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Chapter Text

Sonic sat in his cold, dark jail cell, he'd been stuck here for 4 weeks, or was it 5 weeks? He couldn't tell anymore. Sonic jumped at the sound of footsteps outside his cell, he shivered with a fear that had been rightfully instilled in him the past few weeks, he kept shaking until the footsteps passed and he couldn't hear them anymore.

Sonic had been lured to Earth some time ago, the humans, those fucking humans. They said they needed his help with something, he couldn't remember what. The next thing he knew he was trapped in a cold, dark cell, brought out only for food, showers and interrogation. The humans wanted to know all of his home planet's secrets. The location of the Master Emerald, the secrets of Sonic's speed powers, yada yada yada. When Sonic refused to tell them anything, which was every time, they would beat him and throw him around the sound-proofed interrogation room until Sonic was black and blue with bruises and writhing around on the floor in pain.

Now Sonic's entire body was covered in scars, both old and new, Sonic scratched his left ear, minding the top chunk of his ear that was missing. Sonic then touched his face, tracing the long, thin, X shaped scar, tilted at a 90 degree angle that marked his lower right cheek. The sound of footsteps and the metal door slamming open made him jump once more, shielding his eye's from the light from the hallway he could make out two guards standing in the doorway of his cell.

"Hey blue freak, President wants you." One of them spat. "Yeah, and you better not cause trouble or we'll make you wish you were never born." The other one chimed in. Sonic got up off the bench he was sitting on and walked towards the guards, he was handcuffed like always and led out of the cell, each guard keeping one hand on each of Sonic's shoulders as they led him through the winding hallways of the prison, at first Sonic would resist, drag his feet and kick and scream, refusing to leave his cell, but over time he lost the energy and gave in.

Sonic was led out of the prison, into the outside and fresh air. Sonic blinked harshly against the sunlight, he hadn't seen sunlight in so long. Sonic took a deep breath in, finding a rare moment of tranquility in being able to breath fresh air in so long. But the moment didn't last long as Sonic was led towards the edge of a cliff over looking a large pond.

Sonic was uncuffed and rubbed his sore wrists as the two guards fled, a squad of humans with lazer guns powerful enough to blow an arm or a leg off with one blow, appeared 60-70 feet behind him. Sonic's face twisted into a scowl as he saw the President, the one who got him trapped here in the first place, standing in the middle of the squad with a smug smirk on his face, Sonic looked around but there was nowhere to run except off the cliff. "Take aim!" The President called out and the squad readied their weapons. Sonic should have know better, this wasn't a nice trip outside, it was an execution. Sonic got ready to doge the lazers all the while looking for a way to escape his execution, but where would he go? What would he do when he got away? How would he-

Sonic was pulled out of his thoughts by a loud bang. Sonic looked over at the president, who was yelling at a member of the firing squad. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE GUN MALFUNCTIONED?! YOU RUINED MY MOMENT!!" The President screamed at the terrified squad member, but Sonic could care less about those guys.

Sonic's right arm...below his shoulder...he couldn't feel anything beyond that point.

The Blue blur wasn't overwhelmed with pain, maybe he was in shock? He didn't know.

Sonic looked down at his right arm and gasped in horror and shock.

His arm...was gone. Completely gone.

His right shoulder was nothing more then a bloody stump, crimson dripping from the sudden amputation. Sonic's blood ran cold and his breathing became shaky, unable to properly process what just happened. His mind was spinning as he stumbled backwards, Sonic reached out with his other arm for his right arm but his fingers grasped at air, his arm really was gone. "FIRE! FIRE! SHOOT THE BLUE BASTARD ALREADY!!" the President screeched, causing the firing squad to once again ready their guns, Sonic stumbled back still in shock.

He didn't realize that he was running out of ledge to stand one until the ground gave out in front of him and Sonic lost his footing, sending him hurtling downwards.

A shrill, terrified scream escaped Sonic's throat as he fell, greengreybluegreygreengreybluegreengreyblue--the world became a blur of colors as he plummeted downwards. Sonic curled himself into a ball, squeezing his eye's shut as his body collided and he sank like a rock into the cold, dark waters, Sonic's right-arm stump stung like hell against the water. Sonic managed to flail his way to the surface of the water, swimming was hard enough for him with both arms but with one arm it was nearly impossible.

—TELEPORTATION ACTIVATED, FULL POWER ACTIVATED—

—PREPARING TO TELEPORT SUBJECT, LOCATION UNKNOWN, SUBJECT NOT FOUND IN AUTHORISED DATABASE—

—OVERRIDING SAFETY PROTOCOLS, TELEPORTING SUBJECT NOW—

—SUBJECT TELEPORTED SUCCESSFULLY, POWERING OFF—

Sonics head burst through the surface of the water, his mouth agape as he gasped for air. Sonic was somehow able to tread water with his legs. He looked around and saw nothing but endless blue ocean for miles and miles, just a few seconds ago he was at the bottom of a canyon falling towards a lake, how did he end up in the ocean? Sonic slipped under the surface of the water, kicking and struggling his way back to the surface, doing a double take once he resurfaced, he was still in the endless blue ocean.

Chapter Text

Sonic started to sink under the water once more when a thought popped into Sonic's head as he sank. "What if the humans found him in the ocean, dragged him back to land and executed him?" Sonic realized in that moment that he had two choices

He could be found, dragged back onto land, and killed by his captors.

Or he could sink to the bottom of the ocean and die on his own terms.

Sonic's head broke the surface of the water once more, the hedgehog took in a deep breath that would be his last. With one final look at the endless blue ocean around him, he stopped kicking, stopped fighting and allowed the ocean to have it's way with him.

He closed his eye's, they stung too much from all the salty ocean water, his arm stung too, blood flowing from the wound in a way that resembled a red blanket spreading out across the ocean. Sonic had read once that sharks were able to smell blood from really far away, maybe a shark would come? That would be a sight to see alright.

But soon, none of it would matter, soon he would finally be at peace, no more pain, no more betrayal, no more suffering. Even if he was able to muster up the will to survive, what awaited him? Being hunted down by a species that never bothered to understand him and certainly never cared about him? Having no idea where he was and no idea how to get back to his friends? Even if he wanted to, how would he get back to land?

Sonic could feel himself sinking deeper and deeper into the ocean's grip like a stone in a pond, his lungs were burning, screaming for air but he refused, just a few more seconds and it would all be over.

It would all be over...

A dark shadow being cast over him, followed by a pair of large hands grabbing him from under the arms and dragging him up to the surface, then the cool air hitting him as he gasped, no longer holding his breath under the surface of the ocean but breathing above it, all in the span of a few seconds.

Sonic gasped for air, the burning in his lungs starting to fade as he was gently placed onto what felt like a boat, rocking back and forth slowly. He coughed and wheezed as his breathing slowly returned to normal, laying on his back as he was slowly rocked by that boat, he also felt someone wrap bandages over his right-arm stump, Sonic was still coming to grips with the fact that he'd been subjected to accidental amputation. But now a question formed in his head, who or what saved him?

"Thank Gaia we found you when we did hedgehog, I thought you were dead for a minute." A gruff and deep yet strangely familiar voice said as Sonic rubbed his eye's, they still stung but not as much as before.

Sonic slowly sat upright, still catching his breath as the sting in his eye's subsided just enough for him to properly make out his saviors, it was...The Deadly Six?! Or some of them at least.

Zavok, Zazz, Zor and Master Zik were all sitting in the boat, Zazz and Zor were making small talk at the other end of the boat, Master Zik appeared to be the one driving the boat, sitting at the front while Zavok was sitting next to him.

Sonic slowly backed away from Zavok, not stopping until the back of his head collided with the other end of the boat, even in his half-sensible state of mind he knew The Deadly Six, even if it wasn't all of them were bad news.

At this point Zavok must've noticed Sonic's terror, he put one of his massive clawed hands out to Sonic, trying to touch him but Sonic jerked his body away, utterly terrified. Zavok withdrew his hand, and started to speak in a low, calm voice, Sonic must've really looked like a terrified puppy because the other three turned to look at him, saddened or confused. "Relax hedgehog, we're not going to harm you. We saved you after all." Zavok explained, but Sonic didn't move from where he was, he was still terrified.

"We've already bandaged your arm, just lay down and try to rest. Our boat is heading back to land as I speak, so you shouldn't have to tolerate the ocean for too much longer." Zavok said, but it wasn't Zavok that scared him anymore, it was land. The word "land" had the ferocity of a lion attached to it for one reason and in Sonic's headspace, for a very good reason.

Land meant humans.

Humans meant execution.

Execution meant death.

Sonic looked over the edge of the boat, the thought of going back into the cold, dark abyss that was the ocean made his stomach churn with terror. But what choice did he have?

Die in front of a firing squad of those god damm humans? Or drown in the middle of the ocean, still dying but on his own terms? Sonic looked back at the four Zeti's, none of them were really paying attention to him, Sonic looked back at the ocean. He knew what he had to do.

Sonic steeled himself, took a deep breath and with one swift motion, threw himself back into the ocean. The salty, cold, dark water shocked him but didn't deter him anymore, he tried to swim downwards but he just flailed and squirmed around in the water like a worm on a hot sidewalk.

Sonic felt a pair of hands his ankles, another pair grab his waist and a single huge hand grab the scruff of his neck and yank him upwards so hard he thought the skin would tear off. Sonic was yanked out of the water, it was Zavok, Zazz and Zor trying to keep him out of the water. Sonic threw his head back as hard as he could and felt the back of his head whack into something hard followed by Zavok snarling out: "Ungrateful bastard!"

Sonic was pinned to the bottom of the boat, kicking and struggling dispite his aching muscles, screaming his head off dispite his hoarse throat.

"F-fuck you! Lemme go!" Sonic croaked out, but the three Zeti's were able to hold him mostly still. "Master Zik!" Zavok called out. "Can't you do something to calm him down? We cannot hold him like this forever!" Zavok practically begged the eldest Zeti.

"I can perform a trick that can put him to sleep for a while, but I need you three to hold him still." Master Zik replied, strangely calm for all the chaos going on a few feet away from him. Sonic fought the saltiness assaulting his eye's as he managed to make out Master Zik standing above him, the old Zeti's hands bathed in a glowing purple arua. Sonic jerked his head back and forth, trying to be as difficult as possible for the Zeti's,

"No! No way! Your not taking me back to those d-despicable fucking humans!" Sonic groaned, his throat hurt so bad it felt like it was lined with molten lava. "We're not taking you back to Earth, from how you're acting humanity has been quite cruel to you. Just relax, if you cooperate this will go by quickly." Master Zik sternly explained, placing his hands on the temples of Sonic's head, a purple haze overtook Sonic's vision, he blinked and it was gone.

Whatever magical spell or ritual Master Zik did to Sonic's mind, it worked fast. Within seconds, Sonic could feel his muscles relax and his mind go blank, his eye's became heavy to the point that he could barely keep his eye's open.

Sonic stopped fighting as his body relaxed, practically melting into the bottom of the boat as the slow rocking back and forth lulled him to sleep.

Sonic closed his eye's and felt his pain and suffering dissolve as his mind and body gave in to the spell. He allowed his mind to drift into unconsciousness as he finally fell asleep, unsure of what would await him when he woke up again.

Chapter Text

Sonic groaned softly, his eyes blinking open slowly, waking up in an unfamiliar place. His body was covered up by something big, long and soft. It took him a few seconds to register that he was laying down on a warm bed, covered up by a fuzzy blanket.

His body felt sluggish and his mind was tired, Sonic tried to move his right arm but only a bandaged stump wiggled around aimlessly, he was still missing an arm. Sonic noticed that his left arm was hooked up to what looked like an IV drip, putting something into his body.

Being careful of the IV drip, Sonic managed to use his legs to push himself upwards until he was sitting in an upright position.

The blue blur looked around, he was in a well lit, well kept bedroom that looked like the walls and floor were made out of high tech metal, even the bed itself seemed a little high-tech.

Sonic tried to speak but only a strained whimper came out of his throat, his throat was sore and his tongue felt like it was disconnected from his brain, flopping around uselessly in his mouth.

The only reason he was here and not somewhere at the bottom of the ocean was because of The Deadly Six...wait where were The Deadly Six? Where was he? Sonic didn't have a answer to either of this questions and the anxiety from that was starting to surface, gnawing away at the back of his mind.

Master Zik said they wouldn't take him back to Earth and this place didn't look like a normal hospital or a prison, so where was he?

The sound of footsteps coming closer and closer to the door that separated his little bedroom and the rest of wherever he was made Sonic jump. He wasn't sure what this place was, but he couldn't assume it was friendly.

The door opened to reveal Metal Sonic, the robotic copy visibly jumped and backed up a few feet in shock, not expecting Sonic to be awake, before slowly coming closer to inspect the hedgehog in his state.

Heey...M-M-Metalllllheeead..." Sonic tried to speak but the words came out in a jumbled, slurred mess. Metal Sonic stood in confused silence for a few seconds before talking.

"Hello, Sonic. Good to see you're awake and alert, how do you feel?" Metal Sonic asked bluntly, Sonic didn't want to risk another embarrassment so he just gave a "so-so" hand signal. Metal Sonic came closer to Sonic and gently took ahold of his left wrist, scanning the IV drip embedded in his arm before letting go of his wrist and starting to fiddle with the IV bag dripping stuff into his arm.

"Whaaaat...in there?" Sonic slurred again, Metal paused what he was doing for a second to answer. "Nutrients. Water. It'll help with your recovery process and will also help the sorry state you're in physically. You've seen better days." Metal Sonic replied, before taking the IV bag down off the pole it was hanging from and then carefully took the IV drip out of Sonic's arm and put a band-aid over where the IV drip was once sticking into his arm.

"This bag is empty, I'll inform the doctor of your awakening and order some food for you. Do you like curry?" The robot asked, Sonic nodded, curry was his second favorite food, second only to chill dogs, of course. Metal Sonic then swiftly left the room, leaving Sonic to his own devices.

"So...I'm in Eggman's base, but why would Eggman of all people help me? Maybe the Zeti's scared him into helping, wish I could've seen that." Sonic thought.

The drowsiness in his mind and body still lingered but was slowly starting to fade away. But the sleepiness was being replaced by something new, something that had become all too familiar to him from the last 4-5 weeks.

Hunger. Bottomless, insatiable hunger.

As if on cue, Sonic's stomach let out a loud growl, demanding food. Out of curiosity, Sonic dragged a hand down his chest. To Sonic's suprise, he could feel all of his top ribs, Sonic knew he hadn't been eating the best ever since the humans captured him, but wow.

"This explains the waves of pain in my stomach that make it hard to sleep. I must look like even more then a burden then I thought..." Sonic thought gloomily, his thoughts suddenly cut off by the door to his room opening. Eggman and Metal Sonic entered the room, Metal Sonic was holding a tray with a bowl of curry and a spoon, a glass of water with a straw and an IV bag full of something.

Sonic's mouth started to water at just the sight of actual good food. When the humans took him hostage all Sonic would eat was the scraps and leftovers from the guards, when there was any.

Eggman pressed a few buttons on the wall of the room, causing a table to appear in front of Sonic, Eggman then took the tray from Metal Sonic and put the tray on the table. The tray was only on the table for a few seconds before Sonic started to wolf down the food, using his remaining arm to feed himself, it worked out surprisingly well.

Once Sonic was done with the food he practically inhaled the water. "Er, be careful Sonic, don't choke-" Eggman started to say before Sonic started to choke and sputter, coughing loudly as water went down the wrong way in his throat from drinking too much water too fast.

Sonic felt a hand patting his back, "Keep coughing Sonic. If you can cough, you can breathe." Eggman's voice rang out behind him, what he assumed was Eggman's hand kept patting his back until Sonic was able to stop coughing, "You couldn't have said that earlier?" Sonic grumbled sarcastically towards Eggman, the slur in his voice gone as his tongue and brain had finally recalibrated. "Well, I tried to but I was unfortunately too late." Eggman retorted in a snarky tone of voice.

Eggman put a hand on Sonic's shoulder for a few seconds before removing his hand. Sonic slightly squirmed in Eggman's gentle grip, he didn't like being touched all that much ever since being exposed to The Presidents 'hospitality.'

"Okay hedgehog, I'm sure you have questions and I'll answer them as best I can. If your wondering where you are, you're on my Emperor Egg-Ship, you've been out for a couple of hours." Eggman explained, Sonic nodded in understanding, absorbing the information he was being told.

While Eggman was explaining Sonic's situation, Metal Sonic set up an IV bag, sticking the needle end in Sonic's wrist and hooking the bag end up to the stand. "The Deadly Six found you stranded in the middle of the ocean in The Lost Hex after they saw a bright light come out of the ocean, said you almost drowned. They found you and brought you to me. Said that if anybody would know how to fix you, I'd be me." Eggman explained more.

