Chapter Twenty-Three: The Pit Beneath the Precipice
The Master Emerald glows with an impossible brightness. For weeks, its fragments lay dull and dead, scattered across the floor. I blink, blink again. I know I'm desperate for any amount of hope to hold onto, but now is not the time to be hallucinating.
But I'm not. Knuckles stares at the Master Emerald too as it pulses with new life. As if it had never before been broken. I shift my gaze to Angel for one last confirmation. But she's not staring at the Master Emerald. Instead, her eyes remain locked on Nova.
Tails moved his gaze back to Nova as well. The fairy whose singular hope had been enough to draw the pieces of the Master Emerald back into wholeness. A halo of light embraced Nova's frail form. Illuminating her strength. Illuminating her weakness. The longer she stood there, the further Shadow's arms drifted toward her. Until—
"I found him," she breathed.
Her voice was a wisp on a stiff wind, being torn from her lips even as she set it free. Shadow nearly closed the remaining distance between the two of them at the sound. But when barely an inch separated his gloved hand from her elbow, he closed his hand into a fist and stopped himself just short. Even so, he didn't withdraw.
"How close is he?" Angel asked. Her voice woke Tails up. Reminded him where they were, why they were there.
But hope. Hold onto that hope. A hope strong enough to make what had once been broken whole again.
"He's coming. Fast," Nova said. She furrowed her brow. Swayed where she stood. The thin color in her features faded away further. One of her hands released its hold on the Chaos Emerald. "Shadow," she gasped.
Shadow's hand snapped out for hers in an instant. His other wrapped around her elbow to steady her against him. Nova released a breath. Some of the tension eased out of her expression but only some. Like she refocused but it was taking everything in her to do so. She continued, "He's following the pull of the Chaos Emerald right to where we are. He's…maybe twenty minutes away. Maybe less? His speed is fluctuating."
"Nova, can you hold onto your connection to him?" Angel asked. Tails heard the tightness in Angel's voice, and his throat tightened in kind. They couldn't forget Nova was still sick, still hurt. Barely holding onto consciousness.
"I've got it," Nova snapped back. Tails could see Shadow's grip on her hand tighten.
Angel opened her mouth but after she took a breath as if she was about to speak, she stopped herself short before her voice escaped. Tails watched her with his brows drawn together.
"I know," Nova whispered suddenly, though her eyes were tightly shut and no one had spoken. "Shadow will be of most use defending us from Sonic, rather than just holding my hand."
"Mom, I—" Angel started.
But Tails stepped forward and Angel cut off. "It's not weakness to need someone else's help," he said. He thought of how Chris had offered his support to think through the repairs of the Blue Typhoon so Tails didn't carry the weight alone. Just because they each had their own parts to play didn't mean they weren't still a team.
Tails turned toward Angel. Then, he looked beyond her to the Master Emerald glimmering with the hope Nova dared to hold onto, so long as Shadow remained by her side. "Angel, I have an idea," Tails said slowly. "Shadow will be able to stay with Nova until the last moment."
"What's the catch?"
When Tails looked back at Angel, he saw the knowing smile on her face. It looked so much like one he might find on Sonic's face. Which made it all the more appropriate when he asked, "How much trouble would a Time Whisperer get into for meddling in an unexpected timeline?"
Angel smirked. "It's a good thing C2's on the bridge."
-X-X-X-
Amy's View
For a moment, Amy was absolutely certain she was dead.
It took an additional moment for her to realize that, in order to have such a thought, she must be anything but.
Her ears rang so loud that the high-pitched keening made up her entire world. No sight, no feeling, just sound. At least until the itch in her throat started. She choked on the dust until her coughing forced her to shoot up into a sitting position. Her back ached but didn't protest.
An explosion…there was an explosion.
Amy forced her eyes open. They were immediately clouded with dust hanging in the air. Anything beyond a foot in front of her face diffused into a shadowy haze. "Chris!" she shouted. Then immediately choked on the mouthful of dust she inhaled in the process.
She stumbled to her feet. Still her ears rang but the volume had dialed back somewhat. Somewhere beyond the ringing was discordant screaming, calling out to others by name or just the singular word help.
A hand snatched Amy's. She screamed on instinct. But when she spun, she saw it was Chris who stood by her side. He drew the collar of his shirt up to cover his mouth and nose. He pulled it down long enough to ask, "You okay?"
