Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or any other of the characters or concepts here, they are of the property of SEGA, DiC Entertainment and Archie Comics. Majdrin belongs to The Mouse of Anon.

AN: Well, here goes nothing. Here's the first chapter, I hope you guys enjoy!

Mina: Away from Home

"It's ok, it's ok..." A mother behind her consoled her crying child amongst the other captives of the wagon, this image made her want her own mother's contact, but to her misfortune, she was far away in another wagon.

She looked around, staring at the others. It seemed like a great part of Knothole's people were in the train alongside her.

Mina could only hear and feel the rumbling of the wheels of the train underneath her feet as she shook in her place, the familiarity of a previous traumatic event years ago had her paralyzed in fear. It seemed like seconds ago when she was at the concert, planning the gig for that same night...

"I don't think it's a good idea." Max adviced, while tuning his guitar, she'd often look in his direction, albeit absent mindedly.

"I don't think there's much of a choice, if we're to recruit more people to the cause..." Mach lit himself a smoke. "We have to step out of our zone of comfort."

The room suddenly smelled of cigarettes, but that wasn't bothered her but the uncertainty of her own choices. Mina fiddled with her ring, after a lot of what had happened in the previous months with the Iron Dominion and NICOLE, she had been having second thoughts about leaving Knothole for a while.

"What do you think Mina?" They asked her, snapping her out of her train of thought.

"Eh? Uh..." She looked away in shame. "I mean, I get what you mean Mach, but... I don't- I don't feel comfortable-"

"Ah, you guys are unbelievable." Mach lamented. "Are you really that afraid?"

Mina lowered her head embarrassed. Max cut the rabbit off, signalling at Mina with a head motion, he went quiet for a little while before correcting himself.

"Fine, fine. We can discuss that later, for now we can perform here then."

He walked out along with Sharps to tune out their instruments and do some sound testing. Max remained behind, which prompted Mina to dread the unavoidable as he approached her, placing a hand over her shoulder. "Mina, how are you feeling?"

It took her a little while to answer as she tried to place her words together. "I'll be fine."

She pretended to be focused on the playlist of that night to keep him away, to no avail. "Have you been having more nightmares recently?"

Mina put the playlist down, sighing. Indeed, the nightmares had not stopped ever since the fall of the Iron Dominion. After all that she had seen, she'd often get vivid dreams about being legionized herself, at the hands of either NICOLE or sometimes an unidentified enemy.

She had tried warning others about this potential danger but it won her more harm than good, getting her in trouble with people who were supportive of the AI. Through the years, these feelings of rejection towards her vanished, but she still couldn't quell the deep trauma she had endured, if anything, it had numbed her significantly.

"I'll be fine."

That she thought. She had barely put her mouth to the microphone when the drones attacked. Knothole was supposed to be the safest place on Mobius and yet she was at the least safe when they attacked, wrecking havok all over the small town.

Those who had not been injured or killed were captured, including her and her mother, her voice was still resented over her screaming when they separated them both as her mother was placed two wagons behind hers, she hoped for a brief second that her bandmates were unharmed at least. It was like years ago all over again, and the feeling of the cold steel beneath her feet only made the familiarity of the situation more vivid and traumatic.

She was broken away from her thoughts when the iron door suddenly slid open, her captors were masked, hooded and clad in uniforms of black, she noticed the logo on their sleeves and panicked internally: the Dark Legion. Techno-terrorists. She knew these men were dangerous and not people to mess with from the first glance.

"Alright, stand up!" One of them yelled. No one dared to hesitate, as they stood up to be rounded in a line and taken into the next wagon into the unknown. Mina tried to make herself unseen for a little while as soon as she heard the distant screaming and pleading from the next wagon. She could feel her breathing falter and tears started welling up in her face in despair.

She suddenly felt a cold hand on her shoulder, which almost made her scream if it weren't for the fact that she knew she could not and turned around to face a hooded figure that was behind her in the line.

"It'll be fine." He smiled at her. She couldn't make a lot from his face because of the poor lighting, except for maybe his icy blue eyes, which struck her particularly. "Promise."

She was suddenly dragged by her arm by one of the soldiers. "I told you to come!" He kept dragging her with him to the next wagon as she continued staring at the man who had spoken to her before also being taken alongside her to the next wagon.

