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Beyond Prophecy	By : blazingskies Category: +S through Z > Sonic Views: 2885 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: All Sonic Underground characters and settings belong to SEGA and DiC. I'm not making money off this.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
Chapter Five
- On The Run
Fifteen years
after the coup�
A small campfire
burned fitfully within the small forest grove, casting its red-orange light
onto the circle of trees that surrounded this tiny clearing deep within the
woods. A single dark figure sat on a fallen log, cautiously tending the fire,
his red eyes seeming to burn even brighter than the flames.
Another figure
stepped out of the gloom of the woods, wrapped in a cloak and hood that served
as both disguise and protection from the damp chill of the night-time air. She
raised one elegant hand to sweep back her hood to reveal a head of purple-pink
quills and dark, troubled eyes.
Manners drilled
into him by five decades of practice prompted him to stand and offer her his
seat - not that it was much of a seat, being only a log with his cloak draped
over it, but still a better option than the wet, leaf-strewn ground.
"Aleena."
Shadow said softly, "It's good to see you again."
"Shadow,"
She said fondly, "It has been a long time." With a slightly impish
smile, she took the makeshift seat he had offered, sinking down onto it and
staring at the fire. After a few moments of tense silence, Shadow approached
his queen and knelt down in front of her.
"My
Queen," He intoned formally, "I have to inform you that I have failed
you."
She stared at
him, taken aback, "What do you mean, Shadow?"
He looked down
at the floor, unable to meet her eyes, "I was meant to guard the Crown
Prince, and I failed in that task. I do not know where he is."
"Oh,
Shadow..." She sighed, "You haven't failed. Sonic had to learn to
survive on his own."
He raised his
head, "You knew..?" He asked incredulously.
She sighed
deeply, "The Oracle told me." Shadow got to his feet, eyes narrowed
in rage. Aleena held out a hand to stay his outburst,
"Please, Shadow, listen. The Oracle contacted
Sonic to warn him that he was no longer safe-,"
"It's MY
responsibility to defend the Royal Family, especially the Crown Prince! You
gave me that task yourself the night you put Sonic into my arms!" Shadow
snarled angrily.
"You were
never meant to be Sonic's bodyguard, Shadow." Aleena said quietly.
Shadow froze.
His breathing hitched in his chest for a moment, then
anger suddenly began swelling up in him.
"I am over
forty years his senior," Shadow ground out through gritted teeth,
"The Oracle and all his prophecies be damned, I will not hold a sixteen
year old boy in thrall!"
Aleena shook her head, "But that isn't
what bonding entails, Shadow� "
Shadow stared at
her incredulously, "And you approve of this? You?
Your oldest son, the Crown Prince and the last hope Mobius
has, bound as an infant to an old man, and none of it strikes you as
wrong? Because that is what I am, Aleena, I'm old.
My body may be eternally stuck at eighteen, but I'm fifty-eight years old. How
can anyone think I would be an appropriate companion and mate to Sonic?
Especially after� after�" He trailed off, his anger bleeding out of him,
pain and decades-old loss seeping in to fill the void. He drew a couple of
harsh breaths, looking away from his queen's sympathetic eyes, "I
apologise for my outburst, Your Majesty." He said stiffly when he had
composed himself.
The deposed
queen gathered the folds of her cloak about her, wrapping herself up in them,
"What happened fifty years ago wasn't your fault, Shadow. How long will it
be until you finally accept that?"
He didn't reply.
He kept his eyes averted from her face, his expression locked into an impassive
mask. She sighed and considered her knight and former bodyguard for a moment,
gathering her thoughts. She had to make him understand somehow, or all she had
ever hoped and strived for over these long years of her exile would be for
naught.
"You know
that my eldest son is different, don't you, Shadow?" She began, pitching
her voice in an almost conversational tone. She watched him, only long
association allowed her to catch the tiny flicker in his expression, "His
agility and super-speed. You above all others should know what that
means."
"Chaos
touched�" Shadow whispered, a haunted look passing over his eyes for a
split-second.
"He'll
need, you Shadow. You're the only one who could ever be his equal, the only one
who could ever keep up with him. You know that, don't you?"
Shadow closed
his eyes and turned away. He knew what being chaos-touched meant. He knew
better than most how dangerous chaos power could be when uncontrolled and how
utterly unforgiving people were towards those who were different. Even after
fifty years, the pain that knowledge caused him had not dimmed.
