The Green Hills were overly windy today. If Sonic tried running through it the wind would stab him like a million tiny needles. A windy day like this often brought trash in from the cities around them. From Future City one type of trash always caught his and Tails' eyes were the missing posters of children and adults. Not many people went missing in the city but when someone did, especially a child, the cities whole police team was on it. It was the perfect time for criminals to come out and splurge until the child was found.

A missing poster got stuck to Sonic's leg, pinned by the wind. He grabbed it and took a look at it. The poster reads:

Missing: Amy Powers

Age: Approx. 16 years

If you have any information please call…

Amy Powers. The name was too familiar to Sonic. She's been missing since she was a baby. She simply disappeared off the face of the planet. Every few years they would come out with several possible photos, aged with the technology they possess. In some pictures she has blond hair, in others she's a red head, and once she even had black hair!

He looked up into the air. How long has it been since he's been to the lost world? It seemed like forever ago and nobody has heard from the Zeti since then. Why, though? Most bad guys he's met in his years don't simply just disappear unless they've died. Their evil deeds are always on the move. But not the Zeti's. They have simply become like Amy Powers, a legend lost to time.

How did I get stuck with such a sick child? It was the thousandth time the ancient Zeti has asked himself this question while tending to his gardens. He always thought too much when he was even around his garden.

As if she heard his thoughts a young girl-a human girl-came from the blooming cherry tree. Her hair reminded him of fire flowing from the top of her head to her shoulders and somewhere between curly and straight. How did he get stuck with a human girl?

"I knew I'd find you here." She smiled. Her voice was weaker than it was last week, she's been coughing a lot more.

He still remembered when he found her over fourteen years ago. She was just a baby then and had come from nowhere. Nobody knew where she came from or how she got up to the Hex. In any normal situation he would've been quick to leave her to the elements but something about her made him go back and take her in. She wasn't accepted by the others quickly but she never cared, all she cared about was that he accepted her. It wasn't until ten years ago that they accepted this young girl as a sister. The weaker she got the harder her death was going to be.

"Jade, you are supposed to be resting!" He wasn't mad, just worried.

"I know," she moved to sit next to him. She enjoyed sitting among the garden with him. "But I…" she stopped to cough into her hand, "I felt well enough to come outside. I haven't been out in a while." She moved her hand so it rested on her knee, not facing him at all. He knew, though, there was blood on her hand.

He pulled a vile from the inside of his shirt. The essence from the earth below still glowed a bright green. He didn't know how well it would work, if it worked at all, or if it would just kill her. I guess either solution is better than letting her die a painful death.

He handed her the vile. "Here, drink this."

"Thanks, Master Zik." She took it with the hand she didn't cough in. That proved his theory, she coughed up blood. He listened to her hold her breath and down the contents. She made a disgusted face. "This tastes…kind of funny."

He couldn't help but chuckle. "What else would it taste like? Candy?"

"I was kind of hoping it would."

The wind picked up again, blowing her hair in her face. On bright, sunny days like that one Jade's eyes matched the color of the grass; it was a light green that shined only on the brightest of days and only when she smiled with the sun.

They sat in silence, staring at the garden for a long while. The sun moved from its noon seat in the heavens. As soon as Jade realized where her shadow pointed she stood. "I'll be back in a few hours."

She always disappeared without telling him but he never worried until it became later than she said she'd be home. Zik didn't acknowledge her statement. He listened for her footsteps until he couldn't hear them anymore.

Whenever Jade wasn't around the garden felt like a lonely place to be. Even the plants seemed to lose their bright colors and life when she wasn't around. Her smile was too contagious for her to ever truly be a Zeti. He thought of the first time he ever saw anyone from the Deadly Six smile. Even Zor smiled once, but his smile looked out of place and kind of crooked. The only one who tried so hard to hide a smile was Zavok, in fact he burst into a fit when Jade still caught him smiling to himself and pointed it out. If Zik hadn't been around Zavok might have tried to hurt the human girl.

The wind blew faster and harder taking of the flower petals with it, following her out of the garden, as if to say good-bye.

Jade loved the wind, and clear skies, and days like today when everything in the world seemed perfect and she can pretend she wasn't sick. She always felt better on clear days. But when the wind slapped against the poorly made house it sounded like it'd fall down at any minute. The thought scared her.

When Zik had taken her in he made a house for her to live in because her soft flesh couldn't handle the elements the Hex provided. The house still creaked against the softest of wind but it stayed in place since…forever.

On days like today she loved sitting under an oak and imagined the world below. Nobody found this place until a year ago when a "visitor" stumbled upon it by accident and enslaved her brothers and sister and master Zik. He brought with him two more. She wished she could've met the two that freed her family but she was too sick to even move. Her fever that month made her delirious. She didn't remember anything about it.

She sat under the shade of the oak, which was twenty degrees colder than in the sun, and closed her eyes. In the back of her throat she could still taste the green liquid Master Zik gave her. It tasted like dirt and berries in the winter frost and clove. Her chest didn't hurt anymore, though, and she hadn't coughed since she drank it.

"You should be resting." Like Zik's statement earlier, it was more of a command than a comment.

"You sound just like Master Zik, Big Brother." She opened her eyes and invited Zavok to sit next to her. Jade never called anyone else Big Brother except Zavok. The title was reserved for only him.

Zavok sat next to her and they just sat in silence. Jade enjoyed moments like that one, when it was just her and him, and they sat together without the dumb arguments they used to have.

Jade looked at her hand. The blood on it was smeared off now and she still intended to hide it even though she knew she couldn't. The Zeti were too observant for a small trick.

"You look worse today." Zavok's voice always scared her out of her trance. It was so deep but it was also scary in a way, even when he wasn't yelling he somehow made himself terrifying. Did he even notice it? Sometimes, though, his voice calmed her, especially when she had night terrors. His voice would be the most calming out of all of them.

"I feel…tired. But I'm not sleeping in a house that sounds like it'll come on top of me." She heard it then, how weak her voice really was.

Zavok didn't say anything. He was never one with words.

She hacked into her hand and slowly took it away, hoping Zavok wouldn't see it. On her hand was some spit with a pink tint to it. Jade breathed a small sigh of relief and wiped the contents on her pants.

"You didn't cough up blood this time…you must be a little better today." Zavok said, an underlying surprised tone came out.

"I told you I felt better." But she could've gone without the aftertaste of the liquid mixing in with the leftover blood in her mouth. "Where'd you ditch the siblings this time, Big Brother?"

He didn't answer. He didn't need to. They were nearby. She could suddenly hear their voices faint in the distance, yelling at each over for something small and stupid.

What was the world below like?