I do not own any Sonic characters.

Sonic sat back unnerved; he looked at Miles 'Tails' Prower's chest where he had struck the kid about a year ago. It may be gone, but the memory of it made him imagine the sight. It was not pretty, it made a shiver go down his spine. The hero jumped when a shoulder touched him, he turned to see a startled chipmunk "Jeez, Sonic. Where's the fire?"

"Sorry, Sal. I… just got lost for a minute there."

"Ooo-kay? Eggman wants to see you. Rotor and he built a new robot that they say might help us win."

Tails turned from the huts to see Sonic and Sally quickly walk around the corner. Naturally the fox became interested and followed. He jumped into a tree and saw Eggman standing next to an object covered in fabric. As Sonic and Sally neared Eggman spoke "Sonic, meet my new creation."

"Man that gets tiring."

"Zip it!"

"That's enough. Put the past behind us and let's focus on the robot." Sally looked agitated.

"I focus on all his robots."

"WILL YOU JUST LISTEN!?"

"That gets boring too."

Eggman rubbed his sunglasses inward and then sighed as he finally calmed down "We're going to fall apart before we at last get one victory."

"Like that will ever happen." The cocky fox snarled in his head.

"This is EE-1." The sheet was yanked off and a robot stood with many charges running through what looks like veins. It had golden and black armor all around it. "It has the ability to fire off a high voltage EMP."

"I know a kid named Imp. Nice kid."

"Look here Sonic, I don't know how you could mistake Imp for E.M.P!"

"Opps!" Sonic smiled leaning back a bit.

"An EMP is a powerful electric pulse that-."

"I know what an EMP is doc, but what else does it do?"

"Well… Laser canons and missiles, but the important one is the EMP. IF… I am right the new crazed man wouldn't think of it."

"'If?'"

"I MIGHT BE WRONG!"

Tails was trying to think fast, he did not think of an EMP. In fact he hadn't considered it, he forgot that it had existed. He was too caught up with revenge. Sabotage was the best answer in this scenario.

"CRACK!" Tails looked down on the branch he was on. He failed to notice that it was too thin to support his weight. He screamed as he fell and crash into the ground.

He looked up to see a sword near his throat, the owner being a startled coyote. "Antoine, let him go. Its only Tails."

What surprised Tails was that the voice that told the coyote off belonged to Sonic. Sally walked forward and looked down upon him "What are you doing here?"

"I-I-I." Tails was at a loss for words. It could not end here, it just could not. All that planning cannot just go to waste.

Eggman's patience didn't change a bit "Come on, spit it out."

Tails couldn't help it. He spat to the side making Eggman slap himself "AM I THE ONLY SANE PERSON HERE?!"

"Calm down doc. He's only five."

"YOU CALM DOWN!"

"YOUR RIGHT! I DO NEED TO CALM DOWN. I'M SURPRISED NO ONE NOTICED THE SHOUTING BEFORE!"

This bought Tails time and he came to a conclusion. The truth couldn't hurt.

"Let me ask again. What! Are! You! Doing! Here?!" Sally was even getting impatient.

"I… I noticed Sonic and Sally go around the corner and I-I-I was… curious."

Eggman stopped his temper tantrum "You were?"

Sally looked at the fat human then back at the fox "You could have asked to come with us. No one is usually interested with this so we never usually ask."

"Oh."

"Eggman does like an audience though."

"STAY OUT OF THIS HEDGEHOG!"

"You first Egghead."

"ENOUGH!"

Everyone looked at the angered princess. Eggman walked over to the fox "So you are interested in machines, eh?"

Sonic was just about to mention the part about the fox fixing his plane, but then realized that he would be in big trouble and decided against it. Why is the ego still fighting? There's nothing left to prove. Except for Sally. She was the only one who still had faith in the hero.

Tails noticed the hog looked at the princess in a way he only saw very rarely, and he learned the concept "So Sonic has a thing for her. That might make him easier to break." The fox smiled.

"I'll take that as a yes." Tails snapped back to reality. He forgot about Eggman's question.

Eggman kneeled down with a smile that made the young fox nervous "Maybe you can help me then. Turn the robot on."

The fox smiled innocently, he had a lot of practice and this close up will help him get up close to his main problem right now. He walked to it.

Eggman stood there with an evil smile and crossed arms "I thought you said you couldn't find a way to turn it on." Whispered Rotor.

"I did, but I wish to be amused with an annoyed fox."

Tails looked around it and then stopped at the back where they couldn't see him. He popped the back open and placed a small, round chip on it from his secret watch. He then looked around to see how it ticks. Eggman's technology may be weaker than his, but the doctor's equipment is better than everyone else's, who knows maybe the fox might learn something. Just as he was about to close the panel he noticed that a piece of metal was out of place just slightly. "Must have moved it when I forced the thing open." He adjusted it back to its normal position and closed the opening.

