Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim all rights to all characters (save for those of my own creation) during this attack… especially for the one who wants a break.
EDIT (12-28-21): Whew, I just realized some huge errors in that Shadow and Toru scene when they were reading that note! Got it all fixed up. It makes way more sense now.
~保護者~
"Praise"
~保護者~
It had been long enough to allow Armaris to recover, the Hexan decided. Some might think the cat weak or frail, but Cere knew better, and that was why she had waited only this long. She appeared outside of what she knew was Espio's home, waited a moment, then realized that Espio was nearby, just not inside. She leapt up onto the porch and called out, "Armaris?"
The cat eventually popped up next to Cere, leaning against a wall with a gentle smile. "Heya. Been a bit since we got a good chance to talk, hasn't it?"
Cere never ceased to be amazed by how quickly Armaris could bounce back from things, and this much alone made her return the smile. "I came to see how you were doing, since the last time we saw each other, there wasn't much time to talk."
Armaris managed a chuckle before rolling her eyes. "No shit." The cat sighed, glancing away. "It still bothers me a lot, and the more I think on it, the less I want to talk about it."
"I get it," Cere said, taking a seat where she stood. "You went through a lot. You don't have to talk about anything that you don't feel ready for, but I recommend you talk to someone soon. It's not good to let those emotions fester."
With a wave, Armaris dismissed it. "Regardless, it's really good to see you. We genuinely haven't talked in a bit."
"I'm aware. Most of my time has been spent being busy," Cere explained, giving an idle shrug.
"And kicking the God of Demons around, yeah? I heard about that," Armaris murmured. "Everything okay? I've… never heard of you doing that."
Cere glanced away, much like Armaris had earlier. "It's easier to not talk about just yet." It's because he corrupted you… I couldn't let that stand, but I can't tell you that. I don't… want you upset.
"Don't do that again," Armaris huffed. "If you kill him, you become the Goddess of Demons. I don't want to see that."
"I know," Cere replied, frowning. "I know." If it had happened, it would have broken your heart to find out it was because I wanted to protect you. I don't know how you would have taken it. "I won't go that far again. Next time, I'll just knock him out."
Armaris smiled a little. "Good. I'd hate to have to kick your ass."
"Same here," Cere laughed. "As proud of you as I am, I don't want to get upstaged by you just yet."
"I'll get there one day," Armaris replied. "I'm already getting really good with my magic."
Cere raised a brow, sitting up a little straighter. "Really now? I'd like to see a little of that."
"Is it time for one of our old sparring matches, then?" Armaris questioned, slowly setting a hand on the folded blade at her side. "I think I can put up even more of a fight this time."
A brightened smile broke out onto Cere's face. "Absolutely. Let's see what you can do." Cere rolled back and dropped off the porch, followed by Armaris who quickly leapt off the wall to join her.
~保護者~
By now, the injuries from the fight had mostly healed. Some of them had left nasty scars that he'd likely wear for years, but that wasn't really a concern. Cere had done a number on him, but now he was ready. Not only had he been plotting this whole time, but now he was also in the proper shape to begin doing something. The first thing he noticed was that Kalek was no longer hanging around the citadel, which was fine. He didn't want to see that accursed half-demon at the moment. There was a certain eagerness that he held onto, due to the sheer possibility of ruining the ego of such a brash person.
The second was that things were… buzzing. He could feel that something was happening. A woman had been nearby recently, killing off some of the unimportant members of his armies. That wasn't a concern. He could deal with that another time. He knew her name, what she was. Nobody else in existence had her magic. And if he was wrong… well, it was their fault for possessing the same magic. He could care less.
The God of Demons decided now was a good time to check up on Shadow again. He called for the demon who was supposed to manage the investigation. They showed up and revealed that it was now impossible to see the home or into it. Tianak debated between killing them for the failure or having them investigate something else, and… he decided to do a mix of both. He grabbed the demon and sent it crashing through the walls of the citadel before issuing a calm order. "Find Kalek. Watch his movements."
He had an idea of what was happening. This was most likely Ghune's fault. The kind of magic she used to protect her own people. It was easy to recognize if you knew what you were looking for, and he damn well knew. It was also an idiotic idea to go to her world, as that was just as likely to result in death as facing Cere again right now was. Rather than make such a stupid choice, he instead began mobilizing his armies to plan an invasion. If she wanted to protect people so bad, he'd burn everything she cared about to the ground. Starting with her home.
She'd been a pain in his timeline, and it was time to exact revenge before it was necessary here.
~保護者~
It was hard seeing him like this.
Blaze was used to many things with her husband. Childishness. Pranks. Goofiness. Teasing. Laughter. Great big smiles. Love, love, and more love. Hugs. Snuggles. Helpfulness. The list just went on and on. But right now… What right had she to expect any of that? None, she told herself, and yet the sorrow over that fact remained. No matter how well he generally hid it, Silver's close encounter with a spawn of Malevolence was weighing down hard on him. He still managed to smile and laugh and do all of his usual things during the day, but at night? One look at him told her all she needed to know. More nightmares… More and more nightmares.
Reaching over, she took his shaking form into her arms and did her best to soothe him. Waking him proved difficult, but with time and consistent effort he came around enough to realize where he was and that she was there. That was enough to see him back off into less terrible dreams, though his sleep was still uneasy. All Blaze could do at that point was hold him and resolve to do something about this in the morning. If anyone at all could help him, she would find them and get that help.
For his sake.
~保護者~
It was nice to be back on Babylon, even if it wasn't the same planet. Tarin was a bit out of her element still, but she was adapting. The shift in diet had upset her stomach, though, and he was definitely in search of a way to remedy that. He couldn't do much about it, currently, but he had to try at least.
Currently, the two were walking out in a garden, where Tarin was focused on investigating every individual plant and seeing the differences between them all. The woman's main power was water, so it made sense that she could discern some differences since plants needed water… most of the time.
Arkiri busied himself with watching his wife, something that always put a smile on his face. It was always peaceful around her, even on a battlefield. Something about her presence was so soothing, and he always appreciated it.
He almost didn't notice her attempting to speak to him. "Arkiri, what do you think?"
"Of?" he asked, blinking. "I did not hear what you said initially."
Tarin chuckled a little, but her expression was more serious than he'd expected. "I have every intention of being fully involved in this war happening currently. I understand you dislike combat, but I was asking if you wished to be involved."
Arkiri let out a sigh, taking a seat on a bench nearby. Tarin soon sat with him. "I don't think that my skills in combat are going to be helpful. I mostly learned how to defend myself, and it was against a completely different type of enemy. I know very little of how I could possibly manage to face demons and whatever manner of other creatures Nareish has at her beck and call."
"I understand what you mean," Tarin said gently. "You do not have to fight, but I figured it best to ask rather than assume. I suppose this means our paths will part at times, yes?"
"Certainly, but they will always come back together," Arkiri replied, smiling. "I will always find you."
"As will I for you." The hedgehog leaned against Arkiri, wrapping an arm loosely around him. "Let us enjoy this moment of peace." Before all hell breaks loose.
~保護者~
Kath had gotten up and left the palace shortly after Sein had returned to bed. He stayed out well after sunrise, taking a walk on one of the remote snowy mountains he frequented when he wanted peace and quiet. It was less that he wanted those things this time, however, and more that he had generally wanted some alone time. Once he returned, he would get very little of that, if any at all. As such, he was savoring this time while he had it.
Meanwhile, Alana had gotten up for the day, gotten dressed, and had a small breakfast. Knowing that her husband was more tired than she was, she'd left him be to sleep throughout all of that. A point came, however, when she decided he needed to get out of bed. If nothing else, he should eat. So long as things stay calm, he can sleep again after that.
She returned to their room with this plan in mind. Once there, she crossed the room to the bed, sat on the edge of it, and gently shook him. "Sein," she called quietly. "Sein, wake up. I would like you to eat. It is nearly nine in the morning."
