Hello, I'm back - and just in time for Christmas, too! Perfect timing I'd say...if I wasn't months later than promised. Anyway, please enjoy and Merry Christmas!


15: Dark thoughts

When the two mobian hedgehogs reappeared, they found themselves in a large study, directly in front of an imposing desk, that was definitely made for a larger mobian or human, as Sonic couldn't even peak on its top without standing on his toes.

Looking around, he spotted withered maps against the walls, paired with notes and some bookshelves, that seemed to be just more places for papers with notes on them, than for the messily put in books.

Curious, Sonic stepped around the desk and discovered another bookshelf behind it, that had been moved to the side and revealed a rectangle-shaped hole behind it. A secret room?

Now definitely intrigued, the hero went closer, his ears picking up on fine noises, that reminded him of Tails tinkering.

The muttered curses he heard a step later, however, were unlike the fox. He rarely encountered frustration while tinkering.

Peeking into the room behind the shelf, he saw a figure working on what looked like a big safe's door, cursing now and then, as the lock was apparently hard to pick...or whatever you had to do to open a safe without knowing the code. The person standing with their back to them was definitely John, his scent told him as much, but his clothes stirred something uneasy in him. These long, foreign looking, blue colored clothes...

"I didn't think, that you would return to this place.," Mephiles spoke up, causing John to whirl around, his eyes wide, his muscles tight and his arm raised with his hand holding something, that looked like a pen, but was blinking in several places.

A second later, he recognized his visitors and relaxed, letting his arm fall to his side. "Give me a heart attack, why don't you?," he growled.

"John, why are you in Saha?," Sonic asked, not sure himself, if he accused him of something, or not.

The human shrunk a bit back anyway. "Happy said, that he wanted a sunny place for his vacation and I thought of the house my ancestor owned here and well, it was easier than trying to book something.," he mumbled.

"Not to mention, that you could sneak around here.," Mephiles added calmly. John blushed. "So? I can do with my property, what I want.," he defended himself.

"Careful, you're starting to sound obsessed.," the dark seme told him, while Sonic, being satisfied with his answer, tried to look for traces of Happy, who he had wanted to speak with in the first place, but couldn't find him.

"Where's Happy?," he asked. John seemed surprised to be off the hook so soon, but then pointed outside the hidden room. "Leave the office and go straight through the opposite door to the living room and the balcony there. Happy wanted to catch some rays.," he described the way.

"Thanks. Take care of things here.," Sonic told Mephiles, not even realizing, that he had ordered him, and went in the pointed direction.

Mephiles blinked after him. Seriously? He really didn't like it to be commanded like that. Kylie at least didn't do this too often.

Turning to John, he seized up the safe door. "Step aside.," he told him and when the human did, black tentacles came out of his shadow, dug into the safe door with nasty crunching noises, pulling the thick piece of metal with relative ease to him, prying it open.

John stepped closer once the door was dealt with and peered in the room Mephiles had just opened for him. "What is this!?," he gasped in the next second.


Carefully, Sonic opened the door to the living room. He didn't exactly trust this place, owned by John or not. This was his ancestors' place and that alone made these four walls about as dangerous as Eggman's lairs.

The room he found was rather big and filled with what had been at some point for sure splendor. Now, it looked rather like someone overdid it with the decorating. In the middle of the room were four couches around a large, ornamented table.

On his left stood a cupboard with dark brown tinted glass doors, behind that Sonic saw the outlines of all kinds of bottles. Probably alcohol of some kind. Heavy red curtains had been pulled away from the window front opposite the door. Stuffed out animals, a gazelle, a zebra, a monkey of some kind and an alligator, that someone had managed to manipulate to make it stand on its hind legs, stood in the corners, surrounded by statues and sculptures of all kinds of materials – wood, silver, gold, copper, marble and maybe iron, he wasn't so sure. Either way, those things let the room look full, too full, although it didn't seem difficult to move around in it at the same time.

Several pictures lined the walls on an expensive looking, yet definitely old, wallpaper, mostly of landscapes, but some, the bigger ones, were portraits of one and the same human man. He had a cold stare and seemed to look down on everyone entering the room or sitting on the couches. He wore in almost all portraits a clean light blue cape over a dark blue shirt and his hair and beard, that both looked well-trimmed, had been dyed dark blue, which fit perfectly to his icy blue eyes, but clashed a bit with his deep tan. His posture and mimic clearly told everyone looking at him, that they weren't worth the dirt he thread on. Definitely an ancestor of Jester Perringten, if the facial features weren't a dead giveaway already.

Moving carefully past the decoration – his quills sometimes turned him into an elephant in the china shop – he made his way to the open balcony door.

He stopped on the threshold. What he looked at, was more a cross between a botanical garden and a small jungle, than a balcony. It had an insane size, at least ten times bigger than the living room he just came from, exotic looking plants lining its entire outline, standing on small tables, that looked like glass half-globes propped on three curled in themselves metal legs. The plants were bunching up in the corners, where there were palm trees and big cacti completing the picture, and here and there in the wide space were more green groups, looking like small islands.

It was a riddle to him, how all these plants could possibly be still alive, when nobody had taken care of them in what had to be decades. They didn't even look too wild, someone had cut the old leaves and too long branches off.

He sniffed the nearest plant, which was in full bloom with small, orange blossoms – it was real, the flowers gave off a fresh, natural scent.

Between all the plants were small oases of sitting and lounging areas. There were sun loungers, benches, chairs and sitting pillows, all outfitted with their own tables and closed wooden umbrellas, ready to be opened to provide shade anytime. It was probably because of all the plants, that it felt bearably warm but not hot out here.

Slowly stepping out, Sonic looked around for any sign of Happy. He stopped again, when something bright hit his eyes suddenly and he squinted up at its source. His eyes widened, when he realized, that the upper edge of an enormous wall out of crystals had been reflecting the sunlight. It was built out of pale colored, obelisk-like structures, that formed a firm, gap-less fence going all around the perimeter as far as he could see, the sharp looking tips, that seemed to reach up to the roof of the house – although 'mansion' was more fitting –, gleaming in the bright sun, reflecting its light. He wondered, how John had crossed this wall – and what it was doing here in the first place. It didn't look natural and he couldn't imagine, that anyone could build this. Or had someone simply shaped something, that had been here all along...?

A small humming ripped him out of his thoughts and he looked around to spot Happy's boyfriend, the purple furred uke, standing between some of the potted plants, cutting dead leaves and dried up branches off one of them. So he took care of them!

"Excuse me.," Sonic approached him, causing the other to yelp and stumble back against a few tables with plants on them, causing them to fall backwards. He quickly whirled around and managed to catch them, but in his hurry, he had pushed against three other tables, that now fell into Sonic's direction.

In less than a second, he was there and had caught them, carefully putting them back in place, the other hedgehog, Shine, he recalled had been his name, doing the same without pushing anything else over.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you.," Sonic apologized, while Shine carefully stepped away from the plants.

"No problem, really. I just didn't expect visitors." He paused, his eyes narrowing. "How DID you get past my wall?," he asked, confused.

Sonic blinked. "YOU did this!?," he asked, pointing to the crystal wall. Shine shrugged. "Well, yes. They rob people off the streets here and sell them as slaves. Do you really think I would put my boyfriend in this kind of danger without precautions? Nobody can climb this wall without me noticing it, it's a part of me.," he added, sounding almost challenging.

"A part of you? How?," Sonic asked. "I grow the crystals out of my body, mostly my fur and quills. This one is out of my blood – and is therefore still connected to me."

Catching Sonic's shocked stare, he smiled. "Relax, I only needed a single drop. Once I have a crystal created, I can let it grow and break down to my heart's content. If the sun was lower, you could see the red color of the crystal. It looks beautiful in the evening.," Shine smiled calmly, before sobering up. "You still didn't answer my question.," he reminded him. "I had Mephiles bring me here."

"Mephiles...," Shine repeated, scrunching up his face as he tried to remember the person to the name. "Ah, this seme. Yeah, Michael mentioned him a few times, he sparred with him once or twice. He can do this warping, I remember, just didn't care about it so much.," he explained.

"I wanted to check up on Happy, so he brought me here.," Sonic replied. Shine frowned. "Check up on Happy?," he repeated. "Why? I didn't call the Shelter! Or... did John call? ...That wouldn't explain, though, why you came. You aren't a doctor, are you?"

Sonic felt his heart beat painfully. "...Does...he need one?," he asked anxiously. The other chuckled. "Yeah, right. He's a Healer, they don't need doctors. I was just worried about him, when he became dizzy suddenly. That hadn't happened in... Actually, it never happened ever since I met him.," Shine muttered thoughtfully. "On second thought, I rather check up on him, too. Follow me.," he waved and already made his way past a mini jungle-island.

Sonic trailed after him, careful not to bump against any pots and tables. Shine led him to an oval clearing surrounded by plants, that all looked a little withered. Only a small opening was spared to allow them entrance.

In the middle of the clearing were two sun loungers and a closed umbrella. One, the one closer to said umbrella, only had an open book on it, on the other lay Happy on his belly, the lounger under him forming a flat surface. He had his face hidden in the crook of his elbow and seemed to sleep.

For a second, Sonic couldn't help, but stare. Happy was glowing. It was an intense light, clearly noticeable against the natural brightness around them, that seemed to come from his insides and appeared to pulsate.

The blue hedgehog could have sworn, that he could see his heart beat in the light, just a small, pulsing shadow against his rib cage.

Happy was surrounded by his own quills, that were literally impossibly long. His usually short quills were forming curls and piles on the floor and between his outstretched legs, glowing even more intense than his body.

It was strange, their quills were normally hard, unlike their fur. In theory, they couldn't curl or even bend as easily as that, unless there was something seriously wrong with their owner or they had the appropriate genetic makeup. That's, why his quills naturally bent down, while Sha- Mephiles' bent up. Originally, hedgehog quills were supposed to be standing straight.

While he watched, their length increased some more, forming curls. If he stood up now, then he would drag them after himself like a giant, far too big cape.

Wondering about this sight, Sonic wanted to approach him, but Shine held him back. "Don't, you'll suffocate.," he warned.

"...Suffocate?," Sonic repeated, confused. "Happy is currently filling his energy reserves. It's a Healer-thing and so to say a reverse photosynthesis.," he explained.

"Er... And what would be a normal photosynthesis?," Sonic asked. Tails would probably roll his eyes, but he had really no clue about this.

"Photosynthesis is how plants are getting their energy. They take in the carbon dioxide in the air and turn it in sugar for themselves and give out oxygen to the air. Happy does the opposite. He takes the oxygen in the air, plus the sunlight, turns both into energy for himself and gives out carbon dioxide again. That's why I put all those plants around him. They need the extra of carbon dioxide, but for us, it is too much, as if walking into a room full of smoke from a fire."

Well, THAT was something he understood. He had rescued enough people out of fires to know, how unbearable it was to stand for even a second in a smoke-filled room.

"And his quills?," Sonic asked. "Well, his body is currently sleeping, thus collecting this energy in hyperdrive. It's more, than his cells can store at once, so they use his quills, which makes them look far longer, than they are in reality. Also, they are, for this period of collecting, soft like human hair, which is a side effect to this process. It's his most vulnerable time. Once he is done, he can store the extra energy properly and their length and hardness will return to normal."

As if on cue, Happy stirred. He moaned and lifted his head a bit, while the light illuminating him ceased. His quills started to glow and move, seemingly dissolving into thin threads, that the eyes could hardly make out anymore, leaving only his short head quills behind, surrounded by the thin threads like veils, until they disappeared completely. It was then, that Happy woke up fully, opening his eyes and sitting up, stretching and yawning. He suddenly flinched a little and looked down on himself. "Wow, I guess, I overdid it a bit.," he muttered and looked up to see his audience. "Hello.," he greeted, stood up and walked over to them.

"But what of the carbo...nide?," Sonic asked, not sure anymore, what it was called. All he knew, was, that Happy was walking through an invisible smog there and could suffocate. Said male reached the edge of the ring just fine, though, stopped next to Shine and blinked at him in confusion.

"He means the carbon dioxide. I explained to him, what you are doing there.," the purple furred uke clarified. "Ah. No problem, I can take it, for a little while anyway. There is still enough oxygen in the air left for me to operate. Your metabolism, on the other hand, wouldn't be able to, so I'm grateful Shine stopped you.," Happy grinned, hugging his boyfriend.

"Well, you went on and on and on about your future patient, something was bound to stay stuck.," Shine shrugged, accepting the small peck on his cheek with a big grin.

Sonic felt something coil in his stomach at the sight, but forced his features to stay as neutral as possible.

Thankfully, Happy wasn't the type for showing off his intact relationship to his boyfriend all too much, so he loosened his hug and turned to Sonic. "Sorry, I sometimes forget everything around me. ...Er...don't get me wrong there, but how did you come here?," he asked, the thought only now occurring him. "Mephiles brought me. I just... I wanted to check on you.," Sonic explained. "Yeah, me, too. Are you sure, that you are okay? I mean, you have never before been dizzy. Like, at all.," Shine argued.

Happy rolled his eyes with a grin. "Relax, will you? I'm okay. It came and went in about ten seconds. No need to get the cavalry out."

"I didn't." Suddenly suspicious, Shine turned to Sonic. "Actually, nobody did. How come YOU knew about this?," he asked bitingly.

Sonic felt the blood shoot into his cheeks, as if being busted. "W-well...I...kind of caused this?," he more asked than said.

"...What?," the two Gammas asked. It was hard to say, if they were anything but surprised by these news. "I...borrowed your healing ability...I think...for a bit."

"You can do something like that?," Happy asked, before his eyes narrowed. "Could you help them?," he wanted to know seriously.

Sonic and Shine stared at him. "Huh?" "Well, you borrowed my ability for sure not to cure a scraped knee. Did it work?," Happy replied and rephrased his previous question.

"Yeah, it did. He had severe injuries, was even dead for a short while, but he made a full recovery." Physically, anyway. He had no idea, how much he would remember. How he would cope with this.

"That's strange, I can't... well, death is my limit. When someone died, then I can't do anything anymore. Something like reviving is a far too modern concept for me.," Happy explained, strangely accepting of the entire concept.

"I...kind of had the help of a second uke.," Sonic explained. "That wouldn't explain, how you did that in the first place, though.," Shine argued. Sonic scratched the back of his head. "It's...kind of a long story.," he mumbled. That was mostly based on legends and theories. Yeah, this would go over smoothly.

Happy looked at him intensely, before smiling at him. "How about I get rid of those substances in your spine and you tell us more about this 'long story' in the meantime?," he suggested.

Sonic flinched a bit. Right. Over the trouble with Shadow and his immortality, he had completely forgotten about this.

"But...can you do this? I mean...you said you needed time to collect the energy for this!," he reminded him.

"Oh, I did. Actually, I could use something to do, that would drain some of that energy away again.," Happy admitted sheepishly.

Shine gasped. "Did you overload!?," he asked in alarm, his tone putting Sonic on edge, too.

"I...might be pretty close to it.," came the reply. Shine sighed and dropped his forehead on his boyfriend's shoulder, which calmed Sonic a bit, too. So, no reason for panic.

"What am I gonna do with you?," the purple furred uke mumbled and then looked up and at Sonic. "Could you take on his offer, please? I know it's sudden, but when Happy overloads, I have to get him down to the city to get rid of the energy mass by treating others, before it makes him sick and as I said earlier, I would have as few contacts with the people there as possible.," he requested and explained.

"Uh...sure?," Sonic replied, feeling hard-pressed to comply. His Inner Alpha seemed to see Happy's problem as dire after the other's words.

"Thank you.," Shine breathed in relief, while Happy waved at him to follow him to another region of the balcony with three sun loungers next to each other.

Swiftly, Happy manipulated one of the loungers to a flat position and opened the umbrella. No sense in allowing his patient to get sunburn.

"There, make yourself comfortable. On your belly, naturally.," he invited. Sonic just shrugged and complied.

"Well, I'll make myself useful with some more gardening and leave you to your therapy. Bye!," Shine waved and left them, rather abruptly.