She just barely heard the question above the ringing. She nodded once, rather than risk another choking fit. Her eyes swept the ground, and when her eyes caught sight of what she was looking for, she reached down to snatch the handle of her hammer, grateful that it hadn't been blown further from her side.
Chris didn't release her hand. Instead, he pulled her along behind him as they trudged through the haze their world had become. The ringing in Amy's ears continued to fade. However, her reeling, screaming thoughts took the ringing's place.
What had caused that explosion? Wasn't Angel sure that Metarex-Sonic was heading for the Blue Typhoon? Could he still be attacking the town?
Or maybe he wasn't alone.
Amy heard another explosion not far off, followed by a chorus of screams. "Where's Tails?" Chris shouted, practically in her ear.
"He's back at the Blue Typhoon" she shouted back. "We didn't mean to leave you behind. There were—"
"Later!" Chris broke in. "Explain later!"
Amy pressed her lips together. Nodded once. Details and explanations would waste precious seconds they couldn't afford to spend on anything less than their own survival.
The dust settled more and more around them. Chris had turned gray with the soot, and Amy couldn't imagine she had fared much better. But the sky was brightening above their heads, and Amy knew that was what needed her full attention at the moment. Her burning eyes combed the sky. All was still haze. Until…until…
A silver bullet of a ship cut through the air. Not directly overhead but moving further and further away as she watched. "There!" Amy pointed after it with her hammer.
"Metarex," Chris confirmed at her side. "But why does it look like it's leaving?"
Amy stared at the tail of the Metarex ship. Her stomach twisted with dread. Just when she had thought the situation had already reached the peak of its horror, now there was this. "It's got to be following Sonic back to the Blue Typhoon."
"Sonic?" Chris exclaimed.
Amy winced at the hope in Chris's voice. The hope she would have to take responsibility for shattering in a moment. For now, she just shook her head and pulled her hand from Chris's grip so that she could shove it into the messenger bag sitting against her hip. Her fingers wrapped around the Chaos Emerald within. She didn't have a plan just yet.
And with every passing second, she had less and less time to come up with one.
She drew the Chaos Emerald from her bag. She stared at its glowing surface, debating. She and Tails had been able to use the Emerald together to get back to the ship before. Could she manage it on her own now?
-X-X-X-
Sonic's View
Sonic's own awareness kept fading in and out of his reach. He ached for it to fade away entirely, ached for it to remain out of his reach rather than returning again and again. Anything so he wouldn't have to watch as the Metarex forced his body to destroy his friends. However, it wasn't the Metarex skin forcing him to be present in this moment. No, it was the ever-glowing Chaos Emerald growing in brightness from within the grip of his clawed metallic hand. It built a magnet between the Chaos Energy within his body and the Chaos Emerald held by his friends somewhere ahead of him. And that shred of his own consciousness still awake inside of him begged whichever of his friends wielded the Chaos Emerald to stop before he killed them.
But that shred of himself faded out of reach again. When it faded back in, the trees around him had changed. More space separated them than before. Maybe he was coming up on a clearing.
Maybe he was coming up on the Blue Typhoon.
His awareness faded just out of reach once more. Like drifting off to doze. For seconds or minutes or maybe even hours. No way to tell. One second, he floated in nothingness, the next, the world snapped startlingly back into place.
In time to see his impossibly present daughter standing her ground directly in his path.
Sonic, in his shock, wrenched enough control back from the Metarex skin that encased him to skid to a stop. Dirt sprayed up as he dug the side of his foot into the ground beneath him. The magnet of Chaos Energy within him tried to continue to drag him forward. But even the Metarex skin seemed to agree with Sonic's choice of halting before the threat in front of them. And then…
Time.
Stood.
Still.
Sonic was vaguely aware of his heart hammering, sweat dampening his fur, metal embracing his limbs. But he was far more aware of Angel. A single figure in a clearing, the Blue Typhoon still far enough away that Sonic couldn't see it, not when his attention was so wholly focused on her.
Angel stood alone. Gray jumpsuit, cobalt high-tops, and pale blue wings glimmering in the slip of sunlight breaking through the cloud cover overhead. Her blue-streaked blonde hair drifted in a breeze Sonic's metal skin kept from him. Standing there like she was, with her feet spread beneath her, hands balled into fists at her sides, hair drifting like a halo around her head, she looked like an ethereal creature. And wasn't she?
