Chapter 4: Female Mephiles the Dark (Deity-Hedgehog)

(In an unknown world)

A shadowy figure with a feminine form was seen in the midst of the flaming ruins of a land.

It appeared to be on its knees and with its head down, breathing heavily.

"I... I can't believe it. I... I did it." it stammered between breaths. "A second later... could've been too late. If I... hadn't left a small piece of myself behind... before all of that, I would have been done for."

The shadowy figure tried to stand up, but ended up falling.

"Damn it." it grunted in pain. "Those three hedgehogs caused more damage on me than I expected. And I don't have enough power to heal myself completely."

"I'll have to go somewhere else." it concluded.

Using whatever energy the silhouette had left, it opened a portal to another world and leaped through it without thinking twice.

(In Mobius)

Chris was simply wandering around in a grass field.

For a bit, he was just walking while appreciating the peaceful, quiet and green view all around him.

Then, he went to lay down close to a tree, with its shade partly covering his body.

Feeling himself so relaxed, he started to close his eyes and sleep.

Suddenly... he felt an odd disturbance as the wind began to blow a little harder than normal. He didn't know exactly what it was, but he knew something wasn't right.

Then, as soon as he saw the atmosphere become darker, he also immediately noticed a dark warp path appearing not too far from him.

And, eventully, he watched as a shadowy figure came out from it.

Chris, at that point, couldn't tell the said figure's gender, species, or whatever. Still, that never halted his curiosity.

He even noticed it making an effort to move, only to fail.

The little human started to wonder if perhaps the silhouette was actually hurt. That's when he heard his heart telling him to go help it, regardless of what it was.

And that's what he did.

Chris stood up from where he currently was and walked up to it.

The silhouette, who soon sensed his approach, turned its attention to him.

"Keep your distance from me, boy." it said in a deep female voice, threatening him in a weakly manner.

"But, you look like you're hurt." he told, moving a little closer.

"That's none of your business." it replied with arrogance. "So go away, unless you want to die."

Yet, Chris wasn't feeling intimidated.

"I don't mean to be rude, but I don't think you are in any condition to make threats." he bravely stated. "You're too weak to hurt anyone."

It grunted in frustration as a response. Although it couldn't deny the fact that he was right.

"Come on, let me help you." he insisted, moving even closer until he was standing just a couple of feet away.

'Damn it. Just what I needed.' the silhouette grumbled in its head, before agreeing. "Fine. Just let me assume a physical form. Otherwise, you won't be able to touch me."

Giving it a moment, Chris saw it transforming... eventually, taking the shape of a hedgehog he was familiar with, apart from having a light-blue color on the stripes of the head, arms, and legs, as well as on the gloves and shoes; green reptilian eyes; no mouth; and a feminine appearance.

Needless to say, he was a little surprised by the form it (or maybe, she) had taken.

The hedgehog seemed to detect his reaction...

She questioned him with a bit of a rough tone: "What?"

"N-nothing." he nervously answered, averting his gaze from her a little. "It's just... that form you took, reminded me of a hedgehog I had once met."

His response made her smile evilly in her mind: 'So, he is acquainted with Shadow. This is better than I thought. Perhaps I can delay his execution for a little bit.'

She then tried stand up, only for her to collapse. She had forgotten how weak she was.

Luckily for her, Chris was there to catch her.

"Okay, it seems you won't be able to go anywhere on your own. Let me carry you." he offered as soon as he grabbed her, preventing her from falling to the ground.

She had just agreed to let him help her walk, nothing else. Still... as much as she wanted to say 'no', she nodded her head in confirmation, giving him the okay.

With her permission given, the young human wasted no time to softly pick her up and carry her in his arms before walking.

During the walk, the two of them exchanged a few words every now and then.

"I'm Chris. And, if I may know, who are you?" he greeted with some eagerness and with a small but genuine smile.

"Mephiles the Dark." she simply spoke, not bothering to look at him.

He could tell she wasn't looking at him as her way of saying that he was worthless. Yet, his smile remained.

"Well, Mephiles, I'm going to take you to my home to take care of you." he quickly corrected himself. "I mean, it's not exactly mine... Amy is the real owner of it. But she isn't there for now. So, it's just you and me."

