#and his reaction even now is to reach out and try to save gerald... but the question is. DOES he remember since he grips his head confused

[lowpolyshadow]

god i really wanna know How Much shadow knows about gerald's . everything. and based on that, how does he FEEL about gerald's. Everything

[michdoodles]

mmk, so my thoughts on Sonic movie 3

I very much enjoyed myself watching this movie although I did find that the jokes were pretty darn corny but I knew they would be corny heading in and I still laughed at them so corny but funny. Jim Carrey had no right having so much chemistry with himself in a silly goofy dance scene no less. It was annoying watching eggman/Robotnik call Gerald anything but grandpa like a normal person but I also cringe inside when Boom!eggman tries to use "hip" language so that's just me not liking boomers and early gen x trying to sound like stereotypical gen z teens lol (and I've personally never heard teenagers say stuff like that so come on, writers. Get off of tiktok please). Gerald as a character was also weirdly wacky in this but he was being played by Jim Carrey, I guess I shouldn't have expected anything like the game characterization lol. Speaking of characterization, Shadow's was great! I am stealing that revenge guac line. But seeing him dream with Maria and relive the ptsd of her death and the relationship they had with each other was very good, better than what Sega did to him during the 2010s (good thing I was out of the loop then). That moment where he sees Sonic's reaction to injured Tom and has the flashback to Maria... yeah. But boy still had his mind on revenge and we needed the movie to be nearly two hours long so he doesn't let that change his trajectory, yet. Rewriting his backstory so that he was not made by Gerald but discovered inside a meteorite is alright, his canon backstory in the games isn't realistic in any way so I get it, and this will likely lead up to introducing the Black Arms to the SCU.

But since I am on the subject of Shadow here, what I did not like was that they don't give you time to let it sink in that Shadow has um, "died". I say it in quotes because we saw no body but the explosion is meant to make you assume he's dead. Also, if the games didn't kill off Shadow for good, what makes you think these lighthearted comedy films for the family will? I mean, the end credit scene introduces Metal Sonic, who can only really have been made by Robotnik so I'm assuming neither he nor Shadow are really dead cuz he probably used Shadow's quills as a power source now that they're talking about Chaos energy. But anyway, instead of the movie giving you the time to realize oh wait, Shadow sacrificed himself and just let you sit on that feeling of this poor alien hedgehog who had everything taken away from him dying for the good of humanity because that's what his human sister would have wanted, Tails did an exposition and just... tells you. And then Team Sonic has their moment or whatever, it just... didn't feel quite right. Whereas in Sonic Adventure 2, you have the whole cast just being like "wow, that just happened", Sonic gifting Rouge Shadow's inhibitor ring, the image of Shadow superimposed over the earth... I get emotional thinking of that part and I haven't reached it in my own gameplay. There was like literally no time to get emotional during the movie. It's like Tails pretty much said "Shadow and eggman died" and they move on even tho Sonic was the one that had the moment with Shadow that helps turn him around, that they teamed up to save the earth, they had a BONDING MOMENT. WHY AREN'T YOU MOURNING HIM MORE??? Probably just the executives butting in and saying "nooooo, don't make the kiddies cry, they're here to laugh and make us money enjoy themselves with silly talking superpowered animals!" They did Shadow so much good for his characterization in this movie and then just sweep him under the rug like that? Nawwwwr

I have more thoughts on the movie but I ranted enough lol. Still think it was worth going to the theater for, and like I said, it was a fun watch and I liked it. Just kinda mad with how they ended things with Shadow... for now. And I was quite excited to see them introduce both Metal and Amy, yay! Am I excited for Sonic movie 4? Not really, as this is starting to look like the mcu and I say that as someone that was a big fan of the mcu back in the day and had a freaking crush on Tom Hiddleston because of it. But, I'll probably watch it anyway cuz there's no way three movies can condense the vast amount of history, stories, and characters that exist in Sonic's universe[s]. As long as they don't make another Knuckles show that focuses more on human OCs than the titular anthropomorphic character, we should be fine.

[fanficreadingcorner]

It’s been too long

Pairing: None just nice platonic relationships between three best pals

Words: on the shorter side with only 1,768

Masterlist

A/N: So I came up with this idea while I was talking to a friend and watching the Witcher. So right before the feast Jaskier asks Geralt if Witchers ever retire and Gerald says they do when they get old and get killed. Which lead me to think, hmmm does this mean that Witchers never age? If they don’t then that means they hunt monsters until they die. So I thought what if Geralt had finally killed all the monsters, then what? He would just continue his existence cause there are no natural predators to a Witcher anymore and this is what came to mind. A Geralt that never aged along with Jaskier who also stopped aging for reasons to be explained and you the reader as a witch. Let me know what you think, and if you want me to write them during a specific time or doing something. Let me know, my head cannon is that they’re responsible for a lot of things that happened. SORRY for the long intro, now on with the show!

         “Jaskier’s home” you said while moving to go unlock the door so that Jaskier could barge in like he did every day, there was one time you forgot to unlock the door and not only would Jaskier never let you live it down after he slammed himself against the door, but Geralt had also laughed so hard that day that it would forever be ingrained in your memory. He didn’t laugh often, or at all for that matter so that had been a rare treat. You moved to go pick up your laptop and things that were scattered around the dining table while Geralt grunted and went to go check on the mac and cheese that was cooking in the crockpot, it was his turn to cook today after all. Suddenly the door burst open and in strode the famous bard.

           “I’M HOME” yelled Jaskier at the top of his lungs. You would think that with how often he yelled that loudly that his vocal cords would have been damned by now but alas I guess the healing was something that came with when that witch ‘cursed’ him all those years ago.

           “We know, you tend to almost break down the door every time you throw it open” grumbled Geralt while you moved around setting up the table so that the three of you could enjoy dinner together, something that had originated sometime in the 18th century if you remembered correctly but it was really hard to pinpoint when exactly considering how long you all had lived at this point.

           “Aren’t you lucky then that I have absolutely not muscle in any part of my body as as to not hurt the door, unlike someone I know that stockpiles it like flour in 18th century France” jabbed Jaskier right back causing you to snort in amusement, you’d think that after living together for so long that they would treat each other with more love but not even 600 years, give or take a few, could mend somethings. Although admittedly this was how they showed their love for one another.

           “Well you would know wouldn’t you Mr. ‘I wanna be part of King Louis court it looks so fancy and I can probably make a lot of money out of it playing my songs. So I’m going to go to France by self’. How many times did we have to save you from the guillotine?” questioned Geralt while turning off the crockpot and then looking at Jaskier with a smirk on his face.

           “I lost count after 5” you added laughing when you saw the look of betrayal on Jaskier’s face. Before it quickly morphed into a smug face.

           “It doesn’t even matter because I’m alive and, guess whose song is number one on the charts again” bragged Jaskier while doing a little happy dance. You would think that after the first time this happened, he would have lost some of the excitement but it’s never a boring day with those two. Although admittedly it was a lot worse the first time this happened because he wouldn’t stop bragging for YEARS afterwards. Luckily it died down, although he still celebrated with the same dance every time. Laughing and shaking you head while you sat down to eat you remembered that you probably shouldn’t be surprised that his songs were this popular you forgot sometimes that this was the same man that made ‘Toss a Coin to your Witcher’ famous in what was basically all of Europe at the time which in itself was an impressive feat considering that things were not as wide spread as they were now.

           “Yes, while we’re glad that you found your calling as a song writer I still don’t get why you won’t become a singer again, you have a good enough voice” You stated while waiting for Geralt to bring the food to the table and Jaksier to finally sit down. “You’ve done it before, we know you can do it” You continued as Jaskier sat down and rolled his eyes at you.

           “I’ve already told you, it’s too much work and I make more than enough money this way, plus the last time we did this remember how hard it was to stage my murder?” he countered while Geralt placed the food on the table, sat in his chair and started serving the food to everyone.

           “Eh I guess you’re right, It was cool though when you went on tour and we were able to tag along. Have you talked to Paul recently?” you continued while taking your plate for Geralt to dig into.

           “No, he’s busy or something, also I’m still kinda upset. Not at him of course but at the queen, why didn’t the queen grant me knighthood as well. Lord knows we’ve known that family for years, plus Geralt helped them come into power! But nope she has to go and knight Paul, I wrote most of those songs you know!” huffed Jaskier while quickly spooning some mac and cheese into his mouth and chewing aggressively. You raised your eyebrows in amusement and shrugged.

           “Perhaps” started Geralt, who had been quiet as of so far, “It has something to do with the fact that ‘you’” he said with air quotes around the you, “were ‘dead’ and thus she couldn’t really knight you” he finished off pointing his fork at Jaskier and then placing it in his mouth.

           “She could have done it posthumous; she knew I wasn’t really dead” muttered Jaskier before continuing his assault on the cheesy noodles.

           “Anyways” you dragged out hoping to steer the conversation elsewhere before Jaskier got too caught up. “so casting is finally done for ‘The Witcher’” watching Geralts reaction only to see him groan and throw his head back in frustration. Rolling your eyes, you continued. “So, they cast a British actor to play you, I think his name is Joe Batey? Resemblance is uncanny to you and his acting’s great, plus he seems to be able to capture your essence pretty well.” You continued as you watched Geralt try to make himself as small as possible to avoid the next question that was undoubtably going to come from Jaskier, which was not an easy feat considering how large Geralt actually was.

           “That’s great! If you don’t mind me asking who got cast as Geralt?” Questioned Jaskier none the wiser as to why Geralt seeming very invested in his food all of a sudden and not the current conversation like he has been a few moments ago.

           “Oh no one in particular” You started off watching Jaskier reach for his water and take a sip. “Just some actor that goes by the name Henry Cavill” At that Jaskier spit the little water he had in his mouth out causing it to go all over Geralt, and then proceeded to laugh like a mad man.

           “You’re joking!” Jaskier managed to choke out in between his laughs while Gerlat grunted and slid his hand down his face to ride himself of the water that had landed no his face. Shaking your head no, you confirmed Jaskiers question, Geralt would be acting as himself. Once Jaskier managed to calm down a bit he asked a follow up, “how did you manage to get him to even audition, let alone take the role?!” now he looked like a teenager wanting to know how to the two most popular kids in the entire high school had gotten together. You looked over at Geralt expectedly waiting for him to answer.

           “I lost a bet” was all Geralt muttered before Jaskier started laughing again causing Geralt to groan in annoyance and roll his eyes. “It’s really not that funny Jaskier” he tried hoping to calm the bard down just a tad. Gasping Jaskier now had Geralts full attention.

           “Not that funny!?” he exclaimed dramatically, hand over his heart like Geralt had just said the most offensive thing in the world to him. “Forget ye not how you came into this predicament of even being an actor?” chuckled Jaskier while Geralt grunted under his breath. “That’s right, a bet, you lost a bet to me and now you lost a bet to (y/n), so I guess it’s safe to say that you probably shouldn’t bet anymore. Even if you were good at it before” finished Jaskier with a flick of his wrist before picking up his plate and washing it in the sink. Shrugging Geralt stood and started cleaning up the table before answering Jaskier.

           “I suppose my luck finally ran out, although I think that happened when the witch cursed you with eternal life” Geralt smirked while bring up the dirty plates to the sink. Causing Jaskier to whip around and gasp dramatically at Geralt.

           “I will have you know that I am a blessing to this trio that we have, isn’t that right (y/n)?” asked Jaskier catching you off guard as you placed the leftover in the fridge.

           “uhhhhhhh” you hesitated while closing the door and turned to face them. “I would like to be excluded from this narrative?” You tried hoping that they wouldn’t drag you into this.

           “Well I never!” huffed Jaskier. “I thought the writer of the famous Witcher novels would have more to say on this” he continued before turning back to the dishes.

           “Flattery will get you nowhere” responded Geralt while handing Jaskier more plates to wash while he finished clearing off the table.

           “It used to” mumbled Jaskier while aggressively scrubbing a patch of cheese on one of the plates before placing it in the dishwasher. You leaned against the counter next to him before responding.

           “To be fair it was a different time and in the stories I wrote you aren’t exactly immortal” you said before pushing yourself off the counter to make your way upstairs. “Anyways, the network wants me to have the pilot scene finished by tomorrow, so I will see you guys later” you excused yourself before making your way up the stair but not before hearing Jaskier start to bother Geralt again.

           “Hey Geralt which do you think was the better of these two songs I wrote, Bohemian Rhapsody or Thriller?” started Jaskier, hearing Geralt grunt in annoyance you knew this would not be over soon.

           “It don’t think it’s important” answered Geralt, while you heard Jaskier sigh in annoyance.

           ‘It’s very important and you know it! Some of my best work….” Jaskier trailed off as you made it into your office and shut the door. Never a dull moment with these two.

[cutegirlmayra]

Commission receipt: Ember’s Story, another chapter

Ember’s Story Commission Receipt

@marydragneell Commission for The Flares That Come From Ashes (Another chapter to Ember’s story)

Time: about 2 months or so.

Review: @marydragneell :  OMG IM ABSOLUTELY IN LOVE WITH IT ❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤❤ The beginning is so cute 😍 how ember and manic are with each other. Her being in manic's band❤❤❤❤How cute and adorable they are together. Love the sinister appearance of mephilis perfect for him. Manic being a awesome badass for his girlfriend. Shadow acting jealous in such a cute sibling way. The perfect reaction to her trigger of seeing someone she love hurt 💔 ❤The recomforting ❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤❤ Just manic calling shadow big bro XD and pocking fun of shadow. All the " i wanna get your blessing ". Perfect representation of the duality of ember mental state, her nature and how she act. AMAZING BATTLE SCENE!!!!!!!!!!! The characters grow 👌 And the fact that you show that the fusion did left a permanent impact on her.

Me: Boy it was fun! Thanks again for the opportunity. ^//u//^

Paid Amount: 60$ for 50+ pages to add to the wonderful story of Ember the Immortal Wolf, prototype to Shadow The Hedgehog, and embedded with the rejected Cursed Emerald.

Product Preview: With permission from @marydragneell, here is the ROUGH DRAFT of the product.

The Flares that Come From Ashes

Another short story for the amazing Mary!

By: Cutegirlmayra

"La, la, la~" Ember tapped the mic, then garbled some gibberish to clear her throat. "Do, ray, me." She spoke, smiling nervously as she seemed a bit spooked by the stage lights. "Come on, Manic. You really think I'm ready for all this?" Ember twiddled her claws lightly against each other, ducking her head slightly as she tried to see through the blinding spotlights and turned to see the rest of the band practicing in their own respective places on stage. "It just seems... like maybe I'm not cut out to be in a band." She rubbed her arm, shyly admitting her fears of joining his group.

"Nah, girl. You really are ready." Manic, leaning against the side of the stage, finally walked out to reveal himself and stood beside her, drumming her shoulder, then her head, then her mic as she giggled and pulled her head slightly away from his reach. "You just need some confidence singing in front of others, is all."

Ember smiled sweetly, blushing at his cute charms. "This will be a lot different than helping Shadow at..." she gagged, not wanting to say G.U.N's name and still having a biased against them.

"Right. No more secret missions." He winked to her, then leaned with his arms crossed on the mic. "Babe, you really think you can't have a first debut with my band?"

"I'm just..! Psyching myself out!" she shook her head, her long coat swishing with the motion as her tail fluffed out in hopes of getting herself pumped. "Let's practice, just one more time!" she gripped the mic and he moved for her, but placed a hand right where hers was on the mic, then moved it up to show that he would stand there as emotional support. He gripped the mic to hold it steady for her, and for a second, their fingers intertwined, just the pinkie and ring finger, making Ember smile at his tender touch of compassion.

"Remember your diaphragm is your strongest tool, use it well. But it needs to breathe." He teased, leaning to her cheek to and letting their faces touch. His breath was warm, and the scent of their last home-cooked meal made her giggle and wiggle her nose a bit. Tingles came from her hands up to her cheeks, and she blushed at how close he was.

Nodding and swooning at his flirtations, she finally took a deep breath... honing all the knowledge about music, tempo, and breath-control he had been teaching her and began to sing lightly.

"Louder, Ems!" he bounded towards the edge of the stage, "Louder, girl!" then jumped off, moving back and spreading his arms out. "We gotta hear ya in the back!" he started drumming on the chairs, "I can't hear you, and I'm up in the front!"

She tried to sing a little louder, swishing her body back and forth but still nervous and more focused on what he was doing.