Time Whisperer.
"Hey there, Dad," Angel said.
Sonic startled, though he doubted the Metarex skin revealed him. Angel's voice was so young, so real. She didn't sound like a Time Whisperer. She sounded like…like her. But the longer Sonic stood there, even in his shock, the more aware he grew of the tugging of the Chaos Energy within him. He wouldn't be able to resist its effect on the Metarex skin for much longer. Already his foot inched forward in the dirt.
Angel's eyes slid down toward the movement before returning to the place where plating hid Sonic's face. "You know I won't let you through," she said slowly. "You know you wouldn't want me to."
Yes, he silently agreed, even as his body was forced forward in fractions.
Angel opened one of her palms at her side. An orb of white light burst to life against her skin. "Don't make me do this, Dad," she begged in a low voice.
Sonic wished he didn't have to. But even if the Metarex skin wasn't forcing him forward, the threat the Metarex posed to Cosmo's life would. He wished he could have control of his vocal cords long enough to explain that to her. Maybe then he wouldn't feel so alone, singularly responsible for thinking his way out of this mess. If he didn't kill one, he would the other. Why was there no option where he could save them all? Why wasn't there a single option where he could sacrifice himself in their stead?
Angel's other hand flashed open to reveal a second orb of light to mirror the first. "Whatever happens next, Dad, know that we love you. And we won't stop fighting until we get you back."
A mustard seed of hope dared to blossom in Sonic's chest. Was that a possible ending? Was there another possible ending? But in his hope, his desperation slipped. He lost his grip on the last bit of control he held over the Metarex armor.
And it threw him forward to kill his daughter.
Angel let her magic fly. Sonic swerved around the first orb, then let the second glance off the shoulder of his armor. He only stuttered a step in his rush forward. But it gave Angel the delay she needed. She leapt from the ground and her wings caught her aloft.
Sonic skidded to a stop beneath her. But even as he slid to a halt, he was already bending his knees. And as soon as he stopped, he leapt into the air.
His clawed grip wrapped around her ankle. Angel shrieked. The sound tore at some essential part of Sonic's soul, and he once more lost his hold on the tiny shred of consciousness he had left as he dragged Angel out of the sky.
-X-X-X-
Tails's View
Hurry.
Tails's shaking hands tangled in the wires he disconnected, then reconnected. His arms up to his elbows were buried in the wall behind a panel in a part of the Blue Typhoon they had hardly dared to service in the limited time they'd had since being thrown back in this timeline. There hadn't been much point, not without the Master Emerald to power it.
But they had the Master Emerald now. And this weapon was maybe the only chance they had to stave off Metarex-Sonic long enough to get off-world.
Tails extracted his arm from the wires long enough to grab another tool and take a steadying breath before he thrust his arm back within the mess of cabling. Sweat poured down his face, but Tails didn't dare take the time to swipe the moisture away. Right now, he was just glad they had spent some of their limited hours getting started on these repairs. With a few more tweaks here, all that would remain were a few changes to make from the bridge.
Hurry.
From here, he couldn't see how well Angel was holding up against Metarex-Sonic. He couldn't tell if Sonic had already plowed through her and was heading for the Blue Typhoon. If Tails's plan had already failed.
But then he thought of Nova back in the engine room. How strong her hope was in the face of all that had happened. How that hope had been enough to pull the Master Emerald back into wholeness.
And so Tails kept going, even as his hands shook so violently that it slowed his work. He kept going. Until at last he made the last necessary adjustment and extracted his arms from the web of wires. Tails shoved himself to his feet and stumbled his way into a run.
Hurry.
As he rushed through the hallways of the ship, he reached across his front to flip open the lid of the communicator wrapped around his wrist. He glanced at the screen long enough to glimpse it brightening with Cream's features. "Can you get Shadow from the engine room and send him to the deck of the Blue Typhoon?"
"Roger," Cream agreed.
Tails didn't spare the time for a thank you or a good-bye. He just flipped the communicator closed and kept running. They didn't have time to waste. Tails wasn't sure time wasn't already out. But he kept running. He kept going. Kept hoping.
Hurry.
-X-X-X-
Nova's View
Nova's chest hurt. Every breath hurt. Her hand gripping the Chaos Emerald hurt. Even Shadow's grip on her other hand hurt.
But it also enabled her to keep holding on.
