Disclaimer: I no own Sonic. I own my weird crap as well as this warped Sonic-verse and the random characters involved therein that don't belong to the various big Sonic creators. In short Sega, DiC, and everybody else like that who I may have forgotten, can not sue me and if they try to then they can all piss off.

Author's Note: o.o OMFG… Here it is… the last chapter of this part of the it-wants-to-be-a-trilogy. I will say this now, this one is the biggest chapter as of yet. As such I strongly suggest that before you go on to read this chapter get yourself a sandwich or something… or maybe you might want to get yourself a bucket… just in case. You thought parts of this fic were dark before? Trust me when I say that all of that is nothing compared to this chapter. This chapter ties together all the loose ends for this part, so prepare for long-winded-ness and information overload. Also, last thing of note, I'm not going to be working on part 2 until I get the third Kleptomaniac/Manic fic out of the way. Keeping that in mind please be patient and bear with me until I can begin work on it. Now that I've got all that out of the way, on to the reviews and then the final chapter of part 1!

Shelby the Hedgehog- If you thought he was scary before, well… Let's just say he has a moment where he goes a wee bit unbalanced. You'll see what I mean when you get there. But yes, Majdrin is finally getting his: big time. As for Sal, she and her brother will do their best… maybe in part 3. It'll be a while.

Sonic Rose- Oh come on! Do you think I'd honestly be that psychotically evil to you all? –laughs- The epic battle to the death is in this chapter, I promise you. So yes, enjoy and cheer, or stare at the screen in horror at what is revealed about True Blue's past. Either way, you're finally getting a good look at some of his lowest moments like you wanted.

Crystalstorm- Here it be. I realized that little error of mine after you pointed it out in your review, and that mess up in the last chapter has been fixed. Sorry for my braindead-ness and here's the last chapter of part 1! n.n

Leader S- Well it hasn't been too long a wait, now has it? I'm glad you like it, and here's the last bit of part 1.

Shadow: As True Blue is currently in hiding due to mental trauma, this duty has fallen to me for this chapter. C & C is always greatly appreciated; so read, enjoy, and review if you please. I'd be damned surprised if you didn't want to.

November 30 3224 A.W. (6:00 am)

I took off at 6:00 pm like I was planning day before yesterday. The peeps in my group that can handle having a body count went ahead of me by about an hour and did the 'cop-screening' that I asked them to. I found out when it was done and over with that there had been about twenty teams hiding out around Majdrin's flat waiting for me. Not a single one made it out alive.

When I got there everything was quiet. I didn't even see anyone from my group. I just thought, 'Good, they're hidden and safe,' and didn't give it any more thought than that. The sun was already going down, my heart was going at about a million miles per hour, and my little hedgehog brain was screaming senselessly at me to get out of there at full speed and never look back. I just walked up that street that I was too damn familiar with, that I remembered from all the countless times that I went with that sick bastard to his flat just so that I could have what money he threw at me so I'd keep my mouth shut. Even the smells and the echoes of my footsteps brought back bad memories.

It'd take too long to explain everything that was running through my head at that moment, but I was almost on autopilot. I didn't think twice about snagging the spare key from its hiding place under the potted plant next to the door. He always hid that key there. I remember that key being there even during the first time he took me to his flat. It was the key he left if he'd demanded an orf 'meet up' with him, and he wasn't there to open the door for us. I have no idea how many others used that key and went up to him, afraid of him and what he'd do, but more afraid of what he'd do if they didn't show. I know that I've bled on that key more than once. He always cleans it up; just in case it would be found.

Like every time I ever used that key in the past, I slid it into the lock and turned it- returning it to its hiding place before I opened the door and walked in. Like every time in the past, I didn't think twice about closing the door after me and re-locking it. I didn't go up the main stairs or use the elevators even though I could have; I used the emergency back stairway just like he always used to have me do. I said I was on autopilot, didn't I? He had a reason for wanting his 'toys' to use the emergency stairway… we could slip up to his flat without anybody seeing us or raising questions. How many times were those stairs stained with my blood or the blood of others? I don't know; like the key, he always cleaned the stairs after we were gone.

I couldn't help myself as I climbed those stairs. I counted them, one by one, like I used to back then. Back then every number higher meant that I was another step closer, another second closer, to suffering through whatever he had planned. I walked slow… I never ran on those steps. It would make noise. Noise would attract attention. He never wanted attention brought to him because of some useless orf. At one point as I was climbing the stairs I stopped and froze, holding onto the railing so tightly that my knuckles were turning white. I was shaking so damn much and it was so damned hard to fight back the tears and panic, not to mention the desire to be violently ill. I just wanted to curl up and not move. I wanted to curl into a corner and scream.

I didn't. I took a deep breath and kept going, counting each step one by one. His flat was on the twentieth floor. Twenty flights of stairs with who knows how many stairs per each floor. I counted them all. Counting was better than thinking. Moving was better than thinking. I have no idea how long it took me going up there like that. Longer than normal, I know that, but I couldn't bring myself to go any faster. When I hit the door marked '20' in big blue numbers I reached for the knob.

I remember when I was six I stretched my right hand as wide as it could possibly go to see if my thumb could touch the inside line of the zero while my pinky touched the outside line. I was waiting for Majdrin to be done talking to someone important, I have no idea who, and he wanted me out of sight. So I hid in the emergency stairway and tried to see if my hand could span that area. It couldn't. I paused with my hand on the doorknob and just stared at that big blue '20' on the door, remembering.

I don't know why I did it this time, but I took off my right glove and tried the same thing. I almost laughed. Why? Because this time my hand could do it without straining. I remember that when I was six I thought that if I were just big enough to do that, something so unbelievably simple, that I'd be able to fight Majdrin off with no problem. It was just funny that I had been so naïve, because at that moment I didn't feel any more confident than I had when I was six.

I pulled my glove back on and put an ear against the door. That was something else I had to do back then. It was so that I could hear if anyone else was in the hall that wasn't supposed to see me. What can I say? Old habits die hard. This was one I didn't mind keeping since it had saved me on more than one occasion. I waited and listened, making no noise aside from my breathing. When I heard nothing I stepped back and opened that door like I had originally intended. Lucky for me the hall was clear. I slipped through and eased the door shut before pausing and just listening.

For some reason I had expected the hallway carpet to be different after all those years. I would have thought that the carpet would at least need to get changed out due to the years of blood spatters from various orfs. Before that point I had never wondered how he got the blood out; I know from experience now that it's a pain to get out of any kind of cloth. Back when I was seven I had no idea Majdrin could have been a magic-user. I had assumed that the carpet itself was magic. When I was seven I remember sitting on that hallway carpet right before I had to go into Majdrin's flat, just taking a moment to myself, and daydreaming that the 'magic carpet in the hall' would suddenly break away from the floor and fly me out of there. Stupid, huh? …Of course, it never happened.

I walked so quietly to the door of Majdrin's flat (the first door on the left) that I didn't make a sound. Again, I put my ear to the door to listen. I wasn't sure at first if he was in there, but then I heard that familiar sound of him pouring whisky into his glass. He always had a specific way of doing it, making the bottle and the glass clink together like his own personal toast to himself. As far as I know, whisky was the only alcohol he ever bothered to drink. He certainly didn't have a problem pouring it over some of my various wounds to prevent them from getting infected. For the record, having alcohol like that poured over fresh wounds hurts. I'd sooner get a thousand paper-cuts all over and then get dipped in a vat of iodine than have to endure that again.

Somehow… hearing that one small noise froze me, and it brought back all kinds of memories. I couldn't move. I have no idea how long I was out in that hall, freaking out. It could have been just five seconds or it could have been half an hour. I just don't know. Eventually I snapped out of it, like I had on the stairs. At first I was going to do that old stupid knock that he always used to insist on, but then I actually thought about it. You know… a bout of logic, something which I'm pretty sure I've been lacking over the past few days.

If I knocked, he'd know that someone was there. Better to slip in without giving him the slightest hint that I was there. If he had no idea I was there, then it might give me just the few moments of an edge that I needed. At least… that was what I was thinking between random flickers of memory. There was one time, just because I was curious, when Red first joined my group that I played around with his hearing- just so I could fig out what the difference was in my hearing range versus an echidna's. Turned out that my ears were sharper. At that moment I was hoping the same held true for Majdrin.

