Chapter Text
The canyon trails were quieter than Nyx remembered. That was the first thing she noticed. It wasn't really empty or anything, there were still the usual sounds if she stopped and actually listened for them.
Wind sliding through the rocks, dry grass rustling and a flicky somewhere giving a sharp irritated cry. But the quiet underneath it all felt… wrong. Too still, like the canyon was waiting for something. Nyx stood at the edge of the path with her arms crossed, one foot tapping impatiently against the stone.
Her air shoes hummed softly. She’d gotten there first, obviously. Nyx closed her eyes. For a second, there was nothing. Then-
THERE.
A faint pulse of chaos energy brushed against her senses and vanished before she could grab onto it. It wasn’t like Shadow’s Chaos Control, neither was it like the emeralds. It felt blurred around the edges, like unstable static humming. Nyx frowned.
“Okay,” she muttered to herself.
She rolled her shoulders, trying to ignore the little chill that had worked its way into her spin. This was fine. Weird, sure. Creepy, maybe a little, but fine. The adults were probably beginning their own search. You snooze, you lose, she thought. She was out here with a head start. A grin tugged at her muzzle. She kicked a pebble off the trail and watched it bounce down into the canyon.
“Nyx!”
She looked up just in time for Pierce to come tearing down the path like she’d been launched out of a cannon. The cat skidded to a stop in a shower of dust, nearly overshot the turn, windmilled her arms, caught herself, and immediately pointed at Nyx.
“I was not late,” Pierce declared. Nyx raised an eyebrow before smiling and rolling her eyes. “You literally are though.”
“Time is but an illusion, Nyx. Try to keep up.
Pierce straightened, grinning, her tail flicking behind her. She looked way too excited for somebody who had agreed to meet up at a canyon trail at night to chase an identified chaos disturbance. Honestly, Nyx couldn’t even judge her. That was part of why they got along.
Pierce leaned in with a hand on her hip. “So~ Mysterious chaos energy and a secret investigation, you really do know the way to my heart Nixie~” Nyx smirked. “Yeah, yeah.” Pierce straightened up, her tail swaying behind her. She was sure in a mood. “We gonna fight something?”
“I don’t know.”
Pierce suddenly slumped to the side dramatically. “Aw man~” Nyx snorted. A second later, another pair of footsteps echoes down the path. Quinn appeared around the bend with all the goth dramatic misery of someone being personally victimized by having to go outside. Dark clothes and her quills swaying in the wind.
And beside her…
Nyx stared.
“Oh, come on.” she grumbled
Volt was practically half running to keep up, his little toolkit bouncing against his chest, quills a mess. His eyes were bright with the kind of energy that meant he was either about to electrify something and be a problem. “Bro,” Nyx whispered to Quinn as she came up to her, throwing her hands up, “Why did you bring him?”
Quinn looked Nyx dead in the eyes. “Because unlike you, some of us live in a house of suppression.”
Nyx blinked and raised her brow.
“If I left him home alone again,” Quinn whispered, her voice dry and exhausted, “My moms would absolutely get on my ass, and I am not in the mood. Volt crossed his arms. “I can hear you, by the way.” he shouted. Quinn shrugged one shoulder. “Good, then next time don't annoy me into bringing you along.” she looked back to Nyx and Pierce “It was either bring him or he would probably follow me and get himself hurt.”
“Thats fair,” Pierce admitted. Volt puffed up at that. “I would NOT get myself hurt!” Nyx gave him a look. “Volt, one time you tried to sneak into Tail’s workshop and got caught because you kept falling on your face in the dark.”
“That happened once!”
“Actually three times.”
Volt pointed at her accusingly. “YOU SAID YOU’D NEVER BRING IT UP AGAIN!” Nyx smirked and put her hands on her hips. “I lied~” Pierce couldn't hold a laugh in and had to brace herself on quinn making her stiffen. Then the winds shifted. Nyx’s ears twitched. That strange static feeling brushed across her senses again. Faint, uneven, there and gone in a blink.