Mephiles didn't give him any sort of a response. However, it seemed she had heeded his words.

As they kept on moving, the boy still tried to talk with her. For instance: why she had no mouth and yet she could speak; how could she eat if she was mouthless; why her eyelids never blinked...

And yet, she would give him the same answer: silence. Either it was because she didn't know or because she want to say anything about them.

(A few minutes later - In Amy's house)

As soon as they got in, Chris immediately laid her on his bed and went to fetch any medical supplies that he could find.

He had just finished cleaning her injuries and applied the bandages.

Since she was going to stay in his bedroom for the time being, he was going to be sleeping on the couch of the living room.

She had no idea of the reason why he was helping her. The curiosity was kind of killing her.

"Why?" the hedgehog with no mouth began to murmur, with enough volume for the little human to hear.

"Why what?" he said, turning his attention to her after he put the medical supplies back to where he found them.

"Why did you help me? You don't have any idea of who or what I am."

"Maybe so. But it was simply the right thing to do." the boy replied as he got down on his knees and put his arms on the bed's sheets. "We should always help each other out, especially when there's someone who needs it the most."

"And what makes you say that?" she questioned again, putting her eyes on him.

"Well..." he started with his head down for a second before raising it back up. "I remember that a few years ago, while my butler was driving me back home from school, I saw a man sitting by an alley, with his back on the wall. I could see that he was dirty, but I could also see he was really sad. The look on his eyes... it was like he was saying he was going to die that day. The next day, following the same routine, I looked to the same alley where I had seen that man. Except, this time, he wasn't there anymore. But I remember catching sight of the hat he wore, lying on the same spot where he was before. I could only guess that someone went to pick up his body."

After ending his sad story, Chris gave out a depressed sigh: "I had almost forgotten about that. That's one of the reasons I try to care for someone other than myself."

"So, you intend to help others so you don't get your head plagued with remorse." Mephiles clarified, trying to understand his logic.

He nodded in response: "You could say that, yes."

He then decided to ask something about her as well: "Anyway, can you tell me why your name is 'Mephiles'?" he placed his hands up when she stared at him like she was offended. "No offense, really. It's just that your name... sounds like a name for a man, instead of a woman."

She gave him no response.

If anything, she simply turned her sights away from him.

Thinking that he did something wrong, Chris stood up and told her while gently putting a hand on hers: "I think I understand. Maybe, it's because you don't know the answer yourself. Or maybe, it's because the question is too personal. Either way, I apologize if I offended you. I'll leave you now to rest. If you need me, I'll be in the living room."

Despite her not telling him to get his hand off her, the atmosphere around the room was enough to tell him to.

And then he walked away.

But once he got to the bedroom's entrance, he heard her, giving him the answer.

"My creators gave me that name. I was suppose to be a part for their project: Solaris, the Sun God. They never knew I was a female all along."

After listening to her, the little human left her be and closed the door.

'So she's sort of in the same boat as Shadow.' he thought, going away.

(Later, in the night)

Mephiles, realizing she had recovered enough of her strength, got out of the bed and quietly walked out of the bedroom as she headed to the boy sleeping soundly on the couch.

"You poor, poor boy." she darkly whispered with an evil smirk in her mind. "By saving me, you have just doomed yourself and all of your friends. I was thinking of leaving you alive until I had the chance to take your life before Shadow's very own eyes. But now, I guess I'll just leave enough of you for them to identify you."

The deity got nearer to Chris until she was standing right in front of him.

One of her hands displayed a dark aura as she began to prepare a magical attack.

However, before she could strike, something stopped her...

She sensed a strange sting in her heart.

She clutched a hand to her chest and attempted to concentrate on killing him.

Yet, the more she tried to, the more it hurt her.

Mephiles groaned in agony while thinking: 'Wha- what's this!? Why am I in pain?'

She moved her murder hand closer to Chris to the point that it was nearly touching him by an inch. But then the pain became unbearable.

The deity came close to fall to her knees as she was able to suppress herself from screaming.

'WHY!?' she outrageously shouted in her head. 'I never felt this pain before, even when I killed Sonic... WHY WOULD I START FEELING IT NOW!?'

