A/N: Hey, y'all! Working on Cobalt Twilight and this at the same time is rather hectic. Extremely hectic, actually. All the characters run around my head, throwing papers, setting things on fire, and other such things whilst Sophie and Sonic sit on a filing cabinet together watching the chaos unfold with their eyebrows raised. Where am I in all of this? Sitting at the only desk that's in any type of order, typing frantically on a laptop with one hand while the other grips the side of my head. And on my desk sits my cat, Alice, who is rather...psychopathic. She just watches everything indifferently, swatting her tail with a paw every time one of the random flaming objects hits it.

...I seriously need to see some sort of mental health doctor and get my head checked out.

Anyway, during this chapter, the songs 'One Winged Angel' from Advent Children and 'Crisis' from FFX are good choices - in that order. If I'm to believe myself, something hilarious happens here at the beginning.

Also, writing the romance between Rudy and Lindsey is so awkward! I wasn't really thinking about it when the pairing came into being in my head, but he's a wolf and she's a hawk and it is so weird!

Chapter 3: It All Went To Hell

I woke up to the sounds of a resounding crash, Ritchie swearing at the top of his lungs, and Rudy giving a loud cry of pain. Under any other circumstances, I would assume Rudy and Ritchie had just knocked something over again and nearly crushed themselves to death. But something told me to get up, get dressed as quickly and quietly as possible, and get downstairs.

Once decked out in my usual garb, I found myself not the only one in the house who was worried. Rajan met me halfway to the stairs, both of us creeping. I motioned for him to wait, and he seemed content enough to do so.

Being the girl who usually screams at the people in horror movies not to separate or to go downstairs alone, I felt highly idiotic doing both things in a span of three seconds. As it was, I crept down the stairs and emerged into a scene I really didn't like - Lindsey collapsed on the floor crying, Rudy lying next to her motionless with a pool of blood slowly starting to circle his head, and Ritchie struggling against a form I knew well.

Keaton.

...Wait. WHAT?! Keaton was dead! I killed him! With my own hands... He couldn't be alive. He just couldn't. But he was. But he couldn't be.

I barely thought before I was off those stairs and across the room in one leap, crashing into Keaton like a sack of bricks. And I wasn't just imagining things. He was real. Solid. Alive and breathing - alive at all - and it really burned me. Honestly, I kill him and suffer a nervous breakdown so he comes back to rub salt in the wounds? That dick! I was so pissed off at a moment's notice I couldn't see straight. And I made it clear to him by pretty much repeating my last attack on him.

"Geez, is this what happened last time?" I heard Ritchie ask.

"No, it was worse." Lindsey sniffed, "By the time she was punching him this much both of them were pretty much bleeding to death already."

"An encounter I don't intend to let repeat itself." Keaton said sharply, his feet digging into my stomach and shoving.

He was trying to throw me, and it worked, considering I'm about, in Ritchie's words, 'nine pounds soaking wet'. What can I say? I get a lot of excercise and I eat often, I'm gonna be relatively skinny. I slammed into the wall across from where I'd been with a sickening thud and my vision went black for a moment. When I managed to blink it away and focus on Keaton, he was already right in front of me.

He grabbed a handful of my hair - not a good idea unless I'm in the mood to enjoy or just flat-out ignore things like that, mind you - and jerked me to my feet. The ripping sensation caused me more pain than it really should've but come on, it was Keaton.

"Motherfucker!" I snapped before I could censor myself. I kneed him in the nads by way of reciprocation of his obvious sentiments, feeling oddly satisfied when he hissed and let go of me.

I kneed him in the face when he made the mistake of bending over, and then pounced after him. We rolled around the living room for a while, which found me slamming his head into anything I could when we passed it. We were, much like our last encounter, throwing punches, biting, clawing and, yes, basically trying to rip each other to shreds - AGAIN.

Eventually Keaton threw me off again, and I again felt arms like steel bands take a hold of me and lower me safely to the ground. Rajan had made it down the stairs.