"Where's my girl's voice? I thought this was a rockin' concert!" He drummed louder, since she couldn't see through the lights, letting her know he was now towards the back of the venue they were playing at tonight.

She took both hands and pulled the mic's stand towards her, the wires whiplashed and she hoisted it up above herself, belting as loud as she could a powerful note that suddenly blasted through the speakers like an avalanche on a mountain's side.

The whole of the arena shook in the vibrations, making the band behind her almost lose balance and a few plug or stuck a finger in their ears from the deafening sound.

"Whoo! Now that's what I call a lion's roar Friday and no canary Saturday! Yeah!" He seemed to be hyped about her new found sound but his band mates all shook their heads and itched inside their ears again, hearing a ringing from that loudness.

They clearly weren't thrilled about her almost blowing out the mics, but she patted it lightly and whispered, "Sorry." with an embarrassed smile. She just wanted to get back at Manic, trying to prove a point that she didn't want to—literally—bring the house down.

However, Ember was only focused on pleasing Manic at the same time. She still wasn't the best at making friends, but with the ones she was able to gain, she treasured them dearly and without hesitation.

She trusted Sonic and his gang, Shadow—obviously—and lastly Manic... first and foremost.

She was still a little hesitant about Rouge... but that was just because she worked close with Shadow, and she didn't like how close they seemed to be in more ways than just work...

Either way, this was family. What she had wanted from the very beginning. To not feel alone or useless... Manic and the others accepted that she was dangerous, but also that she was loving, funny, and sweet.

Sure, she could be sassy, but only when provoked to and by appropriate means... sometimes.

She giggled, thinking of times she's purposefully ticked Sonic off just to make Shadow smile. Though he'd scold her, it would be a light whack on the head, and she knew by the light pat afterward where he hit her that he was glad she shut his annoying mouth for a change~

Most of the time, she acted a bit like the gang's grandmother. She would pick flowers with Cream, try and help Amy to learn to sing, and duke it out with Knuckles! She wasn't always keen on the technical stuff Tails liked to do, but even then, she let him research her powers every now and then. Showing off her strength was fun too, but Shadow always told her to hold back a bit... which was hard, since Ember could get super competitive!

"Hey, let's go over some songs real quick. We still got time." Manic hopped up to the stage and sat on the edge, pulling out some sheet music and pointing to some parts. "You struggled before with this one but I think you've nailed it since. Still, no harm in rehearsing and making sure it's picture perfect right?"

'Perfect..?'

Ember lowered her mic's stand back down lightly to the stage. sorrowfully, she was pulled out of her funny, perfect memory and placed in another conflicting stance. There was no better word to dampen her spirits than that one... and it hadn't been so long since she felt so imperfect and dangerous. It was definitely something she struggled with, but worked hard to overcome within herself.

Those children... they were still screaming for food or hugs. Maria... and Dr. Gerald Robotnik... they were still marveling at Shadow before he had awakened.

Some things never changed, but her memories of not being able to save anyone... those were the hardest to lock away and turn her mentally gazing eye from.

"Huh? What's wrong, Ems?" Manic got up, noticing her change in demeanor. "Uh oh, did I cramp your style?" He moved his hand in an old 90's way and she shook her head, realizing he was trying to cheer her up again.

"Shadow's the ultimate life form... the perfect cure or whatever..." She swished her body to the side, ignoring his cuteness for a moment to try and explain herself. she nervously held her hands behind her back and rubbed them together too, trying to hide her fidgety nature. She sighed a long, breathy wind out onto the mic from her nose and then felt arms around her waist. "H-hey!" she blushed, getting lifted up into the air, her arms coming out by her sides.

"Well, it's true no one's perfect." Manic tickled her with his long, hedgehog nose by her exposed belly, making her fidget to get out of his grasp. "But your perfect for me, babe. I don't need you to do the world's sense of perfection, but only your very best self should be on this stage. Alright? Otherwise... I'm gonna have to have a private session with you in the back..." he turned her around and began to kiss her neck, making her laugh at his suggestion.

"Oh, no audience, eh? Taking the pressure off?" She teased, patting his chest lightly to pretend to get him off of her.

"Emm... something like that." He head-bumped her forehead affectionately, "Just us two. Playing... somewhat what we're supposed to do." He took her hands and pulled them out a little to her sides, just messing with her and helping her loosen up.

Her tail wagged slightly and she looked up with a red muzzle. He really was a charmer... "Are all hedgehogs born charming?"

"Naaaah," Manic let one of her hands he was holding onto go and waved her compliment off in a comical way, "Your brother was created with his natural, flaring smile." He gestured to his smirk and she fell to the ground laughing. "Engineered to be devilishly handsome, I suppose. Your family has good genes."

"Hand-selected." She teased back and the two fell in howling laughter on the ground, rolling to their backs and having their arms grasping around their waistlines, the tip of their heads right up by each other's.

"Yo, can you two stop acting so precious?" One of the band mates smiled to them, "We need to get back to practice, you know. And you two would be wise to do the same, as well!"

Manic just nodded, pretending to be serious again. "Right, mate. Of course, don't let us stop you guys from your hard work either." He held up a hand and as soon as the member turned around, he expertly threw a lightly spinned drum stick to hit his head.

"Ow! Why you-!" Then the whole of the band started laughing, jumping in to dog pile Manic.

Ember smiled at the ruckus, wagging her tail as she got up to avoid the squabble. Seeing how close he was to them, made her happy... but... She crawled away from the fight, hugging her legs to resist the urge to join them. Though she really, really wanted too jump in and roughhouse with them. She knew she was a bit too powerful to do that though... So her ears bent back and she placed her head on her legs, waiting patiently and enjoying the boys' playful wrestle match, all in good fun.

"We don't care if you bring your girlfriend in to sing, but do you have to be so cute with her, Man!?" one stated and she blushed. They never really officially told anyone... maybe just Shadow, but he denied it fiercely.

She wondered why... after all, Manic kept her away from Shadow most of the time. She stayed out of trouble too... so why was he so opposed to him?

He had stated he was fine with her having friends, so why not a boyfriend? Last time he saved her from Scourge, Shadow had admitted Manic wasn't so bad a guy... maybe he was prejudice against his hippie vibe persona? Though she knew in her heart he was raised in the rough streets where he had to steal most of the time... maybe that could be a player in Shadow's obvious disapproval of him?

"Lay off, dude, I can't help but want to hold her. Got a problem with that?!" Manic grinned from ear to ear, hitting the blokes off in their tussling sport before they all seemed to be done with messing with him. Panting and looking tired, they probably just needed to blow off some of the nerves they were feeling. It was their big night too... Ember couldn't screw it up.

"Whatever, just keep to a schedule. Kiss and coo after the performance, okay?" One went to get his fallen shades for his eyes and shook his head, just making fun of his friend.

"Yeah, at least we can avoid it then." Another stated, giving Manic a nudge in the shoulder as brothers would do.

"The love police, Ember. They're everywhere!" Manic got up with a quickened step, stumbling over as fast as he could back to her, scrambling to stay on his feet but really just crawling to her. She just couldn't help but fall for him over and over again... as he kept falling over and over trying to get to her.

He helped her up and she jumped to her feet, "Maybe we do need to just go solo then."

The band groaned and they laughed, "Don't take our best drummer, Ember." They teased in reply.

But as all seemed to go back to normal, the band rehearsing and Ember warming up her voice, a strange wind storm picked up... there was a rustling in the leaves as they flew up towards the stage lights... causing gentle shadows over the harsh beams of white. The wind blew a warning sound, bellowing as though trying to speak over Ember's singing voice. But in the darkness of the sky there twisted out a small, purple portal. It's mouth gaped wide, spinning with loops of different shades of darkness like blues and purples into a wavy effect in the black sky.

Finally, looking away from Ember a moment as he drummed, Manic sensed something off as his quills picked up in the wind's fierce direction. He stopped by reaching out and touching his drums, stopping the beat and vibrations to look around. "What is that?" Manic held up a hand for the others to also cease a moment... and listen. He then turned to his band, "Get on guard, dudes. There's only one thing that makes me this chilly." He began, getting off the drums and clutching his magical necklace a moment, "Dangerous schemes..." he narrowed his eyes towards the purple portal.

They all hurried to the back of the stage as something misty and liquid dropped like runny goop from the rift in the sky. It began to form from the shadows around it, rising from the ground in what looked like a misty, disfigured water fountain. A figure solidified... rolling its head into place and crooking its two arms out like a scarecrow in the isle of the arena...

The figure had distinct hedgehog quills... then a white tuff that looked almost grey a moment... bluish gleams from its silhouette.

It almost looked like... That obsidian color...

"...Shadow?" Ember stated in disbelief as the rift blasted away as though something fiery were on the other end. Flames that torched the sky and even blinded the band who tried to shield themselves with their arms. "Ahh..!" Ember felt like the flames were brighter than the stage lights... At last, the figure looked itself over, as though checking to make sure it survived whatever had brought it here.

The colors were slightly wrong, the grey instead of the red... what was this? An illusion? Some sort of trick?

His eyes were covered in what seemed like a green glaze, though it was clear it did resemble Shadow, in a striking way.

"Strange... this time was my only escape... I don't have long before Sonic and his friends blow out my other half..." He then sharply looked over to Ember, narrowing his eyes as he felt the pull of an odd chaos emerald. "Interesting... I sense a great sorrow in your chest... mind if I remove it?" he slowly, creepily moved in a zombie fashion with flimsy gestures with his hand to point at Ember. "It won't take long... but it will be painful... hahahaha." He laughed as though an axe hacking at stone.

"This doesn't look so good!" Manic grabbed the silver necklace that dangled loosely by his chest and a set of magical drums—different than his band's—sprung into existence through sparkles from the arena. "Get out of here, Ember. I don't think this guy is anywhere close to being your brother."

"B-but..." She covered her cursed emerald, and looked to Manic. "What about you? I'm not just gonna run while you take on this... this thing!" She was clearly spooked, but would never abandon Manic.

'It could be a clone,' was her first thought, remembering Shadow's stories and how Eggman had cruelly tormented him by making him think he—himself—was nothing more than a fake. Luckily, he was the original, and Ember could tell that right away... though she had never seen a clone.

"Shadow... I haven't heard that name in a long time." The figure slid his foot up to step forward, "Nor have I heard... Brother?" He seemed to twist his head as though stretching his neck back. "I wasn't aware there were more of his kind... but that explains why that dark essence hasn't eaten your life away just yet..." He was like a ragdoll, and quickly seemed to regain himself, rolling his spine as up to straighten himself, but instead his back lurched back and his arms dangled again to his sides. "I need a host soon, or my very being, the will and mind of Solaris, will be destroyed fully in my flame body, Iblis... Which Sonic currently is trying to defeat." His words made no since to them, but Ember gathered that he knew Shadow.

"You know Shadow The Hedgehog?" She stepped forward, but Manic just looked back at her, worried.

"I... drew my form off his shadow." His head lowered as his eyes seemed to pierce like spears through to her core. "And soon... I'll draw form from you as well..."

"Ember, don't listen to him! I can feel his vibes, he's no good!" Manic tried to warn her, getting antsy on his drum seat. However, she seemed entranced with the idea of someone that looked like Shadow... maybe another experiment?

Though she had a perfect memory, she knew for a fact that Gerald hadn't created any similar copies of Shadow...

'Flame body?' she wondered, her ears flicking as she pondered his words. 'Form?'

"Ah, I see you're of the sensible kind... excellent. Hahahaha..!" The figure laughed in his sadist way again, plotting something... "I was ripped apart from my other half by your... brother..." He gestured to his body, "I assume his form now only to survive, but since I have failed after merging with my glorious true form again... I have no choice but to rewrite time while I still have a silver of flame left in me... Reunite me with a new half, and I can tell you what will befall Shadow in the future... The persecution... the misery of his shamed life." He wildly swung a hand out to her, the side of his body faltering as he tilted with his outstretched hand, down and to the side.

Ember was immediately pulled into that promise, wondering what he meant and if he was somehow tied to another time. She stepped forward again, but this time Manic grabbed her arm back, "Ember, don't-!" he warned, but this figure only laughed at his attempt.

"Ember... what a befitting name... the last flares of my life... mixed with the ashes that shall soon be the remainder of your own... It's perfect poetry... hahahaha!" The figure stood like a scarecrow again, laughing as more dark flares formed around him, rolling his head back in dark humor.

At that last sentence Ember stepped back, and the lure he had over her lessened.

However... for Shadow's future's sake... she wanted so desperately to know more.

"I escaped a deadly fate, I only want to release you from your imprisonment... and allow it to be my salvation." He gestured his hand out to speak, seeing he had her strung on his previous words, "But not just my own... but to save your fellow immortal... as well..."

"He has answers. I knew G.U.N would betray us!" she began to grow angry, her fangs bared with her clamping bite as she gritted her teeth and growled.

"Yes... the world will never accept you... After all, we're both of the dark." He lowered his head, having her emerald embedded in her chest glowing the same purple mist with darkness lining its power in his crystallizing eyes with magma red glowing from the sockets... "Together... we can change the future." He flashed in a light and seemed to crystallize fully, "Now then... with the last of my power, I have altered time and come to this world... Ember... Give me of your power!"

"Ember, please." Manic didn't like holding her back, but he knew something was off. "You've accepted yourself, remember? The world doesn't matter, but those who love you do!" he gently tugged on her arm again, trying to get her to stand behind him on this one. "Please... this guy doesn't have your best interest at heart! Isn't that obvious?!"

"But he might have Shadow's..." Her eyes softened, but she didn't want to just shake Manic off. She knew in her heart that would be wrong, "If there's a way I can help Shadow..."

"Keeping you alive and happy will help Shadow!" Manic spun her around, turning her gaze from the figure, who lifted his head in a twitching jolt at losing sight of the cursed emerald... "If Sonic defeated him and he's running, don't you think that's a bad sign?" Manic tried to convince further, "I just can't have you go with him, Ember. Please, listen to me. Just this once, okay? You can ignore me the rest of the concert but hear my words now, at least now, Ember!" He was struggling to have her look at him, but she just kept ducking her head. She hadn't seen him this worked up before, but the idea that Shadow's future could be spared... But was he really a bad guy from another time and world? Would Sonic know of him?

She longed to have joined in that playful wrestle with Manic and his friends... If she was rid of the cursed emerald, could she live a normal life? Would her immortality fade and she could have a life with Manic? Finally end this suffering? Would her super powers fade and she could be a regular lady without a single care in the world?

Or would the world be better off without her... if she was so dangerous, maybe at least... she could leave Shadow with some hope for his future...

Impatient, the figure's being rose in the air. "I am Mephilis the Dark. I'm your only means for salvation." He began to form what looked like a crystal in his hand. It carried down to form a crystal around his body, and soon, he blasted into a hardened form with seemed to have a silver tuff that looked strangely like a bird... "Come to me, chaos emerald! Join your form to a more suitable host!" he formed a purple sphere in his hand and threw it towards her, a large dark beam flung behind her to block the other members of the band from interfering.

A huge ridge was created in the stage, and the others moved away to escape the glowing beam before Manic turned to see Mephilis charging through the air towards Ember, reaching for her emerald.

Ember's eyes looked ready to reflex... but relaxed... as though thinking it was time to accept whatever fate had in store... maybe for the greater good.

"No!" Manic slammed his drum sticks against his magical drum set that blasted out a sonic boom.

Mephilis pulled back to block the attack,... "Grr...ahhh!" In frustration, he was held back.

Manic looked to Ember, a sense of urgency and concern in his eyes, "Look, I've lived on the streets! Take my advice and get outta here or I'm gonna have to fight this guy!" he seemed really serious, "Go!" he was done saying please, and Ember could see it.

With regret at not trusting him right away, she looked back at Mephilis, then Manic. "You run too, then!" she cried out, but he was already locked in a battle with the strange figure now known as Mephilis... as dark orbs launched towards him but Manic played a sick beat that blasted them away.

"No! Go find Shadow! I'll stall him!" He seemed dedicated to the fight. "Trust me, I'll be okay! You guys go too!"

The bandmates all hesitated as well, but then took hold of Ember, trying to pull her back and let them flee with her.

"Noo..!" She shook them off, almost throwing one of them, "I won't leave you!"

However, the bandmates looked to each other and one put their hand on her shoulder, "Look, Ems. He's Sonic's brother, right? If he says he's got this, we gotta trust him." He nodded to her, "That weirdo's after you, right? He's only trying to protect you. Come on, we can fight another day. Especially when we learn more about this impostor!"