"I
know." He breathed.
"Good. Then
you'll understand why I never raised an objection when you recognised your
future mate."
Understanding
flashed across Shadow's features, "You knew� you knew all along that Sonic
would be chaos-touched! But how..?"
The Queen's eyes
were clouded when she answered, "Once in every five generations of the
ancient Royal Acorn line, the eldest child is born with the powers of
Chaos." she said in the manner of someone quoting.
Shadow blinked,
"That doesn't sound like one of the Oracle's prophecies."
"It
isn't," Aleena replied, "It's far older
than that. Dating back to the Great War and the Reformation.
I study history, I knew that my eldest would have
those powers. I was so scared for him, Shadow, scared of what he'd be capable
of, scared for his future after everything the Oracle told me. But now I know
you'll be by his side, I don't feel so afraid."
Stunned
speechless, Shadow could only stare, completely bowled over by his Queen's
absolute trust in him. Aleena offered him a gentle
smile, then shifted her demeanour into a more
professional air.
"Now, as
lovely as it is to be able to talk with you again, Shadow, I did call you here
for a reason."
Shaking himself
out of his stunned shock, he tried to keep his voice level, "What reason
is that, Your Majesty?"
"Guardian Athair has been in contact with me. His grandson, Knuckles,
will be going through his initiation soon. He wanted you to be there."
"Me?"
Shadow asked incredulously, "Why me?" The relationship between the Acorn Kingdom
and the Emerald Guardians had always been wary. There was an ancient pact that
kept the peace between them, but the Guardians were traditionally clannish and
secretive, hiding away on their island in the sky protecting the precious jewel
that was their primary responsibility. Shadow had met Athair
once or twice before the coup when the old echidna made one of his rare
appearances at one of the official ceremonies, but it had been almost two
decades since he had laid eyes on the Guardian Patriarch.
"The first
reason is political, you'll be there as a representative of the Acron
Kingdom
Government-in-exile to demonstrate to the Echidna council that we still intend
to honour the pact. As for the other reason�" She sighed, "The line
of the Guardians is fading, Shadow. There's only one Echidna in the current
generation capable of harnessing the Master Emerald's power. Athair's son Locke was killed in an accident years ago, and
there are only a few other Echidna's left - and fewer
every year. Athair is old and his own power is
waning. He wanted someone else there with the power to use Chaos Control, to
prevent any� accidents."
Shadow
considered that. His presence there would be a symbol, but a powerful one. The
Guardians had their own prophecies, and worked by their own agenda, but in the
situation he and the royal family were in, they really couldn't turn down any
potential for forming alliances.
"Very
well, My Queen."
He agreed with a nod. She shook her head.
"How
many times? You're
supposed to call me Aleena." Without waiting for
his reply, she gathered her skirts and stood up, "Your transport to Angel
Island will be waiting for you just outside the Mystic Ruins tomorrow,"
She pulled up her hood and shadows obscured her face, "And look after
Sonic for me, won't you?" She said as she began to walking back into the
dark forest.
"How can I
do that when I don't know where he is?" He asked, frustrated.
Her answer
ghosted out of the darkness, "When he calls you, you'll know."
Then there was
nothing but the whistling of the wind through the trees.
---
Many miles away,
far across the continent, a heavily modified hover bus sat parked down a lonely
side street in central Starlight
City. Its bulky contours
lit only by the dimly flickering bulb of the streetlamp above it. Inside the
rusting hull of the old hover bus, three teenage hedgehogs sat sleeping,
ensconced in their bunk beds.
Manic lay
sprawled across one top bunk, his face mashed carelessly into the pillow, his
loud snores muffled by the soft material. Sonia lay on her side on the bottom
bunk of the other set of beds, her privacy crudely protected by a thick curtain
draped across the open side of her bunk, she also slept deeply.
Sonic slept on
the bunk beneath his brother, but his sleep was less peaceful. The blankets
twisted around his lower legs, trapping him in place as he tossed and turned,
muttering something indecipherable under his breath. His expression twisted
alternately into pain, rage and guilt as his muscles twitched in the grip of
his dream.
Finally roused
by her brother�s anguished thrashing, Sonia woke, slipping out from behind her
curtain, she padded over and stooped down next to Sonic�s
bunk, lightly gripping his shoulder and firmly shaking him awake.
