but he pushed the feeling, that he couldn't even begin to identify, away easily enough. "No. Immortality isn't a given from birth, it appears somewhere around puberty, sometimes later. Before that, we are also mortals. That goes only for the Born Immortals, as paradox as it sounds."

Sonic perked up. "What about Knux?" "He's connected to a stone, that can't age. He will stop one day to grow older, if he hasn't already."

Sonic nodded, falling silent, while he digested all the information. Mephiles waited patiently, extinguishing the aura sample on his hand to distract himself, feeling, that the Alpha had something else on his mind.

Eventually, the hero looked up, the storm raging in his eyes and aura gone, if only for the moment.

"About Silver.," Sonic started and got the rare pleasure of seeing a fully attentive Mephiles, the eyes wide, the ears turned to him, the body wound up tight, the arms at his sides, no longer crossed in front of his chest. Every trace of his 'I'm wasting my time with you'-posture was gone. "Yes?," he asked anxiously.

"Do me a favor and explain this immortality-thing slower for him, okay? You really upset him there. Tell him step by step, slower than you explained this to me, maybe ask me for help, when you can't get the point across. This whole thing is freaking him out." Sonic instructed and added.

Mephiles sighed sadly, nodding, his ears pressed to his skull. "If he ever wants to speak with me again, that is.," he muttered, allowing himself a small bout of depression, knowing, that Sonic as the only witness and an Alpha would take this moment into his grave.

"He will. He misses you. When he had a nightmare last night, I could tell, that he wanted you."

Mephiles perked up. "Did he get enough sleep?," he asked in worry. "Yes, he did, I helped him to calm down and he slept peacefully, then."

He didn't mention the cuddling, it was simply too embarrassing. "While we're at it – does it happen often, that Silver...blanks out?," Sonic asked to change the topic a bit, remembering, how Silver didn't seem to recall, how he got to Scourge's room.

Mephiles took on his indifferent, emotionally guarded posture again, before he answered, "Yes, it does. Usually, it's a harmless occurrence, that is over in a minute. It mostly just causes chaos in our apartment, as he feels inclined to move the furniture and smaller objects to other locations. There were a few cases, however, when I was glad for the mind link. More than once, he returned out of his trance-like state and had no idea, where he was and how to return to the Shelter.," he reported.

"What is causing this?," Sonic asked. "I'm not sure. It may be his psychokinesis, or something else.," Mephiles shrugged, a small growl of frustration in his voice despite his best tries to hide it.

He was worried about Silver, that he would run in front of a car or worse in his state, although he hadn't acquired a single scratch or bruise so far. He was no fool, though. He knew, that luck tended to run out. Unfortunately, these bouts were too random to foresee them and Silver never seemed to get such a bout, when Mephiles was with him, so shadowing him was pointless.

"If you find out more about this or need help, tell me.," Sonic offered, but Mephiles felt the order behind it and nodded. If they would have made a contract on this with both their lives on the line, the demonic being would have been in a lesser bind. This was the order of an Alpha, it would force him to obey the second he found indeed a clue of how to help Silver.

Sonic relaxed hearing that. "Good." He fell silent, but didn't leave, as there was something else on his mental agenda.

"Could you do me a quick favor?," he asked further and although it sounded, as if Mephiles had a choice in that matter, he could imagine, that saying 'no' wouldn't end well.

"What is it?," he inquired as an answer. "Can you bring me to someone, when I don't know the location?"

Mephiles raised a brow. "When I know this someone, I would need a few minutes to find them, but then, sure."

"Do you know Happy?," Sonic asked. "You are probably not talking about the emotion, so no.," Mephiles replied.

Sonic frowned for a second, before remembering something. "What about John?," he asked. Mephiles ear twitched at the familiar name. "Give me a few seconds.," he replied and closed his eyes.

The hero had no idea, what exactly he did there, but he was sure, that he wasn't trying to pull his leg and just waited.

Eventually, the demonic being opened his eyes. "I found him.," he said curtly, raised his hand and snapped his fingers, transporting them, while time continued to flow normally.


Blush was beginning to feel remotely seasick from her own constant swaying motion, alternating between paying more attention to the inside of the hut and the outside of it, trying to spot any danger, before it came to pass.

It made her look like the insane parody of a metronome, but she hardly cared. At least she was remotely distracted from her boredom – and annoyance, since she was waiting for two hours now and had promised her younger sister to be back in one. Even if Azyran had a result right in this second, she would still need at least one more hour to return. Her sisters would stay on their posts with or without her, but it was still annoying. She wondered, for how much longer she would need to wait...

"I can't believe it!" The shout let her flinch and almost lose her balance, but she caught herself just in time. When had she let her guard down enough to be surprised like that?

"What is it?," she asked Azyran, masking her weak moment, before turning to him. "Watch this.," the butterfly male turned around to her, grinned and held up the cloth Blush had given him for analysis. He held it in one hand, so that the blood stain was exposed, and with the other, he picked up two strange metal sticks with rubber handles leading into cables, that were connected with...something.

Blush had never seen a mini-generator before and even if she ever had, she wouldn't have recognized her brother's version, which had been built out of several discarded kitchen appliances and looked like a very fancy, highly wired toaster.