"Okay...I get it now. Wait...The Deadly Six? Are they here right now?" Sonic asked, both Metal Sonic and Eggman becoming visibly nervous at the mention of The Deadly Six.

"Yeah, they're here alright, they wanted to make sure we didn't try anything shady...Their in the lobby right now." Metal Sonic wearily answered, clearly uneasy with sharing a space with The Deadly Six.

Sonic couldn't really blame Metal Sonic for being uncomfortable with The Deadly Six's presence, Zavok and his crew had no problem mind-controlling Metal Sonic and the other robots in the past. "If we're on an Egg-Ship, then where are we going Egghead?" Sonic asked, "We're going to Green Hill Zone, where all your friends are, it'll take at least two weeks to get there. Lots of time for you to rest and recover." Eggman said.

Sonic perked up at the mention of Green Hill and his friends, they must be so worried about him and Sonic couldn't wait to see his friends again, he missed them so much!

Sonic let out a long yawn, rubbing his eyes as he felt an invisible blanket of sleepiness fall over him. Eggman snickered softly, taking the tray and putting the table away.

"I'll let you rest, hedgehog. And I'll also inform The Deadly Six of your condition." Eggman said as he and Metal Sonic left the room, Metal Sonic turned off the light to the room and shutting the door on the way out, bathing the room in darkness.

Sonic laid back down curled up in the bed, pulling the blanket over himself and fell into a dreamless sleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Chapter Text

Zavok POV:

Zavok and Zazz walked down the hallway of the Emperor Egg-Ship, being led by Metal Sonic, they were being led to wherever Sonic was being kept. The last time Zavok had interacted with Sonic, Sonic was trying to drown by throwing himself over a boat and into the ocean so Zavok was...he wouldn't say excited but he was definitely interested to see Sonic's condition after being taken into Eggman's care.

"Are we almost there?" Zazz whined, getting grumpy from walking for so long. Zavok was starting to get annoyed as well, not from walking but from the whispers in the back of his head that kept ringing out: "What if they're trying to trick you?" Zavok pushed those thoughts down and into the corners of his mind.

Eggman was insane and lived for chaos, but even he knew better then to test Zavok's patience and risk getting his ass kicked again, and Zavok was more then happy to tear Eggman and all of his precious robots to shreds if it benefited him or his pack.

"I promise you, we're almost there." Metal Sonic firmly replied. He was in front of the two Zeti's, keeping a considerable distance away from them as well as refusing to turn his head around to make eye contact with ethier of them. Zavok assumed it was due to a fear Metal Sonic had picked up after his previous defeats at the hands of The Deadly Six. A rightful and reasonable fear considering the threat that just Zavok himself posed to the puny robotic copy.

The three finally came to a mechanical door, Metal Sonic pressed a few buttons on the wall on a keypad next to the door before the door slid open. The light from the hallway illuminated a small, cozy looking bedroom, a small figure curled up in blankets with his back turned to the door, small snores coming from the figure as it stirred somewhat as a reaction to the light from the hallway, but did not awaken.

"Just be careful and gentle, okay? He's still sleeping." Metal Sonic warned, both Zeti's nodded in unspoken agreement before proceeding. Zavok entered first, checking the room for potential dangers before letting Zazz inside the room. The lights above them flickered to life, although they were quite dim. Zavok assumed it was intentional on Metal Sonic's part.

Zazz was the first to approach the figure, who was unsurprisingly, Sonic. Sonic yawned softly, rolling over to face the purple beast, although Sonic still remained asleep. Zazz reached out his hand, placing the top of his hand on top of Sonic's head, his hand was right in-between Sonic's ears. Sonic stirred slightly but didn't wake, his ears flicking for a few seconds before stopping. "He's out of it Zav, totally asleep." Zazz whispered, not taking his bewildered eye's off of the blue exhausted hedgehog.

Zavok stepped up, standing next to Zazz. Sonic started squirming around softly, kicking in his sleep, starting to whimper and mumble incoherently. Zazz took his hand away from Sonic's head as Zavok stepped in front of Zazz, the leader Zeti took ahold of Sonic's shoulder and gently shook Sonic, trying to ease him awake. "Hedgehog? Are you alright?" Zavok whispered, but Sonic's kicking got worse. Through Sonic's whimpering and rambling, Zavok was actually able to make out some of what Sonic was saying. "Mmmmgh...no...no no no no...stay...please no..." Sonic mumbled sleepily, his head thrashing around in his sleep.

Robot?" Zazz asked impatiently, turning to face Metal Sonic, who was still standing by the door. "I suggest you step back and don't touch him, he might be having a nightmare. He had a few night terrors while he was out, but he always stayed asleep." Metal Sonic explained. Zavok and Zazz stepped away from Metal Sonic, Zavok was staying in front of Zazz to protect him in case anything happened. "Hedgehog, you're dreaming. I don't know what you're going through but it's not real, wake up." Zavok said, loud enough for Sonic to hear him but not loud enough to be yelling.

No...no...no don't hurt me...I don't...I won't tell you anything...stay back...stay back..." Sonic mumbled again, his voice getting slightly louder, whimpering more and his whimpering getting louder, tears pricking at his eyes.

"Please...please no...not again...don't hurt me again..." Sonic whimpered, tears now streaming down his cheeks now. "Can't you do something to wake him up?" Zavok asked, not taking his eyes off Sonic. "There's nothing I can do, touching him in this state will trigger his brain into activating a defensive panic response and make his hysteria worse." Metal Sonic said. "Translation to English?" Zazz snapped. Metal Sonic sighed before repeated what he said in a more simple way.

"If you touch him when he's like this, he'll think he's being attacked and it'll make his nightmare worse." Metal Sonic explained, starting to make his way over to Sonic while keeping a considerable distance away from the two Zeti's. Sonic started to flail, kicking as tears streamed down his face like a waterfall with more tears bunching up at his eyelids.

Don't don't don't don't...don't throw me...don't hit me...don't cut me...No...no...no! NAAAAGH!" Sonic shot up in the bed, tears falling from his eyes as he awoke with a shout, breathing heavily. Metal Sonic rushed over to Sonic, wrapping him up in a hug and holding him tight, rubbing his back in a soothing way while Sonic buried his face into Metal's neck, sobbing and shaking.

The two Zeti's exchanged a look of concern, they knew now more then ever that they couldn't leave Sonic to his own devices, as least not until Sonic had calmed down. They were too curious to leave now.

___________________

After a few minutes Sonic had calmed down from his nightmare. He was still shaking slightly and wasn't really talking all that much, which was concerning considering normally Sonic never shut up.

Sonic was sitting on the bed, Metal Sonic was sitting next to him while Zavok and Zazz stood off to the side of the bed, quietly talking amongst themselves. "Are you okay?" Metal Sonic asked softly. "Yeah...I'm good now Metal." Sonic said, before finally turned his attention to Zavok and Zazz. "You guys you saved me..First by not letting me drown and now...did you guys scare Eggman into helping me? Either way thanks for the help." Sonic said.

Sonic could've sworn he heard Zavok chuckle softly. "No, we didn't imitate the doctor. He chose to help you on his own, we stuck around because you didn't deserve to die in the state that you were in. You deserve an honorable death, at old age surrounded by friends and family. Not...not..." Zavok sighed, his voice trailing off. Sonic couldn't help but grin, the thought of the big bad Zavok getting all sentimental over him was pretty entertaining. "Aw, you care about wittle old me?~" Sonic asked teasingly, Zavok scoffed at Sonic. "Don't push your luck hedgehog." Zavok snipped at Sonic, "I plan to keep in contact with the doctor, we're leaving." Zavok said, turning to the door. "See you later, blue hero." Zavok said before he and Zazz exited the room.

SONIC POV:

Metal Sonic and Sonic were left alone in the room, Metal Sonic turned to Sonic. "So...how are you coping with all this?" Metal Sonic asked. "I...I think I'll be okay." Sonic said, and he meant it too. He just hoped this peace would last.

---A Few Days Later---

Sonic was recovering well, he was gaining 2-3 pounds a day, which was good. He was quite malnourished and dehydrated when he found himself under Eggman's care, but now he was steadily gaining some much needed weight and was no longer dehydrated. It had been a week since he woke up in the Emperor Egg-Ship, but while his body was recovering, a new problem was rearing it's ugly head.

It was obvious to everyone who laid eyes on, Eggman, Metal Sonic, even Orbot and Cubot who Eggman considered to be "Dumb Bolt Buckets" could see it. The dark bags under his eyes, the drowsiness, how he jumped at every bang and creak. Sonic was obviously exhausted and in dire need of proper sleep, but the hedgehog refused to admit it. Maybe because he was scared of being seen as weak, maybe he didn't want to admit he wasn't invincible, no one knew and Sonic certainly wasn't telling.

The problem wasn't with Sonic's body, it was with his mind. He was having nightmares, terrifying, horrible, vivid nightmares so scary he would rather spend the rest of the night lying awake in bed then go back to sleep and risk a continuation of the terror.

Sonic laid in his bed, asleep but not for long. Tossing and turning, tears pricking at his eyes as he mumbled incoherently in his sleep. He was having another nightmare and from the looks of it, a nightmare much more nasty then it's predecessors.

---In Sonic's Nightmare---

Sonic was running for his life, in a black void surrounded on all sides by endless darkness. He was running on a cold, twisting, cobblestone path, behind him was a mob of humans armed to the teeth with guns and searchlights, looking for him.

No matter how fast Sonic ran, he couldn't seem to keep the humans far behind him for long. A searchlight fell on him, causing a wave of panic to wash over Sonic as bullets rang out into the abyss, some bullets whizzing past him while others hit the ground behind him.

Sonic rasped and wheezed, his breath ragged and his throat and legs burning. He couldn't go on like this, his stamina would soon deplete to nothing and his legs would give out, leaving him at the merciless whims of the ones chasing him.

"Those sadistic, self-righteous, fuckers. Those humans wouldn't know what it meant to be a hero if it was spelled out to them, they wouldn't know the pain or suffering they had happily put me through. Ugh, they'd probably love the misery I'm going through." Sonic thought as he ran.

Sonic yelped in agony as a sharp pain cut through his legs. He'd been shot down.

Sonic crashed to the ground as his body was bathed in the light of multiple searchlights, he could feel the cool steel of the barrel of many guns pressing into his back and forcing him to stay on the ground.

"Ha! Got em!" One voice cried out.

"I shot the freak first!" A second announced.

"Nuh-Uh! I got him first so I get first beatings on the little blue bastard!" A third voice whined.

While the soldiers argued, Sonic was trying to stealthily crawl away. He didn't want to die yet, he still had so much he wanted to do! Sonic was so close to getting away when a human grabbed him by the scuff of his neck and threw him across the path. Sonic tried to scramble to his feet but a boot came crashing down onto his back and slammed him to the ground. Sonic let out a cry of pain as the boot pressed into his back, "Argh! Please don't hurt me!" Sonic begged, but all he got in return was being kicked onto his back, the last thing he saw was the barrel of a gun being pointed at his head.

---End Of Nightmare---

"NOOOO!" Sonic cried out, shooting up in bed with tears pooling in his eyes as he gasped for air. Sonic wiped a cold sweat off his brow with shaking hands, slowly regaining control of his breath.

Once Sonic was breathing normally, he slowly got out of bed, he was still shaking but it wasn't as bad as when he first woke up. "God fucking dammit..." Sonic rasped under his breath. "That was one of the worst one's yet..." Sonic looked over at the digital clock on his bedside table. "2:37 am" the clock read. Sonic tiptoed out of his room, he hoped he hadn't woken up anybody with his nightmare. He couldn't let them know he was suffering this much. He didn't want to be a burden, he couldn't be a burden. If he was a burden, he was vulnerable. If he was vulnerable, he was unlovable. If he was unlovable, he was guaranteed to die alone.

Sonic snuck into one of the bathrooms on the Emperor Egg-Ship, turning on the sink and splashing some water on his face, trying to wake himself up. He knew he wouldn't be able to fall asleep for the rest of the night so he may as well stay up. Sonic turned off the sink and crept out of the bathroom, he was on his way back to his room when while passing by the lounge area a familiar voice that Sonic didn't expect at this time of night rang out.

"Sonic? What are you doing up this late?" Sonic looked over into the darkness of the lounge to see Eggman, of all people, sitting in a recliner with a computer on his lap and a cup of coffee on the side table next to him. Eggman was wearing a fluffy pink and white robe, pink sleep pants paired with pink fuzzy slippers and a tiny pink and white sleeping cap on his head, Eggman still had his signature blue goggles over his eyes, he must've slept with them on.

"Er...umm...what are you doing up so late?" Sonic asked, point an accusatory finger at the mad doctor. "Me? Well, if you must know I'm staying up late to finish up a few projects of mine." Eggman explained, shooting Sonic an annoyed glare. "Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Eggman asked.

Sonic gulped nervously, should he tell Eggman about his troubles? What if he thought that Sonic was being weak or kicked Sonic out for being a burden? But Sonic knew that Eggman would probably not take no for an answer so he decided to come clean. "I...I..." Sonic let out a sigh. "If I tell you, do you promise to keep it to yourself?" Sonic asked. Eggman's expression softened once he realized the creature was genuinely opening up and by doing so, putting himself in an incredibly emotionally vulnerable state. "Yes I promise." Eggman said. Sonic hesitated for a few seconds, scanning Eggman's face to try and see any kind of deception but their was none to be found.

"Okay...so...I had a nightmare, a pretty nasty one actually. I couldn't sleep so I decided I would just stay up all night in my room." Sonic explained while nervously clenching and unclenching his fist.

"How long have you been having nightmares?" Eggman asked. Once again Sonic hesitated, looking down at his feet before looking up to meet Eggman's gaze, Sonic's eyes were clouded with anxiety and his face lined with worry. "About...five to six days. They've slowly gotten worse over time, I don't know why..." Eggman gently placed his computer on the seat of the chair, getting up from his seat and slowly walking his way over to Sonic.

"I...I'm sorry, I shouldnt be sharing this stuff with you." You probably have enough to worry about as it is and you don't need-" Sonic was cut off by Eggman putting a hand on Sonic's shoulder.

"Listen here rodent. Don't apologize for opening up, you need to get that stuff off your chest, it's a natural and valid need. If you want to talk to someone I'm more then happy to listen and whatever you share with me, I'll keep it private unless you want me to share it. Okay?" Eggman said. Sonic muttered out a small: "Okay, thanks." and nodded his head, a small smile on his face. Sonic then turned around and started to walk back to his room when Eggman said one last thing.

"Hey, try and get some sleep. Alright?" Eggman called out from behind him. "Will do doc." Sonic said, turning his head to look at Eggman for a brief moment before turning his gaze back to his room. Eggman could only hope that Sonic would take his advice, if not for Sonic's own sake, then for the sake of the people that cared for him.

Chapter Text

Shadow POV:

Shadow ran through the hillside, he was currently doing a favor for Rouge. Knuckles hadn't been himself lately, he hadn't left Angel Island ever since Sonic was declared missing.

Knuckles had searched feverishly for Sonic in the first two weeks after his disappearance, but once the trail had gone cold Knuckles had isolated himself on Angel Island. Rouge was worried about him but too busy to see him herself, so she had asked Shadow to go check up on the echidna for her. Shadow agreed, he was worried about Knuckles as well. It wasn't healthy for someone to be alone for that long.

Shadow knew that first-hand.

Shadow approached Angel Island, using his Chaos Control to teleport himself onto the floating island.

Shadow then ran around for a bit, looking for Knuckles but seeing no sign of him. Shadow checked on The Master Emerald, it was unguarded which meant Knuckles was somewhere else on the island. It also confused Shadow, it wasn't like Knuckles to leave the Master Emerald alone.

The sound of loud repeated cracking and loud angry grunts coming from the west got Shadow's attention. Shadow rushed towards the noise, using the full power of his rocket shoes to search the area as quickly as possible in case Knuckles was in danger.

Shadow turned a corner and found Knuckles facing a grey, uneven mountainside. Knuckles was punching into the mountainside over and over again, occasionally letting out an angry grunt as he landed his punch.

Knuckles had been punching the cliffside for so long that a large dent had formed in the mountainside with cracks spreading out all around the dent. Shadow could see small red marks, likely bruises, dotting Knuckles hands from punching for so long.

"Knuckles." Shadow called out calmly.

Knuckles turned around, keeping one hand against the mountainside while letting the other hand drop to his side, Knuckles turned his head to look at eyes with Shadow. Ruby red eyes locked with amethyst purple ones.

