"Wake up, weasel. We're here." Rouge bent down and gently shook Fang until he stirred.

"Whaaaat?" the weasel asked groggily. "Wher-ooohhh."

The desert unfolded before his very eyes. Colossal hills of sand covered the landscape, making the Sand Ruins seem like it was an endless desolate plain. The brick remains of a city were scattered around the area, worn down from the occasional sand storms that blew through the Ruins. An ancient civilization had once thrived there, but had eventually moved on to bigger and better places. Now the only things living in the barren wasteland were the scorpions who darted in and out among the rocks.

"Is this where Robotnik's goddamn base is supposed to be? This is the middle of nowhere!" Fang ranted. "Why would he choose a location like this?"

"Beats me. He probably wanted to build it here because nobody would even think of traveling this far. Station Square is far behind us now." Rouge squinted. Apparently, she was looking at something in the distance that had sparked her interest.

"Look!" She pointed at a gleaming red building she had spotted on the horizon. "That's gotta be his base!"

"Seriously? I've still got a full day left! Robotnik must have a screwed sense of time." Fang grinned. He was relieved that Robotnik had given him more than enough time to come and rescue Nic.

"The early bird gets the worm. Or birds in this case." Rouge winked. "I bet Robotnik's got lots of secret wealth just waiting to be discovered in there." Her eyes sparkled with anticipation, and she ran ahead. "Let's get going!"

"Wait up!" The weasel called, and followed behind. Rouge was scaling the sand piles with ease as if she were a monkey climbing a tree to reach its favorite bananas, so Fang had trouble keeping up with her. The hot sun beat down upon him, and the air became sticky and thick. No wonder he was lagging!

The base loomed closer and began to get larger as the two approached it. And to think it looked small from afar! The walls were far taller than the pillars that surrounded the desert, and were painted a brilliant fire truck red. It was ironic that Robotnik had chosen such a bright and noticeable color if he wanted to keep his building a secret.

"Ow, it burns the eyes, doesn't it?" Fang shielded his eyes as he finally reached Rouge, who was inspecting the wall of the base. She touched it delicately, and immediately pulled back her hand. "It burns fingers too!"

The weasel kicked the wall, and it made a hollow sounding noise. "It's steel. Any kind of metal heats up in the sun, and with this heat, it's extra hot."

"Oh, so it's almost impossible to sneak in anywhere but the main entrance without getting burned! I see. He's quite the tricky guy." Rouge strode over to the other side of the wall and stared at the entryway into the base. It was a huge silver door with Robotnik's face engraved on its surface. How would they infiltrate the building without getting their fingers fried? Just as she finished her thought, she noticed a keypad next to the door. "Hmmm…Fang, I can crack his code to get inside, but it'll take me a few minutes."

"We've got a whole day left, remember? A few minutes won't hurt." Fang decided to draw a message in the sand with his foot. As Rouge worked, he spelled out his sentence. When he finished, the letters read 'Fuck You Robotnik' in big capital letters. He snickered.

"Okay, I'm done. One of the more difficult ones I've had to figure out, but at least we can get inside." The bat pressed the green button on the keypad, and the door slid open. Both of them stepped inside, their shoes making clinking noises on the steel floor.

The inside of the base seemed much smaller than the outside. Everything was made of the same steel material as the walls were, and even the same bright red color was kept. A staircase was the only thing that was present in the room, so it had to be the way that would lead them to Nic.

"Woah, awesome! There's not any security! It doesn't seem like anybody else is here, either." Fang stared at the empty walls that were deprived of video cameras and speakers.

"Strange. Robotnik would normally have his bases filled with Egg Pawns or some sort of robot." Rouge examined the area with watchful eyes, expecting to find at least some sort of machine that was guarding the place. She never did.

Fang trudged up the stairs first, eager to find out where his sister was located. "Perhaps there's more upstairs. If this is a SECRET base, then he has to keep important things here."

"True." Rouge followed him, thinking of all the rare jewels Robotnik could have on the next floor.

When they reached the top of the stairs, a hallway was waiting for them. Three doors sat on each side of the hall, each with what appeared to be DNA recognition scanners beside them. Fang and Rouge noticed the scanners, and groaned in unison.

"…Now what? We'd have to be Robotnik or one of his fucking robots to get through!" Fang turned to Rouge, who was contemplating what to do.

"We could try to see if it's malfunctioning." Rouge suggested. "Who knows? Maybe it'll let us in."

"Fine, but you can go first. I don't want to take any chances if it blows up or anything."