I snagged the spare key from the potted plant next to his door and slid it into the lock; once again on autopilot. I never really thought about it before that point, but he seemed to have some weird obsession with potted plants. It does make sense in one way… Since he was having orphans come up to him so he could get his kicks, then it only made sense that he'd stash his spare keys in places where a kid could reach. I opened the door just enough so that I could slip in before closing and locking it like I had with the one on the ground floor. The key went into one of my vest pockets. I didn't need to lay it down carelessly and have him find it.

I looked around a bit, taking everything in while avoiding Majdrin in his 'study'. The perfect white couch in the living room made me bristle. I remembered that couch. When I was eight I was trying to retreat into my mind and not register anything Majdrin did to me on that couch. He threw me onto that couch several times. Maybe he liked the idea of yiffing some 'dirty' orphan senseless on something such a pristine white. I don't know. I do know that I bled on that couch so many times that I was surprised that it wasn't dyed rust brown by my dried blood.

That wasn't the only place in the living room that I remembered. Right in front of the fireplace, exactly as I remembered it, was that damned bear-skin rug. How yiffing morbid did Majdrin have to be to have some poor bastard's skin laid out in front of his fireplace?! How much more morbid did he have to be to have that as one of his favorite spots to have sex with kids? Yeah, I bled on that skin too. The first time he forced me to… yiffing hell, I don't know if I can even say this without getting sick. -takes a deep breath- The first time he forced me to give him head, it was on that skin.

Understandably, I didn't linger in the living room too long. I didn't want to think about what happened in there when I was younger. Not like the rest of his flat was any better. I wandered through it all; the kitchen, the dining room, the laundry room, the room where he used to keep me locked up from time to time, the bathroom, his bedroom… Everywhere I looked there was another spot where he raped me. I wouldn't be surprised if he screwed me on almost every inch of flat surface in that damned apartment. Every room, every piece of furniture, had that kind of chaos-damned story attached to it.

The dining room table? The kitchen counter? The hammock hanging in his laundry room? He had no qualms about any of it. Anywhere he damn well pleased, he'd have me. Going through his bedroom though… that was the worst at that point. His sheets were always some silky material. Because of him I can't stand cloth with that texture. His bed was huge, a four-poster with a canopy. Both headboard and footboard were pitch black. It'd look pretty damn classy if you didn't know what was done on it. I knew what had been done on it. I couldn't help tracing a finger over a particularly big gouge on one of the posts. I put that gouge there one time when I tried to run away. Sliced both the post and Majdrin's hands with my quills when I did it too. That was when he decided to start chaining me to his bed. I was nine.

The entire time I was wandering through his flat, I could hear Majdrin puttering around in the room that he likes to call his study. Knowing him he was probably wearing that classy robe that cost him somewhere in the area of a thousand bucks. I was avoiding it. I was terrified. I couldn't help remembering what he'd done to me in this corner or that one, on that chair or in the middle of the floor. Calling the room that he was in a 'study' is laughable. That room was more like a torture chamber with a wet bar. Off on one end was his mini-library, and on the other end was a sort of sunken living room- couches, end tables, the works. The big difference? In the middle of that sunken area was a pillar that he liked to chain people to, and the walls were covered with racks of whips, chains, and I don't even know what else. Somewhere in between the mini-library and the racks of weaponry was that damned wet bar.

He liked to joke that he called that room his 'study' because it was where he liked to 'study' orphans. Knowing how much of a sick bastard he was, I think you and I both know that 'study' was not the operative word for what he liked to do to peeps like me. I pissed him off a lot, so I saw a lot of that damned room. I dreaded going into that room more than anything back then. That was the room where he stopped being 'nice' and started being 'violent'. That was where he started his habit of tracing my spine. He'd drag his claws down my back, and various other sickening things besides. That sick bastard got off on chaining me to that pillar and yiffing with my mind; making me freak out because I couldn't see behind me so I never knew whether he was going to take a whip to my back or take me standing up.

Some of those scars on my back that I always keep covered are from whip-lashes. Others are because of his claws, and still others are due to his daggers since he also liked carving me up from time to time. There was one time, only one time, where he tried to take a branding iron to my back. I freaked and struggled so bad that instead of the perfect 'M' that he wanted burned onto my hide, I moved at just the right moment to make it just graze me so that I ended up with a diagonal line instead. He wasn't too happy about that. He beat me to within an inch of my life, then unchained me and dragged me to his bedroom. I was in so much pain that I couldn't even scream when he started…

It wasn't brief, it wasn't quick, it was slow and excruciating and painful and I know that it had to have lasted for a few hours. It hurt too much and went on too long for it not to have been. That was the time I was stuck in his house for a month. The time that I was pretty damned sure should have killed me. I had just turned ten. It was five months before Kragok convinced me to get the hell out of dodge. Six before I met T2. I remember when I took Kragok's advice I told myself that I'd never go back there. That I'd never see that room again or have to even think about Majdrin. I had no idea back then that I'd ever come back. I had no idea that I would have ever planned to kill Majdrin.

I might have been a touch crazy, but when I got to the door of Majdrin's 'study' I was grinning because of that thought. I went from being scared and ready to bolt at the slightest noise, to being more than ready to roll. I'm pretty damn sure that in the minute it took me to grab the knob and swing open the door, I had completely lost my mind. There is no other way, no other explanation, as to how I could have just strode into that room with a grin on my face as Majdrin dropped his glass and spun around to see who dared to break into his flat. He was pissed. He looked pissed. He also looked damned offended that I had the guts to walk right in like I owned the place. That thought made me want to laugh too. The way he always made things 'his', at least in a way that he forced me to understand, meant that almost every inch of that flat might as well have been mine. Goddess knows that I'd been yiffed senseless so many damned times that I'd be surprised if he missed a square inch of the place where he could have forced me.

The very first words out of his mouth were, "How dare you… You filthy mongrel, how dare you come into my home after destroying my holdings?"

I laughed, I laughed like the maniac I supposedly am. I have no idea where I got up the guts to say what I said next, but I've got a sneaking suspicion that 'Earth' had something to do with it. "Oh what, you didn't miss me? And here I thought you'd gladly see me in this hell hole. Then again, you never have been too good at going after anyone who's an actual threat to you Majdrin. No, far easier to take your frustration out on little kids. What harm can a kid do to you? Especially an orphan… or a freak."

Majdrin actually looked startled at that. …Like he hadn't expected me to know about any of his excesses. That made me want to laugh again. I had been one of his favorites; the fact that he couldn't connect who I was at that moment with the kid that sucked him off on too many occasions was just too damned ludicrous for words. Yeah, I know I sound like a norm at the moment. I don't really yiffing care right now. The fact that he immediately went for denial made me want to just start laughing hysterically. "I have no idea what you're talking about, but I assure you that if you do not leave right this instant that I am going to kill you."

That was when his hands started glowing; with magic or what, I have no clue. The funny thing was that I felt that same 'tug' I got when it came to my training sessions with Shadow. I was beginning to get an idea as to what Rad Red meant when he said that Majdrin was 'drawing off the emeralds'. When I realized that, it clicked into place. That was what Shadow was doing, that was what I've been doing, and that was what Majdrin was doing. In that moment I figured out what 'Earth' is, and that just made me want to laugh even more. Majdrin was drawing power from the chaos emeralds, the Not-So-Pointless-Big-Shiny-Rocks, but I actually had one of them backing me up.

I laughed again, I couldn't help it; Majdrin looked so damned confused about my laughing fit that it was even harder to stop. When I managed to breathe I grinned right at him. "Oh, I think you know what I'm talking about. But really! I'm shocked! How could you forget so damned easily? How could you forget little-ol'-me? I'm not talking about the stunts I pulled at the castle, or what I did to your houses to make your life a living hell- I'm talking about earlier. Don't you remember?"

He looked disturbed. He actually looked yiffing disturbed. The confidant bastard that I punched through a brick wall and collapsed a house on looked disturbed. I had to have been crazy. There must have been something in my tone that freaked him out because he backed up a step before he could stop himself. This was the old fool I had been afraid of for so long? What the hell had been wrong with me?! "I have no idea who you think you are, but I can guarantee that I will not tolerate your defiling presence much longer." I'm pretty sure that he stuck to the condescending way of talking to make himself feel better. It didn't work too well; I tore down that shield almost as soon as he started putting it up.