"You...what do you want Shadow?" Knuckles asked, his voice weak and feeble. "Rouge is concerned about you and so am I. You haven't left the island in a while." Shadow explained causally. "I'm fine, go away." Knuckles growled at the black and red hedgehog, turning his head back to the mountainside and started to punch the rock face again, this time with a lot more aggression than before.

Shadow took a step forward and then hesitated. Rouge was always so much better at the whole "comfort" thing then he was. But Rouge wasn't here, Shadow would just have to try his best for now.

"Knuckles, you're clearly in intense emotional distress which is completely normal given the circumstances." Shadow got closer to Knuckles, putting a hand on the center of the red echidnas back. Knuckles didn't respond, he just kept punching the mountainside.

Shadow racked his brain for something to say, drawing up blanks before remembering something. Once when he was babysitting Cream, the young rabbit girl and her Chao, Cheese, had been sent to the market with the task of finding a certain item. Cream and Cheese had searched high and low for this item, but were unable to find it, Cream nearly in tears as she returned to her mother empty handed. However, Vanilla had reassured her daughter that it wasn't her fault, she did her best and that was enough.

This statement made Cream feel better. Perhaps, if it worked for Cream, maybe it could work for Knuckles?

"Knuckles, you did everything you could. It's not your-" Knuckles suddenly turned on Shadow, grabbing the ultimate lifeform by the arm and throwing him away. For a moment, Shadow found himself completely suspended, weightless as his body rocketed backwards. It was almost peaceful, but it quickly came to an end as Shadow landed harshly on his back, landing several yards away from where he was originally standing.

Shadow groaned softly as he pulled himself to his feet, rubbing his back that was sore from the harsh landing. Shadow squinted through the cloud of dirt freshly made from Shadows rough landing, he could make out the outline of Knuckles walking towards him.

Upon closer inspection, Shadow was able to see tears clouding Knuckles eyes and streaming down his face with his hands clenched into tight fists. "IT IS MY FAULT, DAMMIT!!" Knuckles bellowed, his voice filled with rage and despair. A wild rage swirled in Knuckles eyes, Shadow did not like the way those uncalibrated eyes were lazer focusing on him.

"I COULD'VE SAVED HIM, BUT I COULDN'T AND THAT'S ON ME!!" Knuckles practically screamed, walking towards Shadow faster. "Knuckles, calm down. I understand that you're upset-"
Shadow quickly said as he started to back away from Knuckles, but Shadow wasn't fast enough as Knuckles grabbed Shadow by the throat and slammed the ultimate lifeform against a nearby tree, the tree cracking and splitting from the force of the slam.

"Unless...what did you do? Did you rat Sonic out to your precious G.U.N?! Huh?! Are you the reason Sonic's gone?!" Knuckles was practically screaming into Shadow's face, his hand squeezing Shadows throat with enough force to easily choke him into unconsciousness. Knuckles was consumed by rage now, but dispite every fiber of his being screaming at him to fight back, Shadow did not. Knuckles was his friend, he didn't need to be pounded into the ground, he needed help.

"TELL ME, YOU STRIPED BASTARD!!" Knuckles yelled louder. Shadow struggled to breathe, let alone form sentences but he knew that fighting Knuckles would only wind him up more. He had to try talking.

"Kn-Knuckles...I assure you...me and G.U.N did nothing wrong. J-just because me and Sonic...didn't get along before d-doesnt mean I wanted this to happen..." Shadow weakly explained, he could see the rage in Knuckles eyes slowly melting away, although Knuckles iron grip around Shadows throat remained firm.

"Stop this and come to your senses...please..." Shadow managed to croak out, desperately trying to wrench Knuckles hand away from his throat. Knuckles stopped for a few seconds, his eyes widening as he realized what he had done

Knuckles quickly released Shadow, his body shaking as he covered his mouth with his hands. Shadow slumped down to the ground, rubbing his sore and visibly red throat with his hands as he coughed and gasped for air. Knuckles backed away from Shadow, horrified by his actions. Neither of them spoke for a long while, Shadow recovering his breath while taking occasional peeks at Knuckles, Knuckles mouth kept gaping open and then quickly shutting again, Knuckles entire body was now trembling.

Once Shadow got his breath back, he slowly got to his feet. Shadow walked towards Knuckles cautiously, like someone sizing up an animal that was wounded but still able to fight back. Knuckles was shaking and putting his hands out in an attempt to keep Shadow away from him.

"S-s-s-Shadow I'm s-sorry..." "I didn't mean to, I just got mad. Please...please don't-" Knuckles stammering, fearful ranting was cut off by Shadow hugging him.

Knuckles hugged Shadow back, softly crying into the ultimate lifeforms shoulder. "Shhh...it's alright echidna. It's alright..." Shadow whispered, rubbing Knuckles back in a gentle soothing motion. The two stayed like that for a while, until all of Knuckles tears had run out and the red echidna broke the hug. "Let's leave the island for a few hours and get your hands patched up. You need the fresh air." Shadow explained calmly. Knuckles could only nod through teary eyes.

____________________

"Do you want to get something to eat? There's an ice cream parlor I frequent whenever I babysit Cream." Shadow offered as they walked through the twisting paths of the jungle that was Angel Island.

"Do they have...grape flavored ice cream?" Knuckles asked quietly. "I'm not sure if it counts as ice cream, but they do have grape flavored sorbet." Shadow said. "Sounds good to me. I'll buy you whatever you want, my treat." Knuckles said as they kept walking, earning a small flicker of a smile from Shadow. "I think I'll take you up on that offer, guardian." Shadow said.

Chapter Text

The Emperor Egg-Ship landed in a grassy field in Green Hill Zone, Eggman and Metal Sonic left the airship first. Sonic following after them, Eggman was in his Eggmoblie while Metal Sonic and Sonic were on the ground. While Eggman readied his Eggmobile with Metal Sonic standing next to him, Sonic just stood and embraced the feeling of being home.

Sonic thought he'd never visit Green Hill again, except for in his dreams. He'd almost forgotten what this place looked like, the memories pushed aside by constant entrapment in dull concrete walls, pitch black darkness and the mind numbing sting of constant isolation for days on end. Sonic took a deep breath in, savoring the earthy smell of dirt and flowers drifting through the air, feeling the lush green grass beneath his shoes while appreciating the background noise of birds chirping among the sounds of dirt crunching beneath him whenever Sonic took a step. Now Sonic remembered why he loved this place so much.

"How long should it take us to find Tails house?" Metal Sonic asked his organic counterpart, snapping Sonic out of his bliss. There was still work to be done, he still had to find Tails. "It shouldn't take too long, about ten to twenty minutes." Sonic said as he stretched his legs. "It feels good to be back home, I hope Tails didn't worry about me too much while I was gone." Sonic continued.

He went to stretch his arms but only one arm met him. Sonic looked down at the stump that used to be his right arm and frowned. He hoped Tails would still recognize him after all this time. Sonic didn't even want to begin thinking about what might happen if Tails didn't recognize him.

"Alright, the Eggmoblie is ready, let's move out." Eggman announced. The trio then started to make their way through Green Hill Zone, following Sonic as their guide through the zone. Sonic stayed in front of the group while Metal Sonic and Eggman stayed behind him, Metal Sonic staying close to the mad doctor's Eggmobile at first but eventually running past Eggman and running alongside Sonic.

As Sonic led them further and further into Green Hill Zone, Metal Sonic started to notice a slow progression in Sonic. At the start, Sonic was smiling that wide, carefree smile that the robot had come to associate with him. Metal Sonic took notice of it because it was the first time since he'd been brought to Eggman and Metal Sonic that he'd smiled.

But the deeper the trio went into the zone, Sonic's smile dropped a little more, a little more, and a little more. Soon, Sonic's smile was replaced by a neutral frown. As the minutes ticked by, the robot grew more and more curious until he couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Sonic? Is everything alright?" Metal Sonic finally asked. "Yeah, I'm fine." Sonic lied through his teeth. "I guess I'm just worried, thinking about what might happen if this don't work out." Sonic said, averting his gaze from the robot's. "Doesn't work out? Can you elaborate on that? I don't understand." Metal Sonic asked. "I mean, what's gonna happen if Tails doesn't recognize me?" Sonic asked, his face clouded over with worry. "Then you can stay with me and the Doctor. It would be no bother for us to take care of you." Metal Sonic said, but it did little of comfort Sonic.

_______________________

The trio made their way through Green Hill Zone for about 15 minutes before they arrived at Tails cottage. Sonic looked around, he didn't hear the usual sounds of machines buzzing and hammers whacking from Tails workshop. But Sonic could also see that Tails plane, the Tornado, was parked in the workshops garage, so Tails was probably home. Probably.

"Stay back you two, I'll take things from here. I don't want you guys getting hurt." Sonic warned Eggman and Metal Sonic, spying a nearby boulder that was just the right size for them to hide behind and pointing to it. Eggman and Metal Sonic listened to Sonic and stayed back, going behind the boulder. Sonic knew the most about his friends so it was wise to listen to him. Besides, Eggman was not in the mood to get his butt kicked today.

Sonic walked up to the door of the cottage, his legs felt like they were made of melted play-dough and his breath was nicked with worry. As Sonic ascended the wooden steps of the porch that led up to Tails front door, he may as well have been climbing a mountain, because to him it sure felt like it.

Sonic found himself at Tails front door. He took a deep breath, held out his hand to knock on the door, and froze. His stomach was churning with anxiety and his mind was racing with second thoughts.

What if Tails didn't recognize him? What if nobody recognized him? What if Tails wasn't home? What if--

"Sonic!" Metal Sonic's robotic voice made him jump. Sonic turned his head to see Eggman and Metal Sonic peeking out from behind the boulder. "I'm sure everything will be fine! Just knock on the door!" Metal Sonic coaxed, giving Sonic a thumbs up. "Yeah, just do it! You'll be fine!" Eggman chimed in, also giving Sonic a thumbs up. Sonic nodded and gave them a little smile before turning back around to the door, after few more seconds of hesitation he finally knocked on the door. The sound of his knuckles rapping against the wood aligned with his fearful, pounding heart.

There was the sound of footsteps from inside the house for a few seconds, it sparked both fear and giddy anticipation into Sonic's soul. The door suddenly swung open, revealing Tails to be standing in the doorway. The two tailed fox's hair was messy and his inventor goggles hung limply around his neck, under Tails baby blue eyes red puffy bags had taken residence.

"Rouge, I'm not letting you use my bathroom again-" Tails stopped mid sentence as soon as he saw Sonic standing on the porch. Tails took a good long look at the blue hedgehog, looking him over thoroughly with a questioning look on his face. Sonic couldn't blame him, he was scarred to kingdom come, missing an arm and had dark bags under his eyes. The seconds ticking by as neither of them said anything. It felt like decades to Sonic, as Tails just kept sliently analyzing him over and over again.

"Hey little bro...sorry I was gone for so long..." Sonic's voice and body was shaking as he extended his arm out in a hugging position, finally finding his voice.

Tails body started to tremble as tears welled up in his wide eyes, his body sagging slightly and his ears flattened down to his head. "Sonic?..." Tails asked shakily, tears streaming down his face. Sonic nodded, with tears streaming down his face as well. The anxiety in his body was pouring out of him, quickly being replaced with relief.

"S-SONIC!" Tails wailed as he threw himself into Sonic, sobbing as he wrapped his arms around Sonic and held on with an iron grip.

Sonic hugged Tails tightly, he was so happy to have his little brother back, and Tails was so happy to have his best friend back. Both Sonic and Tails dropped to their knees and hugged right there on Tails porch.

For a while, neither of them spoke. Tails just hugged Sonic tight, burying his face into Sonic's fuzzy chest as he bawled his eyes out. Sonic curled his body around Tails, holding onto Tails with his one arm and his head tucked towards the young fox, resting his forehead on the top of Tails head. Tears sliently streamed down Sonic's face, but a relieved smile overwhelmed his mouth until his cheeks hurt from smiling.

After a few minutes, Tails released Sonic from the hug. Sonic wiped the stray tears out of Tails eyes as they stood up. "Hey Tails...there's something I need to tell you. I-Uh...I didnt get better on my own, I had some help. I can show you who helped me, but only if your okay with it." Sonic said, stealing a nervous peek at the boulder behind him.

"Yeah, you can show me." Tails said. Sonic zipped over to the boulder and motioned for Eggman and Metal Sonic to come out their hiding spots before zipping back up to Tails. Slowly, Eggman and Metal Sonic crept out from behind the boulder, Eggman keeping Metal Sonic behind him in order to protect the robot in case the situation went haywire.

Tails immediately got ready to fight upon seeing Eggman and Metal Sonic. "You two?!" Tails asked accusingly as he rushed towards Eggman and Metal Sonic, using his two tails to propel himself up into the air before rocketing himself down towards the villainous duo. Eggman started to press buttons on the keyboard of his Eggmobile while Metal Sonic darted out from behind Eggman and put up a sheild in order to protect his creator.

"TAILS, WAIT!" Sonic yelled as he immediately put himself in between Tails and the two villains, he used his own superspeed to jump up into the air and grab Tails before he could make contact with Eggman or Metal Sonic. It was a bit difficult to grab onto Tails with just one arm, Tails nearly slipped out of Sonic's grip at one point but Sonic was able to make it work. Sonic landed safely on the ground with Tails in his arm, Sonic put Tails down but still held onto him as Tails was punching at the air in Eggman and Metal Sonic's direction.

"They helped me get better, they aren't a threat!" Sonic explained to Tails, nearly shouting in the heat of the moment. Tails hesitated for a few seconds before relenting, relaxing his body and taking a step back. "Okay..." The two tailed fox grumbled. "I'll call everybody and let them know your okay." Tails said to Sonic, perking up immediately. Tails then turned his attention to Eggman and Metal Sonic, who were still a little apprehensive of Tails at the moment. "You guys can come in if you want. You did help Sonic after all." Tails said causally, before turning and walking towards the house with Sonic in tow.

"Do we enter, doctor?" Metal Sonic asked. Eggman looked from his robot to the cottage with a cautious look about him. "I suppose so. He did invite us inside." Eggman said.

---10 minutes later---

Tails had called pretty much everybody he knew to let them know that Sonic was okay. Knuckles, Amy, Shadow and Rouge were all having a reunion at Tails cottage. Amy was hugging Sonic, crying happy tears into his chest as she hugged him. Knuckles was asking a million questions to Tails who could barely keep up with them all, while Shadow and Rouge were discussing a possible culprit for who would want Sonic to suffer so much. Eggman and Metal Sonic stood awkwardly in the corner, keeping to themselves, although Eggman did sneak an occasional look at Sonic.

"Sonic! I'm so happy you're okay!" Amy cried out. "I'm happy to see you too Ames. I missed you all so much!" Sonic said as he hugged Amy back, patting her back to console her.

Shadow stepped forward, clearing his throat before speaking, a look of sadness and worry clear on his face. "Sonic, I can't imagine what you've gone through and I'm sure that all you want is to forget. But if we have any chance of making sure the people who did this to you face justice, I need you to give us as much information as possible about your captors." Shadow asked nervously, following it up with with: "If that's okay with you."

Sonic blinked a few times, he was surprised that Shadow was calling him by his name instead of the usual moniker of: "Faker". It showed that Shadow really did have a heart under his tough exterior. Sonic gulped nervously, he wanted to forget so badly, but he also wanted to see the sickos who caused him so much pain brought to justice. So, he took a deep breath and started to talk.

"Well, The President messaged me through his personal communication line and told me he needed me to meet up with a few agents of his, i figured it was legitimate and safe so I did what he said. I met up outside of an office building late at night with two humans, the President was there with me and introduced me to them, he said they were special agents that worked for the government. The agents had badges and everything, i had no reason to doubt them." Sonic said, pausing for a moment to swallow hard and push the emotions back.

"Me and the two agents got into a dark purple limousine and they started to drive with me in the backseat. After a few minutes I realized that we were going in the wrong direction, away from the White House. I asked them what was going on but all the windows blacked out and I couldn't get the doors unlocked, a weird smelling gas started to fill the backseat. I passed out after that and...woke up in a cell, in some kind of huge prison." Sonic continued, with every word that fell from his mouth, Sonic became more and more distressed.

"I stayed there for what felt like forever, only being dragged out by guards for food, showers or so they could...interrogate me and beat the shit out of me. They even...even made a f-fucked up game out of who could cause me the most pain..."

Sonic started to tear up, bad memories rushing over him like waves at a beach. Amy and Knuckles hugged him tightly. Shadow nodded solemnly before exchanging a worried gaze with Rouge, who was the next to speak.

"Sonic, what did these humans agents who were in the car with you look like? Were there any sort of logos or symbols on their car or suits? Any bit of information helps hun, but don't force yourself if it's too painful..." Rouge asked in a gentle tone of voice. Sonic pushed down tears and cleared his throat to talk. He had to do this. He had to, if he wanted to see his tormentors face punishment.

