Chapter Text
BANG.
Palm and Agate jolted awake, before sharing a collective groan.
“I dealt with it last time.” Palm groaned, and Agate sighed. It was true. The previous night, he had been the one to get up, so it was, in fact, her turn.
“Gods,” She groaned, pushing the blanket off of her and planting her feet into a pair of slippers, exiting the room and going in next door to the nursery next to it.
“Silver, I swear to Gaia.” She stepped inside, finding her nine month old son sitting on a bookshelf where there previously had been books, giggling and kicking his dangling feet. The books were on the ground.
With his mother in sight, he jumped down. If it were any other child and any other parent, it would be reason to panic. But…
He caught himself with psychokinesis, hovering right up to her expectantly. She sighed heavily, opening her arms and catching her son, who giddily floated right into them and released himself, settling against her happily.
She turned around and brought him back into her and her husband’s room, shutting the door behind her and crawling back into bed with her son in tow.
“What was it?” Palm asked groggily.
“He got up on the bookshelf again.” She replied, setting into the blanket again. Silver popped his little head over the blanket, content and purring softly between his parents. He was quite the troublemaker with those powers of his.
This had been routine ever since they brought him home. When he was old enough to be put in the nursery with a baby monitor, he finally made his powers known, along with his distaste for being left alone in the room.
The first time he had picked himself up with psychokinesis and floated around, they had a heart attack. Agate had grown up with her powers, she understood the learning curve. And she could say for certain that that was not supposed to be happening.
They hadn’t started looking into inhibitors yet, as they didn’t plan on sending him to any kind of childcare service yet, if they did at all. Palm could work from home, so if need be, he could stay home to keep an eye on their unruly son.
He was a ball of sunshine though. He was fascinated by just about everything, and aside from being hysterically clingy and refusing to learn to walk, he was a delight. His squeaking and babbling were adorable, and he had the comical hoglet proportions. His quills were growing fast and too big for his head, and he was going to have to grow into his hands and ears.
He did insist on floating everywhere though, which was a problem. They really were trying to teach him to walk places, but he’d just get frustrated and float.
They may get him inhibitors strictly for that.
Agate sighed, watching her child fall asleep, and she followed. At least he wasn’t crying.
__ __ __ __ __
It kept getting worse. At his first birthday, he was finally beginning to toddle around, but also would knock things off shelves for fun, steal things from counters, and generally make a nuisance of himself.
“This isn’t normal. ” Agate growled, waving the weak hold on their fishbowl away and prompting Silver to let go, letting her place it back on the shelf by the window where it belonged. “We can’t send him to daycare or anything, they might kick him out!”
“I doubt that,” Palm attempted to reassure, picking their son up under the arms. He giggled, swinging his feet happily. He was such a happy child, anything could make him smile. But she couldn’t shake the feeling.
There was something weird about their son, and it was alarming. The circles on his hands were bright, just like him, but…
__ __ __ __ __
Unfortunately, Palm had been incorrect.
“I’m sorry, but he’s just more than we can handle here.” The principle of the daycare apologetically explained, the parents sitting in an office with her and Silver asleep in her lap. He had made it a week. “He’s plenty friendly, but he’s a danger to the other children. If you take him to a doctor, I am sure that we can let him back in with an inhibitory device.”
She bit her lip. Attempting to stifle his power at such a young age could be dangerous. There wasn’t much research into childhood chaos energy development, because Silver was just such an anomaly.
“We’ll… We’ll discuss it. I’m sorry for the trouble.” She replied.
That night was a tough one. Silver didn’t let them sleep much, even though they were trying to put their foot down about sleeping in their room.
Something had to change.
__ __ __ __ __
The next week, the hedgehog family received a strange letter.
“Hello,
My name is Cadmus, and I was informed of your struggles with your gifted son from a friend, who works in the care program you attempted to put him in. I am interested in meeting you and your son, and possibly working with you to put him into my care system, which may be better equipped to handle the kind of power your child possesses. Please contact me with the number below if you are interested so we may discuss.” Agate rattled off, puzzled.
