Categories > Games > Sonic the Hedgehog > One week
"So this is where you've been hiding"
"Just leave me alone..." Aura murmered, back against a rock face next to a small waterfall. Her hands were cupped around her mouth and nose, tear trails were visable beneath her eyes, and though she tried to breathe calmly, every so often it would hitch sharply and her shoulders would shake.
Sonic didn't talk straight away, but just sat beside her, nearer to the water. He dipped one hand in and trailed through it, watching the small ripples the motion made.
"I'd forgotten how peaceful this place was..." he said "Not when we were last here. You were upset then, setting a pattern?"
He didn't mean to be harsh, but one thing that always made him angry was how Aura pushed herself away at the very moment when what she needed were other people. Another thing was how she didn't react to comments like that. Metal Sonic was an exception, she had really reacted then, but the robot had dug into her most vunerable memory and exposed it for all to hear.
Aura just continued to breathe steadily, and Sonic craned his neck upwards, looking to the top of the falls around sixty feet up.
The last time he and Aura had been here was during his first meeting with her. Six years old, and travelling with Kintobor in the search for the emeralds, they had met. Aura was a few years into her travels and hadn't ever intended to return, but had arrived there unintentionally and to a time before she would be born. During the ensuing panic, he went after her on seeing Kintobor, and found her at the top of the waterfall. That adventure had been something he would never forget.
"Come on, Aura, speak to me, just tell me if you're okay" Sonic turned his head to face her, and saw her own was bowed, and the hands now lay in her lap.
"I'm fine" she looked up and managed a weak smile "I know I look sad, and I'm sorry I snapped at you, but I just needed some time alone. It's something I've had for so long, and it's hard adjusting to so many people being around" She rubbed the support on her wrist gently. To most, this would be the only visible mark of Metal Sonic's influence, but Sonic knew better. It had taken confronting the robot to face her fear, and the change had been for the better "Being part of a team..." she laughed softly "Not something I ever thought I'd have to get used to"
"Hey, don't worry, we'll help you"
"Thanks" Aura smiled, though seeming distracted, and curled her hand, the good one, and stared at it, as if waiting for something to happen.
"Still nothing, huh?"
"Zilch, nada, zip" Aura nodded, then chuckled "It's funny, for the first few years, all I wanted was to be normal, and now I am. But I don't want to be anymore"
"Life's like that" he responded "Always throwing a fast curve at ya"
"Yeah..." she smiled then leant back, one hand propping her head against the cliff, the other resting on her chest. She stared up at the clouds just starting to gather in the sky. They were greyish, almost the shade of her fur and a sign it would rain soon. Sonic did the same, but placed both hands under his head being careful of the spines, and glanced over at her trying to think of something to talk about, he had a lot of questions about the time she had spent away from Mobius, and usually she didn't talk about them, but there were certain moments when she seemed more open, and he could sense that now.
"What was it like, anyway?"
"Hmm?" Aura murmured, eyes wandering across the sky "What was what like?"
"That first place, or don't you remember?"
"Oh, that" she seemed surprised to be asked, and shook her head "I still remember that"
"What made you realise it was another dimension?"
"Well, I didn't even think it was a different planet then, and when I left that first place, I just thought of being somewhere else, and I was... But I didn't stay there very long"
"Too dangerous?" Sonic asked, the thought of an eight year old Aura being chased coming to mind.
"Too deserted" she said instead, laughing "I found a jungle where there were fruits from trees almost half my size. It was so disgusting after a week I just had to leave" her expression soured "I swear I can still taste it...but it was the only thing to eat, the only supplies in my bag were a packet of sweets, two sticks of emergency rations, and a purse filled with money that was obviously no use to anyone. I figured out that I was on a different planet then, it had three moons and I met some people. I couldn't understand them, but they didn't look anything like I'd seen before"
"What happened next?"
"The..." she paused, recalling "...third place I landed in was a bit more 'inhabited', they had cities and technology and I found creatures I could talk to in a sense" she paused again, pulling her hair out and retying it "They were telepathic, I found out the planet was called Earth, and they hadn't even heard of Mobius"
"Earth!" Sonic sat up quickly "Like where Kintobor came from?"
"Not the same one" Aura was quick to say "It was probably an alternate Earth, maybe where things turned out differently. I didn't know the name of the planet Kintobor had come from then, but the people there looked so much like him that I guessed, kept thinking Robotnik would come into the room..." she trailed off.
Sonic frowned, her voice was strained at the end and he knew what it meant "What happened there?"
"I was captured and 'tested' on. They thought I was some sort of mutation, and when I suddenly started emitting electricity they became even more interested"
Sonic's eyes widened, he sat up straight and put his hand on her shoulder. It was shaking a little, unseen to the naked eye.