She took one final look back at Manic... "Promise?" she knew he would never go back on one...

Manic didn't say anything... but gave a light nod. "Take care of her for me, boys... her brother can keep her safe and I'll figure out more about this dude. Go now!"

"Manic..." She felt tears coming to her eyes but with an orb being sent her way, a bandmate stepped forward and whacked it back with his guitar. At least, he tried, but upon impact the guitar exploded and sent the bandmate flying back.

Ember outstretched her hand and grabbed him, moving with the others to retreat. "You better promise me... in your heart! I'll be waiting for you! Otherwise... I'm... I'm coming for you!" she was rushed with the bandmates out through the back...

"I don't take lightly to people trying to rip my girlfriend apart!" A side of Manic that Ember hadn't really seen in him came out, a protective and hardened side of Manic she didn't know was there.

She knew he lived on the streets, was a thief and all, but he always talked about having honor with it.

As she took off, she could hear him bantering with Mephilis, and knew he'd be somewhat okay. She could picture him winking to her, blowing her a kiss, and saying to find somewhere safe. But the only safe place right now would be... ughh...

She groaned in her thought process, "Shadow's going to be so mad..."

G.U.N HQ

"I didn't bail on Manic! He's not into fighting, true, but he knew something was up and I just didn't listen to him. I wanted to know what future that look-a-like was talking about for you, can you blame me?" Ember tried to explain herself, but Shadow turned around abruptly to cut her off from any further justification she would have thrown at him.

"Yes, and I will." He moved to the other side of the room, "This is bad timing. I get a headache when you say his name, and I can't remember where I would have met him. You say he has my form?" he looked back at her as she nodded, once figuring out he wasn't talking about Manic.

"Truthfully! I thought it was you at first..." she held her head down, worried about Manic again, and then tried to give him her best 'pleading little sister wolfie eyes' to get him to help.

Shadow just sighed, taking a moment to accept that she wasn't making things up for his attention. "Fine. I'll look into it, see if Gerald-"

"No! I know his secrets, this isn't one of them!" She swiped her arm out, declaring it thus. "Let's not waste time with reading insignificant files! We have to go and get Manic!"

"Calm down, sweetie. Your boyfriend's defeated but he isn't dead... yet." The womanly voice flew down from the rafters, flexing her wings out and patting Ember's head. However, the action was taken as a insult, Ember thinking she was demeaning her by making her feel like a child being comforted, "There, there. What a whiny little sister you can be sometimes. Especially since you're a number one target for that escapee recently."

"Rouge." Shadow's eyes narrowed to her, as if telling her to remain silent on that.

"Escapee?" Ember thought a moment, moving her fingers as if trying to put two and two together, then her eyes widened in shock. "SCOURGE!?" Ember gripped her head, then looked wildly to her figurative brother, "Scourge is out now, too!?"

"Apparently, seeking revenge." Rouge walked around her and headed towards Shadow, folding her arms. "You were instructed by G.U.N to track him down, yet you didn't even warn your own sister yet?"

Shadow just verbally let out a groan at her spilling the information without going over it with him first. "I didn't want to worry you." He looked to Ember, "I would have handled it silently, no need to get you fired up over a rematch."

Ember would have liked the idea but now was not the time, "E-Everyone's after me cursed emerald!" she shouted out like an Irish leprechaun, but stuttered in trying to make the atmosphere lighter than what seemed like impending doom... "So he's broken out of prison, there's a time traveling—I guess—looney now. Anything else I missed?" The room remained silent, eyes turning away from her. "Great, this is too much for a young, single, totally attractive immortal wolf to handle." She dramatically leaned against one of Shadow's desks as he glared at her.

"Knock it off. Try and act seriously for a change." He scolded.

"Isn't that why G.U.N... 'let me go'?" she did the bunny ears, but clearly she was fired from working alongside Shadow.

"You were a menace to them. You couldn't see it the way I... no, the way Maria wanted us to see them." He turned back to her, and she was slightly triggered on her name, but just shook her head.

"I've handled way worse before... than just losing Maria." She turned her head away, but knew Shadow was probably throwing daggers into her back with his eyes as she said that. Those kids... it was more than just Maria at this point, so... much more.

"...Look," To break the tension, Rouge stepped in-between, holding her hands out to calm Shadow and try and reason with Ember. She seemed to be struggling finding a good way to accomplish that... however, "You can't stay at G.U.N if you don't work for them, and since your last boot, Shadow and I have lovingly referring to you as the new apprentice to that hippie." She seemed to lower her eyes as if annoyed by that.

"Boyfriend, and I'm not a hippie." Ember folded her arms in protest, then stuck her tongue out at Shadow, knowing he didn't want to refer to Manic as that.

"Is it official, though?" Rouge raised a shoulder up over her cheeky look, disguising her clear curiosity but also sinister ploy to get her to admit that nothing had really happened yet between her and Manic...

Ember flinched, holding back wanting to fight her.

"Either way, your brother doesn't like that crowd, apparently." She looked over to him, "Jealous, maybe?"

"Enough, Rouge. He protects Ember, that's all I need to know." Shadow turned back to the door of the facility, having it open as guards waited with shields and guns, ready in case Ember 'acted up' again.

"And he's not a hippie!" Ember was humored by their efforts but was too busy with other important problems to 'play on G.U.N's fear' though she wanted too... badly.

"I disagree." Shadow kept walking and she walked behind him.

To lessen G.U.N's concerns, Rouge also walked behind her. "Seems to be the underlining case... I think you disagree wholeheartedly." she shrugged her arms out.

"Thank you, Rouge." he didn't pause in his stride.

"-That maybe he doesn't like the fact that you're spending so much time with another hedgehog other than himself." She covered her mouth with the back of her hand as Ember gasped and Shadow tensed up, turning his head around.

"Rouge!" he scolded.

"Uh oh, did I touch a nerve?" Playing innocent, Rouge smiled and looked away from him, seeing as Ember also seemed touched and went to hug him. However, he outstretched his hand in an attempt to hold her back.

Upon exiting the steel facility of G.U.N, the team decide to drop in on Sonic, seeing if the team of adventuring friends had any luck with remembering this enemy... but to their surprise—"Huh?"

"I've never heard of someone with the ability to shape-shift like that..." Tails placed a book down, trying to look through his journals but nothing was popping up about this strange Shadow figure...

"Maybe you have an admirer, Shadow." Sonic tilted his head back and to the side, giving Shadow a cheeky grin sneakily, but Shadow was too observant for his teases. He just rolled his eyes at Sonic's antics, choosing not to entertain him with a response.

"According to Ember, you were in battle with him before." Shadow explained, giving his full attention to Tails as Sonic dipped his head down and smirked, seeing as Shadow was trying to take everything too seriously again for his tastes.

"Oh? Must have trounced him then!" Sonic gave himself a hearty fist swing, as though to celebrate his victory that he didn't even understand had happened or would happen yet. "Maybe he's from the future? We could ask Silver..."

"No good, there's nothing about him here. Technically, if what Ember says is true, he does sound like it's his 'past' to him..." Tails deciphered through Ember's perfect retelling, trying to pinpoint terms that could lead to an answer.

"You assume I'm not?" She played, looking to Sonic to show that his sense of humor wouldn't go unnoticed.

He gave her a quiet snicker with his eyes closed, enjoying the fact that at least one immortal had some charm.

"N-no, of course not!... heeeyyy..." Tails worried he had upset her, but seeing her and Sonic's shoulders bouncing and grins, he knew they were laughing together. "Don't pick on me..." He whined cutely.

"Oh, never Tails." She swished her tail behind her, "Never without the intent to sweetly embarrass you."

He sighed and continued, "Anyway,... we don't know if it's our future or past. Not for certain, but it does sound like something that was currently occurring for him, and he knew he wouldn't be around much longer in that time-frame of space..." Tails tried to think over what Ember said, it was still hard to identify where this villain would have originated from in their timeline.

"Another world? Dimension, maybe?" Sonic questioned, trying to help him out with half the thinking.

Tails scratched his chin, moving his torso around before gripping his head in frustration, "Oh, I just can't figure it out! I need more information..." He looked downhearted, unable to help. "I'm sorry..."

"Don't worry, Tails." Ember lightly patted his head, "Maybe he's just some jerk, that's all we need to know, right? A bad guy..?" She still wasn't sure about that... he seemed to know about Shadow's future...

She was still curious about his origin... but mostly about what he knew of whatever future he had seen or known for Shadow...

"A-Aren't you curious?" Ember turned to Shadow, who walked over beside the couch and folded his arms, facing away from her. "Whether he's an enemy or not? He tried to take your emerald, which I believe sustains your life since you are a prototype. He openly admitted that Sonic had fought him and was winning. Wouldn't that mean he is?" He turned to look at her over his shoulder. "I've always known my path would be full of human fear and deceit. But I don't do it for myself... you know who I promised. I can't withdraw from this life, even if I know it will be misfortune in the end. My form will only be useful for such things as pertain to this world... If this Mephilis uses my form and seeks to remain in this world by your power, then he is corrupting both our purposes." He tightened his fist.

Ember rubbed her arm, sensing she had struck a nerve. She didn't want to push the subject and trigger the tragedy, but she also knew he didn't understand what she was actually asking, "That's not quite what I-" but before she could finish, the door to Tails's workshop slammed open.

"Get this kid some place to lay down!" Rouge had shoved the door open with one hand and holding Manic by her other arm. He was slumped over, his head down and slowly looking up with a bruised eye, squinting it open slightly to look around. He was clearly hurt, his arm around Rouge to support himself as she tried to get him over the step and into the house.

"E..Em...Ember..." he spoke faintly with a weak strength that barely let him slide a foot under himself to help Rouge move him easier.

His black eye shut again as Rouge looked over to Shadow, "Let's get him on the couch. I went to check on him like you asked me to... but..." Sonic and Shadow moved swiftly, lifting him from Rouge's care and placing him on the couch as Ember's eyes trembled, seeing someone she loved so much in pain...

She covered her mouth, "No... no more... no more hurting..." she shut her eyes, unable to bear the sight any longer.

So many memories... of the ones she's grown to care about hurting so much... because of her.

Manic coughed, being laid on the couch as Sonic gave him a worried smile, "Like old times, eh? What happened to you, Manic? At least tell me you won... right?" He meant to say 'are you okay?' but that was just how him and his brother spoke to one another.

"Oh yeah, I did decently." He tried to open his eye more for his brother, giving him a playful wink. "Ouch..." He flinched, the action might have been too strenious. But that didn't stop Manic from trying to pull it off.

She had pictured that wink... but now it was so very, very different...

He was hurt.

It was all her fault...

Though that villain should be to blame, Ember couldn't help but direct the guilt to herself.

"They got the better of me... still, my Bandmates got Ember to Shadow, and they themselves found me pretty banged up... but those two... they made a deal." Manic's last words had caught the attention of everyone in the room.

He looked over to Ember, seeing as she was lost in her own thoughts, looking anxious. "Hey, don't be afraid, Ems. I'm okay... really..." He tried to grab her attention, but she was lost in her own self-grief and pity. "I just got beat up by some powerful, wicked bad dudes, no biggie. I'm still here, see?" He smiled kindly, though worse for wear, he outstretched a hand in compassion towards her.

He wanted her to come to him... even though he had gotten hurt for her sake?

She slowly approached, but her memories of the fallen were a lot for her to take.

She didn't want him to suffer the same fact as others who had known her.

"Shadow was right." She fell to her knees and cried, unable to grab his hand as the others watched her in shock. "Our only future is misfortune... especially for those around us..."

They all looked worriedly towards her, but remained silent in her sorrowful display, not knowing how to comfort her.

"I should have stayed!" she cried out, "You should have let me fight beside you..!" She wiped the tears from her eyes as he smiled at her gentle display of compassion towards him, but also knowing she didn't want anyone's sympathy, just like Shadow. He was too prideful to comfort her, so he just let her cry, closing his eyes to give her a moment of respectful distance.

"Look at my girl... so strong, like her brother." He looked to Shadow, almost like to mock him for not being emotional about his tragic fate either. "Heh, I didn't want to see you hurt either, Ems. I did what a man should do." He nodded his head back to her, dismissing Shadow, who opened his eyes to try and judge what he meant by that. "Protecting the people you love isn't easy, it isn't easy for anyone, but that doesn't mean you don't take risky chances to ensure their happiness."

"How does this make me happy!?" Ember gripped and shredded some of Tails's wooden flooring... "How does this make anyone happy!?"

"... I am happy, knowing you're not hurt, or worse." He tried to get up, but began to show the pain and couldn't quite do it. "Now come on, Ems. Come sit with... me." Ember worriedly raced to him, skimming his back and letting him rest his head on her lap as she gently eased him into letting her sit down and look after him.

"Dummy, I can heal faster than you!" she helped him relax again and he gave her a huge, dorky grin.

"Does this mean you'll take care of me? Man, so worth it!" he joked, settling into her loving care.

She gently massaged his shoulders, rubbing his chest, and trying to self-comfort herself that he was alive. "I am glad you're alive... but I refuse to just let you talk me into running off like that again... I don't care how mad you get."

"Heh... I guess saving your life is only good for a one-time thing, eh?" Manic closed his eyes, and even with everyone staring at him, he leaned his head towards her and began to try and take it easy. "You're so used to Shadow always partnering up along side you... I just wanted to be a daring, brave hero for you... at least once."

Shadow twitched an eyebrow, but moved swiftly over to Sonic and Manic, seeming to want to change the subject and ignore the two's intimate moment. "We need you to tell us exactly what happened." he spoke with a lot of authority, but also with a hint of annoyance... maybe he just wanted to get more details out as soon as possible?

Manic turned his head slightly to Shadow, then smiled weakly. "What's up, big bro?"

Shadow flinched again, "I asked you a question. It's urgency couldn't be more dire."

"...Isn't that the same thing?" He looked jokingly up to Shadow and then to his brother, "Did you see him march over here like I'm some kinda crook?"

"You do have your head in his sister's lap, bro." Sonic folded his arms, giving him a sly look.

"Ha, I'm not the dog here." He looked lovingly up to Ember, "I'm a gentlemen."

She leaned down to his head, lightly kissing it. "You're a gentlemen rogue." she teased, "Stealing my heart and all."

"But she gave you her lap freely." Sonic snickered under his gloved hand, giving a sideways glance to Shadow, seeing his reaction.

Shadow refrained from making a comment, but it was clear he was starting to get upset.

Ember tilted her head, "Shadow? Does this really bother you?" She couldn't understand why, but wondered if he really was protective of her or not.

Shadow turned his head away, and after a long, awkward silence, Manic spoke up again.

"Can't a man catch his breath first?" he turned his head to Rouge, "Can I get some water? My mouth's a little dry here..." But Ember bent down and kissed him again, instead. "Woah..! Did I die and go to heaven already?" he marveled at her, but she just giggled as Rouge covered her mouth and seemed to enjoy the young lovers having their 'catching up' moment before retreating to the kitchen. She slid her hand over Shadow's arm, whispering something for him to relax and then came back with some water, handing it to Ember to help Manic drink.

"Let him rest a moment, Shadow. There's no use in pushing him too far." Rouge stated, nodding towards Ember. "Besides, your sister can get more out of him than you ever could~" she teased. Ember smiled up to Rouge, realizing she wasn't as bad as she thought...

At least she was siding with her and Manic, for now, anyway.

After gulping down some sips of water, Manic gave out a long, happy sigh. "Ahhh... now that hit the spot. I feel much better, able to talk more now, too." He looked to Shadow. "That guy called himself Mephilis the Dark, right? While we fought, he was insanely strong! No matter how much I hit him, he never seemed to fade in strength all that much... however, I think I almost figured him out, at least his fighting style, but..." He trailed off and looked away, seeming disappointed in the turn of the events, "That's when that Scourge guy showed up with his gang." Manic narrowed his eyes a moment, remember the encounter. " I remember his name alright... They jumped me and my drums formed back into my necklace... they held me down and beat on me as Scourge demanded to know where Ember was, but Mephilis must have saw him as an opportunity to find her as well."

Ember bit on her lower lip, worried about them tag-teaming to find her...

"I don't know why Scourge agreed, but I have a feeling he's not gonna be honest in that arrangement... but then again, I don't think Mephilis was too keen on honesty or trust either... They all look like backstabbers to me, and they're all after your Cursed Emerald, Ember..." He looked up at her again, lifting his hand to cup her face a moment. "But don't sweat it, I'll make sure they never get you. Mark my words, babe." They touched foreheads a moment, as Sonic and Tails looked to each other, concerned.

