Sonic Unveiled Chapter 5: Dragon Wounds, a sonic the hedgehog fanfic

Chapter 5: Dragon Wounds

Author's Note: Twofer Tuesday. Hope this makes your week better than mine.

Cold, royal blue eyes, glaring back at him over glasses of the same royal blue, sparkling in the dim console lamps, in the low light. He swept her into his arms and fled, burying is face in her hair—her crimson hair, not violet.

They watched the ship plummet into the sea from the safety of the grass-dusted cape above, watching flames swallowed up by foam and salt.

And they laughed, finally free.

He awoke with a name on his lips, a name he couldn't remember. The name that came out instead was "Merlina."

"Who's she?" Came an unexpected reply, a male voice.

Sonic jumped, looking for the source, sending the sleeping fairy on his chest rolling onto the bed below with a sleepy little squeak. He found a violet figure at his bedside, sharpening a kunai. Before he could even ask, the ninja spoke.

"You dozed off in the train station, where we were to meet. Her Royal Highness got you a room here and asked me to watch over you while you slept." He sneered a bit at that thought, as if he had somewhere better to be.

"Who carried me?" Sonic lay back down. His obvious annoyance aside, he had nothing to fear from Espio.

"She did. She used to lug Big and Amy around at half her size; it's hardly a surprise she could carry you."

Sonic sat up again, slower this time, so the world didn't seem to spin. He took a look at the little room, full of beautiful china vases and ornate furniture, warm paper lamps. Most striking was his companion, so unchanged, almost the same, a little bluer in coloration and a little wrinkled around the eyes.

"You know what amazes me, Espio?" Sonic took a deep breath. "The part I'm afraid to tell my close friends?"

The chameleon shook his head, sharpening. His yellow eyes seemed to smoulder in the lantern light.

"How quickly everyone threw in with him. How quickly they gave up. He destroys the world and remakes it in his image, but we survive and we give up?"

Espio frowned, not looking up. Somehow that bothered Sonic more than the glare he expected. "I'm surprised to hear that from you."

"I don't judge. Well, I try not to." Sonic let a heavy sigh, trying to forget his conversation with Eggman. "I do a little, maybe. But everyone changed so fast. I understand why, why they did it, some of them. Knuckles, and Amy, I get."

Espio stood up, walking to the window, not meeting Sonic's eyes. "Do you really understand what we went through? Can you?"

"No, Espio, I can't. I wasn't there, just like everyone else wasn't there with me."

Espio glanced a second at Sonic's face, eyes shadowed. "So the change is painful."

Sonic nodded, assented, offering a quiet "yeah."

"But it's over in seconds. You can do that just like going super. Shadow too, now that there's a day and a night."

Sonic grunted again, inwardly groaning. He was starting to regret having asked.

"We were trying to hold the last chunk of the old Death Ruins between Empire and Westopolis. Mostly we were trying to get the President out of the country, to our allies in Apotos. It was his idea to hide there, even with Eggmanland on top of half the ruins. He was a Temple Guardian as a boy, I guess he knew the area. Amy had just been brought in by Shadow, fresh back from Shamar." Sonic tried to imagine how they must have looked as Espio spoke, the sad sparkle in Amy's eyes, Shadow's fur unkempt, the tall man with sad eyes in a tattered blue suit telling them where to hide. "It started with Shadow. He stopped sleeping at night, or what passed for night without a star in the sky."

Sonic mentioned, "I have a hard time sleeping as the werehog," to keep the story moving.

"He was jittery, said his blood was on fire. Within a day he was feverish, dazed, barely able to speak. His teeth began to change, and he started lashing out at Amy, who labored over him day and night, caring for him every spare moment she had past her other duties. With his new claws he put a scar across the President's forehead for getting his soup too hot."

Sonic nodded, having heard the story before, but frowned, having not heard it quite this way.

Espio bit his lip, then continued. "Vector started waking me in the night. At first I thought it was worry for Shadow, but then he started getting cranky a week later, complaining it was too hot when I could see my breath in the air. It was November, if you forgot. He started complaining about toothaches." Espio looked down. "Shadow was firmly in the throes of madness by then; I was sure I was going to lose Vector. Once Shadow's body was better, once he could move, I told Amy and the President to take Charmy and run for it."