"Both humans were white and male, about late 20s early 30s, they were both wearing grey suits with a...a bright blue A logo with an X in front the A, it was printed into the top shoulder side of the suit, far left I think. One of the humans was tall, about 6 foot with slicked back dirty blonde hair and a big lightning shaped scar on his right temple. The second human was shorter then the first one, probably 5 foot with thick square glasses and jet black hair pulled into a long ponytail, the second guys nose looked like it had broken a long time ago and his hands were covered in Band-Aids, like he got into fights alot." Sonic explained.

"Did they tell you their names, hun?" Rouge asked. Sonic shook his head no. "They just called themselves Agents 1 and 2." Sonic said, fighting back tears once again from the painful memories.

Rouge nodded, she looked over to see Shadow taking notes on a notepad. He finished writing down the last of his notes before looking up at Sonic. "Thank you Sonic. Your cooperation is appreciated and valued. Good luck." Shadow said before he and Rouge left the room to go outside into the backyard of Tails cottage. "So what are your thoughts? Either of those people ring a bell?" Shadow asked Rouge. Rouge rubbed her chin in thought, the black and red hedgehog could practically see the gears turning in the jewel loving bat's head.

"The logo Sonic described seems familiar but I can't put my finger on it. I'll have to look through G.U.Ns files to see if the logo or the description of the two men pops up." Rouge said. "I can get a general to put a search team together to look for a purple limousine or the two humans described." Shadow replied.

"Mind if I pitch in my two cents?"

A voice from the back door caught both Shadow and Rouges attention, both turned to see Eggman standing in the doorway with Metal Sonic looming behind him. "I'd be more than happy to assist in the search for these criminals, if it's fine by G.U.N and you two. I might be a villain, but even I have standards and what happened to Sonic was too far." Eggman said.

"And I can easily command an army of Badniks to help with the search." Metal Sonic piped up from behind Eggman. "I'll have to run it by our supervisors. But, if everything checks out, I'm happy to have you on the team, doctor." Rouge explained, Eggman and Metal Sonic nodded in understanding.

Chapter Text

Sonic POV:

Sonic yawned, waking up to bright sunshine spilling in through his bedroom window. Sonic sat up in his bed, he was home, he was safe, but he felt uneasy. He had another nightmare last night, thankfully it hadn't been too bad, but it was still unsettling.

Sonic sniffed the air, it smelled like something was cooking in the kitchen. Sonic got out of bed and walked into the kitchen, Tails was cooking something on the stove. "Morning Tails, what are you cooking?" Sonic asked groggily, Tails turned the stove off and turned to Sonic with a smile on his face.

"I'm making chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast! Do you want some?" Tails asked. Sonic nodded and smiled wide, pancakes sounded great right now.

Tails audibly gasped and covered his mouth with his hand, his face twisted in a look of horror. Sonic was confused until he realized what had happened.

When Sonic smiled at Tails, he unintentionally showed all his teeth. Sonic had unfortunately had a couple of teeth knocked out during the 4-5 weeks he was held captive by humans.

Sonic covered his mouth with his hand, quietly mumbling out, "Sorry bud..." The room was quiet for a few seconds before Tails smiled softly at Sonic and gently took ahold of Sonic's hand, leading Sonic's hand away his mouth and holding his adoptive big brother's hand.

"It's okay Sonic, it's nothing to be ashamed of." Tails said softly, smiling at Sonic, Sonic couldn't help but smile back, not showing his teeth this time but smiling nonetheless. "Now, let's eat some pancakes!" Tails announced, which Sonic responded with a happy: "Sounds good to me!"

______________________

Rouge POV:

Rouge had been on the computer doing research all day, she had been combing through G.U.Ns files trying to find anything that might help with the investigation of Sonic's captors and tormentors. She had collected a fair bit of information that she thought might be useful and had been writing it down on a notepad or printing out what was too complex to write down. But she wanted to wait and see what information Shadow, Eggman and Metal Sonic had collected to compile it all together.

"Rouge, are you done? I have some information I'd like to cross-reference with whatever information you found." Shadow's voice rang out from behind her.

Rouge stood up from the computer to see Shadow holding a file full of paperwork. "Yeah, I'm done. Let's see what you got." Rouge said, and Shadow placed the file down on the table and opened it. The first thing Rouge saw were two mugshots of the men that fit the description Sonic had given, both of them glaring into the camera like the photographer had insulted them before taking the picture.

"These two are registered as agent's for an organization called the Anti Alien Crusade or the A.A.C for short. The A.A.C are known for their brutality and ruthlessness, they hate all aliens and think that any being that's not from Earth doesn't deserve to be on Earth." Shadow explained.

"G.U.N and many others have been hunting them down for ages, but no matter how many A.A.C agents that get arrested, more agents just get hired to replace the arrested ones." "These two also fit the description of the agents who kidnapped Sonic perfectly." Shadow continued before pointing to the first mugshot.

"The first agent is named Jon Harbour, he's in his early 30s and had been reported to have the skill to quickly learn and retain information and he also has a lengthy criminal record." Shadow explained, lifting away the first mugshot to reveal the second one underneath the first.

"The second agent is named Cecil Stonebrook, late 20s. He's registered as a raging alcoholic with a tendency to become more aggressive the more drunk he gets." "To no surprise, he also has a lengthy criminal record." Shadow stated.

Rouge thought for a moment before speaking. "Do either of them have a home address or an address for the A.A.C HQ?" Rouge asked hopefully but Shadow shook his head no. "I couldn't find any address listed anywhere." Shadow said with a disappointed tone in his voice.

A ping from both of their G.U.N approved wristbands that doubled as a communicator caught their attention. It was a notification from their supervisor, he had approved them to work with Eggman and Metal Sonic and even said that Eggman and Metal Sonic had some valuable information. So, the duo went over to see what Eggman and Metal Sonic had uncovered.

Eggman, Metal Sonic, Shadow and Rouge were in a G.U.N office. Metal Sonic was sitting at a computer with the other three standing around the robot. "Our supervisor said that you uncovered some valuable information, what exactly did you find?" Shadow asked.

Metal Sonic wordlessly tapped a few buttons on the keyboard before a website listed as: "The Glorious Anti Alien Crusade." popped up.

Metal Sonic scrolled down a bit to reveal a string of messages from various A.A.C agents, most of them talking about how much they hated aliens and things like that.

"This website is completely foul, it's been around for 14 years but the name and IP address is always changing. It's rooted through the dark web and the current IP address is listed as Antarctica." Metal Sonic said.

"Thankfully, I found an address for a home in a suburban area about 30 miles southwest of here. Apparently it's a prized hangout spot among A.A.C agents to drink, smoke and gamble. The two agents that kidnapped Sonic are also frequently found here, a party is being hosted there tomorrow night." Metal Sonic turned to face the other three.

"This might be our best, and only chance of finding these Agent 1 and 2 people." Metal Sonic said, the tension in the air so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Shadow and Rouge looked at each other and nodded. "I'll get our supervisor to put a squad together." Rouge said. "And I'll get an army of Swatbots to make sure none of these monsters slip out through our fingers." Eggman declared.

Rouge and Eggman then left the room. But Shadow stayed behind, Metal Sonic did too. He was curious to see why Shadow was staying behind. "Shadow?" Metal Sonic asked. Shadow stayed quiet, deep in thought for a moment before looking up and locking eyes with Metal Sonic.

"There's one things I still don't understand, why is the President involved with these A.A.C people? He always seemed to like the idea of working with aliens, especially Sonic. Why turn on Sonic and his previous ideals all of a sudden?" Shadow thought out loud. Metal Sonic stayed quiet for a few seconds before answering Shadow's question.

"No matter tightly a mask is fastened, it always slips off eventually." Metal Sonic quoted, he saw the confused look on Shadow's face and immediately followed it up with: "That's a quote from Doctor Eggman's grandfather, the doctor said that his grandfather told him that a long time ago. It means that you can hide behind a facade for a while, but you can't keep it up forever." Metal Sonic said.

Shadow was intrigued now, even though he already had a pretty clear guess of what the answer would be he decided to ask Metal Sonic for the answer, he was curious to hear the robot's input.

"And that applies to our current situation, how?" Shadow asked. "It applies here because The President might have pretended to like Sonic so he could manipulate him and use Sonic for his own benefit. But he couldn't hold down his hatred for Sonic forever." Metal Sonic stated, Shadow nodded sliently before they too left the room to catch up with Rouge and Eggman.

Chapter Text

It was 2 in the morning, the sky was dark, illuminated only by the dim moonlight peeking through the clouds. A squad of at least 50 G.U.N agents and Swatbots hiding in the shadows of a seemingly normal suburban neighbourhood.

Their target?

A little white house at the end of the last lane on the right nestled amongst the dozens of other homes in the suburb, surrounded by a white picket fence. On the outside, it seemed very normal, but the inside was anything but normal.

Shadow The Hedgehog, the ultimate lifeform was waiting in the shadows. His black and red striped body was illuminated only by pale moonlight as he waited on the signal to pounce on his target.

He carefully crept around on the roof, climbing up so that he was perching on the entrance to the chimney. The Swatbots had surrounded the house with G.U.N agents at both the front and the back doors and Swatbots at either side of the house.

A G.U.N commander snuck up to the front door, everyone tensed as the commander scanned the inside of the home from the front door window.

The commander waved his hand back and forth three times, signaling for the invasion to start.

The Swatbots kicked down both the front and back doors simultaneously. Both G.U.N agents and Swatbots swarmed the house while Shadow used Chaos Control to teleport down the chimney and landed in the living room.

The house was pretty small on the inside, a living room connected to a kitchen, a bathroom and one small bedroom. There were about 30 A.A.C agents crammed inside the house, most of them were either in the living room or in the bedroom sleeping off a hangover brought on by an intense night of partying.

Most of the A.A.C agents were semi hungover so capturing them was easy, large metal arms and teamwork of G.U.N Agents made quick work of the hungover ones. The few that weren't hungover or tried to escape were caught off guard by Shadow as he quickly spin dashed them into walls or into the arms of Swatbots ready to detain them.

Shadow had just handed over an A.A.C agent to two G.U.N agents, when out of the corner of his eye he saw two shadowy figures quickly sneaking into the bathroom.

Hey! Stop right there!" Shadow snarled as he rushed into the bathroom to see two A.A.C agents trying to climb out of the bathroom window. "Two going out the window!" Shadow yelled as he tried to stop them from escaping, one of them has already climbed out the window and was helping the second agent climb through the window. Shadow grabbed the second agent by the ankles and yanked the second agent backwards into the bathroom as hard as he could.

Shadow suddenly felt a sharp pain in his arm which forced him to release the second agent's ankles as he fell to the ground. Shadow looked down to see a spike sticking out of his left shoulder, the second agent must've hidden the spike in the heel of his shoe and stabbed Shadow with it. Shadow gritted his teeth, pulled the spike out of his shoulder and used Chaos Control to teleport out of the bathroom and to the side of the house where the two agents were, all in one swift motion.

Both froze up for a moment upon seeing Shadow, fear stricken for a spilt second before the first agent pulled something out of his pocket, Shadow wasted no time rushing forward while the two agents tried to escape into the backyard.

"Shoot the little bastard!" The second agent yelled, the first agent revealed what he had in his pants pocket, a gun which he used to start wildly firing at Shadow.

Shadow ran forward without even flinching. Since he was the ultimate lifeform, the bullets bounced off his skin like as if they were made of foam. Shadow tackled the second agent, pinning him to the ground and forcing his hands behind his back.

"Argh! Get him off! Get him off!" The second agent whined to no avail as the first agent promptly abandoned his partner in crime, making a mad dash for the end of the backyard so he could hop the fence and make a break for it. The first agent was halfway to the end of the backyard when two G.U.N agents rushed out in front of the first agent with their guns drawn. "Drop your weapon and put your hands in the air!" One G.U.N agent shouted.

The first agent reluctantly let the gun fall from his hands and onto the ground and put his hands up in the air, being quickly detained by the two G.U.N agents without a fight.

Meanwhile, the second agent wriggled and kicked, constantly trying to break free from Shadow's grasp but Shadow held firm.

"Stop resisting. You aren't getting away." Shadow warned, his voice monotone but stern at the same time. Yet, the shorter agent kept squirming.

Ugh, damn you alien sympathizers! We're doing Earth a favor, but you idiots have to ruin all our fun!" The second agent snapped at Shadow but Shadow didn't respond. As if on cue two Swatbots came over to him, Shadow got off the second agent and allowed the two Swatbots to grab the second A.A.C agent.

"WE WILL RELIEVE YOU OF YOUR DUTIES NOW. THE G.U.N COMMANDER REQUESTS YOUR PRESENCE." One Swatbot said. Shadow nodded and left the second A.A.C agent to the two Swatbots and ran over to the G.U.N commander who was expecting him.

Commander, you wanted to see me?" Shadow asked. "Shadow, there you are! Thank you for helping us apprehend these A.A.C agents, it means a lot of everyone." The commander said, putting an appreciative hand on Shadow's shoulder.

"I just wanted to tell you to keep your phone close, I'll be giving you a call later regarding some new information regarding this mass arrest." The G.U.N commander continued, taking his hand off of Shadows shoulder. "Thank you, commander. I'll keep my ears open." Shadow said, before the commander walked away to help two G.U.N agents deal with a couple unruly A.A.C agents.

Chapter Text

Metal Sonic and Eggman walked through the G.U.N headquarters on their way to a G.U.N officials office for a meeting with Shadow and Rouge.

Metal Sonic was staying close to the doctor, looking at the tech lining the walls and the various G.U.N agents with a childlike fascination, while Eggman was all business and stared straight ahead.

The two turned a corner and went into the G.U.N officials office they were supposed to be in. The G.U.N official, Shadow and Rouge were already there. The G.U.N official was sitting behind the desk while Shadow and Rouge stood to the side of the desk.

"Doctor Robotnik, Metal Sonic, first off I would like to thank you both for your time and assistance. Your cooperation has proved to be priceless in this situation." The G.U.N official said. "Thank you, sir. It's nice to know our efforts have not gone unnoticed." Eggman said as the G.U.N official stood up from his chair.

"We interrogated the 30 A.A.C agents that were arrested yesterday. Most of them had no information on what happened to Sonic or possibly working with the President, but the two A.A.C agents that Shadow detained just so happened to be the same two agents that kidnapped Sonic." The G.U.N official said as he stepped out from behind the desk.

At first, they wouldn't talk. But after we told them all the charges they would be facing, they decided that if they were going down, they would drag the President down with them. Apparently, the President had been holding off several months of paychecks to the two agents that kidnapped Sonic. That's why they were so eager to rat The President out." The G.U.N official continued. "What did they tell you?" Eggman piped up. The G.U.N official motioned to Rouge who stepped forward.

"They told us that dealings with the President and their bosses went back at least a year, and at first it was a simple enough exchange. The President would leave the A.A.C alone and the A.A.C. would give The President some desperately needed funding. But once Sonic came into the picture about 6 months ago and started helping humans out, that's when The President and the A.A.C truly collaborated." Rouge explained.

"The two A.A.C agents were introduced to The President about a week before Sonic was kidnapped, The President gave them orders to make Sonic suffer but not kill him. They planned everything out scarily well." Rouge finished her explanation. "So, what will it take to nail The President with a prison sentence for what's he's done?" Metal Sonic asked. "We have a substantial amount of evidence right now to put him in prison. But, with his power and connections if we try and convict him right now it likely won't amount to anything more then a slap on the wrist." Rouge sighed.

"So, what are you suggesting?" Eggman asked. "We need to go to Earth to collect more evidence and we need Sonic to testify against The President. A testimony from a primary source like that is the only way to make sure that The Present is truly punished for his crimes." The G.U.N official said. He walked out to the center of the room.

"Shadow, Rouge, Doctor Robotnik, Metal Sonic. I need at least one or two of you to convince Sonic to go to Earth and testify against The President, I don't know when a departure to Earth will become available, so it'll be better to get an answer as soon as possible rather then wait until the last minute. Agreed?" The G.U.N official stated. Everyone agreed, everyone now knew what they had to do. The clock was ticking and action needed to be taken as quickly as possible.

---The Next Day---

Sonic and Tails were relaxing at their house, they were sitting in the living room talking and watching TV when a knock at the door surprised both of them. Sonic and Tails both exchanged a look of confusion, they weren't expecting anyone, who could that be?

Tails got up to answer the door while Sonic stayed glued to the couch, paralyzed with paranoia and unease.