"Funny hearing that come from you. After all, as I recall it you were the one that defiled me." A moment later I pulled the sunglasses off and just smirked. That was when I saw the little light bulb go on in his head. That was when the bastard realized who I was. "I decided to come back to take care of some 'unfinished business'. I remember how much you hated 'unfinished business' Majdrin. I thought I might as well tie up a few loose ends in my life for my… how did you used to put it? 'Financial stability'. Revenge, as they say, is sweet- and I intend to get mine. Do you like what I've accomplished so far?"

Seeing my eyes, my freakish bi-color eyes that have always scared off most norms, he obviously couldn't believe it. Then again, I'm the only one in all of Motropolis to have one green eye and have the other as blue. I've seen others with bi-color eyes, but I've always been… 'distinct'. Majdrin used to say that was one of the first things that drew him to me. My eyes have always been so damned unique that I knew that he'd remember the moment he saw them. His eyes swept over me, probably remembering how he inflicted this scar or that one, and then the bastard had the gall to meet my gaze like he had nothing to be ashamed of.

"In all that I ever taught you, you never could retain the lesson about being grateful. It seems I never made that point clear enough to you."

I snorted, my arms crossed. Looking back on it I can't believe that I had a conversation with him that was even somewhat civil. As I've said before: I must have been out of my mind. "Grateful? I have nothing to be grateful to you for. You raped me, tormented me, made me doubt my sanity… Why should I be grateful to you for anything?"

His hands stopped glowing as he made a motion, making the glass he dropped jump up into his hand before heading to the wet bar and reaching for his bottle of whisky. I never did like the smell of that crap. "If you'll recall, my wayward charge, I taught you. I informed you. I did not force you up here as you so adamantly claim; you came of your own volition for the money. You needed a means to have some form of financial stability to survive, and I gave you that means. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Bull shit."

"Oh no? Then why did you so readily accept the money I granted you for services rendered?" I was bristling. I was pissed. As he poured the whisky the bottle clinked against the glass; just like every time I can remember him drinking that spraint.

"Oh that's bullshit! 'Services rendered' my ass! I was yiffing six you sick son of a cheeagra-sucking bitch!"

His response pissed me off even more. He just smirked before taking a sip and said, "Only for a year. Oh yes, and do try to be a bit less racist. It's considered rather rude."

My eyes narrowed and I could practically feel that 'tug' coming at me from every direction. I may not have been about ready to physically pick up a chair and throw it at him, but at that moment I don't think I really would have had to touch anything to make it happen. "Like you have any room to talk. A Dark Legionnaire lecturing me about being 'racist'? That's damned funny Majdrin. That's just as damned funny as you insinuating that I had a choice about coming up here to be your little 'yiff toy'." He obviously had no clue that I knew about the DL, and his surprise showed if only for a moment.

"You do have such a penchant for being rude, don't you? And here I thought I worked all of that out of you in front of the fireplace." I remembered what time he was referring to. It made me want to puke. That time was a punishment for being 'rude', for insulting him, for not being 'grateful'. The sick bastard made me apologize for every insult that I had flung in his face, and then thank him for 'caring enough' to keep me alive. The entire time he was… I don't want to even think about it. I will say this; he traded hurting me for every apology, with licking up every blood trail for every time I 'thanked' him. And that's putting it lightly.

I glared at him. I was pissed. I was nauseous. There I was in the damned bastard's flat with the intent to kill him, and I hadn't done anything yet. I was sick. "No, you don't get to do this. You don't get to look me in the eye and tell me that bull about how everything you did was in 'my best interests'. You don't get to remind me of the sick spraint you pulled and then tell me that you did it 'for my own good'. You DON'T. You've done enough damage to me and to who knows how many others. Do you even realize that every damn place you lived is haunted because of what you've done?"

"Oh don't tell me you're going to try to play hero like that fool did a few years ago, hedge-boy. It would be rather unbecoming of you. A great deal less sensible as well. I seem to remember you as actually being rather smart and quick to grasp a subject." The namocksi had the nerve to smirk at his own sick little joke before he kept going. "You certainly had a greater sense of self-preservation than any other I've ever met. You always have been something of a peculiarity. I'm actually rather surprised that you survived this long, and in such good condition."

There was something about the way he said the last bit that made me nervous. I couldn't just brush it off as more of his mind-twisting cheeagra spraint. "What the hell are you talking about?"

He just raised both eyebrows and said, "Oh, don't you know? I would expect you to have figured it out… but I suppose without me to point out such things to you that you were bound to miss out on a few oddities. You're the only person I know of whose heart has stopped only to spontaneously restart over ten times. Well… that and your aging is a bit peculiar. Do you remember twelve years ago, when I first found you?" I didn't know what to think. I was frozen. Twelve years before that I had to have been living with my 'rents. Or at least I had thought so. I couldn't remember having run into Majdrin until I was six, a full two years later than what he was saying.

It wouldn't have taken a genius to figure out that the little hamster wheels in my head were spinning along at full speed. He knew my confusion when he saw it. Majdrin smiled and kept on talking like he was commenting on the weather. "No? Well rest assured my boy; I first met you twelve years ago. I didn't really bother with you for the first two years. At that time you were little more than an empty husk of a child, scrounging for what little food you could just to get by. In fact my back alley proved to be one of your favored haunting grounds. I had no interest for you, but I saw you almost every day. At that point in time I would have pinned you for perhaps being six years old, give or take a year. What intrigued me about you at first was that, regardless of the near-famine conditions which you endured, you tenaciously clung to life. Perhaps the most interesting thing about you in the course of those two years was that despite how depleted or plentiful the food supply available to you was… you did not change."

"No… You're yiffing with my head again. I know you are."

"Am I? Perhaps I should make myself clearer. During those two years when your mind was a blank, you did not physically change in any way. The only thing that truly changed about you was the state of your mind. I got curious. I took you in; I wanted to know why you continued to live without growth when all logic dictated that you were supposed to be dead. That first time I made you bleed, I took a sample of your blood. I had your DNA traced, to find out where you had come from. Do you know what I found?"

My ears were flat against my head as I snapped out, "You're probably going to tell me no matter what I say."

Majdrin laughed in approval. I wanted to hit him. "Very astute! I see my sharpening of your wit didn't go to waste." He ignored my look of disgust and plowed on, moving his hands as he talked like he was going on about some favorite subject or something. "I found out that, genetically speaking, you are Sonic Takashi Olgive Maurice Hedgehog, son of Jules Takeshi Hedgehog and Bernadette Marie Naia. However, do you have any idea why this makes you unusual?"

The fact that he knew that info about me had me freaked. I tried to give myself time to fight it down by growling out, "Enlighten me."

He gave that aggravating smirk again and took another drink from his glass. "It makes you unusual hedge-boy, because according to all records that child died at the age of four. Not just that, but according to those records that boy died in 3212. Yet I first saw you in 3212. What makes this peculiar is the fact that you looked like you were six years old when, chronologically, you should have only been four. At first I was willing to discard the thought out of hand; children do grow at different rates after all. However my mind would not let the thought go. There was something about your family that was off. According to those self same records, your parents were captured by Lord Julian Robotnik twenty years ago… and your entire family ceased to exist in 3209. How could a yearling not only run off as a wild orphan, but survive for three years on his own with no help? 'Ah,' I thought, 'what if the information had been changed?' I set about looking into things and found exactly what I had suspected. The date of your birth had been altered."

"What?" Can you blame me for not wanting to believe a single thing that lunatic was saying? He was yiffing crazy. Maybe I was crazier… I had this sort of tingling feeling in the back of my head and that 'tug' that I was feeling suddenly jumped to an emotional level and gave me the feeling that I had to listen to that sick bastard carry on. I may sound crazy for saying this, but I know that it was 'Earth' telling me that the old namocksi was telling the truth and that I had to listen.

"Naturally it's rather difficult to alter such things. However your family was exceptionally lucky that they had someone so intellectually gifted within their fold. Charles Olgive Hedgehog… Quite the scientific genius as I recall. A little hacking and information alteration wouldn't have been beyond him… for the sake of his unusual nephew. I will admit that it was rather difficult to trace what he had so artistically done to your public profile. When I found out the actual year you had been born… I was befuddled to say the least. Not that I could truly blame your family for what they did, considering that you had ceased to age, for a time, when you were six years old. With that rather bizarre condition, it was far more believable to claim that you had been born in 3208 than to truthfully state that your birth took place in 3202."