The man groaned a little and rolled off his chest to lay on his back. "Do I have to get up?" he asked, turning his attention over to his wife. "I forgot how good sleep felt."
Alana smiled a small but warm smile. "Yes, if only for a while. You have not eaten recently, so I would like you to do so now."
Sein huffed a little at Alana. "C'mon," he whined, pushing himself to sit up. "Do I really have to?"
"You absolutely do," Alana chuckled. "Father even ate, and you know how he is with his food aversion."
A final huff, and Sein stood up. "Alright, fine, fine," he replied. "Let's go, then."
She stood up with him, then walked over to be by his side. Once there, she fixed his bed head with her hands briefly before smiling again. "You look as though you had many pleasant dreams last night. I am sorry for interrupting them."
He chuckled a little and playfully batted her hands away, smiling. "You're fine, Alana. No dream will ever amount to how pleasant it is to be with you."
"Ooh, flattery," she teased. "To what do I owe the occasion?"
"Me waking up, I suppose," Sein replied easily with a gentle smile.
"You are too much," Alana laughed. She teleported them both the dining room as opposed to the kitchen and admitted, "I know I do not cook often, but I wanted to this morning. I made one of your favorite breakfasts."
"Well, that's a surprise," Sein replied, crossing his arms. "'To what do I owe the occasion?'" he asked, echoing her earlier question.
"I have been absent a lot recently, leaving you to handle our son, my father, various conflicts, and so on alone. I wanted to apologize for that." Alana sighed and looked away. "I do not mean to ask so much of you. It is too easy for me to get lost in my own pursuits, and I tend to forget how much time has truly gone by."
Sein waved her off. "I'm always more than happy to help all of my family with anything that comes up," he said. "Getting to help them is a gift that I can't just ignore."
After murmuring some form of an agreement, Alana gave him a sideways hug. "I am still sorry," she told him. "This is my family as well. These responsibilities and gifts are not solely on you to handle. I will try to do better from here on."
"Hey, we've both got things that we're focusing on," Sein replied, returning the hug without hesitation. "We split duties up, and it just so happened that I was working with family while you did other things. It's not a problem at all."
"If you are certain." Alana nudged him toward a chair. "Now go eat, before it gets cold."
Sein broke the hug and moved to the chair, taking a seat and beginning to eat. It was… incredible, as he always expected when Alana cooked. Whether that was her skill or his personal bias, he didn't care. It was his wife's cooking. "You always manage to catch me off guard, somehow," he said through a full mouth.
He earned himself a light whack on the shoulder. "Manners, love," she teased. Then she said, "I can sit with you, if you'd like. Otherwise, I would like to visit with Mother some more. We were not finished talking last night before we grew too tired."
"Either way," he replied after swallowing what he'd been eating at that moment. "You do whatever you'd like."
"If you do not mind being alone for a time, I will take my leave, then," Alana said. "Perhaps later today you can join us, if you do not wind up busy."
Sein shrugged. "We'll just have to see," he replied. "We never know what's happening next."
"That is true." Alana turned to leave, but paused and soon turned back around. "That reminds me, Father went off into the mountains this morning, from what an employee was saying. He left just after sunrise or so. Do you think we should go check on him?"
"It's entirely possible he really just felt like being alone," Sein reminded gently. "But on the other hand, it could be something more. It might not be bad to check on him."
"Would you prefer me to do that so you can have some more free time?"
"As always, whichever way it works out," Sein said. "He might like your company more if he feels like being in a quiet place."
"Perhaps," Alana conceded, "but he does enjoy your company as well, believe it or not. He just is not likely to say so."
Sein shrugged a little. "I know he does, but it's hard to tell whose company might be better at times… but maybe you're right. I can go check up with him as soon as I finish eating, and you can finish your conversation with Laralei?"
"That sounds good," she agreed. "But if you need anything, text or call me and I will come, alright?"
"Absolutely," Sein said with a smile. Alana waved farewell at him and soon was out of the room. Sein finished off his food after Alana left the room and stood, putting away all of his dishes and teleporting away. So, he's out in the mountains? He landed near the nearest range, extending his senses to find Kath.
The snow capped peaks were basically deserted right now, with the exception of some animals here and there. That made it easy enough to pick up on Kath's aura on one of the farthest mountains from Sein's current position. Kath often picked the most remote escapes possible, so this was far from surprising. Sein teleported the rest of the way to Kath, focusing on keeping his aura and body relaxed. He'd never been super good at preventing his body from tensing and his aura from being riled up when he was readying for a fight, and this was no exception. Even being an Immortal, he had every reason to be wary of Kath if the man was allowed a chance to get his bearings. There was a reason he was feared in battle.
"Hey, Kath," he called, walking up to the older man.
The grey hawk was sitting upon a stone looking out over the landscape with his usual calm expression. But despite the appearance, there was no way he hadn't noticed Sein's aura. As such, he ignored the greeting in favor of asking, "Is there danger at the palace?"
"Nah. I wouldn't be out here if there was," Sein said. "I'd prefer to just try and gain your attention."
A fair point. Kath stood and turned to face him. "Then explain your demeanor," he pressed, a hint of confusion showing in his own aura.
"There's something I need to tell you, and I don't… think you're gonna like it much," Sein replied, giving a weak smile. Kath simply watched him and waited for his son-in-law to continue. "Well, I work for Nareish now," Sein explained, gripping the handle of his blade and pulling it free. "And I'm here to ensure that you're put out of commission for a while."
In an extremely rare moment of open emotion, a mixture of shock, confusion, and alarm raced through Kath. They were distracting enough that he made a mistake and didn't immediately teleport his own weapon into his hand. "What are you talking about?" he demanded.
"I guess it's something you won't understand unless you experience it," Sein said, opening a portal behind Kath and attempting to slam him through it with a wave of aura. Kath tried too late to dodge and the glancing blow he received was enough to knock him backward through the portal. Sein followed Kath through and closed the portal, forcing the gauntlet he wore to form the shield as he swung.
Kath finally teleported his sword to him and blocked the blow. However, this was no Immortal's blade, or even a semi-Immortal's. It was a mortal's blade, and too much punishment would make it snap like a twig. Sein didn't let up, continuing with brutal swings fueled by aura energy. "This ends faster if you just stop," he muttered.
"I will not," Kath responded tensely, mind racing in an effort to figure out how in the hell to get out of this situation. "This does not make sense, Sein. She is your enemy. You know that."
"Was," Sein corrected, using the excess aura rolling off his body to fling a blade projectile at Kath.
There was only so much Kath could do to dodge in his current situation, and the blade cut deep into his forearm. He gritted his teeth and, using his own aura, pushed Sein back enough to allow him a chance to put space between them. Despite the danger he was in, he couldn't bring himself to do Sein any harm, and as such the push was far from forceful. "Why would you work for her?!" he demanded. "That is not like you, Sein!"
"I can't explain that to you," Sein answered, warping the realm they stood in (his own realm) to force Kath closer. "Besides, it makes me happy." He accentuated the word "happy" with a particularly strong downward strike of his blade, fully intent on going through with the attack. Kath threw his sword up to try and block the attack but, as he'd known would soon happen, it broke into two pieces. The rest of the attack hit him full-force.
Sein stopped it from outright killing Kath, only allowing it to dig into the man's shoulder before roughly kicking him away, and throwing down a sphere of aura at the older hawk. I'm sure she can see this. She was right. He's not fighting back. The attack met its mark before Kath had a chance to recover from the previous damage he'd just taken. Sein teleported over to Kath and grabbed his father, moving to end this by brutally pummeling the man with his fist.
As with before, Kath continued not to fight back. He couldn't force himself to hurt Sein no matter what was happening, no matter how much he himself wound up harmed as a result. It didn't wind up mattering for a terribly long time, anyway, for one simple reason. He had only just started becoming an Immortal and was nowhere near Sein's level yet. As such, with Sein going all-out on him, he soon began to struggle to hold onto consciousness.