Sonic felt a rush fear of fear silently washing over him, it was just like in his nightmares. An unexpected knock at the door or strange noises in the middle of the night luring him close. And then doors were kicked in, the searchlights piercing right through him and made it impossible to hide Then he was either being pinned to a wall or to the ground and being killed in cold blood, or being dragged out of the house, kicking and screaming and being put right back to the hell he'd narrowly escaped from.

Sonic could already feel himself start to tremble as Tails opened the door and stepped out into the open. He braced for the worst, his quills sticking up and sharpening like knifes.

"Hi, Sonic!" Amy chirped happily as she and Tails stepped into the house, Tails closed the door behind him and the pink hedgehog to keep out the cold. Sonic felt the paranoia melt away almost instantly as soon as he saw it was just Amy. "Hey, Ames!" Sonic replied, a smile on his face. Amy was holding a box neatly wrapped up in gift wrap in her arms. She sat down on the couch next to Sonic, Tails with down next to her.

Amy placed the gift in Sonic's lap. "What is it?" Sonic asked. "It's a surprise, open it and find out!" Amy giggled. Sonic unwrapped the present and opened the box to see a ruby red shawl, with a small golden clip in the shape of a triangle that would firmly hold the shawl around someone's shoulders.

'I know it must make you uncomfortable when people stare at you. So, while I can't stop them staring, I can help you cover up your scars so hopefully people don't stare as much." Amy explained. Sonic reached down and picked up the shawl, it was a bit difficult to do with only one arm but after a few tries he succeeded in wrapping it around his shoulders.

The shawl went down to his waist and fit snugly around his body, it was even fluffy on the inside. Sonic looked up at Amy, a grateful smile on his face. "Thanks you Amy, it means a lot." Sonic reached over and hugged Amy, Amy hugged back without hesitation, Tails scooted up behind Sonic to hug him as well.

______________

It was mid-morning, the day after Sonic had received the red shawl gift that Amy had given him. After Sonic got the red shawl from Amy he hadn't taken it off for the rest of the evening, only taking it off when he went to bed that night.

It was a nice morning, the sun danced through the branches of the tree, birds chirped their morning songs and Tails was in his workshop tinkering with one of his inventions. It was something he did almost every morning. Tails always liked to start off the day with a little bit of tinkering or inventing, it helped get his mind into a productive mood.

But something was different about today, Tails found that out when he heard what sounded like an argument coming from the living room.

Tails put down what he was working on and crept over to the entrance of the living room, not making his presence known but staying just hidden enough so that he could clearly hear whatever was going on. Tails saw Sonic, still wearing the red shawl Amy had gotten him, in a heated debate with Eggman and Shadow.

"What are Shadow and Eggman here for? And why is Sonic so upset?" Tails thought as he leaned forward a little bit more to listen in on the conversation at hand.

"I don't feel safe in my own house sometimes, how am I supposed to feel safe on the home turf of the person who cut my fucking arm off?!" Sonic demanded exasperatedly, frantically motioning to the stump where his right arm used to be. Sonic spun on his heel and turned away from the two, hugging himself with his ears bent down and his face twisted into a scowl.

Eggman and Shadow shared a look of worry for a moment. Eggman hesitated for a second before stepping up to Sonic and put a hand on his shoulder. "Sonic...I know you're afraid to go back to Earth, you have every right to be. But if you testify against The President, it will greatly increase our chances of putting that monster away for a long time. Besides, I am more then ready to do everything in my power to ensure that he will never harm you again, no matter the outcome of this situation." Eggman coaxed. Sonic's face softened and his arm dropped to his side as the mad doctor spoke, Sonic turned around to look up at Eggman, his ears lifting up slightly.

"Promise?" Sonic asked feebly. "I promise." Eggman replied. Sonic looked at Shadow, then at Eggman, and then let out a deep sigh, "Fine, I'll go back to Earth and testify against The President." Sonic grumbled. "But I want it to be quick. We get in, we do what we have to do and then we leave." Sonic said, his voice back to being tense.

You're going back to Earth?" Tails asked aloud, stepping out from behind his hiding spot. All three of them were momentarily shocked, none of them knew that Tails was ever there.

How much of the conversation did he hear?

"Tails? I--how much of that did you hear?" Shadow asked. Tails looked down at his shoes nervously and hugged his two tails close to him. "I heard everything, sorry for spying on you guys. I was just curious..." Tails admitted. Tails stopped hugging his tails and stepped towards Sonic.

"If you're going to Earth, I'm coming too!" "I want to protect you from any danger!" Tails exclaimed eagerly, much to Sonic's horror. "Tails, you can't come to Earth with me, it's too dangerous! The last thing I need is you getting hurt!" Sonic protested. "But I've faced worse dangers before, I can handle it!" Let me come! I'll be careful, I promise!" Tails protested, but Sonic shook his head no.

"Tails, this is much different then any of our past adventures. There's a real possibility you could die or get seriously hurt. If we get into trouble on Earth, no one will come to save us and that could lead to a really bad situation." Sonic explained, Tails face dropped with disappointment and he crossed his arms sadly.

Sonic's walked up to Tails and bent down on one knee to be on the young fox's level. "Tails, you're my little brother and I care about you more then anything. If you went to Earth and something terrible happened to you, I wouldn't be able to live with myself! Please understand, I'm not doing this to be cruel. I'm doing this to keep you safe. Okay, little buddy?" Sonic said. "Okay..." Tails replied, still a little disappointed before hugging Sonic, Sonic hugged back.

---Later That Night---

Sonic sped through the night air, leaving behind a blue streak behind him, stars dotted the dark purple sky, overshadowed only by the pale glow of the full moon. Sonic ran towards Eggman's HQ, the massive shadow of the mechanical fortress and the faint but familiar smell of oil crept into Sonic's senses.

In the past he'd come to Eggman's lair hoping to foil the mad doctor's latest evil scheme, tonight he was coming as a friend. Sonic zipped up to the front door of the fortress and playfully knocked on the door, the massive metal door slid open with a soft creak. Sonic wasted no time running inside the massive base, he dashed down the metallic, pipe-lined hallways for a minute until he reached Eggman's office. Eggman was sitting at his desk, typing away at his computer.

"Hey, doc!" Sonic said happily. Eggman swiveled around in his chair. "Sonic, you're finally here!" Eggman said. Sonic walked up to Eggman as Eggman turned back around in his seat and started to press buttons on his keyboard again.

"Now that you're here, we can discuss the plan for when we go to Earth." Eggman said, pulling up a picture of a hotel on the screen.

"Is that where we're all going to stay?" Sonic asked.

"You're correct, Sonic. The hotel is under the protection of G.U.N so security shouldn't be an issue. You, me, Shadow and Rouge will all be staying there for a week, in our own private sector of the hotel. Everyone will have their own room and the rooms will be right next to each other." Eggman explained.

"Sounds cool to me." Sonic replied causally.

It was at this moment that Eggman realized that Sonic has never talked about his parents before or even acknowledged his parents. "Do your parents know what's going on? You've never mentioned them before." Eggman asked to Sonic. Sonic blinked, giving Eggman a weird look as his brain processed what the human just said.

"My...my parents?" A very confused Sonic asked, before it clicked for him. Then, Sonic's face dropped in sadness. "Oh! I...don't have parents, I'm an orphan." Sonic said sadly. "You're an orphan?" A now very confused Eggman asked.

"Yeah, I apparently had a dad and an uncle but they died way before I was born and my mom died giving birth to me." Sonic explained.

"But don't you have any siblings?" Eggman asked. Sonic shook his head no.

"I'm an only child. I grew up in an orphanage, spending most of my time alone as a kid, I never even knew my parents names or what they looked like." Sonic explained, a hint of sadness in his voice.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Eggman replied, putting a hand on Sonic's shoulder. "Thanks Eggman. I'm just happy it's all okay now! I have my friends, so I'm not alone anymore!" Sonic reassured.

---A Few Day's Later---

Sonic and Rouge were loading the last of the stuff they needed into the G.U.N airship. Shadow and Eggman were inside the ship helping the captain with any technical difficulties they might be having while Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Metal Sonic were watching from the sidelines. Eggman and Shadow came out of the airship and walked over to Sonic and Rouge.

"Alright, everything's good to go, the ship will be ready to take off in about 5 minutes." Eggman announced. "Sounds good to me." Sonic sighed, trying to hide his unease. Going back to Earth was a nightmare come true, but it was the only way to make sure he stayed safe from The President's wrath.

Sonic, Shadow and Rouge walked over to Tails, Knuckles and Amy while Eggman walked over to Metal Sonic. Sonic, Shadow and Rouge each got a hug from Knuckles, Amy and Tails. Each of them wishing the three departing hero's good luck.

"Be safe on your journey." Knuckles said to Rouge. "Thanks Knuckie, we'll do the best we can." Rouge replied.

"Don't hesitate to call us if you need anything." Amy said to Shadow. "We will, thanks for your concern." Shadow replied.

"Be careful, Sonic. I hope things turn out okay for you." Tails said to Sonic. "I'll be careful little buddy, I promise." Sonic replied before looking over to Amy. "I trust you'll take good care of things for me while I'm gone Ames?" Sonic asked Amy, fiddling with the gold brooch that held his red shawl in place.

"I'll make sure everything will run smoothly while you're gone." Amy assured the blue hedgehog.

Meanwhile, Eggman was talking to Metal Sonic, away from the main group. "You're in charge of things while I'm gone, Metal. Keep Orbot and Cubot from blowing something up and make sure Heavy King doesn't get into my laboratory, okay?" Eggman ordered. "I won't let you down down, doctor." Metal Sonic said, giving Eggman a little salute. Eggman grinned and patted Metal Sonic on the head. "Attaboy Metal, I trust you." Eggman said.

"The ship is ready to take off!" The captain of the G.U.N airship called out, everyone said their final goodbyes and boarded the airship.

---Several Hours of Flying Later---

Rouge was in one of the bedrooms, sitting on her bed and looking out over the night sky through the port window in the bedroom, it had been afternoon when they left for Earth, now it was getting close to midnight.

"Attention all passengers, the ship in beginning it's descent towards Earth. Be prepared for touchdown." The monotone voice of the captain came up over the PA system.

Rouge got up from the bed and walked out of her room to find Sonic in the lounge of the airship, sliently looking out the small window port that overlooked the city below.

Rouge walked over to Sonic and stood next to him, both of them wordlessly examining the city below. The city was actually quite beautiful at night, glittering like a sea of priceless diamonds in a dark cave, but it did little to comfort the bat tonight.

"How are you feeling, big blue?" Rouge asked. Sonic let out a soft snicker but there was no joy in the sound. "A lot of things. Worry, fear, paranoia. I just want to get this done and over with. I just want this nightmare to end." Rouge nodded in slient understanding.

It seemed like yesterday that Sonic was running around Mobius, annoying Shadow, going on adventures with his friends without a care in the world.

Looking at Sonic now, Rouge could see that he was a much different person now. Sonic seemed so tired, so serious, so grown-up. If someone wanted to compare the Sonic of the past and the Sonic standing before her, they would be forgiven for thinking they were two different people.

"It's starting to come to an end, we just have to push through this final hurdle." Rouge said softly. Sonic turning to look at Rouge, a wary smile tugging at his lips.

"Attention passengers, the ship is starting its descent now. Please grab your belongings and prepare to disembark. Thank you." The monotone voice from the PA system stated. Sonic let out a deep sigh, stepped away from the window port and steeled himself for whatever might be waiting for him on the ground below.

Chapter Text

It was about an hour after Sonic, Eggman, Rouge and Shadow had landed on Earth. Sonic had finished unpacking his stuff and was resting in his hotel room, sitting on his bed and aimlessly flipping through TV channels.

Sonic couldn't help but feel uneasy. Even though he was in a secure hotel that was protected by an elite military force, he still felt unsafe.

But then again, how could he feel safe in a place where so much bad stuff had happened to him?

Even before his amputation, it was always clear that he was never truly welcome on Earth. Someone was always trying to catch him or humiliate him or blame him for problems that a second look would've easily solved. No matter how much good he did for the planet, the denizens of Earth always seemed ready to turn on him at any opportunity. They seemed so eager to turn on him too.

"Why did i put up with their crap for so long? I should've left 'em high and dry ages ago." Sonic reflected, wondering if he could've done something different. Maybe thing's wouldn't have turned out so bad if he had made a different choice. But, there was no dwelling on the past now.

A knock at the door snapped Sonic out of his thought. Sonic got up from the bed and walked over to the door, he looked through the peephole to check and see how it was. Shadow was standing on the other side of the door with a neutral expression on his face.

Sonic opened the door for the black and red hedgehog and allowed him to walk into the hotel room before closing the door behind Shadow. "Hey, Shadow! What's up?" Sonic asked nonchalantly. "Not much, Sonic. I just wanted to let you know that we'd be going to a meeting with a small council of high standing government officials, to see what they can do to help you out against The President." Shadow explained.

"Alright, sounds good." Sonic said, doing his bes to hide the nervous hesitation in his voice. "Also, there's a bunch of reporters downstairs in the lobby. They might try and take pictures of you, so be careful." Shadow warned. Sonic gulped nervously, fiddling with the gold pin that held his shawl together.

The thought of people taking pictures of him and doing whatever they wanted with the unwanted pictures made Sonic's stomach churn and bubble with unease.

"Can't we wait until the reporters leave?" Sonic asked nervously. Shadow shook his head solemnly. "I'm afraid not, it'd be best if we go now before the reporters get more rambunctious." Shadow said, he clearly didn't want to do anything that would make Sonic uncomfortable but they both knew they didn't have any choice.

Sonic sighed deeply. "Okay, let's just go." Sonic grumbled defeatedly. The two hedgehogs then left the hotel room and walked over to the hotel elevator that would take them to the lobby. Rouge, Eggman and four G.U.N agents were already there and waiting for them. They all went downstairs to the hotel lobby, four G.U.N agents formed a circle around Sonic, Shadow, Rouge and Eggman as they left the elevator and started walking through the lobby to a taxi that would take them to where they needed to go.

The lobby was swarming with reporters, like piranhas in a feeding frenzy. Cameras with bright lights were flashing like crazy and microphones were being thrust towards the group. The sound of overlapping questions filled the room, every reporter was yelling over each other in an attempt to make themselves heard. The four G.U.N agents made a circle around the four, they blocked the reporters from getting to the group. They even had to shove a few especially rowdy reporters away as they got too close and shoved their microphones and cameras in the agents faces.

"Who started it, Sonic or the President?" A reporter asked hurriedly.

"Can we get a picture of Sonic's scars?" Another reporter butted in.

"Sonic, what does this mean for Earth? Are you declaring war on this planet?!" A third reporter shrieked.

Sonic squinted against the bright flashing lights, the lights made his eyes water and gave him spots in his eyes. Sonic put a hand up to shield his eyes from the bright lights, hiding behind Shadow. Shadow took notice of this, but he didn't say anything. Instead, Shadow simply stood in front of Sonic to help him hide from the bright flashing lights.

It felt like an eternity but the group finally got out of the lobby and into the crisp afternoon air outside of the hotel. Rouge and Shadow got into the taxi first and then Eggman. Sonic was about to get into the taxi, when someone grabbed him by the back of his head, yanking him backwards so abruptly and roughly that Sonic thought that the quills on the back of his head would be pulled off!

Sonic was almost pulled off his feet, he put his hand behind his head to try wrestling away whoever was grabbing him while digging his heels into the ground. But before he could, Sonic was spun around, grabbed by the front of his red shawl and dragged even further backwards.

Camera's and microphone were unceremoniously shoved into his face and bright flashing lights in quick succession overwhelming his vision. Many hands grabbed him anywhere they could. His arm, his quills, his shawl, they all tugged in different directions. Their nails dug into the skin of his arm and grabbed fists fulls of his hair, they pulled at his shawl so hard that he was afraid the cloth would rip and leave his body exposed. Their screeching voices blended together into one loud roar. Sonic was nearly smacked in the face as they threw cameras and microphones towards him with little regard for his safety.

Sonic could hear his ragged breath intensify as the sound of G.U.N agents yelling at the reporters was added into the cacophony of noise. His heart was pounding against his ribs so hard it almost hurt, he flailed and panicked like a wounded animal attempting to escape a predators jaws.

A G.U.N agent finally quickly intervened, throwing themselves in-between Sonic and the reporter. The agent stayed behind to buy the group time while the reporter threw a fit and argued with the G.U.N agent.

Flashing spots infested Sonic's vision, making it near impossible to see where he was going. Sonic was silently panicking, he didn't know where to go and was terrified of being jumped by any more reporters. His breath was frantic and his body was shaking, he was too scared to move but he knew he had to move or get jumped.

"Sonic!" Eggman's voice stood out from the sea of unfamiliar voices, then a pair of large hands gently but firmly grabbed ahold of Sonic's arm and pulled him away from the flashing lights and reporters. Sonic started to panic and whimper because he didn't know who was grabbing him, until he was able to make out Eggman leading him out of the chaos through his spotty vision.

