#merlina is maria propaganda lmaooo

[autisticshadowthehedgehog]

i was supposed to die (you were supposed to live)

It's a cross-dimensional problem, so it requires cross-dimensional heroes to solve it.

He gathered the very best, everyone he's fought and bled with. The princess of flames and oceans. The genie who binds her own book together with page tears and grieving tears. An angry little brother who raised himself in a world that could never be whole. Girls who flew through worlds on a whim, hand-in-hand, only to return home in time for New Year. Rockstars, reapers, elves, cyborgs. Versions of him, too; one with sparks of chaos glittering off his fur and lightning in his soul, one with a backpack of rings and feet that didn't know how not to run, and one with a darkness inside he would never call upon and a brilliant, dazzling light he spread around him to make up for it. She recognized that in his eyes even if he didn't say it. It wasn't hard to do so.

She saw a similar spirit in the newcomer's eyes, too, and that was the first thing she saw of him. She recognized the eyes, then– the color, the shape, the way they darted side-to-side when he entered a room to assess what was inside. That feeling wasn't in the eyes she knew. She looked over the rest of him, then, seeing the familiar quills, the familiar way he crossed his arms when he didn't want to talk, the way his tail held stock-still assessing for threats. He had the same rings, she noticed, as hers; she wondered if they did the same thing. There was same red paint splashed on his shoes.

He looked up at her, then, and she saw that flash of painful recognition in his eyes. At her own steady blue gaze, at her skin, pale from lack of sunshine, at the way her hair curled around her ears. She knew from that look, then, that he was from a world without her. There were a lot of worlds without her, she'd found whenever she looked into them. People she'd lost lived instead. And if she lived, they died. It wasn't fair. Neither were any of these worlds. No world was fair towards anyone.

She looked back to him and held his gaze this time. He'd finished his shocked stare, and a block came over his expression, trying to block his emotions from everyone else in the room. It happened fast enough that she was probably the only one to see it. But she knew. Even in another world, she knew him. She knew him too well.

As they looked at each other, she tried to let her gaze soften, but she found herself holding strong to that same shielded look. It was probably because if she broke now, she'd break completely, and think about her version of him, left behind in her world which threatened to crumble. Everything dies, but not today. She'd think about them trying to kill each other, loyalties divided and bonds broken. Everything dies, but not today. She'd think about something small, like them at five and seven quarreling over what was best to put in stew. Or them at six and eight sleeping under the stars, naming them and wondering what could make them shine so bright. Everything dies. Or at nine and eleven getting stuck in a tree, waiting to be found and blaming each other, and then sitting and watching the sun set together. But not today.

She knew this wasn't her version of him, the same way he must have known instantly that she was different from whoever he knew. She didn't know this boy standing in front of her. He didn't know the girl in front of him. They knew nothing about each other and yet they knew absolutely everything. They had no relation to each other, no paths that had ever crossed, and they were family all the same. She wondered if siblings could recognize each other in every reality, or if it was just them.

"Shadow! There ya are!"

Sonic slid across the table, leaping down to tackle-hug the boy in front of her, who immediately shrugged him off and elbowed him to the floor. She glanced briefly towards the blue blur as he got up, dusting off his shoulders.

"Shoulda expected that, yeah. I see you just met Merlina! She's gonna help us out, too."

Everyone dies.

They knew each other.

Not today.