"Did they hurt you?"
"No, not really, it was exhaustion mainly" she was silent for a few seconds, and Sonic doubted this. "I could sense something and I know now that it was the energy signal from the dimension, I could 'feel' it was different to my own, and that I had brought myself there"
She picked up a small pebble, and stared at it in her hand "I got away, and started figuring out this new revelation. I ended up on another Earth, got captured again but got away. I was found by somebody who took care of me and actually hid me from his family" she smiled, remembering "It didn't work for long, but they were all so nice. That was where I learnt to speak english, which helped a lot"
"Sounds like a nice kid" Sonic commented
"Yeah, Chris was" Aura smiled fondly "I stayed there for a year, then took off again... He understood. I had this power, and it would have been a shame to waste it" Then she sighed, biting her lip, and fingering the brace again "And it was a chance to forget. I used to think that was the best thing to do, pretend I never had a brother, a family, that I'd been doing this all my life and it was just another day. It helped for a while, but I couldn't stop remembering things we used to do, and then I started to remember good things instead of when he died... the nightmares were less frequent and I started to have good dreams again" she stopped for a moment, then smiled wryly "One person I confided in said we can't change the past... Except that we could" She stopped and looked at him "Do you ever think about trying to?"
"A lot" Sonic admitted "It would be easy to go back, and tell Kintobor not to use the emeralds, or about the grey emerald. But I know it isn't the answer... Besides, all it might do is create another time-line where Robotnik doesn't exist and we're still stuck in this one"
"The perils of time travel" Aura mused with a trace of a grin.
Sonic looked at his watch "Got to get back"
"Taking Amy out, right?"
He nodded.
"How is that going?"
"We're trying. I mean she chased me, then stopped, and now we're giving it a go... We're both working out whether this is the right thing to do... Amy's grown a lot since she proclaimed herself my girlfriend but she's not the same person anymore, and I've not a clue what I'm feeling"
"Wish I could give advice on that, but that's an area I don't have experience in" Aura shrugged.
"Trial and error then" Sonic grinned "You want a ride back?"
"No thanks" Aura shook her head "I'm going to stick around here for a bit longer, I want to watch the sun go down"
"Don't be late back then!" Sonic instructed, but was surprised by her response.
"Who do you think you are, my brother?"
"Just leave me alone..." Aura murmered, back against a rock face next to a small waterfall. Her hands were cupped around her mouth and nose, tear trails were visable beneath her eyes, and though she tried to breathe calmly, every so often it would hitch sharply and her shoulders would shake.
Sonic didn't talk straight away, but just sat beside her, nearer to the water. He dipped one hand in and trailed through it, watching the small ripples the motion made.
"I'd forgotten how peaceful this place was..." he said "Not when we were last here. You were upset then, setting a pattern?"
He didn't mean to be harsh, but one thing that always made him angry was how Aura pushed herself away at the very moment when what she needed were other people. Another thing was how she didn't react to comments like that. Metal Sonic was an exception, she had really reacted then, but the robot had dug into her most vunerable memory and exposed it for all to hear.
Aura just continued to breathe steadily, and Sonic craned his neck upwards, looking to the top of the falls around sixty feet up.
The last time he and Aura had been here was during his first meeting with her. Six years old, and travelling with Kintobor in the search for the emeralds, they had met. Aura was a few years into her travels and hadn't ever intended to return, but had arrived there unintentionally and to a time before she would be born. During the ensuing panic, he went after her on seeing Kintobor, and found her at the top of the waterfall. That adventure had been something he would never forget.
"Come on, Aura, speak to me, just tell me if you're okay" Sonic turned his head to face her, and saw her own was bowed, and the hands now lay in her lap.
"I'm fine" she looked up and managed a weak smile "I know I look sad, and I'm sorry I snapped at you, but I just needed some time alone. It's something I've had for so long, and it's hard adjusting to so many people being around" She rubbed the support on her wrist gently. To most, this would be the only visible mark of Metal Sonic's influence, but Sonic knew better. It had taken confronting the robot to face her fear, and the change had been for the better "Being part of a team..." she laughed softly "Not something I ever thought I'd have to get used to"
"Hey, don't worry, we'll help you"
"Thanks" Aura smiled, though seeming distracted, and curled her hand, the good one, and stared at it, as if waiting for something to happen.
"Still nothing, huh?"