He didn't let up, smiling a little at the sight of Kath fading out of consciousness slowly. Nareish was right. It did feel good to follow her. By now, Kath was coughing up blood and only barely awake in any capacity. At this point, there was no point in wasting more energy. Sein tossed Kath into the air and charged his gauntlets with aura, waiting for the right moment. As soon as Kath fell back into range, Sein let his fist crash into the older man with all the power he'd generated, releasing it into a single blow and sending Kath careening into the depths of this realm.
That did it. Kath didn't get up again after that, proving straight away that the fight was done. Sein picked up the broken pieces of Kath's sword and inspected them before tossing them to the side. In a way… he'd expected this fight to go the other way, if only because he'd never thought to expect to fight his family. He looked up to Kath, but his attention was on Nareish now. "I did it… He's down."
Nareish appeared nearby a few moments later. She cast her gaze about the battlefield, letting her eyes stop at Kath. Seeing the shape he was in, she smiled. "Indeed he is. You did well, Sein. Very well."
Sein broke out into a smile at this. Her praise caused a rush of good emotions to flow through him. Pleasure and happiness were the main ones, and they were surprisingly strong. "I'd like to think so."
"Your thoughts were correct, as it happens," she responded. "Does it feel good to know you performed to my satisfaction?"
"Absolutely," Sein replied, holding out his blade. "We should get this cleaned before I put it away, though. I'm sure you'll be thorough, but it never hurts to make sure."
"Indeed." With a wave of her hand, Nareish cleaned him and his belongings off entirely. As she'd said she would, she wiped the scent of Kath's blood and emotions off of Sein as well. "Now calm yourself thoroughly, Sein. Your family will expect you to be distressed, not pleased, when you return to them."
"That's… one thing easier said than done," Sein replied, chuckling to himself. "I'm not all that good at hiding my emotions. Kath knew something was up when I approached him, even though I tried to calm myself."
"Then I suppose I will change tactics," Nareish agreed. "You cannot disobey my orders, nor do you ever want to. So this, then, will be your next order. Behave as your family will expect you to. Behave as you ordinarily would have, had someone else done this thing to Kath and not you. Understood?"
"In that case, should I turn my 'anger' at you, considering what we discussed before? It makes a lot of sense for me to want to cause you harm, if that's the case," Sein replied, tilting his head. "It hardly feels right to."
"It is only for show, so yes. That is what you must do. After all, as far as they will know, I am the one who carried out this assault."
Sein nodded. "Understood. I wanted to ask your permission first before I acted in such a way."
"That is good judgement, on your part," Nareish praised again. "You did well not to assume it would be fine."
The hawk flashed a smile to her. "Well, I suppose we should move on from here. You need to give me wounds as well, right?"
"I do, yes. Brace yourself." Nareish gave him no further warning. In an instant, he was covered in the same sort of wounds as Kath was. "Naturally, being that you are stronger than him by a wide margin, what are devastating injuries for him in his current state are not as severe for you. That is just as well, since ordinarily you'd have chased any of my clones and the like off, yes?"
"I would've taken my chances at potentially killing you and protecting Kath," Sein replied. "So, yes."
"In that case, I suppose you would be more severely injured, would you not?"
If it was anyone other than Nareish asking him this, he might've been upset about having opened his mouth. "Definitely, depending on how you felt, correct?"
"Hm… It would have been amusing to watch you come at me over and over again and take on new injuries each time," Nareish admitted with a smile. "Let us remedy your look, then." She covered him with even more injuries, these ones much more grievous.
He'd handled the previous injuries much better, dropping to his knees and coughing up blood. "Shit!"
An amused laugh answered him. "I did warn you to brace yourself," she reminded. "Now, it is time for you to return home. The story is that I took advantage of the situation and abducted you both for fun, understood? And as I often do, I grew bored and eventually let you leave."
Sein nodded with a pained expression before asking one simple question suddenly. He was a random person, after all, and prone to giving vent to his curiosity straight away."How many follow you on their own, without the corruption?"
"Enough of them," was the vague reply. "That is not something you need precise information about."
"I was just curious about it," Sein said, coughing. "I didn't mean to offend you, if I did."
"Indeed. Take care not to overstep again, Sein." Nareish opened a portal to leave. There was a hint of rebuff in her tone as opposed to the amusement and pleasure of earlier. "You should return home now, before you pass out."
Sein pushed himself up to stand, wincing openly at her disapproval. It hurt, and far more than he'd expected. But for now, he focused on teleporting himself and Kath (along with Kath's broken sword) back to the palace, collapsing upon landing. Pushed on too long… He reached out with his aura, trying to call for Alana, Laralei, or anyone that could help right now.
Within seconds, Alana and her mother were both there, eyes wide with horror. "Sein!" Laralei gasped, running up to him and Kath. "God, what happened?"
The hawk briefly registered another presence appearing near them, followed by another Babylonian before replying. "Nareish," he murmured weakly, trying to push himself back up to his feet. "She… kidnapped us when we were on the mountain…" He couldn't hold onto consciousness longer than this, collapsing onto the floor once more as darkness overtook the world around him.
Laralei immediately slipped back into her mentality as queen of their people and started barking out orders. "Alana, get the medics down here, now! You," she gestured to Tarin as Alana vanished, "please help me stop this bleeding! You," she looked at Arkiri, "I need some form of cloth to start binding these wounds!"
"Understood," Arkiri replied immediately, teleporting away.
Tarin moved over to Kath and immediately began using her magic to inspect the wounds. Impact wounds are the most severe. Internal bleeding. The wound on his shoulder is most important until proper medics arrive. With this knowledge, she focused her magic on holding the wound closed while the rest of her attention went to inspecting Sein. "Laralei, focus your attention on his abdomen. He took similar damage to Kath, but the lacerations are far too deep to ignore."
"I know, I am," Laralei responded through gritted teeth. Though she was using her aura to help, she was mainly using her hands to apply pressure to the injuries. As a result, her hands were covered in blood. "How bad are Kath's head injuries? I can't count how many there even are."
"Too bad," Tarin answered honestly. "He was hit numerous times. When the medics arrive, I will give my estimations of this all, but I ask that you remain as calm as you can."
Easy for you to say… Laralei held her tongue, seeking not to be rude when Tarin was doing so much to help. She focused instead on a different thought and on what she was doing. Where the hell is that cloth?
Tarin put more effort in to aid Laralei, holding other wounds together on Sein's body. Arkiri appeared about half a minute later, kneeling down beside them. He had collected a number of cloths and a first aid kit. "Sorry for the wait. Grabbed as much as I could," he explained, splitting the cloths between the three of them.
"Please, help Kath," Laralei pleaded with him. "His head is bleeding profusely. Tarin and I have Sein covered." She could sense a building commotion upstairs as the medics rushed to gather supplies and whatnot to handle this unexpected situation.
Arkiri took a deep breath and set about his work. He had some experience with this sort of work, but he was never quite skilled at it, and it showed in his shaky hands and failed composure. "Shit… he got hurt," he murmured to himself. He'd hoped that something like this would never happen, but here he was…
He wasn't forced to try to handle it on his own for too long. Medics teleported into their midst suddenly and began taking over. Whatever happened to Sein and Kath from here on, it was in their hands. Alana just hoped it would be enough.
Despite the fact that his hands were covered in blood now, Arkiri still wrung his fingers through his feathery hair, biting back curses in ancient Babylonian and fending off tears. Kath was his son in all but blood, and the mere sight of the man in such a state was enough to send him into a crying fit, one that Tarin couldn't do much more than hold him to provide some form of comfort.
With Arkiri in such dire straits, Tarin had to put most of her focus on helping her husband… but the thought crossed her mind to check out those wounds again soon. It quickly vanished when she realized how deep his crying had gotten, and her everything went to soothing him. How did it get to this…?