Sonic leaned forward, shuddering to hear it this way.

"What good is fighting Eggman if we are monsters, not people? Just shells of who we were? What good does it do to die for a world that hasn't ended, only become worse, when an evil man has the only means to relative peace?" The chameleon threw his kunai into the wall, and it hit with a twang. "What Eggman did to you is between you, him, and the Gods," Espio sighed with resignation, "But I had my… I had my partner, that child, our team—no, our family—to worry about. So we turned us in. Or, I turned us in. Vector didn't speak to me for a year, but I saw him pass each day, no bags under his clear eyes, healthy scales in all the right colors."

Sonic good up, putting a hand on Espio's shoulder. "That's a hard choice, Espio, but we do what we have to for people we love. I couldn't blame you without blaming myself all those times Eggman took a hostage."

"Amy came to us a month later, arm hanging at a funny angle out of a torn dress." Sonic recoiled, having never heard this before. "She pledged her loyalty to the Emperor in exchange for rescuing Charmy from Shadow. He'd lost his mind, thought Charmy was Maria. Charmy, a little male bee, for a human girl. He kidnapped him, threw Amy of a cliff for getting in his way."

Sonic made a little gasp, the wind knocked out of him as he remembered Rouge's face.

"It took all of us to stop him. Vector and myself, Knuckles, Cream, tons of robot troops, the GUN Commander and Diablon, even Eggman in his mech to sweep in and grab Charmy. Eggman was badly hurt in the incident. As soon as we dragged Shadow, kicking and streaming, into the suppressor perimeter, he started screaming, 'What have I done?' Never have I seen a man weep like that.

"And he looked just like me."

Espio took a breath, sitting down on the edge of Sonic's bed. "Yes. Amy didn't speak to anyone for a month. Rouge washed up on Shadow's doorstep, trying to tear off her skin, asking us to take it out. She spent three days handcuffed to a hospital bed for trying to kill Eggman, for 'doing this to us.' Knuckles negotiated her way out. I'm not sure how, I didn't know he knew a thing about diplomacy. He'd already started setting up a refugee camp on the Island by then."

Sonic put his head in his hands. "No one ever told me this, Espio," he marveled. "Shadow never told me any of this. He made it sound so simple, so casual, I…"

"He wanted you not to feel guilty, no doubt." Espio got back, pulling his kunai from the wall. "When Amy finally spoke, it was to me. I'm not sure what about me drew her interest. Maybe because we weren't that close; maybe the same reason you asked me to tell." He smiled sadly. "She said to me, in passing, 'Hey Espio… did you ever notice before, that it's only when the sun goes down that the moon shines?"

Sonic bit his lip and tasted blood.

"Amy."

Knuckles stepped in the apartment, taking off his cloak carefully and hanging it on the wall carelessly.

"You could knock." Shadow was sitting at the table, sipping a mug of tea. Knuckles was stunned to see him looking so much like his old self, a tiny, spiny hedgehog, and yet so diminished. He sat there wrapped in a blanket, staring at Knuckles with dull eyes.

Knuckles stared at him for a moment. "Shadow. I didn't expect you."

"No, you clearly came here to berate my wife, who went to get me some juice."

Knuckles' sat down. "I promise I'm not going to hurt her, Shadow. I just need to talk to her."

Shadow rolled his eyes, "You don't want to be seen speaking to me given what I said to him."

He sat down across from him. "You're my friend and I care about you. I don't care where I'm seen."

Shadow stood up, walking over to the window, standing in the sunlight. "Have you heard? Sonic's back."

Knuckles grinned. "Yeah. I wish I'd seen him in Apotos." He kicked his foot up on another chair. "It would have been nice to catch up with an old friend and tell him how great it is to see him. Maybe we'll meet again when he comes here for the last emerald."

"I can't be too excited." Shadow looked over his shoulder at Knuckles, frowning.

"Why's that?"

"Because now that all the secrets are coming out he might learn the truth."

Knuckles came over and put a hand on Shadow's shoulder. "Shad… We all feel that. No one is proud of what happened after the Last Sunrise."

Shadow leaned on the window, flopping as he hit the glass, as if he expected to fall out of the tower down to the city below. "I did things you never dreamed of in your worst nightmare."

