Chapter Text
Christiana Thorndyke was a peculiar child. She was the daughter of a famous actress and a successful businessman, the president of the world's largest software company. Her family owned a mansion where she lived with her Grandpa, butler, and maid. She went to a good school and had good grades.
All that might pass as relatively normal.
She wasn't, though. Normal, that is. Her grades were perfect. She invented new things in her spare time. Made computer coding and softwares. Some of it was being sold by her father. She was strong for a child and had sharp reflexes. She learned fast. Faster than any recorded child before her. She won a gymnastic competition meant for 12-year-olds when she was seven. Painted hypnotic landscapes and objects whenever a fancy hit. She'd been eight. Learned algebra before she turned five. Read books at three.
Prodigy. That's what they said. But… she herself didn't seem to think so.
Chris was mature. Acted twice her age. And sometimes her eyes seemed older than the oldest person on the planet. She was melancholy, grieving even when she hadn't lost anyone. She was famous in her own right. Many seemed to envy her. She was good at faking smiles.
Lonely. She was cripplingly lonely and distracted herself from that by doing anything and everything she could think of.
Sometimes she was reckless and didn't seem to care about what happened to her. Like the one time with bullies that landed her into a hospital. She usually snapped out of those spells easily enough.
Drifting. It looked like she was drifting without a purpose, a direction. Like she lacked the ability to feel anything but loneliness and numbness most of the time.
It was only when she was twelve that something seemed to make her attached to reality again.
The adventure started with a sonic boom, a splash, and Chris jumping to a pool to save an alien hedgehog in the middle of the night.
xXXx
"Are you okay?", the girl asked, concerned as the alien coughed up water.
"Yeah, thanks to you", he answered with a grin.
She smiled, "I'm glad"
"You're not surprised?", he sounded curious.
The girl sat back and looked at the light polluted night sky, "...It's not like I can say how the world should work"
That was a weighted remark that left a heavy silence behind. She blinked out of her thoughts, turning to him with a slightly enigmatic smile.
"I'm Christiana Thorndyke, but just Chris will do"
The alien smiled back, "I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog"
"Nice to meet you, Sonic"
xXXx
Chris got Sonic settled into the guest room next to her own room before retreating to think. She flopped on her way too big bed, staring at the ceiling with conflicted eyes.
'What do we do, Rina?' , the girl asked her other self with a troubled thought.
There was a long pause. Neither seemed to know. Neither was willing to say. Chris turned over to her stomach.
'...Maybe we don't need to do anything' , Rina finally settled on.
Chris examined the bubbling feelings in her chest and buried her face in her pillow. Her hands clenched on fabric. Shaking.
"I'm scared", she whispered to no one.
There was a moment of silence as the reincarnated girls contemplated.
'You're also looking forward to this' , Rina said finally.
No one wanted to voice the next conclusion. The question that nowadays always plagued them when meeting new people. Making new friends. Getting attached .
They had a chance to be happy again. But for how long?