Her expression changed. Pierce noticed first. “Oh,” she said, lowering her voice. “Did you um… did you feel it again?” Nyx nodded. Quinn's posture straightened just slightly and Volt could feel the change in atmosphere. Nyx looked deeper down into the canyon. The early sunrise stretched long across the stone, turning the trail ahead into strips of orange and dark violet.
“It’s this way,” she urged.
Pierce's grin came back, brighter but thinner now. “Great. Into the mysterious canyon we go! Lesgooo!!” Nyx smiled and rolled her eyes. Finally her shoes moved and she started down the path and the others followed. At first it almost felt normal. Almost. The canyon trails twisted between jagged stone walls and patches of dry brush, the ground uneven beneath their feet.
Volt kept having to hop over cracks and rocks in the trail to keep up. Pierce moved in quick bursts, darting ahead and then circling ack like she had too much energy for walking in a straight line. Quinn stayed near the middle of the group, one eye on the path and one eye on Volt.
Nyx stayed in front. The further they went, the worse the feeling got. Not stronger exactly, it was always pretty strong. But it felt… closer.
Like whatever she’d sensed earlier wasn’t spreading through the canyon at all. It was moving. Flickering in and out. Sometimes ahead of them, even above them. Once, so suddenly that Nyx stopped short, she could’ve sworn it was standing right behind her. She whipped around.
Nothing.
Pierce nearly ran into her. “Whoa!” she said as they came face to face before she backed up. Nyx frowned, scanning the trail behind them. “I thought I…” But there was nothing there, just the path. Just … the dry hiss of wind passing through the canyon.
Quinn frowned and put a hand on Nyx’s shoulder. “You okay? What's wrong?” Nyx hesitated. “Nothing.” Volt was crouching down near the ground, poking at something with a small metal tool from his kit. “Uh…” he said. They all looked at him. “What are you doing?” Quinn asked, coming closer.
Volt pointed. There, smeared dark against the stone, was something that definitely did NOT belong. It looked almost like oil at first glance. Then Nyx stepped closer and her stomach tightened. It wasn’t wet. It was … layered. Clinging to the rock in thin black veining, like something organic had spread across the canyon wall and dried there. Not a lot of it. Just enough to notice.
Pierce’s grin faded.
“Okay,” she said. “That’s nasty.” Quinn moved Volt back by the shoulder before he could poke it again. “Don’t touch that.” “I wasn’t going to!” he whined. “You absolutely were.” she replied back, firm. Nyx crouched in front of it. The static feeling in her chest sharpened for just a second. This was connected. She was sure of it. Pierce leaned over her shoulder. “So what is it?”
Nyx shook her head slowly. “I don’t know.” Nyx stood and looked farther down the trail. “There’s more.” and there was. Once they’d noticed the first patch, it became impossible to miss. Black residue clung to stone in thin streaks farther ahead. Here and there the ground looked disturbed, as if something heavy had dragged itself through the canyon without leaving normal tracks.
No footprints, just damage. Pierce stopped being upbeat entirely. “Okay,” she said quietly. “Now I'm in favor of leaving. Let's go guys.” Nyx didn’t answer. The air had gone still. Not calm, still. Volts' eyes darted between the group and the environment, clearly worried. “Why did it get so quiet?” he asked. No one had an answer. Nyx stood up and took another step forward. Then another.
Her quills lifted.
There.
A.. Pulse.
Sharp enough this time that she gaped. It came from somewhere above them. “MOVE!” Nyx shouted. She lunged sideways just as something dark dropped from the cliff edge overhead. Pierce yelped and threw herself backward. Quinn grabbed volt and lunged them away, keeping herself over him. A figure landed in the middle of the trail in a spray of dust and loose gravel.
Silence.
Nyx’s heart kicked against her ribs. The stranger rose slowly from their crouch. At first all she could really process was shape. Hedgehog, about her age, maybe? Smaller than her but taller than Volt. as the dust clears it reveals a tan hedgehog with midnight blue quills and purple markings. Their posture was too still, too measured. Chaos energy flickered around them in thin unstable ripples.
Their head lifted, their dark glasses glinting in the sun. and for one horrible second, Nyx forgot how to breathe. Because she knew that feeling. Not the figure, the feeling. Something in her chaos energy reacted violently, a deep instinctive jolt like two notes striking the same chord in different keys.