~保護者~
Per his agreement with Ylden, Han had three days total of freedom before he needed to check in. He was to use whatever strange device that Ylden had given him. That meant he needed to figure the thing out. It was strange and foreign, but also interesting. It held his attention for quite some time, when he wasn't busy wandering around whatever planet Ylden's portal had taken him to.
This wasn't a place he had any name for. He wasn't even sure what many of the things he was looking at were. His home realm was a place he remembered somewhat. It was overflowing with magic that could be used for healing, which was probably why he'd been allowed to maintain some memory of the place. But this world was vastly different. The soft material under his feet was green and… pointy-looking. There were tall structures made of varying shades of brown and topped with more green. Small creatures chirped and flew overhead while others scurried by on the ground. None of it was anything like what he'd seen before.
In truth, he had no idea what to make of it all. Yet, at the same time, he was alright with that for now. His lack of knowledge was precisely why it was all so interesting to him. That interest was why he remained in the same area for so long. He'd arrived here directly after exiting the portal, and he hadn't left since. Perhaps there were better ways to make use of his time, but he was enjoying being here amidst all of this strangeness. It was quiet here. Nice. Something he thought he could get used to.
For the first time since coming here around a day ago, he decided to find a place to sit down. Out of curiosity, he knelt down to feel the pointy green stuff with his hand. It was indeed soft, though also a little scratchy. That was something he could deal with, so he went ahead and sat down on it. Once seated, he turned his attention to fiddling with the device once more. He'd just about worked out how to use it during his earlier attempts, but as with every time before something soon distracted him from his efforts.
The sound of quiet footfalls reached his ears and prompted him to look up. A woman wearing a long robe and boots stepped slowly into view, her face obscured by the shadows of her dark hood and her raven hair. Upon spying him, she casually moved to sit across from him as though it was the most normal thing to do. Perhaps on this world, it was. "I don't mean to intrude," she told him, "but you seem a bit lost. Your energy has been in this same woodland for hours by now without leaving."
Han blinked a few times. "I'm not lost," he said. "I have just been enjoying my time here."
Enough of the woman's face was visible, thus allowing him to see a smile form on her painted black lips. "I see. Might I inquire as to your name? Many strange and dangerous folk have been coming and going on our little rock recently and all are more cautious as a result, including myself."
Was it safe to answer that question? Han wasn't sure. When searching through the names and faces the Faein woman, Utavi, had shown to him, this person didn't seem to be among them. "We have not met before," he deduced aloud.
That smile remained. "Indeed we have not. I suspect that that means the caution I mentioned goes both ways." She settled back against one of the tall, brown things. "Allow me to start, then. My name is Vera. I live in a small settlement that way," one hand gestured back in the direction from which she'd come, "and often come out here to pick various plants. What of you? What is your name, and why are you here?"
"...Han," he revealed soon afterward. "I am just visiting."
"You strike me as, if I had to guess… a Babylonian?" Vera asked. "At least, you look similar."
"Hexan," Han corrected after a pause. What's a Babylonian?
"I see. That is not a race I have heard of." She stood and closed the distance between them. Her hand came to rest on his shoulder and he felt an odd spark against his skin. She leaned in close to his ear. "A word of advice," she whispered. "Be wary of those who claim to be trustworthy. Not all people we Mobians have come into contact with as of late have been anything less than dangerous. Trust your mind and heart to lead you along the correct path."
With that, she removed herself from his personal space, turned, and walked deeper into the apparent "woodland". He watched her go, then just returned his attention to the device in his hands. Her words went entirely ignored, for they held none of his interest. Seconds passed. Soon, he was wearing a pleased smile. Figured it out.
~保護者~
When Toru came back from talking to Ghune, Shadow was just as Toru had left him… with some differences. For one thing, he'd taken off his shoes again. He'd also apparently finished his previous book and was on to the next one - which he was damn-near a fifth of the way through already. The final thing of any note that had changed was the most noticeable by far.
There were a few things floating beside him that had originally been on the nightstand. The faint wisps of magic around them seemed to indicate that he'd picked up on a simplistic levitation spell. He was practicing it while simultaneously having almost none of his attention really on the things he was manipulating. As it happened, Toru's sudden return distracted him just enough to make him drop the objects several inches before he caught them again. Whether or not that annoyed him, he gave no indication, merely put them back where they belonged and said, "That did not take you long. I assumed you two would be busy attempting to strangle one another right now."
"I didn't have any intention of it taking long," Toru said, shrugging easily. "And for once, we came to an easy agreement. Hopefully it can stay that way." The chameleon took a seat on the bed, looking at the objects Shadow had been manipulating. "Seems like you're getting some practice in, eh?"
Shadow blinked, then nodded. "It seemed like one of the least dangerous spells to attempt on my own."
Toru shrugged. "I wouldn't know, but that sounds about right," he replied. "So, is it going well?"
His shrug was answered with a similar one. "I suppose so." Shadow closed his book then and sat up to grab a slip of paper off of his nightstand, which he then handed to Toru. "This was on your pillow when we returned earlier. It may be another note from Akol, but it was mainly addressed to you."
"Alright, then," Toru said, taking the paper and looking it over with vague curiosity on his face.
"Figured I'd leave you some knowledge, since you're dealing with this largely on your own by the looks of things. Dealing with new-bloods (newly turned vampires) isn't easy, especially for those emotionally closest to the situation. Being in the dark surely doesn't make things better. I can't possibly tell you everything right now, and certainly not in a note of all things. Still, I wrote down the most important things to keep in mind."
Toru held off a chuckle to himself. Lucky me. More things to keep in mind.
"-It can be hard to get a sense of why they do what they do when it's not strictly driven by instincts we all share. Newly turned vampires rarely make efforts to communicate when in altered states and don't normally talk. They simply do whatever they decide to do, and to hell with consequences and to hell with other people.
This mentality can sometimes persist for years, even after they gain control over their feeding. It makes them notoriously difficult to keep in line - and to keep safe. Take, for example, your partner's likely uncharacteristic willingness to go fight a spawn of Malevolence all on his own recently. He wouldn't listen to commands or suggestions, didn't care what you were feeling or thinking at the time, and especially didn't care about the danger he was in. You need to be careful of this."
"And here I was thinking that was normal," Toru muttered under his breath. Then again, it didn't make sense for him to suddenly go and attack it, from what I know.
Shadow's sharp ears naturally picked up on his words. "That what is normal?" he asked with a slight frown.
"Did you read the note?" Toru questioned.
"No. My book was much more interesting at the time."
The chameleon blinked a few times, looking over at Shadow. "Huh?"
Crimson eyes rolled. "I was more interested in my book right then and decided the note could wait until you came home."
"I thought it was normal, kinda, that you fought that spawn of Malevolence like you did, aside from the necromancy," Toru replied.
Being reminded of that dampened Shadow's mood somewhat, due in no small part to the fact that he still had no memory of the incident. "It is not?" he questioned.
"I don't think so." Toru shrugged. "I figure you would be a touch hesitant to do it like that."
"Normally I would have avoided it, yes," Shadow agreed with a huff, "but that altered state does not sound like how I normally am from the things you have said."
"I'm aware. For one thing, you might've kicked my ass had Sonic not been there as well," Toru chuckled.
Shadow huffed again and gestured to the note. "What is the next part?" Toru returned to reading.
"-Something a little less dire: sensitivity. From what I've gathered so far, his sense of smell has been enhanced since he's turned. However, it isn't a drastic change overall, at least at the moment. It may grow more pronounced later on. For now, keep this in mind. He'll likely become attuned to the unique scents of those he's closest with, such as you, but otherwise things likely just smell a bit stronger to him than he's used to. That isn't something to be concerned about unless you believe the stories about us hating the smell of garlic. Then he may be in trouble.