Knuckles pulled him into a hug. "Your sickness was the reason they caught mine before I hurt her."

"And I'm changing again. I feel like two different people, Knuckles, never myself."

Knuckles pulled him close. "You'll be free soon. Sonic will take care of it.

Another pair of arms joined the hug, these ones scented of lilies and roses. "And we'll be there behind him. Together."

"But what if we can't follow him? What if it closes up behind us, or once we're down there, we can't help?" Shadow put his head on her shoulder, burying his nose in her pink spines.

"Oh Shadow, this isn't the first time that's happened." Amy pulled away. "We always have to watch you and Sonic at the last moments. Even Sonic knows that feeling, with the Black Arms, how you saved us. And … have a seat. Let Knuckles and me tell you about Bean the Dynamite, Gods rest his soul."

They set out before dawn at his request; Espio was fine with that. They left the inn, entered the temple, and began the long winding path toward the shrine. Espio was surprised at how relatively few Dark Gaia monsters they faced; they encountered a single Great Mother, a few Nightmares here and there. It was almost peaceful to Espio, and he found his only regret was being in the company of Sonic, and not Charmy and Vector. He missed those adventures, running through jungles and flying through factories, finding computer rooms. He missed being with them. But since Vector got sick it was no longer all that possible…

He was distracted from his reverie by a scream and a splash. By the time he looked, the sun sparkled on the water beside the bridge, and Sonic floated downstream, screaming and sputtering.

Espio swore so much that a native came out of her hut and slapped him.

Chip was too busy crying to notice.

"Live, Sonic."

Sonic lay in the cold magma, floating along, Chip standing over him. He wasn't the Gaia Colossus, standing there, maroon-violet fur glistening in the eerie glowing light. No, nor was he his tiny former self, fluffy and warm. He wasn't the strange spiny creature he became. He was… beautiful. Perfect proportions, like a man, broad chest and narrow hips. He was a woman with long violet hair, braided, sticking up. He was Amy, He was…

"Chip?"

"Live, Sonic."

He turned away from his old friend. "What if I don't want to?"

"Tough! I need you Sonic! We all need you! We can't do it without you."

Sonic tried to climb to his feet in the swirling icy magma, raising a fist into the air. "I won't save the world for you, you stupid fairy! I'll only do it for myself!"

And then Chip began to laugh, his old self, fluffy tail wiggling in the air, chartreuse wings beating.

"Oh Sonic, I don't need you help to save the world this time! I learned so much last time, your sacrifice isn't in vain. You can just relax, although I like how you're fixing the emeralds." Chip flew up into his face, reaching out, touching a cheek with a delicate claw. "I need you to live so I can feel happy instead of just right."

"Chip." He felt his eyes watering, and he reached out to caress chip's little face in a claw. "Chip, I didn't mean…"

"No one has a perfectly pure heart, Sonic. But you're as close as it gets. Don't run from your feelings." Chip hugged him. "But don't give into them either."

Sonic held him tight, close to his chest, trying to feel his warmth, trying to bring that smile to his own face.

"I love you, Sonic. I always have and I always will."

"Why?" Sonic asked. "Why does it feel like you're saying goodbye?"

"Because I am. I'll never be this way again. Not if all goes right. You'll understand… you'll be so proud of me!"

"Please don't go, Chip. I want to talk to you!"

"We can talk later." Chip placed a little hand on Sonic's chest. "For now, you need to live." The traced a hand up Sonic's chest, and suddenly he was lying in the sunlight and sand, coughing, water pouring out of his mouth. A pair of little girls picked him up out of the sand, holding him up and pressing on his chest to push the water out.

He laughed between the coughs, When Chip flew into his arms, purple wings fluttering, he laughed even harder. "Thanks for saving me," he croaked.

Chip blinked for a moment, surprised. "I… shucks, Sonic, I tried."

He slept for half the day at the young ladies' house, and Espio had little to do but watch and wait. He helped with housework, sure, but who shows the work they must do to world heroes? Or to Eggman's inquisitors, for that matter. So he watched him lie there, watched Sonic sleep, dozing away the stress and the strain, the Dark Gaia Force and the warping of his body. He shivered in his sleep, and seemed to be burning up—exertion trying to swim?—and he kept on muttering for Chip, begging for him. For the little fairy's part, he stayed at Sonic's side, holding his hands, except for a few trips to the bathroom and the kitchen.