The stranger’s expression shifted too… just slightly. Surprise. Recognition. Maybe even alarm. Then it was gone. They looked at the group as a whole, face blanking into something unreadable. “You should not be here,” they said. Their voice was soft. Too soft for how clearly it carried.
Pierce recovered first, dropping into a defensive stance. “Who are you?” no answer. Quinn tightened her grip on Volt's shoulder as Volt tightly gripped her arms. “Nyx…” “I know,” Nyx whispered. She stood up but she didn't move. Couldn't, really. That strange pull in her chest wouldn’t let her. “You need to leave.” Nyx’s ears flicked. “Why?”
No answer. Volt leaned sideways somehow gathering a tinge of bravery. “Are you, like… guarding something?” Quinn shoved him back behind her. “Volt!” The stranger looked at Volt. Not threateningly. Not even in anger. Just a brief, strange pause, like they weren’t sure what to do with him. Then their attention snapped back to Nyx.
“You felt it,” they said. Nyx blinked. “What?”
“The disturbance.” Their voice remained flat, but something under it had gone tight. “You felt it, and you followed it here.” Pierce shot Nyx a look. Nyx barely acknowledged it. “How do you know that?” she asked. The stranger took one step back. Not retreating.
Positioning.
And Nyx saw it then, just for a second, how their body angled not just toward them, but toward something deeper in the canyon behind them. Like they were blocking the path. Quinn saw it too. “Nyx,” she whispered. “They’re keeping us away from something.” The stranger’s eyes flicked to Quinn. Then, very calmly, they said, “Yes.”
That threw everybody off for half a second. Pierce stared and took a step back clearly shaken. Nyx took a step forward. The strange tensed instantly. “You need to go,” Pulse said. Nyx looked at Quinn, volt and pierce and nodded her head to them. The message was clear.
Get out of here.
Quinn grabbed Volts hand and the two began to run, Pierce hesitated, glancing back at Nyx. Nyx didn't look back. Pierce ran after the other two.
The stranger didn't even look at them. They looked directly at Nyx.
Suddenly they disappeared as she blinked.
Nyx reacted on instinct. A chaos forged blade snapped into existence in her hand as she slashed behind her in a bright magenta arc. The stranger jumped back into an offensive stance. Nyx’s swords edge hummed as she leveled it straight at them. “Alright!” she snapped, dropping into a defensive stance. “I'm done playing games! Who are you, and what are you keeping us from?!”
The stranger stepped forward. Nyx’s blade flared brighter at once. “Personal space, cabrón,” They stopped. For a second, they just looked at her. Not like a fighter sizing up an opponent, more like someone trying to solve a riddle.
Nyx blinked.
“...what!?”
They said matter of factly. “You resemble shadow and sonic” Nyx’s expression hardened. “Okay,” she said slowly, chaos energy still crackling along the edge of her blade. The stranger tilted their head just slightly as if filing her reaction away. Then they added, in that same detached tone, “So you are the biological result.”
Nyx blinked again.
“The.. Excuse me?”
For the first time, the stranger’s gaze dipped to the chaos blade in her hand, then to the flickering energy around her wrist. “Interesting,” they murmured. They stood in silence before the stranger stepped forward once again. That was enough for her. Nyx lunged, her air shoes shrieked against the stone as she shot forward, blade arcing bright magenta toward their shoulder.
And the stranger vanished. Nyx’s eyes widened. A flicker of warped blue flashed behind her. She twisted on instinct and barely caught the strike of their leg that came up to her head. Blue chaos energy slammed against her blade with a sharp crack that sent a shockwave rippling across the trail.
“HEY!” Nyx shouted, skidding back. “What the hell?!” the stranger appeared behind her again and as she swung her blade they said calmly. “You attacked first.” “You were being WEIRD!” she said between slices. Another flash. Nyx ducked just as a crescent of blue energy sliced through the air where her head had been. It carved a clean line through the canyon wall behind her, stone splitting apart with a hiss.
For one second she just stared.
Then she looked over her shoulder and grinned.