One thing you do need to keep an eye on regarding this is blood. The vast majority of vampires who have any changes at all to their senses of smell suddenly become extremely sensitive to the smell of blood even if, like Shadow, the rest of the changes were minor. Some vampires can smell a single drop of blood from miles away. I trust you understand why that's troublesome when dealing with new-bloods."
"This part is all about your sense of smell being heightened and so on," Toru explained once he'd read through it all.
That reminded Shadow of his brief conversation with Steam recently. During that, he himself had mentioned smelling Steam and somehow knowing it was him just before the security systems picked up on the man's arrival. He stifled a sigh. "Changes with that have been coming and going," he admitted. "Sometimes, like now, everything is normal. At other times, things smell stronger than they used to."
"That's odd," Toru said. "You'd figure that it stays the same overall."
"Developing abilities sometimes behave this way," Shadow reminded, "though I have never heard of developing senses doing the same thing."
Toru nodded in response. "That's part of why I'm confused." Shadow mumbled an agreement and motioned for Toru to continue. The chameleon did as he was beckoned.
"-There's one more sensitivity you should be aware of, if only because it can have an effect on married life. For us, our mouths are our most sensitive places. Lips, teeth, tongue, everything. Which, naturally, does include our sense of taste. My only point is that, if it's something you two do, you may want to be much gentler with kissing until he acclimates. I only bring this up because my own partner had the same issue when he was turned. Just keep it in mind."
Toru blinked once. "Huh… not what… I expected to read." With no immediate explanation given, Shadow shifted to see the note for himself. When he read the passage in question, one of his eyebrows raised. "Well… I guess we have to be careful?"
"Potentially," Shadow conceded.
"Let's hope it doesn't become a problem," Toru said after a moment. Shadow nodded and moved on to read the next part.
"-A general F.Y.I. Black Arms and vampires both have blood-based diets, but Black Arms also can and do eat meat (both raw and cooked). Since he's a Black Arms-Vampire, he may still be able to eat meat. However, he may be unwilling to try when hunger strikes, at least at this early stage. It may be something to test when he is not especially hungry, just to see. Even if it isn't something he can gain sustenance from anymore, eating it won't harm him. He could even eat a vegetable if he wanted, but it won't sate the hunger. Just remember that his health won't be impacted beyond that."
"Pleasant," Toru replied. "So now all my cooking experience is null with you."
After giving that some thought, Shadow had to disagree… slightly. "It says that I can still eat other things, but it will not prove filling anymore."
"Yeah, but the purpose of cooking is to feed people," Toru replied. "That means my cooking won't do anything for you."
There were flavors to think about, Shadow supposed, but that sort of argument seemed rather pointless. He didn't bother making it. "Perhaps." Rather than continue this, Toru chose to continue reading the note.
"-Speaking of eating, the fact that the one time he fed by biting someone (I presume it was you) he gravitated toward a person so strongly tells me something important. Some vampires can feed on any kind of blood, even from a mindless beast. Some can only feed on the blood of sentient beings. A few can feed on either but much more strongly prefer one or the other.
He was initially willing to leave the house to feed despite his altered state of mind, was he not? Which means that even though there were sentient beings around, he was on some level fine with feeding off of anything that could be found. Then the preferred option of sentient blood was offered up and he couldn't resist. Given that, I suspect he can feed on any kind of blood but prefers the taste of sentient blood. While this does mean he has more ways to feed and avoid starvation, it also means no living thing is safe around him when he's frenzied. Be wary of that."
"I picked up on this much, mostly," Toru said. "I didn't want to risk you leaving and getting ahold of someone else, though."
Though he listened to what Toru said and nodded, Shadow was a touch more focused on something else. Different blood tastes different…? Is it not all the same? Hearing no response from Shadow, Toru continued on.
"-Alright, time to tone it down again. I'm fresh out of grave warnings. This one can be described as more "cute" by some as opposed to concerning. Vampires with a significant other are often rather fond of at least brief cuddles and snuggles prior to sleep. We're very physical beings in terms of affection and the like, I can't deny it. Black Arms are, too, for the record. I'm under the impression that, with your personality, you likely engage in this behavior fairly often regardless. Just thought you should know that he's probably learning to enjoy it, even if he won't admit it.
Oh, and some vampires tend to lightly nip at their partner's throat with no intention of breaking skin or feeding. I've heard it referred to as a "love bite". Make of that what you will, but the point is simply that not all bites from even new-bloods are dangerous."
"Interesting," Toru mused after a moment.
Shadow frowned. "Love bite"? "Do not expect any of this," he immediately grumbled to Toru, refusing to entertain the idea of any of this taking place.
"I expect it," Toru replied without hesitation, deciding then to tune Shadow out and focus further on reading. It was just as well, since Shadow did nothing more than growl at him right then, anyway.
"-Shadow managed to stay awake for at least a short while after the sun came up once, yeah? That's a good sign. Means he won't be outright forced to sleep during the day for the rest of time. You may need to start doing sleep training with him to help him relearn how to sleep at night. Doing things like having him lay down with you as long as he can tolerate while you sleep, encouraging relaxing activities such as reading instead of being out and about, and so on can really help. Think of it like sleep training a small child, except the goal isn't to train them to sleep without you. Just to sleep at a certain time of day. Have him keep doing his best to practice staying awake during the day for as long as he can, too. It'll probably be a bit before you see significant results, but it'll pay off eventually."
"Well, I figure that this is gonna be… nevermind. This'll be a pain in the ass, I'm certain," Toru said. "You're still averse to sleep, eh?"
Shadow more or less glared at him. How many times do I have to reiterate this? "I hate sleeping," he muttered. "I hate everything about it."
"We still need to try and get you back to a normal sleeping time," Toru said, letting out a soft sigh.
"I do not want to sleep at all," Shadow reminded him, looking away. The mere idea of being forced to endure further nightmarish flashbacks in his sleep had him tense and uneasy, though he did his best to conceal that fact.
"I know, but the less in sync we are, the worse off things will be for our family," Toru explained. "The kids are up during the day, after all. I don't mind taking care of them, but they're going to start asking questions and I can't lie to them. They'll only buy me brushing it off so many times."
Logically, Shadow knew Toru was right. But that didn't help with the root of the problem here. "When I am no longer forced to sleep during the day, I will not be sleeping at all," he mumbled somewhat crossly. "I survived it before and will do so again."
"Maybe there's someone who can help with the nightmares and all?" Toru posed. "I don't know."
"I highly doubt it."
"We won't know until we ask."
"I do not intend to ask, Toru."
"I can't just ignore something that major. This is a serious matter."
"No it is not," Shadow argued stubbornly, still looking away. "Just leave it alone."
Toru sighed a little. You shouldn't have to be concerned about nightmares every time you go to sleep. He chose not to voice this, refocusing on the note.
"-Right, so I just remembered another important thing. I assume that after coming out of his frenzies, he's not been remembering anything that happened during them, yeah? That's normal, as I'm sure you know, but won't last forever. Control and memory are directly linked in this case. The more he gains control over those states, the more he'll be able to remember both during the frenzies and after the fact. From what I heard about that attack I mentioned earlier, he didn't recognize you during the frenzy and after it was over didn't remember what happened. But let's say it had happened after he'd gained some control. With enough of it, he'd have both been able to recognize you and remember at least some of what took place. Make sense?"
"Suppose so," Toru murmured softly. Shadow didn't really react, too lost in thought to be paying any real attention to the note or Toru right then. Toru didn't feel like dwelling on this part, so he moved on.
"-I have one more tidbit of information to share. By and large, most of the most ancient races in existence have one common trait: a love of music. Chameleons, Tokarians, Babylonians, Therians, the Erukti, the da Asani, Vampires, even Black Arms… Music was something these races and a handful of others independently discovered and, in a way, invented. Perhaps because of that, an innate talent for it runs through these races as well. Judging by his appearance, he's got Tokarian in him on top of Black Arms, on top of being a vampire. Music is an exceptional way to vent emotions, work through one's thoughts, and so on. Considering that this is a stressful time in general and, from what I've heard, you're both also expecting a baby… Well, having an outlet might be good for him. Perhaps you could encourage it one of these days."
