#finished the rough draft for Ch 2 but I still need to edit Ch 2 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

cutegirlmayra · 4 years ago

Text

Commission Receipt: Soler’s Story Ch. 2

@solerwolf21 once again returned to have a part 1′er of the next chapter, it was very fun to work on and I’m glad I got the opportunity to have his Sonic OC Soler shine again!

Time: After a brief discussion about what story elements he wanted and what plot points were to be addressed in this chapter, I began work and development on the story. It took only a day to write out a basic plot which he requested to see and approved. Then it took a few months for the completion and editing.

Review: @solerwolf21 - First, yes I have read it and not gonna lie there were at least two to three times I was scared for (how) things were going (to) go lol. I was too scared for Soler and Sally’s relationship and Shay was terrifying and his mom was wonderous and pops is cold. I also enjoyed the hints of depth behind certain actions or things said like Sally stopping Soler from making a promise, or Shadow’s lack of insight on familial ties, really good touches. Overall great work! Also I love love love the characterization! The contrast of thought of how Soler handles situations compared to Sally, Shadow, and his retrospective on Soler. Heck their whole relationship as a whole and its evolution. I just loved Shadow in this so so much.

Paid amount: After deciding on a price, I was surprised to find that he actually paid for more in the end! I was really touched, and at first, worried he may have overspent and contacted him to alert him of the situation. He told me he put in more and so I gave him more, it was around 50$, and I’m very grateful that he enjoyed the story! It was fun to write for him again!

With permission from the customer, here is the rough draft of the finished product for your viewing pleasures:

Soler's Sequel: Chaos Panic.

Ch. 2

A story for Solerwolf21!

By: Cutegirlmayra

New Mobotroplis was centered with a bright, yellowish castle for the Acorn's to rule in peace, but nowadays, it is a military fortress for the headquarters of the Freedom Fighters.

It's princess, Sally Acorn, continued to lead the Freedom Fighters time and again against the Eggman Empire, who threatened to destroy all organic things into robotic slaves for his mad ambitions of power and control.

However, Eggman's forces began to grow and increase in unspeakable ways... a new ally had aligned themselves to Eggman, choosing to be on the power-hungry side that seemed to be winning, instead of freedom-bound heroes. These heroes wouldn't cease in doing good, fighting for those who couldn't, and protecting all Mobians from certain peril and robotization.

Sally carefully counted inside the freedom force's food storage warehouse facility, tapping her pen in the air as she went through each box and marked to check off each category on her clipboard. "There!" she giddily swiped the last check mark onto it's corresponding box. "After this hostage rescue, we should have enough supplies to keep them well fed for a few months or so. At least until our next harvest and supply run." She nodded to herself until she heard an alarm go off. "Huh?"

Turning to see Rotor waving for her outside, she felt her anxiety spike and quickly ran back out as the large, almost barn-like doors began to automatically close behind her.

"What's going on?" She inquired, her voice sounding serious and her eyes showing the leadership fixed in them like a fire lit on the spot.

"Nothing." Rotor calmed her, letting her know it wasn't that serious. Still, it put Sally on edge, and she had to calm herself into a gentler state of mind again.

"Go on." After a short breath, she straightened out and loosened up a bit. Though, the tension in her muscles seemed to be unending... such was the life of a benevolent ruler in times of war.

"Soler set off another security alarm again," Rotor chuckled, noticing her demeanor had returned to being somewhat normal, for now. "He's training with his power again... he used to go so far out of our radar that he'd be gone for a few days or so, training remotely. Now? He doesn't mind just blasting his power all over the place without a single thought!" Rotor lifted up his arms and shook them about, but the action only made Sally smile.

It was true that Soler had a hard time training within New Mobotroplis. He was constantly in panic that he'd do something wrong, or hurt someone... It took a lot of time for him to trust himself, but Sally was glad to hold his hand through it all.

She was happy he was comfortable around everyone now, but still worried about their alarms...

"He's just so used to controlling them now, he's not as afraid to use them as he was before." Sally was still mostly glad, he was showing some confidence, and that meant that everyone's efforts for him to feel included within the Freedom Fighters had not failed in fail. He was slowly coming out more, being more lively and talkative. He was still somewhat lazy, but at least he was lazy with others now... Though, she was upset that he was triggering off their alarms so frequently. Poor Nicole...

"I'll go talk to him."

"You know, he hangs around a lot more because of you." Rotor gave her a sly look and put his hands on his hips, "I'll get back to my equipment inspections but,... Something tells me there's more going on between you two then just causal dating..."

Her face turned a little brighter, but she batted his prying away, "Dating is dating, don't make unnecessary assumptions!" she didn't like her values being questioned, but it was true that Soler had been hanging around a lot closer to base lately...

She had just never supposed it could have been because... because of how close they had gotten to one another.

"I wasn't saying that, but it's interesting that that's what you thought. I wouldn't dream of it!" Rotor shook his hands out with a goofy grin on his face, teasing her. "I just meant... maybe you two are more committed than you think?"

"Alright, enough teasing." Sally pushed her finger against his nose to move his face out from trying to read her own. "I'll go check on him. Which way?"

"The little chaos engine is southward." he pointed behind him. "Turn just a little west, and good luck!" He laughed, clutching his belly and swinging his leg up a moment to really give his teasing a good kick into Sally's pride. "He's letting all the new recruit's legends and stories about him get to his head!"

"L-legends?" A bead of sweat trailed down from her forehead, but she wiped it off, trying not to worry. "I'll see what the fuss is all about."

"Just his popularity, that's all." Rotor waved her off, moving on and placing a leisurely hand by his tool belt. "Try and stay calm, Sal. It's better for your health!"

"Not in these times..."

As she made her way towards where Soler usually trained nowadays, she stopped in a jolt. "Oh, wait!"

She remembered something and quickly turned to Rotor, seeing he had already moved quite a bit aways from her. "Really, quick!" she ran back and placed a hand on her friend's shoulder, grabbing his attention again as he turned to look at her curiously. "For the night operation... the village is covered in dense fog, correct?"

"Very much so." Rotor confirmed. "Make sure your operation is covert. We can't have anyone disappearing on us. If the village is being rounded up for roboticization, then we don't have a huge window for error. We can't lose anyone again, Sally..." He looked distraught, and Sally comforted him with a few pats on his back. "Shard and Sonic are off on reconnaissance. Espio, Rouge, and Shadow are spying on different Eggman fleets. Bunny is still with Anton... I'm afraid all we have is a handful of us left." She shrugged, showing that they were worn pretty thin at the moment when it came to available, capable hands. "Soler and Nicole are all we got so far. Maybe Tails will be willing to come. His twin tails could push some of the fog away?" she seemed to be stretching it, squinting her eyes and shrinking down a bit, as though embarrassed to have to question her own tactics.

"Eh, it's a team. I'll see what I can do on my end, too." Rotor nodded, patting her shoulder, "Hey, Sal. You're doing good." He encouraged her, giving her some much needed confidence in her abilities too. "Go and get'em back safe."

"Will do." Sally nodded, taking his advice in. She felt a sense of pride then, telling her that she could do this, but hoping to not have a cost. One life meant so much to Sally, saving so many would be wonderful, but... losing even one Freedom Fighter... Sally didn't want to think about it anymore, or have to live through the consequences of one wrong move. She placed her hand to her chest and took three breaths, telling herself it was in the past and she could do this. "I'll talk to Soler, see if he has any ideas..." She began to head off again, pushing back the sorrow she had learned some hard lessons from.

Soler was powering up as much chaos energy as he could, having it jet through his power and manifest as white aura all around him. He let it course through his veins and rise in large quantities throughout his whole body, spiking his power range up and trying for a Chaos Break, hoping to hold it for a longer period of time than he was used too.

If he could somewhat master retaining chaos energy in his body, instead of always having to expel it because of the limits on his physical form... he could do a lot of good for a set of minutes.

And more good, meant more people saved.

A few recruits were watching, interested in what he was doing as he tried to concentrate. He moved his hands, almost as though practicing martial arts, but kept his eyes closed. The aura moved like misty clouds around his hands and body, seeming to spin like steam as he rotated it around him. A small dust devil formed at his center as he took deep, calming, focused breaths to try and lessen the pain of holding onto to chaos energy and trying to store it in and not let it out all at once either. Making chaos energy out of nothing would have a severe toll on his body, but with little measurements of success like this, he could maybe one day hold a massive amount, and finally give Eggman's army what's coming to them.

One of the on-lookers was a young girl, she swung her legs as she sat on some wooden crates, watching the strange sight in excitement and curiosity. "Is that him? The guy who rose in rank in just one month?"

"Yeah! They say that Shadow trained him!" Another dude piped up, moving up on the crates to answer her and share in the amazement. He gripped the edge of her crate and wagged his tail, seeming to be a fan of the stories about Soler's missions and adventures.

"Shadow?" Someone else turned to the boy, a young boy having a ponytail for his long, extensive hair. It seemed they were all fairly new recruits, still in intensive training. "But I thought he's scary!"

"He's just anti-social. That must speak volumes for this guy! If he had to have Shadow train him, he must be powerful!" A girl threw her arms up, as though showing her support for Soler as she watched to see what he'd do next for his training. She wore pigtails that spun as she admired the powerful energy surge around Soler's dust-devil effect.

"Wow..." the original recruit that spoke up stopped dangling her legs and watched him more closely, amazed by what she was hearing. "So what will he do now?"

Soler took a controlled section of chaos and forwarded it to his hand,... gliding his hand down, he felt the physical pressure of the moment, and grunted slightly as he felt more and more exhausted from just trying to force the chaos energy to one part of his body. He took a deep breath, and began hitting the air with rapid fast reflexes, jumping into a back-flip and spinning into a kick. The misty clouds shot forward, as though wind being propelled. He was training his memory, making sure his body knew what to do, and all the while channeling chaos energy throughout his movements. It was much more fluid and easier to move than before, and chaos energy wasn't so frightening to him, mostly because he knew he wouldn't hurt any curious gawkers like the kids on the crates. He could feel their energy, but it wasn't anything like chaos.

After a few more acrobatic fleets of strength, precision, and mastery over his chaos energy in Chaos Break, the effects wore off and he fell to a knee, panting strongly from it's toll on his body.

Sweat dripped from his forehead, his muscles ached and waned to keep him up on one knee. He even felt his body tremor a few times, unused to having to hold that much chaos before.

Still, training was training, he'd have to build the stamina for it, one day at a time...

"You keep that up, and you won't have any chaos energy stored up for the mission tonight." Sally stepped up and placed her hands on her hips, proud to see him showing off for the younger recruits.

He smiled, eyes still closed and hunched over, gripping his knee before pulling himself back up like he had a pair of wings, beating fiercely to look impressive. Though it was all in his head, he felt like a hero rising from the ground, and acted as much. "I'll be ready." he turned to look over his shoulder at her, another smoldering look of affection that let her know—without words—what she meant to him. "You doing alright?"

She couldn't help it, moving quickly over to him, she gave him a warm, tight hug as he returned the gesture with as much gratitude as she had. "Look at you, you've grown so much since then..." she remembered with a slight hint of teasing, tightening the hug a moment in gratitude. "You haven't had a bad dream in a while, or a walking one... for that matter." her arms wrapped around his neck before slowly loosening to let him go.

But as if not wanting her to release him, he held her at the same intensity, before pulling his head back and staring into her deep blue eyes...

"I recall a sweet moment where you used to say you'd never let me slip out of your embrace... what happened to those days?" He was amusing himself with these games, and she pushed him away from her, unable to hide her blushing grin.

"Maybe someone should move forward at a pace I can keep up with." She was acting a little shy, but he found that adorable. She folded her arms, then fiddled a moment with her muddy, scarlet hair. "Your powers... they're easier for you now?"

"Much easier to handle." Soler confirmed, dusting off his chest a moment from all the dirt he had kicked up onto himself during his workout. "Though I'm trying to figure out how to grow them stronger." he gripped his fists together, looking each over with every turn of his head, examining them. "I feel I've got the hang of it,... but I also feel there's so much more there that I haven't quite tapped into... I'm not sure how to go into the next level, as Sonic calls it, you know?"

She turned around and pointed straight at him, "Ha! You're nervous!" she laughed, "You know?" She teased, and walked back over to take his balled up hands and delicately place her own over them. "Listen, Soler... Things take time. Even using your power more strains you, right? I know you probably feel nervous about what's buried deeper inside you... but we'll worry about that together." she saw him move his hands and rub his wrists, not hiding the fact that it was a lot on him, but he was just glad he had gotten the hang of it this far.

"Thanks, Sally... but strength is strength. I'm making progress!" he flexed his arms up, "Aren't ya proud of me?" He joked. "I bet Shadow won't even recognize me when he gets back!" Striking a Hercules pose, it was clear he was only trying to impress her and the watching recruits. They all gave him an awestruck reaction, and Sally just rolled her eyes to it.

She giggled, "Immensely," and wrapped her arm around his own, "But let's not praise that 'can-do' spirit too much... might go to your stubborn head." she laughed at her own joke, but that wrinkle in her nose always made him fall deeper in love with her. She wanted to get him away from influencing the younger recruits too much... wouldn't want them setting off alarms, either...

"I love the way you laugh..." he sighed, catching her off-guard as she let his arm go and scooted back slightly. Her original plan seemed to falter as now, he was the one holding the reins.

"You're just saying that." she smiled to the ground, but he came a little closer, not wanting the distance between them to break so much.

"No, I mean it. I may be headstrong, but I'm also headfirst in love with you, Sally." His words were tender, but they were overwhelming her as she touched her redden cheeks.

"I-... I-I told you Sonic wasn't much for showing his emotions, and Monkey Khan, well... I-I'm just not used to your forwardness, sometimes." she fidgeted with her feet and then stroked her hair down over one eye, "B-b-but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate it." she humbly looked back up into his eyes...

"Well, it's hard for me not to compliment... something that strikes me as beautiful." He took on the heroic persona once more, leaning back and mimicking Sonic as he put his hand to his hip, trying to look down into her gaze to hopefully have her swoon again.

Then a recruit whistled.

Soler pulled Sally to him, instinctively, seeing their encouragements. He knew Sally would get more embarrassed though, so he held up a hand to the recruit, "Chaooosss-!" he threatened a blast.

The recruits all ran in terror but Sally just covered her face. It was a humorous scene, as they all toppled over one another and flipped over the crates to escape.

Soler put down his hand and turned back to Sally, "Sorry, I'll try and save those moments and comments for when we're alone." He lightly kissed her forehead.

"I highly doubt that." She peeked up through her fingers at him, and all at once, his heart melted again.

"Aww... you're right, you're just too cute not to say anything... I can't wait till we're alone, it's too long a time!" he hoisted her up into the air and held her swinging with his arms, around and around she went in glee.

"Ahh-! Soler-! Wooah, haha!" she clung to him, a kind gesture that put her at ease. With the audience gone, she relaxed a little bit more too. Slowly, he slipped her back down into his embrace, "I can't seem to get enough of you. There's too much to take in." She looked just as lovesick as he was, and his muzzle showed his joy at accomplishing his mission.

"There it is." He chuckled lightly, "I'll not not to say how... how that smile makes me feel... all the time." He nuzzled her nose very lightly.

"Heh," She tried to remain still, but he knew he shouldn't push his luck just yet. She needed time to adjust to... well, to how out of control he was when it came to how madly in love he was with her.

He ducked his head down, "Y-you're right. I should take it easy..." He gently, though retreating his arms to do so, let her go unwillingly. "I'm just... really happy we're together more, Sally." He scratched behind his head, mentally scolding himself and saying he should cool the engines a bit.

Sally also ducked her head, then took some courage, and lightly placed her nose to his again. "Me too..." She liked the compliments and affection, but just wasn't used to it. To not set him off, she dashed away, hoping that the subtle return of affection would be enough to show her reciprocated love. Still, she was too shy to do anything more, "I'll-! I'll see you as we head out! Please remember to be stealthy!" she called back behind her. "The mission is launching out tonight!"

"Will do." he lightly touched his nose with two fingers, then grinned from ear to ear, feeling the slight hurt on his cheeks from how happy he was. "Smiling never hurt this much... not like before." He looked out towards the sun. "...I hope this never changes..." and with that sad reminder of the doubts that filled his fate, he continued onward, preparing for the stakes that tonight would bring.

Taking on a serious demeanor, he decided to meditate, giving his body a chance to renew his chaos energy supply.

Later that night...

Eggman robots were stationed right outside the perimeter of the village's main townhouse. Their lights remained dormant of life, but vibrant in the quiet of the night. They held their forms like soldiers, grasping their metallic, flat fingers on their other arm's machine gun. Sinister sentinels, protecting nothing but serving all evils...