I stared at him. He was crazy, he had to be. He was telling me that I was six damned years older than I thought I was. I wanted to reject it; I wanted to attack him right then and there just to make him shut up. I didn't want to hear anymore. Part of me felt sick, not because I didn't want to hear anymore, but because I began doing the math in my head and working things through. Ten years or so on the street alone, six or so years of being with my group… I've always been pretty good at keeping track of the years sliding by, but I had never questioned why my mind told me that I had been on my own for ten years. Think about it! If I had been on my own for ten years and with my group for six more, then how old would I have been at the beginning? If I was sixteen like I had thought at the time… then by the timeline in my head I wouldn't have even existed at the time of my first memory.

I moved to block him out, to make him shut up, I have no idea what. 'Earth' stopped me. It was like I was in complete control of myself one moment, and in the next that 'tug' got so overwhelming that I felt like I was locked in place. My mind hit borderline panic levels. 'Earth', Sadaasiirae, whatever the hell that chaos emerald's name is, suddenly just popped up in my mind. Unlike having a 'path like Sabbat poking around up there, it felt like 'Earth' was right there beside me. "Do not panic True Blue. What he is telling you is the truth… and you need to hear it. As it is, it is difficult enough to keep my aid to you hidden. Compelling Majdrin to tell you the truth of what you are is a bit more difficult. Should I be discovered at my little 'rebellion' to keep you alive, there might be dire consequences- the most notable of which would doubtless be your death at the monster's hands. Be patient and listen. The moment for attack will be soon." Like every other time he ever talked to me, it was in that weird language that I didn't know but somehow understood. The fact that the chaos emerald backing me up was breaking almost every rule just to keep me alive made me want to start laughing again. It's pretty damn bad when the forces of the universe don't care whether you live or die for the most part.

Under normal circumstances if I were facing a psychotic DL tick and being possessed by a chaos emerald, I'd freak and bolt the other way. Then again, under normal circumstances I wouldn't have been ready to die like I was at the time. I forced myself to calm down so that Sadaasiirae wouldn't have me locked in place anymore. A second later the 'tug' lightened up so that I could move. I backed up from Majdrin a little since he was giving me that look like he was seriously thinking something through. I still hadn't lost my temper, so I didn't bother hiding it. I don't fully know myself whether what I said was aimed at Majdrin or Sadaasiirae, and I'm probably never going to figure it out. "You're so full of spraint."

Majdrin rolled his eyes at me as he poured more whisky for himself. Considering how often I had seen him drinking that crap while I was growing up, I was surprised that he wasn't constantly drunk. For all I know his magic cancelled out the alcohol. "You're as crude and insulting as ever whenever I try to help you with anything, boy. Perhaps I should help you with that bad habit? No?" I gave a glare that would have killed him on the spot if looks could kill. "Ah well, you always have been stubborn. But to continue on my point, your aging is not normal. In fact, the very first time I took you in you were twelve years old rather than the six you believed yourself to be. Peculiar, isn't it? It's peculiar that you are actually six years older than you have ever believed yourself… more so, six years older than you have ever looked. Though I will admit that you seem to have hit another plateau in your aging… Look at you; 22 years old, and you don't look a day over fifteen or sixteen."

I didn't want to admit out loud that anything he said was right, I sure as didn't feel like I'd lived that long. I pushed on anyway. The sooner that I knew everything that 'Earth' was trying to get him to tell me, the sooner I could kill him. "Suppose you're right. Suppose I am 22… why in the hell can't I remember anything before 3212?"

That old echidna bastard smirked like I had given him some sort of leverage. I mentioned before that I wanted to punch him in the face, right? "A good question indeed 'Sonic'. The answer to that, I believe, lies in the fact that your parents were taken by Lord Julian in 3204. You would have been two years old at the time, but were the situation appropriately violent enough, regardless of whether they truly died at that point or in 3209, I believe that trauma could have quite easily left you predisposed to a certain amount of amnesia. Layer on top of that the death of your darling Uncle Charles in 3209, just a mere five years later, when he was all that had remained of your family- and your world was completely shattered. Having already been mentally unstable due to the loss of your parents, it would be little surprise that you essentially went off the deep end when Sir Charles was killed in front of you. Or was that another detail you had forgotten?"

"How… would you 'know' that?"

"You hit the nail on the head when you picked out my status as a Dark Legionnaire. We among the Dark Legion do tell each other these things… That aside, Lord Julian wanted all three out of the way. He had no qualms about hiring on the Dark Legion to take care of them; at least your uncle at any rate. I believe a rather lovely woman by the name of Lien-Da had something to do with it. She had no idea you were there of course. The one to find that out was an old fool by the name of 'Kragok'." I felt like I had been punched in the gut when I heard that name. Kragok, the guy that had been my near-adoptive dad, had a hand in my Unc's death?

Majdrin didn't even blink. He just kept going like a river that had finally destroyed a dam. "I find it rather strange that Lien-Da's elder brother had such qualms with ridding the world of you and your uncle. At the time Sir Charles was quite the thorn in everyone's side- much as your parents had been. Of the three sent to take care of the last remaining spy of 'House Hedgehog', meaning Lien-Da, Kragok, and a good friend of mine by the name of Fellock; Kragok was the only one to be bothered. It would seem that your father, Jules, got to him and corrupted him. Your father may have been a spy and the fastest under King Maximillian Acorn's command, but he did have the odd talent for getting in close to others… a talent that I believe you share. In fact he was credited with stopping no less than three wars from ever occurring. Having such lineage must make you proud. I would be most surprised if it didn't."

"It's not like you to babble Majdrin. Why in the hell are you going on like this?" I was honestly curious at that point. At the same time I was asking 'Earth' in my head, 'What's keeping my group out of here and safe?' I knew that something or someone had to be keeping them out; otherwise they would have already charged in after me by that point.

"Shadow, at Life's direction. He too is tied to one of chaos. Fortunately Life has chosen to remain neutral to my rebellion; thus Life will side with Shadow's decision to prolong your life." You have no idea how weird those three sentences sounded. It didn't take more than a second for my attention to jump back to Majdrin as he took a step closer to me. My immediate instinct was to pull back some more, but there was still about ten feet of space between us. I stayed put.

"I thought you would appreciate a bit more of your background before I remedy your… trouble-making."

"You plan on killing me."

He gave that smile that always sent chills down my spine, "Perhaps… most certainly not at this moment. I want you to know where you came from. Why you're alive. Why I wanted you. Doesn't that make you even the slightest bit curious?"

"You're sick."

Majdrin just laughed at me before taking another swig of that damned whisky. "As I have said, dear boy, I suspect that you've the same talent for getting close to people that your father had. Your father got to Kragok and convinced him to defect from the Dark Legion… Kragok in turn had not fully defected by the time he, his sister, and Fellock were sent after your uncle; yet when he saw you, rather than do his duty by getting rid of you, he chose to completely defect and he let you live. Believe me when I tell you that you have no idea how relevant that is."

It felt like 'Earth' was talking through me when I said, "What's so damn important about him letting me live?" Thing is, I don't think I really mind that Earth did that. I wanted to know. I was curious. I have no clue how much of what Majdrin was telling me he was compelled to by Sadaasiirae. I do know that I wanted to know what part Kragok had played in my past.

"What is important about Kragok's decision to let you live, is that before your father got to him Kragok was one of the most ruthless Legionnaires. He would have killed someone else without even batting an eye in discomfort. The largest reason that the Dark Legion and Lord Julian wanted your father dead was that we all suspected that he was 'touched by chaos'. Have you any idea what that means? No, I suppose not. The Guardians want no one else to know of the Chaos Emeralds or chaos beings. Your father's odd capabilities, much like your own, marked him out as possibly bearing such a gift. That he could convince Kragok by speaking to both his mind and heart meant that it was likely he held a connection with the Chaos Emerald called 'Spirit'. Such a person, as both spy and chaos being was uncommonly dangerous… for both the Dark Legion and Lord Julian's goals. The sheer amount of power one could wield… Well, it marked your father as too dangerous to be allowed to live."