It wasn’t often that physical mail was written on paper and delivered in a mail box. Much less with such an ominous feel to it.
“O…kay?” Palm replied, continuing to feed Silver applesauce at the table.
“I don’t know what to think.” Agate sighed. “Should we try the number?”
Palm seesawed his hand and she shrugged in return. She put the letter down on the coffee table and didn’t think twice about it again.
…Until that night. Silver learned how doorknobs worked, unfortunately, and broke into their room for late night cuddles.
They messaged and arranged to meet this Cadmus guy in a public park near their old college the next day.
__ __ __ __ __
Alarm bells immediately began to ring in Agate’s head when they finally met this guy.
He was a tall fox, a little older than the couple, and had a charming, welcoming demeanor about him. But he was accompanied by those Ascendancy freaks, and wore their purple color scheme and a weird little crown on his head.
Unfortunately, by the time that Agate had realized that the Cadmus they were looking for was the fox, he had already spotted them and was walking gracefully right up to them, a pleasant smile on his face and lavender cloak swinging along with him as he walked.
“Good afternoon. Are you the parents I was directed to?” He asked, stopping in front of them. Agate held Silver close, glaring at him and his entourage of uniformly dressed weirdos.
Palm was more level headed than her, so he thankfully did the talking before she could. “Yes. And you are?”
“My name is Cadmus the Fox, I am the leader of an organization known as the Ascendancy.” He said it as if it was the most normal thing ever. “I must apologize for leading you on a little bit, but I promise that my intentions for this meeting are pure. I have heard of your plight, and I believe we may know how to help.”
“We’re leaving.” Agate announced, turning on her heel and grabbing Palm’s hand. She wasn’t in the mood for their shit.
“Agate-” He protested, but Cadmus beat him to it.
“We know how to help your son.” He said simply, tone comforting and reassuring. Deceptively so. But, she paused and looked over her shoulder. “We know it isn’t easy, but we have something to show you.”
Cadmus gestured for one of the followers to come forward, holding a massive case with them. They set it on the ground and began to unlatch it. She came to a full stop, interest piqued. If it were anything weird, she would turn tail and leave, but-
Inside were pieces of an old painting, preserved in a glass box. It was an old oil painting, ripped at the edges and making it much longer than it was wide..
She gasped, and Palm had a similar reaction.
Contained on the canvas was an image of a familiar looking hedgehog in the sky, pulling something from the earth below with psychokinesis and over his head, off to the ripped side of the canvas, pulling the world from a grey darkness.
The hedgehog bore a striking resemblance to Silver. The same headquills, the same fur, the same lines on his hands, the same psychokinesis. He was just older.
They were looking at an ancient painting of their son .
“This is the image my organization is founded on. The promise of a saviour, prophesied to save the world 200 years ago. I have reason to believe that your son,” He pointed to the sleeping child with an ungloved finger, “Is the child of prophecy. ”
The pair stared down at the painting for a long, long moment. It was unmistakable. It had to be Silver.
“What…?” Agate breathed, kneeling next to it. She could hardly believe it, but. “Is it real, Palm?”
Palm wordlessly nodded, eyes blown wide. He was the art inclined of the two of them, so he would know.
Silver looked up at Cadmus curiously, waving enthusiastically up at the fox. He smiled affectionately and returned the wave with one of his own.
“I understand that is a difficult thing to wrap your minds around, but his incredible power and appearance align with our prophecy. He has the spirit of Sonic the Hedgehog. We know how to help him. With the proper training and protection, he will grow to his full potential, and become the hero he is destined to be. That is the true purpose of our organization; to find the Messiah, and to aid him in his journey.” Cadmus announced, smiling at the parents. “And so, we ask; will you allow us?”
Agate held her child close, staring uneasily up at the Ascendancy members. “I’m not going to let you take him.”
