II – First Blood
Left side or right side. On his back or on his front. Under the covers or on top of them. No matter which way he tried to sleep, Tails could not get relaxed enough to drift off.
He worried about what he would see if he closed his eyes. Golden fur bristling with fire, a mouth full of fangs dripping with blood, eyes that exuded maddening spirals. These things made up the monster that haunted his dreams for the past half-year. He had only just started to get on top of his nightmares in the past few weeks, and now the events of the day threatened to bring it all flooding back.
He never told Sonic about the bad dreams, instead choosing to suffer through them alone. He wanted to tell him everything; how he feared going to sleep each night, how he always woke up in a cold-sweat, often covered in urine and biting down on his pillow so as not to scream. But every time he tried to talk to Sonic about it, the sight of those caring green eyes made him hesitate. Sonic worried about him enough as it was; Tails knew Sonic would make himself sick if he knew about the nightmares. Better to suffer in silence and let Sonic be happy, he thought. No point bringing them both down.
Except he had blacked out in the middle of a mission, and something happened that Sonic feared to tell him. All the way back from their battle with Cyberius, Sonic had been eerily quiet, as if he worried that anything he said could give the game away. He knew Sonic would never keep a secret from him without a good reason, yet his strange questions about Shadow seemed to conceal a deeper purpose. Tails didn't know how, but he suspected that whatever happened had shown Sonic what he had been hiding from him for so long.
As he tossed over in his bed once more, sighing in frustration, Tails heard the door behind him creak open, and the light from the hall filled the room. Tails turned over, expecting to see Sonic standing in the doorway, but the silhouetted figure's profile revealed someone else entirely.
He rubbed his eyes. "Shadow? What are you doing here?"
The dark figure stood silently in the doorway, his crimson eyes barely catching the yellow light of the hall.
"Hmph," he sniffed after an eternity of silence. "Sonic asked me to talk to you. He thought you might… benefit from my presence."
Tails could tell from Shadow's tone that he resented Sonic's request, and must have only agreed after much cajoling, or possibly grovelling. He would have laughed at the mental image of Sonic kissing Shadow's feet if not for the aura of seriousness that seemed to follow the dark hedgehog everywhere.
"Um… what exactly did Sonic tell you? I don't see how-"
"You have nightmares, don't you?" Shadow interrupted, fixing his eyes on Tails with an accusing glare.
Tails sat up in bed. "What? How did you know?"
"Since that day back at GUN HQ, every time you sleep you see him. You're afraid to sleep, you're afraid to be left alone, you're even afraid of Sonic at times, aren't you? Afraid that the monster in your dreams is just a reflection of Sonic himself, and at any moment he could turn on you, become that which you fear the most."
Tails shook his head in disbelief; how could Shadow possibly know any of this? He hadn't told a soul…
Maybe Sonic heard him moaning in his sleep, maybe he saw him flinching and biting his lip at random moments during the day. He could even have unintentionally blabbed the whole story to Sonic during his blackout. Of course Sonic would then tell Shadow, or maybe Shadow read his mind or whatever the deal was with those two these days. But then why did either of them think Shadow would be able to help him?
"What is this, Shadow? Are you thinking of taking up counselling now? It really doesn't suit you."
Shadow didn't react to his jibe, instead continuing to bore into Tails' soul with his blood-red stare. He stood like a statue, with even the movement of his breathing seemingly halted. Tails felt his nerves tingling when he beheld the unnatural poise of the Ultimate Lifeform.
"You only fear what you don't understand," Shadow said. "You only fear what you cannot control. It is a weakness shared by most Mobians. But you are not most Mobians."
"What do you mean?"
"You have the power to control your fear."
Shadow took a step forward, a single graceful lunge towards the edge of Tails' bed. Dropping to one knee he took hold of the Tails' hand and clasped it tightly between both of his own. His stare, mere feet away, became even more intense, yet his expression remained as stern and unmoving as ever. Tails felt his whole body tingling, though he couldn't tell if it was through fear or something else entirely. He had to admit Shadow had a strange way of both calming him down and terrifying him at the same time.
"Listen to me, Tails. The only thing to fear is fear itself. Fear only exists in your own mind. It is nothing but an emotion. Are you going to let an emotion rule you, dictating every moment of your life? I was once a slave to an emotion like you, but I took control of that emotion, and now I am its master."
He let go of Tails' hand and rose to his feet, seeming to tower over the fox as he looked down upon him.