"We'll try and figure out where Scourge is and what he's up to with this guy. If they are hunting Ember down, we should plan out if we're gonna bait them or hide her." Tails gestured a hand out, stating the necessity for a plan, but Shadow immediately stomped up to him.

"There won't be a need to use Ember." he stated, looming over Tails. Tails moved back a bit, but Sonic countered by moving up towards Shadow, stopping him from intimidating his friend.

"If they've teamed up, who knows how powerful they are now. He interrupted Manic's fight, and are probably after the other emeralds. Me and Tails will try and split up our gang, find out if they're heading to Angel Island or are abandoning everything to find the impure emerald." Sonic tried to bring reason and logic into his actions, which calmed Shadow down a bit. "If you and Manic take Ember, Rouge can go off on her own to try and spot them and stay as a spy. We'll cut them off before they can cause any further trouble. But let's hope they're only after Ember... that trouble we can ambush, sound good to you?"

"...Ember doesn't do well with plans." Shadow glared back at Ember, as though implying that she needs to agree to this too.

Ember nodded her head, looking determined to get back at Scourge for hurting Manic, and also hoping to find out what this Mephilis the Dark guy knew about Shadow... and if it was true or not.

"You've gotta let me come with you, Shadow." Manic winced in pain as he got up, which made Ember panic and grab his arm to help him. "I care about her just as much as you do... I may not be as strong or accomplished at saving things like Sonic is... but I'm just as good as my brother when it comes to protecting those I cherish..."

Sonic nodded, giving his brother a thumbs up for his bravery. "You won't find a better man, Shadow!"

"...Alright." Shadow conceded. "I don't need any further convincing. If Ember wants you along to help, I won't oppose." He began to walk out the door, "But listen... heed this warning... Scourge, we understand his ways, but Mephilis, we do not. We need to be cautious, for Embers sake." He looked to her as if saying she really needed to act mature during this, and Ember just embarrassingly looked away, still holding Manic's arm as he kissed her cheek to try and cheer her up.

"Ugh." Shadow turned away, disgusted by the display of comforting affection, and walked to open the door. "Come on, we should keep a constant movement..."

"Your brother once protected the president before, right?" Manic wanted to encourage Ember that he probably knew best, but she just laughed.

"And tried to destroy him."

The room grew silent.

Then Sonic let out a huge roar of laughter, gripping his stomach.

Scourge and Mephilis, on the hunt...

"We've scowered everywhere for this girl! Why is she so hard to find?!" Scourge kicked over a burning trashcan, watching it's tin tink against the dark street... there were people screaming to escape the fires, and Scourge just looked at his hand, gripping it tightly. "What good is causing mayhem and panic if I know I'm not the most terrifying thing out there!?"

Mephilis had his arms crossed, standing next to him, looking like stone... "I think we'd get along... if you weren't so deranged." He mused to himself, turning to him as Scourge got right up in his face.

"I only make friends with subordinates. We agreed you'd let me do this my way! Flush out the rat with flames!" he threw his hand back to the burning city. "Besides, you look as twisted as I am..." he muttered under his breath.

"I have no issue with you burning the world... but as for sniffing or snuffing her out, I doubt you'd find her." He moved with strange elegance, and placed his hand on the ground. Shadows of whispy, black vines began to mutate around him, "If what you say is true... then her emerald has negative chaos energy... compared to it's seven, pure siblings... it's power can't be controlled or harnessed... It's a mad stone. One who needs a host able to contain and manipulate its madness..."

The darkness began to grow, dodging the fires but being born from their flickering shadows cast to the walls as well, upon the walls they danced... and began to search for every living soul... Like a reign of purple and misty hound dogs, falling over each other as they searched for the same... strange... energy...

"What's that your doing?" Scourge growled, scowling at him doing something without an order from himself. "I don't like things done behind my back!"

"...Finding the diamond in the rough..." Mephilis laughed, his dark power moving under screaming feet, the fires burning everything they touched. He had missed this feeling... but soon, with the Cursed Emerald, he'll have it all over again... "The shadows I'm made of are linked with a strong connection to the ultimate life form... if she is at all with Shadow, I shall know of it... and take what I need to survive."

The shadows, almost like the fire from which they were spreading, continued forth out of Mephilis and searched with a lapping, slithering haste that seemed to crawl everywhere in a furious urgency.

Soon, they were outside the city, spreading themselves into the forest. Little Flickies hid in their tree truck holes and cowered from the impending doom they seemed to send.

One of the shadow tips lingered as though to spike through a piggy that was holding its bunny friend, shivering in fright. It came closer before it sensed something, and immediately slithered towards where Shadow was, diving into his shadow...

Mephilis tilted his head, as Scourge once again grew frustrated. "Did you find something..? Care to share with the rest of the class?" He bent down and gestured a hand up as Mephilis just creepily turned to him, but didn't look directly at him.

"I found him... I'm... listening and looking to see where they are..." He heard Shadow speak and was pulled back to the moment at hand.

Shadow, hiding behind a bush with Manic, were clearly alone for right now. "She's well hidden?"

"I told her to stay put." Manic grumbled, "But you know Ember... she's always excited about a new test of strength."

"This isn't a game, she'll listen to you." Shadow was once again so serious, and it was really bumming Manic out.

"I know, I know. But she'd do anything for you." He smiled to Shadow, "You know, she's really attached to you. It broke her heart when G.U.N said she couldn't work with you anymore. It felt like they were taking something else away from her too." He explained, wondering if Shadow knew.

Shadow remained silent,... a moment went by before he sighed quietly and spoke up again, gentler this time. "I tried to warn her. She wouldn't follow orders... G.U.N is different from the past, they're trying to live better than they were..."

"You forgave them, which I respect." Manic nodded his head to him, "But for Ember... it's kinda a betrayal."

He looked away, "G.U.N was run differently in the past. They've learned to accept my power as long as it's used for good means."

"Their means." Manic countered, fiddling with a twig as Shadow glared at him. Manic was momentarily distracted with the twig, playing with it and bending it but not to the point of snapping before looking up to Shadow and then throwing his hands up in apology, and hoping he may calm down and back off a bit from the intense glare of annoyance. "H-hey, now! I'm only saying what Ember's told me. You know, you two should really talk more... she misses you." He gently put the fallen twig back into the bush. "She feels like this twig here... broken off from every family she ever made. Too dangerous to stay with anyone for too long... and mostly hunted down for her power. You can understand how she feels, can't ya?" He gave him a half-forced smile, "You have to understand... how much she longs to be in a real family..."

Shadow 'hmph'd to the side, "She's always been sensitive." but there was a warmness in that tone... A bond that Manic was happy to see shine through.

"Hey... is that a smile?" He teased, gesturing to the gentle curl in Shadow's lips.

Shadow patted Manic's accusing finger away and flicked his nose, "So she's gathering berries and other wild provisions?"

"While we remain lookout, yeah... she didn't like that plan all to much." Manic made a face and Shadow only chuckled.

"That is Ember." He joked,"And you were pretty useless in that condition... I'm... glad you recovered well." the two shared a mutual moment of fondness for her, and then looked to one another. It was as though Shadow had accepted that fact, that Ember loved Manic, but also that Manic was a good man. For a moment, he gave a look of acceptance, before looking off again. "Ember... Heh." He seemed to be thinking back on their adventures together. "She's headstrong, like Sonic. Doesn't stand still for a moment... all this and more... is why she's who she is. Which is exactly why I worry she may never find a decent job in this world..."

"She's doing pretty good at singing." Manic volunteered the idea, trying to lighten the downplay on Ember's talents but Shadow only made a face. "What? Singing don't jell right with you, big bro?"

"Don't call me that." He looked annoyed again.

"All I'm saying is maybe Ember isn't cut out for army or military stuff. She's not like Rouge, a secret agent and spy. She can't always be stealthy," Manic started.

"She longs too much for the attention." Shadow mused to himself while Manic just lowered his eyes and looked back at him as though thinking he was purposefully being a downer now.

"She's powerful, yes. But she also has a powerful, beautiful soul to her as well." He started drumming the ground, "We each have our own rhythms, Shadow. Maybe her's is better suited to things outside of fighting?"

"Yet, she loves to tumble." Shadow joked again, which made Manic just throw his arms up and laugh.

"You're not gonna give my thoughts on Ember the time of day, are you?" He seemed to realize Shadow was blocking him out, but Shadow just pushed his head down, done talking about this for now.

"Just duck down low and do as you're told... Ember wants you here, that's why you are here." He warned him, but Manic just scooted on up to him, moving his hand and seeing a brotherly side of Shadow showing.

"Hey," he grinned widely. "I've been meaning to ask you... I never did get your blessing on asking Ember to date me."

Shadow seemed to lose the slight smile he had, turning to one of more worry and anxiety.

"I wanted to make it more official after I talked with you about it, but you were always caught up with work," Manic continued, but didn't notice Shadow's shifting eyes, and the fact that he adjusted his squat away from Manic. He seemed so unsure of the topic... but what was really bothering him? "And I didn't want to tip Ember off too early about it... Mind if I ask now?"

"No." Shadow abruptly stated, closing his eyes as though to tune Manic out.

Manic took a moment to wait and process that, before speaking up again, "No..? On the timing or..?" he finally turned to try and read Shadow's expression, but Shadow kept a low-profile when it came to his emotions.

"Ever." Shadow moved away from him, and as he did so, the shadows began to move and peer around him, as though fading and glitching out of reality.

"Now hang on a sec-" Manic got up with him, trying to stop him from retreating during an important—and vulnerable—conversation before seeing the abnormality start rising up and swarming the shade around Shadow's silhouette on the ground.

"W-woah!" Manic got up from his squat, "Shadow, what is that!?" He pointed, as shadows seemed to spray out like vines whipping the ground, like an octopus's tentacles lashing out from a spaced hole on the ground, in the shape of Shadow...

Suddenly, they faded into nothingness... Shadow's shadow... was immediately gone.

"Grk..! GAHH!" Mephilis pulled his hand up, the shadows quickly retreating as if being drained back to him forcefully as he gripped his wrist. Scourge had stomped on his hand, seeing him flicker, and thinking he was going to leave them.

"Where ya going, friend?" he sneered, grabbing him and pulling him up as he continued to glitch out and in of reality, causing Scourge to barely have a hand on him. "What are you thinking of doing? Running!? Getting out of the deal!? WHERE IS SHE?"

in his wildness, Mephilis was also held back by Scourge's team: The Destructix. However, in a flash of light, Mephilis completely broke free of them and sent a blast out to knock them back. Slowly moving towards Scourge in his strange movement way, he then fired out a huge beam of power to skim Scourge's ear, spooking him back...

"You're not king... yet." Mephilis landed a manipulative intimidation, faking that they were one in the same goal. He looked at his hand again, examining the strange rift of time and space... his time was running thin. "I could erase you all from ever being born... but I chose to use my power to aid you... if we don't move now... my existence in this timeline will fade... and my own world events... vanish." He glared, threatened by the limited moments he still had.

Scourge may be in a hurry, impatient without question, but he could tell that Mephilis was trying to deceive him just as much as he was trying to trick Mephilis... "You gonna back-stab me, Dark? Better do it while I'm in a good mood..." He smirked, getting up in his face again and not fearing the power he demonstrated earlier; or at least, shaking it off. "Ember's mine. I'll rip the gem out, then you take it as host, and I control you. We all in accord again?"

Mephilis just stared at him, and as though dismissing conflict, moved Scourge aside with a soft swing of his arm. "When I am host to the Cursed Emerald... you shall have a world that will burn in black flames..." He continued on, dipping as though sinking down into the shadows...

Scourge was getting ticked off, "He'll set me aside for the last time... do you have what I asked for?" the team showed him that the portal Mephilis created did in fact lead to a forested area, and seemed to have Manic with Shadow.

"Excellent..." Scourge put his sunglasses back into place, then adjusted his crown. "Let's stick to the plan for now... we'll deal with Darky later..." he then snapped his fingers for Fiona to speak up again. "What about Sonic and the other Chaos Emeralds?"

"They've fortified the island. It will be tricky... but with Mephilis's portals, we should be able to-" She stopped as he spun around, grabbing her waist, and gripped her to him.

"Shh... you're so fidgety lately..." He cooed, lowering his sunglasses, "Babe, all I'm asking is that we plan for that guy to be smoke and dust by the time I get the Cursed Emerald..."

"R-right." She sweat-dropped, knowing that he planned to ditch Mephilis as soon as possible. "In that case~" she flung the paper back behind her, letting it drift in gentle sways to the burning grounds behind them. It was clearly her report from her spy mission, and decided to loop her arms around his neck, "We'll need a long rope... or you'll have to chaos teleport our merry band of thieves..."

"And I, their king." He shoved his face into hers, kissing her as the others waited while they messed around...

Rouge watched as they all disappeared into the portal... behind them, thousands upon thousands of burnt ruins... and flying pieces of flaming fabrics blew in the wind...

"I have to warn them!" she worriedly began to fly into the alley but turned when someone cried out for help, and flaming beams from streets and houses began to topple over one right after the other, some in the distance and others sparking as lamppost exploded as they hit the ground. "...They need me too, though." In her moment of conflict, she flew towards the burning city...

"Please be alright... Shadow... Manic... Ember..." she pleaded under her breath, "I'm leaving them to you all now."

Ember was forging but finding it hard not to pluck a berry with her claw, and then lick the juices and call it 'not eating' her bundle.

She knew Shadow would disapprove but Manic? He'd probably think it was funny. She hummed as she tried to not think about all the evil people that were after her. After all, it wasn't new, it was just kinda exciting. She was immortal, never really aged, but seemed to have never truly lost her immaturity at finding humor in even the most outrageous and life-threatening circumstances.

Sure, you get hurt, but as long as its only her getting hurt she's okay with it.

She thought back to Maria and Gerald Robotnik, how no matter what went wrong, they were always together.

The kids she'd look after and who'd treat her with their skits and plays to entertain one another... they were always together.

Shadow, however... seemed to be more concerned about his 'duty' then spending much time with her.

She loved going on missions with him, trying to impress him. He always acted like she was a liability though... even though he knew how powerful and capable her abilities were.

She could control some chaos, she could do some amazing feats, why did he always scold her on her strength and acting first before asking questions later? She was very much the same with doing something and apologizing later, her simple mottoes, she supposed. It was just her nature, and it seemed to bother Shadow... Was it truly her downfall? Curiosity only killed cats though, not wolves.

Even so, Shadow was kinda always protective of her, now that she thought of it. Even before he accepted her as his experimental prototype for his creation, he seemed to have a distaste for leaving her be too long. Isn't that what brothers are supposed to do? She couldn't really know... but seeing how Manic and Sonic joked around, verses Sonic and Tails, or Manic with his bandmates... it seemed like Sonic and Manic could goof off, wrestle, and even tease without worrying too much about the other.

So then... what was Shadow's deal? Why didn't he trust her... why didn't he want her around..?

She felt her tail swish down to the ground at the thought... She had always taken care of others, maybe that was Shadow's way of showing affection too?

Wasn't she overprotective? Wasn't she always on-guard? Perhaps she just hoped her and Shadow would be different. A true sibling bond.

She would want to return the favor, but how? He didn't even like hugs... but they did trust each other, right?

She trusted him... he seemed to trust her... was Rouge right? Was that why G.U.N kicked her out? Simply because they did trust each other but maybe two experiments was too much for them.

She paused and looked at the food in her hand, growing sorrowful again. Was the world jealous, or just Shadow?

He was the perfect weapon... the cure to all humanity... and yet, she was meant to protect him.

Then why... does it seem like he's protecting her?

Were they really... ever gonna be like a real family?

Or were they already one? But an imperfect one?

She slowly... let her hands fall and the berries drop out of her arms. Sighing, she looked to where she knew Manic and Shadow should be, "I got the food... some of them aren't stabbed... hehe..." She tried to play off her pondering emotions and licked her claws again. "They're good, at least." she teased.

No one answered...

"Shadow?" she called, trying to look over the foliage and tree trucks. "Manic?"

But no one answered.

She narrowed her eyes... and began to sneak around to see what she could find.

As she twisted herself through the bush, she let out a quiet gasp and plugged her mouth, seeing Manic and Shadow each tied up by what looked like shadowy vines that clung and tightened with their struggling movement.