“Oh, Gaia no!” Cadmus shook his head frantically, seeming alarmed at the prospect. “I would never separate a child from their parents for a situation like this. That is cruel. You would be with him every step of the way. The organization would take care of your family. We would select a safe place for us all to raise and train your child, surrounded by people who can be trusted with his safety and care.”
“I don’t know. This is a lot,” Palm finally spoke, looking about as nervous as Agate felt.
“Of course.” Cadmus nodded. “We are not expecting you to make a decision right now. Preparations would need to be made regardless. But it was important to us that you be made aware that your child is not ill, nor is he broken. He is special, and will need to be handled in a way that suits his destiny. Please, think about it.”
The Ascendancy members left shortly after, leaving the parents in a state of shock while Silver whined about them leaving.
When they returned home, the silence followed.
Silver went to bed without too much fuss that night, leaving the partners to determine what they were going to do with this new information.
“I don’t trust them, but…” Agate admitted, putting her head in her hands as they spoke quietly around the dinner table.
“It feels like too much of a coincidence to not be true. That was Silver in the painting.” Palm agreed. The unease was palpable.
“I’m nervous. What does all of it mean?” Agate groaned, head hitting the table with a soft ‘thunk’. “I thought they were insane. But they just showed me a genuine 200 year old painting of my son saving the world. This is terrifying. He’s not- he’s not Sonic, he can’t be. But-”
Palm comforted her, but they were certainly going to need some time to sort it all out.
__ __ __ __ __
In the end, they made their decision. It took a month, and the Ascendancy occasionally reached out to ask for a verdict.
And, in the end, their decision was the difficult one. They were going to go with the Ascendancy.
“I don’t believe their ‘Sonic spirit’ bullshit, but,” Agate watched with great amusement as her toddler attempted to reach for a teething toy that he was certainly too old for that she held above his head. “We need help.”
Palm agreed. And so, they reached back out to the organization, and were given a set of instructions as to how the next few weeks were going to go. Agate wasn’t a huge fan of any of it, but she figured she just needed to trust the process.
Palm quit his job first, and then Agate did. They were close to the end of their lease anyway, so they simply emailed their landlord with the remaining lump sum of money and a brief explanation of the situation. They had a great deal in savings, so supporting themselves was not too large of a concern while they waited for the next part.
After around a week of packing what they needed (which, frankly, was not much if the list Cadmus provided was to be trusted), the fox arrived at their doorstep with a few other members of their organization and helped move them out.
As it turned out, they would be taking Extreme Gear to wherever they were going (which they had still not been told), and before they knew it, they were off, leaving behind the life they had oh so carefully built from the ground up.
Agate couldn’t help but feel uneasy as she cast one last look over their empty apartment, but ultimately resigned to her new fate. No amount of parenting manuals ever could have prepared her for this sort of trial and tribulation.
A few hours later, they finally arrived deep within a forest to what almost looked like a summer camp. There were semi-permanent tents set up here and there in half circles around campfire pits, and a few permanent structures as well. A little dining pavilion, a few concrete structures she was unsure of the purpose of, and a stage, namely.
Silver, of course, wanted to run around from the second that they got there and stick his nose into everything, but the parents kept a very firm grip on him as they were introduced to their new home. The air felt strange, like it was too light and lacking something.
She brought it to Cadmus’ attention. “Something feels weird,”
Cadmus seemed to know exactly what she was talking about. “Ah, yes, that would be because we are in an area of low concentrated Chaos Energy. Think of it as a natural inhibitor for the Messiah.”
She supposed it made a certain amount of sense, and didn’t bother to further comment. They moved into a shared tent, and were provided with their own ‘uniform’. It followed the purple and gold color scheme, and made the couple snicker at first when given the privacy to change into them.
“What the hell?” Agate giggled to her husband, who simply shrugged and mouthed ‘just go with it’.