"Take hold of your fear and make it your slave. Only then will you be free." He headed towards the open doorway.
"Wait!" Tails called after him. "How am I supposed to do that? How did you 'control your emotion?'"
Shadow looked back over his shoulder, his right eye gleaming crimson in the light flooding the doorframe.
"Only you can answer that. You are the only one who can save yourself. Good luck" Then he disappeared into the hall, pulling the door closed.
Tails flopped back down onto his bed with a heavy sigh, grasping his covers with both hands.
"Man, that was weird," he said aloud. Even by Shadow's standard his advice had been unhelpfully cryptic and poetic, although the fact that Shadow was even giving advice felt strange enough. What had he meant by it all?
Tails tossed and turned again, this time unable to sleep out of frustration as he tried to decipher Shadow's words.
Control your emotion.
Only you can save yourself.
Take hold of your fear and make it your slave.
The words played over and over again in his head, sending his brain into overdrive searching for the hidden meaning behind them. Shadow had been hinting at something, something he must have been sure only Tails could discover.
Tails sat up quickly. His mind's mad rush for answers stopped suddenly. There it was; the thread of inquiry that would lead him to his answer. He couldn't define exactly what it could be, only a vague feeling that he nonetheless felt compelled to explore.
He tossed the covers aside and leapt out of bed. Opening the door he found he hallway in total darkness, and he realised Sonic must have gone to bed, probably with Shadow sitting in the chair next to the bed without moving like some kind of mannequin as he had been known to do sometimes. Slowing his movement despite the excitement coursing through him, he crept gently down the stairs, skipping over the last one from the bottom that would have otherwise creaked loudly. He felt his way through the living room, using the edge of the sofa to guide him. After some more fumbling in the dark he found his way to the door to his workshop and flicked on the light.
The single bare light bulb dangling from the ceiling of the converted garage filled the room with mouldy yellow light, throwing dark shadows into the nooks and crannies behind the various piles of junk stacked up in the corners and highlighting the clouds of dust swimming through the cramped space. Tails weaved through the towers of cardboard boxes filled with wires and bolts and clambered over the metal frames of half-finished projects until he reached the metal workbench in the middle of the room. Sitting himself up on a high stool, he grabbed a roll of paper from a nearby box and sought out a pencil.
With his half-baked idea still bouncing around in his mind, Tails scribbled frantically, drawing up a blueprint for his latest invention. The crude graphite sketch soon became surrounded by impossibly complex equations as his vision took shape.
"Yes, yes, this is it," he said eagerly, "this could work. This could so work. There's just one more thing I need."
He hopped down from his seat and fought his way through his self-inflicted maze of clutter until he came to a small safe buried under a pile of paperwork. He punched in the code (Sonic's birthday) and the door opened with a click. As he pulled the thick metal door open the room filled with a yellow glow that seemed to shift in and out of existence with eerie regularity.
Tails took the fake Chaos Emerald in a firm grip, holding it in front of his face and seeing his practically salivating mouth reflected a dozen times in its pristine facets. His heart pounded ever faster as he thought about enacting his plan, and he gulped in anticipation of it.
"Now then… let's do this."
~O~
Sonic lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling, his bedside lamp still on and bathing the room in warm orange light. He'd heard Tails get out of bed and creep downstairs to his workshop earlier. For a moment he had considered opening the door to ask him what he was doing, but he decided against it. If tinkering in his workshop made Tails happy and kept his mind free from troubles, he wasn't about to stop him, even if it was at half past one in the morning.
Ever since they arrived home he'd wanted to talk to Tails about his 'episode.' It wasn't like them to keep secrets from each other, and they had always shared everything in the past. But Sonic could still recall the sound of Tails' screaming, the terror in his eyes; he didn't want to risk provoking a reaction like that again. He felt so afraid of seeing Tails so helpless that he had felt compelled to turn to Shadow. He hoped that somehow his strange companion would find a way to reach Tails that he felt unable to do himself.
He'd asked for Shadow, hadn't he? Why? What did Shadow know about Tails that he didn't, and why would he keep it from him? Didn't anybody trust him anymore?
Before he could ponder these questions, the house shook around him, and the muffled sound of an explosion ripped through the air. Sonic sat bolt upright, his fear skyrocketing when he realised where the sound came from.
"Tails!" he yelled, leaping out of bed. He threw open the door to his room, charged down the stairs, across the living room towards Tails' workshop, hurling himself through the doorway.
