Guess who (unintentionally) lied about the new chapter being only in June? Me, of course!
But in all seriousness, I ended up finishing it faster than I had expected it thankfully. And School is almost over, finally. I mean, in 3 months I'll be back in that excuse of a prison, but at least I have 3 months of freedom :D
But, anyways, I hope y'all enjoy this new chapter
Longclaw opened her eyes slowly. The only thing she could see was darkness, so she tried to remember what had occurred. She recalled that the Echidnas had found where they were hiding and remembered grabbing Sonic and giving him a bag of rings, telling him to use them to escape to another planet (if anyone found him). She remembered getting shot multiple times and feeling more and more excruciating pain as the echidnas tried to finish her. She remembers throwing a ring and pushing Sonic through it, casting aside the conflicting thoughts of perhaps never seeing her Sonic again. And then, as the ring was almost closing, an echidna accidentally pushed her towards the ring.
She stumbles forward from the portal itself, and then she sees-
She tried getting up immediately from whatever she was lying on, only to feel immense pain in her left wing.
Where was Sonic? Was everything alright with him? Why were there so many humans and an echidna around? And why did he-
"Longclaw?"
That was Sonic's voice. Belonging to a much older Sonic, but still clearly her son's.
"Sonic?"
She looked to the other side, and even in all the darkness, she could see Sonic staring at her. Not only did he sound older, but he also looked older. The darkness of the room couldn't hide that Sonic's once infantilized, baby, face Longclaw remembered so well was replaced with a more mature one. While still retaining his bright blue fur and his green eyes. Could- What- How was that even possible?
"I missed you so much." Sonic said immediately, hugging her in a way that wouldn't hurt her. Some little sparks came from Sonic's back, lighting up the room, as Sonic felt a multitude of emotions.
After everything that had happened, she was so glad to see Sonic again. To be with him again. Even though she had... a lot of questions (Especially the lingering question of how and why Sonic is older), Sonic was safe, and it was all that mattered.
"I missed you too, Sonic," she said softly, feeling more and more content as the prospect of not losing Sonic, after all, warmed her heart.
They embraced (as much as an owl with a broken wig could) for a whole minute, feeling each other's heartbeat, before separating.
"Sonic, what's going on?" Longclaw asked as soon as she pulled away from him. "Where are we?"
As Sonic was about to answer, a strange sound was heard. The darkness dissipated. Light taking its place. Longclaw shut her eyes briefly, opening them, while blinking incessantly for a few seconds, so she would get used to the light while beginning to sit down on what looked like a couch. She looked up and saw... two humans looking at her...
Everyone remained silent for a few seconds, Longclaw looking at both humans with wide eyes that displayed clear distrust.
"This is... uhh... where I'm... living now, Longclaw." Sonic replied, hesitating, clearly not sure of how to explain what even was going on.
She looked at Sonic briefly, casting aside the thoughts of why her son looked so older and how he could've been living with them, looking for any indication of physical abuse that those humans could've caused him. However, she saw none. He looked very healthy- healthier than when she was with him. She always gave the best she could, even, sometimes, going out a day or two without eating anything, so Sonic wouldn't starve, but even then, sometimes, it wouldn't be enough for Sonic to be satisfied. Being on the run for the echidnas made it very difficult for her to find food, sometimes and the place they were hiding was really good for... well... hiding, but not so good for food purposes. She had been hiding in places before that were great for food, but not as good for hiding. But that was before she came across Sonic. She could and can deal with the Echidnas. She had been on the run, since she became the last owl, after all. Since... they killed the last two owls (besides herself) that were still alive- her parents.
But that didn't matter, right now. What mattered was that Sonic looked physically very well. He also didn't seem to show any signs of mental and/or emotional abuse, either. So that was good. She looked back at the humans and studied them briefly. They looked somewhat nervous (maybe from meeting her, she wasn't sure what the reason could be though) but they also looked like they were nice, loving, and caring humans. Looks could be deceiving, yes, but everything else she observed was enough not to make her instantly get out of there with Sonic, even with her broken wing, asking for his rings and getting out of Earth to whatever planet that she deemed safe.