"It's okay, I've got you, I've got you." Eggman coaxed quietly, trying to keep Sonic calm in the chaotic lobby. "Help, help me! Help me! Help me! Help!" Sonic rasped in a whimpering voice, latching onto Eggman and clinging to him like a scared hoglet. "I am helping you. I'm getting you away from this nonsense. Just hold onto me." Eggman whispered, putting one arm around Sonic's shoulder with his other arm holding onto Sonics shawl.

Eggman helped Sonic into the taxi before getting in himself, shutting the door as he got into the car. As soon as Eggman got into the taxi, the vehicle roared to life, and quickly sped away from the sea of erratic reporters. Eggman was still holding onto Sonic, keeping his eyes on the window for a while longer before he finally realized he was still holding onto Sonic and let go of him. Although, he didn't object to Sonic curling up against him.

Sonic was in the middle of the backseat, Rouge was sitting in the front next to the driver, Shadow was sitting on Sonic's left side and Eggman was sitting on Sonic's right side. The spots in his eyes were finally starting to fade, Sonic blinked and rubbed his eyes a few times which thankfully made the spots go away completely. Sonic was shaking with fear and curled up into a ball, his quills sharp and pointed.

"Sonic? Are you alright?" Shadow asked, scooting over to Sonic and putting a gentle hand on the blue blurs back in an attempt to calm the nervous trembling that was surging through the blue hedgehogs body. "I'm sorry that happened, I promise you won't be manhandled like that again." Shadow reassured. Sonic looked over at Sonic, Sonic's bottom lip was trembling and his eyes were wide as saucers.

"I...I'm scared, Shads. I don't wanna step out of the taxi, I don't even want to be here! I just want to give the testimony and go home!" Sonic whimpered, resting his distraught face in the nook of his singular arm. Shadow reached over and wrapped Sonic up in a warm hug, Sonic hugged back, letting his head rest on Shadow's shoulder. Eggman joined in, putting an arm around Sonic's shoulder, even Rouge reached over from the front passenger seat to put a reassuring hand on top of Sonic's.

"Thank you, Shadow." Sonic whispered, he was grateful to have a support system around him who loved him. "You're welcome." Shadow whispered back.

___________________

After 20 minutes of driving, the taxi finally arrived where he was supposed to meet this council of government officials. Sonic's breathing and heartbeat had calmed down, his quills had shrunk down to their normal state.

Eggman stepped out first, then Sonic, then Shadow and then Rouge. Sonic was grateful that this part of the city was relatively quiet, no crazed reporters in sight. The group entered the building, Eggman, Rouge and Shadow were made to wait in the lobby while Sonic and two G.U.N agents went into the office we're the small council of people were waiting for him.

Inside the council room, the walls were painted a warm color and the floor was a polished white marble. Sitting on one the two beige couches that were separated by a coffee table were three people, two ladies and one man.

On the right end of the couch was a lady with jet black hair pulled into a neat bun, a woman with shoulder length hazel brown hair was sitting in the middle of the couch, and a man with curly blonde hair was sitting to the left of the couch.

"Sonic, it's nice to see you've arrived. Please, have a seat." One of the council members, the woman with jet black hair pulled up into a bun sitting at the right side of the table said, smiling warmly at Sonic. Sonic smiled back, a nervous grin onto his face. "You guys wanted to meet with me, and here I am. Let's talk." Sonic said.

"Alright then, I'd like to go over what each of us can bring to the table before we make a plan. Is that alright with you, Sonic?" Another council member, a man with curly blonde hair sitting to the left asked. "Yeah, that's fine.' Sonic causally shrugged, the man nodded.

"So, we each have something to offer. My specialty is that I can get the news under control and dictate what they say and don't say, although I can't control them completely so their is a small chance that not all news stations will listen to me. Even still, if you want me to make them say anything specific, that's fine with me too." The lady on the right explained.

I don't want anything specific to be said, I just want the news people to leave me alone and give me some breathing space until I testify. And when I do testify and it's made public, I want the whole testimony to come out, uncut and uncensored. I want everyone to know the full truth, no punches pulled." Sonic said. The lady on the right nodded. "I can do that." She said.

"I can give you extra security if you feel like you need it. Every police, fire and medical chief in this city and by extension all the people working under them answer to me. If you ever need extra security, call me day or night and I'll be more then happy to comply." The man on the right explained.

"Extra security would be great. On my way here, I was grabbed and manhandled by a reporter, so extra safety measures would really put my mind at ease." Sonic said. The man on the left nodded. "Happy to help." He replied calmly.

"Now, hold on a minute." A woman with shoulder length hazel brown hair sitting in the middle of the council spoke up. "Before I can offer my services, I need to ask you a few questions. Is that alright with you Sonic?" The woman in the middle asked, her tone of voice stern and harsh unlike the other two who were kind and gentle.

"Uh, yeah sure, ask away." Sonic hesitantly replied, a pit of dread was starting to bubble up in the pit of his stomach.

"How hard did you really fight to get out of that car?" The woman asked, her voice of voice shifting from stern to accusatory.

Sonic was speechless, unsure of what to say as the room sat in uncomfortable slience for a few seconds. "What? I-I don't understand the question, miss." Sonic said. The woman sighed irritatedly and stood up from her seat.

"You say you're the greatest hero, you say you're the fastest thing alive, but you couldn't worm your way out of that situation? Shouldn't your years of fighting villains tipped you off that something was amiss? Couldn't you have spin dashed the window and escaped or tried to out-run your attackers?" The woman continued.

Sonic couldn't form words, he was too shocked. The other two council members were just as shocked, no one expected this to happen.

"Are you saying...I didn't try hard enough? I did try to escape, I really did!" Sonic pleaded, his body started to tremble and the horrible pit of dread flew up from his stomach and got caught in his throat.

The woman in the middle scoffed. "Dare I say, Sonic, you probably knew what was going on and wanted to have some fun. And what's a bigger adrenaline rush then almost getting kidnapped? But you got in over your head, and you paid the price." The woman sneered.

Sonic couldn't move. He couldn't speak. He blinked back tears that were starting to prick at his eyes, as his body starting to shake a bit more. Sonic's heart started to pound once again, he wanted to run away but he legs refused to move.

This was a mistake. Coming here was a horrible mistake. Was he in danger? They were blaming him again! They always blamed him for everything! Were they going to try and capture him and lock him up all over again?!

Finally, one of the council members, the woman on the right, got over their shock and stood up. She slammed her hands against the desk which made Sonic jump.

"Miss Benson! That rant was not appropriate at at! You know better then to pry into our clients personal trauma, whatever the circumstances of their situation may be!" The woman in the middle sat back down in her seat, clearly embarrassed at being called out, the woman to the right paused and took a deep breath to calm herself before turning her attention to Sonic.

"I apologize for Miss Benson's inappropriate behavior, Sonic. It won't happen again. I assure you, no matter what the circumstances were, we will still be more then happy to offer our services to you." The woman to the right explained.

"Yeah, it's-its cool..." Sonic mumbled, still in shock. The woman to the right cleared her throat and all three council members stood up from their chairs. Sonic scrambled to his feet so he could run away if they tried to pounce on him.

"Sonic, please go wait out in the hallway for a moment. We need to talk with Miss Benson." The man to the right said. The blue hero nodded wordlessly and got up from his seat, quickly shuffling out of the room.

"Sonic, there you are! What-" Shadow was cut off mid sentence by Sonic speed walking out of the office, whimpers escaping his throat as he made futile attempts to wipe away the tears pooling in his eyes and streaming down his cheeks.

Eggman stepped forward and guided the crying hedgehog into a hug, Sonic buried his face in Eggman's chest as he sobbed quietly. The other two quickly came to Sonic's aid, standing around Eggman helplessly.

"What happened, hun? Why are you crying?" Rouge asked worriedly, putting a hand on Sonic's prickling back.

"One...one of the council members, they started to-to blame me for what happened to me. They got mad at me, asked if really tried to escape, if I did enough..." Sonic whimpered in-between sobs. Eggman wrapped his arms around Sonic and cradled the hero in his arms, holding him close while gently shushing him.

All three of them were angry and disgusted, but not at Sonic. How could someone look at someone who'd been traumatized, mutilated, even tortured, and blame them for their trauma? It was despicable, even by the most villainous among them could agree to that.

A council member, the man with curly blonde hair stepped out of the room and into the hallway. "Um, Sonic?" They said quietly, Sonic looked up, wiping away tears as he turned around and stepped away from Eggman. "Yes?" Sonic asked quietly.

"Um, I'd like to apologize for my colleagues horrible behavior. You won't have to see her again. I am truly sorry you were upset so badly, it's crystal clear it wasn't your fault what happened to you. I just wanted to ask, are you still giving the testimony?" The man's asked timidly.

Sonic took a deep breath, before replying with: "Yes, I'll still give the testimony."

Chapter Text

Sonic was running through Green Hill Zone late at night, sweat was dripping from his brow and his legs burned with exhaustion. He could see the silhouette of his house in the distance. Just a few more minutes of running and he would be home, he would be safe.

He could hear the angry shouts and he could smell the gunpowder coming from behind him.

If he stopping running for even a second, he would be caught and killed. He knew that.

Sonic finally reached his front door. He threw open the door, rushed inside the house and slammed the door behind him, locking the door as he ran into the house.

Sonic was panting, gasping for air in large greedy gulps. His throat felt like it was on fire and his legs wobbly from running so far for so long. He didn't even know how he got into this situation, all he knew was that something started chasing him so he started running.

It was just now that Sonic had realized that the house was completely dark. No lights were on and the house was also completely and utterly silent. The slience terrifed him.

Sonic slowly started walking through the house, using his hand to scale the wall and guide himself through the dark house. As he was walking through the dark house, he listened for something, anything. But the house was still completely quiet, except for Sonic's own footsteps and the creaking of the hardwood floor.

"Tails? Amy? Anyone?" Sonic whispered out breathlessly, but there was no response which made Sonic even more uncomfortable than he already was. Sonic kept sneaking through the house until he reached the kitchen. Sonic could faintly see something laying on the ground, he squinted through the darkness as he stepped forward into the kitchen.

Sonic let out a surprised yelp as he slipped on something and almost fell over. Once Sonic had steadied himself, he looked down to see what he had slipped on. Sonic was confused to see a red liquid stained onto the bottom of his shoe. As Sonic looked up, a chill ran down his spine as he saw a trail of red lining the kitchen floor and red liquid splattered along the kitchen wall.

Sonic followed the gruesome trail with his eyes only. As his eyes lowered to the kitchen floor, he first saw Tails, then Amy, laying face down in a pool of crimson. Neither of them were moving an inch.

Bullet holes smeared in red riddled both their bodies. Amy was laying on top of Tails, her arms were wrapped around him in a rushed fashion.

Sonic started to tremble as tears pooled in his eyes, he dropped to his knees as strained whimpers escaped his throat. His mind was spinning with questions and blank at the same time. He felt overbearingly dizzy and wanted to throw up, but he just gagged instead. He felt overwhelmed and numb at the same time. His chest was so heavy, so heavy with guilt.

Sonic crawled over to Tails, barley able yo move properly due to his shaking limbs. Sonic gave the body a gentle shake. Tails still didn't move, neither did Amy.

"Tails...wake up. Wake up, please. I can't...I can't do this alone. Why, why wasn't it me?" Sonic murmured to himself, his voice shaky and lined with sob induced hiccups.

Tails body was so cold, even if the two had spent hours playing in the snow he'd never felt anything as cold as Tails currently was right now.

He'd stepped in blood, he'd stepped in his friends blood. He felt sick and unclean just thinking about it.

Soft whispers and the sound of a gun being cocked from behind him made Sonic whip around, his vision blurry from all his tears. All Sonic could make out in front of him was the shine of steel, then he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun.

___________________

"GAH!" Sonic shrieked as he shot up in bed, his body shaking uncontrollably and his eyes were clouded with tears. Sonic was breathing in short frantic gasps, swinging his arm around frantically.

It took Sonic a few seconds to remember where he was, he was in the G.U.N protected hotel, in his hotel room, on Earth. Sonic wiped a cold sweat from his brow, backing up on the bed until his back smacked against the wooden backboard, Sonic wiped tears from his eyes with a trembling hand, his pounding heart gradually slowed down to a normal rhythm as he sat against the bed's headboard.

"Fuck...c'mon, Sonic. Breathe...breathe. "You're safe, you're safe. It's okay." Sonic thought to himself, even though he didn't believe it.

Sonic slowly pulled himself out of bed, glancing over at the digital clock on his bedside table. "8:29 am" the digital dial stated. Sonic let out a yawn, stretching as he did. "I need to get ready for the day. I should start with a shower since I don't really want to leave the room right now." Sonic thought to himself as he walked over to the hotel rooms bathroom.

Ten minutes later, Sonic had taken a hot shower, brushed his teeth and straightened out his blue quills. But, he still couldn't put the nightmare out of his mind, the bad dream was stubbornly clinging to the outskirts of his mind. "I got lucky today, that nightmare wasn't too intense. They can always get worse." Sonic thought as he finished putting on the red shawl that Amy had gifted him.

Sonic caught a glimpse of the city below from his hotel window. The city, much like him, was just waking up. Cars and buses were starting to fill the roads and people were starting to pour into the sidewalk, people were going for a morning run or morning bike ride. People were getting into their cars or calling taxis to get to work.

The sun seemed to be hiding from the world, peeking out from behind the skyscrapers, anyone else would think it was beautiful. And it was beautiful, Sonic had to admit that.

But when he looked down at the city, he didn't find it inviting or fun, in the past he saw Earth as one giant adventure for him to explore. Now it just made him scared. On Earth, anything could happen to him. Anyone could hurt him and there was a chance no one would care.

Sonic didn't hate Earth or want to destroy it, he just didn't feel safe on Earth. He couldn't wait to get off this godforsaken rock and never come back. It has been a day since Sonic had met up with the council of humans, after the incident that happened there Sonic was given a day to recover and calm down from what was said before giving his testimony.

A knock on the door to his hotel room caught Sonic off guard, Sonic walked over to his door and looked through the peephole. He was surprised to see Eggman standing on the other end of the door. Sonic opened the door, much to the mad doctor's surprise.

"Sonic, you're awake already? I thought you might have just woken up." Eggman explained. "Heh, it's alright Doc. No harm no foul." Sonic said causally, a lopsided grin on his face. Eggman raised an eyebrow, just now noticed that the dark bags under Sonic's eyes had gotten darker.

Sonic had been plagued with eyebags since the beginning of his madness, some days the eye bags were faded and some days they were more prominent. The darker the eye bags were usually indicated how bad the nightmares were getting.

"Did you have a nightmare? You have bags under your eyes." Eggman said. Sonic was surprised, he knew he had eyebags but he didn't know they were that noticeable. "Uh, yeah, I did. Thankfully it wasn't too bad this time." Sonic sheepishly replied, rubbing the back of his neck.

Eggman stepped into the hotel room, closing the door behind him. The duo walked over to the bed and sat down, Eggman noticed the messy bedcovers, another indicator of a nightmare. But he said nothing of it."You know what day it is today, right?" Eggman asked. Sonic nodded solemnly, he knew that today was the day he was going to give his testimony against The President.

"Yeah, I know." Sonic sighed, nervously fiddling with the gold brooch that held his red shawl together. He was afraid for many reasons, fear of the unknown, fear of potential consequences. But he was ready to do it, he had to do it, he wanted to do it. He was ready to give his testimony and put an end to this nightmare once and for all. "I'm nervous, I guess, but I'm ready." Sonic declared. Eggman put a hand on Sonic's shoulder comfortingly, a warm smile on his face."I know you can do it." Eggman said. "Thanks, Eggman." Sonic smiled, it was nice to have someone help him along the final hurdle.

Sonic and Eggman talked for a few minutes before leaving the hotel room and going downstairs, where a G.U.N appointed taxi was waiting for Sonic. The taxi drove to take Sonic to a private, off the beaten path building where Sonic could safely give his testimony. Sonic arrived at the building after a few minutes of driving. When walked into the building, two G.U.N bodyguards were trailing behind him for his protection. Sonic was stuck in the building's waiting room for a few minutes until a G.U.N agent called him into a small room.

The room was in interrogation room, like the one you'd see on TV. In the room, there was a large wooden table with two chairs sitting across from each other, a box of tissues and a tape recorder were placed in the middle of the table. Sonic sat down on one side and the G.U.N agent sat down on the other side, the G.U.N agent turned on the tape recorder as soon as both of them had sat down.

