Brothers Part 14

The dark gray and red striped hedgehog inspected the rocky weasel, his son watching from where he was standing. Iblis blinked as he was looked at, his ears twitching. “What… what are you doing?” He asked, staring at the hedgehog. Shadow sighed. “I’m just checking your Chaos Energy. As I said, someone wanted power, and guess what? They got it.” He answered.

Iblis blinked, then sighed. “What are you talking about? The only thing that really changed is the fact that my tail now has a permanent flame on its tip and these… rocks on my body. Don’t forget the slight color change too, can’t forget that.” He responded. “Are you sure you know about this stu-” “Put your hands out in front of you.” Shadow ordered, receiving a weird look in return from the weasel. The weasel hesitated but set his hands in front of him, wondering what the other was going on about.

He widened his eyes a bit when Shadow’s formed a bright green light in his hands, which in time appeared to become a flame and flickered in the hedgehog’s hands. “How is it green like that?” Mephiles asked. “This flame is formed by my Chaos Energy, which always appears as a green to a light green color when in visible form.” Shadow explained as he carefully passed the fire into Iblis’ hands, the weasel nearly freaking out before he remembered that fire couldn’t burn him. He sighed, watching the flame become a yellow, orange, and red combination much like the one that rested on his tail’s tip.

“Iblis’ flames have absolutely nothing to do with the Chaos Energy that now curses his body to look like the ugly thing he is now-” “I’m right here!” Iblis somewhat yelled, the hedgehog ignoring his outburst. “It’s more or less the natural ability that runs down the royal family’s bloodline, the ability to create and control fire.” Shadow explained as the rocky weasel played with the flame in his hands.

“So I could have done this without ever being affected by the… Chaos Emerald?” Iblis asked, blinking. “..Not quite.” Shadow answered. “But you said-” “The ability passes down from your ancestors and it continues down your family tree. However, without inbreeding, the ability gradually wore down when it was passed down. Starting with your generation, the ability is basically useless.”

Mephiles blinked, wondering what would have happened if the royal family DID still have the ability. He imagined going through the garbage then the whole container of garbage casually lighting on fire. He shuddered a bit, somewhat glad they did not possess the ability, especially Solaris.

Iblis blinked. “… How do you know all of this information in the first place?” He asked, staring at Shadow. Shadow sighed. “I was an assassin before Mephie was born. Only picking it up again after his mother died.” He muttered, rubbing his forehead and dreading the questions he knew that his son was going to ask.

“…You were a killer?” Mephiles asked, blinking. “..Yes. As for the information, it was required that I learn about any possible threats that could get me or my boss killed. When I needed to research the royal family, I needed to know about their ability to control fire.”

Iblis blinked then narrowed his eyes a bit. “Who were you going to kill? Me? My mother?” He somewhat growled.

Shadow blinked. “The intention was to kill your mother and overthrow the royal family’s position as … well the royal family. To bring a new family to power that would rule a lot better than Solaris would. Well… Fang wanted to. I was going to betray him and take over the kingdom for myself.” He explained.

Iblis stared at him.

“Why would you want to take over a kingdom, it’s too much pressure over your head and your always expected to act a certain way that is apparently ‘formal.’” He huffed, looking at Mephiles for a second before returning his gaze to the hedgehog’s father.

”Well, I wanted to take over the castle and have a good home for Mephie but then Rouge ended up dying and…” Shadow trailed off, his ears twitching. “Look it’s in the past now and I feel horrible about it but look at us now. We’re reunited and we can finally go back to being a family. If Iblis over there wants to be a part of our family, since you two are brothers, he can be. Maybe Solaris can be a part of it?” He suggested, smiling a bit sheepishly and trying to get off the topic of previously being a killer. “Solaris hates me and wants to kill me.” Mephiles pointed out. 

Shadow gave him a weird look. “What?” “She thinks I made Iblis the way he is now; with like witchcraft or something like that. I actually have no idea what her reasoning was.” Mephiles said, smiling a bit. Shadow snorted. “She’s not aware of the Chaos Energy theory, give her a break.” He said. “So she wants to kill you. How about Iblis; does she want to kill him too?” “She either wants to kill me or she wants me to kill Mephiles so I return to my good old normal form; without any of these rocks or this fire on my tail.” The rocky weasel explained. 