However, there was still one lingering thought Longclaw had since the humans had come to the room.
"You know." Longclaw said as she got up from the couch, finally breaking the agonizing silence that had followed. "You know about Sonic."
The humans both replied with a silent 'yes'. Longclaw knew that logically they had to know about Sonic, but she needed verbal confirmation of it. The problem with all of this was that she had no idea how trustworthy these humans were. Did they even know about Sonic's powers? Hopefully not, but that would be something she would have to ask Sonic later.
"How long has... Sonic... been living with you?" Longclaw asked, feeling slight pain coming from her left injured wing. She looked at it and saw... bandages? And she wasn't wearing her armor, either. Where her armor was supposed to be, there were spots filled with bandages. If these humans weren't trustworthy, then why would they aid in fixing her damaged wing and treating her wounds?
But, at the same time, that also was kind of the problem- assuming they don't know about Sonic's powers- how trustworthy are they? Are they trustworthy enough not to use Sonic's powers to their advantage?
"... A year and a half." The male human replied, after a second of silence.
That would somewhat explain why Sonic looked so much older than what seemed like a few minutes ago to her. Had she been in a coma? As vivid memories flood back to her of cradling a much younger Sonic close with her wings, it's clear he was not the same tiny hoglet anymore. But his appearance and voice seemed too grown-up for being only a year and a half older. Something wasn't adding up.
"A year and a half?"
"Longclaw... how long ago do you think the Echidnas attacked?" Sonic asked, looking at her with an expression... mixed with wonder and... hope?
"... A few minutes ago..." Why was Sonic asking something like that?
"Well, I don't know exactly how to tell you this, but..." Sonic paused for a second, clearly thinking of a way to express himself properly, "...it has been more than 10 years since that happened."
Before Longclaw could even process what Sonic had told her, two figures appeared behind the two humans.
A cute little yellow fox (who couldn't be more than 8 years old) with... some sort of mutation that made him have two tails.
And then a red... Echidna appeared?! What- why was an Echidna even here?! And why did Sonic look so calm when he was in the same room with... one of them?
However, Sonic's calm behavior was soon replaced by a more nervous one. Probably from the glare she was giving to that Echidna. Longclaw wasted no time, however, and put her non-injured wing around Sonic, protecting him from whatever the Echidna could do to harm them.
"Longclaw." Sonic began, gently taking her wing out of his torso. "Knuckles... He's a friend. He's not going to hurt us... I promise." Sonic finished in a way that seemed like he didn't say everything there was to know about that Echidna.
What? How? He's saying that an Echidna- that Echidna- is trustworthy? She couldn't even think straight! How does he even know his name? Longclaw felt her head starting to hurt. She was developing a small headache from whatever all of this was.
"A friend?" was the only thing Longclaw was able to say. She looked at Sonic with an immense amount of disbelief.
Sonic nodded.
"I know our tribes have been sworn enemies for centuries, Longclaw." That Echidna named Knuckles began, looking at her directly. "However, I don't see you as my enemy, anymore. Neither do I wish to become one, again."
He sounded... sincere. And Sonic did say he was trustworthy. But the memories of Longclaw burying her dead parents, because of them, lingered in her mind. And, besides, he could very well be just pretending to be on their side to gain something. For their tribe to capture her Sonic. To use his powers, to use the mas-
"Knuckles is the last of his kind." The female human said, interrupting her line of thought, probably from how confused and overwhelmed she looked. Even though, that just made her even more confused! How could Knuckles be the last Echidna when... right... Sonic did say it had been more than 10 years ago. But how?!
"It's a long story", The female human said, as if she was reading her thoughts, "Why won't you join us for breakfast, and we tell you everything."
While she doesn't trust these humans very much (or any, for that matter), she trusts them enough to know they aren't going to poison Sonic or her. That fox is just a child, so there's not much to worry about. That Echidna, however, she will keep an eye on him. While she trusts Sonic, she doesn't trust any Echidnas. Even if Knuckles is the last one of his kind, like her.