"I don't like having an audience during my more complicated healing sessions, unless it's another doctor.," Happy explained, as if feeling Sonic's frown at the quick departure.

"...And... Shine gets sometimes a bit jealous, when I treat males.," he added quickly, as if he hoped, Sonic wouldn't catch it. No such luck, but Sonic pretended not to have heard it anyway.

He propped himself up and rested his chin on his crossed arms, trying to keep his quills relaxed, as Happy's gentle fingertips healed first the few wounds, that hadn't disappeared fully, yet, from his mindless run yesterday and then began to search through his sharp defenses to weave his way down to his spine.

"Are you ready? I would start, then. And sorry, that I ran you over like that. I underestimated the intensity of the sun here. ...And the length of my naps, I'm afraid."

"No problem, go ahead. I'm used to changes of plans anyway, so don't worry. It's not like Eggman gives me a little warning, before he goes on a rampage, either.," Sonic replied with a light shrug.

"How nice of you to compare me with a villain.," Happy complained in good humor, letting them both chuckle.

"So, how come your boyfriend isn't with you? He seemed hardly able to leave your side before.," Happy asked casually.

He just tried to make conversation, but Sonic still felt a heavy rock in his stomach at the question and unconsciously raised his quills, accidentally cutting into Happy's searching fingers.

The red furred hedgehog couldn't stop a small hiss escaping him as he pulled his hands back.

Immediately, Sonic turned around to see Happy holding his bleeding palm. On the back of his hand were a few more, shallow cuts, that had mostly just shredded his glove. Nonetheless, he jumped up.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean-!," he started to apologize, but Happy shook his head soothingly. "Don't worry, it was a calculated risk. Dealing with a hedgehog's back is always a prickly thing to do. It's just a flesh wound, no harm done. Oh.," Happy made, when he removed his glove and examined his hand, seeing, that it was completely healed.

He showed Sonic his intact, though slightly blood-crusted, palm and fingers with a smile. "See? All healed. I truly had too much energy, when it healed this fast.," he mused.

"I thought, you couldn't heal yourself!," Sonic questioned, glad for a distraction. "My hands are the exception. They are absolutely necessary for my healing, so to say my tools, thus all injuries there are very quickly healed. The speed is surprising, still.," he added, looking his hand over again, before letting it fall to his side.

"I'm sorry for upsetting you.," he then apologized. There was no denying it on either side – his hand still stung faintly from the pain and Sonic still felt a slight tingle from nerve endings of the quills, that had dug into Happy's hand.

Sonic looked away. "We...broke up.," he muttered, finding it strangely easier to admit towards him, than Tails before. "And Shi and I flirted in front of you. I'm so sorry. I can recognize a paper-cut a mile away, but broken hearts just seem to elude me.," Happy apologized.

Sonic shook his head. "Don't worry. I was just surprised to hear you ask for him. If you don't want to do this anymore..."

"I thought you didn't want to anymore.," Happy grinned, causing a slight chuckle to ring between them. Finally, Sonic resumed his position and Happy searched through his quills again.

"Where did you get all of those plants from, anyway?," Sonic asked, wanting to distract himself, although not from the sore topic from before. Like most mobian hedgehogs, he didn't like it to have someone touch his back. As it was so well protected, every breach of this protection felt simply uncomfortable and dangerous to them.

"They were already here, when we came. Shi just made sure, that this didn't look like a complete jungle."

"But how did the plants survive for so long? There had to be someone looking after them!," Sonic argued, looking at a healthy green patch of plants in front of him.

"Not necessarily. It probably doesn't seem that way, but it rains so much in the desert, that it's easier to drown here, than to die of heat exhaustion."

Sonic swallowed and had to fight to keep his quills down. "Er...there isn't water right now, though, right?," he asked. "No, rain season is not for another few months. Believe me, you would be able to smell the rain long before it comes."

Sonic sighed in relief. "The rainwater gets caught in these special bowls under the plants. It can't get out again once it's inside and when the sun shines on them, the condensation reaches the roots and soil, feeding them until the next rain season. This are all plants, that are used to savoring water and not needing much to begin with, that also plays to their favor. And the plants, that actually did die, left enough seeds behind for descendants to grow in their place," Happy went on. His movement and touches had now ceased for the most part, he had apparently started his therapy.

"Doesn't this place get flooded, when it rains so much?," Sonic asked. "Saha stands on a rather high rock plateau. The few entrances to it are blocked, before the rain starts and for a few months, they are mostly cut off from the world, like an isle. Well, unless it comes to planes."

"Did you come here with a plane?," Sonic asked. "Yeah. We can't all ask Mephiles. Quite frankly, I'm not sure, if anyone could ask him for anything.," he added thoughtfully.

For some reason, he didn't like the seme, which was a first, as he had usually no problem with anyone. ...Anyone mobian, anyway. He had met him several times – Silver had at first dragged the dark seme around with him everywhere at the Shelter, until he had felt confident enough on his own.

Happy had been one of his first friends he had made to that time, thus the meetings had been inevitable.

The seme had always seemed polite enough, but only because of Silver's presence, not on his own accord. Besides, he gave out a vibe, that let his fur always stand on end, whenever their eyes met, if only for a second. He was sure, that he had taken at least one life once. His instincts warned him, that he shouldn't get close to him, unless he absolutely had to.

Sonic just hummed in agreement, oblivious to his thought process. He was sure, that Mephiles only did some favors for him, because he was an Alpha. The fact, that he was HIS Alpha, still eluded his thinking.

"Why didn't you question more, that I...took your ability?," he asked carefully, his thoughts having taking on the direction, before he could stop them.

Happy didn't answer immediately, his fingers changed their position for a bit, before he eventually spoke up. "To be honest, your explanation just closed a gap. I...felt, as if someone in my head politely asked for my ability and I felt the urgency behind the request, too. I knew, that this someone needed it dearly, but I always had the option to decline. I felt that by instinct. I wasn't forced, or anything. I just wanted to help, even if I didn't know until now, who I actually helped. By all means, it could have been someone like Eggman, who wanted to abuse my powers.," he chuckled, shaking his head at the absurd thought.

That had Sonic's ear twitch. "Abuse your powers? How?," he asked. How could someone abuse healing? His speed? Sure. Mighty's strength? Of course. But... healing?

"Easy. Broken down to the basic thing I'm doing, I manipulate a body's Chaos Energy flow to an acceleration or to a complete stop to agitate a healing or a cell death. Someone with my abilities can cause a lot of physical damage, if they choose to.," Happy explained lightly.

The familiar, just recently heard word had Sonic perk up. "Cell death? Why?," he wondered. "Well, to kill infected body cells, naturally, when I can't bring them to heal on their own. There is a fine line between death and life and when there is no way to save the cell, I can destroy it." "And you do this in...a few seconds?"

"Less than one, actually. There are LOTS of cells in a body, after all.," Happy answered, then paused and started to chuckle. "Seems, as if I am faster than you are in one way.," he teased and Sonic, after realizing, that it was true, snickered, too. "Don't tell it to anybody, though, okay?," he grinned jokingly.

"Promise.," the healer snickered back. "Anyway, I felt, that I was helping someone and knew, that it was a good person. Call it instinct, although I'm not sure, if that had something to do with it. I just...knew. I'm glad I could help. Now, how were you able to do this?"

Sonic tried to explain the matter as good as he could. He left out the Island and the connection of the Perringtens to the legend, though, not wanting to scare him.

"Wow. If that's true, then we are pretty special, huh? Especially you.," Happy grinned, moving his hand again. "Well, more or less. From what I understood, we can't access these powers just like that. I was only able to, because I wanted to help...Shy."

Sonic blinked at his own explanation. Shouldn't he have said 'Conner'? But it wasn't true. For some reason, Instinct Sonic had only reacted, when Shy had blamed herself for Conner's death, not a second earlier.

"Shy? Ah, this brooding teenager, right? Her sisters are cute.," Happy grinned, his hands now almost between his shoulder blades.

"'Brooding teenager'?," Sonic repeated with a lopsided grin. "Yeah, whenever I see her, she seems to think about very serious things. I only see her smile, when her sisters speak with her. And sometimes Mighty, Blush or Scythe. I never spoke with her in person. How do you know her? She seems pretty closed off."

"Honestly, I don't know. She was part of the group rescuing us from the Island, but I have the feeling, that I have known her much longer.," he muttered the last part.

"You were...on the Island?," Happy asked, sounding astounded. "Well, yeah. Didn't you hear the news about it? I was topic number one for months!," Sonic grumbled.

Over him, Happy wrinkled his snout. "I don't pay too much attention to news. You never know, what they write and where their sources came from. You should read, what they write about the Shelter. I didn't know, that stupidity comes in so many varieties." He shook his head as he recalled a few really outrageous headlines he had read in passing. He hoped, Kylie and John's lawyers had sued those guys good.

He hesitated for a bit, before he tentatively asked, "...How was it? On the Island, I mean?" He backpedaled almost immediately, "S-sorry. You don't have to answer. I know, that it's a painful topic."

"Then why did you ask?," Sonic wondered, not turning around. He wasn't offended or had felt too uncomfortable with answering – at least in a vague way. There was no way, that he would EVER tell anyone the details.

"I couldn't resist. I saw, how many ukes struggled to get back to their feet after being there and...well, both of our seme-boyfriends were there.," he admitted, half expecting Sonic to tense, maybe in remembrance of a meeting at this hellish place, but all he got was a twitch of his ear.

"I didn't know that.," Sonic admitted. He would swear every oath, that he had never met those two before the Shelter, but that didn't mean anything – he didn't have time to forge new friendships aside from the ones he had actually forged with Silver and Scourge...and their boyfriends. "They don't talk about it. At all. And...and sometimes, it bothers me. Not to know, what they have been through."

"Did you tell them, what YOU went through?," Sonic asked. "Yeah. I mean, I left the worst things out, but in general, I did. They, instead, didn't tell me anything.," he growled.

Sonic could imagine his frustration – being honest and getting nothing in return. Like he and Shadow, huh? He had always been honest, whereas Shadow...

He shook the thought off mentally. Couldn't he go one minute without thinking about or being reminded of him?

"You didn't miss out much.," he told Happy, who flinched in surprise. "The Island had been...more merciful on the semes. I won't go into details, but you can trust me on this. They probably don't want to make you sad or upset with what they remember of this place.," Sonic explained.

Happy stayed quiet for a bit, just working, before he spoke up again, "Thanks, for telling me. I really appreciate it. Now, a few more minutes and I'll be done. I need a bit more time with the upper part of your back, between the shoulder blades – and then at the neck. The rest is completely cleaned.," he informed.

"Okay.," Sonic replied, shifting his weight a bit to get comfortable. "What would have happened, if I had declined your request to heal me now?," he asked in curiosity. Shine's slight desperation behind his request hadn't evaded him.

"...Well, I would have searched for another patient and if I wouldn't have found one, I would have become...well, as sick as a Healer can become, until the excess energy would have been used up."

"Meaning?" "I would have heated up, become restless, unable to find any sleep for longer than a few hours in a row or to keep down more than small portions of food and water. I guess this was implemented in our systems to force us to act and not to slack off.," Happy added with a shrug.

"...Did this ever happen before?," Sonic asked, hearing the report out of experience in his voice.

Above him, Happy grimaced. "Once." Sonic's ears twitched at feeling his fingers tremble against his neck.

"Healers have their knowledge unlocked at puberty, usually. Or...when they are under a lot of pressure.," he muttered the last part.

Taking a deep breath, he stilled his tremors and resumed his work. "I was under such pressure, once, when I was younger. Unfortunately, my powers awakened and I couldn't help. At all. My energy wanted out and couldn't, which was a very uncomfortable feeling." Which put the agony back then lightly.

"Is this, why you are afraid of humans?" The question was out, before Sonic could stop it. He still remembered, how Happy had acted during Towers' visit.

"I'm not afraid of humans.," Happy denied. "I just don't feel comfortable around...certain individuals of the human kind.," he amended.

It was an understatement and they both knew it. Back then, he had practically attempted to squeeze Sonic's organs out of his ears – and almost succeeded. None of the present humans – aside from John by default – had taken notice of him, yet, he had almost shredded his human charge's calf in an attempt to stay calm and seek shelter. "What happened to you?," Sonic asked silently.

Happy shook his head, making his quills rattle lightly. "Please, don't ask. I'm just glad, that it's over." "Is it?," came the reply.

Both hedgehogs blinked at the question. Happy, because he felt, as if Sonic didn't believe him and Sonic...because he suddenly saw a fire before his eyes and it seemed to be connected to Happy's words. He blinked – and the flames were gone again.

"Definitely.," Happy eventually answered and straightened. "I'm done.," he informed a moment later.

Before Sonic could move to stand up, though, he held up his hand. "Just to be on the safe side, however, I would like to do a quick scan. Of course, you can always use the machines at the Shelter, it's just as good. I just want to make sure, that you are really free of this stuff and I didn't miss something.," Happy explained and offered.

"Go ahead.," Sonic gave his permission and relaxed. "Alright, thanks.," the healer smiled and stretched out his hand, letting it hover just above the blue quills. A green light, lighter than the one he used for actual healing, lit up in his palm, letting light wash over the hero, while he watched it intently. This special light had only one purpose: to find anything out of place in the patient, a disrupt in the natural flow of Chaos Energy.

"It's warm.," Sonic remarked. "It is? I couldn't tell, this is usually used for patients, who can't tell me, where they hurt. ...In theory, anyway. I thankfully don't need to do this often. Just sometimes with my idiotic boyfriends, when they don't want to tell me, what's wrong. It's usually enough to chase them to a real doctor."

He pulled his hand back, the light vanishing again. "Everything's alright, nothing left in there. Naturally, you can always take the machine-scan to be doubly sure.," he explained, while stepping a bit backwards, allowing Sonic to stand up and stretch to test for any problems in his moving pattern.

The Healer watching him was actually glad he did this. Although he had needed the loss of energy and, more importantly, had prepared carefully in the last few days for this one healing session, he wasn't entirely sure, if he hadn't maybe slipped up at some point. But Sonic moved normally and didn't appear to be in pain, that was a good sign.

"I'll keep it in mind – and thanks for doing this. You wouldn't know, in which direction the Shelter lies?," he asked.

"Well, north, wh-? ...Do you want to run there?," Happy asked, gaping, when he caught on. "Do you know, how many kilometer are between here and the end of the desert, let alone the Shelter!?"

Sonic grinned, feeling for the first time since his breakup good enough to become cocky. "Nope. That's part of the fun. Thanks again, I'll just let Meph and John know and then I'll be gone."

"Let Shi know, too, or you won't come out of here!," Happy reminded the retreating hero. "Nah, I'll find my way out. Bye!," Sonic waved and the Healer couldn't help the grin spreading across his face. His good mood was infecting.


Sonic found his way easily back into the study they had appeared first in, but stopped for a second on the threshold, when he noticed someone sitting in the corner next to the door he had just stepped through, who hadn't been there before.

He watched the figure, but when they didn't move or acknowledge him, he went on and to the secret door.

The safe's door was leaning against the wall opposite the opening. Curiously, Sonic entered the surprisingly spacious room behind it. His eyes were immediately drawn to a big, shapeless thing on a golden pedestal in the middle of the room. It seemed to be a crystal of some kind, rising to a spiky looking, dark purple, almost black, pillar. It was far too short to reach the high, dome-shaped ceiling, yet, it had more than his height, even without the pedestal.

Sonic found himself making a bow around it unconsciously, feeling uneasy by its glow, that felt cold and almost stinging on his skin.

Mephiles and John were inspecting the shelves lining the walls behind the crystal. The dark seme stood in front of one with lots of books in it, had one heavy looking tome in his hands and several others held by his tentacles, leafing through them almost simultaneously, apparently comparing something.

Meanwhile, John sorted through a self with jars of varying sizes. "I'm not sure, if this is science or witchcraft. I mean, listen to this: frog liver, bat heart, dog bladder... Ugh...nasty.," the human just complained, when Sonic came closer.

"These journals indicate, that your ancestors tried to find out, in which organ Chaos Energy is generated.," Mephiles remarked, still reading.