Rouge grumbled at Fang's snide remark, and approached the machine.

The scanner blinked, and a red light enveloped Rouge's body for a few seconds. "DNA NOT COMPATIBLE." A boxing glove came out of the scanner, and punched Rouge in the face, knocking her over. "Hey! It should've known better than to knock down a lady!" She got to her feet and glared at the machine.

"I guess I'll try, then." Fang walked up to the scanner, and waited for it to work again. Sure enough, it blinked twice, and his purple fur turned red. I feel so vulnerable…

The machine processed its data, and the weasel waited for it to punch him in the face. Instead of hurting him, it welcomed him with an open door and a sign on the screen that read 'WELCOME METAL FANG.'

"Who the hell is Metal Fang?" Fang blinked, but did not have time to think about the message. A familiar gasp came from the room he had unlocked.

"Nack!"

Fang stuck his head through the doorway, and sure enough, there was his sister tied to a chair.

"Nic? They locked you in a room?"

"That's not all they did! This metallic robot that looked just like you took me away from the apartment the other night!" She struggled to get herself free from the ropes that held her in place.

Everything was starting to make sense. Two men, and a machine…you figure it out.

Fang rushed over to Nic's side and quickly untied her from the chair. "You can tell me when we get back home. I think we're in big danger now."

Nic nodded, and tears started to roll down her muzzle. "I didn't think you would find me."

Her brother yanked on her arm and pulled her out the door. "I had some help from Rouge over there."

Rouge waved at the mention of her name, but quickly realized that Fang was departing. "Hey! What about the treasure that's in here?"

"Forget it. We can't stay here much longer! There's a robot roaming around here somewhere!"

She ran alongside Fang as they descended down the stairs. "…Nack?" She raised an eyebrow in suspicion as she remembered what Nic had called him.

"My real name. My sis likes to call me that. Personally, I think it's babyish." Fang made a disgusted face.

They reached the bottom and darted out of the main entrance without a moment to spare. Nic was not used to the light of the desert, so she shielded her eyes from the blazing sun.

Fang turned to run back the way he and Rouge had come, when he noticed they were not alone anymore. A purple robot in his mirror image stood blocking his way, staring at him with his menacing red eyes.

"No way…" Rouge stood frozen in place with her mouth agape.

"It's him! It's the robot!" Nic pointed and screamed at the machine.

"Like him?" The robot spoke with Robotnik's voice: the man was watching the commotion from the computer room of his second base. A camera installed in the robot's eyes showed him the three animals on the screen. He adjusted the microphone that sat next to it, and talked again. "Metal Fang sure does bear resemblance to his organic cousin."

"You asshole! How did you find us?" Fang shouted, enraged at the fact that someone would have dared to make a robot copy of him.

"Oh, there's no need to be using that kind of language! When you walked into the base, the silent alarm was set, so I got signals telling me that something had intruded into my building. I sent M.F. over to investigate, and here you are! And I see Rouge has aided you in Nicolette's escape." Metal Fang turned his head in Rouge's direction. "I'm afraid that won't be happening today. It doesn't matter how much time you have left, because your time is up! Destroy them, Metal Fang!"

Fang let go of his sister, and pushed her out of the way as Metal Fang dived at him. He barely missed his target.

Damn, he's fast… Fang skidded out of the way, and brought out his pistol to confront the enemy.

"Metal Fang, you aren't supposed to miss!" Robotnik scolded. "Kill him, and then the others!"

Nic scurried over to Rouge, and watched in horror as her brother battled M.F. "He wasn't supposed to kill me earlier, but one whip of his tail knocked me out. I fear what's going to happen to Nack." She buried her face in her hands and refused to watch the fight.

M.F. glanced at Fang's pistol and laughed. "You think a mere pistol is going to stop him? Go ahead. Shoot if you must."

"Don't mind if I do." Fang loaded his gun and fired at the robot. The bullet ricocheted off M.F.'s metal surface, deflecting the shot.

"What?" Fang shot at M.F. again and again, but none of the bullets even scratched his steel coat. "He's bulletproof?"

"Of course. I obtained your life data and programmed him with all of your weaknesses. Every single one. Without your gun to do any damage, you're practically weak!" M.F. stuck out his arm and Fang watched in awe as it transformed into a lustrous silver sniper rifle; his favorite gun.

"Too bad YOU aren't bulletproof." M.F. aimed at Fang and before the weasel could move, he clipped Fang's side with a bullet that moved faster than his victim could see. Fang roared in pain as the silver bullet ripped through his flesh, and he gripped his wound.