In her surprise, she comically looked for somewhere that could conceal herself. So while still covering her mouth, she dived into what looked like a mossy patch near some water, and let the moss cushion her hasty fall to hide.

"Chaos... Spear!" Shadow was able to shoot out some beams to hit back Mephilis and Scourge's team, but Scourge took out a knife with a refined blade and held it to Manic, then a gun with a black coating and held it to Shadow's head.

The others had successfully dodged the spears, and snickered at their futile attempts.

"You can't contain me, I'm-!" Shadow began but realized these shadows had a strange power to them... he didn't realize they were infused with his own shadow... thus making them successfully able to contain him and his own power.

"Quick the light spectacle and realize when you're beat." Scourge pressed the gun's barrel against Shadow to move his head back against the tree they were tied up too. Manic couldn't reach his necklace, but Mephilis saw his attempts.

Floating on some shadows with his arms out wide, he turned to instruct Scourge, "Rip that silly trinket by his neck... Let him know true despair, when one holds no power, and takes everything away from you..." sadistically, he held up his hand, as if a dark sense of torment was awakening once again in him. He crushed his fists together, "I want to see the look of helplessness... as I take that light of hope from his eyes..."

"Oui! What'd I say about you giving me orders?!" Scourge flicked the knife under the necklace, "Only I'm allowed to do that!" twisting the sharp side of the blade to his necklace's bond around his neck, he yanked it off of him, pulling back the band and making his neck snap a little back as he tried to resist having his precious, childhood power and gift removed from him.

"Nooo..!" Manic saw the magical necklace fly through the air, glistening in and flipping through the gaps of light through the trees... his most precious possession left to him, which reminded him of his beloved mother... like having his family torn from him when he was an infant. It fell to the dirty soil and barely made a noise, due to the soft ground beneath...

He hunched a little, already seeming defeated by not having any special abilities, and now... not even having his only means to fight back besides his natural struggling force. "Now... I'm really mad." Manic gritted his teeth, some tears forming on the sides of his eyes. "I won't let you get away with this... with hurting Ember... or with taking any of my family from me!" he looked up with eyes full of righteous vengeance.

Shadow had never seen this side of Manic before, and it surprised him somewhat, but now was not the time to be in awe. Instead, he noticed that Manic and Scourge had created a kind of opening. This distraction allowed him to sneakily reach back and get a firm touch on his communication device. Swiftly, and trying to be discreet about it, his G.U.N training kicked in and he began typing in coordinates for Rouge and Tails. Hoping the signal wouldn't get spotted by the others... Shadow hid the device under his gloved wrist as it sent the code, however, transferring it to the others remotely was going to take some time...

Mephilis, highly sensitive to Shadow's movements, rose his head in Manic's defiant spirit and tenacious attitude, but sensed something off with Shadow. He was delighting in Manic's sorrow and frustration, but that would have to wait for now...

"He's fidgeting too much..." Mephilis lifted his hand and in a whirlwind of speed, slashed Shadow in the head and knocked him out. "There... that's better... Hahahah!" his infamous laugh carried through the forest, as Ember's hands twitched in rage.

Her Cursed Emerald began to glow...

"Heh, I like your style." Scourge used the bunt side of the gun to knock out Manic from his neck, "Now what? Where's the girl!?" Scourge turned to Mephilis, pointing the gun to him... "I think you already figured this out but... I don't like to be kept waiting..."

Ember couldn't contain her rage anymore, the insanity from the Cursed Emerald drove her out of hiding, her emotions spiraling out of control. This wasn't the first time, but she wanted it to desperately be the last time anyone messed with her friends and life. 'I'm tired of people telling me not to fight!' she felt her body lose control as she ran on all fours to defend her beloved family...

"RRAHHH!" She jumped into the air, the curse in full swing as her entire body was filled with her insanity mode flaring to life. "Let them go!" Black flames burst from her purple emerald, and Mephilis's eyes reflected their glow.

"Yeeess... You'll do nicely." He seemed fixated on the dark power it contained, seeing it as the perfect host for this new timeline.

Her eyes burned white as she came down, but Mephilis moved quickly back, floating on his shadows as the earth shook and cracked under her power.

"Alright! An ultimate showdown! At last!" Scourge readied himself, but Mephilis drifted in front of him, his shadows like a catching up behind him. "What!? What are you..? Out of my way, freak!"

He shot the back of Mephilis's head, "I'm tired of this game!" But Mephilis's head just bent forward with every shot, and it was clear nothing was penetrating through his crystal hide... The bullets looked squished and condensed upon impact with his quills.

He slowly turned back... "I'll deal with you... after my form becomes permanent in this world..." He was fading, but reached out to Ember, "I can kill Shadow, and he has the power to destroy your beloved friend as well..." He then gestured to Scourge and Manic. "What will you choose? Immortal... a prototype? You were made to be a mistake, to learn from... But with me, I can give you your ultimate purpose..." He lifted his arms up into the air, showing the half-destroyed moon. "There must be revenge that you seek... much like your figurative brother..." He slowly turned his attention back to her. "I have the means to control your cursed emerald... join to me, child of error, and I shall make you the key to all destruction!" he clenched a fist up by her, showing his resolve to want to 'help' her.

However, Ember—still wild—had already broken through Scourge's goons that had come around from behind, and slowly hunched over at Mephilis's words.

The Destructix's lay panting on the ground, remembering last time... and knowing they're efforts were futile.

Even Scourge looked pathetically over to them, seeing that without Mephilis, taking Ember head-on again might be a bad idea...

Her eyes seemed vast and hollow, as though Mephilis's words meant nothing in this state. Instead, they were simply filled with the power of negative chaos energy...

"You have a choice..." Mephilis began, speaking plainly as he could tell that Ember was no longer present, but only the Cursed Emerald's protective recognition remained. "Surrender yourself to me... or let me take over your current host's form." he flicked his fingers out, before jamming his claws into Shadow's side again. "Otherwise... I make your host's life even worse... more alone than ever before... and you, the soul who reigns over her... forever. Hahahaha!" he had figured it out, her emotions got the better of her and let out it's full power. He truly was clever, and using Shadow as a trigger, hoped the Cursed Emerald would be fueled off of her emotions, and get even stronger. "Do you now see where my loyalty lies? Now... let us join together! We shall rule this world with a burning blaze!"

Ember's power skyrocketed as her body jerked forward and then back, seeing Shadow reel back in pain before going unconscious again. It was as though the amount of empathy felt in that moment gave Ember's body the same amount of pain as it saw Shadow endure.

"Mortal... immortal... nothing escapes fate." Mephilis pulled out his claws, his shadows released Shadow from his bonds around the tree truck and he fell forward. Mephilis never ceased in his dark pleasure of torment and pain, laughing and laughing in his sadistic delights, leaning his head back as though to gloat and strike envy. "It never gets old... seeing the fear and hatred on their faces... when I kill all they care about..." Was he speaking to himself? Or to Scourge?

Now it didn't matter what he knew about Shadow's future, it was clear he wanted a ill fate for him, and for Ember as well... Though trapped inside her own mind, Ember clawed for redemption. 'Manic... everyone... if I let this fiend live, he'll tear apart the whole of what I've found!' she pounded against the dark energies that kept her locked up tight. 'My emotions... they're not meant for evil! Cursed Emerald... you're not cursed anymore! You're my power! And I choose to use you to protect my family!"

Mephilis all at once... became her new G.U.N.

Getting a momentary grip on herself, Ember reached into her chest, scratching and digging to try and pull the Cursed Emerald out of her. 'I can't lose him!' she began to cry through the searing pain as her claws bore into her flesh. However, it was instantly healing itself, burning to seal the scars she was making. She couldn't pull it out, and it wouldn't be ripped from her either... soon, it back-lashed and forced her into a full state of control, meaning that it now had full power over her... and was completely consumed in her emotions once again.

"Join me, Cursed one!" Mephilis spread his shadows around her, but the Cursed Emerald controlling Ember's body tilted its head, only interested in destruction.

Bursting into raw chaos energy, Ember's body looked more like a giant, standing wolf than anything else... her power radiated into a beast in it's rising aura...

Mephilis was slightly taken aback, "This power... Iblis would be pleased." He laughed, "Very well, I shall take you on!"

Dark orbs were thrown towards Ember's body, but she shredded through them with her dark energy claws, her true form hidden within the massive dark aura-wolf. It blasted the shadows away that tried to consume the Cursed Emerald, showing that it wouldn't be taken without a fight.

Manic's head looked up, feeling the shadows loosen and weaken from around him as he fell down from the tree he was tied too. "What... what happened?" he looked to his necklace, and reached for it in a sudden moment of clarity.

"Ah-ah-ah." Scourge kicked it away, mimicking Sonic's infamous finger wiggle and grabbing him into a choke hold. "Who said you were allowed to wake up!?"

As Manic struggled, trying to reach for a punch, it was clear Scourge was stronger than him. "Hahaha! Pathetic! She chose you over me!?" He raised an eyebrow, "I'll let Mephilis weaken her down a bit first, after all, I tried to fight her and look where that got me?"

He threw Manic as he slammed against the tree, falling back down and struggling to get up.

"But you? That's the easy part. You don't have your precious little girlfriend to protect you." He pulled out his gun, firing off some bullets as Manic rolled on the ground to dodge them. "Darn that Dark... he took all my bullets like it was nothing..." Scourge rolled his shoulders back, arching his steps around Manic and tossing the gun after it seemed emptied of bullets. "Guess we'll do this the old fashion way..." He took his knife and and then stomped directly on Manic's necklace, making Manic look up and glare in his pain.

"You're gonna end up just like him..." Scourge flicked his head to Shadow's limp form, as Manic gasped, seeing it.

"Shadow! No!" he cried out. "Shadow! Get up! Ember needs-!"

"Nothing but death!" Scourge laughed, "Same's gonna come to you, and I'm not sorry. Let's consider it a mercy kill, eh? You don't have to see your doggy dame maimed before your eyes!"

But as soon as he said that, Manic jumped at him and began to push back, grabbing his arms. "I may not be as strong as you... but I'm ten times more clever than you!" he slid his foot between Scourge's feet, then pulled it back around his foot to have him trip and fall backwards.

Manic's drum necklace skidded from the action over the ground. Manic reached and grabbed it with a tumble, rolling before having it glow in his hands. "And she picked me because I'm handsomer shade of green than you! The ones that not representative of envy!" Manic summoned his drums, then took out his drumsticks and began warming up with a drum roll. "I don't think you can take this beat, Scourge!" he began to fire off sonic booms from his drums, pushing and shoving Scourge down, as the knife in his hand was pulsed back by its sonic power.

"Grr..! No!" Scourge used his super sonic speed to start moving to dodge each drum beat. "You think you're stronger than your own anti-brother!?" but right before reaching the drums and seeing the white in Manic's worried eyes as Scourge reached out for him...

"HRRAHH!" Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles jumped from the bushes, tackling into Scourge as Manic stopped playing in awe.

"Everyone!" Manic's eyes widened and then relaxed in relief. "Thank you." He breathed out, and then looked to see Shadow starting to get up on his feet, gripping his torn and pierced side.

He crawled towards Ember's insane, dark aura-wolf form as though desperate to reach her.

"Em...ber..." He stumbled to his feet, but looked a bit woozy from the loss of blood. "I'm... com-...ing..."

"Shadow!" Manic unsummoned his drums and kept a firm grip on his magical necklace, but grabbed Shadow to help him stand better. "What'd he do to you?"

"Urk... She... needs my... help." He tried to move forward, but Manic helped him not fall.

"I know, I know! But she'd never forgive me if I didn't help you first!" Manic looked to see Scourge's crew start coming too, and Ember's insane form fighting Mephilis. "This looks ugly... I know you guys recover fast, what do you need me to do?"

Shadow gave him one look, and he knew.

Save Ember...

for me, in my place.

Mephilis began compiling all his being into one, super mass of his collective consciousness. "Now... you're mine!" as though a miniature storm, flashes of lightning formed around the purple mass as the shadows circled all around it quickly, helping to move it towards Ember's insanity frame. Diving into Ember's form, other shadows leaped up from the shade of the trees to tie her down as she remained on her feet, growling and straining against their takeover.

"At last... though not Iblis... you and I shall be... Cursembaris!" Mephilis's ball of dark energy blasted the dark aura-wolf as it howled in defiance, but was absorbed into his purple and blue darkness, which then engulfed Ember's body.

No matter the power of the Cursed Emerald, Mephilis the Dark soon sealed himself in fire within it's core...

The shining emerald suddenly dulled with shadows, and soon...

"I can't waste another moment..! You're power must fuse with mine, or I will fade from existence of all worlds! I can't fight any longer without a host... You will do nicely! Hahahaha!" Mephilis got her down to her knees, as her form took on a crystallized state, and her eyes shifted to Mephilis's own...

Suddenly, her form was overwhelmed by flames, bursting up and spreading out to form her into light that mixed with his shadows.

The fire raged and burnt the ground beneath as she was lifted into the air, and then made into a black flame, crystallized, large wolf.

Cursembaris looked at it's new body... moving up to its full height, it laughed manically in a monstrous howl that blasted the wind back and forced the others to brace against the wind storm.

Suddenly, with the power of a cursed chaos emerald, it summoned many shadows. All resembled his previous form: Mephilis, and a deadly horde began to materialize to finish off Mephilis's original goal as Solaris.

"Now... to finish off this world... and burn it all, as I have promised you, Scourge... Hahaha!" Mephilis's voice was mixed with Ember's, and their laughter was more fine-tuned, making it sound even more sinister than before...

"Grk..!" Manic forced himself up, his drums ready for battle again. "I've fought you once and held my own! Release Ember, now!" he hit the drums hard, but the fused creation just flicked his wolf's paw, and thousands of the shadow-horde began to run towards Manic.

Cursembaris laughed through it's crystallized body as though cackling howls from rocks banging against an echoing cave... Ember's voice being drowned out by Mephilis. It stalked around the battlefield as though eyeing its prey, watching Manic desperately fight back against the horde. It kept it's head low, readying to pounce at any moment...

The shadows were destroyed by different drumbeat sonic booms, but Manic was already feeling the weariness setting in. Gritting his teeth, he tried to send the blasts where they needed to go.

"This world will be too easy..." Mephilis mused, holding a clawed, crystal paw out, as though ready to hunt. "I will destroy the ultimate life form... take out Sonic once and for all,... and then leave you as a toothpick for when I'm bored!" Cursembaris's snarl spewed fire through its bared teeth. This was driving Manic insane, he hated it with a deep passion and anger, hearing Ember's lovely voice mingled with such evil.

Shadow, still hunched over, brought out his hand to his side, 'I can't let this stand... I won't lose her. I won't lose anyone else!' He looked up at his sister, seeing a form which he didn't know or understand. His fist tightened, "I had to let you go once... I won't do it again!" He took off his limiters, preparing himself as he stored his power up. "Chaos... spears!" he was able to successfully target a few spears that pierced through the shadows, having them automatically disintegrate and then strike through Cursembaris's crystal hide. They were made of pure light and chaos energy, stabbing with an effect into a dark being like Mephilis and the Cursed Emerald meant it began to weaken the shadows around it, causing actual damage.

It's crystal wolf body was jammed back with each successful spear glowing an area of effect around it, spreading light through its being...

"Hopefully... you can... push through it..." Shadow fell back to his knees, then fell down as his body began to recover and forced him to yield.

It's head slowly looked up to Shadow after examining itself, and almost with concern, it stared... until Mephilis's voice, the dominant sound, rang through again in it's muffled cry. "You'd injure your own sister..? For the sake of the world..? Shadow... I never thought you so cruel..."

Shadow frowned openly, his fangs bared, gripping his injured side as he twitched helpless on the ground. "I'm not aiming for her..!"

Cursembaris tilted it's head, then turned to see Scourge had fought off Sonic, throwing him off of him but seeing his team still apprehended. He glared to it and charged, jumping and grabbing the Cursed Emerald in glowing purple as he was burned by its natural protection of itself. "My turn!" his eyes blazed with power... though the Cursed Emerald wanted to lash back and fight, it was being controlled by Mephilis... So it could only sear him for now...

"This power is meant to be mine!" Scourge used all his imbued Master Emerald strength to try and force the Cursed Emerald out. The natural repulsion was actually working in his favor... The gem began to move out from the spiraling flames and dark purple mist... Thanks to Shadow's Chaos Spears still giving the creature splotches of yellow glowing light to weaken Mephilis's control and power over it.