Azyran pushed the lever, that was usually meant for pulling the bread in the toaster's insides to roast it, and immediately, the machine whirred to life, charging, what Blush saw as nothing but sticks, up with energy, the rubber encasing protecting him from getting electrocuted.

With an anticipating grin, Azyran held the two electrodes so they formed a V in his grip and pushed them against the blood stain in two different places. Blush bent forwards, closer to the cloth, her eyes narrowed, wanting to see, what Azyran had found so intriguing.

At first, nothing seemed to happen, but then... She squinted. The dried up stain seemed to darken and to...glint, as if it was...wet?

Blush's jaw positively dropped, when the stain visibly grew, rapidly so, taking over the entire fabric in less than a minute, and the piece of cloth suddenly started to drip, forming a growing puddle of something, which was unmistakably blood, on the ground.

Azyran pulled the electrodes away – and the dripping stopped. "What...what did you...? H-how did you do this?," Blush asked, her mind desperately trying to make sense of this, but she lacked the knowledge to even try it beyond the assumption of magic taking place. "Whatever wore this cape, it wasn't a human or mobian being. Well, on the inside, at least. It was a clone. A...super-clone, so to say."

"Meaning?," Blush demanded. "Clones are created to be an exact copy of the original. The same DNA, the same appearance, some of the better scientists can even reproduce the memories and infuse them to the clone, making the copy absolutely perfect on the inside as well. The problem is, that clones usually don't live that long. Some are merely needed for their organs and then not kept around anymore, others are simply not cut out to live longer than a few years due to their genetic make-up, that not even a genius can completely influence, when it comes from a donor. Not to mention, that clones are usually unstable or more prone to illnesses or severe injuries for one reason or another. This clone, however,"

He held up the piece of cloth, spilling a few more droplets of blood into the puddle, "This clone was built to be as sturdy and resident as it can be. It can recover from everything thrown at it – with nothing but a little electricity. You see, how it worked with my generator, the blood reproduced itself and in no time at all."

"There was no source of electricity around the tree I pinned her against.," Blush explained to demand an explanation.

"It...she...didn't need one. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised, if she carried at least one mini-generator, much smaller than mine. I mean, the person making this clone would have been stupid to not equip them with one."

"And where would she carry it?," Blush asked. Azyran shrugged. "The modern things are about as big as my palm, some even smaller. They could be anywhere on her, as part of a fancy headband, or an anklet. Or something in-between. Something bothers me about this, however.," the male muttered, more to himself, but Blush still wanted to know, what he had in mind.

"It's just... this whole setup is strange. Let's assume, that this clone was after this girl you mentioned. Clones can be trained to react to every possible situation – that their creator could think of. I doubt, that he had 'needle-wielding butterflies' on that list."

"Unless he knows me already.," Blush growled. That would make it easy. She was the only one using primarily needles in her family and she didn't leave that many of her opponents alive...

"That is one theory.," Azyran ventured carefully. "The other is, that this clone wasn't...programmed traditionally."

"Do I have to ask?," Blush asked in a challenging tone. Azyran took a deep breath. "The blood you brought me contained cells, that you only find in the heart. Considering its position, the size of the cape and assuming, that the clone's anatomy was correctly built, it – she – was hardly taller than a newly transformed butterfly. Or, well, a hedgehog of...maybe eight years, possibly younger. I'm no expert of mammals, so I'm guessing here. Anyway, there are three ways, how a clone, that stabilized at such a normally tender age because of its host's stage of development, could have become operational. One: someone transferred memories from its host into it. Unfortunately, this would mean, that it would have the mind of a child. Unless someone put the little one through a training harsher than our father's, I hardly think, that this is, what happened. Two: someone programmed the clone's brain to function the way it did. It's a valuable option, but as our clan isn't THAT well-known, I rather don't want to go into that direction. And then, there is still option three." He paused and worried his lip for a few seconds, before he went on. "Option three...would be magic.," he finally explained.

Blush pressed her jaws firmly together hearing that. Magic, or better: the manipulation of the planet's Chaos Energy, was a dying art.

The butterflies had once been very adept in performing all kinds of magic, but their talent for that had naturally died out. One of Blush's younger sisters was the first in four generations, who showed a little spark of magic talent. If it would grow with her, or die long before her, remained to be seen. For now, she was just watched with one of her aunts, who had become too invalid to work as an assassin, studying magical theory just in case she needed guidance one day.

It was kind of a sore topic, as their family's history was full of stories how great and powerful they had once been without a rigorous training. Seriously, their way of living sounded, as if they had never advanced past the caterpillar-stage, always easy going and not too concerned about their safety. In a way, she was glad not to possess magic, it would mess up her style.

It wasn't too far fetched to assume, that other races on Mobius also mastered magic once – and that some still had it until today.

"I read a bit about magic. In theory, it is possible to transfer a soul into a body. It is supposed to be easier to do this, when the body was made artificially. The books and web pages I read for that always mentioned clay as a worthy substitute, but nowadays, modern technology can reproduce flesh almost perfectly. Someone knowing magic could use such an empty vessel to plant a soul inside it."