Shadows moved swiftly around the stagnant metal husks as the Freedom Fighters made their way to the roof of the where they guarded. Moving like silent ninjas in the night, they got to a secure wall and using ropes and jumping from a partner's hands laid together and palm facing up, they were able to make it well onto the top without being detected. However, before they did so, a figure flew up and dropped a small device that sparked as it fell to the roof. The sparks fizzled out any detection system, and finally... the shadows landed one at a time upon the roof.

A few cameras also were sparked... but they remained unaffected, slowly turning to hide their glares but watch the crew closely...

The shadows all landed one after another, before one removed his black scarf around his mouth, revealing white tuff protruding by his cheeks.

Tails's beaming face looked pretty pumped his device had worked, "Looks like there were trip wires and security detection measures on." He whispered to Sally, who also removed her black scarf from around her mouth.

"Good work, Tails. I'm glad we have you this time around." She lovingly ruffled his hair, still unable to help the feeling like he was a cute kid. "Okay, let's go with Plan B now."

But as Sally turned around to instruct the rest of the crew, Soler was out of sight. Panicky, she looked around and then peeked down the roof, seeing him moving behind one of the Eggman robots.

She let out a quiet groan of disapproval, this wasn't the first time this had happened. But still, he knew the costs, why would he act so recklessly!? In the past, he would follow orders simply because he was worried his power could act up if he didn't watch himself. But now... he was more cocky than ever! Even Sonic would sneer with pride. She turned to the others, knowing she needed to be a leader, and not risking the rest of them. She gestured the plan, using code signs to let them know what was going on, and started quietly taking the roof apart to make a small opening... hoping with all her heart that Soler wasn't going to be rash and do something to jeopardize the whole of the mission.

'He wouldn't risk innocent lives like that.' she told herself, 'I have to start trusting his instincts. I have to.' she repeated to herself as she carried on and dared not to look back. 'Be careful, Soler... Please.' her silent prayer was mingled with her frustrated clamp of her teeth, gritting through the stress of trying to keep the tools from making noises as they performed their incision on the roof.

Soler sneaked up behind one of the guarding robots, his red shoes with black X's lightly whipped up the loose dust upon the ground with each careful footstep. Using his expert knock-out techniques he had learned form Shadow, he dug the side of his hand into their little slit around the round, bulbous head's gap that made their neck. He was careful to observe some broken Eggman robots on his last missions, and studying their mechanize, it seemed that some essential wires were just under the head. Protected by both the chrome dome of their head and the heavy plating around their body. 'Too bad Eggman never gave them any bulky shoulders, this will be easy to penetrate!' Soler had already won in his mink, smirking in the dark. Summoning the chaos energy to his hand, he caught a quickly formed, sharp Chaos Spear and struck it precisely into the gap he had found in his studying. Rotor and Tails were helpful in teaching him about robotics, but it was all worth it when he could single-handedly take one out. It short-circuited and collapsed on itself, looking like an egg that fell in on it's pegged stand. Wires flickered a moment like a sparkler, but with no power left, the eyes blipped and then were out like a car's blinker.

Feeling pretty good about his technique, he continued to do the same with the others, but none were reacting to him. He'd jump, stab, and roll back into the shadows, and like dominoes, they all soon collapsed on themselves. It was like something straight out of Alice in Wonderland, but instead of folding cards, its crushed Eggbots. "Huh?" he noticed they were all strangely still... no alarms, nothing.

It was too quiet...

The night had no sound, so with all the robots downed, he walked just a little bit out of the shadows, holding his Chaos Spear in hand, having to surround it in chaos energy so it didn't burn his hand.

'A trap?' he quickly looked back up at the roof. 'Could it be..? Why else were they all... Oh no...'

His eyes widened in fear, "Sally..." he uttered, and took off to climb back up the townhouse.

Soler was used to thinking fast, over-complicating things was sadly a knack of his. His mind raced with rescue strategies in case this really was a bait, but people needed him... and he hadn't forgotten his main objective: Protect those who can't.

He raced up the wall, clawing it just enough to not make too much sound but still scale it efficiently. His reflexes helped him leap over some cameras and then kick them out. 'Cameras..? There's only two of them...' he shot the chaos spear still in his hand at the second one, watching it fizzle out and shoot out like a blown firecracker. "Not my friends you don't." he bit on his teeth, glaring, and moved towards the hole in the roof.

He stuck his head down into the gap his team had made, and looked frantically around to make sure they weren't in danger. So far, so good. He saw them rounding up the villagers, before a hand grabbed the tuff of his chest and spooked him out of his cautious observations.

Sally pulled him to her, making him wobble a second like a swung clock part.

"What do you think you're doing?" Sally had his face right up in front of her own, clearly showing him she was in warrior princess mode, and he wasn't doing as he was told...

He weakly smiled, knowing he was going to get pretty harshly scolded, "M-making sure you're all alright?" his voice shook in his delivery.

Conflicted, Sally let him go, swinging him back as his legs wiggled a moment and then he flipped them down to land.

"I'm glad you want to help at all costs, but going AWOL on a covert mission is highly hazardous!" she looked about ready to whack him, but held it back. Her whispering reprimand made it sound like she was hissing at him, and he rubbed his head apologetically, ducking his head down as she kept coming at him. "I'm worried you don't take orders well. We've done countless missions! You always aren't cautious enough!"

Ironic, he was coming back because he was being cautious...

Still, he knew she was right. He just wanted to make sure their exit plan went out without a hitch.

Unknown to them... cameras moved from the rafters to look at where Soler and Sally were talking to one another from... They bent like mechanical arms, hiding themselves, and not stationary like the well-hidden roof ones that Soler had taken out previously... The cameras on the outside, also undetected by the others, carefully watched through the windows. They rotated themselves and zoomed in on Sally and Soler... then turned to the sparking robots and the jammed chaos spears wedged into their openings by their non-existent necks. The spears flashed and the robots further exploded as Soler clutched his fist to release his control over them while Sally scolded him, distracting him from keeping the chaos hidden and silent. The robots loose wires flailed around before all light disappeared from the area.

The cameras turned back to the inside of the house... all but one... who mechanically moved to zoom in on the evidence of Soler's power...

"It'll be alright, it always is, in the end." He winked to her, trying to calm her racing nerves. "I prom-" his words were cut off as Sally clasped her hand over his mouth, pulling herself over to him and getting up on her toes to look him dead in the eye.

"Don't ever say that to me." She stated, fiercely. "Don't ever make a promise you aren't sure you can keep."

His eyes bent, seeing the pain in her eyes at saying those words. The moonlight extenuated the gloss in her eyes... Something painful had happened with a promise left unkempt, and he wouldn't pry further into it tonight.

Everyone worked well and efficiently, those tension was still lingering in Soler at the solitary guardbots all remaining motionless in the far too quiet dark, he decided to let it go since the villagers were eager to get away anyway. Gathering each mobian and placing them in a pulley system, they hoisted them up through the hole and then raced them off into the forest. Once again, Soler reflected on the easy rescue... it didn't sit right with him, and he knew from Sally's expression that she was on-guard about it too.

Why was the night so still..?

However, there was still some celebration to be had. Everyone was rescue without a single scratch or skirmish.

But then again...

The camera's feedback blitzed in a frizzy light upon a screen in an extremely dark room... scratchy static finally visualized the figure of Soler, moving in blocky images upon the frame. Many eyes reflected the light of this secluded viewing... The camera showed Soler summoning a Chaos Spear, grabbing it before it shot out of his hand, and stabbing the Robot from behind.

"It doesn't seem possible, boss." One spoke, much older in years it seemed. "But it's definitely a chaos energy attack." The man had his arms folded, a deep husky voice. He then turned to bow down to the leader. "We hoped to stage this hostage situation to learn more about the FF's tactics of rescue... but I find this a lot more alarming..."

Two figures suddenly approached the light of the screen, and one seemed to smile in wicked fascination of the image. "So, it's not just me out there, is it, Dad?"

"Quiet." The father spoke, glaring at the image. "This is an anomaly. Eggman won't be pleased if we don't perfectly execute this attack. We need to know what they have..."

"Ah, come on! We can go in, guns-a-blazin', and handle whatever their little acorn-hole can throw at us!" the son seemed pumped but the father punched his side.

"When I say quiet... I mean it." He removed his fist, "I thought I had taught you that by now." He moved his cloak to the side, covering his arm that he used to thrust his fist into his son earlier. "Assemble some more intelligence. I want to look over this footage carefully... I don't like... the blue in his quills..." The father glared heavily at the frozen image of Soler, still blurred out on the screen. "...It looks too familiar..." he almost growled in a lowered tone, and then proceeded to storm away.

The son, barely hunched over, straightened up and still held a frightening smile, "Ow... Daddy seems amiss." He turned in a joking manner to a woman who had just entered with a pitcher of water, pouring it in a cup and the leftovers onto a plant. She turned to address the boy calling her, her face hidden in her raggedy brown cloak before spilling the pitcher at the image she glanced at on the screen. Her eyes shook, as if she'd seen a ghost, recognizing the blue in his quills...

The past... had finally returned. But should it be a return?

"Oh? Still so concerned for me after all these years, dear mother?" The son moved over to her, holding some of her quills in his hand. He must have thought her reaction was from the previous punch, since he was still holding his side... "Such useless compassion..." He let it go and walked on.

She held her panting to a minimum, not wanting to raise any alarms as she pulled her ragged cloak around her more. 'Better now than never... I have to do this... for the sake of so many, and for once... myself.' she whispered, her eyes narrowing in resolve but watery with fear. It was her compassion that would never leave her, even after all these years of servitude and self-pity. Her voice came out almost like opening a creaky, dusty wardrobe. It was as though she hadn't spoken in years, "It was compassion... that poured the tea, my son." her voice seemed dry and starved for life. She took the cup she had just poured, drank as much as she could, and began to cover herself as she made her way through another corridor...

He watched her exit, but said nothing. Simply moved on, as though he was simply speaking to a memory.

Watching some guards patrol by, she then took her chance and grabbed a decorated, golden, steel conduct opening and began to tug it out. It creaked loudly at her attempts, and she looked around frantically to make sure no one was watching or coming to investigate.

She was lucky, she had studied there ways for so long, hoping for a moment to escape.

Finally, after years of tugging on it behind her husband's back, it rusted enough to come out.

She had poured water and other corroding materials onto it in hopes of breaking free and now was her chance, so she crawled through the square pipe and shut the steel behind her.

Men turned the corner, as was their routine, but paid no mind to the steel lid. She peeked through its gaped design, and then slowly... backed into the drain...

-Back at New Mobotropolis-

"Nicole," Soler typed in some things, "What would make an Eggman fleet malfunction?" He was still concerned about the stillness of the robots he had encountered...

Nicole materialized and gave a kind bow to him, "If there function was disrupted, but... why do you ask?" she seemed curious, "There are many ways to malfunction a robot."

"No, I mean... without-" He held his tongue, "Nevermind." he shook the feeling off, "We made it all back safe and that's what matters." He loosened up and smiled to Nicole. "Did you scan the villagers?"

"All are healthy and well. A few sick here and there, but nothing more than a common cold." She happily relayed. "It seems the townhouse was a great shelter for them in the end, they were there for a couple of hours..." She informed, and then hovered over by him, her pixels lighting up his fur. "Soler... everyone is waiting for you in the celebration hall... are you not dining this evening?"

"O-oh, I forgot! Y-yeah, I'll be there. Can't miss my own celebratory party, now can I, ya know?" he seemed nervous... but quickly straightened himself up and went out, trying to look more cheery. He was jittery, mostly because he now had a reputation to maintain, but that didn't make his uneasiness any less apparent...

Nicole watched him intently, before shrugging it off as a human strangeness and continuing on her way back into her computer.

"There's the man!" a few fighters hoisted Soler up the second he walked in, letting him be thrown up on their arms as they cheered, "Oh, he's a jolly good fellow!"

He felt awkward at the praise, but did like the confidence boost. "W-what's this all about? Why just me?"

Tails covered his mouth a moment, chuckling. "We saw the Eggman robots you single-handedly took out! It was so impressive, we decided to toast to you!" Tails picked up a drink and handed it to Soler.

Soler tried to lean over and reach for it, but with all the commotion,... someone threw him up again and Tails toppled over, having the drink slip through his gloved fingers and begin to fly through the air. As though making it look easy, Sally miraculously caught it, her hand moving in a precise and skilled fashion to do so. To add to the sensational catch, she swirled the water with her pinkie out, and then walked over to Tails.

"Be more careful with the cups, Tails." She lovingly instructed, helping him up. "What were you doing?"

"Trying to hand it to Soler, but..." He smiled to her and then awkwardly looked back to Soler, who was being hoisted away.

"H-hey!" he tried to protest a bit, seeing Sally and wanting to join her.

Her face fell a little flat as though not in the spirit of things, thinking it ridiculous to give Soler so much credit when it was clearly a 'team' effort. "They're lifting him up into the air for being reckless?"

"That's a bit cruel, Sally." Tails's ears lowered, "He made sure we'd all get through successfully. Nothing was left to stop us!" Tails cheered, "Why don't you praise him too? He's being kinda humble about it all, isn't that worth praising? Just a tiny... bit..?" He withdrew from her after seeing her harsh features on her face, and pulled back from continuing the peer pressure.

"...I don't think it's something that should be praised." she sighed, moving away from the scene. "It's good that nothing bad happened, but with how we set things up, he shouldn't have acted on his own like that. It wasn't necessary and could have jeopardized the mission, the villagers, and us all. What if it didn't work out, Tails? Then what?" She sat down and lowered the glass down gently. "I can't help but feel like this is all going to go to his head more..." He had only just began mastering what he could of his powers, and Sally didn't feel it right to give him such an ego boost when she knew he needed more time to adjust.

Tails sat down by her, worried, before he saw Soler speed his way over to her quickly, panting. "Whoo! What a rush!" he laughed, sitting down beside her. He had gripped the table, feeling the slippery floor and trying to not let his lightheaded feeling get the better of his balance. "I finally convinced them to put me down!" he reached over for the drink in her hand and took it after a moment of skimming her hand. Knowing she wasn't used to him yet, he tried to be gentle and subtle about it, before chugging the water down and laughing that it was milk. "Now that's something." he chuckled to himself, banging the glass down. "Still, I'll take another!"

Sally rolled her eyes, "Half the recruits here are underage, you really think we'd serve anything more than this?" She raised her hand and a man rolled down the glass of milk to her. "Besides, it'd get unruly. I'd rather have my friends with sharp minds than a bunch of half-there, half-not hooligans."

It did sound a bit harsh, and Tails just gave Soler a look like she wasn't in a good mood.

Sally did see the gesture of his hand though, and not watching their subtle, muted conversation... she moved her hands around her own glass and rubbed her fingers lightly, biting her tongue. She was about to scold him, but stopped herself, deciding there would be a better time soon, anyway...

"You haven't slept yet." Sally decided to go with concern, watching as the waiter brought a few more drinks over, and passed one to Tails.

"Nah, been too much fun." Soler calmly responded, taking the drink and giving it a light twist with his fingers in a corkscrew way on the ground, not drinking it yet as he noticed Sally's hesitancy about something. "Something troubling you?" he finally did a sip, and she tried to compose herself.

"You know how I felt about you disobeying orders." She took a small sip as well, mostly to calm herself down. She didn't like the situation, but she wanted to be a good role model to Tails too... she couldn't favor anyone over the other, and she needed to be strict about Soler coming on missions. It was almost like a role reversal, now that Shadow wasn't acting as his mentor much anymore, Sally seemed to inherit disciplining Soler in a new skill he was unfamiliar with. Controlling himself in high risk situations... he had power over his chaos energy, but what about his headstrong behavior? "Jeopardizing the mission shouldn't be praised for the results turning out alright, it should be from the execution of the assignment."

"You sound like my teacher." he smirked, winking to her as he referenced Shadow. Seemed he was catching on to her inner-monologue...

She touched her face, was it that obvious?

She grew shy and embarrassed, losing her leader-like apparence as Tails also chuckled into his hand, looking to Soler. He had flipped the scene in a matter of moments, just being his charming self again.

"All about the process, he says." Speaking of Shadow, he took another sip of the non-alcoholic beverage, having gestured for the drink to the man passing them around.

"...I'm not happy about this, Soler." she finally stated, and then looked to Tails. "Tails..."

He got the message, nodding and bouncing up from his seat. He could tell Sally was holding herself to a standard, and appeased her by flying off, "See you Sally, Soler!" he waved. Sally was someone everyone looked up too, so he respected that she didn't want to appear too kind to Soler... though it was obvious she and him weren't so formal.

She nodded to Tails's sympathetic kindness and turned back to Soler, a serious expression of weariness on her face, "I understand how you must feel. You were a hero today, but a true hero thinks of everyone, even the rescuers' safety."