"And they took animal org- wait." John turned visibly paler, when he realized, that the jars were big enough for mobian-

He quickly took a step back, physically and mentally. "You know what? I'll just get a huge trash bag and throw this away.," he muttered.

"Everything, but these. And this.," Mephiles agreed, putting the journals away and turning to the crystalline structure.

John followed his eyes. "Who do you think built this? And how? That's the biggest Dark Chaos Emerald I ever saw. The others were not even babies in comparison to that.," the human mused. "I agree on that – and I honestly don't know. Not even I would be able to crystallize this much energy. It will take me longer to destroy it and I want to first find out, how it was created. It should be safe to keep it in here in the meantime.," the dark seme replied, just when his eyes slid over to Sonic.

"Done with your appointment?," he asked and Sonic wasn't sure, if he mocked him or not. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, he just answered, "Yeah. Just wanted to let you know, that I'm gonna run back home. By the way, what is this girl doing there, kneeling in the study?," Sonic asked John, who blinked at him.

"What...girl?," he asked and, when Sonic just kept pointing, made his way towards the door and into the study. Like the hero, he avoided the crystal's range as he walked out.

Being much taller than Sonic, John could look over the desk and discover the girl kneeling in the far corner on his left immediately upon entrance.

Her long, unkempt and dark brown hair forming a veil-like curtain around her entire being, leaving just a small gap at her front, revealing a worn, colorless and simple dress.

Slowly, he went closer to the shrunken in themselves form. Despite the hair hiding the person completely – or maybe because of it – John came to the same conclusion as Sonic: this was a female.

For some reason, this particular shade of brown also rang a bell, he just couldn't recall, why.

"Er...hello?," he asked, when the stranger didn't react to him approaching and stopping roughly a meter or so in front of them.

He had just stopped speaking, when the person climbed on their feet in one fluid motion, making them reach John's chest easily.

The curtain of hair parted a little wider and revealed deep green eyes, that looked at him with a mixture of gratitude and worship.

John blinked, as the memory of where he had seen her already once came crashing on him.

"It's you.," he breathed. "You are...you are the slave of this Prince!" The hint of a smile tugged at the corner of her lips, before she bowed deeply at the waist, her hair pooling on the carpeted floor as she did so.

"I'm glad you remember me, Master.," she replied, having John's – and Sonic's behind him, who had followed the human – jaw drop. "Master!?," they echoed.

Behind the hero, Mephiles leaned against the opening and chuckled. "Interesting. The girl is apparently no ordinary slave. She chooses her own master.," he remarked. "How about choosing not to have a master at all?," Sonic asked him with a frown.

Mephiles lost his previous humor and looked at the girl, who seemed to wait for John to order her to straighten, as she kept staying in the bow.

"She's a bit too broken for that. Unlike the other slaves I had the dubious pleasure to see around here, she has some of her mind and will still intact. Just enough to figure out, who means well with her and which orders she wants to follow. But completely left alone to her devices, she won't be able to function."

Sonic pursed his lips and looked at the girl, who seemed to wait still for John's order to rise. And really, she only moved, when said human finally got over his shock enough to tell her to straighten. He started to get, what he meant. She couldn't think for herself, at least not entirely. He was almost certain, that she came here on her own volition, but she didn't seem to know, what to do next. As if she was switching between free will and absolute obedience in random intervals.

"But what about Prince?," John finally asked. "He threw me in the streets the day you met. Some other Masters came. I was thrown away again, when I saw you yesterday and followed you.," the girl reported, her voice betraying no emotion.

Hearing this, Sonic had the sick feeling, that she didn't use a metaphor, when she mentioned the 'throwing'-part.

John didn't know, what to do next and they lapsed into an uneasy silence, that Mephiles eventually broke, when he became bored of it. "Well? Are you going to accept her as your slave, or not?," he asked.

John seemed to choke on his own tongue at that, while someone else spoke up, "Why, that's a wonderful idea. Of course he accepts!"

Sonic whipped around to the regular entrance of the study because even if he recognized the voice, he couldn't believe, that it was indeed Happy, who had said that. His shocked face was mirrored by Shine next to his mate perfectly.

With a lot of effort, he managed to morph it into a grimace, that somewhat resembled a smile, if only a very much forced one. "Would you excuse us for just a minute? Come on!," he asked with a sweet – far, far too sweet – voice, before hissing the last part and yanking his boyfriend so hard back into the hallway, it was a miracle he didn't smash his skull against the door frame in the process.


Sonic managed to follow them, just before Shine could throw the door shut behind them. None of the two others noticed him, though, too occupied with each other.

"You know I love you, but – ARE YOU INSANE!? Since when are you supporting slavery!?," the purple furred crystal user hissed, barely containing his rage – and voice.

"I'm not.," Happy replied calmly. "Remember, I told you, that John was making progress in my therapy."

"Yes?," Shine asked, sounding as confused as Sonic felt at the sudden change of topic. "Well, I was thinking for a while now about getting him a pet to help his healing process along."

"Oh, and because all 'pets' available around here can kill or maim in at least seven ways each, you take the next best thing?," Shine snarled.

Happy cocked his head. "Of course not. But don't you see? It's perfect! This girl needs guidance and John needs someone to take care of. If she was too far gone, I wouldn't have suggested it. She will teach him to take on responsibility for once and get his act together without causing too much stress and he will teach her how to think for herself. That's more, than a dog or cat could do for him.," the Healer shrugged.

Shine stayed silent for a moment, before he sighed. "I hope, that you know, what you're doing."

Happy chuckled warmly. "You worry far too much. Do you think, that I just shove the girl on him and be on my merry way? No, I'll help him for as long as I feel he needs me."

"So, more nights at John's. Yay.," Shine muttered, but in good humor. Happy giggled back. "Alright, let's go and see, how much of John's brain has already exploded."

Before they had time to register Sonic's presence, said hero had already returned into the study without a single noise.


John and the girl seemed to be still frozen in unease, while Mephiles looked bored. He still had to be interested in how this would unfold, though, since he could be gone faster than Sonic.

Shine and Happy came through the door in that moment. While Happy had an easy going, friendly smile on his face, Shine's was still a bit forced.

The Healer stepped closer to the girl, who seemed more interested in her naked feet than the hedgehog. "Welcome.," Happy greeted her warmly. "We are happy to have you. That is my name, too. Happy. That purple hedgehog is Shine and your...your Master," he stumbled over the word, "His name is John."

"Just Master.," the girl said with a trace of heat. "Of course.," Happy quickly conceded. "And what is your name?"

"Slave.," came the prompt reply and Sonic wasn't sure, if he had ever heard something more depressing than that.

"Well, we'll give you a better one.," Shine quickly reacted and stepped closer as well, joining his mate.

"Suggestions?," he addressed John. Since he would be the one the girl would most likely listen to, he should be the one giving her a name.

The human man still looked, like he had been hit by lightning, but eventually looked over at the girl, who didn't dare to reciprocate the motion. He swallowed around the giant lump in his throat and eventually got his voice to work.

"J-Joan. I...I want her...you... to be called Joan.," he whispered. Sonic raised a brow. Wasn't Joanna the name of his mother? 'Joan' sounded, as if he wanted to name her after her. Well, his choice. It was touching, in a way, that he gave her a name, that was similar to someone he had loved so dearly.

"Joan, then." If Shine knew of the connection between the names, he didn't show it. "Could you tell me, how you came into this room – and past my crystal fence?"

Joan hesitated and searched for John's glare, who avoided her form as a whole firmly. Happy elbowed his knee and he jerked and turned to the slave girl, who waited patiently to be acknowledged.

"I...er...answer his questions.," he ordered feebly. Joan bowed. "Yes, Master." John cringed at the word, but the girl didn't notice it. She straightened and turned to Shine. "I jumped over the fence. I climbed the wall to here.," she answered curtly.

The uke blinked at her. "You JUMPED over my fence? It measures at least six meters in height! And the walls are smooth and this here is the fourth floor and there are no ladders around here!," he exclaimed, his brain threatening to explode at the news.

He ran to the only window in the office, which was nothing but a – noticeably artificially created – hole in the wall without any glass, and peered out of it as if trying to find, how she could have done this.

He looked down the wall and his insides froze upon discovering something, that had definitely not been there before.

He whirled around at once and stormed to the girl, although she was hardly half a meter away from him to begin with.

"Show me your hands!," he ordered, a bit sharper than he had wanted. Startled, Joan obeyed, showing her bony, but otherwise totally okay hands, turning them now and then without being told to.

Shine stared at them, almost willing them to bleed, just so something would make sense, but they didn't.

"What's wrong?," Happy asked anxiously. Usually, Shine was pretty relaxed and polite. Seeing him so nervous and lost was making him uneasy, too.

Shine swallowed, thanked Joan for obeying, which she saw as her cue to let her hands fall again to her sides, and then turned to Happy – and Sonic and John in his line of vision –, answering quietly, "There are traces along the wall. They are unique, there is no mistaking it. Someone – she – must have plunged her fingers into the stone to create hand- and footholds for herself to climb up."

John's eyes widened. "Seriously!? This is a special sandstone, it's harder than brick! Her hands should be ruined!," John exclaimed and he and Happy ran to the window to inspect the marks themselves.

Sonic edged meanwhile closer to Mephiles. "Any explanation?," he asked lowly. Although his voice was too soft for even Happy and Shine to pick up on it, Joan's head shot up and she looked at the uke and seme, as if she had heard everything.

For some reason, she showed a happy smile, when her eyes met Sonic's, that stayed on her face and forced said hero to turn away eventually, unless he wanted to be crept out.

"Hm.," Mephiles hummed, unaware of the girl's interest in his company. He had changed his sight and was studying her aura intently.

"That is...unexpected. She has a lot more power hidden under her bony appearance. Raw power, at her disposal at a second's notice.," he mused. "I would be actually worried, if I wasn't immortal."

"So she's...?," Sonic prompted. "Able to level an entire continent with little effort. However, she will obey every command of the boy, so I don't see the world in any danger.," Mephiles shrugged.

He had never before seen something like that, but the girl's aura had some kind of...leash, that was firmly connected to John's.

It wasn't unusual for couples to develop "bridges" between their auras, which helped them to understand the other easier, thread-thin connections, that passed information back and forth.

This here was different. She had placed her entire being into the boy's hand, pretty much giving him the self destruct-button for herself. Should he banish her – she would die, probably on the spot. He made a mental note to at least hint that towards John in the near future.

He wondered, though, what could bring such a powerful being into submitting her entire self to someone, who was less than an ant in comparison to her.

He had been – more or less, since he absorbed his clones' memories after their expiration – personally around John the entire last time in Saha (with a few exceptions, but he had secretly watched the memories Sonic and Fleetway had seen to fill in the gaps) and the young man had done nothing he would call 'remarkable' around the girl.

Then again, humans were strange. He didn't particularly know, what they were thinking most of the time, nor did he care. It could have been something he would call 'trivial', that had the girl impressed enough to seek out John for her eternal servitude.

He narrowed his eyes. Was she aware of the length of her servitude, or did she assume, that whatever debt she felt she needed to repay would be erased at some point and she would be free again? Well, tough luck. They had sealed the deal – and the connection – the second John had given her a name, he had seen it.

Mentally, he heaved a sigh. Since when was he caring about things like that? He wondered, if the hero's altruism was infectious.

"Hey, you seem happy!," Happy couldn't help, but remark at turning around and seeing Joan show a real emotion for once, his words grasping the attention of the others in the room.

Flinching, as if busted, the girl quickly looked to the ground. "I apologize. Please punish me any way you see fit.," she muttered, having all eyes – except Mephiles' – widening. "Oh, Joan, no! No, you may always show your emotions!," John told her quickly, moving closer to her due to an impulse of wanting to hug her, but thought better of it and stayed at a little distance. As she was now, she would possibly not get the gesture – or get the worst possible idea out of it.

Joan looked up again, seemed confused for a second and then bowed. "Thank you for allowing me to feel, Master."

"...Okay. Can we please cut back on the 'Master'? Just call me John.," said human asked, still pretty freaked out by having a slave because of said slave's decision.

It felt surreal and he would appreciate everything, that wouldn't remind him too much of his new role.

To almost everyone's surprise, Joan shook her head. "Disrespectful.," she muttered, almost stubbornly, like a mutinous child.

Mephiles just snickered. "As I said, she's one headstrong slave.," he smirked. That girl was such a paradox, it was funny to watch her determine the terms of her own enslavement.

John, instead, grimaced, thinking about a way out. "...Can we compromise and go with 'Sir'? It makes me feel less like an asshole.," he mumbled.

Joan blinked at the self-insult, before something seemed to click in her brain and she straightened and saluted. "Sir!"

John and Shine actually jumped at the sudden volume and intensity of her voice. "...Er... did you see this somewhere already?," John asked carefully. "Yes, Sir! The Guardian Corps of Master Prince, Sir!," Joan answered like a soldier would towards their higher ranks.

"...Okay, but that's not, what I meant. You...er...can talk normally, just replace the 'Master' with 'Sir'."

Joan contemplated that order, visibly on the verge of being overwhelmed. It was quite clear, that this was possibly the strangest order she had ever received. "I...understand...Sir?," she eventually tried. "Well done, thank you.," John praised and thanked her, which had Joan frown in obvious confusion.

Slaves didn't get praised or thanked for anything. It was their job to obey, no need – no reason – to acknowledge it in any way, unless you did a mistake. She had made a mistake already, by assuming, that her master had wanted her to act like a member of the Guardian Corps, but she hadn't been punished. And something told her, that she wouldn't be. Not now. Not later. Never.

A smile she wouldn't – couldn't – show on the outside bloomed in her mind, having the numb darkness she had cultivated there for the years of her servitude recede, a little only, but it was enough. She was relatively sure, that more smiles would follow, in time. "You're welcome, Sir.," she answered with a bow.

Sonic, feeling the tension in the room shrink to tolerable levels at the answer, stretched a bit, before stepping forward. "Well, I'll take my leave, then. I'll let Kylie know about your new addition.," he added, getting a grateful look from both Happy and John for his suggestion.

Telling Kylie in advance was probably a good idea – the woman made rarely a secret out of her opinion and so far, she was the only flaw Happy saw in his newest plan to help John's recovery. Kylie telling John right away, what she thought about his new little companion, would be a major blow to his still fragile self-esteem – and possibly mean a setback, even if she wouldn't mean for it to happen. To give her a heads up, while John got elsewhere used to Joan's presence, was probably the best approach.

"Yeah, good idea, thanks. The exit is-," John started to point, but Sonic's smile stopped him in mid-sentence. "I already know my way out, but thanks anyway.," he grinned. John blinked. "You do?"

"Yup. Bye!" With that, he jogged lightly to the only window – Happy in front of it instinctively moving aside to let him through without thinking – and before anyone could stop him, simply jumped through it.

"IS HE NUTS!?," Shine cried and raced to the window to peer down with Happy and John at the falling hedgehog.

Sonic let himself fall on purpose for a good second or two, just long enough to turn in the air and examine the marks Shine had mentioned himself.

It was remarkable, there were indeed four round, remotely same sized holes next to each other in repetitive appearances in a pattern in the wall, forming a ladder to the window he had just exited from.

It did indeed look, as if the girl had plunged her fingers into the solid stone. Blood colored the edges of the holes red, which meant, that she had hurt herself, but the amount stayed remotely the same the entire length of the wall, which could only mean, that her fingers had healed in the short time she had needed to make a new handhold with the hand in question. He whistled, impressed. That girl was something, but he felt by instinct, that she wasn't a threat, not at all.

Having finished his assessment, he rolled himself into a tight ball, protecting himself from the impact with the warm desert sand. Once landed, he gracefully rose to his feet and then already ran off, towards the wall.

With a dropped jaw, Happy watched, how Sonic easily jumped on and ran along the slippery wall, out of his sight to the left, just to reappear a few seconds later on his right, faster this time, a blue streak, that got even faster, painting a stripe pattern on the reddish crystal as he ran round after round on it, getting higher and higher each time he passed the window, before abruptly jumping over the upper edge of the fence and speeding away in the distance.

