Chapter 30
As Naugus disappeared, Tails sank back down to the ground. He breathed heavily. Soon he felt the chill of the night return, along with the ache in his back. His hand was fine, but his consciousness began to fade. Before long he was on his hands and knees, struggling to remain awake, and finally, he fell on his face, out cold.
When he woke, he found himself in a bed. The sheets were pulled up to his chest. He noticed he was in his underwear. The room was well lit, and appeared to be mid morning. He looked across the room to see his pants and t-shirt thrown over a chair. His jacket was hung on a coat stand. He hopped out of bed and quickly dressed himself. He left his jacket; it seemed fairly warm. He headed outside. Outside the room was a balcony which overlooked the base. It seems this part of the base emerged unscathed from the missiles. Silver was racing round the courtyard with his telekinetic disc, occasionally challenged by Jet on his airboard. Wave watched from the shade. Sonic and Amy were sitting at a table in the sun having breakfast. Knuckles and Tikal were lying on the grass nearby. Diesel was banging away at some kind of vehicle. Cream was unsuccessfully trying to get some of the consoles to work. Big was sitting in his chair, as per usual. Chris was passed out on the floor with a bump on his head. Nobody was carrying weapons. But someone was missing…
"Uh… boo?" Tails swivelled round to see Blaze standing behind him.
"Whoa… don't do that! You scared me…"
"You scared all of us a bit. Well, Chris was scared shitless, but he's usually like that, isn't he?"
"Yeah. But why?"
"The whole passing-out-and-sleeping-for-two-whole-days thing." She sat up on the wall.
"I was asleep for two days?"
"Yep. We don't know exactly why, but Knuckles says it's because you did that whole angel-ass-kicking-thing."
"What?"
"You didn't see yourself? You had these massive white wings… somebody should've taken a picture…" Tails thought. He remembered what he was thinking about the other night.
"I'm hungry. I haven't eaten in, what, three days?" He walked away looking for food.
Later on, he found a working computer. At last… he tapped away at it. It was connected to the central database. Perfect. He looked up a few of the myths & legends regarding the situation they were currently sliding towards. One jumped out at him. He read:
And whence the mage hath restored the emerald,
The world will for sure be lost
Lest yonder mage to th' just be held,
By five great ones whose might hast been must,
Two hedgehogs tainted with chaos pure
And two whose bodies are clean and pure
The bastard scion of two heavenly beings,
Father yoko and mother angel
The orphaned king shall conquer then
And yonder mage shall burn in hell.
Orphaned king? He thought. Am I royal? He looked back a bit. Yoko… that's another name for a Kitsune. That explains a bit. Then he typed into the search: vixen angels. Most of the results were links to pornography. No use. He rephrased it: female fox angels. Better. There were a couple of pages of articles, but the most viewed article was the one about Jodaina. That rings a few bells… he thought. He read it in its entirety.
Jodaina was a princess of the vulpine angel royal family, the other angel royal families being lupine, leonine, pantherine, hedgehog and echidna. She was also one of the few angels known to have actually existed. She was remained unmarried for all of her life. No, she's not the one… he thought. Wait… the bastard scion of two heavenly beings… no marriage there. He read on. She had an affair (dated to roughly 20 years ago) with the Kitsune prince (that's where the royal bit comes from, he thought) Tamakashi which produced twins, a boy and a girl, who were separated at birth. Both Tamakashi and Jodaina were murdered by a mage shortly after the birth of their two children. Mage – Naugus – not a lot of maths involved there.
Researching further, he looked up the Kitsune monarchy.
The Kitsune were the traditional rulers of the forests where the Freedom Fighters' base now stands. During the last hundred years or so, their numbers had reduced, and the family verged on extinction. The Kitsune are known to be divine beings, second only to the angels. The most recent ruling family were also the last Kitsune in existence, hence their quasi-consignment to myth. The last of them, Tamakashi, was murdered eighteen years ago by the sorcerer Ixus Naugus, who was then only just emerging from his first incarceration, five thousand years ago. That's about Tikal's time, isn't it? He thought. Though they have always been rare, but with no heirs, Kitsune are thought to be extinct.
He swung the chair back around. He was starting to have an identity crisis. This was all fitting in so perfectly… before he could think any further, he looked back up again.
"Bastard… he killed my parents… parents that I never knew…" He got up and walked away with a new fierceness in his step.