"So you and bunch of DL idiots decided that my dad had to die based entirely on what he might have been? Sounds like you and yours are paranoid Majdrin."

"Paranoid? I suppose it would seem so to you. As for why your mother and uncle had to be gotten rid of… It's a curious thing that chaos beings tend to gravitate toward each other. That gift also has a tendency to be rather prevalent in families. It was thought that your father could have passed it on to you; thus why everyone wanted you dead before you could become a threat."

I shifted uncomfortably and moved a little further away from the old bastard as he came a bit closer. I did not want him in close to me. As I remembered all too well, he would have all the advantage if he got in close. "If everybody wanted me dead and you figured out who I was, then why didn't you kill me?"

He grinned and I got a freakishly good look at his fangs. Within a second every quill on my body was standing on end. I don't have a clue how my vest survived. Majdrin only gave me that look when he was planning out what he wanted to do to me. The sick bastard was already planning on taking advantage of me. "Dear boy, I didn't kill you because of how exceptional you were. You were already twelve by the time I had first brought you here, yet you only looked half that age. You were quite obviously 'touched by chaos', as evidenced by your heart restarting on its own on the various occasions when I unintentionally stopped it, and perfectly capable of wielding an immense amount of power. Power that kept you alive when you would have otherwise been quite dead. However, since you barely used any of that building power, it seemed prudent to… 'tap' it, so to speak."

"Tap it? What the yiffing hell are you saying?"

Majdrin drained the last of his glass before letting go and waving it off to the bar. "Chaos beings, as I have said, are capable of wielding an immense amount of power. They are also rather few and far between. I believe the typical number of such beings is either seven or eight at any given time. As such, by the time a person is clearly known as one by those that count, they are typically far too old to exert any true control on and are thusly quite dangerous… far easier to kill them than to attempt to corral them in any way. You were quite the exception to that rule. Not only were you young enough to make an attempt at taming you worthwhile, you also believed yourself to be much younger due to your amnesia and physical appearance. And I must admit you were rather… enticing."

I twitched; whether to run away or charge forward and deck him, I don't know. I wanted Majdrin to hurt and bleed just as much as I had, if not more. I wanted to shatter every bone in his body and rip out his heart with my bare hands. At the same time I wanted to run from him as fast as possible while screaming bloody murder. "So it was a yiffing power trip. That was the big reason behind not killing me and keeping me alive instead. It was all just so you could have your chaos-damned way with me and feel powerful because you were screwing a kid that would have power. I've said it before, I'll say it again: you're a sick son of a bitch."

"And there you go resorting to racist remarks again." Before I could say anything he was suddenly right in front of me, with his nose just about an inch away from mine. I backpedaled so fast that when my back hit the wall I was surprised I didn't climb up it. He laughed at me and flicked back a few of his dreds that had come forward over his shoulders. Bastard always did like to come off as the sort of 'classy' that wouldn't even have a hair out of place. "You do have a point though. I did want you for the power you had, though I think you misunderstand as to how I intended to go about getting it. At that time I knew that without the proper control that you could easily grow up to be the thorn you've become. So I took you in, tried to tame you… I thought that having a 'pet' chaos being would be so much more helpful than having a thorn or a corpse. Sadly, I seem to have failed."

"Miserably." My back was up against chains and weapons and I was desperately searching with my hands for something that could work in both close and long range without being too conspicuous about it. I could have looked to get a better idea, but there was no way in hell that I wanted to take my eyes off the bastard for even a second.

"Indeed. I did get some use out of you at any rate. You were quite satisfactory to both my appetites and my need to supplement my magic." I stared at him like a fish that has had the biggest 'oh shit' moment in history. He looked me up and down, which did not help my panicking hedgehog brain, and licked his lips. "Why the surprise? You know that I took my pleasure in you; surely now that you know of what you are and why I didn't casually toss you aside like the others, you can understand that I had to take some of your chaos-born power for myself."

"You fed off me? What the HELL are you?!"

"Hm, how quaint. Accurate, but quaint. You of course are a chaos being. I, however, am a chaos-infused magic user. Before you ask, yes there's a difference. A chaos being is tied to a specific chaos emerald. A chaos-infused magic user on the other hand can draw power from the emeralds, or a chaos being, and is not tied to anything but their own power. Since you were so infamously delectable in both power and appearance… How could I resist? Especially since your power had the intriguing side effect of prolonging your childhood and no doubt your life?"

"You are sick beyond yiffing sick Majdrin."

He laughed at me again and started walking toward me. My search for a decent weapon got even more panicked since I couldn't disappear through the wall. Majdrin came to a stop right in front of me and drew a finger down my left cheek until he was cupping my chin. I think my little panicking hedgehog mind nearly yiffing died. When he spoke it was in a whisper and too damned close for comfort. "Can you honestly blame me for wanting a taste?"

I was shaking so damned hard that my quills were rattling. I can't believe I managed to have enough spine to out and out glare at the son of an aut and snarl right in his face. "I'm going to kill you." Big talk coming from the guy that was backed into a wall and about ready to have a panic attack, right? I can't say that I felt too intimidating right then. It didn't help that I was so freaked out that I forgot Earth was riding around in my head (or whatever the hell he was doing).

Majdrin didn't even bat an eye. He just smirked and said, "I'd like to see you try... hedge-boy." And then the yiffing bastard kissed me. That little panicking hedgehog brain of mine I mentioned? It died.

One moment I was backed into the wall and freaking out because the old tick damn near had me pinned; the next moment I snapped, grabbed the nearest blunt object on the wall and smashed him in the head with it. I don't even know what it was. For all I know I could have grabbed a lamp. It was enough to get him to flinch back for a second. That second was all it took for me to be on the opposite side of the room from him. I didn't even bother saying anything. My mind was so much of a jumble that I couldn't have spoken a coherent sentence if I wanted to.

He glared at me, pissed to high Hades, and I could tell that if he got his hands on me it'd be worse than anything else he had ever done. "That was rather rude 'Sonic'. I believe I shall have to remedy such misconduct, even if I have to strip the offensive tendency from your bones." How in the hell can I remember anything he was saying when I was barely registering it? I blame it on Earth. Or Sadaasiirae. You know who in the hell I mean!

Majdrin started coming after me with obviously every intent to use the room for the reason he'd made it. I freaked yet even more, and immediately started throwing whatever I could at him- starting with his reclining chair. I don't think I ever saw that old fool duck so damn fast. When he came back up onto his feet he looked back at the chair for a second (which had been turned into a pile of kindling when it hit the pillar), before turning back to me to say something only to get a book in the face. Everything seemed to go still for a moment while he got the book detached and set it aside. A moment later he was stalking toward me and popping his knuckles. He was ready to kill.

That was when almost every book from his mini-library started flying at him as fast as I could grab and throw them. It was like a hail storm directed just at him. Looking back on it now, it makes me want to laugh my ass off. At that moment though my train of thought (what little of it wasn't consumed in a gibbering panic) amounted to, 'Throw everything you can!' It didn't help that he started punching his precious books out of the air in his path to get to me. It also didn't help that I ran out of books to throw pretty damn fast. When the books stopped flying I took a second to look for something else to throw, and Majdrin started running at me.

As soon as I saw him coming I ripped a shelf from the wall and sent it flying, then bolted across the room again. I didn't realize it, but when I threw the shelf I sent it sailing at his head (again). Natural defense on his part, Majdrin threw up an arm to block it. It sliced through the sleeve of his robe and his skin. When it dropped he did that slow 'I am going to make you hurt in every way imaginable while yiffing you so damn hard it'll make you bleed' turn so that he faced me. His eyes were narrowed and this growl, the sort that I heard only once before in my entire life, rumbled from his chest in such a deep pitch that I could feel the floor vibrating. My back was up against a wall for the second time that night in less than a second. Meanwhile he actually took the time to pry off his robe and carefully drape it over the counter of the wet bar before taking a look at his arm.

That was when I found out that underneath the skin, his right arm was completely roboticized. It was a bleeding mess that made his dark wine red fur look even darker. He stood there checking over his arm, probably checking it for gouges in the metal, and then once he was satisfied that I hadn't actually done too much damage he turned his attention back to me. "That is going to cost you, my boy. And I will be sure to make you understand how much."