“Oh,” she smiled. Her grip tightened on her blade, chaos energy spiraled higher up her arm. “Okay.. that was actually fucking cool!” the stranger's expression did not change. Nyx launched herself at them again. This time she came in lower, sweeping her blade for their middle before snapping it up at the last second. The stranger blocked with a hard edged construct of blue energy, the impact exploding in sparks between them. For a moment they locked there, pushing against each other.
Nyx looked up into their face. Their glasses hid part of their eyes but not the furrow of their brow. “Alright,” she said through clenched teeth, "Seriously. Who are you?” a beat.
Then.
“Pulse.”
Nyx blinked and hopped backward, blade still raised. “That’s your name?” the wind rushed between them. “Yes.” Her eyes stayed fixed on Pulse. “Well, Pulse,” she said, adjusting her stance. “I’m Nyx.” Pulse went still. Then quietly. “You are emitting chaos resonance.” Nyx was on her guard again now. She gave them a look. “Yeah. I know. Kind of my whole thing.”
“No.” Pulse’s voice sharpened, just barely. “Not general.”Nyx frowned. Pulse took one slow step sideways, keeping themself between her and the deeper canyon. “It is specific.” Nyx rose a brow. “What's that supposed to mean?” Pulse’s gaze flicked past her shoulder toward where her friends had retreated. For the first time, something like urgency broke through their flat composure.
“You should not be here,” they said. “Any of you.”
Nyx raised one hand.”Then maybe explain what's going on.” She looked past him. “Whats back there, Pulse?” Pulse didn’t answer. Their posture changed first, head lifting, shoulders tightening and attention turning toward something beyond the bend in the canyon behind them. Nyx saw the change instantly. Her own body tensed. “What?”
Pulse didn't look at her. “You are being observed.” nyx’s stomach dropped. “...By who?” Pulse was silent. A faint metallic groan echoed from deeper in the canyon. Not rockfall and definitely not the wind. Something mechanical. Pulse’s chaos energy flickered violently around them, unstable. “Leave,” they said. Nyx planted her feet, her dimmed blade brightening up again. Pulse finally looked back at her. And there it was. A strange expression, not anger, not malice.
Fear.
Not of her. For her.
The canyon shuddered, not the ground, something beneath it. Nyx felt it in her teeth, in her bones, in the buzzing static beneath her skin. A pulse of something old and wrong rolled through the air. Her eyes darted past pulse. And for half a second, around the next bend, she saw it. She had to squint but it was there. Metal embedded in the canyon wall. A hidden door. Pulse moved instantly, stepping sideways to block her line of sight. Too late. Nyx had seen enough. “What is that?” she demanded.
Pulse’s expression tightened for the first time. “Go.” nyx took one step forward instead. Pulse’s energy flared. Suddenly her eyes moved. Not toward Pulse toward the cliff wall to the left. A slab of loosened rock high above them suddenly gave way with a grinding snap.
Nyx's blade dispersed and she formed a bow and arrow. She felt the arrow rush past her muzzle and it hit the boulder shattering it above them into a rain of smaller fragments instead of one crushing mass. Pulse stared at her. For the first time since they had appeared, their composure cracked in a way Nyx could actually see. Not surprise exactly. Disorientation. Like they hadn't expected her to react that fast.
Nyx straightened, her chaos formed bow still glowing in her hands. She gave Pulse a sharp look. “Yeah,” she said, breath a little unsteady now, “You owe me.” Pulse’s gaze flicked from the shattered rock to her face. Nyx let the bow dissolve and point at the hidden stretch of canyon behind them. “Start talking. What is back there?”
Pulse didn’t answer.
Nyx’s eyes narrowed. “Seriously?” Their voice came low and strained this time. “You should not have followed it.” Nyx barked out a disbelieving laugh. “That's what you’ve got?! I save your ass and you're still doing the cryptic bullshit!” Something in Pulse’s expression twitched. “I did not require saving.”
Nyx put a hand on her hip. “Wow. Crazy thing to say right after almost getting FLATTENED.” Pulse’s quills bristled faintly. Before Nyx could press them again, footsteps pounded against the trail. “Nyx!” she looked over her shoulder. Quinn came around the bend first with Volt close behind her and Pierce right at their heels. They must have heard the blast and the sound of rockfall from halfway up the trail.