And so, they donned their new uniforms and stepped into their roles as the parents of the Messiah. Hers was a sort of sundress that went down to her ankles, trimmed with gold fabric with a little belt tied in a bow around her middle. Palm’s was a simple vest with a similar sort of theme, and they even made one for little Silver. Just a purple version of his current onesie.
When they stepped outside, Cadmus clicked his tongue.
“Is something wrong?” Palm asked, bouncing Silver on his hip as the little rascal desperately tried to squirm away to get to the fox.
“We don’t usually wear shoes here, that is all,” He shrugged. “It helps us be one with our environment. It is not required,”
That was code for ‘it’s part of the dress code’, so begrudgingly, they left their shoes and gloves behind, and finally handed the squirming Silver to the fox to hold, who did so with a gentle enthusiasm.
__ __ __ __ __
Adjusting to living with the Ascendancy took some time, but they fell into a sort of rhythm as other members of the organization joined them out in the woods. They were all personally introduced to the couple by Cadmus with their name and role, and were all given a chance to see their ‘Messiah’ up close and personal.
They were all incredibly respectful, and most of their unease melted away. Though, Agate did personally wonder what they were going to do about the uniform situation when the temperatures began to dip close to freezing. Though they were several hours south of Park City, it still possibly could snow.
She was adapted for that kind of weather, as was her son, but her husband, hilariously, was not. He hated the cold.
Though, if she had one complaint, it was the fact that all of the food they cooked was vegan. She had nothing against vegetables or anything, but there were only so many creative ways to make them interesting when you lived out in the middle of the woods and, surprisingly, grew most of the food yourself.
Everyone helped out with food prep on different days, and at that time, the couple would leave their son in the care of Cadmus, who just adored him. One night, while sitting around the fire, he had lamented over his own inability to have children, and thanked the parents for allowing him so much time with him.
Personally? It made Agate a little uncomfortable, but that was just a her problem. She was fine with sharing the joy of her child with Cadmus, the community, whoever, but that was just it; he wasn’t really just her son anymore.
And so, she began to think.
“Hey, Palm?” She half whispered as they lay in their shared tent, cots dragged to be next to each other so she could share her warmth with her chilly husband.
“Mm?”
“I’m grateful for the Ascendancy’s care and all that, but I kind of wish we had a kid that was just… ours.” Agate explained slowly, trying to sound less selfish than she felt.
He deflated, almost sighing with relief. “I’m so glad I’m not the only one.”
Silver shifted sleepily between them, still too young for his own tent as he rolled over and buried his face in his father’s chest.
That conversation stuck in her head for a while, and an idea came to her. She pitched it to Palm first, who very enthusiastically agreed, and then asked Cadmus for his say. He too thought it was a wonderful idea.
They waited until the weather had warmed up, just to be safe, and the first time she woke up feeling sick (the now familiar sick), she had almost squeezed the life out of Palm in a hug. Much to his confusion at breakfast that morning.
So far away from civilization, there weren’t any tests or fancy doctors to visit, just an onsite physician and her collection of basic medicine, but she could tell.
“We’re gonna be parents of two,” She bluntly explained when Palm still didn’t get it.
With a chorus of congratulations, she glowed with pride, and she was excused from her usual chores, which was certainly nice. Silver apparently could tell that there was a little sibling on the way, as he babbled happily while poking her stomach.
He was perfectly capable of speaking mind you, he just preferred to yap nonsensically at the people around him. He got more attention that way.
__ __ __ __ __
On January 14th, at 8:24 in the morning, they welcomed their second child. It was a little bit rougher, with the lack of hospital, but their medical expert on campus was just that; an expert.
She was pretty much just as cute as her brother was, with a more coppery tint to her fur, which Palm claimed came from his side of the family. And so, she decided her name from the second she was in Agate’s arms.
“Bronze. Her name is Bronze,” Agate sighed, settling into the bed in the medical ward with a content smile on her face. “Isn’t she cute?”
“And she looks just like you. Again.” Palm sighed, less content.