�Sonic,� She
called softly, �Sonic, wake up. You�re having a nightmare again.�
It was an
unfortunate consequence of what they had been through that all three of them
had more than enough reason to suffer from nightmares. In fact, considering how
much danger they were in on a day to day basis, Sonia was surprised they ever
managed to get a decent nights sleep.
Sonic's eyes snapped open and he stared at her
uncomprehendingly for a moment before his eyes cleared and he relaxed.
"Thanks, Sis," He murmured, reaching up to scrub his hands across
his face.
"No problem, brother," Sonia smiled. Like Sonic, she still found
having siblings to be a novelty, albeit one with its own share of annoyances as
well as more positive qualities, so they tended to mention the fact of their
familiar bond fairly often, like a touchstone.
"Yo sibs, what's up?" Manic's sleep-slurred voice came from above them. Sonia
looked up.
"Nothing much, Manic," She replied, "Sonic just had a
nightmare again."
"Bummer," Manic sympathised, peering down at his blue-furred
sibling, "What was it this time, Bro? Drowning? Giant bugs? Ro-butt-nik in a French maid's
outfit?"
Sonic grimaced in revulsion at the last suggestion, and then looked
uncomfortable, "It wasn't exactly a nightmare" He muttered.
Sonia snorted, "Sure looked like one to me, brother," Sonia said
stridently, "All that thrashing around and muttering."
Manic smirked and was about to make a suggestive comment when Sonic shook his head and spoke, "All I could see were
these red eyes. He was in pain, but I couldn't get to him to help."
There was silence for a moment as Sonic's siblings
considered that.
"Who was he?" Sonia asked.
Sonic shrugged, "No idea, sis. It just felt like I knew him
somehow."
"Hmph," Sonia said dismissively,
"Probably just someone from your past. Your subconscious just mixed it up
with that jail-break we pulled last week. Dreams are like that."
"Or maybe you've got a true bondmate out
there someplace," Manic added in what his siblings referred to as his
'spacey' voice.
Sonia rolled her eyes, "Manic, Bonded Lifemates
don't really exist. It's pure superstition."
"They totally do!" Manic protested, "Like, when I was a kid I
knew this couple called Adele and Marcus, and they were bonded. One night
Marcus got busted rippin' off some stereos, and Adele
knew what had happened pretty much before they got the cuffs on him!"
"Uh huh." Sonia said sceptically.
"It's true, sis!" Manic insisted, "Adele said we had to bust
him out, so we did and she led us right to him without even tryin'.
Was like she knew exactly where he was."
"I'm sure there's a better explanation for that than she just 'sensed'
him"
Sonic briefly tuned out the sounds of his brother and sisters argument to
think for a moment. Maybe Sonia was right and he was just remembering another
pair of red eyes. He thought about Maestro often, and though he had never seen
his mentor's face beneath that deep hood he wore, Sonic had occasionally
managed to catch a glimpse of his eyes and they were the same deep, burning red
as the eyes he saw in his dreams.
Because that was a small fact he hadn't mentioned to Manic and Sonia -
tonight's incident wasn't the first time he had seen that garnet-coloured gaze
in his dreams, it had in fact been happening for almost a year now. Every time
it happened, the emotions in those eyes were different - pain, regret, anger, loss
had all be there and every time Sonic wished there was something he could do to
help the other male. He kept getting this nagging sensation that there was
something missing - something he needed to do, but he never got any clues as to
what that might be.
By now the argument between Manic and Sonia had degenerated into an endless
repetition of 'Does so! Does not!' so Sonic called a
time-out, making a 'T' shape with his hands.
"Guys! What time is it, anyway?"
Manic glanced at the glowing numbers on the face of his watch, "Around
4am, dude,"
"Well, we got a big gig tomorrow, right? We should probably get back to
sleep."
"With you on that one, bro," Manic affirmed, followed by a
slightly less enthusiastic reply from Sonia.
Sonic lay his head back down onto his pillow, trying to fill his head with
thoughts of the gig to distract himself, but a thought kept intruding, the
image of those crimson eyes, filled with pain and something that burned in them
like reflected fire.
'Is that you, Maestro?' he wondered, 'And why does it feel like
something's missing?'
---
To Be Continued in Chapter Six - 'The Calling of a Miracle'
- 5
- 6
- 7
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Beyond Prophecy