He let me go after only a short delay in which I could swear he sniffed my hair. He then carefully picked his way around the room while I distracted Keaton at my insistence to go get bandages for Rudy. Keaton either didn't notice or didn't care, because he was after me in a second.

To be entirely honest, since I wasn't packed with adrenaline or running entirely on nerves, I was terrified. Sure, I had beat him once - with debatable effect, as I was fighting him again - and I was stronger now, but he had very nearly killed me, something Henry pointed out and screamed at me for. I didn't know if I could beat him without all the extra power I'd had the last time. I wasn't sure I'd even be able to hold my own against him anywhere past rolling around beating each other up.

When Keaton and I crashed into each other, I knew I couldn't beat him by myself, not unless I resorted to dirty tricks. I'm not against doing so, of course, but I do prefer a fair fight. Bandages flew past our heads and Lindsey caught them, immediately starting to bandage Rudy's head. And then Rajan crashed into Keaton from behind, taking the fight off my hands for a time.

And that was when Ritchie joined in, helping Rajan hold Keaton off with some difficulty. I caught my breath before pulling the Slow move and taking off. Keaton charged right back at me and we collided at high speed in the middle of the room. I grabbed a hold of him and tossed him through the front window, flinching and then scowling when it broke. I shared a look with Ritchie and Rajan, but even though it had been brief, the encounter was too much for them. They were already panting.

"I'll be back." I said, briefly reminding myself of the Terminator.

Ritchie nodded and Rajan looked rather helpless. He grabbed my arm before I could haul myself out the window after Keaton and looked me in the eyes.

"Try not to get yourself killed." He said, looking away.

His hand started to leave my arm, and I caught it with my own. I squeezed reassuringly. "I'll do my best."

And then I let go and jumped out the window. Keaton was charging back toward the house, but I'd had the foresight to use the Slow move and jump with my chest parallel to the ground. I again crashed into the fox, sending us both tumbling. I wasted no time in latching my teeth onto his cheek while my nails dug into his flailing arms. I had the strangest feeling as I did so, like a predator nailing its prey.

But then I realized it wasn't quite such a predatory feeling, but more of a defence mechanism. It was at that moment I realized I was sinking into my survival instincts. Cornering and scaring a raccoon is a fool's sport for a reason - we're viscious.

We were rolling again, but he wasn't trying to strike me - he was trying to loosen my grip. His blood was in my mouth and under my nails, soaking my light gray fur and turning it crimson. My mouth was full of the taste of copper, and I could understand why he'd want me off - punture wounds are hard to treat, especially when they're in places you can't easily reach, like your own shoulders.

By the time he managed to throw me off, he had wounds that were defnitely going to scar. There was no explanation, no warning, no 'okay I give up'. Keaton just disappeared while I laid collapsed against the side of the house. I was in pain from his earlier throw of me, exhausted from the exertion of fighting him, in even more pain from my slamming into the side of the house, and I could swear my head was bleeding, which wouldn't be good.

With all this, I could hardly move, especially since my brain was still sort of scrambled from the impact. After a moment, I managed to remember how to move my arm and reached up, touching the back of my head. Nope. Nothing. I definitely had a concussion, though.

I was just starting to struggle to my feet when Ritchie rounded the side of the house with a worried expression. When he saw me it briefly turned to horror until he realized I was moving. He rushed to my side and placed one of my arms around his shoulders and hauling me to my feet.

"Are you hurt?" He asked as he started helping me stumble toward the front of the house.

I had to struggle for a second to figure out how to talk. "I think I have a concussion." I said lamely, "My brain is definitely scrambled even if I don't."

He nodded. "Anything else? That's a lot of blood."

I shook my head. "No, nothing else. I bit him. Hard. And I clawed him to try and keep him down. He threw me into the side of the house and then my head got all fuzzy... I have a headache."

He led me inside and past the others. Rudy was, thankfully, okay but rather dazed. Even he looked at me when Ritchie led me to sit down on the couch. He let go of me and I somehow managed to hold completely still and stay upright while he checked out my head. After a minute he hummed.