After a while he grew tired of watching, and stood, eager to do something else. As he turned to go toward the family's small home office, he heard Sonic mutter, "Chip, no." The creature recoiled, looking at Espio, frightened… or pleading?

"He's probably dreaming you're hurt, Chip." Espio reached over and patted the horned being on the head. "He's that kind of person." Espio turned to leave, taking a peek over his shoulder to make sure Chip returned to Sonic before leaving the room.

He asked the family to use their internet connection, so he could tell Eggman how helpful they were to the world's hero, Sonic. It took some convincing to show them he meant well, that he wasn't going to ask Eggman to send their own government after them, but eventually he finagled use of the computer out of them. He felt awkward reporting to Eggman about Sonic, but he was a detective, not a hero.

"Espio? How do you fare in the far East?" Asked the emperor, appearing on the screen in his pajamas.

"I did not mean to wake you, your imperial majesty," Espio apologized, bowing. "But I have news to report of Sonic."

"Cream has informed me that you and he met successfully and she bought the pair of you a night at Chun-nan's finest inn."

Espio studied his boss's sleepy face, uncovered and unobscured, naked royal blue eyes staring at him from the darkness of Eggmanland, begging for some news in which to cover themselves.

Far away, behind Eggman, he heard Vanilla mutter, "Darling, come back to bed, my feet are cold."

"Sonic doesn't appear to be well, my liege," Espio noted. "He was asleep when Cream made the handoff to me, and slept quite a while. He doesn't eat the way he used to, and when the sun came up, something happened to him. Somehow he fell into the river. We found him miles downstream, hedgehog again, being resuscitated by some locals. They claimed something pushed him ashore and made him start coughing up water, but they couldn't describe it. Since the incident, he's been feverish and delirious, mostly sleeping. He claims…" Espio frowned. "He claims that Chip saved him. Chip, honestly, seemed surprised at the idea that he might have done so."

Eggma smiled, and Espio thought he saw a bit of the old glint in Eggman's eyes. "Well, Chip was an amnesiac last time as well, this we can gather from all sorts of testimony. I doubt Chip understands the truth depth of his powers, or even how to use them. He probably saved Sonic by accident. Sonic would have recognized his powers."

Espio nodded. "Once we leave, if we can continue the pace from yesterday, well reach the Shrine in about a day, if the maps you gave me are correct. From there I'm going to use the teleport to send Sonic to Shamar as ordered. I really must express my doubt."

Eggman laughed. "Oh, Espio, I do appreciate it, but the contact in Shamar is beyond reproach. His vendetta against Sonic is purely professional and he has as much to lose in all this as anyone else." Eggman leaned in, blue eyes twinkling . "The beautiful thing about this tragedy is that it has taught us all to put our petty needs aside."

Tell that to Shadow, Espio thought.

"I'm going to go tend to the patient, with your leave, your majesty."

"Of course, Espio. Great work, as always. I'll credit your account. Think I've paid off that interest yet?"

Espio smiled as he ended the transmission. Then he laughed. How could such a monster make him laugh?

He spent a day and night wandering the temples, looking for the exit.

Saving the world, smashing robots, turning her away, insulting him. Eating, drinking, laughing; crying, begging, reaching. Shelves of images of his life.

He stacked his deeds and theirs on the scales of his own arms, of the Earth, Apotos on the left and Eggmanland on the right. For each little white marble of joy in Apotos went a rotting pomegranate of sin into Eggmanland. He felt as though his arm might snap off.

Chip knocked the scale over, knocked him over, onto his back at rest. He folded Sonic's long, stretchy arms up into a cross on his chest, an X, X marks the spot, to the ultimate treasure that Dark Gaia could never, ever have.

"Let me weigh your heart, Sonic." Chip reached into his chest, pulling out an orb of white light to match his own green. "Let me weigh your heart, and I'll make it light as a feather. I'll set you free so you can pass on."

"You already had it."

He seemed different today. It wasn't good.