She provided no further comment, smiling down at her sleeping daughter. She was quite the sleeper, but had the same golden eyes as her brother.
Later, Cadmus came around to greet the new little one. She had quills sort of similar to Silver’s, but there were only three bunches on her forehead. Silver recognized her instantly, toddling up to his mother and attempting to crawl up with her.
He had stopped relying on his psychokinesis, which was wonderful. Cadmus was quite clever, clearly. He was right about the natural inhibitors, as he was about most things at that point.
Palm helped him up, and he crawled right up to his sister with wide eyes and poked his sister’s cheek.
“That’s Bronze,” Agate told him, emphasizing her name. “Can you say ‘Bronze’?”
“Bonz…” Silver tried, and Bronze shifted awake, blinking open her eyes and spotting her brother. She tried to squirm out of her swaddle, but Agate kept a firm around her. Cadmus stepped up to her bedside as well, bent over with his usual smile.
“Hello, little one,” The fox greeted, waving to her. She followed his hand with her eyes, seeming significantly less infatuated with him as Silver was. “May I hold her?”
She helped Bronze out of her blanket and handed her over to Cadmus, smiling proudly as he picked her up and cradled her in his arms. He cooed while Agate turned her attention to Silver, scratching behind his ears and making sure to give him attention as well.
Cadmus held her face to his, and Bronze, without missing a beat, surged forward and bit his nose.
His muzzle scrunched up, and Palm yelped and pulled her away, frantically apologizing for the newborn’s behaviour. Cadmus waved him off, drying his nose of hoglet slobber with the hem of his cloak and laughed it off. Clearly, he was less infatuated with her as well from that point on.
Little did anyone in that room know, but that would just be the first in many, many shows of sass that would follow them for years.
__ __ __ __ __
Bronze was about as normal of a kid as they came, and soon, other children began to join the community, ranging in age as their families moved into the woods with them to help support their Messiah.
On Silver’s third birthday, they had their first ever ‘weekly meeting’ on Wednesday morning, introducing Silver formally to the group and announcing that his training would begin soon, led by himself and a few other individuals.
Agate and Palm were not among the ones listed,but after the event, they were informed they were allowed to watch if they would like. They were also going to be sitting on the stage at meetings from then on, as cornerstone members of the organization.
But, after his training began, things ran smoothly. Before they knew it, ten years had flown past their eyes. Cadmus knew what he was doing; their community flourished, and it felt like home.
The fox was practically a member of their family, and cared deeply for all of the individuals in his organization. And, soon, Agate and Palm felt the same. His little community felt less like the cult they avoided eye contact with in their college days, and more like a family. One big, happy family.
“Bronze, what on earth are you doing?” Palm asked, watching as his ten year old daughter attempted to construct a structure out of apple slices.
“Building the Leaning Tower of Apple,” Their daughter replied, kicking her feet under the table as she carefully placed the final piece of her creation.
Agate reached over and took the top slice, rolling her eyes. “Please don’t play with your food.”
Bronze huffed unhappily, shaking her plate and making the whole structure fall apart and stuffing an apple slice in her mouth.
Silver sat at a different table at the moment, chattering with Cadmus. He was twelve, and, unlike his sister, very well mannered and sweet.
Perhaps it was because he was raised into the role, but he had taken the Messiah title in stride, and worked very hard to live up to his potential. It was inspiring to see how he would solve each problem thrown at him and bring hope to the camp.
He didn’t know what his greatest adversary would be. Only Cadmus knew, and he said he would tell them when the time came.
Agate trusted him wholly with her son.
Bronze was… a unique challenge. From the day she was born, she wasn’t a fan of Cadmus, and was quite the trouble maker. But not in the charming, sweet way that Silver had been. She acted out for seemingly no reason at all, not for the same kind of doting attention that her brother had.
Cadmus and the other parents of the community had attempted to comfort them, because children are difficult sometimes, and that was okay. They loved her, but she was quite a handful.