Quinn's hands were already sparking with pink electric light, her face drawn tight with alarm. Pierce looked like she had fully moved into active fight mode.
Volt pointed. “It's them!” Pulse shifted at once. Nyx caught it immediately, that same change in posture, that tight alertness like an animal hearing a trap spring shut. “Wait!” she snapped, holding out an arm in front of Pulse. “Dont just-”
Too late.
Quinn threw out one hand and a sharp arc of electricity lashed across the canyon. Pulse warped sideways in a blue flicker, the current snapping against the rock wall instead and blowing a black scorch mark into the stone. Pierce darted in low from the other side with a flying kick aimed straight for Pulse’s ribs. Pulse blocked without looking. The impact knocked Pierce backward, boots skidding through the dust, and Nyx swore under her breath.
“Guys!”
“No offense,” Pierce said, dropping into stance again."But we're not leaving you behind again.” “They’re not-” Nyx started. Pulse’s head snapped toward her. That strange instability rippled harder around their body now, blue chaos flickering unevenly under their skin and around their hands. From deeper in the canyon, the metallic groan sounded again. Longer this time. Closer. Volt made a frightened noise and grabbed the back of Quinn’s sleeve. Pulse heard it too. Their face changed. Fear flashed there again. “Leave,” they said, louder now. Quinn planted herself in front of Volt.
“Not until you tell us what's back there.” Nyx could feel the wrongness in the air building by the second. It buzzed under her skin, sharp and ugly, making her quills lift. Pulse backed on step toward the hidden passage. Not to flee. To block it. Pierce noticed. “Oh, hell no.” She lunged again. This time Quinn moved with her, electricity crackling along her arms as she fired another burst meant to box Pulse in from the left.
Nyx shot forward too, but not at pulse.
A magenta shield flared into existence just as Quinn's electricity and Pierce's charge collided with pulse blue chaos in a violent burst of force. The canyon exploded with light. For one blinding instant everything overlapped. Magenta, blue, pink electricity until the air itself seemed to scream. Pulse staggered.
Their glasses flashed. And then something in them gave. The chaos around their body surged outward in a warped ring. Not an attack, a rupture. Nyx felt it hit her like a hammer made of static. Her shield shattered instantly. Pain lanced through her arms as her chaos constructs blinked out of existence. The energy in her body stuttered, cut off so abruptly it made her knees buckle.
Quinn cried out as the electricity around her hands snapped dead and Volt staggered too. Pierce looked around helplessly. “No-” Nyx gasped, trying to force her power back into her hands. Nothing. Pulse stood in the center of it all, breathing hard, one hand clenched against their chest.
Their voice came rough and unstable, very different from before.
“I said go.”
Nyx tried to push herself upright but the world pitched. The canyon tilted sideways, sound dulled then stretched strangely. Like she was underwater. Through the blue she could make out Pulse moving. Not toward the canyon but toward them. Toward pierce. Nyx’s stomach dropped. She reached out, but her arm felt too heavy. Through the blue static, Nyx saw Pierce stand in fear.
Pulse caught her wrist just as she almost got out of the stupor. They touched two fingers lightly to the center of her forehead. Pierce went limp at once, crumpling sideways into the dust. “Pierce!” Quinn surged up next, one hand trying to crackle with energy as she shoved Volt behind her. “Don’t touch him-”
Pulse moved again, faster than Nyx could track. Two fingers brushed Quinn's brow. Her eyes widened. Then she slumped down to one knee catching herself for half a second before falling beside Pierce.
Volt made a frightened sound and stumbled backward, but the warped static in the air hit him harder than the others. He dropped to his knees, dizzy and crying, still awake but barely.
Nyx forced her head up. Pulse was looking at her now. Not cold. Not cruel. Just exhausted. Nyx tried to speak but the words wouldn't form right. Pulse stepped closer. For one second, through the static haze swallowing her vision, Nyx saw their expression clearly.
Not malice.
Regret.
Then two fingers pressed lightly against the space between her brows.
A burst of warped blue static cracked through her skull and everything went black.