There was something about Sonic that had always given Chip pause ever since their meeting in Apotos. It was something about his eyes, his eyes when he changed, something about claws and fangs, fire and brimstone. Fire and brimstone? What was brimstone?

But it was worse today. On one hand, Sonic didn't seem all that different in any way to which Chip could put a name. He was walking along the Dragon Road, chatting with Espio, smiling. They were talking about old times, times before Chip and Gaia, about a villain named Metal Madness who got the best of Eggman, about a robot named Omega who always wanted to destroy. They spoke of a tournament to find the world's best fighter, to find the one who'd go up in a rocket, a rocket built by someone called Tails, to stop Eggman. Both men paused a moment.

"It should have been me," Sonic confessed. Chip dropped in the air a bit before recovering his altitude. Was the guy they were talking about dead?

"Could Bean have stopped the ARK from falling?" Espio peered at Sonic without the slightest twitch of his head, only visible to Chip because Chip was flying slightly ahead of him. "Could he have defeated Metal Madness? Could he have reached all the shrines in time? He was an excellent brawler, Sonic, but his skills were different."He put a hand on the hedgehog's shoulder. "I'm not going to say it's fate, but you lived because we needed you. You can't feel guilty for living when you went on to save lives."

"But my life isn't worth more than his," decided Sonic, coldly.

"No more than chopsticks are worth more than diamonds at the dinner table."

This gave Sonic pause. He stopped in his tracks.

"Why Bean, why now, Sonic?" Espio paused too, holding out an arm slightly, reflected along with Sonic on the sea below the cliff. "You still don't seem well, Sonic. You're pale, and there's something about your eyes. They seem… dull."

Sonic smiled, seeming almost serene, but the look sent a shiver down Chip's spine. "The truth is that I don't feel well at all, but I have too much to do to stop. The feeling has been building for days, but I've never had the change be this hard on me, or felt so wonky during the day. So dizzy, and weak, and…." Sonic looked down at the sea. "I feel so small."

Chip flew closer to his friend, trying to imagine how someone as tall as Sonic could possibly feel small. As he tried to put himself in his friend's place, it dawned on him that he didn't mean size—Sonic felt insignificant. The thought outraged him.

He stuck himself to Sonic's arm with four rubbery limbs, clinging as if his life depended on it. "You're not insignificant, Sonic! You saved the world tons of times and you fixed the emeralds and you're my friend! You saved me from my amnesia and the bear and from being hungry and alone and scared!" Chip nuzzled Sonic's shoulder.

Sonic shifted Chip to his chest and held him close, resting his chin on the top of Chip's head. "My role is important, Chip, but… I'm just a guy who loves adventure, and being a jerk. I saved the world for fun, not for other people, which is probably why I lost. And all of my selfish desires…

"What selfish desires?" Chip cried with a laugh. "Liking Amy?" He flew up into Sonic's face "Wanting food and friends and not to be bullied and yelled at by random people being mean!"

"Chip—" Sonic tried to stop him, but Chip just crossed his arms.

"Life is a bunch of wants. Actually, life is wanting! You ought to give in some time, not beating yourself up over 'em, just have fun! Just do it!"

Sonic sat down, putting his legs over the cliff, dangling them. "Chip… I can't do anything else that's wrong."

The fairy wiped his eyes, trying to fight back the tears he felt. "What did you do wrong in the first place?" Chip sat on Sonic's knee, looking up into those sad, dull green eyes.

"I… I failed."

"But you tried your best."

"Yeah. I did."

Chip flew up and slapped Sonic across the face. "Then it's not wrong, just sad! I think you just want to be the one who did it wrong so you have control!"

That elicited a gasp from both men, who looked gape-jawed at Chip. Chip didn't see what was so shocking. It made sense to him, so he continued.

"Sonic, you make yourself guilty just so you don't feel helpless. You're just scared!" He began to sob as he shouted at Sonic, flying shakily in front of his face. "It's okay to be scared. I'm so.. . I'm so sorry!" A sob threw Chip downward and he settled down onto Sonic's knees. It seemed like an eternity before Sonic picked him up, hedgehog flesh almost seeming to burn. Was that because of Dark Gaia making him into the werehog?

"Why are you sorry?"

"Because my mistakes did this to you… You, you told me…" Chip shuddered.