Might not be a bad idea, Toru thought to himself. He glanced to Shadow, frowning in thought.
At that point, Shadow pulled out of his own thoughts enough to notice Toru's gaze on him. "What?" he asked, almost sighing.
"Just checking on ya," Toru said, smiling suddenly. Shadow finally looked over, then huffed as if to call Toru's action pointless. The chameleon chuckled and returned to the note.
"Anyway, that's enough for now. Even my tiny writing wouldn't be able to fit much more on a paper this size. Like I told Shadow earlier, I intend to make a proper and polite visit sometime soon. Things are in chaos right now, however. Vampires were slain by Malevolence, an occurrence which none anticipated. Ghune is preparing to join this war full force, and so is Black Doom. I'm doing my best to watch over you both while the others are busy. If you have need of me for any reason, make it known however you see fit. I'll find out and do what I can.
Fare thee well."
"Holy shit," Toru murmured to himself. "Ghune and Black Doom are getting involved in the war?"
Now that fully caught Shadow's attention and he sat straight up at the mention of his father. "What?"
"Yeah," Toru said, showing the paper to Shadow. "Look."
Said paper was all but snatched and Shadow looked over the line in question. Then he handed it back with an aggravated sound that was half a sigh and half a growl. You goddamn bastard, he thought as though Black Doom could somehow hear him.
"This is… huge, isn't it?" Toru questioned after a moment.
"Yes," Shadow muttered. "I do not know about the vampires, but the Black Arms simply do not go to war. They never need to, since their strength and brutality is more than enough to end large-scale conflicts quickly. The one and only time they waged war, a star system wound up destroyed as a result… according to an old tale. Unless Father handles this carefully, the Black Arms may well wreak similar havoc again." Granted, back then, he was just as bloodthirsty as the rest of them and more than allowed the rampage… But how much has that truly changed?
Toru laid back on the bed. "And Ghune… She feels like a force to be reckoned with. In all honesty, if I fought her, I probably would lose."
"No shit, dumbass," Shadow grumbled. He also laid down, but not with any intention to sleep. It was more just because it was comfortable.
"They're gonna fuck shit up," Toru murmured.
Or get fucked up themselves, Shadow reflected briefly. But he soon quashed the thought and shoved it aside. He'd rather not entertain the idea of his father dying again, if he was being perfectly honest. "Perhaps."
Toru thought about it for a moment before deciding, "If Ghune or any of the other vampires you met are even half as strong as you, I'd be concerned."
His words earned a soft snort. "Do you choose not to pay attention when she is around, Toru?"
"Yes."
"Dumbass." Shadow rolled over to face him properly with a frown on his face. "Her strength is obvious. Speculation is not required."
"I'm aware of that," Toru replied, crossing his arms. "I choose to ignore her because if I don't, whatever aura she has fucks with my senses. That same one you had when you were feeding."
Shadow tried to recall anything like that, but things were still frustratingly blank on that front. "What aura?" he gave in and asked.
Toru wasn't sure how exactly to explain, but ultimately he came up with some words. "So, to explain, it's sort of like… an intense feeling of dread or doom that just forces its way into you. You, however, might be immune because you're a vampire and all."
For fuck's sake. "Were the children able to sense it?"
"It might only be sensed by those with stronger senses, like some of our allies would have. Or maybe she decided to fuck with me and only let me sense it. Lia seems to like her well enough, so…" Toru trailed off, figuring that the rest of his explanation went without saying now.
…Do only the intended targets sense it? Shadow soon brushed that thought aside in favor of saying, "So long as they are not subjected to it from her or I, then fine."
"Agreed," Toru said, arms moving behind his head.
Shadow debated getting his book again, but was almost immediately distracted from that by the sound of a soft gasp from down the hall. Not even a second later, Lia let out a short shriek and came rocketing down the hall. She was in the room and damn-near tackling him off the bed before he could even think to have her intercepted for her own safety from him. But his control didn't falter for the moment, so he focused entirely on her. "Lia? What's the matter?"
The little girl hugged him tightly, hiding her face in his chest so much that whatever response she gave was entirely muffled and incomprehensible. Toru sat up immediately and set a hand on Lia's back, trying to help soothe her. "Lia, calm down and talk to us, okay?"
Lia turned her head, freeing her tear-soaked face and cried to them, "Someone's mad! They're mad and they're scared and I don't like it! I want them to go away!"
It took only a moment for Shadow to abruptly clue in. Ah, hell. With gentle hands, he pried Lia off of him and passed her to Toru. "Wait here. I need to check something." He vanished before Toru could argue.
Toru took this chance to hold the girl close, rubbing the back of her head softly. "It'll be okay," he murmured softly. "We'll figure it out."
"Grandpa's s'posed to keep them quiet," Lia whimpered. "He always does."
"Do you have any idea what's going on?" Toru questioned gently.
"Everybody's mad and scared," Lia said again, clinging to him tightly. "But I don't know why and I don't like it."
Toru kept rubbing her head, frowning out of concern. "I'm sorry, Lia," he murmured. "Your dad's checking it out right now, okay?"
"But they're still doing it," she cried.
Right about then, Soren sleepily wandered in, rubbing at his eyes all the while. "W't's going on?" he mumbled.
Toru debated for merely a second before deciding to explain. "Something happened with the Black Arms hive," he said. "Some are angry and others are scared."
"Huh…?" Soren lowered his hands and quickly walked to his sister. "Hey, are you hearing them right now?" When Lia just continued to cry, Soren took a chance and carefully took her from Toru. "Hey, take it easy… Remember what we do when we don't want to listen to them?"
Lia sniffled and cuddled closer to him, the gears in her young mind turning. "We… blow up a balloon?"
"Right. We breathe in deep and let it out slowly, just like blowing up a balloon. When we're calm, we can tune them out." Soren gave her a wan smile. "Give it a try, okay? I'll blow up some with you." Lia didn't argue, just started doing as he'd asked.
While Toru watched the two, his thoughts idly traveled to how long Shadow had been gone. He was worried, but he wasn't about to leave the kids. Hurry back, already…
With Lia calming down, Soren looked at Toru again. "Did Dad go to see what's wrong?" He decided the answer for himself almost as soon as he'd asked the question, then told him, "Erm… Satsuno is awake right now, and I can probably get Lia back to bed. …Maybe. If you wanna go help Dad, you can."
"Are you sure?" Toru asked.
"Yeah, we'll be okay," Soren assured. "I've had to babysit a few times before, and Satsuno seems like he's pretty decent with kids from what I've seen. It'll be alright."
The chameleon nodded in response, gently shifting away. "I'll be right back." Soren nodded and turned to head back down the hall. Toru quickly teleported after Shadow once he was sure Soren had Lia handled for now.
Once in the hive, it became apparent that things were in some form of cchaos. The less intelligent creatures moved about as if in some sort of half-enraged, half-panicked frenzy. More than likely, they were the source of the noise Lia was hearing. But they weren't the only ones behaving as though deeply distressed. Aliens that were plainly more intelligent were crowded together, conversing in a very harsh, dark language in a manner that suggested they were discussing what to do.
Upon spying Toru, one of the former beings lunged at him with its jaws agape. However, a hulking biped appeared in a near-instant to intercept. It batted the smaller creature aside and turned to face Toru. Though it growled, it lowered it's spiked arms. "...I am T'chalik," it rumbled. "I am loyal to father and son. I know where Shadow is. Come. Now." It turned and began walking away without waiting for a reply.
Toru lowered his hand from his sword and followed T'chalik, mentally noting that Ghune really did revive the Black Arms race. Holy shit… He decided not to focus on this too much in favor of protecting himself should the need arise. "What the fuck is happening?"