Tails then looked right near the corner of the opening, there was a button he pushed it. A panel pulled the button in and then sealed the opening. The robot straitened up and turned around "Master."

"What the… how did he-?" Rotor was mumbling.

Eggman stuttered looking carefully at the fox. "WHAT? No, no. I'm your master!"

The robot faced Eggman "Scanning conformed, Doctor Eggman master!"

"Sounds very intellectual, Egghead."

Eggman harshly whispered "Silence!"

Tails noticed Rotor's surprised expression and Eggman's suspicious look "Oh, shoot. What'd I do? Was that thing I fixed like that the whole time?"

"How did you fix it?"

"I- did I do something bad?"

"ANSWER THE QUESTION!"

The fox had enough notice to know that if he cried he would look innocent, even if he hated it when he looked weak. He soon thought of the bullies and the tasers but nothing happened, then he remembered the attack on his defenseless body from his idol that destroyed his creation. The fox reopened the cap slightly and the pain slowly came out. Tears formed and he started to sniff "I-I only saw something out of place, a-a-and I thought that I shoved it out of place so I-I-I thought I fixed it the way it looked better. Ohhhh, someone kill me." The last sentence he said in his head.

Sonic now felt bad for the little guy "Aww, see what you did Doc."

"Yes… I'm… sorry."

Tails rubbed his face and sniffed "That's all right. Once I make you eat those words!" He finished in his head once more.

Sally walked over to the robot and then around it, admiring the work "Good job you two."

"It was nothing, Sally."

"Nothing? That thing took me over a month to build without proper equipment."

"Well sorry we all can't be like Doctor Eggman."

"You should be."

Sonic kicked in "Are you always this arguetive Eggy?"

"'Arguetive' is not a word."

Sally tried to break up this fight, but Tails took this time to go to his room and wait till it all cooled down.

Sonic paused outside of the door of Tails' room. It has been about a week since the fox's first time arriving here and it was only yesterday since the fox saw Eggman's new robot. The blue hero tuned and began to pace around the room, uncontrollably shivering.

Sonic got up early to do this. He had to get this off his chest. He could not stand himself if he has to fight with Tails knowing that he had hurt the fox farther than anyone else ever had. The hedgehog could never bring himself to say this, but he has grown fond of the kid. The fox fixed his plane, which he so crudely destroyed, and Tails was always nice and kind, except to him which was acceptable.

Sonic sighed and mumbled out inaudible words as he spoke what he wanted in his head. He soon casually walked up to the door and took a deep rattling breath. He then knocked and jumped back, he did not want the fox's angered wrath at this moment.

The door only slid open nicely with a small creak. Sonic chuckled nervously "I forgot to fix this door's lock, who knew."

The hedgehog scolded himself for not asking Rotor to repair this door, he'll have to ask him latter when Tails was up and about. Sonic walked in and froze. No one was on the bed, not even the sheets rested there.

Sonic began to panic "No-no-no-no-no." He walked up to the bed quickly, the worst case scenario running through his head "Did my appearance make him end his own life? Did he run away? What did I do?"

The hero nearly ran out when he heard grunting. He looked around the corner to see Tails… shivering on the floor clearly having a nightmare. Sonic could tell from the way the sheets were only laid out upon the floor and not even a corner of a blanket was over him. Indicating that-"YOU SLEEP ON THE FLOOR!?"

Tails jumped and spun his head around, his eyes locked on the shocked hedgehog. The fox, still drowsy and cold to move, tried to get up, but instead fell back down in a heap. Sonic slid to the fox's side and placed a hand on the golden-tailed fox's head. The skin of the kid was icy cold.

The blue hedgehog lifted Tails' off the ground and onto the bed. Sonic then grabbed the blankets and threw them over Tail's shivering body. The hero lastly rubbed his hands together in a blur of furry and then placed it on the back of the vulpine. The heat, caused by Sonic's hands generated by static friction, ran through the blanket and into the fox.

Tails sighed as the warmth of the blanket and the hero's hands warmed up his frozen body. Tails, from just waking up, had not processed that it was Sonic doing this though, but very slowly his mind was revealing this to him.

Sonic wrapped Tails in a half hug while he sat to one side of the young cub, holding him tight to his body so that his warmth could save the fox from hypothermia. Tails did not care at the moment that it was Sonic, he just wanted the comfort he was receiving. In till… The fox's eyes opened. Realism hit him like a ton of bricks. Sonic was the one applying care and, to the fox's upmost horror, was actually touching him.

The nightmares he had of Sonic attacking him came back in a flash. He stiffened as everything began to focus on the near hug the hero was giving him. The fear soon became too great for the fox as all his mind could think was "He's going to hurt me, he's going to hurt me, HE'S GOING TO HURT ME!"