He began that slow stalk toward me again, the one that screamed 'I am coming to get you and there is nothing you can do about it'. More of his things flew through the air; as fast as they came to my hands, they were gone as I chucked them at him. Majdrin decided to break out his magic at that point so that instead of hitting him, everything I threw might as well have hit an invisible shield and bounced off to the side. As a result my throws got more panicked, more numerous, and by the time he was in front of me the walls around me were completely bare. I was blindly searching for something to hit him with, not wanting to take my eyes off of him for even a millisecond, and I was completely out of ammo and trying to (once again) disappear through the wall.

Before I could even blink his hands were on the wall to either side of my head. My heart was going so damned fast that if I had spontaneously keeled over in the time it took me to inhale, I would not have been surprised. I was shaking, my eyes were as wide as they could possibly go, and my ears were flat against my head. I'm pretty sure that I was hyperventilating. Majdrin got so close that his nose was almost touching mine. I could hear the grin in his voice when he spoke, and that just freaked me out even more. "Haven't I told you time and time again that you can not win against me? Admittedly that was quite a few years ago, but I would have expected you to at least remember that much."

I couldn't think, I couldn't move, I couldn't speak… I was so terrified that if I had been given the option to go hide in a hole for a year and never come out, I would have taken it. His right hand went from the wall to my neck and started sliding down until my vest wasn't covering my left shoulder anymore. My eyes squeezed shut as I tried to pull back into the wall with everything I had. He just laughed and in the next second I could feel his breath on my neck. Right at that moment the small remaining part of my mind that had some intelligence was hell-bent on cursing me out for being so insanely stupid to have ever gone back to the hell hole willingly. The son of a syphilitic tick had me pinned, which was my own fault, and he licked the line of my collarbone before dragging his tongue up to my neck and stopped just shy of my lower jaw.

He was stronger, he had magic, and he had me pinned against the wall. What did I have? Absolutely nothing. Zero, zip, zilch, nada. So when he was making out with my neck it was safe to say that I was screwed. Royally. I realized that fact and completely registered it while he was busy molesting my neck (and chest), and then suddenly the light in my head went on and the panicky little hedgehog that was my brain hopefully revived. I did have something going for me; I had just been too stupid to remember it. He might have been stronger, but I was faster. He might have been a 'chaos-infused magic user', but I was a chaos being. He only had himself, and I (brainless genius that I am) had Sadaasiirae. My eyes opened as Majdrin took all of his attention to my chest (reuniting with his favorite yiff toy no doubt), and I tried poking around in my own head for Earth. 'Hey Earth? You still there?'

His reply reminded me of my own thoughts. It also reminded me of when he said that he was my 'reflection'. Thinking back on that comment, it sounds damned accurate. "Of course I'm still here you panicking idiot. Did you honestly think I'd abandon you?"

'… You said you'd be a help?'

"When you're not panicking so damn much that you block me out you vapid fool! Now pay attention to what's going on in the real world instead of retreating into the 'safe-place' in your mind and letting him rape you again!" That last comment was emphasized as Majdrin sunk his fangs into my chest and one of his hands made its way to my stomach. The little panicky hedgehog part of my brain died again and my eyes slammed shut for a second time. I completely snapped. I felt the 'tug' again, everywhere around me, and it was as if I reached out with my mind and clung to it like it was the only stable thing in the world. I had never done that before, but when I grabbed onto it… that 'tug' of chaos energy ripped into my body and I screamed.

Goddess it hurt… It hurt like nothing else I had ever suffered. It was like having the heat of a thousand suns burned into my skin at once; or having five hundred thousand needles superheated in a volcano and having them all jabbed into every sensitive spot imaginable. It hurt so bad that it felt like I was getting ripped apart and having my skin flayed off one inch at a time by some psychopath with a diamond edged dagger from hell. But at the same time it felt like every wound, everything that that bastard had ever done to me or kept from me was just suddenly ripped away. Everything was gone. Fear, panic, terrified memories of pleading with Majdrin to not do anything when I knew he'd take whatever he wanted… all of it was gone. I opened my eyes to see that Majdrin was across the room, apparently flung there if the dent in the wall was anything to judge by (I have no idea when that happened), and what little of that room that had been intact beforehand was completely rearranged.

It looked like a tornado blew through and destroyed that room with heavy emphasis on the 'living room' area. No, I have no idea how in (or when) the hell that happened either. Weirdest thing of all was the fact that the lights were dead (apparently I killed them at the same time I blew Majdrin across the room or whatever the hell I did), but there was so much light that the entire room was lit up… and it was coming from me. I just let my eyes sweep over the room while Majdrin was trying to collect himself, and I didn't even care that he was there. I was either so damned insane or so damned powerful that he didn't even register in my mind as being any more of a threat than a bug.

Everything was so totaled that the room didn't even look like anything I'd recognize if I'd been sane at the time. Then I caught sight of myself in the mirror of the wet bar; I stared. I was glowing the same yellow-gold that I- no, that Sadaasiirae- had been glowing in my dreams. It looked weird. Without even looking at Majdrin or whatever the hell he was trying to do, I walked over to that mirror to get a better look. Just like in my dreams my green eye was red, and my blue eye was purple: right and left respectively. I took a look at the bite mark on my chest and I was actually sane enough to be surprised that it was already closing up. I don't think I have to tell you how weird it is to see a couple of fang-sized holes in your skin healing and turning into scars in the span of a few seconds.

Bluntly put, I looked a hell of a lot like Sadaasiirae, but not quite the same. I had the scars, the notch in my ear, my vest, gloves, and shoes... and I wasn't quite as slender as him. I think he and I were checking over how I looked at the same time; like we temporarily became one person. I was crazy and I was possessed by an emerald, and I really did not yiffing care. The fact that my vest was still off-kilter made me a bit miffed, but that was fixed in less than a second. While I was doing that, I glanced at Majdrin out of the corner of my eye. There was a trickle of blood coming from the corner of his mouth, but somehow I knew that was just because he bit his tongue when he flew into the wall. I wondered, without really caring, why his meeting with the wall didn't break his neck.

He clearly had no idea what to think. From Sadaasiirae I kind of got the impression that he'd never seen a chaos being like that before. Maybe he just thought that peeps like me just got power to throw around like what Shadow did in my training sessions? I don't know (that happens to me a lot, doesn't it?), but he caught a good look at me and his jaw nearly hit the floor. I finally took a decent look at him and it was like I could see the magic flowing around him. I could tell what was chaos energy and what was his magic, and I laughed when I realized that most of his power was energy that he'd been pulling off of the emeralds and me. I was laughing so damn hard that I leaned against a wall so that I wouldn't fall and my arms were around my stomach. It was just so damn funny that I had thought he had all the advantage before my little transformation, and most of it was energy that I could control and take away from him.

"You fool," when I spoke it was with this weird rolling accent that reminded me of the language Sadaasiirae used; proof that I was possessed I guess. "You idjit. You br'ain-dead mor'on. I told you I would kill you, yet you did not believe me. I told you that I would have my r'evenge." The accent I had was real heavy on the r's too; it made them roll a little. "Yet you pushed. You pushed me over the edge. You said you wanted me because I am a chaos being, didn't you? You had no idea what you were getting in to when you chose to come after me Majdr'in. And now you'll pay the pr'ice."

"You are indeed more than I had expected," he admitted while he dusted himself off, "but I am not one to give up on what is mine so easily." He was trying to gather power, pull in every last bit of magic he had, and I just wanted to laugh at his pathetic attempt. He was trying to hide what he was doing from me when I could see it so clearly that he might as well have been holding up a gigantic neon sign above his head saying 'I'm going to try to attack you!'

I just arched an eyebrow and smirked, and then I remembered the key in my pocket. I pulled it out, looked from him to it and back again, and then melted it into slag right in my hand; grinning all the while. "Didn't you get the memo? I don't belong to anyone, least of all you." Part of my mind registered that I had tapped Fire for that little stunt… either that or Earth told me. The lines of who was who in my head were a little hazy at the time. Apparently being a chaos being means that while I have a specific connection to just one of the emeralds, I can still access and use the abilities of the others. So there I was with a small pool of super-heated liquid metal in my hand and a maniacal grin on my face and the thought occurred to me… 'Majdrin is partially roboticized. That means he has metal parts. Does that mean I can melt them too? I wonder what all he has roboticized?' Yeah, my train of thought was a little psychotic. I let the mess in my hand just drip off onto the perfect cream-colored carpet that he liked so damned much. I remember that it smoked a bit.