"Zilch, nada, zip" Aura nodded, then chuckled "It's funny, for the first few years, all I wanted was to be normal, and now I am. But I don't want to be anymore"
"Life's like that" he responded "Always throwing a fast curve at ya"
"Yeah..." she smiled then leant back, one hand propping her head against the cliff, the other resting on her chest. She stared up at the clouds just starting to gather in the sky. They were greyish, almost the shade of her fur and a sign it would rain soon. Sonic did the same, but placed both hands under his head being careful of the spines, and glanced over at her trying to think of something to talk about, he had a lot of questions about the time she had spent away from Mobius, and usually she didn't talk about them, but there were certain moments when she seemed more open, and he could sense that now.
"What was it like, anyway?"
"Hmm?" Aura murmured, eyes wandering across the sky "What was what like?"
"That first place, or don't you remember?"
"Oh, that" she seemed surprised to be asked, and shook her head "I still remember that"
"What made you realise it was another dimension?"
"Well, I didn't even think it was a different planet then, and when I left that first place, I just thought of being somewhere else, and I was... But I didn't stay there very long"
"Too dangerous?" Sonic asked, the thought of an eight year old Aura being chased coming to mind.
"Too deserted" she said instead, laughing "I found a jungle where there were fruits from trees almost half my size. It was so disgusting after a week I just had to leave" her expression soured "I swear I can still taste it...but it was the only thing to eat, the only supplies in my bag were a packet of sweets, two sticks of emergency rations, and a purse filled with money that was obviously no use to anyone. I figured out that I was on a different planet then, it had three moons and I met some people. I couldn't understand them, but they didn't look anything like I'd seen before"
"What happened next?"
"The..." she paused, recalling "...third place I landed in was a bit more 'inhabited', they had cities and technology and I found creatures I could talk to in a sense" she paused again, pulling her hair out and retying it "They were telepathic, I found out the planet was called Earth, and they hadn't even heard of Mobius"
"Earth!" Sonic sat up quickly "Like where Kintobor came from?"
"Not the same one" Aura was quick to say "It was probably an alternate Earth, maybe where things turned out differently. I didn't know the name of the planet Kintobor had come from then, but the people there looked so much like him that I guessed, kept thinking Robotnik would come into the room..." she trailed off.
Sonic frowned, her voice was strained at the end and he knew what it meant "What happened there?"
"I was captured and 'tested' on. They thought I was some sort of mutation, and when I suddenly started emitting electricity they became even more interested"
Sonic's eyes widened, he sat up straight and put his hand on her shoulder. It was shaking a little, unseen to the naked eye.
"Did they hurt you?"
"No, not really, it was exhaustion mainly" she was silent for a few seconds, and Sonic doubted this. "I could sense something and I know now that it was the energy signal from the dimension, I could 'feel' it was different to my own, and that I had brought myself there"
She picked up a small pebble, and stared at it in her hand "I got away, and started figuring out this new revelation. I ended up on another Earth, got captured again but got away. I was found by somebody who took care of me and actually hid me from his family" she smiled, remembering "It didn't work for long, but they were all so nice. That was where I learnt to speak english, which helped a lot"
"Sounds like a nice kid" Sonic commented
"Yeah, Chris was" Aura smiled fondly "I stayed there for a year, then took off again... He understood. I had this power, and it would have been a shame to waste it" Then she sighed, biting her lip, and fingering the brace again "And it was a chance to forget. I used to think that was the best thing to do, pretend I never had a brother, a family, that I'd been doing this all my life and it was just another day. It helped for a while, but I couldn't stop remembering things we used to do, and then I started to remember good things instead of when he died... the nightmares were less frequent and I started to have good dreams again" she stopped for a moment, then smiled wryly "One person I confided in said we can't change the past... Except that we could" She stopped and looked at him "Do you ever think about trying to?"
"A lot" Sonic admitted "It would be easy to go back, and tell Kintobor not to use the emeralds, or about the grey emerald. But I know it isn't the answer... Besides, all it might do is create another time-line where Robotnik doesn't exist and we're still stuck in this one"
"The perils of time travel" Aura mused with a trace of a grin.
Sonic looked at his watch "Got to get back"
"Taking Amy out, right?"
He nodded.
"How is that going?"
"We're trying. I mean she chased me, then stopped, and now we're giving it a go... We're both working out whether this is the right thing to do... Amy's grown a lot since she proclaimed herself my girlfriend but she's not the same person anymore, and I've not a clue what I'm feeling"
"Wish I could give advice on that, but that's an area I don't have experience in" Aura shrugged.
"Trial and error then" Sonic grinned "You want a ride back?"
"No thanks" Aura shook her head "I'm going to stick around here for a bit longer, I want to watch the sun go down"
"Don't be late back then!" Sonic instructed, but was surprised by her response.
"Who do you think you are, my brother?"
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