Chapter Text
The woman’s breath shook as she inhaled. The stuttering rattle like the lifting of an enormous weight; filled with blood, sweat, and tears. And yet as she breathed out, her exhale was smooth. A calm certainty.
“Okay.” She spoke. Certainly to her audience but just as likely to herself. “I’m going to tell you a story.” She cleared up, nodding along to her words. “This is not a dramatic story, or a happy or even a fulfilling story. And there’s a simple reason for that.” The woman leaned back in her chair, her body managing to get some sort of comfort. A smile teased at the corners of her lips. Maybe she hoped to mock…and maybe she was only lying to herself. “This is a story about people…and the mistakes they make. How acts ripple out, shaking and disturbing the world. How things get displaced, a piece on a game board knocked over and forced to look at things from a new angle. The consequences, heavy and light, good and bad that are inevitable and hard. This…” The woman’s rattly breath was back, a last exit down this road. A final chance to avoid the story and the rush of memories that would wash her away with them.
But instead, she remained resilient.
“This is a story of parents and children.”
September 1st, 1990:
Silver’s headache wouldn’t go away. He’d tried everything. Ibuprofen, Tylenol, getting lots of sleep, coffee, meditation, and deep breathing. Hell, he’d even tried not watching TV which was extremely difficult for a high-school junior. Silver looked up at the board and tried to focus on what the teacher was saying.
“Thousands of years ago, our species: Homo Mobius, found itself under attack from all sides. The ground rose beasts, the surface held vicious creatures and the seas birthed leviathans.” The teacher drawled lowly, his deep voice seeming to ring at exactly the level of Silver’s pounding headache, it seemed like his brain wanted to explode. “So we had to develop…abilities to combat these threats in order to survive. Manifestations of the very energy of the planet that were beyond the norm. Only a select few were granted these varied abilities in order to protect the greater population.” Silver grimaced, a tiny exhale of pain leaving him as the teacher continued. “But soon these threats passed and the need for these abilities did as well, falling away or outright disappearing. But some scientists believe we as a species still have these abilities in us. Laid dormant until a need for them arises-”
A hand rose. Silver looked to it spotting Sally Acorn, the pride of the junior class, wildly waving it in the air. The teacher let out an imperceptible sigh and nodded, letting her speak.
“Isn’t the Chaos theory just that? A theory? That there’s no real evidence that mobians ever held powers?” Silver remembered Sally from freshman year. A bit of a know-it-all but nice enough. Silver figured this would be a recurring thing and while normally it wouldn’t bother him when every word sent an icepick deeper into his brain, he really wanted the girl to stop talking. The teacher gave a slow nod while he thought.
“There’s…conflicting evidence. A good majority does show no evidence of special abilities. No sign of them in ancient records or discoveries. Some reports do say of those with mystical powers that beat back beasts and beings greater than we will ever know.” The teacher waved a hand, “I personally believe it to be true. But we’ll be discussing all points of view over the course of the semester. This is Ancient History I, miss…” The teacher drawled a tad as he looked at his call sheet, identifying the face to the name. “Acorn?” Sally nodded. The teacher nodded and was about to turn away when Silver threw up his hand, unable to take the pain raging through his brain anymore. The teacher spotted him, and frowned, clearly wanting to get back to his lecture. “Yes Mr…” He drawled again through the call sheet. “Silver?”
“I’m sorry, but can I use the bathroom?” Silver squeaked out, hoping nobody noticed the crack in his voice. The teacher sighed, fixing the white hedgehog with a look.
“Mr. Silver…I know it’s the last class of the day, but it’s still only the first day of school, perhaps you could wait a little later in the semester to start skipping class?” Silver grimaced, both at his brain and the light chuckles that filled up the classroom.
“Please, sir?” Silver screwed his eyes shut momentarily, his brain screaming like it wanted to get out. The teacher took pity on him and nodded his head in the direction of the door. Silver got up quickly almost tripping over his bag to get to the exit. “Thank you, Mr. Shadow.” The black and red teacher grunted and went back to talking as Silver scrambled through the halls of Knothole High, desperate to find the bathroom.