Agate was quite thankful for the support system. The other children were a good influence, and everyone raised the children as a community, so it wasn’t like she was alone.
She hadn’t spoken to her parents in almost a decade, and now that she thought about it. She wasn’t sure they even knew about Bronze. But the Ascendancy did so much more than they ever could have, she feared.
After breakfast, Silver went off to training with Cadmus, and Bronze was sent off to go play with the other children. A boy, a jackal, had recently become infatuated with her and chased her around while she ran and screamed about cooties.
Agate and Palm exchanged an affectionate glance.
Maven, an elderly bird who had fallen into the role of the family’s caretaker (taking over most of their upkeep duties and allowing them to simply watch their children) approached the pair and asked them to come see what Silver had learned how to do.
At the training grounds, they watched their golden child lift seven separate boulders and raise them over his head, accidentally dropping them when he spotted his parents and abandoning the training yard to zoom over and give his mother a hug.
She grinned and returned it. “You’re much stronger than I was at your age,” she praised.
She completely missed Cadmus’ look of distaste.
“Really?” He asked, face pressed up against her middle affectionately.
“Oh, yes.” She nodded. “You’re a remarkable child, Silver.”
Shortly after, he went back to his training, and the parents went off to enjoy their days. They were all very similar, but the rhythm was welcome. Things were all normal, lunch, spend time with Silver, allow him some free time, dinner, winding down, and lights out shortly after the sunset.
In the middle of the night, Bronze came into their tent looking sheepish, her layered purple and gold dress and ornaments absent.
During the day, she almost looked like a flower. Her children were the Lotus Children to the other parents, and she was proud of their title. She was the mother of the Lotus Children. But, then, she was just the mother of Bronze the Hedgehog, sister of the Messiah.
“Mom?” Bronze asked, voice squeaking out just above a whisper.
She jolted, rolling over in her cot and spotting Bronze standing by her bedside. “What?”
“I had a nightmare. Can I sleep with you?” She asked innocently, fidgeting with the ring of fluff around her neck.
At that point, Palm was also awake, and got up from his cot on the other side of the tent and took Bronze’s hand. “Let’s get you back to bed,”
“But-” Bronze tried to argue, but he was already pulling her out, leaving Agate alone to fall asleep again.
__ __ __ __ __
Bronze’s behaviour only got worse from there.
She began wandering off, further and further into the woods. She started talking back, and it was like a switch flipped in her mind. She had no respect for the adults, no respect for Cadmus, and no respect for the other children.
It was as if she had gone from mildly troublesome to outright hostile overnight.
“I don’t know what to do,” Agate admitted over tea with her husband, Cadmus, and Maven. “Do you think something is bothering her?”
“Nonsense,” Cadmus dismissed. “She is a growing girl, sometimes these things happen. Perhaps I should attempt an intervention.”
“What would that look like?” Palm asked, and Cadmus hummed.
“I suppose I could attempt to train her, in ways of properly dealing with anger or frustration. To protect the other children from a possible outburst.”
Agate was so thankful for this angel Gaia had sent to help her manage her children. “I think we would appreciate it.”
(They would never know what that intervention actually looked like. They would never know how Cadmus slapped her and threatened her for an hour, lecturing her on disobedience and the horrible things that would befall her if she did not straighten up and behave. How she had a legacy to live up to, and how she was blessed to accompany her brother and his mission to save the world, and how if she were to leave, she would be doomed and he would save her last, if she survived.)
And one night, it boiled over.
Two weeks into this ‘intervention’, Cadmus splitting his attention between the siblings (and, behind the scenes, attempting to drive hatred between the two that would never take), Bronze snapped.
“You need to be more mindful of your elders, Bronze,” Agate lectured as her daughter sat at their usual table with her arms crossed. It was dinner time, and she had sassed Maven earlier in the day about her quills being unbrushed. The parents had kept her from eating that night, as punishment, and something inside of her snapped.
