If You Had to Give Vanilla a Backstory, What Would it Be?

For me, I never thought of it until after IDW had Clutch suggest the existence of previous generations of heroes before Sonic and his friends took the stage, heroes all of whom Clutch was able to break the wills of and defeat. It made me think of and like the idea of Vanilla actually being from the previous generation of heroes, secretly, before Sonic and co. alongside her own set of heroic friends (who I envision as being a bunch of beta versions of Sonic and his friends with different backstories, including Feels the Rabbit, Terios, Venice, Beta Blaze, etc.). With Clutch's sort of-lore drop in mind along with knowing he's older than Eggman, he was their Eggman, the nemesis.

In my headcanon, here, Vanilla was more of a party girl, in her youth energetic and outgoing, and Clutch would probably dabble in more than weapons dealing. She flew like Cream but kicked much harder. Vanilla would later take up a pacifist ideology and a quaint lifestyle in the quiet Floral Forest Village after a violent final battle with Clutch, who would reemerge later into the events of the IDW comics under the guise of a legitimate businessman. After Cream is born (and before anybody asks, no, Feels is not the father), Vanilla would swear to do her best to raise her well after the experiences and changes she underwent during her buried past. She'd keep Cream away from soda and too much sugar, no video games, all that jazz, but more than anything, Vanilla would teach Cream manners, to be polite and to help others in need, causing her empathy to shine brightly. However, being a single mother and all, Vanilla would always have a feeling in the back of her mind, wondering if she was doing things right as Cream's mother, if she was raising Cream well and healthily, if she was doing a good job at all... Or if she wasn't.

Additionally, Vanilla sought to keep Cream out of danger, from adventures, as she often thought of many of her old adventures. But instead, adventure found them, as one of her friends believed regarding adventure in contrast to Sonic, who believes one is to seek adventure by making the choice to go out into the world and see it. Speaking of, Sonic and his friends, who she and Cream would meet during the events of Sonic Advanced 2, would remind Vanilla of her old friends a lot, being one of the reasons why she still feels at least a degree of reassurance when Cream does go on adventures with Sonic, Amy, etc..