A/N: Before you get started on the new chapter of Time Hero today, I just wanted to let you know that if you've been waiting to read Darkened Chaos, now is a great time to do it! The second story in the Time Trilogy has now been edited to clean up the writing quality and plot arcs and those edits are now live. Like with the Metarex Rule edits, if you've read the story before, nothing should be so significantly changed that you need it read it again (though feel free!).

With that said, let me not hold you up any longer - there's a new chapter to dive into.


Chapter Fourteen: A World on Fire

I want to die.

But I can't. I can't. Can't do that to Shadow.

But my world's on fire and my body burns at the heart of the flames. The Chaos Emerald in my grip offers no relief. I only hold onto it because I know it's the best way for Shadow to find me. It can offer me no help beyond that. This is the sort of hurt even miracles can't fix.

Nova could just make out Shadow's face amidst the bright haze before her eyes. Like the light was refracting in such a way that made it hard to discern more than the vagaries of shapes. "Where are you hurt?" he demanded but his voice sounded like it came from opposite a pane of glass between them.

Nova's thoughts moved slow as molasses. It took many seconds to turn them into words. By that point, Shadow had managed to shove aside the clothes obscuring her body. "Not…that," she finally gasped.

Not that she wasn't hurt. But the stickiness of dried blood faded to a faint thought in her memory. She lifted her shaking hand from the Chaos Emerald and called upon her magic. The request shot a sharp pain through her skull, and she released a strangled cry as a multicolor of sparks burst to life across her palm. It was all she could manage before her hand fell to her side once more. It left her gasping. Like the world was running out of air.

But it was enough. Shadow's eyes widened and he reached out to press his hand against her forehead.

"Is she okay?" a female voice asked from behind Shadow. Nova could just make out a pink blur. Amy? Had Shadow really managed to find the crew of the Blue Typhoon and got them to Majyk so quickly?

"No," Shadow grunted in response to Amy's question, pulling his hand back from Nova's forehead. He shifted to gripping her arm, sliding his hand down the length of it to check for other injuries. She squeezed her eyes shut and for a brief moment, allowed herself to be embraced in the thought that he was here he was here he was here.

But then the fire rose up once more with a vengeance. It tore through her, trying to shred her from the inside out. Her mind lost track of the world around her while it raged. Her chest wrenched up and she choked. Shadow's hands wrenched away from her. Probably unsure if it was safer to hold her still or let her writhe. "What's happening?" Amy cried.

"Nova's magic leeched into her bloodstream," Shadow explained quickly in a low voice. "It's poisoning her."

Airin's Disorder.

Rare and horrible. Slow deaths and fast deaths alike. Because of Nova's wing injury at the hands of the Metarex when she was a child, she had already been at higher risk of Airin's. The wings, as a major place where magic was stored for a fairy, were always the biggest risk for infection. She remembered doctors whispering the word to one another like a curse after they thought her injury had once more dragged her into the depths of unconsciousness.

But now, of all times, it had been triggered.

This was her third time passing through this time period but now was the first time Airin's had been triggered. How? Why? Though, honestly, none of that really mattered when the flames were burning her skin to nothing more than char. She was struggling to see through the burning at this point. She squeezed her eyes shut simply for the fraction of peace that offered her.

"What do we do?" another voice demanded. Tails's.

Hands (still Shadow's?) continued to search the rest of her body for injuries. Injuries that seemed so insignificant now.

But then he hissed, and her eyes flashed open. The blurriness before them meant it took her a moment to find Shadow's gaze. He waited for her until she did. "Your wing is damaged."

Nova winced. Now that he reminded her, she could feel the sting through the burning that drowned the rest of her body. Until now, she had managed to forget that particular pain. Now her stomach churned. She squeezed her eyes shut again and begged her stomach to settle. It was one sensation too many for her mind to handle.

"We need to get her back to your ship immediately," Shadow said. "The effect is nearly always fatal."

Fatal. The word rung through her like the bang of a gong. After everything, this was really how she was going to die?