Nyx came back slowly. The first thing she heard was crying. Small sharp hitching breaths. Her eyes snapped open. Trees. Not canyon walls. She jerked upright too fast and immediately regretted it as pain split through her head. Pine needles and dry leaves clung to her gloves. They were near the upper forest trail, not far from the canyon entrance but far enough that there was no way they could have gotten here on their own while unconscious.
Quinn was already awake, sitting stiffly against a tree with one arm around Volt.He was half-curled into her side, sniffling hard and trying very badly not to cry louder than he already was. Pierce was sprawled a few feet away on her back, blinking up at the sky like she was personally offended that consciousness had returned.
Nyx pressed a hand to her forehead. “Ugh…” Volt’s head snapped up. “Nyx!” Before she could brace herself, he launched at her and nearly knocked her right back onto the ground. Nyx caught him with a groan. “Woah.. okay, okay, im up, im up.”
Nyx looked past Volt at Quinn. Quinn's usual dry unimpressed expression was there, but thinner no. her quills were a mess and one sleeve was torn. Pierce finally sat up with a pained hiss and grabbed at her head. “Alright,” she muttered. “Hate that. Super hate that.” Nyx swallowed and looked around again. “How did we get here?”
Nobody answered right away. Then Volt went very still. Nyx noticed immediately. “Volt.” his ears lowered. He looked between all of them, then back down at his hands. “I woke up,” he said quietly. Volt swallowed. “Not all the way, just a little and…” his voice shook again. “I saw them.”
Nyx’s heartbeat kicked. “That guy? Pulse?” she asked. Volt nodded. The woods seemed to go even quieter. Pierce lowered her hand from her forehead.Nyx shifted closer. “What happened?” Volt rubbed at his eyes with the back of his wrist. “They were carrying us.” that shut everybody up
Quinn’s head lifted. “Carrying us?” Volt nodded again. “One at a time.” He sniffed hard. “They put us down over here. I thought…I thought they were gonna hurt me, but they didn’t.” Nyx felt that low, strange hum in her chest again. Not power exactly. Memory.
Pulse’s face in the canyon.
That look of fear.
That look of regret.
Pierce stared. “So that guy who nuked our nervous systems also did .. group transportation? Great. Just great!” “Pierce,” Quinn said flatly. “What? I’m processing!” Nyx barely heard them. Her eyes dropped to her hands. She flexed her fingers slowly. No blade. No bow. No magenta light. Just a faint ache under her skin where her chaos energy had been interrupted so violently it still didn’t feel fully steady.
And under that…
That same impossible resonance. Still there.
Quinn was watching her now. Closely. “Nyx.” Nyx looked up. “What?” Quinn’s expression didn’t change, but her voice softened just a little. “Who was that?” Nyx opened her mouth. Then closed it again.
Because how was she supposed to explain any of it? Nyx dragged a hand through her quills.
“I don’t know,” she said finally. Volt’s grip tightened on Quinn’s sleeve. “Are they gonna come back?” Before anyone could answer, a gust of wind tore through the trees. Not natural.
Sharp and Familiar.
Nyx’s head snapped up just as a red streak cut across the clearing and stopped dead in front of them.
Shadow.
He looked from Nyx to the others in one sweep, taking in the dirt, the torn clothes, Volt’s tear-streaked face, the way Quinn still had one arm around him, the way Pierce was only halfway upright. His expression didn’t change much, but his eyes did. Alarm. Then anger. Then something tighter and quieter underneath both.
A blue blur skidded in right behind him.
“Nyx!”
Sonic was at her side in an instant, crouching in front of her, hands moving quickly over her shoulders and arms as if checking for injuries before he even realized he was doing it. “Hey, hey, you okay? Are you hurt? What happened?”
Nyx blinked at him.
For a second, all the adrenaline drained out of her at once. “I’m okay,” she said automatically. Shadow made a sharp, disbelieving sound. Tails came rushing into the clearing next, scanner already in hand, with Amy, Knuckles, and Rouge close behind him. The second Amy saw Quinn and Volt, her whole face changed.
“Oh my gosh! Quinn, Volt!”