Once she got into their kitchen, everyone presented themselves. The male and female humans, who were "married" (which meant they were mates, apparently), were named, respectively, Tom and Maddie Wachowski. And that little cute fox was nicknamed Tails. Kind of fitting considering his two tails.
They also got mice for her to eat. Which she wasn't expecting. Sonic told them he didn't know if she could eat human food. And, truthfully, she didn't know either. Since her Sonic, Tails, and Echidna could eat what the humans said were eggs and bacon, perhaps, she could eat it too. In what the humans called the 'refrigerator', there were her mice right beside... Master Emerald? the humans not only knew about the Master Emerald, but they had it and that Echidna too! It was worse than she thought! Not only was the Master Emerald unsafe, but the humans knew way too much. If they knew about the Master Emerald, then, they probably know about Sonic's powers, too. It took all of her willpower (and a lot of reassurance from Sonic and everyone, including that Echidna) for her to not have a full-on mental breakdown.
After all of them let her sink in all of this new information, Tom and Maddie gave her the mice to eat. And, honestly, that was the best mouse she had in a long while. Carl (another human, of course), hunt them down and brought them for her to eat it.
Longclaw could tell the hum- Maddie and Tom- looked slightly uncomfortable by her plate filled with mice. If she wasn't mistaken, humans wouldn't have been used to her kind of food. Green Hills (that was what Tails said this place was called) is much better for these types of food than the place she and Sonic were hiding, for sure.
Once she finished eating her mice, they were going to explain... whatever even happened (apparently these last ten years? She was still in total confusion about pretty much everything), however, she still had a question she needed to address.
"Who knows about Sonic, Tails, and th- Knuckles, besides the people that were at that... place?"
"The whole town knows for more than a year, but everyone loves and accepts him, and..." Tom replied, and then, stopped for a second. It looked like he was thinking of how to say the next part. "And... the rest of the world..."
"What?"
A million more questions raced through Longclaw's mind, how could Sonic be safe if the whole world knew about them? Does the whole world know about the Master Emerald and the rings?! Does the government know about... all of this? Her headache was getting worse. She definitely needed to know what happened after the Echidnas attacked. She was getting more and more confused and intrigued.
"I wasn't kidding when I said it was a long story. But Sonic's safe. And no one, besides Green Hills, knows about the Master Emerald or the rings." Maddie reassured, clearly picking up Longclaw's distress. Sonic nodded, soon after, emphasizing what Maddie had said.
And then, they finally began explaining everything that had happened. So, she, apparently, 'time traveled'. Which, as the little fox explained, is 'going forward or backward between one time and the other'. She, at first, had some difficulties understanding the concept, but with Tails' more simplified explanations, she eventually got the gist of it. And it certainly explained a lot. Why Sonic looked a lot older, why it had been more than 10 years and it did make Knuckles being the last of his kind plausible (she still didn't trust that Echidna, though). The little fox was certainly smart. Then Sonic explained how he had been living on Earth for ten years, deprived of any interaction with the outside world, following her advice. She felt some guilt forming inside of her. Sonic made it seem like it wasn't that big of a deal. But she knew. She knew it wasn't easy for him. She knew Sonic had to endure an insane amount of loneliness for 10 years. She thought that her advice would keep Sonic safe. But she now realizes it did more harm than good. A lot of what she thought was going to happen to Sonic, if humans knew about their existence, didn't happen.
In just an hour, even before they start explaining everything that had happened, they proved to her she had been wrong about a lot of things.
Thankfully, however, Sonic's loneliness came to a much-needed ending. Her son, in that same place she had come off through the portal (that was called a 'baseball field', apparently), had an emotional breakdown because of everything he had to go through... alone... for 10 years... (She needed to apologize to Sonic and have a serious talk with him later).