She calmed herself a little and continued: 'Fine. It seems that I can't do anything to this boy without harming myself. But I can still focus that energy on Sonic, Shadow, and the others.'

Yet again, agony returned to strike her, although not as intensely.

'WHAT!? NOT EVEN THEM!?' she thought, nearly yelling for real.

All of a sudden, Mephiles began to hear something speaking to her, not knowing precisely what it was, but she still listened until the end.

Afterwards, she contemplated her situation: 'So then, I can't do anything to harm the boy, otherwise it will be like I'm hurting myself. And I can't destroy Sonic, Shadow, or anyone he is close to, because that would make him sorrowful for their deaths. Which means, I would be feeling his sorrow as well.'

'Just my luck.' she groaned in irritation, reaching her conclusion.

She placed her attention back on the snoozing human boy, wondering: 'What makes you so special, boy?'

She ponding that question until the moment she heard him murmur something in his sleep.

The deity leaned to his face in order to listen better to what he was saying.

And when she did, she caught one word coming out of his mouth...

"Mephiles..."

If Mephiles could make facial expressions, she would be showing that she was quite surprised. But the red color appearing on her cheeks was enough of a confirmation.

'He's... dreaming of me?' she thought.

Her recent discovery caused her to have another feeling in her heart, one that was good and warm.

Once more, she rested a hand on her chest. Of all the things she had ever felt in her existence, that was something she wasn't familiar with.

'Does this mean... he has feelings for me?' she couldn't prevent herself from thinking. 'And what's with this that I'm feeling within me? Can I be... in love with him?'

Thinking about that statement, she quickly snapped herself to normal.

'T-that's absurd! I just met him. So I don't love him. And he doesn't love me. In dreams is one thing, but in reality is a different story.'

Turning her attention back to him, she soon heard a few other words...

"...Love you... Mephiles..." he mumbled while dreaming.

She even noticed his lips forming into a smile of love and care.

The proof that Chris was dreaming of her was more than enough for that warm feeling to get twice as big.

The deity took a moment to relax and compose herself.

'Alright. I know he's only dreaming that he's in love with me. But, that means there's a chance to make it real... right?' Mephiles pondered with some hope for her assumption to be true.

Inwardly, she couldn't help but smile. Usually, whenever she did that would be in a creepy and evil way. But, for the first time, she smiled in a happy way.

She bent down and whispered to his ear in a pleasant tone: "Sleep well, dear Chris.~"

And while she was walking back to bed, she reflected on what she just said, blushing: ''Dear'? Why did I say that? I need to calm myself, before I do anything really stupid.'

Author's notes: I wanted to have this chapter done and published before the month of September began. But because I was having problems imagining this chapter's story, it only came in 04/09/2017.

This chapter's pairing was suggested by Niphelie-um, who also wanted Mephiles to always be referred as a female since the point of her 'birth' but kept that information hidden from her enemies.
He even suggested he wanted to have Chris finding her injured and trying to help her recover, without knowing that she was evil.
So, for Niphelie-um: I hope you liked it.

In a different note, for any of people out there who are interested, I'm still trying to write the third chapter for the story of The Loud House series 'The Sisters' Obsession'. However, I'm having a bit of a challenge thinking of what's going to happen next, the characters, their speeches, and other things. Oh, and with me returning to school, it's going to take even longer. But if you think I've already given up on it, think again. I have no intention to quit, at least until it has been completed.

Another thing that has been in my mind for quite a while was putting this fanfic. on DeviantArt. But I decided to hold that thought until I had published the first four chapters on FanFiction (not counting the prologue). And now that I've reached that point I thought 'Why not?'
So that's what I'm going to do, I'm going to publish 'A Thorndyke's Ladyloves' on DeviantArt under the alias of 'Krevnek'. In order for people to have more than one way to find and read my stories.

Also, I'm currently having a debate with myself between adding a second part to the pairings that were written so far, and writing new ones.
Both options sound good to me. But I still have no idea of which one to pick. I suppose I need time to consider.

Anyways, I hope all you readers enjoyed this chapter.

Until next time!