Metal Fang kicked up the sand around his counterpart while he was distracted. Fang went into a coughing frenzy for a few minutes, clutching his aching side as he did so. When the sand cleared, he noticed the robot was gone. "Shit. Where'd he go?"

M.F.'s maniacal laughter sounded, and the robot slammed into Fang's right leg at full force. A loud snap was heard, and Fang winced, collapsing to the ground. The pain in his leg combined with the pain of his gunshot wound was too much to bear. He lay on the ground and looked up at M.F., waiting for his end.

All of a sudden, Rouge came flying through the air, and she thrust her leg into Metal Fang's head. The robot toppled backward into the sand, but recovered from the blow quickly. His eyes glowed in anger. "HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO MY CREATION!" He bellowed, and pointed his sniper at the bat, ready to shoot her.

Fang grabbed M.F.'s leg and struggled to pull him down despite the agony he was in. M.F. took his aim off Rouge and turned his attention back to the weasel that was attempting to attack him.

He remembered Bean's final words before he had left the store. "Robotnik isn't going to give up without a fight. You might find use for this. Be careful though; this grenade is the most powerful one I make. It doesn't look like it, but it can cause quite a blast. Use it only as a last resort."

This was a good enough last resort to him. Fang climbed on top of M.F. for as long as he could stall the robot and pinned him to the ground.

"Rouge! Take my sister and fly her as far away as possible!"

"Why?" Rouge's eyes were as big as saucers.

"Don't ask why! Just do it!" Fang barked.

Rouge didn't hesitate to follow his orders. She grabbed Nic by the hands and took off with the weasel below her.

"Wait, why are we leaving Nack behind?" Nic looked back at her brother, who was struggling to keep Metal Fang on the ground.

"I'm not sure, hun, but I didn't like the tone in his voice…" Rouge continued to pump her wings as fast as she could so she could gain distance between her and Fang.

If I can't harm him with bullets or physical attacks, this leaves me no other choice… Fang took the bomb off of his belt, and stared at it for a few moments. He shook his head in regret, and bit the pin out of the grenade before he attached it to Metal Fang's back with the ropes that had tied Nic.

"GET OFF OF ME, YOU PEST!" M.F. bucked Fang off, and stood up, unaware of the ticking bomb strapped to his back.

The weasel wasted no time. He got to his feet and started limping away as agile as his broken leg would let him.

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?" M.F. was about to follow him when the grenade burst, blowing him into millions of tiny shards of steel.

Fang turned and looked at the wall of fire drawing closer to him. He knew he could not escape the blast radius. With all the strength he had left, he leaped forward before becoming engulfed in the flames.

---

Rouge and Nic watched the explosion from the safety of a large boulder a few miles away.

"Do you think Nack is okay? That looks like one heck of a blast." Nic turned to Rouge with a worried glint in her eyes.

Rouge did not answer. She averted her gaze and looked down at her feet.

They waited in complete silence as the explosion slowly died down. "We've got to see if he's alright!" Nic shook Rouge until she pulled away from the weasel's grasp.

"Okay, okay. I'll fly over there again, just stop shaking me!" Rouge grabbed Nic's hands again, and flew off toward the explosion site.

---

When they arrived, the air was covered in thick billowy smoke. Rouge landed, and stared at what remained of the area. Apparently, the whole base had exploded, leaving huge chunks of metal lying in the sand. A few scorpions crawled over the ruins, clapping their pincers together.

"Nack! Naaaaack!" Nic called out to her brother, but all she could hear was her voice echoing across the dunes.

Rouge cautiously stepped over the debris, careful not to trip over anything. She was about to give up and leave when she spotted a hat buried under a mound of sand. She dug the rest up, and realized it was quite familiar. The stiff brown fabric was dotted with black splotches where the fire from the blast had scorched it. She looked up, and gasped. Right in front of her was Fang's body, face down in the sand and charred black with ash.

Her voice started choking up. "NIC! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!"

"Huh?" Nicolette looked up from her investigation, and ran over to Rouge, who was now bent down in the sand.

"NACK! OH MY FUCKING GOD!" Nic started sobbing uncontrollably.

Rouge turned Fang over, and slapped him on the face. "Come on, snap out of it!" She gritted her teeth. When he did not respond, she brought her huge ears to his chest, praying she would hear the slightest trace of a heartbeat. Nothing. The bat frowned, and turned to Nic with tears welling up in her eyes.

"…he's…dead."