Tails screamed and shoved Sonic away who jumped away from the fox afraid that he applied too much heat and burnt the kid. Tails stumbled away and fell back "Get away from me!" Complete hate spat from his voice as Tails glared at Sonic.

The hero raised his hands "I'm sorry, but you had hypothermia. What was I suppose to do? Let you die?"

"I WOULD HAVE BEEN FINE YOU INCONSEQUENTIAL, CRETINOUS HEDGEHOG!"

Sonic's eyes nearly shot out of his head "Where'd you learn all those big words? I've never hear of cretinous before."

Tails growled "Origin came from 1779 French from the word crétin from Alpine dialect crestin, meaning 'a dwarfed and deformed idiot', now DON'T TOUCH ME!"

"Well I'm sorry, but I wasn't going to do nothing and watch you freeze!"

"I DON'T CARE, I WOULD RATHER FREEZE TO DEATH THAN ACCEPT HELP FROM YOU!"

Sonic curled his fists, this time his ego stepped out and his anger writhed inside of him "FINE! TURN INTO A FREAK-CYCLE, SEE IF I CARE!"

Tails eyes shot open as the words stung his heart. Sonic then replayed those words in his head and it echoed in his mind like a form of drama show. Eachtime it replayed his heart SANK lower and lower "T-Tails, I'm sorry. I didn't mean-."

Tails shut his eyes tight as tears poured from the closed eyes and pounded the side of the wall "SHUT-UP!" He sobbed.

"What's going on!" Sally, Bunnie, Antoine, Rotor, and other Knothole members came burrowing into the house.

Tails stormed by everyone, forgetting his cover "ASK HIM!" Tails then ran out whimpering in tears.

Sally spun around at Sonic "What. Did. You. Do!?"

Sonic threw his arms out "Well I… I… Just… It… But…" The hedgehog fell back and sat on the bed "… I… let my anger control me."

"What!?"

"I… implied he was a freak."

"WHAT!" Bunnie and Sally shouted at the same time.

Sonic's ears fell back "Err… I tried to apologize."

"I don't care if you 'tried' to apologize. Do that right now!" Sally pointed out the door.

Sonic grabbed his head "I can't, he won't listen to me."

"Why?"

"He… I…" Sonic's eyes widened as he remembered why he came into the room, and now his ego kicked in on full throttle "… I don't know." The hero lied.

Sally sighed and rubbed her forehead "Tell me where it started."

Sonic sighed "Well… the door was opened and I came in." The hedgehog started.

Tails sat on a rock overlooking a valley. The river below rushing toward the sea, grass waved in the wind, the trees rustled and whispered good tidings toward the fox, and the sun's rising luminous form casted out colors of all types. The landscape was never better, but to the miserable fox it was only a reminder of that time, the time everything should have ended. That rock should have impaled him, should have stopped his misery, but he had to live on and be tortured more by his so called 'idol'.

Was everything Sonic did enough already? Sure an insult would have hurt, but he had to push it. He had to kick dirt in his face, had to shove him around like a raged doll, had to ATTACK HIM AND GIVE HIM A NICE ROUND BRUISE, AND THAT WAS NOT ENOUGH FOR SONIC?!

Tears strolled down his cheeks as he thought of trying a jump one more time, and maybe by pure luck, everything will disappear and he will be in paradise. The fox was just about to stand and walk up to the edge when someone sat next to him. He looked over to see Sally, she looked at the scenery "Beautiful sunrise today." Tails only nodded, hoping she would go away, but she did not "You know. My father use to take me out here sometimes to get away from the public." She chuckled and shook her head "It was the only time I could actually enjoy myself. Even though everything that is happening, I still find fun and enjoyment here more than ever. These times just show you what you could be missing out and who meant to you more dearly than you originally thought."

Tails sighed as he looked over the horizon. For the first time he was at peace, never in a hundred years did he actually think he would have these feelings. He has never been happier. Sally smiled as she watched Tails hurt expression fade into admiration toward the sight before him. Sally turned to it as well "Makes me wish I had a camera."

Tails smiled at that, his watch had one, but it was best that he did not reveal he had such a device. Otherwise questions would be asked to its origin. Sally rested her chin on her hands "Sonic told me the whole story."

Tails ears twitched. He did? Tails soon felt something rise up inside him, a feeling more powerful than anger itself. A feeling… he only had once before. Something completely foreign to him.

"Look, Tails. He only came into your room to check on you."

Suddenly that feeling shattered and fell apart. It took the fox's whole might not to breakdown and cry. The whole story... clearly she was never told the 'whole story', otherwise she would understand the true reason of Tails' breakdown.

"Why do you sleep on the floor? That's not healthy, especially if you don't cover yourself with a blanket."

Tails tightened a fist "… I never slept on a bed… I got too use to sleeping on the floor of a cave… I just… can't sleep on a bed now."

Sally looked down "Could you at least cover yourself with a blanket?"