"That looked...pretty cool.," he grinned. "Says you.," Shine grumbled behind him. Confused, he turned around to his mate – and burst into laughter.

Shine's fur and quills had puffed out, giving him a very fluffy and near cute appearance, if it hadn't been for his annoyed scowl.

Despite Sonic's speed, his feet had had still contact with the crystals and their owner had felt every single one of his steps. Due to all of this taking place so fast, his nerve endings were still catching up, making him look more and more like a puffed out, hedgehog-shaped cushion.

"Yeah, yeah, it's SO funny!," Shine snapped and tried to smooth down his fur and quills, which wasn't as easy as it sounded, as his synapses still told him, that somebody was running around on his crystals, thus on him despite Sonic being long gone.

John turned to Joan, who looked with a gentle, peaceful smile out of the window, through that Sonic had vanished.

"Do you know Sonic?," John asked, intrigued by how the hedgehog seemed to brighten her mood for the second time already without addressing her once. Living here for who knew how long, he would have expected her to be afraid of everything remotely blue colored, but she wasn't.

Joan looked up at him and then back to the window. "I have...a strange feeling seeing him. Like...I can die happily now.," she mumbled and for once, her voice didn't sound mechanical or emotionless. It actually sounded...happy? It was hard to say.

That comment brought her instantly every attention in the room. "Okay, that's it. I'll check you out personally and if there is so much as a sneeze developing there, I will find it!," Happy decided and after a reassuring nod from her new master, Joan let Happy and Shine – he had less problems with the Healer treating females – lead her away for some privacy.

Mephiles, now alone with John, cleared his throat. "There is something you should know.," he started, deciding to get it over with.


It felt great to just run for as long as Sonic did. It almost appeared, as if his last run had been years ago, although that wasn't the case. But he definitely needed the exertion now to just get away. He made some extra turns and rounds just for the fun of it on his way, before he eventually turned his steps towards the Shelter.

Upon entering the foyer, he was greeted with a huge crowd of mostly hedgehogs, that reminded him of the one, that had formed a few days ago in the Garage.

And like before, Sonic heard a very familiar voice in the crowd's middle. "...and seeing these markers, it's safe to say, that there is no virus or other harmful ware in him anymore!," Tails explained, his voice raised to reach even the last row.

"That was great, Tails!," he heard Cream tell him in excitement, as he made his way through the crowd with careful elbowing and murmured apologies. As most of the people were hedgehogs, they moved already to the side without his incentive, as keen as he himself not to hurt someone with their quills.

In the crowd's middle were Tails, Rotor, Snow, Cream and a robot, that looked humanoid, about a head taller than the bunny girl, with blue optical sensors and an orange and brown painted body.

A large piece of metal, that looked like a bent back fin, went over half of his entire face and stood over the back of its head. The robot had no facial features aside from the eyes and he saw three white pearls forming a triangle on his chest plate, that were connected via cables with Tails' Miles Electric.

Behind the group sat Sally and Zen on Mali's desk without disturbing the working woman, watching the events unfold with amusement on their features.

Tails noticed his brother's arrival first and beamed. "Sonic!" Quickly, he gave his Miles Electric to Rotor, before running over and jumping into his arms.

Smiling, Sonic reciprocated the hug. He could imagine, that Tails needed these physical reassurances for a bit longer after the scare of this morning and he was happy to provide.

"Hey, Sonic. Done already?," Rotor asked, waving. He had been gone for three hours or so, Sonic guessed, but those two had had apparently so much fun, that they didn't notice how long it had been. "You missed the best part! SHARD has just gone!," Tails told him, letting himself out of the hug.

"SHARD?," Sonic questioned. "Short for Sonic Hedgehog Action and Reaction Device*.," Rotor supplied.

"Uh..." "He was built to act like you and to test his newest killer machines on. In theory, he was supposed to allow Eggman to work out the kinks in his inventions to perfect them.," Sally explained.

Sonic blinked. "How come, that none of his inventions have become better, then?," he wondered, which had Sally, Zen, Mali and Rotor snicker and Tails sweatdrop and blush a little.

"W-well, Eggman...overdid it a little with programming SHARD's AI to match your personality and thought processes.," the fox ventured. "...Meaning?," Sonic asked.

Sally giggled. "In the ten minutes he was here, he was unable to stand still, wanted at least 50 times a race or a battle and kept telling Rotor, that he needed a diet. In short, he simply went too much on Eggman's nerves to keep him."

Said walrus grimaced at the way he was being mentioned, while Sonic almost fell over with laughter. He had no idea, how you programmed an AI, but if Eggman had put everything in it, that he thought he knew about him, then it made sense – in his eyes, he was addicted to running and fighting evil (and chilidogs, but a robot couldn't exactly act on THAT) and gave the good doctor more fitness advice than a fitness coach, but that was just to annoy him and barely scratched on the surface of his being. He was deeper than that. Apparently, Eggy couldn't tell.

When he had reigned himself in again and wiped away the tears of laughter, he grinned. "Where is this SHARD now?"

"He has to constantly move, or he overheats in minutes, unless he's recharging of course. I guess, that he is roaming the seme-part of the Shelter, trying to find an opponent. He usually has more luck there.," Mali supplied.

"I see. Too bad, I would have liked to meet him. Just to see how Eggman sees me.," Sonic grinned.

"But you can meet Emerl instead!," Cream told him, gesturing to the robot next to her. "Is that so? Well, hello, Emerl." Sonic waved – and the robot immediately followed his lead, waving the exact same hand, held the arm in the exact same angle and used the exact same movements he did, waving when he waved, stopping when he stopped.

Sonic frowned, confused. "Uh..." "Emerl was created to copy every technique he sees. His specialties, that we found in his data core, are weaving flower bracelets and baking cakes.," Rotor explained with a smirk.

Sonic blinked. "...Did Eggman have a nervous breakdown I missed?" Tails snickered. "Nope. Emerl copies everything he sees and when he sees it often enough, he turns it into a memory for his data core. And well, since he hangs out with Cream most of the time..." The brothers grinned both, as the hero understood.

"But such a robot could be a really tough and fun opponent! Why did Eggman give him up?," Sonic wondered, his voice softer, so Cream wouldn't hear.

The girl was too busy telling the ever silent robot about Sonic's heroic deeds to notice them anyway.

"From my readings, I figure, that Emerl has a problem with power balance. If he would be hit by you a couple of times, or worse, got his hands on a Chaos Emerald, he would become completely unstable and attack everything in sight, Eggman included. He could never overcome this major bug.," Tails explained.

"But you can?," Sonic asked with a grin. The fox grinned back. "Snow, Rotor and I just wanted to do that, and maybe install a speech chip, while we're at it...unless you are ready to leave?," Tails quickly added, apparently not wanting to make him wait and possibly run off again.

"Not yet, so take your time. I'll have a talk with Kylie for a bit.," Sonic grinned. Tails beamed back. "Okay!" And he joined his fellow geeks, apparently switching languages, judging by how little Sonic suddenly understood from their chatter.

Shaking his head, he made his way past them to Mali. "He's really worried, that you might leave him behind again.," Sally commented Tails' behavior. "I know. When we're done here and home, I really need to set things right.," Sonic replied.

Sally's eyes widened, when she understood, what he implied there, before she nodded slightly. "We'll be ready.," she promised.

Smiling, Sonic turned to Mali. "Do you know, where I can find Kylie? I wanted to talk with her about something."

"She should still be in Forest's new apartment with Silver. I just sent Vremy this way. Simply go through this hallway there, it'll bring you right to the apartment-complexes. The one you are searching for is number 3, third floor, apartment number 25.," Mali replied.

Sonic winked. "Thanks!," he waved and sped off into the direction the woman had pointed to.


About ten seconds later, Sonic stopped before the apartment Mali had talked about already. He wasn't the only one; as he saw upon arrival, Vremy had reached the entrance of apartment number 25, too, looking warily at the wide open door.

"...Hello?," he called into the hallway, just as the hero skidded to a stop next to him. The uke jumped at the wave of wind he inevitably stirred up and turned to him. Any kind of complain he could have uttered, however, was interrupted by Kylie's voice calling, "Come in, we're in the kitchen!"

Vremy decided not to tear into the hero for startling him and just went through the entrance. After a second, the blue speedster followed.

The apartments were most likely all cut the same, judging by the fact, that the kitchen here was exactly, where Sonic knew Kylie's was. This one was naturally smaller and the furniture lower as it was meant for mobians.

"Okay, here I am. Mali said you wanted to...talk...with...me...," Vremy trailed off, staring at Forest, who stood in the middle of the room, self-consciously pulling at his gloves as if trying to straighten them.

Sonic, who entered after the older hedgehog, saw Kylie and Silver sitting at the kitchen table, watching the two purple furred mobians with bated breath, ready to jump into action, should it become necessary.

This close together, it was impossible to miss the similarities between them. Their furs and quills had the same shade, as had their eyes. While Vremy's quills were bent down and not curled, they looked near identical aside from that little detail. The most obvious thing, however, was the scent. Every mobian, even a blind and deaf one, entering the room in this moment could immediately tell by the scent alone, that those two shared the same blood.

"H-hello?," Forest eventually tried to break the silence. "...Hey.," Vremy replied, still looking shell shocked.

"I...I'm Forest. And...you're Vremy, right? I'm just...just wondering, if we... might...know each other?" It was a rhetorical question and they knew it.

Vremy shifted his weight as if preparing to run. Sonic actually got in position to block the door unconsciously, but the older stayed in his spot after all, just dropping his head, looking at his shoes. "I guess, we do. At least, I know you. Can't run any longer from it, can I?," he mumbled, more to himself. "Run? From what?," Forest asked, getting more nervous.

Vremy took a deep breath and closed his eyes, as if unable to look him in the eyes. "Your... your real name is Tide. Tide Chron. And... you're my older brother.," he mumbled.

That had all occupants in the room stare at him. Vremy was at least fifteen years or so older than Forest...or Tide, or whatever, a mature adult facing a teenager.

"O-older? But...I'm younger than you!," Forest argued. "Perhaps it would be good to hear the whole story. If you feel comfortable with it.," Kylie suggested gently.

She didn't want to invade their privacy, although her curiosity was definitely peaked after that last bit of information, but hedgehogs sometimes felt more comfortable with confessing things in the presence of higher ranked.

As long as it didn't reveal something threatening to the colony, they could always hope for the forgiveness of the neutral party, when the one they actually confessed to didn't feel as inclined.

It assured them of their continued safety in the colony, something which she had figured out eventually, when her office had become more than once a confessional. It seemed, as if mobians had a different understanding of privacy – there had been a lot of confessions she could have happily lived without hearing about them. Ever.

Vremy hesitated, before nodding, visibly forcing himself to face Forest again. "I...really don't know how to say this. But...the reason, why you ended up with different parents...is me.," he sighed and Forest flinched. "H-huh?," he squeaked.

The other grimaced. "You and I, we both have the ability to turn back the time of objects and creatures with a touch of our hands."

He showed his gloved hands, the thick leather, layered on the inside with a special, homemade mixture of ash and water, the former the only thing immune to his powers as ash couldn't wither anymore to anything less, being the only things that allowed him to live a mostly normal life.

"Yours was always weaker than mine, although you were three years older. Mom and Dad always believed, that you had simply better control than me, though.," he added with a small, nostalgic smile.

"We were always told to not show off our abilities to anyone and to never ever use them on a living being, Mom insisted on this. We have that ability from her, you know? I never understood this second rule, until I became eight and we went to this cursed hiking trip.," he hissed, balling his fists.

"We made a break, already pretty high up the mountain, and I wanted to go further up and not wait for our parents to catch their breaths and to enjoy the view. Naturally, Mom and Dad told you to look after me. And you did. Followed me, when I climbed higher, away from the safe path. Caught me, when I slipped – and when your own handhold broke off, you curled around me, protecting me with your body. The entire way down.," he whispered, his voice and body shaking.

"When...when I came to, you were...you took all the damage. Your arms...your legs...your spine...you couldn't move at all, you were in so much pain and I just wanted to end it. So I...used my powers on you.," he whispered the last part.

"I...I thought, that if I turned your time backwards, that your wounds would just vanish. And they did, but...you became younger and younger, even long after I had let go of you. It only stopped, when you were a little pup."

"Was this, why you gave me to my current caretakers?," Forest asked, clearly trying to keep up with the story.

Vremy sighed. "We never gave you away. But we had a problem there. You were gone, there was no trace of 'you', just a pup and we had no way to reverse the regression. Our parents couldn't just say, that Mom had been pregnant – you were three months old, give or take, nobody would have believed it – and we had nothing there for a pup. We should have just moved away.," he muttered bitterly, "But to that time, there had disappeared pups out of houses and hospitals in masses and we could have been blamed for it with you suddenly being a baby. Worse, they could have figured out our secret. Thus, our parents thought about a different idea. They went to our neighbors, who had just recently lost their baby son, Forest, due to an illness. It seemed perfect: they had still everything there to take care of a pup and hardly anyone besides us knew of their loss, yet. They hadn't even have the heart to report it to the authorities, so... yeah, it really seemed perfect. You would have been safe and loved and at some point, we would have adopted you back and told you everything and been a family again.

We just...didn't account for your surrogate parents changing this plan we all had agreed on. A week after we had made the arrangements, they just vanished overnight.," he growled darkly. Forest gaped at him. "They...kidnapped me?," he asked.

Vremy nodded. "Yeah. It was the perfect crime, too. We couldn't report you missing and say, that you were a pup and they had, for all the world, taken their own young with them. Only we knew the truth and couldn't tell anyone."

"So you...gave up on me?," Forest asked silently. Vremy flinched at the silent accusation in his voice. "Of course not! We searched everywhere for you; searched the entire planet! We moved so much in the last sixteen years, that I have more pen pals than real friends. We never gave up on you. Never. We moved from one city to the next, staying just long enough to search it for you, then we continued elsewhere. I came here, because I hoped you would become curious about this uke-thing or to get tested. That I would meet you eventually. And I did. Hard to believe, but I would recognize my...I -I would recognize you everywhere.," he quickly amended.

"...You wanted to call me...'brother', right?," Forest asked silently. "I'm not forcing the title on someone, who doesn't remember me.," Vremy told him, looking away.

"Your...our...parents... Are they near?," Forest went on. "A trip of two hours or so with the train away. They agreed to give this approach half a year, while they stayed in this radius. Look, if you don't want to meet them, that's fine. I can tell them, that I found you, but that you wish for your privacy. We won't interfere with your life.," Vremy offered.

Forest hesitated and Kylie saw this as her cue to pipe up. "You two shouldn't decide this right away. Give it some time to digest everything.," she smiled and the two newly found brothers nodded with grateful grins.

This was the second reason for the preference of talking in the presence of Alphas or Betas – they always had good ideas to contribute.

"I'm still here for a month and usually hang out at the uke-side of the Shelter. You can just let this sink in, I'm here, if you want to talk.," Vremy offered.

"So, you're an uke, too?," Forest asked. That made his brother decidedly uncomfortable. "Um..."

"Technically, he's a seme – he just doesn't like being around other semes.," Kylie helped the flustered male. "He's a Peaceful seme – those are very rare. He has no desire to fight or train and due to Peaceful semes being all asexual by nature, he's allowed on the uke-side, where he's more welcome."

Under the careful watch of one of Blush's sisters at all times, but Forest didn't need to know that. Heck, not even Vremy knew it – unlike his fellow semes, he lacked the natural distrust they possessed and didn't notice, that he was watched constantly.

"I...I see. Sure, I'll do that." Forest nodded and moved to leave the room. "W-would you like to meet your nieces?," he asked insecurely.

Vremy's eyes widened. "I'm-? You're-? S-sure.," he stammered and stepped aside to let Forest lead the way, still trying to remember to close his mouth.

"I'll give the key to Mali, you can get it anytime from her. The apartment is furnished already, but you are free to stay at my place, if you want.," Kylie informed the uke, who was almost out of the kitchen and just nodded.

"I'll go after them.," Silver unexpectedly volunteered and moved to leave as well, but stopped on the threshold.