Sonic held him tighter. "No, Eggman's mistakes did this to us. And I… I'll bring him to justice."

Espio raised an eyebrow at that, sitting next to them on the cliff. "You? Justice? That sounds like something Shadow would say."

Sonic knocked a pebble off the cliff with his fingers. "I had a dream, last night."

"A fever dream," noted Espio.

"Of weighing the sins in my heart against a feather. Like the old Echidna myth. Chip, you were there. You offered to take my sins away. And now I feel like I can… I can see what I did. What others have done. I…"

Chip frowned, taking Sonic's hand. "Sonic, I don't remember much of what I believe but… I know I don't believe in Justice. All I believe in is you and me. And the safety of Amy's pancakes."

Sonic thought for a moment, and then he started laughing, a hearty laugh. He leaned forward, chuckling.

"What's so funny?"

"I don't know how he works in the day!" Sonic stood up, holding Chip, still laughing. "But I guess Dark Gaia finally got to me! I'm acting just like Yvon did, all sullen and angsty." Sonic sat back down, laying in the grass, legs hanging over the edge. Chip was getting dizzy from all that movement, and when Sonic lowered his arms, he took the opportunity to fly out of reach. "Here I thought I was losing my mind, nope! Just possessed. This is awesome! What a relief."

"Uh… okay." Espio raised an eyebrow.

Then Sonic leaped to his feet, curling up into a ball. Chip screamed in surprise. "WE have a Phoenix to meet and an emerald to fix! Come on, guys! Sooner we get this over, sooner we can be ourselves!

Sonic zoomed off with a boom, and Chip and Espio exchanged glances.

"Ever the optimist." Espio ran after him , and Chip struggled to keep up.

She pulled the curtains and thanked whatever might be watching over that he wasn't home.

It would be too much to explain.

She clipped the device to her vest and threaded the headphones through it, clipping each bud to her pointed ears. Then she turned on the device and relaxed. The soft, electronic whistle washed over her and she quivered with anticipation. She stretched.

Then came the pounding of the bass, joined by instrument after instrument, a song far harder than she'd ever have listened to as a girl. She did a lot of things now, though that she'd never have imagined being possible, acceptable. The notes danced around her like raindrops and she began to step, to spin, as if somehow she could shake off the darkness that had come over her.

She used the chair at the head of the table as a balance, resting her weight on it as she switched onto one leg, onto the ball of her bare foot, her adult body untrained in the magic she'd need to support it all on a single toe. She listened to the guitars weaving in and out of each other, a melody too intricate for her untalented voice and her untrained feet. But that didn't stop her. She swung her hips with the music, spinning, running across the living room floor, watching the red curtains in the moonlight paint the room around as pink as she was.

She threw her head back and shuddered at the chorus, the voice shouting at her, screaming, sounding so much like his. Is this what he feels like? Something screaming inside him, trying to get out, dredging up all his issues, all his sorrows with it?

But which him?

She ran her fingers through her hair, worming through the air like an arm of Gaia, feet planted firmly on the floor, trying shake it out. The frustration, the desire, the despair, but most of all the anger. An anger she forgot she had, an anger she'd sworn away when she discovered how little it really did. She shuddered all over as she spun, trying not to think it, not to let it set in. Just be, just dance, that's what it wants.

She tried to focus on them, on her conflict and her pity and desire, and not to focus on the worst of it. No, what once was the main conflict of her life was now a petty thing, a worthy battle that righteousness and restraint would win, but that would prove to be an agonizing kind of fun in the meantime. She had learned to love suffering; it had become her power.

But it could have been easier. It could have made more sense, taken its natural course. If only.

She lifted a foot into the air and spun on her toes, barely cognizant of the cold, slapping impact, the clatter, the crash, the raining sound like tinkling ice even above her music, the warm pain on her leg.

She picked up a piece of the vase she shattered, red and green on white, covering up the broken stem of one yellow flower out of three. The stylized face of the Emperor stared back at her and she threw the piece to the ground, shattering it into nothingness. Finally she loosened, and she almost thought she could see a little mote of light in the air above her as she shut off her music.

"Thank goodness this will be over soon. I'm starting to act like the boys."

She got out the broom and swept up the vase.