"N...Nooo!" Mephilis, weakened by the now exploding Chaos Spears Shadow had thrown, felt them pulse off with every hit from Manic's other light and sound based attack...

Soon, Scourge's tug-o-war was actually succeeding, as his gloves were consumed in flame, his insane smirk never left him.

Manic's feelings pounded the drums with a powerful beat that exploded his sonic booms to push Mephilis back and Scourge closer to pulling the Cursed Emerald out. Shadow watched as he flicked his fingers and wrists, letting the Chaos Spears go off one by one in rhythm with Manic's attacks.

Howling into whimpers, Cursembaris reeled its massive form skyward, leaning its head back in the pain and slowly defusing at Scourge's persistence.

"Nooo..! I refuse to lose! I must at least destroy Sonic The Hedgehog! The Iblis Trigger!" Mephilis began to fade... his time running out. He turned to Sonic and his gang, who were unsure of how to approach the creature without getting burned. Bringing out the pure Chaos Emeralds, Sonic turned Super, and stared into the magma stones that made the being's eyes... dead in their centers as his form glowed the same way the Chaos Spears had...

"You want some?" He gestured to his new, light-based form. "Come and get me!" he bolted off at incredible speeds, flying behind Cursembaris and charging into it's neck. Digging his way through, Sonic pushed and punched the Cursed Emerald towards Scourge, helping to remove it.

According to Tails, if the Cursed Emerald was removed from Mephilis, Ember would return. He noticed the shift of polarity around the two converging timelines that were still being affected by Mephilis's presence, and determined that if they stalled long enough, Mephilis the Dark would fade from this reality, his own being wiped out in the process...

"Why... can't I... fight back?!" Mephilis's voice rang through as Cursembaris swung it's head around, trying to resist the urge to create more destruction and hacok. With all these forcing whamming into it, causing great damage to the Dark forces controlling it, the light side began to shine through...

It leaned it's head up, it's eyes filling with the white fire that Ember's would have had if still in her insanity mode.

"I ... won't... hurt... my family."

Ember's voice... was finally in control.

Scourge—at last—had gripped a Chaos Spear that hadn't exploded yet, feeling his hands burn from the light of that as well as the whipping backlash from the Cursed Emerald, and ripped it out of place. He forced it deeper into the beast, jamming it behind the Cursed Emerald and desperately trying to excavate it out as he wiggled the Chaos Spear around to hopefully pull it lose. Finally, he ripped Ember's fusion out from Mephilis as he faded away in a blaze of glory.

"Ah... HAAA...ahhhhh..." Mephilis's form began to drift towards the ground, as Ember's landed in ashes... "Now... I shall truly be... forgotten..." Mephilis's consciousness, a purple mass of shadows, slowly dwindled out on the ground... a puddle becoming less and less... before all at once... getting blown gently out of reality and time...

Ember opened her eyes gently, seeing the ash below her clawed fingers drift as scourged sunglasses tank'ed against the ground near her. As Mephilis disappeared, Super Sonic slowly returned down to the ground, and looked around for Scourge. "Where is he..? What..?" He saw the sunglasses, as Ember seemed to refuse to reach for them.

Super Sonic remained silent, horrified but also dropping his jaw at the fact that the heat had been so intense that perhaps... Scourge was was burnt into oblivion too...

He turned his head down and closed his eyes, but in his moment for the dead, Scourge was glowing green behind him. "Aw, I'm touched." and then sucker-punched Sonic. "But if that emerald won't budge, I'll kill her and take it for myself!" Hearing that he may try and fuse with the Cursed Emerald, Ember slowly got up, clutching her now completely black and soot-covered chest... forcing herself upright.

Shadow gripped his side and stumbled over to Manic, giving him a nod. He knew now that Manic would do whatever it took to protect Ember and keep her safe. Giving him a thumbs up... he turned to Ember, mouthed words she only wished she could have heard... and then collapsed.

"Shadow!" Manic didn't leave his drums again, seeing Scourge crash Super Sonic against multiple trees and then grab Ember, still trying to control her power.

However,...

"You never learn..." Ember muttered, sending him back in a backlash as she moved her arm and let him grab the Cursed Emerald again, but was blown so far away in its fury... She then, seeing the damage done, knew what last thing she should try.

Surrendering fully to its cursed power, she leaned her body back. "Shadow... I love you too. I won't forget again... that you accept the good I see in Manic, and that you don't want to lose me just as much... as I'd hate to lose you too." She let out some tears, as the Cursed Emerald began its last stand at defending itself. "Manic... I've seen you struggle, and do everything within your power to protect me... I won't forget this... I won't forget your love and devotion. Even if you only have the power of a mortal... you fought an immortal cause. You have gained your victory... And I will love you forever." Then she spread her arms out, "I'll remember... but you won't need too... This awful fate... that threatened my friends and family... will never be again." She closed her eyes, as Manic tried to run to her, "Chaos... Unleashed." A huge white light engulfed the entire area...

Time was rewritten, as is what the power of the Chaos Emeralds can do... though this power was reversed in that it could completely rewrite fate only if severely threatened by removal and/or death.

Ember was sitting down with Manic after the concert, leaning on his shoulder. 'Finally... Peace.' she thought to herself, proud that she was able to muster the courage to perform after all the emotional and painful turmoil of the time that never was...

Only she alone remembered... Shadow's figurative blessing to Manic in a simple accepting thumbs-up, and that mysterious figure that she still didn't know who or what he was... She had already called Shadow to warn him about Scourge's escape and they found him right away. It was as though she saved her family without a single soul knowing about it.

'Good... who needs another gloat, anyway?' she joked within her mind, smiling as Manic kissed her forehead, still thinking she was just calming down from stage fright.

Shadow's Chaos Spears had weakened both Mephilis and the Cursed Emerald's power, allowing Scourge to pull her out. Then, when the spears disappeared, Ember had control over her insanity power for a split second, and used it to go back... knowing Mephilis wouldn't be there to screw up her future this time... But the unleashed Chaos came with a price...

She leaned up to look at Manic, "When I predicted Scourge's eventual escape, I also told Shadow how much you cared about me... I think he's willing to see that I want time with him... and with you, too." she gently put her hand into his, grasping it lightly. "Is that alright?" she looked down as though shyly to his hand.

He chuckled to himself, growing nervous. "W-what? What brought that up all of a sudden?" He rubbed behind his quills, but she fiddled with his long-hanging bangs as he smiled warmly to her. "Did you learn my secret?"

"What secret?" she looked away, pretending like she didn't know he wanted Shadow's blessing. She had heard a lot through Mephilis's fusion with her, and his shadows and knowledge of them were something she was able to discover. Though... she still didn't understand his reasoning when she searched his mind for 'Iblis Trigger' or 'Solaris'. It was all too confusing, anyway, and she didn't stay fused for too long either.

But his influence over her was still there... the longing for destruction, the cunning and manipulation... her Cursed Emerald's flame would never glow the same...

"Never you mind how I know things~" she teased, fanning them away and disregarding her own sinister thoughts that she would push away. She was strong enough to resist whatever power was still infused in her emerald... she didn't care. She only wanted to use her power to protect those she cared about. The power would be used for nothing else, "Just come here and tell me what a great singer I was tonight..." she cupped his face, knowing he really did try everything to protect her in that other, erased timeline now. They kissed very sweetly, but he soon pulled her into a deeper, more passionate moment.

"You sang like a dark angel." he slowly moved over her, as she spread her back slowly against the stage's floor, letting him make his way over her. "Like a siren through the sea of lights..." She was feeling her heart rate escalate with the moment when...

Suddenly, a voice came from the rafters.

"Now, now, you two." The alluring woman's voice slyly added, "Play nice! After all, I'd hate to tell Shadow that when he sent me to look after you, that you and your new boyfriend —who he so graciously allowed for you to be with —were being naughty..."

Rouge's voice rang a thousand times in Ember's ears and mind when she pulled away from Manic and shook her fist in frustration. "SHHHADDDOWW!" she whined in disapproval, not liking that he sent Rouge to spy on her, still thinking her a child.

"Hmph!" she folded her arms, turning from Manic and pouting. "He still can't trust me!?"

Manic just laughed, "Ohhh, now I see the family resemblance!" he pointed to her frown and then clutched his head and stomach, belting out a hardy, but joyous cascade of laughter.

She couldn't help it, she may be imperfect but so was the rest of the world. She had a family... and no matter what twists in time or space was brought their way, they would always love each other, and want to spend time with one another.

That brought her peace. Love and family, imperfect people being perfect for each other.

She hugged Manic and laughed too, enjoying the moment with him, as Rouge smiled sweetly down to them and then flew off, giving them their alone time and space... since this was the timeline within this universe's space that they could do so... without any distractions or restraints~!

END.

[calliecat93]

RvB17 Episode 7 Review: Limbo

Time travel sucks. That's all I've got for an intro, it sucks. It's confusing and makes my brain hurt and... let's just get into this before I give myself a migraine.

Overview

We start where we left off, Huggins in what we can now confirm is the heart of a Black Hole. But she's not alone. Remember in S16 when Huggins mentioned that her parents were killed by a Black Hole? Well... they're alive! And named Gerald and Cheryl. So how are they and Huggins alive? Simple, they are light. Light is information, and you can't destroy information. They also ask where Huggins brother is, who as it turns out is Muggins. Weird that he only called her a friend last season, but hey I'll go with it. But the parents are confused as the rest of the universe should be there, and the only thing that could prevent that is some kind of time blockage. A paradox, if you will. Huggins realizes what this means and is told by her parents to go at light-speed to reach where she needs to be.

Back in Season 5, Sister is talking to Doc about how to deal with Tucker. Essentially, she plans on fucking with him for as long as possible. Doc is not happy about this since Tucker is still recovering... and the fact that it sounds outright nuts. Back with the others, well... we still have the whole 'Donut betrayed everyone' thing to deal with. Sarge wants to outright execute him for it. Wash points out that Donut tried to fix all of it, but it does little to help with Grif pretty coldly pointing out that Donut stole The Hammer. Of course, none of them know that Donut tried to use it himself, but they aren't really giving him the chance to explain either, so... oh and Caboose figured out how to Time Travel on his own, so he's gone at this point.

Tucker wakes up, and Sister proceeds to fuck with him in several ways while Doc just goes 'fuck this' and leaves. Back with Huggins, she arrives at Blood Gulch and is surprised by how shitty it looks. But no one is there as this was before the Reds and Blues were sent there, so she goes forward some more until she sees Caboose. At first, she thinks that he doesn't know what she means when she asks about the paradox... until Caboose explains that they did it to save Wash and how she got angry at Grif before flying off. So Huggins explains that essentially black holes make time loop, like a circle... just go with it people. Like me, Huggins is overwhelmed before asking Caboose if they can talk.

Back with the others, Tucker seems to have bought Sister's story and says goodbye to Doc. He goes to apologize to Donut for making fun of him and at this point utterly agitated by everyone, Donut does the 'how do you know x if you never met x' spiel to snap Tucker back to normal. What is surprising though is that this also snaps Doc back to normal, so we can confirm that he isn't dead. He does remember the S16 finale fight, and about how awesome it was. And it is listening to Doc recount those events that cause Donut to do what we have been waiting for him to do for so long now: tell everyone off.

Donut goes and finally, finally tells off everyone for how horribly that they have treated him. Sidelining him, belittling him, left him for dead, etc. And he doesn't hold back even a little. No innuendos. He fully curses, even dropping the F-bomb. He outright tells Carolina to shut up when she apologizes for breaking the universe. Yes, just told Carolina to shut up. Nd the best part? He calls his armor color pink when he mentions them making fun of him about it. Yes, no lightish-red people. He outright said pink, and he is owning it. And now, here we are after Donut died, tried to reunite with his friends, was the only one who gave a damn about saving time while everyone else fucked around, and then after his mistakes went out of his way to fix them, and what does he get? Sarge trying to suggest killing him with Shelia.

With all of that now said, Donut says that once he's explained how to time travel so that they can deal with Genkins, he's done. Everyone is left speechless and in shock, as Donut walks off. Wash tells them to go after him and to apologize immediately, which while they mumble about it, they all go off and do right away. Well... Sarge asks if they really can time travel first before Wash sends him on his way too. Hot damn, now that is how you end an episode.

Review

Okay.. so... I liked the episode, but God it's confused me so much. Let's get that part out of the way first.

Huggins being alive? Yeah, we all knew that at this point and her being made of light/information makes sense. I think most of us expected her parents to be alive after the last episode. They're... okay. You can see where Huggins gets her quirks form, but I think it's pretty clear that they've gone insane from being in the Black Hole for so long. They're mainly here for Huggins to find out how to go through time, which tbf Huggins did speculate about that in Episode 7 when debating her options on getting out of the 6th Century, so okay nice subtle foreshadowing. Muggins being Huggins brother, again, had little to no foreshadowing and comes off as weird since Muggins never referred to her as such, not even in his eulogy when he assumed her dead. He just called her 'friend'. IDK, that's very minor in the grand scheme of things.

But honestly this and Huggins other scenes just... has me confused. So... a black hole send her back to before the Big Bang? Yet her parents haven't tried to leave even though they can go through time? It kinda sounds like they were expecting Huggins so... maybe there's a reason? But this mainly makes me question the Everwhen and time travel. So... I assumed that the Everwhen was a simulation, but I guess not. It's legit the past. And Doc was also sent into it, even though he wasn't caught in the paradox. So how did Donut retain his memory? I know they said that he got brought back through Chrovos' essence, so is that why? How can the Reds and Blues shift through time when they haven't entered the Everwhen? Why was losing the Time Gun a big deal if they can just jump back to S16 Episode 14? How does a black hole causing time to loop make any sense at all? I just... I don't know anymore.

Okay... let's talk about something else that won't hurt my brain. Sister and Tucker... there's not much to talk about. Won't lie, I got a giggle out of the bizarre stories that Sister told Tucker just to fuck with him. My only real issue is that... didn't they resolve their issues at the end of S16? Then again I can see Sister still wanting some form of payback, so meh. Otherwise, no real opinion and I'm glad that we didn't drag out Tucker being out of the loop for too long. Donut just being so done with everything and going through the spiel as quickly as possible was definitely worth it. Oh and Doc is back... yeah calling it now, it's O'Malley pretending to be Doc. We saw that he can do it before in S16's finale...and depending on when he took over in S16 Episode 6. I could be wrong, but I don't know... I feel like something big is still waiting.

But enough of all that. Let us talk about Donut and the moment that we have all been waiting for. Now, I will say that the Reds anger over the betrayal is justified... somewhat. Sarge has zero room to talk considering his own actions in S15. Yeah, he did ultimately do the right thing and regret it, but he still did it and couldn't promise that he wouldn't again, so no fuck you, Sarge. You're great at speeches, but you have shit room to talk. Grif has far more justification in his reaction (helps that he wasn't threatening to kill Donut) because.. yeah if Donut didn't take The Hammer, they could have resolved this before anything happened. Mind you if none of them treated him like shit and outright called him 'an empty suit of armor' he may not have, but still Grif handled it pretty maturely I feel. And Simmons... actually he didn't do anything wrong and even asked Donut if he did save them all, so he's off the hook. My point is, yeah what Donut did was wrong, but remember why he did it: everyone treating him like shit. Sarge outright called him an empty suit of armor. Seriously man, what the Hell?

The reason that Donut's 'The Reason You Suck' Speech was so effective, aside from the previous buildup these past few episodes, is because... well, he's right. They mocked him about his pink armor, and even the standard Red one he had when he first showed up. They've always been nothing but annoyed and belittling of him. Sometimes it was justified, like when he showed up in S11 but send the pilot off. Other times, like Tucker asking why they would ever listen to him in S16 were just harsh. And yeah, in Recollection they did leave him for dead. Sure Simmons was concerned, but that didn't last long and none of them ever mentioned him or considered getting his body during S8 or S10 before they found him alive. There is plenty of canon evidence to support this, and it's something that fans have been pointing out for years. And even with the betrayal, the paradox is entirely on them, not Donut. They still chose to cause it, knowing full well what could happen, so they are just as responsible for their shit situation.