"C-could I sleep at your place again tonight? Mephy won't be home.," he asked the woman, as if he needed to explain himself.

"Of course, anytime. My door's always open for you.," Kylie smiled. The silver furred hedgehog smiled back gratefully and went away with a nod towards Sonic, who had already stepped to the side to let the brothers pass him.

Once they were gone, Kylie carefully extracted herself from the kitchen table, which looked more complicated, than Sonic would have anticipated it to be. Then again, she probably didn't want to damage something of the much too small for her furniture.

Eventually, the woman stood – not at full height, the ceiling was too low for that – and grinned down on the hero. "Hi there, Sonic. Everything okay?," she asked, while moving to leave the apartment.

"Yeah, everything's fine. Do you have a minute?," the mobian asked right back, following her, as she exited the front door into the hallway, where she could stand normally. She closed the door and locked it. "Naturally.," Kylie then replied, a bit puzzled by what he could want.

Sonic stared back for a solid minute, unsure of how to get this point across, how to even start and eventually decided to just spill the beans and get this over with.

He cleared his throat, just knowing, that this wouldn't go smoothly. "John... kinda... has a slave now?," he broke the news to her, forcing himself to speak below supersonic speed, which was not making the message better.

He watched her reaction carefully and was glad, that he could quickly enough rip the mobile out of her grasp, before she had the chance to use speed dial.

"Sonic, give me that back.," the woman ordered with a growl, clearly ready to call John and chew him out verbally.

"Let me explain first.," the hero bargained and started talking, before she could refuse. Kylie listened, her jaw dropping more and more the farther he came. Eventually, he was finished and the human needed a minute more to process the entire tale, stepping to one of the windows and looking out of it to collect her thoughts.

"So, the girl...Joan, right?...wants to be John's slave?," she just had to ask to clarify. "Yeah.," Sonic nodded. "She seems to trust him to treat her right.," he added.

Kylie sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "...Okay. I don't like it, but I can't exactly stop it from what you told me, so I'll give the whole thing a chance. John lacks in the social skills-department at the best of times, but dealing with someone, who should have similar troubles, might do him good.," she mused loudly, still nervously carding through her hair. Joan wouldn't be the first slave they had here and from what she had heard, she would be absolutely obedient, but her capabilities were worrying. She hoped, that her most likely growing in time independence wouldn't cause them problems.

"I think it will help Joan, too. She isn't used to being treated decently.," Sonic agreed. "I see...well, John is clumsy with his manners, but definitely a nice guy, so he should be able to heal some of her wounds."

She frowned. "What were you even doing in Saha? I assumed, that you wouldn't ever go there after what you saw from John's memories!," she questioned. "I wanted to check up on Happy and Meph brought me to him and, well, they were in Saha. Turns out, that he is apparently the descendant of another of the Legendary hedgehogs. I tapped into his and Scourge's power to help Conner."

Kylie blinked at him. "Wow. I didn't expect that. ...Wait, Scourge's heart condition...was that because of what you did?," she put the pieces together.

"Yeah, sorry.," Sonic replied, still feeling bad about this. Happy had been another story, healthy and conscious, able to withstand his request. But Scourge had been weakened and unconscious, unable to resist him. This technique could have really hurt him...

"No need to. Who knows, how much longer he would have stayed in the Healing Slumber? You probably gave his system a little push to shake it awake. Besides, Conner would be dead hadn't you done it.," Kylie reminded him, as if she had read his mind.

Sonic nodded, feeling placated. "By the way, Happy used the opportunity to remove the drug remains from my spine.," he added.

"He did? Any side effects?" "None." "And when that changes..." "...I'll tell you, promise.," Sonic replied, knowing the routine by now.

Kylie grinned. "Good. I'll see you around, then. Oh, by the way, your appointment is tomorrow, don't forget it.," Kylie remembered. "Appoint-... Oh no.," Sonic groaned, when memory returned to him, too. "Please don't tell me I have to go there still.," he groaned.

"Even if you have broken up with Shadow, that doesn't mean, that you aren't an uke anymore – and you'll learn many valuable lessons there.," Kylie argued.

Sonic sighed, but knew, that she would, if necessary, drag him there personally, so it was better to give in. "Hooray.," he just complained.

"It's not as bad. Besides, you won't be alone in this; there will be other ukes, too.," Kylie tried, unsuccessfully, to cheer him up. He didn't want an audience to him learning about sex...! He felt his cheeks light up at that thought and rather quickly said his goodbyes, leaving a slightly confused Kylie behind.


By the time Sonic had reached the foyer again, after yet a few laps around it to get rid of the blush, he found it empty aside from Zen and Mali at her desk.

"Where is everybody?," he wondered as he approached them. Mali looked up and grinned. "The cellar. They want to check Nicole for eventual bugs, too, but her main console tends to overheat and is therefore kept in some of Shy's eternal ice. Apparently, they want to figure out, how much body heat her ice can take.," she explained with a chuckle.

"And Sal went with them?," Sonic wondered, not taking her for the geek-type. "Well, she and Nicole kinda clicked and Rotor tries to figure out, if he can copy her mainframe to a handheld version for her.," Zen explained.

"...Okay, I don't pretend, as if I understood that.," Sonic replied. He contemplated running down there, too, but it would probably be crowded – and hedgehogs and crowds didn't mix too well. "Any idea, when they'll return?," he asked instead.

"It shouldn't be-" Mali interrupted herself at once, her glare having wandered to the front door briefly and now her face was deathly pale, her eyes transfixed to the glass door and wide in what could only be fright.

Zen and Sonic naturally noticed her behavior and looked, too, to the door. While Zen growled instantly under his breath, his blunted quills raised on pure instinct and he moved to stand on the desk, Sonic couldn't understand either reaction.

On the other side of the glass door approached a young human woman. She was swaying precariously and wearing high heels was probably a poor choice in such a situation, but she stayed miraculously upright with each wobbly step.

The moment she was close enough and the door opened, the reason for her strange walking pattern became disgustingly clear: the foul stench of alcohol, that not even the bath in perfume, that she had apparently taken, too, could hide, entered the room before she could take a single step inside. Each on their own, the smells were intense enough to make any mobian with their good noses retch, if not vomit right away.

She either didn't know that – or simply didn't care. The woman had short black hair, that she had, despite being for all means and purposes trashed, perfectly styled to a bob with dark red hair clips holding her fringe back just behind her temples.

She was wearing a very short black dress, that barely covered the middle of her thighs, her heels having a matching coloration. In combination with her gold bracelets, silver earrings and the little red handbag swinging lazily from her left hand, she looked, as if she had gotten lost after leaving a party or a discotheque.

A side glance to the other two, who were still very tense, told Sonic, that she was apparently here for a purpose – and it wasn't a good one.

Halfway at the desk, she raised her free hand and waved so enthusiastically, that she almost overbalanced.

"Malicious, sweetheart!," she greeted, amazingly almost without a slur in her voice. Sonic raised a brow. 'Malicious'? 'Sweetheart'?

Mali's face contorted to a snarl. "What do you want?," she asked, voice colder than Sonic had ever heard her speak. Even towards Shadow in his worst moments had she sounded friendlier.

At once, the foreign woman lost her cheerfulness, her gray eyes becoming cool and hard, as she stopped, shifted her weight and put her hands on her hips. If it weren't for the still unbearable stank of alcohol, he would have guessed, that she was completely sober suddenly. A mocking smile stretched her painted lips.

"What, not even standing up to greet your best friend?," she asked. Mali flinched a bit and Sonic joined Zen in his growling. What a disgusting person – and he wasn't talking about her scent.

Mali, instead, stared at the other female with a hateful expression. "Ex-best friend. What do you want?," she hissed venomously.

The other woman smiled. "Just wanted to let you know, that my Baby will be out of jail soon, despite your little scheme.," she told her smugly and Sonic couldn't bring himself to be surprised, that she had a boyfriend or husband in jail – she was far too young to have a son or daughter locked up there, yet.

"Little... scheme?," Zen hissed and when Sonic looked at him, he believed to see something dark surround him, making his fur look rather gray. "You call your 'Baby' almost killing my best friend her 'little scheme'?"

The still nameless woman – and Sonic couldn't care less for learning her name by now – shrugged. "Everyone can fake a disability and pay someone to beat them up to make it convincing. Besides, there were no witnesses of this so called 'crime'.," she smirked lazily.

"Aside from five mobian hedgehogs, one of them being me. I can easily tell you, what your precious Baby did to my friend. In all detail.," Zen snarled.

"As if that would count.," the woman waved off. "It's like a parrot coincidentally squawking out the name of its owner's murderer, because they said it before. I bet you didn't even understand, what you thought you saw there and just babbled after Malicious."

Sonic wasn't sure, if he should laugh at her obvious stupidity, or join Zen, who looked ready to kill the smug grinning woman. It sure seemed tempting. Wait...tempting?

"I bet against it.," a voice piped up and everyone turned to see Kylie walk towards them from behind the woman. She rounded the stranger easily and turned calmly around to face her, and only because he knew the woman pretty well by now could Sonic tell, that she was livid. Otherwise, she looked perfectly tranquil.

"And who are you?," the woman asked, slightly annoyed by her interference. "The director of this place.," Kylie replied, not giving her name. As if she didn't want her to use it. Sonic could sympathize.

"Ah. And how do you see yourself working here? As a zoo director, or as a circus director?," the woman smirked mockingly.

Kylie copied the mimic, her brown eyes hard as frozen tree bark. "Oh, both. In case you haven't noticed, we have a wide arrangement of feral animals here, thus this is by all means a zoo. And with clowns like you, it's definitely a circus."

The unexpected statement – and the priceless face of the woman – had Sonic and Zen snort in amusement, while Mali looked thunderstruck.

"W- D-do you realize, who I am?," the woman stammered, stunned. "Oh, I do.," Kylie smiled, a tad too friendly. "You're the drunken chick, who harasses my employee and one of my protegees. If you would now please remove yourself, I would be very grateful." She made a dismissive gesture.

The stranger just gaped at her. "And by the way, I just got a call from our lawyer. The case of your boyfriend for attempted murder was given to another judge. One, who actually doesn't hate mobians with a passion. The reversal of judgment is already sent out and his sentence was lengthened from what I heard. Seems like you celebrated a bit early.," Kylie went on casually.

The woman opened and closed her mouth several times, giving the expression of a fish fresh out of the water. Then, her face turned to an ugly, hate-filled grimace. "You...I will sue this entire place, until you don't see the sun anymore! I will-"

"You will do no such thing.," Zen interrupted her, suddenly in front of the sneering woman and not even Sonic could say, how he had done that this fast.

The strange dark aura surrounding him and his invisible creepy twin were back, the latter looking immensely happy...in a dark, sadistic way..., as he stood behind Zen with crossed arms and smirked up at the woman, who looked down at the only visible hedgehog as if he was a puddle of mud in her way.

Suddenly, however, she stumbled back, her eyes wide and she slowly turned to look at her left arm. The scream she then let out was deafening and Sonic had to cover his ears, while Zen merely pressed his own to his skull.

The woman grabbed her upper left arm with her right hand, squeezing it hard enough to bruise, before letting go and looking at her hand, her eyes wide, wandering to her handbag she had let fall at some point and back to her hand.

"W-what in...what...?," she stammered, all color drained away from her face. "I wouldn't just stand there, if I was you.," Zen told her smugly. "Time is of the essence. You know, if you want to save it."

The woman looked ready to smash in his face, but then just growled, lunged to snatch her bag off the floor, turned and stormed out of the foyer at an impressive speed – for someone drunk and wearing high heels and, well, not being Sonic the Hedgehog.

Her promises of 'being back' and 'suing them for that' were ignored, as Zen snickered, his twin copying him, before the latter vanished again.

"Zen...," Kylie growled. Said hedgehog turned to her with a less than believable, innocent expression. "Can you imagine that? This poor, poor crazy woman actually had a mental breakdown and imagined her arm being cut off by a yellow furred hedgehog.," he stated, a tad too smugly to be even remotely authentic.

Then, he snickered again. "Too bad I can't be there to see, how she storms in the next police station, waving her handbag and stating, that it's her cut-off arm. Maybe they'll lock her away for a while, since she has obviously consumed drugs."

Kylie sighed. "Fantastic. I take it, that I can prepare our lawyers then. Well, they were for sure bored, as their last case is closed since a full thirty minutes already.," she muttered sarcastically.

Then, she frowned. "Will your illusion even hold long enough for her to reach a police station?," she wondered.

"Normally, no. But she's panicked and intoxicated, so she won't notice, until she stops and reflects.," Zen shrugged.

"Did you really trick her into believing, that her arm was cut off?," Sonic asked, finding it hard to believe, when it hadn't really happened.

Zen grinned. "My ability is pretty powerful, I can create very convincing illusions." His attention shifted to the only one, who hadn't said anything in a while and his grin fell. "Mali?," he asked silently.

Sonic turned also to her and saw her stare down on her hands in her lap, shivering. "You can take the day off, if you want. The week or month, too, if you need the break.," Kylie offered, clearly concerned, too.

Mali shook her head. "I...I rather don't want to be alone right now. I'd rather work.," she mumbled.

"But you should still take a break for a bit.," Zen advised and returned to her desk. "What about it, wanna get a snack from the canteen?"

His tone was light and cheerful, as if the last ten minutes had simply not happened and Mali seemed to appreciate it. "I can take over here for a while, until you are back.," Kylie offered.

Mali's eyes widened. "I can't-," she tried to protest. "Of course you can, she's offering. Come on, let's get the tastiest chocolate cakes we can find!," Zen cut her off, freed her from her desk and started to push her towards the canteen.

Although Mali could probably shake him off her chair easily, she just turned to Kylie and waved hesitantly with a 'Thank you!'.

Kylie waved back with a 'Take your time, you two!' and moved to man the desk. As it didn't have a chair, she simply leaned against the wooden structure of the receptionist's desk.

"I can get you a chair.," Sonic offered. Kylie shook her head. "Thanks, but I'm rather standing. I'm sitting all the time in my office, this is a nice change."

"Okay. What was this all about?," Sonic asked, not needing to specify that question. Kylie sighed and looked around briefly, but the foyer was deserted and nobody was wandering around it.

"That woman was Mali's former best friend, Quinn. She is more or less the reason, why Mali won't ever leave this cursed chair.," she growled with barely hidden anger.

"How so?," Sonic asked carefully, trying to remind her, that she didn't have to tell him such a personal story.

Kylie, however, wanted him to know the full story, just in case this disgusting woman would recognize him with the few brain cells she hadn't killed yet with alcohol and drugs and sue him. "Quinn started an affair with Mali's boyfriend and the two actually fell in love. He could have simply left Mali, but he was a friend of the...permanent endings."

"No way.," Sonic growled, his quills rising. The strange urge to commit a murder was back. "From what I heard, he argued with Mali being a risk, that she would do something to Quinn in retaliation."

"...How long have they been together?," the hero asked in disgust. He would connect a few words with Mali – but not vengeful or dangerous. And he knew her for, what? two weeks?

"No idea, Mali avoids that question like the plague. It's probably too painful. Anyway, he decided to kill her, lured her in a deserted alley and tried to slay her with a metal pole. Zen and four of his friends heard her screams and ran to her rescue. I don't have to tell you, how one human fared against five pissed off ukes."

Sonic felt a smirk tug at his lips as he got a few quite graphic pictures in his mind at that. "And she came here to repay her debt?," he asked, before he could inquire about the gory details. Man, that woman really riled him up, huh?

"No, nothing like that. She didn't even know, that it were ukes saving her. The police didn't go further than saying 'mobians' and none of the five stayed around, knowing, that she was in safe hands at the hospital. Months later, after recovering enough to return to life, Mali was desperately looking for a job. One, where they didn't act, as if her disability was a huge obstacle, or as if she was less than human. She approached the Shelter with an 'it can't become worse'-attitude – and promptly got one of her wheels stuck in the path up to the main building. Not even a minute later, Mighty passed her, helped her out and accompanied her to make sure she wouldn't get stuck again. Several hedgehogs greeted her, as if she was just another mobian and by the time she had reached the foyer, she would have even accepted a job as toilet cleaner just to stay here, where she was treated like a human being."