"Well, I have to agree with your assumption that you have a concussion, but it's nothing serious. If you stay in bed and don't do anything for the rest of the say and probably tomorrow too, you should be fine by tomorrow night, the morning after at latest." He said, "Rajan, would you stay with her and make sure she wakes up every two hours or so? We have to make sure she doesn't suffer any damage from this."

Rajan nodded. When Ritchie moved aside, he didn't even help me up - he picked me up bridal style and adjusted me in his arms until I was comfortable, although it was probably sort of painful for him considering even I can be dead weight if I'm in pain. He carried me up the stairs and laid me down on my bed.

In my concussion addled mind, I couldn't quite recall that I was supposed to be just friends with him at the moment. So, when he attempted to back away, I gave him my best puppy dog eyes and asked him not to leave.

Maybe because he wanted to, or maybe because I wanted him to, he scooted me a little farther back climbed onto the bed, tugging me to his chest when he was situated. I went to say something to him, although I don't remember what it was, and just as I opened my mouth Rajan started running his fingers through my hair.

"Reggie - " I began.

"Shh. I'm sure whatever you have to say can wait until you're completely coherent. Get some sleep, Soph."

Exhausted and confused as I was, I felt compelled to listen to him and fell asleep.

Two days later...

"How ya feelin' Ringtail?" Rudy asked me, coming in and sitting down on my couch.

I smiled and saved my work, closing my laptop. "Much better. I was afraid I was forgetting things for a while there, but it was just minor stuff - like what color Lindsey's eyes are. I don't think I ever really took note, though, so..."

Rudy got an extremely heartsick expression on his face. "Orange." He said, "Her eyes are orange."

"You still haven't told her yet, have you?" I asked.

He shook his head. "I just...can't think of a way to broach the subject." He admitted. I didn't find out until later thst Lindsey was eavesdropping. "'Hey, Lindsey, I'm in love with you and I'd follow you to the ends of the Earth, as long as Sophie's with us!' Yeah. I can totally see that working." He frowned at me.

"You could always just, you know, walk up to her, kiss her for no reason and whisper it to her." I suggested.

He laughed, though it was sort of hollow. "That how you and Rajan got together?" He asked bitterly.

"No, actually." I tried not to let him know how much the jab hurt, "We just sorta... had a spontaneous makeout session and decided we were dating. We never really elaborated on why we were kissing in the first place and we left a lot of things unsaid. Up until he randomly started spewing his guts to me a few nights ago I was convinced he didn't give a damn at all."

Rudy seemed to notice how I clenched my teeth and avoided eye contact with him though.

"Sorry, Soph. That was uncalled for." He said, "...How long were you two together, anyway?"

"About a day. I mean, I broke up with him after I punched Lindsey, but we weren't much of a couple during that fight."

Rudy slowly nodded. "Ouch. I can sort of see how you would think he didn't give a damn, in that case. He took another girl's side right after you got together."

We were quiet for a minute before he got up and hugged me. "See ya later, Soph. Hope things clear up between you and Rajan soon."

I smiled, "Same to you and Lindsey."

He laughed and left the room.

~•~ ~•~

I laughed and walked out. Sophie was such an awesome older sister, even if she does say I'm the older brother. I got only partway back to the stairs before I saw Lindsey. She looked nervous.

"Lindsey?" I asked when she just stared at me and bit her lip upon seeing me.

"I... I need to talk to you, Rudy." She said.

I swallowed uneasily, it was obvious what was on her mind. My throat felt dry. "...How much of that conversation did you hear?"

"Enough of it."

And then, suddenly, my arms were full of Lindsey and her lips were on mine. I didn't even get time to recover before she pulled away and smiled.

"I love you too."

I felt my lips beginning to twitch, and slowly a grin formed on my face as I jumped and fist pumped. "Woohoo!"

She laughed and I was, not for the first time, struck by her beauty. I kissed her this time, and very quickly I forgot about everything else in the world. There was only Lindsey and me.

~•~ ~•~

I heard a loud, "Woohoo!" from the hallway, and something told me Rudy and Lindsey were already past the most difficult part of their relationship.

I grinned.