"Do we have to confront this now?" Soler knew what she was saying, but wasn't in the mood to be reprimanded. "Can't we just enjoy the morning..? Maybe we do need sleep." he pulled her stool closer to his, making her wobble and grip her hands to the table. He put a loving arm around her and then his head to her shoulder, "Suddenly... I'm so sleepy..." he cooed, teasing playfully as he went limp.

"Oh, you." she did find that cute, but tried to get him off. "This isn't the time for that... and besides, we're in public..." Her eyes shifted around nervously. Was she like Sonic? Worried about images all of a sudden..?

"Emm... So comfy..." he continued the act and she finally giggled as he rubbed his nose under her cheek.

She'd have to get used to it. He loved her too much to not tease, and with all the tension she was carrying, he had to do something to put her at ease.

"That's not fair! You know I'm ticklish! This isn't going to get you out of- ah-! Ahahaa!" she laughed when he tickled her stomach and she tried to weakly push him away.

"You advise me all the time, it's about time I advise you to relax." he teased, but then a harsh wind opened the doors of the hall as a woman in muddy rags coughed and stumbled against the side of it, looking around frantically to get her bearings straight.

A few people were rushing after her, but stopped when they saw she had opened many different buildings, seeming to be searching for something...

Everyone remained still a moment, not sure where this had come from.

A rescued person suddenly got up, "Weren't you... the one that was with those abductors?"

The Freedom Fighter's all turned around, surprised to hear this, to say the least.

"Abductors?" Rotor immediately stomped forward, "Okay, lady. Who are you and what are you doing here?" he took out his taser wrench, but watched as she fell to her knees and just didn't have the heart to look intimidating. "Woah! Lady!" he threw the weapon back and used his free hand to reach out to her.

She continued to breathe hard, "I'm... not with them... I was forced to be with them... but I'm not." she explained through heavy, soggy breaths.

"She's lying!" another rescued member stood up, slamming his hands to the table, "I personally saw them from my village!"

"Your village?" Another Freedom Fighter turned to the individual, "You mean... You're not from the village we just saved?"

"N-no..." A village boy seemed timid, but wanted to help out with the misunderstanding. "Not all of us. My Ma and Pa were taken from the city..."

Another rescuer got stepped forward, one of the pursuers, "We chased her from the walls, she used her bare hands to climb it, this is no ordinary woman!"

An elder rose then, ignoring the woman and commotion to speak truth as well. He stomped his walking stick to the ground, making himself known, "I was taken from several miles away from their village. I haven't stepped foot in that village before then! the abductions are happening more and more frequently, but I never thought they'd come to the monastery's shelter!"

"They're taking everyone!"

"They're ruining our lives!"

"She's with those monsters!"

"I-I... had to reach him..." The woman in rags coughed, trying to spit out the dirt from her mouth. "I had to... I must..." her arms trembled as she tried to upright herself. Her old knees wobbled, malnourished and like old sticks, but somehow, they kept her going.

"It's not just here?" Sally's eyes shrank and shook with the horror of what she was hearing. "Why hasn't anyone spoken up about this before? And this woman... she's apart of it? But how is that possible, she's not a robot..." she slowly got up to examine the woman, but stopped a few steps away as someone else spoke up. Soler remained by Sally's side, standing behind her and keeping a hand in her own.

"It's not just where you're Freedom Fighters' are stationed! There are hostages all over the different bases!" another woman, holding a child stated in a cry that could only mean she was desperate to have them understand their plight.

"We..." Sally found herself compromised, unable to hold back the terror in her tears, realizing she hadn't truly saved anyone. "We have to alert the other zones! Contact them through Nicole, she can travel faster. If hostages are being moved around then that has to be a trap!" she quickly took charge, turning off her emotions as quickly as they had come and harshly ripping her hand out of Soler's.

This left him worried about her, the vacancy in his hand making him feel like he was being left behind. 'No... Sally.' he wanted to be by her side, wanted to fight with her. Did she not trust him? Was his actions today too reckless for her to include him now? 'Don't do this alone, let me help you.' he kept trying to keep up with her, but the woman had crawled her way over to Soler and grabbed his now freed hand.

"H-huh?" He looked down, shocked she would take it as she pulled her hoodie back, and stared at him in wonder.

The first thing he noticed... was the blue streaks in her quills... and the gentle fall back they had. Then the pristine, porcelain white that was dirtied and matted with clots of earth... leaves... icky green grass stains...

What had happened to this poor woman?

His heart was immediately softened, but caution and the unknown swarmed quickly into his judgement like a pipe being turned on and filling up his thoughts.

"They must know where we are." Sally started up, pulling Soler's mind away from the desperate woman, but she began to speak just after her, guiding Soler back to her longing, anxious gaze.

"Your defenses are too much for them to take on, without the proper information, they won't know how to storm New Mobotroplis... you're all in grave danger... but safe, for a very small window of time." she had caught herself, brought some form of power into her voice that gave envy to Sally and admiration in Soler. She slowly moved up from her knees, looking Soler over and then deeply into his eyes, as though moved by a painting. Her hands wavered slightly by his face, but dared not touch.

"What did you say..?" Sally spun around, before seeing the strangeness of her behavior towards Soler.

Not wanting to be rude, Soler allowed her to cling to him, remaining still. However, it was extremely awkward... before he noticed the similar colors and style of her quills compared to his own again, and marveled at the oddity of it all. 'Do all hedgehogs have some common genes?' he wondered, knowing Sonic was blue and Shadow had red streaks in his quills, but shook off the thought since Shadow was bio-engineered, and Sonic... was just blue.

His eyes made a squint of confusion, and he suddenly realized this woman was examining the same things as he was in his appearance. '"A-ah..." he moved his other hand up, trying to stop her from looking at his features so much...

It was a very peculiar, having someone judge your appearance this obviously...

"I'm glad you kept this blue..." she smiled as though relieved, looking to the stripes of blue in his quills and gesturing up towards the ceiling, but the movement was unknown to Soler and so he got a little creeped out. "...Ha... I hope there's more of me in you, that it's a sign of good things." Her eyes sparkled with hope and pride as she looked down and gripped her raggedy brown tarp over her more, "Finally... the Mercenaries will at last meet their match... and Conor will realize he's created his own doom... in me." she glared suddenly in great hurt.

She turned to Sally, "They're setting up for intelligence scans, trying to read your strategies. They'll ambush you after their tactical assessment is complete. But with my escape, it may be now or never." she turned back to Soler, "Only you can defeat a Stratus," she cupped her hands gently by his face, "My... Son."

His whole body felt a surge of electrical, chaos-like lightning at her touch, freezing him before he felt a shard of static explode at his chest, making it hard to breathe.

There was a quiet as Sally's face configured into a deeper seeded confusion, but her protectiveness kicked in and she moved over to Soler, pulling him lightly away from the woman. "I'm sorry... but until we get this situation figured out-"

"She has no shame!" A rescued woman called out, pointing accusingly to her from the door. "She's part of them! A spy! Come to infiltrate the only safe place we have now!"

"Hear, hear!" another man stepped forward, this time from within the once giddy hall, shaking his fist.

While the argument commenced intensely throughout the room, Soler felt an abrupt presence wash over him like a mountainous wave, sucking him under as thoughts of the orphanage and the caretakers returned to him... He was abandoned, unwanted, and left on the steps of their humble institution. Before, he had always thought of Luna's village but now... Memories just gushed over his senses, leaving him in a darkened place with his mind. He felt strangely null here, and that was comforting for the time being.

The caretakers always assured him he was meant for big things, wonderful and amazing things that were left to be uncovered when he was older. The younger kids hid behind him from the older, more ruthless children and he would take beatings on their behalf, then get scolded for the fighting by the caretakers. Still... he never once questioned it. While the other children sobbed over the loss of parents, or the missing of family, he never had such emotions... but he was always curious. 'Maybe someday, I'll find them.' he thought to himself, countless times before his powers started to turn dangerous, and he left the orphanage with one goal in mind: To master them.

He explored and helped people when he could as a nomad until Luna's village... a real home. The only thing that consumed his thoughts beforehand,... before Sally saved him from himself.

But with this woman's appearance, nothing but the orphanage's memories came to mind. All those young souls praying for their mothers and fathers to return... while Soler feared the powers he was beginning to manifest.

"Well, this party was a bust." A sarcastic voice rang through the hall as everyone turned to the familiar silhouette of three, spiked quills off to the side... "Come on! Where's the merriment?"

Sonic The Hedgehog had finally returned, and with him, many of the Freedom Fighters. Shard looked cautiously around him, then dashed over to stop people who had started brawling in their wild emotions.

"We come back to celebrate and tell of our spoils, and look! Others are spoiling it for us!" Shard kid, separating the fighting individuals by flying halfway across the room with his jetpack-like engine.

Sally was still unsure of where to even begin to describe to Sonic and Shard what had occurred, and looking at Soler's expression... she definitely knew he was in no state to respond.

"We'll continue this later." She instructed, looking to others behind her. "Get everyone to bed. Nicole will run a scan on the woman. We'll investigate her later, as well. Make sure everyone has what they need today."

"Woah, so serious." Sonic raised an eyebrow, cocking his head to the side. "You getting enough R&R lately, Sal?" He looked to Soler, as if accusing him of something.

"Sonic," Sally scolded, placing a foot forward as he smiled and held up his hands in a fake surrender.

"Right, right. Take care of things." He winked in a friendly manner, but nothing that would be seen as romantic. That ship had long left the harbor and sank, "Knuckles?"

Knuckles nodded, pointing swiftly to Rotor and Tails. To Rotor, he gestured to Shard trying to calm down the brawling, and to Tails, the woman clinging as though in a dream to Soler.

They nodded, then split up into teams as Tails calmly gestured for the woman in rags to come with him.

"N-no, I must speak with you more." She resisted, struggling a bit and moving back towards Sally and Soler. Sally flinched back, but noticed as she tried to move Soler, that he was like frozen stone... His feet planted firmly to the ground.

"This isn't the time." Sally stood in front of him, hoping this wasn't another trigger moment like with Luna... "You stated a warning to us, for that, we'll give you the benefit of the doubt." She looked to Tails, "For now." she nodded to him.

There was something awful about how this made her feel. When, at last, she thought Soler's only troubles were his natural tendency to go solo when he needed to stay with the team, but now...

Tails heard the urgency and command in her tone, so he nodded back and continued to help the woman begin to move away and out the doors. Slightly dragging her, she wouldn't remove her eyes from Soler... so much emotion in those eyes... like marbles with galaxies of knowledge hidden inside of them... they held Soler suspended.

"You don't understand!" She once again fought, but Tails was soon helped by more of her pursuers, wanting justice for not catching her in the first place. She had many arms grabbing and looping around her, and in a mournful cry, she reached for Soler. "They could track you through your transmissions!"

Soler immediately reached out, so quickly in fact, that only Sonic could see his reflex was powered by chaos energy. He sparked the ground just lightly and Sonic watched with a little bit of surprise.

"...Well, that's interesting." Sonic narrowed his eyes on it as it was all done in a blink of an eye. He wondered how Soler was able to do such a fleet so fast, "Almost looked involuntary for the guy..." he pondered out loud, "Friction? Perhaps?" but followed up by walking over to Sally. "Lots of things I should know about?" He actually was resisting the urge to try and make static with his own feet moving that fast, but held it in. Time for fun later, right now, the Freedom Fighters needed him.

"Most definitely." she sighed, "Soler-" trying to get him back on their side, she began to move towards him like the leader of the Freedom Fighters, not a girlfriend.

She touched his arm, "Whatever this woman is or isn't... we need to discuss the matter more fully later." she squeezed lightly on his arm.

She lightly moved her hand down to then grasp his trembling hand, feeling a little electrical zap from it, but figured it was from her fingers gliding over his fur.

However, Soler's hand felt the woman's, her fingers curling around his own and then clinging as though for life to his own, outstretched mercy. In that moment, he knew... he knew with certainty that she was someone in need. Someone he needed to help.

"Set off the alarms." he finally spoke, but it was more like a breathy whisper.

"What?" Sally gently moved closer, leaning her ear towards him, but keeping her eyes on his ghostly white countenance.

Two different forces of pressure. One gentle, in one hand... the other in great need, unable to loosen their powerful grip, not even by one bit. Was all hope truly lost for this woman? Was she that desperate for him..?

"...We've been breached." he finally admitted to himself, not just about New Mobotroplis, but within his own being as well.

Suddenly, Sally's eyes widened, realizing that if this older woman could get in so easily then...

Why hadn't the alarms gone off?

She looked to the woman, "How did you get in here without setting off the defenses?"

The woman's eyes began to tear up, blinking fast as she gritted her teeth and kept her hold on Soler, not responding to anything. Her mouth trembled in her quiet crying...

Sally immediately held herself up, a princess with a job to do, and headed straight out the door. Picking up Nicole's computer, she flipped it open, just like the old days. It was an ancient device at this point, but a good communicator, nonetheless. "Nicole, this is Sally. We've been breached!"

It wasn't long until Sally was able to set up an interview with the woman, claiming to be Sophia Stratus. The interrogation room was mostly a one-way mirror like in any police station, but this time, the room was more like a small living space than just a empty feel with one table and two chairs.

"So let me get this straight..." Sally rubbed her hands through her silk-thin hair, having it flow by her shoulders in her exhaustion from pulling an all-nighter and now working into the afternoon. She was mostly slouched on the table, trying to get answers but too exhausted to record them. Instead, Soler was in charge of writing what she said down, and it was some pretty disturbing stuff about the mercenaries. Still,... why wasn't Sally asking the real question that she knew he wanted to know?

Sally had some paper with notes scribbled onto it, seeing that indeed, Nicole had run a few blood sample tests and the woman did appear to be Soler's mother. She purposefully didn't question that, and continued to avoid the topic. "You're an arranged marriage that went horribly wrong, and now you're trying to make things right?" she seemed incredulous at that statement. "Why now? Why not run away beforehand if this is all really true?"

She hadn't told Soler... that this was, in fact, his mother.

How could she? This woman may use that as leverage for something.

How would the mercenaries know about Soler and even accurately identify his mother? Besides the looks and blood tests, it's unlikely they'd go to that extreme.

But she was keeping it an option, nonetheless, for Soler's sake. She'd seen crazier anomalies in the past...

But this one was highly unexpected.

"You seem more than a friend." Sophia pointed out, "But I'm glad he has someone to guide him..."

She saw the look of tenderness in the mother's eyes, but also of hurt, and shook off the spooky feeling. She knew Soler was listening, and didn't want to give him any more reason to freeze up. He didn't deserve this, who did? Finding out your family is some-kind of sick breeding nest for evil? She kept her thoughts to herself, maybe she was losing grip of her true nature due to her fatigue?

She couldn't be affected by this woman, no matter what she said or did, for Soler's sake... Everything she was doing was for Soler and for New Mobotroplis.

"You warned us before that it isn't safe here? Could you elaborate on that." She knew they were being recorded too, and adjusted the mic towards her. Soler wrote some more notes down but soon tossed the paper to the side and intently listened in, growing more and more frustrated that Sally wasn't asking her directly about her statement claiming to be his mother. His hands spread out on the table as his nose was inches away from the viewing, one-way mirror.

'Sal...' he bit on his teeth, grinding them slightly. 'Why are you avoiding it..?'

"We're just trying to learn the truth." Sally put her hands together, seeing the woman look off from her and stare at a painting of the sky, brimming with green rolling hills littered with feathered, hair-like grass and ferns beneath it.

"I'd only risk death by fleeing if it meant keeping my hidden son safe." Her voice seemed older now, as though aging rapidly now that she was finally out of that abusive situation. She finally looked to Sally, acknowledging her hesitancy in not asking about it beforehand. "If you don't mind, I'd like to tell my child personally... why his life has been the way it has."

Sally looked down at the paper, flipping it over to cover it's specific details of truth and shook her head. "I don't think that's best." There was already enough on their plates as was. It may seem crucial now, but everyone's safety was greater than that.

She blew out from her mouth after stating that, leaning up a bit to carry on with her conversation, trying to fight the her weariness.

She hoped Soler felt the same... And that he'd do the right thing.

But then, a large bashing crashed through the room as the door was swung open, and Soler stepped inside the interrogation room.

"Soler-!" Sally's chair scooted back, seeing him barge in and not even look at her, but fold his arms. He held himself higher, as though trying to desperately seem alright, and moved by her to the woman. "You can't just-!" Sally continued to protest but he simply didn't listen.

"I'm here. So, go on." Soler stated quite forwardly, as though not leaving room for Sally to object any further.

