Summary: Sally convinces the mistrustful Kitsune Clan to go along with her idea, but with Tails and Sonic's hearts in turmoil, will they be able to concentrate long enough to succeed?
Canon Characters in this chapter: Sonic, Sally, Antoine, Bunnie, Tails
Non-Canon Characters in this chapter: Azami, bit parts by others.
Note: For those of you uninitiated to SatAM or the earlier comics, a Power Ring is…um, well a big gold ring, just like you pick up in the games, but in the animation and comics, they have special powers. Usually they just make Sonic run even faster, but they've also been used to power machinery and other things. In the animation, they're actually very precious, and one is created only every twelve hours from a pool in the forest (Uncle Chuck submerged a ring-generator in it). If someone isn't there to catch the ring when it emerges, it sinks back down and is presumably reabsorbed into the machine. So…yeah, in SatAm, they're kinna important and not what you would call common.
Kitsune
by WingedHippocampus
Chapter Seven: Elements
Miyuki, thankfully, did not seem to think breakfast as formal an affair as dinner, so Sally got to wear her usual clothes. Sonic and Tails had both come back to the Kitsunebi residence at some point in the night, though they seemed to be avoiding eachother. Sally watched them over the meal, each pointedly not speaking to the other. This was something they would have to work out between them, she knew, though she could not kid herself about how the outcome would affect her, as well. Instead, however, she turned her attention to Azami and the other kitsune.
"Excuse me," Sally began, and she found all eyes on her.
"Yes, Sally-hime?" Azami asked gently.
"I think I may have come up with a solution," she announced. The kitsune wore various looks at that statement, from doubt to surprise to curiosity. "We may still be able to create your purification stone if Sonic, Antoine, Bunnie and I take the places of those unable to participate, and we make a conscious effort to align ourselves with the missing elements."
"That is not possible," Hikari, still quite bandaged, would scoff. "Only kitsune may create such a thing, and you four have no alignment or power. You would kill us all in the attempt."
"Besides," Kuro, the seven-tailed Kitsune of Dark, spoke for the first time since Sally had been here, "this is our affair. Non-kitsune need to stay out of our business."
"The point has long passed for this to be exclusively your business," Sally retorted. "When non-kitsune begin to suffer and die, then it's time for others to step in and help. Now, last night, I worked out the elemental alignments of myself and my friends based on the missing slots. As for power…" Sally pulled something out from inside her vest and set it carefully on the table with a faint clinking sound.
"That is very pretty, Sally-hime, but what is it?" Iwamaru frowned at the large, golden metal circle that the princess had produced.
"It's a power ring," she explained. "It contains quite a large amount of energy that can be drawn out by living creatures and molded by its user. We often use one to boost Sonic's abilities at critical moments, but it's also been proven that they can be more versatile. If we use this at the ceremony, we should have a chance at success."
"And if you are wrong, Hanako, Kuro, Iwamaru, and Miles Prower risk death," Hikari argued. "Kitsune are a rare enough breed as it is, and we have already been forced to lessen our number by one."
Silence prevailed for a long, uncomfortable moment.
"I will trust in Sally-hime," Azami murmured calmly, taking a sip of his tea as though this conversation were perfectly ordinary.
"With all due respect, Azami-sama, you are not one whose life will be endangered," Iwamaru growled.
"If Azami-sama trusts her, then so do I," came a soft voice from normally timid Hanako, the four-tailed Kitsune of Wood. "Azami-sama is meant to be trusted. Despite his humble three-tail status, our clan leader left him in charge of this house and the shrine. I would think that speaks greatly for him." She cast a quick, demure glance to Kuro, and for a moment, Sally was sure she saw something between them. Her suspicions only strengthened when the black kitsune immediately concurred.
"Very well, I too will trust in this foreigner," he said reluctantly.
Iwamaru sighed and looked at his fellow kitsune, finding himself outnumbered.
"Oh alright," the big fox grumbled. "May we all go to Hell together. Prower-san?"
"Huh?" Tails asked, coming out of his moody reverie. "Heh, you don't even have to ask me. My Aunt Sally is smart, if she says it'll work, then she's right. I'm not scared!"
"We've gone an' done crazier things, y'all," Bunnie grinned.
"Laying life and limb on ze line for mah princess is but duty!"
"Eh, I'm not gonna let some stupid rock hurt me," Sonic shrugged. "Count me in."
"Thank you, all of you,"Sally replied. "I will try to have my team ready by noon."
"Very well then," Azami nodded, smiling. "When you feel you are ready, we will be waiting."
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"Alright," Sally paced slowly in front of Bunnie, Antoine, and Sonic. Sonic seemed distracted, and kept gazing off to where the kitsune had vanished with Tails after breakfast. "What you need to do is immerse yourself, mind and soul, into your assigned element. When the time comes, you need to direct it into the center of the circle. Sonic, you are best attuned to the power ring, so you will be the one to hold and channel it for the rest of us."
"Huh? Wha'?" Sonic blinked distantly at her. "Changing channels, got it."
"Sonic," Sally said softly. "We need you here. If you aren't focusing, it could be disaster."
"Sorry, Sal, I'm just worried about Tails," he admitted.
"I know you are, Sonic, but you have to focus. Things could get very dangerous otherwise. Now, when we begin, I want you all to…"
Sally's voice just trailed off into background noise for Sonic, his mind wandering back to Tails…
…who was suffering much the same trouble as Azami tried to instruct him. The older fox frowned, studying the kit a moment before kneeling to be closer to his level.
"This will not work, and you will bring your friends harm, if you cannot keep your mind on this very important task, little one."
"I'm sorry, I'm just…I don't know if…I mean…" Tails started and stopped, before finally blurting out in a desperate voice, "am I really one of you? It's real real important that I know where I belong!"