“Well there’s… maybe a twenty-five percent chance that you can actually revert back to that form. However, the chaos has probably already screwed up your body and deems it impossible for it to happen.” Shadow explained. “If Solaris won’t listen to reason instead of blaming Mephiles… for being some kind of witch then I guess she’s missing out.” He added. Iblis sighed. “I really kind of thought she would recognize me and still love me even after I started looking like this. It’s a huge disappointment.” Green eyes traveled over to Mephiles when the rocky weasel finished speaking before briefly looking away when the other began to speak again. “Mephiles was really the only one who could guess who I was right away and the only one who didn’t try to run.” Iblis said, staring off into the trees above. 

Shadow smiled. “He probably could tell it was you because you’re his brother, even though it isn’t a biological kind of brother, since you two spent your childhoods together, correct? Solaris should have really been more understanding of the situation though. Maybe we can go and talk to her about it?” He suggested, seeing the two look at him weird. “I don’t wanna die anytime soon.” Mephiles said, blinking. He shook his head a bit. “I imagine you’re pretty skilled at fighting but there are always those things that can go wrong and… that kind of thing. Like what if she has back-ups or something and if she really doesn’t want to listen, I’m sure she’ll figure out a way to kill us; even if she gets killed herself.”

Iblis blinked but sighed, staring at the ground with a blank expression on his face before he smiled. “You won’t die, I’ll protect you.” He promised, looking at Mephiles. Shadow stared at him for a moment before smiling. 

Mephiles huffed. “Just a few days ago you wanted me thrown in the dungeon.” He pointed out, chuckling. Iblis blinked. “I know…” He muttered, twitching his ears. “Iblis, don’t take that personally. I’m just joking.” Mephiles said, smiling and hugging the rocky one. “Thank you for saying that and I highly doubt that you would go back on that but I don’t want to see you get hurt.” 

“It can be payback for when I threw you down those stairs.” Iblis joked, seeing Shadow looking at them both with a smile. 

“I never wanted payback for that, Iblis.” Mephiles muttered, releasing him from the hug. Afterwards the weasel sneezed awkwardly, sniffling a bit. “Are you sure? I just casually threw you down the stairs and such... I thought you would’ve been upset with me over that.” 

“I got payback for that by biting you, remember?” Mephiles teased, seeing his father shake his head a bit at them.  “I’m not sure I want to know what you guys are talking about but I think we should really go get something accomplished before night time.” Shadow pressed, gesturing to the now rising sun. Mephiles and Iblis blinked but nodded. “What are we going to do? It’s not like I assumed we were going to randomly meet up in the woods someday.” Mephiles asked. Shadow shrugged. “It depends on what you guys want to do. I suggest that you try and reason with Solaris…” He trailed off purposely, seeing the weasel flick his tail. He caught a few leaves on fire, unaware of it until he saw the older hedgehog staring at the growing fire behind him. He proceeded to stomp it out with his feet, a slight blush from having started the fire appearing on his muzzle.

“Well I really don’t want to risk either one of us getting hurt by any of Solaris’ tricks or something,” Iblis said, “Otherwise I would be all for trying to get my mom to let us back into the mansion… which is currently destroyed…” Iblis blinked as he realized his mother could’ve been roaming around homeless, like Mephiles’ father, and struggling to get food or something. “The queen and her servants, the ones that didn’t get burned in the fire, are currently rebuilding the mansion. The queen and her guests stay in another house somewhere while the mansion is being rebuilt.” Shadow brought up. Iblis stared at him. “Jeez, you really get around don’t you?” 

“I happen to glance at the newspapers in town. Otherwise, yes. I do tend to be caught up on current information.” Shadow answered, smiling. Iblis shook his head. “I would call you a creep if it wasn’t such a good thing that you knew all this stuff.” Mephiles chuckled, seeing his father shake his head a bit. Shadow sighed. “We need to do something now. Delaying it won’t make it any better.” Mephiles said suddenly, his mind running through a few plans for how they were going to get Solaris to listen to them. 

“Maybe you can explain to her what is going on with Iblis and then maybe she’ll actually begin to see the truth and she’ll let us back into the mansion once it’s rebuilt?” Mephiles asked the older hedgehog, seeing the other two look at him. “If anything goes wrong then we can just come back and bug Silver some more.” 

“Silver?” “Yes, he was wondering about you.” Mephiles answered, smiling. “Maybe we can drop by his house regardless of the outcome so that you two can catch up.” He suggested. Shadow nodded. “I should’ve done it a long time ago but yes that sounds like a great idea.”

Mephiles chuckled, nodding. “Maybe we can get his family into the mansion too. There’s more than enough room.”