Heartbroken by him once again disobeying direct orders, she sighed and sat down. He was already here, but his emotions were rampant. She didn't know if she could trust him to think of everyone's safety over his own curiosity, but she also knew it must be challenging. She did know it was his mother... so maybe that instinctual knowledge was driving him to behave this way... even though she knew that he was aware of how much she wanted him to remain in control over himself.

It just wasn't possible for a situation like this...

There was a moment of thought between everyone, as though silence in the world was like a cacophony of words left in the mind.

After a moment, Sophia finally had the strength to speak up, and took each word carefully, speaking slowly.

"What is the earliest memory you can recall?" Sophia Stratus stated, "I would like a decent starting point."

"Nothing you would know." He coldly stated, and Sally placed a gentle hand on his arm. He took a deep breath, "First, let's see if you know where you left me."

"The Sun-Side Orphanage. Though it's name changed after the war." She explained without hesitation. "You left, like I hoped you would. But I had prayed you'd see better days... away from this mess." She looked solemnly down to the ground, "I had to leave you... Could you imagine what would have happened if he made you like-" she cut herself off, as though being cut physically with a knife, and turned away. "I'm sorry..."

As she collected herself, she closed her eyes, "My first son... Shay Stratus... was such a sweet boy." she began, "But when his chaos abilities began to formulate into wonderful displays of art and beauty,... my husband tortured him, beat him down until Shay turned his gift into a monstrous weapon..." she could see the shadow of her son rise in her eyes, and burning flames conquering up the rest of the spaces in her mind... "He can no longer go back... to gentle tea time moments with his mother..."

She took a deep breath, opening her eyes to see Sally and Soler looking entranced at her words, "...I couldn't let that same fate... no matter how hard I tried to preserve my first son... befall my secret blessing." she once again covered her eyes in the darkness behind her eyelids, as though transporting to another place in reality.

"I ran in the night..." A young woman's eyes opened, a seamless transition that burst through the curtains of her eyes, as though a memory lost long ago. A hidden tragedy... but that lead to such hope.

"I held you tightly in my arms... and hoped the ever-free skies would connect us again, linking us through the never-ending circle that created the orb upon which we reside..." The younger Sophia, showing now that she was once beautiful, and her colors radiant... placed the baby in a hurried haste down on the porch, before about to take off. "But then I noticed... how similarly our quills were." The wind blew harshly, and as she covered her face, the bundle of cloth that swaddled the baby suddenly blew off, revealing his crying face. "I had been so distressed... since last feeding you, I had barely checked to truly see what you looked like... worried I would find his face in yours... I was brought to my knees at the sight... of those ever-free blue streaks of sky still reigning in your appearance... and that your blood may one day defeat the sinister, underling devil of the blood you were mixed with." Seeing the boy's face, the mother fell to her knees and wept silently, about to grab the boy. "But it was not meant to be..." She paused and flinched at the click of a door, staring wide-eyed as someone was coming out. "Fate would not let me turn back on my decision... and for that, I am grateful. For my temptation, at first seeing you, my son... was too great a trial to have gone uninterrupted."

The woman fled into the snow, hiding as best she could as she dug herself into the cold. Soler was picked up by some nurses and monks, who looked around to see who had left the baby there.

"We've got another one, Misses!" A man cried out, smiling gleefully at the little boy. "A munchkin, indeed, he is! He's as white as the winter that brought him, and as blue streaked like the tears that forged him!" He billowed a laugh, as though so used to this scenario that it wasn't sad anymore. "Oh? Lookie 'ere. Soler... What a name! A fine name! Think we'll keep this one?" He turned back to enter the door, "Soler... yeah, let's keep it. It's got a destiny to it, me finks." the man disappeared through the door as the women all crowded to see the new arrival, and as the child's cries shredded through the blistering cold, the door was finally shut to everything now...

But awakened one last hope in the young woman's bawling, brokenhearted eyes.

Sophia opened her now stained, red eyes as though feeling that cold alive again. Those harsh, but true words resounded in every bone, forcing those fading cries through the night into a great sense of empathy.

And thusly, Soler and Sally too had glossy eyes, feeling each hit that her words gave them, and remaining in reverent, sorrowful silence.

"Shay is stronger, due to his years of experience over you, my son." It was the sentence that broke the tension, but there was still a thick mist of deception around Sally. Could she really believe this story? It struck her heart, but what if it was fabricated by the mercenaries? Blood doesn't lie... but still. She wouldn't falter her resolve to learn everything first, then provide the trust later. However,... her true nature wanted to comfort the woman... "But if even a little of that power resides in you, you must use it to defend mobian lives... that shade of blue you wear." Sophia gestured to her own, looking finally into Soler's eyes, but weakly so, as if the emotions were too great to bear again. "Is what will stop the Stratus's from their murders and secret combinations of the infernal pit!" she pat out the words, as though hatred had singed her motherly love into burnt coal. "Stratus... that accursed word... meaning to send a continuous streak of horizontal grey against the ever-free skies... blocking out freedom. The blue color that symbolizes the blood of a free man, and the value upon which good, harmony, and peace live upon... the air is free, the clouds steal from the seas... the skies are open, but the clouds are clever blankets of pure white that shield such a view... making it seem an illusion that there is something greater beyond them... that it's somehow out of reach." She opened her hands up, "When really... we are all apart of the sky... it only ends at the ground." she took a deep breath, as if sucking in more freedom to remain courageous and steadfast in telling them the information. To her, it was vital to keep going, though it was like watching a woman tear herself apart trying to speak such hidden truths she had kept silent for so many years...

Sally finally turned to Soler, and noticed the ghostly expression, as though his soul was hovering on every word, and his mind carried in her visions she described.

"That freedom has always been a value of mine... and I'm glad to see it carried in you." She nodded to him, but he was already so deep in her world, he felt like he was transported and hovering upon the skies she described... "Until it was compromised... when I learned that Conor Stratus was no man of value or worth, but one of deception and ruthlessness... Now my skies have been grey, with never-ending... torturous memories of snow... and the rainstorms your father has kept me trapped in... for so... so long."

She looked truly weighed down by her life's sorrows, but a strong, subtle strength remained present in her nobility too. "It broke me to leave you there... but I vowed to never let my values be compromised again. Nor will I allow him to find you. That was the strength that drove me to finally take my leave, and risk everything, Miss Acorn. The strength that pulled me out of my wet self-pity, and into the sun of a brighter morning to come." She wiped her tears and stood up, which in return, made Sally stand up with her... almost as if a reflex of her princess-training years... this woman... was acting like a dethroned queen.

"You are not Conor's son." she boldly stated, as though giving Soler a knightly honor to uphold. She ignored Sally a moment, who refused to leave the situation, and kept watching Soler as he seemed strangely influenced immensely by her words. Sally had already come to her senses, her suspicions reactivated again as she saw the hypnotizing trance this woman had on Soler, and looked to her with narrowed eyes now... "You are mine,... and as such, I beg of you to uphold your truth! Save them all, please... and blow harshly against the grey lining of the clouds that dare to blur the skyward eyes... that search for a world without tyranny... or malice!" she hissed the last words out, and then felt herself overwhelmed as she sat back down, clutching her heart.

Nicole's voice immediately set in as the woman gripped the desk and fell over, "Sally! Her heart-! She's-! It's a heart attack!"

Almost stuck in spot, Sally's sudden feeling of being tricked dissipated in disbelief of what Nicole had stated. Was it jealousy? But rapidly now, Sally's compassion flooded her senses and she wanted to believe what was really happening, but did that mean those emotions from before that she bore were that great? How could that be? Could her want to protect Soler cloud her tenderness for poor, elderly woman?

Soler fell to his knees, grabbing the woman and pulling her to him. That value had been instilled in him at such a young age... he never thought he could actually be born with that. That he could have inherited it... from his... "Mother..?" he breathed out, unable to form the words due to their unnatural tendency to be spoken.

His mother was breathing with great gasps, her face looking pulled back as though being tugged by an invisible force as she shook slightly and struggled to remain in the moment, "I.. thought I'd... never see you again... I didn't know.. I still had... tears... left to sh-e-e-e-ed." The attack began to make her shake more violently than before, her eyes rolling.

Soler looked to Sally with tears, and she knew he believed her... but she still hesitated.

"Nicole, send in medical aid!" she called out, before turning to him. Bending down to his level, she went to reach a hand to his shoulder. "Soler..." but he scooped Sophia up in his arms and moved passed her, seeing her not move in time to help her and instead, reach for him. It was impulsive anger that spiked in him. He'd have to ask her later, why she was being so distant from a woman who clearly was in need.

"Help! I need a medic!" he cried out, as Sally reached and stroked a bit of his back and quills as he bulldozed out of the room. Longing to explain herself... knowing... he saw her lose this battle...

She looked at the paper on the table.

"But maybe not the war." she knew there was only one other person that could confirm such a tale and prove that Sally's suspicions were justified to some degree, and one who knew Soler's silent tears beyond her own knowledge. "I need a Shadow in the snow..."

Thinking it a possible ruse, though knowing the blood-test was still accurate, Sally still couldn't throw off the feeling of a planted spy or disrupter. "Am I being silly? Overthinking it all?" She bit her nails, speaking to Shadow through Nicole's signals. She was worried about what Sophia said before, in fact, everything she had said. But the part about the mercenaries possibly tracking their calls? She couldn't take the risk...

Still, a part of her wanted to believe her. However, she had to be absolutely certain that Soler's mother was on their side, like her words and story suggested...

"...You're doing this behind Soler's back?" Shadow seemed to be amused at that. "Then yes, you're too dead set on this being his evil mother who's come to finish the job and thereby somehow disrupting his purpose in life. You need to stop his possible father and brother from needlessly destroying freedom for gain, that's the ultimate takeaway from all this. It doesn't matter whether he believes it's his missing link to his family or not... all that should matter to you, right now, is the safety of your people and stopping Eggman's forces from staging another attack on New Mobotroplis."

His words made sense, but she didn't think it right to just abandon the dilemma now.

"It... It is his family." she finally admitted, both to Shadow and to herself, "But he's already so far gone... he doesn't follow orders and I'm worried that if his mother asks him to do something, he would..." Would his loyalty so quickly change?

"Then this is about control?" Shadow's voice seemed to rise in accusation against Sally. "They're apart of the abductions. I've found out where they are... and they're moving quickly like a swarm of ants... I think this activity could be directly from this Sophia's escape... If that helps you to trust her, maybe it's enough to take her at face-value... for now." Shadow warned.

Sally felt the sting of his words but nodded, "Maybe it is my pride." she tried to confess, "But I'm also just so worried about him being manipulated..."

"Soler has always felt two values in his life... protecting those who can't, and mastering his abilities to defeat those that have wronged him. He has already completed the latter... but he'll never fully be satisfied with the first. If this mother-figure is triggering his first and foremost value, then it's possible she could control him over you."

"So then I'm not crazy and an overly protective girlfriend?" Sally seemed to be showing her feminine anxiety, and Shadow sighed loudly into the mic at it. It was like a funny reminder for her to stay—professionally—the Princess. "Right, sorry. I'll try and... not power-struggle too much with her. I just want Soler to be alright." she turned tender towards the end, and Shadow conceded that that was enough.

"You have every right to be worried about him... after all, you were the one that helped his fears in resolving his second value... you helping him through this... this behavior of yours is very much what I'd expect of you. If you love him as much as you seem too." He gave her a slight pick-me-up and she smiled fondly in recognition of it.

"Thank you, Shadow..." she lightly stated.

"It's not wrong of you to concern yourself in his life, but perhaps making him apart of his own life's concerns with you wouldn't be a bad idea, either... this isn't just your battle to fight. Soler is emotionally reckless..." he seemed to say that last line with the same disappointment a loving mentor would, "But that is exactly why he needs you to stabilize him. Don't call again." With that usual 'anti-social' and 'anti-hero' persona that Sally has come to love in Shadow, he hung up on her and she knew he was done talking about emotions for one day.

"Guess I'm not on my own after all." She held the phone, knowing she needed to tell Soler the truth. With a heavy heart, she texted him the truth, and said she needed to attend defenses since the mercenaries were moving and they needed to save the other hostages...

When Soler received the text, he was laying in his room, having been told to take a day off; which he found hard to enjoy. After reading it, he felt his soul quake with a slight bit of anger that Sally didn't speak with him personally.

'Why didn't she tell me herself!? I know she's busy, but...' he got up and rubbed his eyes from having stared at the ceiling in thought for so many hours... Now, the woman he had met really was his mother, and Sally had texted the document of their DNA test to prove it. Nicole had even stated some interesting facts about his mother's blood, but he wasn't going to pour through it yet. He wasn't ready, though acceptance was coming...

"Sally..." He smushed his fingers around his face, just disgruntled. "Saallllyyy..!" he fell back onto his firm bed, tossing a bit as he just wanted to see her, talk to her about all this.

It was hard... but he knew what everyone was trying to do, and it was less about him than those suffering people who desperately needed help.

The Freedom Fighters weren't going to stand for Eggman and his mercenary recruits, no one was going to be robotized today.

However...

Why did she hesitate to help Sophia? She would only call her Mrs. Stratus too... Why did she want to be so unemotional towards her?

That part did bother him... how overly cautious Sally seemed to be around her.

He sighed, turning over in his bed to slightly curl up, putting his hands behind his head as he did so, "Whatever..." he was too tired to do anything about it now. He was also emotionally drained, though it seemed Sophia would make it, she was also in recovery.

He would have to wait till later to resolve this matter... and get more intel on what his mother wanted him to do about his... father and misguided brother.

Unknown Territory: Eggman Empire's Robotization Camps

Like a line in a slave-train, the prisoners marched. Mercenaries were covered in shadows from the clouds that blocked out the sun and the lightning that slashed the sky in a sound like the whips on the prisoners backs. They drove them on, before each one was thrown or forced with a heavy push into Eggman's machines that robotized them and put them headfirst into the army.

The landscape was barren and like the dunes of nothingness. Lead into steel domes and then hauled through contraption that would close rapidly and zap a few times, then rise up to reveal the new Eggman Empire robot solider.

"Quite a loyal regiment." Shay smirked, seeing the process unfold. "You'd never need to recruit again, father." He looked beside him, a very broad shouldered man who glared with little emotion down at the screaming and terrified hostages.

"Is this all of them?" Conor stated, bluntly.

"Ouch, you make it sound like it's easy to pluck ants from the ground." Shay pinched his fingers together to demonstrate. "We're getting there."

"We should have been there." Conor began to walk on, and blowing a raspberry behind him was a frustrated Shay.

"I do this for no pay, and now, no respect too?" he complained.

His father growled over his shoulder, "Watch your tongue."

"And bite it till it bleeds?" Shay grinned, teasingly. "Honestly, you make it sound like I'm not even trying to please you."

"Because you're not. You're sadistic. You purposefully take no pay because you know you'll inherit the clan the moment you turn the appropriate age." Conor looked on, "If I had a few more sons like you, I wouldn't even need to take jobs like this..." he put his hands in his large cloak's pockets. "But for some reason... your mother..." he then stopped a moment and looked around.

"...Where is your mother?"

"Already hungry for something you've been dry of for years?" Shay mocked.

"...No, she turned dry." Without so much as remorse, he said that as though she was useless to him now. "But where is she?" he tried to mentally remember the last time he saw her. "Something's not right..." he walked bristly towards the camera room, looking at the plant. He touched the leafs... no one had watered it for a while...

"Dry..." he hissed out, "Your mother has finally signed her death wish." he took a bit of a breath, as though knowing this would happen, but not thinking she'd have the guts to actually go through with it. "You have a new job now,... Son."

"Pfft, so depressing." Shay stretched out, "I'll bring her back."

"No..." Conor closed his eyes, before walking back over to the cameras, "This seems to be more than that..."

Shay looked confused for a moment, before his eyes widened and he looked surprised towards his father. "Really? You think the wells done for?"

"I don't need a well." He typed in the last thing she must have saw before deciding to flee, and then... saw Soler. "Ah... I knew that blue looked familiar..." He zoomed in, "It looks just like her..."

"How... can that be?" Shay pulled on his own quills, "He looks different than me..."

"Not by much. He's the splitting image of your mother." Conor smiled, "She's led us straight to him..."

"Straight to..?" Shay still seemed on a different page, but Conor just turned his massive form towards him.

"A heed of warning... I believe your mother hasn't always been dry... perhaps I had mistakenly taken my eye off of her for too long..." He fiddled with a knife by his side. "Take care of it. Retrieve your... 'beloved' mother." Conor took the knife out and stabbed the screen where the son he never knew he had resided... Then tossed it to Shay, who let it drop on the ground, staring at it with a bit of a narrowed look. "That chaos energy should have been mine..." he hit the control panel with all his brute strength, his fangs crunching against his other teeth in his anger.