Tears stained her cheekbones just beneath her eyes, but she had no energy to spare to hold the wetness back. All her energy she used to keep a connection to Sonic's Chaos Energy. "He reached Angel," she whispered. Then she swayed again. Shadow pushed his shoulder against hers to steady her.
Even without him saying a word, Nova felt in that gesture Shadow begging her to stop. But if this was the single help she could offer in her current state, she would do it. She may have failed her people, but she refused to fail at this. She stretched the Chaos Energy within herself toward Sonic's. Hers was already a very thin line, hard to hold steady without her magic to brace against it. Meanwhile, she felt the burn of Sonic's as if it pressed against her very skin. "He's not releasing his Chaos Energy even though he has a Chaos Emerald," she murmured.
"Perhaps he cannot access Chaos Control while under the influence of the Metarex," Shadow replied tightly. Tight with concern for her, Nova was sure, rather than concern for Sonic.
Nova, however, was no longer certain if her own fears were for herself or for Sonic or for perhaps the both of them. Both such extreme victims of the Metarex. Trauma enough to share, trauma enough that they couldn't.
"Shadow!"
Nova's shoulders shot up at the sudden sound of Cream behind her. The sudden movement nearly sent her stumbling, and Shadow pulled her closer against him. Cream continued, "Tails needs you on the deck!"
Shadow didn't pull back from Nova right away. A split second of silence drifted in the space following Cream's exclamation. Like Shadow was waiting for something. Until he finally breathed, "Nova, you've completed your task. You can let go now."
But Nova's grip on the Chaos Emerald tightened. The ridges dug painfully into her palm. Her throat ached like she was screaming. "Nova," Shadow repeated.
Nova tried to hold a breath in her lungs, to gather it for strength. But her breath was too shallow to hold for long. "I can't leave him for the Metarex," she gasped.
She heard Shadow's sharp intake of breath beside her, even though she could also tell how he tried to keep it silent. It wasn't a sound of alarm. Just the surprise of sudden understanding. Shadow knew everything about Nova. About the darkness in her past, about the way she refused to carry it on her sleeve even as it refused to be smothered away to silence. And now, Nova knew that Shadow realized Sonic was so much the same.
"You have my word, Nova," Shadow said. "Perhaps not today, but you have my word that we will not leave the hedgehog for the Metarex."
Shadow pulled Nova's hand in toward him. Pressed the back of her hand to his lips. Nova released an unsteady exhale. Tears still spilled down her face as the thin strength she still held finally disintegrated. And she let go of her connection to Sonic's Chaos Energy.
Which left her with nothing to hold onto.
Nova's legs folded beneath her. Shadow's arms swept around her before she could fall more than a few inches. "Nova!" he gasped.
Along with the rest of her body, her eyelids were far too heavy, certainly too heavy to open. "I'm okay," she breathed, even though her grip on consciousness was watery at best.
"I can help her back to the infirmary," Cream offered gently, to which Cheese happily added his own confirmation.
Shadow didn't answer right away. A moment later, Nova realized it was because he leaned down to press a kiss against her forehead. "I will be back as soon as I can."
Nova nodded. Or tried to. Shadow helped her to shift her arm around Cream's shoulders. He didn't release her until she had her legs beneath her, however weakly. She didn't even have energy left to open her eyes long enough to watch him leave.
-X-X-X-
Shadow's View
Shadow left his heart behind with Nova as he sprinted for the deck of the Blue Typhoon. Though he had not the first guess to Tails's plan, Shadow had no room in his mind left to critique, not when all that space was dedicated to making sure Nova was protected.
Shadow burst from the inner hallways of the Blue Typhoon and out into the brisk air gusting across the deck. The false palm trees stood guard on either side of the runway like lines of soldiers, shifting in the wind. He heard the blasts of Angel and Metarex-Sonic at battle. But otherwise, the world was still.
"What's the plan, fox?" Shadow growled beneath his breath.
-X-X-X-
Angel's View
Metarex-Sonic yanked Angel out of the sky and slammed her to the dirt. Her own body crushed her fragile wings beneath her. The pain alone knocked her breathless. Stars burst before her eyes. She wasn't quite mortal even as a Time Whisperer taking physical form, but she struggled to believe that now.
The Metarex that used to be her father slammed down his fist. Angel rolled out of the way just in time so that his hand slammed into the dirt rather than her torso. She scrambled back to her feet, sparing a glance over her shoulder at her wings. She winced at the sight. They were as crumpled as she feared. They'd be of no use to her in this fight.