"She is a human being.," Sonic frowned. "Many people see the wheelchair first and her second...if at all.," Kylie sighed.

"Ah." It made sense, he guessed. For normal humans, her being under their eye level as an adult stroke them most likely as odd – while they, as mobians, actually enjoyed not having to look up too much to look a human in the eyes.

Not, that they would ever say that out loud – nobody deserved to sit in a wheelchair for the rest of their lives.


He looked up from his musings, when he heard the door again and he turned around to see Blush enter the foyer with someone, apparently another butterfly, yet he looked strangely different to the girl and was constantly turning his head in all directions like an overly enthusiastic tourist, walking close behind her.

The female saw Kylie and walked directly towards her. "Good timing, I had hoped to meet with you!," she greeted. "Well, I'm happy to please. How can I help you?," Kylie asked. "It's about-" Blush trailed off, when she noticed, that her companion wasn't behind her anymore, but instead examining the automatic door with an interest akin to someone, who had never before seen such a door.

He reminded Sonic a bit of a kid in a candy store. He was actually trying the automatism again and again, mumbling about mechanics, sensors and other things Sonic didn't know the meaning of.

Blush gave an irritated huff, marched back towards him, grabbed his feeler – which was much more painful than pulling a normal ear – and pulled him away from the door.

"What did I tell you about wandering off!?," Sonic heard her hiss, as if the other was an unruly child of hers. "Sorry.," the other whined and she let the feeler go, but grabbed his arm instead to drag him after her. "I wanted to ask, if you could take my older brother in.," she went on, as if nothing had happened.

"Younger.," the male corrected defiantly. Blush growled and stepped hard on his foot, making him flinch and wince.

"You're older, get this in your head!," she snarled. Noticing Kylie's confused stare, she explained, "He IS older than me, but since I'm considered the firstborn daughter – which I'm not, by the way – he is supposed to be referred to as 'second oldest brother', although he is literally the firstborn male of this generation. Clan rules, don't ask. Anyway, I wondered, if you could grant my brother a place in your Garage. And a sleeping place there, too."

"A sleeping place? ...We have an arrangement of apartments.," Kylie told her slowly. As far as she knew, Blush and her sisters hadn't taken a single apartment from the available ones – which begged the question, just where they slept. If they slept at all. Needed it, even. She had the feeling, that this was their intention, not giving their natural rhythm away.

"I know, but...er..." Blush actually looked uncomfortable, her wings twitching as if she wanted to hide in them.

"I'm unable to get an appropriate rest in a room all on my own.," the male butterfly helped out his sister. "It's usual for the males of my clan to sleep in one room no matter the number."

"...I see. Well, there's always someone in the Garage, but won't you be bothered by the sounds there? Some of the machines are audible up to here!," Kylie argued.

The male smirked. "My clan counts on my mind, I had to learn quickly to arrange myself with by now 48 younger brothers and 66 uncles sleeping in the same room as I am to get the necessary energy to function. Please believe me, when I say, that I will sleep like a caterpillar the second I have a mere blanket for my own, the background noise be damned."

Kylie blinked, clearly trying to imagine, how big their room had to be to accommodate so many individuals, but failed utterly.

Eventually, she shook herself out of her musings. "Er...yeah. I mean, we will naturally give you a cot and pillow with that blanket. If you are fine with the Garage as sleeping place, then, okay."

The male blinked. "...Just like that? I don't...have to pay? Promise you something in return? Like a favor or two?," he wondered.

Blush elbowed him into the side. "My apologies. It's his first time away from the clan. He isn't used to...kindness. And obviously forgot his manners.," she added pointedly.

That had the other quickly scramble to straighten and perform a deep bow. "My apologies, dear lady. Of course, I am very grateful for your generosity. Thank you very much.," he thanked her.

Kylie blinked. "Uh...yeah. You're welcome." She was clearly shocked and Sonic couldn't blame her. That bow had revealed just why he had seemed so different from his sister in the very beginning – he didn't have wings. There were just two stumps straining against his overall's back.

Kylie shook herself again out of her shock. "I'm sorry, I never learned your name.," she told him.

"It's Azyran. Azyran the Butterfly. But please, feel free to call me by any name you like. It's the least I can do for your graciousness."

"Don't mind him. Male butterflies don't have any self-esteem. Or pride. Part of their upbringing.," Blush shrugged.

Her glare hardened. "Could you do me a huge favor? Don't tell my sisters, that he is here, okay? It would just complicate things.," she told her.

"Of course, that should be no problem. Since nobody ever saw them in the building, I don't think, that this will be a hard thing to do.," Kylie replied, while typing on Mali's computer and then giving him a slip of paper. "Here, that is the current code. It changes daily, so when you leave the Garage, make sure to check with the receptionists to get the new one. I'll inform them shortly. Do you need help with finding the hidden compartment in the elevator?"

Azyran perked up. "If it's okay, I would like to try it myself.," he bargained. Blush frowned at him.

"You better not make them regret taking you in.," she hissed so low, that only Sonic heard her. Kylie, however, caught the tone if not the voice.

"Don't worry, I don't think, that he will be able to destroy something. Feel yourself at home here, Azyran.," she smiled.

"Thanks. I really appreciate it.," the male thanked her quite happily and Kylie could hardly steer him in the right direction of the elevator as excited as he was.

Once he was gone and they heard the typical sounds of the elevator doors closing, Blush turned to Kylie. "Thanks a lot, I don't know, how to thank you."

"It's no big deal. And don't get me wrong there, but...why did you bring your brother over right now?," Kylie asked.

Blush pursed her lips. She turned halfway to look at Sonic, who raised a mere brow at the glare that was probably meant to creep him out enough to leave. Not feeling like it, he stayed in place.

Rolling her eyes, Blush turned to Kylie. "I'm planning on finding out, just what exactly is after Shy.," she told her.

"...Shouldn't it be 'who'?," Kylie wondered. "Currently, the tendency goes to 'what'.," Blush told her flatly.

"Azyran is the best for that, but he could definitely need better equipment. That's why I brought him here."

"And you won't go to GUN with this, because...?" "Because from what I know, they are in way over their heads. I'll keep you informed. Bye now, I'm far too late already meeting up with my sisters, I don't want to make it worse." Waving, she left the foyer, leaving Sonic and Kylie behind.

"...Okay. What was this about?," Kylie asked, but Sonic had no idea himself. What did that mean, 'something' had attacked Conner? Had the culprit been a...what? A monster? A robot?


He was saved from an answer by his friends just returning, Tails, Rotor and Snow in the front and talking excitedly with each other. Sally trailing after them, grinning at their happiness.

"Kylie, good news! The robots and Nicole are all bug-free! We have a few ideas for them, though, so we'll come again!," Tails waved energetically, his tails swishing wildly.

Kylie chuckled at his enthusiasm, that looked just adorable. "As long as you don't destroy the Shelter, you are always welcome, you know that.," she replied with a grin.

Tails then spotted his brother and quickly ran over. "Sonic, can Snow come over tomorrow? He wants to work with Rotor and me on some inventions.," he asked and explained.

"Of course he can, as long as his guardians are okay with it, too.," Sonic replied dutifully. "No problem, they'll be happy, when I hang out with my bestest friend!," Snow told him eagerly, making Tails blush.

"Good to know. Give us a call, if there's a problem with finding the way or something. I'm told I'm a very good taxi replacement.," Sonic grinned.

"You're not.," Kylie, Sally and Rotor deadpanned in an accidental choir, having Tails snicker, while Sonic just looked annoyed. They all had weak stomachs, that was the problem.

Ignoring their collective laughter, he turned to Tails. "Ready to go home?," he asked, having Tails immediately perk up. "Of course!," he eagerly agreed.

"Sonic!" A happy shout rang out and he turned around – to have an armful of Forest...or Tide? in the next moment. "Vremy likes my babies!," the uke told him ecstatically, squeezing the hero hard.

"Uh...congrats?," Sonic tried, confused. Wasn't that pretty much a given, being siblings and all?

"Semes have sometimes a problem with the pups of their uke-siblings.," Kylie helpfully supplied. "They see them as concurrence in a way, although they aren't interested in their own siblings as mates. Has something to do with their territorial instincts. It's one of the reasons, why colonies saw the pups as theirs collectively, it integrated the 'intruders', until the semes had gotten used to them. A Peaceful seme like Vremy is less likely to have territorial instincts, so it's understandable, that he is completely in love with the little ones."

The other reason for him being fine with his brother's kids was Peaceful semes being infertile by nature (they were quite literally the least any colony needed, merely a rare mutation, and therefore nature had made it impossible for them to reproduce and spread their useless type further), thus being grateful for any heirs of the bloodline. His brother and friends didn't need to know that, though.

"He wants to help me with them and...and I'll think about having him call h-our parents. I... should I meet them?," Forest asked insecurely.

"You are the only one, who can answer that question. But give yourself time, okay? No need to hurry.," Sonic replied, letting his Inner Alpha phrase the answer. He himself would have probably not been as sensitive.

Forest hesitated, but then nodded. "You're right. It's just scary, you know? To have parents, who could actually love me. Even if I'm...if I was...you know."

"They looked for years for you without stopping. I don't think, that anything can deter them from loving you."

Forest blushed and his grip strengthened a little. "Thank you. I...I just wanted to tell you, that... that Vremy's there for me now. You don't have to accompany me anymore.," the Gamma explained.

Sonic smiled at him. "True, I don't have to, but the offer still stands. If you ever need me or just want to talk, I'm only one call away."

Forest ducked his head to hide just another blush, but nodded and slowly loosened the hug. "I wish your daughters only the best. Take care, bye!," Sonic waved, meaning Kylie, too with the last one, who waved back. With that, he and his friends left.


Not long after, the blue hero and his chosen family were home. The hedgehog actually wondered, if Sally had hinted something towards her friends as they seemed to be in a certain hurry to get to his house.

Even Bunnie and Antoine could hardly hide their slight anxiety seeing him and it didn't seem to be a coincidence, that they suddenly all sat in the living room, staring at him. Not, that Sonic minded. It was high time to get this over with.

"I wanted to apologize, for running out on you like this the other day and earlier today. I... had a lot on my mind and to digest.," he started. Not being able to sit right now, he stood up, pacing a bit along the low living room table.

"On...on the Island...Shadow did something to me. And he didn't think about telling me, until recently."

He stopped and turned to his friends, who regarded him with thinly concealed curiosity. If he told them now, that he couldn't speak it out after all, they would probably metaphorically combust, but they would accept it. Rant at him for building up the tension, but not pry. Realizing this made it actually easier to press on.

"Shadow... made me immortal.," he confessed. There was a long, pregnant pause as they digested that.

"So...you can't die?," Rotor eventually asked, obviously not done processing the news, yet. "Not exactly. Apparently, this thing wasn't a perfect transfer-and-share. I'll live far longer than normal people, but I'm just harder to kill. Unlike Shad, I'm still relatively easily able to die."

"Do you know your exact limitations?," Sally asked. As leader of the Freedom Fighters, she naturally needed to know her men's boundaries before sending them on missions.

"Yeah, Meph helped me with that. I'll fill you in later." When Tails wasn't around. He deserved to know this just as well, but he could see him struggle with what he had learned already. He was sunken in himself and visibly closed off. Like always, when he had trouble with digesting something.

"By the way, Knux is apparently also immortal." Tails flinched. "As long as the Master Emerald is okay, so is he.," Sonic went on.

"...Does Knuckles know?," Sally asked carefully. "I honestly have no idea. I'll talk with him about it soon, though.," Sonic replied.

"I'll be in my room.," Tails said abruptly and jumped up, leaving, before anyone could try to stop him. Nobody planned on it, though. He needed time to sort this new development through and he had always been able to do this better and faster when being left alone for a bit.

Once he was gone, Sonic plopped on his abandoned seat on the couch between Rotor and Sally. The uneasy tension between them slowly dissipated as they came to terms with the fact, that their speedy friend was once again way ahead of them.

"Think you would volunteer for some tests in the morning?," Rotor asked after a bit of silence.

Sonic's ear twitched. "So...you're okay with this?," he just had to ask. He wasn't sure, if he had expected disbelief or some kind of argument about this, but his friends didn't come up with anything but pure acceptance.

"You wouldn't joke about that kind of thing – and to be honest: if someone had to be immortal, I'm glad it's you. Chaos alone knows, what would happen, if someone like Eggman would get this opportunity.," the walrus shrugged, having Antoine nod on the other couch.

"I wasn't aware, that Shadow could do this, to be honest.," Sally mumbled in thought. "It was an 'once in a lifetime'-thing.," Sonic answered. "Apparently, I was close to death and this was the only way he AND Kylie saw to save me."

Sally opened her mouth, for sure to ask for details, but something in Sonic's eyes stopped her and she just stayed quiet.

"Do you want the world to know?," Bunnie wondered. As long as only they knew his little secret, they would take it to their graves, but at some point, people would notice him not aging or surviving impossible to survive incidents. Ultimately, however, it was his decision.

Sonic groaned and let himself flop against the backrest. "Gee, I don't know. For now, it's hard enough to live with this. I'm not sure if I'm ready for the onslaught of scientists trying to dissect me or something.," he shrugged. Of course he wasn't really worried about something like that. After Perringten, he wouldn't fall as easily as before for someone's nice words, and his friends wouldn't hesitate to get him back in a heartbeat, so there was not much to worry about.

It was the public opinion he loathed the most. Being outed as an uke, even if Eggman and Perringten had made it as hard as it could have been, had dented his trust in people outside his family quite a bit.

Their reaction to his immortality would probably range from complaints about 'him of all people being immortal' to demands to please 'risk your life for the greater good, it doesn't destroy your body after all, so please almost kill yourself for us whenever necessary'.

Judging by the faces of his friends, they followed the same train of thought. "Tell me, when you change your mind or it is about to leak through. I'll prepare an official statement.," Sally told him.

Sonic grinned. "Thanks, Sal, I appreciate it.," he thanked her. Leave it to Sally to handle this practically. Relaxed, since the worst of the talk was over, he leaned some more back.

"So." Sally turned a bit to face him and propped her head up on her hand with the elbow leaning against the backrest. "How are you going to handle the situation with Shadow? It wasn't good, what he did there, not at all, but it was an emergency, from what I gathered – and I know, that you still love him. Feelings don't just go away like that."

The hero moaned in exasperation and closed his eyes. "I know. I know, really. I miss this asshole more than I can tell." He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling. "At the same time, I want to kick his balls to the next galaxy and the rest of him in another.," he grumbled.

While Antoine and Rotor gave a choked noise, Sally and Bunnie chuckled. Without having to look, Sonic could imagine his coyote friend to subtly move away from his wife, when she was amused by this mental picture.

"Sounds, as if you shouldn't meet up with him anytime soon.," Sally smirked. "I'd say. Though, making a few plans, you know, just in case, would be...beneficial.," Bunnie added. At once, Rotor stood up. "You know what? I'll be in the lab. I just remembered some inventions I could build.," he excused himself hurriedly, before they would try to rope him into their scheming.

"I'll help holding the pile-driver!," Antoine exclaimed and sped after him. "It's 'screwdriver', sugar, but good try!," Bunnie called after him, before turning to her equally amused friends.

"Now, any ideas on how to make Mister 'Dark, Spiny and Grumpy' miserable?," she asked and plotting ensued, that no seme on this planet ever wanted to hear.


It was subtle. A faint whisper, carried by the wind, so weak and delicate, that you missed it by blinking. By breathing too strongly. By standing too far away. But it was there. Steady, constant. But not reassuring in the slightest.

HIS aura.

After all those years, it was back. She had personally seen it vanish, seen the body the aura had left behind, had burned said body to ash. The entire building, like the Island. Why was he back?

No, how?

She still remembered his words, every single one of them, etched into her memories. He had said it himself. He was just a human. A normal human being.

Had he lied? No. She could detect lies, long before they were spoken out. And he had been so proud of being just a human, too. Of what he had done, accomplished being just a human.

So how? And why now?

They had found a home, dammit! Didn't he care, that they were finally happy and almost nightmare-free!?