By the time Chip caught up with them, the fight was on. The grand phoenix, floating there, eaten up by emerald flames, was posturing between attacks in the lush sakura garden. Sonic was throwing barrels of water onto the creature from above as he stood below, powered by some strange glove and an even stranger energy that made Chip sick to sense. Espio, meanwhile, was hiding on the ground, invisible to the eye but not to Chip's heart, emerging from nothingness when the extinguished bird landed to stab at its legs with a short, shining sword.

Chip felt sorry for the phoenix, Dark Gaia possessed, not in its own control. Friend to all, otherwise, free to let the fire coarse through its powerful wings, to watch over Chun-nan in all its splendor…

Lost in half-remembence, Chip was surprised to find the Phoenix flying straight at him, Jaws open wide, sharp beak glinting in the afternoon sun. He could hear Sonic crying his name, his heart beating in his chest, his half-remembered life playing in his ears, he could hear the end coming.

Then there was a sickening splat, and a great weight on him. There was shouting, another noise, and the cold singing of steel on bone. Chip felt wetness, wondering absently if he had soiled himself.

Suddenly the purple form rolled off him, Espio clutching a monsterous gash across his stomach. The Phoenix crumbled next to him, crying out, blood running from a foot.

Sonic stood over the weeping creature, hands shaking, as Espio's sword fell with a clatter to the stony ground at his side. The phoenix was changing now, its colors darkening, normalizing. Little motes of white light danced around the trio, particularly Sonic, who seemed a magnet for them. Espio lay helpless, clutching his stomach as the thick red life poured out of him.

Sonic dashed over, putting one hand on Chip tightly, too tightly, the other gently on Espio's bloodied hands. "Hang in there, Espio," he soothed. Chip felt the whole world begin to open around him as Sonic reached into the Emeralds. Chip had never paid attention to Chaos Control before, but now he could see it for what it was, but now he was so scared to think of what had happened he had no choice but to pay attention. With the shock of Chaos control they were gone, in the coldness of inbetween, of outside, a place where Chip was nothing and Sonic was god.

Or was that all in his imagination as they landed at the hospital, on a table surrounded by Chun-nan doctors with their name badges written in intricate script. "Help him, please" was Sonic's plea, and Chip didn't understand what had come next, the stitching, the jargon, the broken English. It seemed to relieve Sonic, however, and so back through nothingness he carried Chip, back to the temple, where the phoenix lead them to a shrine.

Sonic placed the emerald on the altar and collapsed dizzily, begging, "Can I rest now? Just a little while, Amy?"

At some point, Chip realized, he had grasped Espio's sword, still longer than he was tall, in his tiny, elven hands.

Strange, foreign moonlight filtered into the apartment, making the glass at table and high windows over the city glitter rand shine. The young man sat at the kitchen table, leg bouncing and wings flapping to the tune of the song feeding in through his one earbud. The other ear sat exposed, waiting for the cry of the tea kettle or that of his father. He ran a hand across the keyboard, writing about the inefficacies of United Federation foreign relations before the glorious Eggman Revolution and its medical diplomacy. He was really thinking about how much he hated everything about the Eggman Empire, except of course, being rich, but the bull came easily and got Dad Espio off his back.

When the phone rang he seized on it, eager for some distraction from his stupid homework. Maybe the princess would call him to ask about music or reminisce about old times. Maybe Espio wanted his help in Chun-nan. Maybe Dad Vector's prescriptions were in. Maybe the no-good Jerkface Emperor wanted his help. Maybe it was a telemarketer. He glanced at the caller identification, and seeing a Chun-nan number he didn't recognize, immediately picked it up.

He waited a moment and said "Yes." He listened again for a while, face falling in horror, and dropped the phone to the table. Then he picked it back up again, listened some more, and walked out of the house sock-footed, locking the door behind him.

His father came out, massaging his crocodile jaw with his left hand and an ice pack in his right. He walked into the kitchen, looking for the source of the ringing, the noise. Finding Charmy absent and the phone abandoned on the table, Vector muttered about hat ungrateful kid and put the phone back on the charger. He poured himself some tea and went back to bed, arranging purple pillows beside him to be about the right size to support his arm, about the right size to be someone else.