Tails gave no response, he only stared blankly forward. Sally rubbed her forehead, how will she get to him? "Sonic was only trying to warm you up as well. He meant no harm."

"He… touched… me!"

"Yes… how else was he going to save you from hypothermia?"

"By leaving me alone!"

"That could have killed you."

Tails scoffed, if she knew the 'whole story' she would know that Sonic does not actually care "Good."

"Excuse me!?" Sally's expression turned to horror. Tails ears flattened, that came out all of a sudden "I don't want to hear something like that come from your mouth ever again! No life is worth a loss. It is incalculably valuable."

"Except mine." Tails just let the words roll off his tongue. How was his life valuable? If that was so, why was it so worthless and hated by everyone?

"And how is your life not valuable?"

Tails pounded the rock, tears flying out of his eyes "Because everyone hates me, I've been attacked daily, my creations are destroyed, I have to eat out of trash, AND I JUST HATE MY LIFE!" Tails bent over and covered his head.

Sally was taken back but she recovered "And how does that make your life worthless? We do not judge our life on what others judge, we decide our own fate; we decide what we are and what we are going to be. No one can tell you what you are or what you will be. Only you can decide that. Why? Because it is your choice. No one can take that from you."

Tails whimpered "They did."

"Did they, or did you let them?"

Tails shook his head, but paused. The fox brought his knees up and hugged them "I don't know anymore."

Sally patted his head "Well… it's your choice. Now consider this. You hate the life you were forced to live not the life you wish you want. You were strong enough to continue on even if you were attacked daily or had to eat out of trash, you allowed yourself to live and not many people would dare go through that. So just think about this. You lasted longer on this than any other person who was even older than you… We should head back… wouldn't want them to think we were kidnapped." Sally smiled at her joke and walked off.

Tails stood and looked over the horizon. He smiled as he glared at the sun "She's right. I decide my own fate, I decide what will happen to me. It does not matter what others think of me. Sonic may have told me to die, but I won't. He does not control me. I'll show him! I'll show that blasted hedgehog that I will control him! I am stronger than him. The princess just said so herself! What can he do to stop me? I! WILL! PREVAIL!"

The fox chuckled. He was strong, he is his own fate, he will win against the so called "Hero of Mobius" and nothing can stop him. Not even the entire island of people who have been assaulting him with all sorts of weapons and insults. He had survived it all, heck he has even survived Sonic's own attack. Tails smiled sinisterly, this is the most confident he has ever been in his whole life. He turned and ran after the princess, just as the sun showed its full face.

Back at knothole Tails spotted Sally talking to Sonic, the hedgehog was looking down and nodding. Both turned looking at the fox. Sally patted the hero on the shoulder and left, Sonic still looking at Tails.

The blue hedgehog pushed back his quills looking up. The fox smiled, amused at this display of nervousness, but he quickly be rid of it as Sonic started to stroll over.

Sonic stopped and knelt down around Tails' level. Sonic nodded and looked around before looking the fox in the eyes. The hero could see the hurt and anger burning inside of the fox. Sonic smiled guiltily "Look… Tails… I'm terribly sorry for calling you a freak, that was out of place."

Tails' brows went up "What? That's what he apologizes for? That? NOT FOR HITTING ME, ASSAULTING ME, DESTROYING MY CREATION THAT I MADE ESPECIALLY FOR HIM? What a self-centered… no word can describe that hedgehog. HOW DARE HE ASK FOR AN APPOLOGY FOR CALLING ME A FREAK AND NOT FOR ACTUALLY ASSAULTING ME! What, is that just acceptable to him? I'm going to make him pay for that! I am NOT some martial arts dummy!"

Sonic shrugged "So… Sorry." Sonic's ears nearly fell as he gave off a strange expression.

Tails looked around before coming back to the hedgehog's eyes. The green emerald eyes almost looked innocent, but the fox could see the uncertainty behind them. The hedgehog did not even mean this apology? Sally was defiantly making him do this. What a selfish, inconsiderate, glory hog, but he had to remain a trustable 'friend'. The fox closed his eyes, sighed, reopened them and said as nicely and calmly as he could "I forgive you."

Sonic was actually uncertain if Tails would forgive him, but after hearing that he jumped up, spun around, and shot a fist in the air "YES! Whoa… you have no idea how bad I felt."

Tails rolled his eyes as secretly as he could. Sonic walked back to the fox and knelt down "Friends from now on, okay?" The hero offered a hand.

Tails looked at it before taking it "Friends."

Sonic smiled and failed to notice the look in the fox's eyes that were glaring, hoping that this 'death glare' would be rid of Sonic, but to Tails, the hedgehog has not suffered yet. Tails only smiled back for his own reasons "Oh, hedgehog. You have no idea what I'm going to do with you. Just you wait. Oh how you'll wish you were dead."