When she turned away from her wings, she saw Sonic already dove toward her. He swiped his clawed hand at her. She jumped back with mere inches to spare. She gathered more magic in her hand. She felt the effect in her muscles almost immediately. Even as a Time Whisperer, she was still only half fairy and her magic was fiercely limited.
At least she could access her magic at all now. If she got her hands on the Chaos Emerald Metarex-Sonic held, she wondered if she would be able to turn it on him. She shoved her hand in front of her and the bolt of magic erupted from her palm. But Metarex-Sonic ducked out of the way without breaking stride.
Angel was suddenly reminded that, in the impossible timeline she had once grown up in, she had never defeated her father in any sort of training battle. Not even once. So how was she supposed to stand against this Metarex counterpart in a real one?
He raced toward her again, and she spun out of reach. Launched yet more magic in his direction, which he either dodged or deflected as if it was nothing. He threw himself at her again and again. Angel's wings twitched to offer her some acceleration, but then pain shot through them and reminded her they were out of commission.
She gathered dancing sparks around her fingers. But before she could launch the magic at Sonic, the sparks fizzled out. She stared at her hand in horror. She was out of magic.
Faster than she could blink, Sonic's hand snapped out at her. And this time, she wasn't fast enough to slip out of reach. Sonic's clawed fingers wrapped around her throat. Angel grabbed at his arm on instinct. Just as her fingers wrapped around his Metarex wrist, Sonic lifted her from the ground entirely.
Angel choked.
Angel couldn't breathe.
She pushed down on Sonic's arm, tried to pull enough away that she could suck down even a shallow breath. Her legs dangled uselessly above the ground. All she could do was look down the Metarex arm to the metal plating that hid Sonic's face.
As her father waited for her to finally strangle to death in his grip.
-X-X-X-
Tails's View
"TAILS!"
C2 was not one to scream. Even now mortal, she always approached the situations before them with a certain level of detachment. So when she screamed where she stood on the Blue Typhoon's backup bridge, Tails spun away from where he was making the final tweaks on their plan against Metarex-Sonic. C2 pointed at the monitor before them. Once Tails's eyes caught on the screen, the sight trapped them there.
Watching Sonic strangle his daughter in his Metarex hand.
"But she can't…die, can she?" Tails choked out.
"I—" But C2 didn't finish her sentence. It was the biggest crack in confidence that Tails had ever seen from her.
"In the Changed War, when you—" Tails started.
But this time, C2 didn't let him finish. "I know!" she snapped. Her voice cracked. Tails jumped at the sound. She continued, "If this was any other circumstance, she would be fine. But with time falling apart, there could be any sort of ramifications we couldn't begin to expect."
Tails's breath caught.
At least, until C2 snapped, "Don't just stand there! If you don't finish those repairs in time—" C2 didn't finish.
She didn't have to.
-X-X-X-
Amy's View
Amy ran through the trees with Chris in hot pursuit. Her vision swam in front of her. The Chaos Emerald in her palm tried to offer her its warmth. As if in apology. Though it had nothing to apologize for. After all, it was Amy's limited grasp of Chaos Control that had only teleported Chris and herself part of the way back to the Blue Typhoon rather than all the way. Not to mention left her dizzy and unsteady on her feet after, hence why Chris kept up with relative ease.
At least she'd managed to get them partway there, which meant they were just a bit ahead of the small Metarex ship heading in the same direction.
"Amy, Amy, STOP!" Chris shouted suddenly behind her.
She slowed up and by the time she stumbled to a stop, Chris had caught up enough to grab Amy's arm and wrench her back to his side. Before she could say a thing, Chris pressed a single finger to his lips. Amy's heart hammered against her chest. She nodded. Chris pulled her along with him to duck behind some brush that waited alongside the clearing ahead of them.
And in the space between, Sonic held his daughter by her throat.
Amy only realized she had jolted up when Chris dragged her back down. She spun on him. But already Chris was shaking his head again, pressing a single finger to his lips. "We need a plan," he whispered.
Not that Amy could keep a thought in her head amongst the panic taking up all the space. Especially as she watched Angel scrabbling against Sonic's hand at her throat. And if she was still fighting, then she was still breathing.
"Call—" Amy started, turning toward Chris. But the communicator on his wrist was already flipped open and just then, Tails flashed on the screen.