"...I have a little brother?" Shay began to connect the dots, looking at the Chaos Spears and then Soler's white and blue quills... He then looked to the knife, in curiosity... putting new points together... "All... apart of the dirty work... I suppose." He looked down, as though feeling betrayed as well, and turned towards the door. "But what if she's told the Freedom Fighters? She's already 'increased' their odds..." he gripped his hand before having a flourishing flick of it, acting more sinister in what he was about to do.

The father said nothing, and Shay just pulled on his gloves, making sure they were tight in their resolve. An order is an order... after all. He tsk'ed, "Just another day then, eh, dad?"

Conor slammed his fists to the control panel again, denting it , clearly wanting to have another unit with chaos energy with him.

Shay rolled his eyes, "Never enough for you, is it?" and began to walk on out... laughing as his evil grew...

Rouge watched from above, then signaled to Espio, who quickly moved to alert Shadow... moving invisibly, he only appeared to whisper into Shadow's ear, who was wearing a garb to keep the dusty dirt that flew in the barren wind out of his face.

They were a while away from the camp, but Shadow's eyes widened in distress, and quickly pulled out Nicole. "Alert them. There going to move, and fast."

Back in New Mobotroplis

Shadow had finally returned to the Freedom Fighter's Headquarters, upset by the distressful scene he, Espio, and Rouge had all witnessed. They didn't wait for backup, and did save a few hundred people or so before arriving back in New Mobotroplis... but to reverse the effects of robotization was still a feat that everyone was working on.

Sally, exhausted from not getting any sleep, moved over to Shadow like a zombie as she placed her hand on his shoulder, her eyes barely open. "Good work out there, Shadow... I should check on Soler... could you lead the research community for now?"

"Have you not slept since-!?" He was bewildered by her state, and with everything happening, he wasn't in the mood to loosen-up on her. He took a breath and lowered his angled arms which had been raised in his aggressive state, "No excuses. You should rest. Let him stay close to the action." he folded his arms, as though not willing to hear her fight back on this one.

"B-but-" she began, looking like she could collapse forward any minute as he helped her steady herself.

"What did I just-?" he sighed, "Trust that Soler is smarter than that." Whatever her concern was, he already knew.

She nodded, chuckling lightly, "You really believe that he won't... be manipulated? She's his mother, Shadow... I'm just constantly worried. We don't know her. I've only seen two sides of her, scared and... strangely regal." she stood straight again as Shadow seemed to ignore the fluff of the information and turn her towards the living spaces where the rooms were located.

"I hope I do." he stated, "And no matter who she is... he's known us the longest. You have to trust your heart over your blood, sometimes." Shadow seemed to be speaking from his own experiences, and watched her begin to move towards the living quarters. He wouldn't take his sights off of her until he knew she was safely inside, in case she got any ideas. She did turn around to look over her shoulder at him, but he just folded his arms and glared heavily towards her in a deep, authoritative frown. She now knew what Soler must have felt...

Squinting at the light, Sally finally gave in and opened the door to the building.

"...Honestly, you worry me more." Shadow watched her a second longer before turning to the rescued hostages and helping pass out water and collect further information. It was difficult, they all asked about family and friends, describing them as Shadow fought hard to not remember any particular faces or features. He simply passed out the water, and didn't say any comforting words. Rouge and Espio were slightly different in their approach though, but looked to Shadow in understanding.

Everyone knew he felt the most about it, but would be the last to say anything. To Shadow, actions spoke louder than words... and they only were able to save the few lucky ones they smuggled out or rescued along the way.

Sally was comforted... having someone admit she needed to rest made it more easier for her to accept having to go to sleep, so it wasn't surprising when she dropped on the couch by the entrance and fell into a light sleep. As she did so, Soler was dreaming himself, recalling a moment in the orphanage where the children were bullying one another.

In his sleep, he tossed, "No... leave them alone..." He turned again, "Stop it... You..." as he flinched, he suddenly rose up from the bed in a shaken state, "I won't see them fall!" he breathed heavily, unsure why he was sweating so much, but moved the bed-sheets and rubbed his face again.

"Ugh... a night terror? Haven't had those in a while..." He wasn't used to such vivid dreaming for quite some time, remembering getting beaten-down and standing right back up again, so the older kids didn't bully the younger, more weaker ones. "Bad dream..." he shook his head,... having seen the younger children all fall to the ground by the cruel, unfeeling punches of those who had no other means to vent their uncontrolled and uncomforted emotions. But then... he remembered the last thing he was thinking about before falling asleep.

"Sally... Soph-" he stopped himself, "My... mother?" He looked back at the communication device, feeling strange again, and looking downhearted.

"No, I have to see her." He made his decision, and got up. Fixing his shoes on tightly, he adjusted his quills into place from the bed-hair with all the tossing and turning he had done and headed out the door.

Walking to the living space, he immediately saw Sally's red hair and froze, amazed to see her so quickly. "Sal?" He walked quietly over and noticed her sound asleep.

Her eyes blinked a moment, and he remained still.

She slowly... fell back asleep, and he gently stroked her cheek and lowered himself down to her. "How long... have you been here?"

She blinked her eyes lazily open, weak with fatigue, and he narrowed his eyes.

He picked her up without another word, taking her back to an opened room and set her down, tucking her in, and kissing her forehead. Closing the door, he knew he must have missed a lot that was going on. He had so many questions for her... so much he wasn't aware of. But that would have to wait.

Still, he knew there was one woman who would have some answers...

More than he bargained for...

Heading to Sophia Stratus's interrogation room with purpose, he didn't even noticed Shadow hide himself and begin to watch him... closely...

For Sally's concerns and Soler's well-being, he just wanted to observe how their relationship really was developing. Was Sally's concerns justified? He had no reason to believe they weren't, but wondered if Soler was truly being aware of the influence this woman was supposedly having on him.

'I taught him better than that,' Shadow gritted his teeth, 'He better not disappoint me... or the princess.'

Sopia was sitting on the couch, having eaten only a little bit of the nicely made food provided for her. She wished there was a window... but instead, fixed her sights on the painting's lush colors and vivid depiction of a meadow and brilliant sky, feasting on the feeling it gave to her. It had been so long since she had seen the real sky, but even looking at it through a painting was somewhat comforting. Still, she knew she wasn't safe, and wouldn't be until Conor and her son's mercenaries were finally put to an end. Eggman already was a lot to take for the world, and now them?

When Soler opened the door after the green light turned red, showing that the door was unlocked, she took another cleansing breath and sat up straighter.

'No going back,' she told herself, 'You must address this. Head-on. He may dislike it, but he must know the significance of defeating his father... and possibly saving his brother...' she looked down, as though in her heart she worried her eldest son was now beyond saving...

Soler had always felt like his nature started in the orphanage... but seeing the look of fear and love in her eyes... he was conflicted now.

"I... wanted to talk to you." He slowly moved himself to the table, sitting down.

As he put his hands together, trying to do something hard, Sophia patted the couch a little ways away from her, as though encouraging him to come closer. She scooted over to make him more comfortable, giving him some space.

He looked at the space a moment, but conceded to the notion.

So many thoughts raced through his head, as though he was trying to form a script of all the questions he wanted to ask her, but they were coming off too direct in his mind, and he wanted to be gentler.

It was so hard. This was hard.

He felt like his whole body had bricks and weights on him. Every time he moved closer to her, every step was like a crumbling bit off the stone. Jagged in his movements, he was awkward as he tried to be formal and polite, but clearly was holding back every bit of him that wanted to know more, to be sure.

He cleared his throat and sat down, taking a glance at her and noticing once again the similar features, and then looked away again. "In the orphanage... I mean, I should start with, I had a dream about the orphanage." He seemed nervous, "You know," His famous tell came out, and she tilted her head to listen intently. "I was always sticking up for the weaker kids, I didn't care if I got beaten up for them. I grew tough, and I never regretted the orphanage, just how awful people can be to each other." He spoke a lot with his hands, maybe trying to lessen the nerves as his whole being tremored like earthquakes at random intervals.

She saw his shaky hands and looked away, trying to figure out how to break the awkward tension in the air.

He didn't need to ask her for proof, or tell her he knew she was telling the truth. It wasn't relevant. She already knew that and he didn't want to come off making her believe that he doubted her. Even if everyone seemed to... he just was incredulous at the shock of it all. He hadn't made a decision, per-say... but now it was official.

What would she do? What would she want of him? Of anybody?

Maybe this was the same feeling Sally had, and he had to accept that her caution was out of love, too.

Sophia listened gently, before looking off with another soft sigh. "As a young girl, far into my youth, I would stand up for my sisters constantly." she looked back at the painting. "Many offers for their hands came through the pipeline to my father, but he was a very political man... only certain suitors could qualify. Sadly, these suitors were not anything we could have desired." She removed some of her raggedy brown cloak, bunched at her neck, to reveal some awful scars. "I couldn't watch them suffer." she admitted, then covered herself up again. "I haven't had that strength to stand up to others in years... but when I saw you, I had life again, and..." She turned towards him, but worried she was coming off too strong, she adjusted herself away again. "Sorry..."

She had stood up for Shay countless times while he was still young, but after getting beaten down so many times, she couldn't fight anymore. The little boy willingly went after a time, and he never shed further tears for her. He had become harden and stiff, and she feared to ever admit that she had lost her darling eldest son. But she didn't want that for Soler, and knew in her heart that she could still prevent this tragedy.

It gave her strength to keep going, to keep having this conversation.

Soler immediately got up and embraced her. "I said the same thing." he admitted, and though it took all his emotional strength to do so, he also couldn't bare to hear that she suffered.

Although Soler was uncomfortable, giving her this bit of reassurance that she wouldn't be abused anymore was still apart of him. He could feel it... His origin's pieces, half of them lied with her, and he wanted more than anything to learn more and also accept the good that he gained from her.

But what of his other blood..? His powers... what did he truly inherit from his mother? And what... was the rest?

He had always wondered about his unknown abilities and powers, looking at his hands from behind her back, peering over her shoulder. Was he really... the horrible monster he always thought could possibly be there? Or was he the angel of the ever-free skies..? Was it possible that he could choose?

The closeness was soon interrupted, lightly returned by the mother, but didn't feel right when Sally suddenly burst through the door. Her hair a mess, her eyes blackened underneath, and clearly distressed.

She scanned a moment and slowly softened her accusing eyes, looking full of betrayal to now one of understanding. She sighed, trying to lighten her fears, "What did she tell you?" she asked, looking exhausted still.

It was clear she was upset that Soler had disregarded her fears, but as he moved away from his mother, looking towards her, he also wanted to comfort her. "S-Sal..."

He was finding himself torn between a mother figure and a companion...

He looked between the two girls, and Sally was hurt by the struggle it seemed to be. She felt she was his family,... maybe Shadow was right?

Shadow had seen Soler speak with his mother in secret, and went to find Sally. He felt the closeness wasn't a bad thing, but maybe not alone in case the woman really was affiliated still with the cold-hearted mercenaries. His prejudice did him in, and he ended up leaving halfway through observing them to retrieve Sally, siding slightly with her fears. He also didn't understand fully the dynamic of what it must feel like to have a parent, especially being on one's own for so long, so partially his was his ignorance to that emotional pull that also moved him to act as he did. He had only had Maria... and that was that.

Shadow wouldn't put it passed the mercenaries to scheme up something like this, even if it was Soler's biological mother. He had seen where half his blood came from and rejected it's evil, and now it seemed, Soler would have to do the same. Soler could have been a planted pawn this whole time... though it seemed unlikely, Shadow worried the mother could be conditioning him to be as such.

Soler looked beyond Sally, seeing some curious eyes peek in of other Freedom Fighters, having seen Sally and Shadow talking before her bolting towards the interrogation facility. Not liking how everyone was so against her, he narrowed his eyes in authority, "Hey!" they all jumped except Sally at the door. "Get my mother some food and water." he then got up briskly and took Sally's arm, tugging her out with him, "We need to talk." he gave her a serious expression, and humbly realizing her error, she nodded and submitted to his anger.

"You have every right to be upset." she began, "But I do too." she pulled the arm away from him as he remained facing away from her.

He bundled his fists, "She's my mother... why didn't you tell me in person?"

She opened her mouth to speak but withdrew instead, holding back what she really wanted to explain, but felt it was pitiful.

Sophia stayed in her new trap, a lot nicer than where she used to live. She placed her hands elegantly to her lap and sighed. She knew she wasn't trusted, and seeing a figure in the shadows with red eyes... she also knew she was being carefully watched.

She was in the right, so she had nothing to fear from these people... but it was those who did wrong that truly terrified her.

What if they come for them..? Hurry their preparations knowing she would tell their enemies everything?

She remained still and silent, her breath catching on the fear of that irreversible travesty.

Sally's hand clung to her arm in defeat, "Shadow agrees with me... that sometimes, you let your emotions cloud your judgement."

Soler turned around, "Does she seem like a ruthless killer to you!?"

The door was slightly shut, but not locked. Sophia looked to it, slightly listening in on the muffled conversation, but unable to make most of the words out.

"How do you know that she's not just pretending!? Using this to lure the Freedom Fighter's into an elaborate trap!?" She swung her once held back arm out towards where Sophia's interrogation room was. "Is her name even Sophia!? Was she bought out to lie about this?! We can always put it passed Eggman to come up with something like this, but mercenaries are an enigma. We know they'll take innocent lives to Eggman's robotization machines for power and greed, what makes you think they wouldn't devise something like this!?"

"It's too-" Soler began,

"Unethical?" She had a point, "Soler, it may be complexed, but so are our lives!"

"I just... I can't see that in her." He looked away, "I can't see her not being my mother, in both heart and blood."

Sally looked concerned.

Sensing that, he spoke up again to reassure her, "Look..." He put his hands on her arms, gently bringing her closer. "Nothing will replace what I have here, with you, in the Freedom Fighters. But I can see the missing puzzle pieces in her, Sally. I can see where I got some of me from."

"But you develop on your own course, Soler." She placed her hands up by his shoulders, wanting desperately to embrace him and not fight anymore, but as a leader... she needed to be fierce. "You can't grow too close to her... not until we gain more information and learn to trust that what she says and demonstrates to us is factual and true."

He sighed, disappointed, but knew in his mind that was the right thing to do. His heart ached, but he nodded to her logic. "Okay... I'll try and not see her without supervision."

She smiled, "Thank you. Just be-"

"More cautious?" He smirked, trying to lighten the mood.

"You really do have a wonderful smile." she giggled, and he took that as an invite to hug her.

They held one another for a good, long, solid minute. There was so much healing in that embrace as Sally whispered 'Sorry' a few more times, and Soler gently stroked her back and also admitted he was in the wrong too.

"I won't act on my own again... not without you." All his tender love poured out into that sweet sentence, taking her in and not wanting to let her go. He wanted her apart of this, not against it, but knew now that it was out of love. He had felt her doubt, even in himself, he just chose to accept it... which may take more convincing for Sally, but it was all with good intent.

"You can, but... maybe talk it over with me, once in a while." She was in a much better mood, hearing him say such kind things. Considering it wasn't just him going through this odd, new experience... She wanted to be there for him too. "I want to be apart of your troubles... Soler."

"But you're already apart of my happiness," Soler moved his head a little aways to look directly in her eyes, their foreheads touching in a longing moment. "Those two don't always collide..."

"You saying I take your troubles away?" She stated, amused, but he lightly touched his nose to hers and closed his eyes.

"That's exactly what I'm saying..." his voice turned into a breathy confession, and she moved slowly up to kiss him... but then a large alarm sounded out and Nicole's voice echoed in terror over the speakers.

"Fighters! Enemy has infiltrated the city walls! It's heading straight for us!"

Screams and cries from frightened civilians and rescued victims sounded out in an array of chaos.

Looking to each other and then racing out, the two forgot to lock Sophia's door...

It swung slightly, and Sophia watched it with real intent.

Now was her moment... to try one last time.

Chaos energy shot up the walls of a building like lighting embedded into it's structure before the entire thing burst once it reached the top. Shay walked through their defenses like a battering ram, though he seemed to have barely made a sweat.

"Oh, mother?" he spoke very casually, then flicked his hand towards another building. "Are you hiding in here..?" the lightning chaos effect traveled up the building, and as he crushed his fist, it exploded once again and he moved on. "Well, we were hoping to knock a little later... but seeing as things are, you playing hide and seek with my mother and all, now seems to be as good a time as any!" he called out with a cruel glee, creepy in how his satisfaction seemed to skyrocket once seeing Sally and Soler rush out into the open before him.

"Ah, my unknown brother... and the Princess? Isn't this charming... a real family and enemy reunion." he bowed slightly, in a showy fashion that would have mimicked Scourge in an awful sense. "Does dear mother love you more than me? Is that why she left me to come see you?"