The thought let a small, humorless bark interrupt the silence surrounding her. Of course he didn't care. They wouldn't have those nightmares if he had EVER cared about anything but himself!

Shy turned away from the balcony door she had stared through and looked to her naked feet. The carpet under her soles was smoldering and she hurried to clean the air. The last thing she wanted was Emma waking up smelling the burned scent. She didn't need a panic attack.

She was afraid enough as it was after this weird trance she had been in. It hadn't happened again so far, but if it would have happened, then she would have known, as she kept her sisters under lock and key. Not, that they minded.

After the events of that dreaded day, not even Ray wanted to go to their normal school and Mali and Kylie had put them in homeschooling classes for the ukes. This way, there were plenty of people to watch over them at all times. It was reassuring for everyone. But his steady presence took that reassurance again from them.

What should they do? Run away like before? No. She couldn't do that, not again. Before meeting Mighty and the others, it had been fine, they didn't have a home or friends to leave behind.

But at some point, he, Ray, Scythe and Blush had become their home, their family. To rip them away from this would be more than just cruel.

It would make her to him.

On the other hand, could she risk staying here and put everyone in danger? He had more than once proven, that he always won. Even now he proved it, just by being there, when he should be dead.

But why didn't he just attack, then? Why did he punish her by torturing and killing Conner? And why was he targeting Kari next?

Her heartbeat sped up thinking about the blood-written message from earlier this day.

CT.

The letters he had always put behind the number-code he had used instead of Kari's right name.

She had never cared about the numbers, just about the letters, learned, who they labeled with them.

And CT had been connected to Kari. She looked over to the slumbering girl. Losing one or both of them would destroy her and she knew it just as well as he should.

Her hands came up to wrap her arms around herself, feeling a chill in her veins, that had nothing to do with the room's temperature.

Was he meaning to do this? Was he trying to...repeat the incident, that had destroyed his blasted institution? Had he tried it with Conner first and then decided to go for a target, that was even closer to her? Did he want to take another sister from her, just to prove his old theory to be right? She felt cold at the mere thought, shivering in pure fear.

She nearly jumped out of her skin, when a soft knock echoed through the room, whirling around, before realizing, that the sound came from their apartment's door.

She looked down at the sudden glimmer in the room and saw a ring of sharp icicles surround her like a giant crown. Her old protective shield.

A small, humorless smile appeared on her lips. She hadn't felt the need to build this one in quite some time. It was repeating itself, huh?

Her eyes wandered over to the beds next. On Kari's, in the middle, lay her little sisters curled up around each other still fast asleep, while Curi had planted his entire body on her own bed on the outside, covering it with his more than average sized wolf body.

He was awake, having awakened due to the sound, his ears turning in every direction like a radar and his big nose twitching.

Almost instantly, he calmed down again and went back to slumber. It was enough to put her at ease. He wouldn't be this calm, if there was an enemy behind her door. And really, what enemy would knock?

Getting rid of the ice, she went to face her visitor. Already through the wood, she saw two auras, that she knew well enough to not bark at them the moment she would really see them.

Opening the door, she was met with Scythe and Blush. "Good evening.," Scythe grinned, her namesake gleaming in the moonlight.

"Did you get lost?," Shy asked, a little more rudely than she had intended, but she hadn't properly slept in days and now feeling His aura nearby was taking the cake of all things she could handle at the moment.

Undeterred, Scythe smirked. "Yeah. Got lost on purpose. You know, it's funny, I don't seem able to sleep without my dog."

Shy rolled her eyes. Yeah, right. Scythe could sleep literally everywhere. She had found her sleeping on a bed of pebbles coming from a rock she had smashed herself once. She had regretted that the next morning, but she had been well-rested.

As if Curi had any chance to change that. Besides, he usually slept somewhere apart from her or provided the youngest with warmth, not her.

"Take him, then.," she shrugged, not in the mood to decipher her strange behavior tonight. "Nah, I think I'll just relocate my bed for tonight.," Scythe grinned and moved gently past her.

Shy blinked after her back disappearing around the corner, before turning to Blush, who looked at her more serious than ever. "Until further notice, you and your sisters as well as all of your friends will be under the protection of my clan. Conner already has a discreet shadow.," she told her curtly.

Shy gaped at her. "D-do you have any idea, how dangerous these people are!?," she burst out despite herself.

"I believe I do. You should know by now, that my clan never underestimates its opponents. We are still figuring out, who this person is and until I have a foolproof way to kill them, I won't let you out of my sight...or my sisters' sight, really."

"So, you are taking over the night shift?," Shy asked, fed up with both of her friends going on her nerves and talking in riddles.

Blush smirked. "So blind already? I heard, that this happens with humans, but damn. You're early.," she remarked and moved past her. Shy blinked after her. What in the name of...?

It took her a good minute more, before she remembered to close and lock the door and she made her way back to the bedroom.

Scythe had turned herself into a feral wolf of an average size and curled herself in a ball on the floor next to her bed, while Blush sat on the railing of the balcony, the door open to let a light breeze in.

Shy squinted at something she suddenly noticed behind the assassin, blinking a few times to clear her vision and then felt her jaw drop.

Before Blush was a rainbow, a large group of her sisters, patrolling her entire floor and the building, their auras blending to a light, that put the Northern Lights to shame.

She had been so focused on the distance, that she had missed, what was right before her eyes...

The spectacle – pretty much a butterfly ballet doused in colorful lights – oddly reminded her of Sonic's strange form back on the Island. And for some reason she couldn't even begin to fathom, that sight made her feel safer than she had felt in a while.

Wordlessly, she crawled in the last free bed, hugged her sisters to herself and fell easier to sleep than for some time. And for once in an equally long time, she didn't have a single nightmare.


It was already late at night, when Sonic finally went into his bedroom. He had had fun scheming revenge-plans for Shadow with Sally and Bunnie. Of course, he would never act out on it, even if the mean streak, that he had developed since Quinn's appearance, enthusiastically suggested it. Even if the dark hedgehog went on his nerves, he would never harm him, no matter how tempting it was right now. Sal was right, he still loved the idiot. But as it was currently, he wasn't compelled to forgive him.

It bothered him still, that his room was so devoid of Shadow and his scent, so he rather went to the roof to spend the night there.

He just took a detour to his bedroom to grab the book Kylie had borrowed him. Due to the shield, that kept Shadow out and that Tails refused to take down, he didn't have to worry about the night being too dark to read.

He had told Sally, who was an early riser by nature, that he needed to get up at 10 am at the latest, but refused to tell her why. He would rather die than reveal the reason, why he needed to be at the Shelter tomorrow.

Thankfully, Sally wasn't someone to pry, when it wasn't absolutely necessary, and she had probably picked up on him being uncomfortable.

Thus, she had just agreed and promised to stay one more day to watch the boys before returning home, although he tried to tell her, that it wasn't necessary to stay at all. He had his communicator, she could just use it from her plane or wherever she would be by then to wake him – and Tails was pretty responsible all on his own anyway and would be a perfect host.

Sally had just chuckled at his argumentation and shoved him out of the room playfully to get some sleep herself on one of the couches.

Bunnie and Twan would beat it out of here someday tomorrow and Rotor...well, he probably needed a little coaxing to be pried away from Tails' interesting projects, so he'd be their guest for a few more days at the latest.

It would be a bit strange to be just with Tails again then after having Shadow for so long around, but he would get used to their old normal once more, no problem.

He wasn't long on the roof, reading a chapter of the book, that was about the tasks an Alpha had (he actually snickered at the 'keeping your people in line'-part. Knux would have his hide, if he knew, since he was also part of his colony...) and had just made a mental note to visit the guardian after this hideous course Kylie forced him to, when he heard the familiar sound of two tails bringing their owner into the air.

Without looking – he knew, that Tails hated eye contact, when he was upset due to his painful past, when he had been stared at like a freak – he just put his book aside and gazed up at the stars, colored by the translucent shield. It was for some reason really pretty to watch a green tinted night sky.

His ear twitched as Tails landed gently on the roof, padded closer and eventually snuggled as close as he could without crawling into his brother's skin. Wordlessly, Sonic snaked his arm around him, letting him know, that he was there for him.

For a long while, they just enjoyed each other's company with Sonic watching the stars and rubbing Tails' back absentmindedly and the young fox just listening to his brother's heartbeat and occasionally adjusting his position.

"Sonic?," Tails asked eventually, when Sonic was once again petting his back, showing, that he was still awake. The blue hero hummed in acknowledgment. "Can you...can you tell me about your immortality, when Snow's gone tomorrow?," the young genius asked reluctantly. "Sure, as long as you want. I wanted to visit Knux tomorrow – wanna fly us there?" Normally, Tails would immediately perk up at any chance to show off his (piloting) skills towards his idol, but now, he just nodded a bit against Sonic's side.

A slightly tenser silence reigned for a little while, before Tails spoke up again. "C-can...can you...promise me something?," he asked, his voice trembling in a way that suggested, that he was close to tears. "Of course.," Sonic replied, his ears twitching in unrest, picking up on his distress.

Tails hesitated for a bit, before he whispered, his voice clogged with tears, "Can you...can you please not forget me, when I'm dead?"

At once, Sonic felt his eyes become moist as well and he jumped up to engulf his brother in a tight hug before he could even consider to slip off his front.

"As if I could ever forget my little brother. Not in a million years.," he whispered, holding him just as tightly as Tails held him.

The poor fox suffered, knowing, that he would at some point stop being there for Sonic and Knuckles alike due to his own death. He was the youngest, he was supposed to be the last to go, but as it was, he would be the first one to leave.

He wasn't afraid of being replaced. If there was one thing you could say certainly about Sonic, then it was, that having a place in his heart was an infinite deal. He also knew, that he would never be forgotten by him, but, that he would be missed dearly and for a long time just as well. And there was nothing he could do against it.

The unfairness of it all didn't escape the hero, either. How long would he live, until death claimed him, too, and reunited him with his friends once more? How many friends more would he make and lose to old age (in the best case scenario)...?

It would take quite a while, before they could separate again.


"If this is, what working at GUN's looks like, then consider me hired.," a voice mocked, making Shadow's ear twitch in annoyance, although he couldn't contradict the statement – he had stared at the empty screen for at least twenty minutes now without typing a single letter.

No wonder, that Mephiles, currently hovering over Rouge's desk as if lying on an invisible mattress, had made fun of him.

Nobody was in the office right now, Shadow had sent Rouge home and he knew, that there were just a few more men in the building in case of an emergency. He suspected, that the demonic being wouldn't be around otherwise.

"What are you doing here?," he asked, tone bored, and pretended to bring some papers in order. If Mephiles noticed, that they had been already in a perfect staple before he had grabbed them, he didn't comment. "Silver's not home and Kylie wanted us to talk anyway.," the demonic being shrugged.

It was frustrating in moments like these to have a boyfriend with the ability to foresee the future. He had no idea, if Silver was at Kylie's again because he had foreseen this meeting of the semes and thus known, that he wouldn't be around, or if he had come to their home earlier than him, not found him and then decided to go to Kylie, thus leaving him little choice than to go to Shadow to settle his restlessness a little. Killing to achieve that just wasn't an option anymore.

Well, either way, he was here now and he felt already better knowing, that someone else was as miserable as he himself. That had been probably not, what Kylie had had in mind with suggesting that talk, but no matter.

"So he's giving you still the cold shoulder?," Shadow muttered absentmindedly. Mephiles snorted. "As if your mate is suddenly all over you.," he shot back.

Shadow shrugged, although something in him broke further at those words. "He needs time and I'm willing to give him all the time he requires."

"You think he just needs time? He can't breathe the same air as you without snapping at you.," Mephiles gladly reminded him.

"Rouge suggested that. I never said, that I believe the same thing.," Shadow amended, finally turning his full attention towards their conversation. "Sonic needs obviously distance to get his thoughts in order. He also needs me to stay patient with him, which I will be."

"You think that's enough?" "It's all I can give him. If he wants to take his frustration out on me, I won't fight back. If he wants me to never see him again, I will heed his wish."

"How about you fight for his forgiveness?" "And how?" "How am I supposed to know? I'm just saying, Sonic basically encouraged me to fight for my relationship. To explain the immortality-fact to Silver better. To make him understand.," Mephiles shrugged. "I can't imagine, that he wouldn't want you to do the same."

For a few minutes after that statement, they just stayed silent, both deep in thought. Mephiles contemplating, how he could get Silver to allow him in his range at all and Shadow thinking about Mephiles' words.

Could he fight for something he damaged so utterly all on his own? Apologizing just didn't seem to be enough. Not to mention, that Sonic wouldn't even let him do that much, he had demonstrated that earlier. But what else could he do? Write a letter or mail? It was too impersonal, wasn't it? Maybe giving him time and THEN apologizing would do the trick?

Shaking his head, he tried to focus on the case again, but as there were no traces whatsoever, no witnesses and the only ones able to give information shielded by Kylie, he could have stared at an empty sheet of paper for the amount of clues this working day had brought them. He needed to get the girl to talk, but it was quite obvious, that Sonic cared about her – he had literally revived someone for her – and pressuring her would only serve in getting into more trouble with his love...

Looking up, since he simply couldn't get any idea, he saw Mephiles still hover over Rouge's desk as if lying in an invisible hammock and staring at the ceiling, probably thinking about his own relationship-troubles.

"I have a question.," he started, figuring, that he could make the best out of his company, when he had him here anyway.

"What is it?," Mephiles sighed, as if Shadow was pestering him for hours now and he had figured out, that he needed to answer him finally to get some peace and quiet afterwards. Ignoring his attitude, Shadow just asked, "When you were the Gentleman Killer – why did you choose these victims especially? Here are no cameras.," he added, when he noticed the toxic green eyes search the ceiling and desks.

"Interesting. I would have thought, that Towers would have liked it to keep an eye on his Ultimate Weapon.," Mephiles mocked.

Surprisingly, Shadow didn't take the bait and only smirked. "He would have liked to, but being partnered with Rouge does have its advantages." Towers had indeed not wanted to deal with the headaches the bat would have caused him had he installed cameras in their office. The former jewel thief danced the cancan on the precarious line between appropriate and inappropriate behavior and would have done so especially, when she would have had an even bigger audience than usual. In a rare fit of wisdom, he had spared himself the stress.

"So?," Shadow asked. Mephiles frowned in thought and righted himself, making it look, as if he had exchanged the hammock for a simple chair. Eventually, he shrugged. "Availability.," he answered shortly. "Availability? What do you mean?," Shadow repeated and asked. "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time, easy as that."

Shadow narrowed his eyes. "Some of your victims have been found kilometers from their last proven location. You call this 'available'?"

Mephiles chuckled in a belittling manner. "Demonic beings work differently than you do." It was all he offered and Shadow didn't feel like trying to fruitlessly pry for information on the topic he stayed so mum on. "Is the new perpetrator also a demonic being? Maybe a relative of yours?," he asked.

Mephiles snorted. "Believe me, if it was a relative of mine, I would personally take care of them." His facial expression would have caused lesser beings to wet themselves.

Shadow just raised a brow. He had never thought about it, but did Mephiles have family? He was born, right? So he had parents at least. And from the sounds of it, there was a tension he better didn't touch with a question. "So, another demonic being, not related to you?," he rephrased his last question.

Mephiles narrowed his eyes and then shrugged. "Possibly. Personally, I'd say, that someone tries to imitate the demonic ways. Quite well, too."

"And their information source?" "Who knows? Maybe the blasted internet. You keep claiming, that you have everything in there, after all."

"So you can't foresee the next victim, either.," Shadow concluded. "No. But where would be the fun in that, anyway? Just because I don't cause the deaths anymore, doesn't mean I don't enjoy seeing the work of someone else."

"And if Silver is the next target?," Shadow asked without thinking. The room temperature dropped to minus degrees instantly, his breath coming out in white clouds.

He was idly amazed, that no ice started to grow on the furniture, while he met Mephiles' crystal form fearlessly.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he noted, that it took the other less than a second now to take on this form.

"Should this lunatic even contemplate going after Silver – you won't find enough to tell, what happened to the poor f- Silver?," he interrupted himself, the crystal form forgotten and falling off him at once as he straightened and turned his head to the door.