Silver’s headache continued to increase as he stumbled through the halls. It felt like his brain was pounding on the outside of his skull, needles through soft tissue. The pain was beginning to spread too, riding on his nerves. Pulsating from his brain through the nerve fibers, into his hands and feet. He had to stop at least four times on his journey to whimper against the side of the hall, waiting a moment for the pain to pass.
Shoving open the door to the bathroom, Silver stumbled in, almost crashing to the gross high-school floor. Gripping one of the sinks, Silver dug his hands into it and tried to look up at his reflection, swearing that his head had already exploded and his brains were on the ground. Instead, all he saw was his reflection and his blue eyes.
Except…Silver didn’t have blue eyes…his were gold. Was…was his headache making him hallucinate?
“Aggck!” Silver let out a choked yell as he gripped his head, the pain approaching a climax. Silver tried to turn on the sink to splash some water on his face but suddenly the knob spun like a top and flew off the handle, spinning to the floor. Silver’s vision began to blur, Silver screwed his eyes shut as he could only whimper. The pain moving towards its final movements.
It would kill him.
A thousand knives rammed their way through Silver’s brain and he screeched. His head had become a magician’s box, cut through with machetes. In front of him, the mirror cracked inward, displaying Silver in a hundred slivers of agony. Silver slumped as he pulled on his quills, trying to tear his head apart. The metal spout twisted and bent, the creaking metal nothing against Silver’s scream.
Silver’s eyes shot open as they burned a sharp teal blue and everything ramped into high gear. Each mirror in the bathroom shattered, spraying reflections and glass. The sinks and urinals’ pipes bent and water flooded. The doors on the stalls slammed open and closed and open and closed. The bathroom itself seemed to shake around Silver and-
It all stopped.
Silver found himself on his knees, the water starting to pool there. He was shaking. He held himself and looked around at the destruction.
What the fuck just happened? Silver’s brain began to recover. The headache wasn’t gone, but it was greatly subsided, and better than it had been in weeks. Standing up slowly, Silver looked at himself in the remains of the mirror, a thousand other Silvers checking their gold eyes, looking for that flash of blue. But there was nothing.
Just a white hedgehog with very large, very scared gold eyes. Silver stood there for a moment-
And then walked back to class.
…
Blaze was hot.
And by hot, she did not mean she was sexy. No, she was just physically very hot. The summer had been brutal. She’d practically spent the whole thing sliding on floors from how much she’d been sweating. Even now in early September with the first signs of the heat starting to break, Blaze was hotter than ever.
It had done a number on her wardrobe.
Blaze was a relatively conservative good girl. She wore full-length clothing, made sure to cover up, appropriate leggings, and not a single crop top. She wouldn’t be caught dead in one of those things, not like Rouge in front of her, whose top was…particularly tight. Blaze had nothing against girls who wore those, it just…wasn’t for her.
But right now? Blaze would kill for that hot pink crop top. Instead, she’d gone for some tan capri pants and a black tank top. They were at the bottom of her closet and her parents had given her some crazy looks when she went out today. Not the best first day of school look, but Blaze just couldn’t take it anymore.
She’d spent the last few nights sleeping on top of her bed in a t-shirt and underwear…and she’d just gotten new purple pajamas with cute little koalas on them. Blaze also wished she hadn’t taken a window seat for Ancient History I, because now she was paying for it, the summer sun seeming to mock her.
Breathing out, Blaze could see her breath, the heat of it rippling the air in front of her. She’d grabbed a thermometer and checked to see if she had a fever and maybe was sick, but the thermometer just registered an error, no matter how many times she tried. So she’d told her parents they needed a new one and went to school.
But now she couldn’t take it anymore. She wanted to go home and climb inside the freezer. Picking her hand up from the desk, Blaze heard the sucking sound of her skin leaving the desk…gross…and tried to pay attention to what Mr. Shadow was saying about ancient Mobians. At that point, it had been a while and Silver still hadn’t come back from the bathroom, which made Blaze think about the facial expression he’d had as he left.
Silver and Blaze had been friends forever. They’d gone to preschool, then grown up in elementary school, survived the fear and chaos of middle school and now finally were in high school together. So she knew Silver pretty well. But with Blaze’s brain melting it was a little hard to figure it out, but as she thought about the seat next to her…she realized.