"Brother?" Soler shook off the comment, "You're hurting people! That's enough for me to take you on!" He was about to step forward.

"No!" Sophia quickly dashed out, spreading her arms to stop him and hold him back. Her eyes were glossy with tears, she knew this would happen. She looked up at the sky, hoping to avoid this day as much as possible, and taking in the beautiful outdoors again.

Freedom... she had freedom for a split second, and she wanted to make the most of it... do the right thing with it... since a long, long time.

Soler and Sally were amazed to see her out of her room, but Shay only gleefully exclaimed a loud cry of surprise and relief, but it sounded completely faked.

Looking back down at the ground, Sophia had to tighten the resolve around her heart, and without looking to them, she spoke in a much more lowered and solemn tone. "I'm glad you've found someone to be there for you, son... He's lucky to have you, Princess." she blinked her eyes to push back the tears and turned in her noble way towards Shay.

"Shay..." she spoke as though pleading for his humanity.

"Dearest mother..." he spread his arms out, as if welcoming her back...

But his smirk showed his true motive, and Sophia had to be brave... "I won't stand to see you make them suffer."

Something once again triggered in Soler, he felt his whole being resound with that.

"I won't let them fall to your chaotic rampage. You find solace in other's suffering simply because there was no one to protect you from it... no matter how hard I tried." She looked truly pained to admit her weakness.

He rolled his eyes, "Still living in the past, mother?"

"The ever-free skies still cover the earth with a never-ending blue!" she pointed to the sky, "I wear that color in my blood and upon me! It will forever be woven in my DNA, and it is apart of you too, Shay..." she gestured to her blue streaks, then to him, "You can still change, Shay... you can choose to be something you truly are! Not what your father has made of you!"

He watched her a moment, a still look but his smirk dampened to a smile... and his arms lowered to his side.

He shook his head, "Shame," He seemed to have thought about it, but not very much. He flicked his head back to crack his neck, as though relaxing from that declaration... which he took as her breaking ties with their mercenaries pack. "Why would I disinherit all that father has left me? Such a pity... I did enjoy our little tea parties..." he then fired out a chaos attack that Soler had never seen before. The lightning that shot from his hands looked like randomly zig-zagging Chaos Spears but with trails of visible light and power shooting behind them.

Sophia stood her ground, for if she moved, Soler and Sally would be in the line of fire from the spider-webbing chaos attack.

The lightning chaos power suddenly pierced around her, upon the ground, flashing out of existence... Did he purposefully not hit her? Miss and just do it to threaten?

All at once, there was a momentary lull as he held his hand up, seeming to pause only for a second. Then, he closed his fist and the ground beneath her blasted and shot her up into the air.

Soler watched the particles of earth spray up around her as she was flung up, her back arching, her air coming out in a large exhale. "Haooh...!"

She fell hard back to the ground with the earth crumbling over her after her...

"Nooo..!" Soler dashed towards her, it was all so fast, he barely saw the attack.

Shay swayed his hand down, massaging it, "Ohh... I actually wanted to disintegrate the ground, but I figured... saving my power to destroy my secret brother... your precious son, would be more rewarding." he gripped his fists again, his smile like a devious demon as he waited to see if Soler would retaliate. "What's wrong, little brother? What did she call you anyway..?"

Soler held Sophia up to his shoulder, but it was clear she was knocked out pretty badly...

Besides maybe some broken bones, she did still appear to be breathing...

Sally turned to the others, "We can't fight a power like that without the Chaos Emeralds... Where's Sonic, Shadow, and Silver?" She saw Shadow appear, but couldn't find Sonic, no matter how many times she looked around. Seeing Shadow's face then, focusing on it, she knew what that meant... "Don't tell me..."

"He's gone off with Tails and Knuckles again... I hear they're going to rescue the others." He shook his head. "Sorry, while you were busy, a lot happened..." he glared at Shay Stratus, "I've seen him and his father, during the spy operations. He's a murderer as much as his father!" he took off one of his limiters, twisting it to click with light but Soler held up his hand behind him.

"No!" He got up, gently placing his mother down and looking slightly over his shoulder, "Shadow,... Sally... get my mother somewhere safe."

"Pfft! Arrogant child!" Shay bent down, as though readying to attack again, his hands crackling with lightning spears... "She's my mother!"

"Soler, don't! He's too powerful!" Sally had noticed the buildings, the unusual use of chaos power... "We don't know what we're up against! Especially you!"

"He's tiers above you, Soler! He's the mercenary leader's second in command and heir. Of course he'd want you dead!" Shadow made an outstanding point, but Soler was too far into his emotions to care.

With Soler out of the picture, it would be Shay that inherited the ruthless clan... perhaps that's why Shay didn't seem to be after killing his mother, but mostly, in getting rid of unnecessary competition...

"You hurt her... how does that make you more entitled to call her mother than me?" He lowered his head, his anger growing. "I just got her... and I don't know her very well,... but that doesn't mean I can't cherish her as a mother!" his whole being rose into the first level of Chaos Break. "She cared about freedom just as much as I do... maybe you never realized... but she was protecting you in her own way as well! When she failed... that's why she turned to extreme measures for me. She had already bonded and loved you... she couldn't bare to part with you, but she could with me!" Soler spiked his power, hunching down, concentrating his power to his hands and feeling the swarm of infinity fill his bones. Something new broke out just then, a secondary power he barely even recognized, something inbetween that was fueling him to the next level... Chaos Surge. "I don't know her like you do..! But I feel like I've been apart of her my whole life!" His eyes were white, as though becoming animalistic for a moment, his hands pierced like claws more than hands in gesture and movement within his speech. "I won't let you destroy the family I've found, either! And that now includes her, too!" he felt himself reach an ultimate, risky limit... Chaos Synergy... he hadn't felt this way in a long time...

"Heh, pathetic." Shay swished out his wrist again, and was suddenly already at Chaos Syngery levels, and Soler could feel it.

His eyes widened and shrank, shaking in disbelief. "Wha... T-that's not possible..." He was struggling so hard to keep this form, but this-... no, his older brother, was able to just flick his hand and reach it instantly without so much as a build up.

"How did you do that?"

Shay laughed, looking up to the skies his mother once pointed at and holding a finger up to it. "You weren't planning on trying to use something I haven't seen before, were you? There's really no way anyone on this planet can defeat me." a spike of lightning rained down upon his finger, and he slowly lifted his other hand towards Soler.

Everyone was in a panic, never having seen such powers before, and rushing to escape the battle.

The Lightning randomly would strike the ground, causing havoc as buildings burst into flames, people were thrown in the impacts, and many couldn't find a suitable shelter.

"Stop it!" Soler channeled everything he had... "I may not have your power... but mine is my own! It's the power... no, the judgement of the ever-free skies!" he held his palm up to the sky as Shay's cocky attitude suddenly turned serious.

His eyes showed the aura that was forming around Soler, "Is that... Dad's..?" he wondered, but then his eyes looked a little more surprised. "It can't be..."

"CHAOOOSSSS PUNISHMENT!" Soler threw his hand down, and from Shay's hand the lightning disappeared and shot like woven designs around the suddenly bright and white sky.

"AHHHH!" Soler's whole body seemed to spark with chaos power as Shadow pulled Sally back, his whole being losing some control over himself as he became pretty instinctual.

"Get down!" Shadow warned, guarding her as he had never seen Soler at this level before.

From the skies, bolts of Chaos Speared Lightning shot down, similar to Shay's attack but on a whole another level, overwhelming the area as Shay looked around at the randomly spiking spears of lightning.

He dodged pretty well, but was actually forced to pay attention now. 'He stole my own chaos force and sucked it into the sky... how was he able to control it?! Even Chaos Synergy can't handle that much chaos!' Shay looked a little unnerved, but not by much. 'I was born with a limit... but what if mother's ability..?' he looked back to see Soler had sped through the rain of lightning, and his whole body looked engulfed with an array of bolts sparking out of him.

"...You are my brother..." Shay admitted, as Soler slammed a fist into his chest.

Shay was shot back by thousands upon thousands of chaos lightning spikes, but what he wasn't expecting was that the sky took it's whole reservoir of chaos power and converged their many different lines of lightning all to slowly move and bundle together into one giant lightning bolt. He was flung outside the city walls... With a cascade of blazing white chaos energy.

It slowly dwindled and the clouds began to disperse, as though a lull after a storm...

Soler breathed heavily, skidding to stop his super speed, giving Sally and Shadow a thumbs up, before he suddenly collapsed.

Shay tossed ash and fallen trees off of himself, getting up and panting as his fur seemed a little singed, but he was fine. He dusted himself off, "That's... not very good." He brushed his quills back. "Ha... I can't let dad know his potential. I'll talk him off as a lesser chaos wielder. Wouldn't want him taking my reign from me." He beamed as though the war had just began. "Still, I can't come back empty-handed..." He looked to see people fleeing the city, and smirked. "How about a present for Eggman..? A bigger army..."

He walked, menacingly, towards the fleeing citizens...

He knew he dealt with his mother, she wouldn't recover from that for a while... so why not have some fun and let the little brother think he'd actually done something..? Then he'll be surprised when he comes back...

Not holding back...

Soler woke up with a blink that hurt his eyes. The lights were right upon him, and the hospital didn't seem to smell all that great either.

He slowly got up, feeling the wear and tear on his body before moving the covers and rubbing his face again, "I... Did I win?" He didn't think it would be over that quickly, but he also felt like he was about to throw up.

He fled to the bathroom and vomited, his body unable to handle so much pressure.

He knew he threw himself into the fray, even taking his brother's power at one point, but it was too much to handle and he couldn't concentrate it all into an epicenter at his opponent till much later.

He had shot chaos out of him to make room to harness so much, but it still pained him. He had thought he had learned everything about his powers and abilities,... but there was clearly steps only the adversary knew...

His family... his enemies...

he shook his head, "They're not..." He held in another ill feeling, "family..." he tried to get up, cleaning himself up before remembering his mother.

"Where..?" suddenly his mind raced to Luna... then to the village... "No..." He thought of the people screaming, the fires... then the lightning shooting up the buildings, blasting his mother, what had happened...

"Sally..!" he tried to get his feet under him and move as quickly as possible, dodging and forcing himself to ram against walls since he couldn't jump over the gurneys or other medical supplies the nurses and doctors were pulling down the halls.

Many cried out when they saw him, some mistaking his speed for Sonic's or Shadow's, before faltering as he came up to the desk, gripping it to stay upright.

On the way to it, he stumbled and saw Bunny for a quick moment beside Anton, but continued on.

He felt like a child, trying to keep himself balanced enough to remain straight, "So... Sophia... Sally... Where?"

"P-Princess Sally is unharmed, she isn't here." The poor secretary stood straight up upon seeing him, "S-sir, you need to go back to your room..."

"Not without... ugh... seeing my mother." Soler was struggling, sinking down and falling from the desk, gripping it with his last strength by his fingers.

He was about to lose hope, about to slip off the counter and probably be wheeled away again when a pair of familiar hands grabbed his.

"He's with me." Shadow hoisted his arm over his shoulder, helping him to stand.

"T-...Thank you, Shadow..." Soler weakly stated, as Shadow shook his head.

"By this time, you've thanked me more than I care to keep track of." He headed towards Sophia's room, "Sally's already here, she just came in."

"She is..?" It was surprising to hear, but walking into the room, he saw Sally holding Sophia's hand by the hospital bed, and then looking over to smile gently to Soler.

"She wanted to see her." Shadow whispered quietly as an aside, but didn't move his head to Soler, hoping he heard without Sally picking up on their conversation.

"She'll be in critical recovery for a while... she's malnourished and clearly weak, but she's got a high likelihood of making it." Sally gave him that hope, that was enough to sustain him for now. She probably didn't hear Shadow, but that was the least of his worries right now.

"And... umm..." He couldn't remember the other man's name, "What about my brother?"

"Shay Stratus," Shadow began, "Which... is your last name, apparently."

"I don't think I'll take it." Soler pushed off of Shadow's arm lightly, trying to get his barrings and reaching for Sally. She got up instinctively and helped him to sit next to her, gently placing him to rest and get on the bed to sit in front of her and beside his mother.

"You don't have to worry about your brother." Shadow showed his wrist, his limiters off. "I've dealt with him. He was still alive and well, kicking back by trying to capture some fleeing citizens. We've detained him... but..." Shadow revealed that his back had been scarred and torn up. "He's a lot to handle, I think you drained most of him..."

Soler gasped slightly, "But... your healing abilities..."

"Aren't kicking in like they should." Shadow admitted, then took a deep breath, "I was trying to get out when I saw you barely able to stand at the counter," He folded his arms, "Sally apparently had me stationed here." He glared at her, and she just shook her head, defiantly.

"You were injured. Both of you need to learn to rest more."

"...Conor... w-won't... rest."

The three all suddenly turned to Sophia, who was weakly coming too.

She reached her hand out, patting it gently by the bed as Soler took it.

"S-Shay..?" Her eyes looked hazy, as though she couldn't really see through them at the moment.

"...Still bad." Soler stated, "But at least we've... somewhat, got him." Soler looked to Shadow, but Shadow would be fine, showing that by rotating his shoulders back and standing up straighter. "Just worried about you, is all."

She smiled weakly, breathing irregularly as Sally got up and adjusted the medication. "She really needs rest..." Sally urged, trying to have Soler understand that he needed to coax her back into sleep.

"I knew... this day... would come." She weakly spoke, barely lifting her eyes as she tried to breathe better.

"This isn't the day you die." Sally comforted, then looked to Soler with narrowed eyes, as though encouraging him to give her some hope to keep fighting.

Soler nodded, bending down by his mother's side and placing both hands around her own, frail one. "I just met you... but I feel I've always known you... because a huge part of you... is also in me, too." Soler finally felt comfortable with this, and continued, "I vow, mother... On the ever-free skies... on your behalf... I'll make sure to never forget the fight for freedom. That it's within liberty of the all-encompassing, continuous stretch of blue that gives everyone that right. I will fight against the grey cloud of tyranny, whether that be by the Eggman Empire or through my father and brother..." He looked down, squinting his eyes as he wondered if his father was the one possessed with chaos energy, and if so, he was certainly going to be a hard fight... "I won't let you down."

Slowly blinking her eyes, it was clear the medicine was kicking in for Sophia Stratus. She nodded twice, and then her head fell back and she was out like a light.

"...Mom?" Soler leaned forward, but Sally placed a hand on his shoulder, comforting him that she was alright.

"See that?" She pointed to the heart monitor, "She's a strong woman, though she doesn't appear to be so now, she's a lot like you." Sally grinned at the thought, but Shadow only tsk'd.

"Stubborn and full of emotions." Shadow shook his head, but Soler only smiled to his mentor.

"I thought that stubbornness was from you, good to know it's more than that." he joked, "More so hereditary."

"It's still me." Shadow returned the humor, which surprised Sally and Soler, who suddenly lightly shared a moment of laughter.

Even Shadow... smiled.

Within prison though, Sonic seemed to badger and hound on Shay...

He walked with a playful bounce in his step, "Looks who's on the other end now, eh?" He had previously just freed many held hostages, and was in the mood to pick a fight. He lifted his leg and put his hands on his hips, swinging the leg to the side and bouncing again, "Sucks when your freedom is taking away, ain't it?"

Shay just sat in the back, his head down and covered in shadows, leisurely sitting with that creepy smile of his.

He began to slowly laugh, and wouldn't respond right away.

"Bring me my dear brother... and my mother, if she's still alive." He tilted his head up, showing his eyes full of chaos energy, blinding the room in light before it faded from his eyes... his aura spiked increasingly and Sonic stopped joking... watching in all seriousness. "I'll be happy to chat, but under those conditions... This cell is rather lonely, might as well have some entertainment to pass the time." He laughed manically and held up his hand, having stored chaos energy after Shadow's fight with him and lightning shot from his hands, forcing Sonic to back away as the bars got charged with it's powers.

The room exploded as Sonic took off to avoid the explosion, "He doesn't like playing nice or fairly, but that doesn't mean he needs to act all high and mighty about it." He sped back, mostly talking to himself, and noticed the cell still remained.

"Tsk," Shay grimaced, seeming disappointed. "You have the means to stop chaos?"

"We have this room super-juiced with Chaos Emeralds," He adjusted his gloves, and kicked away some rubble. "You're not leaving that cell..."

"Chaos... Emeralds?" Shay's eyes widened, as though knowing something...

Sonic didn't know...

"Interesting... hahaha!"

Sonic just watched... frowning and narrowing his eyes. His frown carried to the side of his muzzle, and he rolled his eyes, "Why do I always end up with the weirdos who are losing their minds?"

He walked out as Shay continued to laugh and store chaos within himself... now having an idea...