Shadow did so, too, but couldn't detect anything, that would look, sound or smell remotely like the silverfurred uke, neither close by nor in a reasonable distance.

Nonetheless, the demonic being slipped off his invisible perch and hurried out of the door, breaking it out of its hinges.

Having literally nothing better to do, not to mention becoming curious due to the very atypical behavior of Mephiles, Shadow followed after him.


The hallways of the building were dark with little to no light due to the time of day, but both hedgehogs had no problem with orientating themselves.

While Mephiles seemed to follow some kind of invisible trace – that was probably not too distinguishable, or he would have warped to the source already – Shadow just followed him, trying to detect, what had attracted the other. No luck so far, though.

He corrected that last thought, when something unexpectedly shot through the floor between them.

Shadow jumped back – and then gaped at the large conference table lodged firmly in the floor.

The walls left and right of it were actually cracked due to the force. "Interesting. I'd say, that we are close.," Mephiles stated unnecessarily and suddenly, they were sinking into the floor.

Shadow just let it happen, but couldn't help a comment of, "You know, that we have something called elevator here, right?", just before they sank into the ground completely.


Fifteen minutes prior:

"There are nights, when I should simply stay in bed. THIS is definitely one of those.," Kylie muttered, while padding barefoot after Silver and Zen through the hallways of...well, that was part of the reason for her foul mood.

She had no idea, where she was, or better, where Silver had transported himself, her and Zen. Neither did the other two know – which was especially in Silver's case disconcerting, as he. Brought. Them. HERE!

And the worst part was, that her unplanned journey could have been prevented hadn't she decided to check on her two furiously whispering sleepover-guests after getting a drink from the bathroom.

The next thing she knew, Silver held out this strange magic ball – Mephiles', for sure, she was going to wring his neck for that – that glowed and blinded them to bring the three of them...here.

And all Silver, the culprit for this impromptu trip, had to say to this was, "We need to be here".

Great. She had the ill feeling, that 'we' meant 'Silver and Zen', not her, and she was here by accident. That would be for sure be very convincing to whoever lived and/or worked here. At least the ground was carpeted and the hallway relatively warm so she wouldn't get sick from this. Small favors.

They turned yet another corner – and stopped dead in their tracks. Ahead of them, sprawled on the ground in the dim twilight reigning in the building, lay a most likely human figure. Even without a mobian's nose could she smell the sickening scent of blood, heavy in the stale air.

"...Okay. The other direction. We should really go in the other direction.," she muttered, just as Silver took off in the opposite direction she had indicated, directly towards the body and then past them. And Zen, being the Gamma that he was, followed the Beta on pure instinct. Fantastic. And where was her authority as an Alpha?

With a sigh, since staying with them was her best bet in an unknown location like this, she ran after them, ignoring the body she had to pass and the bloodstains she believed to see on the walls, floor and ceiling around it.


Several minutes later, two floors further up and more bodies behind them, they reached a pair of unhinged double-doors out of whose room came definitely fighting noises, paired with crashes and ripped tissue.

Silver was the first there and Kylie saw him at once tense. "NO!," he shouted, his hands glowing in a turquoise light, and suddenly, there was a loud crash and Kylie swore to feel a quake under her feet as she ran to catch up to him and Zen, who stood already next to Silver and looked as if he had been struck by lightning.

Finally reaching them, Kylie couldn't blame him. There, in the middle of the room, under a massive oak table halfway buried in the ceiling, in a hardly lit room, hovered a mobian hedgehog in the air, dark blue fur pretty much glowing in a light of the same color, eyes shining in pure white.

"Oh, no.," she breathed, recognizing her friend and wasting no time in getting closer to him. "Sonic?," she asked silently, having a blue furred ear twitch and the unsettling, blank eyes zero in on her.

"Kylie, stop!," Zen hissed, but she paid him no mind. "Hey, Sonic. Do you know, where we are here? We're lost.," she told him, deliberately ignoring the room's disarray she could make out in the weak light from the corners of her eyes and the wet, cooling puddle she had stepped in on her way inside, that smelled of blood. Sonic didn't seem injured, at least.

A short pause followed and Kylie could see Sonic visibly fighting his way back from his Dark Form, his Inner Alpha willing himself to help them with their location problem.

Eventually, his fur turned lighter if not completely back to normal (it was hard to say, the table had taken almost all the lights with it through the ceiling, giving the room an eerie twilight via a broken, flickering light bulb) and his eyes became normal again, if only dull and exhausted.

Panting, he sank to the ground and she was quick to fall on her knees next to him. "Sonic?," she asked silently.

The hedgehog winced as if she had screamed into his ear and he reached up to grab his pounding head. "Tails? Whe...Tails?," he mumbled, sounding confused and distressed. Had he been by his side, before he had transformed? Had he seen this form? Had he been indirectly responsible for causing it, perhaps?

"Go to him, we will find our way out. It's safe here, after all." She was at least pretty sure of that as Sonic didn't seem to be willing to fight anymore, which he wouldn't do, if the opposite was the case. Seeing Tails would most likely end the transformation for good.

Nodding at her suggestion, as if he had heard and understood her – she doubted it, as exhausted and out of it as he seemed – he disappeared, probably tapping into his powers to warp. She prayed, that he would land where he had been before.

"What...is going on here?," she heard someone speak behind her and turned to see Mephiles and Shadow stand between her and Silver and Zen.

"What are you doing here?," she just had to ask. "I'm working here.," Shadow stated as if it was obvious.

"This is GUN?," Kylie gaped. "You don't know?" "Do I LOOK, as if I wanted to visit a military HQ!?," she snapped back. That had the male blink and realize at once, that she only wore white pajamas with blue heart patterns on them and not even shoes of any kind. That was a definite no.

"How did you come here?," he asked instead of admitting his mistake. "Ask those two, I was just pulled in by accident.," she woman growled, pointing at the two ukes.

"That's not true.," Silver spoke up, surprising her. "You were needed here. Without you, Sonic would have killed Shadow."

A jolt went through said seme hearing that. "What?," he choked. "Sonic was here to kill you. You made Tails cry and he wanted to take away, what had caused his sadness. You.," Silver explained, his voice strangely detached.

"How did I make the fox cry? I haven't seen him in ages!," Shadow argued, still trying to digest, that Sonic would have killed him. Speaking neutrally and emotionlessly like this, the dark agent didn't think the silver uke was joking. It wasn't anything the naive teen would joke about anyway.

"It doesn't matter.," Zen answered for his fellow uke. "In his Dark Form's mind, you are responsible, even if you are innocent. He wouldn't label you the culprit, though, if he wasn't mad at you for something already.," he deadpanned in the tone of someone, who knew, what they were talking about.

"And why am I still alive, then?," Shadow asked, almost absentmindedly. He still had to work through the fact, that Sonic would have attacked and tried to kill him. And what was a Dark Form?

"Sonic fought someone. He wanted to kill them, but I intervened. Sorry, for the table.," Silver apologized.

Kylie, Zen and Shadow stared from the lithe uke to the table still stuck in the ceiling (and the ground of the next floor), that weighed about twenty times more than him and decided simultaneously not to think too hard about it.

"Is that the same someone, who littered the lower floors with bodies?," Kylie just asked. "What?," Shadow questioned in bewilderment.

"I guess. Their scent was on them, but weak. I didn't see anything of their body or face, though, just a cape.," Silver answered, ignoring the dark seme.

"My guess is, that this someone targeted Shadow as well and Sonic decided to protect him. That was 50-50, really. He could have decided for a spontaneous alliance with the other just as well. He could have decided to kill you earlier, too, by the way.," he added sternly towards Kylie.

Wasn't she aware of how dangerous it was to step in the way of an uke in his Dark Form!? He could have torn her to pieces!

Zen had the feeling, though, that he had been supposed to see this. He was an expert for Dark Forms after all, and Sonic had apparently one, as he had suspected since their first meeting...

Kylie just shrugged as an answer, distracting him from his thoughts. "It was pure instinct and according to Silver my destiny or something. Besides, that wasn't the first time, either."

Now, that the tension was gone, Kylie felt even more annoyed than before. She was glad to be able to help Sonic, but being dragged into the situation without warning was really not her favorite thing to do. And she could have definitely done without the bodies. "Mephiles, would you check on Sonic, please, just to be on the safe side? And then we should inform Topaz.," she went on, taking the lead to get her thoughts in order. Since this was entirely okay with Shadow – and he had enough on his mind himself –, he just let the demonic being take off, while he told the three others to come with him, figuring, that they needed to testify anyway.


Mephiles didn't often regret anything in his life. In fact, the very meaning of the word 'regret' was lost to him.

It came back to him, however, when he listened once again to one of Kylie's orders, warping to Sonic's house – and found himself right in a green light, that nearly burnt his light-sensitive eyeballs and forced him to duck behind a tree, until he could see again without stars in his vision.

It wasn't, as if he hated being in the woman's service, quite the contrary, she was probably the best person to be indebted for a lifetime (her lifetime, mind you) to, but moments like that came pretty close to it. Seriously, what was such a strong light doing out here of all possible places?

Once he had regained his vision without any annoying shapes dotting it, he protected his eyes with a special demonic spell (that was too tiring to keep it up all the time, sadly) and came out of his hiding spot to see the house he had intended to go to protected by a green glowing sphere, that was definitely not natural or part of a regular house.

He felt his brow twitch. "You've got to be kidding me.," he sighed, rubbing his hurting head. If he didn't know better, he'd say, that Kylie knew of that and wanted to torture him. Seriously, what were the chances for this atrocity to wait for him?

Shaking his head lightly, he forced himself to look past the light (why did Chaos Energy have to be so bright in its positive form?) to spot the two-tailed fox lying on the roof, curled close to the aura residues of the hero he was supposed to look after.

Huh, seemed, as if Sonic had a problem with aiming his warp. Fantastic, so he had a hedgehog to hunt down. He just hoped, that he had missed his destination by mere meters or feet, not kilometers or continents. Or years. That last one would be a fun thing to explain, if things got very unlucky.

Smirking, he let his aura stretch out, trying to locate the hero. His smirk fell to a frown, when he detected something, that was neither the hedgehog in question, nor belonging to a forest like the one he was in. Figuring, that the blue speedster was a trouble magnet by nature, he warped himself to the place he had felt the disturbance coming from.


Upon arrival, he was for once at a loss for words. In front of him, he saw Sonic, still in his Dark Form, contained by what looked like a glass ball, his claws slashing uselessly, yet relentlessly, against the slippery surface, his dark energy pressing against the material in countless places in an attempt to break it. And before this bizarre sight – a Dark Form contained, he had thought, that it would be impossible to do so – stood a figure in a trench coat, apparently taking notes.

For a few seconds, Mephiles could only stare. How could anybody contain such raw power?

And something else did he notice. The blackness surrounding the hero was identical to the one of the crystal pillar they had discovered earlier in Saha.

Interesting, this indirect contact had apparently corrupted the hero enough to trigger his Dark Form. Would it have happened, if he didn't open this room earlier?

It was a curious thing to consider. He almost killed Agent Shadow in the most indirect way possible because of this decision. How...oddly dissatisfying that would have been...

In that moment, the glass ball all but exploded, sending shards everywhere. Mephiles, ripped rudely out of his thoughts, didn't even need to move to shield himself from the sharp pieces aimed at him, just having his tentacles swat them away like flies.

Once freed, the hedgehog disappeared and the demonic being felt him land, where he was supposed to be and to immediately get back to normal, probably upon seeing the fox. Good, resurrections were always such a hassle to do.

With that problem out of the way, he focused on the stranger, who didn't even seem to care, that his front looked like a porcupine's back, littered with differently sized shards.

He just took calmly more notes, as if nothing had happened. "Very intriguing. Less than ten seconds. This creature is very intriguing.," the man – it was definitely a male's voice – muttered to himself, before putting an exaggerated dot on his paper and turning around to him.

It was a human, having a hat fitting to his coat pulled deeply into his cut up and glass-littered face.

No surprise there, Mephiles could see his soul rot with his body. He was a resurrected dead. A horribly shoddily, lazily resurrected dead.

He had maybe a year left, while carefully brought back ones could easily beat their own original lifespan (unless they died before that, of course).

His body was rotting away, his eyes and nose probably already gone, that were the first ones to go usually, that's why he hid his face.

"You stroke a bad deal.," he informed casually. The stranger just grinned, a feral expression.

"Mephiles the Dark.," he smirked. "I had hoped to meet you." "I'm not into ending the suffering of imbeciles.," Mephiles scoffed and turned his back to him to leave, walking away.

"I'm not interested in dying. It's a rather time-robbing affair and I have a lot to do, after all. However, I have heard of you and I was interested in meeting the product of my benefactor."

THAT had the dark being's attention and he stopped besides himself. Would he carry his heart in his chest, it would beat against his ribs right now. Did he really imply...?

"As I said, a bad deal. A really bad one.," he just said, his voice as impassive as always. "We'll see about that.," came the smug reply and at once, he was by himself.

Mephiles stayed still for a moment, making sure, that he was truly alone, before punching the tree next to him, felling it instantly.

If he pretended hard enough, then having his fist colliding with solid wood and its rough bark were the reason for the tremors suddenly taking over his body and the sudden hitch in his breathing.


By the time the procedure of getting their testimonies (if you wanted to call it like that; they had literally no explanation, why they were here aside from Silver's 'we needed to be here', couldn't tell, who had killed the men and left Sonic collectively out of their statements, thus giving no reason for the destruction of the conference room, either) was over, Mephiles had joined them again after a last check on the hero and cleaning the last traces of his transformation off him, telling them about Sonic apparently having 'sleep-transformed' from the looks of it.

Hearing that was no surprise to Zen, but worrying nonetheless. If he transformed in his sleep, then his body was getting used to the form and would sooner or later let it take over during daytime.

He didn't say as much, though, and nobody asked, probably drawing their own conclusions.

Mephiles then brought the three civilians back to the Shelter, at the same time refusing to testify anything (not, that Shadow would have expected anything else), leaving the dark furred agent to face Topaz and, by consequence, Rouge, who had been on a girls' night out with her former partner and still-friend and been informed, too.

The Director of GUN hadn't wasted any time in sending out people to retrieve and identify the bodies and to look for any kind of clue of what the intruder had wanted.

Ignoring the destroyed conference room, the unknown person had killed 15 employees, agents, secretaries, janitors and night watchmen alike, and vandalized the rooms they had been in, even a restroom.

Destroyed the furniture, scratched the walls, floor and ceiling and smeared blood (of the victims) on them to create horrifying doodles of dead people with quite accurately drawn weapons stuck in their bodies and heads, torn apart animals and destroyed toys and houses.

It appeared, as if the attack had had no point at all. Worse, the rooms looked as if a very bloodthirsty child had had a temper-tantrum in them. A child like the girl Silver had described this morning.

And while it would probably take quite some time to detect the main reason for their intrusion, one message was already conveyed: not even the best secured building in the world was safe from them, whoever they were. They could guard nothing and nobody if they didn't want it.


*I never bothered with researching, what S.H.A.R.D stands for and just found an explanation, that fitted my plot. Sorry, if that bothers you, it won't be mentioned again, I think.

And another chapter done! I'm sorry for the long wait, longer than estimated by myself (lesson learned, I'll never try to predict myself again. The master thesis (and the second, oral part) took a lot out of my concentration and creativity and I could hardly produce anything during those months. Since I'm done with this, I had to ask one of my teachers repeatedly to get my last missing grade which took also months and not knowing, if I had to take another course or was finally done with studying, was also not good for my creativity. To make matters worse, I started to lose interest in the entire fandom and to orientate myself towards a completely different one, which didn't help in that matter. Funnily enough, writing for that other fandom was like draining a poison out of my system - the more I wrote, the more ideas for this fandom returned, which helped me with finishing this chapter. So I'm pretty much back on track!

I'm hopeful to be faster this time, since the next two chapters are ones I wanted to write for a while, but I'm not sure, when I'll be able to upload them.

Have a nice Christmas and stay healthy! :D