He was pulling as much power to himself as he could, but I didn't care too much. I tapped both Life and Lightning I think, and did a quick sweep of his body. Life's abilities told me what was flesh and blood while Lightning's told me what was using electricity. What I got back was weird as hell, but it explained a hell of a lot. For one thing his skull, spine, and ribcage were all robotic (which definitely explained why his neck hadn't snapped in half earlier). That covered almost every vital spot that could have been at risk.

The second thing was that his guts and kidneys were protected by a thin muscle wall that had also been roboticized. I can't imagine how fine-tuned the work on him had to have been to roboticize something that thin and specific. From what Duck told me after the peeps in my group got partially roboticized, it's actually very difficult to focus it onto something that fine-tuned. Translation: If Duck tried to get the roboticizer to focus on just a few mangled veins in someone's wrist, he'd be more likely to completely roboticize the entire wrist than just what he was aiming for. Can you see where Majdrin's robotics were starting to get a little weird?

Everything vital was protected by robotics, and the weirdest part of it all was that every last part that had been roboticized was beneath the skin. If you take a look at Rabbot, or Arrow, or anybody else that I know of that had to be partially roboticized, the skin over the robotic part would be robotic too. Makes Majdrin seem all the weirder, ne? Ignoring that for the moment; considering that all of his robotics were focused on vital spots, that made his right arm stand out. Why in the hell was his arm roboticized when he mainly just cared about having his vitals safe? It didn't take too long for that little light to go off in my head when I picked up on other spots like that. It had to have been because at some point his arm had been completely shattered beyond all repair.

That made me wonder, even though I was so damned insane that I would have been giggling if Majdrin spontaneously combusted, and Sadaasiirae decided to fill me in. One second I had no clue, and the next I just knew that my dad had beaten the crap out of the bastard and nearly killed him at one point. Probably before I was born. That just sent me into a giggle fit and got Majdrin giving me the 'Oh spraint… you've gone off the deep end' look. I couldn't help myself when I saw that look. I grinned at him and said, "You have a bad histor'y with hedgehogs kicking your ass, don't you?"

"I have no idea what you think you're talking about Sonic-"

"I bet you do know. I just think you don't want to r'emember my dad going to town on your hide. I bet that was why you decided to get par'tially r'oboticized the way you did. It was pr'obably the same r'eason why you enjoyed near'ly yiffing me to death so damned often. It was r'evenge. It was all because my daddy kicked your ass and you couldn't stand the thought of a hedgehog handing you your supposedly super'ior tail back to you on a silver platter. It made you yiffing sick didn't it? Thinking that a lowly hedgehog near'ly killed you and made you as defenseless as you made me?"

An enraged blast of magic shot past my head and tore down a chandelier in the process. It didn't even nick me. I smirked; I had hit the nail on the head and I knew it. He didn't like that too much. "I have no idea how you know what happened forty years ago, boy, but I intend to make you regret having ever brought that up." Chaos powered magic blasts flew my way (which I absorbed), and various objects started flying around the room like a tornado had blown in for the second time. Majdrin threw everything he could at me; spells, blunt objects, various blasts that he hoped would hurt me… Another fun thing I found out about being a chaos being was that apparently I'm invulnerable when I'm like that. I liked knowing that. It made the pain at the beginning well worth the payoff.

I laughed like a lunatic and charged right at him. Most of the fight is a blur, but I know it lasted for a while and by the time we got to a point where we paused his entire flat had been remodeled and a few windows had been blasted into hell. I think I remember something about sending the knife set in his kitchen hurtling toward his face, but I'm not sure. During that little breather I was still cackling and Majdrin was trying to catch his breath. I had him winded and I just about felt like singing. I hadn't even broken a sweat. I could see him shaking as he tried to tap into whatever power he could, and I was just as chipper as Charms on a good day. I mentioned that at the time I was completely yiffing insane, right?

Majdrin stood there, leaning on what little remained of his kitchen island for support, and snapped at me, "I'm going to enjoy bringing you to heel you little asshole."

I just snickered and said, "There's one thing I've been meaning to tell you for year's Majdr'in, but I never r'eally got ar'ound to it. You're a lousy fuck." He twitched and I, in my bout of psychotic lunacy, decided to keep going. "I'd get off better in my sleep without even dr'eaming of anybody. Pr'obably would get more satisfaction fr'om my own hand." Hearing that just pissed him off even more.

"Insubordinate whelp."

"I thought you said I was 22? Doesn't that make me older than a 'whelp'? Or is it in compar'ison to you, old man? Pissed off because I'm telling you that sex with you is wor'se than yiffing a shark?" …Yeah, I think I already established that I lost my mind.

Part of the kitchen island's granite countertop flew at my head. I just batted it aside like it was nothing. "You have NO RIGHT. No right to say anything like that."

"Just because you say so? Yiff off namocksi, I'll say whatever I damn well please." Majdrin caught his wind again at that point and started throwing more spells at me, nastier than the previous ones though. I know that he was trying to get me pinned again and strip me of my power, but I don't know what else. I just didn't care enough to really pay it that much attention.

Our fight went back into full swing, maybe a bit nastier than it had been, and though it's mostly a blur at one point I remember blasting away one of the walls so that Majdrin's flat looked out into open air. I also remember that when I did it I was laughing like the entire damned world was a joke; a sick joke, but a joke. That was one moment where I had Majdrin running like a mouse getting hunted by a cat (non-mobian of course) and I was taking pot shots at him. I might have been singing something demented too. I think it was something about "hunting rapist bastards one by one, taking them down and setting fire to them for fun". Does that give you a good idea as to how insane I was?

When I wore him down to the point where he was hiding behind what little remained of one of the walls to catch his breath, I just sat down in the middle of what had been the living room and started humming too damn happily. I was waiting for him to catch his breath and try to attack me again. It wasn't fun if he didn't try to fight. I was having fun taking my sweet time in wearing him down before slowly killing him. I was having fun hunting him and making him think, just for a few seconds, that he had a chance only to snatch it away again. So I sat there, humming like the happy little lunatic that I was, and then I broke in with, "Tir'ed alr'eady old man? I thought you said you liked playing with me!" I'll say this flat out, just because it's plainly obvious and I have to get it off my chest: I was yiffing sick in the head.

I could hear him breathing heavily, exhausted as hell, and he just snapped back from his hiding place, "Boy, I am going to break you until you are nothing more than a meager puppet for my amusement!"

I giggled. Yes, I yiffing giggled. I was practically singing when I replied. "It doesn't look like you ca-an old man… You sound tired. You sound old. How old are you anyway? 60? 70? Older? I never thought about that before… For an A-jer'ked son of a tick you look pr'etty good for your age, whatever it is. You look about as old as you said I am. Does that mean you were feeding off of kids to stay young like you fed off of me for power? Does that make you an age-sucker?" After that last comment I started laughing again because of some stupid mental image of a vampire-squid-thing that stays young by leeching onto kids. O?o… I told you I was yiffing crazy.

That was when he came out of hiding and charged at me. He caught me by surprise with one spell straight to the chest so that I was flat on my back on the floor, and then he pounced. Majdrin had me pinned and he was snarling in my face; more bruised, bloody, and battered than he had been right when I went chaos being, but otherwise fairly intact. He had my wrists pinned in a grip so hard that if I weren't in that form my wrists would have been shattered. "You're mine Sonic. I will not let you make a mockery of me, I will not let you defy me and insult me like this, and I will not let you go. It would seem that I'm going to have to repeat that lesson in front of the fireplace to make a point."

I grinned. That grin had more fang in it than Shadow or Lupe could ever pull off. That was the only time where I have given an 'I'm going to yiffing kill you slowly and painfully and enjoy every last second of it' insane grin. The reason I know? I could see my reflection in his eyes. His eyes widened a little when he saw that grin; and then I slammed my forehead into his. If his skull hadn't been metal, he would have been dead right then. If I weren't in chaos being mode, I would have had one hell of a headache. It did have the positive effect of making him loosen up on the grip he had on my wrists though.

