It was a clear night with the stars and mooning showing brightly against the deep black sky, and their light reflecting off the Master Emerald. The two sat upon a rock high up on the hill overlooking the shrine.

 

Melinda glanced over at Miles, who was sitting with his hands in the pockets of his sweatshirt, looking up at the stars.

 

“So, are you going to tell me what’s been bothering you? I mean, outside of the fact I died tonight.” Melinda asked.

 

“I was afraid you wouldn’t be able to come home,” Miles answered.

 

“MIles, you know I’d never leave you behind, right?” She placed a hand on his shoulder.

 

“I know, but I just didn’t know what to do because everyone saw you die and it’s not like they’ll just forget. I didn’t know what was going to happen or what we were going to do,” he began to nervously ramble.

 

“Calm down, we’ll figure this out,” She gently pulled him a little closer.

 

“Will we have to move away or something?” Miles gave her worried look.

 

“No, of course not. We’re staying right here,” She smiled down at him.

 

“How? Everyone thinks you’re dead.” Miles questioned, she could tell that he wasn’t convinced this was going to work.

 

“I’m still working on that part. but listen: We’ve both made some of the best friends we could ever hope for here and I’m not going to run away from that, nor am I going to make you run away from it and leave them behind,” She spoke firmly, but gently.

 

“So, we’re going to tell them? Do you think they’ll believe us?” He asked.

 

“Well, I assume Sonic was with you when you identified the body, right?” She said.
“Yeah, don’t remind me.” He shuddered.

 

“Then we have one person that already that saw me clearly dead, and yet here I am.” She waved her free arm in a motion not unlike a model presenting her new outfit.

 

“I guess, but is anyone going to believe the part where that’s because you’re like 1,000 years old and immortal?” He asked, still obviously confused at how all this was going to work?”

 

“Remember the first time I explained to you, after you found me lying dead in the living room?”

 

“Yeah, I was little at the time and I had almost cried myself to sleep next you by the time you woke up. I thought you were dead because I kept begging you to wake up, but you wouldn’t.” He closed his eyes and shook his head.

 

Her eyes widened and she considered slapping herself for a moment. “Miles? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to remind of you of that right now. You’re probably already stressed as it is”

 

“No, it’s okay. It’s not really a bad memory anymore because it was also the night you told me all about immortals, and started telling me stories about all the things you’ve seen and done.” He managed a weak smile.

 

“You didn’t really believe at first though, did you?” She once again relaxed, relieved that she hadn’t upset him.

 

“I didn’t really know what to believe, until you showed me” She watched the look of realization spread across his face as he spoke.

 

“So you remember how I showed you?” She asked with a knowing smile.

 

“I remember you said you wanted to show me something, and told me I had to trust you. You took out that knife you keep hidden on the back of your belt and started to slice the palm of your hand open. I was scared because i didn’t know why you we’re hurting yourself, but then you held out your hand and showed me. The cut kind of glowed and sealed up, there wasn’t even a scar.”

 

“It was then I explained to you about an immortal's quickening, our life-force. I explained how it gave us the ability heal our wounds like that, sense each other, and even gifted us with perfect memories.” She finished the story.

 

“I actually remember getting a little excited because it was like something from a comic book, I remember thinking about how you were like a real-life superhero.” He said

 

“You we’re somewhere between to scared and too excited to sleep, so we watched cartoons until you passed out. I remember you clinging to me on the couch.” She softly laughed as the pleasant memory played back in her mind.

 

“So you really thing we can make this work?” Tails asked as he looked up at the stars.

 

Before she could answer they both heard familiar voices nearby and approaching foot steps.

 

“What makes you think he’s out here?” The first voice was unmistakably Knuckles.

 

“I remember him saying they used to come here together.” The second was without a doubt, Sonic.

 

“ I guess we’re about the find out, I hope it won’t come down to putting on a demonstration like that, but I’m prepared it does ” Melinda leaned in close and whispered to Miles.

 

“Uh-oh,” Miles quickly turned around to face the pair, “Hey guys, what’s up,”

 

“Sonic, am I going crazy or is that…” Knuckles trailed off mid-sentence.

 

“Depends, are we looking at Tails sitting next to a vixen who has her back to us, and also happens to have long black hair, and who happens to be wearing a tan trenchcoat?” Sonic answered.

 

“Yes,” Knuckles spoke carefully, “and did you just describe who I think you did?”

 

“Melinda?” Sonic gulped.