"I had an idea," Tails snapped immediately. His gaze was elsewhere, eyes flicking back and forth from screen to screen. "It might still work. But only if we get Angel away from Sonic and out of the way at just the right moment."
Amy spun the handle of her hammer in her grip. "I've got it."
Chris turned his head toward her. "Are you sure you're okay for that? You were wiped after Chaos Control."
"I've got it," Amy repeated, though this time with her back teeth firmly clenched. Stubbornly trying to convince herself rather than Chris.
"You'll call when?" Chris asked, turning back to Tails.
"You won't miss it," Tails agreed.
Chris snapped the communicator closed. Just as Amy hissed, "We're just supposed to wait? While Sonic holds Angel by the neck?"
Chris said nothing. When Amy glanced his way out of the corner of her eye, she saw him staring ahead at the scene before them with his teeth gritted.
Amy gripped the handle of her hammer tighter and adjusted her stance. Ready to jump up and throw herself at the monster who had once upon a time been the boy she loved should his grip on Angel tighten even a fraction. Whether or not Tails called when. As it was, she already straightened ever so slightly.
But as she did, the ship that had fired upon the small town before, the same ship they had chased down, descended into the clearing.
Amy dropped back down, confusion and panic liquifying the strength in her muscles. "They're landing? Why aren't they firing on the Blue Typhoon? It's not that much further away. The Metarex chase us across time itself to kill us but when we're sitting ducks, they don't bother?"
"You're right; this doesn't make sense," Chris agreed in a low voice.
The glass blast shield released on the small craft. Now that it was lower to the ground, Amy realized the craft was likely only large enough to hold one passenger. And that was when said single passenger dropped to the ground beside the ship.
Amy's grip on her hammer went slack at the sight.
Her thoughts halted.
And all she could do was stare and beg the universe she was faced with to return to making sense.
-X-X-X-
Tails's View
C2 gasped behind Tails. Like her scream before, the sound was entirely un-C2-like, enough so that Tails spun toward her. Even though he needed to focus on getting the final pieces of his plan together. But then he saw C2's widened eyes staring at the screen that displayed the scene outside. "What?" Tails exclaimed, stumbling forward toward the screen. "Is Angel okay?"
But when he looked at the screen, he saw that Sonic and Angel were in the same position as before. However, there was an addition to the scene. A ship.
And a girl.
"Who…?" Tails voice faded away. He furrowed his brow, leaned in closer to the screen. "Is that a fairy?"
No, that couldn't be, Tails realized as soon as he had offered the idea. The girl standing next to the silver ship, far too close to Sonic for Metarex-Sonic to be offering her no reaction, had no wings. But she did have long hair in a shade of teal. When she stepped forward, Tails caught sight of more of her features that made even less sense. Wide red eyes, but less like Nova's in shape and more like Cosmo's, and limbs partially encased in
metal.
"Not a fairy, not entirely," C2 whispered. Her voice was so small, as if she dared not speak too loudly. Afraid to desecrate a church with her volume. Or maybe wake the monster sleeping in the shadows.
"Blue Seed," the not-fairy said. At the sound of her voice, a chill crawled up Tails's spine. Her voice was high-pitched, young and feminine, but like it had been threaded through a modulator. "I doubted your usefulness. But the capture of a Time Whisperer may just have changed my mind."
"She knows what Angel is?" Tails exclaimed.
"Do you remember," C2 said suddenly, like she hadn't heard Tails at all, "back in what you called the Changed War, when I convinced you to leave Mobius by asking you to take me to Greengate?"
Tails frowned. Dimly, he remembered dimly. It had been a request of them two lifetimes divorced from this one. And they never had ended up going to Greengate. They'd forgotten about C2's plea entirely after C2 had sacrificed herself to enable them to get off-planet. "What are you—"
"It was because she was there," C2 continued. "Greengate was a hole in the awareness of the Time Whisperers. She must have known what we were, in order to hide from us."
"Why?"
When Tails turned to look at C2's face, he froze. Tears glistened in C2's eyes. Spilled over into her fur. The once unflappable Time Whisperer now very clearly
mortal.
"She isn't just a fairy," C2 said. "She's also a Seedrian. And a Metarex."
Tails's eyes widened.
And C2 finished, "Which means that girl is Black Thorn. That girl is the leader of the Metarex."