"Our leader has vanished," T'chalik growled as it walked. "One of every kind of Black Arms has vanished. It is… unprecedented."
"Huh?" Toru questioned, frowning deeply. "Vanished?"
"Abducted, we suspect," was the dark reply. "We felt a surge of energy from him that was abruptly cut off, and then he was gone. The same happened to the others." T'chalik led the way deeper into the hive by using his phasing power to move through walls and pull Toru carefully along. Eventually, they emerged into the pitch-black core of the hive, and it was there that they stopped. "Do not use lights here. Your kind sees through darkness, correct?"
"I have no way to make light other than fire," Toru replied. "And yes. I can."
"Head straight. Do not stray. He is near the true heart of the hive, where his father resides. I will guard you from attack on the way." T'chalik motioned Toru forward. "Walk quickly. I believe your mate's emotions triggered some complications with his new state of being. He is hanging onto control, but will do so better with you there." Rather than simply walk, the moment he heard that Shadow was so upset, Toru ran. He simply couldn't bear the thought, and he focused his mind on simply getting to his partner.
Shadow was leaning heavily against a wall with one hand, taking deep breaths in an effort to calm himself down. The vampiric aura Toru had earlier explained to him about could be sensed, but it was weak and growing weaker. That alone was proof of the fact that he was succeeding in fighting his way back to at least a mostly normal mindset.
However… something had happened that indicated how hard he'd had to struggle prior to getting to this point. Extending from where his fingers were currently curled up tight against the rock were five deep gouges. Each one ended where his fingertips began, and there the source could be seen. Somehow, he had manifested claws out of pure Darkness, and even now they were digging into the wall. From what could be seen of them, they looked a lot like black fingernails that had grown to a lethally sharp point. But then Shadow's control slipped just a bit again, and their appearance shifted to that of a cat's claws before cycling through several other appearances. Seconds later, they vanished entirely as he forced himself to calm down again.
"Shadow," Toru breathed, appearing at the hedgehog's side in an instant. An arm wrapped around the other man and he held his partner close. "What happened? Are you okay?" the chameleon asked quickly.
It took a moment for Shadow's jaw to unclench enough for him to bite out a small, "I'm fine."
"Tell me what happened," Toru demanded in a gentle tone.
The hedgehog struggled for a moment to work up the desire to speak as he momentarily drifted closer to his vampiric state again, but when he pulled back enough to reply he did. "I don't know," he muttered. "There was no struggle. Father simply vanished." Additional anger and other emotions hit, but he forced himself to breathe slowly so that they didn't overwhelm him and push him further into that altered state.
Toru frowned in thought, but wasn't exactly sure what to make of this. That didn't make sense, unless… "Nareish?" he asked aloud after a moment.
Honestly, Shadow had to agree. "More than likely." He slowly removed his hand from the wall to stand upright, and in the process noticed the gouges for the first time. The hell?
T'chalik walked over to them, eyes faintly aglow in the blackness. "Enough with the speculations. We need facts. Tell me what you smell." Shadow turned (as much as one could while being hugged) and gave the alien a frown. His pupils were half-narrowed, but he was in control for the moment.
"Well, can you smell anything in particular?" Toru asked after a moment.
Shadow turned his frown on Toru, but after that gave in and focused on his nose instead of his eyes or ears for once. He didn't even need to breathe in that deeply, considering how close they stood to the spot where the disappearance had taken place.
"His scent completely stops there," he muttered, pointing a small distance ahead of them. His assumption that the scent was his father's was just that: an assumption. But since it was the only recent scent in the area and he knew from T'chalik that this was where it had happened approximately, it was as good of a guess as he could make. "There's something else, too, but I don't know what. Energy, maybe. It's not his."
"Do you recognize it at all? Is it familiar in any way?" Toru asked, more curious now.
Frustrated, Shadow told him, "I don't know anyone's scents, Toru. I have no idea who or what that one came from."
Toru was taken aback, and the frustration he felt ate at his nerves. "Right. You don't know what kind of energies, either?"
Looking away, Shadow took a few moments to work on trying to calm himself further. He hadn't meant to get snappish and was now making further efforts to quell the emotions. "No, I don't," he sighed. Without realizing it, he sort of leaned into Toru's hug almost as though in silent apology.
The chameleon held him close, nodding. "That's okay. Should… we ask Ghune? She might be able to smell it, too."
T'chalik interjected with a rumble. "Speak to her. Bring her back here. She will be able to smell it, and she will not take kindly to not being informed."
"Huh?" Toru asked, looking over at T'chalik. "What the hell do you mean by that? She know him?"
"Yes," Shadow said simply.
Another rumble answered them. "She is a very, very old ally of his. One might even call them friends. They have known one another since near the dawn of their separate existences."
"...I feel like I shouldn't question that?" Toru asked, teleporting the stone into his hand that he'd used before.
In an instant, Ghune appeared and looked around, her eyebrows furrowing. "Why the hell did you call for me here?"
Shadow gestured to the seemingly empty, unimportant space he had been smelling not two minutes beforehand. "That is why."
Ghune was immediately moving the moment he gestured, sniffing the air before she straightened. "What?" she demanded, a newfound hatred building within her.
As he was the only one here with a long history of experience with her, T'chalik spoke rather than have Toru or Shadow do it. He reiterated the story to her, the same one he had told Toru, then added, "Shadow said he smelled a foreign energy, but he does not know what it is from. This is all the knowledge we have right now."
Toru immediately shuffled away from her the moment she began speaking again, alarmed beyond anything he'd ever experienced before. Her aura was slipping free of her control, leaving him clinging tightly to Shadow in uncharacteristic fear. "Black Doom was kidnapped by some higher being than the deities themselves," Ghune snapped. Her golden eyes glowed and she ripped her robe off her body to leave her armor behind, tossing it to the side. "I'm going to rip them apart!"
Shadow glanced at Toru, then edged the other man a bit farther away from Ghune once he clued into what was happening. He wasn't sure what to do, though. He didn't think he could leave yet, but Toru also couldn't be forced to stay here. Would he even be alright leaving on his own? That he didn't know the answer was beyond vexing and didn't help his ongoing internal struggle whatsoever. "What being?" he demanded because, dammit, he had a right to know who had taken his father.
"Someone with an Immortal's strength," Ghune hissed, immediately filling the room with magic. The scents both she and Shadow had picked up on earlier suddenly became visible as clouds of red smoke, flowing up into a single mass that she reached a hand into. When she removed it, she watched the scene play out before her eyes from when Black Doom had vanished. She allowed the others to watch before muttering, "Unless one of your allies took him, which I will warn you once not to inform me of, it only could have been Nareish."
"They would not," Shadow scoffed. But this more or less confirmed who had done it, and also how. With all of the unique individual Immortals and other beings she had stolen powers from throughout the ages, it would be all too easy for Nareish to have so effortlessly restrained and taken Black Doom. The question remaining now was where would she have taken him? The why of the matter could wait to be answered later.
"T'chalik! Silence the hive as best you can!" Ghune growled. "Their incessant chatter is- Fuck!" The woman began walking away. "I'm leaving! All of you, the war has just begun!" With this said, she teleported away, taking her terrifying aura with her.
Gritting his teeth, Shadow looked at Toru. "Are you alright?" T'chalik, meanwhile, disappeared into the darkness to handle the hive as instructed.
Only now was Toru able to release his breath, clinging to Shadow tightly still. "What the hell just happened?" he demanded in a panic.
Rather than answer the question immediately, Shadow focused on something much more important. Namely, teleporting them both back to the house so Toru could hopefully start calming down. He'd noticed the way Toru was clutching at him and made no effort to disentangle himself at the moment. He just sat them both down on the edge of the bed and quietly instructed, "Focus on breathing. Worry about the rest after."