 

“That’s what i was afraid of,” Knuckles said

 

“Guys, I know what you’re thinking and I can explain everything.” Miles said, “You see there’s these people, and mobians that are sort of, well, they-” He stopped mid-sentence as Melinda gently placed a hand in his shoulder without turning around.

 

“Honey, why don’t you let me try to explain? You’ve done plenty for me today,” She slowly turned around and crossed her legs atop the stone, looking directly at Sonic and Knuckles,

 

“What are you, some kind of robot sent after him?” Knuckles dropped into a fighting stance and raised his fists.

 

“Guys, calm down! It’s really my Mom.” Miles frantically tried to call them down.

 

“Miles, it’s okay. They have every right to be suspicious and I’m sure we can get this straightened out,” she gently pulled him back.

 

“Lady, I don’t what you are but there’s no way you can be Melinda and I think you need to stop taking advantage of my little bro’s grief like this” Sonic shouted

 

Melinda closed her eyes for a moment and smiled, it brought a certain warmth to her heart seeing first hand like this how much Mile’s friends truly cared about him, and hearing out of his own mouth that Sonic considered him as a brother.

 

“What are you smiling about,” Sonic cautiously stepped forward.

 

“He was alone for so long, and I spent so many years watching him bullied and forsaken. I have to thank you for truly being the first friends he ever had and the best he could ever hope for.” Melinda answered.

 

Knuckles began to lower his guard and Sonic followed suit.

 

‘I remember the day you helped him home after one of those little punks gave a particularly bad beating, of course you didn’t look much better. He began to idolize you after that and the day came that he learned to keep up and followed you to that old rust-bucket of a plane and fixed it up.” She took a deep breath and opened her eyes to look at Sonic.

 

“Is, is that that really you? How?” Sonic stepped forward, his anger obviously subsiding.

 

“It’s a long story, I’d recommend you both take a seat.” She said.

 

“I’ll stand,” Knuckles said

 

Sonic simply shrugged and sat down in the grass, not taking his eyes off her.

 

“I was born a long time ago, in what you now know as Scotland, in a place that’s now known as the home of the MacLeod clan. My tribe didn’t exactly keep calendars but the first season I actually saw the date written out based on the modern calendar was in the mid-10th century, and I was already about 100 years old by my best estimate,” She paused, anticipating the obvious question.

 

“You’re over 1100 years old? How is that even possible when you barely look older than Rouge?” Knuckles questioned.

 

“20,” She said.

 

“What?” Knuckles asked

 

“I’m physically around 20 years old by my best count because that’s when I became like this, when I died for the first time.” She answered.

 

“Wait, how is that possible? No One can just come back from the dead,” Sonic questioned.

 

“Yet, here I am in one piece and just as healthy as you are,” She said

 

“Hold on, what’s your real name?” all eyes suddenly turned to Knuckles as he spoke.

 

“Melinda, well, sort of. I took this name during my time in modern Scotland because it was derived in part from Melissa, my actual given name and sounded a bit more local.” She answered.

 

“No, your last name,” Knuckles clarified.

 

Melinda just laughed as Miles and Sonic looked back and forth in confusion.

 

“Does someone want to fill me in?” Sonic asked.

 

“Prower can’t be her real surname.” Knuckles answered.

 

“Knuckles, what are you talking about?” Miles asked.

 

“Well, your name and always struck me as odd because it’s not even really a name. It’s just a French word for “Archaic”. It also couldn’t be any kind of given name because if she was telling the truth, she was like 800 years old when it entered common usage,” Knuckles explained.

 

Melinda gave him a sly grin while Sonic and Miles just looked on in shock. He may have been gullible and sheltered, but he definitely wasn’t stupid considering the little language lesson he just gave his friends.

 

“Uh, Mom?” Miles looked up at her with questioning eyes, his confusion obvious to her.

 

“You’re friend is smarter than either of you assume, probably due to how much reading time he has on his hands down there,” Melinda caught Knuckles tensing up out of the corner of her eye as she put an arm around Miles and pulled him closer. She wondered if he still thought though her a threat, “I was born before anyone really had last names, and the last one i took before I found you was way too suspicious to most anyone alive now, and definitely to other immortals”

 

“Wait, so you adopted me with a fake identity?” Miles asked

 

“Yes, I choose the name because I liked the irony in having a name that literally means archaic, I am a walking relic of the past, after all.” She answered, wiping a tear from her eye.

 

“What was it?” She noticed he looked almost hurt.