“I think you need to screw off,” Bronze bit back, much to the couple’s bafflement.
“Excuse me, young lady?” Palm growled, and Bronze stood.
“Dad, we’re in a cult. I have no respect for the people here, nor you guys for playing right into that dumb fox’s hand! Open your eyes, people!!”
She was shouting then, trying desperately to be heard by ears that were not listening.
She had Cadmus and Silver’s attention now, and the fox stood calmly, making the younger of the Lotus Siblings flinch and shrink away. Cadmus approached slowly, then grabbed her wrist and began to drag her away. She started to scream, begging for help.
Silver tried to get up and go after her, but Maven held him back as they were ripped apart.
Palm and Agate watched her go, shaking their heads in disbelief before returning to their meal.
Unspoken was Agate’s sigh of ‘here we go again’.
Palm attempted to talk to her later that night, but she screamed for him to get out of her tent.
And, the next morning, she was gone.
__ __ __ __ __
At first, they figured she had run off and would return. But then night fell and she hadn’t returned.
It took two days of her being missing for Agate to break and begin panicking. But, when they searched her tent, they found that much of her belongings had disappeared, and it was obvious; she had no intent of coming back.
And so, Cadmus ordered search parties to scour the camp and nearby town for their missing Lotus, but they found no trace of her.
And for the first time in years, Agate sobbed into her husband’s shoulder. She had lost a child. How could she have lost an entire child?
They hadn’t found a body, so she wasn’t dead, but she was gone . Their last conversation sat bitter in her mouth.
Her poor, misguided child.
No one looked harder than Silver did. He forewent his training to try to find her, screaming her name though the forest as he zipped about, flying into the sky (something that no one knew he could even do yet) to get an aerial view and call out for his beloved sister.
But, no reply came. And no reply ever would.
A week passed, and Agate was near inconsolable. As was Palm, really, and at that week’s meeting, Cadmus broke the news.
“With a heavy heart, I have had to call off the search parties for Bronze the Hedgehog, who has gone missing. We have very clear reason to believe that she had run away, abandoning us in search of a better life she will not find. It is never easy to lose a child, especially one so beloved, but we must push forward. In fact, I believe that this is meant to be,” Cadmus announced, and before any of her relatives could bristle or comment, he continued on with a sad smile.
“Bronze the Hedgehog has always been a rebel. Disrespectful, rude, and overall unkind. She is the antithesis of her brother. I believe that, as opposed to us being at fault for not raising her properly, it is simply part of the prophecy. Do not fret, for this is just one of the many trials we must face. Though our paths have diverged, may she find peace again and return to us when she is ready. She will be welcomed back with open arms, however.” He shook his head. “I highly doubt that she will. She and her brother, much like their parents, are fiercely stubborn. I fear that this trait is for the worse, in her case.”
And so, Bronze was accepted as the Anti-Silver, and life went on for everyone but the Messiah.
He had a stoney expression during the event, and suddenly seemed a little less eager to train. He still walked into his training with grace and pride, but behind his golden eyes, it was clear that he missed his best friend.
After all, he wasn’t allowed to mingle with the children. Bronze was practically all he had. But his parents didn’t see it that way.
__ __ __ __ __
Two further years passed, and before anyone knew it, it was as if Bronze was never there. Agate and Palm did not speak of her, and as far as anyone was concerned, that jackal boy was the first child born into the community.
Agate had practically attached herself to Silver, unwilling to risk the possibility of losing another child to anyone or anything. Cadmus was more than happy to have her along, and Palm grew distant.
She had noticed this change in behaviour, but she knew he was grieving. She was as well.
Sometimes, she would still cry thinking about her missing daughter, who stabbed them all in the back. After a while, she convinced herself that Bronze did not deserve her tears, and she poured all of her time and energy into Silver.
Palm spent a great deal of time with the elders, learning to knit and attempting to fill the hole that losing his daughter had left.