She’d only seen Silver’s face like that once before…when his house had burned down. It was a total accident. The stove had been left on overnight and caught a hand towel, and soon the whole house had begun to burn. Luckily, Silver had woken and gotten out with his mom, but ever since, fire had spooked him…no.
Terrified him. He had been terrified. Blaze wanted to ask him when there was some arguing in the back that attracted the attention of Mr. Shadow.
“Hey! What’s going on back there?!” He grumbled, frustrated that he had to turn away from the board. A voice snickered from the front.
“Sounds like the twins are at it again.” Knuckles the Echidna laughed to himself as he reclined in his seat, turning his eyes to look at the troublemakers in the back.
“We’re not twins!” Sonic and Surge said at the same time, glaring forward at the echidna. Knuckles smirked and started listing things off on his fingers.
“Both run track…both are loud-mouthed…both have adopted genius little brothers…both have egos bigger than this whole school…Oh! Both are hedgehogs-”
“Excuse you Fuckles!” Surge growled. “I’m a tenrec…we’re way cooler than dumb hedgehogs.” Surge laughed and jabbed a thumb at Sonic next to her before looking up at the head of the classroom, and saw Mr. Shadow’s raised eyebrow. Surge swallowed and looked sheepish. “Except…except for you, of course, teach.”
“Mmhmm.” Mr. Shadow blinked once. “Well, since this is clearly going to be a semester-long problem, why don’t the both of you come right up front so I can keep an eye on you.” Shadow then turned to Knuckles, the ghost of a smile dancing on his lips. “Right next to your friend Knuckles…he seems very interested in you.” Knuckles widened his eyes and sputtered a little, clearly not interested in sitting next to spike head #1 and #2. Surge and Sonic groaned before moving to the front, Sonic next to Knuckles and Surge next to Sonic.
“You couldn’t keep your trap shut? For one day?” Knuckles grumbled and Sonic looked pained.
“Hey, it wasn’t me! She shocked me!” Sonic pointed at Surge who growled back at him.
“I didn’t!”
“Right, and those quills on your head isn’t a static electricity power plant!” Sonic pointed to the quill-do Surge had piled on her head, a drastic change from years prior. Surge had always been a little rebellious, but in the last couple of years had taken on a punk look. Ripped jeans and shirts, cuffs, and studded boots. She looked like a hell of a delinquent, but as far as anyone knew it was mostly just a look, as she hadn’t had any issues yet, either school or…law-wise. Mr. Shadow snapped his fingers and all three were brought back to attention.
“Hey!” He glared them down. “I’m teaching here, focus up!” Mr. Shadow sighed and rubbed his temples. “Now where was I?”
“You were discussing ancient civilizations and the Chaos Theory. Your take has been really interesting and-”
“Thank you…you can stop sucking up now Ms. Acorn, you’ll get your brownie points.” Mr. Shadow snapped at Sally and the girl leaned into her chair, putting a few more inches from herself and the teacher. Her girlfriend Nicole beside her laid a comforting hand and glared up at the teacher, she looked like she wanted to say something, but Sonic beat her to it.
“Man, you talk about Sally sucking? I bet you’re a blast at parties.” The blue hedgehog folded his arms and scowled. Mr. Shadow took a moment before responding.
“I am actually. People enjoy my strong arguments and resolve of character. I’ll attend the occasional formal party, which you’ll never go to if you keep getting sent to the principal’s office.”
“What? I haven’t even been sent to the principal’s office yet this year!” Sonic scoffed.
“So I’m the first?” Mr. Shadow pointed toward the door. Sonic opened his mouth but quickly closed it, getting up from his seat with as much grace and moving towards the exit. Surge laughed at him, sticking her tongue out at him before she quickly paid the price. “Actually, I think we’re supposed to use the buddy system, you’ll be joining him.” Sonic allowed himself a laugh.
“Can I go too?!” An overly chipper voice squealed to the other side of Silver’s seat. A bright pink hedgehog with big green eyes and an infectious smile waved her hand wildly in the air like she wanted to get picked for audience participation. She was pushed up out of her seat, standing up like she was already ready to go. Sonic flinched at the girl and Surge smirked while most people simply shook their heads and smiled.