Yeah, Donut did betray the group and that was wrong. To some degree, he deserved being called out, hence why I'm more okay with Grif's reaction that Sarge being a hypocrite. And no, they don't know about Donut ultimately changing his mind and trying to stop Chrovos then and there, but was too late. But they weren't exactly allowing him to explain, as per usual, even with Wash backing him up. Which BTW, Thank God for Wash. He was fully on Donut's side, Donut didn't tell him to shut up when he apologized for the multiple shootings, and Wash immediately told the guys to go and apologize. It's the kind of support that Donut needs and I think the push form Wash, along with his own frustration, finally got him to stand up to the others and tell them off. But back to my point, Donut is justified in his anger. Donut is justified in wanting to leave once he's explained everything. If no one will ever give him any shred of decency or even let him explain how he tried to correct his mistakes, yet people like Wash and Sarge got forgiven with little argument, why the Hell should he stand by them?

Final Thoughts

This episode gave me a headache. I think it's so far my least favorite episode. But that being said, I can't call it bad. Huggins is alive, everyone (except Lopez) is back up to speed, and Donut finally, FINALLY got to tell everyone off for treating him like shit for so long. That moment alone made this episode a winner for me. What's going to happen now? Hell if I know, but I am ready for it! Migraine over time travel bullshit be damned!

[swirlingblackfog]

How Not to Write Horror; Down (Into the Dark)

As someone that spiraled down in into an unfathomable hole of depression that halted my want to keep writing, this is my general opinion piece on how Down (from Hulu’s Into the Dark series) ignited a fire in me to put it out there in the world.

Now, let me just say- writing is a terrible feat. You have to create a world people can escape to and believe in, while still making it interesting. Horror struggles a lot with this, in my opinion, due to the general nature of the genre. In the genre, you have to keep the main character close to danger in order to keep the movie going. Most of the time this results in a very overt plot-hole filler sweeping through the scene, such as:

Does anyone have service?

This cabin is miles away from civilization.

I broke my phone!

My battery just died!

Aside from writing about the horror of technology itself, it’s very hard to write around this in the modern day. Take a look at movies/books like Gerald’s Game: they had to literally tie down a woman in order to avoid that plot hole.

Despite the swelling of horror and crime podcasts, I would like to just let everyone know: we probably live in the safest time ever.

As someone that can barely get out a single blog post, this isn’t me hating on Down. This is just me expressing my opinions about some holes I poked at and saw through in the directing/ screen play writing in a stream-only movie on Hulu that my sister recommended to me and nobody has really seen. Low-hanging fruit? Definitely.

And imagine, in a world where I had a few beers before watching this movie, this post on my blog that absolutely no one follows would have never existed. Can you imagine a world like that?

For a long time horror fan and daughter of my mother, the person who cried “he’s a ghost!” 30 minutes before the big reveal in Sixth Sense, one could say I have a... great nose for foreshadowing. See what I did there?

And now for what no one came here for: a plot synopsis!

Down follows Jennifer Robbins and “Guy” as they get stuck in an elevator late at night on President’s Day Weekend. The day that they get stuck in the elevator is also Valentine’s Day. They hit it off, drink a bottle of wine that Guy landed as a hot-shot attorney or whatever and hey! they end up having sex. Afterwards, Guy is very affectionate towards Jennifer and she rebuffs him (gasp!) as she was actually planning on catching a flight to see her ex and get back together that night.

Guy then reveals that he is actually JOHN DEAKINS, head of security. He is in love with her and actually force stopped the elevator to seduce her into falling in love with him too. She freaks out (obviously) and says she’s gonna call the cops on him. He’s been to prison before and he ain’t going back, he says, so he promises to restart the elevator if she doesn’t call the cops. He puts the key in, they fight and she ends up kicking the key and breaking it.

They now both freak out, several more fights ensure. Jennifer lands directly on her head like eighteen times. I forget a lot about the dynamics of this part to be honest. But the movie ends with another security guard trying to save them. He gets killed by John (by, you guessed it, being crushed in elevator doors)! And then John drives out to a dumpster to burn Jennifer’s Body (Hi Diablo Cody, I love you) and then she comes back to life, surprisingly, and murders him.

HOKAY. So, you’re probably not here anymore if you haven’t already seen the movie, so congrats. I normally give up on these things when it comes to plot-synopsis.

The main and most infuriating part of this movie is the plot is set in stone and the characters fall victim to it. It doesn’t work in a horror movie that doesn’t involve fate or curses. This is a non-magical, no-destination-is-final type of movie. This whole plot is all firmly rooted in reality. And I feel like that’s where it falters, dramatically.

There’s a scene that I purposefully didn’t mention in my synopsis because I wanted to really explain in. After Guy turns into John and the key turns into broken, Jennifer and John discover a hole in the top of the elevator meant for maintenance. Neither one can reach it on their own. John tells Jennifer to kneel down so he can climb on her and go up to the top and go get the elevator running.

To Jennifer’s credit, she makes a convincing argument to go up first, saying that she’s lighter and she can climb up to the next floor easier and she DEFINITELY (WINK) won’t strand him in the elevator and call the cops. John agrees and boosts Jennifer up.

JENNIFER. THEN. DOES. THE STUPIDEST FUCKING THING I’VE EVER SEEN A CHARACTER IN A HORROR MOVIE DO IN ALL MY LIFE.

She gets out of the elevator and immediately turns around and FLIPS. JOHN. OFF.

If the point is to escape in a cunning way, this is the worst route to follow. This is driving off a fucking cliff.

This results in John lifting himself up out of the hole to chase her through and eventually pull her back DOWN (gasp) to the elevator. She falls a floor and magically wakes up to live another 45 minutes to an hour.

So, this is the instance where a pivotal turn in character direction is not set forward by her/ her defiant personality. It’s the only feasible way this screen play writer could have written himself out of a corner. Isn’t John the one who is reckless and flies off the handle easily? Why couldn’t have he just gotten really paranoid and chased after her regardless of her reaction? Does her flipping him off add tension? Why am I even bothering to write about this?

In contrast, there’s a better way to go about writing like this- technology is not without its faults, but it’s reliable. You know what isn’t reliable? People.

In another movie I watched recently, Unsane, the writing made the maze a lot harder to navigate in a sensible way. The protagonist is unwillingly committed into a facility for rehabilitation and mental health and realizes her stalker has come to the facility as a worker as well.

In this case, no one around her trusts her- no one knows her, and she’s a place that’s filled with those struggling with their mental health. So the key relies in persuasion and maintaining her cool around her biggest nightmare.

Now, back to Down, let’s talk shop- what if, instead of the elevator being broken and them having to find a way out, the other security guard comes in and doesn’t rush to save them because John is a good guy and hey-- Jennifer already missed her flight and she already peed in the elevator. Jennifer tells him the truth about what’s going on and he doesn’t believe her.

It’s not noble-prize worthy writing, but I think that instead of driving the characters to do stupid things, you should maybe make the inherent flaws of people and the insidious nature of acquaintances the driving force behind the escape gates pushing away.

The best horror movies to me always lie in the truth. I don’t believe for a minute that anyone would formulate a whole plan to keep me trapped in a elevator to fall in love with them. I do, however, spend a lot of my waking hours wondering about what I would do in situations where no one would believe me or trust me when something bad was happening. I worry about the true nature of people. I think that’s a lot more believe-able and powerful.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to be so invested in the goddamn plot, but it bothered me enough to plug away in this text box.

[oh-my-otome]

I absolutely adore your thoughts on the psychological health within the SLBP characters! If you don’t mind, could you scale MidC, DtL, and IkeSen (pick whichever game you want!), too? If it’s not too much to ask ☺️

Hello, Precious! Let’s do all three!

Again, purely for fun! And, like the last time, there will be SPOILERS!

0=unstable, 50=borderline, 100=normal

MidCin, you’re up!

Louis (65):

Tsunderes, kuuderes and yanderes, by design, are not normal to begin with, because their logic only makes sense to themselves. 

Louis being both a kuudere and a yandere are what take his score down.

Frequently thinking it to himself, and sometimes saying it out loud, Louis has obsessive thoughts about wanting to keep his love interest to himself, and fantasizes about keeping her somewhere where only he can see.

He also thinks that acting like a frigid ass, like the nobles, will somehow save her from the nobles. 

Even though Louis falls deeply in love with the princess, he will also lie to her face without a hint of hesitation, undermine her hard work, and jeopardize the stability of the monarchy.

He also entertains a suicidal fantasy, and attempts to see it through.

Sid (80):

Even though he lies for a living, Sid praises honesty when it comes to his inner circle.

He has no qualms teasing Louis left and right, because he’s made it known to Louis that he wants to save him from himself. 

Finding himself trapped in a loveless engagement, Sid makes sure that his fiancée knows ahead of time that he doesn’t love her and never will. He gives her the chance to break it off, even making sure that she understands that he will take other lovers, and is only with her to get information about her father.

Because Sid always has to be “on,” in order to take advantage of any kind of situation, so that he gets the information he needs to do his job, Sid sometimes has a problem with reigning it in and just being himself– and not his trickster alter ego.

This causes communication problems between him and princess, but Sid always knows how to smooth it over.

In every case where parents are involved, in MidCin, Sid has the most positive and supporting relationship with his. 

He is close to his adopted father, who always has his back, and builds a positive relationship with his estranged parents.

Giles (70):

Anything– and I do mean A N Y T H I N G ! –that the princess does, whether positive or negative reflects on Giles. And I mean that the princess’ reactions reflect on Giles as a person and on his capacity as a Chamberlain who knows what he’s doing. 

We all give him crap for it, but one small mishap from princess could realistically cost Giles his entire life’s work, since the first thing out of anyone’s mouth would be to question why she wasn’t taught and trained better– which isn’t Leo’s job, but Giles’.

And “well, I told her not to!” isn’t a valid answer. It’s Giles’ job to ensure.

Understandably, we can see why he has a vested interest in breathing down Princess’ neck, all the time. It’s also why he’s always so stressed out, and persnickety.

To add to that, his family life is complicated, leaving him depressed and estranged. 

Giles is also sickly, and prone to bouts of fever, so his plate is quite full.

He works himself to the bone, and cant even get a decent amount of rest due to both lack of time, and a weak body.

Fortunately, Giles’ strong character keeps him running, even we he wants nothing more than to crawl into bed and cuddle up with his cat. 

Always able to be depended on, one would never know from looking at him that he’s hiding so much turmoil inside.

Alyn (75):

His biggest “quirk” is that he hates tomatoes. who can blame him

He’s pretty damn normal, aside from his random and intense one-sided feud with his twin brother, Leo. 

Alyn knows that his brother needs help, but doesn’t really do much to facilitate that, beyond throwing a few words of encouragement at his brother’s girlfriend.

His attitude toward Leo’s anguish is basically the embodiment of the phrase: “like pouring water on a drowning man.”

However, when he’s needed, Alyn will be there in a pinch, ready to make good on his promise to protect.

Although physically strong, he can be a bit of a pushover under the right conditions.

Leo (50):

You would think for someone who has women climbing into trebuchets in order to launch themselves at him, that Leo would be a little smoother than he is. 

What brings his score down so low is that Leo’s backstory isn’t just a backstory– it’s right there with him in the present. 

He (and Alyn) experience a trauma so deep that it continues into adulthood.

As such, Leo entertains the dangerous idea of pre-meditated murder in the hope of avenging his family, not realizing that he’s also contributing to its destruction.

Byron (65):

It’s supposed to be looked at as a way to get to know him, but not being aware of one’s own feelings– positive, negative, or neutral –and questioning whether it is “okay” to feel them, or express them, is neither normal nor cute.

Byron is also given to whims, either not giving a damn at all what the nobles say, or purposefully putting them in their place with ostentatious displays of affection.

Byron is very sweet to his romantic interest, but is also coldly indifferent to others who are close to him. 

He understands that he wields incredible power, but he’s not above making his own brother (Nico), another king (Alyn), and a close friend (Louis) essentially beg on their hands and knees before he’ll lift a finger to help them.

He can also be unnervingly detached, such as when he’s attacked in broad daylight and just shrugs it off while his best friend throws himself bodily in the way to block a sword.

Byron may not like his father, but the apple didn’t exactly fall far from the tree, either. 

They may not be exactly alike, as one wouldn’t expect them to be– they’re two different people –but he is definitely Gerald Wagner’s son, by blood and to some extent, personality.

Nico (65):

When the only thing that stops you from murdering a man in the middle of the woods is that your brother and his friend arrived just in time to prevent it, because they didn’t have much trouble following the trail of other people’s blood that you’ve been leaving, have a seat because you’re not normal.

Nico started out his young life as the bastard son of a king, who was forced by circumstances outside of his control to survive on the streets. 

Even when he was taken in by his brother, Nico was forced to live in two different worlds: in the light as someone that everyone in the castle can see and here, and know that he’s there, but also in the shadows, as his relationship to the royal family was still kept secret.

In that sense, the sins of the father were carried on by one of his sons, Byron, who wanted to rescue his brother, but also treated him to some extent like the nobles who had chased Nico and his mother from the castle.

Nico says himself that no one really takes him seriously about anything, and that his opinions don’t matter. 

Albert is very comfortable with making Nico his whipping boy right in front of Byron.

Byron, for his part, barely ever defends his brother.

All of this can’t be easy for Nico, who confesses to the first person he crushes on.

Not only that, he goes way out of his way, almost killing himself, to protect the person who truly loves him, and risks displacing a monarchy to ensure that he can maintain his relationship.

Albert (75):

Albert’s flippant nature stems from the fact that no one’s checked his ass, before Princess. 

If not for her, he would continue on forever, bowing and scraping before his king, without realizing that there can be loyalty beyond fealty, and devotion that transcends admiration and patriotism.

Through love, Albert comes to understand trust and forgiveness, and how to handle one’s emotions.

Albert likes to plan for every situation, but as a tsundere, he is also reactionary.

Robert (65):

Robert’s idea of dealing with the past is never talking about it, ever, which is neither helpful nor healthy.

He also likes to literally run away from his problems, and is just fine with up and leaving at a moment’s notice, with no regard for how that might potentially unnerve, frighten, or traumatize another person– in his case, a group of four specific individuals, all still technically children, who were close to him: Byron, Albert, Nico, and Princess.

While mature in every other regard, Robert is prone to lashing out verbally when people try to talk about his past, even in private. 

He also uses stone walling and pretending the incident didn’t happen, as defense mechanisms.

He will also actively ignore any past connections until doing otherwise suits his purposes, leaving the people he used to know in the awkward position of having to guess at whether they’re supposed to try to reach out to him, or go along with acting like strangers.

Now for DtL!

Todo (30):

Todo, first name Heisuke, is the identical twin of Kyo. 

Separated at birth, Todo grew up as the wealthy little lord (bocchama) of a crime-ridden family. 

At some point, that house fell, and Todo would frequently dream that was in a futuristic place.

In one dream, he discovered that he had a twin, Kyo. 

In his dreams, Todo would visit his brother regularly, and that’s when he realized that it wasn’t a dream at all!

Todo possesses the ability to travel across time, backwards and forwards, without restriction– and what he was seeing in his “dreams” was actually real.

Oh, and he’s also a pathokinetic empath who can control the emotions and physical well-being of others, most notably, Kyo.

Apparently, the knowledge that one has powers such as these will mess a person right up, and Todo proceeds to lose his damn mind.

Because time means nothing to him, death and life also mean nothing to him, since all he would have to do is press fast forward or rewind or whatever he does, and “fix” everything. 

It would also mean, if he chose to, he could go forward in time and know everything.

Living in an era where superstitions are still deeply rooted in the culture, Todo oscillates between understanding that Kyo is a completely separate person from himself, and thinking that Kyo is literally a part of him that was split off.

Kyo (70):

Pretty normal until he takes his NOTICE ME, SENPAI! act straight into outright threatening others to stay away from the woman he’s crushing on.

He is skeptical and hard-working.

Handsy, clingy and uncomfortably honest when drunk, Kyo is otherwise a good-natured person who enjoys helping others.

Yamazaki (85):

Yamazaki is as popular with the ladies as any other ikemen, but he is also insecure and occasionally distrusting of other’s intentions, particularly around women in the RLD, whom he suspects want to use him (he’s half-right).

He also lets Okita get away with far too much, but he also possesses the power to lay Okita out like a picnic blanket, if he wanted to, so maybe it’s a good thing that Yamazaki chooses to let so many of Okita’s shenanigans slide.

An unrepentant hand fetishist, Yamazaki may look and act innocent, but he’s a beast in the bedroom.

Saito (80):

Saito is secretive and mysterious, but also kind and helpful. 

He always keeps his promises, and trains his MC in self-defense so that she has an added layer of protection in an unfamiliar place, beyond ‘I know a bunch of samurai, so don’t mess with me.’