When she went into the next door, Mina froze at the sight. Dozens and dozens of capsules laid on the ground, piled on top of the other as if in shelves. She could see an older person get sedated without much of a fight and put into one of the capsules, probably to be frozen in some sort of cryosleep. She couldn't help but feel something spark in her at the sight, she knew she couldn't go there.

She tried to fight the soldier off, screaming at him to let her go and desperately trying to squirm away from his grasp for a good few seconds.

She didn't know quite what happened after he smacked her on the face in anger, numbing her for a second as he screamed slurs at her. But she could swear that the soldier fled with great force towards the wall, smashing into it. The other soldiers tried to make sense of what was going on as much as her as she struggled to stand up on her feet, holding her head, which was pounding in pain.

She noticed the man who had talked with her earlier there, his fist held up high at the height of his head and in the direction where the soldier was sent flying. The rest of the men seemed to catch on suddenly and charged at him, which made her cower towards the ground. She could hear them fight besides her, but couldn't see much besides pieces of mechanical equipment, blood and teeth that fell to the ground from within the wires of the capsules that connected to the floor. She suddenly heard a clanking sound and turned around to see a blade-like weapon fall on the ground, probably from one of the guards fought by the mysterious man.

She held it on her hand for a moment before being confronted by another soldier from behind. She screamed as she instinctively lunged forward, electrocuting him on contact with the blade. He fell on the ground towards her feet unconscious, making her flinch away. She remained numb for a moment, staring at the blade before turning around to the fight behind her. Her rescuer was holding one of the soldiers off his hair, who was now unmasked, the man spoke in a terrifyingly calm voice.

"Where is he?"

"I don't- I don't know-"

The hooded one lost no time as he tore through the mechanical dread from the echidna's head, deaf to his screaming. He then continued with the other two soldiers, who were still struggling to keep the pace. As he fought them, he kept asking the same questions, and the more he increased the brutality, the more his voice rose and changed to a more agressive tone.

"Where is he?"

"Where's Majdrin?"

"Where the hell is he?!"

The last time, the soldier didn't give much of an answer except for a spit to his face, which made his attacker fling him against a door at the side of the wagon. The door's seams weakened at the force of the impact of the soldier's body, it was quite surprising that he didn't explode in a million pieces after that attack.

It was after this that five more soldiers went into the wagon, one of them was dressed differently, probably their commander from what Mina could tell. She felt a slight sense of dread at the sight as everyone turned stiff, strengthening her grip on the blade.

The commander pointed his gun at the man, who prepared himself to keep going with the fight.

Things went south suddenly when the commander noticed Mina there, grasping the blade. Taking her for an easier target in her eyes, he turned his weapon at her. She gasped a little, immobile as soon as she heard the shot go off, surprised for a brief second that she was still alive before noticing that the mysterious person had taken the shot for her before falling to the ground, grunting in pain.

She crouched next to him, still frightened of what they'd do to them both, the shaky, brittle sound of the previously damaged door echoing on her ears. Without much previous thought, she held her savior by his arms and kicked the door open. Luckly, she had always had strong legs and powerful speed, which she was thankful for at that moment. As soon as the door fled open, with the screaming and the shooting behind her, she jumped from the train with the man by her side, falling off the wagon and rolling down the little hill to the woods below.

They were stopped by a tree deep down the hilltop, and Mina quickly reincorporated herself to see the train above pass by, cowering behind the tree. She was about to bolt towards it, suddenly reminded of her mother who was still on the train, but was stopped by the man's painful moaning behind her. A wave of disillusion washed on her as soon as they passed by and disappeared from her gaze, and a small "no" escaped her lips. She was then broken from her trance and crouched next to the hooded one, who was pressing on the wound on his side. "Let me see-"

"Don't touch me!"

Mina jumped back, startled by his sudden growling. "You are hurt..."

"Yeah." He huffed, his voice was a little raspy, but otherwise soft. "I noticed."

She brushed aside the witty remark to check on his wound, dragging the edge of his jacket upwards to take a closer look at the wound from within his fur. He quickly removed her hand away with surprising care.

"We need to get you to a doctor."

"I'll be fine, ok?"

She got closer to him. "The bullet went clean through your flesh through the other side, you need medical attention, I think I see a town nearby-."

"No." He stood up with a little difficulty on his step. "I am fine, I just need to-"

He couldn't finish his sentence before falling flat on his face, which prompted a little yelp from her. She remained like this for a few seconds, her mind a blur.

What now? She asked herself as the dark of the night surrounded her.

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