"Hello, Sonic. Before we start, I need to ask a few things, just for standard policy's sake." The G.U.N agent said. "Do you understand and consent to your audio testimony being used against The President in the upcoming trial?" The G.U.N agent asked.

"Yes, I understand what I'm doing and I consent to it." Sonic said.

"Do you consent that the contents of this audio testimony will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?" The G.U.N agent asked again.

"Yes. I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." Sonic replied.

"Alright, with the standard policy stuff out of the way, let's start at the beginning. Would you mind telling me how it all started between you and The President?" The G.U.N agent stated, motioning for Sonic to begin talking.

"Alright, it all started about a month ago. The President messaged me through his personal communication line and told me he wanted me to meet up with a few agents of his in a private meeting. Back then, I still trusted him and since it was through his personal communication lines i thought it was safe so I listened to him." Sonic explained.

"I met up with him outside of a big, grey office building late at night with two other humans. The President introduced them to me, he said they were special agents that worked for the government. The agents had fancy badges and were really kind to me, i never had reason to doubt any of them. Me and the two agents got into a dark purple limousine while the President stayed behind and they started to drive with me in the backseat." Sonic continued, his voice started to shake but he swallowed hard to push it down and kept going.

"After a few minutes, I realized something was wrong, we were going in the wrong direction. They were driving in the opposite direction of the White House. I asked them what was going on but they didn't answer me, they just kept driving. The windows suddenly blacked out and I couldn't get the doors unlocked. Then, a weird smelling gas started to fill the backseat, I tried to escape but I couldn't and eventually passed out. After that i woke up in a pitch black cell, in some kind of huge prison-like place." Sonic said, his body and were voice trembling. He bit his quivering lip in an attempt to fend off tears as painful memories started to flood his head.

"And, what did they do to you in the prison?" "Did they...torture you or threaten you in any way?" The G.U.N agent asked, visibly shaken up by what he was hearing.

"Torture, threats? Where do I begin?" Sonic said, bitter sarcasm oozing from his voice as he scoffed at the end.

"They...would drag me out of the cell and into an interrogation room, every single day. It was normally two of them, but sometimes it was three or even four. When I was there, they would threaten to kill me, kill my friends, attack and invade my home if I didn't answer their questions." Sonic swallowed hard to keep the painful memories from overtaking him.

"They wanted to know the secret of my super-speed powers, the location of the Master Emerald, how Mobian society worked. I didn't tell them anything, of course. When I refused to tell them anything, they would..." Sonic gasped, blinking rapidly to stifle the growing in his eyes.

"Oh Gaia...th-they would beat me until I was bloody and bruised all over, sometimes with their fists, sometimes with a pipe or a stick. They would slam me up against walls and strangle me, electrocute me with jumper cables. They would burn me with cigarettes...make me go without food for days on end, force feed me alcohol. When I would spit it out, they would just force my head back and pour more down my throat until I threw up..." Sonic choked back sobs, and started nervously combing his hand through his quills, squeezing his eyes shut as tears started to slip out of them.

"I can't--it hurts just thinking about...oh Chaos no!" Sonic whimpered, dissolving into tears towards the end. Sonic hid his face with his arm and turned his head away from the agent, tears were streaming down his cheeks and soft whimpers trickled from his mouth.

The G.U.N agent uncomfortably slid the box of tissues over towards Sonic. "I'm...sorry to hear that all that happened to you, Sonic." The G.U.N agent muttered, unsure of what to say. Sonic took a tissue from the box and wiped his eyes with it, sniffling slightly. "Thanks..." Sonic replied softly, after taking a minute to collect himself he continued with the testimony.

"So, how have these experiences affected your life?" The G.U.N agent asked.

"I-um, I can't sleep, for starters. I'll lay awake in bed in the middle of the night for hours, listening to every little sound as I wait for something to jump out at me, even though I know I'm safe. Even though I know that I'm safe and nothing will hurt me. Sonic said, his voice was still trembling but he carried on.

"I get nervous and jumpy whenever I'm home alone, I can't stop looking over my shoulder even though nothing's there. And then, the nightmares. Oh Chaos, the nightmares! I can't go without having at least one or two nightmares a week." Sonic paused for a moment as he inhaled sharply to recollect himself.

"The nightmares vary. Sometimes, I know I'm home when I wake up. But other times the nightmares are so vivid it takes me a solid minute or two, just sitting there in a cold sweat before I'm able to recognize where I am. I can't sleep, I'm scared to sleep out of fear I'll have a horrible nightmare..." Sonic explained, blinking away tears again.

"I...I see. Thank you for your time.You're very brave in doing this, I applaud you, Sonic. Thank you for your testimony, this will be put to good use. We should have an update for you in a day or two." The G.U.N agent said.

Thank you." Sonic said, the both of them stood up. The G.U.N agent then turned off the tape recorder.

Chapter Text

Shadow and Sonic were in Sonic's hotel room, helping the blue blur pack up the last of his stuff. It had been a day since Sonic had given his testimony against The President, tomorrow they would leave for Mobius and never return to Earth. Sonic couldn't wait to go home, to his own planet, to his friends, to where he belonged.

"I've already made up my mind." Sonic said out of nowhere as he clicked his smaller travel bag shut. "Made up your mind about what?" Shadow asked as he stopped halfway through putting the last load of gloves and shoes into Sonic's suitcase, looking up from his task.

"I've made up my mind about Earth. Once I leave here, I'm never coming back here. I'm going to the government officials of Earth in an hour to tell them my decision." Sonic explained. Shadow raised an eyebrow at Sonic, Sonic's face looked deep in thought, his facial expression torn between nervous and serious. "What lead you to that decision? Just curious is all." Shadow asked, throwing in the "Just curious" part at the end to make sure he wasn't being rude.

"Well, aside from the whole...everything that's happened with The President, I just don't feel welcome on Earth, I never have. No matter what I do for them, no matter how much of my time and energy I give towards helping the people of Earth, the second something goes wrong everybody blames me and I get punished for something I didn't even do. And when I'm revealed to be innocent, they rarely apologize! I honestly don't know I've helped Earth for as long as I have, but today my generosity runs out." Sonic declared, putting a hand on his hip.

Shadow suddenly looked very guilty and turned his back to Sonic, crossing his arms uncomfortably. "I see...I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything."

It took a second to click for Sonic on what Shadow was talking about. "Shadow are...you and I thinking the same thing?" Sonic asked. "Yes. Sonic, about what happened when I first showed up and the situation with the ARK, I'm sorry for what I did. If I ever helped make you unwelcome on Earth, I-" Shadow cut himself off, too ashamed to speak another word.

Sonic walked in front of Shadow and put his hand on the ultimate lifeforms shoulder. "Shadow, it's okay, really it is. I already forgave you for that stuff a long time ago. You were grieving and traumatized, who can blame you for going to the dark side?" Sonic gently reassured, a small smile worked its way onto Shadow's face. "Thank you, Sonic." Shadow nodded.

"No problem, bud. Besides, now that I think about it, I can kind of see where you were coming from back then." Sonic admitted, much to Shadow's confusion.

"I mean, before I lost my arm, I didn't know what it was like to permanently lose a part of yourself. I felt lost, scared, alone, I felt incomplete. Maria was your family, your everything, I can see where you were coming from." Sonic explained, leaving Shadow stunned. Never in a million years did Shadow ever think that Sonic would be able to relate to him and never did he think that he would be able to understand what Sonic was feeling. "It's good to know we understand each other." Shadow said.

"Oh boys~" Rouge's voice drifted into the room, both hedgehogs turned to see Rouge fluttering into the open doorway. "I'm going jewelry shopping before we leave, either of you want to come with me?" Rouge asked. "I'll go with you, Rouge. But only to make sure you don't steal anything." Shadow declared sarcastically, Rouge let out a playful scoff.

"Oh please, you're no fun." Rouge said as she rolled her eyes. Eggman walked up beside Rouge. "Sonic, you're going to the government to tell them your decision, yes?" Eggman asked. "Yep, I'm going right now." Sonic said. "Would you mind if I come with you, for moral support? I'd also like to see the look on their faces when you tell them your decision." Eggman explained. "Yeah sure, you can come with me, doc." Sonic said.

_______________

Sonic and Eggman were walking through the hallway of a government office, neither of them saying anything. Sonic was nervously fiddling with the golden brooch that held his red shawl together. The shawl made him feel safe, it reminded him of his friends, of his home. It was like a safety net he could wear.

Sonic and Eggman got to the end of the hallway, a large wooden door stood in his path. On the other side of the door was a collection of government higher-ups eagerly waiting for him to arrive.

"You ready?" Eggman asked. "Yeah, I'm ready." Sonic said, he took a deep breath and opened the door, stepping into the office first, Eggman entered behind him. All the government higher-ups seemed both startled and relieved to see Sonic, an awkward silence falling over the room for a few seconds.

"Oh, you're finally here! Welcome, Sonic, welcome!" One of the government higher-ups said, breaking the awkward tension in the room. The government higher-up walked over to Sonic and shook his hand. "Nice to be here." Sonic said, forcing an easygoing smile onto his face.

"Have you made a decision?" One official asked aloud. "Yes, what's going to happen?" Another official asked. "What's the plan?" A third official asked. Before Sonic could even get a word out, more and more government higher-ups started asking questions, all of them crowding around Sonic and Eggman, although you couldn't hear half of them because everyone was talking over each other.

Eggman was tempted to say something when Sonic beat him to the punch and spoke up first. "Woah, woah, hold on folks!" Sonic declared, putting his hand up."Everybody chill out. I'll tell you all my decision right now. But you gotta be quiet and let me talk!" Sonic explained and the room fell silent.

"Okay, my decision to help Earth is...I can't afford to help Earth out anymore." Sonic declared, the room again broke out into a frenzy of questions and different voices talking over each other, this time Eggman didn't bite his tongue and was the one to speak.

"Let him explain, let him explain!" Eggman gently warned, stepping forward and putting an arm in front of Sonic. "Doctor Robotnik is right, everyone please be quiet!" The government higher-up who shook Sonic's hand ordered, the room fell silent once again.

"Okay, okay, the reason I'm not helping Earth anymore isn't because of anything one person did, I came to this decision over a long period of time and I've thought it through a lot." Sonic paused to take a breath.

"No matter what I do, no matter how much I give to the people of Earth, I never get back what I put in. Sometimes I even get punished for doing nothing wrong but being on Earth at the wrong time and when my innocence is found out, I rarely hear an 'I'm sorry.' from someone in charge. That's happened multiple times, to the point I don't feel welcome on Earth anymore.

The only reason I've kept coming back is entire when I accidentally get transported here or I come back for the people of Earth who need protection and don't have a say in what the higher ups do. But now, I'm not coming back or helping Earth at all. I'm just not getting back what I put in and I'm sick of it." Sonic explained. The room stayed quiet for moment, everyone except for Eggman processing what Sonic had just said.

"But, isn't there something we can offer you?" One higher-up suggested.

"We can change, just give us a chance!" Another higher-up protested. Sonic shook his head no.

"I'm sorry but you're not going to be able to change my mind on this, I've made my choice and I'm sticking to it. The next time you need help, call on someone else, because I won't be answering." Sonic declared, the room entered a state of hushed and frantic whispers for a minute before going quiet again for the last time.

"Very well, if that's the choice you're going to make, then we accept it." The government higher-up who had shaken Sonic's hand spoke up, looking at Sonic before turning to the rest of the higher-ups. All of them nodded and murmured out a "yes". Sonic felt a weight lift off his shoulders, it felt good to have stood his ground and said his piece."Have a good day." Sonic said, then he and Eggman left the office, Eggman letting Sonic out first and then closing the door after himself.

_______________

Sonic stepped out of the building, the cool evening air brushing past his face. Sonic looked up to the sky, the sunset was a beautiful mix of reds, yellows, pinks and purples."Well, that was a doozy. You ready to head ba-" Eggman stopped mid sentence when he saw tears silently rolling down Sonic's cheeks, despite this Sonic was smiling softly as he looked towards the sunset.

"Sonic, what's wrong? You're crying." Eggman asked, motioning to Sonic's face. "O-oh yeah, it's okay Eggman. Really, it is! These are just happy tears, I'm glad this nightmare is finally over." Sonic said, wiping his tears away. Sonic seemed to be surprised that he was even crying. "How about we go back to the hotel and finish packing up? I'm sure Rouge and Shadow have come back by now." Eggman offered while walking up besides Sonic. "Sounds good to me." Sonic replied, wiping the last few teardrops from his eyes.

Eggman and Sonic began their walk back to the hotel, making small talk and laughing as they did. They were halfway back to the hotel, going through a very quiet street, when a car pulled up on the other side of the street. It cruised into the alleyway in a way that intentionally blocking the duo's path.

Sonic's stomach dropped and his heart rate quickened when he realized the car was a purple limousine.

Sonic's body started to tremble when The President, grinning wickedly, stepped out of the driver's seat. Four A.A.C agents stepped out of the backseat, laser guns in hand.

Eggman stood in front of the terrified blue hedgehog. Sonic was shaking and whimpering, tears pricking at his eyes.

"No...no no no no...please no..." Sonic begged, covering his mouth with his hand.

"Hello, Sonic. You're coming with me." The President coldly declared, a wicked toothy grin still plastered on his face as the four A.A.C agents surrounded the two. Eggman stepped in front of the distraught hedgehog, activating the mini-laser gun hidden in his glove, a little orange light flickering to life on his index finger. "No. He's. Not." Eggman growled at The President, who had a cold uncaring sneer on his face. "You don't have a say in the matter, doctor. Take him." The President coldy declared, snapping his fingers and causing the four A.A.C agents to start to close in on Sonic and Eggman. Sonic turned to face two of the A.A.C agents standing before him, backing up until Sonic's back collided with Eggman's. "I'll take these two, you handle the other two." Sonic said, he said, trying to sound cool and collected but a slight tremor in his voice betraying him. With that, the two parties began to fight, the A.A.C agents didn't even have a chance to blast Eggman as he blasted them first, causing the two A.A.C agents on his side to fall to the ground stunned. On Sonic's side one A.A.C agent tried to rush him but Sonic dodged and spin dashed the agent to the ground, the second agent kept their distance and started firing laser blasts but Sonic kept dodging, weaving in-between the projectiles and appearing right in front of the agent. Sonic gave the second agent a mean right hook before spin dashing the second agent to the ground as well. While Sonic and Eggman were fighting the A.A.C agents, The President was furious. He was so close to victory, he couldn't--he refused to fail now! The President snuck over to one of the unconscious A.A.C agents and quietly took their laser gun, his sights set on Eggman who was busy dealing with the other A.A.C agent on his side. "Sonic!-" A strangled cry from behind caused Sonic to spin around, he was horrified to see The President standing behind Eggman with one arm wrapped around Eggman's throat and the other arm pointing a laser gun to the mad doctor's temple. "Oh, Sonic~" The President called out in a cruel mocking tone. "I think it'd be in your best interest to do what I say." The President continued, his tone of voice suddenly switching to cold and menacing. "No! Let him go!" Sonic pleaded, taking a quick step forward before stepping backwards just as quick. "You want me to let him go so badly?" I'll comply, but only if you do something for me first." The President snarled. "Sonic, don't-!" "Shut it!" Eggman tried to stop Sonic, but The President cut him off and pressed the barrel of the laser gun up against his temple even more. The President turned his attention back to Sonic, Sonic's heart was racing and his legs felt weak like they were made of jelly. Sonic, take off your shawl and throw it to the side." The President commanded. Sonic was confused but reluctantly unclipped his shawl from around his body and threw it to the side, leaving Sonic's scarred body on full display. The President smirked with sick satisfaction at the scars stretching across Sonic's body. "I see that the handiwork of my agents is even more beautiful in person." The President smirked, a perverted shudder in his voice. Sonic felt extremely uncomfortable and wanted to cover himself up with his arm but he didn't dare move and kept his arm at his side. "Now, put your arms-oh, wait-" The President paused for a moment. "-put your arm behind your back." The President continued. Sonic felt a silent rage build inside of him, his face twisted into a bitter scowl as he reluctantly put his singular arm behind his back. "Good hedgehog, now drop to your knees and don't move from that spot." The President ordered in a condensing tone, Sonic glared daggers at the evil human as he bitterly slunk to his knees. The President slowly took his arm away from Eggman's throat, still keeping the barrel of the laser gun up to Eggman's temple. The President tapped a few buttons on the barrel of the laser gun, never taking his eyes off Sonic. The President suddenly rammed the butt end of the laser gun into Eggman's forehead as hard as he could, Eggman let out a groan of surprise and went tumbling to the ground, unconscious but breathing. Sonic almost got up to help Eggman but stayed down at the last second. Without missing a beat The President fired out a blast from the laser gun, the projectile forming into a thick glowing light blue rope that easily wrapped around Sonic's body, leaving him restrained and helpless on the ground. The President calmly walked over to Sonic who was frantically twisting and squirming around, his face a look of pure terror and fearful tears forming at the rims of his eyes. "No, no no no no! You can't take me back, you can't torture me again! Stay-get away! Get away from me!" Sonic shrieked in terror, his cries falling on dead ear as The President walked right up to Sonic and slammed his foot against Sonic's chest to hold him still. Sonic winced and squeezed his eyes shut from the aching pain overwhelming his chest, he kept trying to squirm away but to no avail. Sonic opened his eyes, vision blurry with tears and tears steadily streaming down his cheeks, his shrieks of terror turning to quiet whimpers. "Don't look so scared, hedgehog. I'm not going to kill you immediately. You and I are going to have some fun first." The President sneered before raising up the butt end of the laser gun again and slamming it into Sonic's temple, then the world went black.