Toru did his level best to breathe, fighting to calm his heart. It was like what he'd felt when Shadow fed that one time, but magnified. It was so much worse. "Holy shit," the man muttered quickly. He was always bad at listening to instructions, and it showed. "What the hell did she do? Why was she so terrifying?"
Shadow sort of tsked at him in disapproval. "Breathe, you idiot. You are on the verge of panicking." He shifted to free one of his arms and put it around Toru's shoulders. "Focus on where you are now. She is not here, but your family is."
"I don't understand!" Toru replied immediately. "I have never been scared of anyone like that!" Despite his lack of direct verbal response to what he was being told, he did make an effort to maintain control over his breathing, steadying it as best he could.
"It was the aura, more than likely. Nothing more. What matters is that you are away from it and you are safe."
Toru managed to slow his breathing to something more natural, but he moved even closer to Shadow somehow, holding on even tighter than before. "That was horrible." Shadow hummed softly in vague understanding and allowed Toru to crowd in closer. While he normally wasn't a fan of touching, he was more than okay with this because it was Toru. "...She said that the war's just started, so she's about to do something, right?"
"I assume so," Shadow answered, "though I don't know what she might be planning."
"We need to tell the others," Toru decided. "About Black Doom being kidnapped and that Ghune is about to do something."
"There is no one to tell aside from Saethrim and possibly the Immortals," Shadow responded. "The rest have no reason to care that Father is missing. Most only ever distantly knew he existed and believe him to be an enemy. None of them need to know."
"It's important to you, and it explains why Ghune is about to do something," Toru argued gently. "Whether or not they know, we can't just leave people in the dark."
"They can be told about Ghune and leave it at that," Shadow argued back. "The fact that something matters to me does not make it matter to anyone else."
"It matters to me," Toru answered firmly. "And anyone that cares about you should know what's going on." Shadow muttered something under his breath but didn't otherwise reply. To accentuate his point, Toru continued. "If Espio's dad was missing, would you want to know if it bothered him? You're friends, right?"
Shadow ground his teeth together a little. I would care to know, but not if it was not something he wished to share.
Toru let out a sigh. "At least tell Sonic," he said after a moment. "He's your brother."
"And he has enough to deal with as it is, Toru."
This is a fucking bad idea, Toru thought to himself. "Shadow, we're telling Sonic, at the very least, as well as Saethrim and the Immortals. He deserves to know what's happening in your life."
"I don't want to tell him," Shadow admitted without exactly having meant to. "I don't talk about the Black Arms with them, nor do I have any intention of doing so."
"Why?" Toru asked. "It's part of who you are."
"It is an objectively bad part," was the muttered response.
"You're wrong," Toru replied firmly. He wasn't sure precisely what caused him to say this, but he wasn't going to fight it if he thought it was the truth. "There is nothing wrong with you being part Black Arms."
"Everything is wrong with it," was the swift rebuff. "They are viewed as bloodthirsty animals and an enemy to all. A fucking scourge. That is not something that can be ignored." And you dislike them nearly just as much as anyone else.
"Well maybe it's time for that to change!" Toru replied, frowning. Shadow flinched, and not just because of the uptick in volume. He had never… liked it when people yelled, thanks to Gerald. But he averted his gaze to hide at least some of that reaction. "Maybe it's time people look at the Black Arms as something more than what they've been seen as. We met the vampires, and they're nothing like tales make them out to be. Sure, Ghune is a terrifying woman, but she's not evil."
"That will not make outsiders accept them," was the quiet reply. "There is a reason why races like hers and mine are isolated from the rest of existence as much as possible."
"My race is isolated from most of existence," Toru pointed out. "Our people were pure evil for so long. Do you think that chameleons are evil?"
Shadow hesitated, but not because he believed that frankly stupid idea. He couldn't believe that, not with people like Toru and Espio in his life. "...No."
"Then it's settled," Toru said, shakily pushing himself up to stand after disentangling himself from the hedgehog. "In this argument, I'm right."
You are wrong. Shadow chose to keep that thought to himself and also stood. He still wanted nothing to do with talking to Sonic and the others about this, but he knew Saethrim had to be informed.
Toru forced himself to walk to the door, leaning against the wall once he reached it as he realized just how much his body hadn't actually recovered from the fright. "Fuck… I feel like shit."
"Then lay down," Shadow said. "Stop trying to push yourself."
"I need to check on the kids," Toru replied without hesitation. "I'll be fine, but Lia didn't take that well."
Though not pleased with the reminder of her upset, Shadow knew Toru was right. He also knew he couldn't go see her himself when he was… like this. "...I need to talk to Saethrim," he eventually said. "Though he may be difficult to contact." He continued to avoid looking at Toru, feeling wary (despite not wanting to) of making Toru raise his voice again. Toru had never done that with him before, and he didn't like the way it had left him feeling.
It didn't take much for Toru to pick up on what happened, and he murmured, "Sorry about that… I just… don't like the thought of you hating yourself."
That is nothing new, nor something to worry over, Shadow reflected somewhat bitterly, mind on those last two words. But he released that bitterness for now in a sigh and said, "It's fine."
"It isn't," Toru murmured. "But we can talk about this later. That's an emotionally charged conversation we aren't ready for." Shadow mumbled something under his breath but ultimately didn't argue. He just nodded. "Let's focus on what we're gonna do… Let me know if you need me, okay?" Shadow nodded again and, with a glance at Toru, teleported away. The chameleon rubbed a hand over his face and groaned. I fucked up… With this knowledge slowly poisoning his thoughts, he walked out of the room to go check on the kids.
~保護者~
Finally, Cyril had a chance to return to Mobius properly. He'd been here and there, investigating things that his magic alerted him to. While it sometimes seemed to act of its own accord, he was gaining incredible amounts of control over it, and was beginning to hone the senses it gave him.
Wave's teaching, his own knowledge, and the various tidbits he'd gained from conversations with all the new people he met had helped him get this far, but none more so than Eila. His girlfriend was the single most important teacher he had. Eila had so much knowledge, and he did his absolute best to soak it all in. Where he failed to take it in, he learned it in practice, testing his capabilities, pushing himself and experimenting. That was a small part of why he was here. His main reason for showing up again was to see her.
That made her words hurt so much more.
"I want to take a step back from all of this," Eila said softly, turning her attention away from the finch.
Cyril leaned against a wall, frowning. "I'm more than happy to honor that… but…" he gulped a little. "Why? Is something wrong?"
The finch could feel how her muscles tightened at that question, and it made him wince. He hadn't meant to cause her discomfort. "We began dating in the midst of my darkest depression to date," Eila explained after a moment's hesitation. "I… I'm really worried that I rushed into this and I don't want you hurt because I made a mistake."
He found it hard to argue against her point. It was entirely possible that such a thing was the foundation of their relationship, but his primary concern was her. "Is this really what you want to do?" Cyril asked gently.
Eila hesitated for a long moment. She wasn't sure. The woman didn't know if she was ready to make a move like that, but she couldn't think of another way to do this. Her words spilled out before she had a chance to think them through. "Please. I want this. I want space."
In this moment, they could both feel one another's pain. Neither wanted it to be like this, but both understood the necessity. Cyril nodded and walked over to Eila, wrapping his arms gently around the startled cat. "Take care of yourself, okay? I will always be by your side. I don't care if we're dating, friends, or enemies. I will always do my best to help you."
The cat's arms shakily wrapped around him and she clung to the finch, one of the few people she had ever felt love for in her life. The decision had been made, and she couldn't take it back now. In all of her wisdom and intelligence, she never could have predicted how much this would hurt. Even so, she broke the hug and ever so gently separated from him. "Thank you…"
Cyril didn't want to impose on her, so he gave a soft nod and a weak smile before teleporting outside of the magical room she conjured in Tails's home, where he promptly lost control of the tears he'd been holding back. I hope she's okay…
~保護者~
16,700 words this time. Many thanks as always to Blazing Winds for all of his help and support. Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays! Posted (at about 11:15 a.m.) 12-26-21