Volt made a tiny, guilty squeak. Amy was across the clearing in a heartbeat, dropping beside them while Surge came in right behind her, visibly trying not to look as panicked as she clearly was. Knuckles was already checking Pierce. Tails’ scanner lit up, beeping hard. His ears dropped. “There’s chaos residue everywhere.”
Shadow’s gaze snapped to him. “What kind?”
Tails stared at the readings. “I… don’t know.” He looked up, unsettled. “It’s not matching anything in my database.”Nyx felt Sonic go still beside her. That got everyone’s attention.
Because if Tails didn’t know what he was looking at, that meant this was bad.
Really bad.
Knuckles straightened slowly before looking straight at Nyx. “Start talking.” Nyx winced a little. There it was. Sonic’s hands rested lightly on her shoulders now, grounding, warm, worried. “Nyx.” She stared at the dirt for half a second and then looked up.
Shadow stood a few feet away, arms folded too tightly, jaw set, red eyes fixed on her with an intensity that made it painfully obvious he already knew she had done exactly what he’d warned her not to do.
Go after it alone.
Nyx sighed.
“There was someone in the canyon.” That got everybody’s attention at once. Tails looked up from the scanner. “Someone?” Nyx nodded. “They were using chaos energy. Or … something like it.” She frowned, trying to put words into it. “It felt wrong. Not like evil or anything. Just… unstable. Blurred around the edges.”
Tails’ ears lowered. He looked back down at the scanner in his hands. Pierce lifted one hand from where she was still rubbing her head. “Can confirm. Super weird.” Quinn, quieter, added, “They were guarding something.”
Shadow’s gaze sharpened. “What were they guarding?” Nyx hesitated only a second. “There was a hidden door. Built into the canyon wall.” The clearing went still. Even the scanner seemed too loud when it beeped again in the silence. Knuckles frowned. “A door?”
“Yeah.” Nyx swallowed. “And whatever was behind it. They really, really, didn’t want us seeing it.” Tails stared down at the readings, unsettled. “This residue…” he murmured. “Its reacting to both of your signatures.”
Sonic looked up sharply. “What?”
Tails turned the scanner toward, expression tight. “Not a match. Not exactly. But it’s… resonating off both you and shadow at the same time.” His grip tightened around the device. “That should NOT be possible."
Nobody spoke.
Nyx felt her stomach knot.
She thought of the blue static, the blast, the way Pulse had moved. The way they had looked at her like she was something impossible and .. familiar all at once. Sonic’s voice, when it came, was careful. “Nyx… did they tell you their name?” She looked from him to Shadow.
Then she said it.
“Pulse.”
For a second, nothing happened.
Then Shadow went very still.
Not dramatic. Not obvious. Just still in a way Nyx had learned meant something had landed exactly where it hurt. Sonic’s head turned toward him immediately. “Shadow?” Shadow’s eyes narrowed, not on Nyx but somewhere past her, distant and unfocused for half a second like he was looking at something that wasn’t here.
“I’ve heard that name before,” he said at last.
Nyx’s breath caught. “What?”
His jaw tightened. “Years ago. During a raid on one of the outer rim facilities.” He said it like he hated every word. “There was a test subject. Chaos-based. Unstable. We never got a clear visual. The lab started collapsing before we could secure anything, and most of the records were destroyed.”
Tails stared. “You never told me that.”
“There was nothing useful to tell,” Shadow said sharply, though his attention was still fixed somewhere far away. “It escaped before we could identify it.” Nyx’s heartbeat pounded in her ears. “You think that was them?”
Shadow didn’t answer right away.
Tails looked back at the scanner, his face draining. “If this signature is real…” He swallowed. “Then no. Not ‘them. Not exactly.”
Sonic frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Tails looked up slowly. “It means whatever Nyx ran into down there may be connected to both of your chaos energy patterns.” The clearing dropped into silence all over again. Nyx stared at him. “...What?” Shadow’s expression changed then. Not recognition.
Horror.
Small. Controlled. But there.
And that was worse.
Nyx took one step forward. “Dad,” she said, quieter now, “what aren’t you telling me?” Shadow looked straight at her. Then past her, toward the canyon. “We’re going back,” he said.
And somehow that was not comforting at all.