Trinity: Aw, they love you Shadow! You get your mouth back.

Shadow: W00T! (jig jig)

Tails: (sigh) That is so...

Shadow: Um...about this chapter...

Trinity: Oh yeah, it's kinda gory...at least that's what one of my friends said. I don't think so.

Shadow: What kind of world to you live in to beleive that?

Trinity: Shut up.

I don't own any of the Sega characters. Not even a finger of one...


Chapter 4- The Night Before

The next morning, the first thing Tails recognized was the smell of burnt wood. His little nose leading him, Tails sat up and sniffed out the fire he slept next to the night before. He squinted against the bright morning sun and shaded his eyes with his hand. As his eyes came into focus he heard the hushed rush of the water in the river. He crawled over to the river bed and drank some water out of his cupped hands.

Tails stood up suddenly. He didn't know where he was. The riverbed he stood in was unfamiliar to him and he couldn't remember how he got there. He retraced his steps back to the place where the fire was and stood next to the ashes. Looking around, all he could find was trees and shrubbery. There were neither signs of the city Farsight nor any signs of his own house.

Becoming panicked, Tails spun around and around, looking for something familiar. He was too worried to leave the safety of the fireplace, and too scared to be isolated in the wild. He stopped spinning when he started to get dizzy and knelt down next to the ashes.

I need to calm down and think. Tails thought desperately. What am I doing in this place anyways? How did I get here? I need to know…need to remember…

Tails smelt Shadow. He could pick up Shadow's scent in the ashes, and next to spot where he slept. Tails remembered dragging the unconscious hedgehog home and waking him up and talking to him next to the lake. Shadow had put on the earring Tails made for him- another power ring. Shadow had approved the earring, and even gave him a small smile of praise. But then-

His house! The smoke in the distance-his house was on fire!

Tails jumped to his feet again, back in the present. He went to the riverbed and looked downstream. The water ran faster near his house, and the river was almost rapids next to Farsight. His house must be further downstream. All he needed to do was-

"Tails!"

Tails looked up from his position ready to take flight. Shadow's voice flitted to him from the fire place. Tails peeked over the buff and looked up at the dark hedgehog.

"I'm over here," He said quietly.

Shadow turned and looked down at the kit. He sighed in relief and went to the two-tailed boy. He sat on the riverbed and patted the dirt next to him. Tails joined him, glad to have some company.

"Are you alright?" Shadow asked after a while.

"What happened?" Tails asked. "Why wouldn't I be alright? What happened at my house?"

"It burned, Tails, burned to the ground," Shadow said, watching him carefully. "Bandits ransacked everything and burned what was left."

"I…the only thing I can remember is… how angry I was. So very angry. Shadow, what happened? How did I get here?"

"I brought you here. I didn't want you to see…such a mess."

"A mess? What do you…Shadow! You killed them, didn't you?!" Tails yelled.

"No, I didn't. Don't you remember? Never mind. Its best you don't. Just listen," Shadow turned to Tails, and grabbed his shoulders. "Every one of us has a trigger. Mine is grief. Yours is apparently rage. You have to keep your rage under control or something like this may happen again. You might get innocent people involved in it if you don't keep control."

"Something…like this?"

"Don't. Ask." Shadow said. His toned ended the Q & A.

Tails looked into the clear waters of the river. His own worried and disturbed features reflected on the glass surface. Something troubling nagged at the back of his mind. A fish skimmed under the surface and his reflection was warped into a terrifying beast. Tails looked away at the twisted reflection and instead followed the fish downstream with his eyes.

"Shadow?" he said quietly. He got a grunt for an answer. "Will you ever tell me? Tell me my own secret?"

Silence. Shadow was staring at the kit's rippling reflection on the waters surface.

"I won't have to." He said when those big blue eyes turned on him. "You'll remember it soon. Just…prepare for the worst."

-0-0-

Shadow walked next to the flowing river, heading downstream. He didn't expect Tails to remember any of it right away, but he didn't think he would figure it out within hours either. I underestimated his reasoning skills. He thought grimly. He would make a good detective. The burnt vegetation and the air charged with Chaos energy made him slow down. The sight of the pile of scorched frame work and ash came into view-as well as "the mess."

Shadow shuddered as his memory, clear as crystal, came to him while he looked over the scene.

The gloating boar was all Tails could take. As the sight of his burning home and the thought of those filthy bandits proudly lighting it up sunk in, Tails' rage grew. The roar of laugher from the rams and lizards echoed in his ears. And now that fat, dumb boar was challenging Shadow? That just won't do.

Shadow felt the prelude to the blast, felt the air spark to life, making every one of his hairs stand on end. He stopped listening to the boar talking the moment he started. Instead, he concentrated on the energy in the air. He barely had enough time to identify the source when he was knocked off his feet. Shadow threw his arms up in front of his face as he fell back. He rolled onto his stomach and wrapping himself in his own Chaos Energy as a whirlwind of Chaos energy swirled about, his arms over his head.

