Author's Notes:
I'm going to be honest with you here, just about every FF we know and love dies- although most of the time it's an off-stage death. It's not a light read, so keep that in mind before proceeding.
Begin
The sounds of splintering wood reached his ears; the heat from the flames blistered his blue-furred face. A sense of motion hit his left eye. He turned to see what had attracted his attention.
Sonic the Hedgehog sidestepped. His move was well-timed, for an instant later, the flaming wall of what was once Bunnie's hut crashed to the ground in the spot the hero had just vacated. The blue hedgehog snapped to his feet and did what came naturally: he burst into motion.
But the hedgehog's mind was detached, acting as a foreign adviser to his body. The entire experience felt surreal, like a dream... No, not a dream. A nightmare. A nightmare he could never wake from. The entire scenerio was so outlandish, so unbelievable, that had forced Sonic's mind to withdraw from the present and curl up into a tight ball of denial. The denial was so strong at even as he began to cyclone about the flaming hut- allowing his slipstream to snuff out the fire- Sonic's actions were entirely mechanical with none of his trademark grace or style.
The hedgehog was also uncharacteristicly silent, unable to even awaken the desire to form some sort of verbal joust over his actions. Witty remarks were far from the hedgehog's mind. No, Sonic's withdrawn conscious was fighting a losing battle to comprehend just what had happened over the course of the past day.
The situation hurt. Hurt on so many levels that it just wasn't fair.
Everyone had been thrilled when Doomsday had been thwarted and Robotnik banished to the Void. Even as they celebrated their victory, the Freedom Fighters had known that there was much to do in the future: they still had to clean up the pollution fallout from the dictator's reign, Robotization still needed to be understood and reversed, and King Acorn freed from his crystal prison. But that work was supposed to go about unimpended, unchecked. They had won. There wasn't supposed to be any opposition.
It was then that fate had sucker-punched them in the gut. Naugus had escaped from the Void and taken the now-banished dictator's place. Then the mad sorceror had done what none had ever thought possible. He'd developed the perfect weapon to use against the Freedom Fighters: one of their own.
A routine scouting mission had gone awry when Naugus' magical monsters had ambushed them. The team had scattered, but not before the magician had scored a prisoner... that had been the beginning of the end.
The Freedom Fighters had later learned that Naugus had realized that his captive contained an amazing amount of untapped magical potential. The genetic monster had then proceeded to pump the imprisoned Freedom Fighter full of magical energy- 'Chaos' the bulky sorceror had called it- and turned the prisoner loose. The Chaos had warped the former Freedom Fighter's mind, given an intense bloodlust, and the promise of power had turned their Mobian companion against his friends.
A maniacal laugh filled the hedgehog's ears. It was an illusion, the hedgehog knew that much at least. The laughter wasn't real, it was just a memory of the battle fighting its way to the surface. Sonic put up a feeble attempt at avoiding the sensation as his eyes stared blankly at the ruined land that had once been Knothole. But in the end he lost the battle- just as he had lost the most important battle of his life.
The laugh heckled the hedgehog. It sounded so much like his old comrade, and yet it was foreign to him. It was a tangled mass of opposites, familiar and yet strange, just like their betrayer.
What made it all the more unreal was the fact that Sonic couldn't even chalk the betrayal up to insanity. Naugus' protege had made it clear that sanity ruled the mind. During their brief scuffle, the traitor had proven that much. The attack was too calculated, to methodical to have been the work of an insane Mobian. The traitor had enjoyed the attack, revelled in the carnage, but been sane the entire time.
All for the promise of power.
For a moment, Sonic tried to hate the traitor. To hate the murderer for all that had been done. But he could not. He couldn't feel anything. He was still trying to come to terms with what had happened.
The hedgehog turned, his foggy daze slowing his normally quick reactions, and stared unseeingly at Rotor's hut. The walrus had been the first to fall. The poor guy had never stood a chance...
Naugus had been clever, brutal, and sadistic with his 'pupil'. Rather than just flood his captive with Chaos energy, the sorceror had given his captive just a taste of it. The geneticly mish-mashed Mobian had strung the Freedom Fighter along, doling out Chaos once every few weeks and demonstrating what could be done with the power.
A pang of guilt broke into the numb hedgehog's mind. If he'd actually found some way to break through the barrier that prevented any of the Freedom Fighters from entering the central tower, then he could have rescued his friend. None of this would have happened. If he'd done more, they wouldn't have been betrayed.
Sonic turned his lifeless eyes away from Rotor's demolished hut and found himself looking at the ruined slab that had once been Bunnie's carrot garden. Try as he might, the hedgehog couldn't block out the images of Bunnie's heroic death. The rabbit had perished trying to protect Tails from onslaught... and failed... just as he had. Sonic had failed everyone.
Over time, Naugus had increased the amount of Chaos; the Chaos had begun to manifest itself inside of the Freedom Fighter. With every week that passed, the prisoner had felt the Chaos gnaw at the mind more and more. The power was begging to be seized and the hunger satiated- but at the cost of everything the prisoner had believed.
Maybe their betrayer hadn't given into the pull immediately. Maybe the reasoning had been that if the Chaos energy could be harnessed, then the Freedom Fighter could eventually overpower Naugus and end his reign. It was certainly something that would have been tried... but wouldn't have worked.
However it had happened, the 'dark side' had claimed its captive and Naugus gained his pupil. The insane wizard had coached and taught his protege well in the ways of battle and combat. Then, almost a year after being captured, the traitor was released.
But things had changed. Now the prisoner cared for nothing but self. The traitor had returned to Knothole with a story of escape. The Freedom Fighters hard immediately rejoiced. A celebration had been launched.
