I don't own either of these characters (although I wish I did), they belong to SEGA. Unofficial fan characters are my creations, but they are based off the original 'Mobian' designs by SEGA and Sonic Team, so kudos to them.

Dear Oceanera12: I'm glad you like the story! As for Sonic not talking, as the story progresses, I'm going to have him speak more regularly. By the way, The Long Road Home is going great. Unrelated discussing of your work aside, enjoy this chapter!

Dear John: Thank you :)

Dear A Girl Who Does Stuff: ? I'm sorry but I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. Could you explain what that means?

WHO ELSE IS HYPED FOR SONIC MANIA AND SONIC 2017?! I WAS WATCHING THE STREAM! IT WAS SO AWESOME! ANYONE ELSE FREAKING OUT OVER THE AWESOMENESS? :D :D :D Sorry about that. I typed this right after everything was announced. I'm going psychotic with the awesomeness. In other, less awesome but still kind of good news: the second chapter of this! Yay! I've already got a lot of followers, most of them probably came from the last one but whatever, and I don't intend on disappointing them. Warning: it's cry time. This was a sort of depressing chapter. It does end in a nice way, though, I promise. Story time.

Chapter 2 - Aftermath

1 year later

It had been a year since Sonic first visited Cocoa Island. After going everywhere else in the world several times, he decided to go back to the place one more time. This time, he decided to take his plane, the Tornado.

He had been flying for half an hour, give or take, when he saw the outline of the island. Something didn't seem quite right, though. Sonic took a closer look and nearly fell out of the plane. Cocoa Island was barely recognisable. The beautiful forests had been replaced with burning wreckage. One of the smaller nearby islands was gone completely. He remembered that he was taking the Tornado, and grabbed the controls again before he could plummet into the ocean. What had happened?

Sonic landed on the beach and got out of the plane. It was even worse up close. He could see the settlement from where he was - it looked like someone had dropped a bomb on it. He almost started to go towards the village, but decided against it. If he saw and talked to anyone surviving, he'd have to leave them behind. The Tornado could only carry two people including the pilot, three if somebody was outrageous enough to stand on the wings. He couldn't deal with that kind of emotional stress. Instinct told him to get back in the plane and get the heck out of there, but something stopped him. He suddenly remembered the fox he had met last time. Miles? Yeah, Miles. Sonic wasn't certain, but he had a feeling that asking Miles would be his best bet. The kid wasn't part of the community, so he wouldn't alert anyone else, therefore cutting out the guilt of leaving a small population stranded on a destroyed island in the middle of nowhere. Unless whatever wrecked this place had… no. He wouldn't think about that possibility.

xX*Xx

It took a lot of running before Sonic finally found Miles. After all, he had no idea where he was supposed to look, or even if the kid was alive. Finally, after at least twenty minutes, he hit the jackpot. He saw the silhouette of the fox sitting on a rock, amongst the wreckage of what used to be a forest. Sonic approached silently and tapped Miles on the shoulder. Apparently, this was the wrong thing to do. He jumped about a metre straight upwards, turned around, shielded his face with his hands, and started shaking. "I'm sorry I'll go don't hurt me I didn't do anything stay back please I'll do anything just leave me alone-" He realised who it was, and stopped. "S-Sonic?" The hedgehog in question nodded. Miles breathed out a sigh of relief. "Phew… I thought you were somebody else. Why did you come back here?"

Instead of answering, Sonic looked around. His expression said everything. What happened? Miles sat down. "It's… it's a long story… but I'll try and explain. So, there were these people called the Battle Bird Armada. They've been hiding out in a base disguised as an island here for ages. About three months ago, they attacked and either blew things up or burned everything to the ground. Lots of people didn't survive. I fought back with some stuff I invented, and they had to retreat…" Sonic held up his hands. He stared at Miles with an expression of disbelief. You fought off an entire army all by yourself? "Uh, I guess," the fox agreed. "But nobody else thinks that. They think I'm bad luck, because I'm weird, and they say that I brought the Battle Birds here with my bad luck. And now the island is destroyed. Some people are still trying to bring the village back to normal, but it isn't working. And you remember Alpha? He… he went sort of insane. He wanted to lead us, but his little civilisation was falling apart. So he went nuts, hurt a few people, and ran off. I was there, but they didn't know that. Nobody ever saw him again. At least, not that I've heard. Everyone here… they're all really mad at me. I built a lab around here, but they burned it down, and if anybody sees me, they try to hurt me, so I have to hide. I'm stuck here, because I can't build something to get out of here, and everybody's starving because there's hardly any food, and it's…" He paused to wipe his eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm getting all emotional."