"And who would be happy to be in the body of a little pink furred hedgehog girl?," Blush asked with a raised brow. "...An old female pink furred hedgehog?," Azyran guessed insecurely.

Blush tried to see, if he was joking, but he seemed honest – and honestly out of ideas. "Grab your stuff.," she ordered.

Azyran blinked and a hint of panic entered his eyes. "W-what?," he stuttered. Blush frowned at his behavior, before it clicked.

Right, she was the oldest daughter. Next to their father, she was the only one able to speak out a banishment. She had really formulated it a bit badly. "You can't work here. I'll bring you to a place with better equipment and people, who can help you out.," she explained.

Azyran looked her up and down, before he nodded slowly, rolled up the cloth carefully, turned away and pulled out a battered bag from underneath his desk, putting several of his gadgets into it.

"And where do you think you're going?," a cold, silky voice asked behind the siblings, that let the brother freeze in his steps, while his sister hardly bat an eye. She just turned around to face their father.

Papil the Butterfly had an impressive height, even Blush, who was taller than most in her clan, had to look up to him. He wore always kimono-like clothes out of self-made (made by his sons, who had no other job than that, to be precise) silk from the cocoons of the caterpillars. Those were light and, due to his back being left open, allowed quick takeoffs, if necessary. His wings had the color of dark amber and his clothes had the same color and black marks, to make identifying the exact position of the wings harder. His face was sharp and due to his stoic expression, black eyes and the pure whiteness of his face-scales, it often appeared, as if he wore a mask.

Blush had long since stopped being intimidated by this appearance, so despite not being able to detect him, before he spoke, she hadn't been too shocked.

"May I help you?," she asked coldly, making Papil raise a brow and Azyran almost let his bag fall, as he turned towards her. They were trained to ALWAYS show their respect towards their parents, so talking like this to any of them was close to sacrilege to him.

Blush had no such problems. She held her father's stare easily, despite the punishments those black pearls promised.

"You know, that he isn't allowed to leave our lands.," Papil finally spoke, as if Blush hadn't said anything. It only occurred to his daughter now, that he hadn't called Azyran anything, but 'he' and 'him' in so long. Not by his name, not by 'your brother', much less by 'my son'. The best he could come up with, was 'that boy in the shed'.

Realizing this, Blush felt suddenly very sick to the stomach. "I need his talents, but I can't always come here for updates. It's easier to take him with me. He can work much more efficiently."

"On that mission you are taking your sweet time in fulfilling.," Papil mentioned and Blush had to fight to keep her wings from lifting at that.

"Are you assuming something?," she challenged, her voice cold enough to freeze lesser beings. "Your place is here, among your own kind."

"And my own clutch of eggs, no doubt.," Blush hissed, ignoring Azyran's strange choking noise behind her.

"You have a duty here, to obey my every order.," Papil growled, the stoic mask cracking and giving slightly way to his rage.

"Actually," a thin arm wound itself around her shoulders, "Actually, you told her to fulfill this mission and you told US to support her in every way possible, so we are obeying your orders, to the letter even. If you'll excuse us now.," Azyran smiled and led his slightly stunned sister past their frozen up father deeper into the valley.

"Well, that wasn't too bad.," the male mumbled after a minute of silence and quick walking. Blush smirked at how much his arm around her still trembled. "And how urgently do you need to change your pants now?," she asked.

"Er...let's just say, I wouldn't be too mad, if we could take a detour to my room.," he muttered, grimacing.

"You know, that you will get punished for that, right?," Blush asked silently, still trying to figure out, why he was now, after so many years, standing up against their father. Hadn't he been hurt enough, when his wings had been taken?

To her surprise, Azyran shrugged. "I can't bring myself to care. When our- when HE thinks, that I'm just standing there and watch, how he locks you away even worse than me, he has another thing coming. You're my little sister, female dominants or not, I will always protect you the best I can.," he declared with as much conviction as he could muster.

Blush looked down. "About...Aphandra...," she started, figuring, that she wouldn't get another chance for this, but she was interrupted right there.

"I forgave you ages ago. Just let it be.," Azyran told her. "But-" "It wasn't your fault. Or mine. Not even father's or Aphandra's. Some things...just happen. They are out of our control. True, you set things in motion, but you were just slightly faster, than me."

"Huh!?," Blush loosened his grip and turned to faced him properly. "Before you told father my secret, I had been just about ready to do it myself. I tried to prove my worth. You doing it wouldn't have changed the outcome. He would have hated my guts either way. So stop feeling bad. You are forgiven. Let's rather go and solve this clone-mystery."

Wordlessly, Blush just grabbed his wrist and dragged him after her, as she raced towards the living quarters.

And despite having her back to him, Azyran hadn't missed her happy smile the second she had turned away.


And done! I won't tell you how long the editing took, either -.- . Unfortunately, the next update won't come anytime soon - university and my master thesis have me in their grip and I really need to focus on those. I'm sorry, but until the middle of July (carefully estimated...), I won't update. I hate to keep you waiting (therefore, no cliffhanger), but this is more important and I really want to finish my studies finally.

Have a nice weekend - and stay healthy!