Chapter Text

Eggman opened his eyes slowly, the first thing he saw was a bright light against a white tiled ceiling, then he heard a rhythmic beeping. Eggman looked around the room, he was in a hospital bed in some kind of military base, hooked up to a heart monitor machine. The last thing he remembered was walking along a quiet street with Sonic, then being ambushed and being held hostage by The President and then the world going black.

Eggman tried to sit up but a sudden sharp wave of nausea that went right through his body made him lurch back down. He leaned over the bed, preparing to throw up but luckily nothing came up. Eggman's nausea was quickly replaced with a pounding headache, causing Eggman to lay down flat in the bed. The door to the room he was in slid open and Shadow walked into the room. "Eggman? How do you feel?" Shadow asked hesitantly, noticing immediately that Eggman was in pain.

"I've got one hell of a headache, where am I?" Eggman asked, the sharp pain in his head fading away as quickly as it came and leaving Eggman with a splitting headache. "You're in a G.U.N Medical Center. You and Sonic were walking back to the hotel when four A.A.C Agents and The President, who is supposed to be in jail awaiting trial but somehow escaped, showed up. You and Sonic fended off the agents but The President took you hostage and knocked you unconscious, then The President captured Sonic, knocked him out as well, and threw him in the back of a purple limousine before driving off." Shadow explained.

Eggman felt a rush of anxiety shoot through his veins at the mention of Sonic. "Sonic, is he--argh!" Eggman tried to sit up quickly but a sudden sharp pain that stabbed right into the back of his skull overwhelmed him and forced Eggman back down on the bed. "Eggman, please try and relax! You sustained a mild concussion and need to rest and recover." Shadow gently warned, walking over to Eggman's bedside. "Is Sonic alright?! Did you save him?" Eggman asked worriedly, Shadow solemnly shook his head no.

"Unfortunately, no. By the time G.U.N Agents were able to get to your location, Sonic, The President and the purple limousine were gone." "We have G.U.N Agents searching for them as we speak." Shadow said.

"To hell with that." Eggman growled, forcing himself to sit up in the bed but he was only able to stay sitting up for a moment before laying back down. "Dammit...I can't lay here and twiddle my thumbs while The President does God knows what to Sonic. I have to save him!" Eggman declared, trying to sit up again with Shadow gently pulling down on Eggman's jacket sleeve to try and keep him laying down.

"I have to save him, I have to save my s--argh!" Eggman hissed as the pounding headache revved back into his head and forced him into laying down flat on the bed.

"Stay down, doctor. I can understand your plight, but further pushing yourself is not going to help your situation." A deep, gruff voice rang out from the doorway.

Eggman and Shadow turned their attention to the doorway to see none other than Zavok, the leader of The Deadly Six and a powerful warrior was leaning against the doorframe. Snow white bandages were wrapped around Zavok's arms from his wrists to his elbows and wrapped around his legs from his ankles to his knees. Small cuts and bruises dotted his torso and face and there were small cracks in his horns. But the most striking thing about Zavok's new appearance was Zavok's tail, or rather, his lack of a tail. Zavok's tail was gone, replaced with a bloodied bandaged stump.

"Zavok? What are you doing here?" Eggman asked. "My pack was attacked by The President as well. Before you and Sonic were ambushed The President and some of his disgusting followers somehow found their way into our world." Zavok paused for a moment to steady his nerves. "They ambushed us while we were sleeping and brutally attacked us for no reason, by some stroke of luck a G.U.N patrol came across the area where we were, the patrol confronted The President and his followers and our attackers ran off." Zavok explained. Zavok's eyes were constantly darting around as he talked, he was clearly unsettled.

"Where's the rest of your crew? Are they alright?" Shadow asked. "They're in another room recovering from their injuries." Master Zik, Zor, Zeena and I got off relatively easy, only a few minor slashes and bruises. "But Zomnom and Zazz...they suffered the worst of the attack because they were the first to wake up, they've been drifting in and out of consciousness for hours now, savagely beaten and battered to a pulp..." Zavok wearily explained, an undertone of anger present in his voice as he talked, gripping his arms in frustration.

Zavok stopped leaning on the doorframe and stepped into the room, walking over to Eggman's bedside. What happened...to your tail?" Eggman hesitantly asked, he had a feeling the answer would be quite grisly but he was too curious not to ask. Zavok's body tensed up and he crossed his arms again, his eyes looking away from Eggman.

"The President...two of his followers distracted me and started attacking me from the front, The President snuck up from behind me with an axe. I only realized when I felt the searing pain in my lower backside...in one fell swoop it was gone..." Zavok's brow furrowed in rage. "Harming Sonic is one line crossed, but hurting my pack is too far!" Zavok growled, his voice shaking slightly as he spoke.

Eggman couldn't believe it, Sonic's arm wasn't enough?! He needed to dismember even more people?! Why would he do such a thing, for sick pleasure?

"Commander Shadow! Commander Shadow, sir!" A rookie G.U.N Agent cried out as he ran into the room, waving a piece of paper in the air. The rookie gave the piece of paper to Shadow which turned out to be a status report. "We found Sonic's location, sir! He's being held hostage in an abandoned fish plant located on the northeast salmon dock, sir. The only hostiles inside are The President and two A.A.C Agents, we were unable to locate Sonic." The rookie explained. "Understood." "Round up an armed rescue squad immediately and prepare to move out, but don't actually move out without me and Rouge being their first." Shadow ordered.

"Sir, yes sir!" The rookie said, saluting Shadow briefly before rushing out of the room. Shadow turned to Zavok and asked: "How would you like to take out your frustrations on the people that hurt you?"

"Are you asking us to accompany you on your mission?" Zavok asked back. "Yes, you are more then welcome to come with us, you can even bring two members of your pack of they're in stable enough condition to fight." Shadow explained. A toothy grin made it's way into Zavok's face. "Yes, I'll gladly come along with you into this fight."

_________________

Sonic awoke with a cough, his eyes blinking open to see an abandoned fish plant shrouded in darkness, illuminated only by the moonlight shining through the broken windows of the fish plant. The walls were crawling with grime and rust, dust bunnies littered the floor and cobwebs overflowing in the corners of the ceiling.

Sonic tried to move around, but he found himself tied to a metal pole. His ankles and wrists were uncomfortably tied behind his back which forced Sonic to kneel on the cold concrete, and there was a rope tied around his neck that would make him gag if he moved his head around too much. Sonic looked over with his eyes to see a metal table that looked fairly new, neatly laid on the table was a kitchen knife, a train conductors baton with a large knob on the top and lighting bolts carved into the handle and a baseball bat.

A low sinister chuckle echoed out through the room, Sonic squinted through the darkness and felt his stomach drop when he saw The President walking towards him.

Sonic tried to struggle away from The President but to no avail. Sonic glared daggers at The President as he walked over with a smug grin on his face and knelt down on one knee right in front of Sonic. "Enjoy your beauty sleep?" The President asked sarcastically. Sonic didn't respond, he just pursed his lips and scowled at The President.

"Tch, the least you can do is answer me, brat." The President scoffed. When Sonic continued to stay silent, The President suddenly grabbed Sonic by the throat with one hand and started to squeeze. Sonic wheezed and coughed, frantically struggling but unable to break free.

"Not so tough now, are you?" The President mocked. Sonic opened his mouth and suddenly spat a big spitball at The President, the spitball landing on the right sleeve of The President's suit. The President immediately recoiled his arm away from Sonic neck in disgust, staring at his sleeve for a moment before giving Sonic a harsh backhanded slap across the face.

"You disgusting creature! You'll pay for that!" He snarled, standing up and turning to the metal table. "Fuck...you." Sonic wheezed, a large red welt quickly forming on his left cheek. The President didn't respond to Sonic's taunt, instead he picked up the strange baton and started to twirl it around in his hands. "Do you know what this is?" The President asked rhetorically as he turned to face Sonic. "Lemme guess, it's a banana peeler?" Sonic asked sarcastically.

"No actually, it's an electric baton. It has the capabilities of a taser but the appearance of a train conductors baton." The President scoffed. The President bent down on one knee again, pressing a button hidden on the bottom of the baton which caused the knob on top of the button to flicker with light and spark. Without warning, The President rammed the electrical baton into Sonic's stomach, Sonic screamed in agony as what felt like a wildfire of pain coursed through his body. The President grinned wickedly as he held the electrical baton against Sonic's stomach and a thin blanket of electricity covered Sonic's body.

After a few seconds, The President turned the baton off and held it away from Sonic. For Sonic, it felt like all the air had been ripped from his throat. Pain induced tears pricked at the corners of his eyes as his body felt tingly and exhausted all at the same time.

The President allowed Sonic a few seconds to breathe, before turning the electric baton back on and ramming the baton into Sonic's stomach again. Sonic let out another blood curdling scream of pain, his screams intertwining with hacking coughs as the rope tied around his neck start to make him gag.

Electrocute, breather, electrocute, breather, electrocute. This cycle continued for a few minutes before The President grew bored and stopped electrocuting him for good. Sonic was left hacking and wheezing, gasping for air as dull aching pain hovered over him and tears were steadily streaming down his face.

"Let's try something a bit more...cutting." The President mocked as he picked up the kitchen knife from the metal table. He started to walk towards Sonic when a low, animalistic growling echoed throughout the building. The President slowly turned around to scan behind him when a blur of white and black tackled him and knocked him to the ground, the kitchen knife slipping out of his hands.

Sonic's emerald green eyes widened when he saw Zor, the tiniest member of The Deadly Six pinning The President to the ground by holding the human's arms away from his body in a T-pose position. The President tried to push Zor off of him but Zor was surprisingly strong and held The President in place with ease. Zor was using his long whip-like tail to start smacking The President across the face over and over again. "This! Is for! my family!" Zor yelled as he continued to smack The President in the face with his tail. Sonic suddenly felt the rope around his neck loosen and then fell away completely, so did the ropes restraining his arm and legs.

"Get up, hedgehog! Get up!" Zeena cried out from behind Sonic, quickly untying Sonic's binds while she helped Sonic to his feet. "C'mon, we have to get out of here!" Zeena urged to Sonic, who could only shake his head yes in suprise. Sonic tried to stand up but the electric shock torture he'd received from The President had left his legs wobbly and made it difficult to walk.

The President managed to wriggle his arms out of Zor's grip, grabbing the small Zeti by the horns and roughly throwing him aside. Zor landed in a stunned heap on the floor as The President scrambled to his feet, grabbing the kitchen knife off the floor as he made a mad dash towards Sonic and Zeena. Zeena had picked up Sonic bridal style and was carrying him out of the room. "Zeena, look out!" Sonic cried out as he saw The President rushing towards them, Zeena quickly put Sonic down just as The President was about to swing at her.

Zeena dodged the first swing and grabbed The President's wrist on his second swing. The two were stuck in a stalemate for a few seconds, The President trying to stab Zeena and Zeena stopping him from doing so. Zeena wrestled the knife from The Presidents grip and threw the knife away, The President raised up his fist to punch Zeena and she prepared to block his punch.

But instead of a punch, a large red hand with sharp cyan coloured claws reached out from behind Zeena and grabbed The President's wrist. Zeena turned around in surprise as Zavok stepped out from the darkness behind her.

Zavok wasted no time grabbing The President's other wrist before throwing The President backwards like a ragdoll, the human went flying as though he was weightless and landed roughly on his back. "Zeena, check on Zor while I deal with him." Zavok said calmly, an undertone of malice clear in his voice, glaring coldly at The President as he spoke.

Zavok walked over to a stunned President who was just propping himself up. The President's eyes widened and his face paled with silent fear as Zavok came close. Zavok grabbed the front of The President's suit and brought The Presidents face inches away from his, effortlessly lifting The President off the ground.

Zeena quickly made her away over to a sitting up Zor, kneeling next to him. "You okay?" She whispered. "Yeah, I'm okay. That was awesome what you did back there." Zor whispered back.

"You...attacked me! You attacked my pack unprovoked! You cut off my tail!" Zavok snarled, baring his teeth at the evil human, his brow furrowed in rage. The President feebly grabbed onto Zavok's wrist, his whole body trembling with fear over the consequences of his actions. "Please... please let me go! I-I'll never bother you again!" The President whimpered. "Tch, under normal circumstances i would destroy your puny self. But that would be too kind considering what you've done." Zavok scoffed, the sound of many footsteps filled the abandoned building before about a dozen G.U.N agents filled the building.

"Here." Zavok snarled, before throwing The President towards the G.U.N agents. The G.U.N agents quickly slapped handcuffs on The President, pulled him to his feet and walked him out of the abandoned fish plant.

"Are you two alright?" Zavok asked as he turned his attention towards Zeena and Zor, Zeena had helped Zor to his feet as this point. "Yeah, we're okay, Zav." Zeena said. "A little bruised up, but nothing I can't handle!" Zor declared proudly, putting his hands on his hips.

Zavok turned to face Sonic. The blue blur was sitting up, he was silent except for soft whimpers escaping his throat, tears running down his face like a waterfall. His body was trembling slightly as he slowly stood up, staring at the side entrance of the fish plant that The President had been dragged out of.

"Hedgehog? Are you hurt?" Zavok asked, Sonic turned to meet Zavok's gaze. "It's over. I'm safe..." Sonic mumbled, not taking his eyes off of the side entrance. "Is he in shock?" Zavok thought as he stepped towards Sonic. "Hedgehog? Hey, snap out of it." Zavok said, snapping his fingers in front of Sonic's face.

Sonic flinched from the sound of the finger snap and snapped out of his trance. Sonic unexpectedly burst into tears, hiding his face in the nook of his single arm. "It's over...it's over...so why am I crying?" Sonic asked aloud. Zavok hesitated for a split second before guiding Sonic into a reassuring hug, using one hand to rub up and down on Sonic's back while using the other hand to pat Sonic on the head. "Shhh...shhh." "Let it out, let all the emotions out." Zavok coaxed.

---The Next Day---

Sonic was standing on a hill overlooking the city. Behind him, Shadow, Eggman and Rouge were packing up the last of their stuff into the G.U.N Airship that would take them home. Also behind him, was a portal that would take The Deadly Six back to their realm. Sonic had already said his goodbyes to them and thanked Zavok, Zor and Zeena for saving his life.

The President was locked up in a maximum security prison that was monitored 24/7 with no chance of parole. The nightmare was finally over, he could go home and start to heal. To move on from the pain, to put the suffering aside. He was going home today. And he was never looking back or coming back to this godforsaken pile of dirt known as Earth.

The sound of dirt and gravel crunching underfoot caused Sonic to look over his shoulder to see Shadow walking up next to him. "Are you ready to go home?" Shadow asked, already knowing the answer. "You bet I am!" "When I get home, I'm gonna sleep for a whole month." Sonic happily declared. "Sleep for two months if you'd like, you earned it." Shadow replied. The two of them walked back to the airship and took their places inside. Shadow went to the lobby to look out the window as they departed while Sonic went to a bedroom to sleep.

Before they knew it, they were back on Mobius, back home. Sonic exited the airship first and was almost knocked off his feet by Tails hugging him, Sonic hugged Tails back while Eggman exited next. Metal Sonic wasted no time running over to Eggman, happy to see him.

Sonic ran towards his friends who were waiting for him and gave Knuckles and Amy a hug each while Shadow and Rouge exited the airship. Sonic went inside his house and told Amy and Knuckles what happened on Earth. He wouldn't tell Tails until he was a bit older. Eggman and Metal Sonic said their goodbyes to Sonic and blasted off, ready to meet another day. Eggman and Sonic weren't really enemies anymore, they now considered each other close friends. Eggman could decide what to do with Sonic after he got back to his base, had a nice hot shower and took a well deserved nap.

Sonic waves goodbye to Shadow and Rouge as they had leave Mobius in the G.U.N airship headed back to Earth. Once all was said and done, Sonic headed back inside his house and went to bed. He was home and he couldn't be happier.