Sonic couldn't describe how he felt at that moment. For a kid so young to be thrown into a literal war zone, stand up against an army, and win, only to be hated and attacked by the people he had tried to save… it was just depressing. And now he was living all on his own, trying desperately to survive in a ruined wasteland. His normal reliance on body language couldn't get his feelings across. "It's okay," he said, and was surprised to find it hard not to break down. However, something was missing that should have been there from the start. Of course. He looked at Miles. "Where's T-Pup?"

Miles didn't say anything. He lifted up the rock he had been sitting on. There was something underneath it. He picked it up and showed it to Sonic. It looked like a propeller of some sort. An explanation wasn't necessary. There was a brief pause, then Miles told the story. "The people here tried to hurt me again. He protected me, but then they went for him instead of me, and…" He lost it completely, hugged all that was left of his friend, and started crying. Sonic put a reassuring arm around the fox, who seemed confused at first, but realised it was a comforting action. Unsure what to do, eventually he returned the gesture. He almost forgot about the pain of everyday life for a moment. This was the first time in his life anyone had ever seemed to care about him.

Sonic kept his arm around Miles as the latter let out all his frustration and sadness. He really felt for the young fox, who had braved so much only to be treated even more harshly. From what he could tell, Miles had never been welcomed, comforted, or noticed for any reason aside from being unusual. And something about that made him angry. This kid was innocent, even a hero, and he deserved better. For some reason or other, Sonic wanted to help Miles more than he had ever wanted to help somebody before.

xX*Xx

After a minute, Miles calmed down again. He let go of Sonic and stepped back. "Don't worry about me. You should go. I… I'll be fine." He didn't seem entirely sure about it, though, looking down and avoiding eye contact. Sonic tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention, then made a 'come on' gesture and started walking. Miles stared for a second, then followed uncertainly. "Uh, where are we going?" Sonic didn't reply, so they walked in silence.

They came to a stop at the beach, where the Tornado had landed. Sonic held out his hands and smiled. Miles looked at the plane for a moment, confused. He continued looking, and eventually figured out the meaning of being brought to it. "Wait. Are you… are you saying that I can…" Sonic nodded, and Miles' eyes lit up in amazement. "No way! I get to come with you?! Oh my gosh, this is so awesome!" He rushed forward and hugged Sonic, barely able to stop himself from tearing up again. The famous hedgehog nearly fell over, grabbing onto the side of his plane to stay upright. He couldn't help laughing at the reaction.

Miles slowly walked to the back seat of the Tornado, apparently still not sure if it was allowed. He reached up and grabbed the side of the plane, attempting to pull himself up. There was a lot of jumping and struggling as he tried in vain to climb in. Sonic walked over and boosted Miles up, and the fox finally made it into the seat. He jumped effortlessly into the front of the Tornado and started the engines again. The propeller began to spin rapidly until it was little more than a blur. Miles looked at the one he still had in his hand. He decided to bring it with him. T-Pup would've enjoyed this.

The Tornado flew across the blue of the ocean. As it did, its passengers were both having some interesting thoughts. Sonic had never heard a story quite like that of Miles Prower. It was a tale of an unlikely hero who had faced nothing but discrimination and abuse, and he wanted to help give the young fox another chance at life. Miles, on the other hand, was absolutely ecstatic. He was not only escaping from his life of hate and prejudice, but going with the one and only Sonic the Hedgehog. Surely there was nothing but sunny skies and good fortune ahead for both of them.

But you never know just what might be coming until there's no turning back.

And we're done! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It was kind of depressing, I know, but I tried to put a positive spin (dash?) on the end. And yes, I know what you want to ask me, and no, I didn't want T-Pup to die. But it was all I could think of to explain his absence in every other game. Don't hate me. Please review and I will see you all next chapter!