Azami laid his ears back at a gentle angle, triple tails curling around his knees as he settled on the ground proper, gazing up at the boy with those molten gold eyes.
"I cannot tell you for certain, Miles Prower, whether or not you are a true kitsune. A kitsune of our type does not come into the bulk of his or her powers until physical maturity begins. Until then, there is no foolproof way to identify a typical fox from our kind. Not even the possession of more than one tail is a certain kitsune trait, you will note that Iwamaru only has one tail. I have never before heard of a fox with multiple tails who was not one of us, but I…how would your blue friend put it…I do not 'get out much'. The fact that you can fly, even before maturity, and your unusual golden coloration, both point to the high likelihood of you being a true kitsune, and a very powerful one at that. I am certain enough of this likelihood to gamble with the lives of other clan members in this spell. Now, as to your other statement…" Azami took a slow breath before continuing. "Little one, I cannot tell you where you belong. No one can. This is something you must decide for yourself. I will, however, tell you this; you will always be welcome in this residence. Even should you decide to return overseas with your friends, these doors will always be open to you."
"E-even if it turns out I'm not a real kitsune?" Tails asked in a wavering voice.
"Even if it turns out that you are a lizard," Azami said with such gravity that Tails just had to giggle a bit.
For some reason, Azami's words of unconditional welcome soothed Tails somewhat. He no longer felt such pressure for things to be exclusively one way or the other, for him to be forced to close one door in order to open another.
"I think I'm ready now, Azami-sama."
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The bright, cheerful afternoon atmosphere was left behind as the shrine began to fill with solemn figures. Azami, Danica, and Hikari, unable to help with anything but the chant, would kneel sedately at a safe distance. Sally,the only one of the Freedom Fighters who could read the signs etched into the clay discs, would direct her friends to their places. Soon enough, her own boots would scuff softly against the engraved circle, and her heart crept up to lodge in her throat. So many things were going through her mind. What if she were wrong? What if they failed? How many of her friends would be harmed? How bad would it be? And then there was Tails, an innocent child under her care. How responsible was she to allow him to be a part of this? The thought was almost enough to make her turn back, to call it off right here and now.
Sonic smiled at her from his position several discs away. That familiar, self-assured smirk he was always so fond of showing her just before he did something reckless. Perhaps it was only that familiarity, but she found herself calming.
Kitsune and Freedom Fighter alike exchanged glances. It was now or never. They were just going to have to trust eachother, and hope this worked. Tails and Sonic were the only ones still avoiding one another's eyes.
The chant, a cyclical call to the eight elements, would begin. First with the kitsune, who knew the words, then as the newcomers picked up on it, they too would begin. Sonic clutched the power ring close with both hands, willing the energy out of it as he had so many times before, only this time, he did not channel it into himself, but rather back down through his body and into the disc he was standing on. From there, shimmering gold would flash out through the rope connecting them all, briefly infusing everyone, even the kitsune, with a warm glow.
Immerse, Sally had told them.
Bunnie had made an uneasy peace with her partially-roboticized body some time ago, but she could never have said that she was entirely comfortable being the way she was. In that moment, however, she tried to deepen that harmony between flesh and metal. She tried not to think of the cold, ominous metal of Robotropolis, but instead, she tried to reach back further, to the gleaming, beautiful spires and statues she remembered from her childhood, before the takeover. She took those memories of clean, bright art and fantastically wrought architecture and held it in her mind. She held those images, immersing herself in their wonder. Bunnie would not notice the liquid metal that began to seep up from under her feet, coiling upwards, forming into short-lived shapes and jags before melting away again.
Antoine's memories reached back even further the rabbot's, to early childhood and his native country of Mercia. His grandmother'd had a watermill that fascinated a then-tiny coyote. He would watch it for hours, the water of that clear, cool stream forever tumbling over the ancient wooden wheel, turning, turning, always turning. He'd been amazed at how gentle it had seemed, yet just beyond that ancient wood, it powered a mighty grinding stone that would pulverize anything placed upon it. The etched clay disc beneath Antoine would suddenly gush, twisting sheafs of water rising up around him.
Sally's mind turned to memories of her father's study. He liked to keep the windows open, and she remembered how sunlight would come pouring down to cut sharply through the darkness. She had thought for the longest time that the dust motes that shimmered in the sunbeams were tiny fairies. When those beglittered rays settled upon her father as he worked, she would often tell him, to his warm amusement, that he had fairies sparkling on his head. Brilliance erupted from Sally's disc, needles of light shooting towards the shrine ceiling.
Sonic's disk was the only one left. He tried. He really did. He tried to think of the many warm campfires that he had shared with his friends, or of fireside stories with his Uncle Chuck…but his mind flashed to other things. What were they doing here? Was Tails really going to be okay here? What if they all died right now? No! Fire, think fire!
A sudden, nauseating wrench threatened to bring him to his knees, and he felt unexpectedly weak and distant. The others felt it as well, to a lesser degree, and it was only growing worse. The spell was beginning to fall apart.
"Sonic!"
The painfully gasping hedgehog looked up at that familiar cry of concern. Tails was wreathed in hazy gales of wind, but those worried, wide blue eyes were as familiar as ever.
Tails. He was going to end up killing Tails if he didn't keep it together. Sally, Bunnie, and Antoine, too. He had to focus. His anger and fear were not worth risking failure. With all humor and bravado aside, this family he had constructed from his precious friends was all he had in the end. He couldn't let them down.
Sonic's disc finally flared to life, completing the circle. The Freedom Fighters abruptly felt a heady mixture of exhaustion and unexpected euphoria as the entire array pulsed in blinding, multicolored radiance.
The four would not remember at what point they had fallen in limp heaps upon the floor.
To be continued…