However, he can also be distant and secretive in a negative way, such as getting himself a fiancée when he’s still in love with his MC. 

Haru/Kirisato (45):

That moment when the year is 1864 and The Silence of the Lambs novel won’t be published until 124 years later, and you’re talking about someone else’s skin belonging to you– while being completely, creepily serious –is how you know you’re not normal and never will be.

That and the fact that he’s very firmly in yandere territory. 

Haru lives a double life as a spy, hitman, and courtesan, who seems to be keeping it all together, until he meets his love interest.

Keiki (60):

Not only does Keiki start out depressed, his own MC makes sure that he can barely climb his way back out, by actively traumatizing him when he needed her the most.

Keiki still carries the pain of watching a friend die in front of him, and as such, dislikes anything that reminds him that beauty– like life –is fleeting.

He is also surprisingly trusting, once he lets his guard down, and very fragile once his trust has been broken.

Kondo (90):

His biggest flaw is that he has no sense of direction, and that he loves animals, but they don’t love him,  AND THAT HE DOESN’T HAVE A ROUTE!

Sakamoto (85):

Stubborn and brusque, Sakamoto has a preternatural intuition that has saved him and The Exclusionists more than once.

Too bad it didn’t help in that alley!

Sakamoto is typically chased down and pestered by women, and to that end tries to make himself inconspicuous as much as possible, which is easy to do when you have flaming red hair.

He is thick-headed, but also sensitive, playful but considerate.

Okubo (85):

A graduate of the Byron Wagner School for Robots, Okubo doesn’t know what love is, but wants you to show him. 

But look out, because he is chock full of naughty kinks, such as being a very frisky and bold drunk, playing footsie, an unashamed ear kissing and biting fetish, and dominating during sex.

Okubo is very observant when he’s not reading at the speed of light, and his anger is prone to his whims– sometimes he briefly says what is bothering him, and other times he is quite angsty and demanding.

Although he often vague, he is a sincere person.

He is also forgetful, and has no qualms about mooching off of others.

Katsura (90):

Energetic and suave, calculating and capable, Katsura is surprisingly sensitive. 

Unable to leave others alone when they need him, he even goes so far as to politely ignore the fact that his former friend’s wife has been coming on to him for years, all because he doesn’t know how to say ‘no,’ without hurting her feelings.

Comfortably open about his hair fetish.

Okita (55):

Okita manages to be both gullible and naïve, which are not mutually exclusive.

His score is low because he is a yandere. He doesn’t find it odd in the slightest that the first thing to pop into in his mind is orchestrating another man’s death, rather than explaining the situation.

Because of his illness, Okita is understandably depressed and anxious, causing him to react to situations in ways that a healthy person wouldn’t.

He is also intensely loyal, and finds that a life spent living without the people he’s close to, is no life at all.

Hijikata (75):

Hijikata likes to take on more than he can chew, but at the same time, doing exactly that frustrates him. He’s super stressed, but finds it difficult to say no.

Like his real-life counterpart, Hijikata believes that someone must go down with the ship, and he has sworn undying loyalty to the Shinsengumi and the shogun, alike.

Because of his workload, and the fact that he is a light sleeper, Hijikata spends his days running on fumes, barely able to get any shut-eye, until he finds his MC.

Although his devotion to Kondo and Keiki is unshakable, Hijikata folds like a cheap suit when Kyo slides up to him and tells him to break up with his MC.

Doesn’t give a damn about anyone knowing that he likes women’s accessories, and wants to dress Yamazaki in women’s clothes.  

Yuki (90):

Gender-fluid, bi-sexual Yuki is almost always bubbly and positive. 

However, he is not above threatening others when he sees the need, as he doesn’t take kindly at all to having to watch the woman he likes be with a man whom he feels doesn’t deserve her.

His kimono shop is a legitimate business, but also a front where one can buy guns, swords and yes– smoke bombs!

He sometimes pretends to be drunk to get information, or further the romance of his love interest and her chosen partner.

He is stronger than Hijikata and Sakamoto. Combined. 

Yuki also has sword skills that make Saito weep.

Takasugi (55):

Retroactively forced into the kuudere box, Takasugi is now a kuu/tsun mix of volatile angst and depression, often using silence as a weapon just as much as his angry retorts.

Takasugi knows that his illness is getting the best of him, and uses others where he cannot succeed on his own.

Stubborn and prideful, Takasugi just wants to be loved, but doesn’t know how to be straightforward about it.

Your turn, IkeSen!

Nobunaga (75):

Nobunaga has inexhaustible trust and faith in his inner circle, and rather than treat them like lesser lords, he treats them like family.

Even as an adult, he still experiences the trauma of a failed assassination attempt, and cannot sleep comfortable until he meets his MC.

He is stubborn about his feelings, denying them and excusing them away, until they become so blatant that he can’t help but act on them.

Ieyasu (55):

Hard-headed and resistant, Ieyasu has a hard time letting others care for him. Quick to try to prove himself, Ieyasu is prove to bouts of seeking vengeance even when the situation is in control.

Obsessed with affirmations of love, Ieyasu is several different dere-types, most notably a yandere. 

He takes it personally when people have talent, but squander it.

Hideyoshi (60):

Loyal to the death, Hideyoshi is devoted to Nobunaga with every fiber of his being. 

When Nobunaga is believed dead, Hideyoshi proceeds nose dive into a pit of despair so deep that he can barely feel anything.

Mitsuhide (75):

Genuinely believing that there is nothing worth loving about him, Mitsuhide is a sadodere who enjoys teasing others– the closest thing to love that he thinks he’s allowed to have.

Because Mitsuhide keeps his feelings and secrets close to his chest, he is often mistaken as a villain, which exactly what he wants.

Mitsunari (80):

Obtuse and clueless, Mitsunari lovable and pure.

His score is lowered because he actively refuses, at his age, to learn to take care of himself, and has a co-dependent relationship with the other warlords, who merely joke or chastise him about it, rather than taking him aside and demanding that he get himself together, since he is in no capacity a child.

Kennyo (55):

Self-loathing, and chock full of martyr complex, Kennyo goes from murdering madman to regretful, forlorn monk at the speed of light.

His determination to see Nobunaga fall blinds him to the fact that he has other options such as forgiveness.

Shingen (90):

Laid back and chivalrous, Shingen is mature, and dependable to those in his inner circle.

He keeps his illness a secret, which is a personal choice.

Kenshin (50):

A yandere bent on keeping those close to him, Kenshin honestly believes that he cannot die. 

The first thing out of Kenshin’s mouth is that he won’t be cowed by a hostage, but the next time you turn around, he’s wrapping himself all kinds of ways around his MC’s (hostage) finger, the better to acquiesce to her every request.

As such, Kenshin experiences the cognitive dissonance of presenting himself one way, but behaving another.

Even knowing that that is how others see him, he is quick to defend himself when made fun of, as he doesn’t like his good intentions joked about.

Battle hungry and single-minded, Kenshin is often in the grip of ennui so strong that only extreme circumstances can pull him out.

Yukimura (70):

The only thing that brings Yukimura’s score down so low is his penchant for joking even when his MC has said she’s had enough, and the act that he’s extremely reactionary under the right circumstances, such as having sex on an unprotected battlefield and leaving his love interest there, deep asleep, with no shelter or anyone/thing to keep her safe.

Masamune (75):

Quixotic and capricious, Masamune is always raring to battle. He is preoccupied with appearing cool at any cost, but is also considerate and thoughtful.

His stubbornness is what cost him a higher score, as he contributes to his MC almost killing a man to prove herself, before he realizes that prattling about his own resolve has an effect on others’.

Sasuke (80):

Sasuke is incredibly smart, but he’s also a bit of a masochist, on top of being a huge fanboy.

He also subscribes to taking forever to notice/confess his feelings, but he is extremely loyal, and down-to-earth.

[hailey-halstead]

Pizza

hi guys!! another story😁 this was the laura one, actually longer than planned. Inserted Sylvie in the story :-) hope you enjoy! I don't own anything Also I completely made up Laura's boyfriend's name FOREVER ago, picked Gerald because I thought that was a rich old guy sort of name lol —————— Laura fumbled with her keys as she held the box of pizza in her other hand. She was not planning on her night turning out this way. Her and Gerald had dinner plans, but he had to cancel last minute because there was an issue with one of his clients. She had told Diego and Eva to eat leftovers for dinner, but since she was now going to be home for the night, she picked up pizza. "Mom?" Eva was on the couch, some fashion magazine on her lap. Next to her was Diego, playing on his phone. Laura bet he was playing his ridiculous chess app that he has been obsessed with these past couple of weeks. "Surprise!" Laura held up the pizza. "Pepperoni pizza, your favorite." "I'm a vegetarian now. Don't you remember?" Eva frowned. Laura backtracked, trying to recall that memory. But she didn't remember her daughter telling her this information. "Well, you can pick the pepperoni off." "I'm not hungry." Eva returned her attention back to her magazine, flipping to the next page. "How about a thank you, mom? How thoughtful of you?" Laura was already disappointed by not getting to have her fancy dinner, she didn't want to deal with her inconsiderate children. Eva flung the magazine across the room in anger. "How thoughtful of you?" She had the audacity to sneer out. "You only got us that pizza because your dinner with your precious boyfriend got cancelled. If it wasn't for Sylvie and Dad saving us with Chinese, we would of had leftovers for the fifth time this week—" Laura felt like she was just slapped in the face. Didn't she just make spaghetti a couple days ago? If her children were so upset, why didn't they tell her about it. But her mind also wondered about the woman's name Eva had said along with her father's. "Who's Sylvie?" "Of course you would be interested now." Eva scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. "Of course." "What do you mean by that?" Laura mimicked Eva's action, feeling defensive. "That once you feel threatened by another woman, you are going to go back to being a perfect mom." She spat out. "I still have no idea who this Sylvie is—" "Dad's girlfriend." She finally answered her. "Maybe if you talked to us more you would know. They've been dating for like months." "Eva, I am trying the best I can—" "Mom, I love you." Eva interrupted her. "But that's bullshit." "Eva Marie!" But Eva ignored her, heading towards her bedroom and making sure she slammed the door behind her. Laura was frozen. She wasn't expecting that blowup at all. Yes, she hadn't been as into her children's lives as of late, but that is usually what happens when your kids get older. Hell, Antonio is extremely busy and doesn't see Eva and Diego that much, but they aren't acting like he is the worst parent in the world. What did she do wrong? She placed the pizza on the kitchen table, deciding to approach her son. He hadn't spoken a word since she had gotten home, she couldn't even recall if he had looked up at her. "Diego?" She spoke, sitting down on the couch next to him. "Do you want pizza?" He finally recognized her presence, putting his phone down on his lap. "No thanks." He responded, picking up his phone again. Before she could get too disappointed, he stopped, turning his attention back to her. "Do you want to play my chess game?" Unlike his sister, who was just as open emotionally as her father, Diego kept his feelings to himself. That being said, Laura still knew that he actually took the divorce harder than Eva did. Yes, it has been a couple of years since the split, but she knew that he still held it against her that she was the one who made them leave Antonio. "Sorry, I don't know how to play." She apologized, but reached out for his phone. "But I bet I could learn." "No!" Diego yelped, grabbing his phone back. Laura flinched, not expecting his reaction. "Sorry. It's just you would mess up my game, you know." "Yeah, I know." Laura sighed, her hand instinctively reaching up to run her fingers through his hair. "Is this okay?" She asked cautiously, not wanting to scare him off. Has her family been this fragile lately? But when Diego leaned his head against her shoulder, she began to feel the slightest bit of hope enter her heart. *** Can you pick me up? was what the text read. Sylvie had asked her why, but Eva didn't respond. Her and Antonio had only seen the kids hours prior, so Sylvie wondered what was up to cause Eva to want to be taken to Antonio's apartment. Or wherever she wanted to go, as the teenager was being incredibly vague. Sylvie couldn't even discuss to Antonio about Eva's text, as he went out for drinks with members of Intelligence. Well, she could just shoot him a text, but unless it was a dire emergency then she didn't want to bother him. Sylvie pulled into the driveway, debating if she should just text Eva that she was here or to go knock on the door. When she remembered that Diego was home too, she decided to step out of her car and head to the house. Diego couldn't be left home alone, he probably thought he could but definitely with it being ten at night that wouldn't be a good decision. She knocked on the door, expecting either Diego or Eva to answer. Laura was out to eat with her boyfriend, and wasn't going to home till midnight. That's why they had texted Antonio asking for dinner. He had actually then wanted to have them come over, but they knew that he was planning on going out with friends, so they had refused. But when the door flew open, Diego or Eva were not on the other side. "Yes?" Laura Dawson spoke, giving Sylvie a confused look. "Is there something you need?" Sylvie cleared her throat, trying to bring herself together. Why didn't Eva mention that her mom was home? Sylvie couldn't resist looking back at the driveway, where in fact another car was parked. Huh. She should have noticed that. "Um, I got a text from Eva, actually..." Sylvie begun to explain, as Laura became even more confused. She stopped talking, realizing that she needed to take a different approach. She decided to introduce herself. "Sorry, you probably don't know who I am." She nervously laughed. "I'm Sylvie, Sylvie Brett." "Oh." Was all that Laura said, staring at Sylvie with indistinguishable expression on her face. Silence overtook their conversation, each woman uncomfortably waiting for the other to begin speaking. Sylvie was debating about running to her car and hightail it back to Antonio's place, pretending that this incident never happened. But then Laura opened her mouth. "Do you want to come in?" She offered, stepping back from the door. Sylvie nodded, knowing she had to accept, saying a grateful "thank you" as she stepped in the house. Sylvie couldn't say she was surprised when she spotted Diego in the same exact spot that he was in earlier. "Still playing chess?" She called out to him in greeting. Diego's head shot up, and gave Sylvie a huge smile. After their first couple underwhelming meetings, he was actually starting to open up to her. "Just beat this really tough player." He updated her, actually putting his phone down on his lap. Even more improvement. "Not as tough as me, right?" She joked, which made Diego laugh. "Nope." He shook his head. "What does Eva need from you?" Laura pulled her attention back to her. She didn't seem accusatory, only curious. "Um, she wanted me to pick her up." She confessed, feeling bad at her bluntness when a pained expression appeared on Laura's face. But it disappeared shortly after, replaced with a tight smile. She was certainly better with her facial expressions, Sylvie noted. "She didn't tell me that." "I could go, I don't want to get in the way—" The opening of a bedroom door caused Sylvie to trail off. Eva bounded out of the bedroom, a bag flung over her shoulder. "Sylvie!" She threw her arms over her shoulders. Sylvie stood there like a tree, shocked by Eva's action. She had never hugged her before. It seemed like a lifetime, but Eva finally untangled herself from Sylvie. Sylvie made sure not to make eye contact with Laura, not wanting to see her reaction to her daughter throwing herself into her ex-husband's girlfriend's arms. This situation was already awkward enough. "You ready to go?" Eva questioned, either completely oblivious to the tension in the room or just ignoring it in a typical teenage fashion. "Your mom is here though..." Sylvie pointed out, not wanting to insert herself in whatever was going on here, but also not wanting to completely ignore Laura's own authority. "It's fine." Laura waved them off, that forced smile still on her face. "I'll see you tomorrow, right Eva?" "Sure." Eva gave her mother almost the same exact smile. There was clearly something going on here, and Sylvie bet if she wasn't here right now there would be a screaming match. "If you're home." Laura gritted her teeth, and Sylvie was sure she was going to explode, but she somehow maintained her composure. "I will be. Gerald will be here as well, a family dinner." "Sounds amazing." Eva had the audacity to sarcastically tell her mother. Sylvie's eyes had widened immensely as she watched the mother-daughter exchange, surely expecting now for Laura to snap. If she had talked to her own mother like that, she would have been slapped. "Well then." Was Laura's short reply, practically seething. She turned towards Sylvie. "It was nice to meet you." "Yeah, it was nice to meet you too." Sylvie's eyes followed Eva's movement as she left the house, not even telling her mom goodbye. "Um, I'll drop her off tomorrow, or maybe Antonio will...." She trailed off, not knowing what else to say. "Thank you." "You're welcome." She remembered Diego on the couch. "Bye, Diego." She called out to him. "Bye, Sylvie." He responded, not looking up from his phone. Sylvie stepped out on the porch, noticing that Eva was in the front seat. She let out a sigh, knowing that once she got in the car the teenager would be going off on a rant about her mother.