END of part 1?

#commission receipts #commissions #cutegirlmayra #solerwolf21 #soler sonic oc #soler's story #me commissions #me receipts #sonic oc #sonic oc story

2 notes · View notes

mitsunari · 8 years ago

Text

Skybound We Roam: Ch. 5

Chapter 1. Chapter 2. Chapter 3. Chapter 4.

This chapter is from Yuuri’s POV after he’s done his tours for today. Otabek and Phichit are in a different building. Yuuri wants to show Otabek a meteorite crater!

Koyanshyk, i’m told, is Kazakh for “son of a bitch”. Пиздец (pizdetz or w/e romanization) is a Russian exclamation for when shit goes wrong.

Oirandau is a darker spirit in my story. It and Otabek last met a couple years ago because its behavior prompted an earthquake that would’ve hit Almaty, but Otabek used his flute to deal with it. Yuuri was in Almaty during this and saw Otabek riding through town. I edited this flashback out of this chapter because I didn’t know how to write it in well, so i might reference that later.

I wanna say that all my stuff may as well be rough draft work. I write and sometimes I take out stuff or add stuff, then consequently forget things or mention stuff vaguely. I don’t have an editor and my attention span is like... dead for editing. I’ve been struggling on this on and off, trying to figure out what direction I want to take this. I’m worried that I’m adding too many layers onto the story. :’( I want to make sure it’s interesting but I tend to overcomplicate. However, when I finish this series, I’ll go through and edit the whole bit or ask someone to beta it for me before I put it up on A03.

When his second tour of the day finished, Yuuri lingered in the observatory’s viewing dome to answer questions. Tourism was a large part of funds and he never begrudged learning minds, but there was always a part of him feeling like he struggled at keeping a crowd’s interest. His anxiety had come a long way from his First Tour Ever. If anything, skating when he was younger and still in his hometown of Hasetsu, Japan, garnered him some confidence. Not… much… Yuuri wasn’t a professional ice skater, just a hobbyist, but seeing other people whose heart burned for the sport really inspired Yuuri to go back to college.

At the time, he’d floundered between ��you’re turning your back on skating because you failed” and “n-no, i’m not running away, I’ll get back into school to do what I love”. He liked to say he kicked depression’s ass, but he didn’t do it alone. Yuuri sent an an initial e-mail to Phichit, who already studied at Touhokudai in Miyagi. Their next Skype session, he may have drank a little (a lot) and opened his heart about passions and space and… well... Yuuri didn’t actually remember applying for anything. He just woke up to an email notification from Phichit’s favorite professor and, weeks later, Touhoku University’s acceptance of his application.

Phichit refused every one of Yuuri’s promises to pay him back. Instead, Yuuri snuck them in by driving all their field trips and cooking their dinners. Sometimes they’d eat out in Almaty, but driving an hour to and from never happened every day. Even though they’d both graduated by now, he still had those habits. Not that he minded! Yuuri made a mean katsudon, and Phichit taught him Thai foods that they always cooked together. Most of the Kazakh workers lived in Almaty, but as foreign nationals, he and Phichit stayed under the government’s provisions, booking in the observatory’s bunker. Yuuri called their living quarters that because they hadn’t updated anything except the observatory’s command center since the Soviet Era. Even the tourist’s lodges were fresher than theirs! But Yuuri’d lived in Japan and knew all about spartan living space. They’d made their rooms their own as best they could.

Making the kitchen hospitable was the first rule. It even had a recipe book--all in Cyrillic, of course--so Yuuri practiced his translation abilities with Kazakh and Russian foods that seemed feasible. There were many bastardized quasi Russo-Japanese meals in the beginning. Russian food eventually grew on Yuuri. In fact, his lunchbox for today contained butterbrod instead of solely a Thai or Japanese bento.

When the tourists finished milling out the door, Katsuki Yuuri let out a soft sigh on his way in the opposite direction, off to the employee break room to fetch his lunchbox. For once, his coat hung from his labeled coat hook instead of across his office chair. Yuuri put it on, along with his winter wear, and grabbed his lunch to take it outside. He fished out his phone to text Phichit.

To: Phi-chan!

Message: Where are you? I’m about to head out to the meteorite so will you cover me?

Yuuri walked down the hall to the security office to sign out a mountain aid kit and fill out the location docket. It was safer to work in pairs. The officers opened up the kit to ascertain the walkie talkie worked, the first aid half was sterile, the mini-radio worked, etc, etc. While he marked his coordinates so they’d know where to look for him in an avalanche, his phone beeped a reply from Phichit.

From: Phi-chan!

Message: The lounge in B2!!

ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ Otabek’s here with me. ＼(・ω・)/

Yuuri’s pen nearly punched a hole through the paper when he read the message preview on the screen. He filled out the rest of what he needed to sign out of a government building temporarily, then quickly typed out a reply to Phichit. In his haste, his phone’s keyboard typed out a mass of kanji that he deleted and repeated in English.

To: Phi-chan!

Message: WHAT?

He sent that just as Phichit added, “He’s been waiting for you so I kept him company, so he can cover you instead. I won the bet, remember? (•́⌄•́๑)૭✧”

Yuuri groaned. He did remember, but it was still awkward to ask anyone else to partner up with him in winter. He already worried enough about imposing on others, now he was hit with the double whammy of inconveniencing Otabek for waiting and asking him to babysit so Yuuri didn’t roll over a mountainside alone.

To: Phi-chan!

Message: Are you serious? Please tell me he is not bored to death!!!!

This time, it was a snapchat bing instead of a message. Yuuri opened it to a selfie of Phichit and Otabek. Phichit was winking and pointing a finger to his smile, but also to Otabek sitting next to him and a completed painting sitting on the table. Yuuri recognized the lounge for its table and intense amounts of sunlight coming in through those windows.

He sent a SnapChat back--a selfie of himself with his chin tucked into his scarf and a caption that said “i’m walking there soon”. He took his lunch and the mountain kit in both hands after stuffing his phone away. He wobbled out the door into the cold, crossing from Building 1 to Building 2, and fighting with the frozen doorknob.

“BRR!” Yuuri shuddered loudly and trod hastily down the angular halls, turning into the open lounge. His eyes widened at the sight of the table taken over by art supplies. A plastic cup filled with dirty water there, a palette and sketchpad here. “Otabek! Phichit!” He bowed his head quickly and approached. A nervous look flickered over Yuuri’s face at the sight of Otabek’s stoic one.

“Yuuri!” Phichit crooned. “Come look at this! Our man is Hokusai!” He pointed at the sketchbook. Otabek’s paintbrush rested diagonal across the corner.

“Whoa!” Walking around to Otabek’s other side, Yuuri marveled at the sketch drawn in pencil with its lines painted in. The picture was a lovely landscape of mountains and trees with the new star shining down. The stylized star was left unpainted. “Wow! This is amazing,” Yuuri whispered.

“Thank you,” Otabek said to the both of them. A small smile cracked upon his face. “Phichit said you were busy today.”

“Y-you didn’t come just to talk to me, right?” Yuuri stammered.

“Seeing my friends was an added benefit of scouting the mountain pass between here and the park,” Otabek said, and Yuuri’s shoulders visibly relaxed.

“Wow! And you’re not thirsty?”--Yuuri saw the teacups and hastily launched into--”Cold? Saddlesore? Are you comfortable?” he blurted out.

The corners of Otabek’s almond eyes crinkled when he gave a musical laugh. Yuuri blinked dumbly at him, feeling very much like he was witnessing God’s gift to mankind minus the angelic trumpets to go along with that sparkling smile.

“You and Phichit are of similar minds. Be at peace, Katsuki Yuuri; he has been a good host,” Otabek replied.

Yuuri looked at Phichit who gave a proud nod back, but it just made Yuuri even more apprehensive to ask Otabek to cover him. He kept squeezing his fists around the lunchbox and mountain kit, staying quiet.

“Yuuuuuriiiii?” Phichit singsang. Yuuri started, blinking up at the two men. Otabek cocked his head at him, and Phichit had a concerned look. “Are you okay?”

“Yes, I… well, uh.” Fuck, why did his tongue keep knotting up? “I was just wondering, uh, well since Phichit won his bet, uh, Otabek, do you want to cover me on the mountain?” Yuuri made to gesture outside and nearly dropped his lunch. “There’s something cool I can show you--”

“Let’s do it,” Otabek interjected.

“--so it’s not a total waste... of your.. tim--really?!” Yuuri blurted out.

Otabek nodded and started putting the art supplies away. He said something to Phichit about “remember what you promised” before joining up with Yuuri, who didn’t ask what that was all about. He looked over Otabek, wondering if this really was an imposition, but with a sigh, Yuuri forced the anxious doubts aside. There wasn’t anyone he’d be safer with in the wilderness than Otabek.

Yuuri sighed again, this time in relief. He was glad Otabek agreed. Living in the mountains was a lot like living on the edge of the world. Between wild animals and natural disasters, it held as much danger as it did beauty. Yuuri, who’d seen the Kazakh shaman calm earthquakes with a quray’s hollow notes, felt the same could be said for Otabek.

The man’s affinity for nature was even more valuable than any government-made machine Yuuri worked with. After Phichit’s video of them in Aralkum went viral, there were a lot of questions over the internet. Who was he? Was it a hoax? Thankfully, in the age of plentiful CGI and Photoshop, Yuuri had been able to just let people speculate by saying “aliens lol”.

Yuuri trusted Otabek… and he wanted Otabek to trust him too. The last thing anybody needed was a government sticking their fingers where they didn’t belong. Otabek called him his friend. Yuuri hoped he could be worthy of that.

“Which exit? Otabek asked, bringing Yuuri back to the present.

Mouthing “oh, right”, Yuuri turned away to say bye to Phichit. He told Otabek to hop into the truck. Once it roared to life, Yuuri pulled out onto the snowy road that wound around the entirety of Big Almaty Lake. Seven months ago, a meteorite barreled through Earth’s atmosphere and struck the side of the mountain near the observatory. If he hadn’t been monitoring it, Yuuri would’ve mistaken it for an earthquake.

“Hey, do you remember when that little meteor hit us a couple months ago?” Yuuri asked. His voice was a little muffled behind his scarf, for the pudgy man was bundled up well.

Otabek took a moment to think. “I was told of it,” he said, frowning. “But I had business in Atyrau.”

Yuuri didn’t know the region names that well but nodded anyway. “It’s where I’m taking you.” Yuuri smiled and glanced over expecting a smile too but Otabek simply acknowledged his statement with a neutral nod. Tapping his fingers fretfully over the steering wheel, he reminded himself that Otabek’s frown was his default expression. Seeing frowns just made him instinctively worry. I’m dumb… Yuuri ground into himself, gripping the steering wheel hard. “Uh, were you traveling again?” he asked, referring to Atyrau or wherever.

“Mhm. Caspian Sea this time,” Otabek rumbled.

Yuuri let out a sharp gasp. He knew where that was. “Don’t tell me we missed its disappearance!?” he blurted out.

Otabek’s eyebrows disappeared into his fur-lined hat. “No, that was only Aral. The Kaspiy had a spiritual imbalance and needed my attention. You did not use the feather I gave you to write for my aid so…,” he trailed off with a shrug.

Oh right. Yuuri had kept it until the Plisetsky’s new star showed up. Truthfully, he’d been so excited geeking over the meteorite with his crew that he hadn’t thought about Otabek. Yuuri hadn’t considered the idea of Weird Fantasy Mojo at work. “Haven’t you gone to see it?” Yuuri asked incredulously, receiving a head shake “no” in reply. Wasn’t Otabek like, King of Pride Rock? Everything the light touches was his kingdom, that whole schtick? Didn’t he have to check everything out?

For a second, Yuuri thought Otabek could read his thoughts. The Kazakh laughed a single amused note and said, “It would take me a lifetime to ride through every pass in these mountains. I confess I have not been that way since the meteorite hit, but”--he paused with an enunciation of the world, holding up a finger--”I can tell you that I haven’t been warned about it either.” Otabek paused again and turned his head to actually stare at Yuuri for a few seconds. “Is this why you were preoccupied about a world-ending omen?”

Yuuri’s entire face went red. He sputtered out a nervous laugh. “Ehehe...heh…... I mean we have precedence of meteors wiping out the dinosaurs. Of course it would be my luck to witness an event that hasn’t happened in a bajillion years.” He started chuckling even harder. “And… pfft... aliens….” He gestured at Otabek.

“...Aliens?” said Otabek.

“Yeah, that was our joke cover story whenever someone tweeted Phichit about the Aral Sea video.”

His passenger snorted a laugh, giving Yuuri a gloved thumbs up. A few seconds of silence passed, and then he shook his head, smiling a little. “It works.”

Yuuri’s eyes widened. Okay. He could finally relax over the idea that the video wasn’t going to summon government troops down on Otabek. “It’s like an old meme now, I guess. ‘Oh, the aliens chose Kazakhstan. When did your fav ever?’ type of posts still go around sometimes,” Yuuri chuckled.

He suddenly pointed to the curve around the mountain. “This is where we’re going.” He turned onto a service road that looked no different than their environment with all this snow. Otabek looked around curiously at their surroundings.

Yuuri’s eyes brightened but didn’t look away from the road. “Hey!” he burst out. “It’s, uh, it’s good that you haven’t seen it then. I can show you something impressive for once,” he said.

“Oh really?” The corner of Otabek’s mouth quirked upward.

“No lights or flutes though. Or special feathers for that matter.” Yuuri took him up a kilometer further, rounding the mountain’s wide base until Big Almaty Lake couldn’t be seen anymore. The “service road” stopped at a natural vista. On this side of the range, the mountainsides were sharp, and their cliffs dropped into a bowl-shaped depression shared with all the surrounding mountains.

Yuuri turned off the truck and shoved the keys into his pockets. Together, he and Otabek crunched over the thick snow, wading in between leafless bushes. At the edge, he trod carefully and pointed Otabek’s gaze down. The meteorite had crashed into the wall several meters beneath their cliffside vista, leaving a crater pocket in the bowl.

“Climbing?” Otabek commented. “I see no other way down.”

“That was our problem too.” Yuuri said. The vista was only a ten meter gap from one wall of mountain to another. He knelt at the left wall, pushing snow off the cliffside until he’d cleared all the way to the bottom. Otabek watched as Yuuri pulled aside a shelf of frozen snow and let it fall.

“In springtime, this is all covered with plants,” he explained. “I had to get to that meteorite and there’s no way to get into this part of depression without climbing or flying in.” Helicopters were popular with hunters but not part of Yuuri’s budget. “Until… I discovered this.” Yuuri pushed his entire arm through snow and grinned, turning around at Otabek.

Otabek’s eyes widened and he approached the rock. “A cave?” he whispered almost reverently.

“A cave,” Yuuri repeated eagerly. Wringing his arm around, he knocked free all the fallen snow blocking up the narrow slit in the wall. He pulled off his backpack and shimmied sideways. Once he passed the gap, Yuuri clicked on his flashlight, shining it through the slot. “Look at that, huh?” The crack in the wall was the gateway to a cave system inside the mountain.

Otabek nodded quickly. He too removed his pack but it was wider than Yuuri’s own and harder to shove through. He turned it on its side and pushed it through to Yuuri’s side.

The dark cave was the size of an office cubicle, but they were both relatively short men. Yuuri knew there were three holes leading deeper in. One unnavigable one above his head, dripping water constantly from the ceiling. The second and third were ground level. The cave possessed one hole in the wall, heading into the mountain’s belly probably. The other was a hole in the sloped ground, forming a descending tunnel.

“Be careful,” Yuuri said softly, pointing his flashlight at the slick rock . “It’s like a slide.” He placed his bag on his knees and squatted in the hole, crawling into the pipe-like tunnel. Although dark like the initial cave at first, the lower he and Otabek came, the more light revealed itself at the bottom. The tunnel opened up and became a ledge in a wall of another cave. Yuuri walked to the very end, able to stand up and let his bag sit on the ledge. He looked around for a safe foothold before climbing to the second cave’s floor.

The crashing meteorite broke through the cave’s ceiling and wall, opening it up to the elements. The fallen portions of mountainside had formed crude stairs between this high-roofed cave and the tunnels Yuuri discovered, allowing him to climb down to the secondary cavern in the first place.

“I haven’t cleared away all the rubble,” Yuuri explained, “but there’s a path to the meteorite, see? And much of the crater’s edges.”

A sledgehammer laid discreetly against the wall Yuuri dropped down from. He sat his backpack near it, then his lunchbox atop the bag. Otabek remained on the wall ledge in silence. He just looked. Yuuri didn’t know him that well to know if he was impressed or not.

“Um… I didn’t do anything bad, right?” Yuuri asked quietly.

“What are you talking about?”