The celebration had turned into the Freedom Fighter's own defeat. The 'pupil' had claimed to have learned something of magic from watching Naugus and wanted to show off the new skill. With the consent of the group, the traitor had proceeded to start by forming small shards, then creating sparks of electricity, and finally ended by forming blazing spheres of fire.
Things had turned ugly when the traitor had turned the fireballs on the assembled Freedom Fighters.
In his mind, Sonic could still see the shocked look on Rosie's face as the fireball landed. The pain that had covered the squirrel's features transcended so many levels that it was almost impossible to describe. The hedgehog wasn't sure what was the actual source of the hurt and anguish that had covered the squirrel's face- the physical sensations of death or the knowledge that one of her own adopted children had just killed her in cold blood.
The rest of the group had been shocked, unwilling to believe what they had just seen. That had made them easy targets.
The echos of laughter filled the Blue Blur's ears anew as he relived the scant minutes that had ended the rebellion. Like dumb lambs before the slaughter, the group of comrades had just stood silently as the traitor killed more of their number. Finally, the captive had begun laughing maniacally, a sound that had broken the spell of mesmerization which had gripped those assembled.
Ari had been the first to go on the offensive. The ram had charged headfirst at the murderer. Crystalline spikes had been materialized beneath the ram's feet, and his life ended quickly.
Tails had screamed as his innocence was stripped away in a few short seconds. The lofty fairy-tale ideals that had marked the fox cub were twisted inside out and shredded as one of his heroes turned on the others and began hunting them down. Anguish had filled the young cub and chained him to the ground as perfectly as any physical shackles could.
It also made him a perfect target. Unfortunately, Bunnie had only gained him a few more minutes of life as she took the blow meant for him.
Then... his Uncle Chuck...
The blue hedgehog turned and looked at the melted pile of slag that had once been the closest thing to a father he'd ever had. Uncle Chuck had tried to subdue the traitor, but had failed miserably. The former Freedom Fighter had delighted in melting the Robian down.
A shiver went through the hedgehog's spine.
Even if he'd had the heart to try, Sonic found that he couldn't cry. His friends had been killed, his home decimated, and all meaning stripped from his life. In the span of a few short hours, the Blue Blur had been reduced to a shell of the Mobian he had used to be.
If only he'd acted quicker.
But in the end, it had been their friendship and comraderie that had wound up destroying the group of Freedom Fighters. The fact that it was one of their own that was systematically wiping them out proved to be their undoing. Remnants of friendships and echoes of love had slowed their reactions and prompted the Freedom Fighters to try reason over battle in an effort to halt the fight.
It hadn't worked.
The traitor had laughed in their faces and spat upon the feelings that they had once shared.
Sonic himself had point-blank refused to go all-out on the traitor. He firmly believed that sense would return to the 'pupil' at any moment. He had been a fool. Others had died for that mistake. His hesitation had gotten Tails killed, and by the time the Blue Blur had gotten serious, it was too late.
The betrayer was out in force now, and far too powerful to subdue. The Freedom Fighters were in full disarray and many were retreating in an effort to save themselves. Sonic had been forced to make a decision, and so he had. In a moment of cruelity, fate had pitted him against one that he had once called friend and comrade.
The hedgehog had been forced to do the unthinkable, to use lethal force against a Freedom Fighter. But the traitor had not perished easily, and Sonic had been beaten down to a standstill. It wasn't until he'd realized what he was truly fighting for that Sonic had been able to gain victory.
The deaths of his fallen friends cried out for vengeance, but that was not what had enabled Sonic to end the carnage. They demanded that justice be made. It had been revenge, pure and simple. Revenge for the death of Sally Acorn.
After Dulcy and Antoine had fallen, the Blue Blur had realized the sad truth. Naugus had so polluted Sally Acorn that the creature before him was no longer the friendly ground squirrel he had once known. No, Naugus had killed Sally Acorn's soul and replaced it with that of a bloodthirsty monster. Sally would have never turned on her friends. This... thing... before her would.
Sonic had then pushed himself past limits he didn't know existed. He'd done something that he'd never dreamed of.
Sonic the Hedgehog had killed Sally Alicia Acorn.
In the end it had been too easy. All he'd had to do was reach his max speed, and then collide solidly with the traitor.
The Blue Blur vaguely remembered how easy it had been to take the life of another. There had been times in the past when he thought that he had indirectly taken the life of Robotnik, but knowing for certain that he had landed the final blow was another matter.
In the past, the hedgehog would have been worried over how simple it had been. He would have agonized over his use of lethal force, especially against a former friend. He would have fretted about the fact that he felt no sense of guilt.
That was then, this was now.
Sonic the Hedgehog was past caring, past feeling. He couldn't even begin to wonder if the events of the past few hours had twisted him as much as they had Sally Acorn. All he knew was that he was alone- alone because of one of their own.
No...
That wasn't true. It wasn't Sally's fault that the others were dead. It was Naugus. Naugus was to blame. The wretched wizard had been responsible for the death of the Sally Acorn he had once loved- the rest had just been a domino effect.
The blame was Naugus'.
Naugus had to pay for his crimes.
The hedgehog lifted his weary eyes. Off in the distance, Naugus' central tower stared at him. It mocked him.
Naugus had taken everything from him, and then gone one further and forced him to kill the only woman he'd ever loved.
A spark of life returned to the hedgehog. A cold fury washed through his veins.
This war had gone on long enough.
One way or another, it would end tonight.
And if Sonic the Hedgehog was forced to kill again, so be it.
End