A thick cloud of dust swirled through the air in the musty garage room, punctuated by specks of yellow glinting in the murky light. Sweeping the dust away from his face, Sonic saw a thin pillar of smoke rising from the table in the centre, surrounded by black scorch marks and twisted fragments of metal.
"Tails! Tails, are you okay? Tails?!"
Sonic's heart thundered in his ears when no response came, and he felt his muscles tightening up. Any second now he would tear the room apart to get to Tails. His righteous determination halted when he heard a familiar voice coughing, and saw a dishevelled white glove grasp the edge of the table.
"Unggh," Tails moaned. "I'm okay…" He pulled himself up by the table to peer over at Sonic, and Sonic would have laughed if not for the worry constricting him. The fur on Tails' head stood upright, and his whiskers and ears pointed backward as if blown by a strong wind. His entire front half had become caked in black soot, and his eyes seem to swivel in their sockets.
"What on Mobius happened in here?" asked Sonic, his heartrate decreasing as he clambered through the scattered junk towards his friend.
"I may have made a slight miscalculation," said Tails blearily. "I think I applied too much chocolate to the frequency inhibitors, causing a banana feedback loop in the custard…."
"Tails, you're not making any sense." Sonic wondered why he suddenly felt hungry.
"Of course I don't, you're only a hat rack wearing a bow tie," Tails mumbled. Sonic grabbed him by the shoulders and gently shook him.
"Snap out of it! You're delirious!" he yelled. Tails blinked a few times, and the glassy look in his eyes fell away.
"Oh… hi, Sonic. What are you doing here?"
"What am I doing? What were you doing? What was that explosion? And what's all this yellow dust?"
Tails looked over to the mangled, smoking wreck sitting on the table. He sighed and shook his head.
"Shoot," he said, looking dejected, "the Emerald must have exploded. I knew I shouldn't have increased the frequency threshold by so much."
"The fake Chaos Emerald exploded? Tails, what were you thinking? I've seen what happens when an Emerald explodes; half the city could have been destroyed!"
Tails waved a dismissive hand in his direction. "Don't be silly. The fake Emerald only replicates the effects of a real one; it doesn't hold even a tenth of the energy a real Chaos Emerald does. There was no risk."
"Says the fox who nearly got his head blown off! What were you even doing with it?"
Tails looked from his ruined project to Sonic and back again, before sighing and cradling his forehead with one hand.
"It doesn't matter anymore. It was just a stupid idea I had. I don't know why I thought it would work. Just a crazy theory about – oh!"
He took his hand away from his head, and Sonic saw the source of his surprise: a deep crimson stain on his glove.
"I think I'm bleeding."
Sonic took a step forward and moved Tails' bangs aside to inspect his forehead. Sure enough, blood trickled along it from a small cut right in the centre.
"It's not that bad, considering you could have lost your head entirely," said Sonic. "Come on, let's get a Band-Aid on that."
He led Tails by the hand into the living room and sat him down on the couch, before heading into the kitchen to fetch the first aid kit from under the sink. When he returned he cleaned up the blood, applied some anti-septic to the wound that made Tails wince, and finally stuck a large beige Band-Aid proudly in the centre of his forehead.
"There we go, almost good as new, I'd say. Almost matches your fur colour." Sonic noticed Tails looking sullen, so he gently tapped his cheek to get his attention, smiling at him warmly when he looked over. After a few seconds Tails smiled back, and Sonic's heart skipped a beat; that smile meant more to him than any words could express.
"Come on," he said, rising to his feet, "that's a waterproof one, so you can hit the shower right now and get all that gunk out of your fur. Then it's straight to bed; no more tinkering tonight."
"Sure thing, Dad," Tails groaned.
"Don't make me put you over my knee, you young whippersnapper!"
Tails laughed as he rose to his feet, before he headed upstairs to the bathroom. With a warmth in his heart Sonic marched off to the kitchen to put away the first aid kit, then headed up himself. As his head hit the pillow he felt exhaustion coming on fast. The sound of running water in the next room served as a lullaby, and his eyes grew heavy.
"Sleep well, Tails," he said through a yawn, before he drifted into sleep.
~O~
For once in his life, Sonic didn't feel like moving too fast. As he strolled along the winding road overlooking the bay, he took any opportunity he could to admire the wildflowers springing up from the verge or watch a butterfly skip through the air. Anything to delay the inevitable.