“Like…” Yuuri gestured between the Kazakh and the meteorite. “I didn’t disturb the ‘spiritual balance’ or whatever?” He lined his index and middle fingers up in front of his nose. “I can pray to the Buddha and burn incense.”

Otabek’s eyebrows came together, and after thinking for a time, he nodded silently. He jumped down from the four meter ledge easily, straightening up in front of Yuuri. “Sit somewhere.” said Otabek. He chose a place on the ground with the two meters-wide crater stretched before him.

He’s serious! Quickly Yuuri picked three o’clock to Otabek’s noon, letting his legs dangle in the crater. The meteorite itself sat in pieces in the crater’s middle. Besides the biggest chunks of collapsed rock, it alone remained unmoved by Yuuri. The meteorite’s chunks were incredibly dense; he was certain one weighed the same as his truck. Yuuri returned his wondering gaze to Otabek.

The shaman pulled a long bamboo tube out of his bag. He drew a long amber-colored flute from it, carefully looking over it first before putting it to his mouth.

“Before we get started, I should say I don’t know what will show up… if anything. Understood?” Otabek grunted.

“I trust you, man. You have more experience with this,” Yuuri replied. When he had last seen Otabek in Almaty, this flute had not been with him. Yuuri squinted at the beautiful instrument. “Is that new?” he asked.

Otabek thought about it before nodding. “It is different from the one you remember. That Almaty earthquake was caused by a spirit on the wind. It disturbed the peace, and the mountains took offense. The flute dealt with the spirit. The quake quit once it went away.” He sucked on his tongue in lament. “It destroyed my flute. But”--he gestured with the amber one--”I was gifted this one shortly thereafter.”

“Wait, is there really a spirit in here for you to use that on?” Yuuri exclaimed, looking hastily around the cave before going back to Otabek.

“Well.” He paused. Otabek pointed to the broken meteorite. “Let’s welcome whatever this is. Traditionally we welcome the coming of new things, like the new year or springtime, with prayers and music. This can count too.”

Yuuri nodded, familiar with ringing the bell in the temple and praying to Buddha. “We do that back home in Japan. I’ve, um, never prayed to welcome a space rock before though. Here.” He turned to open up his lunchbox. “I can give offerings.” He pulled a riceball from the rest and sat it down by his feet. Otabek bent down with him and placed a small loaf of bread into the crater.

“You can say whatever you want for this,” Otabek said, adjusting his flute.

Yuuri clapped his hands together firmly. “Is this really going to wake up some kind of sp-sp-space spirit!?” He sucked in breath. He had been coming to this cave at least once a week for seven months now. It was the perfect private place, and no one, not even a spirit, had disturbed him here. He didn’t want a new earthquake to mess this up.

“Guess we’ll find out. Pray well, Katsuki Yuuri!” Otabek grinned.

Yuuri’s eyes went wide like a spooked deer, and he quickly shoved his ham on bread into his mouth. He wasn’t about to get started on an empty belly! When he finished, he pressed his hands together again. “Namu Amida Butsu Namu Amida--” he muttered, pressing his thumbs against his forehead.

Wait. I sound so bored… Yuuri was way more excited the first time he saw the meteorite down there, but now, he certainly didn’t feel the same. He tried to channel the glee he’d felt upon seeing the dark smooth space rock. Taking a deep breath, he tried again, this time praying within himself instead of aloud. I am not a stranger to you, amazing meteor, but I hope you don’t mind an official welcome this time instead of me gushing over your dimensions. He didn’t feel strange at all speaking to a beautiful figment of space. Finding “gods” (“kami” in Shinto) in all living things was what Yuuri suspected Otabek’s powers to be about, or that he was a “kami” himself). Yuuri was quite familiar with all the old Japanese folk tales, so it was easy for him to believe.

Please, if there is a kami, please do not smite me for my bad singing or shitty chatter every time I’m in this cave. I laugh at my own dumb jokes too much, I know. If you’re just a space rock, that’s, uh, chill too. Space rocks are welcome here. Please keep staying here.

He gently bowed his head once before the rock. Yuuri had plenty of experience hosting in his parents’ inn back home so he ended his prayer feeling very much like he was greeting valued customers. Opening an eye, he peered past his fingers, wondering why he didn’t hear any music.

Yuuri inhaled a deep breath in surprise at the sight that befell him. Silver specks of light hung in the air all around them. In an instant, he was transported into a dream, surrounded by the lights that touched his fingertips.

“Yuuuuuuuuriiiii…” His name was whispered lethargically in his ear. He could hear no whistle of the flute, only this.

Standing up slowly, Yuuri drifted toward the meteorite and he rested both hands on the meteorite’s cracked top. It was as tall as a kitchen counter, and Yuuri short and squat. He felt suddenly compelled to climb atop it by any means necessary. Without a step stool, he was forced to dig his fingers into the crack and pull himself up.

“Where are you?” Yuuri whispered to the voice. Who had said his name? Looking to his right, he saw Otabek with the flute. His eyes were shut, his cheeks and mouth worked, but Yuuri could not hear the notes.

A light touched the tip of his nose, and once more he was drawn to the meteorite’s cracked midsection. Every day, it was exposed more to the harsh mountain elements. The smooth space rock was icy and harder to get a foothold, but he struggled anyway, pushing up until his knee caught leverage. As he adjusted his glasses, the lights continued dazzling him. He rubbed the speck off his nose.

Blinking, he dug his finger into his ears, wondering if he’d gone deaf or if he’d been bewitched somehow. The voice did not return, but the lights falling into the meteorite’s crack stayed there and glimmered inside. The porous rock contained minerals of some kind in their pockets, for Yuuri saw a honeycomb of jewels inside. The brightest of these reflected like a mirror.

Yuuri reached in with one arm at first, then decided to hang by his thighs, climbing head-first to grab the shiny thing deep inside. The meteorite’s worsening cracks revealed a silvery portion previously unseen. His fingers grazed the sparkling thing. Straining, Yuuri managed to hook a finger under a lip he felt, and pulled it up, taking it with both hands.

It’s a… It’s a…?? Panting, Yuuri turned the silvery mineral over. He couldn’t tell what element it was made of or even what it was. It was as pretty as a glassy seashell. It took both hands to cup it, and Yuuri realized the inside had a pearly reflection. He could see his glasses reflected in this side.

“Yuuri. Quickly, is it safe?” the voice asked quietly.

“Y...es?” Yuuri replied. His thoughts raced uneasily between Oh my God it’s aliens! And Is WHAT safe? And How the hell can it know my name? He thought of Otabek and decided to agree that it was safe right now.

A sleepy sigh exhaled right into his ear. “I will send him to you….,” it murmured.

Wait, what? Yuuri blanched.

Otabek drew the flute away from his lips. The stars vanished as if they were a trick of the sunlight. Yuuri blinked and he was seated again, as if he’d never been on the meteorite. What the hell just happened? However, he sucked in a breath when he looked down at the strange plate still in his hands.

Tilting his head at Yuuri, Otabek asked, “What did that sound like to you?” at the same time Yuuri yelled, “WHAT HAPPENED?” Their staring eyes widened at each other.

“Mm!” Otabek blinked in astonishment at the object Yuuri held up. “That appeared because I played?”

“Played what? I didn’t hear any music!” Yuuri said. “I saw… lights… and I heard a voice. What were you doing?”

“An invitation,” Otabek remarked in English, then switching back to their mutual Russian. “A reveal. Encouraged all latent magic to show itself.”

“But why did it come to me?” Yuuri asked. “It knew me. It said my name!”

“You went down to it first, didn’t you?” Otabek pointed to the tools near the wall. “You broke these up. You said you cleaned all this. It knows you took care of its housing.”

“I mean I had some help,” Yuuri stammered. “You mean to tell me there’s been a spirit in here this entire time.”

“I… actually don’t know what it is,” Otabek admitted.

“ It s-said ‘i will send him to you’ but send WHAT to me?”

“It sounds generous.” Otabek went quiet for a moment, observing him. “It has no aura. I didn’t detect it before. Still don’t..”

Yuuri turned it over, but he did not hear the voice again. When he tapped it with his fingernails, it sounded like tapping on a window, but it had no blemishes or marks despite being inside a space rock. He put it into his empty lunchbox for now.

“Weird,” Yuuri sighed.

“That’s not all that’s revealed itself.”

Yuuri froze. Oh no. He stared at Otabek bewildered until suddenly a movement by the meteorite caught his eye. Two snakes floated around the meteorite’s bottom curiously. Yuuri did not dare move around the creatures.

While they were legless, their dark crocodile-like heads and overlapping diamond-shaped scales made them unlike any snakes he’d ever seen. Their bodies were as thick as Yuuri’s fist. He’d put them at 1.5m long. They took interest in the human food sitting in the crater. They opened mouths that were bright blue inside. He tensed. To Yuuri’s shock, each snake ate their respective item whole.

What the hell? Since when do snakes eat rice? Yuuri thought. He stared at Otabek in disbelief..

“They’re aidaharlar. Kazakh dragons,” Otabek murmured low. At the sound of the shaman’s voice, the snakes’ heads both zoomed in his direction.

“Wait a minute, did they come out of there?” Yuuri pointed at the meteorite. He hadn’t seen those creatures in that illusion.

“I don’t think so. They’re younglings but still older than your rock. I think they answered the flute and got greedy at the sight of our offerings.” Otabek suddenly frowned as one of the snakes struggled with the bread. Their heads were more like dragons than snakes, but retained the distending jaw.

Yuuri grimaced as he heard the creature make a gagging sound. “It’s choking!” he cried.

The dragon that had eaten rice hissed distastefully at the other. It used its tail to thwack its companion, until the serpent spat out the bread and a circular pearl-like rock. It rolled down all the way to the meteorite. Tink. The mandarin-sized stone pinged a clear hollow note.

“What did you steal?” Otabek asked coolly as he stood up. He stepped over one aidahar in the crater to fetch the pearl. Yuuri couldn’t tell if the aidahar were deterred by Otabek or if the man was simply fearless. The scaly beasties floated out of Otabek’s way, and Yuuri’s legs jerked away from them. He eased up when he saw the aidahar take no notice in him.

“What is it?” he asked Otabek, who rolled the gleaming rock across his palm.

“They boggart shiny things and love to cause havoc,” Otabek grunted. “I am suspicious of where they got this.” Turning to Yuuri, he walked toward him and showed the circular white jewel. It rolled over to reveal an eye made of crystal gleaming in Otabek’s palm. Otabek’s eyes widened at it

“Pretty… and strange,” Yuuri mumbled. The unsettling X-files theme ran through his head. However, his eyes quickly flicked down to the dragons. “H-how long are they sticking around?” Snakes frightened him, and these Kazakh dragons looked a lot more dangerous than those.

Before Otabek could answer, both dragons showed their small but numerous small fangs at him. The dragon who’d puked earlier glared and let out a hissy snarl. “Give it back! It’s mine!” a childish voice squeaked. It sprung up at him with jaws spread, teeth digging into Otabek’s wrist.

Yuuri hollered in surprise, throwing his lunchbox down at the aidahar and springing backward for dear life. The creature wailed at being hit. He heard his lunchbox clatter to the ground, but he looked away from the scene, cringing back from whatever retaliation the aidahar had in store for him. When nothing came, he ventured to peek out. He quickly fixed his glasses and saw dark blood streaming all over Otabek’s hand.

“Oh no!” Yuuri said. Panic rushed through him. His eyes raced from the downed aidahar wailing thick infantile tears,, then up to the wound on Otabek’s hand.

A pulse sounded audibly in the cavern.

“Be still,” Otabek whispered in Kazakh. He stared at the ground, long black hair framing his face. How he hadn’t moved or flinched was beyond Yuuri.

“Otabek,” Yuuri gasped. “Otabek…?” The lunchbox, with the plate rock inside, had hit the dragon in the head and yanked it off his hand. The wailing creature fled back to its comrade, who hadn’t said a thing the entire time and was actually backing away, further around the curve of the meteorite..

“Are you--?” Yuuri couldn’t finish his sentence once he finally saw Otabek’s face.

Otabek’s eyes were completely black. They stared at him, following him up when he straightened from the frightened crouch he’d been in. Yuuri felt his blood turn cold.

“Yuuri. Run.” Each word came out deliberate. Otabek turned his hand over to show the jeweled eye. Its elaborate painted lines all glowed red. The gleam spread infectiously to the wound. “It’s chosen me as a conduit.” Otabek’s voice cracked.

Yuuri tripped over his own shoes in alarm. Otabek was scaring the shit out of him. “What does that mean?” Fuck, he tried not to wail. Where the hell was his sledgehammer? Did it even work against spirits? Yuuri glanced to the wall where he’d rested it last, and turned back to check on Otabek. The man’s furs no longer looked like clothes. They darkened, blending together, bulking out.

“It… belongs to--Koyanshyk!” A swear tore through him. “Belongs to … a great spirit… and it acti-acti-activaarroooOOARGHHH,” Otabek’s words disintegrated into an animalistic sound. He brayed as his hair was lengthened before Yuuri’s eyes, roiling in black waves down his front. “Пиздец, I can’t control this one!!” he managed to spit out before he roared once more. A shadow fell upon Otabek’s face. He staggered, bending double until the blackness swallowing him whole.

The great spirit took his friend’s place. Yuuri gaped in horror as the black mass stood completely upright at four meters high. No way. I can’t do anything against this. Even if he grabbed the sledgehammer, he couldn’t risk hurting Otabek inside that thing. I have to run. Except he knew that thing would intercept him to the ledges.

The jeweled eye emerged at the top, and four completely white eyes opened once it stood totally upright.

“The thief lingers…” It spoke with such malignance, Yuuri’s whole body shuddered.

“I am not a thief!” he protested. “Two aidahar came--.” The monster rounded on him and with no aidahar in sight to blame, Yuuri floundered.

“An insect like you dares speak to the Hero of Kazakhstan?” A deep voice interrupted straight into Yuuri’s head. Its scathingness made him flinch, but his spine straightened afterward, even if his leaden legs wouldn’t.

“You’re not the Hero. Otabek is,” he replied before he could stop himself.

“I am he,” snarled the deep voice.

The spirit was utterly dark, as dark as the nothingness of space, save for the four narrowed eyes fixed down upon Yuuri. The jewel hovered at the very top of him, where a forehead would be on a man or beast. It glowed, just as the four eyes glowed, but none of the light fell upon its wearer’s skin. All of Yuuri’s experience through science fiction books told him that was the source of all this shit.

I can’t do this. I can’t do this.

“Y-you’re not!” he yelled back at it. He groped behind his back, found the ice-cold hammer head, and drew it close. “Now you’ve swallowed my friend. Give Otabek back please.” Yuuri eyed the ground to measure the distance between him and the darkness.

“Friend?” A brutal laugh tore through the word. “The Hero has no need for those. He is neither human nor spirit. We transcend you maggots.”

With another snarl, the mass crouched over and lunged at Yuuri. Its posture was that of a predator. Yuuri was used to his shitty eyes giving him visibility issues but this spirit’s lack of definition really took the cake. Turning the hard head away, Yuuri shoved the wooden end out. The spirit swung at it before it could sink in, and the wood exploded into fragments. Splinters tore into Yuuri’s right hand but he had no time to register the pain there once the spirit was fully upon him.

Pressure squeezed hard upon Yuuri’s body. He did not feel the thing sitting on him or pinning him physically, but it forced him hard onto stone nonetheless. His winter hat cushioned his head slightly, his glasses askew as the monster pushed its eyes near his.

“Being a poor thief and a poor liar makes you fat enough to become Oirandau’s prey,” it hissed.

“We didn’t do anything wrong. Let us go,” Yuuri sniffled. His head hurt awfully.

Without warning, a flame burst in front of Yuuri’s glasses and smote Oirandau. The spirit roared in surprise, turning away from his face. In that moment of weakness, a brown-skinned elbow slid out of the black mass. Yuuri let out a high-pitched gasp and grabbed it, tugging it, yanking it.

“Otabek!” he cried.

The creature turned its eyes back down on him. Yuuri felt that heavy pressure close around his throat, but still he held onto Otabek’s arm. “Do not presume the Hero has business with prey like you,” it snarled. “Heroic duty is to the land, not to thieves. Water stealers, desert makers, hate bringers.” Every insult was punctuated with the sensation of pins and needles digging into his shoulders. “First, you will disappear….” Yuuri’s breathing became harder. “then the others will follow too.”

I don’t want to die. Yuuri had never wished on a star in emergencies (unless final exams counted…) but he was desperate. I know I wish on you all the time, but Nikiforov… please… help… Otabek…

#Yuri on Ice #Katsuki Yuuri #Otabek Altin #Phichit Chulanont #my writings

1 note · View note