"Yes? What is it you would like to know, young traveler?"
"I...I was wondering if you know about a person...called Vanity."
"Hmm. That's a term we haven't heard in a while."
"But do you know her?"
"Yes... I'm afraid so, she was one of our many adversaries. As she is aligned to the Umbra of the past, she is always the enemy."
"Have...Is...Is it possible to defeat Vanity?"
"Possible? Yes. Simple, no. To defeat her is to try and fight an enemy in the dark who is well-accustom to. Please, traveler. We don't want you to join us so soon. Reconsider."
"Reconsider what? Is there another option?"
"Stay here. With the guardian. You would last quite a long time down here. I should know. Let your father fight for you."
"No. I won't let anyone fight my own fights for me, unless I'm fighting along side them! You can't stop me, Senkensha!"
"I wasn't planning on stopping you, dear traveler. Just suggesting. I can't make you decide against your own will."
"So how do I destroy Vanity?"
"I'm afraid...the only person who would have that knowledge, is none other than who you are hiding."
"Hey, Leaf?" Silver asked the green hedgehog who was admiring the waterfall that supplied the generation of the refugee psychics with fresh water. There were lots of interesting additions to the lower levels of the temple necessary for survival. But they didn't matter much to him to recall. "I have to ask you something."
"Oh? Is it...about Vanity?" her eyes darkened as her aura shivered. He could tell the subject made her uncomfortable as she lowered her head and closed her eyes with a sigh. Who would want to talk about the murderer of their mother, he guessed. His own mother's death made him never want to sit in the passenger's seat. If he did, he'd become very nervous and lose it.
"I understand...that makes you uncomfortable," he assured, "but the more you tell me, the faster we can figure out how defeat her."
She looked up at Silver with tear-dimmed eyes. She nodded and brushed her tears away. "It's a long story, Silver..."
"Let me try to understand, please."
"But...I don't know how to tell you..."
"You don't have to tell me. You can show me."
"Vanity was never loved for who she was. Several times in her life was she turned down by people that were special to her. Her husband left her because he couldn't live with Vanity's attitude any longer. She was never the same again after that door shut behind her back. She had tried very hard to raise her daughter, Nikki, but it was too challenging. Her life was pushed down to the ground, beat up, and crushed. It was impossible to get it back together. I can still remember the night that mom and Vanity had a big argument. It was horrible..."
Silver watched the memory closely. He could see a familiar Vanity, but there was another coyote with Leaf and a very divine golden hedgehog conversing with her. Who? Is that Leaf's mother, Earthia?
"Van, calm down! You don't need to take down yourself for something you didn't do," my mother, Earthia beamed her striking blue eyes at Vanity's red ones, who were full of rage. I was five years old and I sat in the corner with Vanity's four year old daughter, Nikki, whose identity was a lot similar to Vanity's. Nicole's ears were huge; so big that her right ear flipped over. She had crimson eyes like Vanity, except hers were softer and more interesting to gaze at. I feel like I needed to say something really badly…
"I apologize that my daughter will not be a jewel like yours ever will, Earthia. But do understand that it simply annoys me when someone brings up the subject of what I have contributed to this Earth!" Vanity hissed, her eye-bothering white fangs shining.
"Vanity," Earthia placed her arm on Vanity's shoulder, "I'm sorry-"
"Sorry for what?" the purple one drew back quickly, her eyes narrowing, "maybe you shouldn't even have put me in your little group that you call the Guardians! Maybe you shouldn't have even helped me live!" Vanity's eyes glowed densely with rage as she swiped past the golden hedgehog and headed over at my direction. She reached her long dark gloves for her baby, who, in return of her mother's anger, began to cry. She whipped around, her dark dress twirling along with her, and faced back one more time. I tilted my head sideways, noticing my mother, whose eyes were bulging from astonishment. She slowly made her way towards Vanity, trying to remain as calm as her frightened gaze allowed her. "Vanity, you have helped out-"
"Oh please, Earthia, I despise lies," the other one interrupted.
"Vanity, stop!"
In a split second, Vanity's hand smacked Earthia's face, leaving a faint red mark. Vanity moved away, a frown on her face, but yet a hint of satisfaction in her smile. Her tail spun around her as she left the room and slammed the door firmly shut.
Light tears flowed down mom's muzzle as her legs seemed to give out, her body hitting the floor. I could hear her sob; the girl she had known since she was small, the girl who was like her sister, had hit her with no regret at all.
"Mommy, why are you so sad?" I mewed, trying to speak clearly through my
gibberish four-year-old voice.
Her large eyes aimed at me and a struggling smile twisted upon her muzzle. "I'm fine," she sighed, wiping away her tears, "I love you Leaf."
"I love you too, Mommy!" my tiny body got up and hugged her as tight as I could, "and we'll always be together, right? Do you promise?"
My mother returned the embrace, "Yes, I promise."
That night, I scurried into my bed. The moonlight shone on my blue sheets, but something seemed different: the sky was darker, and it seemed as if it was more of a shade of purple than navy. The clouds were jet black, swirling through the sky as if they were orbiting around a point. I got up on the edge of the window and looked closer. The dark clouds were orbiting around a magenta aura; I could see the trees outside bending funnily, as if wind was pressing against its tops.
"Mommy!" I cried, soon to be followed by her coming inside, "what's that?" I pointed outside, my breath creating a small white circle on the window. "Oh no…" I could hear her faintly say. She ran downstairs and I heard the door slam.
"Where are you going?" I asked quietly, following the traces of her footsteps. I sat down and slid down the stairs, because at the point of view from a hedgehog two feet tall, they were more like large platforms. I make my way from the stairs towards the door, and jumped up to grab the knob. I held on tightly and heard a click. The white wooden door creaked open as I slipped pass.