“Sit back down Miss Rose. I’ve already wasted enough time with these two lunatics. It’s time to get on with the lesson.” Mr. Shadow nodded at his own words, finding them agreeable as Amy Rose slumped back into her seat, he eyes turning sad as she watched Surge and more importantly to her, Sonic leave the classroom.
Amy Rose’s crush on Sonic the Hedgehog was the worst-kept secret in practically their whole generation. In fact, ‘secret’ might’ve been a bit much, the only reason the term applied was because Amy, for whatever reason, would never admit that she had a crush on Sonic. But everyone else, including Sonic, knew of her planet-sized crush.
The more confusing part, however, was that Sonic didn’t like Amy back. After all, what was not to like? She had shiny bright pink quills, deep green eyes, a chipper personality, and was endlessly helpful and kind. She was the ultimate girl next door and about half the school had a crush on her.
But it didn’t matter. She only ever had eyes for Sonic. Or rather ‘didn’t.’
Sonic and Surge groaned and swore, picking up their bags and heading off to the principal’s office. Each one blaming the other.
“Bye Sonic!” Amy waved to the blue hedgehog as he left. He did not wave back. Mr. Shadow put his head in his hand and took a deep sigh.
“Where was I?”
“Chaos theory.” Sally spoke again, quieter this time. Mr. Shadow gave a faint nod.
“Ah. Yes. The idea was that latent abilities we had within ourselves could be activated. Things like increased speed or strength. But the limitations aren’t known. There are even ideas that vestigial organs could regain their use like Rouge’s wings.” The bat looked up from her nails, clearly engrossed in her own thing, alarmed by the sound of her own name. “Which in today’s age are far too small to lift her mass.” Mr. Shadow turned back to the board and continued the lesson.
Knuckles however let out a small laugh and covered his mouth. Rouge took note of it but did little else…that is until a note found its way behind her. She glanced up at him, then Mr. Shadow, lingering there to make sure he wasn’t about to turn and finally back to the note.
She unraveled it and read over the four words on it.
He called you fat.
And then there was a fucking winky face.
Rouge steamed. Her eyes shot up and she glared at Knuckles in front of her who leaned back in his chair, his head lolling back to look at her, a smirk on his face. Rouge crumpled the note up in her hand, eyes burning into Knuckles’ smug ones. Rouge’s body shook with anger, breathing heavily trying to hold in smacking the echidna around. Knuckles continued to lean back, the front legs of his chair lifting off the ground as he continued to look at Rouge with a pleased calmness.
And then he snorted at her and Rouge had it.
Her hand shot out and snatched one of the echidna’s long dreadlocks, pulling his whole body back. His chair tipped backward with the force, Knuckles going with it. He didn’t fall all the way however, his head smacking against Rouge’s desk and popping him back forward. Knuckles let out a short cry of pain. Rouge’s hand zipped away as she assumed the pose of a perfect student.
Knuckles’ chair clacked as it settled, which combined with his shout, drew the attention of Mr. Shadow. The disgruntled teacher was forced to stop the lesson, and pause as his hand tightened on the piece of chalk he held.
“Is there any good reason at all I should turn around?” Knuckles spun around in his chair to glare at Rouge, who only returned his smug smile. The echidna’s eyes narrowed and he scowled.
“No Mr. Shadow.” That was…surprising. There was no way that Knuckles would’ve caught her, but it was surprising he didn’t even try.
“Good. Then I should never have to turn around again, correct?”
“Correct sir.” Mr. Shadow let out a grunt and continued with the lesson.
Now while Rouge was absolutely pissed at Knuckles for his attempt at fat-shaming her, which by the way wouldn’t even matter because even if Rouge was fat, she’d still be a knockout-
It…wasn’t…entirely…his fault…
Again it was an asshole move and Rouge was going to get revenge later but…
Well, she kinda started this prank war…
Look, it was freshman year okay? Rouge had just moved here and was just trying to make some level of friends. And then she saw Knuckles and he was…cute. She’d admit it. Plus the people he was hanging out with, i.e. Sonic and Amy seemed pretty cool. And she might’ve possibly maybe sorta introduced herself by tying Knuckles’ shoelaces together.