He didn't know why he felt so nervous about approaching Shadow with a simple request. He knew how it would go down; Shadow would hmph and sniff and cross his arms, while Sonic lashed at him with cutting barbs of wit. They would almost come to blows before Sonic appealed to Shadow's better nature, then he'd reluctantly agree before they kissed and made up, although not literally, Sonic was glad to note.
Shadow seemed to enjoy making Sonic work hard for their friendship. Every laugh or smile had to be fought for, every pat on the back came after a long battle of wills manifested as snarky comments or a test of martial prowess. Not something most people would tolerate for long, but Sonic was not most people; he relished the way Shadow constantly challenged him and the rush that battling for Shadow's attention brought with it. He couldn't imagine anything like a normal friendship with his dark counterpart, and Shadow seemed to understand that; he wanted the same thing, more or less.
At the end of it all though, Sonic tolerated Shadow's nature for one simple reason; he knew that Shadow would always be there when he needed him. Despite his faults, the Ultimate Lifeform was unswervingly loyal to the few people he liked, and would always do whatever it took to keep them safe, even at great risk to his own life. Sonic admired that most of all; he knew that feeling very well.
He reached the bottom of the hill, where the road turned towards the shore, forming a gentle curve lined by ostentatious beach houses, each one a small mansion unique in their design. As he approached the one occupied by Rouge the Bat, his eyes noticed a couple of police cars parked on the opposite side of the road, and he grew apprehensive. Picking up his pace slightly, his heart dropped into his stomach when he saw the house.
Lines of yellow tape snaked around the yard fence. The front door lay on the porch, its hinges smashed to splinters and its paintwork scratched off in deep gouges. Shards of glass covered the ground in front of jagged broken windows, and cops swarmed around the place inspecting everything, with Mobians in full body-suits hurrying in and out of the door carrying various cases and plastic bags.
Sonic sprinted over to the cordon, where two cops stood guard. He stared up at the broken house, his mouth hanging open as his mind struggled to process what he was seeing.
"Sir, please step away," said one of the cops, a female border collie. "This is a crime scene."
"A c-crime scene?" Sonic stammered. "Why? What happened?"
"I can't disclose any information at this time," said the cop. "The investigation is still ongoing. Now please step away, sir."
Sonic couldn't help himself; the officer's words and the devastation before him sent his panic into overdrive. He leapt forward and seized the officer by her lapels.
"Tell me what happened!" he screamed at her. "Where is Shadow? Tell me what happened to Shadow!"
"Drop her!" shouted the other cop, a male beaver. He pulled his gun from its holster and pointed it squarely at Sonic's head. "Lie face down on the ground with your hands in the air! This is your last warning!"
"Stand down, Philips!" another voice called from behind them. On the porch stood a large black bear wearing a dusty brown coat, his fierce gaze cowing all of them into submission.
"Sir," said Philips, "this civilian assaulted Officer Jones unprovoked, I'm only-"
"Are you blind, Philips?" said the bear. "That's not just any civilian, that's Sonic the Hedgehog! Stand down, that's an order."
Sheepishly, Philips holstered his gun and walked away. Sonic slowly released his grip on Officer Jones, offering a plaintive apology which earned him nothing but a glare from the collie. The bear approached, reaching over the cordon to shake Sonic's hand.
"Lieutenant Coleman," he said, his stern glare softening. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Sonic."
"Sure," said Sonic nonchalantly. "Are you gonna tell me what's going on here, officer? I know the people that live here; they're my friends."
Coleman looked away with guilt in his eyes. Whatever he was about to say, Sonic knew it wouldn't be pleasant to hear.
"We got a call around two-thirty in the morning. Neighbours said they heard raised voices followed by the sounds of a struggle; screams and things being smashed and all that. We dispatched a couple of squad cars right away, but when they got here they found the place like this, with no sign of the attacker. Must have been one heck of a fight."
"What about Shadow? A-and Rouge? What happened to them?"
Coleman's face became even grimmer, and he swallowed loudly. Sonic braced himself for the worst.
"I've been a cop for thirty years. I've seen a lot of nasty things in my time, but nothing like what we found in that house. Look at that," he held his arm up with his palm turned down, "my hand's still shaking. My hand didn't even shake when I got shot while patrolling as a wet-behind-the-ears rookie, but seeing those two..."
"Are they... Officer, are they-?"
"We thought they were when we first went in; the state of them, we thought, no way they could still be alive. But somehow they both clung on to life. Chaos knows how they managed it. The paramedics took them to St. Calvin's hospital, but honestly I'd be surprised if they survive the ride over."