I could see my mom gather up with her friends: Snowfall the wolf, the Ice Guardian, Volt the hedgehog, the Electric Guardian, Marina the tigress, the Water Guardian, and Sukai the peacock, the Sky Guardian. I could see heads poking out from the side of the Guardians' legs: my friends. Skyla, Sukai's daughter, waved her hand to allow me into the conversation.
"Vanity has grown too powerful," Marina's high voice flooded the discussion, "there has to be something done."
"We need to start peaceful," mom argued, "we can't just go over there and beat her up. We need to find a solution. I will have no problem for doing so myself," her finger poked her chest. The rest of the group agreed.
"Mom," I tugged on the tip of her skirt, "will you be okay?"
"Yes, darling, I'll be fine," her gloved hand ruffled through my short lime green hair. Earthia turned and shot a vine from her hand, which grappled itself onto a tall tree. She swung on the vine and made her way to Vanity. I could see them both talking, Vanity seemingly not interested at all in Earthia's explanation. Something seemed to switch in Vanity's expression. I looked closer. Large, thin pink claws grew from her gloves, as her arm drew back slowly. In a split second, a white line split through the sky, and my mom flew down into the ground, crushing the earth around her. Vanity was in attack mode.
Earthia dashed back to her friends, wheezing, and her face with drops of blood. "We need to fight. We need to kill her."
The eyebrows of the Mobians raised at this uncharacteristic comment of Earthia's. Never has she ever even wanted to pull on a blade of grass, and here she is with a command for death.
"We will need to team up."
"Create a blast."
"Destroy her, for once and for all."
The earth began to shake violently, small cracks beginning to form around the team's feet. Mom knelt closely to me and hugged me tightly. "Leaf, I'm afraid that Vanity is far too dangerous for one to take her on. Can you take care of your brother for me?"
I had just remembered my innocent little brother, Flame, who was resting peacefully in his crib. Two years old…innocent…
"Mom, wait!" tears flooded my eyes, "What's happening?"
"I have to go, Leaf, I'm going to miss you so much…" she bit her lip hard, "I'm sorry. Do take this though." My mother's hands grabbed the two necklaces tied around her neck, one was the shape of a leaf, the other a small flame. "Give this to your brother," she said, pointing at the flame necklace. "This is the Fire necklace. It will allow Flame to control fire." She tied the other necklace around my neck and held the glowing charm in the palm of her hand. "This is the Leaf necklace. It will enable you to grow plants in front of your very own eyes," Earthia giggled, rubbing my small head. "Leaf, protect the ones you love. Protect the earth. I love you."
Earthia and the others sprang off towards Vanity and jumped into a circle. They forced their palms outward, creating a blast of shivering ice, electricity, water, wind, fire, and plants combined, shot at Vanity. The blast was huge, causing the world to be blanketed in a bleached-white atmosphere. I could feel myself being held gently alongside my baby brother.
I opened my eyes on a grassy surface; my brother was in my arms. I was in a different time zone, about 100 years later. My mom laid in front of me, not twitching a muscle, her eyes shut peacefully as if she were in a deep sleep.
"Mom…" I mewed lightly, hoping she was awake. "Mom?" I tried to hug her; her body was as cold as ice. "Mom!" Tears rolled down my muzzle as I sat next to her. The Earth Guardian was dead. Something inside me told me Vanity had survived the attack. She did. Once I had learned how to travel through, I traveled 200 years later to a place called Selstice City...
"I'm...I'm sorry, Leaf," Silver confessed, watching Leaf cry. "I-I should've just made you fall asleep and..you wouldn't have to see that again..." I'm so dead-set for the first option I forget about the risks... "Please, stop crying...At-at least, you..." You had time...with her...your mother, got to know her and...It wasn't your...
"Silver, you're crying," the lovely lime green hedgehog pointed out the tears leaking out of her boyfriend's eyes steady and silently. They had been watery when he was watching, but they were now tricking out slowly. Yes, even after curing himself of the nightmares, he still cried at the idea that a baby would be orphaned soon after birth. The pain was dull like a rock to the chest, instead of being like a very thick blade through the heart. "Is...is it because..?"
"My mother? Uhn, yes." He hastily wiped away the tears. "I'm not so sure whether or not knowing your mother alive worsens or lightens the pain but I feel it no less." She came to the metallic one's side. "I would think that your pain would feel worse, but maybe it's the added pain of the lack of your father. I never knew my dad, but I just assumed that he was dead or..."
"And she didn't die on your birthday...Because of you..." he added, partly to himself. Technically...I was the center of attention and it got her killed... I'm sorry Mom.
"Silver?" Leaf snapped to attention. "I thought you-"
"I-I-I did! Honest. But...It was kinda my fault."
"Don't think like that!"
"I won't! I'll stop!" If that's what you want, then so be it. "I'm sorry I brought it up." She sighed. "Well," she started, looking back up, "did that help you at all with figuring out how to destroy Vanity?"
"Um, no. Seems like a blast didn't work..." A very concentrated blast of different energy types...But...
"But..."
"Hmm?"
"But...they didn't have...they might've been missing something."
"Like what? All the Guardians were there-"
"I-I know that. But, fire, electricity, earth, water, wind, ice, even darkness...Pyro, Electro, Botano, Hydro, Cryo, Umbra...Those all fit under the "umbrella.""
"'Umbrella?'"
"Psychokinesis is an 'umbrella term.' Someone like me could easily generate fire or water, that's easy,"-he formed a ball of each in his hands-"but that don't mean an Electrokinetic could fling anyone around like me."
"Are you saying that-?"
"Umbra's biggest enemy hadn't been developed yet."
Most of the flashback is copyright Leaf the Earth Guardian!