Sonic had laughed! And Amy was willing to look past it as they became friends. Knuckles on the other hand? Well, he never wore shoes with laces again and since then, he and Rouge had been involved in a long-term, low-scale prank war ever since. It was nothing super cruel and Rouge knew that Knuckles didn’t super mean anything by it.
But that didn’t mean she wasn’t totally getting revenge for this shit.
Finally, mercifully, the bell rang, signifying the end of the first day of another year in this tiny town. Rouge picked up her bag, careful around her perfect nails as the class got up as a collective, chatting and calling and trying to discuss after-school plans and clubs and the sudden looming threat of college on the horizon.
Rouge, however for her part, was quick to walk in front of Knuckles right as the echidna was standing up. Sticking out a high-heeled boot, Rouge cut out Knuckles feet from under him, practically sending him tumbling back into his chair, the look of surprise on his face priceless. From there, Rouge stood perfectly straight, nose in the air as she walked out of the classroom.
She made it about halfway down the hall when the heavy stomping of Knuckles’ laceless sneakers came tromping down the hall, every footfall as clear as day. Knuckles was five paces away, four paces away, three, two, one-
Rouge stuck out her foot again and caught out of the corner of her eye as Knuckles almost face-planted, but was able to recover…barely. Rouge couldn’t hide her smile.
“Okay, bat.” Knuckles annunciated the word, not in dismissal or disgust, but as if Rouge had forgotten she was a bat and Knuckles wanted to remind her…or maybe he was just reminding himself. “That’s two. Don’t get all fussy when I get you back.” Rouge brought a finger to her lip, eyes looking innocently skyward.
“Mmmm, no.” Knuckles did a doubletake, almost falling over again. Rouge almost felt bad for him, every time he almost figured out the rules, she changed them on him. “You called me fat-”
“N-no. Hold on, I said that-” Poor Knuckles, trying to backtrack out of this now, the realization of his mishandling of the situation clear.
“-So when I tell Sonic that you wet the bed till you were twelve…” Rouge watched as Knuckles’ eyes grew to saucers. “Then we’ll be even.”
“How do you know that?!” Knuckles whisper-yelled and Rouge had to lean away from him, her giant ears more than picking it up.
“Your Granny.” Rouge watched the flurry of emotions pass over Knuckles’ face. There was the expected, horror of the situation and the mild feelings of betrayal and embarrassment by a parental figure. But the last one caught Rouge off-guard. It almost looked…hurt. Had Rouge gone too far? And then it was suddenly gone and Knuckles’ face was full of rage.
“You tell Sonic that and we are not even! Not even close!”
“Oh, I think we are!” Rouge walked on as Knuckles stopped. Rouge had planned out her walk from the classroom so that they’d arrive at the boys' locker rooms precisely at this point in the conversation.
Rouge knew they weren’t even. They’d been even the first time Knuckles had retaliated against Rouge’s shoe prank by bursting a paper bag near her eardrums. But then Rouge had…unevened it. And then Knuckles had re-evened it and so on and so on. Rouge wasn’t really interested in letting it be even. Because if she did…well then Knuckles might stop talking to her and as much as it had been two years from that first time she’d seen him.
Rouge still had a little bit of a crush on Knuckles.
…
It was 10:00 PM.
At this point, most of the clubs had wrapped up for the day and most of the teachers had gone home for the evening.
Most.
Shadow sat in his desk chair, going over some paperwork. Little things, like his parking spot, lesson plans for the upcoming semester, and a new complaint he was formulating about the exclusivity to the teacher’s lounge and whether or not there was some kind of tenure requirement that could be enacted. This would allow him some peace and quiet from-
“Hey, Shadow!” The bubbly voice of the new math teacher grated on Shadow’s nerves. Shadow’s head turned slowly as he nearly crushed the pen in his hand to spy Bunnie Rabbot, the light from the hall shining behind her as she entered the doorway of his classroom. A southern belle with too much hospitality for Shadow’s liking. Shadow admired her work ethic and resilience against hardship despite the fact that she was in a wheelchair. But that was about it.
“A bunch of the teachers are going out for a drink to celebrate the new school year. Or dread it, y’know?” She laughed to herself, bright white teeth twinkling.
“Have fun.” Shadow turned back to his paperwork, hoping to make some progress now that Bunnie-
“C’mon! Come out with us.”