"Who did this? Did anyone see the attacker?" said Sonic. Coleman shook his head.
"Not a thing. CSI are looking for clues as we speak but honestly, I don't fancy their chances. I'm not sure if what we're looking for is even Mobian."
"Not even Mobian! You think some kind of monster did this? I don't believe it!"
"Go to the hospital and see your friends, or whatever's left of them. Then you'll believe it. By Chaos you will."
Without hesitation Sonic shot off down the street towards home. Moving as fast as he legs could push him he weaved through lines of traffic, sliding under a passing truck at an intersection and somersaulting over roadworks. He surged out of the bustling city centre and into the park, carving a trench through the grass and ricocheting from the trees like a pinball. At last he reached home, and the door flew open as he leapt into the living room.
"Tails!" he yelled. "Tails, where are you?"
Tails didn't answer, so Sonic charged around the house like a madman, checking the workshop, then the kitchen, then the back yard. Dashing upstairs he found Tails still tucked up in bed.
"Tails, wake up!" He shook Tails vigorously. Tails rolled over, eyes still shut tight and moaning wearily.
"What is it, Sonic? I'm tired..." he mumbled.
"Shadow and Rouge have been attacked!"
Tails' eyes immediately snapped open, and he sat up in bed, with any sign of exhaustion vanished, replaced by a curious yet fearful look.
"Attacked?! When? By who?"
"It happened early this morning, according to the cops. They don't know who did it but the house was a mess, Tails. I mean, the place had been totally wrecked. It made me feel sick just to look at it."
"What about Rouge? And Shadow? Are they okay?"
Sonic shook his head. "I'm not sure. The cops said they've been taken to St. Calvin's, but they're in a bad way."
Tails rubbed his eyes, then squinted as if blinded by a bright light.
"Wait… Shadow was at his house when this happened? But I thought he was…"
He drifted off, staring into the distance. Sonic thought he could see invisible cogs turning inside Tails' mind, and the fox shook his head a few times and blinked rapidly, like he was trying to shake loose something that had become stuck in his thoughts.
"Tails? What is it?"
He shook his head again, then looked up at Sonic, his eyes bright and alert once more.
"Nothing. Just a crazy thought, that's all. But never mind that! We need to get down to the hospital right away! Where are my sneakers?"
He leapt out of bed and began hunting for his shoes. As Sonic watched him scrabble around, he felt a weight in his chest. For some reason he didn't want to take Tails to the hospital; from the sounds of it Rouge and Shadow wouldn't be a pretty sight, and after the last few days it didn't feel right to expose Tails to anything stressful.
But Tails whizzed past him, taking him by the hand and yanking him out of the room. With his focus returned Sonic followed him out the front door and along the street towards the hospital.
~O~
The small room in the intensive care unit contained only two beds, and no sound could be heard except the gentle whirring of machines and the soft beeps of heart-rate monitors.
Sonic stood in the centre of the room with his arm tightly gripped around Tails' shoulders. Both boys said nothing, simply staring at the patients with their mouths agape.
In the left-hand bed lay Rouge, wrapped up in her sheets with her eyes tightly closed, an oxygen mask clamped to her face. Her cheeks were gaunt and her skin sagged with deep wrinkles beneath greying fur. Hey eyes sat in deep sunken pits, and her lips drooped, pitted with cracks and dried skin. Tubes and wires snaked over her body, and she lay so still she might as well have been a corpse.
Shadow lay in the bed beside her, his face telling a similar story. But his bedsheets didn't cover his torso, and when Sonic looked at him he had to stop himself throwing up.
Shadow's lower torso had become a concave pit, a flap of skin barely concealing the pulsating remains of his organs. His ribs protruded from his chest and his arms had become nothing but bones covered in faded black fur. Like the worst case of anorexia Sonic had ever seen, Shadow resembled little more than a skeleton masquerading as a Mobian.
"Oh Sonic," said Tails, his eyes streaming with tears, "this is just awful! Who did this to them? Why? How could anyone-?"
Tails buried his head in Sonic's chest, soaking his fur with tears and shaking the hedgehog's ribs with the force of his sobs. Sonic gently rubbed his back, but could find no words to comfort the boy. The door creaked open, and a female brown rabbit stepped through, wearing a white coat and carrying a clipboard. Her face, already grim, fell further when she saw Tails crying.
"Not a pretty sight, is it?" said the doctor. "In all my years I've never seen anything like this. When they first came in I thought for sure they were dead. I'm not even sure how they're still holding on in this state."