Silver got stronger. She was so monumentally impressed with his abilities despite the thin Chaos Energy in the air (of which they did not inform him, it was to be a surprise how powerful he truly was when he went on to save the world). He bested Cadmus in all of their fights, could hover in the air for extended periods of time, and could lift both his mother and father up and drag them into a group hug when he got excited.
He was the perfect child. He possessed a gentle kindness in him that nothing could possibly shake, his timidity shifting into bashful reservation.
But, something changed in his eyes too.
In the August when he was fourteen, he grew quiet. He remained strong and determined, but he was quiet. It looked like he knew something that the others did not, and if Agate had to guess, the time was nearing where he would save the world.
She figured there were just some things that only he could feel.
The day he disappeared, he had climbed the tallest tree in the forest (under Agate’s supervision, of course) to watch the sunrise. He sat on the highest branch, watching as the sun came over the horizon with a peaceful expression. Almost resigned.
That afternoon, Silver had said that he wanted to go on a quick walk to collect some mushrooms. Agate was a little caught up in tidying, so she allowed him to go alone.
And yet, he never returned. Watching walk away with an oddly hopeful and resigned posture was the last time she saw him.
The response to his disappearance was much, much quicker than the disappearance of Bronze. The whole camp was in a frenzy desperately trying to find him, but it was as if he had vanished.
Agate was in hysterics once more. And two brave members, Huckleberry and Bleu, offered to check Bronze’s current residence, which Cadmus had managed to track down to Park City.
Hearing the name again was almost bittersweet, but she begged them to bring her son home, and so they went off.
Much to her absolute relief, around four in the morning, the two returned, with a familiar looking hedgehog unconscious in Blue’s arms.
Agate’s tears of despair turned to joy as they returned with Silver in tow, waking the whole camp up with the wonderful news that they had somehow found him hours and hours away in the company of Bronze.
He looked different. His uniform was gone, replaced by a pair of odd boots and gloves with cuffs that glowed with the same cyan energy his hands did. His quills were longer and less well kept, and his fur was slightly patchy on his hands. His paws had scaring she didn’t recognize, and it was unlike him to apparently turn his powers on his fellow Ascendancy members, but he was home nonetheless.
They would have a discussion about that later.
She put him to bed, tucked in comfortably with a kiss on the forehead before retiring to her own tent, where she fully intended to put the long day behind her.
__ __ __ __ __
When Agate awoke, Silver was still asleep, so she left him be. She asked Maven to keep an eye out for him as she and her husband went to breakfast.
It was midafternoon when Silver finally stumbled out of the tent, looking disoriented. Though, Agate, Palm, and Maven were all out and about, returning to the couple’s tent to rest (after all, they all had a very long night the previous night).
“How is he, Maven?” Palm asked as the topic of Silver came up.
“Oh, that poor child! He was resting in his tent last I saw,” Maven informed them, swooning over the tragedy of the child being sedated and not feeling well. Apparently, he had been acting a little bit strangely. He had had trouble with his uniform and seemed generally uncomfortable, but Maven reassured them it was likely just the sedative that Huckleberry had used on him wearing off.
Silver had never been sedated before. He had never had a reason to be, his injuries never quite being severe enough to warrant it. He didn’t have trouble sleeping at night either, so it made sense that he was reacting strangely to it.
Speak of the hedgehog and he shall appear, as Silver shuffled his way down the same path in their direction and stopped, his eyes widening.
Agate couldn’t help herself.
“ LOTUS!! ” She screamed, bolting right up to her son and burying his head in her chest, tears returning full force as relief washed over her. He was okay, he wasn’t like his sister.
It took him a moment, but he soon returned the hug, leaning into her and sighing as his eyes closed.
“We’re so glad you’re safe, lotus. Oh, to think you were kidnapped ! Oh!” She cried, holding him tightly. She had used pet names more often since Bronze disappeared, just something sweet to bond over with her son.
He stiffened.