“No thank you.” Shadow’s grip tightened on his pen and tried to turn back to his work once more.
“Please come out with us! The other teachers say you’ve been here forever! I’m sure you’ve got some stories about some crazy kids.”
“I’m really not interested.”
“But we all want to hear-”
“Really?! Are you sure you and Antoine won’t be too busy fucking to listen to me?” Shadow growled, his hands clenched into fists as he glared at the rabbit who’d gone wide-eyed, pupils practically taking up her whole iris.
“How d-d-do-”
“I’m here almost every night. Next time Antoine wants to ‘show you around,’ do it not in the room next to mine.” Shadow scowled and Bunnie clammed up, biting her lower lip as she wheeled away, her words framed as a whisper but clearly made audible for him to hear.
“Asshole.” Shadow let out a long sigh and brought his left hand up to rub his tired eyes. He was about to go back to writing when he took a look at his right hand…and noticed he’d snapped the pen in half when clenching his fists. Letting out an even longer sigh, Shadow stood up to go see what he could do about the blue ink now staining his glove.
Walking down the hall, Shadow stopped by the nearest bathroom, only to look at it with shock and frustration. Caution tape held up by cones covered a ring around the boy's bathroom, water flooding out the bottom.
“Unbelievable.” One day and some stupid kids had already wrecked school property.
After going to the bathroom on the other side of the school, Shadow gave a nod to the janitor, wishing him luck with the other bathroom and the hopes of a quick plumber…
And then Shadow entered the boiler room. He took some steps down into the concrete basement, past the large boiler and extra sports equipment kept there. The place was humid and stank of old gymware, which marinated in the humidity to magnify it. Shadow wrinkled his nose before he approached the door.
Not the exit. The other door. The one with the set of three padlocks. The door not made of wood or plastic or even aluminum. The one made of heavy steel. The one that radiated the most heat…and anger. Barely hidden by the sweaty smell of the rest of the room.
Shadow took out his keys and unlocked the padlocks, whistling a tune the whole time.
The locks fell away and Shadow opened the door, feeling the blast of heat from behind it, angered whispers blowing past his ears with chuckled laughter mixed in. A pandora’s box getting opened.
But Shadow was quick to close the door behind him as he entered, the whispers seeming to recognize him and fall away. Beyond the door was a set of stairs down. They turned right after twenty or so steps and then right again and again and again and-
It took Shadow maybe ten minutes to descend the whole staircase, a happy tune dancing on his lips. As he lowered deeper into the ground, the staircase too changed. It started as concrete, then it became metal, and as he got toward the very bottom-
Wood.
Old, old wood. Wood that had begun to decay, not decompose, decay. Something terrible eating at it, stripping it away, the whole staircase creaking and groaning under Shadow’s weight as he got down to the very last step, walking onto the platform beyond.
The platform was just a small outcropping of rock, a weak rail guard made from a few metal poles the only sign of civilization from this point on. Shadow leaned against it as he reached into the pocket of his slacks, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. Holding the cigarette in his lips, the railing creaked slightly and Shadow paused, wondering if this was the moment it would finally break.
But it held and Shadow continued with the lighter, beginning to flick it, sparking it. The railing was to guard the edge of the platform, because after the platform…was one giant step down. The lighter ignited and Shadow brought it to the end of the cigarette getting it started with a few puffs before flicking the lighter off and putting it away.
As Shadow dragged on the cigarette, he looked at the giant step down. How it fell for over two thousand feet. How beyond that was a cracked landscape of burning red lighting and toxic smog. How terrible, nightmarish screeches, clicks, and growls echoed up from that…that pit. Things crawled across a surface just not quite visible through the smog and the whole cavern seemed to shake, thrashing and shifting. Alive but not quite…
Awake.
And there was something more. Up until this point Shadow calmly stood against the railing, contentedly having a cigarette. But now something new happened. Something he’d not yet seen.
The cavern shook. No, that wasn’t quite right. Shift? No, that’s further. It shivered. It couldn’t be cold, it was well over a hundred degrees down here so that’s out of the question. Could it be? No, it surely wasn’t…
When Shadow spoke he leaned ever forward, so much closer to falling into that pit, the cigarette in his mouth dangling on the edge of his lip.
“What could possibly make you afraid?”