One moment he was on top of me, then suddenly I had him on the ground and I was standing over him with that psychotic grin. Majdrin was startled and actually scared for the first time. He didn't like it. I did. I just slowly leaned down until we were nearly nose-to-nose. I could've yipping kissed him, bit him, or even ripped his damn face off. When I spoke it was in a whisper; just so I wouldn't laugh. "Check the memo Majdr'in. I don't belong to anyone, I've said it before. Oh yeah, and another thing…" I put a hand on his chest, like what Lupe did to me when I went to her about 'borrowing' Hershey; which was really one hell of a mockery of everything the bastard put me through. The next words out of my mouth were only mine if that makes sense. I didn't talk with Sadaasiirae's accent, it was my voice and my words and 'Earth' had nothing to do with it. "For the record: my name's True Blue. Not 'Sonic'. You killed that poor bastard years ago. Just thought you should know before I send you to your grave."

I tapped all seven of the chaos emeralds at once: Water to slow his blood-flow, Lightning to screw up the electric flow in his robotics, Wind to make it harder for him to get enough oxygen, Spirit to weaken his heart, Earth to wrack his bones with pain, Fire to melt the fur, skin, and metal under my hand so I could reach his heart, and Life to keep him alive through it. I told you I was sick in the head. Since I was using Wind to cut off his breathing he couldn't scream, but he tried. I was mentally sick enough that I eased up on that so that he could when my hand reached his heart. I think the only other time that I heard a scream like that, it came from me. That set off a whole round of memories (which I'm NOT going to put down anywhere… EVER); and then I blacked out.

November 30 3224 A.W. (noon)

Sorry, had to break for lunch… -.- I didn't eat breakfast since I was writing on this thing. Got the others a little worried for me again. Not fun. Anyway, back to where I left off…

The next thing I remember I was in a corner, Majdrin's heart was a burned crisp on the floor next to his body, and he was deader than dead. The flat was also on fire. I don't remember how or when that happened. I just remember having the vague impression that Fire found out I went chaos being and got pissed. Random memories hit me, only by that point I wasn't reliving them like I'm pretty sure I did while I was blacked out. Those memories were still pretty damn bad though. I was curled up in that corner, glowing as damned bright as anything, and I was shaking like a leaf and hyperventilating (note to self: hyperventilating in a burning building is not a good idea). I was drenched in Majdrin's blood and my tears (no, I have no idea when that happened either).

I was freaking out so bad that I don't think I would have gotten out of there with help. I found out later that just before the place went up in flames almost everybody within about ten or twenty blocks heard me scream bloody murder… repetitively… for at least two minutes. So there I was, crying more than should be physically possible and coated in blood (let's not forget glowing like the world's biggest bug-zapper); and then Shadow just appeared in the flat. Teleported up there actually. I didn't even notice him. He started hunting for me, which really wasn't that hard to do, and when he found me… I was a mess. To quote him I looked "like death warmed over".

Shadow stalked over, touched me on the shoulder to try to snap me out of it, and I freaked. I swung at him while trying not to climb the wall (which at that point was more damned difficult than not breathing). He blocked my punch like it was nothing, like he didn't even have to think about it. The look he gave me was so… unimpressed, that it kind of snapped me back to sanity. I was still freaking out to all hell and back, but I actually had a brain to think things through again. There was something about the way I looked, scared and lost I guess, that got Shads to snort at me like I was some kind of moron. "You're pathetic. You do all this," he motioned to the hell I caused in the flat and the fire (which was really getting out of hand), "…and then you go and curl up in a corner to panic over Goddess and the Ancient Walkers only know what? What kind of stupid are you Blue? Really."

Keep in mind that at this point I was too damned panicky to care what came out of my mouth. Therefore, by my own yiffed up logic, what I said was the stupidest thing I could have ever told him in my entire life. "Shadow, you don't know what he did. I killed him… but you don't know what he did. Fearless leader? Me? More like useless coward. What that bastard did to me… the yiffing bastard… and I just yiffing let him. I let him Shadow! Do you realize how yiffing sick it is that I came up here to kill him and years ago he…" I didn't continue the thought, but it was pretty damned obvious.

Shadow just kind of froze; meanwhile we could hear peeps in the building screaming as they were running away and escaping the burning building. A rafter fell somewhere off in the area of the kitchen, but I didn't really care. The entire place could've collapsed around my ears and I wouldn't have cared. He looked at me with those red eyes like he was debating something with himself before he broke and said, "He didn't…"

"He did. Years ago. It's all so yiffed up! You know what I was Shadow? I'm no damned 'clean leader' old orf; I'm a chaos-be-damned p-" He held up one hand and cut me off.

"True Blue, much as I would love to have this demented conversation which should have never hit open air for your own damned sake, we need to get out of here. As far as I'm concerned I did not hear those words, I do not know anything about your past that you haven't already told me, and as such I can not tell anyone what happened to you. If you don't tell me, I don't know. Simple as that. You know how this screwed up world works True Blue, you know the risk you would be taking if the others knew what you were going to tell me. Therefore I am telling you to pull yourself together, shut the hell up about that subject, and get to your damned feet because we're leaving and going home. Got it?"

I didn't know what to think, so I just nodded stupidly. I didn't want to think and I didn't want to be responsible. I was too mentally yiffed-over to want to do anything other than curl into a ball and not move for a few hours. Shadow pulled me to my feet and started dragging me to the door; obviously not caring that I was still glowing like the world's biggest bug zapper. At least I had enough brains to ask, "How did you know that I needed you?"

"Life, also known as Acondröshnii. Something of a persistent baita to be honest. Insists that a chaos being, regardless of how rough around the edges they are 'can not be allowed to die stupidly'." He dragged me all the way down the stairs and out the front door as relaxed as if the place weren't going up in flames. We got outside and met up with the others in a back alley a decent distance away. Thankfully none of the norms showing up, or the fire fighters, really paid any attention to the ginormous glow coming from yours truly. They were all more interested in putting out the fire I started… or Fire started… I'm not too sure who it was that started it.

So there we all are, gathering together and getting ready to go home while I'm getting all these weird looks from the peeps that were there. Not like I can blame them… How often does anybody see someone they know and care about glowing brighter than a bug zapper and covered in blood? Yin walked up to me, looked me right in the eye and said, "My friend, you've screwed over the balance royally… in your favor." Then he smiled that freakish knowing smile he sometimes gets. "Then again, it's better than the alternative." I didn't even bother asking what the alternative was. Everybody knew: I would have been dead.

On our way back to the Run-Down Inn I was surprised that we didn't run into any norms or SWATbot patrols. Might asked me if he could get me anything, and that was when I realized that I lost my sunglasses again. "Yeah, do me one favor when you feel up to it; get me a new set of shades. I lost mine."

The really sad thing? Even when we got back I didn't stop glowing and being all chaos-y (that's Charms's word for it, not mine) until yesterday around noon… and then I passed out. I'm still a little burned out anyway. To say the least I'm not going to be out and running around for a while. I need to lay low, especially since that video of what my group did to Majdrin's sixth house has been playing like crazy on the news and 'net since that night. I still don't have a new pair of sunglasses yet. Not that I'm going anywhere that I'd need them for a while if I can help it. I'll admit that I'm glad I made it out alive and… well… kind of better off than when I went in there. I haven't had any nightmares since before that night. Still… I've said it before, I'll say it again: Life sucks. I should be used to it by now. But damned if it doesn't feel good to be alive.

Preview for Diary of an Orphan: Winter into Spring-

True Blue wasn't supposed to be able to go Chaos Being, and as Yin said so aptly, our favorite hedgehog has 'royally screwed over' the balance of his reality. The balance needs to be restored and since he is the focal point, two polar-opposite Sonics from other realities are being pulled into the fray. That's right; Archie Sonic and Scourge are coming to town! To complicate matters even further, the Dark Legion is on the hunt for information leading to the ultimate weapon that will allow them to avenge Majdrin's death and bring down True Blue. What connection does Shadow have to the Dark Legion's search, and why is Rouge the only one that knows anything about his past? Between dealing with two other Sonics and the race to keep the weapon out of the DL's grasp, can True Blue keep his group from being annihilated? More importantly, after all is said and done, can he keep his sanity?

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II …n.n I know you want to push that button and review.
II It's right there, just waiting for you to…
V PUSH! n.n And review.