That explosion led to the government trying to find what could've caused it. As a result, Sonic and Tom found themselves on the run from the government and some Doctor Human called Robotnik. This lead to, thankfully, Sonic forcing Dr.Robotnik to reside eternally on the Mushroom Planet and Tom and Maddie keeping Sonic a secret from the government. While they didn't get into detail about what occurred (presumably to keep her from having a heart attack), she was relieved Sonic ended up with them rather than on the Mushroom Planet... without anyone. Not only because she wouldn't be able to reunite with him as soon as she did. But especially because Sonic finally wasn't isolated. He needed Tom and Maddie. And, after what they told her, she definitely trusts those humans a lot more. The town also accepted Sonic extremely well, surprisingly. Her Sonic couldn't stop smiling as he told her what happened during the first year Green Hills knew of his existence, even with Sonic making two friends.
And then... Robotnik came back... Somehow, he was able to escape the Mushroom Planet. Tails who apparently had spied on him, since the explosion, came to his rescue. Honestly, she had found... somewhat weird, at first, that a 7- or 8-year-old was even capable of spying on anyone. Let alone his intentions. But then, she looked at the little fox and saw his two tails... She knew there were fox villages, in Mobius, that were very superstitious and, if he was in those villages, he, for sure, didn't have a good time. And Tails' parents had probably died. (That was the only thing that could explain Tails' biological parents' absence, after all.) And then, she understood. Tails were probably as lonely as Sonic. And Robotnik escaping made probably Tails, finally, have someone again. Besides Tails being a little child, there was no way this kid had any actual ill intentions.
Robotnik was accompanied by Knuckles... That Echidna who was sitting in a chair right across the room... had been tricked into thinking Robotnik had good intentions with the Master Emerald. Sonic then discovered the Master Emerald existed and went to Siberia with Tails, in search of the Master Emerald. Robotnik eventually revealed his true nature to Knuckles, making Knuckles join Sonic and Tails in stopping Robotnik. (Sonic was able to absorb the Master Emerald power, which left Longclaw incredibly intrigued and fascinated. She knew how the Emerald could give what the person most desired and some were able to absorb the Emerald's power, but still.)
After everything that went down, and Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles making a pact to protect the Master Emerald, Sonic ended up, officially, becoming the adopted son of Tom and Maddie. Tails and Knuckles followed soon after.
So... that meant that Sonic now had another family outside of her, two brothers and one of them is an Echidna...
What in the actual-
Even with all the things that had happened during this last hour, it still wasn't something she had been expecting. Still, she was glad he had a family while she couldn't be there with him. She knows his new family doesn't substitute for her. Sonic clearly still saw her as her mother. And it was very obvious he still cared deeply about her- the same way she has cared since he found Sonic two- thirteen years ago. (it still didn't fully sink in, that, it had been more than ten years, and all this time she had been in... what? Some kind of weird limbo). However, she was still very wary of Knuckles, he did save the world with them, and they did make a pact, but he could still well be pretending to be part of their family and then betray them. She was still going to keep her eyes on him but in a more... subtle way. Especially since it is Tom's and Maddie's kid.
And, of course, the whole world found out. After all, a giant robot and the massive destruction of that same said robot wouldn't remain unnoticed (at least to some people), and, so, people became very much aware of Sonic's (Tails' and Knuckles') existence. For a few months, almost daily, there were spies from the government (for obvious reasons) watching Sonic and the Wachowski kids. Which Longclaw definitely didn't like, but, at least, they weren't trying to use Sonic's powers or hurt him anymore, and, thanks to them, a loose perimeter was established around the town, impending untrustworthy people coming through. Thankfully, however, the government people had vanished, indicating that the government deemed them safe for the time being, which was certainly a relief for Longclaw. Especially since she's here, now. And she definitely doesn't want the government to know about her...
After Longclaw processed... well... everything, she felt a lingering unspoken question everyone had that she desperately needed to answer.
"I was planning to bring Sonic to another planet after I healed. But since you became Sonic's family and Earth is surprisingly safe, we'll stay here."
In what seemed like a blink of an eye, everything had changed but Sonic's glowing face told her, immediately, she had said and done the right thing...
However, unbeknownst to them, someone is watching from behind the trees. Laying on their bushes an all too familiar face...
A G.U.N agent...
My fingers slipped and I wrote another 1000 words- oops
(Besides the other 1000 words that I've written for the next chapter that were supposed to be in this one, double oops)