She vaguely felt Shadow gather her into his arms and lift her off the ground. Even that small amount of movement, even with her eyes closed, the motion was enough to send her head spinning. She didn't even have the strength to wrap her arms around Shadow's neck for further stability. His normally warm body felt ice cold in contrast to her fever, and she shivered against him. Tears pooled in her closed eyes. I survived. I survived long enough to see you again.

Now I can die.

-X-X-X-

Tails's View

After days of fading into despair, his heart growing colder with every passing moment, finding Nova woke Tails up.

Shadow emerged from the closet with Nova cradled in his arms. Her arms and legs were a wreck on their own, almost every available surface of her skin bruised to blue-green where it wasn't torn open. But it was her wings that drew Tails's immediate attention. One was nearly torn in two horizontally and the edges of the cut were coated in a dark sludge.

Tails's heart stuttered in its beating.

And then they ran.

Shadow dashed ahead of them, and Tails and Knuckles gave him hot pursuit. The first time passing through the destroyed streets of Light Shale City, Tails could hardly keep one foot in front of the other, each step requiring him to face yet another new horror. But this time through, all he could care about was the path before him and traversing it as quickly as possible. The violet Chaos Emerald Shadow had shoved into his hands before pulsed almost in time with the rapid beating of his heart. The pale blue Emerald they had found with Nova he had left back with Amy so she could take Chris, C2, Cream, and Cheese on a slower path.

Tails reached the infirmary of the Blue Typhoon shortly after Knuckles, just as Shadow lowered the limp form of Nova onto one of the couple beds in the space. Tails stumbled to a stop, reaching out to grab the doorframe to hold himself upright as he gasped. "Do you know—what we—can do—for her?" he panted.

"Break her fever," Shadow snapped. He didn't look away from Nova's closed eyes. Tails wondered whether or not she still existed within the waking world or if she'd only clung to consciousness until Shadow found her. After a moment, Shadow's eyes snapped up and he refocused. "Stitch her wounds, provide fluids. However, it remains up to Nova alone to fight the infection. Her kind has no cure."

And now Nova might actually be the last of her kind. The thought rose unbidden in Tails's mind. But he winced and quickly shook the thought away. There was no time for that kind of thinking right now. Right now, there was only time for action.

"Knuckles," Tails snapped. He straightened and reclaimed the title of captain like it was a coat he wore across his shoulders. Knuckles spun around to face him. "Take Shadow and gather all the ice you can so we can get Nova's fever down. I'll get her on an IV so we can get her fluids and medicine intravenously. We won't let this be fatal; not as long as Nova's on my ship."

For the first time, in Tails's memory, neither Shadow nor Knuckles protested their role assignment. Instead, they wasted no time in their response and both rushed out of the infirmary without a word. And though Tails himself shook all over, he took no more than a single steadying breath before he set himself after the task at hand.

Thankfully (or perhaps unfortunately, depending on your perspective), Tails had experience in this regard and slid the IV into Nova's vein at the crook of her arm with little issue. Nova didn't so much at twitch at the touch of Tails or the needle. His eyes flashed to her face once he'd taped down the IV. Her cheeks burned red with fever and each breath she gasped she expelled almost immediately, as if she had no lung capacity to speak of whatsoever.

Just as he finished, Cream, Cheese, C2, Amy, and Chris returned to the ship, spilling breathlessly into the infirmary. But given Nova's current state, they had no time to waste on something as frivolous as a full breath of air. "Chris, I need an EKG. Cream and Amy, which of you has the steadier hand right now?"

Cream didn't even hesitate to step forward, narrowing her eyes so that she now wore an expression far beyond her years. Tails's eyes flashed to Amy and C2 standing behind her. "Amy, C2, go to the kitchen and help Shadow and Knuckles get ice." Then he turned his eyes to Cream once more. "Cream, I need you to clean and stitch the tear in Nova's wing."

To Cream's credit, she did not wince. She did not hesitate. Instead, without so much as a beat, she nodded once and sprinted to wash up.

-(-)-

For hours, Tails lost track of specifics. His body moved on autopilot without him behind the controls. Every so often, he would regain awareness for a moment, a few minutes at most. But for the most part, his life became nothing more than a series of reactions.

Cream stitching tight, uniform lines through Nova's wing.