Though safe, he dared not to raise himself too far off the ground, and only peeked over his arm. Most of the bandits stood roasted from the Chaos Blast, their blackened corpses unmoving in the torrent of wind and energy. The air itself seemed to be burnt black and the tiny grains of sand swirling about in the air, as if in a typhoon, became weapons that sliced through air and flesh.

The rams and lizards that survived the initial blast, and were stupid enough to rise to feet, were torn to bloody shreds by the sand. Those who to stay down without cover got their backs cut open, their blood spraying into the swirling air in twirling fountains. The few smart ones took shelter under their dead comrades and were spared death, only to be granted to watch the horrible scene.

Tails stood in the center of it all, his two tails and fur blown around in the wind. He had his jaw clenched and his clenched fist shaking with fury. The growl rolling in his chest and throat echoed louder than the roaring winds. His head was bowed and eyes were tightly shut. With his eyes squeezed shut, it looked like he was trying his hardest to block out everything around him, to fight back his the growing amounts of Chaos Energy within him.

When his eyes snapped open, his blue eyes were several tints lighter, turning icy cold. He lips twisted into a smirk that struck terror in to Shadow's heart. He had gained complete control over his Chaos Energy. The kit raised his palm calmly toward the fat boar, who was laying several feet away. He rose into the air slowly, squealing in fear, as his arms were forced to his side and his legs clamped together. His fat protected him from the danger from the slicing grains of sand, but not from Tails.

When Tails raised his eyes to look at his squealing and struggling victim, his smirk widening into a sick smile. Slowly, he began to curl his fingers into a fist, his palm directed at the boar's chest. The boar's squealing suddenly came to a halt, though his thrashing increased tenfold. He threw he head about, gasping and making a horrible shrill sound instead and he wiggled his body that was bound by the invisible links of Chaos energy this way and that.

To Shadow, it looked like Tails was applying pressure to something in his palm, although nothing was there. The kits claws tips came closer and closer toward the center, crushing something with imaginary force. His eyes narrowed and his smirked widened yet again as he glared at the gasping boar. Blood had begun to pour out of his mouth and nostrils. Suddenly, Shadow understood that Tails had the boar's heart in his clutches.

"NO!" Shadow's voice burst forth, moments too late. Tails smirked, and slammed his hand into a tight fist.

The boar gagged, blood spurting out of his mouth and nose, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. Finally, his body went still and lifeless, hanging in midair. The sand began to settle and the whirlwind died down. As if on cue, the survivors jumped to their feet to turn tail and run. Tails smirked and streaked after them, his wicked claws cutting them down and slicing them more that the sandstorm did. In mere moments, almost all were all dead.

Shadow had risen to his feet the first moment he got as well. When he saw Tails' speed he was shocked frozen. Before Tails could reach the last of the bandits, Shadow lunged at him, standing in his way. He grabbed the Tails by the throat, picking him up off the ground.

"Clam down, Tails," he growled at the kit, just as fierce as him. "You have to clam down and change back. You're not like this!"

The ram stood shaking for a moment, before turning tail. The flash of his movement caught Tails eye. With a defiant smirk, he shot the ram through the head with a Chaos Spear, spreading his blood and brains across the ground. With a roar, Shadow smashed his fist into the kit's temple, knocking him out. Shadow held the kit close, the scent of blood and feel of death over whelming.

-0-0-

Shadow growled to himself, his claws shredding the only standing beam of Tails' workshop. He remembered turning and running, with the kit in his arms. He stopped only when he showed signs of waking up soon. Shadow found a nice clearing near the river and placed the kit down to rest. He built the fire to keep him warm in the chilly night and actually hid when he began to stir awake.

Shadow sighed deeply and turned his weary eyes on the torn corpses. It looked like the local wild carnivores found the bandits as a free meal and visited the area recently. An arm or leg that was attached before were missing from most of them. Shadow watched the wind twist the leaves on branches heavy with fruit. He picked one and found it to be juicy and a bit sour.

I can't wait any longer. Shadow thought to himself. I'll have to tell him about it. Tomorrow.

He picked three more and headed back to the camp site under a red sky, the sun hidden behind mountains.


Shadow: Just a little gory? A ten-year-old just commited mass murder! And you stuck as much detail as possible into it!

Trinity: Come on, it wasn't that bad...was it?

Tails: Ohmigod! I just killed a whole bunch of people! With my bare hands!

Trinity: I can't tell, are youfrightened or happy about that?

Tails: Urm...I'm not sure...

Shadow: (sigh) People, just review this chapter. Trinity wants to know if she can do something like this again.

Trinity: Or how make the scene better! (XD)