Hey! Sorry for the wait, had a bit of trouble working this one out but ch.12 is finally done! I do not own sonic the hedgehog or any of the characters from the games, movies or comics but I do own this story and the other characters, I hope you enjoy it.

Things Only Whispered In The Shadows

Ch12. Ghosts Of The Past

The conversation had gone downhill after that last question. I knew that we were trying to save one of our enemies and that the consequences could spell the end of our revolt before it truly began. Even so I couldn't let Fleet die, he had a family to protect and if we could make it look like he died with the others then his family might be safe as long as he stayed out of Salem's sight, or at least until we over throw the bastard.

"I hope you realize how high of a risk you're running." Shadow had crossed his arms again.

"Of course I know, I'm not stupid."

We sat there in awkward silence for a while longer before the world began to fade like always. I wanted to say something, anything, but everything I could think of just sounded wrong to me. I looked back to him one last time before he completely disappeared, he didn't look back, I didn't know what I had expected but my chest tightened as I too vanished from the nightmare.

When I woke I felt like the nightmare world had followed me into my waking hours. Even after sleeping I felt exhausted. emGet a grip whisper!/em I slapped my cheeks to get the blood flowing, I was not going to get depressed over this, and I was sure as hell not going to get depressed over a nightmare!

"Um… you Ok Whisper? Haven't seen you wake up so, interestingly in ages." It was clear Talon hadn't slept at all, and he had seen my, interesting attempt to snap myself out of a funk. So I smiled.

"Yep. Perfectly fine, what would make you think otherwise?"

"Well…" I have to cut him off before he actually starts asking questions…

"We should get moving, the sun'll be up in an hour and we need to move fast if we want to get Fleet back before sundown." I made a show of getting my things in order and then went on over to find something to eat. Roasted veggies, and mystery meat… I hated cooked veggies… I sighed mystery meat it is…

Two hours, that's how long it took us to get everything together and cleaned up. You would have thought that considering we were packed light and experts at keeping things simple when it came to this kind of thing and you would be right, but only when we were pressed for time, and I mean really pressed for time like there is an army on your heels ready to slaughter you in your sleep pressed for time. But no, as far as everyone was concerned we had as much time as we needed now and since we had enough manpower to hold a camp and Fleet was stable everyone felt the need to take things easy. I tried many times to keep the urgency there but somehow it just wasn't working.

The first delay was when Fel misplaced Talons sword, next Rune forgot where she put her pack, then Maxis remembered what he had forgotten to do last night before he dozed off on guard duty, finally Rune panicked when a couple of low class monsters wandered into the clearing just before we got the last of the stuff packed and went nuts. We had to repack almost half of our gear. All in all not entirely unexpected.

Four monsters, three pranks, and way too many bad jokes to count, we were back and none too soon. The sun had begun to sink over the mountain peaks as we marched up the final steps. We were greeted by the none too enthusiastic surviving soldiers who, after some persuasion, and a short explanation were more than happy to comply with our demands.

"Is it really true? Are we free from than maniac?" of the remaining soldiers only a handful were actually loyal to Salem, the rest were in similar situations as Fleet, they either had family or friends back in the empire and the only way out was death. Until now.

"What about the people we left behind? What's going to happen to them?"

"The same that happens to everyone who loses someone in the war, as long as we don't go back or let anyone know that were alive they get left alone."

"Better than getting used as leverage to keep a war going," Fleet had hobbled his way out of his room with the help of one of his men.

"Captain!"

"You really are alive!"

"Thank heaven, we were all worried!"

I watched as Fleets men gathered around him an took turns telling him about all the things that he had missed while he was away, and how glad they were that not only were they free from Salem's grasp but that he was as well. It took me a minute to realize that these were Fleets men not Regis' men. He hadn't just been demoted and shuffled into another unit, Regis had been put in charge of Fleets unit as well as his own. I had to excuse myself to keep from breaking out into tears, how many of his men hadn't made it? How many good people like this had died just getting here? How many of them was I responsible for? There was no way I was going to sleep tonight. Not after knowing what the nightmare world would do after this. There was no way I could face them.

I wandered up to the lookout, and found Talon deep in thought. Looks like I wasn't the only one with something on my mind tonight. We could hear the beginnings of a party below as the soldiers celebrated their freedom. "Couldn't think down there either huh?"

He didn't take his eyes from the sky, "Nope, never could. I wonder what it's like, the other word I mean."

"Well its different I can tell you that much. Peaceful for starters, well mostly."

He gave me a look of surprise before the realization set in. "0h yeah, that's right, you got to see it, Mobius, didn't you."

"Only for a little bit. But yeah, it's beautiful and big too. It felt like I could run forever and never run out of places to see." Now he had me looking up at the stars too.

"Do you think we will ever get to go there for real?"

"Would I be trying this hard if I didn't?" I finally got a smile out of him.

"No, I guess you wouldn't."

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" he stopped and looked at me, blinking in surprise again before breaking out into another grin.