Burying Nova in ice, Chris keeping an eye on her temperature while Shadow held her hand, his eyes fixed on Nova's resolutely shut eyelids.

A wild EKG.

Cool washcloth after washcloth after washcloth.

An impossible number of questions regarding fairy physiology, to which Shadow had only so many answers.

Was it minutes? Hours? Days? But this, this Tails had some power over. While he couldn't beat off infection for Nova, he could give her a fighting chance.

Through it all, Nova did not regain consciousness, not so far as Tails could tell. And not for a moment did Shadow allow consciousness to escape him. Shadow only left her side to help collect more ice. Otherwise, he held her hand, hardly moving, watching her breathe like he was counting her breaths.

To be fair, none of them sought rest. But that didn't mean rest didn't seek them. As the hour grew late, Tails found Cream curled up in the corner, far away from the waking world. He assigned Knuckles the job of getting her to bed.

Chris faded a few hours later, slipping to sleep on the other bed in the infirmary. Both he and Tails had gotten the least amount of sleep since time travel sent them back, and so Tails left him be. Who knew when the next opportunity to sleep would arrive?

But while Shadow, Tails, Amy, and C2 faded and slowed, they refused to fall. Even though, eventually, there was nothing left to do but wait.

Tails collapsed on the opposite side of the infirmary against a wall when Amy went to check Nova's bandages. Shadow's eyes followed Amy while she went through the motions, though he didn't say a word. Nova remained unaware, even with an IV in her arm and an oxygen mask fixed to her face. Tails slid down the wall to the floor. His tails wrapped around him from behind to try to warm Tails's cold, shaking body.

C2 found him there when she returned to the room, arms laden with protein bars and bottled water. She allowed the supplies to spill onto a spare table pushed up against the wall. And once she had, she crossed to join Tails against the wall. One of her twin tails brushed against his for a moment before she twitched it away.

"I'm not used to feeling so helpless," she admitted. It was the most normal thing any of them had said in hours. And it took Tails a while to process her words. By the time he managed to guide his eyes to her face, she was already speaking again. "I have been built by certainties and the laws of time that I assist to enforce. This is new ground for me."

"It's every day for the rest of us." Tails rubbed his hand beneath his eye, as if he could rub the exhaustion away. After a moment, he realized what he had just said, the way he'd compared their pain. He pulled his hand away from his face abruptly. "Sorry, that came out wrong."

"I've seen you across multiple timelines, Tails. Don't think that a single moment will change my opinion of you."

Tails rotated his head so he could actually see C2 beside him. Though actually looking at C2 made it harder to believe it was her beside him. He would sooner believe he looked into a mirror, even with the difference between the shades of their fur.

"Did you choose to look different when you appeared to us as a Time Whisperer so that we wouldn't know you were related to me?" Tails asked suddenly.

C2 tilted her cheek toward her shoulder in a vaguely contemplative gesture. "Not all Time Whisperers change their forms as they interact across the timelines. I've never had the same hang-ups. I rarely wear my own skin. It makes it easier to play whatever part needs to be played." But then her eyes twitched back to Tails. Amy's eyes. "Though I will admit, my own skin would have fit into this time and place and I made the choice to change anyway. I didn't want to be recognized, yes, but because I hoped not to hurt you. Though I imagine the pain I've now dealt in the shock of who I am is nothing in comparison to the pain you've gone through in the past."

"Or the pain we're going through now," Tails agreed.

C2 hummed her affirmative response. But then she shifted her head again so she looked straight ahead at Nova on the opposite side of the room. Tails shifted to do the same. Every so often, colorful sparks burst around Nova's fingertips and fell to the floor. Like an excess of her magical energy was trying to burn itself off.

"I'm afraid I don't know the result of this sequence of events," C2 said suddenly. "Though timelines exist where Airin's was triggered within Nova, the results varied. And I unfortunately did not follow the details through to know the differentiating factors. Right now, Nova's survival seems to entirely depend on Nova."

Tails sighed and a weight collapsed upon his back so that it was a struggle to gather another breath. "And she might not want to fight through it," Tails whispered. "After all, she's alone now. The sole survivor of the genocide of her people. Just like Cosmo."