 

“If you’re afraid I’ve hidden something from you, I haven’t. You already know.” She could still see the two out of the corner of her eye as she spoke to Miles, Knuckles seemed to legitimately be getting nervous and Sonic simply watched intently, she could feel his gaze as he looked right at her.

 

“I don’t quite understand,” Miles said.

 

“Don’t you remember when I told you about how I fought in the Scottish Rebellion, and who I fought along side? How I was made an honorary member of their clan?” Melinda said.

 

“Wait, you mean you were really a MacLeod?” Miles asked.

 

“So your name was Melissa MacLeod as of something like 200 years ago?” Knuckles questioned before she could answer.”

 

“Knuckles, are you going to fill the rest of us in on what’s going in that thick skull of yours?” Sonic asked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“She was the most beautiful women I had ever seen and everything from her firely orange fur to that the flowing raven hair that nearly reached her hips captivated me, but that beauty concealed sharp steel and the heart of a true warrior. Yet even then, she had a certain vulnerability and a vast capacity for kindness. I could see it all reflected in those breathtaking emerald eyes that somehow reflected both boundless compassion and an unbreakable will.

 

I could see her strength when she spared with the others at the barracks, fighting with a savage grace that was unmatched by any man there. She fought with speed and skill that seemed almost inhuman and mirrored that of the best masters I had ever seen despite her young age.

 

Her compassion was revealed to me as she played with the village children and I watched her comforting a young girl that had fallen and hurt her ankle. As she held this child and quietly whispered comforting words I realized that she would make a brilliant mother and wondered if maybe she had grew up with a younger sibling and developed these instincts helping care for them.

 

I saw both together as one the day some thug decided beating up little boys was a good idea and she knocked several of his teeth out without a second thought. I don’t even think she noticed all the people staring at the aftermath because her full attention with was on trying to stop the poor kid’s broken nose from bleeding.

 

The same bastard took it out on another kid later that night, but this time he tried his luck with a knife. When some of us found the three of them he was beaten unconscious and she was sitting in the dirt, cradling the child and sobbing. He had died in her arms before she could even lift him off the ground and it tore her apart worse than any wound could.”

 

“What the heck was that?” Sonic asked.

 

“It’s an old journal page I found in the ruins, the date was smudged but I could make out that it was in the 1800s. another torn scrap I found mentioned the name Melissa MacLeod,” Knuckles said.

 

Melinda grew silent as the memory came to front of her mind, and she instinctively wrapped Miles in a tighter hug.

 

“Are you okay?” Miles asked as he returned the gesture.

 

“I’ll be okay, honey. I just had a bit of a moment when i remembered that night.” Melinda took a deep breath and relaxed her arms without completely letting go.

 

“I thought that place had been abandoned for centuries, except for the guardians.” Miles said.

 

“They have, they wiped themselves out long before my time. The things on that page happened in a small settlement miles from here.that was mostly made up of natives from a neighboring clan. I’m still not entirely sure what happened to them but I guess the man that wrote that journal made good on his plan to travel, and he must have lost those pages there.” Melinda said as she rubbed her eyes.

 

“Wait, so that story Knuckles just told was really about you?” Sonic asked.

 

“Yes.” Melinda answered.

 

Sonic seemed to be sizing her up, she could tell that he was deep in thought and debating if he should believe any of this or not. A smile eventually spread across his face.

 

“I don’t know about Knucklehead back there, but I think I’ve heard enough to roll with this, and everything he just said tells me you’re a good person, no matter what you are. You’re also my best friend’s mom and so I guess I can trust his judgement call that you’re still cool. Sonic said.

 

 

“Yeah, Knuckles, why so skittish?” Sonic added.

 

“How was I supposed to react when I thought she was dead?” Knuckles questioned.

 

“Wait a minute, were you afraid?” Sonic teased.

 

“Of course, I was trying to protect-” Knuckles stammered

 

“What’s the matter, thought she was a ghost?” Sonic said with a smirk.

 

“Of course not, why would I ever believe such superstitious nonsense-” Knuckles tan cheeks started to turn as red as the rest of his face.

 

“I can’t believe it, the great guardian of the shrine is afraid of ghosts,’ Sonic broke down laughing.

 

“How can I be afraid of something I don’t believe in?” Knuckles stammered

 

Sonic simply answered with continued laughter.

 

“Well, I guess things are almost back to normal,” Miles said with a smile as he and Melinda watched the two argue.