"What's wrong with them, Doc?" asked Sonic.
She looked at her clipboard. "They're extremely malnourished, although that much is obvious. But it's more than that; they appear to have undergone some form of rapid cell degeneration, although I don't know anything that could induce it so rapidly and so ferociously. The most interesting thing though is that their Chaos Signatures are very weak."
"So?" asked Sonic. Tails looked up from Sonic's chest, stifling his tears for a moment.
"That would imply that they had their Chaos Energy drained somehow," he said through a sniffle. "No amount of physical damage would affect your Chaos Signature; something must have literally sucked the life-force right out of them!"
"Is that even possible?" said the doctor.
"It's more than possible," said Tails, "although no-one's ever built a device that can do it, as far as I know. I don't think any Mobian alive is evil enough to suck out someone's soul, which is pretty much what it's doing when you think about it. Not even Eggman would do something so monstrous."
"Sorry Tails," said Sonic, "but it looks like Mobius got a little darker today. Someone out there's built a soul-sucker, and they've already used it twice, if not more. We need to find them and stop them before they hurt anyone else."
"Why didn't they kill them?" asked Tails.
"Huh?"
"Why didn't they kill them? If you were gonna steal someone's Chaos Energy to the point of near-death, why not go the whole hog and take it all? Why did the attacker leave them barely alive?"
"I don't care why they did it," growled Sonic, "but I'm not gonna let them do it again. When I find out who did this, I will kill them. I mean it."
"Sonic!" gasped Tails. "Don't say that! You wouldn't-"
"I wouldn't?!" screamed Sonic. "Look at what they've done, Tails! If it was me lying there, would you show any mercy? Would you?!"
Tails hung his head down, and gave no answer. Sonic's heart beat furiously in his chest, and adrenaline surged through him, fuelled by his righteous anger. He'd never wanted to hurt someone as badly as he did in that moment. Never had the idea of ending someone's life sent such an exhilarating shiver down his spine.
Behind him he heard a croaking, wheezing moan. Shadow's eyes had opened by the tiniest amount, revealing crimson irises set in dried-out, bloodshot eyeballs. Sonic felt his bloodlust melt away as Shadow weakly lifted a stick-thin arm towards him.
"Shadow?" cried Sonic. "Shadow, can you hear me? It's Sonic. It's okay, I'm here for you."
"So... nic?" wheezed Shadow, almost inaudibly. "The... Emer... ald."
Sonic kneeled beside Shadow's bedside, fighting back the tears welling within him. "The Emerald? W-which Emerald? What about it?"
"Tak... en."
"Taken? By who? Who did this to you? I need to know who did this!"
Shadow said nothing, but his eyes grew wide with fear, fixed on something on the other side of the room. He raised his trembling arm, pointing a bony finger in front of him. Sonic, Tails and the doctor all looked over to where he pointed, but they saw nothing but an ordinary hospital room.
"Shadow? What are you pointing at? There's nothing there."
Shadow continued to point, and his breathing grew coarser. Slowly his eyes closed again, and his arm slumped down by his side.
"Shadow? Shadow!" cried Sonic, almost leaping onto the bed. "What did you see? Please, just tell me who did this!"
"Sir, I must ask you to stop!" barked the doctor. "He's still holding on, but only just. Another exertion like that could kill him."
"She's right, Sonic," said Tails, "Shadow's too weak to tell us anything more."
"I guess..." sighed Sonic, letting his shoulders slump, "but what do we do know? We still have no idea who we're looking for."
Tails put a finger in the air. "That's not true. Shadow gave us a vital clue."
"What clue?"
"'The Emerald.' That's what he said. He was telling us that whoever attacked him and Rouge was after his Chaos Emerald!"
"How does that help us?"
"It proves that the attack wasn't random. They wanted the Emerald, and I'll bet my left tail that they'll want the other six in short order as well."
"So that means..." said Sonic, holding his chin, "if we find the Emeralds first, we can lure them into a trap!"
"Precisely!" said Tails, beaming.
"Come on, there's no time to lose!" said Sonic, puffing out his chest and pointing triumphantly towards the door. "Let's find those Emeralds!"
They hurried towards the door, but as they reached the door Sonic stopped.
"Hold on a second," he said. He dashed back over to Shadow's bedside, leant over and whispered into his ragged ear.
"I'll be back, but not before I make them pay for this. I give you my word."
~O~