"That your lazy, and if it wasn't important you'd find a way to make me or Fel do it for you." I took a swing at him but he was already moving. "Can't get me that easily!"

"It is so on!"

We chased each other around like kids again for the first time in forever. The soldiers got a kick out of it and a few of them started their own mischief amongst themselves. For a while our worries were forgotten, and for a while we were happy again. We all knew it wouldn't last, but I guess that's what made it so important. That night there were no grudges, there was no hate, and we refused to be brought down by the last few days. We all got along that night, drinking and goofing off mostly. I learned how to play cards, and Talon learned how to lose at cards. Rune learned a couple of songs, who knew she would be so good at singing, and so bad at holding her liquor. Maxis drank Fleets best men under the table and didn't pass out until a few drinks later. Fel, well let's just say he has a few new apprentice pranksters, they thought that pranking him would be a hoot until they realized just how good he was at it. All in all I ended up not sleeping after all, and I didn't mind it one bit.

Morning came around, Maxis was still passed out along with most of the ex-soldiers, Rune had gone to bed hours ago and Talon and Fel were wandering around somewhere, probably causing trouble. I was on my way to the kitchen to start breakfast for a lot more people than usual when I felt a tug./p
p style="max-height: 999999px;""Oh no, not again…" Another tug and a tired groan escaped me. "Why couldn't this happen when I've had some sleep?" The last tug pulled me to the blank world between worlds. I spotted three figures this time. Shadow, Knuckles, and another, orange echidna, which I didn't recognize. She was dressed in strange clothing, and as her eye met mine I realized something was off. I couldn't put my finger on it.

"You must be Whisper. Knuckles and Shadow have told me much about you and your world." The young girl smiled warmly at me, and I smiled awkwardly back.

"This is Tikal." Knuckles introduced her, and Shadow wouldn't look me in the eye.

"I serve the master emerald, muck like knuckles does. I was surprised to hear his plead for help." Knuckles blushed at the mention of him pleading for her help. "I have an idea that might get you to our world faster, however you may not be able to complete your mission before then if it works."

"The faster I get to your world, the faster I can get help for my world." She smiled and nodded happily, I don't know why something felt so off about this girl but it was going to irk me to no end until I figured out what it was.

"Great!" knuckles was thrilled at how easily this was going compared to the last time, so was I. Shadow was still avoiding my gaze however.

"So it's settled then, we need to start gathering the emeralds in earnest if we want to pull this off."

"Lighten up Shadow, we have four of them already and with an expert treasure hunter like me around we won't have any problems finding the rest!" shadow rolled his eyes at knuckles ignoring his gloating.

Tikal spoke up again, "we need the power of another emerald before we can bring you to our world without any problems, so we need you to be ready when they get ahold of another one. The master emerald can only do so much without the others."

"So when I get to your world there will only be one more emerald to find before we head back to my world and kick some tyrant but?"

"If everything goes according to plan, yes." This was the first time Shadow had spoken to me since I arrived here, and the edge in his voice told me how uncomfortable he was about it.

I didn't know how to thank them for what they were doing for me, for my world. The darkness had been overwhelming for so long I had almost forgotten what the light looked like, what unconditional kindness was like. Well, almost unconditional, still you would never find this many people willing to help someone they didn't know for so little. I was beginning to believe there was real hope after all.

"So how long do you think it will take to get a hold of one more emerald?"

"Honestly? Could be as soon as tomorrow, however it could also take as long as a couple weeks or even a month even with so many people searching for them." emA month!/em I mean I know finding something like that could take a while but the way he was putting it sounded like it would be easy. Not that I wasn't grateful or anything but they did say it would be a lot faster. Knuckles must have seen the look on my face when he said a month, "don't worry, two weeks is more likely, we have a good idea where we need to start looking for one of the two remaining emeralds." I tried to smile and nod enthusiastically, but I think knuckles is the only one who was encouraged by it based off of the sympathetic look I got from Tikal and the fact that I knew that Shadow was sharper than that.

"So it's decided then. You get me to your world, I bring my emerald and help you find the last emerald, then you all come to my world and help me save it from Salem before heading back to your own world."

"Sounds good to me!"

"Good luck Whisper!" I nearly had a heart attack when Tikal turned into a ball of pink light and disappeared with Shadow and Knuckles in a flash before I reappeared in my own world.

"What's the matter sis? You look like you've seen a ghost." I held my hand to my forehead and steadied myself against the wall, the smile on Talons face dropped to a frown.

"I think I might have." Shaking it off I decided sleep would be good for me after all. "Things just keep getting stranger and stranger." Talon said nothing as I made my way around the newest residents of the temple and up the stairs to my room. He knew I would explain it later, right now I needed to let everything sink in. I shut the door, flopped down onto the bed, and closed my eyes. No sooner had I closed my eyes then I was out like a light.

No nightmare world for me today, only dreamless exhausted sleep.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the newest chapter, I hope to get the next chapters done in a more timely manner than this one.